"Pirate ship ahead, Captain!"
Jack charged up the laddera from his cabin below deck and slammed the trapdoor shut
behind him. Rushing to the bow, he squinted into the distant sunset to catch a glimpse of the
pirate ship ahead of him.
"What's it called?" Jack yelled up to the lookout with his spyglass.
"The Quietus, sir, we're gaining on her!"
"No doubt! The Black Pearl is the fastest ship in the Caribbean!" Jack retorted. Then he
muttered himself; "Even if the Quietus is the one to be carrying the most deaths. And I intend
to stop it before it reaches Port Royal."
The sun was merely a fiery line across the horizon now, yet the sky was bright purple.
Although the Quietus was dark and easily losable in the waters which did not reflect the sun's
light, the Pearl was catching up to it, and was soon right at it's stern.
Jack felt Anamaria's presence as she approached him from behind.
"Nearly thirty years it's been since I've come in contact with the man who's captaining this ship
ahead," he said to her, nodding towards it and stepping backwards to the wheel, which he gave
a few nudges to the left. He continued while Anamaria said nothing. "I'll be going it alone, this
time. Only one man. He was always one man, you know; wasn't one to have a crew."
"Are you sure it's wise, Jack? Sounds a little balmy to me, challenging a man who followed
our ship, intruded on it without our knowing and killed a child to make his point. He may be
only one man, but he will try to hurt you," she said. She then got a strange look on her face,
unreadable to Jack, as she put her hand on his shoulder and said in barely more than a
whisper; "Although you believe yourself to be unbeatable, your benevolence and trust may blind-"
"I know how to deal with this man," Jack interrupted before Anamaria could say any more.
"Don't worry about me, love; I do not trust him or think him humane in any way. I will show
no mercy or give clemency, savvy?"
"Aye," she answered. "I hope you know what you're doing."
"That I do!" Jack said, grinning. "I'm going to give this one a flogging he'll never forget!"
"How are you going to get across the water to the ship?" Anamaria asked him.
"You see how the flying touches the Quietus's stern?" Jack said, his grin widening.
"You're going to climb across!" Anamaria said, no less than amused. "This, I have to see.
We'll be pulling you out of the water a few times for sure."
"Have faith in me, love!" Jack replied, hopping up to the bow once again. "You just steer
this ship so I can climb back across once I'm finished with the bantling!"
Anamaria watched as Jack took one step out on the bowsprit. He made it as far as the jib
before he began to teeter a bit.
"Bloody balance! Knew I shouldn't have had all that rum earlier!" Jack gave Anamaria a
silly smirk before his feet slipped on the jib and he had to grab onto it with only his hands
while his body dangled above the water. With little effort, he hoisted himself back up and
shimmied the rest of the way to the flying, and sprang onto the deck of the other ship.
He turned about and opened his arms, shouting back to Anamaria; "All a matter of luck, love!
Here I go!" And he turned his back on her, striding off down the deck. As he neared the
mizzenmast, he realized that the ship was dark; not a candle lit in any part of it, save for what
rooms were below deck, which he couldn't cipher the brightness of. His only source of light
was the shining candles from the Black Pearl behind him. Subconsciously, his steps grew
silent as the ship around him was deathly quiet. The only sound he heard were the muted
voices of his crew.
The Quietus wasn't a bad ship, at all; very large and seemingly unused. This struck Jack as
extremely curious, since he was thinking of the same person who had lived on the Black Pearl
for forty years before the fortunate accident which had brought upon his sudden "demise."
Jack had figured that the ship would have been well-worn by then.
Brushing aside this thought, he passed the main mast and caught the first sight of human life.
At the helm was a man, slouched over the wheel of the ship. Jack stopped dead in his tracks,
forgetting he was supposed to be approaching him for a few seconds as he reflected on the
powerful deadliness of this individual. The only thing that made him start walking again was
his own confident knowledge that he, too, was now a powerful and deadly man, no longer a
boy bound by child weakness, as he was before.
