THANK YOU LIBBY.
sorry its late, summer holidays caused us all to go away.
"No, you can lead the shore party and I'll stay with my ship," Jack announces.
"Yes, yes we are. We are arguing over who goes to shore," I murmur.
"I'll not be leaving my ship in your command, especially if Jaz will be staying with you!" Barbossa declares.
"Oh, do not bring me into this! As far as I'm aware, this is my ship, but that doesn't mean I'm going to argue about it!" I snap at them both.
"Why don't all three of you go ashore and leave the ship in my command…" Will starts, before adding, as Barbossa and Jack look at him in horror, "Temporarily?"
We all begin deciding who should venture to shore and who should stay behind. In the end, we decide that us three - along with Pintel, Ragetti, Marty, Sao Feng's crew, Cotton and Cotton's parrot - all should go ashore. While they get the few longboats ready, Jack and Barbossa walk to the side of the ship to look at the island we were going to land near. Both pull out a telescope and put it to their eyes. I observe, raising an eyebrow, as Jack pulls his out and raises it, even though it's so long he can't even hold it straight. I laugh as he looks over to Barbossa with a smug smirk, while Barbossa just rolls his eyes, pulls his scope down, and walks away from him. You can tell he wants to put it down and get his old telescope out, but he still holds the longer one up.
"What was all that about?" I ask Barbossa as he passes me.
"Friendly fight," he replies.
"You and Jack don't do friendly fights," I say cautiously.
"Hmm. Things change."
"If they do, it means that something big has happened, or is going to."
"We're both changed men. Death has ways of reshuffling priorities."
"I know. I have been to the locker too."
"Aye."
"Cap'n!" Marty shouts.
"What?" Barbossa, Jack and I call. We all glare at each other, having answered and saying the same thing.
"Er, the boats are ready," he replies.
"Right, let's go," I yell.
We all load into the boats and sit in silence as the boat moves over the water.
"Morgan and Bartholomew!" I breathe.
There laid on the sand was Davy Jones's pet, the most fearsome beast of the seas. The kraken. The creature who has done the bidding of Jones for years, drawn with ravenous hunger to the man or women that bares the black spot, the beast who killed both me and Jack because we wouldn't give our souls to Davy Jones so that he could make us work on his ghost ship.
"Crimety," Pintel says when he sees it.
"Hods bodkins!" Ragetti yells. "Careful, careful!" he yells again as Pintel pokes it with a stick.
"You stupid fish!" Pintel cries.
"Actually, it's a cephalopod," Ragetti corrects.
Jack and I link hands, and Barbossa stands on my other side, and we walk toward the dead kraken. When we're close to it, Barbossa hangs back and lets us carry on, giving us a moment with the kraken alone, knowing that it killed us.
"Poor beast," I mutter, looking into its eye and seeing the reflection of Jack and I.
"Jaz, that thing killed us both!" Jack says.
"I know that, Jack, but it was a slave for its entire. Never anything else, until it was a slave to a different man - Beckett! Jack, that's a fate worse than death," I explain, and his face takes on a more thoughtful look.
"Aye, Jaz. You're right," he says sadly.
"When am I not?" I say arrogantly. "I'm Captain Jasmine Pearl!"
Snorting in laughter, sad moment over, Jack pulls me closer to him and, letting go of my hand, puts his arm around my shoulder. Our hands rest on the baby bump, which is so large that I'd had to stop wearing my shirts and borrow ones from an abandoned chest on the ship - probably belonging to a deceased crew member - and even those were rather tight, but, according to Tia, I was ready to give birth any day now. I'm extremely grateful for that, because I feel like a pig, my back hurts and this sickness thing is annoying the hell out of me!
"Still thinking of running Jack, Jaz? Think you can outrun the world? You know the problem with being the last of anything is, by and by, there be none left at all," Barbossa says, coming to stand beside us.
"Sometimes things come back, mate. We're all living proof of that," Jack replies.
"Aye, but that's a gamble of long odds, ain't it? There's never a guarantee of coming back, but passing on...that's dead certain," he tells us.
