A/N: So sorry about the wait on this one! I've had this chapter ready to publish for almost a week now, but my stupid internet hasn't been working since last Friday. Not that anyone probably noticed the wait, considering that nobody is reviewing!You guys weren't serious about never ever reviewing again just because of the endingof my last fanfic, were you? I'll be really sad if you were...Anyway, another longer chapter, another flashback, etc.
Ani Sparrow: Thanks! The mutiny took me the longest for just that reason; I was trying to make it seem believable. I'm glad at least someone reviews!
lily: Yeah, that was actually the motivation for writing this fanfic. I was browsing through all the POTC fanfics on this site (and there are tons), and I realized that hardly anyone did Barbossa's view! He happens to be one of my favorite characters (not for his personality or morals, of course, but for the overall quality of the character), and I was going insane without anything to write,so I decided to give it a shot. Glad you like it!
Ch. 5
"But it's only a day's journey from here!" Bootstrap protested. "I have-"
"No," Barbossa interrupted shortly. "We have no business in Tortuga, Bootstrap. We'll go where is most convenient, and that'll be the end of it. Nothing to discuss. I signed ye on as first mate because you know this ship better'n any of us, not because I want t' hear yer opinion on everything. I'm the cap'n, and what I say goes."
Bootstrap looked out the window at the bleak fog. "Jack always gave his crew a fair vote," he muttered dryly.
"Jack Sparrow is dead, Turner!" Barbossa said harshly. "And what's more, you helped kill 'im. It's time ye stopped livin' in the past. Everyone agreed that I should take over, and take over I did. If that means the crew has to adjust to a new style of leadership, so be it. I've already accomplished far more than Sparrow ever did; we found Isla de Muerta, didn't we? We got the treasure, didn't we?"
"An' wasted almost all of it in one town," Bootstrap added under his breath.
Barbossa thought about getting angry, but changed his mind and just smirked. "To each his own," he said simply. Putting an arm around Bootstrap's shoulders, he led the man to the doorway. "See this, Bootstrap?" he asked, gesturing to indicate the working men. "Respect, responsibility, and just a little bit of fear do wonders for a crew's productivity. And now the fog's finally startin' to lift, so we'll make even better time. This is how a ship should be run."
Even as he spoke, the fog began to dissipate. Shouts of surprise and panic filled the air as the moonlight turned the crew to ghastly skeletons. Barbossa could only watch, speechless with horror. Whirling around suddenly, he turned on Bootstrap, who seemed to be entertaining himself with waving his hand in and out of the moonlight. "You!"
Bootstrap pulled his hand back in. "Yeah?" he replied casually.
"What's happening? For some reason, Sparrow trusted you. What did he tell you?"
"What?" Bootstrap asked, raising his eyebrows in mock-surprise. "Jack didn't tell ye about the curse?"
"Of course he did, you idiot!" Barbossa said impatiently.
"And you didn't listen because…?"
"Because I never paid attention to his insane ramblings! Nobody with any sense would!"
Bootstrap then had the audacity to smirk. "Ah, well, I'm glad someone as practical as you is the brains of this operation, then."
Furious, Barbossa struck the man across the face. "Yours is not the place to question my judgment, Turner," he growled. "Don't make me regret my decision to spare ye from Sparrow's fate."
A wave of sadness passed briefly over Bootstrap's face. "You don't know many times I've already wished that you hadn't…This," he said, indicating the skeletal crew, "is what you get for betraying Jack."
"And I suppose yer findin' it rather amusin', hmm?"
"On the contrary," Bootstrap replied. He stepped out into the moonlight, revealing himself to be just as skeletal as they. "I took my share of the gold; I'm cursed, same as you. We're all in the same boat, so to speak. And after what we did to Jack, we deserve to be cursed…and remain cursed."
"Well, as touching as your new-found sense of virtue is, Bootstrap, that's hardly the issue here," Barbossa snarled, his usually even voice beginning to develop an dangerous edge. "Now tell us how to reverse it."
Bootstrap stepped back against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. "Why? Are ye not man enough to take your punishment?"
"How dare you?" Barbossa said furiously. "You tell me, or I'll… I'll kill ye, here an' now. I swear I will!"
