It may have just been the impending nature of the venture that Jack and Sarah were on (well…sort of impending), but it seemed to them that the sky, which was a steel sheet-like magnet that drew gloom like thieves to jewels, and the earth beneath their very feet was straining to crush the duo in nature's glorious fury--for what reason, it could not be said, but it felt like the sky moaned and the sands rumbled the moment our heroes stepped foot on the beach of the Isla de Muerta.

Dramatic, isn't it?

Jack shuddered outwardly as they drudgingly carried onward to where Drew had taken Talia. If the maid was correct. Which they were hoping. Lots.

"What?" Sarah inquired, noticing his slight convulsion.

"Ah…it's just this island…I hate it here. Sometimes…" He paused to think about all the cursed treasure he knew lay in wait inside the caves of the island, then remembered the dead body which also lay in wait, probably rotting away in the sea air, and recoiled again. "Anyway…ohh." He shuddered again.

"You've been here?"

"Aye, didn't you notice the name? Isla de Muerta? This is the Isle of the Dead, love. This is where the cursed treasure of Cortez lies."

"Ohh…so this is…" She drifted off into silence, looking up at the higher peaks of the island, wondering silently where the captain of the Death Lily was. It was now that she realized the sky's nature--cloudy. It would be important. Unless…unless it rained, in which case…

A thought dawned on Jack. "Hey…you don't think Drew…knew about the cursed treasure…do you?"

Sarah waved a hand distractedly. "Nah. He's far too dull-witted to be that clever--besides, he doesn't have time to hear gossip, what with following us to every island." Jack had to agree--he didn't seem like the brightest crayon in the box, that was for sure. "Anyway, Drew's probably too wrapped up in his most dearly beloved, rabid, scarlet-haired banshee to think about a trivial thing like immortality."

As they drew nearer to the cave that held Talia and also the cave that Jack knew held a dead body that he most definitely did not want to see, he mentioned lightly that they would either have to swim to reach the cave entrance or climb around on sea-slick rocks on a cliff. Neither of which sounded pleasant.

However, it greatly surprised them when, as they arrived at the point where they would need to either swim or climb, they found a boat waiting. Puzzled, they looked at each other with wary looks, then cautiously climbed in the boat, hoping it wasn't some sort of weird trap.

There was only one oar. Which is probably why it took longer than usual to reach the interior of the cave. Jack looked around blankly as the boat hit shore (or…just shallower water). He was reliving his conversation with Will that he had had in this very cavern.

"Now what?" Sarah was glancing around. Jack pointed quietly to a small passage that led to a ledge overlooking the main cavern. They followed this passage until they could see the said cavern and were hardly surprised to see Drew, a group of guys standing around and/or wandering, and Talia, looking unhappy as always, sitting up against a rock with a monkey balanced on her shoulder.

"…Oookay, and what now?" She whispered. Jack looked around for a minute.

"We wait. We'll make our entrance at the opportune moment." He sounded serious for once. Odd. Anyway, the two of them sat in the alcove for what seemed like an hour, watching people walking around and do nothing. They were going to catch them off guard--how easy, they probably wouldn't suspect anything. All they were doing was walking around. Then, a most unfortunate thing happened.

Jack the monkey, sitting calmly on Talia's shoulder, turned, looked straight at Sarah and Jack, then screeched and pointed at them. Everyone in the cave looked at them.

"Great," Sarah muttered.

Talia looked over and frowned. "It's about dem time!" She shouted over the monkey's screaming. The two in the watching spot, of sorts, had no choice, they had to go down to the ground. They exited the watching spot, found the passage leading to the main cave, then entered slowly.

"Ah! Pandora and Jack, come to rescue my love?" Drew smiled mockingly at them and ignored Talia's cries of protest, anger, and violence at calling her "his love."

"That, and we're here to kill you." Sarah replied stridently.

"Oh? Good. I was getting bored." He raised a hand and snapped his fingers, which caused all the crew members, still rambling aimlessly, to rush forward, drawing their swords. Goody.

