A/N: I know it is been eternity since I last uploaded but I had no internet! Seriously! A long chapter to compensate! Thanks to those who favorited and followed my story! I made a mistake and did not paste part of the chapter. Made the corrections! Enjoy! Thanks to:
1. Victoria Barbossa
2. Finn Worthington
3. Mille Kate
4. Emma D and the guest reviewer for their amazing reviews! Sorry for the late update, guys. But better late than never!
Chapter 11- - "Shut up," Akira told him. "Don't laugh. We are in the middle of a war."
(Pat's POV)
We were on board the empress, in Sao Feng's cabin. Two girls attended me. I was dressed in fine traditional Chinese costume which was not at all comfortable, it had all sorts of stuff and it itched. Sao Feng entered and spoke in an unknown language. He came over to me and clapped once. The two girls left.
"By this time tomorrow, we will arrive at Shipwreck Cove, and you will be free….Calypso," he said to me.
"Excuse me?" I asked him, copying what Elizabitch had done in the movie.
"Not a name you fancy, I imagine, out of the many that you have. But it is what we call you," he told me.
"We being who?" I asked him.
"You confirm it?" he asked, eating a tealeaf (ewww).
"Confirm what? You've told me nothing," I said simply.
"The brethren court-not I, The first Brethren Court whose decision I would have opposed. They bound you to human form, so the rule of seas would belong to men and not-," he said, circling the post against which I was standing.
"To me," I said, sounding angry.
"But one as you should never be anything less than what you are," he told me.
"Pretty speech from a captor, but words whispered through prison lose their charm," I told him.
"Can I be blamed for my efforts? All men are drawn to the sea, perilous though it may be," he said.
"And some men offer desire as justification for their crimes," I said.
"I simply offer my desire," he said, looking at me.
"And in return?" I asked him, knowing very well what was about to happen. But I was not Miss Kiss everyone, was I?
"I should have your gifts, should you choose to give them," he said, the moment was near.
"Oh….. and if should chose not?" I asked him.
"Then I will take…. Your fury!" he shouted and came near me. However, I ducked and he was left kissing the pole. He came near me but I shoved him backwards. It was then that it happened. A cannonball ploughed into the side of the ship and hit him. The Dutchman had reached The Empress and the firing had started.
"Sao Feng?" I asked, looking at where a stray piece of wood had skewered him through the middle.
"Here..please," he beckoned me weakly. He offered me his piece of eight. "With all nine pieces of eight, you will be free. Take it! You are captain now."
"Me?" I asked him, knowing very well who I was about to meet.
"Go in my place….to shipwreck cove. Forgive me, Calypso," he said.
"What did he tell you?" Tai Huang had come in.
"He made me captain," I told him, my eyes blazing. He looked angry and left. I followed him fighting was going on the deck and we were immediately restrained by East India company soldiers. Norrington was on deck.
"You are not my captain!" Tai Huang told me angrily.
"Patricia?" James aksed me, looking completely like a God in his naval avatar.
"James?" I asked him and he came to me and hugged me.
"Where is Elizabeth?" he asked me, and my eyes immediately clouded with anger.
"She betrayed us. She betrayed Jack and Amy. They were taken by the Kraken, just because she couldn't stand Amy being friends with Will," I said angrily, almost shouting.
"Pat, I-," he started but I cut him.
"I see which side you have chosen, Commodore," I said, looking away.
"Who among you name as captain?" Davy Jones asked Tai Huang.
"Captain… her!" he said, pointing to me.
"Captain?" he asked me puzzled.
"Tow the ship! Put the prisoners in the brig. The captain shall have my quarters," he said to Jones, but looking at me.
"Thank you, sir. But I prefer to remain with my crew," I told him resolutely.
"Patricia, look, I did not-," he started.
"Did not what? I can see you've chosen a side. And that is by Lord Beckett," I told him and went over to my men.
(Author's POV)
Pat did not know how long she and her men were in the brig before someone unlocked the door and let her and her crew out. It was Norrington.
"What are you doing?" she asked him, knowing very well what he was doing.
