Me: WOW!!! It's been 2008 here for about three hours here. Happy New Year!!! Here is my gift to you. This story is loosely based on an POTC RPG I am working on with my friends. Anywaysm ours, which takes place in DMC, inspired me to begin a new fanfic. I decided to start CotBP. Enjoy:0)

The Innocent Truth

Chapter 1

A Hazey Memory

Fourteen year-old Countess Angelique François, sat silently in her mother's private parlor in Versailles. Dutchess de Polignac, Catherine François, fell ill a few weeks prior. The doctors said that she wouldn't make it through the night due to her high fever and dehydration. Angelique stared sadly down at her lap, nervously fiddling her fingers. Her mother was going to die, and she had no one else left in the palace that was blood related to her.

Maybe she would go to England to be with her Uncle Weatherby Swann and little cousin, Elizabeth, and from there leave for Port Royal. She recieved a letter from them at the beginning of the year saying, they were moving to the island located in the Caribbean. Weatherby took the position as governor of the small area. On the other hand, Elizabeth lost her mother, too. Angelique felt that she could relate more to Elizabeth now as well.

She was ripped from her thoughts by a door opening and clicking shut. The young girl sat up strait to help brace herself for the news of her mother's failing condition. Her heart began to pound, becoming in sync with the footsteps quickly coming around the corner. She raised her shaking hand to push back a few strands of dirty-blonde waves that had fallen out of her loosely pinned up tresses. The doctor finally appeared around the corner. He stopped in front of her. Angelique gazed at him with her piercing brown eyes, searching his expressionless face for an answer.

He looked down, avoiding eye contact. "I'm sorry. She did not make it."

Angelique responded the most formal way she could towards the news. "...Thank you." That was all she could manage to get out.

The doctor nodded, turned on his heel, and walked away.

She looked back down and closed her eyes. Grief and pain did not engulf her like she originally thought, while staying up late at night to wonder what emotions she would feel from this situation. She felt numb all over yet content. Her mind was blank as she sat in the silk chair, now starring at a vase of flowers on the small table beside her. She did not hear Gabriel, her mother's best friend, walking into the room.

"Angelique?" She asked, pulling out an identical chair to sit in. Gabriel turned the chair to face her. "How are you feeling?"

She stared into Gabriel's red, puffy eyes. "I cannot say. I barely knew my mother, so I have not a clue onto what sort of grief I should be feeling."

Gabriel smiled weakly and took her hand. "Everyone has different ways of grieving. Just know that she was a good person."

"I have one question." She began. "What is to come of me?"

The brunette knew the answer to that question, but she was nervous about what Angelique's reaction would be. She pulled out a letter from her mint colored petticoat. "This is from your father."

"My father?" Angelique questioned, as she took the envelope from her. She began to study it.

"You mother wrote to him when she became ill, and this came back last week. Her last request was for you to read it." Gabriel continued.

She tore the seal of the envelope, pulled the letter out, and carefully unfolded it. Gabriel watched her intently, as her eyes widened with disbelief and anger. "Captain Jack Sparrow is not my father. That's impossible. Duke Rupurt François is my father." She declared furiously. Was this some kind of a sick joke?

Gabriel sighed heavily. "Your mother was hoping that you would have been older when you learned the truth."

"What truth?" She inquired.

Gabriel shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Your mother and Rupurt were only married for a year. It was their aniversary, so Rupurt decided to take Catherine to the Caribbean. She had been begging him ever since they took their vows. Her reason was for Captain Jack Sparrow. She had met him twice before, and the two would send letters to each other every month. Unfortunately, on the voyage, Rupurt was betrayed by one of his own men. It costed him his life." She paused, remembering the night he was murdered. "Your mother went to Jack for 'comfort'." She wanted to keep those details minimal, not knowing that the young teen knew what the subject matter was.

Angelique shot up for from her seat for the first time in hours. "I'm a BASTARD child!!!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, trying to take in the life changing information. She galnced down at the letter in her hand and carelessly threw it on to the small table "Are you sending me away? Am I not good enough to take my mother's title? Why are you doing this?" She snarled in a dangerously low tone.

