Lord Knows I Can't Change

Chapter Twelve

            "Do ye think I'm jokin'?" He circled the woman as a predator would its prey. His sword was erect with the tilt dangerously close to the fragile skin on her neck. The woman said nothing and he chuckled. "I killed your husband, Mrs. Turner, what's in your head that's makin' you think that I won't do the same to you and your son?"

            "I won't let you hurt Will, Barbossa." Wren's tone was low and angry, poison dripping from the words like it would from a snake's fangs. She mutely wished that she could use that poison to kill this man with; pour it down his bloody throat and watch him writhe and die from. He killed William, he had killed her husband! She'd be damned if she let him murder her son as well. "Do as you please with me, but I will not allow you to harm him." Livid as her tone was, as lethal as her words were, her eyes held grief, held pain, pain caused by the recognition that was slowly settling inside of her mind.

Her husband was dead, he was gone, and he wouldn't be coming back.

Wren hadn't said goodbye.

Barbossa grinned.

            "Ye know, Wren," he leisurely lowered his sword from her neck and she watched him warily. "You always were so incredibly daft; I think that's why you and your husband loved each other so much, you were both so fucking stupid." Barbossa dropped his eyes from hers and ran his fingers across the smooth metal of his sword. "I've tried to negotiate the return of my medallion in exchange for you and your whelp's lives," she watched as he ran his finger lightly across the tilt, "and I've offered to make you and Will's deaths nice and fast so that you will not feel much. But," he rose his eyes back to hers and she uneasily met his gaze, "you have neglected both. Do not think for even one second that I've given up, Wren, that I'll soon show myself to the door and ne'er return. I came to get that medallion, Mrs. Turner, and I will get it." Wren never had a chance to react.

In one swift movement, Barbossa had embedded his sword deep within her abdomen.

The once shiny metal was now crimson.

             When her mind had finally comprehended what had happened, when her body finally felt the metallic wetness that was oozing out from inside of her in streams, she could do nothing but stare at Barbossa with wide eyes that were full of ache. He withdrew his sword and she gasped as the coolness of the metal sent a chill down her spine.

Barbossa embedded it again in a different spot not even five seconds later.

             "People are easy to search when they are dead." Wren stumbled back and hit the wall with a loud thump and shut her eyes tightly in pain. She opened them a few seconds later, looking, Barbossa thought, at him.

            Wren slowly started to slide down the wall onto the floor, leaving behind crimson pain on the wall. "Run." The hardly perceptible word barely made it from the clutches of her mouth as the woman fell forward onto the ground. Barbossa watched the scene with enjoyment.

He heard movement behind him and hastily turned around.

The coin…-Will had the coin around his neck!

            Knowing full well that trying to make a dash for the door before the ten-year-old got out would prove futile, he brought back his arm and threw his sword, aiming for the back of Will's neck. Will stopped fiddling with the lock on the door when he heard metal hitting the wall beside him. He looked down at the sword and then at Barbossa and quickly broke the lock off and threw open the door; dashing down the street, away from his home, away from his mother, as if the devil himself was chasing him.

Barbossa simply did nothing. They would meet again.

            Barbossa padded through the thin pond of blood that surrounded Wren and leaned down, snatching up his sword and sheathing it. He pulled the door open and started to make his way back to the Pearl.

* * *

            Jack Sparrow, William Turner and Wren Turner. Barbossa had killed all three twelve years ago.

Jack Sparrow had been left on an island with not but a single shot in a single pistol.

William Turner had been strapped to a cannon and chucked into Davy Jones' Locker.

Wren Turner had been stabbed twice through her stomach.

            All three were enough to kill.

Yet only one had died.

            Not that this put a damper on his plans, not in any shape or form. What was the point in getting angry with the past? He would have other chances to kill William and Jack, Will and Elizabeth. One down, four to go was how he liked to look at it. Barbossa had murdered Wren, the first on his list, twelve years ago, and next he would murder William and then Jack, followed by Will. Elizabeth, though, he would hold onto for awhile. Being the governors' daughter, she was his key to vast riches, and, being a woman, she was his key to fulfill his lust. There was no need to get angry at mistakes in the past which he could correct rather easily in the present.

William.

Jack.

Will.

Elizabeth.

            Barbossa was not yet sure how he would go about killing each one. Perhaps a repeat of the past? William would not be able to survive a second dip into the sea, and it would prove awful painful to the other three to have to view. Especially number two and three.

William.

Jack.

Will.

Elizabeth.

            Jack would definitely be a repeat of the past. Barbossa would run his sword through Jack's abdomen and smile at the sound of tearing flesh as the tilt tore out of his back. This time there would be no surprises like there had been two years ago.

William.

Jack.

Will.

Elizabeth.

