OK, so I decided to take a break from writing this story and managed a
grand total of three days without updating. That is kinda worrying.
Cast of thousands: *cough* Obsessive
Me: Shush. Guess what, 204 reviews now. I know I've asked before but - how did this happen? Why did this happen? I really am amazingly grateful and touched about that. Thank you to each and every person who reviewed this story. This is actually the beginning of the last section. There are four sections to this story if anyone is interested and this is the fourth one, and therefore the final. I figure between four and six more chapters, depending on when I put in breaks.
Cast of thousands: Have you noticed that this is a very long story?
Me: Yes. It was going to be about six chapters originally. What happened to that, I wonder?
Cast of thousands: The inspiration fairy struck
Me: Yeah, with a lead pipe. I swear, either I finish this story, or it finishes me.
********************************************************************
It took a night, a day and another night before they reached their destination. At first there had been silence. Elizabeth had cried herself to sleep in Will's arms. The young blacksmith himself had stayed awake, seemingly watching over her. James Norrington had to approve of that. He had been right in his assessment; Will would look after Elizabeth. He tried to smile at the man, when he became aware that he was being watched, but there was no return warmth. There was, after all, little to be glad for.
The pirates in the cell opposite were also quiet. They seemed somehow apathetic. He wondered if, in spite of being told that he was dead, they had been waiting for their captain to rescue them. They had seemed shocked at the news of his death. And upset ... he wondered if the men under his command would feel the same grief at his passing. Everything he had ever known about pirates told him that they were not loyal and did not care, even for each other. Everything he knew about pirates told him that they did not jump in front of bullets to save Commodores of the Royal Navy. Everything he knew about pirates was wrong, by the evidence of his own eyes, at least in the case of Jack Sparrow and his crew.
One of the pirates - a man he had heard referred to as Tearach suddenly spoke.
"We could always take their offer." There was a certain note of desperation in his voice. The others seemed to eye him with contempt.
"Take what you can!" the parrot squawked.
Gibbs nodded in agreement. "You could. I will not."
"Nor I." Anamaria added forcefully.
The others added their refusals and, after a seconds hesitation, Tearach shook his head.
"I could not." He muttered.
Norrington opened his mouth, but Will spoke first.
"What offer?"
"To join their crew."
Norrington frowned "Why not take it?"
Gibbs gave him a look of disgust. "We're pirates by our own choice. We're not indiscriminate killers like this lot."
"Besides, to change crew means to be looked on with suspicion, mistreated and put in the most dangerous situations." Anamaria added.
"And it would be disrespectful to Jack's memory." Gibbs said, very quietly but with an air of finality. There was a pause and then Gibbs started telling stories. Most of them were about Jack Sparrow. Many of them actually brought a smile to Norrington's face. His old enemy had certainly been inventive if these were true. Several of the other pirates jumped in with their memories and anecdotes. And to his surprise, so did Elizabeth with the stories she had heard as she was growing up. It was as sensible and enjoyable a way to spend time whilst imprisoned as he had ever heard about. And it helped to honour the memory of a man, whose memory would not be honoured anywhere except in the tales that surrounded him.
By the time they arrived though, they had fallen silent again; indeed most of them were asleep. Elizabeth became aware that the ship had stopped and so was not entirely surprised when a group of heavily armed pirates came down the stairs. One of them opened the door to the cell where she, Will and Norrington were being kept.
"Out," he said simply gesturing with the sword. Another, similarly released Jack's crew. They were escorted up on deck and herded into the boats to be rowed ashore. The sun was only just over the horizon. The island the Black Pearl was anchored off was rocky. Immediately next to the beach that the boats were heading for was a large hill. Masters was there at the foot of it, awaiting them, along with another group of captives who she presumed were the prisoners from St Sebastians that Gibbs had mentioned still being in the cargo hold. There was about twenty of them. They seemed thin, and there were quite a few bandages amongst them.
"Welcome to the Dark Isle." Masters said exuberantly as they approached. "The island that will make me and my men wealthy."
Elizabeth found it easy to despise him. He continued. "In this cave," he indicated a pile of rocks in the hillside, which might have hid a cave. "my late informant tells me, there is a lot of treasure. All the treasure that a pirate managed to accumulate in a lifetime that was, unfortunately cut short. However, we." His gesture took in himself and his crew "Are not fond of digging and so, we decided to bring you along for the ride. If you find our treasure, you get your lives. As slaves, admittedly, but its still a good deal. Do we have an accord? Do please bear in mind that you have no choice."
