Disclaimer : I do not own Pirates of the Caribbean, but any new characters are mine.

Author's Note: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK ! OMG SO LONG WITHOUT AN UPDATE ! GAH NEARLY A YEAR ! OMG I'M SOOOOOO SORRY ! Btw, as a warning, I do use the term dollars in this chapter, even though they didn't use dollars then. I needed to show just how much money they are going after. Thank you !

Chapter Sixteen

The Plan

There was a slight ripple in the water ahead of her; Jack had bumped into something with his foot. He calmly peered down at the water his torch lowering, followed by his eerily calm voice,

" Oop. Watch ou' fer the corpse."

Will though he had only meant a rat or a sea gull or something. You know, the kind of creature that gets trapped and cannot escape to live, but no, that's not what it was. Elizabeth screamed as loud as she could when the light of the torch fell over the cadaverous pirate floating in the water directly in front of her feet. She screamed and immediately turned and buried her head in the startled Will's chest. Will grabbed her by her corseted waist and lifted her up, walking passed the long dead and putrid pirate. Elizabeth couldn't remove her face from Will's hair, to afraid of what she might see.

Shivering slightly, William shook of the feeling of fright and followed Jack on through the darkest bowels of the Black Pearl. Ahead of him, the light of Jack Sparrow's torch flickered and wavered in the darkness as he calmly sloshed through the overflowed bilge water. It smelt like death down there. Smelt like more than just one pirate had met his fate down here, and had never left thereafter. Than again…Will was certain that most pirate ships must smell like that, or at least…he hoped so, as morbid as that sounds.

Jake turned to look at them, the light of his torch falling over his face, illuminating his spiced rum colored eyes.

" What you be about tah see, has been seen by no other eyes…except maybe Barbossa's…and tha monkey's and-- yeh know wha' ? Never mind…its not been seen by eyes other than yours…"

Jack turned back to the door, the beads and bones in his hair clacking together in the motion. He pulled out a small silver key from his overcoat pocket, and slid it into the lock of the door.

Elizabeth looked at him, her nose crinkling in confusion, her left, delicate eyebrow arched up and she mouthed a few words of confusion, before she turned to look at Will. He looked at her and shook his head, as if saying Don't even try to correct him, you won't win…She shook her head, letting the confusion dissipate, and she moved closer to the door that Jack was standing in front of.

Will followed her close behind. His leather boots sloshed through the disgusting, disease ridden water as he moved forwards. Somewhere beside him, was the high pitched squeaking of a rat as it sniffed the air. He looked down, seeing the vermin, and shivered gently. He hated being on board The Black Pearl…it had its many stowaways.

The lock on the door clicked, as the pirate captain turned the key slowly counter-clockwise…He tried to open the door-- to no avail. He rattled the door back and forth and stomped his foot trying to get it to open. He looked at the key, and back at the door. He rattled it once again, and looked at the key. He coughed and turned the key all the way clockwise. The door swung open without a problem. Jack Sparrow swaggered inside, with the governor's daughter and the blacksmith close behind. He moved around a rather large table that had many a map laid out , held down by various objects, such as doubloons and pieces of eight. Jack lifted his lit torch up to one of the lamps that hung from the ebony ceiling. The lamp burst with light, and all the others burst into flames, one after an other, all around the room. It through a sinister golden glow to everything else in the room.

Will jumped slightly as each lamp suddenly lit itself and he looked around, as Elizabeth moved towards the table, where Jack was standing. Jack turned his back to her, as he placed the torch into a brace on the wall. He turned back as Will came forward.

"Now what I am about' tah tell yeh, can never leave this room, understand ?"

Jack turned all quite serious on the couple as he placed his hands on either sides of the map, and leaned over it.

"Of course Jack."

Will nodded and looked down at the map, which Elizabeth was already studying with a mild interest.

"We be headed towards the New World"

Elizabeth's head snapped up and she looked at Jack incredulously

" But why ?"

"We be headed to the Colony of Florida; The Flowery Colony."

Will's eyebrow raised a little bored, as Jack named where they were headed to.

" Why are we going to Florida ?"

" Because there mate, of the coast of the New World, lies a hidden treasure. A treasure that will make us richer than the King of Spain himself."

"Oh no…not another treasure quest Jack ! You know where the last one got you !"

Jack turned to Elizabeth, looking slightly like he had no clue what she was talking about

" Marooned on an island ! Does that ring a bell Captain ?"

"Oh tha'…well I have no mutinous first mate this time dearie"

Jake waved it off with an extravagant move of his right hand.

"Jack, the treasure must belong to someone. Does it not ?"

" William…try to get this through yer head. We're PIRATES"

Will grumbled to himself and looked back at the map. Jack was drawing their course with his finger, from where they were stationed at this moment, to the treasure site. Once at the treasure site, he tapped it a few times with his tan finger, emphasizing his point.

"This is the location of the Santa Margarita . She sank in a hurricane sometime in 1622. She was in the sight of the Atocha, the Ghost Galleon. She sank into the deep dark waters off of Cayo de Boca. Along with the Santa Margarita, and the Atocha, there was one other in the fleet of Spanish Treasure Galleons. She was the Rosario. They all sank in the same Hurricane on the same fateful day. However, the Santa Margarita was carrying the most treasure, worth some 20 million dollars, therefore she is the one we are going after."

Both Elizabeth's and Will's jaws dropped. They couldn't believe how much money they were planning to go after. Even with a full crew of 27 and themselves, that was still six hundred thousand, six hundred and sixty six dollars EACH. That was if it was split equally, which with Jack as Captain, was more than likely…Will was going to be more rich than the Governor of Port Royale…well, now he couldn't say that Elizabeth had picked a poor match…even if he was a pirate…