I just want to thank you again to forceflow46 for Barbossa's name. I hope you don't mind that I used it, it's just it was a really good idea.
Chapter 31: Swimming Angel
Bill slammed Ethan to the ground and managed to get his hands around the other's throat, squeezing off his breath. Ethan reached up and hit Bill as hard as he could on his dislocated shoulder. Bill cried out and rolled off, lying on the deck panting and clutching his arm.
Ethan managed to roll over and raised a knife above Bill's head. Bill reached out with his left hand and grabbed Ethan's wrist, trying desperately to bring it down but Bill knew this was not his day to go. If Jack got Barbossa, then Bill would take the next best thing. Barbossa had taken Bill's brother from him; it was just an eye for an eye.
Bill wrenched Ethan's arm sideways and heard the satisfying snap of bone. Ethan cried out and clutched his wrist as Bill pulled himself to his feet and picked up his fallen sword with his left hand. Hovering over the other pirate, Bill held the sword to his neck.
"I'll see you in hell." He growled, bringing the sword down.
Jack raced as fast as he could across the deck, keeping only a few steps ahead of Barbossa. The other's putrid smell seemed to be everywhere, like it was a bad perfume. Passing Gibbs who was helping Gillette sit up, Jack leapt over three bodies in one go and found himself at the railing.
Turning with no where else to go but left or right, Barbossa bore down on him menacingly. The skeleton stopped and grabbed Jack's neck, the other having just decided to go left.
"Look." Jack choked. "I'm sure we can come to some sort of arrangement…" Barbossa shook his head, grip tightening. Suddenly, over the pounding of blood in his ears, Jack could hear Bill's voice.
"Daniel!" He called. Jack was slightly confused. Who the bloody hell was Daniel? "Over here. I have a present for you." Barbossa dropped Jack who staggered into the railing, coughing and clutching his throat. The skeleton turned and stared at Bill who held Ethan's head up by the hair. Jack grinned, one down…damn the Barbossa and their Devil spawn.
Bill lifted the head high above his own and threw it as hard as he could. The head spun through the air and hit Barbossa in the bony chest. The skeleton took a step back and Jack realized his predicament to late. As Barbossa stepped back, he knocked into Jack who fell backwards over the railing, grabbing the only thing he could. Barbossa and Jack tumbled head over heels into the cold black abyss below.
With a loud splash and loud rushing in his ears, Jack found himself underneath the water with Barbossa holding his brother's head in one hand and Jack's shirt in the other.
No matter how he looked at it, Jack hadn't ever been in a worse fix. Sure he had been marooned but he'd had rum. Sure he'd been surrounded by Navy men but they were all in Port Incompetent Royal…there had been the Spanish guys but who cared about them and Will, that could have given him a heart attack. He'd survived Barbossa once before with the cursed gold and he'd been hung…fallen off a battlement.
Barbossa looked happy though…because he couldn't drown to death. But Jack could and this thing was counting on it.
Will heard his father's cry and looked up at the doorway. He'd thought he'd heard 'Daniel'.
"Go." Elizabeth said. She was holding Christian upright, talking calmly to him. "I'll keep him awake, we'll be okay." Will nodded and took off up the stairs. The deck was lit up from the moonlight above and he could clearly see across the deck, Barbossa holding a head in his arms, Jack behind him. Barbossa took a step back, knocked into Jack and they both tumbled over the railing.
"No!" Will screamed, racing across the deck. He slammed into the deck and looked over the edge to see the foaming black see beneath him. As his father came to his side, the white bubbles dispersed and left only a glassy surface. Jack and Barbossa were gone.
"Where are they?" Bill yelled, panicking. Will's eyes desperately tried to pierce the water but he couldn't see anything. Norrington was suddenly at his shoulder and Gibbs, supporting Gillette, showed up later but still no one surfaced.
"I'm going in." Norrington said blandly, taking off his coat. Will looked at him blankly. This man was going to go in after Jack, a man he had not only tried to kill but a pirate and mortal enemy?
"No." Said a female voice. They all turned in surprise to see Morliana and the other women standing behind them, watching. Morliana motioned to the others. "We set this evil out into the world, we will bring it home."
With no other words, the women pushed roughly past the men, stepped up onto the railing and dived into the water. The men crowded back around and stared into the water. They had made no splash and no ripples on the ebony surface…all was quiet.
Jack pulled at the arm holding him to his death as hard as he could but he knew it would do no good. Barbossa was to strong. Jack let his arms fall and stared at the pits were eyes should be. They were hollow and deep, seeming to stretch forever in the dark.
His eyes moved up to the air above. He could see nothing but the shimmering water and suddenly wondered how deep they were. Anamaria, how would he explain it to her…well, he wouldn't it would have to be Will or Bill and that thought wasn't encouraging. Will could barely string two words together…
As he stared at the water above him, a glimmer of white caught his eye. A woman was cutting through the water quickly, her clinging white dress and skin glowing a soft white. Jack blinked. He had to be hallucinating…
It was Morliana and her warriors. Morliana reached out and grabbed him with one hand, her other hand resting on Barbossa's arm. The skeleton let go of Jack and the other women swarmed him, their white glow suddenly lighting up the water around him. Jack stared but soon it was like trying to look into the sun and he closed his eyes.
Morliana's lips suddenly closed over his own as bubbles spread over his body. Jack opened his eyes and pulled away, glancing into the bright light beside him. The bubbles were pouring out of it, like when Giselle would blow into her water through a straw.
