As the rain continued falling, back at a cottage, situated on a hill near the cliff sides of Queen Anne's Bay, named in honor of Havana's well known ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, the thunder continued with a soft echo, that rumbled like millions of drums, in the sky. Inside the house, in the living room, on the soft couch sat Jack, Angelica, and Rachel. In an adjacent chair, rested Captain Hector Barbossa of the true Queen Anne's Revenge that he had seized from Blackbeard, still living unknown to Jason, when he had killed him at the Fountain of Youth. The wooden leg, which hid a hollowed rum compartment, made the rest of the stumpy left leg that he was forced to cut off when Blackbeard besieged and captured the Black Pearl, all those years ago. His auburn beard and hair were besprinkled with drops of rain, the same with the wide-brimmed hat with pluming feathers that topped his head. Hector had a vigorous and undying wish to exact revenge upon Blackbeard, for the brutal theft of his ship and leg, one that yielded success in his favor. But now, knowing a good man, who just happened to be the one of many children of the pirate all pirates once feared, had died, he had given the remnants of the mourning Teach family his sadness as well.
The aged captain shook his head. "Shame indeed, that a good and honorable man, such as Master Teach, has passed on so suddenly." he said in his gravely rough voice.
Jack looked at him. "Yes it is, Hector. Especially, one who's fought his own fight years ago, saving our skins until it was our turn."
Rachel began to tear up again. "I loved him so much." she said.
Angelica then embraced her comfortingly. "We all do Rachel, he's done something to make an impact in all our lives."
Barbossa shifted his weary gaze to the adolescent daughter of the deceased Jason Teach, a question looming into view. "Who's gonna teach the young missy?" he asked, "With no father to guide her, she's alone." A sadness came into his tone.
Jack looked out to Sarah, who was outside on the small patio of the cottage, she leaned against a support post for the roof above which shielded her from the harsh rainfall, looking out to the roughened sea. He knew that without a teacher to give her guidance in the pirate's way of life, a life her father didn't want for her, he knew someone would have to teach her.
And someone took the responsibility.
"I'll do it."
Everyone then shifted their gaze towards the familiar voice who said the announcement. Jack.
"What?" Gibbs asked.
"I'll do it." Jack said, standing up. "I shall teach the young lass the ways of the scoundrels, looters, and pirates." His usual drunken stupor overcame his sorrow, moving his body the way it has always done.
"Are you sure about that mi amor?" Angelica asked.
Jack smiled. "Of course I am. Who better to teach her than loving Uncle Jack?"
Rachel looked up at him. Him? Teach my daughter? She thought. Jack was a well known pirate, but the constant trouble and usual predicaments made her uneasy. However, another thought came to her mind, her daughter is intelligent and has, numerous times, made her way through and out of challenges that even Jason would probably never be able to get out of. She had her mother's strong will and she had her father's undying spirit. The two aspects that boosted her confidence that Sarah could probably take on any challenge that Jack could possibly think of.
"Alright, Jack. You're her teacher now." Rachel said.
Jack smiled, his gold teeth glinting from the bleak, but bright enough, light.
Barbossa stood up from the chair, his peg leg thudded on the wooden floor. He made a few steps towards Jack. "Jack, if ye have intents on teaching the lass the ways of what a pirate does, then ye better make a spot for me, if not give me the task m'self." Hector said.
Jack thought about it. "Yep, I'm good with that." he said. "But please, don't try to steal my ship...again."
Barbossa smiled a grin. "Why do I need the Pearl when I have the Revenge?" He asked. They both then took their steps to the patio door, to tell Sarah of their intent on teaching the life her father would've eventually taught her.
Sarah sat on the wooden surface of the patio floor, her mind still trying to accept the truth of her father's death. She loved him to death, much like he did. Thunder then rumbled again, a flash of lightning then followed. Another sound then made its presence known. The opening of the creaky patio door. Sarah looked to see her uncles, Jack and Barbossa, walking over to her and sitting down with her. Sarah wondered what they were doing out here, maybe other than trying to tell her what a loss her father's life was. She looked back out to the ocean. "I know the death of my daddy's hard, I've heard it over a thousand times." she said.
Jack, followed by Barbossa, looked at her. She wasn't sad, but more of annoyed from the constant grieving directed to her and Rachel. Jack then softly rested his hand on her shoulder. "No, we know you've been told that enough, love." Jack said.
"It's somethin' else we both agreed upon." her other uncle said to her.
Sarah looked at her two uncles, interested on what they had agreed with. "Agreed? Agreed to what?" she asked.
Jack smiled. "We're going to show you and teach you-"
"-how to be a pirate, missy." Hector finished.
