Disclaimer: I own nothing related to the Tangled universe including, but not limited to, characters, names of places, lyrics, dialogue, or any other piece of product. Disney retains all the rights to this universe. I am making no money or receiving any kind of compensation, material or non-material, for this fiction. It's all for fun. Please don't sue me. I do claim the writing, the idea behind this particular narrative, and any peripheral characters or locations created to augment Disney's work.

A/N:Because, you know, what I really need to do with my life is start ANOTHER multi-chapter fanfiction. Really. Truly. Really. Enjoy it. This is a pirate A/U. If that isn't for you - abandon ship. Ha. Sorry (not sorry).

Prologue

The True North burned.

Orange flames spat out black smoke as fiery tongues ate the sea weathered wood. Rigging, charred and useless, crashed over the backs of dead men fallen on the deck. The last few survivors of the crew battled on the deck of the opponent ship. Their own ship was now too abused and too far away to re-board. The men fought and struggled, frantic to succeed. If success escaped them, then death came either now with honor or by the noose as a pirate when they reached Corona.

Every man on that crew would die fighting that day.

Every man but one.

Flynn Rider stood at the helm of his burning ship, resigned to his fate as Captain to ride The True North to her watery grave. He longed for the fight a vessel away, but responsibility held him. This ship was his family. He wouldn't let her go down alone.

A cannon fired, unexpected, and The True North's main-mast split with a resonant crack. The huge beam tipped, fell, and collided with the fore-mast. The flaming sails waved in the air like clutching fingers trying to find a way to hold on, to stop the momentum of the inevitable, before both lengths of timber crashed into the bow.

The ship shook and lurched. The impact thrust the weight of the vessel to the bow as the hull guzzled water through her new wounds. Flynn stumbled at the shift beneath his boots. Flames surged around him even as the ocean poured her depths into the belly of his boat. His eyes and lungs burned from the smoke and ash. His body ached from the strain of battle.

Somewhere in his mind, through the chaos and the terror, he latched onto one singular thought: This was it.

After all this time out-running, out-gunning, and out-smarting Corona's navy - this was it. This was the end. He lost.

He gripped the helm for support as the ship tilted forward with a groan. It was going fast, faster than he knew a ship could sink, but he didn't have time to panic. Two more cannonballs tore through the air. One pummeled mid-ship right above the waterline and the other surged into quarterdeck behind the helm. Shrapnel and splintered wood shredded the air. The scream of wood breaking apart pierced his ears. The ship gave a tremendous heave as she split apart and then - Flynn wasn't on deck anymore. The explosion jettisoned him from his place in the wheelhouse, into the air like a paper doll, and out into the open sea.

It was cold, quiet, and dark under the water, like he had stepped into a different world, like he was already dead. He wished he was, but he wasn't, and the instinct to breathe won over his want to die.

He found his way up above the choppy water, head bursting into the light, sound, and heat of the surface. The salt of the water stuck to his mouth, his tongue, his skin, burning the raw places burned by fire and worn from use. The thrust from the explosions threw him between the two ships, closer to the one that wasn't reduced now sinking mess of smoking splinters.

He treaded water. What else could he do? There was no ship left to go down with, no final stand, no idea which way land was (and if he was honest, no chance of swimming to it), nothing. He had nothing and now he was cold for reasons that had nothing to do with the water. This was it.

Then he heard the lifeboat hit the water and there was nowhere to go, no place to hide. Why couldn't they just leave him to drown?

The last thing he saw as a free man was a seagull flying overhead screaming as if to announce to the world that Captain Flynn Rider, most feared pirate in the world, was captured.

A/N:Prologue, y'all. It gets longer. Get excited, cause this is going to be fun. Wanna keep up on coming updates? Check the fanfiction twitter: ravenswrite