The two pirates, one a captain and the other a traitor, thrust and parried. With Manchot now a corpse and Ceppo having disappeared into the melee on the main deck and elsewhere, Jack and Adder were the only ones fighting at the helm. Adder yelped in surprise when the former was able to knick him lightly across his cheek.
"Where is it, ye yellow-bellied shark!" Jack roared as he began a series of offensive strikes.
Adder defended against the flurry and began to counterattack. "I've no idea wot yer talkin' 'bout, mate," Adder threw Jack's words back at him.
Jack bared his teeth in aggravation. "I know you've got the Mermaid's Tear, so stop actin' as stupid as ye look!" he fired back. Jack eyes followed Adder's free hand as it unconsciously patted a bulging leather bag that was tied to his belt. With more determination, Jack began to fight harder to retrieve it. Even though Jack didn't have the skill his son possessed (which the boy obviously got from his mother's side), Jack was a much more competent swordsman than Adder. Jack stabbed the latter's leg, and when he was about to deliver the final blow, an object producing a loud whistling sound slammed into the portside of the ship, rocking the vessel, even as more of these same objects - cannon balls - joined the first one into the dark wood. The fighting men of both pirate ships turned to face the portside and saw, to their surprise, a third ship was floating on that side. Now, Adder's ship was surrounded on both sides without any chance of easy escape. What was more, the crew of this third ship began to pour onto Adder's already battle-ravaged deck.
Jack spotted the captain of this third familiar-looking ship before he saw its name written elegantly on the vessel's side. In the peripheral vision of his eye, as he still fought Adder, Jack saw Michael Turnbull at the helm of the Black Rose, directing his men and simultaneously arguing with his first mate about something only they knew. As before, the first mate's wide-brimmed hat obscured the majority of its owner's face.
The next thing Jack knew, he saw Michael's first mate swinging towards the helm where he and Adder still fought on. With Adder soundly distracted because of Jack, the first mate swiftly ran at behind him, took out a dagger, and cut away the bag holding the Mermaid's Tear. Jack and Adder immediately stopped fighting one another and looked at this newcomer, who was now standing atop a highest railing of the helm above them. Jack could make out the chapped lips of Michael's first mate smirking down at them as the prized glass orb was held out in the open in one hand, the cutlass in the other. "I believe this is mine, boys," the first mate declared before sheathing the cutlass and began climbing up to the masts. With one desperate look at the other, Jack and Adder quickly climbed onto the rigging in hot pursuit of the thief.
"Hurry! Hurry! We're missing the fighting!" Sirena impatiently cried. Her arms were slung over the shoulders of Robin and Isabella, both of whom were painstakingly laboring to carry her body out from the hatch between them. Sirena's long, blue tail was bumped and dragged over the crooked wooden stairs leading up to the main deck. "Ow! Watch it! You're carrying this side too low," she scolded Robin when he almost slipped off the last step.
"We're here to rescue you, not bring you outside for an entertainment show," Robin grumbled. He squinted his eyes as the bright sunlight greeted the trio. The sounds of metal on metal, metal on skin, and skin on skin rang through his ears, with the thought of the last one slightly sickening his stomach.
From the mermaid's other side, Isabella suddenly laughed. "Oh look, I see Zanka over at the bow!" she exclaimed. Her two companions looked. They watched as Zanka proceeded to drop to his feet, slide under his opponent's wide-set legs, and then pull the pirate's pants down.
Robin cheered for his best friend. "Go Zanka!" he shouted.
The older boy spun around towards the source who called his name. He smiled widely when he spotted Robin. Zanka was able to bow mockingly before the pirate had time to pull up his pants and resume fighting the tall Negro boy.
Sirena gasped loudly, making both Isabella and Robin jump in surprise. "Look, there are people fighting on the masts above us!" she excitedly cried. Sirena's fishy tail began to wag like a dog's would, and it took Robin minutes to make sure he wouldn't drop her until he could look up at the fighters, two of the three he recognized; one of the two he knew very well. "Dad?"
Jack Sparrow, with Adder close behind him, cornered Michael's first mate on the main mast. The vessel rocked from time to time with the cannon fire, yet the experience that these three pirates carried made that part of the situation merely a triviality. The first mate's back was towards the crow's nest and the Mermaid's Tear held outstretched to the side, out of reach to the other two pirates.
