Chapter Text
The Crows Nest had pulled into the port at an early 7 in the morning, Technoblades hands grasped tightly around the wheel as he shouted commands out to the crew members, furrowing sails and beginning to untie boxes and crates of loot they’d found, preparing to unload and sell.
The smell of the sea was still strong enough that Technoblade could imagine they were still in the middle of the ocean, not about to pull into one of the biggest pirate trading ports in the Northern Sea. It abruptly came to an end when he tilted his head up at a noise from above, he barely had time to blink before a body was thrown from the crows nest, Wilburs laugh ringing loudly through the air as he whooped, grasping one of the ropes that was holding a sail down and swinging onto the edge of the ship, jumping straight from the wooden edge down onto the dock, taking off like the wind in pursuit of who knows what.
Between the three, Wilbur had always been the one who loved the land, he’d wax poetics for hours about forests and mountains, until Philza would slap him upside the head and tease him, knowing damn well Wilbur only knew of mountains from paintings and had never seen them in person.
It never dissuaded him.
Technoblade opted to stay on the ship most of the time when they docked. Being 7 feet tall with tusks and long pink hair, he was more easily noticeable than Wilbur, prime even Phil could simply hide his wings under a cloak. The last thing they needed right now was someone reporting to the Navy that The Blade was in Manberg.
While Manberg was a pirate trading port, only other pirates were aware of that, the tourists and navy kept well unaware. The navy surely had some suspicions about the activity going on in the city, but there wasn’t enough evidence that they could claim siege to the city without enough political uproar to set off something bigger than they could handle.
He smiled watching Phil dart after Wilbur before turning below deck to go into the office the three shared, maps decorating the walls, Wilburs additions, that nerd.
Setting down to sit at the desk, allowing the exhaustion to tug at his eyes, after driving the boat through the night for the past 10 hours, he allowed himself to succumb to sleep.
The sound of thick parchment slapping on the table in front of him jolts Technoblade out of a half sleeping state, Philza is standing over him, a grimace on his face as he tilts his head down towards the stack of maps. As he grabs them Technoblade sees why his face was so twisted, there's a newspaper thrown on top, the headline bold in the Royal Navy’s statement “Captain Puffy and crew finally defeated at sea.”
He looks up at Phil, confusion evident on his face in a way he often refuses to show anyone else, “Puffy was supposed to be in the East chasing after the Kraken I thought? Why the hell would the Royal Navy be claiming they took her down? She wasn’t near any trade routes and shouldn’t have come in contact with the Navy”
“That's the thing mate, the Navy might be reporting on it and claiming they did it, but I spoke to Quackity when I went into the pub and he said that they just found pieces of her shipwreck and decided to claim it.”
Technoblade lifts the newspaper up and sets it aside, looking down at the map below it, glancing at the longitude lines running across it and the large X placement across one of said lines, a smile grows on his face as he tilts up to look at Phil, who's already looking back at him with eyes shining. “We’re heading East then?”
“We leave tomorrow morning.”
---
There’s nothing like open air, Technoblade refuses to believe anything else in the world can be as freeing as sailing across the open seas. Maybe Phil has a slightly better version with his ability to fly above the ship, but Technoblade can’t fly so he won’t mourn for what never was his to experience.
Focusing on his compass as he shifted the wheel accordingly, the island, if you could even call it that, that they were looking at in the distance was made up of two tall rock islets, the bottoms of them joined together by a suspiciously flat rock.
They knew they’d found the right place when Wilbur's voice rang across the ship, “IT'S IN THE WATER” The crew taking off towards the canons along the sides of the ship, loading cannon balls and waiting with bated breaths while their ship steadily sailed towards the rock formations, now completely silent.
A splash in the water on the left, looking up he could see as Wilburs head whipped that direction, sharp eyes tracking along the waves.
Another splash, this time to the right.
“BRACE YOURSELF, LOOKS LIKE A POSSIBLE DRAGON OFF THE PORT SIDE”
The ship fell silent again, crew members looking around trying to catch a glimpse of whatever it could be.
The splash as a large hand pushed out of the water made everyone whip towards the port side.
Clawed fingers rising from the ocean, “THAT'S IT, SHOOT” Wilbur shouted again, crew members not hesitating to let the cannonballs let loose.
Ten immediately smashing into the hand before it had a chance to dip back into the water.
Now that the being was closer to the surface everyone could see as the large back fins peaked out of the water
It swam forward before turning around, stopping completely as it placed itself between the ship and the island, lifting its head out of the water and staring down the ship. A roar pierced the air as it dove back down into the water and swam straight forward.
Phil met it half way. Running down to the bow of the ship, not hesitating as he jumped off it towards the creature. His wings extended to descend with his sword drawn, landing on the dragons maw as it snapped its head out of the ocean, aiming for the bow but missing when Phils landing smacked its head off course.
His sword snapped down quickly, piercing the eye as the monster let out a roar, whipping its head side to side, throwing Phil sideways into the sea, his sword still stuck in the dragons eye, its eyelid fluttering and getting cut as it tried to blink close around the sword.
Technoblade spun the wheel, allowing the shift to drift so the starboard side would face the struggling dragon, cannons going off and pounding cannonballs into the dragons face and chest.
It snarled before diving back under the water.
He turned the wheel back, steering the ship back towards the island, the crew still deadly silent as they waited on Wilburs word.
The only noise being the wet plop of fabric on the deck as Phil heaved himself back on the ship after climbing up the ladder out of the ocean, his wings waterlogged and unusable for the time being.
