-

Carmen stared at the room before her.

"Now tha's somethin', luv", Jack muttered as they ventured further. The light dimmed and they came to see a large statue of the skull. Its eyes glittered silver to green as it watched every movement. The room soon became visible and a smile played on her lips. A large blue-crystal lake was seated in the middle of the beautifully crafted cave.

Jack slowly stepped up to the edge and his eyes widened as he looked down into the water. Gold, silver, bronze, crystals and other valuables sat glistening at the bottom of the shallow lake.

"Now, I thin' I 'ave my share", he muttered as he picked up a gold glistening necklace and gazed at the rest of the treasure.

Carmen looked around the large cave. She watched as Jack picked up a gold necklace and mutter something to himself. She looked up at the roof and was sighted with beautiful carvings of dancing gypsies. She looked back at Jack, who was now in the water and panning for things. She looked around her and found it was a circular cave, held up with great pillars of marble. The lake, which was situated in front of the skull statue, had a small rock plateau in the centre with a silver stand on it. Carmen walked over to the edge of the lake, ignoring the treasures and looked at the plateau. On the stand there was something, but she could hardly see.

"Aye, Carmen! Loo' at all tha'-" Jack began, but noticed Carmen wasn't listening. She had walked into the water and was wading to the centre. She didn't even care that her thinly male clothes were sticking to her.

"Ok", Jack sat himself down on the edge and examined a extremely large ring.

-

Barbossa had badly damaged the Pearl. His crew had pillaged and plundered what they could and where now leaving the ship to Davy Jones Locker. He scratched monkey Jacks ear as they came upon shore on Emerald Island.

"This time, we'll be sure Capt'n Jack Sparrow will nay return", he muttered as he stepped onto the shore.

-

"Quick! There be a hole below deck!"

The crew had many injured that still helped to pick up the remaining. Everyone was limping or running around patching up holes. Anamaria was slouched in the corner, heaving and trying to stay awake from the large shot wound on her shoulder.

"Anamaria! Wha' 'ave they done ter yer?" Mr Gibbs ran over as he spotted her bloodied body. She had a small smile that showed she was still alive.

"I-I'm fine, G-Gibbs," she coughed and winced. "J-just need s-some rest." Mr Gibbs pulled her up into his arms and brought her to her cabin.

"We 'ave a 'ole below tha' crews cabins," Lockland stated as he pointed it out to Mr Gibbs. "It'll take ter long fer us to men' ter it."

Mr Gibbs pulled out his flask and took a quick drink then turned back to the problem. "Fix it up! Now! We can all still make it!"

Lockland stared at him for a while, as if not knowing if he was being sarcastic or for real. Mr Gibbs shoved planks of wood into his arms and other utensils then barked, "Now!"

-

Carmen turned to see Jack watching her. She smiled at his protectiveness. Jack simply tipped his head a little then turned back to his precious jewels. She pulled herself up onto the plateau, shook the water off her then looked at the stand in front of her. It was circular and around mid-waist height.

"Wha' yer lookin' at, luv?" Jacks voice seemed to echo around the place. She ran her fingers over the silver markings on the top of the stand. She smiled as she knew they had found what they were looking for.

"Jack", she whispered and looked up at him with a great smile. Jack put something in his pocket then stood up. Suddenly, Carmens smile disappeared and a small clanking noise of falling metal told Jack someone else was here.

"Carmen?" He asked as he put his hand on the hilt of his sword. Carmen eyes scanned the area of the cave, eyeing every gold ornament, statue, corner and pillar and then she saw it.

"Monkey!" She said out-loud as the familiar pink-faced mammal in a red vest and miniature breeches was seated at the top of a ledge and was screeching madly.

"Bloody hell!" Jack spun around and un-sheathed his sword.

Barbossa stood at the entrance with a wicked smile on his face. "Not nice ter use tha' type of language in fron' of women", he hissed. Slowly, more of his crew appeared from the dark corners, which Carmen only just noticed they were entrances as well.

"An' yer woul' bloody know, wouldn' yer!" Jack hissed. Carmen slowly stepped back and slowly slipped a dagger into the cuff of her shirt. More of Barbossa's crew were nearing her and she was hoping to god, that she didn't have to fight.

"Jack, Jack, Jack!", Barbossa cooed as he stepped forward and pulled out his sword.

"Yer were always tha' weak one fer tha' lasses", he swung his sword. And this was when the war began…

-

"Com'on, we 'ave ter 'elp Capt'n Jack and Miss Carmen!" yelled Lockland after he had successfully fixed the hole after a lot of arguments. Most of the crew were considering it but then again, half of them were injured.

"Wha' bout stickin' ter tha' code?", asked Anamaria, who had the bullet taken out with much pain but had a sling now and was more alive than before. There was a murmur of possibilities in the crew then Lockland spoke up again.

