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17
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The first thing Christine realized when she began to come to, was that she was lying down somewhere very soft... very familiar. She remembered this feeling very much but could not place her finger on it just yet. She opened her eyes to be met with the face of Erik right above hers. She peered into his dark eyes and gasped, inching away. He had watched her while she slept and with her awakening, it was a touch displeasing, as he had been enjoying just observing her lay there... in his swan bed.
He gazed upon her lying body in a daze, a loving look over his face. She sat up, taking a moment to look at her surroundings. She was sure she'd find herself in some sort of underground dwelling... a deep lair. But she was mildly surprised to find herself in... what seemed to be the innards of a ship?
"Where have you taken me?" She asked.
Jack appeared from the darkness and looked down at her. "Why, lassie, you're aboard my ship: The Black Pearl."
"But I don't want to be aboard a ship. I want to go back home."
"You can't. Not until we catch your husband. You said yourself that he was acting a bit strange. Who knows... he could come home one day and inflict violence upon your pretty little head," Jack explained, extending a hand and caressing her face softly.
She pulled away from the pirate in disgust. Erik offered him an angry look, as if to say: 'Keep your filthy pirate hands off my girl.'
"Yes, and we can't have any of that. So I'm afraid you're just going to have to stay here until we return."
"No! What are you going to do to Raoul? You can't hurt him!"
"Girl, do you know how many people he's hurt himself? He gets what he deserves," Jack said.
She began to cry. "No... he's a sweet man. Charming... he'd never even harm a fly."
Jack shook his head in disappointment. Erik ran a hand through her hair gently. "It will be okay... just lie down and get some more rest."
She lay down, staring up at the dark, wooden ceiling. As her eyes began to shut, they suddenly sprung open once again, hearing Erik's voice. He had started singing her a song. She sighed and allowed his melody to carry her off to sleep.
When she was asleep, Jack and Erik peered over her, then went to the stairs to leave the ship. As they walked down the gangplank and off through the streets once again, Jack sighed loudly. "Oh, no. Don't tell me we have to get all the way back to Maple Cay!"
Erik nodded solemnly, feeling just as reluctant about going through all of the mess it took to get back.
Jack planted his head in his hands. "No!" He cried. He let out a long breath and regained himself. "I'm really getting too old for this," he said quietly to himself. "Stupid shenanigans..."
Somehow... just somehow they managed to get all the way back to Maple Cay that night. As they walked to the west side of the island to find the gap in the sand, they only hoped two things: that Raoul had decided to work a late shift in his malevolent job and that they would get out of the passage alive.
When the ship appeared before them and began to descend into the hole, Jack turned to Erik and asked, "Hey, do you know how that works? I was wondering."
Erik nodded. "It's not that complicated. It's just a projected hologram," he explained as they ran to the closing hole in the sand. "You see, there's a sensor placed underneath the sand and when something goes over it-- like us when we step on it-- there's a signal sent to the projector machine. It projects an image of a large ship in the water, moving over to the sand. When the ship reaches the sand, it sends another signal and that one is for the hole to open. The hole opens, the projector makes the ship disappear, and then whoever's triggered the system in the first place is able to get in. Quite simple, you see," He finished as they fell through the hole and landed on the ground. They moved to hide behind the rock.
Jack scratched his head. "Yeah... simple..."
They waited several minutes, watching various Blackmail Bandits pass them. When the coast was finally clear, they bolted out from behind the rock and began their descend through the passage. They turned off of the path which led to the door they had broken down earlier. They wondered if it was still in shambles as they walked, then when they reached it and saw that it was all in one piece again, they sighed.
"I guess we have to break the door down again. Why'd they have to replace it so fast?" Jack asked, not feeling in the mood for anymore breaking of things.
