Well, friends. I am truly impressed. 175!
*cries* Oh, I don't deserve this! I don't! But I am honored that you like this - thank you forever, and a day!
However..........
You know what 175 means. 200!!!!
Ooh....look at that number, that big magical 200....of course, if you wanna give me more than that....I shall not complain!
Kery J. Wales: Oddly enough, ff does the exact same thing to me. Here's how to get around it - when done reading and want to review, go up to the address, and where it says "read", change it to "review". Then click enter. That should help. And thank you - frankly I didn't think the movie was boring, but then, we already know that story! Is much fun to add my own twists to the original story! Thanks!
Spidergurlrox: Got the script online...just go to Google, and type in "PotC script". You'll be able to find one. It's not hard to find. :) And I'm glad you like my writing....pretty much I wrote Elizabeth as a prick cause it fits the scene....I hope she's not too OOC. And by "underclothes", I assume you mean jeans and tanktops?
Lady Riddle and Jesentra: I'm glad I "capture my readers"! And since you demanded it...more chapters!
HyperCaz: Yes, in my fiction, and everyone elses, Jack finally gets a girl! Thank you!
Completeopposites: Glad you liked it. That would have to be one of my favorite parts too - Heather finally admitting that she likes snuggling up to Jack. Thank you!
Lyssa2: You were so the inspiration for the whole "welcome to the Caribbean" thing! I was tempted to do some butt-slapping...but then it'd be blatant stealing, so.... I had far too much fun writing that. And yes, you can lick off his fingers next time.
Alicia the Skull: Lookis! New chapters! *happy rum dance* The chapter choosy thing lets you go further now! You can read!
Ecila: *doles out ice packs for keyboard impact injuries* I too, enjoy grinning like an idiot. Enjoy!
J. Liha: Well, it's pretty easy, actually. Just pucker up and....yeah. :D Don't worry. I shall return Jack in almost perfect condition. He may be slightly corrupted....but it's pretty hard to corrupt Jack. Thank you....I do enjoy drawering. :)
uh...not Mark's Girl?: Well, seeing as he doesn't deserve you...go out and snag yourself an Orlie, girl. Or a hot Scottish guy. ;) And I still dunno....would Jack even listen to birds?
Dana-Black: Thankies!
Huntess16: Yeah, tell me about it! She can't even remember his name, for pete's sake!
Ellina: Aww...no tackle-glomps? And yes, I shall now disembody myself, float out my body, and we can trade places so you'll be Heather, and I can be Ellina. Does that work? :) Oh...and it might make it slightly difficult to marry the poor man if he's dead....Whee! Magic medallions! (Yes, I am easily distracted. ;D )
What? You mean Disney wants to give me this movie? For free?! Wow! Hey.....oh shoot. Dreaming again. *pouts*
************
Christine stumbled over one of the arm bones left conveniently in her way, and swore under her breath when Barbossa caught her from falling, pulling her too close to him for comfort to prevent any other slips. He heard the expletive, and half-chuckled, though his mind seemed more focused on the young man that Pintel and Ragetti were ushering into the cave.
She felt rather sorry for Will right then. Poor guy...his girl had been marooned on a tiny island, he'd just found out that his father had been murdered in cold blood, and now he was about to be murdered himself just so that some greedy pirates wouldn't be un-dead anymore.
"No reason to fret," Pintel was telling him. "Just a prick of the finger, and a few drops of blood."
"No mistakes this time," Twigg snapped. "He's only half-Turner. We spill it all."
Will didn't really seem all that surprised, as Pintel chuckled, "Guess there is reason to fret."
Clambering up the mound of treasure, two pirates seized Will's arms, pushing him towards the chest, and Barbossa shoved Christine into Ragetti's arms, much to the one-eyed pirate's surprise. "Don't you dare let her go," Barbossa growled, and Ragetti nodded eagerly, turning Christine around so her back was pressed against his chest, and firmly seizing her hands in his, crossing them over her chest and holding tight. Glaring back over her shoulder at him, she then resigned herself to anxiously watching.
