(A/N – Bonjour mes amis! Welcome to French class! We're making crepes today! Cetait delicieux! Plenty to go around! Try one! It's just a sugary pancake with strawberry jelly or chocolate (w/ powdered sugar)! Cya at the bottom! Just don't hate me when you're done, k?)

The Reviewers!!!

x) Raina and Nayana - Yeah! Sure you're invited! Bring in the Krispy Kremes and Ham! PAR-TAY!!!

x) rainaisbetterthanyou! - Haha! Nice long Christmas list in a sentence! I love your randomness lol... Hope you had a good holiday! Thanks for reviewing and enjoy this one!

x) Choco Donut - Yay! I haven't talked to you in forever!! Hi Mort! -big grin- So glad you like the last few chapters, and now I must regret to inform you that you won't be happy with me for the next few chapters -takes cover behind Jack- Please believe me that I HAD TO DO IT!!! lol... I had a great Christmas, thanks! Hope you got my card all right! I got Secret Window on DVD!!! lol... -even bigger grin while bouncing in computer chair- Well, I'll leave you here. I hope you won't hate me, but the faster you review, the faster I post! Ta!

.:: Sort of a new character this chapter lol… Just wait and see. ::.

- Did Disney have that yard sale yet? No? CRAP!!! Uh… I mean, disclaimer!

- Doot do do do do… Lindsay, Jessica, Arielle Faye Turner, Rebecca Barbossa, Paige Castrella Madrine (Lillian Paige Barbossa), Thomas Pikes, Shminky,and the Meridian are mine! Copyrighted!

-- I warned you. Next few chapters may be possible tear-jerkers. --

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CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: "You didn't!"

We pressed ourselves against the cave wall as Dumbo Hugungo came down on us; giant fists the size of my head probably, grunting like a silent beast. Lindsay, Jess, and I moved away from the wall a bit; maybe we can try this talking-our-way-out-of-trouble thing again?

"Back off!" Jessica yelled.

The pirate yelled louder, and we were shaking.

"Oh, what a shminky you got us into this time, Erica!" Lindsay said.

"Me?!"

"Yeah you! You-"

We stopped as the giant pirate walked slowly up to us, a mix of emotions in his face. We swallowed hard, I closed my eyes, but nothing came but a gruff voice.

"Shminky?" the pirate asked, pointing to himself.

"Yeah, let's go with that," I whispered feebly. The pirate's face melted into a smile, and he came towards us, and we screamed.

"Shminky," he said, pulling us into a hug. Ok, that was the last thing I expected out of him! Boy, Lindsay's new word can work wonders…

"Gleeglespaw?" Jessica asked. The giant pirate turned towards Jessica and growled low, arms raised in a choke hole the size of her neck.

"Jonah and the Whale!" I said, trying to save her. But he only made his way towards me now.

"No! Shminky!" Lindsay said. I opened my eyes. He was still over me, and then he stood upright again and turned to Lindsay. He pointed to himself again. Wait…

"Shminky?" he asked again, now pointing to Lindsay.

"Didn't we already do this?" I whispered to Lindsay. But she wasn't listening to me, so she just kept talking to the pirate.

"No," Lindsay said. "Jane. Jane." She pointed to herself, and the pirate looked confused.

"Jane, Tarzan!" I said, now pointing at the pirate. Stewy elbowed me, and Lindsay continued with her pointing.

"Jane, Shminky. Shminky, Jane," she said.

"Jane…" the pirate said softly. Then, he bent down and picked her up, swung Lindsay over his shoulder, and walked down the ledge.

"HELP!!!" Lindsay screamed.

"You did it yourself!" I yelled. Jessica and I jumped down off the high ledge and landed at the feet of Paige and Thomas who helped us up.

"What the hell is a shminky?" Thomas asked.

"Whatever it is, it's not good," Paige said. "Come on! We gotta get Bloody Jane!"

So, we started to run off in the direction the pirate took Lindsay, but there was Rebecca still fighting Will off. She spotted us, and threw Will to the ground. Will slipped into the darkness, leaving only Paige, Jess, Thomas, and I with her.

"JACK!!!" Stewy yelled. I covered her mouth as Rebecca walked up to us.

"Yes, yell a bit louder so I can find him," she said. "Please."

- Lindsay's PoV -

"For the love of rum, would you put – me – DOWN?!" I yelled, pounding on the pirate's massive shoulder he had swung me over.

"Shminky…" he said again calmly.

"Look, you're a pirate, I'm a pirate. Can't we reach a compromise through parley or whatever?" I asked.

No good. He carried me into the shadows of one of the many tunnels and that, and before I knew it, I was dropped right onto a million sharp rocks on my butt!

