Last chapter...
"You might want to put your drink down for that..."
"Why... is it something awful? He looked very sad when I left the ship a while ago, do you know why he's sad?" the girl asked slowly.
"Because he knows... something bad will happen in the next few days..."
"He's not going to die on me, too, is he?" She said, cutting off her senior quickly.
"Oh no, not him... you will, or at least they'll think you've died." The girl looked at her incredulously, "They must think this in order for you to succeed, for the prophecy to be followed out properly."
"It's flawed, you know. You said I'd never know loss or defeat... I lost my father; I was defeated by a storm..."
"That was supposed to happen. Do you know the other part of the prophecy?" She said lifting an eyebrow, wishing that her granddaughter hadn't lost her father, his death might get in the way of the girl succeeding.
"It's hazy; no one has ever told me the complete story. I don't understand why I couldn't know my mother, why I had to loose my father. Why is this Blackbeard guy even after me?! I'm supposed to be some legendary leader of piracy and I don't even know why. I'm just a kid... I never asked for any of this, and I never wanted it either!" She shouted, fresh tears framed her face, her jaw began to shake gently, and the lump in her throat began to feel painful as it grew. Her eyes stung from the tears that threatened to fall like rain, they stung even more when she tried to blink them back, force them to stop. Her grandmother tried to step forward to embrace her grieving descendant, but the girl recoiled. Gritting her teeth she hissed: "I want answers, I know I'm old enough for the truth!"
"Yes, you are ready for some real answers. You were destined to lead the new era of piracy; you are to be as fierce and famous as Captain Jack Sparrow. With your mother's grace and a heart of pure gold like your father. You will be the one to lead Jack to the glorious end of his legend, and carry on the family line of piracy. You were to look up to Sparrow...not only your own father but Jack as well. You were not to thirst for material treasures as Jack does, but like your father you were to favor adventure and love over everything else. You were not to know your mother... not until you came of age. You were also to believe you had lost everything before you could be reunited with your mother. And would be rescued by a fisher's vessel, where you would meet the one that you would willingly give your life for. Blackbeard will hunt you down, and force you to show him where the Turner Treasure lies, waiting for it's heir... you... to return to it. It is there, on Isle Del Sangre, that you will defeat Blackbeard and lead Jack to his glorious end. Don't cry for Sparrow, it is his time, that is why he's evaded the hangman and the Royal Navy so successfully for so long... he was destined to go down in a blaze of glory, as a great warrior and hero; thus bringing the end of his era of piracy and beginning an era that will be all your own, you can choose to make piracy a thing of great good or great evil... that choice is yours alone to make." The woman said with great pride for her granddaughter dripping from each word.
"That still doesn't explain why I wasn't to know Elizabeth." The younger woman inquired in an agitated state.
"You weren't to have any knowledge of nobility, nothing of wealth... save for what you would steal. Your mother was the embodiment of what you could not know, besides, she didn't want you to live her life; the social cages of arranged marriages and corsets, parties for entering society or aristocratic manners, morals and other such petty beliefs. In her world a woman has very little importance or say, she never wanted that for you, in part it was her decision as well. She wanted for you what she could only dabble in: Freedom. Something she could only briefly grasp when gallivanting about with your father, or off on adventures with your father and everyone on the Pearl. She was an Aristo, and the thought of you growing up in that life frightened her to death, I couldn't see it in her eyes but I felt it in her soul." Jezebel finally saw everything so clearly, it was a mother's wish, her protection... the only protection she saw herself able to give. Though her troubled mind was finally settled, her heart was still brimming with anger and she knew now who to point it at: Blackbeard.
"Thank you grandmother..."
"I know, yes... you are beginning to see the grand design for which you were born." The queen said kindly, and then turned as if in distress towards the waterfalls on the other side of the island.
"Blackbeard..."
"How did you know?" She asked inquisitively, and then she spied the small silver bracelet around the girl's slender wrist. "It seems I've left more of myself behind than I thought, a queen's treasure contains a bit of her powers. I see that my husband has given his granddaughter my most prized trinket."
"Are you safe here?" she asked carefully.
"Most unusual for a pirate to be thinking of others before themselves... the magic of the Pearl Reefs will shelter me from Blackbeard's malicious sight. You, on the other hand, may have a problem in hiding from him." Said the woman with a great calm in her eye, she appeared so relaxed that it frightened Jezebel... ok; ok it scared the crap out of her. But as quickly as the calm had come it left her once more and she tightly embraced the girl. "Be careful on your way back to the ship, good luck with your battles. I am glad to know my daughter lives and has such a lovely and extraordinarily beautiful and talented child."
"Someday I'll return with mother, you deserve to at least see your daughter." She said over her shoulder as she ran in the direction of her ship. But as she neared the shore she observed a peculiar sight... Jack and the row boat were gone, and the ship seemed abandoned. "Strange." She said as she began to swim to the Jezebel, clambering over the railing she saw that the ship was relatively empty. "Hello! Is there anybody left? Hello!?"
As she reached a large pile of ropes, an arm appeared from the corner of her eye and wrenched her down behind the pile with the arm's owner.
"D'ye wanna ge' us caugh'?" the young female buccaneer said quietly. Jezebel recognized the girl... Vianne was her name, her twin sister had been killed for Blackbeard's suspicion that the girl had been Jezebel Turner, when he found out he was wrong he had come after Vianne. They had also hailed from James' home of Port Langly. Luckily she was able to escape; her reason for joining the crew of the ship was to observe Jezebel's victory over her sister's murderer.
