DISCLAIMER: I don't own Pirates of the Caribbean. Sadly sniff
Continued from the end of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Walking down the steps, Barbossa approaches them, the apple juice trailing down his chin. He smiled, a smile with no rotting decay or yellow stains, a smile the crew wasn't used to.
"Barbossa?" Asked Elizabeth in astonishment. "You're….you were….dead?"
"Yes, ye were! Jack wouldn't lie 'bout such a serious matter!" Gibbs stepped up next to Will, clearly displaying the astonishment on his face.
"No…he couldn't have been…" Will was watching Elizabeth out of the corners of his eyes. The plain shock of seeing her and Jack together was wearing him down. He shut his eyes and blurred out the picture of them together. "If he had died, why would he be standing here in front of us?"
"Walk the plank!" Cotton's Parrot shrieked.
"Why would I be dead, when you dropped the bit of gold in after I was shot?"
Elizabeth stared blankly up at the man who last time she saw, plainly wanted Captain Jack Sparrow dead. "Why would you want to help us now? Why would you want to save the man who took back his ship from you?"
"When Jack took my ship off, I knew I couldn't have found Bootstrap's child without him…I'd like to repay-"
"That's not the reason." Will Turner interrupted firmly. "He'd want more then just words fused around what he really wants." His hand glided slowly toward his sword, he fingered the gold melted into the handle. Dare he draw? Dare he pose a fight to someone who might help bring Jack back? He argued with himself. Did he want the man who might steal Elizabeth from him to come back? "Why would you help us?"
Barbossa slit his eyes to the world for a moment. "You're very much like your father, William. He wasn't the trusting kind either and-"
"Did you not just say dat you would sail to de ends of de earth to save Jack Sparrow?" Interrupted Tia Dalma.
"But why would we trust a man that wants Jack dead?" Elizabeth implored. Will bit back a retort.
"You did not answer de question, did you not just say dat you would sail to de ends of de earth to save Jack Sparrow?"
"We did, but we had no idea a man who has committed mutiny would be leading us to him!" Gibbs thundered.
Jack the monkey slid down off of Barbossa's shoulder and ran to Tia Dalma, jumping up on her shoulder he shrieked at Ragetti angrily. Ragetti coughed severely and his wooden eye popped out of socket.
"Me eye!" He chased the small wooden eye across the rotting floor until it ran into Will's boot. Ragetti, bending down and placing it back into place looked confusedly at the monkey. "Never knew I was allergic to monkeys afore."
Will shook his head and stared at Elizabeth. The dirty blonde locks curving at an angelic angle. The brown of her eyes showing the pain that'd been born as she'd watched the ship sink down with it's captain. The slight tremble of her lips as she held in tears that were only visible to him, the man she had once loved so much.
"What payment are ye after?" Gibbs implored angrily. Barbossa smiled, tossing the apple in a near by heap of useless junk. Right from the start he'd noticed the hunger in Elizabeth's eyes. Ignoring all the others he walked towards her, sitting down on an old stool right in front of her. She surely loved Jack, that would be all too perfect for him.
"Would you be willing to do anything, missy? If it meant the ocean to be dried? The sky to turn black? Your soul turned into Davy Jones?"
"Yes," She said without a doubt in her mind. Will winced slightly, the mug in his hands growing warm as his hands grew hot with anger and pain.
"Break off a 9 month engagement?" He whispered through his teeth. Elizabeth turned to him turning slightly pink.
"Wah…what?"
His voice became a bit stronger, with just the hint of waver. "A 9 month engagement, Elizabeth. With a man you once loved…until you fell into the brown eyes of Jack Sparrow."
Gibbs sputtered his drink out of his mouth and stared flabbergasted at Elizabeth sitting across from a very close Barbossa. The red-faced Will sitting at a table a distance away.
"Well, time to go tend to the boats then, ay Gibbs?" Pintel asked a bit nervously. Gibbs murmured in agreement and all the pirates headed out of the cabin except Will, Elizabeth, Barbossa, and Tia Dalma. A heavy silence hung in the room like a bad odor, you could hear a feather falling through the air.
"I'd be wantin' to talk to you 'bout de where abouts of Jack Sparrow…"
Barbossa reluctantly looked up from Elizabeth's face, "Err….sure, why not?" He got up from the place in front of Elizabeth, her eyes remained upon Will's.
The room remained silent seconds after it was just Will and Elizabeth. Will finally broke the silence.
"I'd….like to believe…that that kiss was just meant to free us from the Kraken…" He watched her expression carefully, wanting to see any flaw in her eyes, any lies across her face. "But…I can't help feeling there may have been something more behind it…?"