Sarah was a bit surprised with joy, but saddened at the furious and repeated times she barraged her father to teach her. "Uncle Jack, Uncle Hector, I wanted my father to teach me." she said solemnly.
Jack's smile faded away slowly, Barbossa's expression of joy soon melted to a saddened one. Jack didn't take his hand off of her shoulder, however. Sarah did want to be taught the ways, but only the ways her father learned. "So ye only wanted your father to teach ye the ways?" Barbossa asked her. Sarah nodded softly. Jack sighed, knowing it would be a useless endeavor to try and persuade her. Sarah had wished her other uncle, by blood, was still alive, but he, unfortunately, met an untimely death from a severe case of fever on board her father's friend's ship, the HMS Truth.
Back inside, Rachel looked as she watched the two pirate captains speak to her young daughter. Angelica observed their conversation as well. Rosaline, was by her mother's side, her face nuzzled into her ribs.
"Mom." she asked.
Angelica looked down to her twelve year old daughter, she smiled. "Si, mi amor?" she spoke in her thick Spanish accent.
"Is Uncle Jason in Heaven with Jesus?" she asked. "You know he was a pirate."
Rachel and Angelica froze at her question, riling up tears from Rachel. She knew Jason's in Heaven, blessed ever since he was born. Angelica stroked the dark hair of her little girl in comfort. "Yes, Uncle Jason's in Heaven with Him. He's in a better place, where he won't feel pain again. A place where all good pirates go." Angelica said assuring. Rachel buried her face in her hands, trying not to sob again, but the pain was overwhelming. Gibbs got up from the seat he was in and sat next to the widow, quietly hushing her in an effort of trying to keep her calm.
"I know that it's going to be hard, if not already, knowing that your father's gone, Sarah." Jack said to her, his braided goatees dangled, as he spoke, from his chin.
Sarah nodded in acceptance to that; it will be hard living without her father now, it was hard during the times when he had left to go on routine patrols around Cuba. "Si, he meant a lot to me." she said, her brown eyes looking down at the ground.
Barbossa couldn't understand the type of pain he was seeing her endure. He ran away from home to join the life of piracy, unable to have the memory of his parent's deaths. If Jason were to have died at sea, he could've reminded Jack that there would've been a slim possibility of voyaging to Davy Jones' Locker to try and bring him back, but a natural death and with the Mao-Kun Map destroyed, all of that possibility was severely unlikely of pulling off. But then, a familiar story came to his aged mind.
"Oh wait, by God. There's a possible way of bringin' him back." Barbossa said.
Jack glanced to him, while Sarah quickly shifted her gaze to him. "Really?" she asked.
"If I be as of young enough to remember, there is a legend of an island that contains a legendary artifact with the power to travel back in time. But, I don't the story be true, because there was no island to be found of such lore." the weathered captain of the Queen Anne's Revenge said.
Sarah wanted to know, this could be an opportunity to bring her father back from his untimely end. "Remember anything you could, Uncle Hector." she said.
Barbossa nodded, knowing the intent that she harbors. "Milady, if I may be so bold to say, the dead sometimes prefer not to be brought back."
"My father didn't deserve this!" she snapped.
"Well, maybe the god who created this earth and universe apparently saw fit that his time be up!" Barbossa said back. "Besides, the pain and misery he was sufferin' is gone now that he's..." He stopped, seeing the discomfort welling up in his niece's eyes. He immediately wanted to regret what he said. "Sarah, I'm so-"
"Si, accept the fact he's gone from my life. Accept the fact that he died a young age. And accept the fact that I don't have a father anymore." she said, getting up and storming inside. Jack then looked to Hector. "You couldn't keep yourself together, mate." Jack said, getting on his feet himself and walking inside. Barbossa was left outside, still wishing he hadn't said what he had just to his now fatherless niece.
Sarah flung open the door to her room, slamming it and collapsing onto her bed, burying her face into a pillow and muffling cries of agony. There was a rap at the door. Sarah lifted her face, now covered in tears, looking to the door. "Go away." she said.
"Sarah, please." it was her mother, Rachel.
Sarah, at first thought it had been Jack or her uncle Barbossa, but now knowing it was her mother, she changed her mind. "Alright, come in." she said.
The door opened and Rachel walked in, her face still sad from the mourning over the loss of her husband and Sarah's father. Sarah hid her face again, not wanting to make her mother do the same, muffling her cries. Rachel walked to her bedside, gently sitting down, resting her hand on her daughter's shoulder. "Sarah." she said.
Sarah then regained herself in an attempt to speak to her mother. "Yes?" she asked, sniffling.
