Chapter Seven- By Blood Undone
They rowed slowly into the cave, then Will spoke, "I love her, Jack."
"Of course you do- that's why you're prepared to die for her, remember?"
"I'm not talking about Elizabeth..."
Jacks eyes lit up, "...Ah. So I'm not the only one having trouble with keeping a girl."
"I'm serious, Jack."
"That makes it all the more amusing."
"Nevermind... We have to save Elizabeth," said Will half-heartedly.
They rowed for a bit longer without talking, then he asked Jack,
"What code is Gibbs to keep to if the worst should happen?"
"Pirate's code:" Jack said as they passed the skeleton of a pirate, "Any man who falls behind... is left behind."
"No heroes amongst thieves?" Will said critically.
"You know, for having such a bleak outlook on pirates, you're well on your way to becoming one. Sprung a man from jail, commandeered a ship of the Fleet, sailed with a buccaneer crew out of Tortuga," Jack stated as they both looked into the water where gold pieces covered the bottom, "…and you're completely obsessed with treasure."
The boat stopped in the shallow water and Jack climbed out.
"I am not obsessed with treasure," said Will.
Jack looked into the cave to the pirates, "Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate."
Barbossa spoke, "Gentlemen, the time has come! Salvation is nigh! Our torment is near at end."
Will saw the chest of Aztec gold and Barbossa in the center of the cave, standing beside.... "Elizabeth."
"For ten years we've been tested and tried and each man jack of you here (basically 'each one of you here') has proved his mettle a hundred times over," the men cheered in agreement, "and a hundred times again!" The cave erupted with yells of approval.
"Suffered, I have!" said Ragetti, his wooden eye in a different direction than his real one.
"Punished we were. The lot of us - disproportionate to our crime. Here it is," announced Barbossa, throwing off the chest lid, "…the cursed treasure of Cortés himself. Every last piece that went astray we have returned…save for this." Barbossa pointed to the medallion around Elizabeth's neck; the pirates squalled as he spoke.
Will moved, disturbing some treasure he was leaning on. "Jack!"
Jack pulled him back down again. "Not yet. We wait for the opportune moment." He snuck around the side, almost to the entrance of the cave. Will followed him, saying bitterly, "When's that? When it's of greatest profit to you?"
Stopping to turn around, Jack moved in close to Will in anger, "May I ask you something? Have I ever given you reason not to trust me? Do us a favor, I know it's difficult for you, but please stay here… and try not to do anything... stupid."
Jack reviewed the situation in the cave, moving in a bit more for a better look.
"And who among us has paid the blood sacrifice owed to the heathen gods?" Barbossa.
"Us!" the pirates bellowed in unison.
"And whose blood must yet be paid?"
"Hers!" they answered.
"You know the first thing I'm goin' to do after the curse is lifted…" said Barbossa, followed by laughter from the pirates, saying in a lower voice to Elizabeth, "eat a whole bushel of apples." He took his knife in his hand, "Begun by blood, by blood undone."
Will came from behind Jack, knocking him unconscious with an oar, "Sorry Jack, I'm not going to be your leverage."
The pirates chanted, "Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho..." Barbossa slit her palm. She gasped painfully, "...That's it?" "Waste not," Barbossa smirked, dropping the blood-stained medallion on top of the rest.
"Did it work?" said the pirate.
Ragetti said, "I don't feel no different."
"How do we tell?" asked Pintel.
Barbossa rolled his eyes, shooting Pintel through the chest.
Pintel looked down, not realizing what had happened.
"You're not dead," said the pirate.
"No," said Pintel happily, then, he frowned, "He shot me!"
Twigg scowled, "It didn't work. The curse is still upon us!"
"You, maid!" ordered Barbossa, "Your father, what was his name? Was your father William Turner?!"
"No," sneered Elizabeth.
"Where's his child? The child that sailed from England eight years ago, the child in whose veins flows the blood of William Turner. Where?" Elizabeth did not answer. Barbossa backhanded her, and she rolled onto a pile of treasure below, medallion falling near her.
Bo'sun roared, "You two! You brought us the wrong person!"
"No! She had the medallion. She's the proper age!" Pintel said.
"Said her name was Turner, you heard her!" said Ragetti.
Will swam up to her in the water, putting his hand over her mouth and motioning to her to follow him. She took the medallion, following his orders.
"I think she lied to us," Ragetti added.
Twigg spoke up, "You brought us here for NOTHING!"
"I won't take questions and no second guesses, not from the likes of you, Master Twigg," said Barbossa.
Jack regained consciousness at this point, recognizing the person who spoke next from the prison, and Twigg next to him. He restrained his gut instinct to shoot Twigg. 'Not with my last shot...' Jack thought, 'Barbossa dies on my last.'
"Who's to blame? Every decision you've made has led us from bad to worse," said the pirate.
Yet another pirate said, "It was you who sent Bootstrap to the depths!"
"And it's you who brought us here in the first place!" said Bo'sun.
"Any coward here dare challenge me, let him speak! Hmm?" Barbossa snarled.
"I say, we cut her throat and spill all her blood, just in case!" said the pirate. Jack gave the pirate a look of contempt, beginning to stand.
Amid the clamoring, Barbossa's monkey screeched, pointing towards where Elizabeth had fallen. Barbossa cried, "The medallion! She's taken it! Well, after her, you pack of ingrates!"
"The oars have gone missing. Find them!" demanded Bo'sun.
Jack had gotten up to leave when Pintel finally spotted Jack. "You!" said Ragetti, pointing at him. Jack turned. "You're supposed to be dead!" exclaimed Pintel.
