Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Except Morgan is mine.

A/N: This is probably the longest chapter you will ever read out of this story. Be prepared. It'll move fast though. I'll tell you that much. Also, I redid some of Chapter 1. It's less messier now and a bit more detailed. Go back and take a look if you haven't already.

Chapter 21

"In a way, Jack, you're all to blame for this," Morgan said as the boat scraped against the sand as they pulled it into the small cove of the island.

"Oh? That so, Morgan?" Jack asked as he straightened up to look at her in the shadows of the inlet.

"If you hadn't stolen that compass we never would have been in this predicament," she growled back as she began unloading their supplies from the boat that they had beached upon the sand.

"You really believe that, lass?" Jack asked as he helped her unload the burlap bags. "Your father leaving his crew members to die and that bloody compass have nothing to do with each other," he said as she began to walk away with two of the bags across her shoulder. He followed her as she stopped at unlit lantern on the wall. "Besides, this compass was a gift from your father. Unfortunately his daughter..," he trailed off.

"Unfortunately what, Jack?" Morgan asked him angrily as he took the old lantern from her as searched his person for a match. "Unfortunately, I'm not my father? Is that what you wanted to say?"

"Bloody hell, woman," Jack growled back at her as he started to lose his temper. Since they had met she had been needling into him that he had stolen her father's compass and that he didn't think of her as an equal to her father. Before he could tell her what he really thought, the ground underneath him gave out.

He felt the air rush around him before he even knew what was happening. Reaching out wildly for anything to hold onto, he grabbed the edge of the ground that was left. Looking up towards the young woman above him, he hoped she would do the right thing.

"Morgan," he said slowly, almost pleading with her to help him.

"Well, Jack," she said with a smile as she squatted down next to him and used one of the matches that had fallen from his pockets when he had fallen. "Seems like ye like you got yourself into a little mess."

"White, you can't get through this without my help," Jack said as he tried his best to try to be persuasive. "You're father sent us for a reason. Alone this cannot be solved. He didn't leave you, he chose you to help him."

Morgan looked down at him as the torch in her hand began to show a bit of light. It was her choice. If she wanted to kill the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow, it was up to her. For a pirate, this wasn't a usual way for one to die. Morgan knew she'd rather die in a battle or at sea and she knew she owed Jack the same choice. If he hadn't fallen down into that pit, it would have been her instead. Jack Sparrow would have helped her out. It was just something he would do. Alone, she wouldn't have made it out and neither would he.

Without a word, Morgan placed the torch back on the wall and bent down to grasp Jack's wrist with her free hand and pulled him up. He didn't question why she decided to help him but whatever he decided her reasoning was - he was grateful.

As soon as he was back on solid ground, they both went silently to work to find a way around the trap that Jack had fallen into. Carefully passing around the edge where Jack had fallen in, Morgan soon decided there would be no way across it. The ground was loose across the length of the cave.

Jack sat watching her pace like a lion trapped in a cage from his place upon a blacked rock. He wasn't interested in going near that edge, falling in once was enough for him. If Morgan wanted to try her luck at staying a top, it was fine by him.

Curiosity soon got the best of him and he grabbed a handful of stray pebbles by his hand and made his way towards the hole he had made in the ground. Releasing his handful of dirt and pebbles, he listened patiently for the sound they made upon the ground below. By now, Morgan had stopped her pacing and was watching him with the utmost interest. He glanced at her as the sound of the rocks splashed down into water below.

In a moment, she was kneeling at the ground by his feet. Brushing away dust and more pieces of broken earth, Morgan reached her hand down and only felt small wisps of cobwebs upon her fingertips and air. With some help from Jack, they had both cleared the cobwebs that were still covering the opening of the ground below them.

Below them, they could hardly see and although Jack had brought down the torch down to the ground for them to see by, there wasn't much for them to see. From where they knelt, they could see a ground below with large black rocks sticking up through the water below them.

Taking the initiative, Morgan removed a large coil of rope from one of the canvas sacks before tying one end to the large rock that Jack had been sitting upon. Tossing it over to him, she almost felt a rising fear building in her chest. As she glanced at Jack Sparrow, Morgan almost felt that he feeling the same way. Neither of them knew what awaited them below or if even they were taking the right way into the caves. Morgan knew of the maze of the paths that the caves were filled with and wondered how long it would be before they knew they were on the right one.

As they both stood at the mouth of the hole with only a torch as their light, their thoughts were almost upon the same idea. Would they get out of here alive?

At that moment, Morgan felt like she could almost trust Jack again. Had she been wrong? She couldn't even remember why she disliked him anymore. He had not volunteered to go into those caves with her, Jack had almost asked. Morgan's idea of him was changing. Suppose he hadn't stolen that compass after all. Was it really fate?

As she began to speak to tell him what was on her mind, he interrupted her instead. "If you're going down, you better take Henry with you," he said, gesturing with his eyes to where they had left the two bags of supplies.

Morgan almost smiled. For the first time, she almost smiled for a reason that wasn't devious. She chided herself. Captain Morgan White was getting too soft.

After grabbing the bag, Morgan made her way down the hole. They had no map from here and whatever way they took would only be chosen by the reverse compass of Jack's, the few supplies they had and the skull of Henry White, although Morgan wasn't sure that any of them would be much help. She wasn't even sure if they were suppose to be going this way but there was no other place that made as much sense at the time. Even though Jack irritated her, Morgan had thought it was very useful of him to nearly fall down into that pit.

Arriving at the end of the rope, she only had about a foot to jump off into the water's below her. Thankfully, the path down had avoided the large rocks that lay in the water like awaiting pitfalls to crush them before they made it any further. Looking up, she saw Jack watching her from above, the torch still in his hand. She jumped off into the water and darkened rocks then and felt something crunch beneath her feet on her landing into knee length water. Morgan winced at the sound by ignored it for the moment since she didn't feel any pain.

