Disclaimer: One day, when I take over the world with my army of giant bobbleheads, I will storm the fortress that holds the precious copyrights, and I will have them. Until then....i own pocket fluff...(watch out......giant dustbunnies work as well as giant bobbleheads! Mwhahah-chokegaspcough. Damn colds.....:

On to chapter 12: Apple?

On deck, Miroku stood looking out over the bow of the ship beside Sango. She was looking out over the water, lost in thought. Not paying attention to the waves, to the wind in her hair....her eyes stared out and saw nothing.

Miroku leaned in closer. He could guess what was on her mind....it had been there ever since they had defeated Naraku.

Kohaku.

Miroku looked at his once cursed hand, at what those rosary beads had once contained and sighed. He no longer had to live with the knowledge that he might not wake up the next day, that he might die and suck in his friends with him into the void. But Sango...she still wasn't free of the impression Naraku had left. Miroku stretched a hand around Sango's shoulders and held her close. She jumped, brought back to reality too fast, and tensed before relaxing again.

"We'll find him. I promise."

Sango didn't say anything...but her eyes told the whole story.

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In the cabin of the Interceptor Kagome sat, digging in her knapsack for the first aid kit. Inuyasha was leaning nonchalantly to the side, while Will watched Elisabeth, worry written all over his face. He could still fell the adrenalin in his system, slowly draining and leaving him with a tired, grey feeling. He was glad Elisabeth was alright, that they'd pulled out when they had. Inuyasha might be able to take bullets and abuse with ease, then row like a madman, but if it had been Elisabeth, or even Kagome who'd been shot (he didn't count himself) then....it would have been different. So very different. If one of those pirates had harmed Elisabeth...

"There!" Kagome's voice broke into his thoughts, and he moved forwards. "Found it. Do you know how to bandage that up? I want to look at Inuyasha first...his wounds are worst"

"Feh" Inuyasha crossed his arms without thinking, before realizing that that particular action was a bad idea. His arm twinged warningly as he hurriedly straightened it. Stupid bullets...it wouldn't heal up for a couple hours at least...

Kagome stood with a thick roll of gauze, and passed some to Elisabeth. She sat down, and began working on the gash in her palm while Kagome shooed Inuyasha into the corner, starting to work on him. "You sure you'll be ok?" she asked Elisabeth.

"I'll be fine" she said, leaning over her hand with the bandages held firmly. It wasn't really working, but Kagome was busy, so Elisabeth kept trying to tie it up with one hand. She looked up, pausing. They'd left that pirate...Jack...and whoever Sesshoumaru was on the island... Elizabeth had no idea what sort of person Sesshoumaru might be other than what Kagome had said, but Jack... "What sort of a man trades a man's life for a ship?"

Will answered for her. "Pirate. Here. Let me." He took her hand, and tied the bandage. Kagome watched, and smiled. It was fairly obvious they were in love, and it made such a cute picture....

"Feh." Inuyasha looked bored. Kagome glared at him, and he quieted. NOW what had he done?

"Thank you." Said Elisabeth, looking at the bandage being tied for her.

Will looked up "You said you gave Barbossa my name as yours. Why?"

"I don't know. "She gasped, and pulled her hand back a bit as wills gently hands pulled too tight.

"I'm sorry. Blacksmith's hands - I know they're rough."

"No...I mean yes, they are but... but don't stop."

"Elizabeth."

Elizabeth paused, then took out the medallion she had with her. "It's yours."

Kagome was interrupted from alternately watching the mini drama on the other side of the room and inspecting the bullet holes in Inuyasha's arm as a pulse ran through the room. 'I should try purifying it...after this.'

Will took it in his hand, frowning. "I thought I'd lost it the day they rescued me. It was a gift from my father. He sent it to me. Why did you take it?"

Elizabeth's face crumpled a little "Because I was afraid that you were a pirate. That would have been awful."

Will looked down, disgusted "It wasn't your blood they needed. It was my father's blood...my blood...the blood of a pirate."

Elizabeth reached out, then drew back "Will, I'm so sorry, please forgive me." Will slammed the medallion on the table, and Elisabeth eyes fell. Silently, she got up and left.

Finished with Inuyasha, Kagome turned to Will. "That's really rather silly you know. Just because your father was a pirate, or lord of the western lands...or....it doesn't mean your him. It doesn't mean you have to be what he was. You can choose"

Will clenched his fist, then stood up sharply and left the cabin.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Inuyasha. Where had that little speech come from?

"Oh...never mind..."sighed Kagome. Why did he have to be so dense?

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Barbossa leaned forwards against the table. Light from the windows shone on the papers scattered here and there, illuminating the captains cabin for the bachelors residence it was.

"So you expect to leave me standing on some beach with nothing but a name and your word it's the one I need and watch you sail away in my ship?" he asked Jack, slightly incredulous. The nerve of him! Walking in here, and making the demands he had...it was all the more infuriating since Barbossa knew all too well the power he had. By now, he was quite willing to do whatever it took to lift the curse, even make such a bargain as Jack was proposing...

