Wanted: Captain Remy LeBeau

They had reached the Jamaican dock by sunrise. Logan sat, awake, in the same corner he and Remy had fallen asleep in. His back rest against the boards of the wall, facing the door. A long, lanky and seemingly undernourished body had curled into the corner, to his right, and Remy's head lay across Logan's outstretched right leg. Logan's left leg had been bent to rest his left hand that held a lit cigar, on. He stroked Remy's hair with his free hand and patted the boy's shoulder as he woke.

Remy moaned at the realisation that it hadn't been a dream. Storm had passed out in his bed, hours ago. And Logan, well, he was unsure of where Logan stood, after the previous night's events. He blinked. His head hurt and felt like it had swelled to twice it's normal size. He sat up and rubbed the back of a hand over his eyes. "Daylight, yet?" He whispered, hoping Storm wasn't awake yet.

Logan cleared his throat, quietly. "Yea. Barely." Bringing the half-burnt cigar to his lips again, he puffed. He eyed Remy as he exhaled the last puff of the cigar. His eyes shifted to the left and caught the elegant, ebony woman stretch her long limbs and groan as the sunlight began to shine through the cracks of the red red window. He breathed deep. She reeked of wine and rum, enough to whet an army.

A knock at the door caused all eyes to shift.

"What?" Storm spoke, firmly. She hadn't sat up, or even rolled over onto either side, from her back.

A tired and shakey male voice boomed from behind the painted oak. "Captain, we've made dock an hour ago. The Duke wants the boy and the crew. Shall we hand them over, now, ma'am?"

She sat up and glared at Remy through her bloodshot eyes. "Yes." Smiling and slipping off of the bed, she came closer to Remy and Logan. "Time to go, Remy. If you're a good boy, your death will be quick and painful." Face tightening and and sword being removed from it's sheath, she barked. "On your feet, now!"

Remy stood, as did Logan. Wincing at the pain both she felt and his own, Remy followed her now pointing sword to the door and opened it. The tip of the sword poked him in the back as she used it to pushed him out onto the deck. He held up his left arm to block his eyes from the beaming sun, and cringed as he saw what awaited him beyond the light.

"My eternal thanks, Miss Munroe. I have been waiting a long time to get my hands on this young swamp thief." A man looking well into his 50s stood on deck and watched Remy's expression change from calmness to shock as their eyes met. He stood there in fancy and very colourful robes that were decorated with the most beautiful jewlery. His short, half greying/ half white hair was neatly groomed. Brown eyes stared almost through Remy with lust and determination of strong will to break the young captain. His royal purple shoes clicked and tapped on the floorboards as he came closer to Remy. "Guards, put this man in chains." A firm and noble voice commanded the two guards who had accompanied him onto the ship as they stepped past him and reached for Remy. "You shall not escape me again, my boy."

Logan growled and released his claws. "That sounds a bit too comfy. The kid aint an animal to be toyed around with." He stepped protectively in front of Remy.

The Duke's smile faded as he looked from Remy to Logan. "My dear Captain Logan. What a pleasure it is to see you again. Would you care to join the boy in my dungeons?"

Logan looked at Remy, sizing the situation up. "Sorry, kid." Resheathing his claws and backing up to let the guards hustle Remy to the gang plank, he stared at the floor and growled low. He hated to have to do it but, there seemed no other way to survive the mess. He watched as seven armed guards surrounded the Cajun Captain and escorted him onto a prison wagon.

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The first ten minutes inside the palace gates are what set Remy's nerves on end. He had been taken through town on a small, empty hay-wagon, and forced to endure cries of villagers saying he should be hung and then strung up over the docks as a lesson to daring pirates. Various objects and food had been thrown at him as, mostly village men, laughed and chanted for execexecution. His clothes were now soiled and his hair had bits of rotted meat and vegetables matting it. Downcasting his eyes for the entire ride, he glanced out of the sides to look for Logan, or Tristan.

Not a friendly soul in sight.

Children laughed and danced and sang as Remy passed. It had been announced by the horsed guard, who rode in front of the wagon, that Remy was a murderous thief sav savage pirate that had been preying on good communities such as theirs, and now he was finally caught.

The wagon stopped and the started again, with a jerk. He was taken past the huge, wrought iron gates of the house and led around back to the dungeon doors. As it stopped again, Remy looked up to see the Duke standing infront of him, on the ground, and smirking.

A young girl in her teenage years came out of the house's kitchen entrance, ran to the Duke, and embraced him tightly. "Father, you're home! Did you catch him?" She eyed Remy with a snooty scowl. Her ringletted brown hair fell past her narrow shoulders, and white bangs visored her sparkling green eyes. She was as tall as the 5'7" man she stood beside but, looked small compared to the 6 foot prisoner in the cart that stood a foot off of the ground. A lanky girl in a peach dress that hooped out in the skirt and nearly suffocated her in the bodice.