Drew stood back and watched the newcomers fend off the (not-so-large) crew. Turning, he looked at Talia (the monkey had run off, by the way). She was struggling to break free of her binds. He walked over and smiled at her. "Talia."

"Go away. Or let me go."

He kneeled down next to her (she couldn't kick him if he was sitting next to her) and pulled out a suspiciously familiar knife. Talia's anger suddenly heightened. That was her knife. "I'm sorry, dear one, but I really can't let you go. I apologize in advance for what I'm about to do."

"What?"

Smiling apologetically, he raised the knife and stabbed Talia in the left shoulder (now you should know by now that Drew is sick and twisted). Leaving the weapon where it was, pain echoing through Talia's arm, he turned around and dew his sword, clearly intending to join the battle.

Evil, hateful, despicable man… Talia thought, trying to figure out what to do. She couldn't just leave the blade there, it was horribly painful. Did Drew think that leaving her tied up and lodging a knife into her shoulder was protecting her? What a warped person!

Jack was the first to be confronted by Drew. This was ill-timed, because it left Sarah alone to fight the twenty-some crew members who were still able to fight.

"Drew, tell me something--what is wrong with you??" Jack parried an attack and threw a rock at him. His opponent ducked the rock and slashed at Jack. Drew looked a little sadistic in the dim light--the only light source coming from a hole in the ceiling above the cursed treasure and several other smaller holes.

"Nothing--there's just something wrong with everyone else!" Now it was official--he was crazy. Just plain insane.

At long last, tired of trying to think of how to escape and get the knife out of her shoulder, Talia, feeling stupid, managed to get her teeth around the hilt of the blade and pulled it out with some moderate difficulty. From there, she somehow achieved the action of drawing her knees up to her chest and slipping her bound hands (which hurt her shoulders) underneath her feet. Finally, she cut the ropes with the dagger in her mouth, then used her newly active hands to cut the ropes on her feet. She was back in action, even with an injury. She tore a small part of her pant-leg off and wrapped it around her shoulder. At least Drew was dumb enough to stab her in the left shoulder. She swiped a sword from a dead body. "You're gonna pay for that, ye spineless, tactless blockhead," She growled.

Drew noticed she was loose and viciously hacking at the crew, who actually was putting up a decent fight. He broke away from Jack, who looked confused for a second, then began assisting Sarah in the fight.

Talia found herself facing Drew. "Hmm," He smiled, still sweetly, at her. "so you escaped…how resourceful of you." He had a bright look of admiration in his eyes. How weird!

"Fool. I'll kill you for that week of torture." She was sick of him. And Drew still didn't notice that she hated his guts--but he fought back, nonetheless. It did feel strange to fight someone who, the whole battle through, continually reminded you of their great love for you, though.

Sarah, who was actually defending herself pretty well, eventually ended up near the large stone chest decorated in Aztec carvings. Still in the shadows, she killed the crew member she was fighting, then, as her sword was drawn beneath the hole in the ceiling, where the light shone n from the sky, she noticed the rain falling through the open space. Oh no…not rain… Cloudy was fine, but rain…she looked up at the sky. What could it bring…

"Pandora." She turned.

"Traitor."

Had Drew wanted to fight Sarah all along? Why hadn't he gone for her in the first place? But it didn't really matter. Now, Jack and Talia were warding off the crew and it was Sarah's turn to duke it out with her former friend.

Jack looked over at the duo fighting near the cursed treasure. Who would Drew approach next? He had already fought his only three adversaries. Would he return to Jack and begin the cycle again? Then he felt the rain. When had that started? He meant to delve further into the subject, but a crew member approached him from behind and occupied his time.

Talia saw the rain, too. By now, from seeing the rain whenever bad things had happened to her and remember Jack saying something about "rain omens," she figured rain meant bad things were to come. Not good. Had she not been fighting two other men, she would have gone to help Sarah--the quicker Drew was killed, the better things would be.

