Curiousity Killed the Swann
"Please James, I just want to see one. Just one!"
"No, Miss Swann, and it's Lieutenant Norrington, Miss Swann. Pirates are vile creatures, who deserved to be hanged the minute they become branded. One will kill you as soon as look at you." I rolled my eyes. The governor's daughter had an infatuation with pirates, always was pestering the guards to grant her entrace to the brig to see one. What I found funny, however, was just how ill informed Norrington was.
"Please James! I promise I'll never ask again!" I assumed she gave him a scrunched up, depressed face one would call "the puppy dog look," as sounds of their feet confirmed they were coming down.
Thump! The little Swann tripped on the uneven stairs and fell the rest of the way down. Norrington rushed down the steps to help her, despite her only falling down a step or two. No doubt she had fallen higher than that off her horse.
The men in the other cells laughed or catcalled. I rolled my eyes and stay where I was. None of the other men were real pirates. No doubt the "brave" Lieutenant would tell her otherwise so she "wouldn't have to bear the sight of me."
She quickly got up off the floor and dusted her rear off, the only real injury to her pride. She stared at the laughing men, expecting them to stop their chortling and bow before her little shoes.
She harrumphed and began to walk around the room, eyeing the others locked up.
"Miss Swann, your riding lesson is in a few minutes, I suggest you go get ready." I raised an eyebrow at his terrible ordering skills. How he got the position of Lieutenant, I couldn't even fathom.
A skinny man in the cell next to me made a lewd comment about her riding lesson as she approached his cell. Norrington yelled at him, despite Miss Swann's ignorance of what exactly he meant.
Then she came across my own cell. I was sitting in the shadows on the floor. She stared into my cell, pondering why something with nothing in it would be locked. I crossed my legs, and she jumped, startled by the sudden movement.
"Come away from that cell, Miss Swann! Now!"
"It's not really Miss Swann, is it... Elizabeth? Why are you so interested in us?"
She became confused at my politeness, then answered. "Because you can do whatever you want. You aren't trapped by rules. You don't care what anyone else thinks."
"Is that what you think?" I asked her. She nodded slightly, worried by my tone. "Well, ye best put those thoughts out of your head, Elizabeth. We're trapped by more rules than you are." I pulled myself out from the shadows and gripped the bars of my cell. She gasped and staggered back.
My skin was a pale blue; my pointer finger on each hand a long slithering tentacle. A long, white scar ran down my face, with a hook stitching my left eye shut. My left leg had turned into a massive crab leg. And spines, much like those of a zebra fish, jutted out from in between each vertebra down my back.
"I can't do whatever I want; I'm trapped, just the same as you." I stared at her staring at me. "And what do you think of me, Elizabeth. What do you think of dear, old Delphie?"
"Elizabeth! Come back here! Get away from the bars!" Norrington ordered, refusing to physically pull her away.
"You- you're a little scary…" She mumbled. I laughed. My laugh was obnoxious, and I think that frightened her all the more.
"See? I care about what you think. And do you want to know what I think? I think you're going to make a great pirate someday." But she didn't perk up at that. She was about to comment, and Lieutenant was about to force himself to grab her, when we all heard cannon fire. A low ranking officer ran into the room.
"Lieutenant Norrington sir! There's a ship in the harbor that's firing at us!"
"Title and colors?" He abandoned the job of babysitting and immediately switched to being a Lieutenant.
"She's too far out to see her title, but her masts are bare, sir." Norrington ordered the officer to take young Elizabeth back to the mansion. As if she would be safe there. I turned back to the window of my cell.
"I know those cannons!" I exclaimed. And in the harbor, sat the Flying Dutchman. "I knew you'd come for me," I said under my breath. Unfortunately, I was so excited I said it louder than I meant to. And everything suddenly clicked for Elizabeth, much to Norrington's dismay.
"You're Philadelphia Rogers!" She exclaimed. I turned back to her. Her excitement became fright. "You- you killed the governor before Father!"
"Yes well, he had… an agreement with the Captain that he didn't honor." Norrington was obviously distressed by the thought of a governor of Jamaica being dirty and making a deal with the Devil.
