The room was aflutter with noise. Everyone had started talking at once. "How?" "I saw you dead." "Murderous wretch!" "When did this happen?"
Barbosa merely kept his smug grin on his face as he descended the stairs. Rose followed, her neck still tight with tears she could not shed. Not yet. She had already showed the majority of these people her weakness. Now it was time they see the capabilities of her wrath.
Will was the first voice to break from the constant utterance of confusion. "I killed you," he announced. "My blood and Jack's bullet killed you."
The normally verbose and riotous Barbossa stayed entirely still, staring directly at Will, which somehow made him angrier.
"I brought 'im back," Tia piped up, feeling the tension in the room. "Me an' Rose."
Of course. She had to rope Rose in with her scheme. Rose didn't even have the care in her heart to fight back even though she felt all of their eyes on her. She could hear their unspoken questions. Why Rose, after all he did to Jack?
Will did approach her and gently muttered, "So that's why you didn't come back with us. He's the reason."
Rose didn't even look at him. She instead kept focused dead ahead at a smudge on the farthest wall. Blankly, she said to Tia, "Tell them why."
The heat of their eyes left her and swept to Tia. "Barbossa could not be left ta die," she explained. "He is one of de pirad lords, and his piece of eight was not passed to an heir."
"Pirate lords?" Elizabeth asked. "What is a pirate lord?"
That was when Rose left. She didn't actually move anywhere. She stayed exactly where she was, staring at the dark spot on Tia's wall. It was a piece of the grain in the wood. With her eyes she traced its shape. Curve. They were probably at this point explaining about the onset of the pirate code, written and maintained by Captains Morgan and Bartholomew. Jagged edge. Barbossa had probably drawn Tia's chair and explained the nine pieces of eight and the nine pirate lords that governed nine bodies of water around the world. Point. Someone had probably asked about the logistics of Barbossa's revival, and Tia had responded with a less than helpful response. Seamless turn. The plan was about to be announced, just as Barbossa had so gruffly barked at Rose, "Why was I saved, ya ask? Think, Miss Teague! Tia wasn't just on a generous streak, no! I am the Pirate Lord of the Black Sea. Jack's the Pirate Lord of the Caribbean!" Bulbous contour. A journey at world's end to find him. The plan to travel into the Locker. Jones had Jack's body and soul, while Barbossa died on land, his body retrievable and his soul not held captive by Jones. Sharp angle. The pirate lord Sao Feng has the charts to the locker in his possession. Singapore. Corner. Everyone I love dies. Mother. Ben. Jack. Rough edge. It wasn't Jones. It wasn't the Kraken. It's you. You did this. Splintered border. Get away from them before you hurt someone else. Point. You live a cursed existence. Rough. "Rose?" She hears Mama say. Darkness. "Rose," Ben whispers. Emptiness. "Rose!" Jack yells.
"Rose!" Tia cried, stirring her from her trance.
Rose glanced in their direction. The heat of their eyes was on her again. All of them were circled around Tia's table where Barbossa sat, pointing to a map. "Ye best be listening to the plan, as this involves you."
Rose gave a half-hearted nod and slowly approached the rest.
Barbossa continued, "Now, once we arrive in Singapore, Gibbs will lead a party through the sewers. Meanwhile, Rose and Master Turner will keep together in a boat that will leave first, Master Gibbs."
"Aye...Captain," Gibbs replied with just the slightest sense of hesitancy. It was at this reaction that Rose stopped to examine how the crew seemed to be handling this sudden reappearance and call to action. They looked responsive, but still shocked.
"Why Will and Rose?" Elizabeth quietly asked from somewhere in the rear of the room.
Rose found herself in agreement with her. "Yes, why just us?"
"If I know Sao Feng at all, I know his charts are hidden somewhere sacred, most likely a temple," Barbossa explained. "We will be needing a thief," he said, motioning to Will, who merely nodded in response, "And a decoy." He pointed to Rose.
She narrowed her eyes. "Decoy?"
He looked as though he was about to lose his patience as he rapped his blackened nails on Tia's table. "We will use our lovely ladies as decoys."