Erik shrugged and pulled his lasso from his pocket, wrapping it around the doorknob once again. Jack watched as he broke the knob off again, feeling as though all of this was very déjà vu. Erik threaded the rope through the hole where the knob had been carefully. Jack tapped his foot impatiently, waiting for him to be finished. When he was offered an end of the rope, he grabbed onto it quickly and they pulled and pulled against the reinforced door until in cracked down the middle again.
They stepped through into the dull room of wood and steel items and made their way to the door where they had found Raoul in prayer. Before opening the door, they made their plans of what was to be done upon entering. They decided that they would not kill him, simply corner him and take him. After tying him up with Erik's rope, they would then smuggle him out and take him back to the Black Pearl, locking him in the brig, as they had done with Akhmed. And in the brig he would remain until he confessed to his evil doings. Following the confession, they would haul him off to a real prison and then it would be up to professionals to decide what would become of him. Their plan was flawless, it simply had to work.
Erik twisted the doorknob open in one quick motion and kicked the door out of their way. They jumped into the fancy room, all set to clobber the Blackmail Bandits leader. However there was only one thing that they had forgot to account for in their plan... there was no way it could be carried out with if Raoul was not in the room.
"Where is he?" Jack yelled, looking all around, still trying to make sure that Raoul was not there somewhere.
Erik sighed. "I don't know. But he's certainly not in here."
"Dammit!" Jack yelled out, smacking his fist against the wall. "Ow!" He cried, pulling his throbbing hand back and rubbing it. Suddenly the wall which he had hit began to shake and quiver in front of him. "Uh oh..." he said nervously, not meaning to have broken the wall or anything. The wall continued to vibrate and then a rectangular section parted away, leaving a dark passage in front of them.
"Whoa," Jack said in amazement, rubbing his hand.
"Come on," Erik said impatiently, pulling Jack along. They walked through the opening in the darkness until they could see a small fragment of light become visible. Continuing to the light, they stopped when they were blocked off by a glass covering over the end of the exit. They peered through the glass, seeing a horrible sight before them.
They had walked all the way to what looked to be a torture room! The walls were lined with jail cells much like the brig cells upon the Black Pearl. However, not only where there confinements along the walls (which were full of sickly looking men, women and children) but there were several small oval shaped cages which hung from the ceiling. In these cages there were also sickly looking children as well as men and women who were much to big for the small size of the cages and who had to slump down to fit inside. Erik shook his head in disbelief as his eyes moved over the room, noting two tables in the corner. The tables had straps at the top and bottom which were attached to a strange mechanism at the front of the tables... they appeared to be tables to torture someone by stretching. And the worst part was that one of the tables was not empty, there was an exhausted looking man entwined in the straps.
Jack's eyes darted around the horrible contraptions as well. They fell upon a different table at the center of the room. There were chains attached, made so that they would hold down the victim, and above the table, hanging from the ceiling, a large blade hung, it's edges were razor sharp. It was a scimitar. Jack gulped.
There were other various torture utensils placed in the room. Jack turned away, clutching his stomach. He thought he was going to be sick. Erik's eyes remained on the room, though. Completely the opposite of Jack, he could not bring himself to stop looking at the terrible torture measures. It was all so despicable.
"Do you see Raoul anywhere in here?" Erik asked Jack suddenly.
Jack turned around, a hand over his mouth. He did not want to look back into the room, but he forced himself. He began to shake his head no, when a figure clad in the black robes caught his eye from the corner of the room, his back turned to them. Jack noted the golden chains and turned his sight away from the room, placing his gaze on Erik. "Yes, he's right there," Jack replied, pointing at the robed figure through the glass.
Erik nodded, tightening his grip around the noose which he held. He couldn't wait to get a hold of the man who was responsible for such animosity towards poor human beings. "On the count of five we burst through this glass and jump him, okay?" Erik said, his eyes on the back of Raoul.
Jack eyed the glass with uncertainty. "Don't you think that's a little dangerous... I mean--"
"One!"
"We might hurt ourselves... I--"
"Two!"
"Can't we--"
"Three!"
