๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐จ๐๐ซ๐ ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ง๐ญ๐๐ซ๐๐๐ฉ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ ๐๐ง๐๐ก๐จ๐ซ๐๐ ๐จ๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ฌ๐ฅ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ฎ๐๐ซ๐ญ๐
Just as Jack had said, they reached the Isle not long after sun rise. Eve had slept longer this morning than she typically did and was roughly shaken awake by Anamaria.
She half sat up with a start, instincts kicking in as swiftly as they vanished once she realised who it was standing over her. She opened her mouth to ask Anamaria if they had arrived but was interrupted by a shout out on deck before she could-
"Lay way the dinghy, Mr Gibbs!"
"Aye, Capt'm!"
In a mere instance, Eve had flung herself out of bed and into her boots, coat and cloak, leaving Anamaria to arch a quizzical brow at her rapid fire actions.
"Did you mean to go with them?" She asked.
Unbeknownst to Anamaria, Eve had agonised over that distinct scenario for damn near three hours last night. Jack's words, blast them, had burrowed their way into her mind and made themselves a lovely little nest in which to torment her from. And it was all the more aggravating because she knew that had been Jack's entire intention.
She wished to stay near enough to Will to step in if needed. But...Not only was she thoroughly unenthusied to cross paths with Barbosa again- they really hadn't parted on pleasant terms last they met- but she also detested the barest perception that Jack could have been in even the smallest part correct; Correct that she was truly was a damned bleeding heart.
Eve cursed Jack and his underhanded, nest building ways. It had near taken herall those three hours last night to deconstruct said nest, removing each twig and flinging them haphazardly into the wind where they could no longer hinder her. And once she had started her studious dismantling, whether Jack was right or not became utterly irrelevant. No petty manipulations were going to prevent her, Eve Dawson: Thief and Lover Extraordinaire,from living her life how she desired. It was something that had remainedfirmly static about her since she was a small child and it would have been quite the crying shame to throw it all away now. Especially due to one such as Jack Sparrow.
So, in light of it all, Eve gave Anamaria a simple sly wink before pulling her hood up over her head and hurrying out onto the main deck.
To her left the dinghy had already been launched with both Jack and Will inside. She rushed to the railing, wedging herself between Gibbs and Ladbroc to stare after them. Eyes narrowed sharply, she watched the boat, only for a moment, as they rowed towards the island. Then, capturing her attention, was a slight break in the fogand through it she spied a cave opening. A cave opening that was quite clearly Jack's mode of intended entrance.
"Alright, lads." Eve turned to the crew. "Who wants to help me launch the second dinghy?"
She received no reply excepting in the form of bewildered and suspicious expressions- suspicion coming from Gibbs in particular. Looking into the face of themen, each appearedmore reluctant to assist her than the last. Eve, despite this reaction, was unreservedly undeterred. With a quirk of her lip and a flick of her hand, a single sliver coin appeared between two gloved finger tips.
"I don't be expectin' that help for free, of course." She said.
The faces of the men lit up most comically at the sight of it, like dogs catching the briefest glimpse of a bone. Gibbs, however, pinched the bridge of his nose in vexation.
"What are ye up to now?"
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Though Eve had extended to Anamaria the offer to accompany her, she knew better than to get entangled in whatever it was that had Eve scrambling about so. And while Eve had made a very theatrical show at being utterly heartbroken over this refusal, she herself knew it was likely for the best. Anamaria had no need to get dragged down into this nonsense with her. Not everyone could thrive in the amidst of it as one's such as Eve and Jack did. And the wise had no wish to.
Humming a jaunty tune to herself, Eve steadily made her way towards the mouth of the cave, still content to ignore the twinge in her wrist. For the briefest of moments she thought she could almost hear Nonien's voice on the Caribbean winds and it wasn't saying anything all too kind.
Eve knew this was foolish, she'd never been blind to that. But when had knowing so ever prevented her from getting into trouble before? In all truth, she didn't consider this anymore dangerous than breaking into the occupied home of a well to do family with the staff and family currently inside and wide awake- and, well, that had worked out for her just fine in the past, hadn't it?
As The Interceptor faded fromsight, shrouded behind a dense curtain of fog, the dark of the cave fell over Eve. Although she was without a lantern to light her way andonly had the odd streak of sunshine breaking through the gaps in the stone above her, Eve was still able to find her way about quite nicely. The dark wasn't something that intimidated her, even as a child she had known there were things that warranted her fear much more stringently than simple shadow.
As she passed through a narrow channel, her humming fell silent. She could make out the faint but noticeable outline of a skeleton slumped against the stone wall to her right, a sword protruding from it's chest.
