Caribbean Crusades

Chapter 8

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Hey guys. I hope you all had a merry Christmas or whatever you celebrate. I got a cool new CD Writer so I've been spending my time writing CDs with all my fave songs on them.

Anyways, sorry I've taken so long to get this out…I started a new story and I've been writing that a lot lately. And I've been working…and writing my story while I'm working…not while my boss is there though…heh heh…and visiting all Johnny Depp websites known to man…well yahoo anyways, and seeing if I can make my collection of Johnny pics as big as my collection of Orlando pics…quite fun, really.

Deep Freeze Flareon - Thankies for the plushie…I can't wait to see POTC2! It's gonna be great!

Chavi West-Wind - That was a mental dream if ever a heard one…what would be even more mental, though, is if it happened in real life…now that really would be bizarre… Do you mean when Sam and Jack were on the beach on the island? They didn't do anything…just sleep, they were too drunk for much anyhow.

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Jack and I were soon in a little dinghy and he was rowing us towards the caves with a small smirk on his face.

"What's in your head?" I asked.

"You know what it's like to be wanting something that's seemingly impossible, then you know that it's going to happen. Well, let's just say that's what today's like for me. I'm finally getting what I've been wanting for a very long time." Jack said.

Cryptic Jack. "You're getting even with Barbossa?"

Jack didn't answer, instead he kept on smirking that small smirk.

Jack kept on rowing into the cave until we touched the bottom. Then he jumped out and dragged the boat out of the water.

The pirates were all gathered around Barbossa and the chest of gold in the main cave. Will was standing over the chest of gold.

"Begun by blood…" Barbossa started saying.

Jack started walking through the crowd. "Excuse me." He said, pushing through the pirates. I followed in his wake.

"…by blood un–"

"Jack!" Will interrupted. "Sam?"

"S'not possible." Barbossa said, disbelieving.

"Not probable." Jack corrected.

"Where's Elizabeth?" Will asked. No 'hi, how are you', not even a 'get me outta here', just a 'where's Elizabeth'. He's got it bad.

"She's safe, just like I promised. She's all set to marry Norrington, just like she promised. And you get to die for her, just like you promised. Sam here's, taggin' along just like she promised. So we're all men of our word really except for Elizabeth, and the lass here, who are, in fact, women." Jack said.

"Shut up! You're next." Barbossa said. "Then your pretty lass." He leaned in to slit Will's throat.

"I'm not anyone's lass." I interrupted, giving Barbossa a defiant look.

He just grinned back at me. I tell you, it's not a very pleasant thing. It kind of makes you all shivery inside, and sends chills up your spine. "A feisty one, I see." He commented. "Well, maybe I won't kill you. I'll keep ye for me crew. I'm sure they'd enjoy your company."

I gave him a disgusted look. "I think not." I said. "I would rather die first."

Barbossa shrugged. "Have it your way, lass." He put the knife up to Will's throat again.

"You don't want to be doing that, mate." Jack said, all calm and collected.

"No, I really think I do."

"Your funeral." Jack said lightly.

Barbossa sighed and rolled his eyes. "Why don't I want to be doing it?"

"Well, because…" Jack started, then pushed a pirate's hand off his shoulder and stepped forward. "…Because the HMS Dauntless, pride of the Royal Navy, is floating just offshore…waiting for you."

There was a bit of a silence at that, then Jack continued. "Just hear me out, mate. You order your men to row out to the Dauntless; they do what they do best. Bob's your Uncle Fanny'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…Commodore Barbossa. Savvy?"

Ah, so the plan comes out. Well, half of it anyway. I knew there was no way that Jack would sail under Barbossa's name.

"I s'pose in exchange you want me not to kill the whelp." Barbossa said.

"No, no, not at all by all means, kill the whelp. Just not yet. Wait to lift the curse…until the opportune moment. For instance…" Jack picked some medallions out of the chest. "…After you've killed Norrington's men…every…last…one." He threw all the medallions back in the chest as he spoke, except for one, which he pocketed. Very sneaky, Jack, now what are you going to do with that?

Will obviously saw that as well, and realisation dawned on him. "You've been planning this from the beginning. Ever since you learned my name." He accused.

Jack turned to Will. "Yeah." He said simply.

"I want fifty percent of your plunder." Barbossa demanded.

"Fifteen." Jack countered.

"Forty."

"Twenty-five. And I'll buy you a hat, a really big one…Commodore."

"We have an accord." Barbossa said, and he and Jack shook hands.

"All hands to the boats!" Jack said, but no one moved. "Apologies, you give the orders." He said to Barbossa.

"Gents! Take a walk." Barbossa commanded. The pirates turned and walked away.

"Not to the boats?" Jack said.

