quiet-one145: DAMN RIGHT Barbossa's an evil little.... *insert whatever swear word/fish/cooking implement strikes your
fancy* I actually love his character so I should probably do a fan fic where he ain't so easy to hate! Hope you continue
to like..
JohnnyDeppBabe: Thankee v. much, and thanks for pointing out mistakes. I just type like a dervish so I sometimes don't
notice when I make a mistake.
eva: Yep, I'm addicted to several stories on here, but I've been mighty restrained as of late! Hence the lateness of this
chapter *looks nervous* you're not gonna take my rum are you?
SuzzieQue: hee hee thankee kindly, I love writing Jack even if I do the character NO justice whatsoever.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rita scowled and scrubbed a hand across her cheek, leaving a streak of grime over her nose as she went. Determined to
keep up work regardless, she and Anamaria had tackled the vigorous job of maintenance of the cannons. They were both
filthy and becoming quietly aggravated with the heavy metal barrels before them, attacking them with something approaching
vengeful cleanliness.
"Why in God's name are we even doing this? The Gunpowder just smokes these out again every time they get used." grumbled
Anamaria, scouring away at the inside of the barrel. Poor excuses she knew, but she couldn't help complaining. "So long
as I'm not abovedecks I don't care. Everybody scuttling around like rats, I'm tempted to kick some people overboard just
so I can have room to think!" snarled Rita aggressively. Anamaria took her harshness light-heartedly, not bothered
by an anger she knew wasn't directed at her, or even at her crewmembers. It had taken them a while, but slowly people
had begun to realise that this angry ranting was just... Rita. It wasn't intentional, it was simply an initial
intimidating front that warded off the less brave from going anywhere near her. Not that the current situation they had
found themselves in helped Rita's sharp temperament. Anamaria wondered if she dare venture across the topic of Jade with
Rita. Fiercely protective and unquestioningly loyal, Rita had been bristling like a wildcat whenever Jade was so much
as mentioned since she had departed. Anamaria shrugged to herself as the silence lengthened into companionable joint
work. Well, she'd never been one to shy away from speaking her mind.
"How long have you known Jade for? I heard you saved her life."
Rita paused before continuing to rub the wheels of the cannon with oil. "We saved each others lives. My way of doing it
was just a little more literal than hers." Upon receiving Anamaria's confused expression, she leant back against the next
cannon and sighed, shrugging. "Y'know who my father was. An amazin' pirate, ruthless, bloodthirsty. Colder than a bank
of snow." she snorted slightly with laughter, shaking her head as if to dispel harsh memories of a man Anamaria had
thought to sound too evil to even merit existence. No one on this Earth could be THAT cruel. The stories she had
heard...
"I didn't want to be that way, empty, a hollow shell of destruction. That's all he was by the end, even plunder didn't
matter, only the conquest, the fight, the raw hurt of screams. I think... that by then it was the only thing that made
him feel alive anymore. I couldn't follow that path. I walked away, left ran fled you can call it what you want, but I
had nowhere to go. I had been brought up a pirate, a scallywag, a thief, with a heritage illustrious enough that it was
just as destructive to my future as my father's black magic was to his enemies. Where could I go where I would not be
discovered eventually, if not by father, then by the very people around me? This thing," Rita continued, shoving her
shirt off her shoulder to show part of the map etched into her skin, "this BRAND meant I could never live a normal life.
Simple village women don't have maps of unchartered tunnels scarred into their skin. Only Rita Rekedaine had such a
tattoo, and anyone could tell you that."
"So I lived alone. I found a small island with few villages and lived as a hermit, only venturing to the villages when
absolutely necessary. Quite a change from never having a moment's privacy when you're on the high seas with a load of
drunken murderers, but I became used to it. I could finally listen to my own thoughts instead of the clamour. But
things never stay the same for long.
I found Jade lyin' like a soaked bird with broken wings on the beach, the tide lapping back and forth around her feet.
She'd tied seaweed around her chest to try and stop the bleeding, but the sand beneath was stained red all the same. She
should have been dead. But she wasn't.
I brought her back from the brink and never asked a question. I didn't have the right. All I had known when I had seen
her lying on that beach, was that she was not meant to die, yet. It wasn't her time, and she was going to play a part in
my life whether I chose it or not. I didn't know whether this was an element of my father's mysticism in me. It just
felt like the plainest truth that had ever been.
