Don't own anything from the movie. . . Not Jack Sparrow. . .

Chapter Three

Ariana was about to question him when a loud bang pierced their ears and the ship shook slightly. She already knew was it was.

Captain Shallows' feet dropped to the floor and he flew out of his seat, heading swiftly for the door. He yanked it open, causing it to hit the wall violently and bounce back off. He turned to them and said, "Ye be'er stay 'ere, or you'll be sorry." With that, he grabbed the doorknob and swung the door closed, and they could hear his hurried footsteps heading up onto the deck.

"You think he locked us in?" Ariana asked.

"Who cares? If we go up there, we're dead, or worse," Kelsey replied.

"Well I don't want to stay on this ship any longer," Julie argued, almost whining.

"Neither do I," Ariana told her. "But who knows? Maybe that's the Black Pearl attacking us." She was indeed hopeful; at least she knew the man on that ship – even though he didn't know. . .

"Good luck," Julie said dryly.

"We're not in the movie, okay?" Kelsey said, irritated.

"Yes we are!" Ariana told her. "Why can't you accept that? You know it's true!"

"No it's not!" Kelsey began to get angry. She didn't want to give in to the ludicrous idea; it was just too – ludicrous. She was caught between the side of her that just wanted to go home, and the side that couldn't deny what was all around her.

Another cannon fire rattle the ship slightly.

"Okay, ya know what? This is no time to argue about it! We're in danger here! The pirates on the other ship are going to come over here eventually, and they probably aren't going to kill us." She got her message through in her tone. "So if you just want to sit down here and wait for that to happen, be my guest. But I suggest that we get out of here and find some place safer to hide." They had to find somewhere on the ship where they wouldn't be found; the captain's quarters was probably the worst spot they could be. "Okay, I have an idea. How about we go up on deck and get into a rowboat, then row away and try to find an island or something?" At least they would be off the ship.

"Try to find an island? We're on a ship, and we have no idea where the fuck we are, and you want to just get into a rowboat and take your chances?" Kelsey exploded.

"How do you even know they have rowboats up there?" Julie asked.

Ariana looked at Kelsey. "What the hell else are we supposed to do? You really think there's anywhere on this ship that's actually safe? We have to get off or we'll be taken, there's no other choice! " She turned to Julie. "All ships have rowboats. If we can get into one and get into the water quick enough, we might be able to get away. The two ships will be busy fighting and hopefully won't notice us." If they were found it would be disastrous. She was banking on there being so much fighting going on, that who would notice a few extra bodies? With any luck their extra bodies wouldn't be pegged as female. . . That was a stretch, but they had no other option. They couldn't stay on the ship.

She felt the ship shake again as another cannon fired.

"I don't know. . ." The doubt was clearly evident in Julie's voice.

"Well, it's the only shot we've got!" Kelsey told her, heading for the door without hesitation. She seemed to have done a complete 180 from her previous position.

"Come on!" Ariana told Julie, following her other friend and waving her hand in the direction of the door.

Julie sighed loudly but came over as Kelsey pulled the door open.

"Well, it's not locked," she stated, looking back at the other two.

"Go! Go!" Ariana told her hurriedly, rushing her forward. She didn't know how much time they had and wanted to get as far away as quickly as possible.

The three ran up towards the deck, hearing yet another cannon blast. Once there, they hid behind a grouping of large barrels, peeking over the tops and searching for the rowboats.

There were men fighting everywhere: swords clanging together, guns firing, loud shouts and yells, bodies lying here and there. Add all of that to the cannons that were going off every minute, and it was almost deafening.

But they barely noticed any of that as they caught sight of the offending ship.

It was completely black. It boasted ripped and torn sails, with a jolly roger blowing in the wind at the top of the dark mast.

The Black Pearl.

When Ariana had given her possibility of the other ship being The Black Pearl, she hadn't really believed it. Now there was a sense of relief mixed with shock inside her. The first thought in her head was to go aboard and find Jack Sparrow, but logic quickly kicked in and told her that this was the movie, not real life – he was a pirate, not an actor. Who knows what he would do if three teenage girls came onto his ship? Who knew if he was even the captain of the ship now? She had no idea what time this was. It couldn't be the same time as the movie, because The Black Pearl had never attacked any other ship besides the British Navy's.

So that begged the question – what time was it?

They needed to get to a rowboat, and fast.

She managed to tear her eyes away from the other ship and began looking around the deck closely. She turned to the right and found what she was searching for. Hope surged through her.

"Guys!" she hissed loudly. "Guys, look! To your right!"

Kelsey and Julie both turned their heads to the right and saw the rowboat.

"Okay, so you know how to get that thing down into the water, right?" she asked, praying that one of them would say yes. If they couldn't even get the boat into the water, they had nothing.

"Um, I think I do," Julie said.

"Okay, good. Come on." She was somewhat reassured; they still had to do this unseen. She watched the rest of the deck to see if anyone was looking their way – no one that she could see. She felt painful knots of fear and apprehension beginning to form in her stomach, and it put a bad taste in the back of her mouth.

They moved as quick as they could, keeping low to the ground, towards the rowboat, trying to ignore the harsh and sudden cannon fires and shouts from the crew as they fought.

When they reached it, they climbed in and slid down as low as they could, lying flat on their stomachs. Then all three peered over the side at the battle taking place. They had to be quick if they didn't want to be captured.

