Author note: Dark chap here folks, and thank you to all my reviewers, love
you all. Last exam tomorrow, I should be sleeping, but hah! Sleep is for
the weak! Long notes: I'll try to keep them shorter in the future if they
are annoying anyone.
SavvyJackSparrow: Thanks, I've actually had that line in my head from the very beginning of the story, and was waiting till the right moment to work it in! but you know I can't kill of Jack, I'm too attached. Mal: Four pieces of cheese cake is never good for you (shakes her head) but then again all I ate today was four cookies, two bottles of coke (yes, you can eat those), a piece of cream and chocolate cake and four stingers (there candy), so I'm thinking, cheesecake is definitely the way to go in the future. If its gunna be cake, its gunna be goooooood cake. Elizabeth Swan/Turner: Pitchforks? Wow, you know how to get a really good mob, not one of those crappy one's with posters you see now a days. Hmm, Ana and Jack fics, well, read Rat's fics (click on the little link in review, I have no idea how to get there otherwise), their amazing, and same goes for Jackfan2 (she's continued one of Rats fics, so read that first) , um, there are some other good ones around but its hard to remember. I'm reading two ones at the moment one by J.L. Dexter and this other fic, that's not Jack and Ana, but its got Jack as a ghost in it by Nightfox the Gypsy. Hope that's some help, I'm so out of the fics at the moment, everything's crazy. Soon I'll sit down and find some good ones, but I've got just no time. Rat: Hope you don't mind me mentioning you there, but your fics seem like such a good base for reading Jack and Ana fics! Jackfan2: Um, don't kill me, but this chapter is in no way going towards the happy ending, and it even stressed me out re reading it, but breathe and remember, Jack is hot, he's bloody stubborn, and he will eventually bully Ana till he gets her back. Breathe. Yes, depositing eh? Sperm banks eh? Well, I had this random thought about female pirates, and that lead to this little side story, and voila, it snuck itself in. Remember: Jack is hot. Well, duh, how could you forget that?
Okay, since I just wrote that, four guys from school rocked up outside my door. Its eleven o'clock on a Thursday night, don't you people have homes? Lol. * * * * * * * * * * * *
Ana-Maria's execution list was remarkably shorter then Jack. But her escape would be no less spectacular. However, she would not have a group of friends desperately pulling her out of the nose, or some loud mouthed oaf to awe the crowd like there had been in Arcadia.
Not that Jack wasn't there. He leant against a post in the back of the crowd, happily chewing on an apple. He began peeling the skin himself with his knife, his eyes watching the faces of the crowd, the passing beggars, but refusing to look at the small girl on the podium.
She was beaten, and limp in the restraints, her eyes rolled upwards like a dying dog. Her face was bruised, and Jack could see where the rope pulled around her wrists was causing old wounds to split open again and that the blood was seeping out slowly in blackened clumps. That alone backed by her almost drunken swoon would have made the old Jack Sparrow wonder if it was worth saving her from the noose. Infection and internal bleeding would have finished her off in a few days, if she'd still been able to die.
But this was not six months ago.
"Jack, what are we going to do?" Will asked, ready for battle. Jack shrugged. Will grabbed his arm, pulling Jack to meet his gaze. "We're not going to let her hang are we?" He said, his eyes widening innocently.
Jack bit down on the apple happily, swaying to his own thoughts. He gestured to the crowd, at the girls in light white dresses that strode past the captain with appraising looks.
"Thing about bloody woman," Jack started, talking to the surly and silent Will. "Is you can't bloody trust em. Not with you're money, you rum, your bloody boat" He pointed at Ana-Maria to prove his point. "Only thing you can trust them with is your dinner, your dick and that they just won't bloody well die."
Will, who couldn't take his eyes of Ana-Maria's slumped form, put his hand to his blade. Jack stopped him, shaking his head, and moving out of the afternoon sun.
