Disclaimer: I don't own any POTC characters, only my OCs.

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Anyway, this chapter is not done well. I'm sorry but I hope that it is interesting at the least.

Keep your shoes on for this one, guys, and enjoy to your heart's content!

Chapter 27: Conversations

"You're a fool," Jared sighed as he looked down on me, his hard hands pressed against the edge of my aching head. Tough fingernails, rough and coarse in their beds, scraped against the sweaty slick of my forehead as it applied pressure against my brain; once again, the pain of the world had devoured my taste buds into dust, catching a thick bitterness in the back of my throat. My eyes still stung with the soreness of before, though now, the tears of grey were gone, only to replaced by a vivid clearness that casted all of the darkened world in a sharp array of contrast. My curls were damp against the soft covers of Jared's bed.

My head was like a throbbing, pus-infected sore.

I wanted to fall asleep and die right there.

Above me, in the middle of all shadows, Jared's azure eyes gazed down at me with a weary glint.

I moaned out my reply with exhaustion.

"What the hell did I do?"

"Be you," was Jared's only answer as he kept the pressure on my sore head, splaying his rough fingers deep into my dank curls and across my sweating forehead, "Only you would have gotten into this sort of trouble." His brilliant blue eyes shone out of the wavering darkness like gleaming sapphires-in the gentle rocking of the ship, shadows danced all around us, the waning moonlight creeping across the room in silver wave-lengths. Figures darted across the blackened ceiling- above me, staring down at me with all attention, my brother looked exhausted, the looming shadows of the bobbing world hooding his blue eyes and gaunting his tanned, brown skin. Weary lines, like wrinkles of age, creased his flawless skin in many folds, making him look, in this bare light, much older then he actually was. At my head, his fingers were weak, his hands sliding over the sweat without much effort at all. His dark blonde hair was black in the never-ending shadows.

Though his eyes were bright still, Jared radiated tiredness and pure exhaustion, his every action slower and his eyes, drooping lower.

It was very late, after all.

With a gulp of bitter and saliva and a heavy, painful sigh, I answered my brother, breathing heavily through my nostrils.

"How…how I was suppose to know that she would pounce on me?" my voice was weak as I gazed back into those blue eyes, my head heavy with ache against the soft sheets, "I didn't see it coming. No one did."

"You're still a fool."

Silence divided us for a while.

Leaning back against the white pillows, I pulled the blankets up towards me, letting the pain and exhaustion of the day sink me further into those soft, silk sheets; I was tired. So unbelievably tired. It was as if I had just hiked the entire height of Mount Everest or something; my bones refused to bulge as I closed my eyes away from the darkness, my aching muscles falling deep into the comforting arms of the soft bed. The blanket was like a warm canopy of slumber-the entire day had exhausted me. The heat, the hike, the drama and then, at last, the panging headache which a convincingly mad demigoddess had given me, all seemed to bore down upon my broken body like a suffocating wrap, pulling me thick into the sea of weariness and ache. My thoughts were tired too-truthfully, sincerely, I just wanted to die there, to fall asleep and never return to this world at all. My lungs shuddered a breath of pure weariness deep within me.

Above me, behind the darkness of my painful, lidded eyes, voices reverberated against harsh wood, spiteful and loud in the quiet of the night.

A yawn retched my lips apart.

After a moment or so, I peeked open an eye, staring at my still brother with outright discontent.

"What time is it?" I croaked, my voice etched with drawing sleep; I wanted to sleep, to fall deep down into that dark shadows. I could not though-the pain of my head, the ache of my brain kept me awake, flooding my body with a fitful restlessness. Even my eyes were still sore from it all.

Curse you, Circe.

Above me, Jared echoed my yawn with one of his own.

"Past midnight, I think," he concluded, not looking anywhere but at me as his fingers pressed deeper against the side of my head, "Everyone else seems to be asleep."

"You can't…can't take that as a judgement, Jared. This is a undead ship…. remember?"

"True…but even zombies need naps, no?"

I offered a weary smile in response.

Nothing was left to be said.

