Moonlight Shadow Guardian: Hey! My first half of a story! -giggles- Yeah, I mean half. I'm co-writing this one with Archangel's Requiem. Look! There she is!
Archangel's Requiem: I'm not a movie star, Shadow.
MSG: I know. You're an author who has far succeeded even J.K. Rowling!
AR: -sigh- Remind me again why I decided to help you with this?
MSG: 'Cause I'm your BFF?
AR: Try BFFN.
MSG: Best friend...
AR: ...for now.
MSG: Oh, that's harsh...
AR: No, not really. Anyway, on with the story! Have fun with it, y'all!
AR and MSG: Hey! We don't own Pirates of the Caribbean...just this story and the original characters. -giggles-
A/N: We would post this story under both names, but the site doesn't allow that. Since Archangel's Requiem is more established, it will be posted under that name.
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"You may tell your captain that I am disinclined to aquiesce to his request." - Elizabeth Swann, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
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Pirates of the Caribbean: The Second Generation
Chapter One: Starting Point
Johnathan Turner stood at the top of the cliff and looked out over the horizon, his hazel eyes taking in the sight before him. He would be sailing in the direction of that sunset as soon as he finished repairing the small raft he found. He had to save his mother. She was dying; from what he didn't know, but he couldn't just sit there and watch her suffer without doing something about it.
At that moment, he completed the last repair. The sun was just barely showing over the line that separated the ocean from the sky.
So beautiful...
John had always had a certain love for the ocean. He supposed it was in his blood. His grandfather was a pirate and his father was the captain of the most feared ship in the seven seas: the Flying Dutchman. Even his mother had her fair share of pirating in her younger days. She had told him of her great adventures with Captain Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones, and of how many times she had escaped death. John found it a little ironic to have faced pirates and curses and sea monsters, living to tell the tale, only to be brought to her knees by a sickness of unknown origin.
John flipped the small boat over onto its bottom and examined the inside for any places he may have missed. He could not afford to have a leak in it if he was to save his mother from her otherwise inevitable fate. But...there was the possibility that he would not make it back in time to rescue her...no, that was something he would not think about.
The young man hoisted the boat onto his cart and wheeled it down to the shore, but not before bidding his mother goodbye.
John took one last look at the shore of his little island before pushing off the beach and rowing towards the horizon.
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"Melody, are you sure you want to be doing that, love?" Jack Sparrow asked a young girl. The girl jumped and turned sharply on the captain, who stood behind her, almost unable to see him through the blackness of a moonless night.
Busted...
"Bloody hell, Uncle Jack, you scared me half to death." Melody said, holding her hand over her racing heart.
"Oh, but you would not have been scared if you were not doing something very naughty, young one." Jack commented. "What are you up to at such a terrible hour, lass?"
"I, uh..."
"You know, Mel, I was dead once. It's not very pleasant." the pirate told her. "Davy Jones' locker...bad place to be...very boring. I mean, there's no rum! You don't want to go there, lassie. Now, off to your quarters you go, now. Savvy?" Melody nodded and stalked off to her "room", if that's what one could call it.
"I was wondering why the rum was running low...what do women have against the rum?"
Melody sat down on her bed and huffed. Of all the people who could have caught her, it had to be him. She knew he would start locking the rum storage room again now. She hated that vile liquid. It was stupid how men seemed to think it was required to live a healthy and happy life and she couldn't stand it.
Her uncle had always compared her to some strange woman named Elizabeth, telling her that she had a problem with rum as well. He told her that this Elizabeth had burnt several crates of rum to create a signal and Melody had replied:
"Well, she was right to do so. Any sane person would pick life over rum." To this, Jack had his own ideas.
"Yes, but you forget: I am not sane, so, therefore, I would pick the rum, love."
It had been a short conversation, but she remembered it very clearly. That had been about six months ago, five months before she had decided to just get rid of the problem. She had decided to sneak into the "rum room", as Melody called it, and throw all the rum she could carry, in one trip, over the side rail of the Black Pearl. Obviously, it had worked for a while, but even Jack Sparrow knows how much he drinks and he knew that there was less than there should be...way less.
Melody was pulled out of her thoughts by someone pounding on the door. She picked up a knife from the table by her bed and chucked it at her door, as was her tradition when she didn't feel like talking to anyone. The door opened and one of the crew stepped in.
"Melody, your uncle wants to talk to you." he said.
"What does he want this time? I swear, if he asks me one more time to get him a bottle of rum, I'm going to throw him overboard." Melody muttered to herself as she walked out of the room. As she walked across the ship, something on the water caught her interest. She squinted her eyes, trying to see through the darkness, and made out the shape of a raft. Melody watched it drift closer to the Black Pearl and noticed a human body resting in it. Whether it was dead or alive, she could not tell.
"Uncle Jack!" she called, sprinting toward her uncle's room. "Uncle Jack! Come quickly! There's a boat!"
"What are you going on about, Mel?" Jack asked as he emerged from the Captain's Quarters.
"There's a boat in the water. It's coming toward the ship, over there." she said, pointing in the direction she had come from.
"I'm a pirate, love, not a hero." he announced, swaying slightly and taking a swig of his rum. "If there is no hole, the boy doesn't need rescuing."
Melody huffed and snatched away the bottle. She walked over to the railing and held it above the water.
"No! Not the rum! Fine, fine, we'll help, just give me the rum!" Melody smirked and handed it to him before ordering the crew to pull the boy up.
"Remind us again, lass, why we let Captain Jack keep you around." one of the crew said.
"Because if Captain Jack had it his way, you all would be sailing around looking for mythical ships and legendary caves full of an endless supply of rum." Melody said sweetly, pasting a fake smile on her face. "Now pull him up, or you'll find just how much influence I have on dear old Jack."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Good. Alright, get going." Melody watched him scamper off and went to go help some of the other crew members. The one who had questioned her walked over to somebody else.
"She showed you, Tim." he said as Tim walked over. "You should watch your back, 'cause if she's anything like Jack, she could whoop you."
"You're right, James, but the lass is still one hell of a cutie."
"The captain would never allow it."
"Yeah...I know."
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AR: Well, it's enough for the first chapter, anyway.
MSG: Is there a reason we didn't make it longer?
AR: Um...yes. I didn't feel like it.
Melody: Hey, I'm "one hell of a cutie". That's lovely. Which one of you came up with that one?
Johnathan: I think that might have been AR.
M: Yeah, so do I.
MSG: What if it was me?
J: I doubt it.
MSG: Well, now I know where I stand here.
AR: Don't worry. They still like you...just not as much as they like me.
MSG: Don't flatter yourself.
AR: ...too late...
MSG: Well...I think we should all get going. Angel, what time is it?
AR: It is 4:11 in the morning, and we want to sleep. Bye people.
MSG: Ciao.
M: Sayonara.
J: Dasvidanya.
AR: Y'all suck...