Hello my lovely readers! I hope this was out soon enough. Thanks to all my reviewers...I love you guys :). And thanks to my E-Hating friend and beta reader Ninavs2
"It seems our dear William has escaped." Jack said as Ama walked toward him. He eyed her suspiciously. "You wouldn't know anything about that would you?"
Ama glared at him. "Don't ya be accusin' me of anythin' Jack Sparrow. The keys to his cell are right..." She trailed off as she felt her empty pockets. Jack raised his eyebrows. "I swear it was just here."
"Ah, well. Nothing great was lost." He put his arm around her shoulders and steered her to the front of the ship. "I believe we have reached our destination."
Ama couldn't believe it. She had only heard of stories, but never had she come here. "Shipwreck cove." She whispered.
"Look alive, and keep a weather eye! Not for naught it's called Shipwreck Island, where lies Shipwreck Cove and the town of Shipwreck." Gibbs yelled to the crew.
Pintel glared at everyone. "You heard him. Step lively!"
Jack looked at Ama. "For all that pirates are clever cobs, we are an unimaginative lot when it comes to naming things."
"Aye." She nodded.
"I once sailed with a geezer lost both of his arms and part of his eye." Jack said to both Gibbs and Ama.
Gibbs looked at Jack curiously. "And what'd you call him?"
"Larry."
Ama stared at him confused, before a sharp pain in her stomach made her flinch.
"Captain Swann!" Gibbs ran over to her and tried to steady her.
"I'm alright," She tried to convince him, but failed miserably as yet another sharp pain took her over. She screamed in agony.
"Oi! Get some water for Miss Swann." Gibbs yelled at Marty. The little man nodded and ran to get a pale. "Here sit Miss Swann." It was then that Gibbs realized he was using the wrong name. "I mean Mrs. Turner."
Ama shook her head and tried to stand. "That is not my name. Ah!" She screamed again in pain. "Where is the Tia Dalma when I need her."
"Calypso, is downstairs." Barbossa said as he handed her a pale of water.
Ama looked up at him in shock and horror, momentarily forgetting her pain. "Calypso?"
Barbossa nodded. "Aye."
Ama closed her eyes and took a sip of the water, calming her disturbed stomach. She paused for a moment and took a deep breath. "Gibbs move,"
Gibbs was taken aback. "What?"
"MOVE!" She screamed before pushing him and throwing up where he had just been sitting. She coughed and spluttered.
"Not on me ship." Jack groaned looking at her with disgust. He walked away mumbling about women and all their problems.
"Are you alright Miss?" Marty asked cautiously.
Ama nodded. "I feel better now." She stood with the help of Gibbs, having no idea of how she could have gotten so sick. "I shall go change, for the meeting." And with that, she dissapeared below deck.
--
Ama emerged from below twenty minutes later, her eyes lined with dark Kohl, wearing a fresh pair of slacks and a white loose gentleman's shirt.
"Look at them all!" Pintel said in awe, pointing to all the ships gathered at Shipwreck Cove.
Barbossa nodded. "There's not been a gatherin' like this in our lifetime."
Jack grimaced. "And I owe them all money."
Ama looked at all of them. "Shall we go in then?"
--
Barbossa angrily banged a cannonball on the table where all the pirate leaders of the world were gathered. "As he who issued summons, I convene this, the fourth Brethren Court. To confirm your lordship and right to be heard, present now your pieces of eight, my fellow cap'ns."
Ragetti began walking around, holding a hat as everyone dropped in something small.
Pintel looked strangely at the items. "Those aren't pieces of eight, they're just pieces of junk."
Gibbs nodded. "Aye, the original plan was to use nine pieces of eight to bind Calypso, but when the first court met, the brethren were to a one, skint broke."
"So change the name."
"To what? 'Nine Pieces of Whatever We Happened to Have in Our Pockets at the Time'? Oh yes, that sounds very piratey."
Barbossa turned to Ragetti. "Mr. Ragetti, if you will."
Ama looked at the strange pirate, and wondered as to what he had to do with the nine pieces of eight.
"I kept it safe for you, just like you said when you gave it to me."
"Aye, ya have, but now I need it back."
Barbossa hit Ragetti on the back of the head and his wooden eye popped out. Ama's eyes widened. "All that time..." She was in shock as Barbossa put the eye into the plate.