There was a sullen silence. "Oh good." He grinned broadly and nodded to a pile of shovels and picks. "Get to work."
Elizabeth had never worked so hard in her life. Within an hour of digging, with the sun beating down mercilessly on her back, she was exhausted. Blisters were forming all over her hands and she struggled to hold the pick in a way that was halfway comfortable. Still, she determinedly swung it, trying to dislodge the rocks knowing that if she didn't, the pirates that stood around watching would punish her. She had seen them beat a man who had accidentally caused a rock fall. It had been all she was able to do to hold on to Will, to prevent him from running over to stop the atrocity. They would have killed him. Why couldn't he understand that? Finally she had whispered "Wait for the opportune moment." in his ear. She wasn't totally sure why, but hearing the phrase of Jack's seemed to calm him a little. She could see Anamaria and Gibbs physically holding James Norrington back. The woman pirate's hand was stuffed over the commodore's mouth. They had no choice but to go along with the orders of the pirate captain. So now, she worked, and prayed for a miracle.
Now and again, Masters appeared to inspect the work they had done. He didn't seem altogether impressed.
"If you don't get some work done soon, I'll not be responsible for the consequences, savvy?"
It was odd how a simple word could hurt so much when it was a word that you associated with one person alone. It felt wrong to hear that word on any other lips than Jack's, but especially on this man, who seemed to be cruel for the sake of being cruel. She noticed how he kept glancing over at Will, as though he dimly recognised him. She remembered Jack's words and hoped desperately that he wouldn't think to associate Will with Bootstrap.
The pirate captain caught her staring at him, grinned and wandered over.
"Well, well Elizabeth - it is Elizabeth isn't it? Do you like what you see?"
"No." she said, the defiance coming automatically, before she had time to think it through. He caught her by the arm and pulled her towards him.
"I'm sure you could learn to like it." He smirked "In fact, you could very soon learn to love it." She struggled desperately. Will, Norrington, Gibbs and Anamaria all dropped their tools and started towards the pair.
Thankfully, a voice from the beach suddenly called out "Sail on the horizon, captain." Masters, distracted, immediately let Elizabeth go and headed down towards the sand. He stopped halfway there, turned back to yell "Back to work, you scabarous dogs." and was gone.
Will grabbed Elizabeth and held her tight. The warning crack of a whip separated them and they grabbed the picks they had dropped and headed back towards the fallen rocks.
"Will, we have to do something." She whispered.
"I know." He answered. "But what?"
**
Jack was dragged aboard the Merriana and tied to the mast.
"This is familiar." He said out loud.
"Silence!" Stenson shouted, looming over him. Jack prepared himself for what was to come and so was a little surprised when his tormentor crouched down in front of him, looking him straight in the eyes. He still had Jack's hat on his head.
"It doesn't suit you." He said brightly. "What do you say, you take it off and give it back."
The other man ignored him. "Why didn't that idiot kill you?" the voice was anguished.
Inwardly, Jack shrugged and decided to go along. Why not? "He couldn't" he answered, leaning forwards as far as his bonds allowed. "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow. Savvy?"
Stenson ignored him, yet again. "I needed justice to be done. I wanted you to be hanged within the law to make up for me breaking it. The one had to balance the other, you see?"
He didn't, but nodded anyway. He strongly suspected he was facing someone madder than he was. This was a new experience, and not a welcome one.
"The Captain of the Black Pearl had to die. I've been looking for such a long time. Since my brother died. Since you killed him. Since you killed Paul."
Oh. He'd always wondered if there had been something personal at the back of all of this. The bounty on his head was a reason to catch him perhaps, but not a reason to half kill him. The brother . it was possible. He had killed men after all. Maybe playing for time was the best move.
"When was this?"
"Thirty years ago. I was a child." The tone was dreamy, wistful.
Thirty years ago? Bloody hell. "How old do I look?" he demanded, a little indignant.
"I know it wasn't you. But you are the Captain of the Black Pearl. And so you must pay. I will not kill you outright. I am not like you. I am not a killer. I will take you to him. Let him do his dirty work for himself."
