The Jolly Roger had approached the Black Pearl cautiously. Hook took care to run up a white flag well before they came near. As they got closer, he thought the ship seemed to turn nearly transparent with each flash of lightning. Sails that had seemed whole and full turned ragged and bleached and then back again. Killian shook his head, not certain he had seen anything at all. Perhaps this bizarre storm was playing tricks on the mind.
David had uncuffed Sparrow and they were climbing the steps to join Hook and Emma on the upper deck.
"There's something very off about that ship, mate," said Sparrow. He had produced a spyglass from one of his many pockets. Emma was frowning at him - apparently she hadn't searched him as thoroughly as she had thought.
"How so?" Hook was curious if anyone had seen what he thought he had.
"It appears in perfect form until the light strikes just so, and then it has the look of a ship that has no business being afloat."
"Aye, I thought perhaps my eyes were deceiving me but it appears the ship is enchanted in some dark manner."
He glanced over at Emma.
"You sure you want to do this, love?"
She nodded, with that grave little frown she got when she was steeling herself to do something brave and usually more than a little foolish. He truly had a weakness for headstrong women, it seemed.
He brought the Jolly Roger broadside to the Black Pearl. The other ship's crew, who looked like the usual motley lot of sailors one would expect on a pirate vessel, seemed to be waiting patiently for them to arrive.
"Sparrow, toss the lanyards over to the lads there."
To his surprise, the pirate objected not at all to the order and immediately set about the ropes. In moments, the crew of the Pearl had made the lashings secure and the two ships were now tethered to one another. The waves had seemed to calm, and the rain appeared to lessen.
Hook felt Emma give his hand a squeeze. He was feeling very unsettled. All of his instincts as a pirate were clanging like klaxon bells, telling him to cut the lashes and sail her out of there as quickly as the Jolly Roger could take them.
Before he could make any moves in that direction, Emma called out in a clear voice to the other ship. "We request a Parlay with Captain Davey Jones."
The crew of the Pearl was eerily silent. They just stood staring at the blonde woman facing them down, and waited. Soon the crowd of men at the rear of the ship began to part. A large figure was striding toward them, one that Killian would have recognized anywhere.
"And who is it, then, who would have words with Davey Jones?" came the reply in a thick, salty rasp. He heard Emma gasp loudly. He turned to see her gaping openly at their host. He suddenly realized he should've warned her what to expect. Davey Jones was no mere mortal. His skin was a mottled green hue, and in place of a beard, a collection of muscular tentacles writhed down to his waist. His mouth had the look more of that of a turtle's or some exotic sea creature's, than it did of a man's. He looked as though he had melded somehow with a creature of the deep, becoming part man and part monster.
His Emma was a brave lass. He wasn't surprised that she recovered her balance quickly.
"If only that were the craziest thing I'd seen this week," he heard her mutter. She called out, "Captains Hook and Sparrow, along with Prince David and his daughter Emma, of the Enchanted Forest."
"Emma, you say? Would that be Emma Swan, now, me lovely?" purred Jones. Hook stepped forward, placing a protective hand on the small of her back. He felt her lean into him slightly. She had picked up on the predatory tone in Jones' voice as well. He noted that David had gripped his sword sheath a little tighter.
"And what if it is?" she asked warily. Hook saw her rest her hand against her holster. He wasn't sure bullets would do much good against a creature like Jones but he admired her spirit.
Jones chuckled softly. "Well, then, lass. You, Miss Swan, be the very reason for the Pearl's journey to this strange realm. It seems you have quite an important role to play." He turned slightly to address Sparrow.
"Captain Sparrow, you've been a remarkably useful fellow. You see, he thought he was escaping us with a prize, when in fact he was leading us right to it. And I have to offer you my sincerest gratitude for coming out to the Black Pearl yourself rather than forcing us to make landfall in this abominable place. It certainly simplified things a great deal." He turned to his crew, barking, "Seize her, kill the rest!"
All was sudden chaos. The crew of the Black Pearl rallied with a chorus of cries and surged toward the railing of the Jolly Roger, preparing to board.
Sparrow had, to everyone's surprise, acted with the greatest alacrity on their side. Leaping forward with a cutlass he'd managed to conjure from who knows where, he slashed through the lashings that secured the two ships together. A few of Jones' men, daggers clenched in their teeth, had managed the leap between the ships before they began to drift apart. David dove forward along with Sparrow to meet the charge. "Get us out of here, Hook!" he yelled as he ran one of the scalawags through.