"Choosing a side," he said simply. The Empress crew crawled along the brig line and Bootstrap came outside.
"Do not go to the Shipwreck Cove. Beckett knows of the meeting of the Brethren. I fear there may be a traitor among them," he told her.
"Like you were?" Pat asked him. "It is too late to earn my forgiveness, Commodore."
"I had nothing to do with Jack and Amy dying. But that does not absolve me of my other sins," he said. Pat looked at him.
"Come with me," she said urgently. "James, come with me."
"Who goes there?" Bootstrap asked from above.
"Go! I will follow!" he shouted at her.
"No! Until you come with me, I am not going anywhere!" she shouted back at him.
"I am thankful to you, Patricia!" he said and kissed her. "Go now."
"Not without you," she said stubbornly. James couldn't make her go. Pat grabbed his gun and shot the ropes. Then she entwined her hands in his and jumped down in the sea. Both swam as well as they could. Pat was a good swimmer but the clothes were very trying. After some time, she began panting. James had reached the Empress. He looked at Pat drowning. He pulled off his uniform and jumped into the sea again. Taking her arms over his shoulder, he began climbing up the Empress. They had escaped.
(Amy's POV)
We were on the pearl. Will was tying yet another man to the barrel. It was another east India company soldier who they had killed during the fight after which Jack had Will shut in the brig. I went with him, naturally. We were there, trying to send the signal to the Flying Dutchman.
"You escaped the brig quicker than I expected," Jack said, startling us. I gasped and turned around and glared at him for scaring me. "William, Amy, do you notice anything? Rather, do you notice something that is not there to be noted?"
"You haven't raised an alarm," Will and I said simultaneously.
"Odd, isn't it? Not as odd as this," he said, pointing to the body and the barrel. "Come up with this all by your lonesome, did you?"
"Two isn't lone," I muttered.
"I said to myself, think like Jack," Will said, looking at me.
"And this is what you arrived at? Lead Beckett to shipwreck cove so as to gain his trust…. Accomplish your own ends. It's like you don't know me at all, mate! And how do you feel about this plan?" Jack suddenly asked me.
"I… don't know. I am just going to help Will out to free his father, even if every step of his towards his father means every step from me," I said, gulping, trying to be calm while my mind was screaming. I didn't want to be away from Will. He was all I loved in this world, apart from my friends!
"Mate, if you choose to lock your heart away, you'll lose it for certain. If I might lend a machete to your intellectual thicket….. avoid the chance altogether. Change the facts. Let someone else dispatch Jones," Jack suggested.
"Who? You?" I asked Jack.
"Death has a curious way of reshuffling one's priorities. I slip aboard the Dutchman, find the heart, stab the beating thing, your father goes free from his debt, you are free to be with your charming princess," Jack said jovially. Hiw could someone be so jovial at serious talk like that? Jack was completely a lunatic and Akira was another, for falling in love with him.
"And you are willing to cut out your heart and bind yourself to the Dutchman? Forever?" Will asked him stupidly. Sometimes I wondered whether he was a bit dense.
"No, mate. I'm free forever. Free to sail the seas beyond the edges of the map, free from death itself," Jack answered him.
"You have to do the job though, Jack. You have to ferry souls to the next world, or end up just like Jones," I said, miming the tentacles. Jack winced.
"I don't have the face for the tentacles," He said and I cut him.
"Immortality comes at a price," I said, looking at him.
"It came with bad looks for Voldemort, he was smart when he was Tom Riddle. He lost his beauty when he split his soul and created the hocruxes," we heard a voice. It was Akira. Jack took his compass out and handed it over to Will.
"What's this for?" he asked, taking it.
"Think like him," Akira said casually.
"It will come to you," Jack said and suddenly breathed on Will. Will stumbled backwards and off the ship. I stared at Will and then Jack and jumped in after him. Jack threw down the barrel and the body. I clung on to it, since I was not a good swimmer.
"Our regards to Davy Jones!" Akira and Jack called out.
"We hate him," we said together. I could hear Akira and Jack laughing.
