Sun blaring brightly in my face woke me. I'd fallen asleep sitting up, nestled against Jack's chest as we sat together next to the helm. I turned to look up at his still sleeping face, his hat tipped forward blocking the offending rays from his eyes. I smiled as I listen to him snore lightly. Hector stood on the opposite side, staring out at the stretching horizon with his spyglass. What he could possibly be looking for was beyond me. I gave Jack a chaste kiss on the cheek before standing and stretching my limbs.
I looked around the ship, finding it mostly empty, everyone below deck still sleeping. I yawned loudly, wishing I was still doing the same.
"Found your beau, did ye?" Hector asked, still facing the sea.
"Tell me something, Hector," I started, but he still refused to face me, "If I hadn't stowed away, would you have told Jack where I was? Would you have helped him find me?"
"You mean if we survive it all? Even if we make it back, there's still a war to be fought. Beckett wants us all dead," he reminded me. I cringed at the mention of him.
"Humor me," I told him. He finally turned, his gray-blue eyes empty of emotion. I nodded and bit my bottom lip as I stepped away from him. It was his nature. I understood that, but part of me had wanted him to be something he wasn't.
"Don't waste your time, love," Jack said, startling me. I hadn't realized he'd woken. He and Hector exchanged dark glances.
"Come on, Maddy, lets get a bit more rest," Jack told me, draping an arm around my shoulder and pulling me towards the stairs. I glanced back at Hector, who had simply turned away. I let out a sigh and followed Jack to his cabin. We shed a few articles of clothing before settling into his bed. He pulled me into his arms, holding me against his chest and stroking my hair.
"You care for him?" he asked me, breaking the silence. I simply nodded.
"Once, a long time ago," I admitted. I closed my eyes, too tired to dwell on it much. He kissed my forehead and let me drift towards sleep.
It was nearing sunset and we still hadn't figured out what the charts meant. I stood in between Tia and Will, leaning my back against the side of the ship. I crossed my legs at the ankles and folded my arms across my chest, deep in thought. Will and Tia Dalma watched the sun creep closer to the horizon behind me. Elizabeth had kept to herself the entire day, now sitting on the stairs leading to the helm. Will looked to her sadly. I knew he wanted to comfort her but she wouldn't allow it. They apparently had not fully reconciled.
The Pearl wasn't well stocked, and we were running out of water quickly. We needed to figure out how to escape soon or we wouldn't make it much longer.
"If we cannot escape these doldrums before night I fear we will sail on trackless seas, doomed to roam the reach between worlds, forever," Tia Dalma said somberly. My chest tightened.
"With no water forever looks to be arriving a mite too soon," Mr. Gibbs stated. Jack sat at small table, swirling the dials on the charts, chewing his lip as he mulled over it too.
"Why doesn't he do something?" Will said pointedly at Barbossa. I shook my head.
"He told us on the way here getting back would be the problem. He doesn't know any more than we do," I reminded him. Will let out an exasperated sigh. I turned to face the sun as well, looking out at the vast ocean.
"There's no sense to it," Gibbs claimed in confusion.
"And the green flash happens at sunset, not sunrise," Will continued. I raked my hands along my scalp, pulling my hair from the ribbon to run my fingers through it. Tia Dalma stood behind me then, taking my hair in her own hands. I looked back to her, and saw she was braiding it together. I gave her an appreciative smile before looking straight again.
"Over the edge... Oi! That's driving me over the bloomin' edge!" Gibbs spat.
"Sunrises don't set..." I said softly, more to myself. Tia took the ribbon from my hand and tying it off as she finished the long braid.
Suddenly we all heard Jack's chair scrape across the deck as he stood abruptly and ran towards the other side of the ship.
"What is that?" we heard him call, followed by a bunch of muttering. We all blinked in confusion and ran to the other side of the ship to see what it was.
"Where?" Mr. Gibbs asked, bewildered.
