Inside Shipwreck Cove, Jack pursed his lips.
Things were going far too well in Barbossa's direction and not at all in the direction Jack wanted things to go. Well, maybe not entirely not in the right direction. But as much as Jack liked the winding route, this was a bit too winding for his liking.
So as Barbossa pressured Jack into giving up his piece of eight like the other pirate lords, he stalled once more.
"Might I point out that we are still short one pirate lord, and I'm as content as a cucumber to wait until Sao Feng joins us."
"Sao Feng is dead."
Jack's heart almost stopped when he heard the familiar, feminine voice and his head turned so sharply he thought for a moment he'd cracked his neck. Indeed, all eyes turned in surprise at the declaration (though none as quickly as Jack's) and all the gathered pirates stared at the tall brunette woman who stood at the head of the Singaporean crew. She was even dressed like them, although it looked like someone had attempted to doll her up as her clothes looked more ceremonial than practical.
Elizabeth's jaw was hanging wide open as she stared at her sister like she was seeing a stranger while Annalise continued loudly, "He fell to the Flying Dutchman."
"The plagued ship?" Mistress Ching gasped amidst the murmurs and mutters of the others.
Annalise ignored their reaction as she stabbed her sword into the globe alongside the other pirate lords as Tai Huang pointed for her to do, staking her right to be heard amongst the Brethren.
"And he made you Captain?" Jack gaped, staring at Annalise incredulously before muttering, "Just giving the bloody title away, now."
Someone else shouted their protest although the Spanish words made no sense to Annalise. Not that she even tried to pretend to translate it as she instead stood beside Barbossa and Jack and called for everyone's attention.
"Listen to me. Listen-"
As the shouting continued, Annalise pulled her pistol. Jack and Barbossa's eyes popped out of their heads in surprise before they both jumped as Annalise fired into the air.
"QUIET!"
Silence followed her outburst as everyone stared in shock at the young upstart. Satisfied, Annalise holstered her pistol again as she informed the pirates, "Our location has been betrayed. Jones is under the command of Lord Beckett. They're on their way here."
"Who is this betrayer?" A voice piped up anxiously but Barbossa was quick to squash the fear that was brewing as a result of Annalise's declaration.
"Not likely anyone among us."
It was then that Annalise realized someone was missing from her old crew.
"Where's Will?" She started to ask Elizabeth but Jack was surprisingly the one to answer.
"Not among us."
Annalise's eyes narrowed. She noted that Elizabeth didn't even seem surprised anymore. When did things come to this?
Her inner musings were interrupted as Barbossa called loudly, "And it matters not how they found us, but what will we do now that they have?"
Annalise's voice rang clearly across the sudden quiet in the room as the other pirates eyed each other.
"We fight."
Her words incited instant laughter. Annalise's eyes narrowed and her lips pursed angrily as Mistress Ching announced confidently, "Shipwreck Cove is a fortress! A well-supplied fortress. There is no need to fight if they cannot get to us!"
As murmurs of agreement rose and before Annalise could protest, Barbossa spoke up.
"There be a third course."
Annalise turned to frown at Barbossa but he ignored her as he addressed the rest of the Brethren.
"In another age at this very spot, the first Brethren Court captured the sea goddess and bound her in her bones."
Barbossa nodded his head and others joined in agreement. Only to be surprised when Barbossa announced, "That was a mistake."
Annalise's frown deepened and she now saw the interaction between Barbossa and Sao Feng before her capture with understanding as Barbossa continued confidently.
"Oh, we tamed the seas for ourselves, aye. But opened the door to Beckett and his ilk! Better were the days when mastery of seas came not from bargains struck with eldritch creatures, but from the sweat of a man's brow and the strength of his back alone. You all know this to be true."
Again murmurs of agreement arose and Barbossa stood back confidently.
"Gentlemen." He paused beside Annalise pointedly. "Ladies. We must free Calypso."
For a moment, there was absolute silence. A pin drop could have been heard. And then, utter chaos broke out.
"Shoot him!" Someone shouted above the din while someone else yelled, "Cut out his tongue!"
"Shoot him and cut out his tongue." Jack suggested brightly. "Then shoot his tongue! And trim that scraggly beard."