We learnt to like each other. With nothing to join us but the sky and the sea, we found out who we each were without
even trying. She expected nothing from me, did not demand any information about my past or why I had helped her, but
words slipped off my tongue easily in her company. We shared our passion for the ocean religiously, and at first I was
reluctant to mirror her enthusiasm as she talked excitedly about all that she would do if she had a ship, a crew. She
was a pirate, the very thing I had gone through hell and high water to cease being. I saw though, that I could
not avoid being what I was anymore than she could. Nothing like my father's men, she had spirit and joy and a sense of
adventure, not simply a bloodlust. She wanted what she wanted from life, and she wanted it easily. So soon enough, she
had dragged me from isolation.
I taught her to fight with swords, a skill she had never learnt though she did not say why. I never asked. My place
aboard ship, the Captain's daughter, had necessitated that I was skilled with such fighting, but only if necessary. She
meanwhile, had learnt to fight in all the ways they had avoided me learning. I was only meant to fight in a tight spot,
if in emergency, but she had been given no such protection, had been forced to fight in as dirty a way as she knew how.
Hand to hand combat, a viciousness so caustic it amazed me it came from my friend. We both had our dark sides that we
tried to drag each other from."
Rita looked up sharply, as if suddenly realising just how long she had been reminiscing, and in how fragile a way.
Straightening she set to the cannons again after flicking a glance in Anamaria's direction. "The rest you can work out
yourself I'm sure." Anamaria smiled sneakily, not willing to let Rita dodge around all the feeling she had just
expressed. "You really care for her don't you?" she asked, ducking in mock horror at the fuming look she received. "Of
course, she is my Captain and my friend. Don't you feel the same about Jack?" Anamaria raised her eyebrows before
laughing hysterically. When she finally managed to compose herself she slapped Rita on the shoulder "Jack is a good man,
and a fine Captain. But I sometimes think I'll go insane if I have to spend more than five minutes with him." Rita
shrugged "So does Jade, what does that tell you?" Anamaria, being more than aware of the way that Jack and Jade had been
looking at each other, even if she was not totally knowledgeable on all developments, grinned devilishly. "I'd say they're
quite the match for each other."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As if instinctually, Barbossa had already guessed that expecting Jade to cook the crew a meal as she once would have was
downright suicidal, and so had sent Bo and Twig to organise things. Jade was mildly amused at how differently they now
treated her. A ghost from the past she seemed to them, even if they themselves had been dead. A woman not quite as she
once had been, for regrettably Jade could not find it in herself to be silent and meek once more. They had realised,
though it had seemed unbelievable to them when they had all seen her die, that she had gone on to other things, had
grown. She was strong now, a woman, a fighter. Were a man to touch her anywhere that displeased her, the offending hand
would get broken. It was a simple rule that the crew seemed to instantly understand, but one that she knew would not
hold her fast, in the company of Barbossa. The lie must be maintained, and the lie dictated that she had done all of
this, for him. Her Love.
The image of the man that had made her bleed for no other reason than he could, had forced and taken every inch of her,
was not simply a nightmare anymore, he was real and he was before her, and she must make him believe that she wanted him,
as she once had. How had she ever thought such a thing would be easy to do? She was not that strong. She could not
believe that she had ever been that strong. The feeling of the breaking bones and the blood against her skin was far too
vivid, too real. He might as well be kicking the air from her bruised lungs as he had once before, this very instant for
the amount of calm she had. As she ate with the crew, who yelled and celebrated to their full drunken limits at the
novel deliciousness of food that had been robbed from them under the curse, she knew full well she would be expected to
bed down with Barbossa. Her heart pounded an agony against her chest as she prayed time would stop passing, the sky would
stop dimming, whilst the crew revelled in the life that had brought sensation and texture and magnificent taste back to
their tongues.
She drank.
The crew drank.
As they all progressively passed into levels of stupour, until the last of them along with the last of the light had
either staggered elsewhere or simply fallen asleep where they lay, Jade put her bottle down and stood to inch out of
the door...
"Where are yeh off to then, Missy?"
She turned slowly and greeted him with a slow dazzling smile. But of course he was still conscious. It was just typical
of her luck.
'Jack,' she forced herself to think as she glided over to where Barbossa sat, eyes lidded in speculation. Resting one
knee precariously close in between his legs, she leant down and gave a light, teasing kiss. He wasted no time in forcing
this into a harder kiss, his lips crushing against hers, but she pulled away, keeping that smile fixed on her face lest
her blood boiled up in her eyes for him to see.