If his addition was correct, Jack realized that his father was supposed to be sixty-nine years of
age. He could not tell anything of the man before him, as all he could see was a silhouette
against the darkness which had quickly come. His father seemed not to notice him as he
stepped up to him from behind.
"Jack Sparrow," Jack the younger addressed the man at the wheel, who did not turn around.
"I have come to challenge and otherwise kill you until you're so severed that you won't
come back next time, savvy?" When the man did nothing, Jack not only lost some of his
confidence, but also started to suspect his father had constructed some sort of wicked plot
which would result in his death without Jack senior having to lay one finger on him.
"Answer me, ye bloody villain!" Jack growled, lashing forward and throwing the man at the
wheel to the ground. He withdrew his sword from it's scabbard and was just about to slice
the rogue's head off, when he caught sight of the man's face in a beam of moonlight.
"Blimey, Will!" Jack shouted in horror, letting his sword clatter to the ground as he dropped
beside the young man to see if he was still alive. To Jack's extreme relief, he was still
breathing, but unconscious.
Will had been gagged and obviously knocked over the head roughly, as there was blood
matted in his hair and there were long streams of it dried down his forehead and in his eyes.
"I'll get you back to me ship; don't worry, Will, I'm not going to let you die on me now,"
Jack growled.
He gently hoisted his friend into his arms and, smoothly as he could, carried him back to the
flying of the Pearl, which Anamaria had obediently and skillfully kept to the stern of the Quietus.
Her jaw dropped as she looked upon the sight, but quickly got over it, her concentration on
keeping the Pearl steady against the ship in front of it.
"How will you get him across by walking over!?" Anamaria shouted to Jack, fiercely.
"I can do this," Jack replied just as fiercely, stepping up onto the flying with confidence. "It's
easier with balancing weight," he remarked, taking another step. "Like a tightrope walker
with a cane." He took a few more steps and reached the middle of the jib before he started
to have some trouble. He gave Anamaria a little grin as if to say "nothing to it."
Anamaria knew better, noticing the sweat that ran down his forehead; most likely from the
combination of stress and the difficulty of carrying a full-grown man across a curved, moving
surface of little more than seven inches in width. Jack Sparrow was not al-mighty, although
he seemed to give off that impression and never let anyone forget it. This was one of the rare
times he seemed positively average-human with his guard down and king-of-the-world
attitude completely forgotten.
Jack was nearly across the bowsprit when he nearly lost his footing and fell. Anamaria forgot
about the wheel and rushed to accompany him. With one foot on the ship and the other on
the bowsprit, she gave her outstretched arms to take Will from Jack. He shook his head
impatiently, but Anamaria took Will swiftly, yet tenderly from his rescuer, allowing Jack to
cross the rest of the way safely, yet slightly out of breath.
"Let me see him," Jack said gruffly as Anamaria laid him out on the deck. Jack inspected
Will's face and checked his torso for signs of blood. It seemed that the only damage done
to him was from a heavy blow across the head. "Damn that bastard," he said, gritting his
teeth. "Take him below deck and put him in a comfortable bed," Jack ordered, harshly.
Anamaria brushed his belligerence aside and pulled Will into her arms, taking him below
deck.
She set him in her own bed, which was large and comfortable. She set to work to clean and
bandage Will up, which she did with as much skill as her little experience would let her. After
a matter of minutes, she felt Jack's presence in the room. He stepped up to her with a small
smile of comfort on his face.
"You did your duty well, love," he said. "Thank you."
"You're welcome, captain," she replied, nodding.
"When I saw the man at the helm, I thought it was my father," Jack explained. "He must have
hurt Will and used him to distract me-" He stopped his sentence abruptly as the truth
dawned on him with such force that it even made the color drain from his face.
"What is it, Captain?" Anamaria asked, worried. For a moment, he couldn't talk, but only
realize that while he had been following Will that whole time, a different ship, the one his
father was really on, was headed for Port Royal, to slaughter all it's people.
