𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐑 𝐏𝐔𝐑𝐏𝐋𝐄 || 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗿𝘆 𝗛𝗼𝗼𝗸

𝟐.𝟎𝟔 - 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐦 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐦

╔══۵꒦꒷☀︎꒷꒦۵══╗
— 𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐞 𝟐 | 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝟔 —
╚══۵꒦꒷☀︎꒷꒦۵══╝

(Third Person POV)

It was around  11:30 when Harry made his way through the docks towards Uma's ship. He was hung up on the fact that Ruby wasn't below deck in a cell like Ben, so he wasn't able to see her. He almost lost it on Uma after he thought the worst had already happened to her, but he knew his captain was smarter than that. Ruby was precious cargo, and he knew if Uma played her cards right, she didn't need to hurt the girl. As he made his way on board he could see two crew mates currently tying Ben up to the main mast of the ship, he was about to make his way over before a flash of onyx caught his attention. His eyes shifted to the figure standing right near the edge of the ship's bow facing the ocean. She was standing so still he could almost mistake her for a statue if not for the way her long raven locks flicked in the wind. It took him only a moment to recognize that it was her, it was his Ruby, and it only took another second later for him to realize why she looked so different. Harry's eyes widened as fear and pure unbridled rage began to boil through his veins as he realized this was exactly what Uma wanted Ruby for. She had known of the dark counterpart to Ruby's powers somehow. He knew he needed to compose himself, otherwise, he knew Uma would take advantage of his emotions if she saw him. Just as he took a deep breath in, he stopped short when Ruby's head slowly turned to look his way. His brows furrowed as a lump formed in his throat at the sight. The princess, although void of emotions with her onyx eyes, was crying. Silent and steady tears ran down her cheeks, and she did nothing to wipe them away. He took a step forward as his body screamed at him to go to her, but he was ripped from his thoughts as another voice rang out.

"Harry." he could hear his captain call out to him. The boy's face dropped into a scowl at the sound as he watched Ruby slowly turn to face the water again. He turned around on his heel and faced the short sea witch with a small nod "Frightening, isn't it." she said with slight amusement in her voice.

"What is?" he asked stupidly, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword lazily.

"Her." she breathed out and put a hand on his shoulder, turning him to face the quiet princess again "She's like the calm before a storm, she hasn't made a peep since the change. All that raw destructive power in that little body of hers. She could end a war if she wanted to," she said quietly in an eerily dreamy tone.

"Ye don't think all that might be too much ta handle?" he asked lowly. The captain let his rude disbelief in her slide as she pat his shoulder and walked towards the King.

"That just might be exactly what we need." She said before Harry started to slowly back off the deck, seeing Uma begin to talk with the King. He knew he needed to tell the VKs about Ruby, but he only had maybe twenty-five minutes to sneak away, explain to them, and let them adjust their plan accordingly. So he took that chance. As soon as Uma looked off into the distance away from where he stood he booked it, making his way down and into the nearest dark corners of the alleyways as fast as he could without being seen by even the crew.

｡･ﾟﾟ･(Earlier) ･ﾟﾟ･｡

Lonnie was making her way back from the gym after a late practice to release some stress, she hadn't seen Ruby since that early afternoon and she hadn't seen her at all for lunch or dinner. She asked around to see if anyone else had seen her, she even checked the studio four times that day but nothing. There wasn't a single person who knew of her whereabouts that day. Most people would brush it off because it was just one day, but it was the dead of night and something like this was so unlike Ruby, Lonnie had no choice but to worry. If something happened to the girl she didn't know what she would do, she was like family. She was almost at her dorm room when she heard voices as she passed the VK's boys dorm that caught her attention.