"I'll be at the wheel. We need to cover as much ground as possible. Wake up some of the men in shifts." Turning on her
heel, she departed with fear and revulsion crawling through her skin, ready to cut through to her heart.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jack had never considered himself a jealous man.
Women were easy to come by and easy to share by his view of things. The lovely ladies of Tortuga, whilst he was a
favorite of theirs, he knew were just as accomodating to other men, and since he had been privy to so many a woman
himself it had never bothered him. He would never stay around long enough to keep a woman happy, for they all wanted to
keep him still and grounded in the end, something he did not know how to do, had no intention of learning. To be honest
he'd never really thought about it before, actually being angry that a woman he had had - wife, daughter, whore, mother,
whoever, - was with someone else. It had never even occured to him to be concerned by it. More important things - normally
involving staying alive, drinking heavily or at the very least finding some plunder to take possession of - were far
more worth the worry.
His mouth touching her flesh, his hands on her, his mouth, her mouth... Oh God. I'll kill him.
He grunted to himself in annoyance, dismissing the rampaging flashes of images that he did not want. It was because it
was Barbossa. It was because of all he had done to her, all he had stood by and LET Barbossa do to her. It was because
it was Jade. The blasted woman had never done anything but mess around with his head! Undoubtedly like every other
woman, she'd start wanting commitment, a sensible life, all those other terrifying words that he had a bit of an allergy
to. Not that he could ever imagine Jade wanting any such things, but then he had never had the opportunity to have her
before...
His brain wildly backpedalled as he re-evaluated this thought. Not only did he want to kick himself in the teeth for
thinking thoughts like that but he was DAMN sure that Jade would be willing to put the boot in aswell. You didn't OWN
Jade. And why was he even entertaining thoughts about any of this anyway? This was almost as bad as the
jealousy...
His tongues in her mouth he's touching her he thinks she's his I'll kill him if he touches her one more time.
"Now this, is just silly." he murmured to himself.
He had to concentrate on the task at hand. He had to focus on the plan, on the gold, on what they were going to do to
Barbossa, on how to carry it all off without a hitch.
Maybe he should go get some rum.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lemme know what you think if you like. Sorry it's going so slowly! AHHHH! XXX
fancy* I actually love his character so I should probably do a fan fic where he ain't so easy to hate! Hope you continue
to like..
JohnnyDeppBabe: Thankee v. much, and thanks for pointing out mistakes. I just type like a dervish so I sometimes don't
notice when I make a mistake.
eva: Yep, I'm addicted to several stories on here, but I've been mighty restrained as of late! Hence the lateness of this
chapter *looks nervous* you're not gonna take my rum are you?
SuzzieQue: hee hee thankee kindly, I love writing Jack even if I do the character NO justice whatsoever.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rita scowled and scrubbed a hand across her cheek, leaving a streak of grime over her nose as she went. Determined to
keep up work regardless, she and Anamaria had tackled the vigorous job of maintenance of the cannons. They were both
filthy and becoming quietly aggravated with the heavy metal barrels before them, attacking them with something approaching
vengeful cleanliness.
"Why in God's name are we even doing this? The Gunpowder just smokes these out again every time they get used." grumbled
Anamaria, scouring away at the inside of the barrel. Poor excuses she knew, but she couldn't help complaining. "So long
as I'm not abovedecks I don't care. Everybody scuttling around like rats, I'm tempted to kick some people overboard just
so I can have room to think!" snarled Rita aggressively. Anamaria took her harshness light-heartedly, not bothered
by an anger she knew wasn't directed at her, or even at her crewmembers. It had taken them a while, but slowly people
had begun to realise that this angry ranting was just... Rita. It wasn't intentional, it was simply an initial
intimidating front that warded off the less brave from going anywhere near her. Not that the current situation they had
found themselves in helped Rita's sharp temperament. Anamaria wondered if she dare venture across the topic of Jade with
Rita. Fiercely protective and unquestioningly loyal, Rita had been bristling like a wildcat whenever Jade was so much
as mentioned since she had departed. Anamaria shrugged to herself as the silence lengthened into companionable joint
work. Well, she'd never been one to shy away from speaking her mind.
"How long have you known Jade for? I heard you saved her life."