"It was a diversion!" Jack groaned, clenching his fists in frustration. "That evil, lying bastard!
He's on his way to Port Royal to kill everyone; I was warned of this! I thought this was the
right course because of the old woman's warning, but - blimey, that bloody scalawag!"
Anamaria didn't know what Jack was saying, but the mentioning of Port Royal being
destroyed was enough understanding for her. Jack had lost his cool disposition entirely and
was nearly trembling with rage. He said not a word as he quickly rushed from the room and
scrambled up the laddera to the helm. Anamaria followed him in a daze as he roughly jolted
the wheel around and around until the Black Pearl turned sharply as it would go in the other
direction. So sharply, in fact, that the wakeful crew staggered to stay on their feet.
"We're headed for Port Royal, men!" Jack shouted, desperately trying to keep his voice
under control. "Gibbs! Wake up the ones that are sleeping, get everyone to the hold and
bring out the oars, now! We do not rest until we reach the port, got that!?"
"Aye-aye, Captain!" the crewmembers, along with Gibbs, shouted back, knowing that Jack,
with his current tone, meant business.
"You, man!" Jack called up to the lookout.
"Aye!"
"Stay awake at all costs! The instant Port Royal comes into view, you tell me!"
"Aye, Captain!"
Jack whipped back around to the wheel and saw Anamaria rushing to him.
"You're not needed at the oars? Has Gibbs waken everyone?" Jack inquired, briskly.
"Aye," she replied.
"Then stay with Will," he said, with the first hint of sadness in his voice. "Make sure that at
least he of the Port Royalists stay alive." Anamaria nodded and turned about, heading back
down to her cabin.
"Whichever forces of the universe there may be," Jack muttered under his breath, "Please,
don't let me be too late."
A/N: Good? Isn't it grand? Isn't it great? Isn't swell? Isn't fine, isn't it…? All
right, enough Chicago, please review and tell me how this is coming! :D :D :D :D
Jack charged up the laddera from his cabin below deck and slammed the trapdoor shut
behind him. Rushing to the bow, he squinted into the distant sunset to catch a glimpse of the
pirate ship ahead of him.
"What's it called?" Jack yelled up to the lookout with his spyglass.
"The Quietus, sir, we're gaining on her!"
"No doubt! The Black Pearl is the fastest ship in the Caribbean!" Jack retorted. Then he
muttered himself; "Even if the Quietus is the one to be carrying the most deaths. And I intend
to stop it before it reaches Port Royal."
The sun was merely a fiery line across the horizon now, yet the sky was bright purple.
Although the Quietus was dark and easily losable in the waters which did not reflect the sun's
light, the Pearl was catching up to it, and was soon right at it's stern.
Jack felt Anamaria's presence as she approached him from behind.
"Nearly thirty years it's been since I've come in contact with the man who's captaining this ship
ahead," he said to her, nodding towards it and stepping backwards to the wheel, which he gave
a few nudges to the left. He continued while Anamaria said nothing. "I'll be going it alone, this
time. Only one man. He was always one man, you know; wasn't one to have a crew."
"Are you sure it's wise, Jack? Sounds a little balmy to me, challenging a man who followed
our ship, intruded on it without our knowing and killed a child to make his point. He may be
only one man, but he will try to hurt you," she said. She then got a strange look on her face,
unreadable to Jack, as she put her hand on his shoulder and said in barely more than a
whisper; "Although you believe yourself to be unbeatable, your benevolence and trust may blind-"
"I know how to deal with this man," Jack interrupted before Anamaria could say any more.
"Don't worry about me, love; I do not trust him or think him humane in any way. I will show
no mercy or give clemency, savvy?"
"Aye," she answered. "I hope you know what you're doing."
"That I do!" Jack said, grinning. "I'm going to give this one a flogging he'll never forget!"
"How are you going to get across the water to the ship?" Anamaria asked him.