For the next few minutes, Jared continued his campaign my head in silence, his blue eyes focused entirely upon my shadowy face. I ignored his gaze though-sleep tried to draw me in a few times, but the pain always drove it away, like a wrench imbedded in between my subconsiousness. My stomach still roiled beneath my leather bodice as frustration welled within my aching body-I hadn't changed yet, simply because I had been too exhausted and pained to do naught but lie and rest. Dark colours of blue and silver zapped against my faded vision:

Sleep…

Sleep!

I really, really wanted to die.

As the long minutes passed in silence, my senses kept in tune to the world; above our heads, beyond the blackened ceiling, voices still kept at their argument, wild and notorious, clashing against one another with all their might. There were muffled and blurred, and I could barely make sense of them but yet, in the quiet of the night and the strange clearness that the ache brought, I could certainly identify them: There was Barbossa's voice, like splintering wood in his shouts: That was Sparrow, hooting and yelling something in his odd manner: Little Jack was there too, howling in his apian tongue: Bootstrap was shouting something as well, something crude in his wet, raspy voice: Amidst all the noises, I could barely hear Will…

"Drink it," Jared interrupted my aching thoughts, pulling my eyes off the ceiling and back towards his looming, dark face, "There is a little left." One of his hands had abandoned my head; it now held a dirty mug full of diluted red liquid, pouring to the brim. In the gentle rocking of the ship, the liquid sloshed about in the dark hole, creating tiny, red waves along the mugs interior diameter. Streams of faint red trailed down the side of my brother's hands.

I recognised the drink straight away.

"No thanks," I cringed obviously, shaking my heavy head with as much effort as I could gather, "I've had enough." The voices still echoed above our heads. Below us, beneath the floors and floors of wood, the ocean rocked us like a lullaby, swaying the giant ship up and down on its gentle waves. A cool breeze poured in through the partially opened window.

"Joey, Gibbs said-"

"I know what Gibbs said…and I don't want anymore. I'm sick of it."

"Joey, you have a concussion-"

"That's not a proven the-"

"Damn it, Joey!" My brother howled loudly, drawing his other away from my head with a quick snap, his eyes glaring down at me. Fire had returned into those sea-deep pools; the silver light of the pale moon shivered across his tempered face, the shadows….

Oh, whom am I kidding?

My mind was too fogged up to care about how he looked.

Let alone, the world.

Without a reply, I sank back down into the soft pillows as Jared ranted on, his harsh voice biting through the fog of ache with vicious, relentless stabs. Blue eyes, alive with a wild flame, glare down at me with outmost anger and frustration-spit was flying out of his mouth as his anger grew within him, the silver and black of the night spilling across his newly-tempered features. His voice was like loud raps against wood; I didn't bother with a single word as I blinked my eyes lazily, pulling the covers tightly around me. Sleep tried to reel me all over again.

Voices clouded my thoughts.

My tongue was bitter as hell.

My head swarm.

"Do you have any idea what kind of trouble you are in, Joey? You hit your head! Hell, for all we know, you could have massive internal bleeding in your brain-…"

"I told yer before, hector! Circe 's unpredictable 'n there's nothin' I could have done-…"

"Nothin'? Nothin'? You're the reason de she-beast's half crazy in de first pla-…"

"And because of you, Joey got hurt, Jack! Do you have any idea…JOEY'S LYING DOWN THERE BECAUSE OF YOU, YOU ASS-…"

"…and there is no fucking proper medical care anywhere in this god-damn century! None at all! I mean, Jesus, Joey, do you have any idea how serious situation could-…"

"Yer don't dink I tried, you maggot? I reasoned with her, I tried to negotiate, bring back old memories-…"

"Oh, wow, Barbossa! Brilliant idea, reminding her how the lot of you betrayed her, enslaved her-…"

"I did it fer her own good-…"

"You could be dying, Joey, and we might not even know until-…"

"So, in de end, de whole trip was an utter waste! Nothing came out but-…"

" 'Cept de young luv hit her poor little head…It's not de end-…"

"You are all I have left, Joe-…"

"Joey could have died, you-…"

"SHUT UP!" I screamed, letting the sharp shrill tear out of my voice with a sickening, painful lurch. My eyes fell shut against my damp cheekbones-without a thought, I clamped my hands over my ears, blocking out all the sounds that swirled around me like an impending, dooming net. Darkness blinded my entire world.

Silence slowly returned to me, the voices fading away above my clamped ears.

Fingers left my temples.

