Title: Swimming Above The Sharks

Disclaimer: I'm only borrowing these two characters. Technically, they're Disney's property…which sucks. But because they're sub-canon characters, Disney wont notice if I steal them for a while…Mwa ha ha ha…!

ANY OTHER CHARACTER IS MINE! EXCEPT for those in the movie, such as Koehler, Jacoby, Nipperkin, Monk, or Barbossa.

Summary: Mallot and Grapple discover themselves stranded, accidentally marooned, and with a hell of a lot of gold. That and Mallot intelligently points out they're not cursed any more.

Notes:  *grins* Having fun reading? I love writing this story…Another familiar face appears in this chapter.

Chapter Ten: A Familiar Face and Something is Solved

"You're alive, good…I was worried," Grapple muttered, standing back up with a wince and offering Mallot his right hand, keeping his left arm behind his back. His brother accepted and was pulled up, wincing as usual from his back. A few spectators had gathered around, Mallot recognizing another former crewmate called Monk who probably had been killed fighting off the navy…No, he had been left in the cave, at Isle de Muerta. Odd, Mallot thought, he had never seen any other bodies aside from Barbossa's. 

"Hector, Mallot should know what killed Grapple," Luna said knowledgably. Grapple gave her a highly irritated look and snapped back.

"I'm not dead!"

"Actually, you are," Barbossa said calmly, almost annoyed as though he had explained it to many others.

Grapple growled, and with a wild swing of his right arm, Monk was crumpled on the ground, clutching a broken nose, and whimpering in pain from the punch Trevor had threw at him.

"Pretty good for a dead man," Trevor remarked lightly.

"I knew it!" Mallot said excitedly. Luna gave him a sad look and slowly shook her head. Jonathan ignored her. "I knew you weren't dead! Luna said you were, but I knew it wasn't possible? Eh, tell her I'm not glowing! Y'eh don't see a glow, do you?"

Grapple starred hard at Mallot for a moment, a puzzled look about his face, before he raised a brow. "They said I glowed when I first came 'ere, but it disappeared." Regardless he hadn't directly given his brother an answer; Mallot went on as if he had.

"See? I don't glow!" Jonathan proclaimed.

"You're brighter then a full moon when we were cursed," Barbossa said bitterly, a hand absently going over his heart and gingerly brushing his fingertips against the jacket he wore, which had been closed shut over that one spot.

"No, I'm not! I don't glow! None of you glow, either. I'm alive, Grapple's alive, we just got stranded here!" Mallot suddenly fell silent, a look of utter shock on his face. He was starring at Grapple as though his sibling was, indeed, the walking dead. Which wasn't far off. Not even the curse could have prepared him for what met his eyes.
Grapple's left arm was entirely singed, violently red and raw looking, infected in a third degree burn. A spot of his skin was torn open, and protruding from the blood dried over it, the bone beneath was visible. His hand was in a similar condition, burned and red, yet there were more cuts over his forearm and hand, as though it had been dragged through a legion of very sharp objects. Puss was seeping out slowly yet obviously, tinged yellow.

"My God…" Mallot whispered, stepping back. His eyes were wide in fear and disbelief, and he continued backing away as though being approached by a wild animal. Grapple took a step forward, a look of confused concern on his face, yet the moment his boot hit the ground, Mallot had bolted as though a gun had been fired at him. He ran quickly, wheezing and choking weakly through tears of pain, confusion, fear, and raw emotion.

He galloped through the freakish trees, cutting himself on the sharp branches with sap oozing off it onto the maple leaves on the lower branches. The hard ground became soft again, and he tripped as the sand replaced the dried mud, breaking out of the forest and onto the beech. He rushed, tripping, stumbling, occasionally putting a hand on the ground when he stooped to low, crying in pain and fear, realization and weakness. He wanted to get to the boat halves…he had to get to the boats! His brother's body would be there he knew, but as much as he didn't want to see it, it wasn't an option…he had to get there…

He had seen Barbossa's dead body back as the island, yet he was here on Rudagull. Perhaps it had been his ghost in a solid form? That meant that Grapple's body would be by the boats, where Luna told him Grapple had been found. And what was the glow they all spoke of? He didn't glow! Perhaps, Mallot thought, because he was alive he couldn't see his own glow. Yet Grapple had said he didn't glow, either…

He tripped over something in his distracted state and fell face-first into the ground, three feet from the charred, burned and collapsed boat halves. Without moving, he inhaled; accidentally sucking up sand into his parched throat, crying whatever water was left in him out in the form of tears. He tore his hat off and clutched it tightly in his right hand, trying to focus on crushing the worn leather, trying to convince himself it wasn't true…


Then, on some freakish, improbable intuition, he thought he recognized the shape of what he had tripped on. He slowly lifted his head to look back and see if it were indeed what it was. Behind him, his mallet lay still, as though carefully placed there to make sure he tripped. Biting his bottom lip hard, he drew blood yet ignored it. What was some more pain to add to his day, he figured?

He sighed and put his head back onto the sand, his chin resting in it so he could see and wouldn't breathe in the silt. He starred at the abandoned wreckage, daydreaming about something, something more comforting and happy…anything. He was dead, even if he glowed…He would die here…Somebody would steal his life, or he'd die of dehydration…

Grapple had given chase to his brother, his arm throbbing yet he tried to keep up in his staggering walk. Eventually, he stopped to inspect his arm, which was hurting, burning hot, agonizing…He walked, towards the beech, wondering why his brother would have gone somewhere where it would be to blindly easy to find him, when he could have lost anybody in the dense forest surrounding the other sides of the village.