"Ow!!!" I yelled. "You loser!"

I stood up brushing off my boyz pants that now had a huge rip in the right knee, and then I turned my head and saw two figures next to me.

"Jane, is that you, luv?"

"Jack?" I asked. "Yeah, it's me… who's that?"

I took a flashlight out of my pocket and shown it on the other figure.

"Anamaria!" I said.

I kneeled next to Jack who had her propped up in his arms carefully looking at her blankly as if in disbelief, and I shifted a bit uncomfortably.

"She'll be ok, right?" I asked.

"Surely," Jack said. "We just gotta revive her."

At that exact same moment, Anamaria sat up slowly in Jack's arms clutching her head, and then her eyes opened while she was facing Jack. She seemed a bit surprised at her position, and Jack helped her stand.

"You all right?" I asked her.

"Fine…" she said, standing straight.

Then, we heard a really loud scream. That's definitely Erica and Stewy, the big mouths…

"Sounds like Grace and Mary have things under control," Jack said, looking toward the screams.

"Yeah," I said, sarcastically. "Sure… we gotta help them! Where's Will?"

"Search me," Jack said. "Stay here and hide with Ana and… err… yer friend," he said, eyeing the giant pirate.

"Oh, Shminky!" I said.

"Aye… well, I've got a plan to carry out, so if you'll excuse me…"

"Wait!" I said, grabbing his arm as he started to walk pass me. "You can't just go out there and… and… there's gotta be another way!"

"Do ye have any suggestions?"

"Well, no…"

"Then let me through."

"Jack!"

He sighed, and I got him to talk.

"The only other way would be to get hold of the ruby because regardless if ye're dead or alive, at any moment, Rebecca could whip out that ruby and go back, and then what?"

"What if one of us got it, though?" I asked desperately. "What if one of us Littles managed to swipe it from her? Like a pirate would?"

Jack stared at me sadly for what seemed forever, but then he straightened up. Ha! I'm getting somewhere!

"Alright, I'll make ye a bargain," Jack said. "If one of ye can get that ruby without her knowing what ye're up to in five minutes, I won't go out there."

"And if we can't?" I asked, swallowing hard.

"I'm going out."

I thought the whole thing over. I hope the others understand…

"Do we have an accord?" Jack asked me, hand extended.

Oh, so much running through my head so fast… the others will probably kill me if I don't get that ruby since there's no way I could tell them safely without Becca knowing, Jack's life being on the line, oh, but I had to do it if it meant saving Jack. I had to. I'm a pirate. No one lets me forget that one anymore…

"We have an accord," I said quietly, shaking Jack's hand.

"Good," he said, letting go. "Five minutes."

"Right," I said, turning to go out there. "Five minutes. Come on, Shminky; I'll need your help."

"Shminky?" he asked.

"Yeah, you," I said. "Let's get out there."

I ran up the path with Shminky behind me, then once I got out into the open part of the cave, I saw Rebecca leaning over Erica, Jess, Paige, and shwoo… Thomas. The two chicken pirates were still out, and I jumped down into the water and rocks.

"Hey, Becca!"

They all looked my way; Stewy and Erica in relief and mixed horror, Rebecca quite pleased.

"Oh, Little Swann…" Rebecca said. "Join us, would you?"

"No," I said.

"Why not?" she asked. "Too good for your friends not to be killed with them? Awfully selfish of you, don't you think?"

Ooo, my anger level was about to boil over. I heaved more and more with anger, my eyes trying to kill Rebecca, but my eyes would do nothing to help. This called for my sword. I pulled it from my side, but Rebecca just laughed.

"You against me, deary, isn't going to happen."

"AHHHHHH!!!!!"

I ran at her full force, shouts from my friends to stop and what do I think I'm doing, but they don't know my deal with Jack is a life or death one. That ruby has to be in my hands in less than five minutes, or we're all good as gone.

I pounced on her, threw my sword off to where Paige picked it up as they watched me battle her tooth and nail, fighting like crazy.

"Go Bloody Jane! Go!" I heard Stewy yell. I smiled to myself and started digging through her pockets, but not coming up with the ruby. I had to hold her down or else.

"Help me hold her down!" I called to them.

Stewy, Erica, Paige, and Thomas came over and each grabbed a limb, but she kept thrashing and wouldn't stop. She eventually shook them all off but Paige, but even that was no good.

"Get OFF!!!"

Becca threw us both into a pile with the others bruised and battered, and she got to her feet making water fly off herself, whipping out her gun, and walking right up to us.

"That is it! You little miscreants are going to pay!" she raged.

"Like we've never heard that before…" Erica said.

