A/N: I think this is the penultimate chapter! Wow. So, that's it. . .
Disclaimer: . . .
Chapter Seven: Isle de Muerta
Jack awakes early the next morning, Gibbs had guided the ship through the night, and the watchman kept an eye on the Alchemist, which was gaining speed on them.
"Captain," calls Gibbs as soon as Jack comes from his cabin.
"Aye?" says Jack, wandering up to the wheel, swagering a little.
"The Alchemist's been tailing us all night," Jack whirls round to look for himself.
"The Pearl's the fastest ship in the Caribbean, they won't get to the island before us, and they can't get us in firing range, ignore them," says Jack, stomping back to his cabin where Sarah is getting dressed, putting on her breeches and shirt.
"What's this?" she asks him, holding out the bottle of Barbossa's blood. "It's not rum."
"Nay, 's more importa' than rum, love," Jack replies, taking the bottle from her, and shaking his head as if that last sentence didn't make any sense. "'s blood, blood tha' will rid us of Barbossa, the Cortez treasure brought 'im back to life, the Cortez treasure and 'is blood will kill 'im," cradling the bottle in his arms.
"I wish I knew of a treasure to bring people from the dead when my father died. I would have given anything to have him back."
"I know," Jack puts his hand on her shoulder. "But the treasure's go' 'o be destroyed, somehow."
"No ideas?" asks Sarah.
"None a' all, but we've got time," says Jack. "I need 'o go speak 'o me crew, love." So Jack leaves the cabin and rounds up his crew.
"Righ'! We're headin' 'o Isle de Muerta and when we ge' there I' need ye to keep The Alchemis' busy, don' le' 'er crew off the ship, I jus' nee' a few minutes and then we can head off fer some good ol' plunderin'!" The crew roared in agreement as the Isle de Muerta came into view in the distance, and the Alchemist seemed ever closer behind them.
As Jack steps onto the beach on the Isle de Muerta, cradling his bottle in one arm, the other in the pocket with the coin, Sarah calls after him.
"Jack!" she follows him off the ship.
"Sarah love, I'm onl' gonna be a minute, stay on the ship wi' the crew," Jack replies, walking off towards the cave. Sarah follows him.
"No. What if the crew can't hold the Alchemist?"
"Then we'll all die," says Jack, bluntly. "But I've got ter try thi' firs'." He turns into the cave, Sarah in hot persuit.
The Alchemist was almost upon the shores a short distance from the Pearl. Gibbs could see pirates jumping into the shallow water as he yells to the crew to get off the ship and go to the other. By the time the crew had got there, only the last few straggling pirates were coming off the Alchemist, they were all killed swiftly, and the crew of the Pearl set about finding the others.
Jack was just entering the cave holding the treasure of Cortez, much emptier than the last time he visited, although each of the pieces of Cortez gold were still in the chest. Sarah touched the gold.
"Don' take it out," Jack warned, as he tipped the blood from the bottle onto the coin.
"Jack!" shouts Barbossa from the entrance of the cave.
"Barbossa!" Jack shouts back, sounding thrilled the other pirate was here.
"Ye no' picked a good spo' fer plundein' Jack," sasy Barbossa coming nearer.
"Well, tha's the thing, Commodore, I ain't 'ere ter plunder. I's 'ere fer a much more importan' reason." And he casually dropped the coin in the chest. Barbossa looked up at him and Sarah, spoke his name, and fell.
Meanwhile, his crew were still fighting the crew of the Black Pearl, unaware that their captain had gone back to the Underworld, fighting for their lives and the few small coins that lay left in the caves of the island. And they weren't losing. Jack's men had almost halfed, and only killed maybe a quarter of Barbossa's now captainless crew. The fighting spread, and soon Jack was able to hear it, going on just outside the cave.
"Sarah love, stay in 'ere, an' try and figure ou' a way 'o stop people getting' the treasure again. I've go' 'o go help me crew." So he left her, in the cave, with a chest full of cursed treasure and a pirate fight outside.
Outside, the battle was in full swing, the crew of the Pearl were gaining on the crew of the Alchemist and Jack only helped. It wasn't long before all of Barbossa's crew were dead, on the beach of the Isle de Muerta.
"Righ'," Jack begins as he leads his crew into the cave. Sarah is still standing by the chest. "We're gonna push the chest inter the sea, an' we're gonna need all ye help." Most of the crew stared wide-eyed at Jack, it was indeed going to take all of them to push the heavy chest out of the cave, but they began, and it moved.
Sarah stood before the chest, helping drag it towards the beach, quickly moving her feet backwards as they gathered momentum. But as soon as they reached the edge of the cave, she stopped.
"Jack, I'm just going to gather up a few things from the cave," she says, heading back, Jack continues to help push the chest towards the sea, over the sand, with people holding the front end up.
Sarah takes a parasol from the cave and puts it above her head, walking back out to the beach, where Jack and the crew were retreating from the sea, splashed and tired, from the chest which was about forty yards in the water. Jack looks up to Sarah.
"Nice parasol," he comments. "Shame ye need it, bu' then again, I now need yer blood." He wraps his arms around Sarah's waist, feeling all over her. He takes a coin from her pocket, and then grabs her hand.
"Jack no! I need to see my father!" she screams as he leads her into the sea, parasol lost, showing her for a skeleton. Jack turns around and looks at her.
"Ye can' change wha' happened, love," he says. "And ye mustn' change the past, and ye mustn' change the future." He continues to lead her into the sea until they are up to their necks in water. "Now, I would say take a big breath, but being a living corpse ye wouldn' need it." He pulls her under the sea, and they swim out to the chest, which Jack can only just see, he gives the lid a hard shove and it doesn't budge, he pushes again, and it moves an inch. He he takes Sarah's hand and makes a small cut on one of her fingers, first rubbing the coin on the blood and then sliding it through the gap in chest. They both surface for air.
"Now ge' back 'o the beach," he orders her, as she turns back into flesh. She swims back, and Jack dives again, shoving the lid of the chest closed and then returning himself to the beach.