-/
(Akira's POV)
"Look alive and keep a weather eye! Not for naught it's called Shipwreck Island where lies Shipwreck Cove and the town of Shipwreck," Mr. Gibbs was calling out. Jack and I were looking out on the horizon, I was smiling.
"You heard him. Step lively!" Pintel shouted.
"You know, for all that pirates are clever clogs, we are an unimaginative lot when it comes to naming things," Jack said and I giggled.
"Aye," Gibbs and I said at the same time.
"I once sailed with a geezer who lost both of his arms and part of his eye," Jack told us.
"What did you call him?" Mr. Gibbs asked.
"Larry," Jack told us in a matter of fact way. He took my hand and walked to the end of the ship where there was no one.
"Jack, what do you think is going to happen? If you stab the heart, you become the captain of the Dutchman. I won't be- I mean we all won't be able to meet you, only once in ten years," I said choking on the word years. Tears were in my eyes, threatening to spill. Jack turned me to him.
"I don't know what be happening in the future, but I definitely be knowing what will happen now," he said and kissed me. I kissed him back with passion, I didn't want to lose him.
-/
(Author's POV)
"You don't really think I am going to betray my friends, do you?" Alex asked Beckett, opening the door to the cabin. She had the polythene with her and she had bathed, changed and shampooed and did everything to make her look what she really was- a modern girl. She had changed from her jeans, now wearing caprice and a full sleeved top, with converse. Her hair was loose, only a band stopped it from irritating her eyes. Beckett looked at her as she entered, catching her from top to bottom. She was pretty, he knew it.
"No, I don't think you are going to betray your friends, Miss Becker," he started off.
"Why did you want me with you, then? Leverage? Or because you wanted to take revenge? For calling you Bucket," she said, rolling her eyes.
"The kind of clothes that you wear are really weird. I am going to get you some decent-," Beckett said, noticing the legs that were displayed by the caprice.
"Oh no! Nothing of that sort. This is what we wear from where we come. I wanted to wear a short skirt but I realized it would have been too much for you to handle," she said, going over and leaning on to him.
"What are you trying to do, Miss Becker?" he asked, moving back.
"I am trying to get an answer. Why did you want me here with you?" she asked, standing up straight, observing her nails. She had applied a yellow nail polish, matching her top.
"Leverage was kind of my plan," Beckett started. "But I really wanted to know this brave young lady who had dared to mock the director of the East India Trading Company."
"You can't know me. I am always a surprise. Even for my friends," she shrugged. "Who have known me whole of my life."
"Where are you really from?" he asked, with an unreadable expression.
"You won't believe when I tell you, so I will keep mum," she said, settling down on the chair.
"How incredulous could it be?" he asked.
"If I say I am a vampire, would you believe it?" she asked, looking at him.
"What is a vampire?" he asked her, also sitting down.
"A person who is dead and alive at the same time. One who needs blood for survival," Alex shrugged.
"Oh- I've heard stories. The ones who can't walk in the sun? Who are the slaves of the night?" Beckett asked. Alex nodded.
"I wouldn't. Nobody can, it is really a myth," he said, after thinking for two minutes.
"Well, if I drink your blood, would that convince you?" she asked him, playing along with him. He looked shocked.
"Perhaps a stake through my heart would help," she said with a laugh. "I am not a vampire. But since you couldn't believe that simple thing, well, I don't think I am going to tell you where I come from because if this was what you couldn't believe, knowing that creatures like Davy Jones exist, well, you won't believe that either. I'll keep my mouth shut."
"Tell me," he said.
"No," she said flatly. "I won't. I've had enough of you. You are a liar, an arrogant asshole whom I don't trust. Who I want to torture to the end of this world. Tell me, dear, will you start hating the girls in the same way as you started hating pirates?"
Beckett looked startled. He just stared at Alex.
"Will you go ahead and kill all the girls just because I would torture you?" she asked, leaning in to him.
Beckett's face turned angry and he tried to raise a hand to slap her, but Alex was ready. She held his hand.
"Had nobody taught you some manners, dear? Not even your experience as the director of the East India Trading Company? You should not hit women?" she asked, leaning in to him.
"How do you know about the pirates and my torture?" he asked her.