"You see how the flying touches the Quietus's stern?" Jack said, his grin widening.
"You're going to climb across!" Anamaria said, no less than amused. "This, I have to see.
We'll be pulling you out of the water a few times for sure."
"Have faith in me, love!" Jack replied, hopping up to the bow once again. "You just steer
this ship so I can climb back across once I'm finished with the bantling!"
Anamaria watched as Jack took one step out on the bowsprit. He made it as far as the jib
before he began to teeter a bit.
"Bloody balance! Knew I shouldn't have had all that rum earlier!" Jack gave Anamaria a
silly smirk before his feet slipped on the jib and he had to grab onto it with only his hands
while his body dangled above the water. With little effort, he hoisted himself back up and
shimmied the rest of the way to the flying, and sprang onto the deck of the other ship.
He turned about and opened his arms, shouting back to Anamaria; "All a matter of luck, love!
Here I go!" And he turned his back on her, striding off down the deck. As he neared the
mizzenmast, he realized that the ship was dark; not a candle lit in any part of it, save for what
rooms were below deck, which he couldn't cipher the brightness of. His only source of light
was the shining candles from the Black Pearl behind him. Subconsciously, his steps grew
silent as the ship around him was deathly quiet. The only sound he heard were the muted
voices of his crew.
The Quietus wasn't a bad ship, at all; very large and seemingly unused. This struck Jack as
extremely curious, since he was thinking of the same person who had lived on the Black Pearl
for forty years before the fortunate accident which had brought upon his sudden "demise."
Jack had figured that the ship would have been well-worn by then.
Brushing aside this thought, he passed the main mast and caught the first sight of human life.
At the helm was a man, slouched over the wheel of the ship. Jack stopped dead in his tracks,
forgetting he was supposed to be approaching him for a few seconds as he reflected on the
powerful deadliness of this individual. The only thing that made him start walking again was
his own confident knowledge that he, too, was now a powerful and deadly man, no longer a
boy bound by child weakness, as he was before.
If his addition was correct, Jack realized that his father was supposed to be sixty-nine years of
age. He could not tell anything of the man before him, as all he could see was a silhouette
against the darkness which had quickly come. His father seemed not to notice him as he
stepped up to him from behind.
"Jack Sparrow," Jack the younger addressed the man at the wheel, who did not turn around.
"I have come to challenge and otherwise kill you until you're so severed that you won't
come back next time, savvy?" When the man did nothing, Jack not only lost some of his
confidence, but also started to suspect his father had constructed some sort of wicked plot
which would result in his death without Jack senior having to lay one finger on him.
"Answer me, ye bloody villain!" Jack growled, lashing forward and throwing the man at the
wheel to the ground. He withdrew his sword from it's scabbard and was just about to slice
the rogue's head off, when he caught sight of the man's face in a beam of moonlight.
"Blimey, Will!" Jack shouted in horror, letting his sword clatter to the ground as he dropped
beside the young man to see if he was still alive. To Jack's extreme relief, he was still
breathing, but unconscious.
Will had been gagged and obviously knocked over the head roughly, as there was blood
matted in his hair and there were long streams of it dried down his forehead and in his eyes.
"I'll get you back to me ship; don't worry, Will, I'm not going to let you die on me now,"
Jack growled.
He gently hoisted his friend into his arms and, smoothly as he could, carried him back to the
flying of the Pearl, which Anamaria had obediently and skillfully kept to the stern of the Quietus.
Her jaw dropped as she looked upon the sight, but quickly got over it, her concentration on
keeping the Pearl steady against the ship in front of it.
"How will you get him across by walking over!?" Anamaria shouted to Jack, fiercely.
"I can do this," Jack replied just as fiercely, stepping up onto the flying with confidence. "It's
easier with balancing weight," he remarked, taking another step. "Like a tightrope walker
with a cane." He took a few more steps and reached the middle of the jib before he started
to have some trouble. He gave Anamaria a little grin as if to say "nothing to it."
