Pirate Princess

I stood nervously at the head of the table gazing at the Pirate Lords in silent awe. All of the most notorious pirates from our generation were assembled into the room with their most trusted crewmembers.

There was Ammand the Corsair, the Turkish Pirate Lord.

Chevalle the Penniless Frenchman and French Pirate Lord.

Mistress Ching the Chinese Pirate Lord.

Gentleman Jocard the African Pirate Lord.

Sri Sumbhajee the Pirate Lord of the India Ocean.

Eduardo Villanueva the Spanish Pirate Lord.

And of course Jack and Barbossa. The only one missing was Sao Feng. But I didn't think of him as I looked over all the pirates, feeling ready to faint. I had read about every single one of them and their greatness. And to be standing in the same room was a dream come true. I was broken from my trance as Barbossa banged a cannonball against the long wooden table attracting everyone's attention. Barbossa began.

"As he who issued summons, I convene the fourth Brethren Court." The Pirate Lords sat down at their respectable places eyeing each other wearily. Most of them were rivals and enemies to each other, so I knew right off the bat that the gathering would be tense.

"To confirm your lordship and right to be heard, present now your pieces of eight, my fellow captains." Barbossa nodded to Ragetti who held a small wooden bowl. He started going around the table as the Pirate Lords dropped……junk into the bowl. I raised an eyebrow and listened in as Pintel and Gibbs conversed.

"Those aren't pieces of eight, there pieces of junk." My thought exactly, 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."

"What? To nine pieces of whatever we happened to have in our pockets at the time? Oh yes, that sounds real piratey." Gibbs rolled his eyes as I silently agreed, it does sound a bit unimpressive. Ragetti made his way back to Barbossa who nodded to him.

"Master Ragetti, if you will." He held out his hand to him as Ragetti shuffled nervously.

"I kept it safe for you, just like you said when you gave it to me." I raised an eyebrow, Ragetti held Barbossa's piece of eight? Barbossa nodded slightly annoyed.

"Aye, you have, now I need it back." He hit the back of his head as Ragetti's wooden eye popped out and landed in the bowl. The wooden eye was the piece of eight? What did the first Caspian Sea Pirate Lord only have one eye?

My eyes went to Jack who was standing in the corner looking over the globe which had all the pirate's swords sticking in it. He seemed rather on edge, wonder why?

"Sparrow!" Eduardo called out as everyone turned their attention to Jack. He fingered one of his trinkets hanging from his bandana as he said.

"Might I point out that we are still short one Pirate Lord and I'm as content as a cucumber to wait until Sao Feng joins us."

"Sao Feng is dead. He fell to the Flying Dutchman." We all turned as our eyes fell onto……

"Elizabeth?" I gasped looking her over, she was standing proudly in Asian clothing with Sao Feng's crew assembled behind her.

"The flag ship!" Mistress Ching wailed as a loud murmur went throughout the Court. Elizabeth walked forward and stuck her sword into the globe as Jack asked slightly impressed.

"And he made you captain? They're just giving the bloody title away now." She ignored him as she same to my side exclaiming to the talkative Court.

"Listen! Listen to me! Our location has been betrayed. Jones is under the command of Beckett; they're on their way here." Gentleman Jocard stood and bluntly asked.

"Who is this betrayer?"

"Not likely anyone among us." Barbossa said as Elizabeth looked around the room.

"Where's Will?" She asked curiously as Jack answered.

"Not among us." I stared straight ahead ignoring the look Elizabeth shot me. I was fuming on the inside. It was true; Will had betrayed us to meet his own ends. He was willing to rat us all out for his sake. He's not the man I remember, he's not the man I love……not anymore.

"And it matters not how they found us, the question is what will we do now that they have?" Barbossa asked as the Court settled down again…for the time being.

"We fight!" Elizabeth declared from next to me as the pirates staring laughing. Mistress Ching stood eying Elizabeth with distaste; I don't think she liked having another woman in the Brethren.

"Shipwreck Cove is a fortress. A well supplied fortress, there is no need to fight." She sat back down her men around her, lightly fanning her. I watched as Barbossa stood forward ready to make his grand speech.

"There be a third course. In another age at this very spot, the first Brethren Court captured the sea goddess and bound her in her bones. That was a mistake." The pirates looked sharply up at him as he continued.

"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!" A murmur of agreement followed his comment as he walked back towards Elizabeth and me.