Technoblade nodded to Phil and let him take over the steering wheel, moving to stand along the side of the ship, holding a rope to lean over the railing to stare into the sea.
It would’ve been a beautiful picture if it weren’t for the over 20,000 pounds of dragon barreling towards him.
A quick glint of a sword in the water was the only warning he got before the dragon burst up again, its jaws snapping closed around the edge of Technoblade’s cape and pulling him straight back down into the sea with it.
Pigs don’t mix well with water. Especially pig hybrids from the plane equivalent of hell where water couldn’t be placed.
Technoblade does not mix well with water either. He loves the open sea but there’s a reason the sleepy bois ship is notoriously rumored to be unsinkable, he put a lot of effort into making sure he’d never have to risk the ocean when he could avoid it.
He struggled in the water as the dragon began trying to drag him down further, the cape ripping between the dragons teeth at a particularly rough tug from Technoblade.
He whipped his head up, kicking his legs desperately to reach the surface again, the dragon hot on his heels, slowed down from the damage taken by the cannonballs.
He breached the surface, barely having enough time to suck in a desperate lungful of air before he was snagged by the dragons mouth again, the teeth closing around him as he was taken into its mouth.
Technoblade whipped his head back and forth before he was thrown into the side of the dragons mouth, his short area of vision tilting as the dragon began swimming back under the water again, water seeping into the mouth through its teeth.
He panted loudly, taking a moment to breathe as he tried to think of his next move and when he couldn't think of any plan, he did what Wilbur always said he did best, he drew his sword and stabbed it into the roof of the dragons mouth.
The hard cartilage of its roof made a splintering noise as the tip of the sword pierced through.
It took only a few seconds for him to be thrown against the wall as the dragon whipped its head back and forth, a pained roar rumbling from its throat.
He steadies himself on the dragons tongue, widening his stance as he grasps the handle of his sword again, taking a deep breath and thrusting the sword up as hard as he can.
A long crack appears in the roof, as he heaves the sword forward, slicing from the back to the front.
Blood instantly gushes down on him, his hair pushed flush to his head and back.
The dragon let out another roar, weaker this time now that Technoblade’s sword had ripped through the bottom of its brain, but its mouth actually opens, too focused on the pain to remember it was underwater.
Technoblade kicks desperately to get to the surface, the sudden flooding of both blood and seawater into the dragons mouth hadn't given him a moment to get a good gasp of air so he doesn’t waste any time kicking off towards the island, desperate to be on solid ground again.
Scrambling at the rocky edge he manages to drag himself up, his now heavily torn cape weighing him down from the heavy fabric being soaked in water. He hunches over to cough up the water he’d taken in, his throat torn dry from the hurried hacking.
Turning to look at the water he can see the dragon trying to swim towards the islet, the blood loss ultimately outweighing as its eyes close and the body begins to drift down until it's out of sight.
Hauling himself to his feet, he unclasps his cape and rings it out before he tosses it on a nearby rock to begin to dry.
Finally standing up straight he looks out to the sea, seeing the ship in the distance slowly coming closer, knowing his crew is coming for him he turns back to the island and begins walking to the middle rock connection.
On top of a spread circle of coins and jewelry sits a treasure chest, the lid closed but no padded lock present. A typical dragon horde, what stands out is a familiar golden coin looped on a necklace chain, the coin carved with a “S.”
He stumbles over to snatch it into his hands, it was the necklace that Puffy always wore, a remnant from an old scam her brother had pulled when he was younger. When he’d left their pirate crew to work undercover in the navy, he’d given it to her as a way for them to be united through scamming while apart.
He pockets it, making a mental note to return it to Schlatt as soon as possible. Maybe give it to Quackity for safe keeping on land.
A shifting noise pulls his attention away from the coin and back to the chest, he pads over, heavy footsteps making the coins still littering the ground bounce slightly from the force.
He opens the chest with bated breath, one hand raising his sword in case something attacks.
Instead he locks eyes with a baby.
Large blue eyes peeking up at him from where the baby lays in the chest, on top of a smaller collection of gold, his hair matching the color.
His piglin instincts coo over the golden haired boy, soft curls splayed behind him as the baby reaches his hands up to Technoblade, a smile bursting out on his face.
Technoblade wastes no time scooping him up into his arms, not even acknowledging the rest of the gold sprawled around, focused completely on the smiling baby in his arms who is making loud humming noises up at him, Technoblade's instincts having him chuffing back easily.
He’s entranced as he walks back to the edge of the island, grabbing his still damp cape to throw over one shoulder, not even shuddering as the damp fabric begins soaking his shirt.
He uses one arm to hold the boy to his opposite shoulder, the boy immediately snuggling close and tucking his face into his neck. His other arm raises to block the sun from his eyes as the ship begins to dock, Wilburs form jumping from the crows nest to get down to the deck faster.
A rowboat of him and Phil rushes to the shore, their first steps on the island have them stumbling and staring in awe as Techno hands them his cape, cradling the boy close as he gently climbs into the boat.
“What’ve you got there mate?” Phil says gently, lowering himself down next to Technoblade on the bench.
“Theseus, this is Theseus”
“WHAT THE FUCK?” Wilbur’s voice cut through the quiet moment, Theseus’ eyes snapped open at that, rolling slightly in Technoblades arms until he could look in Wilburs direction, a little baby glare on his face as he started up with some angry babbles. Technoblade snorted in delight, “You tell him, Theseus”