Chapter 3

I'm awoken by the sun shining through my windows, knowing I won't be able to go back to sleep I get up and start to get dressed. Five minutes later I have on a white long sleeve off the shoulder shirt tucked into a black skirt that's slightly above the knee in front and about mid-calf in the back, finally a black leather corset with two straps coming from the front and crossing in the back with five buckles going up the front. I brush my hair deciding to leave it down, I put on my black heeled boots that reach a bit below my knee and grab my hat and sword. By the time I was done Knox was already awake, so we leave and head towards my office.

"Captain Steel?" after about two hours of going through everyone on board the new ship I hear a knock on my door.

"Come in" I say without looking up, I hear the door open and close again.

"I have everything that was onboard as well as the state of the ship itself, and I ask that you inspect everything again in case something was missed" I hear Arthur say, I nod grabbing the book and start to look through it.

"I'll be there in thirty minutes" I tell Arthur then he turns to leave "tell Gracie to write down what she needs, were going to shore soon to fix that ship. And tell Nash to write down what we need, it won't hurt to grab a few extra things"

"Aye Captain" Arthur leaves and I give my full attention to what he had written down. Thirty minutes later I leave to go to the other ship.

"I'll be back soon, don't kill anyone" I tell Knox, he gives me a worried look "I'll be gone at most an hour. I'll be ok" I tell him knowing he doesn't like to leave me. I give him a hug, grab a rope, and swing over.

"You know Captain, there is a bored right there" I walk up to one of my men, Xander, and pat him on the shoulder.

"Well, Xander, it's more fun this way" he just laughs, I look over to see my new crew mates looking shocked at my encounter. "Where to first" Xander tells me that some of the sails need to be replaced, then pretty much everything in it needed to be thrown out and replaced but otherwise the ship itself was perfect. "What about the Captains room?"

"That's the only place we haven't been, it locked, and the doors are strong" I nod "the glass though, maybe you could reach you had in and unlock it" we walk up to two shiny looking wood doors with two very small windows. I take my elbow and smash the window reaching my arm in and unlocking the door.

"Unlocked" I smile and walk in; the room was disgustingly perfect compared to the rest of the ship. Tons of money and food, everything was cleaned and polished "Disgusting" I say more to myself than Xander.

"I'm surprised his crew never turned on him" Xander says walking around "Captain" he stopped walking to star at my arm, following his gaze I look to see some red staining my white sleeve.

"It's just a cut, probably from the glass" I tell him shrugging it off "I have to write this down" I leave the room and go back on deck, before I leave, I'm stopped.

"If I may Captain Steel, what is your relation to that man" an extremely sickly-looking old man asks me.

"He is a part of my crew; I know everyone by name, even everyone here. I just need to match the name to the face" I smile at him

"I'm Cade Reeves" he smiles back at me "I mean no disrespect, but the stories I thought you would be a cruel and terrifying Captain" I nod.

"As long as you don't betray me or wake me up you have nothing to fear" I pat him on his shoulder "I must take my leave now. We'll be headed to shore soon, anyone who wishes to leave is welcome to"

"Thank you, Captain," I start to walk towards the rope "What is that around your neck?" I look down to see my necklace had come out of my shirt.

"Just an old necklace" he keeps staring at the deep red and black stone surrounded by dark grey metal around my neck. I put the necklace back in my shirt and leave, landing back on my own ship Knox sees me and gets up. Walking over to me he immediately notices the red on my sleeve "it was just some glass, I'm ok"

After telling everyone were going to shore Knox and I go back to my office, noticing the new small stack of papers on my desk I sit down and start looking through them.

"Someone saw my necklace" I tell Knox, he shoots his head up to stare at me.

"Who was it" Knox asks, I pull out my necklace to look at it.

"Cade Reeves" I answer staring at the crack in the red and black stone "It's getting bigger" Knox gets up from the couch walking over to me to look at the necklace.

"We need to find a way to fix it" I nod looking at the black starting to take over the red pigment in the stone.

"I don't want to risk it cracking anymore" Knox is about to say something when we hear pounding footsteps running towards my door, a moment later Nash bursts in breathing heavy.

"Steel! Hydra ships are here, their Captain requests to talk with you" Nash says out of breath.

"Give me ten minutes then bring them in here" I say calmly, he nods leaving the room and closing the door. "What could Hydra possibly want, we stay out of their waters, and they do the same."

"An alliance? Black Rose and Hydra, not even military would go near us." I nod considering saying yes if that's what they came here to do.

"This will be exciting, Captain Xykoss is as unknown as I am" walking out of the office and to my room to change. Quickly I put on black pants, a black leather corset with a few buckles going up the front, black heeled knee-high boots, my signature floor length black coat and hat then leave. Walking back to my office I sit down waiting.

Five minutes later a knock was heard at the door, Knox gave a loud roar as a response. The door opened and in walked Captain Xykoss.