"There!" he exclaimed and then ran to the other side of the ship. Though completely perplexed, we all ran behind him, trying to see what the fuss was about. Before we knew it, we'd run back and forth so many times, the ship had begun to sway.
"What is it?" Elizabeth asked, finally joining us, only having to turn to run to the other side.
"He's rocking the ship," Pintel protested.
"We're rocking the ship!" Gibbs called excitedly, the ship tipping back and forth.
"Aye, he's on to it!" Barbossa called as he looked over the charts. As soon as I realized what was going on, I ran below decks.
"Loosen the canons!" I commanded loudly. The ship rocked so hard, it knocked a man from his hammock.
"Move you lazy bilge rats!" I shouted. Soa Feng's men did as I commanded, mostly out of habit. I'd been their second in command for a few years now.
"Un-stow the cargo!" I exclaimed, grabbing a hatchet from a nearby beam, "Let it shift!" I slammed the hatchet down, cutting ropes that kept barrels of goods in their places, letting them slide from one end of the ship to the other. I turned to see Barbossa standing in the stairwell with approving eyes. I smirked briefly before returning to the top deck.
We timed our running with the swell, the sides of the ship dipping farther with each lap. With one last run across, the ship turned sideways, everyone leaping to grasp hold of the side.
"Now up is down," I heard Jack say beside me, uncertainty in his voice. I held onto the ship as tightly as I could and took a final deep breath as the ship finally capsized. Time seemed to stop all together as we waited for something, anything to happen. I screwed my eyes shut, trying desperately not to take that fatal breath.
Relief came when the sun finally set. I felt a serge streaming over me and I opened my eyes to see the surface rushing towards us from below, or was it above now? The ocean spat us out, the ship now upside right. We flopped back to the decks most ungracefully. Loud clunks could be heard as the cannons below settled.
Air ripped into my lungs painfully. I stood, my legs a bit wobbly, but I manged. I helped Elizabeth to her feet as she stumbled next to me. She took a step away, looking out at the now rising sun.
"Sunrise," she breathed. I closed my eyes, letting out a sigh of relief. We were back, truly back.
We didn't get much time to celebrate because the next thing I knew Hector had pulled one of his guns, aiming it at Jack. I immediately pulled my own, pointing it at him, as did Elizabeth and Will. Before I knew it, Jack had his own pistol pointed at Will, causing Will and Elizabeth to point their other pistols at Jack as well. Jack in turn pointed his other pistol at Elizabeth, who glared at him, only to have her other side greeted with my other pistol. We had essential made a circle with pistols pointing every which way. What a fine mess this was.
Barbossa suddenly started to laugh, which of course led the rest of us to chuckle as well. What a ridiculous spectacle. We lowered our guns to our sides, giving half apologies no one actually meant. Only a moment later, the laughter stopped and our guns were up and pointed once again.
"Alright then! The Brethren Court is a-gathering at shipwreck cove, and Jack, you and I are a-going and there'll be no arguing that point," he said, narrowing his eyes at Jack. Jack gave him a lopsided grin.
"I is arguing the point. If there's pirates a-gathering, I'm pointing me ship the other way," Jack told him. Elizabeth then turned both her guns on Jack, causing me to take a step towards her, raising my own gun to be even with her head, while keeping my other still aimed at Barbossa.
"The pirates are gathering to fight Beckett and you're a pirate," she argued through clenched teeth. Jack turns both his pistols on her, and Will turned both of his towards Jack. Trying to aim at everyone was becoming ridiculous.
"Fight or not, you're not running, Jack," Will warned, narrowing his eyes. Jack pointed one pistol back at Will.
"If we don't stand together they'll hunt us down, one by one, until there be none left but you," Hector scowled, taking a step forward, placing my pistol pointed at his back. He wrapped one arm around his waist, pointing his own pistol back at me.
"I quite like the sound of that. Captain Jack Sparrow, last pirate," he said with a wide grin.
"Aye, and you'll be fighting Jones alone, how does that figure into your plan?" Hector asked him sarcastically.
