After a deep breath, Kenzo began to walk to the cabin doors.

“Are you going to help?” Theo asked.

Kenzo didn’t reply.

Once he got to the door, the sound of battle could still be heard from outside. He hesitantly opened it and slowly peeked through to the other side.

The deck was littered with the bulk of Lady Social’s men.

At the centre was Captain John and Bron—fighting a handful of these men, as she watched just a short distance away from where Kenzo was. 

Next to her was Vic, who was also watching.

“Lady Social has made you and Captain William a generous proposal,” Vic said, as Captain John fought off his opponents. “Is there any point to this stubbornness?”

The captain took a step back to catch his breath. “I didn’t come on this ship to be lectured about her ridiculous experiments! That woman’s just a spoilt brat who expects everyone to believe whatever she says,” he replied.

Captain John then stomped on the deck twice. “Can’t those drunken fools hear what’s happening up here?”

Back at the cabin door, Kenzo was wondering what was even happening. It was only a few minutes ago that the captains were casually talking amongst themselves.

The scene in front of him was an extreme contradiction to everything he had experienced thus far on the ship. Lady Social had been a comforting presence in an otherwise chaotic environment, but was now watching as her own guests were being attacked.

What could have happened in that meeting room?

But with everything that was going on, it seemed like this was the perfect opportunity for him to sneak past. Lady Social and Vic had their backs toward him and the rest of her men were focused on the fight.

Kenzo looked back at Theo and nodded his head, acknowledging his earlier request.

A few seconds later, he was now in the process of sneaking toward the stairs to the side. As he inched closer to his destination, Bron seemed to have noticed him—but promptly returned to fighting his opponents.

Kenzo was now only a few steps away from the stairs. But he suddenly heard a voice behind him.

“Kenzo, wait.”

It seemed, he had been spotted.

When he turned around, Lady Social was looking straight at him.

“With all the sneaking around you’re doing, you’re beginning to act more like a hunter,” she said, with a playful tone.

The look on her face became slightly more serious.

“All of this must be confusing for you,” she said. “Remember what I asked you at the party?”

Lady Social then looked toward the battle and back at him.

“I asked you what would it cost to have everyone together like that in the future,” she said. “This is what it would cost. Someone has to be willing to take the burden of doing what needs to be done. And even if just for the children, I’ll gladly be that person.”

Kenzo knew that the time left to get help was fast closing. If he was going to go down, it would have to be now.

The look on Lady Social’s face softened.

“I know you don’t want to be entangled in all this Kenzo. Just leave things to me okay,” she said. “Sometimes, It’s okay to not get involved.”

They were simple words, but these words carried a heavy meaning to Kenzo. Someone had just told him it was okay to not get involved, that it was okay to do nothing. It felt like he’d been waiting for someone to tell him it was okay to not want to change anything.

And so, the will to help had left his body.

Kenzo then stood still, observing everything unfold without his involvement.

But Lady Social’s eyes suddenly widened as she gazed upward at something behind Kenzo. When he too looked around, he saw that Captain John’s ship had sailed up from behind the Unity Cruse.

In a matter of seconds, around a dozen of Captain John’s men had boarded the deck.

“Briggs!” Captain John shouted, “You boys deaf or something? What took so long!?” 

“Sorry boss,” Briggs replied as he then glanced over at Lady Social. “Can see you weren’t expecting us. We didn’t drink as much as you hoped.”

“Did you know what she was up too!?” Captain John yelled.

“More or less. She somehow got our navigator to switch sides. Caught him writing her a letter during the party about how drunk the crew were getting. Luckily me and a few other’s hadn’t drank much yet,” Briggs said.

“Why didn’t you tell us then?!” Captain John said.

“By the time we found out, we could see everyone on the other ships were pretty wasted already. So we kept quiet about it hoping she’d let her guard down,” Briggs replied, as he looked at Lady Social again. “Clearly it worked.”

Briggs then gazed over at Captain Williams ship—which hadn’t shown any signs of noticing the commotion. “Looks like they got a traitor among them too. But seeing how quiet it is there, seems they weren’t smart enough to figure that out.”

With two steps forward, Briggs pulled his sword from it’s sheath. “Men! These are all professionals fighting for her, so face them in pairs if you can!”

They then all charged following Briggs signal.

Soon, Captain John’s crew were engaged in combat with Lady Social’s men. Briggs had gone straight for Lady Social, but was immediately intercepted by Vic who had blocked his attack.

