It was in that moment that he realized that the source of his problems wasn't his cruel fate. It wasn't the two loves of his life who had each left him. The problem was the heart inside his chest that shattered with every blow. But he realized… he didn't need it. Unless the heart was stabbed, he would continue living as an undead being. And to him, if there was no heart, then there was no pain left to feel either. Right there on the beach, he carved out his still-beating heart from his chest. He locked it in the former correspondence chest and secured it with the key that he then concealed beneath his beard so that it could never leave his person. He then returned to his ship for another ten year-long cycle of service, though he had no intention on serving anyone but himself for the rest of time.

He guided the ship back to Earth and had his men take every single reminder of Calypso and place it in a crate alongside the chest. The one item he kept was the silver locket — he had to, as it was one of the two tokens that had bound Hectate.

Binding… ah yes… he thought, a smile spreading across his face. If the sea monster cannot be tamed, then she certainly can be bound. He stroked his beard thoughtfully as he schemed, and he was too hellbent on revenge to notice that the flesh of his hand was starting to become gnarled and perpetually wet.

First, Jones went for a different sort of monster; the one that had killed him. He ignored his duty to the gods and instead forced his crew to give chase to the giant Kraken that he had come across years before. By time they bested the beast, the skin of all sailors aboard had grown green and bloated, and a thick layer of algae grew over the deck of the ship.

Yet still, this was of little concern to Jones. Using his newfound control over the sea beast, he began stalking nine of the most powerful pirates across the Atlantic, Pacific, and each of the seven seas. He set the Kraken to launch attacks on their vessels, yet would call the beast back to him just before their complete destruction, leaving all survivors aboard to spread word throughout the sea. Eventually these pirates conspired to meet in the Caribbean at an uncharted island renowned for its treacherous surroundings and inlet opening that could easily conceal a large-scale meeting between nine of the most notorious pirate crews in the world.

Alas, a heavy fog enveloped the island the day the meeting was to take place, and two of the vessels collided head on. No injuries were sustained, but the impact was so great that the vessels were irreparably smashed together. This structure would later be transported to the small speck of land that was positioned in the middle of the island's spherical opening and would serve as the foundation for the Shipwreck Cove fortress known today. But at the time, the vessels were still positioned on the sea and served as the meeting place for the very first Brethren Court. The pirate captains and their most trusted crewmen convened to discuss what could be done about this scourge of the sea. Little did they know that the biggest scourge was yet to come. Jones and his men transformed into the gathering place from the walls of the vessel all at once, much to the alarm of the pirates within. There they saw the unusual and distressing sight of half-men, half-sea creature hybrids into which the Dutchman crew had been transformed since failing to do the job Calypso had assigned to them.

Jones stood at the head of the table, his tentacle beard twisting and writhing as he explained his story and ambitions. He made them an offer that held absolutely no detriment to them — offer up a Spanish Piece of Eight, bind the sea goddess Calypso to a human form, own the seas themselves. Seeing no downside, the men were quick to agree, yet being rather low on items of monetary value, only one had a Piece of Eight on their person at the time. This was a bit of a problem: Jones had wanted the Spanish currency because like the rings he had used to bind Hectate, they were silver, and silver was proven to be a viable token. Furthermore, knowing the minds of greedy pirates, he knew that as soon as the meeting had adjourned, these pieces would be spent immediately, and would therefore circulate the world indefinitely. It would therefore be impossible for Calypso to ever be freed again. But, given this development, he relented, letting the captains offer up some other item of significance instead; a playing card, a pair of spectacles, a goblet, a wooden eye, a jade necklace, a pair of cutters, a snuff box, a broken end of a bottle, and the solitary Piece of Eight. Once these items were offered, he had his men bring in the human host he had picked to be sacrificed.

