"That's why we have to make voyage," Mother said to us all as she finished regaling us with what Calypso had showed her. "We make contact with the Pirate Lords and warn them of Jones's return so that they are prepared to defend themselves, or at the very least can stay on land for the time being. But this will not be enough. I suggest that we assemble the Pieces of Eight ourselves before Jones can acquire any more. Use them to bait him! Lead him to us! That's when we retaliate and end this once and for all!"

"But he's not human," said Henry. "The Dutchman no longer needs a captain, so there's no heart to stab. How would we defeat him?"

"That's where our deities come into play," explained Mother. "Calypso will already aid us. But Hectate is another matter. When he arrives to attack us, she will be with him. And what else will be with him?"

"His locket!" I answered jovially. Despite the immense gravity of our present situation, I was overjoyed at the notion of taking Jones down as a family. Mother's plan to me sounded like an ideal solution.

"Aye," she corroborated. "We free Hectate. The goddess of the sea and the goddess of the realm of death work in tandem to drag Jones back to hell where he belongs."

I did voice a concern that was on all of our minds: "But we're not enough to fight him alone."

But Mother had an answer to this too. "Then we'll take along whoever's willing to fight with us of the Pirate Lords we meet. We ask them to accompany us back here to Shipwreck and engage in the charge."

Will ran his fingers through his hair in exhaustion. Throughout her report of what Calypso had shown her in her vision, he had looked increasingly distressed at the news of Jones's plans, as though he couldn't quite fully believe what my mother was saying. Now, at this declaration of war, he just seemed so drained of energy. "Rose…" he began.

"I know, Will," Mother replied before he had a chance to continue. "I know what you're about to say, but I see no other option. And I saw everything."

He sighed. "Here's how I see it: If we leave on this dangerous expedition, which puts us directly into Jones's domain, he can easily track Elizabeth and Carina through the four of us," he said, pointing to himself, Father, Henry, and me. "But," he emphatically stated, "He can no longer step foot on land at all, you said. If that is true, then he cannot harm us in any way that matters as long as we stay beached, isn't that so?"

Mother looked pained as she said, "We can't just stay here and wait for him to kill us."

"I would rather fight on the homestead than die abroad. We'll be safe here."

Mother returned the challenge, laying her palms flat on her knees and leaning forward as she said gravely, "No one is safe from Jones at this point."

Will contemplated this for a moment, then replied evenly, "It's every man for himself then. Jones can't do a thing without all nine Pirate Lords. So we'll protect ours."

That sent a chill through me, and I looked to the others seated at the table to see how they responded to this. Carina looked uncomfortable but said not a word, feeling that it was not her place to comment. Father and Elizabeth too remained silent, their eyes unfocused upon the space in front of them. Will and Mother's eyes were locked together, not spiteful, but merely frustrated at their complete lack of accord. Finally, my eyes met Henry's, where we shared one thought that we had had consistently agreed upon— we stand and fight. Always.

Mother's voice trembled as she murmured, "And where does that leave Jack? He's my brother, Will. Is he included in this 'protecting ours' decree you've enacted?"

Will didn't respond, clearly conflicted at her point, but eventually replied with, "We can't face an armada on our own."

"Which is why we rally others," she replied.

"It won't be enough and you know it. People will die."

Here, Henry made his voice heard, "Father, people are dying already. He's laying waste to innocent sailors as we speak!"

These words hung in the air like a thick cloud between us. No one spoke, no one moved. At last, Mother stood. "Fine then," she said, "I'll go myself." All of us at once began protesting aloud, but she held up her hands to silence us. "No, I mean it," she said. "I'm the only one among us that Jones cannot track. I'll go find Jack and together perhaps we can warn the others."

"Rose, it'll take years to do it on your own," Father tried reasoning, "And with your eyesight…"

"I got around just fine for thirty years before you were ever a factor in my life," she interrupted. "I can do it again, and I shall if that's what it takes."

I stood next and addressed my father as I said, "I could go with her as well. He could track me through my blood whenever I sleep, but he would only find a mother and daughter voyaging alone and think nothing of it. For that matter, you could come as well!" I turned to the Turners and Carina. "Yes, that's it! Let us go! Jones won't suspect any of the three of us!"

From behind me, Father's voice made my heart sink as he said, "The point Turner makes still stands, Anna. It would take too long for us to voyage around the world."

Will raised an eyebrow. "Did I just hear that right?" he said to Father. "Are we in agreement at last?"

"Hardly," Father retorted, swiftly shooting that hope down. "We're damned either way. The question is if we want to die fighting, or cowering on an island."

At this affront, Will squared up to him. "Do you forget our children?"

"Never," Father replied evenly.

"We damned them to this fate!"

