As Elizabeth pressed her cheek against the metal frame of her cot she wondered why this map was so blasted important. The tears and the coldness of the metal was the only thing that comforted the bruise that was already starting to form. They had killed Nathan and her father. All over a stupid map that none of them seemed to have.
Now she missed Will more than ever. He needed to be in his arms and she needed to get off this ship. The pain she was enduring seemed too much to bear. But she had to keep her head up and her frosty exterior up. If she let down her defensives then things would only get worse. Her heart ached for her husband and her body ached for his, but most of all her spirit ached for a normal life.
Hurry Will. Hurry and rescue me.
The little Brenda had clung to her father's chest ever since Will had handed her over to him. The captain ignored the outside world and stayed in his captain trying to calm the girl down. He was sure that she was traumatized and if it wasn't for that he would've said it was a good growing experience. But she was a frightened three year old who for now didn't want to grow up, she just wanted to stay in her father's arms.
Jack wavered between going down to the brig to question the man or to stay here and be with his daughter. What reinforced him to take action was the yells from on deck. He quickly got up and tried to put his daughter down but she wouldn't let go. He sighed, he didn't have time to argue with her so he just carried her out with him. Gwyneth came out of her cabin at the same time he did, so he immediately handed over Brenda to her, with no words said.
"What was that?" He asked Ana Maria.
"You see that ship in the distance? That's what it was."
Jack looked at Ana, "What do you mean?"
"That ship in the distance was here two minutes ago."
"That ship is almost two leagues away! How is that possible?"
Will walked up and said, "I caught the name…El Maldición"
Jack paused. Will asked, "Do you know what that means?"
"The curse."
"How'd you know that?" Ana asked.
"Spanish is a common language in the Caribbean, luv," he told Ana, walking to a hatch that led to the brig. He swung it open and went down the stairs. "Get up you blasted pirate."
The man sat up from the cot he was sitting on. "You've been found."
"By Antonio?"
No answer.
"Why was it so important that you get rid of the information?"
He shrugged.
Jack frowned and pulled out his gun, "I won't loose sleep over killin' you mate."
"Go ahead. You still won't get anything outta me."
Jack sighed, "There's many ways to kill a man without killin' him. And unless you talk, you'll be findin' out how many ways."
"What'd you wanna know?"
"Who are you? Did Antonio send you?"
"Alberto Gonzales. And yes he did. He wanted to make sure that nothing got too far about 'im and 'is crew."
"Why you?"
He shrugged, "We've been friends for a while, and I owed him,"
"How long have you been doin' this?"
He shrugged again, "For awhile, but nothing has come up since you and yer crewman came along."
"You killed Trevor, didn't you?"
He nodded, "Had to be done."
"No it didn't and if I was there Trevor would still be alive."
"If you were there then the Black Pearl would no longer have a Captain."
Jack narrowed his eyes, "Just what kind of crew are we dealing with?"
"You expect me to tell you that?"
"Sí."
Alberto raised an eyebrow, not really that impressed, "You know Spanish?"
"Enough to get me by- now answer my question."
"From what I heard El Maldición moved a little fast."
"Two leagues in 'bout three minutes, that's more than a little fast."
"The ship only moves that fast when it wants to."
"What? You talk as though the ship has a mind of its own."
"What makes you think that not what I'm sayin'?"
Jack stopped, so the crew and the ship are cursed. Perfect.
Alberto smiled a toothy grin, "Makes you wonder where the ship was built eh?"
"It was built like that?"
He shook his head, "Nah, the Captain got 'imself a curse and the ship was part of the deal."
"Deal with what?"
"Deal with whom you mean."
"Jack we don't know what we're up against, to do that would be foolish."
"I may be a lot of things Ana, but foolish is not one of them."
She snorted. He glared at her and continued looking at his maps.
She looked at Will who was sitting in a chair for some encouragement. He sighed and tried to convince his friend. "Jack, Elizabeth is important to me, but shouldn't we find out how to defeat them before we go and charge them? And what makes you think we'll ever be able to catch them?" Before Will could go any farther or Jack could reject his protests, there was a knock at the door and then Gibb's burst in.
"What is it?"
"He's dead."
"What?!"
"Alberto's dead. He drank what seems to be arsenic."
Jack couldn't believe it, "When did you find out?"
"Just now Roberts went down there to give him some bread an' water- he's dead as a doornail."
Jack cursed as he threw his hands on the table. "He was our only other piece of information!" he cursed again. He lifted his head up and told Gibbs to keep going to Trinidad, maybe some people there would know about El Maldición.
Elizabeth was jolted back when the ship suddenly sped up. When it slowed down again she come out of her cabin and found Alverez on deck, "What was that?" she asked.