A report blasted through the air. Emma had recovered from the shock of the sudden attack and took aim at the nearest pirate. The bullet had barely any effect whatsoever, as he had feared. Emma grabbed a rope dangling above her to raise herself up and swung toward the attacker, planting an elegant double kick to the man's chest. She knocked him clean backward over the railing. What a woman. She caught him grinning at her. "What? You said there was a pirate side of me, didn't you?"
"Aye, that I did, Swan. You might be more a pirate than I am, woman."
She favored him with a heart-stopping smile before turning back to the fight. Hook was at the helm attempting to steer the ship away from the Pearl, but the seas were churning once again and it felt as though the wind had risen to thwart them.
"Halt and hand the woman over to me, and I will release your ship unharmed. Do not, and I will give the order to fire a cannonade right into the Jolly Roger's broadside, Hook. You know I'll sink you where you sit without a second's thought," boomed Jones' voice above the fray.
"Ah, but then you won't have Emma, will you Captain?" he yelled back at him.
"I can fish her out of the sea once I've blown yer bloody ship to pieces!"
Hook was unsure whether this was a bluff, but he did know he would never hand Emma over to this foul creature no matter the cost. "Go to hell you slimy bastard!"
"Very well, then. You leave me no quarter," he spat at them. He raised his arm and slashed it down through the air, yelling "FIRE!"
The percussive boom of cannon fire shook the ship. Not all found their mark, but a few did. A canon ball the size of a grapefruit smashed the railing on the lower deck and sailed low over the deck of the ship, whistling through the air mere feet from Emma. He thought he heard another one crush through the hull a little lower down. Hook could smell the sulfurous clouds of smoke. His fury was blinding. He shouldn't have sailed without a full crew. They could've been firing back, giving the Pearl as good as she got. Now all they could do was retreat.
"Have you had enough, Captain, or shall I sink the Jolly Roger?"
"Better to sink my ship than hand Emma over to the likes of you, Jones!"
"Well, let's not be hasty now, mate-" started Sparrow. He silenced himself at the look Hook gave him.
Jones must've given the signal to fire again. The second cannonade was as deafening as the first. He braced for impact, preparing to say goodbye to his ship for the second time in as many months. After several moments of silence, he opened his eyes and looked about. There were clouds of smoke hanging in the air around the cannon ports of the Black Pearl. The cannon balls themselves, however, were a bit of a mystery to him, until he noticed one hanging in midair just a few feet in front of him. He'd been moments away from having his head taken off. A dozen of the spheres were hovering just in front of them, as though captured in an invisible wall of air. What the bloody hell was going on?
The answer became clear when he looked down at Emma. She was in a crouching position similar to the one she adopted when she fought Zelena to save Henry. Her hands were stretched out in front of her. She slowly stood, looking at her hands and the hovering cannonballs with evident surprise.
"Impressive, Miss Swan. 'Tis no wonder they think you such a prize that I was ordered to cross realms to claim you."
Killian knew Emma Swan so well that he had no trouble predicting how she would respond to that statement. Her face shifted quickly from surprise to pissed off determination.
"The only thing you'll be claiming today, pal, is a watery grave." His Swan had a way with words, he had to give her that. She flung her hands toward the Black Pearl in a gesture whose force he could feel in his gut. The array of cannonballs ceased their suspension in midair and hurtled back toward the Pearl at many times the speed they had come from it. Not one of them missed.
Hook had never seen the like of it in all his years at sea. Cannon fire was a notoriously imprecise means of destroying an enemy ship, especially when the seas were as wild as they were today. But Emma, with one sweep of her hands, punched a dozen very impressive holes into the enemy ship. One of them even fractured the main mast, sending forth a shower of splinters and shrapnel. He could hear Davey Jones howling furious orders over the chaos of the scattering crew.
Emma was surveying the damage with her hands on her hips, a rare moment of satisfaction plying her lips with a smile. Sparrow and David were both staring at her in open astonishment.
She glanced over to Hook, and gave him a smile and a little half-shrug, as if to say she had no idea how it had happened. He shook his head at her. She needed to accept how powerful she was. How powerful he knew she could be, when it mattered.
"ENOUGH!" a booming voice seemed to echo from the clouds above and around them. Lightning crackled the air.
"Captain Davey Jones, stand down. You have failed your master and will be punished accordingly. Prepare to return to face the wrath of King Neptune. I will deal with this mess myself."
