Chapter 21:
Pintel and Ragetti, one hand each on the small chest and carrying it between them, ran behind Elizabeth, who was now sitting cross legged and annoyed on the sand, watching Jack, Will and Norrington circling each other off in the distance.
Elizabeth turned to the two as they passed her, surprised. She looked back at the three men as Blake hurried past her as well before Elizabeth got up and ran after the three and the chest.
"Blake!" Elizabeth called and the girl turned to her behind her, coming to a stop.
"Hurry up!" Blake said as Elizabeth reached her.
"Wait!" Blake paused and Elizabeth looked at her. "Why don't you want Jones to be killed?"
"It's a long story." Blake said and she went to hurry after Pintel and Ragetti.
"He's your father isn't he." Elizabeth said and Blake turned back to her, a surprised look on her face.
"How do you know that?"
"Well, he was in love with Calypso wasn't he?" Elizabeth muttered.
Blake took a breath. "Yes, he's my father."
"And he's still hunting you?"
"Anything to spite my mother. He doesn't care about me Lizzie." She turned and moved through the shrubs, Elizabeth following her. "Doesn't mean I should stand aside and let Will kill him."
"But you're helping Jack."
"All Jack wants is to have the Kraken called off from hunting him. After that I could easily take the heart and hide it somewhere." Blake said. "But I can't let Will kill him, nor can I let Beckett control the seas."
Elizabeth frowned.
"First, we need to get it black though." She said. "Before Jones' crew turns up."
"What?"
"How do you think Will got here? The Flying Dutchmen's somewhere off shore. Pintel and Ragetti saw it."
Elizabeth looked worried, but she nodded as they hurried through the trees. Pintel and Ragetti had disappeared amongst them and Elizabeth was looking around with a frown to try and find them.
"How do we find them?"
"This way." Blake said and she led the way through the coconut trees. Elizabeth didn't question how the ombre-haired girl knew where she was going.
The two girls suddenly jumped as there was a giant gong sound that banged and echoed through the forest. They came to an abrupt halt.
"What was that?" Elizabeth asked as Blake was looking in the noises direction.
"There's a church on this island. The boys must be there." Blake thought before she scowled. "The idiots! They're going to give our position away!" She snapped.
Elizabeth looked both worried and annoyed as Black huffed and looked through the trees for the chest and the thieves that took it. She had to get the chest, and then she had to get it away from here, and away from the boys. What was she thinking? Leading so many people to it?
The two girls continued to run through the trees until Blake saw the movement of the dirty dark fabric of the two pirates, and the gleaming black of the chest between them.
"We got it, we got it!" She heard their voices as they cackled.
She narrowed her eyes and hurried, Elizabeth struggling to keep up wth her. The two pirates were snickering to each other, glancing behind them as Blake came in from the side, suddenly skidding to a stop in front of them and making them freeze, worried looks on their faces.
"That doesn't belong to you!" She said as Elizabeth stepped in beside her. She grinned at the two, shaking her head before reaching for her sword. Elizabeth paused and looked down, everyone noticing her sword was gone.
Elizabeth gapped and looked at the two before turning to Blake. The two pirates grinned, and dropped the chest. Pintel and Ragetti both drew their swords superiorly. "Hello poppet." Pintel teased.
Blake took a set back and Elizabeth looked surprised, stumbling backwards with her and away from the two pirates before there was a clanging noise.
The four stopped as an old wooden mill wheel suddenly rolled through the trees beside them. Will and Norrington were running on its top, still engaged in a sword fight, while Jack was running at full speed behind it, trying to catch up.
Blake, Elizabeth, Pintel and Ragetti all gapped at the scene as they disappeared through the trees. Ragetti turned to Pintel who shrugged, both turned back to the girls, where Elizabeth looked worried. Blake however suddenly launched forwards, cartwheeled between the two pirates and picked the chest up as she returned to her feet. The two pirates turned to her, advancing towards her before there was a soaring noise and they all turned as a hatchet suddenly embedded itself into a tree near Elizabeth.
Cries and shouts sounded and they all looked up to see a bunch of people running through the trees towards them, but they weren't any ordinary people, they were covered in slime, barnacles, starfish, coral, broken old rotting parts of ships, as they held axes, swords, fish bones and cannon balls on chains for weapons.
"Shit!" Blake swore at the sight of Jones' crew.
Elizabeth now backed away from the Flying Dutchmen's crew and towards Pintel and Ragetti, who both shoved their swords into her hands and turned to run towards Blake. The girl turned and Pintel and Ragetti reached to pull the chest from her hands as Elizabeth, looking shocked at the swords suddenly in her hands, turned to run after the three.
Glancing constantly backwards at the fish crew gaining on them Elizabeth, the closest to the oncoming assault, screamed, while Pintel and Ragetti ran on either side of a tree. The chest held between them hit the trunk and was yanked from their hands, falling to the ground. Blake, Elizabeth, Pintel and Ragetti all came to a stop and gapped at the chest, now unprotected on the ground, to the oncoming crew.
Blake pulled both her swords out and Elizabeth backed up beside her. Ragetti and Pintel, having no weapon to fight back with, retreated behind the two girls.
Blake glared at the crew and those in front looked at her shocked, coming to an immediate halt before her, which stopped everyone behind them. Blake stood her ground as the Chest stood between her and the Flying Dutchmen's crew, all of which began to cackle as they looked her over.