A slight sound behind her, however, made her tear her eyes away from the disturbing scene of Barbossa with a knife and Will being forced to lean over the chest. "Begun by blood," Barbossa said with finality, but she wasn't listening. Had she just heard...
"Beg your pardon," a voice said, and frowning, Christine craned her neck to try to look around Ragetti's skinny shoulder to see who in the world it was.
"By blood un..." Barbossa was still continuing, but he was cut off, surprisingly, by Will.
"Jack!"
"S'not possible," Barbossa whispered, face paling as he took a step back.
"Not probable," Jack corrected, holding up his hands. Christine had never been so immensely pleased to see anyone in her life.
"Where's Elizabeth?" Will gasped.
"She's safe, just like I promised." Jack paused, then plunged the proverbial knife into Will's heart. "She's all set to marry Norrington, just like she promised. You get to die for her, just like you promised. Heather, I understand, is to be adopted into the Governor's family just as he promised. So we're all men of our word, except for Elizabeth, who is, in fact, a woman."
"Shut up! You're next!" Barbossa snarled, leaning forward with the knife again, aiming at slitting the blacksmith's throat.
"You don't want to be doing that, mate." Jack interrupted again, earning an irritated glare from Barbossa.
"No, I really think I do."
Jack shrugged lazily. "Your funeral."
Barbossa stopped, teeth gritted, a tick in his cheek twitching. "Why don't I want to be doing it?"
"Well, because..." Jack paused to push the arm of a pirate off his shoulder, giving the man a look that clearly asked how he'd deemed himself allowed to touch the captain. "Because the HMS Dauntless, pride of the royal navy, is floating just offshore...waiting for you."
Time stopped. Emotions chased themselves around on Barbossa's face, and Ragetti's arms around Christine loosened considerably as his jaw dropped open. And while at any other time she would have taken full advantage of that to pull away, she instead was staring at Jack as well, joyous thoughts fighting for her attention. The navy? That meant that she was saved! Finally!
"Just hear me out, mate." Jack held his hands up again, gesturing wildly. "You order your men to row out to the Dauntless; they do what they do best. Robert's your Uncle, Fannie's your Aunt, there you are with two ships. The makings of your very own fleet. 'Course you'll take the grandest as your flagship, and who's to argue? But what of the Pearl? Name me Captain, I'll sail under your colors, I'll give you...ten percent of me plunder, and you get to introduce yourself as…" He paused for effect. "Commodore Barbossa. Savvy?"
Barbossa lifted an eyebrow. "I suppose, in exchange, you want me not to kill the whelp."
"No, no, not at all. By all means - kill the whelp." He held up his hands quickly as Will's eyes widened in alarm. "Just...not yet. Wait to lift the curse...until the opportune moment. For instance," he paused, bending to run his fingers through the cursed medallions, picking up a few. "After you've killed Norrington's men." Tossing in a medallion with each word, he enunciated, "Every....last....one."
Taking a step back, he grinned, hooking his thumbs into his belt.
Christine's eyes narrowed. There was the slightest gleam of gold in the pirate's hands as he moved them, but her eyes must have been deceiving her. There was nothing there when he crossed his arms a moment later.
Will's eyes were narrowed too, but she was pretty sure, by the look on his face, that he had caught something she'd missed. "You've been planning this from the beginning," he snarled, tugging against the pirates holding his arms as though to get to Jack. "Ever since you learned my name."
Jack grinned, gold teeth glinting. "Yeah," he said, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Barbossa, meanwhile, had been thinking. "I want fifty percent of your plunder."
Lazily, Jack turned back. "Fifteen."
"Forty."
"Twenty-five. And I'll buy you the hat. A really big one...Commodore."
Barbossa's lips curled into a smirk. "We have an accord." Reaching forward, he gripped the other man's hand in his firmly, shaking once.