"But--"
"Four!"
"Fine! You win!"
"Five!"
They burst through the glass paneling, which they did not realize had been a two-sided mirror, a large noise of crashing, an explosion of glass shards flying every which way. Several of the captives who were still alert enough to notice the entrance emitted gasps and shrieks, seeing the two strange men burst through the mirror.
Raoul, however, was still turned around, busy inspecting his torture procedures. He had not even flinched upon Jack and Erik's arrival. He paid no mind to the change in the atmosphere around him. Finding it strange that he had not even moved, they approached him as he continued to stay turned around, their weapons ready to strike.
They reached him and Jack extended a hand, placing it on the turned man's shoulder. He spun him around and shrieked, laying his eyes upon a rotting skull where Raoul's head should have been. Various bugs crawled through whatever was left of flesh over the face.
"A decoy!" Erik yelled, angered.
Jack let go of the skeleton's shoulders in disgust, the entire thing falling to the floor in a heap. "I suspected that this was a little too easy," Jack said, recovering from his fright.
Erik was about to propose that they leave, when he looked around the room at the caged people, saw their dark, lonely eyes and felt their pain take him over. "Where is the leader?" He yelled out to them, hoping that someone could provide an answer.
"He's in the invention room." A small voice called from somewhere in the room.
Erik moved toward where the voice had come from, standing in front of one of the cages. He peered down at a small, filthy boy who looked up at him with bright blue eyes. The eyes took him in and tugged on his heartstrings. "The invention room?" He asked curiously. "Are you sure?"
The boy nodded. Erik sighed, eyeing the lock on the boy's cage. He turned away from it and glanced around the room. "Do you see a key anywhere, Jack?" He called.
Jack looked around the walls, then spotted a hook with a large key strung around it. He stepped away from the decoy corpse and went to fetch the key. When he had it, he brought it to Erik. He took it from Jack and slipped it in the lock, turning it quickly. He pulled the door open with a creak, then moved to the next cage, repeating the process. When all of the wall cages were open, Erik began to unlock the ceiling cages. While he was doing that, Jack freed the people who were stuck in the torture contraptions.
Making sure that there were no more people locked up that they may have forgotten about by accident, they stood in the middle of the room, surrounded by the tortured captives. "He's in the invention room, yes? Where is this invention room?" Erik asked.
A frail man lifted his hand in the air and opened his mouth. "It's along the first path of the bunch. But it's heavily guarded."
"I suppose just like his house is," Jack muttered under his breath.
"The first path," Erik repeated after the man. He scratched his chin pensively. "Heavily guarded?" He repeated. After another moment of thinking, "I have a plan."
"Single file, everyone!" Jack ordered the lot of people after Erik had explained the plan to everyone including himself. He thought it might just work if it was carried out properly. He watched as all of the tired men, women and children followed his instruction and noisily gathered into a long line in front of him.
"Now march!" He yelled.
The group started up, their heavy footsteps echoing through the dark passage behind the shattered mirror, as Jack led them to the luxurious room which lay behind. Erik stood at the back of the line, making sure everything was going right from his place.
Jack led them through the luxurious room, many of the captives not having seen such riches in a long time commenting on the room's splendor, and to the next room, which was the poorer looking chamber. He carefully wedged his way through the split door and stood off to the side in the corridor, an eye on the opening. "Through this way. Be careful now," He instructed.
One by one each member of the line up exited through the splintery cut in the wood until Erik was the last one left. He exited as well and continued walking with the line. They walked all through the fourth passageway, not encountering any of the Blackmail Bandits. When Jack arrived at the point which came back to the turnoff of splitting paths, he stopped and turned around to the long line. Raising a finger to his lips, he commanded them to be quiet. "Shhh! We're about to switch onto the first path."
