Author note: I am very very sick, sniff sniff, though this is entirely my fault as I have been told "you've been out all night and blah blah blah blah" and not eating properly. I'm SORRY!! But I will be staying at home for the next few millenniums, so I will update more (sniff sniff) Any one have any ideas on how this battles going to turn out? I'd love to hear them, because what I've got in mind is rather violent, but you must remember, once a pirate always a pirate. And Jack's always got a few tricks up his hat or under his sleeve (lol). Hugs and kisses to all reviewers, and anyone who sends me comfort food (looks up hopefully.) no? oh okay, more chapters soon, read on. * * * * * * * * * * * *

"So Jack Sparrow, here we are. The passage that sunk a thousand ships, that you sailed so well so many years ago, if we can believe the tales," Eve said grinning. She leant against the rall, joining Jack in his musings. He nodded and shrugged.

"Well, you know what they say love," Jack leered, revealing his golden teeth.

"Non, I don't know. What do they say?" She said, her voice tainted still by her accent. Jack leant over the railing and spat into the foaming ocean. He glanced up at the sky, and sniffed, as though he could feel a storm coming. Then he grinned at Eve, tipping his hat.

"Dead men tell no tales love." He said proudly. Eve raised her eyebrows and laughed despite herself. Jack grinned, rubbing his hand over his eyes.

"Ah, Jack Sparrow, who destroyed the monster Barbossa, that is a tale I would like to hear from your lips. Can it be, or is it just another false tale in the mystery that is the Captain Jack Sparrow?" She asked, her eyes filled with curiosity, as though she wanted to devour him, to crack open his head and find out how he ticked.

Jack shrugged.

"Ask Will, he was there, all those years ago." Jack said, turning his back on the ocean, looking over to were Will stood, joking with the other pirates, pushing his floppy brown hair back with one hand as though he had not a care in the world.

"William? He was your companion then also? Mais, il est just a blacksmith, non?" Eve said, narrowing her eyes. Jack tried to think of the words to describe Will. Friend, pirate, blacksmith, brother, son, slightly annoying fatherly figure.

"You know," Jack leant in confidingly. "He's an eunuch under those cloths."

"Really?" Eve said aghast. "Mais, he is married."

"Yeah, bit of a nasty shock for Elizabeth when she figured that one out." Jack said and wandered off, flipping a coin in the air. Eve stood watching Will, her mouth open with amazement.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

"See, Ana-Maria will be expecting us to land here, cause it's the quickest way to the hoard. Or, she'll be expecting us here, or here." He said, pointing to various beaches along the coast of the Ile de Muerta, "Because they all have strong defensive positions and are well hidden. But," He said, moving his finger around to the opposite side of the island. "I don't intend to fight a battle with ships. I intend to spring a trap."

Eve and Will waiting for Jack to finish. Jack's finger hovered over a small beach on the western side of the island. "Here, this is where we will land?"

"There?" Will said, disbelievingly. "What's there, it's just a flat stretch of beach."

"I agree with William, zat beach has no defensive capabilities, no use for us." Isabel exclaimed from the doorway. "I say we should land here," She said with an authoritative manner, shoving Jack aside. Jack raised his hands as if in defeat, listening as Isabel outlined the benefits of that beach.

Only Eve watched Jack, waiting for his reason. She waved away Isabel's words, and leant over to touch the beach Jack had pointed out.

"Why this beach?" She asked slowly.

"Because we know something Ana does not know about this beach." Jack said triumphantly, leaning back in his chair. Eve raised an eyebrow questioningly. Jack leant forward, and drove his dagger into the map. "This beach has a settlement."

"Une settlement, on the Ile de Muerta? C'est impossible." Eve exclaimed falling as she often did into French. Will gave Jack a bewildered look.

"A settlement Jack? How could Ana-Maria, how could no one else know?"

"Boy, I've been betrayed by my first mate before." Jack said softly. He pressed a finger to his temple. "It teaches you to keep something up your sleeve."

There was silence in the room, as all of them thought about Jack, about the genius he rarely revealed but that he must be to be the man in the stories, to have survived such adventures. It was hard to remember, knowing Jack as they did, that he was indeed a dangerous man to be enemies with.

Jack cracked his knuckles and continued rather guiltily.

"Also, I slept with the village chief's daughter and didn't want Ana-Maria to find out. Thought something's were better kept under the hat." He added, tipping his own hat to enforce the point, and strolled out airily onto deck.

Once on deck, he allowed a grin to form on his face. It was always fun to play to a crowd like that. He had almost forgotten. He stuck his fingers in the waist of his pants, whistling cheerily as he wandered down the deck.

"Under my hat, up my sleeve." He said softly to himself. "Are those mixed metaphors?" He shrugged, and looked around, to check that no one had heard the great Jack Sparrow say metaphor. Above his head, a parrot fluttered by, and it screeched.

"Dead men tell no tales," Jack looked up at the sound, recognising Cotton's parrot, and saluted to it.