"Good luck," Bootstrap scoffed. Suddenly, he pulled out his knife and plunged it deep into his own chest. The crew watched in morbid fascination as he drew it out again without even flinching. "There's more to this curse than you could ever fathom, Barbossa. And now we get to live -if you can call it that- with the consequences…forever."
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The fog condensed in heavy droplets on Barbossa's skin as they followed the jagged shoreline of Isla de Muerta. The island's many cliffs and peaks loomed ominously overhead, daring them to go further. "Get the girl," he ordered Pintel. It's almost over… After several minutes, Elizabeth was brought on deck by a group of men. Taking the medallion out of his pocket, Barbossa stepped forward and delicately clasped it around the girl's neck. He motioned for the heavily-laden boats to be lowered and helped Elizabeth climb down into one. "Time to go, Miss Turner."
They slowly rowed into the shallow bay that led to the cave. Standing at the bow of the lead boat, Barbossa peered into the darkness. They were so close…As soon as they reached land, the men swarmed from the boats, dumping out their recent gains to add to the already extensive treasure. Determinedly, Barbossa pressed forward with some of the men close behind. Finally, they came to the large cave where the gold was located.
Barbossa climbed up onto the mound and watched his crew deposit the plunder. Motioning for the girl to be brought up, he addressed the crew. "Gentlemen, the time has come!…Our salvation is nigh!…Our torment is near an end!…Ten years, we've been tested and tried, and each man jack o' you here has proved his mettle a hundred times over, and a hundred times again!" The crew let out a particularly loud cheer.
"Suffered, I have!" Ragetti cried out.
Barbossa paused in satisfaction. He hadn't gotten this far for nothing; he knew how to use words to manipulate emotions. "Punished, we were, the lot of us! Disproportionate to our crime! Here it is," he said, kicking off the lid and running his fingers over the gold inside. "The cursed treasure of Cortez himself. Every last piece that went astray, we have returned…save for this! Eight hundred and eighty-one we found, but despaired of e'er finding the last. Long and hard we searched, but to no avail. Now at last, the gods shall be appeased!" He paused for effect. "…And who among us has paid the blood sacrifice owed to the heathen gods?" The crew gave an affirming shout. "And whose blood must yet be paid?"
"Hers!" they all cried.
Barbossa grinned. "Y'know the first thing I'm gonna do when the curse is lifted?…Eat a whole bushel of apples," he said. As he forced the girl to lean over the chest, the crew began chanting loudly. "Begun by blood…by blood undone." He yanked the medallion off of her neck and placed it in her hand. Slicing her palm with the knife, he made sure the blood got on it.
"That's it?" she asked in surprise.
"Waste not." Giving Elizabeth's clenched hand one last hard squeeze, he forced her to drop the medallion into the chest. It's done…Barbossa stood there with his eyes closed, waiting in anticipation to feel something change. After several moments, he opened his eyes, surprised to find that he felt the same.
"Did it work?" Koehler asked hesitantly, giving voice to the question that was on everyone's minds.
Ragetti shrugged. "I don't feel no different."
"How do we tell?" Pintel asked. Rolling his eyes, Barbossa pulled out his pistol and shot the man in the chest.
"You're not dead!" Koehler said in surprise.
"No!" Pintel replied, apparently relieved until realization struck him. "…He shot me!"
"It didn't work…"
"The curse is still upon us!" Twigg shouted.
Barbossa just stared at the blade in disbelief. It should have worked! "You! Maid!" he shouted, turning on the young woman and shaking her by the shoulders. "Your father, what was his name? Was yer father William Turner?"
"No," she replied, her voice dripping with contempt.
"Then where is his child?" Barbossa asked in frustration, picking up the medallion and shaking it in her face. It was all he could do to keep from screaming, but he managed to keep his anger under control- barely. "The child who sailed from England eight years ago? The child in whose veins flows the blood of William Turner? Where?" When she refused to answer, he delivered a blow across her face that sent her tumbling down the steep slope.
"You two!" Bo'sun shouted, turning on Pintel and Ragetti. "You brought us the wrong person!"