“Not my first time fighting a Dayne,” Briggs said, as he prepared to attack again. “But fighting the legendary Victor Dayne? Now that’s a story I very much plan to tell.”

“I’ll be sure to teach you a thing or two, as the more experienced Quartermaster,” Vic replied.

As the battle raged on, Captain John’s men began to slowly wither down as their opponents were extremely skilled. Even so, their larger number allowed them to put up a decent fight.

Soon, only Lady Social, Vic and a handful of her men remained.

However, only Captain John, Bron and Briggs were left standing as the rest of his men lay defeated on the floor.

Briggs was still being held off by Vic, and Bron had been fighting three men but managed to push one overboard—allowing him to focus on just two.

In the heat of battle, Captain John managed to catch his own opponent off guard and kicked them in the groin. He took the few seconds he had to taunt Lady Social who was still watching on the other side of the deck.

“This mistake will cost you! Give up now and all I’ll do is leave you stranded on an island somewhere!” Captain John yelled, as he pointed his sword at her.

Lady Social ignored him and turned her attention to Briggs who was in front of her fighting Vic. 

“Briggs. You haven’t mentioned anything else about what you learnt from your navigator,” she said. “Are there perhaps details about my plan that you’ve chosen not to mention?”

Briggs who was holding off Vic’s sword paused for a moment.

“Only a madman would believe everything that was on that letter,” Briggs said.

Lady Social glared at him, as she appeared to carefully observe his expression.

“Am I looking at one now?” she asked.

Briggs didn’t reply.

Suddenly, there was a loud thud at the back of the deck behind Briggs and Captain John.

Bron had just knocked down one of Lady Social’s men, leaving him unconscious on the floor. But it seemed the encounter had left him injured, as blood was now trickling down his arm.

Captain John kicked his own opponent away and looked over to him. “Bron!?” he shouted.

The last man fighting Bron had stepped back, clearly weary of fighting one on one against such a giant man. 

With no one attacking him, Bron lifted his head and looked at his captain. There was a stream of tears flowing down his face. But his sad eye’s soon stopped upon someone else on the battlefield.

Lady Social.

His eyes quickly filled with anger. Bron’s heavy feet began crashing across the deck as he suddenly charged toward her.

Captain John looked in the direction he was running to, but his eyes widened when he saw that Briggs and Vic’s swords were no longer touching.

“No! Bron wait!” Captain John shouted, as Bron rushed past him straight toward Lady Social.

Moments later, the sounds of heavy footsteps had stopped and was instead replaced by the splashes of dripping blood.

Vic had twirled in front of Bron with his back facing him and shoved his sword through under his arm—piercing Bron from behind.

Everyone stopped fighting.

Bron coughed out blood, splattering it across Vic’s back.

Enraged, Bron clenched his fists and lifted his massive arms into the air. Vic then pushed the sword further in, but it wasn’t enough to stop the large man’s attack. With tremendous force Bron swung his arms down and bashed Vic over the head, slamming him into the ground.

Bron then pulled out the sword and began to slowly walk forward. But then he fell to his knees—only a few distance away from Lady Social.

A soft breeze swept across the ship—softly pushing Bron—causing him to collapse onto his stomach.

Soon, he was laying in a pool of his own blood.

Captain John attempted to rush over but was blocked by Lady Social’s two remaining men—the man he was fighting and Bron’s leftover opponent.

“Briggs!” he yelled. “What are you doing!?”

But Briggs didn’t say anything back, as he held his head low.

Lady Social then slowly approached Bron and stopped right next to him. An injured Vic slowly got up and watched as she silently stood there with her head down.

“Have you gone mad woman!?” Captain John yelled.

“No,” she whispered, with her head still down.

Hearing her voice, Bron slowly looked up and met her gaze. But his expression of pain suddenly changed to one of shock. 

She was staring at him, with a cold dead eye—a look of pure apathy.

“Only the future matters now,” she said.

Finally out of strength, Bron’s eyes gently shut and his head crashed onto the floor.

Silence befell the ship as the sound of waves whispered through the air.

And at the back of it all—still watching silently—was Kenzo, with a look of horror.

This silence however, didn’t last.

“What’s with all the noise up there!”

Everyone turned as a voice came from Kenzo’s direction.

But he was standing there pale and speechless, which made it clear the voice didn’t belong to him. It was then the sounds of squeaky wooden boards echoed from down the stairs. The voice seemed to belong to whoever was ascending from below deck.

A few footsteps later, they had finally revealed themselves.

Lady Social let out a heavy sigh. “Shit.”

It was Jetta.