ROPE-WALKER

By Jashi

N O T E: Um...wow, these notes get shorter and shorter. A little bit more disturbing crap in this chapter, but not as much as the last. Wow. Where do I get this stuff? Yet, there is fluff in this chapter too.

CHAPTER TWELVE

If you were wondering where Will was, all you had to do was follow the trail of blood that led down the path where he kept fighting an unseen ghost with a very solid sword. And a very sharp one at that. Will bit his lip as the sword kept evading his, leaving gashes in his arms, legs, and his side. His vision blurred as he lost blood. Where was Anamaria? Was she still alive? His thoughts flew to her as the sword slashed a deep wound in his side...

Ana was riddled with holes as she attempted to crawl for cover, but every moment meant another shot somewhere in her body and she finally gave up and lay there in the middle of the path, unmoving, waiting to die...

The pain that had started in Jack's wrist grew slowly but surely until his knees gave way. He saw black dust rushing out of wrist, like ghost blood. Tades dropped to her knees beside him, brow furrowed.

"C'mon, sir..." she pulled his arms around her shoulders and hoisted him up, "...I don' know what th' blazes this magic is, but we 'ave ta keep on." They made it thirty paces before Tades flew up into the air and Jack collapsed back on the ground. He noticed there was nothing left of his arm...the pirate captain seemed to be disintegrating, and he could feel every speck of him give way in a blinding torrent of pain. Dark, red-black dust kept pouring from the hole in his shoulder.

There was something around her neck. A noose. She grabbed at it as it pulled her up into the air but it was as though she was being hung by a silk thread. There was something there, no doubt, but as she gasped in vain attempt to breathe, she could not get her fingers around the unseen rope to save herself. It threw her into the rock wall, and her vision was dotted with stars. The edges began to blur as Tades slowly realized she was not going to be able to untangle herself from the noose.

Will's blood shone like molten silver in the twinkling of the stars and moonlight as the other sword smashed through his chest. He was thrown backwards on the ground, collapsing in a red heap, images of Elizabeth flitting through his head.

Jack was writhing on the ground, choking on his own screams as he slowly fell apart in a puddle of dust, his eyes wildly open, and he saw his watch-mate suspended from the air, her neck tilted at a grotesque angle. Tades was unmoving and gray, dangling, softly wafting as a breeze passed by.

And the sun rose.

A red sun.

The noose snapped around Tades' neck and she fell into a pile on the ground.

Jack slowly faded in and out of the spectrum until he was whole again.

The seemingly thousands of holes in Ana's body closed.

Will's blood slowly crept back into him until there was no evidence of any struggle.

Jack opened his eyes. The sun was dully shining, as though through a screen of smoke. He felt unimaginably stiff, and his arm was tender. He rubbed his eyes with his other hand and managed to sit up. Had he been drinking the night before or something? He wondered. Then as his eyes saw Tades lying in a clumsy heap the previous night's events came crashing back to him in a red-tinged memory.

"Lass," he muttered, crawling over and shaking her shoulder. Tades' eyes fluttered open.

"Sir?" she whispered, sitting up, rubbing her head.

"Ye alright, Tades?" his mutter was concerned.

She nodded, feeling odd. Jack hardly said her first name. "You, sir?"

"Fine," he said. Tades stood, offering a hand. He took it and stood. This time, however, his hand didn't fall off. Jack chuckled. They began to walk down the path once more.

It was nearly an hour later before they reached the end of the path, and the sky had grown cloudy. The path lead out to a white beach. Will and Anamaria were sitting there, looking worried.

"Oye! Will!" Tades cried out, and the young smith turned around and saw her.

"Why the hell'd ye go right?" she said angrily.

"Why did YOU go right?" Will retorted, "I know I went left."

Jack sighed. "Children, stop fighting."

Tades sighed after he did. She looked at Ana, and then at Will. They looked almost haunted, so very gaunt and wan. Her eyes widened as she realized what had happened to her had duly occurred upon the four.

"...was it real?" Anamaria's voice was low as she looked out to sea, voicing the unspoken question that lingered in each pirate's heart. She saw the black sails of the Pearl, waiting for them about a mile offshore.