The pain thumped even more loudly.

The wind kissed me.

Slam!

With a jolt, I pried my eyes open, pulling back my hands from my ears-Jared was gone. In his place was the never-ending darkness, the colours of the sea and night mixing together to create a pale mosaic all over the walls. The wind howled gently against the panel wood. Boots stomped away behind the door at the foot of my bed, marching away into the distance behind the harsh wood; Jared was gone.

He had left.

Great going, Joey.

With a loud groan, I pulled myself upright, trying my very best to ignore the pangs that boomed beneath my skull; it was as if a freaking marching parade was going on inside me. My eyes began to water again as my entire world shifted upright, my stomach lurching as my nose flared. Agitation swirled through me; Jared was probably right about the concussion though. Above me, beyond the hard, dark wooden ceiling, the voices had subsided again, reduced into a soft, muffled chatter that buzzed overhead like an annoying, leeching bee. A monkey's howl punctuated the inaudible conversation-perhaps they had heard my shout. Perhaps that fools of pirates….

It was painful to think.

With a loud heave of breath, I grabbed my legs and swung them around, pulling them out of the blankets and planting them firmly on the floor. It wasn't my body that hurt-no, it was my head, panging, booming, thudding, screaming, shrieking…it took so much of me not to hurl. Bare, cold feet, pale and naked in the darkness touched the black wood gently; the whites of my soft nightgown trickled out of the sheets and down those loose legs, spilling all the way to my ankles. Vivid colours, bright and sharp with the pain stared back up at me in differing contrast; perhaps I should have painted my nails before we came here, with the new blue polish that I had just bought….

It was painful to think.

Without a word, I gazed up from my feet, looking across the darkened room; at the other side of the room, hidden in the dark shadows and in the folds of my blue blanket was Scarlett, her vibrant red hair splayed across my pillow like a gorgeous fan. Above her, the brilliant blue blanket moved up and down slowly, like the gentle lapping of waves on a quiet sea. A spot of moonlight shined down onto her bare feet; her face was completely hidden in the darkness but it was only obvious that she was asleep, her soft breathing matching the calm rolling of waves that rocked beneath us. After all, she had been the first to fall asleep; after helping brew Gibbs' little remedy and helping Jared tend to me, the petite red head had fallen asleep on my free bed, her gentle figure curling up into the blankets like some kind of contented dog. I didn't blame her though; it was an exhausting day.

Even if I couldn't sleep.

It was painful to think.

Pulling my eyes off Scarlett's sleeping form, I reached forward in the dark; sitting on the small round table, in the centre of the room, was Albert, his red bandana glowing brilliantly in the pale light. Dark, ominous eye sockets gleamed out of the darkness as he stared back at me, his sickly bone like glowing white gold in the waning moonlight; without a word, I reached forward and pulled him off the table, holding the decapitated skull by the knot in the red bandana.

My head screamed at the loss pressure of Jared's fingers on my head.

My eyes watered again.

Sorry, Albert.

I shouldn't be walking.

That much I knew.

Yet, despite it all-the pain, the nausea and the sleepiness- I was there, standing on the lonesome deck of the Flying Dutchman, swaying to the gentle swooping of the deep black sea. It was one of those days-in the daylight, the world had been a scorching fire, pressing down on us mortals in an unforgiving, relentless passion. Everything seemed to burn to crisp under the fiery eyes' gaze; but now, in the dead of the black night, everything was just right, the gentle wind breathing down upon the world and cooling it off with a refreshing rinse. The weather was perfect; tiny flecks of seawater sparkled the night air like gleaming diamonds as the breeze played with them, the waning moonlight of the setting crescent gleaming across the world in a haunting pale beauty. Up above, in the black midnight sky, diamonds of stars winked down at the earth, brilliant constellations of gleaming silver swooping across the dark, never-ending abyss. The air tasted like freshly-brewed salt; up above, a patch of pure black loomed over the stars, staining the world with soot and smoke as it grew and bulged away. Silver-lined waves crashed against rock in the near distance.

My bandana-ed head still swarmed like crazy in the lapping silence of the night.

A silence that embraced the world in a beautiful blanket.

A world that was devoid of any human life.

In retrospect, that is.