Eduardo Villanueva, the Spaniard pirate lord, looked outraged at seeing Jack. "Sparrow!"
"Might I point out that we are still short one pirate lord, and I'm content as a cucumber to wait until Sao Feng joins us."
Suddenly, the room turned to see a familiar face. "Sao Feng is dead. He fell to the Flying Dutchman." Elizabeth announced to the shocked room of people.
Ama almost felt sad that her former master had perished.
Jack looked at Elizabeth. "And made you captain? They're just giving the bloody title away now."
Ama could feel a certain amount of jealousy toward her sister. That title had been promised to her many a year ago.
"Listen. Our location has been betrayed. Jones is under the command of Lord Beckett, they're on their way here."
The pirate lord of the Atlantic Ocean stood. "Who is this betrayer?"
Barbossa turned to him. "Not likely anyone among us."
"Where's Will?" Elizabeth asked looking around. She avoided her sisters eye.
Ama glared. "Not among us."
"And it matters not how they found us. The question is, what will we do now that they have?"
"We fight!"
Mistress Cheng looked at everyone under her eyes. The woman had a glare unlike any other. "Shipwreck Cove is a fortress, a well supplied fortress. There is no need to fight if they cannot get to us."
Barbossa nodded his head. "There is a third course. In another age, at this very spot, the first court captured the sea goddess, and bound her in her bones. That was a mistake. Oh, we tamed the seas for ourselves, aye, but opened the door to Beckett and his ilk. Better were the days when mastery of seas came not from bargains struck with eldritch creatures, but from the sweat of a man's brow and the strength of his back alone. Y'all know this to be true. Gentlemen, ladies. We must free Calypso."
Captain Ammand stood and pointed at Barbossa. "Shoot him!"
"Cut out his tongue!"
Jack egged them on. "Shoot him and cut out his tongue, then shoot his tongue. And trim that scraggly beard."
Tai Huang glared at everyone. "Sao Feng would have agreed with Barbossa."
Jocard glared right back. "Calypso was our enemy then, she will be our enemy now."
Chevalle nodded. "And it's not likely her mood's improved."
Villanueva shook his head. "I would still agree with Sao Feng, we release Calypso!"
Chevalle looked insulted. "You threaten me?"
"I silence you!"
Everyone began to yell and throw things at each other from that moment on. It was as if a bomb had gone off in the room.
"This is madness!" Ama screamed.
Jack turned to her. "This is politics."
Elizabeth turned to them. "Meanwhile our enemies are bearing down upon us."
Barbossa sighed. "If they not be here already."
In anger Ama stood on top of the table and fired her gun. Everyone looked at her in silence. She turned to Barbossa and nodded her head. "They're all yours."
"It was the first court what imprisoned Calypso, and we will be the ones to set her free, and in her gratitude she will see fit to grant us boons."
Jack looked around. "Whose boons? Your boons? Utterly deceptive twaddlespeak, says I."
Barbossa glared at him. "If you have a better alternative, please, share."
"Cuttlefish. Let us not, dear friends, forget our dear friends the cuttlefish. Flippant glorious little sausages. Pen 'em up together and they'll devour each other without a second thought. Human nature, isn't it?...or... or...fish nature. So yes, we could hole up here well provisioned and well armed and half of us would be dead within the month, which seems grim to me any way you slice it. Or, as my learned colleague so naively suggests, we could release Calypso, and we can pray that she will be merciful. I rather doubt it. Can we in fact pretend that she is anything other than a woman scorned, like which fury hell hath no? We cannot. Res ipso loquitur tabula in naufragio, we are left with but one option. I agree with, and I cannot believe the words are comin' out of me mouth, Captain Swann. We must fight. "
Barbossa looked at Jack angrily. "You've only ever run from a fight."
"I have not!"
"You have too!"
"Have not!"
"You have too!"
"Have not!"
"You have too, and you know it!"
"Have not, slander and calumny! I have only ever embraced that oldest and noblest of pirate traditions. I submit here and now, that is what we all must do, we must fight...to run away."
"Aye!" Gibbs smiled.
Barbossa smirked at Jack. "As per the code, an act of war, and this be exactly that, can only be declared by the pirate king."