Rita paused before continuing to rub the wheels of the cannon with oil. "We saved each others lives. My way of doing it
was just a little more literal than hers." Upon receiving Anamaria's confused expression, she leant back against the next
cannon and sighed, shrugging. "Y'know who my father was. An amazin' pirate, ruthless, bloodthirsty. Colder than a bank
of snow." she snorted slightly with laughter, shaking her head as if to dispel harsh memories of a man Anamaria had
thought to sound too evil to even merit existence. No one on this Earth could be THAT cruel. The stories she had
heard...
"I didn't want to be that way, empty, a hollow shell of destruction. That's all he was by the end, even plunder didn't
matter, only the conquest, the fight, the raw hurt of screams. I think... that by then it was the only thing that made
him feel alive anymore. I couldn't follow that path. I walked away, left ran fled you can call it what you want, but I
had nowhere to go. I had been brought up a pirate, a scallywag, a thief, with a heritage illustrious enough that it was
just as destructive to my future as my father's black magic was to his enemies. Where could I go where I would not be
discovered eventually, if not by father, then by the very people around me? This thing," Rita continued, shoving her
shirt off her shoulder to show part of the map etched into her skin, "this BRAND meant I could never live a normal life.
Simple village women don't have maps of unchartered tunnels scarred into their skin. Only Rita Rekedaine had such a
tattoo, and anyone could tell you that."
"So I lived alone. I found a small island with few villages and lived as a hermit, only venturing to the villages when
absolutely necessary. Quite a change from never having a moment's privacy when you're on the high seas with a load of
drunken murderers, but I became used to it. I could finally listen to my own thoughts instead of the clamour. But
things never stay the same for long.
I found Jade lyin' like a soaked bird with broken wings on the beach, the tide lapping back and forth around her feet.
She'd tied seaweed around her chest to try and stop the bleeding, but the sand beneath was stained red all the same. She
should have been dead. But she wasn't.
I brought her back from the brink and never asked a question. I didn't have the right. All I had known when I had seen
her lying on that beach, was that she was not meant to die, yet. It wasn't her time, and she was going to play a part in
my life whether I chose it or not. I didn't know whether this was an element of my father's mysticism in me. It just
felt like the plainest truth that had ever been.
We learnt to like each other. With nothing to join us but the sky and the sea, we found out who we each were without
even trying. She expected nothing from me, did not demand any information about my past or why I had helped her, but
words slipped off my tongue easily in her company. We shared our passion for the ocean religiously, and at first I was
reluctant to mirror her enthusiasm as she talked excitedly about all that she would do if she had a ship, a crew. She
was a pirate, the very thing I had gone through hell and high water to cease being. I saw though, that I could
not avoid being what I was anymore than she could. Nothing like my father's men, she had spirit and joy and a sense of
adventure, not simply a bloodlust. She wanted what she wanted from life, and she wanted it easily. So soon enough, she
had dragged me from isolation.
I taught her to fight with swords, a skill she had never learnt though she did not say why. I never asked. My place
aboard ship, the Captain's daughter, had necessitated that I was skilled with such fighting, but only if necessary. She
meanwhile, had learnt to fight in all the ways they had avoided me learning. I was only meant to fight in a tight spot,
if in emergency, but she had been given no such protection, had been forced to fight in as dirty a way as she knew how.
Hand to hand combat, a viciousness so caustic it amazed me it came from my friend. We both had our dark sides that we
tried to drag each other from."
Rita looked up sharply, as if suddenly realising just how long she had been reminiscing, and in how fragile a way.
Straightening she set to the cannons again after flicking a glance in Anamaria's direction. "The rest you can work out
yourself I'm sure." Anamaria smiled sneakily, not willing to let Rita dodge around all the feeling she had just
expressed. "You really care for her don't you?" she asked, ducking in mock horror at the fuming look she received. "Of
course, she is my Captain and my friend. Don't you feel the same about Jack?" Anamaria raised her eyebrows before
laughing hysterically. When she finally managed to compose herself she slapped Rita on the shoulder "Jack is a good man,
and a fine Captain. But I sometimes think I'll go insane if I have to spend more than five minutes with him." Rita
shrugged "So does Jade, what does that tell you?" Anamaria, being more than aware of the way that Jack and Jade had been
looking at each other, even if she was not totally knowledgeable on all developments, grinned devilishly. "I'd say they're
quite the match for each other."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As if instinctually, Barbossa had already guessed that expecting Jade to cook the crew a meal as she once would have was
downright suicidal, and so had sent Bo and Twig to organise things. Jade was mildly amused at how differently they now
treated her. A ghost from the past she seemed to them, even if they themselves had been dead. A woman not quite as she
once had been, for regrettably Jade could not find it in herself to be silent and meek once more. They had realised,
though it had seemed unbelievable to them when they had all seen her die, that she had gone on to other things, had
grown. She was strong now, a woman, a fighter. Were a man to touch her anywhere that displeased her, the offending hand
would get broken. It was a simple rule that the crew seemed to instantly understand, but one that she knew would not
hold her fast, in the company of Barbossa. The lie must be maintained, and the lie dictated that she had done all of
this, for him. Her Love.