A massive face, grey and cruel-mouthed, had formed in the clouds above the Jolly Roger. A face Hook thought he recognized, but had had the good fortune to never encounter personally in the past. Ursula. It had to be the sea witch.
"Emma Swan, my my my. You've certainly managed to impress me, my dear, and I'm not an easy woman to impress. I'd heard you were powerful, albeit untrained. I can remedy that."
"Who are you? And what do you want with me?" said Emma. Killian thought he had an idea. Someone with magic as powerful as Emma's was bound to be noticed by someone like Ursula. A creature like her only wanted one thing: power. If she couldn't use Emma, she'd take what she could from her and then kill her. His stomach clenched.
"My darling girl, you have no idea what you're capable of. With the right mistress, you could become a very powerful pupil indeed. We could eventually rule all the realms together. Doesn't that sound like a lovely idea, my dear?"
"Actually, no. Not interested."
The clouds roiled angrily and thunder rumbled in the background.
"No, my lovely? But you see, I am interested. And so is my...partner...King Neptune. Very interested. And if you don't want to come willingly, well...we'll just take you unwillingly and drown your companions for good measure," she purred in her throaty voice, chuckling at the thought of her imminent victory.
Emma upturned a palm. A ball of fire suddenly materialized. Damn. She was really starting to get control over her magic. Ursula stopped laughing. A long tentacle whipped angrily across the image rippling in the clouds.
"I wouldn't do that my dear. You don't know who you're dealing with."
"Oh, I think I do. Let me make something perfectly clear. You're going to back off and leave this realm. You're going to take that ratty pirate ship with you, and you're never coming back. Otherwise, I'm going to fire up the grill at Granny's Diner. I have a real hankering for calamari all of a sudden."
Everyone was silent for a moment. Possibly no one could quite believe that Emma had just threatened to cook the old witch for dinner.
Sparrow leaned toward Hook and asked quietly,"Do mine ears deceive, or did Miss Swan just threaten to dice and sauté Ursula the Sea Witch in a preparation of butter and herbs?"
"Aye," said Hook with a disbelieving shake of the head.
"One hell of a woman you've got there, mate."
"You've no idea."
"If she weren't about to get us all killed, I'd -"
What Sparrow would do or not do was cut off by an enormous crack of lightning and concussive, bone-shaking thunder. The ship began to heave up and down madly as the brackish waters of the bay roiled beneath them. The rain was driving in from all directions in punishing sheets of water. He looked up nervously to the black-green clouds billowing angrily above them. The enormous visage of Ursula the Sea Witch was glaring daggers down at them, practically engulfing them in her fury. He didn't think she could be uglier than he remembered, but seeing her face contorted with rage, he revised his opinion. Definitely uglier.
"Remember this day, Emma Swan. You will regret crossing Ursula the Sea Witch," had come the last booming voice from the sky.
Captain Hook wasn't a man to be easily frightened, but now he had something he was terrified to lose. And that something - someone - had just seriously pissed off the most powerful sea enchantress in all the realms.
"You've done it now, Swan," muttered Hook as he leaned with all his strength into the helm, which was trying to spin madly. The ship was swiftly being pulled unnaturally to starboard. "Hold fast, Emma love!" he yelled down to where he glimpsed her blonde figure scrambling to grab on to something. The ship tilted far, much too far. Fear spiked through his blood. Much more of this and the Jolly Roger would capsize and they would be done for.
A stream of vehement pirate curses, some of which even Hook hadn't heard before, was blistering his right ear. Jack Sparrow stood at his side, leaning into the wheel with him in a futile attempt to right the Jolly Roger. Hook could feel his boots slipping on the wet deck as they pitched over. He saw David loose his footing and slide down the foredeck scrambling for purchase. He somehow found a rope and was tying it around himself. Looking over the railing of the ship, which was now nearly parallel with the pitching sea, Hook could see the foaming water beneath them spinning in a slow but immense spiral. The water began to sink away underneath them as though a massive drain below the bay had been uncorked, sucking millions of gallons of seawater into some unknown blackness, pulling the hapless Jolly Roger and all unfortunate souls aboard along with it.
"Killian!"
He heard Emma scream, and the terror in her voice froze his blood. He could see her gripping the slippery rail of the Jolly Roger, on the verge of pitching over the side. Before he could even find his breath, he saw her hands lose their purchase on the wood. Almost in slow motion, he watched helplessly as the woman he loved slipped over the side of his ship into the blackness.
"No! Emma, noooo!" the scream tore from his throat.
