When I awoke, the first thing I saw was the wood grain of the Gull's floorboards, as well as bright, blinding light. Recoiling from its glare, I lifted my head, only to feel the splitting headache I was sporting.
Cremble came into focus, kneeling at my side and taking a close look at me. "You alright Anna?"
"Where…where am I?" I looked around, seeing nothing but blue sky and feeling the familiar rock of a ship at sea. My eyes went wide. "Where are we?" I asked.
"We've set sail. Captain Jack found you unconscious, so we loaded you up. You alright?"
I peered around, and upon seeing Jack standing near Gibbs, who was at the wheel, I stood and raced to them. "Captain?" I cried. "We're sailing?"
Jack grinned, "Ah she awakens! Good morning to you. And yes, we are sailing, for now, given that you didn't somehow manage to damage something before we left this time around."
I gulped, wringing my hands. "And…where are we heading?"
"Well," he said, "There seems to be an item of cargo which required our immediate attention."
"Oh?" I asked.
"Aye. So we're returning her to Shipwreck, where she came from." I couldn't disguise my shock and horror as he looked at my, a wry grin on his face and an eyebrow raised as he said, "Lovely effort, Anna, I much commend you. Norrington, was it?"
I set my jaw and glared at Gibbs. "You told him?"
Gibbs only stammered, shrugging his shoulders feigning innocence and trying to deflect the blame.
Jack furrowed his brow, staring at his first mate intently. "Erm…nooo. But this is an interesting revelation I'll deal with later…" Gibbs only grimaced, obviously peeved that I turned him in as being my accomplice. "Believe it or not, lass," Jack continued, "Your disguise was not as airtight as you would believe. Teague, Shipwreck, Anna James. You also look just like her, love." I pursed my lips, disappointed in my inability to create a convincing alias. Jack approached me, laying a hand on my shoulder. "My sister, Rose Hexfury, is quasi-godlike, as it were, and as such cannot perish. So tell me then, what on this earth, if death itself cannot intervene, would separate mother from child?"
I finally conceded. "Alright, yes, I ran away, but I need—"
"Right-o," Jack barked. "Onward!"
I grabbed his collar in desperation. "Uncle Jack, PLEASE! I beg of you! We must stay here! I need to wait for Hen—"
"No waiting," he countered, shaking me loose. "Hell hath no fury like a Hexfury scorned, I always say."
"Please, I am here to help—"
"Your protests will do nothing, missy. Better to just stay put. I won't hear of anything else. Plus, I take you back, I converse with me sister, and figure out my next heading, savvy?"
"But you're not—"
Jack sighed, turning to the rest of his men, who had been pretending not to eavesdrop on our fight. "Marty, Scrum, someone, put her in the brig until she calms down!"
Gibbs cleared his throat nervously. "Sir, we…don't have a brig on this vessel."
Jack sneered. "Seriously? …what does this ruddy thing have?" After a moment, he then waved his hands about flippantly, saying, "Then just tie her up somewhere until we can reason with her!"
As though from all sides, suddenly the men I had come to know and trust were against me. They wouldn't listen to my reasoning, and now I was going to be taken straight back to my mother regardless of all my efforts. Henry would be lost, Carina would be dead, and Will and Father would remain still imprisoned. All of this wouldn't have been worth it.
Weaponless, I was utterly without defense, and backed away from them towards the starboard rear of the ship. However, here the railing had gaping holes within it, and as I backed up into the railing, my foot got caught in a coil of loose rope for the nearby tied up longboat. The rope tangled around my ankle, causing me to trip backwards, loose my footing and fall through one of the hole openings in the railing completely without support. In this moment, everything seemed to move in slow motion as I felt complete weightlessness. All I could see was seven pairs of eyes staring down at me in horror, growing further and further away as I fell. Then, that horrifying sensation of cold seawater enveloped me, forcing me downwards as the slack of the rope grew taught, slamming my back and head against the wood of the ship's underbelly. Once again, my world was doused in black.
Many miles away, Rose Hexfury dropped a basin full of water upon feeling every nerve in her body surge when she felt her daughter's contact with the ocean in the harbor of St. Martin. Tears immediately came into her eyes. For months, she had been waiting, certain that at any moment I would make a misstep, would graze the water, and she would come to us instantly. Rose ignored the basin and rushed through her storeroom, pushing past cot after cot after cot within her storeroom, carefully sidestepping each groggy, suffering patron. At the back of her storeroom, she found her hammock where she had put Elizabeth up.
"Elizabeth!" she cried, grabbing her friend's hands. "I found them! Anna! Anna touched the water! I found them!"