            The blacksmith's death was still undecided. Perhaps torture of some means? A crushing agonizing death like his father's? A painful bloody death like his best friend? Or maybe a combination of the two. That would prove highly entertaining, considering the fact that Elizabeth would witness it.

William.

Jack.

Will.

Elizabeth.

            Like Will, Barbossa was not sure how he would go about murdering the governors' daughter. Maybe after he and his crew were done with her, he would slit her throat and throw her over the side of the Pearl as food for all manner of sea creatures. He would have plenty of time to figure a way, considering that the woman's death would not come to pass for quite some time.

William and Jack. Mr. Turner and Mr. Sparrow.

There were reasons why the two were the first two on his list.

Their deaths, without any question or hesitation, would be the worst and most hurtful out of any of the five.

            Barbossa couldn't help but chuckle softly as Will and Bootstrap finally collected themselves enough to go back inside of Jack's cabin where he and Elizabeth were more than likely anxiously awaiting their return. Elizabeth Swann. Did the young lass not know that voices carry? Was she, for some reason or another, unaware of this particular fact?

They would be at Isla de Muerta in about a day and a half. It was now Will's turn with the coin. When they reached the island, Jack would have the coin.

Barbossa grinned.

Soon.

* * *

            The female pirate shook her. "Jack wouldn't do that, Commodore." Norrington raised an eyebrow and pressed his fingertips together.

            "No?" He questioned her. Anamaria just glared at the man as she tried to remember what it was that Gibbs had said that had made her agree to confronting the Commodore. "He's a pirate, Anamaria, pirates do stuff like this."

            "Well, not Jack, sir," she narrowed her eyes at the man, "he may be a pirate, but he's also a good man, and a good man just wouldn't up and leave."

            "How do you know?" He retorted. "You never really know someone, Anamaria, Jack could have very well done that."

"Jack could be in trouble, Anamaria, we have to at least do something!"

Ah yes, that's what Gibbs had said.

She wordlessly cursed the day that she had met the pirate captain.

            "Jack wouldn't do that, Commodore, and if you never really know someone, then why are you judging my captain?" He fell quiet and Anamaria sighed in slight frustration. Ever since Gillette had been murdered by a group of pirates at sea a year earlier, Norrington had frowned at every pirate that he came across. It was obvious that Gillette had been his friend and, in a way, Anamaria couldn't blame the Commodore for his behavior and change of heart towards pirates, she just wished that he could at least try to see that Jack was different, that Jack wouldn't kill just for the sake of killing, just to feel another man's blood on his hands and to witness that blood on his sword.

            "Then explain to me what happened to Miss. Swann and Mr. Turner, Anamaria." Anamaria rose her eyes back to him. "Tell me that the fact that them and the Pearl all disappearing on the same day was just a coincidence."

            "I never said that it was a coincidence, sir."

            "So what would you call it then?"

"Jack could be in trouble, Anamaria, we have to at least do something!"

            Damn you Jack… "I do not know, sir, all I know is that Jack would not abduct Miss. Elizabeth nor William Turner. They are his friend's sir, as he is theirs, he would not do that. Something had to have happened."

            Norrington shook his head slowly in confusion before resting his eyes once more on her. "Such as?..."

            "I don't know, Commodore, that's what I and the rest of Jack's crew were hopin' you could help us find out." Norrington sighed and rubbed his eyes with his fingers.

            "How am I to do that, Anamaria?" He stopped and looked at her. Anamaria slowly shook her head, eyes wandering anxiously along the edges of the desk that the Commodore was leaning against.

            "I don't know, but together, I'm sure that we can find them… -What do you have to lose, Commodore? Since Governor Swann is away, there's no real chance of him finding out that his daughter is missing, or," she narrowed his eyes at him, "that you are helping a pirate."

            Norrington shook his head and stood to his feet. He walked towards the door and reached out his hand as he turned around to glance at Anamaria. "Very well. Come prove to me that this was more than a coincidence then, Anamaria." The female pirate merely nodded and rose from her seat and followed the Commodore outside to where Gibbs was edgily waiting. The three then started off to where the Pearl had once been docked.

To Be Continued…

AN: I hate school. I hate school. I hate school. I hate school. I have no time to write and it's really rather annoying. I'm sorry for the shortness of this chapter, but twelve was mainly just to fill in a few things, like, to show you what Anamaria and them are doing about Jack, Will and Elizabeth's sudden disappearance, what's running through Barbossa's head, and another part added to the flashbacks that Barbossa was remembering. Anymore added to it would have been over done because this was not meant to be a long chapter. Thirteen shall be the calm before the storm and fourteen will be when the big final fight scene thing starts. Most likely eighteen will be the last chapter, so yeah.

Thanks to everyone that has read and reviewed or just read!

I don't know when thirteen will be up but I will try to have it up ASAP!

Please review on your way out. :)