"No!" Pintel insisted. "She had the medallion! She's the proper age!"
"She said 'er name was Turner. You heard 'er," Ragetti pointed out. "…I think she lied to us!"
"…You brought us here for nothing!" Twigg accused suddenly.
"I won't take questionin' nor second guesses, not from the likes of you, Master Twigg."
"Who's to blame, then?" Koehler growled. "Every decision you've made has led us from bad to worse."
"It was you who sent Bootstrap to the depths!" Mallot chimed in.
Bo'sun whipped out his sword. "And it was you who brought us here in the first place!"
Barbossa frowned and drew his own sword. Best to end this quickly, or he'd have a full-scale mutiny on his hands. "If any coward here dares challenge me, let him speak!" he shouted, pointing his sword threateningly at Bo'sun. "Hmm?"
"I say we cut her throat and spill all her blood, just in case!" Koehler said angrily, earning a shout from the crew.
It was then that Barbossa noticed the monkey screeching and pointing towards a narrow corridor. Turning to the space where the girl had fallen, he found it empty, and the medallion gone. This isn't happening! "The medallion!" he cried. "She's taken it! Get after her, you feckless pack of ingrates!"
The men rushed to the boats, only to be delayed. "Where're the oars?" he heard someone cry.
"The oars have gone missin'!" Bo'sun shouted to the crew. "Find them!"
As everyone scurried to locate the missing oars, Barbossa strode back over to the chest. Picking up the knife, he examined it again. What went wrong? For once, he had to agree with Pintel. By all accounts, the girl should have been the right one! Now, they were right back where they had started. Frustrated, he flung the knife back into the chest.
"Cap'n," Koehler said suddenly, interrupting Barbossa's brooding.
"What?" he snapped.
Twigg fidgeted nervously. "Sir, we, uh…we found someone that might be o' interest to ye."
"And who would that be?"
Looking hesitantly at the already furious captain, Twigg mouthed a name.
"What? How can- Impossible!" Barbossa shouted, his face contorted with rage. "He's dead! No one's seen him for ten years!" He glared at the two men, both of whom averted their eyes nervously. "Have they, Twigg?"
Koehler cleared his throat. "The other day…in Port Royal, sir…" he muttered. "We…saw Sparrow in the jail, and…"
"What? Why didn't ye inform me?"
"We didn't think it necessary," Twigg stammered. " 'e was locked behind bars and sentenced to 'ang. We didn't figure 'e would be any trouble for us."
"Imbeciles!" Barbossa cried, roughly pushing past them. "I swear, the day this curse is lifted is the day I kill every last one of ye! Where is 'e?"
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Barbossa pushed angrily through the crowd of men. There, leaning casually against an oar, was none other than Jack Sparrow. "How the blazes did you get off that island?" he finally asked.
"When you marooned me on that God-forsaken spit of land, you forgot one very important thing, mate," Jack said smugly. "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow!"
"Ah, well, I won't be makin' that mistake again," Barbossa replied evenly, careful not to reveal his irritation. "Gents, you all remember Captain Jack Sparrow." The men laughed in response. "Kill 'im."
"The girl's blood didn't work, did it?" Jack interrupted before they could fire.
Barbossa winced, but replaced it with an indifferent sneer before he turned to face Jack. "Hold yer fire!" he ordered reluctantly. The idiot may yet be of some use. "You know whose blood we need?"
Jack smiled in satisfaction. "I know whose blood ye need."
Sighing, Barbossa contemplated his options. "Locate the oars and make ready the boats!" he finally shouted to the crew. Turning to Jack, he added, "We will discuss this matter more once we are aboard my ship. If ye prove trustworthy, I may not kill ye. Deal?"
Jack stiffened slightly at the first statement, but he just smiled and shook Barbossa's hand. "Deal."
A/N: REVIEW!...oh, and I may be doing some minor renovations to my other fanfics over the next week (just cleaning up some typos, awkward wording, continuity, and such...I wrote my first fanfic over a year ago, and personally I feel I can do better now as far as making it all flow together), so those of you who have me on Author Alert, don't be surprised if one day you have 50 million emails saying that I posted a new chapter/story. Other than that...review!