"I know many things. I know that the Black Pearl used to be your own ship- the wicked wench. I know everything about you and Jack, Beckett. However, that was not what I came here for. I came here to give you some good advice before your pathetic actions kill you. Don't typecast a community on the basis of what a person has done to you who belongs to it. Vengeance appears sweet, but it brings guilt. Don't stereotype all the pirates just because you've had a bad experience with pirates. There is a good and bad side to everything. I know how the world sees you, but I am sure you have a good side to you too. Try to bring out your good side, rather than the bad one. History won't be too hard on you then," she completed. Beckett was looking at her intently.
"You say it as if you've had experience," he said, narrowing his eyes. Alex banged her head on the table.
"Long story. You don't want to hear it," she said finally.
"Go on, it is not like there is anything else to do at the moment," he said, smiling in a wicked way.
"I was only five when my parents separated. My mom took me to a new town, where there were new schools and new people and everything was new. I couldn't adjust because the kids always picked on new students. I didn't want to go to school. All the kids teased me, troubled me and called me names. They got me into trouble always, and I was punished frequently for stuff I never did. Akira and Pat were the ones who tried to befriend me and I hurt them, thinking that they were the same as the rest of the kids. They were not. I realized this when they stood up for me when Jimmy got me into trouble. That was the day our friendship began. I wouldn't have made friends and got happy had I been like you, classifying people on the basis of encounter with a few," she finished. Tears were rolling down her eyes due to the memories. "I miss them. Akira, Pat and Amy. I want to be with them but I am stuck here with you."
"Would you like some water, Miss Becker?" Beckett asked, noting her tears.
"Sure," Alex took the glass of water from him and gulped it all down.
"I am quite-," Beckett started when there was a knock on the door.
"Come in," Beckett ordered. Lieutenant Groves walked in.
"Sir, there is someone who wishes to see you," he said, pointing towards the door.
"Who?" Beckett asked. The door opened and Amy and Will walked in. Alex shrieked with happiness when she saw Amy.
"Finally someone is with me!" she shouted in glee.
"Well, here I am!" Amy said with a smile.
"Tea? Mr. Turner, and Miss?" he asked raising an eyebrow.
"How come you stayed back with Beckett, Alex?" Amy asked her in a whisper. Little did she know that Beckett had heard her.
"He is not bad company, actually," Alex shrugged. Beckett smiled at her choice of words. He turned to Lieutenant Groves.
"Summon Davy Jones," he ordered.
-]
(Alex's POV)
"I cannot be summoned like some mongrel pup!" Davy Jones shouted. We were all sitting, sipping tea.
"Apparently you can. I believe you know each other," he pointed out to Will.
"Aha! Come to join my crew again, Master Turner? Miss Liete?" he asked Amy and Will.
"Not yours…. His," Will said, nodding to Beckett.
"Jack Sparrow sends his regards," Amy told him.
"Sparrow?" Jones asked, obviously perplexed.
"You didn't tell him?" Will asked Beckett, sipping his tea.
"We rescued Jack from the locker along with the black pearl," I told him with a sarcastic smile.
"What else have you not told me?" Jones asked Beckett.
"Don't blame him, come on. He is the director of the EITC. He doesn't have time to pass information to people under him," I told him casually, narrowing my eyes.
"There is an issue far more troublesome," Beckett said, smiling at me. "I believe you are familiar with a person called Calypso?"
Jones made a surprised slurping noise. That evening had brought him surprises. Which he didn't like. Obviously.
"Not a person…. A heathen God. One who delights in cursing men with their wildest dreams and then revealing them to be hollow and naught but ash! The world is well-rid of her!" he said finally.
"Not quite so well, actually. Hmmm," Will said, sipping tea. "The brethren court intends to release her."
"No! They cannot! The first court promised to imprison her forever! That was our agreement!" Jones shouted. Beckett caught a nerve.
"Your agreement?" he asked.
"I showed them how to bind her. She could not be trusted. I… she gave me no choice. We must act before they release her!" Jones said, worry clearly visible in his voice. A look of realization crossed Will's face.