"Well, well, look what we have here." The crew-member had a hammerhead shark's head, eyes at the front and the sides as he exposed sharp, shark-like teeth when he grinned. "Blake Villemaire."
Blake looked over the crew as they were all snickering and whispering to one another at the sight of her. Pintel and Ragetti stayed behind her as Elizabeth glanced at her.
"You better all turn around and leave before I slice you all to smithereens." Blake's voice cut like acid and sent a shiver down Elizabeth's spine. Some of the fish crew took a step back as her eyes were dark grey like thunderclouds.
The hammerhead only snickered. "Miss Jones, you think you can take us all on?"
"Any day." She returned.
Many of his comrades laughed with him before they launched forwards at the group. Blake took her stance and then dove forwards, avoiding a hatchet and engaging with several opponents while Elizabeth rose her arms, crossing the swords in her hands to block a weapon from striking her, protecting Pintel and Ragetti behind her as she did.
Blake was surrounded before she made a kick that sent two men flying and she managed to duck out from the huddle of cursed pirates. Elizabeth, Ragetti and Pintel however were moving through the trees, and exchanging the two swords between the three of them.
Ragetti was tripped up by a change and cannon balls, protected himself, before Elizabeth shouted for a sword.
"Sword!"
"Sword!"
Elizabeth caught one and threw the other to Pintel, who sliced the chest of a pirate with a wheel of a ship through his body. Elizabeth stopped running and turned to stab another pirate.
"Sword!" Elizabeth threw hers to Ragetti who ducked behind a tree before cutting off the arm of one. Blake tumbled her way beneath a sword, brandished hers to take down two crew members before she summersaulted over to Elizabeth, blocking a sword from hitting her.
"I think you could use this." Blake said and she handed one of the swords to Elizabeth. The former aristocrat grinned and took it before Blake pushed herself to her feet, defended against a few fish, only to pause.
Through the chaos, there was a sailor with a shell around his head, covering half of his face and covered in barnacles. He was looking towards his fighting crewmates, but in his hands was the Dead Man's Chest. He grinned before turning and running.
"No!" Blake pushed her opponent away before she sheathed her sword, clasped her hands together and jumped, smashing her hands into the ground to send a giant thrust of wind away from her. Everyone, including Elizabeth, Pintel and Ragetti, were blown off their feet. Blake took the distraction as her chance and she moved off away from the fight scene, through the trees and after the shell-headed crew member.
He ran, both hands on the chest between the trees and Blake grit her teeth before a coconut suddenly came flying through the air and hit the shell head. The girl came to a rapid stop in surprise. The crew member was knocked off his feet, but more so, his head was knocked from his shoulders. The chest hit the ground with a thud.
Blake turned and saw Jack through the trees, no longer chasing the mill wheel, and with a glance around, it seemed Norrington and Will were no where nearby.
The head of the crew member was shouting out, speaking Spanish as his body got to its feet. "Follow my voice, follow my voice."
Jack however moved for the chest and Blake hurried forwards. He heard her footsteps and turned, pulling out his sword to point it at her. She stopped and looked at it.
"Really?"
He was looking at her unsurely, wearily. "You're not going to attack me are you?"
"Are you trying to kill my father or give Beckett control of the entire seas?" Blake returned.
Jack seemed as though he didn't understand the question. "No?"
"Then no." Blake pushed the sword out of her way and kneeled down beside the chest, sitting it upright on the ground.
Jack crouched beside her and rose a hand to show the key, with two prongs and a circle at the end. The leather strap it had been connected to, was now gone.
"You got it." Blake mumbled.
"Wasn't easy."
"I noticed."
The headless body was stumbling around behind them as the head tried to direct it, before it crashed into a tree. "No, that's a tree."
"Oh shut it." Jack muttered.
He put the key into the lock, and turned. There were several clicks, the lock sprang apart slightly, a ring around it turned and several metal blocks shot out from base of the lid, before it was silent. Jack released the key and he and Blake shared a look, before he reached and pulled the lid slowly upwards.
It was there, in the corner of the chest, red, pink, orange, thumping up and down and slightly slimy. Blake frowned at it, the sight always brought her a sort of pain.
Jack reached into the chest and grabbed the organ, lifting it up. He gazed at it as the thing thumped in his hand before shouts and clanging sounded. Blake looked up and before them was Elizabeth, Pintel and Ragetti, the crew of the Flying Dutchmen still chasing them. Blake hit Jack as she got to her feet and the pirate put the heart inside his vest, and slammed the chest shut. The metal blocks retreated back into the chest as Jack turned and ran off.
"Blake!" The girl looked up to see the sword she'd given Elizabeth flying through the air towards her, which she caught. Pintel and Ragetti both threw their swords to Elizabeth, who caught them before they reached Blake.
Elizabeth stopped and blocked a couple of hatchets before she swiped at the two crew members stomachs. She turned around only to flip the swords under her arms and stab backwards into the chests of the two current attackers.
Blake grinned as she sheathed her sword, while Pintel and Ragetti reached her, leaning down to pick up the now empty chest between them.
The four turned, running back through the forest and for the beach, the fish-men all chasing them, and more importantly, the Dead Man's chest.