Chapter One—Element of Mystery

Nine years later…

"Captain, the men are gettin' restless. They want to set out soon."

"I know. So do I, believe me."

"Squark… Yah scurvy swabs."

Captain Jack Sparrow turned to the parrot wearily. "Yes, Mr Cotton, we know your thoughts on the situation."

Mr Gibbs leaned forward in his chair. "What're your thoughts, Captain? You've not said a word about what you're plannin' on doin' here in Tortuga, and we've been in port nearly four days."

First, Jack finished his pint. Then he gave a sigh and leaned onto the back legs of his chair before saying leisurely, "What I'm planning on doing…is finding a woman to join our crew."

He smirked when Mr Gibbs, as expected, choked on his drink.

"A woman, sir?" he repeated. "Captain, you know it's frightful bad luck. I've said it before."

"I know you have," Jack agreed with a small nod. He folded his arms to show his resolution.

"But sir—"

"Aye-aye. Squark!"

"Thank you for your confidence, Cotton," Jack said with a nod in the bird's direction. "Hear me out, Gibbs." He dropped his chair onto all four legs, leaning forward on the table to speak with his shipmates more privately. Of course, no one would have overheard them if they had been speaking normally, since this pub, like any good one in Tortuga, was currently the setting for several vociferous bar fights, which the Black Pearl's crewmen were at the moment ignoring.

"Anamaria's left us." He shrugged. "Can't blame her. No decent sailor would give up a chance to be captain of his—or her—own ship. I know you weren't sad to see her go, Gibbs, but I have to say this. You must have noticed she came in handy more than once, aye?"

Mr Gibbs gave an uncertain grunt, staring into the lager he was nursing. "I don't know, Captain…"

"Come on, man. There are some things that only a woman can do." He smiled widely, revealing a few gold teeth. "You can't tell me we didn't find some propositions easier to sell when we had her to help with negotiations. What's more intimidating to anyone who dares oppose the Black Pearl than a beautiful woman with a sword she knows how to use?"

"Aye… Not many things, Jack, I'll agree with yah there," Mr Gibbs muttered. "But don't you think we might have that sort of good luck just the same if we didn't have to fight with the bad luck of having a woman aboard? I'm beggin' yah, Captain, anythin' but that."

"Gibbs," Jack sighed, "have you not learned anything aboard my ship?"

"I've learned a lotta things in the years I've known yah, Jack. Which one thing are you thinkin' of right now?"

Holding up a finger for emphasis, Jack said slowly and clearly, "The single most important thing to remember when dealing with me. Whenever you think I've gone mad, whenever you think I'm leading your all to your bloody deaths, what's the one thing to remember? I'm—"

"Captain Jack Sparrow," Mr Gibbs finished the sentence. "Escaped the East India Trading Company, and sacked Nassau Port, and all of that."

"And don't forget the raft I built out of sea turtles, mate."

Mr Gibbs chose not to acknowledge the subtle taunt at his gullibility. "I've heard it all enough times, Jack. But what does that have to do with what's goin' on here?"

"What I'm telling you, Gibbs, is that if I say we could benefit from having a woman in the crew, then we could benefit from having a woman in the crew, and we're not leaving until we have a woman in the crew. Savvy?"

Mr Cotton's parrot chirped. "All hands on deck!"

Jack, who still sometimes had difficulty understanding Mr Cotton's more obscure phrases, raised a curious eyebrow at Mr Gibbs.

"I agree with Cotton," the superstitious man answered. "Anamaria was a one in a million woman." Jerking his head to gesture around them, he asked, "How many on this rock do yah think would know anythin' about mannin' a ship? How many would you trust with a beauty like the Black Pearl?"

"One in a million, Gibbs," Jack admitted. "But there's got to be at least two million people who pass through here every day, and so somewhere in there, all we've got to do is find the one."

It sounded simple enough when he said it.

"And how do yah reckon we do that, Captain?"

Jack was about to answer, though he wasn't entirely sure how, when anything he could have said was drowned out by a vicious, aggressive shout even louder than those of the fights taking place at the moment—but there was another quality about it that stood out as well.

"Hey!"

There was the quick scraping of chairs as most of the pub's attention fell to the source of the disturbance and cleared room for a potentially crowd-stopping brawl.

"What part of 'get the hell away from me' don't you understand?"

