Yayy new chapter (just in time for Valentine's day too ;) ) anyway, I hope you guys like this~

POTC is owned by Disney

Barbossa and Jack make it to the ridge, overlooking the ruins of a fort. Sure enough, the Spanish had made camp in the jungle and the fire was a big giveaway. "Jack!"

Jack turned to the sound of her name, and noticed it was Gibbs. She smiled warmly. "Gibbs! I was just on my way to come break you out of jail!" He smiled thinly at her, then she realized after thinking back on it, "You stole my map."

He shrugged.

Barbossa decided to interrupt them. "Best we be starting now."

They made their way through a grove, and Jack hung back with Gibbs while Barbossa led the group. "What's your play, Jack? Throwing in with Barbossa."

Jack stared at the back of Barbossa's head before answering. "Well, there's this guy…"

"When is there not?" Gibbs countered.

He had a point there. "This was the man from Seville." She reprimanded.

"Ah. You pretended to love him, left him, and broke his heart." He said.

"Aye." She said remorsefully. "This is my way of paying him back."

"Since when have you ever felt the need to pay someone back?" Gibbs asked.

"Gibbs, now is really not the time. I really can't be that bad, can I?" Jack wondered. "Can't I ever just do something out of the goodness of my heart without you judging me for it?"

Gibbs shrugged again.

Barbossa turned then, and made a "be quiet" gesture. He then pointed ahead to the fort, which they had just arrived to. "Ah. Stealth over force. I'll take it from here, on account of your... condition." In fact, the sooner she could escape Barbossa and his gang, the sooner she could save Angel from Blackbeard. "You don't get termites, don't you?" She asked, clearly trying to mock him.

He only gave her a plain smile in return. "Appreciate your concern, Jack, I'll be keeping you company, all the same."

She sighed in defeat, as he turned to one of the other members of his crew. This wasn't going to end up in any good at all.

They broke apart from the group, and moved into a position behind some palms. "There, that one." He said, pointing to a soldier standing beneath a canopy. "That be the leader. Take note of his tent, that's where… no, wait! By god, that must be them, right there!"

He was right. They had spotted the chalices already. Jack shifted her weight, prepared to move if she needed to. Barbossa drew his sword, and she just managed to catch a whiff of something strange that drifted on the breeze. She knew it came from his blade somehow. "Your sword smells funny."

Barbossa grinned. "Aye. Poison. From the innards of poisonous toads. Just a scratch, and you'd be dead within minutes."

"Just keep that thing away from me." She said, inching away from him.

"Wouldn't dream of using it on you." He commented. He sheathed the blade, and stared at the palms. Jack decided to ignore the statement.

"What are you doing?" She asked after a moment. He had a strange look on his face as he looked at the trees above and around him, then back at the camp.

"Planning an escape route. Isn't that how you do it?"

"I suppose. Sometimes I just like to improvise."

They approached the ruins of the wall. "All right, then. Now we need to-"

"Ok, you know what? I can't. I have to have them, they're gorgeous."

Jack stormed into the tent, and slipped one of the chalices from the captain of the spanish guard. Barbossa used his crutch to steal the other. When they had the items they came for, they knocked out the guard, and shoved the guard under the table. Barbossa looked to Jack and asked, "Now what?"

She did a double-take, since normally Barbossa didn't ask her things like this. He was actually getting along with her. It was a nice feeling, after all. "We stroll out, slow and steady. Like you belong."

So, they did. They strolled out of the tent, confident. They acted cool and collected. However, Jack messed up on her part by waving at a nearby soldier, soon finding themselves surrounded by the spanish.

They had been stripped of their possessions and tied to a tree together. She didn't necessarily enjoy being this close to him. With their arms bumping into each other, feelings stirred in her stomach that weren't supposed to be there.

"How's the escape route working?" She tried for conversation.

"Here's a chance for you to improvise." He shot back.

She tried to shrug. "Working on it. Might be able to get a hand loose…" She tried to wring her hands free like how she freed herself just before the Kraken devoured her, but to no avail. She then saw that he was reaching for his wooden leg and attempting to unscrew it. "You've got a knife. Good."

"Better."

For a moment, Jack wondered what possibly could be better than a knife in their situation. She watched as he removed a cup from his wooden leg, and poured a liquid drink from it and into the cup. She automatically recognized the drink as rum, and gladly took the cup from Barbossa. Of course, this was after she was able to free one of her hands.

"I can't believe you." She said, teasingly. "Here's to revenge, sweet and clear."

Barbossa drank from his wooden leg. "Revenge?"