"Then let's die fighting to free them from it."

"Will?" Elizabeth said in what had been her first entry into this discussion. She had up until this point been staring intently at the Brethren globe, deep in thought. To my family's surprise, she told her husband, "They're right. Say we stay here. To what end? He will find the other Lords, collect their Pieces of Eight. Now because of what happened last night, he knows where we are. If we stay, he will lie in wait outside and lure us out. Say he tortures Hectate until she sends a bolt of lightning that engulfs this island in flames? We will have no choice but to flee and the moment we leave land, he will have us. And that will be it. He will lord over… everything." Placing her hand in her husband's, she said gently, "Will, I know how fearful you are of heading back out there, but we must. I want to be rid of this fiend once and for all, and we cannot let our kind perish at his hands."

Henry and I shared a silent glance of elation at his mother's support of our stance, but Will still looked skeptical. Elizabeth continued, "During the midst of this debate I was weighing our options, and I believe we should all voyage, despite the massive peril. Yet it would take too much time to search together, and that's time Jones will have to ferry more souls, gain more power, and possibly find other Pirate Lords before we are able to do so. So, we must split up." She then stood and beckoned all of us to gather around the large wooden globe. Once we had settled, she commenced the plan by first laying a finger on our present location. "Right. So once all major repairs are completed, together we depart on the Dutchman. We will compile a crew first from Shipwreck inhabitants and passersby, and if that doesn't warrant a large enough turnout, we'll turn to Tortuga." She traced a finger to a new location on the globe. "Next, James, you, Rose, and Anna take the Dutchman and head due East."

East! I knew precisely what she was planning. A bit overeager, I pushed between Elizabeth and my father, crying, "Europe! We're taking European and West African Lords, aren't we?"

She nodded. "The Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the Adriatic seas. Ammand from the Baltic has already been slain."

Mother made a small sound of acknowledgement. "I'm sure we can locate Jack as well."

"That would certainly be helpful," she replied.

Father furrowed his brow, "We needn't take the Dutchman with us that far," he said. "We need only sack something seaworthy enough to get us from here to England. I have a feeling I might be able to secure something larger there."

Mother and I exchanged a quizzical glance from our spots at the globe across from each other. "Like what?" she asked.

"Well seeing as I'm supposedly the last living Norrington, save this one," he said, giving me a slight nudge. "I anticipate a rather large estate I can fight for, and that comes along with a vessel." Father glanced down at me, eyebrows raised with a slight smile at seeing my obvious elation. We were going to go back to Father's home! Not only that, I was about to see practically all of Europe!

Elizabeth gave a small nod, but protested, "But why sack a ship when you have one you laid claim to sitting right outside in the harbor as we speak?"

Father narrowed his eyes. "Well forgive me if I'm wrong," he said, "But I believed you would use it yourself to get to what I'm presuming your destination will be in—"

Once again, I couldn't help myself. I blurted, "You're taking Asia, aren't you? The Pacific, South China, and the Indian Ocean?"

Elizabeth gave an amused grin. "Yes, precisely." Then to answer Father, she said, "I see no reason why we would need to waste a vessel of that size on but three people. With my status, I can easily persuade another vessel to give my family passage on their ship. Then once in Singapore, I can attain a ship of my own from my domain."

"That's quite a lot of land to cover," Will said softly, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Which is exactly what you crave," Elizabeth assured him. "We'll traverse mainly by land, you, Henry and I. We'll begin at Singapore, see what resources of Sao Fang's I can scare up, and go from there."

Will then asked, "So this amounts to, what, a year? A few months more? What happens once we've completed the tasks, assuming that Jones doesn't find us first?"

"Let's convene right here," suggested Mother. "The Cove is a Pirate Fortress regardless. It once housed thousands for the War on Piracy, it can house whatever supporters we bring back with us. And once we're all together-"

"—Jones will track us here," Will finished her sentence. The two looked at each other earnestly, finally coming to an understanding. "And that's when the battle will begin."

Henry interjected with the one part of the plan that hadn't been covered. "And what of Carina?"

Carina, who had been uncomfortably standing on her own away from our planning, said quickly, "I'll go wherever I'm needed. I… I'm not sure quite what to make of all of this. And if you want me away from the sea to ensure my safety, I will do what I must."

"No, actually, I think you might be rather useful, Carina," Father told her. My head turned so quickly toward him in excitement, I actually hurt my neck.

"How so?" she asked.

Father laid a hand on his chin pensively staring at the globe. "She rules Caspian now, correct?" Looking to Elizabeth, he said, "Much like you can gather resources in your territory, so now too can she."

It was true— Carina was now technically the Pirate Lord of the Caspian Sea by default. She looked a bit bewildered and uncertain about the whole thing, as were we all.

