Disclaimer : Not a thing has changed. Don't own a thing! Not nobody, not no how. How 'bout that, eh? A Wizard of Oz moment. Don't own that either. :) LoL.
I'm so on a roll with the updating thing. :) Go me 'n stuff! Woohoo!
Question : update soon?
Is this soon enough for ya? :) Same day as Chapter 4.
______
Chapter 5 - Haunting Memories
______
"Savvy?" Captain Jack Sparrow and Will Turner were on deck practicing a few new sword moves on each other. Sparrow had let Anamaria steer the ship for a day so that he and Will could spend some time doing the 'male bonding' thing.
"Savvy." Will nodded his head as Jack drew his sword. "Where'd you pick up that word anyway?" He twirled his sword up in the air and caught it.
"Pick up on a few things here and there, mate." Jack had again lost all the loopy-drunkeness that normally came with him. Maybe it was the weight of the sword that balanced him out - but whatever it was, it worked. "Can't tell all o' the secrets that come with me, now can I?"
"You come with secrets?" Catharine's head popped up from below deck.
"All sorts, me dear." Jack bowed to her, and then continued on with the practice with Will. "No, no boy! Turn that way - are you deaf? I said that way!"
"I *am* turning! What does it look like I'm doing?" Will poked a hole through Jack's hat with his sword.
"Dancin' like a lady." Jack commented as he looked at his hat. "And ye'll be buyin' me a new hat." Will lunged forward with his sword, and they began to circle each other, now more than ever that they were being watched.
"Men..." Catharine shook her head in disgust. They were absolutely pathetic. She could take both of them on and beat them both to tiny little pirate bits.
"Cat?" Cat turned around to face the voice of Elizabeth.
"What do you want?" Catharine rolled her eyes and tapped the bucket in her hand as a warning.
"Listen, I have been thinking about last night. I never should have kicked the water into your face. I am very sorry - and I hope that we can get passed all that." Elizabeth held out her hand. Cat just stared at it, mainly in amusement.
"Why?" Catharine put the bucket down.
"What?" Elizabeth put her hand down.
"I don't know... why?"
"Oh, well - since you and I are really the only sane women aboard this ship." They both looked at Anamaria who was screaming her lungs out at Gibbs and Master Higgins for doing something that she didn't like.
"Alright." Cat and Elizabeth shook hands.
"Now - I was wondering if you could teach me how to use a sword."
"I knew there was a catch." Catharine picked up her bucket and tried to get on with her work, but Elizabeth stopped her.
"Please?" Elizabeth nodded her head over to Will and Jack. "He thinks that just because I am a woman that I shouldn't learn how to manuever a sword. And you know what?" There was a slight pause. Mainly because Catharine was already bored to pieces with Elizabeth's sob story. "I bloody well helped him fight Captain Barbossa. I even shot a few pirates, I stabbed Barbossa, and I outsmarted half of the pirates!"
"You stabbed Barbossa?" Cat's eyes opened wide.
"Well, yes. But, that was before I knew he couldn't die." Elizabeth smiled a little, remembering how it had felt to feel, even for the slightest moment, that she was free of Barbossa.
"Well - I am not going to let you bottle all that talent up." Cat put her bucket down and smiled. "Let's start. Do you have a sword?"
"Not one that is actually mine. But, I have one." Elizabeth grabbed Catharine's sword before Catharine could even blink. That was something she wasn't prepared for at all.
"Very good." Cat said in a state of confusion and awe. "I'll just go get another one." With that, Cat grabbed the dagger from her ankle and held it up.
Jack and Will were beginning to notice that they weren't being watched by anyone, but they did notice that they weren't the only one's fighting.
"Elizabeth!" Will ran forward to 'rescue' Elizabeth.
"Cat, whatever you do - " Jack came at a half run half saunter, chasing Will. "Don't knock her unconcious. I don't want another bloody dent in me ship!!"
Elizabeth looked at Will in a pleading sort of way. "You don't have to come to my rescue all the time. Besides, Cat is teaching me how to use a sword. We are both perfectly - "
"No." Will shook his head. "You are not a pirate. You are a respectable lady and are not meant to be - "
"Aw, come off it Bootstrap Junior." Jack sang as he dropped his sword. He bent down to pick it up and missed. He grabbed for it again, missing it again. His hand-eye coordination being off, he kicked up the sword from the deck with his boot and sheathed it properly. "She'll be learnin' from the best."
