PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN IV

PART III

The scene reopens as Jack and Kat walk through the rowdy streets of Tortuga. Jack heads the two, eyeing the festivities around him as he walks with his usual drunken swagger. Kat is more than a little taken aback by her surroundings, but to Jack, it's business as usual. Kat has gotten distracted by a sign bearing the words "Come See the Great Arabian Swords Master at the Faithful Bride" and "Arabian" and "Master Swordsman" and other captions. A man is shouting to an enticed crowd about the sight, telling them to come back tomorrow to see him. Kat, in her distraction, is left by Jack. She nervously looks around and is immediately accosted by two very drunken men before Jack slips back over and pulls her away.

She asks Jack if he has ever heard of "The Arabian", but he says no and that's that.

Jack and Kat go to the Faithful Bride Tavern, where Jack goes to look for drink, food, and (most importantly) Gibbs. Kat is left to fend for herself.

Jack slinks through the crowd, milling his way to corner by the fire where a tipsy looking Gibbs is telling a story to Scarlett and Giselle. They are giggling happily and Gibbs looks very pleased until he looks up and sees Jack standing over him. Scarlett and Giselle follow suite, voicing their dismay at Jack's unwanted presence. They stand to leave and Gibbs watches them go sullenly as Jack pulls up a chair and hands Gibbs a mug. Gibbs tells Jack that he thought that he'd made it clear that his days of gallivanting around looking for accursed treasure was through. Jack asks who said anything about accursed treasure, and Gibbs gives him a dirty look and begins to harp about retirement. Jack, ignoring his protests, pulls out the book and lobs it onto the table. Gibbs stops his griping abruptly, groping the book up into his hands. He looks at it confusedly, so Jack flips open the cover and Gibbs takes a look. Gibbs eyes the pages for a moment then immediately turns the book over and casts an unsubtle startled look about the room before turning back to Jack. He is clearly astonished. He asks Jack where he came by the thing, and Jack shrugs. He tells Gibbs that where he got it doesn't matter, but what they do with it does. Gibbs has calmed down a bit, rationalizing that it don't matter that he's got the book if he ain't got the ring, but he stops short when he sees the smile on Jack's face. "Yeh have the ring!" he shouts, before stifling himself with a fist to his lips. He reaches out and takes Jack's hands, looking for the ring. Unable to find it, he looks back up at Jack. He asks Jack where it is, saying, "Well, let's see it then." Jack pauses, then tells Gibbs that the ring isn't exactly on his person at that moment. Gibbs is confused, so Jack leans and gives Gibbs a clear view of Kat, who is standing fearfully where Jack left her, eyeing the pockets of drunken pirates. Gibbs looks at Jack, his eyes wide. He asks who she is exactly. Jack opens his mouth to answer, then frowns. "You know, I don't think we got quite that far."

Kat attempts to make a grab for one pirate's coin purse, but winds up instead being accidentally jostled by some of the patrons and winds up bumping into the back of one man. The man turns around and she realizes that it is the bulbous bidder from the auction earlier. Her eyes widen and she begins to back away, crying, "Captain Sparrow!" Jack turns in his seat and sees the man advancing on her. Gibbs looks at him questioningly and Jack glances at the door, where he would like to run. However, the bulbous man has caught sight of him and it is now too late to escape. "Bugger," Jack curses. The bulbous man turns to growl at Jack, and Kat slides under is legs and runs towards where Jack is with Gibbs. She rushes behind him as Jack stands and tries to reason with the pirate. The pirate's goons are all cornering in on him, drawing their weapons, so Jack shrugs and pulls out his sword and calmly readies himself for battle, then turns and pushes Kat and they run to the back. Gibbs overturns the table where they were sitting to slow the pirates down and follows quickly behind Jack. The book, which was still resting in the center of the table when Gibbs overturned it, does not fall completely off the table, but catches on a nail at the center and simply hangs in place.

Jack shoves Kat into a back room, telling her that if it weren't for that ring, she would be much more trouble than she's worth. He goes to close the door, then pauses and opens it a hair. "What did you say your name was?" "I didn't," she replies, then adds, "Kat."

"Kat? Like the (Jack makes a noise that sounds something like a cat meowing) kind?"

"Yes, but with a K."

"Fair enough. Op!"

Jack slams the door on her and dives to the side just as a bottle of rum smashes against the door where he was standing moments before. Kat backs into the darkness of the room and against some bars. She breathes heavily, not hearing the movement behind her over her heavy breathing.

Suddenly, a hand reaches around her face and over her mouth. She lets out a muffled yelp, but the owner of the hand shooshes her then releases her. She turns and stumbles back, realizing that she had backed up into the outside of a cage. Clutching the bars and looking at her is a man wrapped in heavy garb. She can only see his eyes and the bridge of his nose. She asks him who he is, but he doesn't speak. She looks to the right and sees a sign hooked to the upper part of the cage reading "Master Swordsman of Arabia". She says this aloud, then waits for an answer of some sort. He is silent still. She then asks him if he's trapped, but he says nothing again. He gestures to the keys that rest on a hook on the wall to her right. She asks him if he wishes to be free. He looks back and forth between her and the keys, but she's hesitant. She muses that there must be a reason that he is in the cage in the first place.

