Jack was pushed unceremoniously into Beckett's office, and he glared at the retreating soldiers while rubbing his aching wrists. Thankfully, they'd removed the heavy cuffs but Jack was well-acquainted with Beckett and knew that the lack of shackles could mean something far more dangerous.
The shorter man himself was standing in a corner of the opulent office, staring out the rear windows of his ship. Beckett didn't turn even when the doors to his office were shut behind Jack. Instead he kept his eyes on where the Black Pearl was harnessed to his own ship as he spoke quite casually to his guest.
"Curious. Your friends appear to be quite desperate, Jack."
His words fell on half-deaf ears; Jack wasn't interested in whatever Beckett had to say until the man got to the heart of the issue. He knew Beckett well enough to know that Beckett would ramble tediously for a while yet, as though speaking from a carefully prepared script. So instead, Jack took the opportunity that Beckett's apparent preoccupation with his thoughts had created. Slinking his way silently around the office, Jack began to peer around corners, opening small chests of papers, trinkets and other useless things and peeping into jars and drawers all while Beckett kept talking.
"Perhaps they no longer believe a gathering of squabbling pirates can defeat the Flying Dutchman, and so despair leads to betrayal. But you and I are no strangers to betrayal, are we?"
Those words did register, even if Jack tried not to react. Still, he couldn't quite help glancing down at the 'P' that would forever be branded into his upper right arm. As Jack ruminated, Beckett finally turned back to face his office
"It's not here, Jack."
Jack feigned confusion, quickly removing his hands from Beckett's things as he turned to face the other man.
"What? What isn't?"
His act didn't fool the other man although Beckett was quite content to reveal in a contrastingly impassive tone, "The heart of Davy Jones. It's safely aboard the Dutchman and so unavailable for use as leverage to satisfy your debt to the good captain."
"By my reckoning, that account has been settled." Jack flashed a smile, his gold teeth glinting as he strolled casually across Beckett's office.
"By your death?" Beckett gave a mirthless smile as he pierced Jack with his cold, almost colourless eyes. "And yet here you are."
Jack just shrugged and waved his hand airily.
"Close your eyes and pretend it's all a bad dream. That's how I get by."
He made to turn away, feigning interest in a portrait, but he paused as Beckett did what he had always done best: poke him right in the blistering, bleeding wound.
"And if Davy Jones were to learn of your survival?"
Annalise was still scowling heavily as she watched Beckett's men, including his right hand man whom she recalled was called Mr. Mercer, stomp about Jack's ship. Barbossa was unusually impassive beside her but Sao Feng appeared to be equally as displeased as Annalise to see the Navy soldiers striding about and he approached the EITC gentleman firmly.
"My men are crew enough." Sao Feng hinted testily. But Mercer sneered.
"Company ship, company crew."
Before Sao Feng could continue his argument, Will strode up angrily from where he had been watching the proceedings with equal dislike… and growing distrust.
"You agreed. The Pearl was to be mine." Will reminded the pirate captain severely.
Sao Feng gave the younger man a sneer not unlike the one Mercer had given him.
"And so it was." With that, Sao Feng jerked his head toward his men, who had surreptitiously surrounded Will.
The men wasted no time, punching Will hard in the stomach and winding him.
"Will!" Elizabeth gasped, but she was already being dragged aside too and cuffed yet again. Will and Annalise were cuffed quickly thereafter; although unlike Will, Annalise didn't bother fighting her captors. Instead, she fought against rubbing her temples against the migraine she could feel building.
'These bloody, idiotic… pirates!'
In his office, Beckett poured two dainty glasses of port.
"Perhaps you will consider an alternative arrangement. One which requires absolutely nothing from you but information."
Beckett offered one of the glasses to Jack in a symbolic gesture. Jack glanced briefly down at Beckett's desk beside them, where there were clear plans of attack marked all across the seas… and nine pieces of eight lined up neatly along the edge of the map. The edge of the world.
"Regarding the Brethren Court, no doubt?"