Laughing and waving a hand in Remy's direction, the Duke presented the young man as the infamous terror. "This is the dreadful pirate, my dear." He turned and told the guards to remove Remy from the cart and escort him to the dungeons.

"He doesn't look like a pirate." She stared at Remy as he was brought down and forced to his knees in front of the Duke, as his chains were adjusted on his ankles so that he could walk down the steps. "He's cute, Father. Can Ah keep him? As a play thing?"

"I'm afraid he is to be hung, my dear." The man smiled as he looked at his daughter, lovingly.

Remy was pulled to his feet by the guards, and pushed towards the door. His eyes hadn't left the Duke or his daughter. He wondered how old she was, and what she had meant by wanting him as a play thing. He wasn't enjoying being hustled down the narrow and dark steps anymore than he was enjoying being dirty and left to cringe at the mixed emotions the townspeople had left with him.

The stairs winded down at least two storeys under the house. Remy had guessed this was where his father had been kept before his punishment. The bottom revealed a huge room filled with the overpowering smell of mildew and musk and death. Remy had nearly gotten sick as he reached the bottom. He stopped at the ground floor and looked around. Empty chains with cuffs that were attached to the walls, lined most of the room. To his left, was a chopper's block, covered in blood and other bodily fluids.

A guard on his right pulled at his arm, as his wrists were cuffed behind his back and separated by a thin bar so that he couldn't unlock either cuff. The two guards to either side of him led him to a row of cells and tossed him into the middle one. His cuffs were undone, and the chains on his ankles were again repositioned so that he had been chained to the back wall, opposite the gate.

Remy looked around and squinted as a few torches burned dimly from across the room. He couldn't see anyone else in the entire room, except him and the guards that were snickering and making their way back up the stone steps. Sitting down in the far left corner of the cell, he cringed at the thought of his pending fate.

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Two days had passed, and the only thing the guards had given him to eat were mostly eaten chicken bones and hard biscuits. Water had been dirty and poured into a bowl that sat on the floor. He watched rats scurry about his cell and nibble at his food and water. He hadn't been hungry since he was brought there. Still, Remy sat quiet and calm in his cell. He plotted and hoped Logan had a plan for his rescue, but after the way he had been treated, it didn't look so thrilling.

His nights had been restless and his days had been spent pacing and working at the chains on his ankles. Managing to remove the chains, he tried his luck with the door. He stopped as he observed that the lock had been well rusted and made an ungodly noise at any movement. Giving in for the day, he slipped back to his corner and curled up on some gathered hay.

"Wake up when Ah'm in the room!" The girl stood at his gate and stabbed the heel of her shoe at the stone floor, beneath her. She jumped nervously as Remy sat up with a start, and stared at her. "That's better." She smirked and stepped closer to his cell. The girl had been staring at him for some time, and even asked him several questions before yelling at him to wake up. "What's your name, pirate? Answer me!"

Remy squinted. "Remy LeBeau." He replied, tiredly.

"Father said you are to be hung, after your fair trial. Frankly, Ah don't think you should even be allowed a trial. You've probably murdered hundreds without caring about them. Haven't you? Just like your miserable father." She hissed. "My father is gonna string you up, after you're dead, and rid us of others like you. But, Ah'm going to talk to him, and see if Ah can play with you." She smirked and started walking from one end of the cage to the other, keeping her eyes on him. "He's gonna torture you, you know? Ah watched him torture your father, too."

Remy jumped to his feet and pounced at the gate, causing the girl to stumble back in complete surprise. "Remy never kill anyone, girl!" His eyes glowed red, angrily. His face had been covered in dirt and muck from the hay and reminents of what the townspeople had thrown at him. Auburn hair fell into his eyes and around his facehe phe pressed against the bars, grabbing at her.

"That is enough!" A man's voice boomed from the bottom of the stairs. The Duke had followed his daughter down into the dark room and listened to her conversation with Remy. He was accompanied by the same two guards who had brought Remy down there. With a wave of his hand, he called hisghteghter over to him and the guards to remove Remy from his cell. "Such a beautiful boy, my dear. It's a terrible shame to harm his lovely body." Holding the girl by the arms, they moved aside as the two guards had to drag Remy out of the cell and over to the chopper's block.

Remy's head snapped to his right as the two men removed his soiled clothes and bent him over the waist-high block, spreading his legs apart. Wrists and ankles were strapped to the legs of the block, so that he was unable to move. He grunted and fought them as best he could but was only struck on the back by a thin, stiff wire. The whipping went on for several minutes, making his back stream blood and sweat and dirt. Still, his eyes never left the Duke, or his daughter, who watched with obvious joy. "Is dis what y' did to my poppa?" He asked in a tired strain as the guards were called to stop.

The Duke smiled and left his daughter to come closer, grabbing Remy's chin and forcing him to look up to him as he spoke. "Oh yes, my boy. But, I'm afraid, he didn't get what you will. You see, I've perfected my technique in torturing murderous scum such as you, and I must say, I'm very pleased with the results."

