Davina's transformation subsided.
The dark veins that had covered her face and body began to recede, retreating beneath her skin like shadows fleeing from the light. Her eyes those pitch-black orbs that had seemed to swallow everything slowly returned to their natural color. Her body shuddered once, twice, and then she was still.
She stood up.
Her movements were steady, deliberate, controlled. She looked at the man marked with the X on his face at the terror that still lingered in his eyes, at the gun still clutched in his trembling hand, at the uncertainty that clouded his features.
She spoke, her voice calm and cold.
"So you're not simply a man who would blindly follow the orders of my father." She paused. "Even you can resist the control of Davy Jones."
He smiled, trying to regain his composure.
"The control of Davy "
She cut him short.
"I don't need your blabbing." Her voice hardened. "I have figured out everything."
She took a step closer.
"You're a man with no real power. A bug drawn into warfare. You wish to claim the treasure of immortality, so you swore loyalty to my father. Because you are confident in something, and you plan to use me to cement your loyalty to the King of Beast and Sea."
She paused.
"For that, my father put a control on you." Her eyes fixed on the X on his face. "The X on your face it's the essence of the beast. It tells him wherever you are and allows him to monitor you, to see you, and to control your actions on a fundamental scale."
She touched the body of a monster near her.
Her hand made contact with its flesh, and her arm transformed morphing into a blade made of flesh, curved and long, with spikes that surrounded it. The weapon was grotesque, alien, beautiful. She held it with the ease of someone who had done this a thousand times before.
She continued speaking.
"One thing it did to you was remove the ability for you to do harm to me even if you contemplate doing it."
She walked closer to him, faster than he could react. Her body moved like a blur, appearing in front of him in an instant. She put the blade along the side of his neck, the spikes pressing against his flesh.
"When I transform even a little bit, I release a massive form of killing intent that could even kill a man." She paused. "But for some reason, you can't feel it."
She tilted her head.
"Not even at this level."
He smiled and rubbed his head, his voice light, almost conversational.
"Common," he said. "We don't have time for all this."
She turned her back, her arm returning to normal.
"Let's "
Then both of them noticed a shadow in the crater of the sea that they stood in.
It was massive blocking out the light, casting a darkness that seemed to swallow everything around it. They were filled with fear as they instantly went cold, their bodies freezing, their hearts pounding, their minds screaming.
As they looked up, they saw a man in a light blue cloak that covered him completely.
He descended from the sky slowly, gracefully, deliberately and landed in-between the two of them. His cloak billowed around him, its fabric shimmering like the surface of the sea. His face was hidden in shadow, but his presence was undeniable.
He rose, still covered in his blue cloak.
"I'm afraid that unlike that man there..." He paused. "...I can kill you."
He straightened.
"And then he rose, still covered in his blue cloak."
He turned to Davina Jones.
"Davina Jones." His voice was calm, official, absolute. "On the order of the British navy, you are now under our custody."
He paused.
"If you resist, you will be met with violence."
in the space between the declaration and the response, between the navy's order and the daughter's defiance.
Davina stood, her body tense.
The banished one stood, his hand on his gun.
The blue-cloaked man stood, his presence overwhelming.
And the sea waited.