It was a rhetorical question, they both knew Jack was clever enough to understand that Beckett wanted without Beckett having to spell it out. Jack took the glass Beckett offered him, but he also took the other before Beckett could drink it as he continued.
"In exchange for fair compensation?"
Jack tossed back one glass of port, ignoring the faint irritation that had flickered across Beckett's face.
"Square my debt with Jones?"
He tossed back the second glass.
"Guarantee my freedom?"
"Of course." Beckett was his composed self once again as he poured himself another glass of port while Jack put down the two he'd basically swallowed almost without tasting the smooth liquor.
"It's just good business."
As Beckett picked up his glass, Jack picked up the little figurine standing at the head of the armada positioned all over the maps.
"Were I in a divulgatory mood, what then might I divulge?" Jack asked, examining the figurine intently.
"Everything."
Beckett stepped up beside Jack intently, no longer hiding his interest or his impatience.
"Where are they meeting? Who are the pirate lords? What is the purpose of the nine pieces of eight?"
Annalise was no longer fighting the urge; she massaged her temples in irritation as Will struggled beside her and Elizabeth angrily while Elizabeth fumed, Barbossa stood as though without interest on Annalise's other side, and Sao Feng stormed around the deck behind Mercer.
"Beckett agreed. The Black Pearl was to be mine!" Sao Feng snarled furiously, grabbing the other man by the shoulder and forcing him to jerk to a halt.
Mercer finally snapped and he retorted sharply, "Lord Beckett's not going to give up the only ship as can outrun the Dutchman, is he?"
Sao Feng trembled with anger but Mercer wasn't the least bit worried; nor did he have cause to be. The navy far outweighed the pirates. And even if they didn't, the Black Pearl's crew were already tidily chained up thanks to the Singaporian pirate. Sao Feng knew this too and so, despite his desire to kill the other man in his terrible fury, he could do nothing but let go when Mercer gave the hand holding his shoulder a disgusted look.
Mercer turned and strode off without a backward glance while Sao Feng struggled to fight back the anger and terror of the situation. It was then that Barbossa finally broke his feigned disinterest and his silence.
"Shame they're not bound to honor the code of the Brethren, isn't it?" Barbossa offered casually and in a low tone. "Because honour's a hard thing to come by nowadays."
Sao Feng glared at the other pirate lord and he retorted in an equally quiet voice, "There is no honour to remaining with the losing side. Leaving it for the winning side, that's just good business."
"The losing side, you say?" Barbossa repeated, brow shooting up.
Sao Feng bristled against Barbossa's apparent surprise and he reminded the other pirate sharply, "They have the Dutchman. Now the Pearl!"
"And who's fault is that?" Annalise sniped.
Sao Feng heard her and shot her a murderous look that Annalise just matched with her own glare.
"What? You have a problem with that? You're the one who dug all of us into this, Sao Feng." Her heated gaze dared him to disagree.
"Silence, woman." Sao Feng hissed only for Annalise to bite back at him.
"I won't be told to be quiet, least of all by a man like you!"
"Sao Feng." Barbossa called the other pirate's attention back to him before Sao Feng could explode and draw the navy's attention to their little group. At the moment, the navy were too busy keeping all the pirate ships afloat near their own ships and too confident in the security of their captives to pay much attention to the pirates. And Barbossa wanted to keep it that way.
"We can still win against them."
Sao Feng scoffed. "What do the Brethren have?"
Barbossa's eyes almost gleamed in response as he unveiled the hidden card he had so far not divulged to anyone. "We have Calypso."
At that, Sao Feng's entire countenance changed. At first there was disbelief, then a hint of thoughtfulness; and Barbossa didn't miss the way Sao Feng's eyes instantly even if only briefly flew back to the blue-eyed woman he'd been arguing with moments earlier. And then the unreadable pirate mask was back on as Sao Feng looked back at Barbossa impassively.
"Calypso." Sao Feng repeated slowly, skepticism heavy in his voice but Barbossa could see through the act. "An old legend."
"No," Barbossa shook his head. "The goddess herself, bound in human form. Imagine all the power of the seas brought to bear against our enemy. I intend to release her. But for that, I need the Brethren chords."
