Rose emerged mere minutes later in her modified "Redhead" dress, having taking off and throwing overboard the clothes she had worn on the cannibal island; She wanted nothing more to do with that place, no reminder or trace in sight. Her newly fashioned belt with pistol, dagger, and herb pouch in tow hung taught around her waist and she had retrieved both of her boots. Her hair was once again tied up in its traditional fashion, and the brisk sea air played with the strands of hair that inevitably strayed from the mass. The sky was colored a pale blue on the eastern horizon as the sun prepared to surface.

She was pulled from her thoughts by the sound of a longboat being lowered into the ocean. Pintel, Ragetti, Marty, and Gibbs were already aboard. Rose walked to the railing where Will and Jack stood. Will smiled at her. "You are looking better already," he said kindly.

Jack inserted himself between the two. "William, have you met my sister, Rose?" Not waiting for an answer, he proceeded. "Will, Rose. Rose, Will. Yes, it's interesting because Will is getting married," said Jack more to Will than Rose.

Will didn't break a glance with Jack, saying, "Aye, but without that compass, I won't be marrying anyone, will I?"

Jack was unfazed. "Well, without getting in the boat, you won't be getting anything. Hop-to, you."

Rose started to climb over the railing into one of the two boats. Jack grabbed her waist to aide her, though she flinched away from his touch. As soon as she was seated opposite Gibbs, Jack climbed into the other boat with another crewman and Cotton and sat at the front of the boat. Will climbed in Rose's boat and took a seat across from Rose.

The ropes connecting the boat to the ship were disconnected and the rowing proceeded, from which Will, Jack, Gibbs and Rose were exempted from.

"What's your name, poppet?" said the fellow next to her. She swallowed her disgust and answered back politely. "My name is Rose, Pintel."

Pintel looked slightly confused that she knew him, but after awhile, he put the pieces of what she had said together. "Oh-ho!" he called out, nudging his friend. "Ye hear that, Ragetti? It seems to be the Cap'n's lil' sister from all those years ago! Rose Hexfury, as I recall."

Ragetti looked over at Rose. "Aye," he sneered. "I remember! She's the witch what stole me eye!" he said, pointing to the wooden eye which spun loosely in its socket.

"Tell me," she said to them, "Why were the two of you in pursuit of the Black Pearl on that island?"

Pintel stuttered, taken aback by her frankness. "Well we...we..."

"You were thieves," she finished.

"No madam!" he cried defensively. "We committed no thievery! We were only—"

"Salvaging it!" chimed in Ragetti, to which Pintel gave him a harsh glare.

Rose leaned forward threateningly toward them threateningly, "Well, I wouldn't try your 'salvaging' again, lest we lose any more eyes, hmm?"

The men looked at each other in terror. "That's enough!" Jack called back to their boat as they rowed, though he gave Rose a slight, appreciative smile from the corner of his mouth when their eyes met.

The boats were now out of the gentle rocking of the sea and into the steady calm of the bayou waters. The sounds of seagulls were taken over by croaks, splashes, and gentle cooing. They passed the trail Angelica had led Rose down after leaving the first time that had led them to the town.

Over the course of their voyage, as they traveled deeper and deeper into the swampland, the bit Rose enjoyed the most was the expressions of those crew members new to the environment; Seeing the elevated shanties, hearing the gentle strumming of a banjo or the sudden trill of a child's laughter, as if out of nowhere.

Will finally broke the silence in the boat. "Why is Jack afraid of the open ocean?" he asked, looking to anyone in the boat who could provide an answer.

Gibbs spoke up. "Well if you believe such things, there's a beast that does the bidding of Davy Jones. A fearsome creature with giant tentacles that will suction your face clean off and drag an entire ship down to the crushing darkness. The Kraken." Rose raised her eyebrows upon hearing this. Jack must have finally let Gibbs in to the threat they now faced. "They say the stench of its breath is…" He shuddered at the thought. "Imagine, the last thing you know on God's green earth is the roar of the Kraken and the reeking odor of a thousand rotting corpses." He took a moment to fully imagine these horrors, then said, "If you believe such things."

"And the key will spare him that?" Will asked.

"That's the very question Jack wants answered. Bad enough even to go visit her."

"Her?" Will asked in confusion.

"Aye," replied Gibbs cryptically.

