Three Years Earlier

Violet Charles hated the brig. This one, in particular, was especially awful, and she knew from experience. She'd been in many a cell before, but none quite as terrible as this one.

She had to stand in the corner of the damp, musty cell because the floor was completely flooded with ice-cold seawater. Apart from the smell, she could barely make out anything in the near-complete darkness, with the exception of the strange man in the corner opposite her.

Violet glared down at her boots as she raised one to shake it out, the wrinkled leather making her cringe. These boots were her pride and joy, always had been. The first thing she'd bought with stolen money. Pirate money.

"Love, if you can't handle a bit of salt water on yer boots, you're not cut out for the pirate life," came a lilting, flippant voice from across the cell, and she quickly stomped her boot back down into the water.

"Believe me, I've had far worse than water on these," she said in a cold voice, and her cellmate laughed dryly.

"I'm sure you have, if you're in here," he said, and she turned to look at him. He was slumped in the corner, hat low over his eyes, but the unmistakable look of a pirate about him. Long brown hair was visible from beneath the hat, and his hands, which were crossed across his chest, were adorned with golden rings.

"Who are you?" she asked curiously, and the man slowly raised his hat brim, revealing deep brown eyes and lids smudged with black.

"I'm Captain Jack Sparrow. Savvy?" With the words, the man stood up, and grinned at her, despite the fact that he was dripping wet.

The words rang a bell in Violet's mind. She'd heard of this pirate, this Sparrow, before. He was clever and had cheated his way out of death many a time. But as far as Violet knew, he hadn't been heard from in five years or so.

"Are you really?" she asked, stepping closer to him. "Where have you been the past five years?"

"Around," he said, shrugging. "You can't expect a man to stay in one place, can you, love?"

"Well I wouldn't expect a man to, but you-" she gestured at him, and he frowned at her, taken aback.

"That was bold, love. Who are you to make such comments?" he said, staring intently at her.

"Violet Charles," she said simply, holding out a hand. He stared at it for a few moments before promptly grabbing it and shaking it once.

"Charles, eh? Are you the one they call Coldblood?" he asked, and Violet grinned. She had gotten the nickname when she first took to the seas, sailing with buccaneer crews wherever they would take her. She was a ruthless killer when the moment came, leaving no one who stood in her way alive.

"Aye," she confirmed, and Jack nodded.

"So not a Captain, then, are we?" he asked mockingly, but she just shook her head, staring out beyond the bars of their cell.

"Not yet," she said, just a hint of sadness in her tone. It was her dream, though, to have a ship that she could do whatever she wanted with, take wherever she pleased. To address herself as Captain- she'd sell her soul to the sea for that.

"Well," Jack drawled, leaning against the wall, "Would you like to change that?" Violet swung her gaze back to his, raising an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" she asked suspiciously, and he grinned again, a gleam in his eyes.

"This is a rather nice ship that we're stuck in, wouldn't you say?" he asked innocently, and suddenly her heart began to pound the way it always did when adventure was close at hand.

"I'd say so," she replied cautiously as the Captain's grin began to look a little unstable.

"And I don't know about you, but I think I've had enough of this cell," he added, walking towards her until he was directly in front of her. She wanted to shrink back, but she forced herself to stand up straight, staring right into his eyes.

"I agree wholeheartedly," she said quietly, and Jack leaned closer to her for just a moment before turning around on his heel to inspect the bars.

"Then I'd say it's time we pay our respects to the good captain of this ship and be on our way. What do you say to that, Coldblood?"

Violet grinned, and suddenly she knew that something was about to happen, something that would change her life forever, for better or for worse.

"This is taking too long," Violet complained as Jack turned the metal rod around and around in the keyhole of the cell door. He looked comical, knee-deep in water, leaning against the bars with his face pressed to them and one arm reaching outside to reach the lock.

"Well, love, perhaps you'd like to be the one to do this," he said through gritted teeth, and Violet sighed before walking over to him and holding out a hand.

"Alright," she said, and Jack stopped to look up at her.

"What do you mean, alright?" he asked, no mad grin on his face this time.

"I gave you a chance to try it, let you feel special and important, and now I want to get out of here, so I'll be taking over," she said, smiling sweetly, and Jack glared at her.

"I don't think s-" Jack began, but Violet snaked a hand through the bars and grabbed the rod out of his hand.

"Give me a minute, won't you? Go play in the water over there," she said, gesturing to a corner, and Jack gave her a dark stare before moving back so she could take a turn at the lock.

Violet scraped the rod against the bars a few times, narrowing the edge to better fit into the keyhole. Then, she slid it into the lock and gently pressed down as she moved it through the mechanism, feeling each pin push up, one by one. After she'd pressed each pin, she continued to put pressure on the rod and slowly turned the rod to the right.

Suddenly there was a loud click- and both the rod and the lock fell to the ground in front of their cell.

"What- How-" Jack began, but Violet held up a hand to silence him and pushed the door open gently.

