#aaand...

She sails with them back to Nassau, gives them food and shelter for the night. Meanwhile Stede explains the situation. He needs a ship and weapons for himself and his crew, and fast. He says he wants to reconnect with Ed.

"Ed? Who's Ed?"

"Erm, Blackbeard"

She freezes. Blackbeard has been on a killing streak for the past few days, raiding ships left and right, and killing everyone onboard.

It was not good for business.

And in turn - it was not good for Jackie.

"Alright." she agrees finally. "I'll give you a ship. Weapons too. But you owe me, understand?"

"Of course, I'll do anything you want" Stede says earnestly.

Jackie sighs.

"Just... Just make him stop, okay?"

"I'll do what I can" he replies with a hopeful gleam in his eyes.

So they set out to find the Revenge. It's not hard to do - the flag with the addition of a bleeding heart catches Stede's eye from a distance.

On the way there his crew tell him what has been happening with Ed ever since they parted. It did not look good.

And Stede was surprised. He expected Ed to be disappointed - not the first time he disappointed someone, and certainly not the last - but to go to such extremes?

They came near the Revenge. It was time.

"Who goes there?" asked the croaking voice of Izzy Hands.

Stede hesitated. Oluwande very rightly pointed out to him soon after they reunited and caught up with each other, that now that Stede is technically dead, he will need a new alias. Stede considered that. Spent a few days on it, even.

And when the moment came, he knew exactly what to say.

"Captain Edwards sends his regards!" Stede replied, his voice less sing-songy than before.

"What the fuck?" said Izzy under his breath.

Stede looked over to Olu, who nodded in reply.

"Onboard!" screamed Stede, and they threw themselves in the direction of the Revenge.

Stede immediately busied himself with Izzy, while his old crew members reconnected. It sent Izzy's plan of taking over Stede's ship flying out of the window. Olu and Jim were already in a tight embrace, as we're Frenchie and Wee John. The rest of the crew was jumping around and dancing from the joy of seeing each other again.

"Stede fucking Bonnet?" said Izzy. "What the fuck are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be dead?"

Stede smirked.

"Well... The rumours of my death were... Greatly exaggerated."

"Well isn't that fucking fantastic"

Stede ignored him and looked around.

"Where's Ed?"

"Oh, wouldn't you like to know"

Stede looked at Izzy. With one, surprisingly swift movement, he stabbed the man on his left side, pinning him to the mast. Izzy sucked in a breath.

"I asked you a question, Izzy. Now... Where. Is. Ed?" Stede said, something scary in his eyes.

Izzy gave in.

"In the captain quarters"

"Thank you" Stede replied, removing his sword from the mast and Izzy's left side.

He immediately turned in the direction of the captain quarters.

It was a mess. Empty bottles were laying on every possible surface. By the window sat Ed, but he looked different. Clad entirely in black, but this time his hair was straight, and his face - painted with black greasepaint.

He was not happy to see Stede.

Although Stede wanted to do some version of "honey, I'm home!", it did not work like that with Ed. First he was terrified, thinking he saw a ghost. Then, when he realised Stede was in fact real, he grabbed a sword of his own and charged at Stede.

"You piece of shit! You left me! How could you, how could you?!"

Ed screamed through tears while Stede could only dodge his attacks and try to explain himself. However, they were not going anywhere like this. Stede was walking back defending himself, when he eventually felt a wall behind his back.

Ed came closer, and struck, giving Stede only a moment to turn.

The blade pierced his flesh.

Stede winced. The left side. He missed all the important bits.

He looked up at Ed. There were tears streaming down his face, disturbing the greasepaint.

"You... You left me"

Stede winced again.

"Ed... Please, please let me explain everything."

For a millisecond it seemed like Ed's expression faltered. Then it hardened back again.

"Ed is not there anymore. I am the Kraken."

He removed the blade, nowhere near carefully or gently. Then, without a word, he stormed off in the direction of the auxiliary wardrobe.

