It's one thing when help comes from bizarre and unexpected places.
It's quite another when said help is actually a pirate that you have sworn to bring to justice (but preferably justice can be bypassed and aforementioned pirate will be sent straight to the noose), and oh, by the way, he also had a hand in The Turning Away of Elizabeth Swann.
No, Corwin Norrington was not entirely pleased when he discovered that Relentless was (presumably) about to be saved by his blood enemy.
Actually, not pleased was probably something of an understatement. He surmised that he had turned six shades of red before Elizabeth had hesitantly pulled him away from the rail. "Commodore, the next shot will take your head off."
"So kind of you to consider that, Miss Swann." A shame it wouldn't take off yours.
"We'll be fine now," Will said. "The Black Pearl will drive them off, and--"
"She's raisin' a flag, sir."
Corwin turned his head. "What is it?"
"The... uh... skull and crossbones, sir."
Will craned his neck around to stare at the approaching vessel. "Whatthe?"
The deck of Relentless became very, very quiet - even Wickedry had paused in her firing to size up the new arrival.
The Commodore turned and stared at Elizabeth and Will. "The Black Pearl will drive them off, will she? Isn't your good friend Jack Sparrow known to... switch sides?"
"He doesn't know it's us," Will said confidently. "We need to tell him."
"Feel free."
Telling him entailed Will climbing up the aft deck and waving his hands about. "JACK! It's ME! WILLIAM TURNER!"
Norrington caught her eye. "Are you certain you wish to marry him?"
Elizabeth knew one way to shut him up. "Captain Sparrow said the same thing." Although Captain Sparrow's variation had included deep discussion of eunuchs and their general uselessness.
"CAPTAIN SPARROW, DON'T ATTACK US!"
"Belay your voice," the mate growled. Elizabeth buried her face in her hands.
"They haven't opened fire yet, at least."
"An astute observation, one that--" Commodore Norrington's eyes widened. "The Wickedry! Continue firing!"
Elizabeth sighed and wondered if perhaps joining her father was not in order. Certainly his nervous breakdowns were far more interesting than watching Norrington fumble about and forget about the other ship they had to deal with. Sparrow did so love looking through his spyglass; he'd spot Will jumping about like a raving loon and come to their defense, no doubt. He did owe them his life. Several times over.
You owe me, pirate, she thought with a slightly wicked smile. She had thought about saying that to him on the beach, all those months ago, but she had never quite been able to bring up her courage... mostly because he might take what he owed her quite seriously, and the idea of being plundered on a beach... well... no, it was best if she did not revisit certain memories.
She had become so lost in her own thoughts that she jumped when Will yanked her into the captain's cabin. She could just make out the boarding party from her peripheral vision, and the looming presence of Wickedry right beyond. She had no further say in the matter as Will slammed the door on her opened mouth, and her father peeked out from behind his wig. "Is it terribly bad out, dear?"
The sound of small-arms rang out. "We're all going to die, Father. Best to make your peace." Oh, and your Commodore really does need to remember when there's more than one ship in the vicinity... ignoring the boat with the boarding parties is simply not a smart thing to do.
He stared at her. "It's difficult to tell when you're joking, Elizabeth. I heard calls of another ship..."
"There is another ship." She decided not to tell him that Black Pearl had turned on them yet again, settling for riffling through the captain's personal arms. A pistol here, a cutlass there... ah, a sword. A pity she didn't know how to use it. Besides sticking people the pointy end. Jack Sparrow had said something along those lines once.
Between William Turner's exuberant fighting and attempted signaling and the general disarray of his once-pristine deck, Corwin developed a rather large headache.
"Repel boarders! Repel boarders!"
"Bringing guns to bear!"
"Tie down that sail!"
"Fix the rudder!"
"Arrrr, ye be facin' true pirates now, laddie!"
"Urrrrrrk!"
"CAPTAIN SPARROW!"
Not for the first time, Corwin thought about shooting young Will himself, just to see if the boy would shut up.
And then, a miraculous thing happened. The Black Pearl made a motion beyond the raising of her flag; she made a motion that suggested she did indeed know of their presence.
She opened fire on them.
Corwin groaned. It was going to be a long day.
The smashing of the windows alerted Elizabeth to the fact that the crew had not, in fact, repelled the boarders.
"They always go after the windows first," her father mumbled. He picked up a gold-plated candlestick in preparation for whatever might come at him.
Elizabeth tucked her pistol into her bodice and checked the grips on both the sword and cutlass. She might not know how to use them, but by the good Lord in heaven, she'd go down cutting things. She was primed and ready when the first of Wickedry's men came smashing through the door, and she saw the surprised glint in his eye when she opened up wounds on his throat and face. He dropped, and his companion fell next.
