Despite having barely communicated with one another over the past few weeks and Rose's general unease with this group's mission that she thought to be impossible, she was rather impressed with how quickly and efficiently the group was able to band together and storm Captain Frees's quarters. Tia Dalma stayed out on deck to serve as a distraction, and Pintel and Ragetti stood guard at the door to keep other sailors out. The rest of them were armed with pistols and swords, and had them drawn and at the ready as they burst into Frees's office, led by Barbossa.
Frees's eyes went wide at the confrontation and he stood, hand poised on the hilt of his cutlass. "Mutinous wretches!" he cried out.
Will was quick to skirt around Barbossa and easily disarmed Frees, causing him to hand over his sword and throw his hands up begrudgingly in surrender.
"What in the blazes, Barbossa?"
"It's Captain Barbossa, if ya please," he corrected him with a wry grin.
"Ah," Frees spat. "So this is to be mutiny, then."
"Actually, no," Barbossa countered. "Not if we can avoid it."
That was when Barbossa and Frees took a seat at Frees's large dining table while Rose, Elizabeth, Will, Cotton, Marty, and Gibbs stood with their weapons still drawn menacingly around the room as the two men discussed what was to be the conditions of their accord.
"As we grow nearer to the southern tip of the world," Barbossa explained, "We also grow closer to the Pacific Ocean, and to Asia, where our destination lies. These be East India Trading Company waters, and as Lord Beckett's stronghold over the seas grows ever tighter, you know they'll be making continuous passage via that route."
"And?" Frees asked.
"And, I am askin' ye to help us sack one of these Company vessels. We set the crew adrift, raid their supplies, then go our separate ways."
"And what's in it fer me?" said a skeptical Frees.
Barbossa leaned forward with a grin, "Half the goods."
That was all Frees needed to hear. The next morning, Frees and Barbossa called a meeting of the crew and explained the plan. Someone was posted night and day in the crow's nest to seek out any passing ship as they travelled further and further southward.
Finally, on the third week of their voyage, Rose was swabbing the deck as she heard the unmistakable cry, "COMPANY SHIP DEAD AHEAD." She leapt to her feet and joined the rest of the crew who had accumulated at the bow of the ship. Barbossa stood at the forecastle deck, his telescope drawn.
"Aye, she be the one," he called out. He then turned to Frees. "By yer orders, Cap'n."
"All hands to the guns, you scurvy knaves! We're taking the ship! Fire to keep 'em from fleein', not to sink her!"
Rose rushed down to the gun deck with the rest of the crew and together with Marty, grabbed a cannon. She began to load the powder and ball as Marty readied the fuse. It took awhile for the ships to intersect paths, but Barbossa steered the Siren Song so that her starboard side was ready to fire both in front of and behind the Company vessel. Noticing the pirate colors she flew, the enemy ship fired first, and Rose felt the jolt of the ship as the first ball hit the base of the ship.
Just then, Rose heard Frees cry out from above, "Very well then! Give 'em a broadside! Pound 'em lads, pound 'em!"
Without any further ado, Rose held her breath and readied for the deafening explosions from the cannons to begin, and begin they most certainly did. Some smashed some of the railing on the main deck, sending shards of wood and some men to go catapulting through the air. Other cannonballs fired to the front and rear of the boat, causing the poor soul posted on the wheel to try to steer away to no avail.
"Give it to them again, lads! Aye…that'll show the bilge rats!"
Another cannon tore through several sails, causing the ship to stop motion altogether.
Now Rose heard Barbossa call from the deck above, "Those who sail for the Pearl, come about!"
Rose, Will, Marty, Cotton, Gibbs, Tia, Elizabeth, Pintel, and Ragetti leapt to attention, followed by several others from Frees's crew, which utterly confused Rose, but she didn't have time to question it further. They raced up the ladder to the main deck and lowered a plank so that some of them could race between decks while others grabbed loose lines and swung across to the opposite deck.
Although they had lost the fight at sea, the Company men were still more than willing to fight man to man. Rose drew her sword, raced across the plank, and immediately threw herself into battle with one of the wigged officers. She countered every swing, and in doing so, was able to distract him enough that he didn't notice Pintel sneak up behind him and stab him through the stomach. Rose then turned to take on another one.
