"AH! Sparrow! 'Ave ye decided to fight then?" Davy Jones smirked at Jack. "Ye're a graet coward 'oo's got nothin' left."
"Eah, yeah. Say what you will, do what you wiil. Nothing can hurt me." Jack waved him away quite arrogantly.
"Well then, Sparrow, I s'pose that ye won' be wantin' yerr Captain back." Two of Jones's thugs came up, dragging between them an unconscious, but obviously tortured young woman. Her entire body seemed to be soaked in crimson blood, and she was wearing a long tattered white dress that was also covered in her blood. As they leaned her over the edge of the Dutchman, she stirred a bit, and her eyes opened, revealing twin pools of a silver-blue that would shame the twilight sky. As she tried uselessly to stand on her own, a long strand of blue tinted ebony hair fell across her face and shoulder. Her hands were tied together behind her, and once she seemed to realize what was happening, she began to try to back away from the railing.
"Captain? Wait, no... Isabelle... Why?" Jack gasped, almost as though he couldn't bear the sight. He began to mutter. "No, no no no... It can't be real. It can-"
"Ah, but it is, Sparrow. Your old friend here appears to mean quite a bit to yer crew, so I thought I'd try to reunite you two. Oh, she does look rather lovely doesn't she?" Jones interrupted him, and swept one of his tentacles across a cut on her cheek, licking her blood away as he did. Jack's grip on the rail of his ship tightened, his knuckles turning white. "Mmmm... And a wonderful kisser as well, I would think..." And he grabbed her hair, yanking her toward him so that he could force her face up to his own. At this, Jack froze, and even the most unemotional of people could see just how much he cared about this woman's fate.
"What are you playing at Jones? When did you become a reptile that would stoop to this?" Jack fought for control in his voice.
"Tchtcht." Jones admonished him, shaking a finger. "I'm no reptile. I only play on what you feel. Sparrow, if you care so much, then come and retrieve the girl. I'm sure she'd be much happier over there." Jones smiled rather cruelly, jerking the woman in front of him, using her as a shield. "And no killing me first, either."
"No." As dead as she looked, the woman, Isabelle, spoke with conviction and perfect clarity. "No. I won't let you risk-" After saying this however, she began to cough, and blood dripped from the corner of her mouth, unheeded.
"Captain!" This time it was Barbossa who spoke, crossing his arms over his chest. "Just shut up and let us rescue you for once. Because chances are, if we don't, then Caroline's goin' ta 'ave a bloody fit." At this, she smiled, however weakly, and this seemed to give the entire crew some strength. "Now..." Barbossa turned to Jack. "Jack, are you going to rescue the Captain, or are you just going to be stupid?"
"..He's always stupid, idiot. It... cough, simply depends on whether...cough cough, he's going to be Jack-stupid, cough, or Davy Jones stupid..." She laughed slightly, causing Jones to add another cut to the large amount on her right arm.
"Oi. You, tentacles." At the sound of a new voice everyone turned and looked at the newcomer, who was completely in black, with a large hood hiding their identity. "Get your bastard hands off our Captain." The entire crews of both ships realized that it was Caroline under the cloak, and they all raised their weapons in the air, shouting, as Caroline took aim with her bow, and locking an arrow to the string, she shot the tentacle that had touched the cut on Isabelle's cheek clean in two.
"Aye." Jack looked up slightly at the Captain, and he smiled grimly. "Get your hands off of our Captain, you great bastard."
"Shame." Said Jones nonchalantly. "I was hoping you'd come over here, but it looks like I'll just have to hand her over." At this Jack smiled, feeling that maybe he would be able to save her, but the things that Jones did next truly horrified them all. "Ah well. Beauty is seen best once it's dead, eh?" And with this, he took an elegantly sculpted rapier from a minion near him, and he thrust it spectacularly through her chest. He then threw her body easily across the gap, as though she were a doll, not a living human being.
"No. No, it just can't be real. Isabelle?" Jack began to mutter, his desperation slowly emerging as he caught her, stopping her fall. He lay her down on the deck, kneeling beside her. "Captai-?" As she slowly moved her hand from the newly-cut ropes, she pressed one pale, blood-stained finger against his lips, stopping him from speaking.
"...I really must be hallucinating now. Before... I played along... But I think that I'd rather go with dignity."
"Dignity Captain?" Jack asked quietly, slowly moving her finger before she touched it back.
"Aye. Dignity. I know... I know that you're dead, and that it's really quite foolish of me to hallucinate this way, but... But you seem so real that if you speak, I think I might cry. Yeah." She laughed at this, "It's silly of me. But it's just... Oh, I don't know anymore Jack." He clasped her hand between his. So she still thought he was dead... But her voice brought him back. "...If... if You are still alive, can you promise me one thing?" He immediately nodded.
" 'Course, Captain." he whispered throatily. So this is how she ends, he thought, dying like any old pirate. She should be the one alive. I should be dead by now. Not her. Why?
"...Bury me at sea." He smiled. Genuinely. She still couldn't resist the sea. Just like her to ask him that. "And.." He stopped smiling. " Live longer than me, 'kay? I want to wait a long time in Jones's locker before seeing you." He smiled again. He had been there once. That once was enough for a long time. But to make her wait.. "... Goodbye, and... I'm sorry..." She said, smiling as her rain-colored eyes closed for the last time.
"What for Captain... What for?" He whispered as he pulled her to his chest, stroking her dark hair like a child's, holding her now lifeless body as though it were all he had. They all stood there like that, giving him a moment to remember the brave and clever Captain they had all respected and would have eagerly died for.