Her father's muted exclamations fell on deaf ears. Elizabeth allowed herself one small, almost sweet smirk before stepping over the bleeding bodies and into the chaotic mess that reigned out on deck. Surprise them, a man had once said to her. They aren't expectin' one so bonny to be packin' sharp things, if you get me.
"Thanks, Captain," she murmured as her prayer before battle.
Battle is a messy affair. People are shot. People are cut. People bleed. Men fell on the decks of Relentless, some moving - some not. Their wounds varied from slices to missing limbs, and it seemed that both sides suffered their fair share of casualties. The pirates of Wickedry kept coming, though; the big ship had stopped firing as she drew closer - she wants the ship! Norrington bellowed to his men.
"This ship'll sink before pirates get their hands upon her!"
"AYE!" One brave sailor led a charge that ended in gunfire and screams.
Another ship still fired, though. Elizabeth caught herself looking over the ocean again, to where Black Pearl steadily pursued them. Shooting? She leaped upwards when her father grabbed her shoulder. "Is that - Black Pearl?"
"Aye," she said.
"Are they... are they shooting at us?!"
"It appears to be so, Papa."
If anything, her father looked more insulted than distraught. "Whatthe?! I let that lad go and this is how he repays me? I'll have his hide stripped and tanned--"
"Wot's this! A fancy gent!" The pirate's missing teeth had been replaced with stones, and Elizabeth and her father regarded him in singular horror for a few seconds. "Move along, ye filthy old cot, lest I--"
Her father smashed his candlestick down on the pirate's head. "You watch your tone, young man!"
Elizabeth nudged him with her elbow, being that both her hands were still caught up with her blades. "And you wondered where I got my fighting spirit from."
Will fought off two pirates before realizing that Governor Swann had come back out on deck. Oh, Norrington's not going to be pleased about this. He wiped the sweat from his hand off on his trousers before hefting the blade again, noting that the boarding party had come to a lull. By the shouts he heard from Wickedry and her crew, they were officially confused as to what Black Pearl's purpose was.
Save us, Jack, come through for us, we can't do it alone. The thought died as he saw Elizabeth standing there with a sword in her right hand and a cutlass in her left, and a pistol tucked into the front of her dress. Damn if a few red splatters weren't to be found on her, either... God, what a magnificent woman you have given me... even if she does get herself into trouble... more than she ought... quite often, actually...
He rejoined Governor Swann and Elizabeth as Black Pearl rounded them, providing the Relentless a surprisingly large berth, given what they intended to do. He squinted and thought he could make out the three-point hat that Jack had been so fond of wearing, but he had to duck another mild volley from the pirate ship before he could check for sure. The balls tore through the sails, but otherwise did little damage. Norrington cursed loudly. "They want her, too."
"'Course they do," Will said. "You said yourself she's bloody fast. Although 'tis a pity she can't... turn." He smiled sweetly at the Commodore.
"Commodore, the boarders, they're..."
The dumbfounded bosun had a nasty cut over his eye. "Leaving?"
Leave they did, leaping back aboard Wickedry without their wounded or dead. By the set of her sails, she fully intended to engage Black Pearl. Governor Swann wiped his forehead with his jacket sleeve, large candlestick glinting unnaturally in the sunlight. "Are they... fighting over who gets to plunder us?"
"I like the word plunder," Elizabeth said thoughtfully. Will and her father both stared at her for a moment. Governor Swann wisely decided he hadn't heard the comment and found something far more interesting by Norrington.
"If they can fix the rudder, we might yet escape," Will said, eyeing the sword. She held it clumsily, more like a club than a blade. "Poor ship, being christened with blood."
She gave him a sly little smile he'd seen somewhere before. "I don't know, I thought it was rather... exciting." She might well have said Will, I'd like to partake in bedding tonight for all the scandalous connotation she had attached to it. Clearly she fancied a reaction out of him.
"I hate it," he said. "It's senseless bloodshed."
"Oh, I don't like the blood... but... a good fight never hurt anyone, right?"
"You're... very strange, Elizabeth." No, don't say strange! Tell her how wonderful and beautiful and glowy-eyed she is right now, and then take her to the back cabin and...
No. Bad William. No biscuit.
"We've patched 'er best we can, Commodore," the bosun called.
"Come about. We're getting out of here."