"You should be resting, Joey," Will's voice called from the prow of the dark, ghost ship, soft and smooth in the creasing darkness. Weariness edged at the corners of his calm, muffled tenor; he was standing on the bow of the ship, looking out into the impending darkness as his dark curls caught the silver of the moon in their giant ringlets. His hard lined, tensed back stared at me as he leaned out against the wooden barrier, loose, darkened hands dangling over the lapping sea like limp, lifeless puppets. The breeze was tugging at his silver-lined curls; he was as usual, dressed in a loose pale shirt that shied off his hard body in an airy attire. Black metal boots blended into the dark wood, as if he was rooted into place like a strong, unbreakable oak of fine muscles. Off to the side, in the soft sweeping of the waves and the tantalizing smell of the ash cloud, the other two ships rocked silently, their dark decks completely devoid of any life.

Well, if you excluded me, the same could be said for this one too.

After all, wasn't Will suppose to dead?

And you think God would be merciful when it came to your love life.

Or lack of, apparently.

Leaning back against the wooden stairs, I gave out a weary sigh.

"So should you. It's been a long day."

"True…but I wasn't the one who was attacked by a mad demi-goddess."

"Attack…" I let my voice trail as I focused my weary eyes onto the undead Captain's white-clad back, trying my very best to ignore the drum that boomed beneath my skull and behind my eyeballs "You people make it sound like she mauled me or something." Behind me, the wooden banister that led up to the helm was ice-cold; the floor was icy too, as if someone had sprayed a layer of frost over everything as the roiling sun had set so many hours ago. The pale-white of my nightgown kissed against my ankles as the breeze danced with them, shying them against my chilled, bare skin as it hugged onto my curves with piteous jealousy. Cold fire, etched with the scornful pain, crept up my spine; at the bow, sketched against the liquid black of the looming island, Will's rigid shoulders tensed slightly.

Albert's red bandana, the one I had wrapped around my head to apply pressure, truly did little to take off the pain.

"She pounced on you, Joey. That mad witch pushed you down and-"

"Gave me a headache," I finished for him, rolling my eyes helplessly at his silent, foreboding back, "She jumped on me and gave me a headache…honestly, dude…it's no big deal."

"She's crazy, Joey. Off her mind."

"Aren't we all?"

"You don't get it…" his voice trailed into the wind as he spoke again, his rigid back slightly turning towards me, his dark, loose curls sliding across his white-clad shoulders like a drifting tide, "You don't… I told you not to go, Joey. I told you not to go with them-"

"I never do as I'm told-"

"Which is so infuriating-"

"It was my choice, Will-"

"Your choice? Your choice? When are you going to realise that on this ship, on my ship-"

"You didn't tell me she was crazy-"

" I didn't have to say anything! You should have just listened-"

"What the fuck is this really about, Will?" I practically screamed, ignoring the booming within my skull as my noise tore out my throat with a hard, painful wrench. The cold, black abyss above swallowed up my voice in its wide embrace; before me, limed against the shifting mosaic of black and silver, Will's face was half-turned in my direction, his sharp, perfect profile rimmed with the shivering silver of the setting moon. Dark curls, held around by a black bandana, shifted into the dark shadows behind his back as one, singular brown eyes gazed over at me, his high cheekbones sharp with a starling, pale white. His loose white shirt seemed to glow along with the medallion at his bare chest, the gold amulet but a disk of bright white-gold from my viewpoint. Blackness consumed half of him, while the silver of the dwindling moon lit up against his tanned, harsh skin. Pops of muscles jumped at the side of his jaw.

He was, as usual, beautiful as ever.

The bandana on my head was beginning to itch.

"Where did you get that bandana from? Sparrow?"

"Will, don't change the subject!"

"What subject? There is none-"

"You're upset with something," I snapped him off, folding my white-clad arms across my heaving chest, "And you're taking it out on me with this stupid tongue-lashing about how I never listen to you!"

The wind shuffled a little harder.

"In my defence, you really, really, never do listen-"

"WILL!"

"Alright!" Will swivelled fully towards me, his beautiful dark brown eyes leaping with a sudden, vicious fire as his curls swung at his fierce movement, "Alright!" The cold moonlight, so frail in the suffocating dark, glowed against his newly-turned back; muscles popped away at his jaw as he glared at me from across the darkness, his hands knotted at his side in tight clenches. Streams of vein popped along the biceps of his lower arms with might as those dark, dark eyes met mine over the shadows-silver-touched curls coyed gently against his hard face as the sudden anger wounded him tightly. His shoulders were high and rigid against his shaking curls.