"So Carina is leaving with you?" Henry asked, the slightest tone of defiance lacing his voice.

"For more than one reason, now that I think of it," Father answered him calmly. "What became of the Queen Anne's Revenge?"

Henry shrugged. "Barbossa met up with us on Hangman's Bay. He and his crew boarded the Pearl once he freed her. That's the last we know."

"Any crewman he left?"

"Doubtful," Carina answered. "Salazar killed most of them."

"Aye, and supposedly there was still several of his crew that remained aboard the Queen Anne when Barbossa went ashore. I'm sure they entirely abandoned ship upon seeing us take our flight in the Pearl," said Henry.

"Do you believe it would still be there?" Father asked.

Carina shook her head. "Hardly. The island was inhabited by a religious sect. I'm sure they've taken it elsewhere by now."

Father was still deep in thought, his eyes distant as he said, "She's a hard ship to miss, though…"

Mother stepped closer toward him, laying a hand on his shoulder. "James, what are you planning?"

Looking between her and Elizabeth, he asked, "What if we gather up the Revenge as well?"

"Hold on a moment," Will said. "So you're taking the Dutchman, and now you want to captain the Revenge and your estate-owned vessel?" He donned an 'I told you so' expression as he said, "So I was correct! The Commodore sails once more!"

"Tempting," he mused. "But rather, I'm trying to return it to its rightful owner." He then looked out, and one by one we all followed his gaze until landing upon…

Carina.

My face flushed in glee at the suggestion.

"Me?!" she cried. "No, no, no. Surely there's uh…a first mate! A second mate! Someone else!"

Father broke away from the group to approach her. "Who all either perished, made port here, or now sail with Sparrow," he reasoned. "As much as can be known, you are Barbossa's only child and as such, you are the ship's rightful owner."

Carina shook her head, visibly overwhelmed. "Sir," she implored, "I've never left the Caribbean. Never even left St. Martin until last week! Now all of a sudden I'm a ship's Captain and master of an entire sea? No, I…I don't even know where to begin."

"You can always learn!" I offered, standing beside my father. "We'll help you."

"And I can command the ship in your stead until you're ready to do so yourself," he agreed.

But Henry only moved his arm in front of Carina protectively. "It's a kind gesture, but she isn't comfortable. She should really just come with my family on our voyage to the Pacific."

This not only instantly infuriated me, but also drew an incredulous glare from Carina. "Don't you think she would want to see where her father came from?" I asked him. "What he commanded?"

"Her experience on the sea lies with me," he protested. "She's already been dragged from her home, all she once knew. I won't let that happen again."

"And you think you're 'home' to her?" I scoffed. "That's precious."

"Anna," Father said warningly. "Let it go."

But I just ignored him. "Do you forget I met her first?" I spat.

"Enough!" Carina yelled, pushing her way between us. "I can speak for myself! I… let me think this over."

"Of course," Elizabeth said gently. "Take all the time you need."

Mother made a slight sound of apprehension at the phrase, "all the time you need." She said, "But please understand, my dear, that no matter what you decide, you are a part of this. You too are threatened by Jones's return. It isn't at all fair that you be beholden to the affairs of your father, a man you hardly knew, but… I too understand that all too well. You can carve your own path, but if you do, know that you will fight this alone," she finished gravely.

Carina nodded, clearly feeling the gravity of our situation, but she offered no further answer at that time.

"And what of you?" Mother asked, approaching her former captain after their own quarrel that had directed this course of action today. "What do you think of all this?"

Will looked absolutely defeated as he grasped his wife's hand. "I see reason in it…" he began, though his voice trailed off uncertainly. He then turned and leaned in earnestly towards Carina, Henry and me. "I know that I am the only person in the room with my particular stance. But I need to hear it from all three of you before I agree to this. Tell me why you want to go."

This was a test. He needed to be certain that we had the right intentions for leaving, and that all three of us were comfortable in doing so. Henry spoke first with a steadfast, "He's slaughtering innocents. He must be stopped at whatever cost."

Will's eyes then fell on me. I felt my pulse increase as I said, "I didn't come this far to get my father back halfway." To this I felt the warmth of Father's hand on my shoulder, giving it a comforting squeeze. My eyes met his, which made my spirits soar in that he looked overwhelmed with pride.

Lastly, Carina. We all genuinely didn't know whose side she was on. She took a long moment to think, then sat straight up. To my great delight, she raised a mischievous eyebrow as she answered Will evenly, "I have a ship." Yes! She had chosen our route! Carina would sail with the Norringtons!

Satisfied by our answers, Will took a step back, addressing us all collectively as he said, "Alright then. On Elizabeth's word, we depart to end this bastard's reign once and for all."