"You loved her…. She's the one. And then you betrayed her," Will said.
"She pretended to love me! She betrayed me!" Jones shouted.
"And after which betrayal you cut out your heart, I wonder?" Will asked him. There was a big crashing noise when Jones knocked the teacup from his hands.
"Do not test me!" he shouted.
"I hadn't finished that. You will free my father!" Will told him and then turned to Beckett. "And you will guarantee Amy's safety, along with my own."
"Your terms are steep, Mr. Turner. We will expect fair value in return," Beckett told him, looking at me.
"There is only one price I will accept. Calypso….. murdered," Jones told us.
"Calypso's aboard the Black Pearl. Jack has sailed the black Pearl to Shipwreck Cove," Will told him.
"And with you no longer aboard her, how do you propose to lead us there?" Beckett asked. Will took out the compass and showed it.
"What is it you want most?" he asked. Everyone was silenced. Jones walked out in a huff.
"Will, Jones is right. It was Calypso who actually betrayed him. You shouldn't have been so rude. And someone should go tell him. Calypso cannot be murdered. She is a goddess. You can't murder a goddess," I told him.
"How do you know?" he asked.
"Well, she is a GODDESS. An IMMORTAL. How the heck do you think you are going to KILL an IMMORTAL?" I asked him with sarcasm.
"By my dictionary, nothing is impossible," Amy said, turning to me.
"Oh. And from where on earth did you buy such a rubbish dictionary?" I asked her crossing my arms. She didn't say anything else.
"What is a dictionary?" Will asked, looking at me.
"Uh, a lexicon?" I tried to answer.
"But aren't they reserved only for the most prosperous class of people?" he asked. Uh oh.
"No. Not where we come from. It is easily available. Anyone can buy it, actually," I tried to reason. He had that confused look on his face. I changed the topic.
"Why are we discussing futile stuff that we aren't even going to use? We have far more important stuff lined up," I said, looking at Beckett.
"Miss Becker is right," he said, smirking at me. I didn't think he knew how to smile. He only knew how to smirk.
-]
(Author's POV)
They were all at Shipwreck cove, a city built from wrecks, sprawling majestically before the crew of the Black Pearl who were sailing into the bay, watching other pirate ships arrive.
"Look at them all!" Pintel exclaimed.
"There's not been a single gathering like this in our lifetime," Barbossa said, clearly awed.
"And I owe them all money," Jack said stupidly.
"Do you have a plan, Jack? If they want their money back? You going to run?" Akira asked him with a smirk.
"Have a plan handy always, luv," he told her.
(Author's POV)
They were all in the meeting room of the brethren court. Barbossa banged a metal ball on the table, calling the pirate lords to order.
"As he who issued summons, I convene this the fourth brethren court!" he shouted. "To confirm your lordship and right to be heard, present now your pieces of eight, my fellow cap'ns!"
The pirate lords were seated, and talking amongst themselves. Ragetti passed round a bowl. Sri Sumbhajee put in a tooth necklace, Capitaine Chevalle put in a playing card.
"Those aren't pieces of eight," Pintel observed, when he saw Villanueva put in a broken bottle top on a string. "They are just pieces of junk."
"Aye, the original plan was to use nine pieces of eight to bind Calypso, but when the first court met, the Brethren were, to a one, skint broke," Gibbs informed them. Akira listened with rapt attention.
"So change the name," Pintel suggested.
"Pirates are an unimaginative lot when it comes to naming things," Akira said and Jack winked at her.
"Change the name to what? To "nine pieces of whatever we happened to have in our pockets at the time"? Oh yes, that sounds very pirate," Gibbs said sarcastically and Akira laughed. Till then, the bowl had come back to Barbossa, who turned to Ragetti.
"Master Ragetti, if you will?" he asked him.
"I kept it safe for you, just like you said when you gave it to me," Ragetti told him, half proudly and half nervously.
"Aye, you have, but now I need it back," Barbossa said, making a face. He hit Ragetti on the back of his head and his wooden eye fell into his outstretched hand. He put it in the bowl.