Annalise shot him a withering look while Tai Huang snapped, "Sao Feng would've agreed with Barbossa."
"Aye." Barbossa began, but the African pirate lord cut him off.
"Calypso was our enemy then. She will be our enemy now."
"And it's unlikely her mood's improved." The French pirate lord agreed.
"I would still agree with Sao Feng. We release Calypso!" The Spanish pirate lord argued, drawing his pistol and settling it on the table before him.
The French pirate lord stiffened. "You threaten me?"
"I silence you!" The Spaniard started, raising his gun but the Frenchman punched him in the face before he could do anything more. The gun fired into the ceiling and both crew started to shout and fight each other.
Annalise stared at the scene before her, appalled.
"This is madness."
"This is politics." Jack corrected absently before realizing who he was speaking to.
Their eyes met briefly before Annalise looked away first. Something about that didn't sit right with Jack but she was already moving on.
"Meanwhile, Beckett and Jones are on their way."
"If they not be here already." Barbossa muttered gloomily, before he called for order.
He was of course ignored, but Barbossa took a leaf out of Annalise's book. Climbing atop the long oak table, he fired into the air. The pirates settled enough for the pirate captain to continue their debate in a more civilized manner.
"Who was the first court what imprisoned Calypso' We should be the ones to set her free, and in her gratitude, she will see fit to grant us boons."
"Whose boons? Your boons?" Jack shot back.
Barbossa rolled his eyes in exasperation while Jack announced decidedly, "Utterly deceptive twaddle-speak, says I."
"If you have a better alternative, please. Share." Barbossa replied scathingly as he got off the table and gestured to the crowd.
Jack paused before he said quite calmly, "Cuttlefish."
Barbossa stared while Annalise raised a brow; Jack had officially lost his mind. More so than usual. But Jack was completely serious as he addressed the entire group, wandering down the length of the table as he spoke.
"Aye. Let us not, dear friends, forget our dear friends the cuttlefish. Flipping glorious little sausages. Pen them up together and they will devour each other without a second thought. Human nature, isn't it? Or, fish nature?"
Barbossa rolled his eyes while Annalise shook her head.
"Why are we listening to this?" She demanded quietly. Elizabeth shrugged.
"Desperation?" She suggested while Jack continued on obviously.
"So, yes," he leant in against Mistress Ching's chair. "We could hole up here, well-provisioned, and well-armed. And half of us will be dead within the month. Which seems quite grim to me, any way you slice it. Or!"
He gestured toward Barbossa.
"As my learned colleague," Barbossa scoffed at Jack's empty flattery, "so naively suggests, we can release Calypso. And we can pray that she will be merciful. I rather doubt it."
He turned around the table corner as he asked rhetorically, "Can we, in fact, pretend that she is anything other than a woman scorned like which fury hell hath no? We cannot."
It was ironic that he would talk about women scorned, Annalise thought sourly.
"Res ipsa loquitur, tabula in naufragio. We are left with but one option." Jack stopped on the other side of the table from Annalise and Barbossa. "I agree with, and I cannot believe the words that are coming out of me mouth…"
Annalise frowned while Barbossa jerked his head back slightly in surprise as he realized what Jack was about to say in the second before he said it.
Jack gestured toward Annalise. "Captain Swann. We must fight."
Annalise's brows flew to her hairline at his declaration. She even looked almost impressed; and Jack hated how that could make his heart skip a beat.
However, Barbossa countered accusingly, "You've always run away from a fight!"
"Have not." Jack shot back.
"You have so." Barbossa pointed out.
"Have not."
"You have so."
"Have not."
"You have so, and you know it." Barbossa snapped.
"Have not, slander and calumny." Jack answered. "I have only ever embraced that oldest and noblest of pirate traditions. I submit that here now that is what we all must do. We must fight… to run away."
And there was the Jack she knew. Still, Annalise was impressed and mildly grateful to the pirate captain as well as his crew as Gibbs crowed in agreement.
"Aye!"
Others took up the cry as Jack's words resonated with the cowards, but once again it was Barbossa who threw cold water on their plans.
"As per the Code, an act of war, and this be exactly that, can only be decreed by the pirate king."
"You made that up." Jack accused his former first mate.