- Erica's PoV -

Rebecca immediately rounded me, and then I cursed myself mentally for never listening to my mom – I really need to learn to shut my mouth more often. It got me into a situation last summer with three pirates, a situation this summer in the Caribbean (ok, that was Stewy's and Lindsay's fault… they wanted the adventure, but this is really cool aside from the whole life/death thing right now.), the rum cellar, and now this.

She didn't say a word, just raised her pistol and shot me.

"Grace!" I heard Paige yell.

It got black for two seconds, and then I stood up. Rebecca's jaw was again dropped, and I smiled.

"Like I said before, promises, promises…"

At that, her face got all scrunched up with anger, she dug into her coat pocket, and there was the ruby. All five of us gasped.

"No, no…" Lindsay said.

"Oh, why? Afraid of defeat and losing everything?" Rebecca asked. "I think it's time for you all to say goodbye, eh?"

Then, Lindsay ran behind Rebecca and started shouting.

"I'm not cursed!" Lindsay yelled. "Just shoot me!"

"Lindsay! Shut up!" Stewy yelled.

"I'm not cursed! Kill me! Kill me, Becca Barbossa!"

"Lindsay!" I yelled.

My eyes grew into the size of softballs when Rebecca pointed the gun at her. Even though I knew Lindsay was fine since she really was cursed like the rest of us, I was screaming because Jack was racing to push her out of the way.

BANG!!!

He spun Lindsay to the ground and the bullet hit him right in the chest, followed by another two.

"JACK!!!!" I bellowed.

"NO!" Rebecca screamed, realizing what she had done, dropping the pistol from her hands.

The four of us took off for Jack who was crumpling to the ground, and Thomas hit Rebecca in the back of the head hard with a rock knocking her out.

"Jack! Jack!" I yelled, jumping over rocks and running through puddles. Lindsay screamed when she saw what had happened, and the four of us dropped to our knees yelling Jack's name, myself already starting to cry a river.

We were all around him; Thomas was on one knee. Paige and I fell to his left with Lindsay and Jessica on the other side. I cried even more when I saw the three crimson holes spill over onto his shirt slowly, but he was dying much faster, and I knew it.

"Why did you do it?!" I yelled. "You didn't have to do it! You didn't! You didn't! You didn't!" I put my head down, but he nodded.

"I did," he said.

"Why?!" Lindsay asked spilling her tears like Paige, Stewy and me. "It would've been fine!"

"She can't go back and kill me now," Jack coughed. "It's better this way."

"Better?!" Paige shouted. "How is this better?!"

"I'd rather now knowin' ye than two years before not," he said, touching Paige's cheek lightly. "if I hadn't, I could never see Lily again or have you three to remember."

I cried with every word he spoke, feeling the most hurt I had ever endured thus far in my life. I couldn't help but to want it to just be me and him, but I couldn't be so harsh to my friends. They love him, too.

"Oh, this stupid plan!" Jessica roared. "You didn't have to die in the end, Jack! We told you that in the beginning!"

"I did," he said.

"Don't say that," Lindsay told him.

"I did," he repeated. "I had to stop her, and this was the only way. And if I didn't, we'd all be dead."

"Better than just you!" Paige said, wiping her eyes and snuffling.

"No," he said.

A few moments passed in silence from Jack as the four of us continued to ball our eyes out uncontrollably. There was no help and that ripped our hearts out… none at all. I wanted to lie down beside him and die with him, and I did; I laid my cheek on his chest listening to his staggered breath syncopate with mine.

"Ye remember what I told ye bout the Pearl, Gracey?" Jack asked me. I looked up from his shirt still crying. "It's yours."

"But I don't want it!" I said. "You're the only captain of the Black Pearl! That's why they call you Captain Jack Sparrow…"

I slipped back to crying into his shirt.

"That which I am no more," he said.

"Don't say that!" Lindsay said. "Don't think like that!"

"You can't go… you just can't…" Stewy cried.

"Here now, stop the cryin'…" Jack said. "Show a backbone and honor the code. Ye're pirates now. Pirates don't cry."

"Maybe we don't want to be pirates!" I yelled.

"Not without you…" Paige said.

"And how can you tell us to just forget about you with that damned code? It's guidelines! They should be burned! Screw the freaking code!" Lindsay said.

Jessica shook her head in agreement.

"Jack, please don't leave us," I begged. "Please… you can't…"

"Ye'll always be Little Sparrow," he said to me. "Nothing can change that. Nothing can stop ye. Or any of ye for that matter. Ye'll make it. Ye're pirates."

I just lay there still. Somebody help him, please…

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- GASP! Suspense…

Delicious crepes! Now, we get to go to… dun dun dun… ALGEBRA!!!

Please review! CRAP!!! Not another test! Jack! Time to cram again!!