RETURN TO THE BLACK PEARL

Wow. It's been FOREVER since I last updated this fic.

CAST OF THOUSANDS: You are not kidding.

ME: I can only I'm sorry so many times.

CAST OF THOUSANDS: We'll tell you when to stop.


Chapter Six: A Change in Plans, Continued

"Jack!"

Norrington turned at the cry just in time to see the female pirate called Anamaria practically fly up the gangway, closely followed by a bemused-looking dark-haired man that seemed familiar.

Jack peered down at her from his perch in the crow's nest of the Black Pearl. "Aye?" he idly called, as if whatever news she was the bearer of could be nothing more exciting than the menu for dinner.

Anamaria stormed across the deck to stand underneath him, and Norrington found himself jumping backwards to avoid being trampled by her furious rush.

"It's those bloody pirates," she spat angrily, her hands on her hips in a pose of indignant outrage. Norrington could practically see tendrils of smoke curling out her mouth. "They've found us."

Jack looked staggered for a moment. He swore forcefully and promptly leaped out of the crow's nest with the aid of a rope to land next to Anamaria.

"How close are they, luv?" Jack asked her.

"Firing distance," Anamaria said grimly.

Jack swore again, and turned to shout at the crew, "Pack up, everyone. Vacation's over." The crew issued a collective groan, but their captain ignored them. "Get the Pearl ready to go as soon as possible. And that means on the double, ye scurvy dogs! There's been a change o' plans."

"We had a plan?" Norrington heard Tearlach, one of the crew, wonder aloud as he staggered past.

"Naw," Marty explained to him. "That was just a rumor."

Gibbs moved quickly to Jack's side, his weather-beaten face looking worried. "Where're we goin', Cap'n?"

"Anywhere, so long as it's not here," replied Jack absently as he began to bustle around the Black Pearl frantically, shouting orders at Gibbs and the crew.

"What?" demanded Norrington in disbelief, as he trailed behind them. "You're just going to set sail, without any sort of plan or destination?"

"That's the general idea, mate," Jack replied.

"That's insane," hissed Norrington at him. "The Black Pearl's repairs have not yet been completed—you'd never even make it back to Port Royal!"

Jack stood very still. "Listen here, and listen good," he said softly, so that only Norrington could hear him. "You may be the Commodore of the Royal Navy, but on this ship, you have no authority." He made a circular motion with his arms. "So the next time you feel like challenging my decisions, mate, ye'd best remember who is captain, and who is not."

Norrington flinched in spite of himself, but Jack's attention was suddenly diverted by the seedy-looking pirate.

"You," Jack said to him, with a little start of recognition. "What're you doing here?"

The seedy-looking pirate jerked his thumb at Anamaria. "I'm with her."

Jack appraised him in silence for several moments. "You stay, you work," he said at last.

He turned away to ask Gibbs, "Who's still on shore?"

Gibbs glanced around the deck. "Only one I see missin' t'would be Will. I'll send someone t' get 'im, Cap'n."

"Don't bother," said a new voice acidly. Norrington looked up to see Elizabeth emerge from below decks. "I certainly don't care to have him back." She stalked away haughtily to her cabin door and slammed it shut.

Norrington stared after her, trying not feel hopeful. But it didn't help to hear Jack murmur beside him, "Sure would hate to be the whelp."

The anchor was hoisted and the sails were set in record time, and the Black Pearl put a good bit of distance between herself and Tortuga. Norrington could tell that the crew was getting more and more relaxed the farther away the shore was, but he resisted the urge to do the same. It was always at this point that things would start to go wrong.

Naturally, they did.

"Storm comin' up, Cap'n!" shouted Gibbs above the rising wind as he struggled with the sails.

The wheel of the Black Pearl slipped and slid against Jack's straining fingers. The ship jerked unsteadily and twisted around to the opposite direction. Jack spared an incredulous glance to the black-clouded heavens. "Couldn't be," he said. "It was fine when we left. Beautiful, even."

"Well, it's not now," Norrington snapped at Jack. He had no idea why he was worried—he ought to be glad that the rising storm could take out an entire pirate ship, sparing him the trouble of doing it himself—but he was. What is there to be worried about? he tried to reason with himself. It was not his ship, it was not his crew. But the worry was there.

The crew abruptly went silent. Norrington looked around, bemused, wondering what was wrong. He glanced at Jack. The pirate was still staring, but at the compass in his hand, the one that Norrington remembered as bring broken. He thought he could see Jack's fingers shaking minutely.

"Jack," said Gibbs in strange voice. Jack didn't respond. "Jack, the Pearl…" he trailed off.

Then in a flash, Norrington saw it. He moved to lean over the railing. "The Black Pearl," he said heavily. Jack finally looked at him. "She's traveling against the current."