Jack looked like a little boy who wasn't allowed to play with his toys anymore. "You made that up."
"Did I now? I call on Captain Teague, keeper of the code."
"SeSumbhajee proclaims this all to be folly! Hang the code! Who cares..." The assistant of said pirate, was suddenly shot.
"Code is the law." A man who looked like an older version of Jack Sparrow walked into the room.
Ama turned to Gibbs. "Who's that man?"
"Captain Teague. Keeper of the code."
"You're in my way, boy." Captain Teague said, walking behind Jack. At that moment, two men carried in a large book and set it on the table.
Pintel looked in awe. "The code."
"As set forth by Morgan and Bartholomew."
Captain Teague whistled and a very familiar dog came with a key in his mouth.
"How did...?"
Captain Teague smiled. "Sea turtles, mate." He looked at the code carefully. "Barbossa is right."
"Hang on a minute." Jack looked at the code and began to read outloud. "It shall be the duty of the king to declare war, parlay with said adversaries...fancy that."
Chevalle looked at the code. "There's not been a king since the first court, and that's not likely to change."
"Not likely."
Ama looked at them all and rolled her eyes. "Why not? How difficult could it be to elect a King."
"Because the king is elected by popular vote."
"And each pirate only ever votes for hisself." Barbossa added.
"Ah," Ama nodded, understanding. " In that case, I call for a vote."
Ammand stood. "I vote for Ammand, the corsair."
"Capitan Chevalle, the penniless French man."
"SeSumbhajee votes for SeSumbhajee."
Mistress Cheng joined them in voting for herself. "Mistress Cheng."
"Gentleman Jocard."
Elizabeth took a deep breath. "Elizabeth Swann."
"Hector Barbossa"
.
"Villanueva."
All eyes turned to Jack who looked as if he was debating on who to vote for. When the room was eerily quiet, he announced. "Elizabeth Swann."
"What?" Ama asked angrily.
Jack smiled at her. "I know, curious isn't it?"
Jocard pointed an accusing finger at Jack. "Why didn't you vote for me?" The other pirate lords joined him and began arguing, talking above each other.
Jack tried to speak above their voices. "Am I to understand that you lot will not be keeping to the code, then?"
Captain Teague, who was fiddling around with a guitar, broke a guitar string and the room went silent.
Mistress Cheng nodded and stood. "Very well, what say you Captain Swann, king of the Brethren Court?"
Elizabeth looked around speechless, before gathering her wits. "Prepare every vessel that floats. At dawn, we're at war."
Suddenly, SeSumbhajee, who had been silent through the entire meeting stood and spoke in the funniest voice Ama had ever heard. "And so, we shall go to war."
"Uh, Miss Swann, I don't think it wise to laugh so loudly." Gibbs said to a hysterical Ama.
She nodded her head and cleared her throat. "You're right Gibbs. It aint smart to be laughin at a man who sounds like a mouse." She began laughing again, this time being silenced by a look from Barbossa. She looked over at Jack who was talking to Captain Teague, and made her way over.
"What? You've seen it all, done it all, you survived. That's the trick, isn't it? To survive." Jack was saying to the Captain. He looked to his left and saw Ama. "Oi, wench. What are you doing over here?"
Ama shrugged. "I got bored." She turned to Captain Teague and nodded. "Amalina Swann, Captain of the Fernand."
Captain Teague smiled. "Ah, the Bloody Maiden." He looked her up and down. "I always pictured you...bigger."
Ama nodded. "Always happens."
Jack looked at the two of them annoyed. "Ya treat her better than your own son. Old bastard." He mumbled the last part under his breath.
Ama's eyes widened. "Son?" She knew many things about Jack Sparrow, but she didn't know about this.
"Unfortunately." Captain Teague said, rolling his eyes.
Jack crossed his arms. "Now tell me father dear. Give me some of your wisdom."
"Annoying little brat aint he?" Ama asked Jack's father.
The older man nodded and shrugged his shoulders. "What can ya do. Not enough discipline I 'spose." He looked at Jack who was glaring at him and sighed. "It's not just about living forever, Jackie. The trick is, living with yourself, forever."
"That's it? That's your great advice." Jack rubbed his temples. "How's mum?"
Captain Teague held up a shrunken head. Jack raised his eyebrows and smiled. "She looks great."