"Barbosa's dramatic ass must bloody love it here." Shemuttered,and then with an indignantroll of her eyes, she continuedon her way.
Before long the passage widened once more into something of a small caven and a group of seven or eight dinghies all in a line came into view- one of which she assumed must have been Jack and Will's withremainders belonging to the crew of the Pearl. She had pulled her own up beside them and begun to climb out when an unmistakably feminine gasp halted her.
"Will, someone's there." Spoke a startled and equally feminine voice.
Straightening, still inside her dinghy, Eve found Will standing on the rocky bank before her, a pretty, sharp featured young woman at his side. She was fair skinned with tussled golden locks and dark eyes, wide and alert. A beauty to be certain-but one that couldn't have been any older than Will himself and thus, markedly so, several years too young to be of any intimate interest to Eve who, naturally, could only surmise the woman in question to be Will's objective in coming here, Miss Elizabeth Swann. And for a moment Will appeared as taken aback as she was- Eve did at times forget how ghoulish an impression she left when her hood was pulled so far over her face-but that moment passed by in short form and Will's tense shoulders dropped half an inch once he realised who he was staring at.
"Eve, what are you doing here?"
"Oh, just havin' a gander." She shrugged,now stepping out of the dinghy, lifting her head so that her eyes could be seen, even if only vaguely so. "Hopin' ourgood friend didn't fed ya to the sharks in me absence."
Miss Swann blinked owlishly. Evidently she did not inticipate either the reply they received, or the voice they received it in.
"I assume this fine lass with ye is the fair maiden ya came all this way to rescue." Eve gestured accordingly. "Grand to meet ya by the way, Miss Swann. And my apologies ye that had to spend any manner of time with one Hector Barbosa. Not the most pleasant of company. Undoubtedly not equal to yours, I'm sure-"
"Eve, I'm sorry, but we don't have time for this." Will rushed through his words, ushering Miss Swann towards a specific dinghy. "It probably won't be long before they realise Elizabeth is gone."
"Aye, don't let me stop ya." Eve stepped to the side, noting now how Will had been avoiding her gaze. "Oh. And before I forget, lad. Where is Jack?"
Will froze where he stood. Miss Swann stared at him incredulously.
"Jack? Jack Sparrow?"
Will didn't respond, now it was her eye he was unable to meet, finally forcing his to clash with Eve's.
"I came here for Elizabeth." He said firmly, though, with crystal clear clarity, Eve could still hear the guilt buried just beneath the surface. "Not to help Jack get his hands on the Black Pearl."
"I see." She nodded. "But that doesn't answer me question."
"You told me to keep a weather eye out."
"Aye, I did."
"I listened." Said Will, before turning and reaching for an oar "And if Jack's lucky, he hasn't come to yet."
Eve swallowed a laugh and pulled her hoodlower on her face, eclipsingher smirk in shadow.
"If ye want a head start," She spoke up once more. "I'll give ye one. Pirates ain't ever been particularly hard to distract.
Will paused once more to throwEve a small, grateful smile.
"I'd appreciate it."
"Oh, and," Eve stopped Will once more. "some advice would be nickin' them other oars while you're at it."
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No more than a handful of steps from the Dinghies was two passages running deeper into the seemingly endless caves. One of which, on closer inspection, led directly into the main chamber. Itwas aspace of exordinary size, glittering with treasures in every inch of every corner. Theymade Eve's fingers itch. Thepresence of said treasure, however,was quite obtusely ruined by the echoing thunder of a painfully familiar voice.
The other passage veered left and stopped dead before stretching very far. It honned a wide opening that allowed Eve to see directly into the aforementionedchamber where Barbosa, cursed Captain of the Black Pearl stood before his cursed crew. And to put it lightly; They were not happy.
"You bought us here for nothing!" Bellowed a rail thin crewman Eve believed she recognised as Twigg and whom Barbosa promptly confirmed as such.
"I won't take questioning or second guesses." Barbosa snarled back at him fiercely. "Not from the likes of you, Master Twigg."
"Who's to blame? Every decision you've made has led us from bad to worse!" Koehler added, his heavy Jamaican accent unmistakable.
"It was you who sent Bootstrap to the depths!" Mallot piled on.
The tell tale sound of swords unsheathed ran clean through the chamber as the Bo'sun drew his blade and stepped forward a second well.
"And it's you who bought is here in the first place!" Even he could not hold his tongue- he, who despite Eve knowing him just as she did the others, couldn't give the name of as it came from his native home in Africa and she remembered distinctly that they had all butchered it so perfusely he'd forbade any of them from so much as attempting it and instead went by his title of Boatswain.