"Gentlemen, ladies, we must free Calypso." A silence descended upon the room as I stood transfixed in my spot. Goosebumps had made their way up my arms through Barbossa's tantalizing speech.

The calm silence didn't last long as they all broke out yelling.

"Shot him!" Ammand called as Jocard stood.

"Cut out his tongue!" It wasn't made any better when Jack shouted out.

"Shoot him and cut out his tongue, and then shoot his tongue! And trim that scraggly beard." I rolled my eyes as Tai Huang stood forward.

"Sao Feng would have agreed with Barbossa."

"Aye." Barbossa agreed glad someone was on his side.

"Calypso was our enemy then, she will by our enemy now!" Jocard said sitting back down crossing his strong arms over his exposed chest.

"I would still agree with Barbossa! We release Calypso!" Eduardo exclaimed as Chevalle stood and fired a shot at one of Eduardo's men. A riot broke out as I was forced to watch the legendary Brethren Court squabble like spoiled children.

"This is madness." I breathed out watching half disturbed and half intrigued as men fought left and right.

"This is politics." Jack quipped from Barbossa's side.

"Meanwhile our enemies are bearing down upon us." Elizabeth said from next to me as Barbossa sighed heavily.

"If they not be here already." We watched the fight for a few moments until Barbossa climbed onto the table and fired his pistol.

"It was the first Court that imprisoned Calypso. We should be the ones to set her free, and in her gratitude she will see fit to grant us boons." Jack looked at the cannonballs hanging from Barbossa's belt as he remarked.

"Whose boons? Your boons? Utterly deceptive twoddlespeak says I." Barbossa rolled his eyes and jumped off from the table and turned to Jack.

"If you have a better alternative, please, share." He motioned to all of us as Jack began making his way around the room.

"Cuttlefish. Eh? Let us not, dear friends forget our dear friends the cuttlefish, flipper penurious little sausages, hang 'em together and they will devour each other without a second thought. Human nature isn't it?

Or…fish nature. So yes, we could hold up here well provisioned and well armed, and half of us would be dead within the month, which seems quite grim to me any way you slice it." He moved past Mistress Ching after rubbing her shoulders a bit. He then moved on to Eduardo.

"Or, as my learned colleague so naively suggests, we can release Calypso, and we can pray that she is merciful. I rather doubt it. Can we in fact pretend she is anything other than a woman scorned like which fury hell hath no? We cannot. Res ipsa loquitur tabula in naufragio," He was now standing at the other end of the table across from Barbossa, Elizabeth and me.

"We are left with but one option. I agree with, and I cannot believe the words are coming from me mouth, Captain Swann. We must fight." He said reluctantly as Elizabeth looked taken aback. She sent him a smile to him as Barbossa yelled out.

"You've always run away from a fight!" Everyone in the room watched intently as the two fought back and forth across the table.

"Have not!"

"You have so!"

"Have not!"

"You have so!"

"Have not!"

"You have so and you know it."

"Have not, slander and calumny. I have only ever embraced the oldest and noblest of pirate traditions. I submit that here and now that this is what we all must do. We must fight……to run away." He pointed behind him as Gibbs cried out.

"Aye!"

"Aye!" The Pirate Lords sounded as Elizabeth smiled victorious from next to me. But of course Barbossa wasn't yet done.

"As per the code an act of war, and this be exactly that, can only be declared by the Pirate King." Pirate King? Interesting turn on events.

"You made that up!" Jack accused pointing at Barbossa as he smirked and answered.

"Did I now? I call upon Captain Teague, keeper of the code!" I watched as Jack froze for a moment. Sumbhajee nudged his right hand man who stood.

"Sri Sumbhajee proclaims this is all folly! Hang the code! Who cares a-" He was cut off as a pistol went off through the room and the man fell back. My eyes traveled to the stairs leading into the hall as a man stood in the shadows. He blew the gunpowder coming off from his pistol as he stated in a low and dangerous voice.

"The code is law." Everyone watched as he walked down the steps with a familiar stagger to his step. He came into the light and I was surprised by how much he looked like Jack.

Jack who was still standing at the table nervously. Captain Teague addressed him.

"You're in my way boy." Jack moved to the side as two elderly men carried in a large book, the pirate code. I watched awestruck as it was carefully set down on the table. This was the code a pirate lived and died by. In all my years of wanting to see the actual code here I stood gazing at it.