He smiled, the most creepy smile that Jack had ever seen and then he raised his fist and for a while there was only pain and blood, then merciful darkness.
He regained consciousness several times during the trip. Each time, he managed to remain awake for only a short time before Stenson noticed and resumed his brand of justice. In those brief spaces, he tried to work out some kind of plan. He was being taken to Masters. That much was obvious. Masters had paid Stenson to dispose of him while he stole the Black Pearl. But why hadn't Masters simply killed him? He couldn't figure that out. There seemed no earthly reason for it. There also seemed no obvious way out of this - yet. There would be. Just had to wait for the opportune moment and seize it with both hands when it came along. He had to save himself, his friends and his crew. And he really wanted to kill Stenson and Masters.
He did a kind of self examination, mostly by attempting to move each part of his body. A lot of pain, but there didn't seem anything broken. Just bruises. And that gunshot, but it seemed to be doing ok. Stenson had tried squeezing it, but Jack had refused to react so he had given up, apparently assuming that it wasn't painful. Just as well, if he had tried that again, Jack was fairly sure he would have screamed loud enough to deafen the entire Caribbean. His face must look scary; he could feel multiple bruises forming. And he'd lost another tooth. He was going to wind up with more gold in his mouth than there was in the whole of Spain. But that was a problem for the future. For now, he had to concentrate on his ship, his crew and his friends. He was hurt, but he could fight. After all, he was Captain Jack Sparrow. Changing impossible odds was what he did best.
*********************************************************************
Ah, another chapter completed. And a little bit more explained. And everyone in a completely hopeless situation. How are they going to get out of this?
Cast of thousands: Here's hoping they won't.
Me: Shut up. By the way, if anyone's noticed that Stenson's voice has changed completely from the beginning - so have I. Its wrong at the beginning, it didn't fit so I'll go back and change it later.
Hey, by the way, I'm writing another story, 'Before' Its probably the only example of Gibbs angst around. But Jack is coming in in the next chapters and then its going to be kinda funny and have a lot of action. Could someone please go read it, its getting lonely.
Cast of thousands: You should really stop plugging your stories.
Me: I know, but I'm not going to. Also, please review this one on your way out.
Cast of thousands: *cough* Obsessive
Me: Shush. Guess what, 204 reviews now. I know I've asked before but - how did this happen? Why did this happen? I really am amazingly grateful and touched about that. Thank you to each and every person who reviewed this story. This is actually the beginning of the last section. There are four sections to this story if anyone is interested and this is the fourth one, and therefore the final. I figure between four and six more chapters, depending on when I put in breaks.
Cast of thousands: Have you noticed that this is a very long story?
Me: Yes. It was going to be about six chapters originally. What happened to that, I wonder?
Cast of thousands: The inspiration fairy struck
Me: Yeah, with a lead pipe. I swear, either I finish this story, or it finishes me.
********************************************************************
It took a night, a day and another night before they reached their destination. At first there had been silence. Elizabeth had cried herself to sleep in Will's arms. The young blacksmith himself had stayed awake, seemingly watching over her. James Norrington had to approve of that. He had been right in his assessment; Will would look after Elizabeth. He tried to smile at the man, when he became aware that he was being watched, but there was no return warmth. There was, after all, little to be glad for.
The pirates in the cell opposite were also quiet. They seemed somehow apathetic. He wondered if, in spite of being told that he was dead, they had been waiting for their captain to rescue them. They had seemed shocked at the news of his death. And upset ... he wondered if the men under his command would feel the same grief at his passing. Everything he had ever known about pirates told him that they were not loyal and did not care, even for each other. Everything he knew about pirates told him that they did not jump in front of bullets to save Commodores of the Royal Navy. Everything he knew about pirates was wrong, by the evidence of his own eyes, at least in the case of Jack Sparrow and his crew.
One of the pirates - a man he had heard referred to as Tearach suddenly spoke.
"We could always take their offer." There was a certain note of desperation in his voice. The others seemed to eye him with contempt.
"Take what you can!" the parrot squawked.
Gibbs nodded in agreement. "You could. I will not."
"Nor I." Anamaria added forcefully.
The others added their refusals and, after a seconds hesitation, Tearach shook his head.
"I could not." He muttered.
Norrington opened his mouth, but Will spoke first.