He turned and said, "That was the ship, señora. Fun, eh?"
She looked around, in the distance, behind them was a ship. She turned back to the captain, "What ship was that?"
"The Black Pearl I do believe…Nice ship…too bad it threatened to shoot us…so we left."
"I've never known a ship that can leave that fast. How did you manage that?"
"It's not us whose doing it, señora…it's the ship."
"What are you talking about?"
He looked at his crew and then looked at Elizabeth, "I guess it's only fair to tell you the whole story. Let's go to my cabin, shall we?" She followed him in and when he was seated and she was across from him he started his story.
"How old do I look?"
Elizabeth hesitated. He looked very young but he couldn't be that young could he? And his whole crew looked young too. But you're not a captain that young…are you? , "Late twenties…"
The man laughed. "Would it surprise you that I'm fifty years old?"
"That's amazing…"
"Yes, it is. But I only said that's how old I am. And I do indeed look like I'm a young man…but fifty years is 'bout right. And everyman on my crew is about the same age as me…but looks young, no?"
"Exactly."
"Señora, we're not going to Trinidad, and we're not going until we know where this map is."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"I know- that's the problem. We need this map."
"Why?"
"Why do you think our ship moved so fast? Why do you think we haven't aged?"
It finally dawned on her, "You're cursed."
He smirked, "Only slightly."
"Slightly?"
"Señora, we need that map because we sold our souls to the devil to get it."
Elizabeth paused. "You sold your souls for a map?"
"This map is supposed to lead us to treasure and everlasting life."
"But with this you already seem to have everlasting life…why not raid ships for treasure?"
"Because our ship isn't in our control. Yes, we steer it, but if we get close to another ship, it leaves too fast to ever get a glimpse to see if it's dangerous or not. And we'll still die…just because we haven't aged doesn't mean that we can't die- we'll just look very young while we're dead."
Elizabeth didn't say anything but tried to take it all in.
"We've been lookin' for that map for twenty some years, señora. Never raidin' anything but one island and one ship."
"Port Royal."
"And yer dear brother's ship."
Elizabeth gasped, "Did you kill him too?"
He nodded.
"Just because he doesn't have the map?"
He nodded again.
"Well then why didn't you kill me?"
"Because we thought you had the map. But you don't. But since yer the only one who's alive of the Swann family- yer the only one who can tell us where to look."
"I have no idea what map you're talking about!"
"That seems to be the current problem, yes."
Elizabeth paused, a thought coming into her head, "If you sold your souls to the devil but didn't know where the map was…that doesn't make sense."
"We had the map…but someone took it."
"Who?"
"That's where yer mother comes into the picture."
The Pearl and her crew landed in Trinidad later that day. Jack was absolutely worn out from everything that had happened in that one day. His daughter and Gwyneth had been threatened, he had learned of a new curse and a man that was the only piece of information that they had was dead.
He and Will were going to one of the local bars with Gwyneth holding Brenda's hand. Jack had protested to his daughter even coming along but Gwyneth reasoned that nothing would happen to her if Will, Jack and she was there and that the little three year old hadn't walked on land for more than six months. Ana Maria, Gibbs and Cotton were instructed to go to another bar when they found one and try to get some information there too. But for the most part we wanted his whole crew to just relax and take a break. He had a feeling that it would be a while until they did that again.
When the four had settled into the bar, Jack told them that they were going to stay neutral for an hour or so and then go looking for people. But Gwyneth was instructed to stay with Brenda and at the same table the whole time. She figured that was fair, and it wasn't going to be that hard to do. The local pub wasn't like the Faithful Bride at Tortuga. This one did have prostitutes but they mostly stayed upstairs, leaning over the banister and trying to make eye contact with any man. There was piano music and the atmosphere was pleasant. People could carry on conversations in normal tones instead of yelling or whispering, for fear of someone hearing or not hearing. Gwyneth immediately liked this one better and was glad that Brenda was in this one instead of the one in Tortuga.
A barmaid came up and said, "What would ya'll like?"
Will looked up and said, "Two rums and two waters."
"Waters? This 'ere is a bar…"
Jack didn't look up but said, "Yes, but I don't necessarily want my three year old gettin' drunk…" he looked up at the woman and his jaw dropped. As did hers.
"Why, Jack Sparrow! I didn't even recognize you…has your hair grown?"
He closed his mouth and looked at her wide-eyed. Will watched as Jack was speechless to this woman. Will was amazed; he had never seen such a thing.
He finally said something and standing up he towered over her saying, "You wench!" But he didn't get far without her smacking him across the face.