"Surely you can't actually mean to leave her there to hang do you?" Will said indignantly. "Not after all we've been through already just to get here." Eve and the Left Hand sat in the bay, flying the sails of merchants. Cargo was being unpacked, and goods bought and sold, but it was for Ana-Maria that they were here.
Jack threw his apple core away carelessly, and pulled out his second bottle of rum. He glanced at the black liquid and smiled slowly. Then he looked up at Will, then at Ana, then at Will's definite face again.
"Listen mate, if that rope kills her, I'll be called Barbossa's scullery maid." Jack said obstinately, crossing his arms. He cocked his head to the side, indicating for Will to listen to a conversation going on between three men. Money was quickly exchanging hands, wagers being made.
"Heard she beat of an entire patrol, all by herself. Got her through the middle with their swords a number of times, sliced her so that she should have bleed to death and been reduced to nothing but black nigger skin." The man spat, the tobacco thick spit landing obnoxiously close to Will's boot. Will took a step back in disgust.
"Yeah, but no one escapes the rope, Granger boy, she'll swing silently like the rest of them."
"She got into the governors jewels I heard." A maid said, a basket of bread under one arm. The old woman by her side shook her head.
"No one got's into the governors jewels. No one could. They're too well protected." The woman said sourly.
"How come they're missing then?" The young girl persisted. The old woman whacked her softly on the back of her head for her impertinence.
"Think logically Agnes. They didn't find no jewels on her, so it can't have been her that took em." The two women moved out of Will's hearing. Will turned around to talk to Jack, but Jack was already moving towards the men who had spoken earlier. The one with a crook eye who had spat earlier gave the pirate at condescending look. Jack put his foot up on the table, and leant on it heavily. He whispered to the two men.
"Heard the girl's really the gem thief known as the Black whore." He put a hand over one mouth. "Sorcerer I heard." The two men squinted at Jack.
"Sorcerer, fools tales." The second man, a baker by trade, said sourly. "You better not let one of the priests catches you saying that, boyo." Jack seemed unmoved by this title, and shrugged. The crook-eyed man shook his head.
"They'd burn her, that be a pretty sight." Said one of them men slowly, and manic grin forming on his face. "Eh?"
"There aren't no bloody sorcerer's or witches, or bloody mermaids." Jack cocked his head at that last one.
"Actually my dear man, there was this one time in." He started, but was cut off.
"Nah, the man might have a point Bill." He said earnestly to his baker companion. "Heard she can't die because she replaced her very heart with metal and gold." Jack narrowed his eyes at that last comment, giving the slumped Ana-Maria a second appraising look. He could see from the way her eyelids fluttered that she was awake.
She was faking it.
"She's saucy alright, look at that Bill." The crook-eyed man said. They all turned around, to watch Ana-Maria spring to life, her arms pushing against her restraints, her eyes bloodshot and wide like a caged animals. She started swearing, cursing everything in sight.
"Got a mouth on her, don't she Granger?" The men cackled.
"You'd trust that with your, um, goods Jack?" Will asked, coming up behind the old pirate. Jack pulled a face, his mouth dropping in a fearful grimace. He looked from Will to the two men and then back again. Jack grabbed Will's arm and pulled him away.
"Ana-Maria's different Will."
"Oh yeah?" Will queried. Jack nodded, striding around the outside of the square, dragging Will with him.
"Aye. Her," He jabbed one dirty finger at the podium. "I'd trust with my rum."
Jack and Will pushed their way to the front of the crowd, and gazed up at the writhing Ana-Maria. An official was still reading out her transgressions in a dull monotone voice. The crowd watching was bored, and drifted in and out of the process. It was a naval town; people were hanged often enough in it so that the actual thrill of the snapping neck had faded. Kids were playing hopscotch, and the smell of rotten fruit drifted from a cart that trundled down the side of the street. Only Jack and Will seemed truly interested in the process.
