Hey all,
So this story takes place right after the first movie. In my opinion the rest of the movies kind of mangled the story line so I am correcting it. This story is Jack/OC, Will/OC and possibly others depending on how I'm feeling when I write it. I do not own Pirates of the Caribbean but I sure wish I did. I am not making any money off this story so please don't sue me, I have no booty to surrender. Enjoy the tale!
Love LaValata
The Nightmare's Revenge
Chapter 1, Captured
The Black Pearl sliced through the Caribbean seas with the ease of a knife through butter. Its sails full of the warm wind unique to the southern regions of the equator, spray flew up over the rails spreading a fine mist over the crew.
"Mr. Turner!" The pirate at the helm called, his voice resonating a confidence held by only the best of sea captains, or the most foolhardy.
"Aye, Captain Sparrow?" A young man suntanned and scruffy, a five o'clock shadow covering his chin though it was only ten in the morning returned.
"Take the helm Will, keep'er due northwest. I'll be in me cabin if ye' need me." The Captain said handing the wheel of his precious Pearl over to his First Mate William Turner.
"And boy?" He said.
"Aye Jack?"
"Take care of her, or I'll be having your ears for me hat."
Captain Scarlet Chasseur stood at the bow of her ship the Nightmare. Nearly a ton of sleek black wood, polished till it shone with an almost spectral gleam. The gray sails like rolling thunder clouds aloft in the sky. Scarlet lifted the spyglass to her eye, its lens trained on her quarry. They were gaining. Good. Time for a little revenge.
"Diana," she yelled. "Make you heading three degrees northwest. We shall have them before nightfall, tell the crew to make all preparations. I want no mistakes. It's high time I received restitution for my past losses." Scarlet called to the woman at the helm, a tall girl with black hair kept away from her eyes by a blue head scarf, which matched her eyes to perfection.
"Ye Heard the Captain, hop to! We attack as soon as we're in range." Diana cried her lilting Scottish voice carrying with the wind. The crew that was topside scurried to do as they where bid.
Scarlet smirked as she turned back to the Atlantic, her short red hair glinting in the sun's rays. She swung her glass up and watched the tinny ship getting steadily closer. Oh yes, she thought. He would pay dearly for his crimes. She would bet her boots on it.
"Will!" Mr. Gibbs called from the hold of the Black Pearl.
"Aye, Gibbs what is it?" He asked his eyes on the compass adjusting his course.
"The crack in the hull from last engagement is leaking. We be needing more repairs than I can provide." Gibbs said swinging up to the helm.
"I'll tell Jack when he wakes; we can make repairs in Port Caynn or Tortuga. It'll hold till then won't it?" Will asked.
"Aye it'll hold, longer most probably but we'll be slower till then." Mr. Gibbs informed him. Will looked out over the impossible blue waters and smiled. Life was good. It certainly hadn't been for a while there. No it had not. Elizabeth had left him, commandeering the Dauntless right our from under the new Commodore Gillette's nose and running off with Ana Maria as her first mate. He had hopped a Gallon after reading her note and sailed off to find Jack and the Black Pearl.
It was for the best. Elizabeth had a spirit that would never have been happy as the wife of a black smith, and Will doubted that he would have been happy with a miserable wife who was always dreaming of what might have been. Still late at night he sometimes wondered what it would have been like if she had asked him to go with her on the newly named Freedom's Revenge. But those where only dreams.
"Will!" a voice called. "There's a ship approaching…fast." It was Niles, one of the new men, well newer than the old crew that had gone up against Barbosa. Will turned and saw the speck in the distance.
"Glass!" He called, Will wasn't truly worried but you could never be too careful. And besides, he liked his ears.
One of the powder monkeys, boys who lugged powder from the stores to the cannons during battle, handed him the glass. Will brought it to his eye and trained it on the ship.
"Harrumph." He said. The ship that was approaching looked eerily familiar. In fact…
"Get Jack." He said to the boy, then turned back to the ship that was steadily growing larger, it couldn't be, it just couldn't be.
Jack was snoring soundly in a rum induced stupor when a loud banging on his door roused him.
"Wha's goin' on?" He half shouted inspecting his cabin for the offender. The banging came again and this time Jack was able to narrow down the source. The door, he thought it was definitely coming from the door.