Stede almost fell to his knees from the pain, but braved his way through it. He slowly exited the captain quarters, with his entire crew staring back at him.

"And? How did it go?" asked Olu.

"Not great" replied Stede, placing a hand over his fresh wound. A little bit of blood appeared between his fingers.

Several people gasped. Roach offered to stitch him up. Stede said he was okay, thought he did consider taking Roach up on his offer later.

Stede found Izzy, who was licking his wounds in the corner.

"We will be staying on this ship. I will be staying together with my crew" announced Stede firmly.

Izzy laughed a disgusting, dry laugh.

"What are you even staying here for? Give up! He's not going to forgive you".

Stede clenched his teeth.

"We'll see about that".

And so they all stayed of the Revenge. The ship was finally bursting with life again, after few very grim days.

Every day, Stede and Ed fight on the deck. Some days one walks away injured, some days - the other. But neither wants to give up.

Neither wants to kill the other either, despite what both Ed and Izzy might think. A part of Ed is still there, loving Stede so desperately he'd want nothing more than to throw himself into the arms of the man he loves.

But heartbreak proves stronger for now.

Days go by like this, and the crew gets somewhat used to it. They busy themselves with arts and crafts, card games, sex and storytime. Also disrespecting Izzy. That one is always fun.

In the meantime one scribe goes through quite the misadventure.

After being thrown overboard, Lucius tried swimming for a while. He got picked up by a Spanish ship filled with handsome sailors. They filled him with tapas and rumours from the high seas.

It doesn't surprise him to hear that Ed Blackbeard set off on a murderous rampage. The man has been going through something ever since he came back on the Revenge, even though Lucius never quite found out what happened.

But then, he also found out something that filled him with terror.

Stede was dead. His beloved, stupid, awfully inexperienced captain was dead.

He had to act quickly. He had to reconnect with his crew, right now!

They let him have a dingy and some food, and he set off to search for the Revenge. After a few days he found the ship - and good, because he just ran out of provisions.

He stood in the dinghy in order to grab someone's attention. He shouted and waved, and eventually Frenchie saw him.

"Hey, look! It's Lucius!"

Everyone threw themselves to see for themselves. There he was! He was now jumping with excitement.

And now, he tripped and fell into the water.

Black Pete threw himself into the ocean to get his lover. Everyone back on the ship was cheering for him to get both of them back safely.

Everyone, but Izzy Hands.

There was something stirring in his chest. Something painful, warm and unfamiliar.

He missed that little shit. He missed his annoying voice and shit-eating grin, his stupid sass and how he somehow always knew which ones of Izzy's buttons to push.

He thought he lost him for good after Blackbeard threw him overboard. He almost didn't forgive him that. But alas, the joy of having Blackbeard back overshadowed everything.

Well, not anymore.

Because now he was afraid he was going to lose him again.

Black Pete threw himself and the unconscious Lucius on the little cleaning chair, and Izzy, together with Fang hoisted up the ropes. After a while they were back on deck, Black Pete heaving with exhaustion.

But Lucius... He wasn't breathing. Izzy checked. There was no heartbeat either.

Then, everyone held their own breaths.

Black Pete panicked. He leaned over Lucius, and tried pushing his hands into the boy's chest.

Didn't work.

Then he tried mouth to mouth.

Again, nothing.

The atmosphere on the deck became even more tense. Stede has already stepped closer, and even Ed was out of his quarters. Seeing Lucius, he froze in a mixture of terror and guilt.

Black Pete meanwhile was doing the whole thing again. Mouth to mouth, pressing hands into Lucius' chest. In the meantime, both Izzy and Fang drew the closest to Lucius aside from Pete, and each was holding one of the boy's hands, while Black Pete was trying to save him.

Eventually, something clicked. Lucius started coughing up terribly, throwing up sea water everywhere.

Everyone exhaled.

The biggest breathes of relief were taken by Black Pete and Fang.