"Ello love." Jack called up to Ana-Maria, his eyes darkening with mischief and something else, that almost resembled pain. Ana-Maria paused from elbowing her captor in the stomach, and her eyes dropped down to were Jack stood. Jack tipped his new hat at her. Ana-Maria stared down at the two of them wide eyed.
"But you're dead." She whispered. Jack grinned. He always liked to make a shocking entrance.
"Seems you've forgotten one thing love, I'm." Jack started, with a sweeping bow. Ana-Maria cut him off irritably.
"No, no, I figured you make it out somehow, Jack," She said the last words menacingly. "But Elizabeth, she said you were," Ana-Maria said staring at Will, and then broke off and shook her head. "You two are well suited then, neither of you can die when you meant to."
"What do you know of Elizabeth?" Will cried, leaping forward. Ana- Maria laughed in his face.
"Boy, you're still the same. Still hell bent on being a hero."
"Where is she?" Will said softly, his hand on his waist.
"You think you can scare me boy?" Ana-Maria said enticingly. "I'm to hanged, and your threatening me. I've more power then you could imagine."
"Because you stole a trinket from your masters chest." Will said scathingly.
"Master? You call that dog my master? He's closer to the monkey Barbossa named after him." Ana-Maria said, nodding her head at Jack with disgust. Jack rolled his eyes. He'd heard worse. Ana-Maria continued, slightly disappointed that this insult hadn't stung more. "I provided for Elizabeth like you couldn't." She said softly. "You failed her, do you know that? And now she's alone, and you'll have to search the world over for her. Are you strong enough for that?"
"Will, leave." Jack said forcefully.
"Jack no," Will said grabbing his arm. "We need to find out where Elizabeth is."
"I know what we need Will, and I don't need you here." Jack said lowly. "Let me talk to the lass." Will met Jack's eyes, and his lips thinned, but he nodded.
"All right, Jack, I trust you."
"Foolish boy." Ana-Maria said softly. "Trusting a pirate." Will turned and left. Ana-Maria forced a smile, though it was more then a baring of the teeth. "Here we are again Jack." She spat down at him. "Come to save me for old times sake?" She said in a mocking sweet tone. Her captors were pushing her forwards towards the noose. Jack shrugged.
Ana-Maria laughed.
"Don't think the drop'll hurt you all that much." Jack said indifferently, as though they were talking about the weather. Ana-Maria turned her head to the side, smiling slightly manically.
"Ah, so you've heard about my little curse, have you?" Her head was being put through the noose, her hair neatly tied back behind her neck. Will watched the interchange with horror.
"Aye, lass." Jack said. "Would you like some help?"
"Ah, Jack." She said, smiling unnervingly at the executioners. "You think you've got it all worked out. But I wonder." She paused and then laughed derisively. "You appear so calm, but even in the back of your mind, you're worried. What if she's gotten rid of the curse? What if this really kills her? Not much of a conquest is it Jack, seeing me killed by others hands. Do you have a bullet for me, like you had for Barbossa?" Jack grinned, as though he wasn't listening, looking at the people in the crowd. But her words had chilled him.
He nodded, distractedly. Ana-Maria, her head in the noose, ignored the priest who came up and started chanting words before her.
"If I die now Jack, it'll be your fault. You won't ever get another chance to save me." She said temptingly. Jack shook his head.
"How do you know I didn't just come here to see you swing?" He asked, turning his head to squint up at her. Ana-Maria laughed again, straight into the face of the priest before her, who wavered slightly with surprise.
"Talking to demons," The Priest murmured as though Jack wasn't there.
"Because I know you Jack. It's never just about the kill with you. Your one of the good guys remember?" She said scornfully. Then she spat into the priests face. "Do remember what it was like to die Jack?"
Jack remembered well, the feeling of the blade through his stomach, the icy fingers that seemed to reach out and pull on every nerve of his body.
"Aye." He murmured, though she could not hear him.
