pirate king (pirate!au) ➵ ateez ✔️

end of the journey

Perhaps, somewhere deep in you, you've always known that it would have to come to an end.

Death isn't a concept known only to humans. From the second the breath of life passes through any living being, it fights, flees and struggles to stay alive. The reason a a shoal of fish scatter before a shark, why birds take to the sky to escape stray cats fighting for their own sustenance, death is the one language every creature understands.

Survival instinct. The basest, most primal drive shared by every living being on this earth. Stay alive.

That's what you're fighting as you walk towards the black dagger pointed directly at you, the wind screaming in your ears, power surging through your fingertips even as you feel your body crumbling apart under the onslaught you're putting it through. Slowly chipping at you, sand falling through your fingertips, the end draws closer and closer no matter how much you've tried to fight it - inevitable.

Two responses, fight or flight.

You can no longer run from this anymore.

"Finally, we meet again, sea goddess."

An odd feeling stirs in you, strangely serene even as the storm swirls around you, lightning flashing and thunder raging. Right, you remember now, your memories slowly surfacing the more your body deteriorates. The sea, the storm, the sky. You could never ben human to begin with. This is who you are.

Hot tears burn your eyes, sting against the cracking skin of your cheeks, but you bite your lip and stand strong, back straight and eyes fixed firmly on the man in front of you. The blade in his hand trembles at the sight of you, and somewhere in the depths of your memory, you realise why Hongjoong's gaze had drawn you from the very beginning upon your first meeting.

The same fierce gaze. The burning glare. Both father and son had the same eyes.

"You." The sea goddess speaks with you, every word falling from your lips echoed by thunder, its resounding cry. His eyes burn the same way they did years ago, and the image of a venomous green stare blazing with tears superimposes itself over the vision in front of you, a scream of vengeance from a single man left alone on a deserted beach louder than the howling wind - I will never forgive you! "We're here once again."

"Right where you killed my crew." Commander Kim speaks, voice even as he keeps the blade pointed straight at you. You can feel the very power thrumming in your body flowing through his and all about you. This place rises from the depths of aeons of memories - a single ship, splintering upon the sheer indomitable force of the storm, the screams of its dying crew, the anguish of its only surviving captain. "I'm here to take back everything you took from me."

"You want to kill me." You say slowly, nails digging into your palm, and skin splits beneath the force before it too, is blown away like chaff in the wind. "Your soul, it's mixed with the essence of the sea. You've committed taboo of the highest order against yourself, foolish mortal. What you've done cannot be reversed."

Sluggish, like a waking beast, an ancient force churns slowly in the commander's body, wrapping its claws around the human soul. Like a predator, it latches on to the only support it has, burying its tendrils so deep that you can't tell it apart from the original soul. There's no going back for him.

All water eventually flows back to the sea, and now, it's reaching out for you.

Blood trickles slowly from the corner of his mouth, his eyes mirroring yours - you see the primal force in them as in yours. "Then I'll have to see it through till the end."