Captain Teague whistled as a familiar dog came running in, keys in his mouth. Pintel and Ragetti stuttered as Captain Teague shrugged and smirked.

"Sea turtles, mate." He took the keys and unlocked the book and started flipping through the worn pages. He stopped at one and started reading, his finger going over the sentences. He looked up and nodded to Barbossa.

"Ah, Barbossa is right." Barbossa nodded pleased as Jack looked down at the book before looking up.

"Fancy that." He murmured as Chevalle said from his spot.

"There has not been a King since the first Court and that's not likely to change."

"Not likely." Captain Teague murmured going to a corner and sitting down. He started fiddling with a guitar as Elizabeth asked.

"Why not?" I listened intently as well as Gibbs answered.

"See the Pirate King is elected by popular vote."

"And each pirate only ever votes for hisself." Barbossa said as Elizabeth and I nodded in understanding. That seemed likely with this bunch.

"I call for a vote!" Jack said as the pirate's groaned but began shouting out their names.

"I vote for Ammand, the Corsair."

"Captain Chevalle, the Penniless Frenchman." One of Sumbhajee's stood up and said.

"Sri Sumbhajee votes for Sri Sumbhajee." It seemed Sumbhajee did not like to talk.

"Mistress Ching."

"Gentleman Jocard."

"Elizabeth Swann." Elizabeth said from her spot.

"Barbossa."

"Villanueva." We all turned to Jack waiting for him to say his name. He smirked every so slightly his gaze on Elizabeth.

"Elizabeth Swann."

"What?" She called out clearly surprised as Jack nodded.

"I know, curious isn't it?" A loud outburst happened as the Pirate Lords started arguing…again.

"Am I to understand that you lot will not be keeping to the code then?" Jack asked as the sound of a guitar string sounded. We all looked to Captain Teague who was glaring fiercely at all of us. The pirates slowly took their seats, cowering in fear. Mistress Ching turned grudgingly to Elizabeth and said.

"Very well. What say you Captain Swann, King of the Brethren Court?" Elizabeth looked into the eyes of the pirates, her eyes flashing to Jack.

"Prepare every vessel that floats. At dawn, we're at war." Sumbhajee stood up and said in a ridiculously high voice.

"And so, we shall go to war!"

--

I hymned softly to myself as I stood on the deck of the Black Pearl. I was at the railing looking over the town of Shipwreck. It was the middle of the night and I was too anxious to sleep.

"It seems you're not the only one awake." I turned to see Elizabeth standing there. I quirked an eyebrow, wasn't she supposed to be on her own ship? She came to stand next to me as we over looked the harbor.

"Couldn't sleep?" She guessed as I nodded.

"Same." She admitted as we stood in silence for a bit.

"You know when I was on the Dutchman I ran into James."

"Norrington?" She nodded as I shrugged.

"How's the man doing?" She looked down and said softly.

"He died, trying to help me."

"That's too bad." I admitted stiff and sneaky Norrington may have been he had been a good person. She nodded.

"I also met Bootstrap Bill Turner when I was on the Dutchman." I looked to her in interest, she had met Will's father.

"How is he?" I asked as she shrugged.

"Not good, he's waiting for Will to rescue him."

"Oh, well he won't have to wait long. The rate Will's going he'll be freed by tomorrow." She looked at me for a moment before saying.

"Bootstrap doesn't think Will, will come and rescue him."

"Why not?"

"Because of you." She admitted softly as I stared at her.

"What? Me? What do I have to do with Will rescuing his father?" She shrugged.

"Apparently everything. I couldn't get much out of him; he was delirious when I spoke to him. But he kept repeating this one sentence. The Dutchman must always have a captain." I turned away from her staring at the dark water. Why would I be a factor in Will saving his father?

"This is so confusing!" I groaned slumping forward as she nodded.

"Yes but our life wouldn't be worth living if it wasn't. Now if you excuse me I have to speak to a certain captain." I smirked looking up at her.

"Going to tell him you're feelings?" She hesitated but nodded.

"I don't know what will happen tomorrow and I just want him to know. Wish me luck." I smiled shaking my head.

"You don't need it, for he feels the same way." She smiled and walked away as I turned back to the water. The soft voice from before broke through my thoughts.

You have to make a choice Irena Toman. Between who you are and who you're mean to be.

"But what choice?" I whispered as the voice slowly responded with a powerful sentence.

The one that makes you happy.

(Please R and R! I do not own Pirates!)