"It's alright here," she shouted back up to Jack before he began his ascendance down towards her, carefully balancing the torch in one hand.

As something gently touched her leg, she reached down into the water that swirled darkly at her feet. Grasping it in her hand, she pulled the object out of the water. Dangling it up in front of her, she recognized the dangling fingers in the dim light of the cave. It was the arm of from what Morgan figured was from human remains.

"Careful when you land. There's skeletons," she said to Jack as he slowly made his way down the rope.

Captain Jack Sparrow looked down at her with interest. The faint light that the torch gave outlined the white object that she held dangling in front of her. Morgan's eyes locked with his in a shrouded look. He wondered if the emotions she was trying to hide was one of full realization that the remains of the man she was standing in was one of the crew members her father had left for dead.

He turned back to concentrate on climbing down the rest of the rope with the torch in his hand wrapped around the rope. It was nearly close enough to burn it and he noticed a few singed marks from where the flame had touch it. He made his way down into the cave a little quicker than his first half of the trip down had been.

Morgan had been paying little attention to him as she checked out the area where she now stood. The water was up to their knees and as she tried to move forwards, she found the current of the river they stood in wanted to push her back upon the rocks and into the darkness behind her. It seemed safe enough except for the slippery rocks she could feel beneath her feet that had begun to grow ale over the years. Moving towards a small rock jutting out from the waters, she rested her bag upon the rock and waited for Jack to make his way down.

Reaching the end of the rope, Jack looked for Morgan. Finding she had moved since he last seen her, he noticed her near a small rock on his right. Tossed the torch down to her, he hoped that she would be able to catch it before it hit the water. His aim had been good and with both free hands, Morgan managed to catch it before it reached the waters.

Jack was down into the water a moment later, wincing just like Morgan had at the sound of bones beneath his feet. "Lovely place," Jack murmured to himself as he moved carefully through the waters towards Morgan. "Poor devils."

Handing back the torch back to him, she began to move into the current and began to make her way upstream. "C'mon," she said before turning back into the current again. If Captain White was not deceived by her eyesight, she had seen a slight glowing behind the rocks around the corner ahead of them.

Jack had a slight feeling that this was madness but he followed willingly, knowing that somehow they would find what they were looking for. He knew Morgan was too determined not too. Captain Jack Sparrow knew that kind of determination. He had seen it before in her father and wondered if it was possibly inherited into his daughter. Henry White had been the one to teach Jack that kind of determination as a young boy. It was for that reason that he had spent ten years searching for his ship. Ten years where he had matured from the young man he had been into what he was today.

As he followed the young woman, Jack Sparrow had a feeling that somehow they would find what they were looking for. The possibility of failure loomed ahead of them like the darkness that surrounded them on all sides. Who knew what they would find down here? If they lost their way on this island, then they both knew that they would possibly meet the same fate as those poor souls of Henry White's crew.

Unlike those unfortunate men, Captain Jack Sparrow and Captain Morgan White had a few things that they did not. First, there was the fact that they knew about the maze of tunnels that extended the island and had brought along enough food and water to last them at least for nearly two weeks if they rationed them both correctly. Second, there was that compass that Jack had been given years ago by the now deceased Captain Henry White. It was the same compass that had led the way to the Isle of DeMurte and the same one that might led them the way through this island. The third clue that these two held was the skull of Henry White. Granted, it was strange that Morgan White had held onto it for so long but with nothing of her family left, what was there for her to cling to? Lastly, there was Morgan herself. If there was anyone who would find the way, it would be her.

The water they trudged through began to lessen as they slowly made their way deeper into the cave and up a small embankment. The uneven rocks beneath their feet created a slight incline that was nearly unnoticeable but still made their travel slightly treacherous. While they made their way silently through the darkened waters, they could notice a dim glow in front of them. The strange glow both frightened and confused the two although neither one of them would admit it, even to themselves. Considering that the it couldn't be sunlight because of the color, they knew that its source had to come from some man-made object but of what type, neither of them knew.

Morgan felt for one of the pistols stuffed in her belt as she wondered if it was possibly water lodged. Jack was beside her and she felt no need to tell him what to do to take care of himself. He was a big boy and she knew he'd do alright for himself although he had nearly insisted to come along on her quest. Morgan wondered if he had come along just to make sure she would get out of there alive.

"Whoever it is, they seem to be waiting for us," he commented as they froze in the lukewarm water and watched a shadow of the man in front of them as he moved about.

"Jonathan," Morgan hissed with narrowed eyes as she pulled a pistol out from her belt. "The only person who could have gotten this far."

Jack shook his head. "Cave's getting to you, lass. Left Jonathan with yer men, remember? Couldn't be him," he explained to the female pirate.

"Then who?" Morgan asked, turning to look at him with burning eyes. "The men from my crew knew nothing about the map. They wouldn't risk their blasted necks for something such as this," she replied before taking a calming breath. "Who is it that you think is there, Jack?"

He paused in the dimly lit waters as he stared back at her. "Your father?" he asked in a coarse whisper. "A member of your father's crew?"

Morgan looked back at him in disbelief. "Seems like the cave is getting to you. Those men are dead. My father's dead."

Jack looked between the shadow moving along the rock wall and then back to the pirate beside him. "Then who is that, Captain White? Explain it to me who else could have gotten to this cave."

Morgan looked towards the shadow in though. Jack did have a point. Whoever was there was waiting for them to come. As they began to crept slowly through the rocks and knee high water again, she knew that they would find out soon enough.