Rose was about ready to explain to Will who Tia Dalma was, but then realized that all would become clear to him in but a moment, as soon, Jack gave the signal to lift the oars and left the boat coast toward Tia's shack. It was exactly as she had left it. As they approached, Rose stood, eager to go in first. The boat hadn't even stopped at her dock when she leapt out. She ascended and passed her boa snake, ducking under the familiar trinkets hanging from the roof directly into the storage room where she knew she'd be. Sure enough, as Rose pushed through the beaded curtain, there was Tia Dalma, who spun around to greet her. Rose's grin disappeared however, when she saw Tia Dalma's shocked expression and stiff demeanor. She stood at an odd angle, and had her hands behind her, making her skirt appear fanned-out.

"Tia, what's going on?" Rose said.

"Ya do not come alone…"

Rose was uncertain if Tia's utterance was a question or a declarative statement, so she said in confusion, "Yes? Um…Jack has come with his crew. They seek advice of the supernatural—" Suddenly, Rose realized that she had jumped to into the middle of conversation. "Oh, I should start off by saying that I found Ja—"

"I know," quipped Tia Dalma.

Of course she knows, Rose reasoned. But this odd behavior from Tia was absolutely unheard of. She let her eyes focus on the objects behind Tia Dalma's skirt that she seemed to be trying to conceal. Before Tia shifted, further concealing this portion of the room, Rose saw caught a glimpse of it...boots, legs, a coat covering a man who was quietly breathing, and a face; A face Rose recognized as the first mate of her brother all those years ago.

Barbossa. Rose's eyes went wide as she grabbed Tia's shoulders. "What is he DOING here? Alive?" Tia grasped her in return, "Hush!" she ordered, for they both heard footsteps on the deck. The crew was ascending. "You mustn't say a word!"

Footsteps closer still. Rose looked from Barbossa to Tia. This was so wrong. But Tia looked desperate for her discretion. "Alright," she finally whispered.

Tia breathed a sigh of relief and rushed to her table, bent over her collection of crab claws, whispering a sacred chant to them when the door opened and Jack entered. "Jack Sparrooooowww," Tia warmly welcomed him as he entered, followed by Will and the rest of the crew. Rose turned her attention toward Barbossa, asleep. No. Not asleep. His eyes were open, as though frozen, and dead, staring ahead into some horrible vision. His arms were folded across his chest and raised and lowered slowly with each horrible breath.

She looked at this man with hatred. Jack had killed him with his own bullet, he told her so himself. The Aztec curse was broken with Will's blood. How could he be alive? And why was Tia helping to bring him back? But something wasn't right...how could Barbossa look so...restless as he rested? Perhaps this was "zombie-fication" that she had overheard Tia teaching to Anjelica a few years ago. But it seemed like he was fighting an incredible war with himself, like every passing moment was a struggle. His eyes vibrated rapidly from side to side. A part of Rose felt sorry for him, but another part of her thought, I hope you feel all the anguish of hell, mutineer. Suddenly, she heard a gunshot. She stood and walked toward the beaded curtain leading to the main room where the crew currently was lingering to see what had happened. Ah. An exhibition of Jack the Monkey's immortality. He brought Jack as payment for Tia's help. She grabbed the cage and released Jack, who came skittering over toward Barbossa, his master, sitting at his feet. Rose continued listening to Jack, the crew, and Tia converse.

"You know of Davy Jones, yes?" Tia was saying. "A man of the sea. A great sailor. Until he run afoul of what vex all men."

"What vexes all men?" asked Will.

Rose grimaced when she saw Tia turn her charm on Will. "What indeed?" she cooed, leaning towards him.

"The Sea?" Gibbs posited.

Pintel cried out, "Sums!"

"The dichotomy of good and evil!" shouted Ragetti.

Jack rolled his eyes. "A woman."

Rose cocked her head at this; How did Jack know so much about this story. She had never heard it before.

"A woman," Tia repeated. "He fell in love."

"No no no no. I heard it was the sea he fell in love with."

Tia snapped, "Same story different versions, but all are true. But it was a woman as changing, and harsh and untamable as the sea. Him never stopped loving her. But the pain it caused him was too much to live wit. But not enough to cause him to die."

"What exactly did he put into the chest?" asked Will.

Tia smiled. "Him heart."

"Literally or figuratively?" asked Ragetti.

Pintel scoffed. "He couldn't literally put his heart in a chest...could he?"

It was not worth feeling what small, fleeting joy life brings. So, he carve out him heart, lock it away in a chest, and hide the chest from the worl'. The key, he keep with him at all times."

Rose then found herself deep in thought once more, looking back over Barbossa. Jack had never told her that it was Davy Jones's heart inside the chest. She began to wonder what Jack's true intentions with Jones's heart were; Would blackmailing him and convincing him to let Jack keep the Pearl by threatening the heart really work, or did Jack have a more solidified plan in mind? Did Jack want to vanquish Jones for good? Either way, Rose was not pleased upon realizing the amount of secrets Jack had been keeping from her. Well then, she thought. If he can keep secrets from me, then I can keep a few of my own from him.