She looked up into those eyes she knew so well. Burning with a passion for her alone, she loved him…it was in the moment she knew she loved him. Jack wasn't a man she could trust, let alone love. If he'd been willing to give his best friend to Davy Jones for repayment, her fiancé, how could she love him? It could've been anyone, Jack would probably easily give up anyone on his crew to save his own skin.
"I admit…" she said looking down. "That I might've felt something else for Jack Sparrow…the compass did point towards him when I held it in my hands." Will drew in a breath. Was this the end of their lives together? "Although, I don't think I realized that the compass was pointing towards him…because he could lead me to you." Elizabeth once again looked up into his eyes. Catching them, the candlelight dancing in them. "I misinterpreted it, thinking it might've been love." She shook her head in regret. "But all it was, was the love for you Will…I love you. He could lead me to you, that's why the compass pointed to him, he was the only one who knew how to save you." She watched carefully as he studied her, instantly knowing he believed her, more importantly, believing the truth.
Will stood and walked the distance between them. Sitting down in the chair Barbossa had sat in earlier, he took her hands in his. The warmth collided and you could literally see the love rising in the air from the touch of their hands. "Although you'd be willing to do anything to save him?"
"Of course…he brought me to you." Will leaned in closer still, his face inches from hers.
"And you still love me then?"
"I told you before, those bars were the only thing keeping me from you. I love you Will Turner…and I'd be willing to do anything to save the man who made me realize what I already had. We can't trust him Will…I know we can't now…but we've got to save him. Or else…there'd be no us. And we've also got to consider into this arrangement of calculations that we've got to free your father. We can't do that without the heart…and, regrettably…Jack Sparrow. He's the only one that can help us."
Will looked as if he were about to speak when suddenly they were interrupted by a frightened looking Gibbs. Bursting through the door he nearly tripped as he stumbled over what he was trying to get out.
"The heart! Where's the heart of Davy Jones?!" Elizabeth studied Gibbs for a moment, not taking in what he just said.
"The heart?" She asked.
Will pieced what Gibbs was saying together quickly.
"The heart of Davy Jones! It's gone! It must be!" He turned to Elizabeth. "That means that heart must've been with Jack when he went down with the ship! Davy Jones must be dead…!"
Gibbs looked at Will with a look of amusement and misery. "Umm…I didn't quite mean it like that, Will. I asked where it was…" He turned towards the door, the crew of Davy Jones was standing there in the doorway, laughing evilly. "….because they're wanting to know where it is…"
Bootstrap Bill stepped into the room with shackles on his wrists and bleeding cuts on his distorted face.
"Will…" He breathed.
In a flash, Will had lifted his hands from Elizabeth's, the sword drawn, stepping fierce and proud steps towards them. "Free him," he hissed. "Free him now." Elizabeth stared at Bootstrap. Who was this man? She'd never seen him before in her life.
"You'd draw a sword for a man you don't know?" She asked bewilderedly standing up to draw her sword as Gibbs pulled out his flask of rum, nervously putting it to his lips.
Will had to think a moment, bringing his mind to the fact that probably no one of his crew knew that this was his father. He realized in that moment, that the crew looked to him as their leader until Jack's life was restored.
"This is my father Elizabeth, Bootstrap Bill Turner." He turned toward his father. "The man that I will free once I get my hands on the heart of Davy Jones."
Cotton's Parrot flew in from the behind Davy Jones' crew, screeching "Ach! Why's the rum gone? Ach! Why's the rum gone?"
"Where isss the heart of Davy Jonessss?" One of the crewmembers snapped. He had moss like mush growing from his face, a shark's fin stuck to his back. "Where isss it?"
"It's in the Kraken." Elizabeth said. "It went down the monster's throat along with it's beholder." Bootstraps' eyes widened as he saw the future tortures this was sure to bring.
"In the Kraken…?" The shark-finned creature replied.
"Yes, we think the heart was with Jack Sparrow when he was eaten. The only way Jones will be able to find it is if he brings Jack back from the Kraken. That's the only way he'll know his future is safe." Will said hastily, watching the blood ooze out of his fathers face and down his throat to be matted into his seaweed like hair. "Is Davy Jones still alive?"
The crew cackled and hooted at this question. "Of course he is alive you whelp! Or else we wouldn't be here asking where it is!" A man with half a face like a puffer fish yelped in laughter.
Barbossa entered the room with a face full of glee, his eyes narrowed on Bootstrap Bill. "Let me negotiate with Davy Jones about a little trade we might just set to free Jack Sparrow from the belly of the Kraken, in other words…parley."
To Be Continued….