"Sparrow?" Villanueva asked Jack for his piece of eight. Jack's hand flit briefly to the coin and the beads hanging from the top of his headscarf but did not remove his piece of eight.
"Might I point out, we are still one short Pirate Lord, and I'm content as a cucumber to wait until Sao Feng joins us," Jack said with a smile. Akira looked at him. She couldn't help but adore him, he was amazingly awesome, as she put in her head.
"Sao Feng is dead," Pat's voice came from behind. Akira looked behind with a big smile on her face. "He fell to the flying Dutchman."
"The plague ship!" Mistress Ching exclaimed.
Pat stabbed her sword into the globe where the other eight swords are stuck. She was made the Lord of the South China sea.
"And made you captain?" Jack asked incredulously. "Just giving away the bloody title now!"
Akira smacked the back of his head and ran to hug Pat. They both hugged. Akira opened her eyes again to find James Norrington.
"Commodore! You're alive?" she asked, looking at him in surprise.
"I saved him," Pat whispered in Akira's ears. Akira grinned.
"Cool, I forgive all your misdeeds in the past, Commodore!" she said, clapping her hands like a thirteen year old.
Villanueva shouted something inexplicable when he saw James Norrington.
"Listen. Listen to me. He is on our side, he is going to help us!" she said, shielding him from the pirates who had taken out their pistols and swords. "Our location has been betrayed. Jones is under the command of Lord Beckett. They are on their way here!"
"Move aside, girl. We will kill him. He is one of them!" Gentleman Jocard shouted.
"No! I said listen to me!" Pat shouted. "He is not with them. He is with us. He saved my life from the flying Dutchman, and also my crew's. He is no more a traitor than you are!"
"The pressing point is not whether the commodore is a betrayer or not. The question is who the betrayer is!" Akira shouted.
"Who is this betrayer?" Jocard shouted.
"Not likely one among us," Barbossa said.
"Where is Amy? And Will?" Pat asked, looking around. "And Alex?"
"Not among us!" Jack said and Pat glared at him.
"And it matters not how they found us. The question is what will we do now that they have?" Barbossa pressed. He was eager to get on to freeing Calypso.
"We fight!" came a voice from behind them all. It was a male voice and very familiar to Akira and Pat. They turned around to see Peter, Amy's older brother by two years.
"Peter?" Akira and Pat exclaimed on seeing him. "How come you are here?"
"Explain it to you both later. Let's continue this meeting," he said and turned to the brethren. The Pirate Lords laughed on hearing him speak about fight.
"Shipwreck Cove is a fortress. A well supplied fortress. There is no need to fight if they cannot get to us," Mistress Ching declared.
"There be a third course. In another age, at this very spot, the first Brethren Court captured the Sea goddess and bound her in bones," Barbossa started, Pat, Akira and Peter rolled their eyes and the court nodded. "That was a mistake." There was a shocked silence. "Oh, we tamed the sea for ourselves, aye, but opened the door to Beckett and his ilk! Better were the days when the mastery of the seas came not from bargains struck with eldritch creatures, but from the sweat of a man's brow, and the strength of his back alone. Y'all know this to be true!" There were murmurs of assent. "Gentlemen… ladies, we must free Calypso!"
There was pin drop silence for a while. Barbossa looked at them with anticipation about their reaction for his suggestion. Then suddenly, there was an uproar.
"Shoot him!" Corsair Amand shouted.
"Cut out his tongue," Gentleman Jocard suggested.
"Shoot him and cut out his tongue, then shoot his tongue!" Jack suggested. Barbossa looked at him weirdly. "And trim that scraggly beard."
"Sao Feng would have agreed with Barbossa," Tai Huang said, coming up to the table.
"Aye," Barbossa said.
"Calypso was our enemy then, she will be our enemy now!" Gentleman Jocard shouted furiously.
"It's unlikely her mood's improved," Capitaine Chevalle said.
"I would still agree with Sao Feng. We release Calypso!" Villanueva shouted, pointing his pistol at Chevalle.
"Traitor!" Capitaine Chevalle addressed him, stood up to face him. A fight broke out. People were shot across the table, glass broke and chaos reigns.