The incessant chatter began to die down and in seconds there was total silence. Jack nodded and lowered his finger. He pulled out his weapons and lifted them up so the line up could see. They understood the gesture and did as was required, readying their own feeble weapons which Jack and Erik had gotten them from the wood and steel lined room. Jack began his pace once again, turning onto the main passage and then making another turn onto the first path. The line up behind followed along.
They had gotten three quarters of the way through the path without encountering anything odd and Jack was sure they'd have Raoul de Chagny in custody in no time. He saw a door at the end of the passage and assumed that it was the inventing room in which they'd find their culprit.
He stopped his group and turned around. "Now be very quiet. I'm going to enter," he whispered. The group of people fell silent once again. Erik, still at the end of the line, looked all around the passageway which they had just come through. He felt an uneasiness in the pit of his stomach.
Jack approached the door and wrapped his hand over the handle. With one swift pull, the door opened, being unlocked, and he lay his eyes upon the strangest room he had ever seen in his life. There were wild machines and gadgets in all parts of the room. He had no idea what any of them were, even decided that he did not want to know what any of them were. Hunched over in the corner, inspecting a strange machine, was the black robed figure with the gold chains on his outfit.
Jack smiled. This would be too easy... he set a foot into the room and began inside. He had almost reached the hunched man when he was stopped by a yell.
"Jack!" Erik called, running through the line of people and entering the room behind him. "Jack, the entire passage is shaking!" He yelled. Various screams and cries of the captives could be heard from outside the doorway.
The hunched man suddenly sprung around to face Jack and Erik. With a look upon his face that seemed both crazed and menacing, Raoul offered the men a smile. He approached them, holding a sort of strange tweezer-like apparatus and pinching it open and closed in front of their noses. Sparks ran in the space between the two metal tips. Jack cringed back as a spark flew out in front of his face, barely touching him.
"I just love guests," Raoul said in a tone that Erik had never heard him speak in before. Raoul glanced behind his guests at the opened doorway where the entire passage was shaking and his captives were in a panic. "especially when they bring gifts." He pinched the tweezers once again, the sparks growing.
Jack made a face of discomfort, placing his hands out in front of him pleadingly. "Why don't we... uh... why don't we just put that down and then we can have a nice conversation like normal people."
Raoul let out a long laugh, pinching his tweezers in front of their noses. Erik growled, grabbing onto Raoul's wrist and pulling it down so that the tweezers were pointed at the floor. "You should be ashamed, hurting Christine with your lies. She doesn't deserve this."
Raoul frowned as the tweezer apparatus slipped from his hand and fell to the floor. He pulled from Erik's grip and suddenly began to spin around quickly in his place, his robes flying all about him, making Erik and Jack become in a daze. He stopped spinning and when Erik and Jack snapped from their daze, they were faced by a Miss Christine Daae in the robes.
Jack raised his eyebrow, throwing a glance at Erik. Erik could only stand there, gaping at the image of his lovely Christine.
"Oh, Erik. I love you so much." She said softly, taking his hand in hers and caressing it. She pulled him close to her, so close that there was no space between them. She drew his head forward, as though she were to kiss him.
"No, Erik! It's a trick!" Jack cried, trying to pull him away.
But Erik was not listening, brushing off Jack's attempts to pull him away. As he was about to place his lips upon those of his love, her tongue darted from her mouth, turning green and sprouting sets of beady little black eyes, separating into several snakes. The snakes hissed at Erik, their own tongues slipping in and out of their mouths.
Erik jerked away, throwing Christine to the floor. He watched as her creamy skin turned from its normal beautiful tone to a shriveled green leathery texture. Her large, yellow eyes bulged in their sockets as the snakes darted from her mouth. She raised to her feet and began to spin once again.
When the spinning ceased, the robed figure faced Jack. He let out a scream of horror as he feasted his eyes upon the dreaded Captain Barbossa! "No! You're dead! I killed you!" He cried, backing away from the approaching pirate captain.
"You cursed me, Jack. You cursed me! And now you will pay..." He said as he continued towards Jack, his arms outstretched, meant to choke him.