Just then, she saw Will taking down two officers at once with his one sword, when a third came upon him from behind and kicked his legs out from under him. Will tripped backwards and hit the railing of the ship so hard, his sword was knocked out of his hands and fell into the sea below. Rose was ready to rush to his aid, when she heard Elizabeth cry out, "WILL!" and toss her own weapon overhead to him. Will ignored her, however, and somersaulted through the three officers to grab a loose sword from another officer that Barbossa had killed. He then rose with this other weapon and swiftly disarmed his three assailants, pushing them into a corner and confiscating their weapons. However, in doing so, he left Elizabeth weaponless, and how an officer was coming upon her, sword drawn and ready to slice her throat. Rose raced to her aid, grabbing the weapon off the man Pintel had killed and tossing her own sword at her. Rose was impressed by how swiftly Elizabeth took to the sword, easily killing her assailant, then rushing towards her for the both of them to take on another few men together.
However, just as they turned to do so, they realized that the fighting had ceased. An officer had run up a white flag, and the pirates aboard let out a whoop of joy. The fight was almost too easily won. All remaining officers were loaded into a longboat with a few provisions and were told to flee. The crew then went below deck and found a great deal of Indian spices, tea, silks, and pieces of silver. Frees and Barbossa negotiated a fair split of the goods, though Barbossa had to begrudgingly surrender the silver to keep food, fresh water and warm clothing for their dangerous journey ahead. Rose and the crew then began the arduous task of transporting crate after crate of Frees's half back to the Siren Song.
After that was completed, Frees gave the orders to his men to make their way back to his ship.
"Fare thee well, Captain Barbossa," he said, before taking his own leave. "And pray we not be crossin' paths again, lest I have to take the other half of yer goods!"
Barbossa smiled. "Not if I be takin' yers first."
Frees then walked back, and once his feet hit the deck, Barbossa quickly motioned for Will to take the plank down. Rose then realized what was happening. While the crew had been exchanging the seized goods, Tia had repaired all the tears in the sails while Cotton had rearranged the rigging. Seeing Will take down the gangplank was his signal to let the sails fall, and they instantly ballooned with the southerly winds. Gibbs was on the wheel, having already turned it at a sharp angle so that they could make a quick escape. The ship immediately lurched forward, and began to swiftly take its leave, and Captain Frees turned around in alarm to find how Barbossa had deceived him; For onboard the Company vessel was three quarters of Frees' crew. In the three weeks spent aboard the Siren Song, Barbossa spent all of his free time charming Frees' more neutral followers to aid in their journey to Singapore, promising them riches beyond their wildest imaginings at Davy Jones's Locker.
Frees yelled curses at Barbossa as they fled into the sunset, and the few remaining crew members fired a few shots at their retreating ship, but it was too late. The damage was done, and Barbossa had taken the upper hand. He was now free to lead a ship of his own autonomously to Singapore.
Would but it were that simple, however. What the crew had not taken into account were the Company men they had set free in the longboat. They were soon picked up by another, larger Company ship, commanded by Mercer, Lord Beckett's right hand man. Upon hearing the men's accounts of the pirates, Mercer's interest was peaked upon hearing about a girl among them with light colored hair.
This was when Mercer knew that Elizabeth Swann and the remaining crew of the Black Pearl were fleeing for the Pacific, and began his pursuit after them.
Their struggles didn't end there, I'm afraid. The trip around the southern tip of South America, known as Cape Horn, is one of the most treacherous across the seven seas. Not only is this the place where the Pacific and Atlantic oceans mix, but it is also bitterly cold and has some of the fiercest storms. This was no exception for the crew. Barbossa and Gibbs were the only men aboard to have made the journey before, and therefore were also the only ones prepared for the dangers ahead. Gale force winds rocked the ship precariously, causing much seasickness as the pirates tried to keep the ship from steering off course straight into treacherous rocks that graced the shoreline of Cape Horn. Rose and Tia Dalma quickly ran out of fennel and peppermint to aid in the motion sickness, and it was common to find any one of the crew retching into the ocean off the side of the ship.
Rose continued to work to keep her mind off of other things despite the terrible conditions. However, she was soon called back to her previous life as a healer when the cold and wet of the storms caused seven men to grow violently ill. Two of these men included Gibbs and Will.
Tia Dalma and Rose were forced to work together once more, even though communication between them continued to be forced and uncomfortable. They wardened off a section of the ship, quarantining the sick men to deck cabins to try to keep the illness contained. Their supplies onboard were extremely limited, however, and panic began to set it as the first man died. Then another. Then another.
