Author's Note: My first fanfic for PotC, there isn't much known about Carina's mother, Margaret Smyth but this is an AU where she is a mermaid...I won't say anything else, you'll just have to read it to find out!

Also Calypso is slightly different in this AU.

I want to thank my dear friend, Jordan, for helping me write Barbossa...well, she actually did it and this is actually a gift to her since she loves Barbossa so much!

Prologue

The mermaid watched the ship from her hiding spot behind a large rock as it went by the cove that she and her pod called home; they weren't interested in the men aboard the ship.

She and her sisters could smell that the men were cursed with death and therefore weren't interested in hunting them. That and they had a rather large meal not that long ago, the remains of what used to be a merchant ship was close by.

A blatant warning that there were mermaids here somewhere.

Blue eyes watched the men move on the deck of the pirate ship with black sails, her silvery scaly tail twitched as if a part of her wanted to slip under the waves before she was seen by them.

But there was no way they'd notice her, she was too well hidden.

Her eyes moved further up the deck until it rested on a man standing at the helm, she tilted her head to the side as she moved to get a better look at him.

He didn't look like those other men on that ship, his hair was like an auburn color. His eyes are blue and his looks, she would describe as scruffy, unkempt but she found that he looked handsome.

She jolted when that thought popped in her head. Did she really think a human was handsome? She never viewed them as anything other than food so why was this man different?

The mermaid slipped under the water, careful not to make a sound or alert these men of her presence. She swam around the rocks of the cove until she neared the end of it, she stopped next to a rather large rock.

The mermaid peered around the rock, looking up at the man at helm with wide blue eyes.

...Yes, there was something about him that didn't trigger her hunting instincts. In fact something was rising inside her chest, where her heart was. She could feel it starting to beat faster under her ribcage as she looked at the man as his ship drifted past her hiding spot.

How odd, maybe Mother would know but that would mean venturing out of her protective cove and going upstream. Both things were very dangerous for a mermaid to do but the mermaid knew her mother would know what was wrong with her and help her.

The mermaid slipped under the water, her tailing moving up and down as she swam away from the safety of the cove.

Unbeknownst to her, she had been noticed by three men…

"Did you see that?" Pintel asked his friend, Ragetti as both men leaned over the railing to try to see her better.

"Aye, that was a mermaid."

"Mind yer ears, then, lads." The growling voice of their captain came from directly behind them.

Both pirates jumped in surprise, Pintel grabbing the back of Ragetti's shirt when the thinner pirate almost went overboard.

"Our ears, Captain?" Pintel repeated as he and Ragetii both looked towards their Captain.

"They'll betray ye, as well as yer own minds, once ye hear a mermaid's song..." Barbossa tapped to his own ear for emphasis. "Not that I speak for meself..."

Jack the monkey screeched at the duo.

"Betray us, Cap'n?" Ragetti repeated, clearly not understanding.

Barbossa rolled his eyes. "They sing, lad. And once ye hear them, yer under their spell."

Ragetti swallowed. "Under their spell?"

"And what happens after that, Captain Barbossa?" Pintel asked, clearly as scared as his friend. "After we fall under their spell?"

Barbossa glanced over his shoulder, and then gestured for the two to come closer.

The two pirates looked at each other before they crept closer to their Captain, both fearful and curious about what he was going to say next.

The moon crept from behind the clouds, shining bright on Barbossa as he lunged towards the two. "Death!"

The monkey landed on Pintel's shoulder, screeching before leaping up to grab at Ragetti's hair.

Both pirates screamed, jumping away from him in fright though Ragetti nearly landed on his rear when Jack jumped onto his shoulder.

The skinnier stumbled back into the railing, turning around as he struggled to calm himself from the fright. He happened to look up and at the cove, and he paled. "C-captain," he squeaked out before he cleared his voice. "Captain Barbossa...l-l-look." with a shaky finger he pointed to the cove.

Pintel looked and swallowed.

The mermaids had finally shown themselves.

Barbossa's blue eyes widened slightly in their sockets; until this moment he had thought the two fools had been seeing things! His hand flew to his sword's handle, but he didn't unsheathe. Not yet.

Pintel and Ragetti clung to each other, staring at the mermaids in horror but they eventually realized that the women of the sea weren't attacking them or even singing.

They were staring out to sea.

Could they have gathered because of the mermaid that had left? Ragetti wondered to himself.

Suddenly a mermaid opened her mouth and started to sing, it sounded like a lamentation and she was soon joined by the others.

Ragetii felt something slide down his cheek from his good eye, he raised his hand to brush his fingers against it and when he pulled his hand away to look at it he noticed a wet spot.

Was he crying? Was he actually feeling their sorrow of the sister that was leaving them?

He looked to Pintel and saw that he was crying too.

The mermaids trailed off at the end of their sad lamentation and silence fell to the cove once more than from a distance and from the other side of the Black Pearl, there was an answering lamentation.

Ragetti spun around and ran to the other side of the ship, peering out until he saw a figure out there. He couldn't see her very well but he knew she was there.

Jack chittered, leaping off Ragetti's shoulder and rushing across the deck to his master. His tiny paws reached up, watching Barbossa's face. The moonlight disappeared, and the captain's ragged face betrayed the single tear that escaped his right eye.

"...Was that them?" Pintel croaked out, wiping the tears away and sniffling.

Ragetti continued to stare at the distant figure. "...Thank you." The mermaid seemed to have heard him because she'd started to swim back but quickly stopped as if she realized that if she moved closer, it would be seen as aggression.

Barbossa noticed Ragetti and came over.

Ragetti looked at his Captain before he looked at the distant figure and pointed her out. "There, Captain."

The mermaid seemed to sink lower into the sea until only the top of her head was seen, she didn't seem to want the Captain to see her despite that they really couldn't make out what she looked like from here.

Barbossa could barely make out the shape before it vanished into the water, his upper lip curling in a sneer. Frustration... was that what he was feeling?

Feeling.

He knew he hadn't imagined it. Barbossa stared out at the water for a moment longer before turning away. He was tired, despite his own body not feeling it.

Ragetti thought the mermaid's behavior was odd but then again he didn't really know that much about them.

He did know that the song they had sung wasn't what Captain Barbossa had explained it, instead of falling under the spell of the song, the song had made them feel again.

Something that Ragetti was thankful for.

Maybe there were some good mermaids out there and they had met one.

"You think we'll see her again?" He asked out loud to no one in particular.

"I doubt it," Pintel said. "The ocean is big and she could be heading anywhere."

Jack chirped and tugged at his master's hair, growing irritated when he got no response of any kind. Barbossa stared at the stars as he stood by the helm, a spot where he was often seen these days. He gotten only a sampling of humanity again, and it made him crave the curse's end even more. So many pieces of gold to retrieve... but Barbossa's hope had been renewed in that moment of feeling, however fleeting it was.