Anamaria knew better, noticing the sweat that ran down his forehead; most likely from the
combination of stress and the difficulty of carrying a full-grown man across a curved, moving
surface of little more than seven inches in width. Jack Sparrow was not al-mighty, although
he seemed to give off that impression and never let anyone forget it. This was one of the rare
times he seemed positively average-human with his guard down and king-of-the-world
attitude completely forgotten.
Jack was nearly across the bowsprit when he nearly lost his footing and fell. Anamaria forgot
about the wheel and rushed to accompany him. With one foot on the ship and the other on
the bowsprit, she gave her outstretched arms to take Will from Jack. He shook his head
impatiently, but Anamaria took Will swiftly, yet tenderly from his rescuer, allowing Jack to
cross the rest of the way safely, yet slightly out of breath.
"Let me see him," Jack said gruffly as Anamaria laid him out on the deck. Jack inspected
Will's face and checked his torso for signs of blood. It seemed that the only damage done
to him was from a heavy blow across the head. "Damn that bastard," he said, gritting his
teeth. "Take him below deck and put him in a comfortable bed," Jack ordered, harshly.
Anamaria brushed his belligerence aside and pulled Will into her arms, taking him below
deck.
She set him in her own bed, which was large and comfortable. She set to work to clean and
bandage Will up, which she did with as much skill as her little experience would let her. After
a matter of minutes, she felt Jack's presence in the room. He stepped up to her with a small
smile of comfort on his face.
"You did your duty well, love," he said. "Thank you."
"You're welcome, captain," she replied, nodding.
"When I saw the man at the helm, I thought it was my father," Jack explained. "He must have
hurt Will and used him to distract me-" He stopped his sentence abruptly as the truth
dawned on him with such force that it even made the color drain from his face.
"What is it, Captain?" Anamaria asked, worried. For a moment, he couldn't talk, but only
realize that while he had been following Will that whole time, a different ship, the one his
father was really on, was headed for Port Royal, to slaughter all it's people.
"It was a diversion!" Jack groaned, clenching his fists in frustration. "That evil, lying bastard!
He's on his way to Port Royal to kill everyone; I was warned of this! I thought this was the
right course because of the old woman's warning, but - blimey, that bloody scalawag!"
Anamaria didn't know what Jack was saying, but the mentioning of Port Royal being
destroyed was enough understanding for her. Jack had lost his cool disposition entirely and
was nearly trembling with rage. He said not a word as he quickly rushed from the room and
scrambled up the laddera to the helm. Anamaria followed him in a daze as he roughly jolted
the wheel around and around until the Black Pearl turned sharply as it would go in the other
direction. So sharply, in fact, that the wakeful crew staggered to stay on their feet.
"We're headed for Port Royal, men!" Jack shouted, desperately trying to keep his voice
under control. "Gibbs! Wake up the ones that are sleeping, get everyone to the hold and
bring out the oars, now! We do not rest until we reach the port, got that!?"
"Aye-aye, Captain!" the crewmembers, along with Gibbs, shouted back, knowing that Jack,
with his current tone, meant business.
"You, man!" Jack called up to the lookout.
"Aye!"
"Stay awake at all costs! The instant Port Royal comes into view, you tell me!"
"Aye, Captain!"
Jack whipped back around to the wheel and saw Anamaria rushing to him.
"You're not needed at the oars? Has Gibbs waken everyone?" Jack inquired, briskly.
"Aye," she replied.
"Then stay with Will," he said, with the first hint of sadness in his voice. "Make sure that at
least he of the Port Royalists stay alive." Anamaria nodded and turned about, heading back
down to her cabin.
"Whichever forces of the universe there may be," Jack muttered under his breath, "Please,
don't let me be too late."
A/N: Good? Isn't it grand? Isn't it great? Isn't swell? Isn't fine, isn't it…? All
right, enough Chicago, please review and tell me how this is coming! :D :D :D :D