Voices at the door cause Kat to fall into silence. The man in the cage looks at her with urgency, and she asks if he promises he won't kill her if she sets him free. Kat realizes that she doesn't have much of a choice - it's either get killed by the men at the door or the one in the cage, and she knows she definitely won't find a friend in the men at the door, so she decides to take her chances. "Good enough," she says. She rushes to the keys and pulls them of the hook, then runs over to the cage and frantically unlocks the door just as the men burst into the room. She spins around, her back to the bars again.

The men laugh at the site of her, taunting her. She warns them to stay back or else. They laugh, asking her what she's going to do about it. They ask her if she thinks the big man in the cage will be able to help her, then turn to jeering at the Arabian, calling him dumb and useless. They point out that he is in a cage and will be of no use to Kat. Kat has been edging away from the door and along the bars to the side. The men are so caught up in their laughter that they do not notice that the cage's door has swung open.

They look up from their laughter and jump in surprise when they realize that the door is open and that the Arabian is standing at the mouth of his cage. They pull out their swords, ready to fight. The Arabian reaches behind his back and pulls twin cutlasses from the sheaths over his shoulders, then rushes at the frightened pirates. The pirates turn to run and Kat clambers after the Arabian. The Arabian flies into the main room, causing many of the fighting men to back out of his way. He fights off any takers with his agility and speed and awesome ambidexterity.

Amidst the fray, Gibbs repeats what Jack has told him off camera about the entire story before their meeting, starting with a good, old fashioned "Let me get this straight". He then asks Jack what exactly the fight is about. Jack answers that they've had a run in with an old friend from Saint Lucia who's a little miffed about the whole girl and ring thing. They back to back cut down a bunch of pirates. Kat hops over their fallen attackers and greets them, and Jack says that he told her to keep in the back room. Kat glances quickly at the fighting Arabian, then looks back at Jack and says, "Something came up."

A body flies past Kat, and she dodges the falling figure. She asks if they may leave now, and Jack decides that that would be a good idea. Kat readies herself to leave, then at the last minute, notices a sallow-skinned man leaning against the wall. It is the same man she saw at the inn back on Santiago de Cuba. He spots her, then begins to move toward her. At the last second, Jack grabs Kat and pulls her away as a large man falls from above to where she would have been standing, blocking off the goateed man. They run towards the door, but Jack stops short, remembering that he'd forgotten the book at the table. He spins around, spots the book still hanging in its place, runs over to it and plucks it from the nail. Without a second look, he shoves the book into his coat and flies out the door. He doesn't realize that a page has been left behind on the nail.

They make it to the ship, scurrying up the gangplank to the latter and onto the deck. Jack and Gibbs stand at the rail of the boat, ready to pull up the latter after Kat is aboard. But as Kat goes to climb over the rail, Jack stops her and asks her if she has any idea why there is a strange looking fellow on the dock watching them.

The Arabian is standing at the edge of the dock. Kat scurries down the latter, runs to him and tells him thanks for helping her, but she has to go. The Arabian seems very distracted by Jack and Gibbs and doesn't budge. Kat tries to get his attention, snapping and waving her hands. She addresses him like someone would talk to a dog, with a little shoo shoo, assuming he doesn't speak English. He still doesn't move. Kat sighs exasperatedly. Gibbs lets out a shout that the men are coming for her, and she looks up and sees a mob of angry pirates approaching the dock. She swiftly turns to leave and runs back up the dock before Jack and Gibbs pull the latter away. The Arabian watches her go.

Kat sits on a barrel and Jack asks for an explanation about the cloaked man, and she tells him its nothing, just some master swordsman from Arabia that she'd met in the tavern. "Oh, that's all," Jack concludes nonchalantly and totters over to the helm, but Gibbs gives her a quizzical look. She explains that she set him free from a cage in the back room at The Faithful Bride, but that she told him that she had to go and everything was fine now.

Just then, they hear a splash off the starboard side of the ship. The three rush over to the railing and lean over to look into the water, but the Arabian climbs up behind them on the port half of the ship. They turn when they hear him slosh aboard. Jack and Gibbs immediately go to draw their weapons, but Kat jumps down in front of them and runs to stand between them and the Arabian. She explains that he must not have understood her, but that he means well. She tries again to make him leave, but he stands his ground, looking suspiciously at Jack and Gibbs. At Kat's urging, the three men all go to put away their swords and be at ease and Kat looks pleased, but Jack goes to scratch his nose and they all pull out their swords again. Kat tries to calm them down, grabbing onto the Arabian's arm and telling him that the men are friends. "Friends!" she repeats, then walks to hug the two who are still holding their swords. They both look a little taken aback, but the Arabian seems placated. He slowly puts away his swords as do the other men. He stares them down a bit, but Kat decides that a little scary look is fine as long as no one is being impaled. She heads for the Captain's Quarters and is followed closely by the Arabian. Jack and Gibbs exchange looks.

Back on the shore, the sallow-skinned man watches as the ship sails away in the moonlight. He slowly lifts the forgotten page to his lips, gives it a kiss, then slides it carefully into his jacket.