Below us, the sea whispered its soft, sweet song.

My eyes were beginning to water again.

Mood swing, much.

With an exaggerated sigh, I pulled my eyes off his anger-tempered ones to gaze down at my bare feet.

"Alright what?"

"You're right. I'm furious."

"I didn't say-"

"I'm mad!" His voice rose high into the air, the shadows of the dead night creeping up on him and hiding his tensed figure beneath is folds, "I'm bloody raging…I'm at the ends of my wits-"

"Will-"

I didn't get to say anymore for at that moment, a loud crack vibrated through the whispery air, like the crashing of ships-with an audible gulp and a surprised jump, I looked up from my cold feet, towards the monument of a man who stood limed against the moon-tinged darkness beyond. Silver glowed behind him like a majestic glow; in the single moment it had taken me to utter his name, Will had turned around again and punched the low wall of the bow, striking it at the corner when the diverging wooden panes met at the very tip. His right hand was a flash in the darkness-I caught my breath as the wood groaned under his sudden fist, snapping through the cool air like the cracking of bone. Before us, in the looming darkness ahead, the waning moonlight of the setting moon seemed to lick over the black slab of the island, gently highlighting the curves of the dark canopy and the slick surface of the granite tower of the volcano. Something fiery flickered in the black, black ash cloud above.

My hand patted the red bandana tied around the top of my head as I gulped back inaudibly, my heart panging along with my head.

The sea rocked all three ships calmly, bobbing us on its gentle waves.

My eyes kept on Will's back.

I wanted to puke.

"Will…."

"You don't understand, Joey," his voice dropped low as he kept his back to me, his white-clad shoulders high and tight against the glowing silver as his fist withdrew slowly back towards him, "You don't get it all. None of it-"

"Let me guess," I couldn't help but sigh, tightening my hands across myself and rubbing my roughened hands along the creams of my arm, "You hate Sparrow. And Barbossa, really." My eyes kept onto his tight, rigid back, my hair swopping across my cold shoulders; my head was screaming like hell and there was absolutely nothing to with it. Agitation slowly bubbled within me; for some reason, I was beginning to get irritated, what with the darkness swelling around me like a blinding, impenetrable net and Will, overall. The cord tightened within my chest; I didn't want to here really, alone with Will on the darkness on the late night-

"I don't-"

"Funny, I thought they won't that hard to hate…Sparrow, anyway-"

"Circe was the only option, Joey," Will had raised his head, staring out into the silver-licked sea and the darkened island and volcano, his hard voice betraying no emotion as shoulders drew to a complete straight, "She was the only way."

"To the Fountain of Youth?"

"To Elizabeth and my son."

My heart stopped dead.

As the wind whispered against us, calling us to its bidding, we just stood there, two separate entities caught in two different worlds, divided by the giant void of darkness between us. My blood chilled at the name; Will just stood there, his back to me, staring out into the shimmering darkness without a single movement or sound. His dark curls glistened with silver again, shaking gently in the breeze upon his pale-clad, firm shoulders. The darkness seemed to consume him, all over again.

Something dark and horrid tore at my still, dead heart, gnawing with gnashing, blood-tipped fangs.

I really, really wanted to puke.

"I understand."

My voice was barely a whisper.

Somehow, though, Will heard me just fine.

In a voice almost as low as mine, muffled away by the licking waves and by the leeching winds, Will answered.

"Of course you understand…you're Joey, after all."

It was as that moment that I realised what I had to do.

TA-DA!

END OF CHAPTER!

Ok, honestly, this chapter was horrible. I am really not proud with it and I should have paid more attention to it, only that I was too excited to write the next one. Really sorry, though!

Anyway, I need some sort of advice from you guys; please let me know if the story plot overwhelms you guys now. This is because I am going to add a new element to the story, the thing with Joey's destiny. I was thinking about starting it in the next chapter. So please, PLEASE, tell me if you want the new element to be introduced in the next update or if it is too soon.

In the end, thanks for all the reviews and look out for the next chapter! THANKS!

XOXO