Barbossa reached out and gently tugged on Sao Feng's necklace, from which hung a simple jade pendant wrapped in silk.
"All the Court." He added meaningfully and Sao Feng stared back at him with narrowed eyes, his mind clearly whirring.
Jack paced Beckett's office in thought, fanning himself lazily with a dark lace fan he'd found amongst Beckett's things. Why Beckett had such a trinket, he had no idea but Jack sensed it irritated Beckett when he picked it up and so he was quite content to flutter the thing about as he thought before he named his terms.
"You can keep Barbossa. The belligerent maculate and his friend with the wooden eye, both. And Turner," he snapped shut the fan, "especially Turner."
He leant against the desk behind which Beckett now resided, eyeing him with a mixture of wariness, resignation and almost indulgence. Jack ignored the latter as he continued.
"The rest go with me aboard the Pearl and I'll lead you to Shipwreck Cove, where I will hand you the pirates and you will not hand me to Jones."
Beckett smiled just a little bit as he almost absently played with the piece of eight in his hand while Jack resumed fanning himself.
"Bloody fair deal, don't you think?" He half-joked.
But Beckett just turned his steady eye back on Jack. "And what becomes of Miss Swann?"
Jack paused. He had no doubt which Miss Swann Beckett was alluding to, the knowing glint in the other man's eye told him everything Beckett didn't say. But there had been something else in Beckett's tone, something that he'd tried to hide when he posed his question a little too nonchalantly. Jack snapped the fan shut again and he answered with a question of his own.
"What interest is she to you?"
Beckett smirked, giving nothing away and the two men engaged in a silent battle of wills.
Sao Feng slowly paced in front of Will, Elizabeth and Annalise.
"What are you proposing, captain?" He drawled, his eyes roaming over the trio even as he addressed Barbossa.
"What be ye acceptin', cap'n?" Barbossa turned the question back around on the other man, who stopped right in front of Annalise with a triumphant smirk.
"The girl."
For a beat, Will, Annalise and Elizabeth just stared at Sao Feng blankly. And then, understanding dawned.
"What?" Annalise said in disbelief at the same time Will looked from her to Sao Feng incredulously while Elizabeth exclaimed the same word indignantly.
"What?"
In his office, Beckett put down the piece of eight that he'd been twirling and he pushed himself away from his desk.
"Jack, I just recalled."
He strode casually away from his desk while Jack waited warily before he grimaced as Beckett pointed out, "I've got this wonderful compass which points to whatever I want. So for what do I need you?"
"Sao Feng, leave Annalise out of this." Will threatened, at the same time that Elizabeth protested, "My sister is not some object to be bargained for!"
Annalise meanwhile was staring at the pirates silently, her mind quickly sifting through the possibilities Sao Feng's proposition opened up. Especially as it appeared that it was not something they were going to have much say in, an assertion that was furthered as Barbossa rolled his eyes at the young couple beside Annalise.
"Out of the question." He shrugged.
Only for Sao Feng to correct sharply, "It was not the question!"
Jack waved to the compass Beckett now held on his open palm, feigning nonchalance as he in turn reminded Beckett, "Points to the thing you want most. And that is not the Brethren Court, is it?"
Beckett wasn't ready to call his bluff yet, however, and he challenged, "Then what is, Jack?"
"Me," Jack answered brightly before he gulped. "Dead."
As Elizabeth and Will continued to argue with Barbossa and Sao Feng, Annalise suddenly cut in.
"Done." Annalise declared, to her sister and (apparently ex-) fiance's dismay.
"What? Not done." Will protested.
For the first time in a long while, Elizabeth agreed with her former beau as she urged her sister, "Lisa, this is madness-"
"So was tying a man to his ship and leaving him for dead." Annalise shot back.
Elizabeth flinched, hard, curling away from her sister momentarily in shock and hurt. Will's gaze hardened more than it already was, but Annalise cut him off before he could argue with her.
"And since you were the one that got us into this mess, I would think you of all people have the least say in this."
His teeth clicked as they snapped shut, gritted in frustration but he was still effectively silenced. Elizabeth however was not.