"Aye." Cat piped in. "What if one day you aren't there to save her?"
Will picked up a hint of a threat in the sentence, but didn't say anything in response. He really didn't want his Elizabeth to learn how to fight. Especially from Catharine DeVries.
"If you put it that way." Will sighed and looked over to the bumbling Jack, who was yelling about shutting up a bloody stupid bird, while reaching for a small flask of rum.
******
"This is a thrust." Catharine lunged the dagger forward. "Now I'll show you how to block." Her dagger moved to a straight up and down position. "Ready to try to block?"
Catharine didn't give Elizabeth a chance to say yes. Elizabeth stopped the thrust, but Cat got a piece of her arm in the thrust.
"Sorry." Cat tried to make her voice have as much emotion as she could muster. She had never told anybody sorry for drawing blood. But, there was always a first for everything.
Elizabeth, then saw that Cat was thinking about something and moved quickly for a thrust. She cut the upper part of Cat's wrist.
"What are you doing!?" Catharine looked at the cut. "I didn't mean to cut you!"
"I thought you were ready." Elizabeth said, obviously sorry for her actions.
Catharine snatched her sword back from Elizabeth and stormed to her cabin.
******
Captain Sparrow was sitting in his cabin. The sun had set and the weather was so perfect that the Pearl didn't need anybody at the helm to steer it.
"Captain?" The muffled voice came through the door, along with a knock.
Jack sat up in his chair and looked around for his hat and coat. How dare... whoever this was... to try and catch him without looking like a proper pirate. He whirled his coat on and flipped on the hat (*Will still owe's me a new hat.*).
Clearing his throat he leaned against his desk, "Enter. Ah, Miss - sorry, Cat."
"Yes, it's me. I'm sorry to bother you-"
"Oh, you're not botherin' me a bit." Jack smiled, he kept arching one eyebrow and then the other as if he thought it impressive.
"I was just wondering - "
"Curiosity killed the Cat, luv." He sat in his chair and kicked his boots up on the desk.
"Of course - but -"
"But what?"
"Well if you'd let me finish I'd tell you what the 'but' is!!" Catharine took a deep breath and looked at Jack.
"Savvy." He took off his hat and set it on his chest.
"Finished?" Cat warned.
"Finished." He nodded and gave a slight half smile. Captain Sparrow was enjoying creating a rise out of her.
"I just wanted to ask you about the Isle of Spirits." Cat sat down in the only other chair in the room. "That is... if I may be so bold. I heard that you were the only pirate to have seen the treasure and lived."
"You may ask all that you want to know."
"So, you have been there?" Cat scooted up to the edge of her seat, clearly interested.
"And I'll never go back. Which is sayin' something." Jack seemed awfully serious. It was beginning to freak her out. "Not a place for a respectable pirate."
"Oh. So, are the stories really true about the four corners that guard the treasure? How did you get past the obstacles?"
"Brains." Jack smiled and looked at the bottle of rum on the other side of the room. He was comfortable and didn't feel like getting up, but if it was for the rum, he would manage. Swaggering as he went, he grabbed the bottle and took a swig.
Catharine watched as the rum punched Captain flailed his arms wildly around as if the rum was a fuel to them. "Brains?" She didn't mean it to sound as she did. So she smiled and took the questioning part of it off. "I mean... brains."
"Now, if you'll excuse me, Miss DeVries. I'd care not to talk about the Isle of Spirits anymore." Catharine showed herself to the door, and tried not to think of all the horrors that Captain Sparrow had been through on the Isle of Spirits.
******
The Black Pearl docked at a small inlet marina called Carnage Cave the next day. (A/N - I know it. Who comes up with all these little places, right? LoL. Me!) The place brought back disturbing memories to Catharine. She looked out onto the dock and to the small town up on the hill in the distance. This was where she had killed her father's murderer.
The wind howled and it ran cold shivers up her spine. It was also her first night of carnage. The name fitted the purpose that drove her to madness the night that she had her revenge. She had killed the officer's wife and two children right in front of him, cursing and telling him how it felt to lose a father. Then she had stabbed him in his thigh and then in the stomach with her dagger, twisting it so that he would bleed to death. She waited there all night, calling him names as he slowly drifted into a painful death. The next morning he was dead, and Catharine had felt awful. Whatever good that others had found in revenge, she had only found more pain and suffering and that led to more killings at Carnage Cave. She left with the first beginnings of her new found name... The Black Cat.
