Treasure Planet II: Cursed Man's Riches

Dishearten

Sophie's eyes held a look of frustration and darkness as she read over her notes, increasingly annoyed by Long Ben pacing behind her and not really listening to what she was reading out loud to him, also he constantly tutted if something seemed too boring which only riled Sophie up even more. A final tut struck the last of her nerves and she threw down her papers, "If you want me to read everything then at least listen to me!" She shouted as she turned around to face him, Long Ben stood still with an expression that was a mixture of amusement and surprise with a pipe in his mouth, without a word he puffed out smoke out of the side of his mouth before removing it. "I'm not reading anymore, I refuse to!" She continued, rising to her feet – any common sense that she had was gone – her eyes narrowed in blinded anger. Long Ben, instead of lashing out like expected, threw his head back in laughter only to double over as he was unable to contain himself. Sophie was too enraged to stop herself, with her breathing becoming deeper – she grabbed a pen and darted towards Long Ben.

"So, you know his name?!" Jim's voice exclaimed excitedly, he held such delight in his wide eyes as his hands gripped Hallie's upper arms in sheer joy. "The researcher guy did, not me." Hallie replied rather stiffly, moving out Jim's grip and wrapping her arms around herself. "But still!" Jim shouted in excitement as he paced the stateroom, his hands going through his hair as he recollected everything that Hallie told him, he didn't notice the hardened look from both Amelia and Silver, one that they shared together. "That doesn't mean anything, knucklehead!" Hallie suddenly yelled, finding a book and flinging it towards Jim with B.E.N obnoxiously squealing in fright and flinching away from it. This stopped Jim's pacing, he drew back considerably as he took in her expression, Hallie looked completely broken as if she were once a porcelain doll and someone had badly tried to repair her. "Sophie was knocked out when they left the ship! That pirate took her away and you're walking around as if you had found Treasure Planet again! How dare you be happy when my best friend is at the mercy of some scumbag pirate!" Hallie's scream had left a deafening silence in the stateroom, there was not even the sound of breathing, "Miss Morris, please calm down." Amelia finally spoke, reaching her hand out gently but her eyes were downcast, the news was just to painful to face up to yet. "I'm outta here!" Hallie shot back, making sure she barged Jim's shoulder as she stalked out of the room and slammed the door behind her, Jim still hadn't moved from where he had stopped forcing Silver to get to his feet and bring him back to reality. "Lad..." Silver sighed heavily as he rested a weary hand onto Jim's shoulder, the weight returning his attention to the room, his head immediately turning for Hallie, "No... I-I didn't mean-!" Jim began to stutter, held in place by Silver, "Sit down, lad. T'ere's a lot to tell ya." Silver spoke with the same tone, steering Jim into a seat, but kept a firm grip on the boy's shoulder.

As Sophie opened her eyes again, she found herself pressed against the floor – a heavy weight on her upper back preventing her from getting up. "Now that ye are awake. Let me remind ye who's in charge here." Long Ben spoke lowly, she could hear the threatening growl bubbling in his undertone and it only made her squirm as she cringed at it. "You will read me every single sentence you wrote. You will not miss a single word, or you will find yourself at the mercy of Scroop. Am I clear?" Sophie winced as she felt her wound re-open and didn't answer because of it, "Am I clear?!" Long Ben roared with Sophie furiously nodding as best as she could with her head on the floor, "Get back to readin'!" He ordered as he roughly pulled her up and pointed towards the desk once again, Sophie winced once again with her hand covering her wound and slowly trudged back to the desk and sat down again, "Ye used to be so much like yer mother. Quiet and did as she was told-!" Long Ben commented as he strode around his cabin casually, hands behind his back as if he were in friendly company, Sophie clenched her teeth in sheer rage – how dare he mention her mother again. "You don't know my mother! She'd never associate with scum like you!" She screamed before she could stop herself, being interrupted just like she had done to him. However, his sword was stabbed into the long-backed chair just beside her neck, a shuddered gasp escaped her throat as her eyes widened in horror. "She did. Yer mother turned to me for 'elp when yer father died... why wouldn't she? I am her uncle." He sneered patronisingly with a victorious gleam in his eyes, if Sophie's eyes got any wider then she would have them popping out of her head.