The other men gave a cheer, sounding their agreement of dissentand Eve couldn't be more pleased to hear as much. She sniggered to herself, enjoying the expression of irritation and thinnly veiled panicon Barbosa's weather beaten face. Not only was it no less than a mutineer deserved, but it was also one of the constant risks of pirate captaincy. This wasn't the King's Navy, after all. If the crewmen thought their leader incompetent or even simply dissatisfactory, then it was in their hands to bring about a change of command. The same had happened to Jack as it had countless other Captain's, and Barbosa was no more protected from it than anyone else.
"If any coward here dare challenge me, let him speak!" Barbosa pulled forth his own sword from his belt, brandishing it without hesitation. He would have taken them all if it came to that. Eve had no reservations that he would undeniablyattempt so.
"I say we cut her throat and spill all her blood, just to be sure!" Koehler insisted.
"Aye!" The other men agreed once more and not quietly at that.
Eve, who had already had her eyes surely tied to Barbosa, saw the glimmer of dread quite before anyone else as he took notice of something in the distance she could not discern. And she certainly didn't think it had anything even remotely to do with Elizabeth's safety.
Barbosa twisted round and appeared to be searching for something he could not find. Body trembling with unrestrained rage, he turned back to his men.
"The medallion! She's taken it! Get after her, you freckless pack of ingrates!" On his orders, the crewmen scattered without a second thought, as though they hadn't just been mere moments from munity.
Eve would never quite understand pirates in full. She wasn't assured that she wanted to either.
Creeping to the end of the passage, she peeked out and- cloaked in darkness, naturally- saw that the menhad madethe immediate assumption that their escaped captive had fled to the dinghies. And much to their dismay and fury, they then found that Will had taken Eve's advice in stride. They were oar-less. The Bo'sun, with a roar,ordered them foundand the men begun to scatter once more.
Shifting deeper back into the passage as to not be spotted, Eve almost didn't hear Pintel's exclamation.
"Ya supposed to be dead!"
Ah, Eve though to herself. That's where Jack's gone too. She had momentarily forgotten about him.
She crept forward a second time, inching as near as she could to the crewmen without endangering herself and riskingdetection. Although she could not see the scene that currently played out just a stones throw away, the image of Jack surrounded by armed enemies on all sides was not at all foreign to her. She caught the faint cocking of a pistol and then Jack speaking utter nonsense. Which here means more nonsense than what was usual for him.
"Pur-lah...Pa-la-la-lay-loo...?"
Eve was quite thoroughly befuddled and she had little doubts the crewman were any different. It did seem as though Jack was attempting to string, at the very least, a single word together, it was just that he was doing a perfectly horrific job at it. Eve had to take a moment and wonder just how hard Will had hit him.
"Par-linny...Parsnip...Parsley...Par-Par- No, partner?"
"Parley?" Offered Ragetti tentively.
"That's the one! Parley! Parley!" Jack announced proudly.
"Parley?" Pintel growled, most likely in the direction of his nephew. "Damn to the depths whatever muttonhead thought up Parley!"
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The 'Parley' of which Jack had invoked was of the Code, more specifically, the Code of the Pirate Brethren. If a pirate's adversary was to demand 'Parley' the pirate was then bound to leave said adversary unharmed and bring them before the Captain. This, in Eve's experience, was typically used as a last ditch effort in the simple hope that one could talk or barter their way out of being gutted and thrown overboard. Which, in the case of Jack, was how he got out far more situations than he rightfully deserved too.
Eve, in truth, perfered not to speak aloud on her knowledge of the Code. It was difficult enough persuading people that she was no pirate without revealing all she knew of them that the regular citizens of the world did not.
Complying with the Code, the crew of the Black Pearl promptly- and rather begrudgingly- delivered Jack to their a Captain. A meeting long destined to happen and more than likely to end in blood.
While this meeting took place, Eve slipped silently between the ranks of ragged men, perfectly undetected in a manner only she could achieve. And although the attention being so firmly pinned on Jack certainly helped, Eve truly had never come across another individual who could remain as totally unseen as she could, even in what was at times, plain sight. So, with her hood pulled low, hair and face hidden from the crew who would without a single doubt recognise her, she weeded her way throughout the gathering, her skilled hands skittering around belts and pockets entirely unbeknownst to her victims. Was this necessary? Well, no. One couldn't really say so. But she had seen the opportunity staring her dead in the face and the sheer gall that guided the majority of her actions could not rightly resist. Even when Barbosa broke through the ring of men to leer at Jack standing far too causally in the centre, her fingers worked their magic, forged on the streets of London over two decades ago.
"How the blazes did you get off that island?" Barbosa sneered.