"You remember this place well." Catharine drew her sword and twirled to face the intruder.
"Oh, Captain Sparrow." Putting her sword away she looked back to the village. "As for remembering... it is all too clear in my mind."
"Reamp! Blood and guts! Reamp! Guts!" The parrot landed on Jack's shoulder and looked Catharine up and down. "Reamp! Pretty lady! Blood and guts!"
Catharine smiled at the parrot. He knew her better than anybody else on the Black Pearl seemed to know her.
"Bloody parrot!" Jack tried to smack the bird off his shoulder but the bird hopped onto his hat. He then ripped off his hat and threw it to the ground. The bird went flying off onto land searching for its master squaking. "Reamp! Cracker, Jacker! Reamp! Cracker!"
Captain Sparrow's breathing began to lessen as he put his now flattened hat back on his head. He really needed a new hat.
"I'll leave ye to your thoughts." Jack turned and started tripping over his own two feet as he went back into his cabin.
Catharine inwardly thanked Jack, and she knew that not only the parrot knew who she really was. Perhaps, Jack knew who she was and how she was going to be.
******
"But Cap'n ... what'll happen if the Black Ca' don' come through at the end o' the month?" All the rest of the crew gave a hearty argh.
"Because - she *BE* the Black Cat ye mah-ron." Blackbeard's nostrils flared. What if Catharine 'Black Cat' DeVries couldn't pull through? Well - he had answers for that. He'd kill her the first chance he got. She may be the best female pirate with a sword - but he had a firing squad. A match of swords versus guns ... swords were yesterdays news.
______
A/N : Before ANYBODY asks. NO Cat has NOT fallen in love with Jack Sparrow. Sheesh! I know it sounds like that, but no!!! Perhaps she has found a friend ... and tha' be all ye mangy dogs!
:: sighs :: What am I going to do with all of you romance freaks, eh? I'll make ye all walk the plank I will. Hehe.
God, I love that parrot. I know I've said that before. If this fic happens to fall in a hole of pitless dispair I will have one claim to fame. And that is my parrot! Er, not *my* parrot. Sorry... I forgot I don't own him. My claim to fame is that I made the parrot loveable. Yeah!
To all my reviewers... I wuv you all! Be sincere and honest and constructive, please. :)
Could I write a longer author's note, or what?
I'm so on a roll with the updating thing. :) Go me 'n stuff! Woohoo!
Question : update soon?
Is this soon enough for ya? :) Same day as Chapter 4.
______
Chapter 5 - Haunting Memories
______
"Savvy?" Captain Jack Sparrow and Will Turner were on deck practicing a few new sword moves on each other. Sparrow had let Anamaria steer the ship for a day so that he and Will could spend some time doing the 'male bonding' thing.
"Savvy." Will nodded his head as Jack drew his sword. "Where'd you pick up that word anyway?" He twirled his sword up in the air and caught it.
"Pick up on a few things here and there, mate." Jack had again lost all the loopy-drunkeness that normally came with him. Maybe it was the weight of the sword that balanced him out - but whatever it was, it worked. "Can't tell all o' the secrets that come with me, now can I?"
"You come with secrets?" Catharine's head popped up from below deck.
"All sorts, me dear." Jack bowed to her, and then continued on with the practice with Will. "No, no boy! Turn that way - are you deaf? I said that way!"
"I *am* turning! What does it look like I'm doing?" Will poked a hole through Jack's hat with his sword.
"Dancin' like a lady." Jack commented as he looked at his hat. "And ye'll be buyin' me a new hat." Will lunged forward with his sword, and they began to circle each other, now more than ever that they were being watched.
"Men..." Catharine shook her head in disgust. They were absolutely pathetic. She could take both of them on and beat them both to tiny little pirate bits.
"Cat?" Cat turned around to face the voice of Elizabeth.
"What do you want?" Catharine rolled her eyes and tapped the bucket in her hand as a warning.
"Listen, I have been thinking about last night. I never should have kicked the water into your face. I am very sorry - and I hope that we can get passed all that." Elizabeth held out her hand. Cat just stared at it, mainly in amusement.
"Why?" Catharine put the bucket down.
"What?" Elizabeth put her hand down.
"I don't know... why?"
"Oh, well - since you and I are really the only sane women aboard this ship." They both looked at Anamaria who was screaming her lungs out at Gibbs and Master Higgins for doing something that she didn't like.