"What offer?"
"To join their crew."
Norrington frowned "Why not take it?"
Gibbs gave him a look of disgust. "We're pirates by our own choice. We're not indiscriminate killers like this lot."
"Besides, to change crew means to be looked on with suspicion, mistreated and put in the most dangerous situations." Anamaria added.
"And it would be disrespectful to Jack's memory." Gibbs said, very quietly but with an air of finality. There was a pause and then Gibbs started telling stories. Most of them were about Jack Sparrow. Many of them actually brought a smile to Norrington's face. His old enemy had certainly been inventive if these were true. Several of the other pirates jumped in with their memories and anecdotes. And to his surprise, so did Elizabeth with the stories she had heard as she was growing up. It was as sensible and enjoyable a way to spend time whilst imprisoned as he had ever heard about. And it helped to honour the memory of a man, whose memory would not be honoured anywhere except in the tales that surrounded him.
By the time they arrived though, they had fallen silent again; indeed most of them were asleep. Elizabeth became aware that the ship had stopped and so was not entirely surprised when a group of heavily armed pirates came down the stairs. One of them opened the door to the cell where she, Will and Norrington were being kept.
"Out," he said simply gesturing with the sword. Another, similarly released Jack's crew. They were escorted up on deck and herded into the boats to be rowed ashore. The sun was only just over the horizon. The island the Black Pearl was anchored off was rocky. Immediately next to the beach that the boats were heading for was a large hill. Masters was there at the foot of it, awaiting them, along with another group of captives who she presumed were the prisoners from St Sebastians that Gibbs had mentioned still being in the cargo hold. There was about twenty of them. They seemed thin, and there were quite a few bandages amongst them.
"Welcome to the Dark Isle." Masters said exuberantly as they approached. "The island that will make me and my men wealthy."
Elizabeth found it easy to despise him. He continued. "In this cave," he indicated a pile of rocks in the hillside, which might have hid a cave. "my late informant tells me, there is a lot of treasure. All the treasure that a pirate managed to accumulate in a lifetime that was, unfortunately cut short. However, we." His gesture took in himself and his crew "Are not fond of digging and so, we decided to bring you along for the ride. If you find our treasure, you get your lives. As slaves, admittedly, but its still a good deal. Do we have an accord? Do please bear in mind that you have no choice."
There was a sullen silence. "Oh good." He grinned broadly and nodded to a pile of shovels and picks. "Get to work."
Elizabeth had never worked so hard in her life. Within an hour of digging, with the sun beating down mercilessly on her back, she was exhausted. Blisters were forming all over her hands and she struggled to hold the pick in a way that was halfway comfortable. Still, she determinedly swung it, trying to dislodge the rocks knowing that if she didn't, the pirates that stood around watching would punish her. She had seen them beat a man who had accidentally caused a rock fall. It had been all she was able to do to hold on to Will, to prevent him from running over to stop the atrocity. They would have killed him. Why couldn't he understand that? Finally she had whispered "Wait for the opportune moment." in his ear. She wasn't totally sure why, but hearing the phrase of Jack's seemed to calm him a little. She could see Anamaria and Gibbs physically holding James Norrington back. The woman pirate's hand was stuffed over the commodore's mouth. They had no choice but to go along with the orders of the pirate captain. So now, she worked, and prayed for a miracle.
Now and again, Masters appeared to inspect the work they had done. He didn't seem altogether impressed.
"If you don't get some work done soon, I'll not be responsible for the consequences, savvy?"
It was odd how a simple word could hurt so much when it was a word that you associated with one person alone. It felt wrong to hear that word on any other lips than Jack's, but especially on this man, who seemed to be cruel for the sake of being cruel. She noticed how he kept glancing over at Will, as though he dimly recognised him. She remembered Jack's words and hoped desperately that he wouldn't think to associate Will with Bootstrap.
The pirate captain caught her staring at him, grinned and wandered over.
"Well, well Elizabeth - it is Elizabeth isn't it? Do you like what you see?"
"No." she said, the defiance coming automatically, before she had time to think it through. He caught her by the arm and pulled her towards him.
"I'm sure you could learn to like it." He smirked "In fact, you could very soon learn to love it." She struggled desperately. Will, Norrington, Gibbs and Anamaria all dropped their tools and started towards the pair.