"Okay, Julie, you said you knew how to work this thing," Ariana whispered. "So what do we do?"

"Okay, well, I think first we have to pull this thing," she replied, indicating a rope that was hanging down near them. "I think that's what'll get us up and over the side of the ship."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"Positive?" She couldn't risk doing the wrong thing and getting the three of them noticed.

"Yeah." This time she said it more pointedly.

"Okay, pull it."

Julie reached up and grabbed the rope, about to do so when they heard a gruff voice say, "Well, wha' do we 'ave 'ere?"

All three of them looked up into the face of an ugly, filthy pirate. He was bald, and as he grinned they could see several missing teeth.

We were almost off the fucking ship! Ariana was cursing repeatedly in her head, the foulest things she could think of. She wanted to break something.

"Troy! Malachi! Come look wha' I foun'!" he yelled over his shoulder, and in that split second that his head was turned, Ariana got up the courage – from where had no idea – to get up, jump over Julie, and clamber out of the rowboat, almost tripping. She searched the deck in a hurry with her eyes, seeking anything to use as a weapon. She spotted a dead pirate sprawled near the side of the ship, his sword next to him.

Perfect. She ran over to him and picked up the sword; it felt incredibly heavy. She took a deep breath and got as used to the weight as she could before whipping around.

The pirate at the rowboat was eyeing her with an amused look on his face. "Come 'ere, lass," he said. "Ye really think ye can fight me?" He grinned.

Ariana didn't respond; she just stood there. She had never used a sword before, and it was about thirty pounds heavier than she ever could have imagined. She was petrified at the thought of actually fighting with a grown man who was skilled with the weapon and possibly getting killed. She wouldn't last two minutes. What was she doing?

Two other pirates had come up beside him, and they stayed at the rowboat while he advanced towards her, so as not to let her friends make the same move she had. The same stupid move. . .

When he got closer, she backed up a few steps until she felt the dead pirate bump her foot, causing her to jump in alarm. She moved swiftly to her left, away from the body.

"Come now, lass. Pu' it down. . ."

Still she remained silent; she was trying to prepare herself. Talking would distract her.

He unsheathed his own sword and she inhaled sharply.

"I don' wanna 'ave ta use 'is on ye," he said. "It'd be a shame, it would." He gave a small grin.

Before she knew what she was doing, she had swung the sword at him, trying desperately to aim for his stomach. The weight of the sword cause her to instead meet up with his leg – well, it would have had he not jumped back and allowed the sword to fall through thin air. She almost fell from the weight of the blade falling. He ran at her and she swung again, but he blocked it and pushed her back with his sword. She stumbled back and barely kept her balance; he swung at her, hoping to scare her, and she blocked it only by wildly throwing her sword up and by chance having it meet his. It had been pure reflex; she was amazed that she had even done it at all.

She pulled the sword back and swung again, but he parried and easily knocked it out of her hand. It fell to the deck with a clatter.

A wave of dread washed over her.

He sheathed his sword and grasped her arm all in one move, then spun her around so that he could grab her other arm. He led her back to the rowboat where the other two pirates were busy with Kelsey and Julie. Kelsey was putting up a fight – screaming, kicking, and punching – while Julie was just jumping around, trying to avoid the pirate who was trying to catch her.

"Wha' a catch," one of them said as the pirate holding Ariana came over. "T'ree of 'em!" He sounded excited. He disgusted her.

"I cer'ainly am," the other said with a grin.

"Troy, take 'er," the first said, pointing to Julie, and he finally managed to get hold of her, since she had backed up into a corner of the rowboat with the railing of the ship the only thing behind her. He pulled her out of the rowboat, ignoring her futile attempts to free herself.

"Malachi, take 'er," he said, pointing to Kelsey, who had the angriest look in her eyes Ariana had ever seen before.

"She's puttin' up a figh'," he replied, trying to grab her for the hundredth time and failing as she jumped away from him and kicked at his arm violently.

The pirate that had a hold of Ariana grumbled and told him, "Take ou' yer sword, ya idiot!"

"Oh, righ'," Malachi said stupidly. He unsheathed his weapon and pointed it at Kelsey. "Come wit' me, lass."

"I already told you, NO!" Kelsey would follow her anger no matter where it led her.

"Come on!" He moved the sword closer to her threateningly.

"No." If looks could kill, she'd have him dead on the deck. Sparks could have flown from her eyes.

"I said – " he touched the tip of the blade to her chest, " – come on." His voice was low and dangerous.

Kelsey looked down at the sword for a few seconds. She wasn't going to let this asshole just take her like this. But of course, she knew that he probably wouldn't hesitate to kill her if he had to, either – after all, there were still two other girls here. What choice did she have? Maybe if she went with him, she could persuade the captain to have his crew leave the three of them alone. And if that didn't work – well, then she would just think of something else. One thing she was sure of: she wasn't going to let any of them hurt her friends.

She made sure to keep the look on her face, staring him dead in the eye, stiff as a board.

He slowly, almost cautiously reached out to her and grasped her arm. When she didn't try to injure him again, he quickly sheathed his sword and took hold of her other arm, pulling her out of the rowboat and close to him. He turned her around so that her back was to him, and then she and Ariana were led onto The Black Pearl, right behind Julie and her captor.