A scream emitted from Jack as he heard Hallie furiously leaving the stateroom, practically barging through everyone in his haste  to get out of her path, eventually tripping over another student and catapulting into a pile of ropes. Despite his unintentional gaffe, his antics did provide some comic relief for the students and the crew tending to him, but for Hallie it only made her angrier and she stalked off below deck, hiding her watery eyes from everyone.

"Long Ben, or Henry Every as he was known, used to serve in the Navy years ago. I thankfully never had the pleasure of working with him, but he turned rouge and took one of His Majesty's ships with him." Amelia explained, Jim frowned with her facial expression – she had a troubled look on her face as if she knew more than she was telling. "What the captain isn't tellin' ya, Long Ben is much more dangerous than the likes of myself, Scroop or any other pirate t'at's runnin' around the Etherium." Silver added grimly, making sure Jim wouldn't run off or do anything stupid. "But, you know who he is! We can find him!" Jim protested in disbelief, they were acting like they were never going to see Sophie again, "Mr Hawkins." Amelia spoke tensely, her eyes just as firm but they shone with incoming tears that she struggled to hold in, "We will find him, with Miss Morris' information we know where he plans to go. Whether we find Sophie is another matter."

B.E.N had been fretting over Jim and Hallie's argument, hovering over Jim like a worried mother while Jim held his head in his hands. His gaze rapidly switched between Amelia and Silver, both were completely silent and kept their eyes to the floor – neither could look at Jim. "C-come on, Jimmy!" B.E.N stuttered as brightly and enthusiastically as he could while nudging at Jim, "We'll find her and you two can live happily ever after!" Jim grunted something under his breath, something that made Amelia's ears sharpen upwards and frown at him, "Mr Hawkins, if would dare kindly repeat that." She demanded, wanting to be one-hundred percent sure what she heard was right. "This is all of your fault! If you had caught him when he went nuts, then maybe this wouldn't have happened!" Jim shouted as he sprung to his feet waving his hands around in exasperation. "My fault?" Amelia repeated with an icy and stern expression, Silver shrunk back as much as he could in the chair that he dwarfed. "Until Miss Morris explained her version of events, I was in confidence that Henry Every was dead. I brought Sophie home the first time that she was kidnapped, and I will be sure to do it again. I will execute him on the spot and on sight. Don't you dare accuse this fiasco to be of my fault. I will confine you to the brig." Amelia replied, not blinking once as she towered over Jim with her hands folded behind her back, his eyes looked up at her as if he were a small child caught out on a lie, "I expected better of you."

As Sophie sat in the brig that night and mulled over what Long Ben had revealed to her, unsure if it was the cold or his words that were making her body feel numb, still she curled up as much as she could with her dark blue eyes drifting to the pile of hay and wondering if it was any use in trying to use that to keep her warm. Both Captain Dawson and Sir Fen were asleep, well she hoped that, so she had no one to talk to, with a defeated sigh and whimper she laid her head onto her folded arms that rested on her knees. It was a horrible feeling that her eyes were heavy, but she did not feel tired, if anything mentally exhausted but she didn't dare to allow her eyes to close – terrified that Scroop or some other pirate had something in store for her. She couldn't let her guard down, "Wah!" Sophie yelped suddenly when something slimy met her hand, she jerked it away and looked at the perpetrator with surprised eyes. "M-Morph?!" She whispered loudly, clambering onto her knees and catching the fatigued shapeshifter who miserably curled into her hands, "I've been worried sick about you." She cooed as she cradled him and made herself more comfortable, "What have you been doing?" Morph was already fast asleep, it made a small smile appear on Sophie's face as she stroked him with one finger, doing so until she fell asleep herself.