Thankfully, a voice from the beach suddenly called out "Sail on the horizon, captain." Masters, distracted, immediately let Elizabeth go and headed down towards the sand. He stopped halfway there, turned back to yell "Back to work, you scabarous dogs." and was gone.
Will grabbed Elizabeth and held her tight. The warning crack of a whip separated them and they grabbed the picks they had dropped and headed back towards the fallen rocks.
"Will, we have to do something." She whispered.
"I know." He answered. "But what?"
**
Jack was dragged aboard the Merriana and tied to the mast.
"This is familiar." He said out loud.
"Silence!" Stenson shouted, looming over him. Jack prepared himself for what was to come and so was a little surprised when his tormentor crouched down in front of him, looking him straight in the eyes. He still had Jack's hat on his head.
"It doesn't suit you." He said brightly. "What do you say, you take it off and give it back."
The other man ignored him. "Why didn't that idiot kill you?" the voice was anguished.
Inwardly, Jack shrugged and decided to go along. Why not? "He couldn't" he answered, leaning forwards as far as his bonds allowed. "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow. Savvy?"
Stenson ignored him, yet again. "I needed justice to be done. I wanted you to be hanged within the law to make up for me breaking it. The one had to balance the other, you see?"
He didn't, but nodded anyway. He strongly suspected he was facing someone madder than he was. This was a new experience, and not a welcome one.
"The Captain of the Black Pearl had to die. I've been looking for such a long time. Since my brother died. Since you killed him. Since you killed Paul."
Oh. He'd always wondered if there had been something personal at the back of all of this. The bounty on his head was a reason to catch him perhaps, but not a reason to half kill him. The brother . it was possible. He had killed men after all. Maybe playing for time was the best move.
"When was this?"
"Thirty years ago. I was a child." The tone was dreamy, wistful.
Thirty years ago? Bloody hell. "How old do I look?" he demanded, a little indignant.
"I know it wasn't you. But you are the Captain of the Black Pearl. And so you must pay. I will not kill you outright. I am not like you. I am not a killer. I will take you to him. Let him do his dirty work for himself."
He smiled, the most creepy smile that Jack had ever seen and then he raised his fist and for a while there was only pain and blood, then merciful darkness.
He regained consciousness several times during the trip. Each time, he managed to remain awake for only a short time before Stenson noticed and resumed his brand of justice. In those brief spaces, he tried to work out some kind of plan. He was being taken to Masters. That much was obvious. Masters had paid Stenson to dispose of him while he stole the Black Pearl. But why hadn't Masters simply killed him? He couldn't figure that out. There seemed no earthly reason for it. There also seemed no obvious way out of this - yet. There would be. Just had to wait for the opportune moment and seize it with both hands when it came along. He had to save himself, his friends and his crew. And he really wanted to kill Stenson and Masters.
He did a kind of self examination, mostly by attempting to move each part of his body. A lot of pain, but there didn't seem anything broken. Just bruises. And that gunshot, but it seemed to be doing ok. Stenson had tried squeezing it, but Jack had refused to react so he had given up, apparently assuming that it wasn't painful. Just as well, if he had tried that again, Jack was fairly sure he would have screamed loud enough to deafen the entire Caribbean. His face must look scary; he could feel multiple bruises forming. And he'd lost another tooth. He was going to wind up with more gold in his mouth than there was in the whole of Spain. But that was a problem for the future. For now, he had to concentrate on his ship, his crew and his friends. He was hurt, but he could fight. After all, he was Captain Jack Sparrow. Changing impossible odds was what he did best.
*********************************************************************
Ah, another chapter completed. And a little bit more explained. And everyone in a completely hopeless situation. How are they going to get out of this?
Cast of thousands: Here's hoping they won't.
Me: Shut up. By the way, if anyone's noticed that Stenson's voice has changed completely from the beginning - so have I. Its wrong at the beginning, it didn't fit so I'll go back and change it later.
Hey, by the way, I'm writing another story, 'Before' Its probably the only example of Gibbs angst around. But Jack is coming in in the next chapters and then its going to be kinda funny and have a lot of action. Could someone please go read it, its getting lonely.
Cast of thousands: You should really stop plugging your stories.
Me: I know, but I'm not going to. Also, please review this one on your way out.
