Chloe's body, even in the deepest of sleep, still ached. She once dreamed of scurvy, seeing it as a mark of respect amongst pirates, but now she realized that it sucked...horribly.
But...that pain and fatigue had one benefit, and she soon realized what it was when she awoke in the bed upstairs in the Scoundrel Saloon.
She was alive.
Though she had hoped the murder of Big Joe Rogers, the reigning pirate king was all a dream, the many faces that surrounded her indicated it wasn't.
Everyone was there. Her crew and the remnants of Big Joe's crew. Even Valcom who was off to the side. And much to her surprise, there was looks of concern and even kindness on the hostile pirates who had once scorned her and her existance as a foul murderess.
Chloe raised an eyebrow when she saw what everyone was clutching. Lemon cocktails.
Ramone walked up to her with a dish carrying a particularly tall cool glass with a lemon wedged in the top.
"What's all this?" Chloe demanded.
"Drink up, Queen Annabell!" Ramone said, his voice posh but chipper.
"A lemon cocktail?" Chloe asked, weakly reaching for the glass.
"The cure for that foul scurvy blight!" Ramone said and he chortled. "Cocktails save the day...as they often do!"
Chloe weakly grinned. "At least...I can get my first alcoholic beverage!"
Ramone grinned even wider. "I took the care of making this one non-alcoholic, especially for you, my Queen!"
"Ugh..." Chloe winced. "You're the worst pirate ever, Rammy. Underage drinking is awesome!"
"Ho ho," Ramone laughed. "And yet here I am in the most notorious pirate city of them all even with my stuffy attitude! Somehow I've managed to cut it as a scallywag anyway!"
Chloe poured the drink down her dry throat. She winced from the sourness of the lemon cocktail. Even her lips pursed, which she tried to hide from everyone. A mighty pirate queen was not supposed to wince from a strong drink. Otherwise, how was she ever to have rum?
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"Now then," Monica said, knowingly turning her eyes towards Big Joe's crew. "Don't you banditos owe our captain a little apology."
Chloe peeked out from behind her cocktail. She had been waiting for this moment all morning. They would finally come clean and admit...yes, she didn't commit a stone cold coup d'etat on their leader.
Much to everyone's surprise, Navi, Antonio and even the fashionable galoot Gino Taur did not hesitate. Antonio, in particular, held his hand to his chest.
"I am an honorable hermano of the sea!" the suave swordsman said. "And I had been deceived."
He looked to the remaining members of his crew. "We all did," Navi said.
Gino Taur grunted but Navi massaged his back. "Yes you too," she responded. "You wanted to make a coat out of her."
Chloe and the rest of the room were silent. Chloe plugged her ears. "Gonna pretend I didn't hear that," she said nervously. "Anyway you can continue."
"Thanks to you," Navi said, and turned her eyes to Valcom. "And this rather bulky woman. We were able to come to our senses."
"Si," Antonio said, making eyes at Monica. "I should have known a pirate captain with such a delectable morsel of a muchacha in her crew was not all bad."
"Ey," Vinnie muttered. "What about the rest of us?!"
"You're alright," Antonio said dismissively. "But fortunately, the ghost of our captain has told us that you're more than alright..."
"Oh yeah..." Chloe answered. She had nearly forgotten about the possession and Big Joe's speech that had come from deep within her diaphragm.
Antonio placed his hand on his heart again. "I swore to mi corazon that I would serve that man until the day I died, but now it seems, that this reversal of fortune has taken him instead."
He gazed at Navi and Gino Taur. "These two have thought the same. That we'd always be under his rule...but I guess times change."
His orange haired navigator nodded.
"The four great oceans are in danger," Navi said with a worried expression. "And now we've seen that firsthand."
Chloe thought of how Fienmond had even infiltrated the tight knit city of the Underpass and delivered the killing blow to two of the most elite pirates in the four great oceans.
"That is why," Gino Taur said, in a deep, but posh and refined accent. "We would like to help you defeat these dire scoundrels and serve under...Chloe Cutlass...the Official Queen of the Pirates!"
"Are you kidding me?!" Chloe exclaimed. Her mind was doing somersaults. "Did you really say that I'm the queen of the pirates?!"
"Well," Ramone said with a merry chortle. "If the big palooka says so, it must be true...."
Faintness came over Chloe's small body. The moment she had truly been waiting for had arrived. She boldly emerged from her bed, dressed in nothing but her lily white bed clothes. "Look alive, scurvy dogs!" she barked, pointing her pale white hand at them "We will remove this demon scum of the sea and send him back to where he caaaaaaamme...."
Chloe dropped to the floor, much to everyone's horror. Scurvy still riddled her limbs. "I'm okay!" she murmured. "We can plot our raid after I finish that lemon cocktail!"