She had seen it from miles away, and he was still acting dumb. "Come clean with it, Hector. If you'd wanted the chalices, you'd have seen they were missing and gone. You were lying in wait. For Blackbeard."

"Oh?"

"King George, the privateer, the wig. Cheap theatrical facade. Not buying it." She continued.

He thought about it, and sighed. "You weren't there that night."

Her chest became heavy. "When the Pearl was lost."

Suddenly, he became defensive. "Taken, not lost. We were off the coast of Hispaniola when we came under attack. No provocation nor warning nor offer of parley. We were peppered with cannon fire. And the sea beneath the Pearl began to roil. The Pearl was pitching and yawing violently. So violently we could not maneuver… could not man the cannons… so violently it actually came to my mind to give.. the order." He saw Jack's look, who was blank. "Abandon ship."

She understood him. She had to give the order too.

"But too late. The Pearl began to creak, every plank, every rail, every spar all at once, making a hellish noise like none I have ever heard… and I have heard my share of hellish noises."

She nodded, remembering the Kraken again, shivering this time. "Aye, as have I." She'd prefer not to think about the beast.

He gave her a single look of concern, wondering what she could have possibly encountered. Nevertheless, he continued, "The rigging had come to life. Our own ship, turned against us. Tangling my crew, wrapping around them like snakes. Wrapping around… my leg."

She looked down to the wooden leg in sympathy.

"But my arms were free. My sword was at hand. I am the master of my own ship, not Blackbeard! I am the master of my fate, not Blackbeard! And so I did...what needed done. I survived." Jack gave him back her cup, and he returned it back into his wooden leg, before screwing the thing back into it's harness.

"So you're not after the Fountain?" She asked. Last time she knew him, he was all for gaining immortality what with Isla de Muerta.

He shook his head. "I care not for King George, or tavern yarns that give hope for a healed limb. But I'd give my left arm for a chance with Blackbeard."

"Not your right?"

"Need my good arm to run the poison blade through his heart-"

She grinned. Perhaps she could actually get something out of this renewed partnership with Barbossa. "I'll see you get the chance."

Before he could reply at all, she had wriggled herself free. The ropes loosened around him too, but she was already gone. The spaniards had noticed this as well, yet she was already climbing the palm tree. Eventually she reached the top, and pushed back the fronds to gain a better view. The tree swung in the push of the breeze, but she had no difficulty keeping her balance.

Jack tugged at a coconut, and with the rope she had dragged up with her, she created a bolo.

She swung it to the palm tree ahead of her, and it wrapped around the tree tightly. She pulled back on it, which bended the tree back toward her. She pulls as hard as she can, then she suddenly leaped off the tree using the tension from her bolo to slingshot her towards another palm tree. As she flies through the air, she screams.

She rocked back on the third palm tree, using all her weight and directing it toward another tree. Below, the soldiers spread and fan out, avoiding the coconuts falling from the trees.

She flies from one tree to another, much like a monkey. Her screams are in between delight and horror.

She used the trees to her advantage, confusing the spanish soldiers. Eventually, she is able to use their wits against them and tie them up to a tree. They stared at her disbelievingly, while she only smiled at them and raced away.

Eventually she got caught up with Barbossa and his team. "Sorry, Jack, we lost the Chalices. I've an appointment to keep. There'll be no going back."

She waved at him nonchalantly. "No need. Anyone care for a drink?" She took out the chalices, which she had taken from the guards as she tied them up.

Barbossa grinned. "Bravo, Jack."

They walked through the woods swiftly. Jack knew she had to join back up with Blackbeard, but she had to discuss something before she left. They were well ahead of the group when she decided to bring up the subject. "Hector."

"Yes?" He replied.

"That night at the inn. After we dropped Elizabeth off?" She asked cautiously.

"What about it?"

"I was awake."

He paused, and hesitated. "...Oh."

"I might have...stirrings for you still. So, in a sense, I forgive you." He remained silent, so she wasn't sure it was a good thing. Eventually, they reached a spot in the jungle where she had to depart to meet up with Blackbeard. She was about to leave with Gibbs, when Barbossa took her hand first.

She turned expectantly to him. "What?"

His grip softened, and he lifted her hand to his lips, pressing a kiss onto the back of her hand. She stared wide-eyed, but he only smiled back. "Just remember to take it easy, all right?"

She only nodded, bringing her hand back stiffly. It was just so uncharacteristic and sudden of Barbossa to do something so… chivalric to her. Yet, it felt nice, and When she walked away with Gibbs, she was muttering incoherent words, occasionally rubbing the hand he had kissed.

The last time she reacted like this, was with Norrington on Isla Cruces, which seemed so long ago. She wondered what had happened to him.

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