It was a woman speaking, a woman perhaps twenty years old; she was dressed in short, loose pants over leather boots, with a swatch of red fabric tied as a belt, and a vest over a sleeveless shirt; her blonde hair would perhaps have come to her waist if it had been free, but it was currently tied in a ponytail. The opponent she confronted was a short, balding man with stubble on his face indistinguishable from the filth there, a lopsided smile, and a drink in one hand.

"Come on, sweet, I didn't mean—"

He cut himself off with a stifled cry of pain when the hand he had reached toward her was fixed in her bone-crushing grip. The woman's fist then connected powerfully with his nose, the brute force of the blow making even Jack flinch, though he smiled as he did so.

The woman whipped around to march out of the pub, and the few people in her way scurried to the side.

Jack grinned at his companions. "We've found her."

Mr Gibbs' eyes widened, and he was about to speak, but Jack had swiftly risen from his chair and crossed the room confidently, to head the young woman off at the door by stepping in front of her.

She cast him a mockery of a sweet smile. "Can I help you?" she asked, a threat underlying her words.

"Yes, love, I believe you can," he replied, unfazed. "But the first question I wanted to ask was if I can help you."

The woman gave him a calculating expression. "What makes you think you can help me?"

"There's really only two kinds of people who usually find their ways to this kind of place," Jack said by way of answer. Looking her over, he concluded, "And since you don't look like most of the women who work their trade here, I'd have to say you're the other kind. A sailor. Maybe even a captain without a crew?"

He asked the question more out of hope than a real expectation that she would give the answer he would have liked, but there was always the possibility, and this time it was realized.

"I had a crew," she spat angrily, "but it didn't take long here for them to decide they'd rather stay ashore than keep sailing with me." She scowled. "Loyal men, and obedient…until the day we came here."

"Ah, well," Jack said sagely, "although I never do endorse anything remotely like mutiny myself, I must say, the luckiest man in the world is the man who is a man in Tortuga."

"And the luckiest woman?" she asked immediately.

"The luckiest woman," Jack told her pointedly, "is the woman in Tortuga who finds a man in Tortuga who's looking for a woman who doesn't want to be in Tortuga."

Folding her arms in a posture of strong defiance, she asked, "What's your point?"

"My point, miss—What was your name?"

"What's your story, first?" she replied instantly.

Jack nodded concession. "My point, or my story, is that I'm looking for a crew member. Can I tempt you?"

"You have a venture in mind?"

"Not much," Jack said casually, leaning against the door frame with a sigh. "Just the usual, you know, plunder and pillage and all those other endearing pastimes, and really bad eggs," he added with a flicker of a smile.

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Eggs?"

"It's a long story, never mind," Jack told her quickly. "So, care to join my ship?"

She looked him over critically, then slowly said what was just about the last thing Jack would have expected.

"I'd like you to hear a proposition of my own," she said. "I'll join your crew, if you'll commit your ship to helping me with a mission I'm on. Interested?"

Intrigued, the Black Pearl's captain asked, "What would be in it for us?"

"Glory," she replied, "and an adventure any man here would kill to be able to claim he had under his belt. And my services. And, of course, I can promise at least a bit of loot."

With a wave towards his table, Jack grinned and said, "Come have a seat with us, then, love, and regale us with the story of your personal mission."

She nodded shortly, glancing at the two men whom Jack had indicated, and took a seat between them; the other captain sat next to her and waved over a serving girl as he introduced his companions.

"Two of my men, Mr Gibbs and Mr Cotton. Get us another round here," he added when the serving girl arrived with a smile. With a glance at the new member of their party, he inquired, "For you as well, love?"

"Yes," she said. As the waitress walked away, the female captain added, "And my name is Tetra, so start using it."

"Tetra?" Jack echoed, raising his eyebrows. "That's an unusual one. Not from around here, are you, then?"

"I had another name," she answered simply, "but I left it behind. What do they call you?"

Jack noticed, though he wasn't sure if she did, that her hand went to her collar as she spoke about herself. With half a glance, he caught sight of a flash of gold there, but didn't inquire about it.

"Captain Jack Sparrow," he said simply; he waited for her to react, but she simply nodded again. Mildly puzzled, he asked, "Have you not heard of me?"

"Should I have?" Tetra asked coolly.

Jack traced his lips with his finger thoughtfully. "Apparently there are some far-reaching parts of this world which have not yet heard my name," he commented. "I'll have to remedy that situation. But now's not the time," he changed the subject briskly. "We were talking about you, and your name. Is that a part of your story?" he asked.

"It's a long story," she said by way of answer.

"Not one for giving a straight answer, are you?"

She shrugged. "You want to hear what I've got to say or not?"

