Ash's knuckles were white as she clutched the cup of coffee, as if she was imagining strangling Declan's neck. The pirates had left the tomb, Ash looking for any sign of the spymaster. But he was long gone, and Jack convinced her to sit down at a cafe while they planned their next move.

"There's another piece out there somewhere," he said in a low tone, glancing around at people passing by.

"The Rogue said the mapmaker might have given one to each of his crew. But I don't know who they are. I should have asked him before I left," Ash said bitterly, taking a sip of coffee.

"There may be another way," Jack replied.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Renzo had a point when he said that tomb was more of a shrine. And you were right when you said the people around here are proud of their famous mapmaker. Stands to reason someone around here will know more. Perhaps who the famous mapmaker sailed with, savvy?"

Ash nodded slowly. She was beginning to see his line of thought. As the count stood, she had one map piece, the company had another. That was two. Five more map pieces to go. She may have missed her chance at one of them, and her chance to kill Declan, but circumstances would force them together again as each side raced for the pieces. If she put him out of her mind for now and focused on the remaining map pieces, she'd get her chance at Declan again. She hurriedly drank the rest of her coffee and got to her feet.

"Right. Everybody go back to the ship, Jack and I will ask around. Only two of us will draw less attention, and even less if we openly act like lovers."

"But only two is slower," Renzo argued, "We should – "

Whatever he was about to say, no one found out. Ash glared at him, and he went silent as abruptly as if she'd slapped him.

"That was not a request," she said icily.

She held his gaze until he looked away and nodded. They watched the crew walk off for a moment, then Jack offered Ash his arm.

"My lady," he smiled.

Ash smirked as she took his arm.

"Fuck off," she said cheerfully.

"Well, that was unladylike," Jack chuckled.

"I'm not a lady. I'm a pirate."

He gave her a long, admiring look.

"I love you, you know."

She laughed.

"Indeed."

They walked around for half the day talking to people, asking if anyone knew who their celebrated map maker sailed with. Most people gave them no names, couldn't call to mind anyone on his crew. Except for one old lady. The sun was setting by the time they found her and asked about the mapmaker. She looked them over with sharp eyes.

"You're not asking out of idle curiosity," she said.

Ash and Jack exchanged looks.

"No," Ash said carefully, looking back at her.

"You're after Cibola," the old woman stated.

Silence.

For a few long, tense moments, Ash debated what she should say. There was no lying to this sharp eyed crone. How then could she convince her to give them the information they needed?

"Those black cloaked men are too," the old lady continued, sniffing indignantly, "Went into his tomb and disturbed his rest like they had every right."

Ash stiffened. Her eyes widened, and Jack realized he recognized that look. She'd just had an idea. It was hidden in a flash.

"We're looking to oppose them," Ash said.

"I can see that, girl! I'm not as blind as everyone else in this town. I can tell you're not with any foreign royal power either. You are pirates."

Jack said nothing. He sensed the wrong word now would close this old crone up tight as a steel trap.

"We are," Ash said slowly, "But would you rather they get to Cibola, or us? We won't exploit it's riches for a terrible purpose or gain."

"No. You would just squander it selfishly."

That did it. This woman had no idea what was at stake. She had no idea why they wanted Cibola, she had no right to judge.

"My parents are buried at Cibola," Ash said hotly, "I never knew them thanks to those bastards. I don't give a damn for all the gold in that city, but I will find it, because I will see my parent's graves if it's the last blasted thing I do before I die."

"Ash," Jack said softly.

He didn't want her to strangle the old lady. That definitely wouldn't get them any closer to their goal. Ash and the crone stared at each other, Ash's eyes wide with barely contained fury, the old lady's narrowed thoughtfully as she looked the younger woman over. The silence stretched, until the old woman sat back in her chair.

"I see," said the crone, "You're not lying about your parents and your reasons for wanting Cibola. Very well then. Give those bastards hell for me. My own late husband was friends with the navigator of the crew. His name is Hernando Calderon. He went back home to Spain last I heard of him."

"Thank you," Ash said.

She and Jack turned away and made their way back to the ship. As soon as she boarded, Ash went immediately below deck, while Jack went to find a heading. He was interrupted a few minutes later by mister Gibbs.

"Ash isn't in the galley starting dinner," he said, "She's shut herself up in that room. Should we mention food to her?"

"You want to?" Jack asked.

Gibbs thought about it for a second. Then he realized the risk of interrupting Ash and getting a knife in his eye wasn't worth it.

"No."

"Smart man."