"Alright." Cat and Elizabeth shook hands.
"Now - I was wondering if you could teach me how to use a sword."
"I knew there was a catch." Catharine picked up her bucket and tried to get on with her work, but Elizabeth stopped her.
"Please?" Elizabeth nodded her head over to Will and Jack. "He thinks that just because I am a woman that I shouldn't learn how to manuever a sword. And you know what?" There was a slight pause. Mainly because Catharine was already bored to pieces with Elizabeth's sob story. "I bloody well helped him fight Captain Barbossa. I even shot a few pirates, I stabbed Barbossa, and I outsmarted half of the pirates!"
"You stabbed Barbossa?" Cat's eyes opened wide.
"Well, yes. But, that was before I knew he couldn't die." Elizabeth smiled a little, remembering how it had felt to feel, even for the slightest moment, that she was free of Barbossa.
"Well - I am not going to let you bottle all that talent up." Cat put her bucket down and smiled. "Let's start. Do you have a sword?"
"Not one that is actually mine. But, I have one." Elizabeth grabbed Catharine's sword before Catharine could even blink. That was something she wasn't prepared for at all.
"Very good." Cat said in a state of confusion and awe. "I'll just go get another one." With that, Cat grabbed the dagger from her ankle and held it up.
Jack and Will were beginning to notice that they weren't being watched by anyone, but they did notice that they weren't the only one's fighting.
"Elizabeth!" Will ran forward to 'rescue' Elizabeth.
"Cat, whatever you do - " Jack came at a half run half saunter, chasing Will. "Don't knock her unconcious. I don't want another bloody dent in me ship!!"
Elizabeth looked at Will in a pleading sort of way. "You don't have to come to my rescue all the time. Besides, Cat is teaching me how to use a sword. We are both perfectly - "
"No." Will shook his head. "You are not a pirate. You are a respectable lady and are not meant to be - "
"Aw, come off it Bootstrap Junior." Jack sang as he dropped his sword. He bent down to pick it up and missed. He grabbed for it again, missing it again. His hand-eye coordination being off, he kicked up the sword from the deck with his boot and sheathed it properly. "She'll be learnin' from the best."
"Aye." Cat piped in. "What if one day you aren't there to save her?"
Will picked up a hint of a threat in the sentence, but didn't say anything in response. He really didn't want his Elizabeth to learn how to fight. Especially from Catharine DeVries.
"If you put it that way." Will sighed and looked over to the bumbling Jack, who was yelling about shutting up a bloody stupid bird, while reaching for a small flask of rum.
******
"This is a thrust." Catharine lunged the dagger forward. "Now I'll show you how to block." Her dagger moved to a straight up and down position. "Ready to try to block?"
Catharine didn't give Elizabeth a chance to say yes. Elizabeth stopped the thrust, but Cat got a piece of her arm in the thrust.
"Sorry." Cat tried to make her voice have as much emotion as she could muster. She had never told anybody sorry for drawing blood. But, there was always a first for everything.
Elizabeth, then saw that Cat was thinking about something and moved quickly for a thrust. She cut the upper part of Cat's wrist.
"What are you doing!?" Catharine looked at the cut. "I didn't mean to cut you!"
"I thought you were ready." Elizabeth said, obviously sorry for her actions.
Catharine snatched her sword back from Elizabeth and stormed to her cabin.
******
Captain Sparrow was sitting in his cabin. The sun had set and the weather was so perfect that the Pearl didn't need anybody at the helm to steer it.
"Captain?" The muffled voice came through the door, along with a knock.
Jack sat up in his chair and looked around for his hat and coat. How dare... whoever this was... to try and catch him without looking like a proper pirate. He whirled his coat on and flipped on the hat (*Will still owe's me a new hat.*).
Clearing his throat he leaned against his desk, "Enter. Ah, Miss - sorry, Cat."
"Yes, it's me. I'm sorry to bother you-"
"Oh, you're not botherin' me a bit." Jack smiled, he kept arching one eyebrow and then the other as if he thought it impressive.
"I was just wondering - "
"Curiosity killed the Cat, luv." He sat in his chair and kicked his boots up on the desk.
"Of course - but -"
"But what?"
"Well if you'd let me finish I'd tell you what the 'but' is!!" Catharine took a deep breath and looked at Jack.
"Savvy." He took off his hat and set it on his chest.
"Finished?" Cat warned.
"Finished." He nodded and gave a slight half smile. Captain Sparrow was enjoying creating a rise out of her.