Conditions weren't letting up, and Rose and Tia began working around the clock to look after their patients, trading off shifts night and day. On one of these nights, Rose arrived to take over watching Will from Tia, and found Elizabeth sitting outside his cabin door, shivering and huddled in a woolen blanket. She had been like this for days, unmoving. Rose had never questioned it before, but suddenly she grew worried.
"Feeling unwell?" Rose asked, praying that the answer was no.
"No," Elizabeth replied, to her great relief. "I just…am worried about him."
Rose narrowed her eyes. It had nearly been two months since they had been at sea now, and the couple still wasn't talking to one another and she still didn't know what had happened between them. "You shouldn't be here," she warned. "The sickness could still spread."
Elizabeth wrapped herself up tighter. "I want to be here," she insisted. "Could I…perhaps go in?"
Rose shook her head immediately. "I just told you how formidable the sickness is. You may not go in. I apologize."
She nodded in understanding, then settled back into her chair.
Rose shrugged off her strange persistence and entered the room. Inside, Will was pale and shivering, yet seemed to be asleep. Wordlessly, Tia and Rose exchanged places and Tia quietly closed the door behind her as she left to check on the other men.
Rose grabbed a water basin and began to dab at Will's forehead to help combat the fever. This woke him up, but it had to be done.
After a time, Will hoarsely said, "You can't stay here all night."
"Watch me," she said with a smile. "I'm here for the night."
Will winced in pain as he turned slightly to face her. "Must be serious, then." Then, gravely, he asked, "How many?"
"Hmm?"
"How many have died?"
"Three," Rose said with a sigh. "All Frees's men."
He furrowed his brow. "And how many are left?"
"Two others. And Gibbs."
Will coughed again. "Oh… we can't lose Gibbs. He's the last bit of Jack we've got left to fight Barbossa's control."
"We certainly can't lose you either," Rose scolded. "And that's why I'm here."
He nodded weakly. After a moment, he said softly, "We haven't really had a chance to talk yet."
"There's not much to discuss," she replied. "You need to rest."
"Why are you not pleased at the notion of rescuing Jack?" he asked, his face solemn and eyes unblinking.
Rose's stomach churned at this forward question. "I…don't believe it can be done. Not with how few men we have, especially now, not with Barbossa as our leader, not without a ship of our own, and certainly not with whatever bizarre nonsense has fallen out between you and Elizabeth."
She expected Will to reply with some message of positivity, in attempts to reassure her that Barbossa knew what he was doing, that the crew would succeed in their mission, and that Jack would be safely returned to the world of the living sooner than expected. But he only said in defeat, "I apologize. I know our current state has rendered quite a bit of unrest amongst our crew."
"This isn't a crew, Will," she said. "It's a mission doomed for failure." To this he said nothing, and only sighed. Rose decided to curtail her pessimism by changing the subject. "She waits for you, you know," she said.
He squinted. "Elizabeth?"
Rose motioned with her head towards the cabin door. "All day, all night. Right outside. Tia won't let her in because of the sickness, for her sake. I won't let her in for your sake."
She was hoping that telling him this would convince him to tell her what had led to their falling out. Each time she had spoken to Will about her before, his entire demeanor would brighten as though she were a constant source of sunlight. She ached to know what on earth had gone so terribly wrong.
But he said nothing. Finally, she couldn't resist any longer and had to ask, "Will, what happened to you both? At first I thought you were mourning Jack, but now… This is absurd!"
He inhaled shallowly before speaking. "May I tell you something?" he asked. "It may hurt you to hear it, but I need someone else to know what I saw."
"Saw what?" she asked.
"The last I ever saw of Jack," Will whispered to her, as though what he was saying was of the utmost secrecy, "He and Elizabeth…" His voice cut out abruptly and he tried again. "Elizabeth…she demonstrated that our time apart has made me lose her for good, I fear."
Rose didn't understand. "What exactly did you see?"
"She kissed him, Rose. Like I have never seen her kiss before. A…parting gift, I suppose? A reward, perhaps. I know not. I just know what I saw, and before I could even think, Elizabeth had descended into the longboat without Jack, and has been inconsolable ever since."