As the cold hands wrapped around Jack's neck and tightened, he began to cough. Suddenly Barbossa's face turned to a confused expression and his hands pulled from Jack's neck. Rubbing his neck, Jack looked to Erik to see that he had wrapped a lasso around the creature's waist and had fastened it securely. As the creature rolled around in its ropes, trying to free itself, Erik tied more ropes around it, until its limbs were useless and all it could was roll.
Jack looked away, turning his eyes up to the ceiling of the room. The room was quivering so very badly! They had to leave! "Erik! Grab it and let's go. The entire headquarters is going to come down!"
Erik grabbed the writhing thing on the floor and threw it over his shoulder. After some more struggling on Erik's shoulder, it exhausted itself and passed out, laying limply against him. They exited the room, coming through the door and back into the passage. Their way was blocked by all of the screaming captives who were panicking without the slightest idea of what to do.
"Back into line!" Jack called over the rumbling of the walls. He waited for them to follow his command, feeling very impatient. After several moments he saw that no one would be getting back into line. He gulped and shouted again, "Okay then... run!"
At this command, all of the frightened people began their run through the long pathway in their own disorderly fashion. Pieces of the walls and ceiling were coming down on top of them now. Jack ran a ways length, then slowed, looking behind his shoulder for Erik. He did not see him and became worried. "Erik!" He called.
Erik ran, the heavy bundle over his shoulder slowing his pace somewhat. He heard Jack yell and quickened his pace. Jack saw him emerge from a turn on the path and his heart slowed. "We have to--"
He was cut off when Erik suddenly collapsed to the floor with a booming scream which echoed through the entire crumbling underground headquarters. Jack looked down at him strangely, then went to his side, helping him up to his feet.
Erik groaned and reached his arm behind him, pulling a dart from his back. Jack looked at the dart in his hand and gulped. Erik looked up to see various machines attached to the tops of the walls which were emitting the same types of darts along the pathway. He let out a growl, throwing the dart to the floor and continuing his pace. Jack followed behind him absently, wondering what was in the dart and whether or not it would be the end of his new friend.
They continued along the passage, all of the captives having disappeared after their Jack and Erik's small break. Turning onto the main path, they ran until they reached the starting point. They witnessed several of the captives stepping up onto the large rock and pulling themselves from the opening in the sand. Apparently all of them knew how to exit the prison without being told.
Jack climbed up onto the rock, Erik going up behind him slowly. Jack found the lever this time and pulled it, reopening the sandy hole. He pulled himself free and peered down, extending his hands to Erik.
Erik placed the creature in Jack's grip, Jack almost dropping the heavy thing, wondering how Erik had carried the figure all this way. He secured it on the sand next to him and extended his hands once again to Erik, keeping an eye on the tied bundle in case the thing should wake up.
After he noticed that Erik was not coming he turned his eyes away from the bundle and looked down into the hole, seeing Erik looking rather flushed. "Come on, mate. Grab my hand," Jack said nervously.
Erik slowly grabbed onto Jack and tried his best to help Jack in lifting him from the opening. When he was out, they both sat on the sand, tired and catching their breath. They had spent so long in the secret headquarters that it was already morning and the sun was rising. Jack peered off behind him, watching several of the remaining captives run off into the distance.
He turned back to the hole and saw it close up. He looked at Erik, eying him with worry. "What was in that thing?" He asked curiously.
Erik shook his head, breathing heavily. "I don't know... but I don't feel so well."
Like a signal, the entire underground began to shake beneath them and Jack remembered that the headquarters was going to go at any moment. He lifted to his feet, pulling Erik up next to him. He reached down and grabbed the creature, struggling to carry it.
"Back to the boat. Quickly!" He said, beginning through the sand. Erik followed along, dragging his weight tiredly.