Beckett scowled as Jack successfully called his bluff.
"Damn."
He tossed the compass back to Jack, who tossed the fan back to Beckett in answer. But as Jack pocketed his compass, Beckett paused before he slowly started to fan himself.
"Although… if I kill you, then I can use the compass to find… Shipwreck Cove, is it?, on my own."
He cocked his pistol and pointed it straight at Jack.
"Cut out the middleman, as it were."
"Lisa, they're pirates-" Elizabeth beseeched as she tried a different angle to convince her twin, terrified for her younger sister.
But Annalise's gaze and tone were mixed with incredulity and fury as she spat at her sister, "I think I've had more than enough experience dealing with pirates!"
Annalise pinned Elizabeth with her words and her look which conveyed the anger, the disgust, and the pain that had never gone away since she'd discovered her twin's betrayal. Elizabeth shrank away in the face of that look; the accusation, unable to come up with a counterargument.
"Then…" Barbossa piped up, looking from the dark-haired young woman with stormy blue eyes to a triumphant Sao Feng. "We have an accord?"
Meanwhile, Jack scoffed in the face of Beckett's threat.
"With me killed, you'd arrive at the Cove, find it a stronghold, nigh impregnable, able to withstand blockade for years. And then you'd be wishing, 'Oh, if only there was someone I hadn't killed inside to ensure that the pirates then come outside.'"
Beckett's eyes narrowed. "And you can accomplish all this, can you?"
Jack smirked and he spread his arms wide. "You can kill me, but you may never insult me. Who am I?"
He beamed, waiting. But Beckett just looked puzzled and he genuinely failed to answer. Jack's smile dropped.
"I'm Captain Jack Sparrow." He protested.
Beckett looked about to argue, when suddenly a cannon ball blasted its way through the office. The pair stumbled as the entire ship shook under the sudden attack, and Jack quickly took the opportunity to run. But not before he hastily sealed the deal with Beckett.
"Done!" He cried as he shook Beckett's hand while the man was still stunned by the surprise attack, and then he ran out the door.
Beckett quickly followed Jack out but he was briefly distracted by the chaos he found when he reached the deck. His men were hastily firing back at the pirate ships as Sao Feng's crew and the Black Pearl's crew split off onto the two ships and continued their relentless attack on the Navy even as they made their escape. Angered, Beckett moved up to the upper deck and toward the steering wheel… only to pause as he found himself walking in on Jack standing atop a cannon he had connected to a makeshift rope pulley. And right in the mouth of the cannon was Beckett's miniature figurine. He couldn't even be angry, he was too astounded by Jack's sheer craziness.
"You're mad." Beckett declared incredulously.
Jack looked up, only noticing Beckett now. But he was unfazed as he answered easily, "Thank goodness for that because if I wasn't, this would probably never work."
With that, he lit the cannon fuse. Beckett ducked out of the way as the cannon went off, the ball hitting the stairway where Beckett had been moments earlier. Jack meanwhile was thrown into the air as the rope pulley was jerked backward when the cannon flew back from the blast and catapulted him across the open sea… and right onto the Black Pearl's helm. The Black Pearl crew came rushing up, wildly looking for him and fearing the worst… before they finally spotted him.
Jack smirked at them. "And that was without even a single drop of rum."
Barbossa growled in irritation, but Jack had other problems in mind first. He strode up to Will, who just glared back defiantly even as he was held down by the other men. Jack stopped in front of Will, staring back at the younger man darkly.
"Send this pestilent, traitorous, cow hearted, yeasty cod-piece to the brig."
The men were only too happy to do so and they dragged the traitor away while the remaining crew continued to haul the lines and steer the ship quickly away from Beckett's floundering ship. Satisfied, Jack then looked around for Annalise, only for Elizabeth's bitter voice to interrupt him.
"She's gone, Jack. Sao Feng took her."
Jack turned to stare at the blonde in shock as Elizabeth remained with her arms wrapped tightly around herself. He followed the woman's gaze across the sea to where they could just make out the sails of the Singaporian ship that was disappearing into the horizon.