"Now watch me hang." She said, and the platform feel, and a cracking noise could be heard from were Jack stood, as her neck snapped.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
SavvyJackSparrow: Thanks, I've actually had that line in my head from the very beginning of the story, and was waiting till the right moment to work it in! but you know I can't kill of Jack, I'm too attached. Mal: Four pieces of cheese cake is never good for you (shakes her head) but then again all I ate today was four cookies, two bottles of coke (yes, you can eat those), a piece of cream and chocolate cake and four stingers (there candy), so I'm thinking, cheesecake is definitely the way to go in the future. If its gunna be cake, its gunna be goooooood cake. Elizabeth Swan/Turner: Pitchforks? Wow, you know how to get a really good mob, not one of those crappy one's with posters you see now a days. Hmm, Ana and Jack fics, well, read Rat's fics (click on the little link in review, I have no idea how to get there otherwise), their amazing, and same goes for Jackfan2 (she's continued one of Rats fics, so read that first) , um, there are some other good ones around but its hard to remember. I'm reading two ones at the moment one by J.L. Dexter and this other fic, that's not Jack and Ana, but its got Jack as a ghost in it by Nightfox the Gypsy. Hope that's some help, I'm so out of the fics at the moment, everything's crazy. Soon I'll sit down and find some good ones, but I've got just no time. Rat: Hope you don't mind me mentioning you there, but your fics seem like such a good base for reading Jack and Ana fics! Jackfan2: Um, don't kill me, but this chapter is in no way going towards the happy ending, and it even stressed me out re reading it, but breathe and remember, Jack is hot, he's bloody stubborn, and he will eventually bully Ana till he gets her back. Breathe. Yes, depositing eh? Sperm banks eh? Well, I had this random thought about female pirates, and that lead to this little side story, and voila, it snuck itself in. Remember: Jack is hot. Well, duh, how could you forget that?
Okay, since I just wrote that, four guys from school rocked up outside my door. Its eleven o'clock on a Thursday night, don't you people have homes? Lol. * * * * * * * * * * * *
Ana-Maria's execution list was remarkably shorter then Jack. But her escape would be no less spectacular. However, she would not have a group of friends desperately pulling her out of the nose, or some loud mouthed oaf to awe the crowd like there had been in Arcadia.
Not that Jack wasn't there. He leant against a post in the back of the crowd, happily chewing on an apple. He began peeling the skin himself with his knife, his eyes watching the faces of the crowd, the passing beggars, but refusing to look at the small girl on the podium.
She was beaten, and limp in the restraints, her eyes rolled upwards like a dying dog. Her face was bruised, and Jack could see where the rope pulled around her wrists was causing old wounds to split open again and that the blood was seeping out slowly in blackened clumps. That alone backed by her almost drunken swoon would have made the old Jack Sparrow wonder if it was worth saving her from the noose. Infection and internal bleeding would have finished her off in a few days, if she'd still been able to die.
But this was not six months ago.
"Jack, what are we going to do?" Will asked, ready for battle. Jack shrugged. Will grabbed his arm, pulling Jack to meet his gaze. "We're not going to let her hang are we?" He said, his eyes widening innocently.
Jack bit down on the apple happily, swaying to his own thoughts. He gestured to the crowd, at the girls in light white dresses that strode past the captain with appraising looks.
"Thing about bloody woman," Jack started, talking to the surly and silent Will. "Is you can't bloody trust em. Not with you're money, you rum, your bloody boat" He pointed at Ana-Maria to prove his point. "Only thing you can trust them with is your dinner, your dick and that they just won't bloody well die."
Will, who couldn't take his eyes of Ana-Maria's slumped form, put his hand to his blade. Jack stopped him, shaking his head, and moving out of the afternoon sun.
"Surely you can't actually mean to leave her there to hang do you?" Will said indignantly. "Not after all we've been through already just to get here." Eve and the Left Hand sat in the bay, flying the sails of merchants. Cargo was being unpacked, and goods bought and sold, but it was for Ana-Maria that they were here.