Jack oversaw the ship's departure from the docks, and went down to the galley with Jahir to figure out what to do about dinner. Jack hoped the noise they were making would rouse Ash from her magick room, but no such luck. He was already worried before, but as they all sat down to eat, it only got worse. He had never seen her deliberately neglect her duties on the ship before. He thought about bringing her some food, but knew she wouldn't appreciate the interruption. So he ordered Jahir to do the cleanup after the meal and went back to the helm, staring out at the dark sea. He spent hours at the helm, waiting for some sign of Ash. But he waited in vain, and finally had to give up and go get some sleep. She wasn't at breakfast either, and Jack was about to go to her when he saw the tray with empty plates on it on the floor outside her door.

"I an' I put it there last night," Jahir said, coming up behind him.

Jack was irritated. He should have thought of that. He watched Jahir clear the tray and silently place another with food on it in it's place. No one saw Ash for the whole day, but Jack checked the tray after lunch. This time, the food on it was half gone. After dinner, the food on the tray only had a quarter of it missing. She was eating, but she was consuming less and less. How soon before she stopped all together? What was going through her head in there? He'd had enough waiting and worrying. It was time he found out. He'd given her space and time enough, he decided. Jack went over to her door and knocked.

"Ash?" he called.

"Go away!" Ash yelled, her voice muffled through the wood.

Jack hesitated. He thought her heard something in her tone... After only a second's deliberation, he opened the door. She sat in the middle of the floor, her back to him. When she glanced over her shoulder and he saw the glimmer of wetness on her cheek, he knew he had not been mistaken.

"I said go away! Get out!" she shouted.

Jack shook his head as he went to her, kneeling beside her. She turned away, hiding her tears from him.

"Love, please," he said gently, "What is it?"

She didn't answer for the longest time. The quiet stretched as her small body shook with sobs, and Jack felt his heart clench.

"I can't do it," she said at last, "I tried. I tried so hard, for hours. I can't get through."

Jack looked around slowly, taking in the black candles that looked as if they'd been thrown across the room, the black cloth that lay on the floor beside the table, as if it had been ripped away.

"Who were you trying to..."

"The mapmaker, at first. I thought... if he could tell me... but it didn't work. I tried for so long. Then I remembered my parents. It was them I really wanted to talk to anyway. I don't understand why I can't get in contact with the people that really matter."

Jack didn't know what to say, as he had no idea how summoning the dead worked anyway. What could he say? He never saw her cry. Not since... He grimaced and looked down.

"And then I realized what a stupid, selfish bitch I am."

Jack looked at her sharply.

"Hold on now," he said severely.

He saw her hand come up, guessed she was wiping away her tears, because she turned to him quickly and cut him off.

"I am!" she seethed, brandishing the map piece at him, "If I was the wizard my old master trained me to be, if I was truly good and wished to protect the world like I'm supposed to, I'd set this blasted piece on fire! The company can't get to Cibola without the complete map. Even if one piece is missing, it would keep the city safe. I've thought about doing it before you know. But I can't fucking do it! Not now that I know what else is there. I can't let it go, let them go. How can I be so fucking selfish?"

"You're only human," Jack whispered, "You're allowed to feel emotions and want to see your parent's graves. You don't have to dedicate all of yourself purely to the protection of the world. You can't bear such a burden. It would break you."

"If I wasn't so weak I could stand it. I could do it."

Jack shook his head.

"You are the toughest person I know," he said truthfully, "Just because you don't destroy the map piece, because you hold on to your parent's memory, that doesn't make you weak. It makes you human. And I'm glad of it. Your selflessness scares me sometimes. You don't know what it was like on Jolly Rodger's island, watching your dedication to others. You lose sight of your own needs when you look after others, you refuse to sleep and eat. I can't stand it when you get like that. I'm relieved you're thinking of yourself for once. Don't beat yourself up about it."

Ash shook her head stubbornly. She could think of nothing to say, but she refused to accept his words. Jack sighed.

"Please, love. You have to eat."

"I can't."

"You must. If not for yourself then for me."

Her lips formed a thin line, and he started to worry she would stick to her guns and refused. But then she gave a stiff, single nod, and he felt the tension in his shoulders drain away. He went to get her food and brought it back to her. He sat with her while she ate, watching closely to make sure she got enough in her system.

"Now you must come get some rest," Jack insisted when she finished.

"I can't. I really can't. If I could I would, but I can't get to sleep."

"Come with me, then."

Jack lifted her to her feet as he stood and steered her above decks to their quarters.

"We're going to play a drinking game," he announced as he settled behind his desk with a deck of cards, "Shouldn't take too long to knock you out, lightweight that you are."