"This is madness!" Peter said, looking around.
"This is politics," Jack informed him, looking at him as if he were a creature of some other planet. And indeed, with his tight fit t-shirt and faded blue jeans, Peter was looking like a person of some other place.
"How did you come here?" Akira whispered to him.
"Later, as I said," Peter told him. "Meanwhile, our enemies are bearing down upon us."
"If they not be here already," Barbossa said, looking troubled. There was still a fight going on. Barbossa climbed the table and fired a shot in the air. Everyone looked at him and stopped fighting.
"It was the first Court what imprisoned Calypso; we shall be the ones to set her free, and in her gratitude, she will see fit to grant us boons," Barbossa said. Jack looked from below him.
"Whose boons? Your boons? Utterly deceptive twaddle-speak, says I," Jack replied.
"If you have a better alternative, please share," Barbossa suggested, waving his hand around.
"Cuttlefish. Eh?" Jack said, looking around.
"What madness is this now?" James whispered in Pat's ear. Akira giggled.
"Wait and watch. This is going to go even more insane," she told him.
"Let us not, dear friends, forget our…..dear friends the cuttlefish. Flipper penurious little sausages! Pent 'em up together, and they will devour each other without a second thought. Human nature, innit? Or… or.. fish nature. So, yes, we could hole up here, well-provisioned and well-armed and half of us would be dead within the month, which seems quite grim to me, any way you slice it. Or… ah…..," Jack said, struggling to get past a big man on his way round the table. "or as my learned colleague so naively suggests, we can release Calypso, and we can pray that she will be merciful. I rather doubt it. Can we, in fact, pretend she is anything other than a woman scorned, like which fury Hell hath no? We cannot. Res ipsa loquitor, tabula in naufragio, we are left with but one option; I agree with… and I cannot believe the words are coming our of me mouth…. Captain O'Connor. We must fight."
Pat smiled at Jack triumphantly.
"You've always run away from a fight," Barbossa said accusingly.
"Have not!" Jack exclaimed. The heads turned towards Jack.
"You have so!" Barbossa accused again, and this made the heads turned towards him. The game had started.
"Have not!" Jack replied, heads turned again.
"You have so, and you know it!" Barbossa concluded.
"Have not, slander and calumny! I have only ever embraced the oldest and noblest of pirate traditions. I submit that, here now, that is what we all must do. We must fight…. To run away," Jack concluded.
"Aye!" Gibbs shouted in support, gaining the others' approval as well.
"As per the code, an act of war, and this be exactly that, can only be declared by the Pirate King," Barbossa said sadistically.
"You made that up!" Jack accused him.
"Did I now? I call on Captain Teague! Keeper of the code," Barbossa said. Jack looked stumped.
"What is it with Sparrow?" James asked Pat.
"Not on good terms with his father," Akira told him.
"Captain Teague is Sparrow's father?" James' eyes were wide.
"Yes, although it is not very clear. However, it was Teague who brought him up, so yes," Pat told him. Before Captain Teague could come, however, Sri Sumbhajee's aid stood up.
"Sri Sumbhajee proclaims this all to be folly! Hang the code! Who cares-," he was cut short with a bullet in his chest. On a balcony above the room stood Captain Teague.
"The code is the law," he said. Everyone became silent as he came down the stairs.
"You're in the way, boy," he told Jack, who was still stumped. He stepped aside and Teague gestured for someone to come forward. A pair of old men carrying a big book, on which were written the words 'Pirata Codex' came forward. They put the book on the table.
"The code," Pintel whispered.
"….as set forth by Morgan and Bartholomew," Ragetti completed his sentence. Teague whistled and the dog with the keys came forward. "That can't… how did..?
"Sea turtles, mate," Teague said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. The dog handed him over the keys, barked and ran away.
"Sea turtles!" Pintel looked resentful. Teague opened the book. There was tension in the air.
"Barbossa is right," he announced after reading the part.
"Wait a minute," Jack said, scanned the page and read. "It shall be the duty of the King to declare war… Parlay with shared adversaries…." Fancy that."
