No One Ever Told Me Pirates Were Hot (Theyna)

The Beginning of The End

Reyna awoke to shouting. The world was bitterly out of focus and all she could see was the shadows of people and the soft glistening of flames, then a voice slowly coming back in her ear.

"Reyna! Get up!" Reyna tried to remember what was happening as boots smashed into her gut and she was sent sliding backward across the deck of a ship she didn't recognize. She gasped for breath, a warm liquid spilling between her lips.

"Reyna!" the voice yelled again, closer this time, all she could see was the man. Long hair spilling over his bright blue and red coat. He was lunging towards her, sword in hand and eyes blazing. Suddenly a shadow passed between her and the man, and she heard a piercing scream.

Three hours earlier

"Hylla, I'm already telling you this is a bad Idea," Reyna muttered quietly as the boat rocked across the atlantic waves. Her older sister only rolled her eyes.

"Would you relax niñita, it's going to be fine," she told her younger sister who glared at her.

"First off, stop calling me niñita, Second off, raiding a fully stocked Spanish warship! What on earth would make you think this is a good idea?!" She yelled at her sister. Hylla only laughed.

"You worry too much, niñita, besides we out number their crew two to one, as well as you forget. It is a fully stocked warship, if we take it, we get to keep the boat," She proclaimed proudly, but Reyna just shook her head.

"They have fully trained soldiers and we have a half brained group of crew members that barely know how to hold a sword correctly," she grumbled. Hylla again chuckled; like this was no cause for concern.

"You have no faith in our crew, niñita, they aren't helpless without you, although you seem to believe that. Percy, and the Stolls as well as Piper can all hold their own in a fight just as well as you can, and the others know how to play to their own advantages. Thalia alone could probably wipe out the entire ship in less the two minutes. I don't understand why you're so worried," Hylla tried to reassure her sister, but Reyna still looked troubled. She sighed heavily.

"Fine, but we need to be careful, best case scenario, we take the ship, it's ours, worst case, we all die," she muttered and Hylla clapped a hand on her sister's shoulder with an approving grin.

"Good choice, you'll make an excellent captain one day. Mom would be proud," she said and Reyna smiled sadly, before looking down.

"I'm not so sure about that. Not after what I did to dad," she muttered quietly, but Hylla shook her head.

"Trust me, mom would still be proud. That man who attacked me and you, that was not our father. That was a shell of a man who had driven himself mad with grief, mother would've understood that, far better then I can," Reyna averted her eyes from her sister.

"It's not like I got a chance to know her, did I?" she whispered and Hylla shook her head again, placing hands on her sister's shoulders and planting her firmly in place.

"She died a noble death, to save us. Both of us. She loved you just as much as she loved me, and if she were still around, she'd be right beside us to face whatever came our way. She'd probably be giving your little British friend the 'if you hurt her I'll kill you' talk right now. Trust me, mom's spirit is watching over us, and she is so proud for how much you are like her. How much I am not," Hylla told her sister and Reyna was struck just how much Hylla was like their father, back when he was young. Before he drove himself mad, when he was a crazy, loving, loyal man. Hylla was so much like him it made her chest ache, to look her in the eyes and know, that she had killed the man she was so much like. She had killed her own father, and now her sister was literally standing in his place.

"Just like both our parents, dad, back when he was still dad, would've been proud of you too," she told Hylla, who smiled bitterly.

"Heh, it's funny how much you sound like her. Come on, we've ship to raid!"

A shadow passed between her and the man, and she heard a piercing scream.

"HYLLA!" she yelled, but her sister only sent her a smirk, the 3-foot iron blade sticking out of her chest, not seeming to effect her. She spun on her heel and grabbed the Spanish soldier by the neck, and snapped it in one fluid motion.

"No one, messes with my sister," she hissed at the corpse, before her legs gave out beneath her.

"Hylla!" Reyna cried again and shot forward, her sister looked up at her, blood already leaking from her lips and covering her chest.

"Funny, this scene seems familiar," she attempted to joke, but broke into a coughing fit at the end of the sentence.

"Don't you even dare you fucking idiot! Don't you even dare die on me!" Reyna shouted and grabbed the hilt of the sword. Hylla gasped in pain and grabbed her sister's hand her eyes blazing with the darkness that she had never feared. 

"Reyna, stop. It's pointless, you can't save me from this one," she hissed at her sister, but Reyna just shook her head.

"No, no there has be another way. You are not leaving me here alone!" she shouted, tears already welling in her eyes. Hylla smiled bitterly, but her eyes were already thousands of miles away it seemed.

"You're ready to take over. The Ramirez-Arellano name rests on your shoulders now," she whispered and Reyna gripped Hylla by the coat.

"Hylla please, I'm still just a kid. You can't leave me like this, you can't leave me alone. You are the only family I have left," she begged, but Hylla only managed a soft, defeated laugh, her body was already cold.

"Then make a new one, your family is not just the people who share your blood, it's those who care about you and love you unconditionally. I'm sorry, but this is..." Hylla trailed off, her eyes settling on the sky, and she didn't move again.

Reyna froze, sitting silently. She didn't move, scarcely dared to breathe. Hylla's eyes, always so dark and wild, full of life and wonderfully dangerous secrets, now stared blankly at the stars above, with an expression of Wonder Reyna had never seen on her face before. Her body was so cold, but all Reyna could feel were the hot tears running down her face. All she could see was her sisters still, cold body. All she could hear were the hard, bitter sobs that wracked her body, and yet... and yet all she could think were three simple words. She's not dead. She's not dead. Again and again, over and over the words ran through her head. She's not dead. She's not dead. For a moment she could almost believe it. Almost.

"Reyna! Reyna, we won! You've gotta check out this ship it's huge!" She heard a familiar voice approaching. A voice filled with such joy and carelessness, it made her feel sick. Her stomach spun horribly, and she finally moved, for the first time in 15 minutes, to just barely make it to the side of the deck and throw-up over the side of the boat. 

"Reyna?" a much smaller, quieter, shocked voice called, and Reyna slowly found the strength to stand and look behind her. Thalia stood there, blood covering the side of her face and spilling from a knife buried in her left hip, but she looked otherwise unscathed. Her eyes were wide, filled with horror, two-feet from where she stood lay the still body of Hylla Ramirez-Arellano, Hylla-Twice-Kill. Dead. Reyna just quietly looked back up at Thalia.

"Thalia," she whispered. Her legs gave out from underneath her and Thalia was there in an instant. Sobs wracked her body, but Reyna felt none of it. She felt nothing. She didn't feel her best friend's arms wrapped around her, didn't hear the gentle whispers in her ear. She didn't see the British girl trying desperately to bring her back from the brink. Because she was already there, and she had already gone over. Hylla was gone. She was gone. And all that Reyna had left was Thalia. All she had left was herself.