"Give up the orb and we'll let ye go," Jack warned.
"Speak for yerself, mate," Adder growled as he pointed his cutlass menacingly at their adversary.
From under the hat, the first mate smiled wickedly. Adder and Jack's eyes began to watch as the glass orb was tossed up and down repeatedly. "Only if you're quick enough to catch me first." Michael's first mate turned towards the first mast and front flipped off the main mast. In the process, the wide-brimmed hat flew off.
Adder and Jack watched as long, raven-black hair flew wildly behind Emelia Kraven as she slid down the mizzen mast's top canvas sail. "Yer letting the broad get away!" Adder roared at Jack. Adder quickly jumped off the main mast as well in hot pursuit. Jack, however, was stunned into immobilization as he watched the mother of his only child shimmy down the mast, and then meet Adder with her cutlass on the main deck.
"MUM??"
Jack was shocked out of his daze by that single, astonished exclamation from Robin. Jolted into action, he too used the same way the other two pirates had used to get down. When Jack finally landed on the main deck, he immediately sought out Adder.
Robin was in as much shock as Jack had been when the hat had fallen off the mysterious pirate to reveal his mother. She did not wear the same pirate clothes as she had worn that one night in Barbados long ago. Instead, she wore loose men's clothes that, on any other woman, would have impeded her swordsmanship. If anything, Emelia Kraven moved just as gracefully and with all the same deadliness she was fighting against Adder when Jack Sparrow jumped in by her side.
Jack and Emelia thus pushed Adder back. Both spied a coil of rope behind Adder, and assessing the random pirates swinging around the sails, they forced Adder over to the rope. Em spun around and slammed her cutlass blade down on a tied line on the ship's railing. An anguished cry from above signaled that someone who was swinging on a rope was now falling back to Earth, while another cry came from Adder as his leg was caught by the coil of rope. He was hoisted five feet high up in the air by his ankle. However, this did not stop him from still swinging his cutlass as if he could still hit anyone and letting swearwords fly from his mouth.
Robin's grip on Sirena slackened. The mermaid ended up toppling onto the rough wooden deck. Before she could open her mouth to yell at the shocked boy, a high-pitched, screeching sound cut through all noise and reverberated throughout the whole battling company. This finally got a response from Robin. "What the bloody hell is that?" he shouted. The ear-splitting sound stopped as soon as it had started; only to be replaced by thunderous sounds of what seemed as many things coming out from the water around the perimeter of the three pirate ships.
Robin lowered his hands from his ears and drew his cutlass, sick with anticipation and whatever new turn of events is coming. Suddenly, cold, wet arms grabbed his arms from behind. With the strength of an ox, his captor forced him to drop his cutlass and locked his arms behind his back. Robin noticed by how quickly his back was becoming wet and the widening puddle of salt water he slipped on that the person holding him was drenched through and through. No matter how much he struggled from the vice-like grip, he couldn't break free. Robin heard Isabella scream as she too was grabbed from the unknown source, and he redoubled his efforts. "Isabella!" he shouted. "Let go of her you slimy-"
"Shut up, you fool!" Sirena hissed from between them. Strangely, she was not being held down, although this could be in part that she was already immobile because of her tail. What was even more peculiar about her situation in Robin's eyes was that she had her head bowed low, as if she was trying hard not to be recognized by any of the newcomers.
Robin lifted his head and looked around. Everywhere, the pirates were being held down or at sword point. The bodies of the men who had been swinging amid the ships' masts were now laying on the ground, all with expressions of horror on their faces, the same expressions their living counterparts were wearing now. The people who held everyone were wild-looking warrior women, only, the equivalent of feet for these warriors were long fish tails. It was a wonder and, secretly, an amazement to Robin that they could stand upright and not fall over.
"Who stole the Mermaid's Tear?" an imperious voice boomed over the captured and their capturers. All eyes turned their attention towards a tall figure who had just boarded Adder's ship with the help of two of the mermaid warriors. "Queen Sirene," Sirena squeaked fearfully. And the imposing figure of half fish and half human definitely held herself upright regally, if her marble-pink coral crown amidst the seaweed on her hair wasn't indicator enough. Her icy blue eyes pierced everyone to the core as she visually searched out the prized treasure.
Jack, who had ended up with the orb, surreptitiously slid the orb inside his faded red sash just as Adder suddenly spoke out from his place still up in the air.