Tia then entered the back room. She made eye contact with Rose as she pushed through the beaded curtain, then began searching for something. "I have just the thing," she muttered. "Now where did I put it? My little beauty where are you? Such a long time in such a mess…" Suddenly, she found it. A jar of dirt that she triumphantly carried back into the main room.

"Davy Jones cannot make port," she explained. "Cannot step on land but once every ten years. Land is where you are safe, Jack Sparrow. And so you will carry land with you."

Jack took the jar and look skeptically at it. "Dirt. This is a jar of dirt."

"Yes." Tia agreed.

"Is the…jar of dirt going to help?"

"If you don't want it, give it back."

Jack suddenly narrowed his eyes and pulled the jar close to him. "No!"

Tia smiled. "Then it helps."

Will then politely intervened. "It seems…we have a need to find the Flying Dutchman."

At this point, Rose pushed through the curtain back into the main room. Tia was seated at her table, clutching her crab claws and announcing "A touch of destiny," whilst scattering them over the table. "You are to find a ship. Sail toward the setting of the sun and you find it soon. There, the key can be found."

"Excellent!" Jack said. "I'll just be taking my dirt and we'll be on our merry way then!" he approached Tia and kissed her hand regally.

"Don' forget aboud me, Jack," said she smiling playfully. Jack only gave a coy smile in response. He then turned as the crew began to file out, waiting until Will, the last one in the room, had gone. Tia too had left, as she had developed a strange infatuation with Will and walked him out of her home.

Alone, Jack looked to Rose, who just stood in the center of the room. He whistled to her. "Come, come," he said. "No time to lose."

She only looked directly at him, jaw tight with the tension of the secret she now held. No matter if she kept this secret between her and Tia Dalma or let it slip to Jack, she would be betraying one of them. But as she looked into his eyes, she could see that there was no secret at all; Jack knew. She waited for him to say anything, ask her about how Barbossa fared in the room adjacent to them, but he only stared expectantly at her.

Finally, Rose squeaked, "He's back. But clearly you already knew."

Jack nodded, lips pursed in silent defeat. "Aye. It was only a matter of time, really."

"I'm staying here," Rose then said carefully, though she didn't fully comprehend his meaning.

Jack's shoulders fell in defeat. "Rose…" he tried to reason.
"I'll take care of it," she said, encoding the true intention of her statement, which was I'll make sure Barbossa never comes back for revenge one way or another.

"You'll lose. There's no point in fighting this fight. Come back with us."

Rose tried to drain her voice of all bitterness as she said, "You said you weren't going to have me aboard until the Pearl was entirely yours. I upset that plan."

"Rose—" Jack protested.

"No," she said gently. "Go. Get her back from Jones. Make her yours again and then come back for me. We'll assess from there.

Jack pondered this for a moment, then reached down to his belt, untying the her half of the pendant which they both carried. He placed it in her hand. "This one's yours," he said. "You're taking care of it now." Rose reached around her neck for his half to give back to him. "No," he said, stopping her progress. "Keep both. When I return for you, I'll get mine back, savvy?"

The siblings embraced once more and she followed him to the door and listened as he passed Tia once more on his way into the boats and ordered full speed ahead. Rose smiled as she heard Will ask, "Aren't you forgetting Rose?" to which Jack gave an inaudible answer as they sailed away.

Rose stayed in that spot until the little boat disappeared into the mist. She took a deep breath, having just experienced the very worst few days of her life— losing Ben, the sheer exhaustion of spending the day wondering if she was the last crew member still alive, the very fight to stay alive, finding a prison in the form of the ship she once adored, now discovering the one man she despised above all others being nursed back to life. Most of it felt like a distant nightmare she had once dreamt. But a sickening weight in the pit of her stomach knew this was no dream, but a godawful reality. Her brother was in great danger and she had no control over his fate.

"Find him, keep him safe," Tia's parting words to her only a few months ago had warned her. A part of Rose felt immense worry that by staying here, she would not be fulfilling the latter half of that prophecy. But when Rose thought of what danger laid inside, she knew what she had to do. Silently, she disappeared back into the shack while Tia's back was still turned.

Moments later, Tia returned back into the main room to see that Rose wasn't there. She walked to the back room and frozen when she saw Rose standing with a pillow inches above Barbossa's face, ready to smother what little life still remained in him.

"Tell me why he's here, or I will kill him," Rose hissed.