"I'm still working on that," Jack bantered, "But I will not be going back to the Locker, mate, count on that." He raise a pistol to Hector's face and pulled the trigger. I jumped slightly, but found myself relieved when it misfired, drops of water springing from it, hitting Hector in the face. We all blinked in surprise and tried our own pistols, none of which worked.
"Wet powder!" I said wryly, rolling my eyes at the whole situation, and angry with myself for caring enough for Hector to have been startled when Jack tried to shoot him.
We crowded around the charts, trying to figure out where we were exactly. After a few minutes of calculating, we determined our area roughly.
"There's a freshwater spring on this island. We can resupply there, get back to shooting each other later," Will said with a cocky grin as he pointed to the charts. Gibbs and Cotton got their bearings and began navigating the ship towards the island.
"You lead the shore party, I'll stay with my ship," Jack said to Barbossa, waving him away.
"I'll not be leaving my ship in your command!" Hector snapped back.
"Now, now, ladies, you're both pretty," I said, rolling my eyes at their childish behavior, to which I received harsh glares from both of them.
"Why don't you both go ashore, and leave the ship in my command," Will said, turning their angry looks upon him.
"Temporarily," he stated, holding his hands up like a flag of truce.
I rode ashore with Jack, not ready to be fully separated from him as of yet. I sat next to him as Xiao Chen, one of my closer allies of Soa Feng's crew, rowed us to shore.
"It's not a terrible idea, ye know," I told him, causing him to look up at me, confused.
"Fightin' for our way of life an' all. Beckett won't stop just because you run away," I told him, "We know better than most he doesn't give up easily." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as if to calm a headache.
"Don't, lass, not you too," he said and I let it go for the time. Then we saw it. A giant carcass had washed ashore, smelling foul. Jack jumped out of the boat the moment it hit shore, walking towards the beast that had claimed him.
I stayed next to the boat with Xiao Chen, looking towards Jack sadly. Barbossa came ashore briefly after, and walked towards Jack. I followed slowly, staying just behind him to give them their space to talk. If anyone could truly talk Jack into doing what needed to done, it was Hector.
"Still thinkin' o' runnin, Jack?" Barbossa said grimly, "You know the problem with being the last of anything, and by and by there'd be none left at all."
"Sometimes things come back, mate. We're living proof you and me," he pointed out optimistically. But Hector shook his head.
"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," Hector told him.
"Summoning the Brethren Court then is it?" Jack asked, and a small smile touched my lips.
"It's our only hope, lad," Hector confirmed.
"That's a sad commentary even of itself," Jack replied softly.
"The world used to be a bigger place," Barbossa sighed, but Jack shook his head.
"World's still the same, there's just less in it," Jack said, giving the dead Kraken one last look of disgust, before turning away. I fell beside him and he placed his hand at the small of my back.
"Looks like you get your way after all, love," he told me with a half smile. I gave him a sad smile back.
We walked to the spring and I jumped slightly, covering my mouth with my hand as I gasped. A man floated in the water face down. Hector scooped a bit of water in his hand, tasting it, before spitting it back out.
"Poisoned. Fouled by the body," he confirmed. Pintel lifted the body, turning him over. I turned away, recognizing him.
"Hey, he was in Singapore," Pintel declared.
"Captain!" We turned, as Marty shouted from the beach, pointing towards the ship.
"Oi! We've got company!" Ragetti yelled. I looked off in the distance to see the mighty Empress, Soa Feng's flag ship, approaching the Pearl. My heart sank.
"No," I whispered as my chest tightened. I turned to find my once comrades aiming their pistols at Jack, Barbossa, and his crew. I felt a tight grip on my arms abruptly behind me, Tai Huang twisting them painfully behind me.
"Shit," I cursed, trying to writhe free, Jack started to step towards me, eyes searing, but stopped when everyone around him cocked their guns. I shook my head at him and stopped fighting against Tai Huang.
"Time to face the master," Tai Huang whispered against my ear harshly, "You won't be his favorite pet for much longer."