"And," Gibbs said quietly, "she's travelin' opposite the wind."

"Cap'n, what are we to do?" shouted Anamaria from the other side of the deck.

Jack snapped out of his strange trance. "There's a harbor a few leagues away. We'll head to shore to wait it out."

The wind rose. The Black Pearl's sails snapped in the rain-filled gust, and Jack swore as the wheel was wrenched out of his hands. It spun around and around like a child's top, and try as he might, Jack wasn't able to regain control.

But he didn't seem to need to. The wheel continued to spin of its own accord.

The entire ship was silent. It was an eerie absence of breath that left Norrington cold. Jack whipped out his compass again and checked it against the direction that should've been North.

"On the other hand," Jack said slowly, "it looks like the Black Pearl has other other ideas."


Will slammed open the door to Jack's cabin. "What's going on?" he demanded. Then he noticed Elizabeth. She just looked at him mutely and then turned away, as if the sight of him was too painful for her to bear. She leaned against a wall next to a port and folded her arms.

Gibbs sat limply on Jack's bunk, turning his battered hat around and around in his hands. Norrington was there as well, looking uncomfortable as he stood next to Gibbs.

Jack was rummaging in the drawers of his desk. "I don't know," he said, much to Will's surprise. "This has never happened before." Will didn't know if this news made him feel better or worse.

Just then Anamaria barged in much like Will had, only with more noise. "What in the name of Davy Jones just happened?" she demanded, her dark eyes flashing.

Jack slammed the desk drawer shut and pulled open another one. He made an exclamatory noise and pulled out from the rubble a bottle of rum. Elizabeth eyed it disapprovingly. "This is hardly the time to get drunk," she said sternly.

"On the contrary, luv," Jack responded, uncorking the bottle and leaning his chair back against the wall. "It's the perfect time to get drunk."

The Black Pearl shuddered. Will could feel the trembling beneath his feet even through his buckled shoes. The ship tipped dangerously to one side, and Will could feel the hair on the back of his neck rise in a response to an eerie groaning that seemed to come from the Pearl. Everyone in the cabin glanced at each other uneasily. Norrington turned to look cautiously out a port, and when the ship moaned again, Jack set all four legs of his chair back down on the floor with a thunk. For a long moment, there was silence on the ship.

Then the Black Pearl stood on one end.

Will heard shrieks and screams come from outside the cabin as he plunged backwards, managing somehow to grab the doorframe for support. Gibbs rolled off the bunk and landed with a heavy thud on the floor. Norrington was able to catch Elizabeth as she pitched forward, preventing her from hitting the floor.

Jack fell out of his chair. The bottle of rum fell out of his hand and smashed, the glass splintering in all directions.

Anamaria hit the floor much like Gibbs and rolled forward several feet before losing momentum. Something dark and heavy slipped out of her pocket and crashed into the door. Unlike the bottle, it didn't break.

The Black Pearl went still.

Everyone in the tiny cabin stared at the object. It looked to Will like a pearl, unnaturally colored black and larger than any gem he'd ever seen before. He looked up quickly at Anamaria in amazement. He had no idea how something so valuable could come to be in the hands of a pirate—except, of course, the obvious: stealing.

Anamaria seemed frozen as she stared at the pearl, making no move to retrieve it. Jack was much the same way. He stared at the pearl intently with some strange emotion in his face.

Elizabeth was drinking up the whole scene, her eyes opened wide and flitting back and forth between Jack, Anamaria, and the black pearl; Norrington stared at Anamaria with the same sort of suspicion as Will.

"Where did you get that?" breathed Jack, never taking his eyes off the pearl.

His words seemed to break Anamaria's spell. Her eyes snapped up to glance at him uncertainly, almost fearfully, and she whispered, "Off the Duty Free. When we plundered it." When Jack didn't respond, she added, "What is it, Jack?" in a low voice.

Jack looked at her then, seemingly surprised. "Ye don't recall it then?" he asked, in almost his natural voice.

Anamaria looked at him uncertainly and shook her head. "Nay. Should I?"

"Oh, yes," Jack said, and took a deep, shuddering breath. He looked back at the pearl laying on the floor. "Then I suppose I should jog your memory." He glanced around the cabin at the other, appearing to notice them for the first time. "And I should explain to the rest of you what you've just gotten yourselves into."

Then he began his story.


CAST OF THOUSANDS: That's a cliffhanger. That's not very nice.

ME: But it IS the end of chapter six! And coming up is chapter seven, where everything will be explained.

CAST OF THOUSANDS: We hope. And since it's been proven that the plausible-ness of her explanations is directly related to the number of reviews she gets, you should probably review this chapter. And that means YOU.