"There's not been a king since the first Court, and that's not likely to change," Capitaine Chevalle told Jack.
"Not likely," Teague muttered and turned away.
"Why not?" Norrington asked, he was clueless.
"See, the pirate King is elected by popular vote," Gibbs told him.
"And each Pirate only ever votes for his self," Barbossa completed. Teague went and sat in a chair in a corner and picked up a lute and started playing a tune on it.
"I call for a vote," Jack said. Barbossa rolled his eyes.
"I vote for Amand, the corsair," Amand voted for himself.
"Capitaine Chevalle, the penniless French Pirate," the vote went again to the one voting.
"Sri Sumbhajee votes for Sri Sumbhajee," the other aide of Sri Sumbhajee declared.
"Mistress Ching!" Mistress Ching voted.
"Gentleman Jocard!" the vote was cast.
"Patricia O'Connor," Pat said.
"Barbossa," Barbossa voted.
"Villanueva!" Villanueva voted. It was Jack's turn.
"Patricia O'Connor," he said.
"What?" James Norrington asked, clearly surprised. The girls were not. Akira merely looked at her nails, from which the polish was fading.
"I know. Curious, isn't it?" Jack asked, with a smile dedicated to Norrington.
"You got to vote for me! You got to vote for me!" Jocard told him. There was chaos all over again.
"No!" Mistress Ching shouted.
"Am I to understand that you lot will not be keeping to the code then?" Jack asked with guile. Teague broke a string and stopped playing. All turned to look at him, and took their places.
"Very well. What say you, Captain O'Connor, King of the Brethren Court?" Mistress Ching asked Pat.
"Prepare every vessel that floats. At dawn, we're at war!" Pat declared. Sri Sumbhajee, the only pirate lord who had not spoken till that point, stood up and in a scary, highly pitched voice announced.
"And so…we shall go to war!"
Jack looked at him as if he was looking at something really peculiar. There was much cheering. With a nod from Barbossa, Ragetti stowed away the pieces of eight. Jack smiled off, with satisfaction. He approached Teague, who looked at him.
"What? You've seen it all, done it all. You survived. It's the trick, innit? To survive?" he asked him.
"It's not just about living forever, Jacky. The trick is living with yourself forever," Teague told him. Jack nodded vaguely. He hadn't actually understood his father's words.
"How's mum?" he asked. Teague held out a shrunken, burnt and charred head. Jack winced. "She looks great."
He turned to find Akira to introduce to his father. She was at the back of the room, sitting with Peter, sharing looks. Pat and Norrington were close by. Jack felt something up his heart.
"Jealous, Jacky?" Teague asked him from behind, observing him.
"I am not," Jack said irritated and walked over to the group.
"Who this gentleman might be, then?" he asked, observing Peter up and down.
"He is Amy's brother," Akira told him. Peter held his hand and after much suspicion, Jack shook his hand.
"Can we please talk alone with Peter?" Akira asked, looking at Jack and James.
"What might you be talking about, luv?" Jack asked her.
"Something personal, Jacky!" Pat teased him. "Let us go, Peter!"
They went away and stood in a corner. Peter looked at Jack and James who were looking at them suspiciously.
"Let us go talk there. It is not like they are going to understand what we talk about, technology and stuff," he said nonchalantly.
"He is right," Akira said. "Jack is suspicious." She raised her hand and called over both of them to where the three were standing.
"How come you are here, Peter?" Akira asked him.
"I was in Alex's living room, I knew she had gone there. I had come to deliver a message from mum. I didn't find anyone so I went near the TV, which was on. To my surprise, there were you two, in the movie itself, changing it so much. I went near, just to observe, and found myself here," Peter told them.
"We couldn't understand any of it. What is a movie? And a TV?" James asked.
"Can't explain, sorry," Pat cut him.
"And how do you plan to go back?" Akira asked him.
"I don't know. When you will, I suppose," he told them. "Now will you tell me, where is that sister of mine?"
"She is with Will. She is safe," Pat assured him. Peter laughed at that.
"So she got her heart's desire," he said.
"Shut up," Akira told him. "Don't laugh. We are in the middle of a war."