Again, Jones had cruelly singled out a woman free from familial ties — a recently escaped slave from French-controlled territory in the Southern peninsula of the North American continent. She was a beauty who had sought refuge in the bayou who spoke broken English and was known simply as "Dalma." Jones grabbed the frightened girl by the neck with his crab claw hand and with the other, held out the bowl filled with the combined assorted items of value. He then summoned the spirit of Calypso, who materialized moments later in the form of blue light. She was uncertain of why she had been called to this place on Earth and why she was unable to fight the urge, but upon seeing the terrifying sight of dozens of men and still dozens more sea creatures staring at her, she knew that her fate was in grave danger. She then saw the formidable beast at the front of the room, as well as the girl whose body she would spend the next century inhabiting. Though he was unrecognizable as the man she had fallen in love with now, she knew it was her Davy Jones. She realized in horror upon seeing his horrifying, cursed form that she had forgotten to meet him, and that in turn he had stopped ferrying souls and now was out for revenge.

In a final, desperate effort, Calypso took her human form, begging for forgiveness. Jones only sneered at her and tore the crab locket from her neck. She was nothing to him but the holder of the token he might need one day to free or use against Hectate, wherever she was now. He then uttered the fateful words, "Calypso, I hereby bind thee to a human bond." Dalma's consciousness was killed, replaced by that of Calypso. When she came to, Calypso looked down at her hands and felt her form. She tried to speak, but spoke only in the voice of the former inhabitant of the body. She tried fleeing, tried manipulating the ocean… but there was nothing she could do. She screamed and fought all the way back to the Dutchman as she watched her former lover disperse the various trinkets used to bind her to this form back to their owners, knowing in her gut that they would probably be lost forever. Jones then left the meeting and returned to his ship, leaving the captains to marvel over what they had just experienced.

What Jones couldn't anticipate was that these captains took their role in this scheme very seriously and hereafter declared themselves "Pirate Lords," each claiming one of the nine largest bodies of water to rule over. They would pass down their Piece of Eight to successors, therefore perfectly preserving the nine items needed to free the sea goddess quite unknowingly for generations.

Jones took the bound Calypso back to the bayou where he had initially abducted Dalma. Not able to go ashore and take her himself, he said his cruel parting words to her. She stared defiantly back at him and demanded her locket back. Jones considered this… on one hand, he might need both for Hectate's bondage. But on the other, much like the tokens used to bind Calypso, perhaps it was safer to separate the tokens so that they could never be taken from his power. He tossed it carelessly at her, turning his back as she hurled insults at him all the way back into the dark, damp bayou.

Calypso was distraught. The one thing she loved, her freedom, was cruelly taken from her for the rest of time by a man she had loved. She felt battered both inside and out, her body aching from the bondage ceremony. Yet soon she realized she had to keep on living. She discovered that she had retained a bit of her godlike powers, including a keen knowledge of natural forces, an insight into future events, and reading energies from her beloved ocean. In exchange for goods and services, she offered bayou dwellers her own services, from the carnal to the supernatural. People from far and wide started flocking to her once the word had spread of her abilities, and they revered her as a priestess. She soon was able to establish a shanty built into the side of a large tree where she ran her various operations. Tia Dalma, the locals called her. And though Calypso would forever feel ravaged by the horrors Jones had wrought on her, if she couldn't have the love of one man, she would gladly accept the adoration of hundreds of others.

As for Jones, the rest of the story was known all too well. He continued his reign of terror across the seas and eventually crossed Jack Sparrow, who made a bargain with him in exchange for the ship of his dreams. Because of this decision, everyone he knew was thrown into peril when Jones arrived back into Jack's life thirteen years later to demand what was promised to him. The renegotiation that followed would result in Jack's death by the Kraken and his ultimate placement in the Locker as an enemy of Jones. Knowing that Jack held a Piece of Eight, Barbossa led the charge to bring Jack back from the dead, whereupon he convened the fourth Brethren Court. James was slain and sent to the Locker, Elizabeth became Pirate King, Calypso was freed, and Rose was given a shared portion of Calypso's powers to ensure that she could never be bound again. Finally, Jones's command ended when Will stabbed his heart, killing him and taking his place as captain of the Flying Dutchman.