"Orders, Captain?" Jack looked up in surprise to see Barbossa standing there, as grizzled and scarred as ever, but this time with a genuine air of sorrow that Jack had never seen before.
"Captain?" Jack furrowed his brow for a moment. "Since when have you called me Captain?"
"Since we realized how much you meant to her." Explained Caroline solemnly. "Think about it. She only said goodbye to you." Jack suddenly realized how much that she meant to him as well. Isabelle Dieret, the pirate who could've easily killed the entire crew of the ship they were on and not thought it anything more than a small chore. The Captain who loved flowers, yet couldn't find time nor need to grow them offshore. The woman he... The woman he loved. And suddenly his mind was filled with memories and fragments and... A feeling, one he couldn't name, but he had felt before.
He leaned down, and lifting her head gently, he gave her the first and last kiss they would ever have like it.
"... Orders, you ask?" He found himself standing, gently lifting the dead girl in his arms. "We'll repay them twenty times for this." Caroline nodded, and the rest of the crew mimicked her motion.
"Ah... So ye've decide to fight Sparrow. A good decision." Jones grinned wickedly.
"Good? For who? Because I must say, I don't think you'll be the one coming out alive, Tenty." Jack quipped under his breath, carrying Isabelle to a secure, waterproof, thief-proof, room in the ship. "Don't you worry, luv. I'll keep my promise." he breathed into her ear, smiling lovingly at her as he drew his knuckle gently across her soft cheek. Then he left, smiling grimly as he prepared to avenge her death.
A Month Later...
"Oi!" Jack shouted angrily at the barmaid. "D'you know how long I've been waiting for me rum?"
"No, darlin'. And I don' raelley caere. 'Ave ye evare saen suech a laine ouf suetores? Ia'm taelleng yue, thate Isabaelle's gouin' to rhun ues aou' ouf 'ouse an' 'ome." The Irish barmaid sighed, plopping down in a spare chair, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand.
"Hold on luv. Did you jus' say, Isabelle? Isabelle Dieret?" Jack leaned forward and asked intensely. That day, after Jones died, Isabelle's body had gone missing. They had searched and searched for her, but the beautiful pirate Captain had disappeared completely.
"Aye. That's the one. Shae's got thaem all lained up, waitin' to aesk 'er to marry 'em. Lucky sod." The barmaid downed someone else's drink. "Soe, Jack, are yea in naed of a woman tanayght? Ae've noticed 'ow you've been avoidin' us layteley." She flicked her eyelashes at him.
"Mmmm. Then did it ever occur to you Luce, that I've no interest in you?" He asked, for a moment forgetting Isabelle. "Maybe that's why I've been avoidin' ya luv." And he stood up to find his Isabelle, almost not wanting to hope.
"No, no. I'm sorry. If you could all just please leave me alone. No, sir, I can't." He found a crowd, no, a mob of admirers around the counter. There seemed to be a young woman in the midst, but she was obscured by admirers.
"Oi, can somebody get me a rum? I've been waitin' for two hours already, ye know." He tried as hard as he could to obscure his habit of calling her 'luv', to see if she would recognize him.
"Oh, yes, my apologies, sir. PLEASE, LET ME THROUGH." She forced her way through, and indeed, she had the same twilight eyes, the same ebony hair that seemed to shine with blue. The same kind voice that became forceful when she was angry, the same mischievous smile. Even the way she walked was the same, weaving her way in and out of the mob of men. "I'm sorry, sir, your name?" She held in one hand a small bottle of amber liquid, but it wasn't this his eyes were fixed on, it was her face. She had that same worried, sweet look that she always had when she felt guilty, and she was the exact same height she had been nine years ago. She was still undeniably Isabelle, the girl who was still just two inches shorter than him. And she was so... Alive. He smiled.
"It's you." They both said at the same time. She blushed.
" 'Ello luv." He said softly, running his knuckles gently along her right cheek, and when he felt her shiver he smiled even wider. "I don't know how you're still alive, and I don't really care. I just have one question to ask you, Isabelle." He said, still smiling.
"What?" She smiled as well.
"Kiss me." He said pleadingly. "Just one last time. I don't care anymore, just.." She smacked him across the face, shocking him as well as her suitors. "What?" He asked incredulously, turning his head towards her only to see her smiling knowingly at him.
"Granted." She smiled, as he leaned down to capture her, wrapping his arms around her waist, and feeling her tangle one hand in his hair he finally smiled with his whole heart.
"Jack?" She asked as they parted. "Would you mind showing me where my ship's gone?"
"Well of course, luv. Shall we, Captain?" He asked, proffering his arm in a mockery of gentlemen.
"Not Captain, you stupid sod, it's just Isabelle." She said, whacking his hat onto his head playfully and taking his arm.
"Well, then, Just Isabelle. Might you be willing to accompany me to The Pearl?"
"Why yes, Captain Sparrow. I would be most utterly delighted!" She laughed, putting on a posh british accent. Tears to heal, eh? Who needs 'em.
"What are you staring at?" One of her suitors asked angrily, smacking another over the head. "YOU said she was available."
~El Finito~ Or not...?
WHOA. ANGST ALERT, PEOPLE. Sorry... This was meant to be fluffy.. But please voice opinions on whether it fulfilled it's purpose of being cute[at the end], Tragic[at the beginning] and very romantic... Sorry, I'm a sucker for romance...
PLEASE REVIEW!
Natsu-Tan