Spinning so that he almost tumbled over, Jack yelled, "All hands to the boats!" Noticing Barbossa's expression, he stepped back, bowing. "Apologies. You give the orders."
"Gents!" Barbossa barked. "Take a walk!"
Turning, the pirate's headed out of the cave, splashing into the water.
"Not to the boats?" Jack asked in surprise, turning to give the 'Commodore' an odd look.
Barbossa only grinned, and Jack turned back to see the pirates completely enter the water. "Ah."
***
Giving the knots on the make-shift rope a vindictive yank, I glanced up from my task to see, through the slightly wavy glass, a small wooden boat with two parasoled women in it. Of course - they weren't women - they were Pintel and Ragettit.
"Crap," I whispered, then jerked my head towards the window. "C'mon, 'Lizabeth, we need to get out of here."
"We are going to go save Will, right?" She demanded in a low voice, gathering up an armload of makeshift rope.
"Obviously," I hissed back. "You think Jack needs saving?" She had to smile a little at that, then I added, "Besides, Christine's still on that ship somewhere. I want to rescue her too."
Elizabeth nodded, then we both jumped at a soft tapping on the door. A moment later, Governor Swann's voice floated in. "A moment, please. Elizabeth? I just want you to know, I…I believe you made a very good decision today. Couldn't be more proud of you." There was silence for a moment, then he added, "And Heather? I'm so very pleased to hear about Private Parsons. He's a fine young man, you'll be quite happy."
"Ah," I murmured. "So that's his name. Francis Parsons."
Elizabeth gave me an odd look, and I pointed to the window. Being as quiet as we could, she helped me throw the rope out, then hissed, "Who's Francis Parsons?"
"The man I'm marrying when we get back," I hissed back, then clambered out the window, Elizabeth following right behind.
"What do you mean, the man you're marrying?" Elizabeth demanded. "And where did this boat come from?"
"First, I retrieved this boat, because I knew that we needed it to get out of here. I had absolutely no intention of remaining on board while pirates attacked and Jack risked his neck to save your man, and my friend." Taking up the oars, I tugged the rope to set us off, then began paddling. "Second, I'm marrying Private Parsons because your father and your fiancé decided to play matchmaker. Give me a hand here, will you?"
***
Ragetti had been sent off to distract the navy, and Christine had to admit that it had been rather amusing to see the two pirates dressing in drag. Of course, her warden disappearing meant that she was released - for the moment - and so had sunk to the ground, idly letting pieces of eight run through her fingers.
She had no illusions that her momentary freedom was going to last, and so she made no attempts to run off - she had absolutely no desire to feel Barbossa's dirty hands wrapped around her - now - quite purple arm anymore.
Will was still being held by two of the pirates who had stayed behind, and Jack was straying amongst the treasure, eyeing it all eagerly.
"I must admit, Jack," Barbossa spoke up, leaning against the chest. "I thought I had ye figured. It turns out that you're a hard man to predict."
"Me?" Jack feigned innocence. "I'm dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest...honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly… stupid." Grinning, he drew a sword, and struck out at Barbossa, who caught the blade with his own.
"You're off the edge of the map, mate." Barbossa grinned like a banshee. "Here there be monsters."
***
I touched a finger to my lips, motioning for silence. It wasn't all that necessary - Elizabeth knew as well as I that we had to be stealthy. Suppressing a grunt, I hauled myself over the railing, swinging over onto the deck of the Black Pearl.
Turning, I made to help Elizabeth up, when from the shadows, came a hiss, followed by the snarling form of Barbossa's monkey, Jack.
"Let me," Elizabeth growled, and I smirked, hefting a stout board, and handing it to her.
***
Christine was on her feet, hands at her mouth, staring with wide eyes at the battle on the treasure strewn plain.
"You can't beat me, Jack." Barbossa said calmly, and Christine was beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, she agreed with him. Jack, however, slammed his sword forward, impaling his former first mate. Barbossa sighed, pulled the sword out, then before Christine could scream out a warning, ran Jack straight through.
