Now

The Bermuda Triangle

"The monkey's gone, eh?" said George Costas, his voice without a single ounce of interest as he stood behind the bar.

"Hell yes, the monkey's gone! What the hell am I going to do?" asked a distraught sailor as he stood in front of the bar in the submarine's tavern at five in the morning.

"I dunno; find 'em?"

"How the hell am I supposed to do that?!"

"I don't know. I don't care. This is the Black Pearl, friend. Everyone has his own responsibility here, mine is shooting people and serving the drinks and yours is keeping a watchful eye on that monkey when the Captain and Miss Diver are…. You know, still in their boudoir."

"I wasn't hired as a zookeeper! I'm supposed to be a gunner, for god's sake!"

"Right. Were you not the gunner who missed hitting a ship carrying black market weapons, which is how we ended up having to pay for our weapons? And wasn't that how you were relegated to being a caretaker for an undead monkey?"

"Alright, alright. I'll try and find Jack, but listen George, if I can't do it you have to calm Barbossa so that I can have a head-start, he likes you the most."

"He likes me the most because I never misplaced the monkey. Never." Said Costas sternly, "Now GO! No one ever found a monkey by standing in a bar and talking to me."


The woman was tall and voluptuous, her skin was fair and unblemished, hair was dark and unruly and her eyes were a brilliant green.

"My," said the woman with a smile as she stretched in bed beneath the sheets and raised her hand up and wiggled her fingers in the sunlight coming from a window, "It feels like thirteen years ago was only last week."

Barbossa reached to wrap his own rough fingers around hers, while with the other hand he stroked her hair.

"Aye it does."

"Tell me, Hector. Would you still love me if I didn't always follow you into that fountain?"

"Don't be silly, Jenny." Said Barbossa with a smile, "Of course not."

"Oh, you smelly old brute!" said Jenny as she elbowed Barbossa in the ribs.

"Ow! Easy, darling. I may be Immortal but that doesn't mean I'm impervious to harm from your boney yet lovely elbows. And you know I was taking the piss."

"Of course I do. If I thought you were serious you wouldn't be able to complain about it. When do we leave for the fountain?"

"We're almost here." Said Barbossa, "We leave in an hour."

"An hour, eh? That's a long time."

"Aye," said Barbossa with a smirk, "What might we do to pass the time?"


Eight Hours Earlier

Brooklyn, New York City

"Were you scarred? It's almost gone," said John Harding, "But it looks like someone carved you up bad."

"Yep." Said Priest as he counted the money stacked on Harding's coffee table.

"Did it hurt?"

"It wasn't as enjoyable as feeling the wind in your hair, I'll tell you that."

Priest then dropped the final stack of fifty dollar bills on the table, and then looked at it all, devouring it with his eyes until he had had his fill.

"Six-point-two-five million dollars, Wes."

"Yeah, the end result of three decades of pulling down scores and raising hell. And they say crime don't pay."

"Whoever said that must've been a lazy crook." Said Priest with a smile as he took a drag from the cigarette in his mouth, "Beer."

Harding handed Priest an open bottle which the latter promptly took a drag from then started stuffing the money into a gym bag.

"What are you going to do with it?" asked Harding, as his eyes told a personal goodbye to every stack that was once indefinitely left in his care.

"Spend it."

"On what?"

"The usual; vodka, loose women, vodka mostly."

"Are you going to move?"

"Thinking about it."

"Where to?"

"Beirut."

"You're moving to Oklahoma?"

"Lebanon, Wes."

"You're…kidding, right?"

"Nope, and I haven't decided yet. I'm thinking about Sarajevo, Venice, maybe London."

"Why don't you just move down to Florida like normal old people?"

"You're a funny man, Wes. I hope your sense of humor keeps you warm when you're no longer enjoying the fruits of my criminal labor and are wrecking your brains thinking what kind of job can you get."

"Motherfucker." cursed Harding.

"I'm not sure how well that pays, but good luck, Wes."


Now

Isle de Aqua de Vida, Bermuda Triangle

"This part never gets any fun." Said Jenny as she and Barbossa made their way through the unbelievably thick bushes that were taller than either of them and as thus obscured their vision.

"You should've seen it when we first found it, there were dragons here." Said Barbossa.

"Dragons?!"

"What, didn't I tell you about the dragons before? There were dragons here, well, just two. Small ones. And there were a dozen griffins."

"What happened to them?" asked Jenny as she tried not to trip and fall down as she followed Barbossa.

"Well, we killed them."

"You killed them? That's horrible!"

"They were griffins, deary, they weren't koalas." Said Barbossa, "Ah, we're here."

Barbossa and Jenny finally got out of the bush, finding themselves in a clearing, in the middle of which was an ample fountain, with a massive and noticeably old tree overlooking it.