"Did I now?" Barbossa asked cockily before he declared loudly, "I call on Captain Teague! Keeper of the Code!"
Annalise saw the way Jack's face instantly changed, losing a little bit of colour. She wondered just what he'd done this time to cross this Captain Teague. And she wondered if Jack ever got tired of running away from all the people he'd ever ticked off.
A first mate piped up from beside the pirate lord of the Indian Ocean. "Sri Sumbhajee proclaims this all to be folly! Hang the code! Who-"
A sudden gunshot rang throughout the cavern. Annalise sucked in a sharp breath while Elizabeth's hand flew to her mouth as the first mate fell back. Dead.
"The Code is the law." A deep, rumbling voice growled. Annalise looked to the shadows at the back of the cavern where a tall, broad man blew his still smoking gun before he holstered it.
As if they were naughty children caught by their parents, all the pirate lords settled back quietly into their seats. Annalise meanwhile squinted as she tried to get a better look at the new man as he approached them. Only for her eyes to widen and her lips to part slightly in shock as she saw an eerily familiar face appear under the lamplight.
Teague meanwhile stopped behind Jack and he growled at his son, "You're in my way, boy."
Jack backed away without a word, barely even moving anything except his feet as he shuffled away. Teague stepped up to the table in the spot Jack had vacated before he looked back and gestured with his fingers. Only then did Annalise realize two pirates had followed behind the captain, carrying a heavy book. She hadn't noticed them before, too focused on the impressive aura Teague gave off, but now she focused on the book as a few pirates around her murmured.
"The code."
"As set forth by Morgan and Bartholomew."
Annalise glanced at Ragetti as she heard his voice above the others before she looked back at Teague as the book was settled with a heavy thud on the table before the pirate captain. It was locked, she noticed, although why they would have to lock the laws of pirates was beyond her. Or did pirates even try to steal their own laws? Annalise paused. Actually… she wouldn't be surprised if they did.
Teague suddenly whistled, making them all jump; and then a dog came running out from the back carrying a set of keys in its mouth.
"What?" Pintel gaped while Ragetti pointed at the dog.
"That can't… How did..."
"Sea turtles, mate." Teague shrugged as he took the keys from the dog. Annalise had no idea what that was supposed to mean but she supposed if he was the father of Jack Sparrow, he was bound to speak what sounded to them like meaningless gibberish.
Teague unlocked the book and he heaved it open. Flipping through the yellowed pages, he paused and ran his finger across the writing. He looked back up.
"Barbossa is right." Teague declared.
"Hang on a minute." Jack protested, ducking in front of Teague to read the passage aloud himself. "It shall be the duties, as the king, to declare war, parlay with shared adversaries..."
Jack lifted his head.
"Fancy that." He muttered.
Barbossa smirked and gave a mock bow while the French pirate lord protested, "There's not been a king since the first court. And that's not likely to change."
"Not likely." Teague agreed as he stomped off back to the back corner of the cavern while Elizabeth frowned.
"Why not?" She asked, puzzled.
"See, the pirate king is elected by popular vote." Gibbs explained.
"And each pirate only ever votes for hisself." Barbossa finished.
"Of course." Annalise sighed, but they were in for yet another surprise.
"I call for a vote." Jack announced.
Barbossa rolled his whole head irritably, but Jack's call was easily seconded. Either all the pirate captains hoped foolishly to be named king or (realistically) to continue to bicker amongst themselves until doomsday came rather than have to make the decision to fight without full backup. Annalise glanced around uneasily as Teague started playing a guitar while the rest of the pirates got down to business.
"I vote for Ammand, the corsair." Ammand started off.
"Captain Chevalle, the penniless Frenchman." The French pirate captain stood next.
Another of Sri Sumbhajee's men took over as spokesperson for his captain as he announced, "Sri Sumbhajee votes for Sri Sumbhajee."
"Mistress Ching!" The vote continued.
"Gentleman Jocard!"
"Villanueva!"
It was Annalise's turn next, but she was unhopeful as she said rather unenthusiastically, "Annalise Swann."
"Barbossa." Barbossa, who was next, declared pompously and with much more confidence than Annalise had.
Annalise rolled her eyes at the pirate lord, but Jack had one last shock for all of them up his sleeve.
"Annalise Swann."