___________________________
Abandoned Island Dock — Day 4, Afternoon
___________________________
The sun cracked over the rusted graveyard.
The air smelled of salt, sweat, and burning metal.
Three groups had formed over the past days:
The Mechanics:
Still sorting ship carcasses.
Arguing over which broken hull had the best chance of not immediately sinking.
Grease stained their hands.
Sparks danced in the sea air.
The Culinary Division:
Aka, the man wearing sunglasses even at night — Rocco Volkov.
Fishing with sharpened rebar.
Roasting rats on scrap wire skewers.
Boiling seawater for salt.
Building rain traps for drinking water.
Half pirate, half miracle.
The Communications Engineers:
Repurposing scrap microwaves into a bizarre lattice of cables, antennas, and homemade field radios.
Somehow it all worked.
Nobody knew why.
___________________________
Near a pile of twisted copper —
Elias Jerkins and Dr. Lilly Fontaine scavenged side-by-side.
He picked through rusted panels lazily.
She moved sharply — flipping debris, checking circuits.
___________________________
"Doctor," Elias said, casual, "why'd you carry me during the mountain test?"
No answer.
Lilly kept sorting.
Focused.
"Hey, Doc... Doc..."
Still nothing.
___________________________
"Oii, Le Petit—"
___________________________
WHIZZ.
An iron bat again — zipped right across his hair.
The air cracked where it missed.
Elias flinched slightly.
Turned.
Found Lilly glaring at him — eyes colder than the Mediterranean.
___________________________
She grumbled under her breath:
"Coz you were murmuring in your sleep..."
"...giving away our entire position, merde!"
___________________________
Elias nodded, dead serious.
"Still..."
He rubbed his head where the bat almost scalped him.
"...sometimes I look at you and think you're just a missing student from a field trip."
___________________________
Nearby —
Roxy Beaumont, crouched over a gutted radar dish, didn't even flinch at the noise.
Focused.
Muttering to herself.
Tightening bolts with the intensity of someone disarming a nuclear bomb.
___________________________
In the background —
Shouting.
In French.
Profane enough that even birds flew away from the trees.
Words that would be censored in two countries and require military grade apology letters.
___________________________
And somehow —
In the wreckage of abandoned steel.
Under a broken flag.
On an island the world forgot.
They were starting to look like a real crew.
___________________________
The Pieces Selene Forged
___________________________
Abandoned Dock Island — Day 4, Sunset
___________________________
The Mediterranean sunset bled across the ruined dock.
Waves wept against forgotten hulls.
Salt coated every breath.
Rust ate through every prayer.
The air was thick — not just with smoke —
But with a silence too heavy for the living.
They weren't soldiers here.
They weren't officers.
Not anymore.
They were just survivors.
___________________________
Near a pile of scorched copper wiring,
Elias Jerkins sat beside Dr. Lillian Fontaine —
Two names the world would one day carve into history.
But tonight, they were only tired souls under a dying sun.
___________________________
At last, Lilly broke the silence.
Her voice — low, cold, too old for her years.
___________________________
"I know who you are, Elias."
No accusation.
No admiration.
Just fact.
Just truth.
___________________________
"Ex-Commandotroepen Corps."
"Ex-Maritime Special Operations Forces."
"Your mind... built for wars even history books forgot."
"IQ above 160."
She glanced sideways, as if it hurt to say more.
___________________________
"Rank frozen for ten years."
"Branded unstable. Dangerous. Disposable."
"Five scandals exposed."
"Five commanders ruined."
"Imprisoned."
"Buried."
"Resurrected..."
Her voice softened.
"...under her name."
___________________________
"Black Bay..."
She didn't finish the sentence.
She didn't have to.
Everyone knew what Black Bay meant.
Where heroes were abandoned to die.
Where empires betrayed their own.
Where Selene von Aetherwald refused to die... because he refused to let her.
___________________________
Elias didn't flinch.
Didn't argue.
He just nodded once — a gesture older than words.
Acceptance.
___________________________
His voice, when it came, was quiet.
A mirror to her.
___________________________
"I know you too, Doctor."
___________________________
"Fontaine of Île de France."
"The last name whispered in hospitals and stock markets."
"Medical degree at nineteen."
"Carved by duty. Polished by war."
He exhaled through his nose.
___________________________
"You saved a General at Malta."
"Two commanders at Gibraltar."
"Two medals."
"Three years of service."
"One negotiation with your parents..."
"By her."
___________________________
Lilly didn't smile.
Just nodded.
Heavy.
Like someone agreeing to carry a weight too big for one lifetime.
___________________________
She pointed at the girl hunched over the radar dish — Roxy Beaumont.
___________________________
Elias followed her gaze.
Spoke like listing another tombstone.
___________________________
"Apprentice to a naval architect..."
"She built something once —"
"A supercarrier they still pretend doesn't exist."
He closed his eyes briefly.
The wind tugged at his jacket.
___________________________
"She's not fixing a microwave for fish."
"She's building a voice."
"A lifeline."
"Because even with all her brilliance, she knows..."
"It takes more than a year to build a ship."
"And we don't have a year."
___________________________
Across the beach,
Roxy wiped sweat from her brow.
Her hands were shaking.
But she didn't stop.
___________________________
Without turning, she called back:
___________________________
"And one more thing."
___________________________
They listened.
The whole graveyard seemed to hold its breath.
___________________________
"I joined because I loved Queen Tatiana."
"And because I wanted to see her daughter."
___________________________
Her voice cracked — just slightly.
___________________________
"I owe Selene my life."
"Athens. I was drowning."
"She found me when no one else cared."
"And when she pulled me out..."
"...she didn't ask for loyalty."
"...She asked if I still wanted to build."
___________________________
Roxy's voice fell to a whisper, almost lost to the waves:
"I said yes."
"So she gave me a reason to live again."
___________________________
The sky bled into night.
The wreckage glowed under weak starlight.
And across these broken bodies —
This shattered fleet-in-waiting —
One truth hummed louder than the sea:
___________________________
Selene von Aetherwald was not a commander.
She was a force.
The ghost of loyalty they could not explain.
The storm that shaped them even when she was absent.
The center of every unfinished prayer they had left.
___________________________
They didn't owe the Empire.
They didn't owe medals.
They didn't owe victory.
___________________________
They owed her.
The girl who bled when they bled.
The girl who dragged them from the grave when the world left them to rot.
The girl whose name would one day crown the ship they hadn't built yet.
A name none dared to speak yet.
But somewhere deep in their frozen hearts—
They all knew it already.
They were not just a crew.
They were fragments of her rebellion.
___________________________
Waiting to rise.
Waiting to sail.
Waiting for her word.
A commander with A Crown of Steel
___________________________