What we never knew for certain was how Jones had been able to resurface in our lives. This was suddenly answered upon Rose seeing in her vision that he was the first soul sent to the Locker under Will's command. As an enemy of the Captain, Jones was now Will's prisoner. Mere moments after falling off into the abyss of Calypso's maelstrom, Jones awoke on the same sandy shores that had plagued him centuries ago. To his horror, he discovered that somehow, despite death, he still retained his cursed form. He thrashed about his island in disbelief and fury, questioning aloud how it was possible that should be back in his personal hell.

After a time, he noticed a small white crab observing him from the shore. He instantly recognized it as the newly freed Calypso and demanded that she take her human form. Though she obeyed, she appeared as Tia Dalma and not the form he had known as his lover, which angered him more. Yet she maintained that she would force him to look upon the young woman who he had robbed of life to imprison her there. Jones furiously demanded an explanation as to his present circumstances. Prior the maelstrom battle between the Dutchman and the Pearl, Jones had paid a visit to Calypso in the brig before she was to be freed. It had been the first time the two had seen each other since the first Brethren Court, and despite some heated words exchanged between them, their interaction ended with Jones nevertheless declaring his undying love to her. He had left the exchange certain that she would turn the tides in his favor upon her return to the sea, but a last-minute plea from both Rose and Will made her decide to remain neutral to the conflict and let fate play out uninhibited. Jones was livid: Why hadn't she sided with him? Why was he in the Locker? And furthermore, why did he still appear in his cursed state? Calypso calmly explained that because of Jones's own changes to the Locker, in which only his foremost enemies of the Dutchman's captain were imprisoned there, he was now trapped as an enemy of Will Turner, and he would appear in the form in which the captain knew him.

Turner… Yes, Jones had quite forgotten that it was Bootstrap's infuriatingly persistent and foolhardy son that had held the blade which ended his life as he himself lay dying, though it was that blasted Sparrow who had been the force behind the blade. But still this didn't explain why she hadn't aided him in the battle. He asked if his declaration of love had held any meaning whatsoever.

In truth, it did. It was one of the hardest decisions Calypso had ever had to make. She truly loved Jones and inwardly saw his reentering the Locker as an opportunity for the two to be together always, just as it once was. But then again, she had seen how cold and cruel and conniving he could be. She needed verifiable proof that he was a reformed man. So, she disappeared from that place and thought for many days of a way to determine the state of his morality. She needed to be careful — Jones was cunning. He could very easily find a loophole to any test she presented him with.

At last, she returned to him with her proposition: To prove his valor, he would need to go back to his initial sentence and successfully complete one single task: If he ferried one hundred thousand souls, Calypso would return him to his human form and he could then decide his fate; final salvation or living in the Locker forever with her at his side. Before he was able to accept, she told him of a few conditions: No enchanted vessel, nor the use of her aid permitted. Further, Will had only been a few weeks on the job and was already proving himself to complete his ferrying duties thoroughly and diligently. To ferry a soul himself, Jones would need to snag any wayward or wandering soul that rarely escaped Will's passage. Delivering one hundred thousand of these stragglers would most likely take thousands of years. Finally, if Jones ever tried to stowaway aboard the Dutchman to wreak havoc on Earth, he would appear invisible, unable to traverse land, and only be able to slightly manipulate physical objects.

As this was Jones's only option, he reluctantly agreed. He scoured the island and the Locker's sea floor for any materials to form a boat. What he ended up with was a haphazard raft. It took him months to free even a single soul. Turner really was thorough. Furiously, he called upon Calypso again, stating that the conditions were too difficult. She refused to give in to his demands, stating plainly that this test was meant to be a monumental challenge, as well as punishment for his gross misdeeds as captain of the Dutchman. However, to keep him motivated and devoted to the task, she allowed one amendment to her task: With every soul ferried, a bit of Jones's sea beast visage would fall from him, transforming him back gradually into his prior human form once more. Further, his power would also grow so that each soul would be a bit easier to manipulate and lead to their final resting place.

