Years Later...
The name followed me like a damn curse.
"Ahab."
Everywhere I went, people whispered it. Some said it with mockery, others with amusement, and some with genuine fear.
I hated it.
But what could I do? Words were like the sea. Once they came, there was no stopping them.
I had grown taller, stronger. My hands, once small and weak, could now grip a cutlass with ease. My face had sharpened into something that might have been called handsome if not for the weight of my father's name looming over me. My mother is gone now. She had left this world in her sleep, freed from the torment my father had placed upon her. I had nothing left to tie me to Nantucket except the bitter taste of the past.
So I left.
I enlisted in the Royal Navy, signing my name with hands that still shook with anger. But I didn't do it for the king or country.
I did it to fight against those who reminded me of my father, sailors who lived and died by the ocean, chasing obsessions and leaving wreckage in their wake.
Pirates.
They were lawless, selfish, and no better than my old man. If I couldn't kill Ahab, I'd kill every man like him.
Aboard the Warship, HMS Vengeance
The deck rocked beneath my feet as I tightened the strap of my uniform. The salty air filled my lungs, but it no longer reminded me of home.
It reminded me of battle.
"Oi, Ahab!" A fellow sailor, Briggs, slapped my back. "You look like you're ready to harpoon something!"
I clenched my jaw. "Don't call me that."
Briggs laughed. "Come on, lad. If you hate it so much, why'd you join the navy? Your father spent his life hunting one beast, and now here you are, hunting another. Fitting, ain't it?"
I grabbed him by the collar, yanking him close. "I am nothing like him."
Briggs chuckled, unfazed. "Whatever you say, Ahab."
I let him go, knowing it was useless. I'd spent years fighting that name, but the more I resisted, the more it clung to me.
A voice rang out from the ship's helm.
"Enemy sails on the horizon!"
I turned to see the black flag rise in the distance. The skull-and-crossbones.
Pirates.
My grip tightened around my cutlass.
If I couldn't drown the ghost of my father, I'd drown every damn pirate in his place
I kill every single pirate that sails on the face of the sea. I become so good at killing all those bastards, sinking their ships and stomping on their pride and glory jolly roger. I was too good at cleaning the seas from scumbags because of that...
The sea was quiet. Too quiet.
For the first time in years, the waters near the kingdom were free of pirates. No more burning merchant ships, no more stolen cargo, no more massacres on the high seas.
And they owed it to me.
"Ahab the Pirate Hunter," they called me. A name that should have filled me with pride, but instead, it burned like salt in an open wound.
I was the youngest captain in the navy's history. The higher-ups showered me with praise, promotions, and medals. But the men? The officers? The sailors?
They hated me.
They never said it outright, but I could feel it in their stares, in their whispered words behind my back.
"He only got here because of his name."
"Ahab's son, leading us? A disgrace."
"He's a fluke, a mistake. Just like his father."
To them, it didn't matter how many pirates I cut down, how many victories I earned. To them, I would always be the son of a madman.
But I didn't care.
As long as I was standing on this deck, as long as I held command, I would make sure no one else suffered because of men like my father.
Aboard the HMS Relentless: The Captain's Quarters
The candle flickered as I studied the map laid out before me. My fingers traced over the last known pirate routes, most of them crossed out with ink. The hunt was over.
A knock at the door.
"Enter."
Lieutenant Mason stepped in. He was older than me, his uniform sharp, his stance rigid. Like most of the navy, he resented me.
"The Admiral has sent word," Mason said, voice clipped. "You're being reassigned."
I looked up. "Reassigned?"
"A new fleet is forming. The king's orders. They need experienced captains to lead."
"And they chose me?" I scoffed. "That doesn't sound like the navy I know."
Mason folded his arms. "It's a suicide mission."
That got my attention. "Explain."
"A new pirate threat has emerged. They call themselves the Black Leviathan."
I leaned back in my chair. "Never heard of them."
"You wouldn't have. They didn't exist until recently. We thought we wiped out all the pirates, but it seems we only cleared the way for something worse."
"Worse?"
Mason hesitated. "They don't just plunder, Captain. They burn entire ports to the ground. They leave no survivors."
The air in the room grew colder.
"The navy wants me to lead the hunt?" I asked.
"They don't want you to lead it," Mason said, a smirk tugging at his lips. "They want you to die in it."
I stared at him. Then, slowly, a grin spread across my face.
"They can try."
"Here is a brief explanation against the foe that you will face, Captain" said Lieutenant Mason.
Then Mason continues to explain about their future enemy The Black Leviathan.
"Black Leviathan was led by a dangerous leader called Captain Aaron "The Kraken" Jones. The group seems more like a cult pirate because all his goons believe he is the son of Davy Jones, a symbol in pirate belief."
"That's the most stupid thing I ever heard," I said.
Mason releases a simple chuckle while I continue looking on the map to strategize a plan to take down this somewhat of a pirate cult.
I run my fingers tightened around the edge of the map and realise something unusual. The place of the pirates hideout reminds me of something familiar but then, it hits me like a cannonball.
The navy thought they were clever, sending him and his ship of outcasts to die against The Black Leviathan. But fate was crueler than that. The hideout's location, the place where Captain Aaron The Kraken Jones had built his cult. It wasn't just any forgotten island.
It was where Moby Dick had last been seen.
It was where his father had disappeared.
A cold shiver ran down Ahab's spine, but he masked it with a sharp breath.
"Coincidence? No. This is fate laughing in my face."