"Nah," said Will nervously, "Must have been some crazy dream..."

Tades nodded uncertainly. "Must've. Couldn't've been real."

Jack's voice was low and contradicting. "No," he said slowly, looking at Tades oddly, as though he'd just noticed something, "no...it was real, love..." He reached forward and tipped up her chin, revealing a dark ring of bruises that encircled Tades' neck.

They had to swim back to the Pearl, she seemed unable to get any closer to them. Gibbs said that the anchor had fallen and no man could pull it up, yet after Jack, Tades, Ana, and Will returned to the ship the anchor was came back up without a hitch.

It was night again. Cloudy darkness loomed over the sea as Tades stood at the railing of the ship. She stared back at Isla de Dolor, eyes fixed on the line where the island had disappeared hours ago. She thought back to her wretched dream, of that menacing shadow that had lingered behind the bodies of her friends. She could not stop thinking of those terrible eyes.

"Ye alright, lass?" Jack's voice came from behind her, and Tades turned her head.

"Yessir. Just a-ponderin' is all," she muttered, turning back towards the sea. Jack came and stood next to her, his black dreadlocks softly breezing in the light wind. He took something out of his pocket and rubbed it between his fingers. Tades pretended not to look at him. He reached forward and took her hand, sliding the object into her palm and set her hand back down upon the rail. She opened her hand.

There lay a silver shilling.

Tades went from complacent to fuming in less than a second.

"M'God, Jack, a shilling? What th' 'ell is with ye givin' me shillings after we do sommat dangerous? Is that all I'm worth ta ye, Jack?"

"Per'aps," said Jack slyly, "an' its Captain, lass."

"In th' bloody name o' Christ," she swore, cocking her arm back. This time she did throw the shilling, and it caught the tiny ray of a star that twinkled, uncovered by a cloud. She saw the little, now-gleaming object disappear beneath black waves of Caribbean sea. She regretted throwing it the moment it left her hand.

"Now ye got ta go get it," said Jack seriously. Tades' jaw dropped.

"What?"

"Hold yer breath, love," he whispered, a gleam in his tricky eyes as he seized Tades and firmly shoved her over the rail. He heard her small cry as she hit the water, and also her obscene curses as she came back up, sputtering.

"Ye little bastard!" he heard her shriek. He smiled and picked up a rope, throwing it down to her. Tades grabbed the rope and scurried back up the side of the ship.

"I hate ye," she muttered when she finally got back on deck, shivering and cold.

"I know, lass," said Jack with a smile. But he pulled off his faded, worn coat and set it on her shuddering shoulders. She said nothing for a long time.

"Jack?"

"Yea?"

"Why'd ye keep givin' me shillings?"

Jack was silent for several moments. "I dunno...seems ta be th' right thing ta do..."

"Why?" the pirate lady cocked her head.

"'Cause, love, I keep rememberin' that day...nearly ten years ago, now...I keep rememberin' it inside m'head, and I hate that day so much, love, I hate everythin' that happened."

Tades bit her lip, knowing exactly what he was talking about.

The Black Pearl, perhaps ten years ago, under Captain Jack Sparrow's short reign. Tades Rackham was Jack's old friend from when Follighaer had been cap'n of the Pearl, where she'd dressed as a boy in order to get out of Spain. Follighaer was dead now, though, and Jack was the new captain. He'd known her secret while Follighaer was cap'n, yet he had never divulged it to anyone, and Tades was indebted for him forever for that simple action. Jack had re-hired her now to work under him as his watch, and he'd hired her as a man. He'd hired Bootstrap Bill as well, and Tades had great respect for this man.

But the rest of the crew she did not respect. They were absolutely rotten men, especially that first mate Barbossa. He peered at her through yellow-tinged, piercing eyes, and when she saw him staring she wondered if he knew who she really was. The rest of the crew was leery and uncomfortable with her, as though she was an animal instead of a person.

Then it happened.

Jack blacked out inside his office from drunkenness, as was the norm, yet Barbossa and his men pushed a heavy barrel of chain against the door to keep him in. Tades had been up in the crow's nest, staring out at the sky.