Ash couldn't even muster the energy to stick her tongue out at him. She sat mutely across from him and watched dully as he dealt out the cards. This idea of his turned out to be a good one. Ash felt better as more rum was introduced into her system, and kept drinking until her vision swam. Still, Jack encouraged her to drink more, deciding the best way to get her to sleep was fill her with so much rum that she lost her balance and could no longer walk. That would be tricky. She was too sure footed aboard a moving ship, much like he was. It took a couple hours to get her to the appropriate level of intoxication, when she got up once to go to the head and actually stumbled into the desk. Jack helped her to the head, and once her business was completed, he simply picked her up and carried her to bed. She was asleep in seconds after he had her under the blanket. Jack laid down next to her and held her small body in his arms as he drifted off to sleep.

He woke up as he crashed onto the deck. Squinting in the dim, early morning light, he peered up at the bed and the sleeping woman that still occupied it. Her tiny nose wrinkled, and she turned on her side with her back to him, her legs spreading apart to take up the entire bed, one leg hiked up and cocked at a right angle at the knee. She slept like the dead. Jack was starting to agree with Jahir's theory that she could sleep through a bombing.

"Starfish," he said petulantly, lurching to his feet.

Gibbs came to him the minute Jack stepped out on deck.

"Is Ash – " he began, but Jack cut him off.

"Let her sleep. She's had a rough night."

Ash came out around noon, and wasn't happy that Jack let her sleep so long. He was opening his mouth to answer when the lookout shouted there was a ship behind them, and it belonged to the British Royal Navy. Jack immediately moved to the helm, and Ash tugged on a pair of grey leather gloves, wrist length and finger less.

"What's with those?" he asked.

"In case I have to get down from the crow's nest in a hurry again," she said grimly, "No more rope burn. And I need my trigger finger free of fabric so I can properly operate my rifle, thus why they're finger less."

"Clever solution."

"Oh, I'm all kinds of clever. As these Navy lads are about to find out."

"We can out run them," Jack protested.

Ash made a sour face, as if she'd gotten a mouthful of lemon, but didn't comment. As much as she wanted to hurt someone, others on the crew would get hurt too. It wasn't worth putting them in danger just to satisfy her taste for revenge that wasn't even against the one she wanted. She leaned over the rail and looked behind at the other ship, judging carefully.

"They are falling behind," she said neutrally.

"Cap'n! Ship ahead!" the lookout called.

Ash looked towards the bow of the ship and saw another Navy ship had come from behind an rocky outcrop off their front starboard side.

"Shit," she cursed, just as Jack chimed in.

"Bugger."

They were now trapped between two ships. No where to go. Still, Jack tried his best, shouting orders to the crew and turning the Black Pearl to the port side, maneuvering the ship so that the cannons on each side faced one of the Navy ships. The Navy ships turned to sail parallel to the Black Pearl. Ash ran to the crow's nest. As she raced up the rope ladder on one side, the lookout saw her coming and descended via the rope ladder on the other side. Once she got to her spot, she heard Jack give the order to fire. Ash hung on as cannon fire boomed in the air and shook the ship. Her face was tense as she looked down at the two Navy vessels. They were out gunned. And not by a little bit. By a lot a bit. If only Jack could pull ahead of them, he might be able to circle around the ships and fire at them that way. Their ship would take less damage while dealing the most to the enemy ships, but the crew would have to be extremely good aiming those cannons.

But such a thing was looking to be more and more unlikely. Ash cursed under her breath. What could she do? There had to be something, some bit of magick she could do to tip the odds in their favor. She could make it rain, but it would take too long and wouldn't really help. She wished she had mastered setting fire to things with her mind. But maybe she could still set fire to their ships, just in a different way. Ash began patting down her clothes and going through her pockets. She found the smoke bombs and energy boosting pecans, as well as various dried bundle of herbs. Then she found the copper nitrate salt. Ash grinned and knelt to form a special bundle. She put gunpowder and copper nitrate in bundle, then set it on fire with a bit of flint and steel. Ash was tense as she waited a second or two for the fire to catch and hold, then flung it at one of the enemy ships as hard and far as she could. The bundle exploded. The explosion caught the sails of the ship she had been aiming for, and emerald green flames washed across the canvas.

Ash whooped in delight as the Navy crew got so spooked by the odd colored flames that half of them jumped over board. The fire soon degraded the sails and that ship fell behind, the man at the helm cursing the crew and the flames themselves in equal measures. But her small victory was short lived. While she had been doing that, the other Navy ship had started to send men overboard by grappling hooks. Her eyes widened as she watched a few swing onto the Black Pearl and begin to fight the crew.