Relentless did her best to swing around and sneak away from the confrontation, and had it been any other place, with any other ships, it might well have worked. Will, unfortunately, could quite vividly imagine Jack Sparrow squinting over the horizon, black eyebrows arching, demanding are they tryin' to get away from us, y'think? Sure enough, Black Pearl's head turned towards them first. There'll be no escapin' Black Pearl, savvy?
Not to be left out, Wickedry soon followed.
Damn, damn, damn.
The Wickedry's men tried their hands at boarding again, and this time, the harried crew of Relentless had little response.
Captain Jack Sparrow watched the action from the aft deck of Black Pearl, hands steady on the wheel. Normally, he'd have set upon Gerrarrd's ship without question - after all, these were his waters - but if Wickedry made one poorly-timed move, or set off one badly-aimed shot, everything would be over for everyone. Gerrarrd would probably slaughter the ship's crew and pack off what he could, but that didn't mean Jack had to make it easy for him. He nudged Black Pearl about, humming a tuneless song under his breath.
He felt rather bad for Relentless; after all, the little ship was neatly sandwiched between two rather ill-reputed vessels. Her poor captain was probably shitting himself below, wondering why the good heavens had chosen him for this duty.
"They've a woman aboard, sir." Duncan reported. Jack's spyglass was instantly in his hand, sweeping the decks of Gerrarrd's prey.
"Is she pretty?"
"Hard to say, sir--"
"If she's pretty, we might bring her aboard. If not..." He would have preferred to take the cargo and run, but Gerrarrd aboard the other ship was not known to be so magnanimous. Jack had toyed briefly with the idea of bringing the Relentless crew aboard all at once, but Gerrarrd probably wouldn't permit that, either. As it was, Black Pearl probably wouldn't get much of a cut of the loot unless he dedicated the ship to a battle. Dammit, if only one of the ships would move...
"--she's fightin', sir, and pretty damned hard."
"Excellent. I like a fighting woman." He finally caught sight of the blue-clad figure slicing away at men, and his brain skipped over where he could have possibly seen her. The rich chestnut mane, the lovely figure, that determined stance...
...You know why I burned the rum, Captain Sparrow.
Elizabeth bloody Swann. What the devil was she doing on Relentless - carrying a sword? Unless someone had taught her how to properly use one since he'd last seen her, she'd be as useless as a monkey with an abacus. His spyglass swept the decks again, and lo and behold, her sweet little eunuch Turner clapped swords with one of Wickedry's. Further down the deck, he could pick out that bloody Norrington, and even the Governor of Port Royal himself, clutching a candlestick.
A candlestick?
"Bloody hell," he said.
"Captain?"
He lowered the spyglass. "I seem to have made my one mistake per year, Duncan. Gerrarrd has decided to take a ship containing certain individuals to whom I owe a debt. Would you be so kind as to tell the crew that Wickedry is the enemy?"
Duncan, being a good little minion, did not question his orders. Jack brought Black Pearl in closer to Relentless, hoping alternately that the wind would stay kind and the ship would not decide that she didn't feel like listening to him.
Duncan leaped down to the main deck and began spreading the gospel via his great lungs. A ragged cheer went up from the crew - so they don't like him, either? Jack saw Elizabeth briefly turn around, and he waved, waggling his fingers. He fancied she stared at him slack-jawed for a moment before turning back to her chosen victim.
Ah, well. At least now there was only one enemy to fight.
Swann could not quite discern just where it all went wrong.
The tide seemed to have turned for a moment; a great rallying cry went up from Black Pearl's crew as one of her lads bellowed that Relentless was a friend, and they had stormed aboard. As one, the crews of Relentless and Black Pearl had set upon Wickedry's boarders. None of the ships fired - the range was too close, their own ship could be too easily damaged - but the crews, the crews...
He heard Elizabeth shouting something obscene. Will Turner shouted something similarly obscene. The entire mess ran together for far longer than he could track, and he felt his candlestick drop to the deck as the muggy sun beat down. Screams... no... orders? Something... something...
He awoke to water being splashed on him.
"Governor, Governor, they've taken them!"
"What took who? I don't care. Give it back."
"Heatstroke, most likely," one of the sailors said. When he opened his eyes, Norrington crouched in front of him. "Governor, I beseech you, wake up."
"What... we're alive... we won?" He straightened, smiling.
"Nearly, sir, but not without considerable damage to ourselves. Wickedry is a fine foe." Norrington hesitated. "Governor, they took the young blacksmith. Your daughter tried to free him..."
"Elizabeth...!" Her shouted curses returned to him. "Where? Where has she gone? Is she--"
"I don't know, sir. None of us do. Wickedry took them both."