He cradled his arm against his chest, muttering criticism at his brother to take his mind off of the pain. Eventually, he started wondering about the odd glow everybody at the village kept talking about. They had said he glowed at first, as well, yet the strange light had seeped into him. It was the only thing about Rudagull that didn't make sense. The dead did linger there, seeing Barbossa proved it. Grapple had seen the dead man's body himself!


"Mallot," he yelled out, calling the name a few times before frustration took over and he screamed at his brother. "Get back here, you idiotic sack of shit!"

He broke through the tree line and tripped over the unexpected sand. He walked clumsily through it, going towards the water. Strange, he thought, that he hadn't heard the water wash against the shore when he remembered passing out. When he woke up, the leader of the village, Zira, was leaning over him, pressing down on his chest hard a few times, Barbossa standing over her looking doubtful.
"Ti dedaf," she said thoughtfully, when Barbossa informed her "His glow went out."

He paused in his trek.  His glow had simply gotten snuffed out, yet when Koehler had tried to strangle Mallot, the mist lifted from him…And Mallot was alive, everybody kept telling him that, while they told Grapple he was dead…It was indeed an odd thing, the glow.

"Mallot!" he called out, before looking over to the boat wreckage. There, lying on his front side in the sand was Mallot, looking very still and without a glow. Grapple charged, galloping towards the wreckage, his arm throbbing more painfully as he neared it.

"Jonathan!" he yelled, sliding next to his brother. Mallot merely raised his eyebrows; his eyes closed, and grinned.

"Hey," he said weakly. A sudden silvery light surrounded him and Grapple gasped as the 'glow' became visible. Suddenly, it started lifting, floating off of his brother, ever so slowly dissipating like mist.

"Open yore eyes," Grapple ordered. Mallot shook his head weakly. "NOW!" Trevor barked out and his brother complied reluctantly. The mist hovered, lowered a smidgen, and yet stayed weakly over Mallot.

"He's dying. He'll soon be dead, just like me," a voice said behind Grapple, who turned and saw the familiar burning dreadlocks in Jacoby's beard, the odd red cap and baggy clothing.

"Jacoby…?"

The pirate nodded. He looked very sickly, his arms clutched around his stomach and ribcage as though they were in severe pain.
"How-?"

"Granado got stuffed in me in the moonlight. Then, the Turner whelp and girl pushed me out of the moonlight." Jacoby looked thoughtful for a moment. "Nipperkin an' Monk should be 'ere, to…" He chuckled idly and prodded his stomach. "I just needed a physical form, so 'ere I am for all to see!"

"I'm not dead," Grapple said, desperately trying to convince the other. Jacoby titled his head back and laughed heartily.

"Of course you're not! Don't see your dead body 'anging around anywhere, do you?"

Grapple looked around, and discovered that, indeed, there was no dead body belonging to him lying around. Mallot looked up and around as well, a grim look on his face.

"Well, I'll be God damned…"

"You will if you miss that ship on the 'orizon!" Jacoby chuckled. He pointed out to sea, slightly to his right, and both living pirates looked out. A small black dot on the horizon was visible. The three stayed silent for ten minutes, watching it, and then realized it was coming towards the island.

Grapple sprung up, and grabbed Jacoby roughly by the pirate's collar. With much protesting from him, Grapple dragged him over to the un-burned half of the boat, and grabbed his beard.

"'Ey!" Jacoby shouted, yet as Grapple put the lit copper wedges to the wood of the ship, he suddenly realized what was happening.

"Stay there!" Grapple ordered, and dashed back towards the mismatched forest. He returned, five minutes later, with an armful of greenery, leaves, sticks, branches covered in pine needles and green leaves, bark stripped from the trees, and all sorts of material to make smoke.



He dumped the pile onto the top of the over-turned boat half, and Jacoby held a dreadlock to a branch. Minutes later (and with much cursing), a small flame evolved and smoke whirled around it. The two fully conscious pirates cheered, Mallot merely grinning and muttering a quiet "Wonderful," as the flame grew, as did the amount of smoke.

The ship steadily grew nearer, and after sitting Mallot up, the three pirates waited. However, Jacoby soon departed, explaining how he could not return, and frankly didn't want to have his life back. The village was peaceful, and if he wasn't placed, he'd remain there.
"What's placin', anyways?" Mallot inquired. Jacoby grinned.

"The elders choose Hell or Heaven for you."

"Ah."

Waving goodbye to Jacoby's form stalking off into the forest, Mallot looked up at his brother standing beside him.

"I don't suppose I'm still glowing, am I?"

Grapple looked down and smiled, tapping his goateed chin a few times before nodding his head. "Yore glowing."

"Good, I think. Your arm looks terrible."

~*~

End of Chapter Notes: Mallot is glowing now because he's DYING, not DEAD. The living can see the DYING glow on the island, but not the LIVING glow. See? *grins innocently*
Zira was giving Grapple CPR. He only awoke when she was at the '5 sets of 15' part, and luckily missed the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation! *snickers* just to explain /why/ exactly he's alive. I suspect they didn't know about CPR back then but, Zira is…well, Zira! Need I say anymore?