Call Me Captain Part Two: Agony of the Moment

Disclaimer: I do now own any of these characters.

Feedback would be greatly appreciated for this chapter as I am always trying to improve my writing when it comes to action scenes. As you could have easily figured out, I am always a writer of emotions- more of characters. Input on this action-motivated scene would be greatly appreciated.

Without further ado!

~@~

Barbossa forced Jack up the small slope. Each foot carefully stepped behind the other; each swing carefully placed to deflect; each jab to attempt that fatal stab. The flowing waters tinted by golden coins were far below now. Jack could hear the clanging of metal against metal that echoed from the other side of the cavern.

No shrieks of pain yet. Boy must be doing well, Jack thought as he twirled away from a slice delivered by Barbossa. Jack's thoughts fell back into step with his feet and hands.

One foot after the other. One block and one slash.

Barbossa's eyes glittered with gold; slashes of stagnant aureate that tinted the brown. His toothy smile was etched upon his face as a day-count upon a withered cell's wall. The faded pallet of stone, both on wall and face, displayed the harsh effects of time's wandering upon the souls of living. Unliving, in Barbossa's case. The face of Jack's attacker was oddly wrinkled in a way that only a life of a pirate could create. Lines blurred with drooping cheeks and melded with the corners of lips that had grinned too much. Beyond those lips were rotten teeth and a swollen tongue of pride.

One foot after the other. One block and one slash.

Incessant speeches does that to a man, Jack thought bitterly as he swiped at Barbossa quicky, taking another chunk of feather. The feather listlessly floated to the ground, a stark contrast to the fever the two pirates were engaged in. Their arms moved without thought and their feet stepped as if they were prisoners to a synchronized waltz.

One foot after the other. One block and one slash.

Jack's breath became labored and he could feel his arms beginning to tire with the delight of swordplay. His mind, however, whirred with delusions of grandeur. The blessed sight of Barbossa upon his sword, or even better, with a hole to his chest, was enough to keep Jack twirling, blocking, parrying, and side-stepping.

Barbossa's smile had vanished.

One foot after the other. One block and one slash.

Delusions does that to a man. When the eyes have beheld the image of a dream then the heart races ahead of that vision and almost bursts with anticipation. Dreaming of vengeance made it all the more sweet-tasting.

The bafflement of betrayal soon transformed into the hatred of a thousand lives relived to the single point of revenge; that one moment when the action that caused a myriad unshed tears would be repaid- whether through tears again or blood. How it is spilt is how it is dealt.

One foot after the other. One block and one slash.

Yes, I fight for my lost freedom, Jack thought with a renewed anger. Images of the Black Pearl flooded his mind and sped fury into his blood. His chestnut eyes burned angrily at his prey; his mutinying prey.

The clanks of metal upon metal grew louder as Jack pressed down upon Barbossa's sword with all his might. A sudden flicker of change crossed Barbossa's face and he once again grinned in almost a dazed manner.

Barbossa's sword stopped midair and Jack held his sword back in surprise.

"You cannot win, Jaaaaaaack," Barbossa breathed heavily. He began to laugh.

Jack didn't waste a second. Before his mind had registered what his arms were doing, he had plunged his sword into the stomach of Barbossa.

And then, his heart dropped as Barbossa's laughing only continued.

"Goodbye, Captain Sparrow," Barbossa grinned madly before plunging his sword deep into Jack's chest. Jack gagged on the breath of air that he had taken in prior to the steely point being driven through his lungs.

"JAAAACK!" A scream burst through cavern and with it echoed the powerful devastation a single vision of an impaled lover could do to a heart. With that one scream, a heart had shattered; an vision had been darkened; pain that burned through every cell and every fiber of the watcher's being.

The agony of Elizabeth's call forced Jack's eyes downward; sword still in chest.

He locked eyes with her for a moment. There she was, standing to her knees in frigid water. Thick streams of tears blazed down her dirtied cheeks and her breathing had stopped all together. She looked up at him with brown eyes beholding their worst nightmare. Jack could only watch as Elizabeth's knees buckled with anguish.

Jack felt similarly. The cold steel inside his chest was nothing but that. Cold steel. He did not feel anything but the weight of metal upon his rib bones. He felt no pain. He felt no shuddering death upon himself.

He took a step back, catching a ray of moonlight beaming from the cavern's holes. And Jack Sparrow could only grin back.

Barbossa's eyes flew wide open and his jaw gaped open. Jack could hear another scream from Elizabeth, though he didn't dare take his eyes away from the amazement of Barbossa's own.

"Couldn't resist, mate," Jack said in sing-song voice as his skeletal hand passed a single gold medallion between his fingers and knuckles. Barbossa cringed in hatred and swung his sword fiercely at Jack. Jack simply side- stepped the dramatic slash and watched as Barbossa lost his footing on the slick stone beneath them. He toppled over the side of the small incline and fell.

Jack quickly went to the edge and watched as a splash burst from below. The moonlight was no longer on him and he could once again feel the cold sweat that was dripping down from his creased brow.

Elizabeth had shrieked when Barbossa fell and she began to scramble away from the fallen pirate. Jack spotted Will running to the island of gold. Jack instantly knew what he had to do. He ran a bit down the slope then jumped from the edge, falling unceremoniously into a squatting position upon a pile of discarded petticoats and silks. He burst up in a shot and began to run towards the island, also.

Sword in his left hand, he sliced his right palm opened and felt a muted pain as the blood began to flood from the wound. He dropped his sword and reached for his pistol, as he approached the now standing form of Barbossa.

"Will!" He threw the bloodied medallion to the boy and instantly cocked his gun with his thumb.

It all happened in a heartbeat. Barbossa had pulled out his own pistol and had aimed at the horror-stricken form of Elizabeth. Will had dropped both medallions, smeared with the blood repaid into the chest.

And Jack had shot his pistol.

He waited in fear as the moment stretched out into an eternalized second.

Barbossa looked confusedly down at his chest, his arm still outstretched towards Elizabeth. Jack looked instantly at him and gasped for air as he saw the blood begin to bleed through Barbossa's thin shirt.

Amazed yellow eyes fell upon the victorious Jack and in one last moment, Barbossa whispered through clenched teeth.

"I feel. cold." And then he was gone, fallen back upon the gold that had betrayed him.

Jack tore his shaky vision from Barbossa's limp form to the fiercely trembling Elizabeth. Within another heartbeat, he had dropped his pistol and caught Elizabeth in his arms. Her warm body pressed against his and he smiled into her matted hair.

He could not help what happened next. Nothing could have prepared him for the feeling that burst inside his heart. No rum in the world could cause the feeling he was caught in; the whirlwind of triumph and fear that had almost lost him Elizabeth. He could not help it as his chest constricted with both pain and love.

A single tear dropped from the eye of Captain Jack Sparrow.

~@~

Again, feedback greatly appreciated for this chapter.

Next scene: The Lovers are Discovered! (jokingly titled, Will's Lament)