Drew, who, it was clear, did not like Sarah at all, was finding great joy in fighting her, or at least, that what it seemed. His mind was so abnormal that no one could ever really be sure (not even the author). He pulled backwards from her, however, which startled Sarah. "So, Pirate, we meet again." She didn't get it. Pirate? Obviously, of course, he knew she was a pirate--so was he!

"Yes," She replied. What did he mean?

"Let me illustrate something for you." I have known you for a long time. I helped you in Tortuga, I followed you to islands--" What he didn't point out was that he was mostly doing the island part to catch up with Talia, not Sarah. "--I knew a lot more about you than you think I do." She frowned, unsure. What is he doing? She couldn't help but wonder. He stopped fighting to tell her something useless? And…how much more did he know about her than she suspected? Who…was Drew, really? What was going on? Sarah's head was flooded with questions, but she managed to pay attention, too. "I have seen your beginning, Pandora. Now I'll see your end."

He did it. He caught her completely off guard. He hadn't been too far away from her when he began his speech, so it only took several steps to get her within range of his blade. He stabbed forward and hit his mark.

Sarah gasped sharply. Drew's sword ran straight through her stomach. His stormy eyes locked with her blue ones as she struggled to grasp what had just happened. His cold face was set in a subtle, grim smile. He pulled the sword back out. Her head swam as her knees hit the rocks beneath her.

Jack turned just in time to see this, but couldn't believe his eyes. No. That was it, all of his thoughts crammed into a nutshell. No. It wasn't happening. No. It was a sick dream, induced by…oh…rum or something, the sea air, but it wasn't happening.

No.

Talia saw it, too. She didn't believe it either. It couldn't be another one, no more losses, please…but she couldn't deny it for long, because crew members were still trying to dismember her. Not before she dismembered them, the idiots.

Drew looked down at the woman he had lied to, betrayed, and now physically wounded. No twinge of guilt. "My sympathies, friend. You've no manner of luck at all." It almost was as if he was not human. It was certainly believable. The only thing human about him was his love for Talia. But that was pretty freakish on its own.

Jack couldn't move. It was sheer fortune that the majority (meaning two, of course) of the crew (the living and/or not mortally wounded ones) was focused on disposing of Talia. Thinking quickly, even in his shocked state, he turned jerkily to Talia, who had just slain the last of the crew. "Talia." She looked at him. "Take Sarah someplace safe. Outside." There had to be another exit besides the one that you needed a boat to use. Talia did not object. She sheathed her sword, rather, slid it in her belt, then ran up to retrieve Sarah.

Kneeling down next to her comrade, who was now laying on the ground, she strained to get a grip on Sarah (it was difficult, seeing as she had a knife wound in her shoulder). When she finally had a somewhat secure hold on her, she looked up at Drew with a stare of disgust, created from all of the hate she had for him. He never left her alone. He killed her best friend. He wounded her only female friend. He kidnapped her. He stabbed her while she was immobilized. He was a complete and utter brainless idiot who was fiercely good at being cruel. "Drew. I hope you die painfully. What goes around, comes around." She then proceeded to shuffle out of the cavern with Sarah in tow.

Jack, after watching Talia and Sarah leave, turned to Drew, who was already staring at him. "Who are you," He said. It wasn't a question, it was a command. He wanted to know. Who was this man who could be so head-over-heels foolish when around Talia and so brutally ruthless around Sarah?

"Who do you think I am, Jack?"

"Why…"

"Did I do it? Why, she shamed my family." Confusion. Shamed his family? His face must have asked how. "I told her to stay away from pirates. Did she? No. She became one. And fell in love with one." His voice harbored some excessive malice. "…What would my parents think…my family, the nobles; my sister, the pirate."

Sister?

That was new.

"But I must ask you now, Jack. Why send off your only active comrade? Do you really want to fight me alone?" His answer was no, but he didn't say it. He'd fight alone if he dem well wanted to. It was his choice. "And why?"

Jack couldn't help but smirk a little. "Son. I'm Captain Jack Sparrow--" He pulled out his blade and looked at his opponent with confidence. This was his fight. "--savvy?"