Jack threw his apple core away carelessly, and pulled out his second bottle of rum. He glanced at the black liquid and smiled slowly. Then he looked up at Will, then at Ana, then at Will's definite face again.
"Listen mate, if that rope kills her, I'll be called Barbossa's scullery maid." Jack said obstinately, crossing his arms. He cocked his head to the side, indicating for Will to listen to a conversation going on between three men. Money was quickly exchanging hands, wagers being made.
"Heard she beat of an entire patrol, all by herself. Got her through the middle with their swords a number of times, sliced her so that she should have bleed to death and been reduced to nothing but black nigger skin." The man spat, the tobacco thick spit landing obnoxiously close to Will's boot. Will took a step back in disgust.
"Yeah, but no one escapes the rope, Granger boy, she'll swing silently like the rest of them."
"She got into the governors jewels I heard." A maid said, a basket of bread under one arm. The old woman by her side shook her head.
"No one got's into the governors jewels. No one could. They're too well protected." The woman said sourly.
"How come they're missing then?" The young girl persisted. The old woman whacked her softly on the back of her head for her impertinence.
"Think logically Agnes. They didn't find no jewels on her, so it can't have been her that took em." The two women moved out of Will's hearing. Will turned around to talk to Jack, but Jack was already moving towards the men who had spoken earlier. The one with a crook eye who had spat earlier gave the pirate at condescending look. Jack put his foot up on the table, and leant on it heavily. He whispered to the two men.
"Heard the girl's really the gem thief known as the Black whore." He put a hand over one mouth. "Sorcerer I heard." The two men squinted at Jack.
"Sorcerer, fools tales." The second man, a baker by trade, said sourly. "You better not let one of the priests catches you saying that, boyo." Jack seemed unmoved by this title, and shrugged. The crook-eyed man shook his head.
"They'd burn her, that be a pretty sight." Said one of them men slowly, and manic grin forming on his face. "Eh?"
"There aren't no bloody sorcerer's or witches, or bloody mermaids." Jack cocked his head at that last one.
"Actually my dear man, there was this one time in." He started, but was cut off.
"Nah, the man might have a point Bill." He said earnestly to his baker companion. "Heard she can't die because she replaced her very heart with metal and gold." Jack narrowed his eyes at that last comment, giving the slumped Ana-Maria a second appraising look. He could see from the way her eyelids fluttered that she was awake.
She was faking it.
"She's saucy alright, look at that Bill." The crook-eyed man said. They all turned around, to watch Ana-Maria spring to life, her arms pushing against her restraints, her eyes bloodshot and wide like a caged animals. She started swearing, cursing everything in sight.
"Got a mouth on her, don't she Granger?" The men cackled.
"You'd trust that with your, um, goods Jack?" Will asked, coming up behind the old pirate. Jack pulled a face, his mouth dropping in a fearful grimace. He looked from Will to the two men and then back again. Jack grabbed Will's arm and pulled him away.
"Ana-Maria's different Will."
"Oh yeah?" Will queried. Jack nodded, striding around the outside of the square, dragging Will with him.
"Aye. Her," He jabbed one dirty finger at the podium. "I'd trust with my rum."
Jack and Will pushed their way to the front of the crowd, and gazed up at the writhing Ana-Maria. An official was still reading out her transgressions in a dull monotone voice. The crowd watching was bored, and drifted in and out of the process. It was a naval town; people were hanged often enough in it so that the actual thrill of the snapping neck had faded. Kids were playing hopscotch, and the smell of rotten fruit drifted from a cart that trundled down the side of the street. Only Jack and Will seemed truly interested in the process.
"Ello love." Jack called up to Ana-Maria, his eyes darkening with mischief and something else, that almost resembled pain. Ana-Maria paused from elbowing her captor in the stomach, and her eyes dropped down to were Jack stood. Jack tipped his new hat at her. Ana-Maria stared down at the two of them wide eyed.