"Ye gods," said Barbossa as he looked at the sight that lay before him in all its grandeur, "This never gets old."

Jenny went to the tree trunk to lay the picnic basket she had brought along when she noticed something wrapped in a rag.

"What's that?" asked Barbossa as he saw Jenny unwrap it.

"It's a bottle of fifty year old Dom Pérignon!" said Jenny with glee, "There's a card here, it says, 'To Jenny, for putting up with Hector all these years. How do you do it? Love, Jack Sparrow.' He must have left it the last time he was here."

"Sparrow." growled Barbossa with contempt, "What, does he think we can't get our own wine?"

"What we brought along was a ten year old bottle of Port, loverman; Hardly any comparison."

"If I recall correctly, it was you that picked it."

"Fair enough." Said Jenny as she took off her jacket and started to undress, "Now can we please have our dip and then enjoy the fact that we have a connoisseur of a friend?"

"Connoisseur my Cornish arse!" said Barbossa as he sat on a boulder to take off his boots, "Back when we were both mortals, It was only rum for him. Aye, rum for breakfast, rum for lunch and what's that for dinner? Oh right, RUM!"

"Hector, for god's sake!"

"What?"

"Do I really have to spell it out?" said Jenny as she placed her hands on her hips and glared at Barbossa. Barbossa looked at her for a moment, then shifted his sight toward her pile of discarded clothes that lay ten feet away and made the connection.

"Oh, right."


1777

Havana, Cuba

"SPARROWW!"

"Hector! I was just telling the girls about you." Said Jack Sparrow as he sat in the back of a tavern, each of his arms wrapped around the shoulders of two young women.

Barbossa pulled his rapier out of its sheath, as the two pirates that flanked him; one was stout and bald, while the other was lanky and wore an eye patch.

"The charts, Jack. Where be they?" barked Barbossa.

"Make yourselves scarce, Chiquitas."

As the four women left in haste, Barbossa brought the blade closer to Sparrow's throat.

"My patience is thinning, Jack."

"Hector, come off it." Said Sparrow with a sly grin, "Kill me, and you'll roam the seas for a few years more and die, as common as any other pirates. Sure, you'll have the Pearl and the reputation of being the one who has killed the world's greatest pirate, but that'll get you only so far.

"Now, you know I'll never give you those charts out of the goodness of my heart. True, we've just fought side by side so that pirates can still make a dishonest living. However, I'm not going to forget that you left my to die on that island, not to mention the fact the you stole my ship while I was trying to hire us all some salty wenches."

"So what will it take for you to fork them over, then?" asked Barbossa as he slammed his fist on the table, knocking over an empty bottle.

"If that were still full, then that would've been the end of these negotiations. Do you really need to ask what it is that I want?"

"If you're talking about the Pearl, then you can forget it!"

"Ah. We both want the Pearl and we both want to live forever. And to do the latter, we need the first. It is a conundrum, no doubt. Tell me, Hector, what do you know about the fountain of youth?"

"I know I have no qualms killing you to get to it, even if it means tearing this city looking for those charts." said Barbossa.

"Fat good'll it do you, the aren't anywhere near here. Not about the fountain, as it turns out it is not to be used once. One must immerse one's self in its mystical waters once every thirteen years or so, otherwise you'll end up where you started. And just like the World's End, mate, you can't just learn how to find it; you need the charts for every visit. Lucky for us, I've come up with a settlement."

"What settlement is that?"

"First put that sword away. You too Mister Ragettie and Mister Pintel."

Barbossa reluctantly complied, as did his two men.

"State your terms, Jack."

"Shared custody."

"What in the devil's teeth are you talking about?"

"I get the Pearl, sail to Tortuga and pick up my own men, since I'm less than eager to sail the high seas with your lot, no offence. Before I leave I will tell you where to find the charts, by the time I'm back you will have acquired them and we'll all sail to the Island where we will become Immortals. Well, for the next thirteen years or so.

"I get to keep the ship till our next dip, while you keep the charts. Next time, you get to keep the Pearl and I keep the charts."

"And do you expect me to believe you'd give up the Pearl that easily?"

"There's nothing easy about it." Said Sparrow, "But I've been pondering all these months while I was waiting for you to find me, mostly I've been pondering us, and I've come to realize something."

"What is it?"

"Life was boring when you were dead, mate. This is the only way I can ensure that life stays very long and very interesting for the both of us."


Hope you liked it, I'm not satisfied with the ending, I wanted to do one more scene with Barbossa and Jenny but couldn't come up with anything for them to do. So, liked the Jenny character? Want to see her again? R&R.

Next Chapter: Oooh, writers block. I want to do two more chapters that are just about slowing down and having a look at the background of the story before Priest, Mona and Nemo return. Probably the Cairo Cell and James Bond. Maybe I'll pick up here.

PS. Out of curiosity, were any of you familiar with Mona from before?