He had demanded, from Eve, the details of this very query more than once when they had been unlucky enough to run into one another in the past. She had never told him the truth, however. Instead regailing some mutated version of it, much like what Gibbs had relayed to Will. Though it could be said that Eve's retellings were even more ridiculous and intentionally so. A factor that had irritated Barbosa to no end. And, it seemed now, that he wasn't going to get anymore of a serious answer from Jack himself.
"When you marooned me on that godforsaken spit of land, you forgot one very important thing, mate." He said, the smirk audible in his smuggest of tones. "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow."
"Aye, well, I won't be making that mistake again." Barbosa quipped, marching up to the man who truly was for too collected for his own good. What this told Eve was that Jack had a plan. Of course, this meant very little to her in this moment as she swiped a faded red handkerchief from Mallot's hip.
"Gents, you all remember Captain Jack Sparrow." Barbosa continued, addressing his crew.
"Aye." The men confirmed unanimously.
"Kill him."
Order heared and received, the crew pulled forth and trained their pistols on their target. Barbosa had already turned his back, his interest seemingly run dry.
If Jack housed even the slightest hint of trepidation within himself, he didn't show it as he remained where he stood, unflinching and unperturbed.
"The girl's blood didn't work, did it?" He said.
Barbosa halted, shoulders tense.
"Hold your fire!" He growled before turning to face his former Captain once more. The crew unenthusiastically lowered their weapons. "You know whose blood we need."
"I know who's blood you need." Jack confirmed, sounding quite nearly self-congratulatory enough to have put Eve to shame- who, at this time, was reaching for the small coin pouch tied to Twigg's belt.
Then, like the devil himself, Jack, the Capuchin monkey bought aboard ship after the mutiny and named hilariously for the man they had betrayed and abandoned to die, got it in his tiny head to scare the living day lights out of Eve.
He leapt up onto Twigg's arm, the very same one hanging down by his belt, startling both thief and victim with a horrendous screech in Eve's direction.
"Gah!" She squeaked, stumbling back several steps.
"Get off me!" Twigg shook his arm fiercely until the monkey let him loose, now scampering across the cave floor to Barbosa's side like the little snitch he was.
Eve had never held any particular animosity towards animals, but this monkey? Oh, this monkey she could have drowned with her bare hands if only he wasn't as cursed as the rest of the crew. And as he darted up on to Barbosa's shoulder, pointing a tiny accusatory finger in Eve's direction, further throwing the focus on her, aye. Drown him she could have.
"Shoulda' known." Barbosa hissed darkly, striding towards her. "I shoulda' bloody known."
Turning on her heel, Eve attempted to make a run for it- if only she could hide then she might have a chance. But alas, Barbosa snatched up a handful of the cloak trailing in her wake and yanked her back. She choked on a mouthful of air as the cloaks fastener bit into her throat and she near lost her footing.
Barbosa then reached for the scuff of her neck, jerking back the hood from her face as she did so.
"Where's there's one of ya, the other can't be far behind." He sneered down at her, eyes aglow with a look so murderous Eve felt the urge to search for her own pulse just assure herself it was still there.
"Ah, Hector, old mate!" She forced an impressively serene smile onto her face. "Didn't think I'd be runnin' into ya here of all places! What's it been now? Two years?"
"Aye." His grip tightened fiercely. "Two years since ye made off with five pieces of Cortรจzes treasure and scattered them to the corners of the four winds!"
"Did I do that?" Eve blinked innocently, but, unsurprisingly, the expression on Barbosa's face showed no signs of lessening in its murderousness. "Well, ye got 'em all back, didn't ya? Good for you! I applaud your dedica-"
Barbosa pulled forth his gun, leveling at it her nose.
"Ye best shut ye trap before I put a bullet in it." He growled.
"Aye, that'd probably be wise." Eve nodded, obtusely avoiding the irritating and questioning glower Jack was also pinning her with.
"Oi!" Came a sudden cry from the crowd that sounded quite like Ragetti. "Where's me dagger gone?"
"Me coin!" Koehler's voice arose next. "I had seven pieces in me pocket!"
As the others also began to pat down their pockets and belts, shout after shout sounded through the cave in outrage. It seemed near each man was missing one thing or another and unfortunately for Eve, the culprit was overtly incontestable.
"Oh, come now." She pouted up at Barbosa quite pathetically. "Ye know it's utterly impossible for me to stop meself at the best of times. I can hardly be held responsible for things outside of me own control."
Once more, she wandered if she wasn't dead and gone to hell. Especially if the indescribable fury on Barbosa's face was any indicator. And he seemed eager to assure she would draw her very last breath- if she hadn't already- as he shifted the barrell of his pistol between her eyes and pulled back the hammer.