Morliana's soft hand on his face brought him back and she again pressed her lips to his, forcing his mouth open with her tongue. A blast of air filled his lungs as she breathed for him. They were raising slowly, the light beside them, Morliana breathing into him and allowing him a few minutes free to exhale before she did it again.
The surface hit him cold and clean a few minutes later and he pulled away, gulping in the fresh air. Morliana pushed him roughly towards the ship and they swam off to the light, the bubbles around it growing to be as big as Jack and threatening to swallow him whole.
"Jack!" Will screamed over the popping noises of the bubbles and the rough slapping of the waves they made hitting the deck. "Hold on, we'll get you up!"
Jack waved vaguely at him but his eyes stayed on the ball of white now hovering above the water. The women had turned into streaks of mist and now circled Barbossa who was glowing green.
Barbossa was screaming, his voice piercing every nerve in Jack's body. As his voice reached such a pitch that Jack's ears almost hurt the mist's circle closed and there was silence.
Jack had now witnessed Barbossa die twice and he seriously hoped this would be the last. It was starting to get tiring. The spirits dived towards the water, hovered over it and then shaped themselves back into women. One of them, one Jack would never forget, came forward and grabbed Jack beneath the arms, lifting him easily into the air. They lifted smoothly upwards and onto the ship's deck.
The woman set him down and leaned into him, pulling his face forward and kissing him softly. When she pulled away, she placed one hand on his stomach and the other on his cheek. "I'm sorry about killing you, Jack." She said. "Honestly." Then she walked away and joined the other women in the middle of the deck.
Morliana stepped away as Alinasa joined them and smiled at Jack, then Will. "Release us." She said. Jack was confused.
"Excuse me?" He asked. Morliana held out her hand and handed him the bottle. Inside liquid still sloshed around.
"We give it to you, use it well." She said. "Now release us." Jack reached out a hand and took hers.
"You're released." He said. Morliana smiled and turned. The women followed her as she crossed the deck and stepped off the edge. Running to the railing, the men watched the women cross the water and step back onto the island, they could just see their white silhouettes in the moonlight.
"Who's that?" Norrington asked, pointing to the other end of the beach. There was another shape moving towards the warriors, a man. Jack leaned on the railing, holding the bottle of elixir close to his chest.
"Rauol Markling." He answered, looking over at the Commodore. "Morliana's long lost love." He turned away, not bothering to watch their reuniting and began searching the deck while wringing out his hair. "Has anyone seen Anamaria?"
The others shook their heads, still watching the beach. Jack sighed and crossed the deck, pushing into the only place no one had looked.
There, on the floor of the captain's cabin was Anamaria. She was lying on her side on the floor, blood from a gash on her cheek pooling around her face. Jack rushed across the room, threw the bottle on the bed and pulled her into his arms.
"Luv?" Jack asked. Anamaria's eyes fluttered and she looked blearily up at him. "Are you alright?"
Anamaria pulled out of his arms and looked wildly around. "Where's Marko?" She asked. Jack looked around the dark room to and noticed the large window in the kitchen wide open.
"He's gone." Jack said. "And so are a few of Barbossa's crew." Anamaria turned and stared at him. "They ran away from the battle." He stood up and pulled her to her feet. "Come on luv."
"Anamaria." Ana growled but allowed him to give her a hand.
"We have to find him." Anamaria said, tears welling in her eyes and falling down her cheeks. "We have to find him…" Then she broke down completely. Jack stood there awkwardly, staring at her and then he grabbed her, pulling her into a tight hug.
TO MY REVEIWERS:
OpraNoodlemantra: Hey. I was so honored by your review; it made me smile and turn red! You've been sitting there most of the day reading it! Wow, that's a lot to read! Wow, I don't have much to say in reply to your review because I'm smiling to much. Lol. I really wanted a relationship between Jack and Ana because I thought they would be perfect together. The Bill and Jack brother thing I just came up with while writing so, it threw me for a loop to. Well, Jack's past will be gone through in the sequel mainly, the little 'slip' about Jack's life before is to set it up for a sequel. Thank you for reading this and I hope you stick with it and the sequel.
KMSOrligirl: LOL, your welcome, and it's okay, I have blond moments all the time. I love writing battle scenes. I lay there at night and go over them like a movie in my head, then I write them out so I'm glad you liked it. Yeah, I love Morliana and the other Indian women, they are so weird to write though. You want to visit Saskatchewan? It's not as flat as everyone thinks but you can watch your dog run away on a clear day for 3 days (so everyone from here tells people, but it's a joke). You can see for miles though. I want to go everywhere in the United States, I just like to travel. Keep reading and reviewing.
Forceflow46: Rain! We got snow…blizzards. I'm glad your looking forward to the new story. I hope you got me email about the guy you work with, if you didn't just tell me. I'm so glad to have Daniel for the name now, even if I wont use it long. Thanks again. I don't know why ppl make Barbossa's laugh Muh ha ha ha ha…it's weird.
Toxic-Beetle: Thanks! I can't just kill Barbossa, it's fun to have a skeleton walking around. He's dead now though but, he was always dead…No Jack has bad luck. Keep reading and reviewing.
Padme17: I love Jack's head to, no matter how gooey his brains are. Thanks for the review! Yeah, I wanted this to be a lighter chapter and to show Jack and Bill's love for each other and humor a little more. I donno if he was an ass in this chappie but trying to kill Jack could count, eh? Lol, yes I'm from Canada and I loved the stereotype. Funny things is, I do say eh a lot so…lol. Where are u from in Texas?