After the cave had cleared of pirates, Barbossa ordered a couple of the leftovers to watch me and Will.

I had this rather ugly looking guy guarding me, who kept on looking at me like I was some kind of food.

Jack, being Jack, was going through the treasure. He looked at a rather ugly golden statue, then tossed it over his shoulder and picked up the next piece of treasure.

"I must admit, Jack, I thought I had ye figured. It turns out that you're a hard man to predict." Barbossa commented.

"Me? I'm dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest..."Jack explained. "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…" He looked at Will, and then me. "…Stupid." He grabbed a sword off a pirate and tossed it to Will, who grabbed it and twisted around so the pirate guarding Will slashed through his bindings.

I picked up a thick, heavy staff off the ground and whacked it on the head of the pirate guarding me, then I stole his sword while he was dazed, and I held him at sword point. He fell to the ground, but he grabbed a sword from somewhere behind him and leapt to his feet to challenge me. We started fighting. He obviously thought he had the advantage over me, but if truth comes down to truth, I'd say that I'd whip his scrawny arse.

Jack and Barbossa started sword fighting as well. It was rather spectacular to say the least.

"You're off the edge of the map, mate. Here there be monsters." Barbossa growled.

While I was fighting my guy, who I must say, was pretty easy, I was watching the battle between Jack and Barbossa, and I definitely knew who I was rooting for this time.

"You can't beat me Jack." Barbossa said. In answer to that, Jack impaled his sword through Barbossa's stomach. Barbossa just sighed and pulled the sword out, stabbing his own into Jack.

Jack staggered backwards into the moonlight, and turned into a skeleton. I was rather surprised that he'd resort to turning into the living dead, but I guess that's what he'd been planning. Interesting.

"That's interesting." Jack commented, flipping the medallion around his fingers. He grinned. "Couldn't resist, mate."

"Yeah! Go Jack!" I cheered, before my attention was brought back to my own battle, as my pirate guy decided to attack me faster and harder than before. I worked my way over to where Will was fighting the other pirate. We worked our way around so that we were back to back.

"Hey, Will. Wanna swap?" I called over to him.

"Okay, go." He said, and we switched places, so that I was fighting his guy and he was fighting mine. Just for some variety, you know?

I turned my attention back to the fight between Barbossa and Jack. "So what now, Jack Sparrow? Will it be it two immortals locked in an epic battle until Judgement Day and trumpets sound?"

"Or you could surrender." Jack countered.

"Arr." Barbossa replied. Obviously he hasn't got a very extensive vocabulary.

By this time, I'd easily knocked the sword out of the pirate guy's hand, and I now had him at sword point. He must be pretty dumb. He didn't even take advantage of his living-dead status.

I turned my attention to Will's fight. "I'm gonna teach you the meaning of pain." His pirate growled.

"You like pain?" I heard Elizabeth say as she joined the party. The more the merrier, I always say. She knocked the pirate over with a heavy staff. "Try wearing a corset." I rolled my eyes. Come on, she could've thought up a better line than that. She saw Jack as a skeleton fighting Barbossa. "Whose side is Jack on?" she asked.

"At the moment?" Will replied. A very valid statement.

Will, Elizabeth and I worked together and we managed to string the 3 pirates together, using the staff that Elizabeth had first used to hit the pirate, then Will shoved a bomb into the stomach of one of the pirates while he was a skeleton. Then they pushed them into the shade and left them to blow up. It was glorious. Except for the part where the limbs and bones went flying. That was a bit gross.

Will was standing over by the chest that contained all the cursed coins. He grabbed the two medallions that Jack threw to him, and cut his hand so that he bled his father's blood sacrifice.

Barbossa pulled out his pistol and pointed it at Elizabeth. Jack pulled out his pistol and pointed it at Barbossa. I launched myself at Elizabeth, and knocked her to the ground. There was a gunshot. I quickly checked myself over, just to make sure I hadn't been shot. It was then that I noticed Jack's smoking pistol. He'd used his one shot.

"Ten years you carry that pistol and now you waste your shot." Barbossa mocked.

"He didn't waste it." Will corrected, and dropped the blood-smeared medallions into the chest.

Barbossa looked down at his chest and saw the blood spreading quickly from the wound, soaking into his shirt. "I feel…cold." He said, before falling dead on the ground, his green apple rolling out of his hand and into the water.

The curse had been lifted.

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That's the end of another chapter…there's only 2 left…

I'll try and get them both out before I go away camping on the 10th January. I just need to write up the last one, and that's all. I wrote it the other day when I was babysitting…I wasn't actually gonna put it in, it's more an epilogue thing than an actual chapter, but it shows what happens to Sam and Jack after the adventure's finished, and I thought you guys might like to know…

See you in the next chapter…

~Rhi