Jones was pleased with these updated conditions, and went back to work. He would take out his makeshift raft, sail out to the Crossing Point, where souls in boats would float out across calm, misty waters into a black void. His beautiful Dutchman would lead whichever souls had perished that day, eventually stopping and letting the boats float on ahead. Jones would watch this daily routine from afar, and keep an eye out for any straggling boats which had veered off course.

After two years of this, Jones started to observe the Dutchman coming into his territory, watching several scouting parties depart from the vessel in a dinghy and begin to investigate island by island. Eventually, he realized that Turner was either freeing the Locker inhabitants or allowing them service on the Dutchman - his enemies! The men he had put there! Jones was enraged, but this action also gave him an idea: If Turner could poach from Jones's former prisoners, why then couldn't he as well? It would certainly make Jones's soul quota easier to accomplish, and Calypso had said nothing about him not being permitted to form a crew.

So, Jones left his island and began traveling across others away from where Turner and his crew were poking around. With each island, he would determine which enemy he had placed on its shores and assess whether or not to approach them. If he deemed them approachable, Jones would then offer up amends for their prior misunderstandings, then present them with a chance to be freed from the torment of the Locker if they joined forces and served beneath him. Once he completed his quota, Jones vowed to set these men free. Many refused, but nevertheless a crew started to gradually take shape. They constructed a few more rafts, and Jones stationed several men to permanently stay at the Crossing Point to catch stragglers and ferry them. Every success Jones could tangibly feel himself grow stronger, and on his left hand, two of his fingers had already returned back to normal.

Jones then led a few of his ever-increasing crewmen to stowaway within the teeth of the Dutchman's exterior and travel with the crew back to Earth. Sure enough, these men appeared only as shadows while in this realm, but when enough of them had made it over, together they worked to piece together a sizable ship made out of various mismatched shipwrecks at the bottom of the ocean floor. It resembled less of a ship than it did a floating island of driftwood with masts and sails, but it still did the job. Eventually, these men started the task of building a second ship within the Locker itself, transporting pieces bit by bit back to the Locker. The second vessel was formed, which helped garner more souls.

Calypso observed these actions from afar, but upon seeing that Jones was now captaining two vessels and a crew of fifty men, she confronted him. She reminded him that the proposition was intended only for himself: The salvation he was offering his crew was a boldfaced lie, as he didn't have the power to work such miracles. But Jones was unfazed and only continued the lie as he recruited more men to his crew. See, Jones no longer wished for salvation, nor did he particularly ache for Calypso's eternal love. He instead was enamored by the thought of controlling the seas with absolute power for the rest of time, lording over a fleet of undead sailors he could dominate without restraint while looking as he once did when he was a man. He even pondered rebinding Calypso to a human form so that he could exercise complete domination of the seas himself, as well as keeping her his captive for an eternity. She had wished for their permanent union on that bloody island, hadn't she? This way, he could ensure she never tried to flee from him again.

After another three years of this, the crew inflated past seventy, and a third vessel was under construction in the Locker. Now, these vessels were being used to make chase against the Dutchman to the site of a shipwreck or other life-ending disaster by sea. If Jones's crewmen could get there first, the souls aboard were there's to ferry. These souls would then appear at the Crossing Point, where the vessel they had stationed there would ferry them across without competition.