"Never a bigger bloody lie, my friend, never a bigger one." He muttered, and spat overboard.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Eve drew out maps and plans for traps, Gibbs' prepared blades for battle, the Ivory Grip dropped its dead crewmate into the swelling water and landed on the Ile de Muerta. Half way across the island, the Left Hand sat snugly in a hidden bay, welcomed by a motley group of villagers who reached out worn hands to touch the white gods.

There was one more event worth noting, amongst the building schemes and mixed loyalties, as each ship prepared for the battle to come.

Will and Jack climbed the mountain alone that day, crossing the thick jungle, Jack's eyes fiercely determined, while Will glanced apprehensively at the strange darkened trees and golden eyes that glinted in the bush.

Jack knelt before the grave of his first mate, his face blank and unreadable. He remembered taking Ana-Maria by this grave, her nails digging into his shoulder blade. He remembered bringing Bootstrap up here, and they had bowed their heads for the friend that they had lost first to greed and then to Jack's hand.

Will carried the shovel, his fingers coiling protectively around the wooden handle, watching Jack's unmoving back. Jack placed his hands on the moist dirt, digging his nails beneath it, his lips moving slightly, perhaps replaying a conversation in his head.

"Jack?" Will said finally, glancing out into the night. The sun had set, the night was growing chilled and the moon hung forebodingly overhead. Jack nodded, as though reaching some decision, and bowed his head.

"Dig." He said softly. Will took a step back as though Jack had turned into something truly frightening.

"What. dig up his grave?" He stuttered. "Why Jack?" He asked more assured of himself.

"Dig Will." Jack said blankly. Jack looked up to the dense trees and stood up. He held out his arm, looking up into the high branches. Will followed his gaze and bit his lip to stop himself gasping.

Jack whistled softly, and the skeleton monkey dropped out of the trees like a wraith, his mouth opening as his tormented screech filled the night air. Jack touched the small skull in almost a daze, and exhaled.

He turned to Will, a full shadow falling on his face so that he seemed a menacing figure, a mass of tangled black hair and glinted jewels, a deathly creature that matched the monstrosity on his arm.

"We'll dig." Jack repeated, and took the shovel off Will. "There's something I need back that I buried with our old friend."

"A medallion," Will swore under his breath. "The monkey." He said softly. "You knew," He said to Jack's hunched back. "You just knew the monkey was there, and it just came to you."

"Aye, I knew," Jack said lowly. "I found a medallion around Barbossa's corpse. Why do you think I dragged him into the moonlight? I'm not as sentimental as they all think." Jack spat by Barbossa's grave. "I wanted to check the bastard was dead and buried, so I did it myself."

"And the monkey?" Will asked, prompting Jack to finish the story. Jack patted the skeleton affectionately.

"Old Jack here? I knew he was about, I guess I kinda felt it. Wasn't sure until I ran into Bootstrap, your father god rest him." Jack bowed his head. "When I met Bootstrap, I could feel the connection. The connection then curse gave us. I knew him, I knew I could have found him if I'd needed to, just like I knew I could find this monkey. We're connected by blood and greed, this monkey and I." Jack finished thoughtfully.

"And Ana-Maria? How come you didn't know with her?" Will asked, almost defiantly. This he didn't want to believe, that this grotesque creature on Jack's arm was somehow connected to his dead father.

Jack halted, and bowed his head thoughtfully.

"I guess you allow yourself to be blinded by something's, Will." Jack said, shoving the shovel into the dirt, his face darkening. "You just, if you just pretend it was okay, then maybe it would be. You know what I mean Will?"

"Aye, Jack, I do." Will agreed.

"Now your going to help me dig this grave up, no more questions asked savvy?" Jack said, and hefted a pile of dirt at Will. "Cause I ain't bloody doing it by my onesies."

* * * * * * * * * * * *

It was as though it had been ordained, as though the world stopped and held its breath, while everything else faded away like smoke, like irrelevant details.

For outside the caves, the battle started with flashes of golden teeth and snarls.

At the same moment, under the sea, Tyler's carelessly closed eyes were brushed open by the waves and he stared unseeingly up at the rising moon.
Gibb's groaned as the icy cold kiss of a steel knife plunged into his stomach, and he fell to the sand while in the secret village on the Ile De Muerta, the locals danced around their fire, hoping for peace, praying that the war between these white gods would not destroy the world.

Jack swung into the caves, his braids and beaded hair flying as he took a sharp corner, his eyes determinedly dark, his tongue darting over his lips, wetting the cracked salty skin. Against his warm brown chest, the medallion that had hung around Barbossa's rotting corpse's neck pressed coldly against his skin.

Will, two steps behind him, rested his tanned hand on the hard hilt of his self crafted sword, his hair pulled back in a slick ponytail, the ready sidekick.

Ana-Maria sat up on the carved chest filled with Cortez gold, her back arching almost unnaturally, her long dark legs bare and bent on the top of the chest. A rich white velvet cloak that did up around her neck sprawled out beneath her. She turned her head, her hair spinning dizzily behind her as though everything were in slow motion, as though she was swimming in inky black waters.

At that moment their eyes met, and the spell broke with Ana-Maria's tinkled laughter.

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