"Jack!" Ash shouted in warning, taking her rifle from her back.

Once he saw what was happening, he started cursing as well. Ash started shooting down at the Navy lads boarding, taking aim carefully, selecting targets that looked to be the most trouble. While she was fast, she was only one woman, and the enemy crew slowly over took the crew of the Black Pearl.

"Enough of this!" someone shouted at last.

The Navy lad drew a pistol from his belt and leveled it at Jack. The rest of his crew were holding the Black Pearl crew at sword or gun point as well.

"Come down, sniper," the Navy leader called, "You might save one of them, but not all of them."

Ash bared her teeth in a silent snarl. Of all the rotten, cowardly... Smoldering with anger, Ash left her rifle in the crow's nest and slowly made her way down to the deck, where two Navy lads immediately grabbed her arms and bent them behind her back. Their leader stepped closer to her, his blue eyes gone wide when they settled on her face. Ash tilted her chin upwards and glared back at him defiantly.

"What is someone like you doing in a place like this," he whispered.

He didn't seem to expect an answer, as it looked like he was talking to himself. Ash certainly wasn't going to answer him.

"I can't believe it," Jack's voice said as he was dragged down to the main deck to join the rest of his crew, "Fitzy!"

The man before Ash tightened his mouth in annoyance, then turned and punched Jack across the face. Both crews winced and Ash began to struggle against the men holding her back.

"I am Fitzwilliam P. Dalton the Third to you, pirate."

Ash snorted. No. No, he would forever now be known as Fitzy. It was decided.

"I surmise by the nickname and the punch that you two know each other," she drawled.

"Indeed," Fitzwilliam said stiffly, "Still, even I did not expect him to hire a witch."

"Wizard," Ash snapped.

Fitzwilliam tilted his head as he looked at her oddly.

"You do not deny it? Not that you could, after unleashing green flames upon my fellows."

Ash rolled her eyes. It really wasn't such a supernatural thing, but decided not to say so. It would keep her air of mystery and danger about her, which might help them all out of this situation in the end.

"I've done nothing wrong here, Fitzy," Jack protested, "She's here of her own free will. Honestly, if you knew her, you'd know no one could contain her against her wishes."

Fitzwilliam turned to look at each of them, then comprehension dawned on his face.

"You're his whore," he said.

Jack made a jerking motion, as if trying to break free from his captors.

"And you lads are supposed to be the gentlemen," he said scornfully.

"Compared to you, Jack, I am," Fitzwilliam said coolly, "Take them away, men. Chain the witch in a separate room. We shall tow their ship behind us – it will re join the East Indian Trading Company."

"Wizard!" both Jack and Ash shouted.

Ash did not resist as they carried her over to the Navy ship and separated her from Jack and the rest of the crew. She had to wait for the opportune moment, as Jack was always saying. This was not it. Wasting her strength by struggling now would accomplish nothing, and only leave her in a worse state to escape in. The men took her to a bare, dark room. They chained her wrists above and away from her head, so that her body formed a Y shape.

Then they left, and the darkness consumed her. They had not left her with so much as a candle. Which was probably a smart decision. Ash didn't know if she could make a fire rage out of control, but with nothing else to do, she would certainly try. Or maybe not. A fire in here and she would be the first life it claimed. With arson out of the question, she turned her thoughts to Fitzwilliam. He clearly knew Jack. But was that the reason he was after them? He had also mentioned the company. Did he know about the map? Was he working with them?

After some consideration, Ash decided it was unlikely. He hadn't mentioned the map that Ash kept on her person even now, and if that was what he was after, wouldn't that have been the first thing he asked about? Not for the first time, Ash considered the merits of burning the damn thing to cinders and washing her hands of this whole affair. Except people would still be after her, believing it to be in her possession even after it wasn't. And then there were her parents. She wasn't going to give up Cibola this easy. She couldn't.

The silence and the darkness pressed in on her until it was nearly unbearable. Then realizing she hadn't had such a calm, quiet moment in ages, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and began to meditate. Her body wasn't in the right position, but there was only so much she could do. She felt so much better afterwards, and then started to ground and center herself. She pushed all the negative energy and stress out of her body and imagined it going into the sea, where it was purified and returned to her. Then she imagined little golden bits of light being drawn to her and absorbed into her. It came from everywhere – the other humans on board, the sun above them, the waves beneath them, the wind all around them. She felt herself rejuvenate. Finally, Ash opened her eyes and smiled.

She was ready for whatever came next.