However, the success of these missions were few and far between — the Dutchman was still faster and more powerful than Jones was, and they often beat them to these wrecks. After five years of what appeared at face value to be a foolproof system, Jones had only ferried five thousand souls. Working in competition with Turner clearly wasn't working. He needed to eliminate the competition so that he was the sole ferryman on these waters. But where was his heart? Surely somewhere on land where he couldn't access it. There had to be some other way…

One day, Jones watched from his first constructed vessel on Earth, concealed as a shadow on what appeared to be a simple pile of wreckage, as the Dutchman floated past them. Jones sneered upon seeing Turner leading his crew to prosperity. He was repulsed at the fact that the men, many of his former crew himself, had let themselves grow soft and weak beneath the new captain's authority. Jones was alarmed to see that they had even permitted a woman onboard. But who is this, he thought. Certainly not Turner's bride… Jones had watched her grief-stricken expression as he had twisted James's sword deep into Will's heart that day. She is heavy with child, but by who? Ah…there's the father. Well, well, well… if it isn't the Admiral who foolishly defied me. Love. Love makes all men weak. This child will make them weak.

That's when Jones knew exactly the day to strike. They weren't yet ready to mobilize by the day of the Norrington child's birth, but they would be prepared for Will's first day on land after ten years of service. They let them have their fun ashore, then as they took their leave, Jones's men laid in wait beneath the sea and using powerful tethers, dragged them to the depths. The mother her mortal child were able to escape using magic that hadn't been noticed by Jones's crew before then. It would ultimately prove the biggest obstacle to their forced imprisonment of the Dutchman, as again and again throughout the years, the woman would find various ways to try to free her fellow crewman, captain, and husband. The men left to monitor the ship had to redirect a current to conceal the vessel's location just to impede her progress.

Calypso had noted the absence of Will, Rose and the Dutchman, but as she had left Rose to work in her stead on Earth while she had given herself a forced exile into the Locker. She was therefore unable to determine what had happened to the crew. Meanwhile, the forced imprisonment was an astounding success for Jones — with no Dutchman, all souls were entirely within his domain. His Crossing Point ship stayed stationed within the Locker and would ferry the souls, while he and his fellow shadow crewman would traverse the earth, looking for dying people to send to them. Jones was unimpeded, and with every successful ferry, he slowly felt himself regaining his human form, even though he could only see this progress upon returning to the Locker. When he would take his favorite ship of his now seven-strong fleet to the Locker, he would continue recruiting crewman from the islands Will had left unexplored.

The only slight snafu in the plan was when Will unexpectedly freed all of his crew from their service, leaving only himself and the Admiral aboard. He somehow managed to do this in spite of Jones stationing four of his most trusted crewmen onboard the vessel. Jones had them punished by returning them to their islands in the Locker, then positioned for new men to take their places and torture Will and James tirelessly. Jones was enthralled to see that being stuck beneath the waves had done permanent damage to each man's skin as sea life began to cling to them. Now they knew how it felt to become monsters. Now they would finally feel and understand his pain, a punishment for the weakness of love they both were led by.

Jones lorded over the sea unchallenged for thirteen years. He had completed over half his quota when disaster struck. The woman who had escaped the vessel somehow used her powers to break through the current and grab her husband, leaving only Will aboard. Try as they might, neither Jones nor his crew could locate either of them. It was only when Jones felt his name uttered that he knew where James was. He had retained his ability to feel whenever a soul, human or undead, spoke aloud his name. That's when two of his men found James and his now-nearly grown daughter sailing together across the sea. Though they tried to drag them both to the depths, their efforts were bested by a pair of mermaids. Soon after, they lost their trail and couldn't relocate them. It was only a few days later when Jones felt a peculiar sensation come over him while sailing on Earth that he knew something had changed, though he knew not precisely what. It was only when he tried to return to the Locker and found himself unable to do so that he realized that all sea curses had been broken. The Locker was now closed and Rose's influence over the sea had been returned solely to Calypso, who now roamed freely between both realms with all of her powers now returned solely to her. It was only upon her returning to Earth that she discovered the shocking lengths Jones had gone to insure achieving his quota in but a few short years, but now it was too late— his power was unmatched and he was unstoppable.