"What is it?" he yelled this time loud enough for the person on the other side of the door to hear.
"Please Captain, Mr. Turner sent me to bring you to the helm, he says it be urgent sir." A young voice stuttered through the wood.
"Tell Mr. Turner I shall be right there." Jack said, and he heard a scurrying of feet as the kid ran to do as he had been bid.
Jack swung his still booted feet out of his berth and pulled on pistol, sword and coat. He hulled himself up and swaggered to the door grabbing his hat on the way out. Being Captain of his own ship might not allow him to spend his days drunk under the table but it was well worth it. For the first time in his life he was truly free. Nothing at all to hold him down. Jack sighed in contentment, yes there was nothing like freedom to make a man's sole content.
Jack swaggered on deck, squinting his eyes against the bright afternoon sun and hearing the many murmurs of "Captain" or "sir' from his crew.
"What is it Will?" He asked his first mate, and Will silently handed him the spyglass, gesturing to behind them. Jack quirked an eyebrow and peered through the glass. Horizon, horizon, horizon, and…oh no.
"Raise all sails; put on more speed now, now, now you worthless scallywags!" Jack shouted to his men waving his arms in the air and shoving Gibbs from the helm to take it himself.
"Jack, what's wrong?" Will asked, his voice laced with worry.
"More speed!" Jack cried ignoring Will's question. "I know she can go faster than this, what's going on?"
"I was going to tell you when you came up Captain," Will explained still confused at Jack's panic. "The Pearl has a leak, we're taking on water and it's weighing us down we can't move at our normal speed."
Damn, damn, and damn again Jack thought to himself, cursing the last ship they took a thousand times over for hurting his ship.
"Prepare to engage!" Jack shouted above the commotion that was going on, atop the deck. They were in trouble. Jack thought, and he was in even bigger trouble if that ship was the ship he thought it was. Oh gods what a nightmare.
Scarlet swiftly took the helm from her first mate Diana, she liked to control the Nightmare her self during battle. She was the best and Diana as excellent at leading boarding parties. Scarlet breathed in the taste of coming victory and sea air. Oh yes today was the day. Just a few more minuets and she would be living her fantasy.
The Nightmare crashed through a wave and its nose came along side the Black Pearl, its sister ship, perfectly matched in every way, the same wood the same design, the only thing that was different was the bow spirit, the pearl's was a woman holding a sphere to the heavens and the Nightmare's was a charging stallion.
Another wave crashed through and they where along side. And Scarlet could see him standing at the helm of his precious Pearl yelling orders to his men. And Scarlet felt the rage burn inside her chest. Jack Sparrow must pay.
"Starboard guns fire!" She shouted and a crack ripped the air as six cannons let lose a torrent of saltpeter, the horrid stuff sprayed the Pearls crew stinging their exposed flesh and burning their eyes. There where cries from the men struck by the salt, and orders bellowed and a crack as one of the Pearls cannons fired back.
"Board!" Scarlet cried. And the boarding crew swung their grappling hooks into the air and followed them in quick succession. Scarlet smirked from her place at the helm. Now she had him and all he held most dear.
Will was one of the lucky ones, when the saltpeter was shot into the boarding party he was turned away from the other ship listening to Jack give orders. As such none of it hit his face and only a little stung his left arm.
The men around him howled in pain clawing at burning eyes, and scalding skin. Before Will had even processed what had happened grappling hooks had griped onto the rails and lies and pirates where swinging aboard. Will knocked one unconscious with the hilt of his saber and slashed another across the waist before another sword kept him from delivering the deathly blow. The intervening sword was attached to a female pirate with long black hair and piercing blue eyes, he lunged and she parried his thrust with ease.
Ah, so not a novice like so many he fought these days. They circled each other two predators both intent on their pray. She advanced and he blocked her blows with the ease of a well practiced swordsman. They circled again, this time he was the first to strike delivering three fast blows and then a blitz to her unprotected side. The sword hit home piercing her stomach in a shallow incision. Then Will heard the thumbing back of a hammer in his ear.
"Drop the sword." A voice said in his ear. Will let the saber drop to the deck and turned slowly to see the face of his capturer.