The image of the man that had made her bleed for no other reason than he could, had forced and taken every inch of her,
was not simply a nightmare anymore, he was real and he was before her, and she must make him believe that she wanted him,
as she once had. How had she ever thought such a thing would be easy to do? She was not that strong. She could not
believe that she had ever been that strong. The feeling of the breaking bones and the blood against her skin was far too
vivid, too real. He might as well be kicking the air from her bruised lungs as he had once before, this very instant for
the amount of calm she had. As she ate with the crew, who yelled and celebrated to their full drunken limits at the
novel deliciousness of food that had been robbed from them under the curse, she knew full well she would be expected to
bed down with Barbossa. Her heart pounded an agony against her chest as she prayed time would stop passing, the sky would
stop dimming, whilst the crew revelled in the life that had brought sensation and texture and magnificent taste back to
their tongues.
She drank.
The crew drank.
As they all progressively passed into levels of stupour, until the last of them along with the last of the light had
either staggered elsewhere or simply fallen asleep where they lay, Jade put her bottle down and stood to inch out of
the door...
"Where are yeh off to then, Missy?"
She turned slowly and greeted him with a slow dazzling smile. But of course he was still conscious. It was just typical
of her luck.
'Jack,' she forced herself to think as she glided over to where Barbossa sat, eyes lidded in speculation. Resting one
knee precariously close in between his legs, she leant down and gave a light, teasing kiss. He wasted no time in forcing
this into a harder kiss, his lips crushing against hers, but she pulled away, keeping that smile fixed on her face lest
her blood boiled up in her eyes for him to see.
"I'll be at the wheel. We need to cover as much ground as possible. Wake up some of the men in shifts." Turning on her
heel, she departed with fear and revulsion crawling through her skin, ready to cut through to her heart.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jack had never considered himself a jealous man.
Women were easy to come by and easy to share by his view of things. The lovely ladies of Tortuga, whilst he was a
favorite of theirs, he knew were just as accomodating to other men, and since he had been privy to so many a woman
himself it had never bothered him. He would never stay around long enough to keep a woman happy, for they all wanted to
keep him still and grounded in the end, something he did not know how to do, had no intention of learning. To be honest
he'd never really thought about it before, actually being angry that a woman he had had - wife, daughter, whore, mother,
whoever, - was with someone else. It had never even occured to him to be concerned by it. More important things - normally
involving staying alive, drinking heavily or at the very least finding some plunder to take possession of - were far
more worth the worry.
His mouth touching her flesh, his hands on her, his mouth, her mouth... Oh God. I'll kill him.
He grunted to himself in annoyance, dismissing the rampaging flashes of images that he did not want. It was because it
was Barbossa. It was because of all he had done to her, all he had stood by and LET Barbossa do to her. It was because
it was Jade. The blasted woman had never done anything but mess around with his head! Undoubtedly like every other
woman, she'd start wanting commitment, a sensible life, all those other terrifying words that he had a bit of an allergy
to. Not that he could ever imagine Jade wanting any such things, but then he had never had the opportunity to have her
before...
His brain wildly backpedalled as he re-evaluated this thought. Not only did he want to kick himself in the teeth for
thinking thoughts like that but he was DAMN sure that Jade would be willing to put the boot in aswell. You didn't OWN
Jade. And why was he even entertaining thoughts about any of this anyway? This was almost as bad as the
jealousy...
His tongues in her mouth he's touching her he thinks she's his I'll kill him if he touches her one more time.
"Now this, is just silly." he murmured to himself.
He had to concentrate on the task at hand. He had to focus on the plan, on the gold, on what they were going to do to
Barbossa, on how to carry it all off without a hitch.
Maybe he should go get some rum.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lemme know what you think if you like. Sorry it's going so slowly! AHHHH! XXX