I have managed to find time to write this, because we have had several snow days in a row, so that makes everything a bit easier. Here is your update; I hope you like it.
To XtineSparrowDepp; I'm sorry that I have to be evil and not update for awhile. It is your own fault that you threw Jack at me… :D I suppose I'll just have to keep him.
To chibi-ami; thanks for the shield, so that nobody can throw anything at me :D. Wow, I'm getting all this interesting stuff after that authors note… first Jack, and now a shield… what next, a car?
Chapter Ten (wow, already?)
Barbossa watched Jack and Raine suspiciously from the other side of the cave. Jack had his gaze fixed on Barbossa, planning something, and Raine had another annoying smirk on her face.
"How the blazes did you two get off that island?" Barbossa asked finally, breaking the silence.
"Does it really matter now how we managed to get off that godforsaken spit of land without any fuss at all? The only thing that I think matters is that you're cursed, and we're not. By those reckonings, Jack and I are in your debt." Raine said, still sporting a grin. Jack glanced at her for only a moment, and she could tell he was still annoyed at her for disobeying his orders and coming onto the island anyway.
"You're right, Miss Raine… or is it Sparrow now…?" Raine's grin disappeared and she looked as if she wanted to jump on Barbossa there and then, but Jack grabbed her wrist. Barbossa continued, "It doesn't matter how you got off that island, only that I won't be making that mistake again. Gents, you all remember our old friends Jack and Jane? Kill them." Barbossa turned and began to walk away.
"The girls blood didn't work, did it?" Jack said over the loud clicking of guns. Barbossa stopped in the mid step and turned around.
"Hold your fire! You know whose blood I need?"
"I know whose blood you need."
Jack and Raine were led onto the ship, but Barbossa stopped them from entering his cabin. "Miss Raine will be locked in the brig." He told his men, giving the order.
"What? No! You can't do that! I know whose blood you need! Barbossa, you bastard, I- Jack, tell him that I need to be…" She glanced at Jack for support, but he wouldn't meet her eyes. "Damn you both to hell!" She said finally. "I don't know why I ever trusted you, Jack Sparrow!" And with that, she was led without a fight down to the brig, and even though she made no effort to escape, the men who led her down were glad when she was off their hands.
Meanwhile, Barbossa sat across from Jack in his cabin.
"So let me get this straight. You expect to leave me on an island while you sail away with my ship, with naught but a name and your word it's the one I need?"
"No. I expect to leave you on an island with nothing at all and watch me sail away with my ship, and then I'll shout the name back to you." Jack said, biting into an apple and grinning at Barbossa.
Barbossa watched him eat the apple unhappily, and then he met Jack's eyes again.
"The way I see it, why should I listen to you, when I could just ask Jane down there, and she'd probably tell me everything just to spite you? She's not too happy with you right now." Jack listened to this and then frowned and set his apple down on the table, but he didn't get to say anything because three of Barbossa's crew came to take Jack down to the cells.
"Bring the girl up." Barbossa said to the men, and they nodded in understanding. "If Jack makes a fuss… shoot him. I don't need him anymore."
When Jack was taken down to the cells, first he was shoved in the cell across from Raine's and when he turned around to make a smart comment to the crewmembers, he spotted Raine's dark figure leaning against the bars of the cell across from him. She turned around and the water around her feet sloshed just a little, and she wrapped her fingers around the bars and leaned forward to address Jack.
"Barbossa didn't agree to your terms, did he Jack? Well, don't worry. He'll agree to mine." She grinned at Jack, a mocking smile. "Don't think I don't know what you're planning Jack." The cell opened and Raine was grabbed and pulled out. She called over her shoulder to Jack. "Don't think I won't do what it takes!"
"Bloody girl." Jack muttered when they were gone. He leaned against the wall of the cell and looked down into the filthy water swirling at his feet.
"Apparently there's a leak."
Barbossa was now sitting across from Raine, who smiled at him.
"So let me get this straight. The man I need is on the Interceptor, which is also the ship which has the last medallion on it. All we need to do is find the Interceptor, run up a flag of truce, and then once they agree to the truce, we go over and… do what we do best… and then take what we need once they have surrendered." Barbossa paused and looked at Raine. "You still haven't told me whose blood I need."
"All in good time." She answered smoothly.
"And what, pray tell, are you going to get out of this?"
"Once the Interceptor has surrendered, that ship will be yours. Out of the Pearl and the Interceptor, the Interceptor is in better condition. You will captain the Interceptor, of course, because she is the grandest of the two, and then she will be your flagship, who's to argue? But what of the Pearl? Name me captain… I'll sail under you colors, and give you ten percent of my plunder."
"Fifty." Barbossa argued.
"Twenty-five!" Raine said, sitting forward. "And I'll buy you a new hat. As big as you want, with a fancy feather… commodore."
Barbossa thought about this.
"And I suppose, in exchange, you'll want me to leave Jack alive?"
Raine thought about this. She opened her mouth to say no, but she couldn't say it. Glancing at her wrist, the tattoo of the two swords crossed caught her eye.
"Yes. Jack will remain alive, so that I can deal with him as I wish."
Barbossa stared at her for a moment, and then leaned forward and hit the table with his hand.
"Agreed. We have an accord."
Raine stood at the rail of the ship and stared down into the depths, thinking about what she had done. Was it the right choice? She didn't want Will to be hurt on her account, but how could she save him now? Looking away from the water, she spotted the Interceptor and realized with a heavy heart that they were gaining on it. She had been hoping that maybe they wouldn't be able to catch up. That some miracle or twist of fate would make it so that the Interceptor and the people on it were safe and sound, already in Tortuga or Port Royal, or hiding in some unknown cave or port…
But as it were, they were indeed gaining on the Interceptor. Raine's mind drifted back to Jack for just a moment. How would things be playing out if she had never knew him? Where would they both be now?
"Barbossa, does Jack know of the agreement we have come to?" Raine asked Barbossa, jumping onto an idea that had just came to her.
"No." Barbossa said, his eyes shifting and meeting hers. "And I forbid you to go down to him. You'll help him escape and that will be the end for both of you."
Raine turned her attention back to the sea, cursing inside her mind; Barbossa had guessed her plan.