Gabriel firmly held onto Angelique's shoulders, forcing her to look her in the eyes. "You are going to leave Versailles. It's not safe here anymore. The Court is on the verge of corruption." Angelique, you are going to stay with your father, and that's final. This way of living is not right." She was refering to the strict rules of propriety that aristocrats were pressured to live under every moment of their lives. "You still have a chance for a normal life."

For her small stature of five feet and three inches, Angelique manged to tear herself away from Gabriel's grip. "I refuse to go live with a bunch of PIRATES, who have not grasped the concept of society. That's not who I am. I don't want that." A lump hardened in her throat as tears began to run down her cheeks. "It's...n-not..fair. What about my desires?"

"Angelique, listen to me. He has a right to know you, and you need to meet him. In spite of some his short commings, he is a good man." She stepped closer to her and stroked her hair. "You have his eyes."

Angelique's face hardened into a scowl. She shook her head, and she ran out of the parlor, locking herself in her room. She cried herself to sleep that night...

It was an immensley foggy morning with gray clouds above, ready to drain its moisture any second. An explosion echoed around the Black Pearl. Then another. The canons had been lowered, and an attack was being forced upon an unprepared merchant ship that was on a crossing from England towards the territories within the Caribbean islands.

Angelique instantly jumped from her deep sleep. She had the dream agian-about her last night in Versailles three weeks back. It seemed like that was centuries before, only a distant memory. She sat in her cot, quietly remembering the first day she boarded the Black Pearl and met her father, the infamous pirate captain, Jack Sparrow.

The first thing that struck her about Jack were his eyes. They had the same brilliant deep shade of brown as hers. She was not too fond of his constant drunkard state or his lack of hygiene though. Also, he consistantly called her Missy rather than her given name. This only added to her annoyance. Both of them always claimed that they were the complete polar opposites and would never get along. From the crew's point of view, it was a whole different scenario.

Angelique and Jack both had a way with people, especially when it came to negotiating. They shared the same desires when it came to gaining knowledge, but they had different ways of achieving it. They were both quick witted and tempormental. Like her father, Angelique was clumsy and had a habbit of getting herself into tight situations, but she could easily form a plan to get herself out.

Another explosion rattled the ship, throwing her out of the cot. She let out an agrivated sigh as she slowly pushed herself from the ground. While the ship was swaying back and forth violently, she skillfuly manuvered her way to the nearby vanity. She looked at her face which was red from the bright sun she had been exposed to quite often lately. She gently touched her sore cheek. As she stared into the mirror, she knew that this day was going to be unlike the others, although, it did start out with the usual attack on another ship. For some reason it had become more frequent. She also felt the growing tension between Jack and Hector Barbossa, who claimed the Pearl was his. The tension increased tremendously since Bootstrap Bill's untimely death four days before.

Barbossa ordered for canons to be tied around his ankles and to be thrown into the depths of the ocean, so the fate of his soul would be at the mercy of Davy Jones. The crew followed the orders with no hesitation. Apparently, Bootstrap Bill betrayed the crew and Barbossa by sending one of the cursed Aztech coins away to where it could never be returned, which, in doing so, placed a curse among them. This had failed to be mentioned to Jack until later on. When he found out, it was not a peaceful scene. She would never forget the pained expression upon his face when recieving the news of his friend's death. For that short moment, she saw a different side of Jack. He was remorseful. It made her think that maybe he actually did care, and wasn't just some other pirate. But, when it came to the curse, she was quite skeptical on the validity of its existence.

Angelique stood there in deep thought, but suddenly realised that the explosions stopped. She quickly ran to her chest to find something to wear. She pulled out her pale pink dress with white flowers decorating it and its other matching articles. She didn't care if she was on a pirate ship, because this was how she held onto her old life. Her pride wouldn't let her give up that easily.

Within minuets she drifted upon the main deck to overlook the damge. She coughed silently when the smoke entered her lungs. The young girl instinctavely covered her nose and mouth to keep from breathing in too much smoke. As she pushed her way through several crew members, Angelique could here Jack and Barbossa bickering like a married couple.

She glanced up at Ragetti and tapped his shoulder. "What is going on?"

"'Ello, Miss Sparrow." He greeted with a crooked smile.

Angelique frowned at his name choice towards her, which, thankfully, went unoticed.