They reached the shore, Jack scanning the area in a panic, searching for their 'borrowed' boat. "Where is it?" Jack yelled impatiently, the weight of the bundle in his arms exhausting him. He was worried that the captives had taken it, but then his eye stopped down the shoreline, seeing the boat finally. He pulled Erik and the bundle along to the end, dropping the creature onto one of the seats of the boat and helping Erik into the other. He grabbed both paddles, deciding that Erik was in no position to be rowing, and stuck them into the water as he sat himself down.
He rowed back to land, seeing several captives swimming through the water to make their return. He got out and tied the boat up at the dock. After helping Erik out and resuming to carry the tied creature, he ran out into the middle of the road, putting the creature on the ground next to him. He waved his hands about, back and forth. "A ride! I need a ride! Quickly! Someone! A ride to Paris, please!" He yelled throughout the road, waving his hands like a maniac.
Several people in the houses around peeked their heads from their windows, seeing the madman yelling on the street, and closing their shutters.
Erik leaned his back against the wall he had once leaned against while telling Jack bits and piece of his story. He felt so tired, he just wanted to sleep. He felt his eyes beginning to close.
A carriage came thundering through the street, Jack waving his arms and calling to it. It nearly ran him over, just managing to swerve out of the way just before narrowly hitting him. "Can you take us to Paris?" Jack asked the driver frantically, pointing to the sickly robed bundle of a... thing on the ground next to him and then at Erik who was drifting off to sleep against a wall.
The driver gulped, looking from Erik to Jack to the bundle. He sighed and nodded. "Sure," he agreed reluctantly, nodding for him to get into the back.
Jack let out a long breath of relief, hoisting the bundle into the carriage. "Erik! Come on!" He called as he was placing himself inside next to it. He waited a moment, then saw that Erik was not coming. Raising from the carriage in irritation, he approached Erik at the wall.
"Oh... Christine..." He muttered dreamily in his slumber.
Jack shook Erik awake. "Hurry up," He said in distaste, pulling him onto the street and pushing him up onto the carriage and into a seat. As soon as his head hit the soft seat, he fell back asleep.
The horses took off quickly, sending a jolt through the carriage which awoke Erik for a moment. He returned to sleep instantaneously, however.
Jack eyed the sleeping man suspiciously, nudging him awake. Erik strained his eyes tiredly to look at Jack. "What do you want?" He asked, annoyed that his sleep had been disrupted yet again.
"Mate, I don't know what was in that dart but I really don't think you should be going to sleep."
Erik shook his head, his eyes closing again. He leaned his head comfortably against the plush seat. "Oh, that's nonsense. There's nothing wrong with catching a few--" He let out a long yawn. "winks."
Jack shook him awake, feeling the natural desperate need for sleep as well, but pushing it aside. "No. You're going to stay awake until we figure out what was in the dart. If you go to sleep, Erik, you may very well... never wake up."
Erik stared at Jack as he spoke this, his eyes becoming wide. "But... but... I'm so tired! Please, Jack. Just five minutes."
Jack shook his head, smiling at the fool. "No, no. You see? That's exactly what that thing's doing to you. You just think you're tired. It's the poison making you feel that way."
Erik sighed, frowning. "Poison! Are you sure?"
"Yes, I think that's what it is. Now, you must stay awake!"
"But I can't!"
"Oh, it's easy, mate. Let's just count some carriages to pass the time."
Erik growled. "No."
"Fine," Jack said disappointedly, crossing his arms over his chest. He had been all excited to play his fun little game. "Then how about we sing?"
The proposition had sparked Erik's interest. His eyebrow went up and he thought about it for a moment. He finally nodded. "Okay."
Jack sighed in relief. "Okay," He agreed. "Mary had a little lamb."
Erik winced. "Little lamb," he continued reluctantly.
"Little lamb."
"Mary had a little lamb."
"It's fleece was white as snow."
"Everywhere that Mary went..." Erik could feel that this was going to be a loooong carriage ride.