Elizabeth's eyes shone despite her grim pallor, and opened her mouth to respond, but only a fit of coughing emerged.
"Breathe," Rose gently reminded her. "Deep breaths."
Once Elizabeth finally regained her control, she hoarsely whispered, "Go! Find them. I can…I can take care of things while you're away."
Rose's face fell. "Oh no."
"What is it?"
"Elizabeth… Henry and Anna made it to St. Martin. That's days away. They're mortal, they can't just transport here like I can. I would have to travel back with them. I can't leave you here to take care of a completely infected island while you yourself are suffering! Plus, I'm completely infested with the illness myself. I can't get ill, but if I even so much as touch them, then the illness will spread to them, perhaps even the rest of the Caribbean."
Elizabeth knew she was right. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. "At least we know they're alive," she said softly.
Rose shook her head. "No. That's not good enough," she murmured. Standing, she took her apron and untied it, tossing it aside.
"What are you doing?" asked Elizabeth.
"Ending this once and for all," she replied before vanishing into the wood walls of her storeroom.
I came to again, this time standing upright, my hands tied together with rope around what I soon realized was the mast. Once again, Cremble was in my immediate line of vision, tending to a nasty head wound I had sported along my hairline, stinging from the immersion in fresh salt water. I recoiled from his touch. The entire crew had gathered around me, and my eyes landed upon them all, fully expecting my mother to have already been among them.
"Is she here yet?" I asked, breathlessly.
"Yep. She smacked herself good," Cremble reported. "No clue what she's talking about."
My eyes found Jack. "Uncle, please," I implored. "We cannot go back. I need your help!"
"And I need your help," he said, stepping towards me. "You think I like this? That it's my fondest wish to keelhaul my niece and then tie her to the mast? Don't fight it, lass. Let us take you home, eh? Perhaps I can even convince your mum to let you accompany us afterward, savvy?"
I closed my eyes and sighed, "That will never work and there's no time! Jack, there's a reason why Mother is back at Shipwreck and not on the Dutchman. It's been a horrible past fifteen years. My father—"
Just as I said this, I felt a slight tug on my restraints behind my back, and before I knew it, a flash of a person passed my vision, having materialized straight out of the mast I was tied to. The men of the Gull all cried out at once at the figure's sudden appearance, leaping backwards in alarm. The figure paused, its back to me and sword raised defensively towards the men as it swung around to face all of the many men who outnumbered them. The crew further recoiled from the figure when they caught sight of their appearance.
"What in the bloody hell is that?" Pike asked.
"IT'S A FISH PERSON!" Scrum shrieked in response before launching into battle with the newcomer. The newcomer responded with defensive twists and parries that easily outsmarted any move Scrum could come up with, but in doing so also caused chaos as every man drew their weapons to disarm their unknown attacker. Wide eyed, I looked at the flurry of commotion as Gibbs was pushed aside, Marty was kicked away, and Bollard raised his sword forcefully above his head for a death blow to the newcomer. As his blade came down, however, the tarnished metal of a worn but still beautiful sword rose amongst the action, parrying and deflecting Pike'S offensive motion.
Fish person. It suddenly occurred to me who was here. When I hit the water, I assumed that naturally my mother would transform to the Dying Gull to retrieve me. The fact that a so-called "fish person" had arrived instead was no coincidence. Catching a glimpse of that lovingly hand-crafted, ceremonial sword was the final piece of the puzzle.
My heart felt as though it were beating in my throat as I turned to Jack, shouting above the noise, "Stop the fighting!"
Jack, who had been completely still, an eyebrow raised in confusion amidst the chaos, shifted a few paces nearer to me. "No, I don't think I shall…"
I struggled against my restraints. "Why not?!"
"This is the most excitement we've seen in months. I rather think that I'll wait this out and see where this takes us."
"Intervene!" I cried. "Your crew will overpower him!"
Jack snorted, motioning to the flurry of commotion. "If you honestly think that I'm going to get involved with that, then you don't know me at all, lass."
"Clearly I don't, you coward!" I cried as I began wriggling my wrists vigorously in attempts to free myself. This apparently irked Jack, for he gave a dramatic sigh, retrieving his pistol from his belt and thrusting it upwards. He fired a shot into the air. "OI!" he shouted, causing the men to fall silent, weapons all still warily pointed at their intruder.
Now that the crowd cleared and all was relatively still, I caught a glimpse of him; wet, matted hair. Green, discolored skin with barnacles running along his forehead and down the right side of his face. Bits of coral and other sea life seemingly was growing out of his neck and shoulders. Never in a hundred years would I have recognized him otherwise, but there was only one man this could be. James Norrington.