"Which are?"

A sly smile. "When I'm done with you, you'll beg me to skip to your hanging, out right." The smile disappeared as he told the guard to fetch the "container" from the work bench, in the corner. He turned to his and ther her to go upstairs. When she refused, he raised his voice and ordered her remove herself from the rest of the session. "This won't be something a lady should see, my dear. You will have your time with him, when I'm finished." Patting her shoulder and nudging her in the direction of the steps, he watched her climb the stones before turning back to Remy.

The guard had brought a glass container from the bench, in another corner of the room, and stood in front of Remy. He held the clear glass so that the prisoner could see the thin, green snake squirming around inside. It hadn't been that long or big around as most snakes. In fact, it resembled an overgrown green worm. About the size of a garden snake.

"What you see is my perfection. One step, at least. It is a harmless snake, yes, but in the prime of young adulthood. Oh, and it's in it's mating season. I've taken the liberty of dosing it with absinth, so it won't squirm as much when it's inside you. However, I'm sorry to say, you'll definately know it's there." He paused and reveled in Remy's nervous expression.

"You gonn' make me swallow dat slippery snake, I'll spit it back out." Remy hissed and glared at the Duke.

The Duke laughed, heartily. "Swallow it? No, no, my boy." Kneeling so that he stared into Remy's dark eyes. "For it to do it's task, it must go in free of danger. That's why your legs have been spread, and clothes removed." Rubbing a thumb against Remy's shivering and pale right cheek, he stood up and nodded to the guard with the container. He watched the guard remove the slimy snake, and waited as the other held Remy's firm buttocks apart.

Remy cringed as he felt the cool snake slip into his tight hole with almost no trouble. Feeling the long, slinky body slip completely into him, he had his nauseous feeling come back. He groaned, and jumped as the Duke began to stroke his hair. He cuold feel it squirming inside him, that part of the Duke's speech was true. But, he also felt it doing something to him. He gasped and wriggled in his restraints. Remy's insides were burning. "Wha's it doin?" He asked in a frantic tone.

"Hmm, I imagine it is filling your bowels and stomach with it's seed. Shall we insert it's mate, or will you let me torture you, first?" The Duke smiled again as Remy's eyes shot up to him. His brow furrowed as Remy cringed and moaned again, this time in a deeper pain than before.

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Logan paced the deck of the Gambler Spice. Duke Carlington's guards had managed to imprison half of Remy's crew, as well as his own, before leaving the ship to Logan's care. He wasted no time in setting sail and leaving the docks before the guards came to claim the rest of the crew. Growling as he paced, Logan kicked himself for letting the Duke walk away with . He. He had gone through countless cigars and numerous bottles of wine and liquor he could find aboard.

Among the mixed crew that stayed aboard, had been Tristan, Will and Phillipe. Logan hadn't been exactly sure what he was doing on an enemy's ship with most of the crew working for and loyal to Remy. He and Tristan had gone rounds discussing what happened to Remy and where he was now.

"Logan, pacing will only wear a hole in the Captain's floor. It won't bring him back." Tristan said as he came down from the roof of Remy's cabin. He had been sitting up there, and thinking about their next step. Coming to no conclusion, he sighed and climbed down to stand in front of Logan.

"Got a better idea?" Logan stopped and barked at the man who now looked ten years older from worry.

Tristan smirked and folded his arms about his chest. "Yep. His hanging is in 3 days. How about we pay him a visit?"

"Fine. But, what about Miss Munroe? She's anxious to see the kid swing. Or, have you forgotten?" Logan's ears perked as he caught the silent sigh and tired shrug.

"She's helped us more times than I remember, in escaping the constables of countries. I can't fully believe she doesn't have feelings for him." Tristan lowered his gaze and walked to the aft side of the ship. "I've watched this boy grow from ten to twenty-four. Kept him clean and out of danger for this long, I refuse to let him down now. I still believe he is a foolish child for falling for you, Logan. But, at the same time, I want to see him safe, and happy. No matter if with you, or anyone else."

Logan nodded as he had come to stand beside Tristan and stare out at the black waves of the nighttime ocean. "Alright. But, sleep, first. No sense rescuin the kid if we're trippin over ourselves. We'll come up with somethin tomorrow." Patting the rail of the ship, Logan took first watch as Tristan walked wearily to the Captain's quarters to lie down in.

Tristan may have laid down, but he didn't sleep. Instead, he spent most of the night, everynight worrying about his Captain, and if the boy was okay. In the Duke's hands, he knew Remy wouldn't be. He worried more. Rolling from his back to his right side, he hugged the pillow and silently prayed that Remy come away from this mess, soon and unharmed. He hadn't been exactly thrilled to work with Logan but, it seemed the most reasonable way to fremy emy and escape alive. "Oh my young captain, I've failed you like your father. Forgive me, child."

TBC......