"Speechless, are we, Captain?" she whispered as they walked quietly up to the stairwell that led up to the main deck.

"Shut up, won't you, love?" he hissed, and she grinned to herself. Slowly, they made their to the stairway and slowly ascended.

"Any plan once we get up there?" she asked as the first rays of daylight hit their skin.

"Not really," said Jack, and she sighed, a hand on her cutlass, which was thankfully not taken away by the soldiers once they'd apprehended her.

"Ready?" she asked, and Jack nodded. Together, they ran the rest of the way up to the deck and into the sunlight.

Violet was almost blinded by the bright glare of the sun, but she quickly looked got her bearings and looked around. Stunned soldiers stood all around them, seemingly paralyzed, before one of them shouted,

"Don't let the prisoners escape!"

Suddenly, a flurry of action erupted, and Violet unsheathed her cutlass with a sharp, satisfying sound. The familiar weight in her hand blocked out everything else, and it was just her and the sword and the sea.

A man came at her from her right, and she parried his blow, the swords clashing loudly. She ducked his next swipe and managed to use the opportunity to slash across his vest. Blood bloomed across his uniform but she didn't stop, just turned on the next man that came at her.

She stabbed and slashed, again and again, everything mute but for the clashing of metal. A sharp pain bit her right arm and she resisted the urge to grab it, jabbing her sword into the man who'd managed to injure her.

Suddenly, she felt a pressure on her back and whipped around, ready to strike, but it was only Jack, who had been backed up against her by his own opponent, another white-wigged soldier.

"How did they escape?" called a voice from across the deck, and Violet recognized the tall man in the feathered hat as the captain of the ship. He'd been the one to lock her up in the first place, the lucky one who'd grabbed her arm just as she was about to escape.

"We don't know, sir," replied a shorter man as a new wave of soldiers came down upon them, and Violet tuned out the captain once again.

"You're good at this, love," said Jack from behind her as she flipped the sword out of her current opponent's hand and into her own.

"I know," she replied, grunting as she slid away from Jack, narrowly missing a sword at her neck.

"How are they winning?" bellowed the captain, and she heard the sound of a sword being unsheathed, and knew the captain was joining the fray. "Men! Pistols!"

"Pistols?" Violet complained, shaking her head. "Now that's cheating."

"We'd better finish this quickly," sang Jack from beside her, and she whipped her sword around her in a circle, taking out at least five men.

The first shot rang out, and whizzed past her, so close that she could feel the wind on her skin from the bullet's flight. She traced the shot to the soldier holding a gun a few feet away from her and stabbed him through the heart, but not before he fired again, sending a shot grazing past her cheek and leaving a trail of blood in its wake.

She grabbed the pistol from his hand and turned to face the soldiers, firing bullet after bullet until all the soldiers save for the captain were lying cold on the deck.

Jack looked up at her from across the deck and grinned, but she had on a cold smile that would make even the strongest man cower in fear.

The captain of the ship dropped his weapons and held up his hands in defeat, falling to his knees on the deck as both Violet's pistol and Jack's sword were trained on him.

"Please- I surrender!" he said, and Violet looked at Jack, who shrugged.

"Well, I suppose someone needs to tell the story of how Captain Coldblood came to be," Jack said, picking up the man's gun and throwing it overboard into the ocean below. "And we won't be needing that."

"Stand up," Violet said, and she walked the captain over to the rowboat that was stored on the ship. "Now get in," she demanded, and the man obeyed, quickly getting into the boat as Violet and Jack began to lower it into the ocean.

"Now, good sir, you will always remember this as the day that you almost caught Captain Jack Sparrow!" he called as the man's boat his the waves below, and the man picked up the oars and began to row away as fast as he could.

"And Violet Coldblood Charles!" she called after him, and then she was laughing, and so was Jack, two of the worst pirates there ever were, covered in blood and unable to contain themselves.

"Well, Captain," Jack asked when he they had finally composed themselves, "Where to?"

"Wait, wait. Are you saying-" Violet stopped at Jack's gold-toothed grin, and looked around at the ship. It was strewn with bodies and blood but beneath it all, it was a ship, and it was hers. And she was- she could be-

"You did get us out of that cell, love. I think this ship belongs to you, and I will humbly serve you as your first mate, savvy? I suppose if these men object-" he gestured to the bodies of soldiers on the ship, "then I might call off your Captainship, but they seem pretty quiet," he added. Violet laughed and walked over to the center of the ship by the mast.

"Well, if that's the case, then get to work, you lazy dog! We've got lots to do if we're planning on manning this ship with but two pirates until we can get our hands on a suitable crew!" she shouted, and Jack grinned at her, wild and mad-looking once again.

"Aye aye, Captain," he said, taking off his hat and handing it to her.

Grinning wickedly, she slid it over her hair, and from that moment on, every pirate on the seven seas feared Captain Coldblood Charles.