"But you're dead." She whispered. Jack grinned. He always liked to make a shocking entrance.
"Seems you've forgotten one thing love, I'm." Jack started, with a sweeping bow. Ana-Maria cut him off irritably.
"No, no, I figured you make it out somehow, Jack," She said the last words menacingly. "But Elizabeth, she said you were," Ana-Maria said staring at Will, and then broke off and shook her head. "You two are well suited then, neither of you can die when you meant to."
"What do you know of Elizabeth?" Will cried, leaping forward. Ana- Maria laughed in his face.
"Boy, you're still the same. Still hell bent on being a hero."
"Where is she?" Will said softly, his hand on his waist.
"You think you can scare me boy?" Ana-Maria said enticingly. "I'm to hanged, and your threatening me. I've more power then you could imagine."
"Because you stole a trinket from your masters chest." Will said scathingly.
"Master? You call that dog my master? He's closer to the monkey Barbossa named after him." Ana-Maria said, nodding her head at Jack with disgust. Jack rolled his eyes. He'd heard worse. Ana-Maria continued, slightly disappointed that this insult hadn't stung more. "I provided for Elizabeth like you couldn't." She said softly. "You failed her, do you know that? And now she's alone, and you'll have to search the world over for her. Are you strong enough for that?"
"Will, leave." Jack said forcefully.
"Jack no," Will said grabbing his arm. "We need to find out where Elizabeth is."
"I know what we need Will, and I don't need you here." Jack said lowly. "Let me talk to the lass." Will met Jack's eyes, and his lips thinned, but he nodded.
"All right, Jack, I trust you."
"Foolish boy." Ana-Maria said softly. "Trusting a pirate." Will turned and left. Ana-Maria forced a smile, though it was more then a baring of the teeth. "Here we are again Jack." She spat down at him. "Come to save me for old times sake?" She said in a mocking sweet tone. Her captors were pushing her forwards towards the noose. Jack shrugged.
Ana-Maria laughed.
"Don't think the drop'll hurt you all that much." Jack said indifferently, as though they were talking about the weather. Ana-Maria turned her head to the side, smiling slightly manically.
"Ah, so you've heard about my little curse, have you?" Her head was being put through the noose, her hair neatly tied back behind her neck. Will watched the interchange with horror.
"Aye, lass." Jack said. "Would you like some help?"
"Ah, Jack." She said, smiling unnervingly at the executioners. "You think you've got it all worked out. But I wonder." She paused and then laughed derisively. "You appear so calm, but even in the back of your mind, you're worried. What if she's gotten rid of the curse? What if this really kills her? Not much of a conquest is it Jack, seeing me killed by others hands. Do you have a bullet for me, like you had for Barbossa?" Jack grinned, as though he wasn't listening, looking at the people in the crowd. But her words had chilled him.
He nodded, distractedly. Ana-Maria, her head in the noose, ignored the priest who came up and started chanting words before her.
"If I die now Jack, it'll be your fault. You won't ever get another chance to save me." She said temptingly. Jack shook his head.
"How do you know I didn't just come here to see you swing?" He asked, turning his head to squint up at her. Ana-Maria laughed again, straight into the face of the priest before her, who wavered slightly with surprise.
"Talking to demons," The Priest murmured as though Jack wasn't there.
"Because I know you Jack. It's never just about the kill with you. Your one of the good guys remember?" She said scornfully. Then she spat into the priests face. "Do remember what it was like to die Jack?"
Jack remembered well, the feeling of the blade through his stomach, the icy fingers that seemed to reach out and pull on every nerve of his body.
"Aye." He murmured, though she could not hear him.
"Now watch me hang." She said, and the platform feel, and a cracking noise could be heard from were Jack stood, as her neck snapped.
* * * * * * * * * * * *