Rose's head was spinning at this. Although she had barely ever interacted with Elizabeth, she knew from how Will had described her how virtuous and highborn she was. It didn't make sense to her that a woman like that would sabotage her engagement to a man like Will in favor of Jack. She knew her half-brother's tendencies toward women of any sort, and she didn't doubt that Elizabeth could have been the next subject of Jack's "affections." But unless she truly wanted to explore her rebellious side, Rose couldn't think of a reason why Elizabeth would so openly display her feelings for Jack.
No matter the reason, however, Rose suddenly found herself forming a deep-seeded hatred towards Elizabeth. Whereas Rose felt a strained, somewhat unrequited love for Ben, who was killed right in front of her, Elizabeth seemingly had every man she crossed in the palm of her hand. She was engaged to the Commodore, a wealthy nobleman, but tossed him aside for Will, a man Rose truly admired. Now she had tossed him aside for Rose's own brother? Perhaps this was hatred mixed with jealousy. How could a woman attract so much adoration whereas Rose found only unhappiness? And how could Elizabeth be so heartless as to recklessly break the hearts of the men who loved her in favor of the next highest bidder?
Will's voice shook Rose from these thoughts as he asked, "I must know…did you know anything? Did Jack ever…ever say anything about Elizabeth to you? They were together alone onboard the Pearl for a few days before I rejoined them on the Isla Cruces, so maybe that's where this all began." He sounded truly desperate as he racked his mind for explanation. "Or perhaps it was after Barbossa marooned them on that island back before the curse was broken. They spent a night there. It's possible that…I don't know. I just don't know."
Rose gently tried her hardest to console her clearly hurt friend. "Jack never said a word. He finds most every living thing attractive, and I don't doubt he fancied Elizabeth, but I assure you that he never held any serious feelings for her, if that's what you mean. He didn't even remember her name the vast the majority of the time. He doesn't feel that way about anyone."
Will was unconvinced. "I just don't know where to go from here," he murmured. "It's clear she knows that I saw her. She can barely even look at me anymore, let alone come near me. I'm sure it's guilt, but…"
"Have you tried confronting her?"
"I can't!" he protested, voice slightly elevated in exasperation. "Every time I look at her…I see her and him. I can't bear it." He then collapsed into another coughing fit and sat up due the sheer force created by his lungs. Rose fetched her canteen of water and brought it to him, and he drank from it eagerly while shaking. She waited there with her hand on his back until the fit subsided.
As his breathing grew stronger, she was reminded of the last time she tended to someone like this. She had been standing with Ben retching over the side of the Pearl, furious with her for not having the immediate cure to his ailments.
She was plunged back into despair upon thinking of Ben, and as Will settled back down, she said softly, "If there's one thing I have learned from my own brushes with love, it is to confront those care about with your feelings before it's too late and they forever remain unresolved. Act on them before it's too late. So do speak with her."
He nodded slightly. "I will. In time." He then looked up at her again. "Why is it that every conversation we have only seems to be centered around the tragedies that befall us in love?"
She smiled sadly. "I wish I knew.
"One day," he hoarsely murmured, "I swear it, we will speak on other things."
"When there's a reason to smile again," she sighed. "Now, do rest. If you need anything, you know I'll be here."
She waited until she heard his breathing grow heavier, indicating that he slept. Carefully, she raised herself to a standing position and opened the door to the hallway. Elizabeth, sitting just outside, looked up at her. Upon locking eyes with her, the woman who hurt Will and manipulated her brother just moments before his death, Rose felt herself seethe with anger.
"How is he?" Elizabeth whispered, her eyes wide in terror.
"Resting," Rose whispered back, her jaw tight. "You have to leave."
"I'm fine here," Elizabeth replied, pulling her blanket tighter around her shoulders. "I wish to wait to wait here until he's recovered."
"And I wish for you to leave!" Rose hissed. "We are undermanned as is. I'm certain Barbossa needs you on deck."
Elizabeth only looked quizzically at Rose, uncertain of this newfound temper.
"Go!" Rose ordered. At this, Elizabeth stood and moved to return to the main deck, but she paused as she passed. She tried to peer inside the room to get a glimpse of her former fiancee, but Rose leaned so that she couldn't see in, her expression still firm and unchanging.
Elizabeth pursed her lips. "Did Will ask you to say that?" she mumbled.
"That's none of your concern. I asked you to go, so go," Rose spat angrily.
Finally, she conceded and took her leave. Rose watched as she walked out of sight, and as she did, she thought to herself, I will find out what other secrets you keep, Swann.