Indicating himself and the other men in a gesture of supplication, Jack said, "That's why we're here."

"All right," she leaned back in her seat to get comfortable for a long narration. "It doesn't really matter how my life began, but…I was raised on a ship. My father was a pirate, and he raised me after him. I grew up around his crew, and they were as loyal as any men could be, even if they weren't the smartest or the swiftest. They saw me as just what I was, their captain's daughter, next in line to rule—I mean…to lead them," she corrected herself quickly. Glossing over the odd slip, she went on immediately, "They would have followed me to the ends of the earth. So, when my father died, the captaincy fell to me without question. I was eleven."

If she noticed the surprise on Mr Gibbs' face, she didn't acknowledge it, but continued. "I had been captain for over a year, maybe nearer two, when… Well, when my real story began. It took place hundreds of miles from here, or more. I'm not sure exactly how far from my homeland I've travelled to end up in—Tortuga, is it?" she asked, glancing inquiringly at the three men.

"Aye," Jack confirmed. "You're not from the Caribbean, then. Europe, maybe?"

Tetra's brow furrowed. "Europe?"

This was strange. What person had never heard of Europe? "I suppose not," he said. "It doesn't matter, really. Go on."

"Well, exactly what happened doesn't much matter. It's complicated. The important part is that I was taken away from my ship for awhile, and taken away from my usual habits even longer. There were several months when I was occupied with…things that were about as far from piracy as they could be. And I met someone. A boy my own age." She gave an abbreviated laugh. "Let me tell you, we hated each other at first. Code of honour obligated me to help him more than anything else, but honestly, if it had been up to me I wouldn't have endured his company more than five minutes. My men, though…They're good men. So I gave in to their little whim to put up with him, help him out, and in the end I have to say they were right." A smile began to creep over her features as she explained, "I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but somehow, that boy and I became good friends. After everything was wrapped up, I returned to my ship and my men, and we set off on our separate ways. I ran into him once or twice in the months after that, but that was it. That was about nine years ago, give or take."

Jack tilted his head at her thoughtfully. "How old are you?"

"Twenty-two."

He nodded slowly. "So what's your mission, then?"

"Isn't it obvious?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "I want to find him. My old friend."

Jack smirked. "Nights are lonely now that you're a grown woman, aye? I daresay you could find any other man in the world, love."

The look Tetra shot him would have made a braver man quail; as it was, Jack only allowed his charming expression to flicker slightly. In a voice of pure ice, she replied, "Sometimes a bond runs deeper than the flesh. Or the mind, for that matter. To the soul."

She didn't elaborate on this cryptic explanation. Bewildered, but not allowing himself to show it, Jack guessed, "And that's what you had with this mister…?"

"Link."

All three men at the table smiled fleetingly, as though they thought she had to be kidding. Seeing that she wasn't, they exchanged meaningful looks.

"Link, hm?" Jack asked, deciding not to call her on this name, even more unusual than her own. "An old friend you haven't seen in too many years, lost nearly a decade ago and probably hundreds of miles away, and now you've decided to find him."

"That's right." There was a defiant edge in Tetra's voice, daring him to refuse her.

"Let me ask you this, then," Jack said in an interrogatory tone. "If your men are as loyal as you go on expounding that they are, then why are you all by your onesey here in this pub?"

Tetra's eyes flashed in anger. "Are you calling my men traitors?"

"They left you, didn't they? Believe me, miss," he added before she could respond aggressively, "I've had experience with mutineers."

"Well, my men are far from that," Tetra told him firmly. "They have their reasons for not wanting to go on, and they stem out of loyalty."

"And what would those reasons be?"

"None of your business."

Normally, Jack would have thought that these were the words of a foolhardy and headstrong captain who didn't want to admit the flaws of her men, but Tetra's affection for her crew was obvious and intense to the point of familial love, and so he somehow found himself believing her. It seemed it was their honour she wanted to protect, not her own.

"So," she asked, breaking into his train of thought, "where do we stand? If I join you, will you help me search for Link?"

"And any booty we come across in the process is ours for the taking?"

"That's right."

"You're willing to leave your crew behind here forever?"

She sighed. "They're happy here. They'll get the itch for the sea soon enough, I'm sure, but there's always someone looking for able-bodied men here, isn't there?"

"That's true if anythin' ever was," said Mr Gibbs, speaking for the first time.

"Wind in your sails. Squark!"

Tetra looked startled to hear the parrot reply instead of the third man, and Jack explained quickly, "Cotton's bird answers on his behalf."