Rachel smiled, taking off her red bandana, that her loving spouse gave her years ago, and wiping away the tears that coated her child's face. She then eyed a spot on Sarah's flat stomach. "Oh, and I think there's something there." she said, tickling Sarah. Her daughter then began to laugh and giggle, her stomach had always been her weak spot for being tickled by her mother and father, they'd always pick opportune and obvious moments to execute a loving attack on her. Sarah couldn't stop, trying to push away her mother's hands. Rachel loved hearing her daughter laugh, as much as she loved to see Jason laugh. She knew, from the day she was born, that she had all of her father's features; his eyes, his spirit, his refusal to give up, his black hair, and his agate colored eyes, slightly lightened from the inheritance of her emerald green eye color than his darker obsidian color. She and Jason had a close relationship, one that would never have been severed only by death, which had now claimed him. Sarah had also taken on talents that her father acquired; skilled shooting and swordplay, an attractive charisma, being able to play the serene strings of the violin, and her father's kind and gentle heart. Rachel stopped her bombardment of tickling Sarah, her daughter's laughter of joy ceasing, and then hugged her tightly. Sarah then felt something different about her mother, something on her stomach. She looked down and felt a tiny mound on her mother's belly. Rachel smiled at her. "You're going to be an older sister." she said. "Something your father wanted."
Sarah didn't know what to say. An older sister? She thought to herself. She then tightly hugged her mother, her eyes flowing with, not tears of sadness, but tears of joy. Rachel hugged her daughter, the same kind of tears fell from her green eyes. Sarah then thought about her decision to become a pirate like the father before her. She now had a choice that conflicted with her own personal one. She looked at her mother's face, a smile faintly appearing across her lips.
Back in the furniture-lined living room, Jack sat and cooed at his young daughter, Angelica smiling at the two as they played with each other. Gibbs assisted his captain when Rosaline backed into his leg, scaring her when he quickly seized her, making her yelp a scream. Angelica looked at the side-burned man. "Gibbs." she said in a bit of an irritated tone. Jack looked at her, a smile appeared followed by a chuckle. "Oh come now, love. He's only playing with her." Jack said. Rosaline then looked to the hallway. "Hola, cousin Sarah." she said. Jack, Gibbs, and Angelica looked to see Rachel and Sarah walking into the living room, Barbossa didn't move his head. Sarah then kneeled down to her uncle, hugging his shoulders. He sighed.
"What ye want, missy?" he asked.
"I accept your apology. I'm sorry I took out my pain on you." Sarah said apologetically.
Hector looked at his teenage niece, a smile coming about his worn face. He then moved and hugged her back briefly, he didn't want to be a "softie" like her father. He treasured his name as the man who survived and killed Blackbeard. "It's alright m' child." he said back.
Sarah looked at him. "Oh, come on Uncle Barbie, give me a hug." she said.
Jack snickered at the name. Barbossa then shot him a glare. "Don't even think about it, Jack." he warned him.
Jack still smirked, but he held back his temptation to refer Hector to Sarah's address. Angelica laughed, and so did Rosaline and Gibbs. Rachel only smiled.
The old pirate then seized Sarah in a tight hold. "Now, is this a hug for ye, missy?" he asked Sarah, who only replied by hugging him as tight. "Aye, it is." she said with a slight laughter. "Well there's a start." Barbossa said as he then released her, smiling and uttering his well known chuckle. "But ye still want to be a pirate...Aye?" he asked, leaning down to her wide-eyed. Sarah smiled, doing the same thing to him. "Ye think I'd last the life of a pirate?" she asked, in a similar tone as his.
"Depends on what we throw at ye." Hector said.
"My dad's been killed nearly two times. Once being eaten by a sea monster and another, by being stabbed, which he survived." Sarah said. "So whatever you throw at me, I'll last through it as much as I could possibly bear."
Her two uncles did admire the strong spirit their niece displayed. Much like the adversary that was her father. Jack looked to Barbossa, tilting his head a bit. "So, I'm good with it." he said. Barbossa grinned, looking back to Sarah.
"Jack." he said.
"Eh?" Jack responded.
"Where be the Pearl?" Barbossa asked.
"Just offshore, not far from the Revenge. Why?" Jack said with arising suspicion from when he had told his former first mate to not try to make an attempt at seizing it again.
"Because I want ye to get 'er ready. We'll be starting training tomorrow when we see the dawn." Sarah's older uncle said. Sarah's eyes lit up, she finally was about to start her training to become a pirate and keep the legacy of her family alive. Her beginning as a Pirate of the Caribbean was about to peek over the horizon of her time.