Jones was now in a bind — he could continue ferrying souls and the one ship at the Crossing Point would ferry them freely, unaware that any of the protocol had changed. Yet no matter how many souls he ferried and despite no longer needing a Captain of the Flying Dutchman now that Will and the ship had both gone free, Jones and his crew on Earth remained nothing more than poltergeists, able to roam freely, but forever unseen. His goals were still in place and accessible: Ferry souls, meet the quota, restore his human form, become all-powerful, and rebind Calypso so that she belonged solely to him. The only hitch was his lack of a physical form on Earth. To remedy this, Jones knew it was time to pay a visit to an old friend. One that he hadn't made contact with in over 150 years.

So, as of only a few days ago, Calypso had tracked Jones to a Caribbean pirate frigate bound for Madagascar, where he and his men slaughtered the unsuspecting crew, their souls being sent directly to the Locker to be ferried. Jones then made his way to the brig, where he found a young Persian woman locked in the brig.

At this point, Rose recognized this woman in the vision as Shansa.

…Jones knew her as Hectate.

Yes, though she had since shaved her head and adorned herself with intricate red tattoos, this was the same woman to which Jones had bound Hectate. Even though Rose had freed her from her cell on St. Martin, Shansa's witchcraft was well known and she had quickly been recaptured. Now the sole survivor onboard the ship, Shansa — Hectate was keenly aware to the presence of Davy Jones, despite his invisibility.

"The Sparrow has flown," she croaked, "The treasure has been found. The castaway has risen from the sea. My cousin is whole again. And the bastard who bound me here stands before me unseen." She grinned a black-toothed smile. "Hello, Mr. Jones. I knew you'd be coming for me someday.

"Pray tell," Jones's disembodied voice growled, "How did the Turner child know of the Trident?"

"Not by my doing," she replied evenly.

"And the Locker closing? That wasn't your doing either, I presume?"

"My control over the Locker ceased when you brought me here and made me this!" she shouted, clutching herself.

Suddenly, Hectate felt immense, crushing pressure on her throat, and her feet levitated in the air as she felt a large crab claw grab her through the bars and begin to choke her. "You're the goddess of the in-between, Hectate. You've served the Turners, haven't you?"

"I serve no one," she gagged, struggling to fight against the pressure which only increased. "I merely… chose the side that would end… your reign of…terror!"

She collapsed into a coughing fit when he finally released her. He then said with a disturbingly even-toned voice, "And what if I told you I could end this for you? Free you?" Hectate's eyes widened at this and she sat up. Jones continued, "Whose side would you choose then?"

She furrowed her brow. "But why? What's in it for you?"

She started when the air from his voice tickled her ear as he murmured, "My crew. Myself. Just as I once was. All of us. Do it and your freedom is yours."

"The rings, you still have them?" she asked.

Though she could not see it, Jones touched his silver crab locket he had tied to his belt. "They have been altered, but yes. And I know where to find the other."

Hectate considered his demands. His vagueness provided an opportunity: Just as he once was… along with that came a several conditions that would inhibit his success. And she longed for nothing more than her freedom. So with a great deal of concentration, Hectate began an incantation that rendered all of Jones's undead crew visible to the human eye. She was startled to find that when she opened her eyes, fifteen others she hadn't known were there stood in the brig behind Jones, who himself was a frightful blend of man and beast; one eye was human while the other was coated over in slime, his beard was mostly tentacles with tufts of hair between, one hand human, the other a claw.

Jones grinned and looked upon his motley crew of misfits, cackling in celebration. Now, they were as real as mortals, but with immortal characteristics. What they would soon find out, however, was that Hectate had also preserved and expounded upon a few other conditions from Jones's time aboard the Dutchman — now, neither he nor his crew could step foot on land, nor could they transform to the deck of any ship with but the slightest concentration. When one of his men alerted him as to this development, Jones demanded an explanation from Hectate, who only replied smugly, "Half the tokens needed to free me? Half the powers you expected were enacted."