"I just wanted to ask you about the Isle of Spirits." Cat sat down in the only other chair in the room. "That is... if I may be so bold. I heard that you were the only pirate to have seen the treasure and lived."
"You may ask all that you want to know."
"So, you have been there?" Cat scooted up to the edge of her seat, clearly interested.
"And I'll never go back. Which is sayin' something." Jack seemed awfully serious. It was beginning to freak her out. "Not a place for a respectable pirate."
"Oh. So, are the stories really true about the four corners that guard the treasure? How did you get past the obstacles?"
"Brains." Jack smiled and looked at the bottle of rum on the other side of the room. He was comfortable and didn't feel like getting up, but if it was for the rum, he would manage. Swaggering as he went, he grabbed the bottle and took a swig.
Catharine watched as the rum punched Captain flailed his arms wildly around as if the rum was a fuel to them. "Brains?" She didn't mean it to sound as she did. So she smiled and took the questioning part of it off. "I mean... brains."
"Now, if you'll excuse me, Miss DeVries. I'd care not to talk about the Isle of Spirits anymore." Catharine showed herself to the door, and tried not to think of all the horrors that Captain Sparrow had been through on the Isle of Spirits.
******
The Black Pearl docked at a small inlet marina called Carnage Cave the next day. (A/N - I know it. Who comes up with all these little places, right? LoL. Me!) The place brought back disturbing memories to Catharine. She looked out onto the dock and to the small town up on the hill in the distance. This was where she had killed her father's murderer.
The wind howled and it ran cold shivers up her spine. It was also her first night of carnage. The name fitted the purpose that drove her to madness the night that she had her revenge. She had killed the officer's wife and two children right in front of him, cursing and telling him how it felt to lose a father. Then she had stabbed him in his thigh and then in the stomach with her dagger, twisting it so that he would bleed to death. She waited there all night, calling him names as he slowly drifted into a painful death. The next morning he was dead, and Catharine had felt awful. Whatever good that others had found in revenge, she had only found more pain and suffering and that led to more killings at Carnage Cave. She left with the first beginnings of her new found name... The Black Cat.
"You remember this place well." Catharine drew her sword and twirled to face the intruder.
"Oh, Captain Sparrow." Putting her sword away she looked back to the village. "As for remembering... it is all too clear in my mind."
"Reamp! Blood and guts! Reamp! Guts!" The parrot landed on Jack's shoulder and looked Catharine up and down. "Reamp! Pretty lady! Blood and guts!"
Catharine smiled at the parrot. He knew her better than anybody else on the Black Pearl seemed to know her.
"Bloody parrot!" Jack tried to smack the bird off his shoulder but the bird hopped onto his hat. He then ripped off his hat and threw it to the ground. The bird went flying off onto land searching for its master squaking. "Reamp! Cracker, Jacker! Reamp! Cracker!"
Captain Sparrow's breathing began to lessen as he put his now flattened hat back on his head. He really needed a new hat.
"I'll leave ye to your thoughts." Jack turned and started tripping over his own two feet as he went back into his cabin.
Catharine inwardly thanked Jack, and she knew that not only the parrot knew who she really was. Perhaps, Jack knew who she was and how she was going to be.
******
"But Cap'n ... what'll happen if the Black Ca' don' come through at the end o' the month?" All the rest of the crew gave a hearty argh.
"Because - she *BE* the Black Cat ye mah-ron." Blackbeard's nostrils flared. What if Catharine 'Black Cat' DeVries couldn't pull through? Well - he had answers for that. He'd kill her the first chance he got. She may be the best female pirate with a sword - but he had a firing squad. A match of swords versus guns ... swords were yesterdays news.
______
A/N : Before ANYBODY asks. NO Cat has NOT fallen in love with Jack Sparrow. Sheesh! I know it sounds like that, but no!!! Perhaps she has found a friend ... and tha' be all ye mangy dogs!
:: sighs :: What am I going to do with all of you romance freaks, eh? I'll make ye all walk the plank I will. Hehe.
God, I love that parrot. I know I've said that before. If this fic happens to fall in a hole of pitless dispair I will have one claim to fame. And that is my parrot! Er, not *my* parrot. Sorry... I forgot I don't own him. My claim to fame is that I made the parrot loveable. Yeah!
To all my reviewers... I wuv you all! Be sincere and honest and constructive, please. :)
Could I write a longer author's note, or what?