He was now watching Barbossa and Jack. "Jack is mad, cause Barbossa keeps defying his orders, an' Barbossa is mad, cause he wants the ship to 'imself." He explained.

"This is my ship! You can't just give orders to my crew without me knowing!" Jack yelled.

Barbossa smirked wickedly. "We 'ad an agreement, Jack. This ship is mine. An' if you can't 'andle that, then I supose tha' we have to reach some sort of negotiation."

The wind began to pick up, making Angelique divert her attention to the direction it was coming from. A vessel was sailing towards the wreckage. Squinting her eyes to get a better view through the smoke, she realised that it was not a pirate ship. Her steady heart beat came to a hault, and her adrenaline constricted her muscles. Could this be a way out? Some way to get her life back? She had a desparate need to get on that ship.

She slowly turned her head back to Jack, who was still in a heated argumeant with Barbossa. A part of her did not want to leave her father, but she knew that it was not going to be safe for her any longer with the rebelious Barbossa. This was her moment of truth that would define the rest of her life: To jump the ship or not.

Time literally felt like it stopped for Angelique as she began to run to the rail of the ship. So many thoughts were swimming in her young mind. She hoped Jack would understand. She suspected that he already knew that she wasn't happy on the Black Pearl. Was this a wise decision? She finally reached the rail, and without hesitation she dived it to the dark water. The last thing she heard from Jack was him screaming, "Angelique!"

She finally resurfaced and grabed onto the closest thing floating by; little did she know someone else was on it. As she pulled herself onto the division of wood from the merchant ship, she gasped in surprise to see a young boy on it as well. He looked no older than Elizabeth. Angelique felt his wrist for a puls, and was satisfied to find that it was strong.

"Now what?" She questioned herself. She was drenched from head to toe and was now shivering.

Twelve year-old Elizabeth Swann stood at the bow of the HMS Endeavour. Her father was conversing with Lieutenant James Norrington. She was ecstatic to be moving to a new place, and she was so proud of her father's new posistion. As she watched her father, she realized how much he highly respected the dashing, young Lieutenant, who was only nineteen. She saw him as a big brother. She started to ponder on all the new adventures that she may embark on in Port Royal. She secretly hoped that she would meet a pirate.

Elizabeth was broken from her thoughts by hearing someone cough below. It sounded like it was coming from somewhere in the water. She quickly began to scan the surface of the water. Her eyes widened when she saw Angelique and the young boy.

"Father! Father! There's two people in the water!" She called out.

Weatherby looked up from a document he was reading. "Don't be ridiculous, Elizabeth."

Norrington and two other naval officers ran to the side of the ship, to their surprise she was telling the truth. "Man overboard!" He yelled.

They instantly did as he commanded, lowering the small boats to pull them aboard. The young boy came aboard first, since he was unconcious. Weatherby recognized Angelique and went pale. "Angelique?" He questioned.

She raised her head to face her beloved uncle. "Uncle Weatherby." She ran to his open arms for comfort and cried for the first time in weeks.

He took his coat off and wrapped it around her shaking body, pulling her closer. "She must have been on the ship going to Port Royal. Her mother passed away a few weeks ago." He explained. "Take her to Elizabeth's cabin, and see to it that she is well cared for."

Norrington nodded and guided her to the cabin.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth was starring down at the unconcious boy. She gently stroked his cheek, but was taken off guard when he abruptly woke up with a gasp. "It's OK. I'm here for you. My name's Elizabeth Swann."

"Will Turner." He breathed before he passed out.

She noticed a chain around his neck. Wondering what it could be, the curious girl pulled it forward to reveal that it had a gold coin attached to it with a skull engraved on it. "Are you a pirate?" She questioned more to herself than him.

"Did you find out his nam?" Norrington questioned from behind her.

She pulled the necklace off and hid it behind her back just ast she turned to face the Lieutenant. "His name is William Turner, sir. That's all I found out."

He nodded then ordered, "Bring him bellow."

One of the officers gathered the limp boy and briskly walked off.

Something cought Elizabeth's eye. A black ship with black sails.

Me: So, what do you think? Well, you know the drill. Reviews will be grately appreciated:0) I wish you a Happy New Year. May this be the best year of your life. Peace out!!!