"Oi, ye, mermaid!" he called, waving his hands madly.
Queen Sirene slowly turned her head upwards to see the hanging pirate better. "You dare address me as such, human?" she said softly. It was the dangerous tone of her voice, and not the threat, that sent chills down everyone's spine.
However, Adder was oblivious to the danger. He stopped waving his hands, and although he was red in the face with his blood steadily collecting in that single body part, he was able to pull off a smug look. Pointing towards Jack Sparrow, he shouted, "'E was the one who took yer bloody treasure! I 'ad nuthin' ta do wit it!"
The queen mermaid turned towards Jack, who smiled at her cheerfully with familiarity. She turned back towards Adder. In a contemptuous voice, she said, "Then I guess we have no need of you."
Robin quickly closed his eyes against the gasps and Isabella's shrieking that came after Queen Sirene drew the swordfish skeleton hanging from her waist and swiftly decapitated Adder's head. Unfortunately, Robin could not keep himself from also hearing the sickening sound of Adder's head falling dully onto the ship's deck. The taste of bitter bile rose up in the back of his throat.
"Robin."
The boy slightly cracked his eyes open and immediately found his mother staring at him with concern written all over her face. She saw, as he already sensed, the paleness his own face had gone, and she must have sensed, as he felt first-hand, how he was very close to throwing up. Don't look up, she was mouthing urgently. She was also being restricted by a mermaid warrior. Em saw the worry in his eyes and smiled dryly. Don't worry, she assured him.
Her calm demeanor slightly infuriated Robin. Beside him, Isabella was quietly sobbing. The rest of the men were as tense and-or sick of fear as he felt right now. How could she just coolly stand there and be all right with this situation?
The mermaid queen turned her head towards Jack Sparrow and held her out hand. "Hand me the Mermaid's Tear, Jack," she coldly demanded.
Jack shook off the warrior who had, all this time, been trying to contain him. "Go clean up or something," everyone heard Jack tell him before sashaying over to the warrior's queen. "Hello again, Sirene," he greeted her cheekily. Despite the intensity of the situation, to everyone's growing amusement, he bowed demurely in front of her. "What is this you are talking about?" he asked politely. "The Mermaid's Tear?"
"Do not play coy with me, Sparrow," Queen Sirene snapped, the first time she expressed any emotion other than aloofness. She took her swordfish and placed the sharp tips at the base of his throat. "I have long been accustomed to your tricks."
Jack feigned offense. "Tricks? My darling, I haven't a clue what you are speaking of. I have only the highest regards for you and yer underwater brethren."
The queen's stony face did not change an inch. "Be that as it may," she conceded, "I know the treasure has been stolen. And it would seem most conceivable that three pirate ships were battling over one another for a most prized treasure than fighting amongst each other for territory of the sea." She said this last part with hatred, as if anyone had the impudence to claim the ocean as their own.
Jack shrugged his shoulders sheepishly, knowing full well he, and everyone for that matter, had been caught. He reached into his Turkish sash and extracted the Mermaids Tear. However, instead of handing it right away to the mermaid queen, he brought the orb close towards his chest, cradling it as he would a babe.
"Jack," Em suddenly spoke up. "Don't give it to her!"
"Shut up, woman!" someone in the background roared. "Ye'll get us all killed!"
Jack turned his head towards his former lover just as Queen Sirene moved her sword perpendicularly to the base of Ems neck. "Silence, Kraven," she ordered.
Robin began to struggle again. "Don't hurt her!" he shouted angrily.
Jack started forward, but was held at bay as the cold queen pressed her sword harder onto Em's neck, drawing a thin line of blood. "Move and she dies," she warned. "And I dare say, it won't be an easy death for her."
In the barest of movement, Em moved her head from side to side. "Don't give up the orb to her, Jack," she whispered.
"Wait!" Isabella abruptly screamed. The intensity she expressed surprised her captor, who accidentally slackened their grip on her. The girl was able to solidly elbow the warrior in the gut and pull out of their restraint. "We saved a mermaid!" Isabella roughly grabbed Sirena by her upper arms and practically dragged her in front of the mermaid queen, who was regarding her daughter in the human girl's hands with a stunned look. When Isabella let go of Sirena, the young mermaid smiled sheepishly up at her queen. "Um, hello Mother," she giggled nervously.
Robin's jaw dropped as well as the jaws of many others.