Jack looked at himself quizzically, "Am I not?" He turned back to leave again, only to be met with pistols aimed at him. "Palulay." He tried again. "Palu-li-la-la-lulu.... Parlili. Par-snip, parsley, part..ner partner..."
"Parley?" suggested Ragetti.
"Parley! That's the one- Parley! Parley!"
"Parley?" said Pintel behind clenched teeth. "Damned to the depths whatever man had thought of parley."
Jack pointed, "That would be the French."
Back on the Interceptor, Elizabeth climbed aboard, looking up for the first time, "Not more pirates."
"Welcome aboard, Miss Elizabeth," said Gibbs.
"Mr. Gibbs?"
Will next boarded the ship.
Gibbs called, "Hey, boy! Where be Jack?"
Francesca was standing with the crew, eyes widening at the question.
"Jack?" said Elizabeth, "Jack Sparrow?"
"He fell behind," said Will, walking past Gibbs with Elizabeth, holding her close to him.
"Will!" Francesca gasped, "...Mr. Gibbs– we can't leave him!"
"The Code," Elizabeth said in passing.
"Aye, Miss Swann is right, Francesca- Jack said to keep to the Code. And that's what we'll do."
Victoria said, "If it were Elizabeth we couldn't save, or me, or Francesca or Will- we'd be going back!"
"We will not be going back! Follow the captain's orders, he will be left behind."
"And so will I," Francesca said, jumping off the starboard side into the water.
"FRANCESCA!" Vicky yelled, "...Will you all so easily abandon your captain and one of your own crew members?" The crew became restless.
"The Code, men! We have no choice!" said Mr. Gibbs.
"Raise anchor! Hoist the sails! Make quickly…" Anamaria started, and the crew began to move.
"I'm going after her!" said Victoria. Mr. Gibbs held her back.
"You can't! We won't lose another, especially not you."
Vicky ran to her cabin and slammed the door, getting ready to escape.
Gibbs locked the door as she was turning the handle. "You won't be going, Victoria! Francesca's fate is with Jack, now. She made that choice! You will not."
"LET ME OUT!" Vic sat on her bed, '...I'm so sorry Francesca,' she thought, 'You'll have none but Jack to save you now...'
In the cave, the crew was in two rows facing eachother with Jack and Barbossa standing at opposite ends facing each other as well. Barbossa spoke.
"How the blazes did you get off that island?"
"When you marooned me on that godforsaken spit of land, you forgot one very important thing, mate…I'm Captain Jack Sparrow."
Barbossa grinned smugly, "Ah, well, I won't be making that mistake again. Gents, you all remember Captain Jack Sparrow?"
"Aye," the pirates replied.
"Kill him." They pointed their pistols at him as Barbossa began to leave, Jack thought quickly, then said, "The girl's blood didn't work, did it?"
"Hold your fire!" Barbossa snapped. "...You know who's blood we need?"
"I know who's blood you need," said Jack.
Meanwhile, Francesca was sneaking into the cave, when Barbossa heard a clink of treasure moving behind him. "And who might ye be....miss?" he said with a dry laugh.
"...I was left behind," she hissed.
"Anyone wish to claim this?" asked Barbossa, eyes shifting from Jack to the pirates.
"Aye! That's the girl that was tryin' to spring Jack from prison– think he loves her, captain."
Scattered whistling and laughter broke out in the crew.
"Well well well, Jack– I think I'll be taking your whore as well."
Francesca pulled out her pistol and shot both Twigg and Barbossa. The laughter grew.
"If I may, Miss," Barbossa chuckled, taking her pistol, "You won't be killing us."
The pirates held them both at gunpoint, heading toward the Pearl.
"Don't waste your powder, love," Jack whispered, "They're nothing but bones and rotting skin. And why did you come after me?"
"You fell behind, and–"
"And I should have stayed behind," Jack interrupted.
They all got in boats and the pirates rowed the both of them to the ship, still at gunpoint.
Francesca whispered again, "I thought you'd be dead."
"Leverage," said Jack, "leverage saved me. But who failed to save you?"
"Elizabeth, my bloody sister, wouldn't go back for you. Will. I'd say he's just slightly conflicted at the moment."
"Hm?"
"Two women- Vicky and Elizabeth- one he's sure he loves and the other he used to? Maybe it's better I'm not there."
"You should have been safe like I told you–"
"There will be no talking at gunpoint, Jack," Barbossa said as the neared the Pearl, "And you've failed to tell me your name, miss."
"Francesca."
"I heard them talking before," said Ragetti, "She's the other one's sister!"
"Ah, so you are! Miss?" Barbossa cocked his pistol.
"...Francesca Swann, governor's daughter," said Jack.
Barbossa sneered again, "Mixing with high society, are yeh, Jack? Board the Pearl and cast off, men!"
On the Interceptor, Will and Elizabeth sat in his room. Victoria watched through hers sadly. 'Men,' she thought, 'Can't make up his bloody mind.' She closed her door, laying back on the bed. Will and Elizabeth continued to talk in the room across from hers.
"I thought I'd lost it the day they rescued me. It was a gift from my father, he sent it to me. Why did you take it?" asked Will.
"Because I was afraid that you were a pirate. That would've been awful."
He hesitated, anger ensuing, "It wasn't your blood they needed…it was my father's blood…my blood…the blood of a pirate."
"Will, I'm so sorry, please forgive me."
Will slammed down the medallion. Elizabeth stood and left the room. He saw Vicky's door slightly open. "Victoria..." He walked over to her room door and opened it.
"Vic–"
She was sleeping on the bed. He smiled in spite of himself, closing the door and walking away. He remembered what Jack had said as he walked on deck. 'Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate.'