"Are we summoning the brethren court?" Jack says.
"It's our only hope, lad."
"That's a sad commentary in and of itself," I say.
"The world used to be a bigger place," Barbossa comments sadly.
"The world is still the same..." Jack begins.
"There's just less in it," I finish.
We turn and begin walking back down the sand to where the water supply is supposed to be. Jack takes his arm from around my shoulder and we walk separately, entering the trees ahead of us. It doesn't take us long to find the small lake , but what shocks us is the man, dead, facing downward in the water.
Barbossa steps through our little crowd and crouches by the water. Sticking his finger in it, he then puts his finger into his mouth.
"Nice," I say sarcastically.
He spits out the little bit of water he had in his mouth.
"Poisoned, fouled by the body," Barbossa informs us.
I make a face of disgust. Pintel moves over to the body and turns it over, revealing a white-faced man who is obviously dead.
"Hey, I know him. He was in Singapore!" Pintel says.
"Singapore!" Cotton's parrot.
"CAPTAINS!" Marty yells from the beach.
"Oy, we've got company!" Ragetti screams at us, pointing toward the Pearl. Alongside it is Sao Feng's ship, and Tai Haung's men all appear and pull pistols on us.
"He's the captain!" Jack says, pointing at Barbossa.
I roll my eyes at the same time as Barbossa, which comes as a shock.
Tai Haung and his men quickly force us to walk back to the longboats. They quickly row us back to the Pearl, where we have to climb up the ladder onto the deck.
"What's happening and why is it happening?" I ask.
"I don't know, Jaz" Barbossa replies.
"You're helpful!" I hiss.
Barbossa goes up onto the deck first before I follow, and then Jack, who is staying close to Barbossa as though to hide behind his tall frame (which is not going to do him any good because Sao Feng has already seen him).
"Sao Feng, you showing up here...tis truly a remarkable coincidence," Barbossa greets.
"Jack Sparrow, you paid me great insult once!" Sao Feng growls.
"That doesn't sound like me," Jack starts before he is punched on the nose.
"Jack, are you ok?" I ask.
"Shall we just call it square, then?" Jack says, so I just presume he's alright.
"Release her! She's not part of the bargain," Will yells to Tai Haung.
"And what bargain be that?" Barbossa asks.
"Care to elaborate, Turner?" I sneer. He winces.
"You heard Captain Turner. Release her," Sao Feng orders.
"Captain Turner?" Jack and I yell together.
"Aye, the perfidious rotter led mutiny against us!" Gibbs tells us, disgust in his voice.
"And here I thought he was better than that!" I say.
"I need the Pearl to free my father! That's the only reason I came on this voyage," Will declares.
"Why didn't you were tell me you were planning this?" Elizabeth asks.
"It was my burden to bear," he says.
"He needs the Pearl. Captain Turner needs the Pearl!" Jack directs to Will. "And you felt guilty," he says to Elizabeth. "And you and your brethren court!" he snaps at Barbossa, who looks too shocked to reply. "And you and your child," he snarls at me. I step back. That hurt.
Barbossa places an arm on my shoulder in what I suppose is meant to be comfort. I shrug it off
"Did no one come to save me just because they missed me?" Jack continues. Gibbs rolls his eyes before Marty, Cotton, Pintel, Ragetti, and Jack the monkey raise their hands.
"I would have done. However, after that comment, you're on your own," I say to Jack when he looks at me.
"Fine. I'm standing over there with them," he says to those who have raised their hands.
"I'm sorry, Jack, Jaz, but there's an old friend who wants to see you first," Sao Feng says, putting an arm around each of us. I try to pull away, but he doesn't let me go.
"I'm not sure we can survive any more visits from old friends," I mutter.
"Here's your chance to find out," he says, turning us around and letting us look into the distance.
We look out to sea, and in front of us in the distance is the Endeavor, otherwise known as Lord Cutler Beckett's ship.
"Great. Just great!" I hiss.