"Yer mean yer jus' gunna let 'em die!" He loaded his gun and put it back in its sheath. "I thought we were more than tha'!"

Mr Gibbs took what was left in his flask then slammed it onto a barrel. "'E's righ'. Were tha' most feared an' famous pirates in tha' Caribbean an' we can't even 'elp our own Cap'n!", more murmurs erupted. "Aye, say we show our true pow'r!", cheers rose as they got ready to make to shore.

"Yer ugly cad!" Jack yelled as he fought with Barbossa.

Carmen watched a moment then quickly turned her attention on the ring of pirates advancing on her.

"Whose gonna save 'er now?" asked Grapple. Carmen's eyed widened as they pulled out their guns, daggers and swords. She glanced to the side of her and hoped that since there was a sword in every corner in this cave, that there would be one close by.

"Wha' she gunna do!" the annoying voice of Ragetti pierced her thoughts. She looked back to the side and her luck had changed. She looked down into the water and she saw what she needed. She looked up and then she felt slightly relieved. Her eyes strained for a moment and she saw Mr Gibbs and the crew coming in from one of the entrances from behind a set of pillars.

"She's gonna have a swim!", she said and dove into the water and disappeared in the pirates eyes for a moment.

"Where'd she go, where'd she go?", Pintel leaned over the edge and stared at the water, seeming to try and look deeper than the deep blue itself. Before he could say anything else, a sword was prodding out of his front.

"There she is!" yelled Pintel as she drove the sword deeper then pulled Pintel over her and into the water. She ducked under the ledge as bullets came down on her. They continued for a while then all she could hear was yelling. She peaked over the edge to see the crew fighting off Barbossa's men.

"Remember tha' time when yer said yer couldn' fin' yer silv'r flask full off rum?" hissed Barbossa as he continued to fight Jack. Jack who had jumped onto a rock and jumped over an attack, was now getting annoyed.

"Yer, 'ow coul' I forget!", he replied as he picked up a knife and threw it at Barbossa who just moved out of the way.

"Well, lil monkey Jack didn' accidentally drop it in tha' ocean! I drank it all!" Barbossa hissed. Jack eyes widened with anger and he plunged the sword at him.

Carmen pulled herself up, along with the sword she pulled out of Pintel. People were fighting, screaming, stabbing and shooting, whereas, she grabbed a gun and shot the first bad pirate she could gain access to.

"Nice shot love", came Jacks voice from the other side of the lake.

"Thanks!", she yelled back and got to work on de-coding on the stand; every now and again shooting someone who was getting a little to close for her liking.

"Hows it comin' along, Carmen?" asked Mr Gibbs who had just shoved a spear into 5 pirates at once. They ran around stupidly trying to get it off. Carmen furrowed her eye-brows.

"Well, it seems that these are marking I have never seen in my life time, although," a pirate came charging at her. She simply lifted gun to her side and shot him without even looking up from the markings. "I can understand it", she moved just in time as a dagger went flying past her head and into the back of Bo' sun.

"An' yer know tha' time when I said tha' weasel monkey of yers nearly got its tail chopped off by tha' anchor?" Jack yelled as he pinned Barbossa with his sword. "Tha' was me! I nearly chopped tha' damned rat's tail off with me sword!"

Barbossa let out a roar and charged. Jack ran around the side of the lake, flaying his arms every where and narrowly missed a few bullets.

"Yer bastard!" Anamaria had made an entrance by swinging on a rope and knocking several of Barbossa's crew members onto the sharp rocks that Ragetti only just pulled himself off. She staggered for a moment then made a bee-line to the screaming and gun shots.

"Wha' yer find out so far, lass?" Mr Gibbs asked as he pushed a pirate out of the way. Carmen had managed to de-code most of it but there was one bit she couldn't get. The marking were set like circles within circles with different symbols within each one.

"In a full total, there are 9 rings. Starting from the outside, I've been able to figure the first 7 out," she stopped and moved as a shower of gunshots came in their direction.

"An' tha' other 2?" asked Gibbs who motioned that the gunshots had stopped.

"I don't know, but -" she stopped and stared at the large ember coloured water drop engraved into the stone. Next to the drop was the Cortez sign; the Skull. Carmen slipped the knife out of her cuff and cut her palm. A small wince of pain came from her mouth.

"Carmen! Wha' yer do -" Mr Gibbs began then stopped as several drops landed on the engraving.

"I think its blood", whispered Carmen. The ring lit up red then moved just like the others before it had done. It clicked as if it had moved into the right place. Carmen ripped her shirt and bandaged her hand.

"I'm pretty sure that that ring was to make sure I was the right person along with the engrave of the blood," she said with a smile.

Suddenly, a red light shone from the blood ring, and it caused the cave to shake. Carmen stepped back as the light landed on all of Barbossa's men but none of Captains Jacks.

Everyone stopped for a moment as the red light soaked into the men and as soon as it had happened, the fight began again.