"Oh, of course," she said, with a nod, not covering her surprise very well. Turning to Jack, perhaps just to avoid looking at the bird, she asked, "Is it a deal, then? You'll take me and my mission both?"

Jack extended a hand. "Deal."

Tetra grinned as they shook on it, before downing half of the pint that had just arrived for her in a single chug.


Before the sun had even set that night, Tetra was to be found throwing all her possessions into her bags, getting ready to set off in the morning as a member of the Black Pearl's crew.

She couldn't believe her fortune at having found the one captain on this accursed rock who was actually seeking a female sailor, never mind that he hadn't noticed the unusual ears she hid beneath her low ponytail, never mind the fact that he didn't question her willingness to give up captaincy of a ship and become simply a first mate; to keep from arousing suspicions, she had negotiated for the highest ranking position under Jack, but the truth was that she would have agreed to go with him as anything more than a slave. Anything to get away from Tortuga, and the overprotective care of her men, who viewed her almost as their own daughter, their charge after her father's death. After everything she had done, though, she would think they would have learned that she could take care of herself…

At this thought, she paused, and her hand went reflexively to the gold chain at her throat. The sea was in her blood, as was the love of adventure, the desire for independence. But she missed the twelve-year-old girl she had been. She hoped that her quest to find Link wasn't as futile as she couldn't help thinking it would be. Even if she did find him, she doubted that he could magically make her feel like a child again, help her to regain her lost identity.

What name would he call her by? The sudden question that came to her mind made her stop where she stood, frowning as she considered it. She knew she had never really been Tetra in his eyes. Somehow, even when that was the only name by which he had known her, she suspected that he had always seen it as a façade. There had never been a doubt in his mind that she was as strong as she claimed; what he doubted was that she was nothing more. He was now and always had been the only one in the world, other than herself, who really knew exactly how much more she was. That was what she wanted back—that feeling of understanding she could only share with him, because they were the only ones who truly knew each other far more accurately than simply by the labels of their names.

Snapping out of her thoughtful trance, she crawled between the sheets of her bed at the inn where she had been staying for nearly two weeks, to try to get some sleep. "Try" was the operative word, given that "sleep" was an all but foreign concept to residents of this island; the gluttony, piracy, and lechery never slept, but Tetra determinedly did. Still, even she did so only when she had a sword safely in its hilt at her side. After all, to be without a weapon while awake in Tortuga was foolishness, but to be so while asleep was suicide. This was one of the many reasons for which she was so glad that, at sunrise the next morning, she would be off.

Staring out the window, her eyes roved the stars until she found the one that she personally thought was the brightest tonight.

'You're in the dragon tonight, huh?' she whispered, recognizing the constellation. 'I would have thought you'd be in the warrior-maiden, in honour of me.' She laughed quietly to herself. 'But I can't really see her from here,' she added momentarily, lifting her head slightly to make sure, 'so I guess it's a good think you're not.'

Her smile faded with her sigh.

'How's it going?' she asked presently. 'Miss me? I miss you. And Dad. But you know that. And I miss Link, too. But I've told you before, I'm not in love with him, so you can just stop thinking that right now!' she warned jokingly, with a grin. 'What about Jack, hm? Maybe I'm in love with him now.' She paused. 'Yeah, I know, I'm not. You know me too well to fall for that. But what do you think of him? Seriously. I think I can trust him, but maybe I just think that because I want to trust him, you know? Maybe…'

She had no idea where her train of thought was going, and so she merely sighed again.

'I don't know," she murmured. 'I'm just hoping that…that I can find him…and that I'm not kidding myself thinking that he's what I'm looking for. Link, I mean. Not Jack. I already found Jack. Well, I wasn't looking for Jack. Not specifically, I mean. I was looking for someone, but—'

She stopped, and rolled her eyes at herself. 'I know you want to tell me I'm babbling. I am babbling. I babble when I'm nervous. And sometimes I giggle. But only when no one's around.' She did so, briefly.

'Of course, you're not no one,' she added. 'But you're…you're not like anyone else. I can giggle in front of you. I can do anything in front of you. I do do anything in front of you. Everything, actually. 'Cause you're always there. 'Cause you love me.' She smiled faintly. 'I know you do. Even if you can't tell me so anymore.'

She blinked.

'But I won't cry about it,' she whispered defiantly, 'not in front of myself.'

She closed her eyes and felt the sting of the tears, until she defeated them and they were gone. She didn't open her eyes to conclude the conversation before falling asleep with her hand at her throat.

'Love ya, Mom.'