"Come down, Tades," Barbossa had called up to her, his voice silky, "I gotta job fer ye..."

Every single one of Tades' instincts screamed at her to stay up in the nest. Yet still, she clamored down the ropes to Barbossa.

"Yessir?" she asked casually.

The other man furrowed his brow, squinting. "Tades, lad, c'mere, I see somethin'." He took a step nearer to her. Tades stepped back. She remembered seeing Bootstrap put down the rope he was coiling, sensing something was wrong.

"Ah, yes, Tades...I see what's wrong...I SEE EXACTLY WHAT'S WRONG!" he bellowed so fiercely that every man on deck of the Black Pearl stopped what they were doing. He grabbed one of Tades wrists, and with the other hand tore open her cotton shirt. Her eyes widened and she yelled, "'Elp, 'e's gone mad!" Yet everyone on the crew saw it as Barbossa tore the rest of her shirt from her torso. They saw the cloth that wrapped around her chest, binding her chest tightly. Tades was stunned into silence, and as Barbossa quickly relieved her of the chest-bindings, nothing but pure shame was in her.

"Tades...yer...yer...yer a woman..." came Bootstrap's whisper. And then came such a torrent of screams, taunts and curses from each one of the men that Tades could not hear them. She struggled against Barbossa, who grabbed her and shoved her against the mast.

"Barbossa, no!" yelled Bootstrap, and he pulled him off her for a moment, which she used to duck away. A chase ensued. There were shots fired, and so much ruckus was made that Jack finally was awoken. He tried to open his door, but it was stuck. Hearing the gunshots, he thought a fight had broken on deck and he slammed himself against the door many times until it finally cracked open. He barely slid out, and when he did he saw a sight that he would never forget.

Several members of his crew were holding Tades over the railing, her hands were bound and she was half-naked, and her exposed skin was covered with red scratches. There was a terrified look in her eyes that he had never seen before, and as they readied to drop her in their eyes met for a fleeting moment.

"STOP!" cried Jack, and the crew froze. "Cap'n!" yelled Barbossa, "This here's a woman! Tades ain't lad, she's a woman! Ye know what has to be done!"

"Jack, wait," said Bootstrap, "don't kill 'er, Jack, she's never done anythin' but be a woman..."

Tades eyes spoke volumes to him that words could never have expressed. It was a mix of terrible fear, pain, shame, but still a plea for him to let them drop her, for if he admitted that he'd hired her knowing she was a woman, they'd mutiny against him faster than lighting.

Turning his head away, he muttered, "Drop 'er."

Tades did not let a sound come from her as they threw her into the chilly Caribbean waters. Jack walked as casually back to his cabin, trying not to appear concerned in any way. As soon as he disappeared inside, he ran to the porthole.

He saw a lone, pale form swimming in the direction he knew was Tortuga.

Jack closed his eyes at the memory. "Lass, ye have ta know I never wanted that ta happen to ye...It was th' only thing I could do...though it didn't matter, they mutinied against me anyways..."

"S'alright, Jack," Tades voice was softer than usual, "I know."

He absently put his hand in his pocket, and his fingers felt something small and round. Pulling it out, he saw it was a shilling.

"This is fer that day, love," he said, and suddenly he noticed how close they had become. He took her hand, gently pressing the shilling into her palm.

He closed her fingers around the coin, not letting her hand go.

Jack felt Tades' lips brush against his.

He opened his eyes. "That was worth a shilling, love."

"What?"

"That kiss was only worth a shilling."

Tades looked at him with a mixed expression of disbelief and humor.

"Shall I try again, cap'n?"

"I would suggest."

He felt her lips upon his again, and her kiss was warm.

"Hmm...four pieces of eight," he judged.

Tades' eyes were dancing. She laughed at him.

"Then, Jack Sparrow...what shall I do?"

"Tell ye what, love. I'll make it a gold doubloon fer ye, savvy?"

She gave him a mock glare. "I wonder if ye live up ta yer name."

"I'll let ye be the judge, love."

He kissed her.