Furiously, Jones ordered his men unlock her cell and take her aboard their fleet as their prisoner. "We might not be able to kill her," he had said menacingly, "But we certainly can make it painful enough for her that she'll comply when it matters."

Once back on his flagship, Jones's first mate approached, asking, "Captain, do we have a heading?"

Jones's sneer turned into a crooked grin, his remaining tentacles writhing in anticipation. "Destruction."


Mother paused her story for what had been the first time. We hadn't interrupted her once and only sat there transfixed. "Shansa," she said, touching her crab locket. "Shansa is Hectate, and I've been carrying the other token used to bind her without knowing for the past two decades." She opened her mouth to continue, but no sound came out.

"Rose, what else did you see?" Father implored her gently.

She took a shaky breath, and her eyes grew watery as she said, "I saw carnage. He's laying waste to many ships. Innocent ships! He's slaughtering the crews to give his fleet in the Locker more souls to ferry. With each soul, he appears more humanlike and grows more powerful. He's trying to expedite his quota." She then calmly looked up at Elizabeth, stoically reporting, "Among them was Ammand."

She narrowed her eyes. "Ammand…the Corsair? The Pirate Lord?"

Mother nodded gravely. "He killed him at sea and took from him a silver hairpin with a sapphire embedded into it."

Elizabeth's expression fell. "No. It can't be."

I suddenly understood their meaning as I said aloud, "He's not…he can't be assembling new Pieces of Eight?"

"He is," Mother murmured.

"But I don't understand," said Will. "I thought the Brethren Court had disbanded after the War on Piracy. There was no need for them once Calypso had been freed."

"Largely yes," Elizabeth explained. "But after centuries of passing down a legacy of being the most powerful captain in one's respective region, the existing Pirate Lords weren't keen on relinquishing that power. So the titles are largely still in place."

"They all are," Mother added. "That was the very last piece of information Calypso showed to me. He's gathering nine new Pieces of Eight to bind her again to human form, and slaughtering the Pirate Lords so that absolute control of the sea will be solely in his domain. He's already killed Ammand, but the search continues for the others. I saw flashes of them all." Mother's expression grew ashen as she lifted her eyes to Elizabeth, "You, of course…" And then she listed the remaining targets. "Jocard and Ching still live. Successors to Villenueve, Angria, and Chevalle. Chevalle's is another woman…" Her voice cracked as she said in nearly a whisper, "Jack…" And lastly, my heart sank as her eyes fell to Carina. "And you, my dear."

Carina's eyes grew wide. "M…me?" she stammered. "How could—"

"Barbossa," Henry said, piecing together the logic. "It's because of Captain Barbossa, isn't it?"

"It can't be!" she insisted, looking between us all frantically. "He never passed the title onto me!"

"In fact he did," Mother said. "Your diary. That was the object that held the most significance to him. And he passed that onto you. You, my dear, in the event of his death, are the Pirate Lord of the Caspian Sea."

Carina's hand instinctively went for her pocket, touching the diary I knew she was presently carrying. I inched a bit closer to her to comfort the whirlwind of emotions I knew must have been coursing through her at this sudden revelation.

Mother had continued with, "His path of destruction will not stop until all the Pirate Lords are dead. And a third of them are within our immediate family — two of them in this very room!"

"And now he knows that we're here," Father said bleakly. His words seem to hang in the air as the realization slowly sank in. Though at least Shansa…Hectate had made it so that finding the other Lords would have to be accomplished without supernatural aid, Jones knew where Carina and Elizabeth were because of Father and Will's former connection to the Dutchman, and so in turn Henry and my direct links to our fathers.

I finally broke the silence by asking aloud, "So what do we do now?"

The quiet I got as a response from all parties in the room was enough to make one crumble in terror. No one knew. Yet Mother, despite all she had seen and experienced in but a single moment, warded off all apprehension and fear by plainly stating, "We go to war."