"He would never do that! Bartimus was a good man!" I got up from the stone floor, showing my full height. The fact that I was just as tall as him intimidated him.
"Bartimus was not only a dirty governor, but a pirate as well. Must I mention that the very man who founded Jamaica was Henry Morgan himself, an internationally known pirate?" He had nothing to say, and he left with the other officer and Elizabeth. I thought that was the end to our conversation, but I was wrong.
He came back a few minutes later, but not alone. Two EITC Black Guards followed him. Black Guards were nasty pieces of work. I had seen a man who weighed 136 kilograms killed by a Black Guard's bare hands. They were pure muscle, and pure terror.
The good Lieutenant unlocked my cell.
"Thank you, Lieutenant, it's long-" One of the Black Guards punched me in the stomach while the other grabbed my hands and shackled them in front of me. I groaned as they each hooked one of their arms around one of my own and dragged me up the stairs. I cringed as the bright sunlight hit my eye.
As my eyes adjusted, I realized they were leading me to a pedestal overlooking the bay where the Dutchman was docked. If I were to fall, I'd drop straight into the water. The Flying Dutchman sailed closer to get a good look at what was happening.
The head of the East India Trading Company, Phineas Grey, stood next to me and yelled to the ghost ship currently docked in "his" harbor.
"Davy Jones!" We were close enough to hear the thunk of his leg as he walked out on deck. His face, bent on revenge, softened slightly at seeing me.
"Your crew-member, Philadelphia Rogers, is being charged with piracy, and the death of the governor of Jamaica. The punishments for said crimes being death. What say you?" Phineas acted as if he had won. However, this fight was far from over.
"What do yeh want, Grey?"
"I want your loyalty to me! I want to control the seas!" Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a small-statured man shaking his head, obviously discontent with how Grey was going about things.
"No! The Dutchman will nevah be loyal to you-uh!"
"Then she dies!" Grey yelled. His only mistake was that he didn't have a knife when conversing with Jones. Because when he reached for it, I wrapped the chains of my shackles around his neck. Everyone took a step forwards, but I stopped them.
"Ah! Anyone moves, he dies. Anyone even breathes wrong, and Phineas Grey will be a member of the Flying Dutchman crew before anyone can say 'Company.'" I turned Grey around. "Now, if you please, unshackle me." There was a glint in his eye; he thought I was stupid.
He took the key out and slowly unlocked each shackle. "You're an idiot." He told me. "You just lost your only leverage, you have nothing. And now, you will die by a firing squad, and we will have justice on the seven seas once again."
"There will never be justice with the Trading Company, Phin." And with that, I grabbed the knife in his hand and forced him to stab his own stomach. He gasped and dropped to his knees.
I turned to Elizabeth, who was clinging on to her father. "Remember what I said, Elizabeth." The firing squad decided that was the time to act, and got down on one knee and fired. Of course, I had already dived off the pedestal by that time and was in the water, with whatever bullets that hadn't hit Grey falling towards the water.
I took my time swimming back to the Dutchman. Davy grabbed my hand and pulled me up from the ladder. I waved to Governor Swann and the dying Phineas Grey and shout "You will always remember this as the day that you almost killed Philadelphia Jones!"
Davy stared at me for a moment, and muttered, "You and theatrics."
EDIT: I'm changing the ending because to be honest, I think it's terrible. I didn't really do much, just took out the kiss. None of my OCs can kiss Davy before Alice!
Yes, I realize it's very long for a one-shot. It was originally just going to be about Elizabeth's first meeting with a pirate, but it morphed into something more... don't know what yet.
Bartimus and Phineas are both tip of the hats to Harry Potter (Bartimus Crouch and Barty Jr. and Phineas Black was a Hogwarts headmaster at one point). And Dephia is short for Philadelphia, and it is a female's name in either the 18th or 19th century.
I don't own Davy or Norrington, or Elizabeth. However I own just about everyone else... *shrugs*
PS- Is it me, or is everyone getting sick?