Then Christine screamed. Just when she was starting to think that maybe the pirate wasn't such of a cad, he went and got himself stabbed! Jack stumbled, blinking. And then, he took a step back, the moonlight spilling over his body.
It was as though the image of Jack Sparrow, the man with his life abruptly ended in his prime was suddenly replaced with an image of Jack Sparrow in a year or so, when the flesh had begun to decay off his resting skeleton, his clothes rotting off his body.
Holding his now-skeletal hand up, he clicked the bones, turning it over. "That's interesting," he said, his voice the same nonchalant it had always been. Hand descending to his belt, there was suddenly the gold in it again, as he passed one of the cursed medallions between his fingers. "Couldn't resist, mate."
Christine backed up, retreating until she stood nearly beside Will, ignoring the gaping pirates that still held his arms. She did not like this recent turn of events.
Removing the sword from his gut, Jack sprang forward, returning to his normal self in the shadows, then skeleton again as the light fell on him. As he pushed Barbossa back across the ground, he passed her and Will, and called, "Sorry."
"So what now, Jack Sparrow?" Barbossa asked, not missing a beat. "Will it be two immortals locked in an epic battle until Judgement day and the trumpets sound?"
"Or you could surrender," Jack shot back.
"Arr," Barbossa laughed, and steel rang on steel.
***
Having dealt with the guards and successfully unlocked the door to the brig, I pounded up the stairs, Elizabeth and the Jack's crew following. "All of you with me! Will is in that cave, and we must save him. Ready? And heave!" Noticing that no one was helping her, she turned back, eyes pleading. "Please, I need your help, come on!"
"Any port in a storm," Cotton's parrot broke the silence.
"Cotton's right," Gibbs said softly. "We've got the Pearl."
"What about Jack? You're just going to leave him?!" Elizabeth gaped.
"Jack owes us a ship," one of the sailors pointed out.
"It's the code, Elizabeth. Any man that falls behind, stays behind." Gibbs shot me a relieved look at my cold understanding, but Elizabeth looked at me with something akin to horror.
"The code!? You're all pirates, hang the code, and hang the rules! They're more like guidelines, anyway!" None of them moved. Turning her accusatory eyes to me, she cried, "Don't tell me you're just going to leave Jack behind! I've seen the way you look at him!"
I winced, and closed my eyes. "I never said anything about leaving him behind, Miss Swann. If you'd like to stop putting words into my mouth, please..." Turning away from her, I pointed to Gibbs. "I need a sword. A good one. Light enough for me to fight with."
Elizabeth gaped at me, as Gibbs nodded, and one of the pirate's darted into a door in the wall beside us, immediately beside the captain's quarters. A mere moment later, he emerged, holding a simple, but functional sword. He handed it to me hilt first, and I gripped it tightly, frowning as I found it heavier than expected. "You sure you know how to use that?" Gibbs asked, smiling a little.
I was immediately reminded of a story I had read back before this whole fiasco had begun, a story staring a brilliant sixteen year old named Rebecca. Grinning wistfully, I answered him with one of her unforgettable quotes. "Of course. The pointy end goes in the other guy."
Saluting the pirate crew, I spun, and climbed back over the railing. Shimmying down the rope, I stood in the small craft, looking up. "Coming?" I called, and my query was answered a moment later by Elizabeth climbing down to join me.
As I took the oars and began headed towards the cave, Elizabeth glared at me like I had become the enemy, and growled, "Bloody pirates."
I couldn't help the little smirk that spread across my face. "Bloody pirates, indeed. That's why I love them so much."
**********
Whee! That's a loooong chappie! And the story quoted there is Pirates of the Caribbean : The Curse with a Twist, by Lyssa2, on this site. It's amazing! Go read!
Remember...200! If you loved it, tell me! If you hated it, tell me! Just make me feel special and click that little button!