"See, there we are with that word again," Rose snapped. She felt anger boiling in her core again. "Decoy. You make it sound as though you want to brush us under the rug and let the men do the work. And beg your pardon, but I never agreed to undertake this mission!"
He was standing before she was finished, towering over her. "And tell me, Miss Teague, what choice do ya have?"
The words shook her. Her mind started racing. Her initial answer to his question was defensive, but as no convincing answer as to where she would go from there surfaced, a sudden hollow feeling of loneliness washed over her.
"And I'll appreciate your silent cooperation, mademoiselle," he mocked with smug pleasure.
She took pleasure in replying to him with the same smugness. " I can stay here in the bayou."
"Then you'll be stayin' here on yer own," he growled, collapsing back into the chair.
Her eyes flew to Tia, who was avoiding eye contact. "Ah yes, so you are to be a decoy as well?" she spat.
"All three of you are," Barbossa answered for her. "You are the first part. No offense to you, Miss Swann," he said to Elizabeth, "But you are too...proper to make a convincing woman of the night."
"WOMAN OF THE NIGHT?" Rose yelled. "And you are suggesting that I do?"
"We've planted her once before as a lady for sale, Capt'n," Marty added. Rose shot a look at him and he dared not add any more details.
Barbossa was now addressing Will as he looked at Rose. "Boot black in the hair, powder to lighten the skin, that eye kohl her brother was so fond of, and some local attire. She'll blend in fine."
Rose set her jaw and just glared at Barbossa until he finally acknowledged her. "Let's not pout, Rose. If ya haven't noticed, we're severely outnumbered."
"That isn't it," she snapped. "You are neglecting two hitches in your expert plan. First, what happens if I have a paying customer? Second, how can I possibly be a woman of the night and a successful decoy if I am blind to the night?"
She expected a stunned silence, but Barbossa was quick on his feet. "There are no hitches," he smirked. "Will, you will ensure she be hooded and provided with a fan to cover her face." Will silently nodded in understanding. He continued, "Yer hindrance should not be noticeable unless you make it so."
Rose frowned. "And if my customer is insistent?"
"You'll have a weapon, Rose," responded Will firmly, but gently. It was clear he wanted this night to end more than anyone in the room just from his eyes alone.
"Mister Turner's right," said Barbossa. "You're a big girl Rose. Act it. Now as for your other concern, you will not need your eyes the night Will takes the charts. Stay stationed," he said, pointing to the coastline along eastern Singapore, "Right here by the docks. When the rest of us arrive, we will wait for your word that Will has the charts and is waiting in hiding for our party to board a ship. Meanwhile, Miss Swann, you will take a boat along this river. Make no efforts to blend in. The rest of us will wait on the opposite bank, which is mere minutes from Sao Feng's most popular haunt. You're appearance should attract his men, which will gain us access to speak with him and ask for a ship and a crew..."
That was when Rose stopped listening again. She recalled helping to move chairs and create makeshift beds for the crew. She only barely remembered slight interactions as she moved. Tia's guilty expression, Barbossa's annoyance, Marty saying hopefully, "We're gonna get 'im back, Rose! Don't you worry," Will's uncharacteristic coldness… and a chorus of the words that rang in her ears— We depart at dawn.
Elizabeth was to take Angelica's old bed in the same room where Rose slept, and while she usually wouldn't mind this, she wanted nothing more than to be alone this night. She walked back up the stairs as though in a dream. As she began to extinguish the candles one by one in her room, she heard Elizabeth speak to her alone for the first time. In a hoarse voice, she whispered, "I'm so sorry." Rose looked over and saw that a steady stream of tears were running down her face, and this struck her as odd. Even Rose hadn't cried in nearly two hours since first discovering Jack's fate. She was numb, more than anything else. Rose nodded, then extinguished the last flame. She made her way by touch back to her hammock and settled down, feeling her own stream of tears begin once more. The last thing she remembered was the sound of Elizabeth quietly sobbing a few meters away. Rose found herself evermore confused as to this passionate response to her brother's death, but she soon fell back into her own disturbed mind. This was not her life to live. It had never been her life to live. She was not even a participant in her own story. She was a pawn to be moved, a tool to fix a problem, a curse to damn the innocent.