"Where are the others, Vianne? What happened?" the slightly older girls face turned grave before she went on.
"Blackbeard, 'e attacked. We weren't ready fer 'im, they took mos' e'eryone, save I think fer James an' yer mum an' maybe ye granddad. I think they hid somewhere, though I don't know fer sure..."
"Yes, Vianne, we hid. They didn't think about searching the captain's cabin, just our luck." Elizabeth said as herself and the boy toppled out from the captain's quarters, the door had been blocked by debris from what looked to have been a very thorough search or an attempt to fight off the invaders.
"And Bootstrap... What came of my grandfather?" Jezebel asked quickly.
"Hid in the crow's nest, I had been there already, so I ducked." The old pirate said calmly, not a moment later there was a loud thud coming from the starboard side of the ship. Everyone turned their heads toward the noise only to hear Jack Sparrow swearing quietly.
"Jack!" Vianne called happily.
"Aye, who calls?"
"S'Vianne, there are only a few of us left."
"Why, wha' happened? Is me poppet alrigh'?" Jack asked solemnly as he clamored over the railing, Jezebel blushed; he really was like a second father to her.
"Aye, Cap'n, I'm fine." She said as she looked on, the sight of a small ship disappearing over the horizon. "Damage report..." Vianne looked about quickly and sputtered her answer almost as fast.
"Not much, jus' a few over turned powder kegs; I was able to sneak down there when they were finished turnin' things over down there. A few planks brough' up near the Cap'n Quar'ers. Other than tha'... we're okay. No' the best in the area's of search an' capture... if ye ask me." Jezebel couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the thought. The pirate that had been out for her blood since birth had the worst band of pirates working for him. There was just something extremely funny about it.
"Very well, we'll clean tha' up before we sail for Isle De La Muerta..." She began, Bootstrap's attention was caught by their destination.
"Wha' of yer crew; are we no' to go af'er 'em?"
"No, I have a feelin' that it won't be long before they come lookin' for us again. In the mean time, we need to be gettin' things done... like cleanin' up our damage. S'not a lot of work for the six of us; shouldn't take all that long. We should be able to make it to the Isle before nigh'fall tomorrow." What was left to The Jezebel spread out and returned things to their normal places, except for Jack, who grabbed Jezebel's arm as she began to retreat.
"Wha' did the ol' fish have to say, uh?" He asked as she pulled herself around to look at him.
"She told me everythin'...about the prophecy, an' other things, too. I know who you really are, my great uncle Jack Turner, an' I now know wha' I have to do. Jus' remember tha' it isn't over, not yet, not even close. These next few days will be very trying, on everyone's part... not jus' mine for once. I don't want to loose any more of those tha' I'm close to. By the way Jack, tha' Ol' Fish... is Elizabeth's mother." She said shortly and turned quickly on her heels and walked quickly to help her crew mates... er... those left to her. Leaving Jack in complete shock, he stood, sobered, for a moment or two before he walked to the railing. She knew who he was, and now he knew the truth about Elizabeth's mother, confident in his own musings that she didn't even know the truth about her mother.
After the girl wandered away from Jack, Bootstrap joined his brother. Seeing the shock in his younger brother's eyes always put a smile on his own weathered and old face.
"Problem, Jack?" He asked with and amused grin.
"She knows. An' the oracle is Elizabeth's real mother. The girl is thrice blessed..." He quickly noted the confusion in Bill's face that quickly over threw the amusement, "She's a pirate, for one. She's born into money, an Aristo. AND she's the granddaughter of a mermaid queen. I don't think I've e'er been so proud of me poppet." He said as he wiped a salty tear from the corner of his eye, his brother threw his head back in laughter and gave Jack a good pat on the back.
"An' yer jus' 'er great uncle! Jus' imagine how proud I, 'er grandfather, am of 'er? Or even 'er parents!" A moment later he remembered that she had sadly been left with only one parent, "Er, rather, how proud 'er mother is of the girl." Jack nodded; there wasn't a single person in her life that couldn't be proud of the young pirate. She was already a hero to many, following through with the prophecy would only promote her to being a legend, and soon, people would find it difficult to believe that she even existed, saying that, like himself and his precious Pearl, she was merely a fairytale. No girl could ever be strong enough to lead the life that was Jezebel's. His thought's drifted back, years back, to Jezebel's first adventure at Tortuga. Right before they docked, Annamaria had said something, what was it?
'The dread pirate Jezebel Turner! Bravest pirate to e'er sail the seas, and most terrible in beauty to look upon!'
Yes, that was it. He knew that soon, people would describe her as such, a character in a story, one that happened long before the teller's time. Her life would be retold for generations to come, as would his own of course... Annamaria, how he missed her, she had been his true love, she had even meant more to him than the sea. He'd never told her of his love, but he knew she could see it in his eyes. She'd raised Jezebel as if she were her own, and had proven herself to be a good second mother; perhaps he should have given her the chance to be someone's real mother. But what had the girl meant, when she said it was nowhere near the end? He sat for a moment, letting the comment baffle and torture him. Then with a simple shrug of his shoulders, joined the remaining pirates in repairing the ship.
A/N: Sorry it took so long to write the next chapter, I've been getting ready for college and I leave in less than a week, so life is getting hectic. But my campus is like, pirate central, so after I get there, I should have no excuse to not have updates more often. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It took me forever to finally finish it. But worry not! There is much more pirate fun to come!