Jack carefully selected an apple from the tray, and held it loosely in one hand. "Apple, Sesshoumaru?"

Sesshoumaru looked at him as though he was crazy...which was entirely possible, considering.

Jack shrugged, and tossed his own apple up in the air, catching it before going back to his conversation with Barbossa. He was enjoying this... "No. I expect to leave you standing on some beach with absolutely no name at all, watching me sail away on my ship and then I'll shout the name back to you. Savvy?"

"But that still leaves us with the problem of me standing on some beach with naught but a name and your word it's the one I need."

Jack leaned in closer. "Of the two of us, I am the only one who hasn't committed mutiny, therefore...my word is the one we'll be trusting." He sat down and put his feet up on the table.

Sesshoumaru grimaced as the scent of worn, salty leather drifted faintly to his nose. Jack was clearly enjoying every minute of this...but he most certainly was not.

"Although...I suppose I should be thanking you because, in fact, if you hadn't betrayed me and left me to die, I would have an equal share in that curse, same as you." He bit into the apple loudly "Funny ol' world, innit?" He looked at the apple.

"You sure about that Sesshoumaru? These are surprisingly good..."

Barbossa looked rather uncomfortable....he was sure that Jack had some scheme going to disconcert him. Really too bad he was succeeding...

"No." Sesshoumaru kept his voice deadpan. He wasn't a youkai who delighted in killing for the sake of killing, nor was he one to seek out a fight for no reason. Generally, he didn't notice humans at all. But for this one, he might just make an exception...

Sesshoumaru's thoughts were interrupted as footsteps came closer. He turned to the door, which opened a minute later to reveal the Bo 'sun.

Barbossa shrunk slightly. Creepy, that. Knowing before it happened almost, with hearing that good.

"Captain, we're coming up on the Interceptor." Barbossa gladly turned his attention to more mundane matters ad went topside. Jack followed him up, and Sesshoumaru trailed along behind.

Jack was amused to see that as he emerged, a path opened easily for him....and the blank faced youkai behind him. He was almost tempted to ask Sesshoumaru to say 'boo'.....

Jack stopped, moving in front of Barbossa's spyglass, and blocking the view of the Interceptor.

"I'm having a thought here, Barbossa. What say we run up a flag of truce? I scurry over to the Interceptor, and I negotiate the return of your medallion, eh? What say you to that?"

"Now you see, Jack , that's exactly the attitude that lost you the Pearl . People are easy to search when they're dead." He turned to the Bo' sun. "Escort Mr. Sparrow below. We wouldn't want him to come to harm..."

Barbossa watched as Jack went below. Sesshoumaru followed him, after surveying the ocean. 'If that man can hear footsteps from the other end of the ship, enough to know when my cabins being approached long before the rest of us...what effect would a cannon blasted beside his head have?' (wow. Who knew Barbossa was a scientist? lol)

Barbossa watched carefully as Sesshoumaru disappeared below. "Koehler?"

"Yes captain?"

Barbossa lowered his voice as much as he could. "We are going to deal with that Sesk...maru. I want you to go down, and tell the Bo 'sun, in these exact words, to 'put them in the best room'. Now, that would be the room next to the cannons." Koehler looked confused. That wasn't the best room... "After, you are to take Twigg down there and blast a cannon, as loud as you possibly can, next to that room."

"What's that going to do?"

"Just do it. No discussions either. HE might hear, and you don't want that."

The light of comprehension slowly dawned... "You mean...?"

"Yes."

Koehler grinned nastily, and went off to tell the Bo 'sun where to put their 'guests'.

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Miroku and Sango worked as a team on the sails. Far below, Gibbs was shouting "Hands aloft to loose t'gallants! With this wind at her stern, she'll carry every sail we've got.

Elizabeth came up out of the hatch leading below. "What's happening?"

Inuyasha followed her out, looking at the horizon.

"What's that other ship out there?"

"The Black Pearl, she's gaining on us. "Anamariea looked at the pearl worriedly. Kagome came out beside Anamariea and Inuyasha, after Will.

Elizabeth looked outraged "This is the fastest ship in the Caribbean ."

"This is the fastest ship? We're not going too fast then" said Inuyasha. He'd not really been on a boat like this before, but compared to the speeds of some things, such as Sesshoumaru when he was flying, this wasn't all that fast.

Anamariea looked at him strangely. "You can tell them that after they've caught us."

Kagome looked back at the pearl. Just out of bowshot. Damn "So what do we do then? Wait for them to catch up?"

"We're shallow on the draft, right?" said Elizabeth as Miroku and Sango came up. Without thinking, Miroku's hand went out, almost as if it weren't under his conscious control, and landed on Elisabeth .

She stiffened, and turned around, eyes dark with anger and almost visibly giving off lightning. Miroku gulped...he was in DEEP shit now...DEEPDEEP shit.... Will frowned as he turned, saw what had happened.....and immediately went for Miroku. Unfortunately, Sango and Elizabeth beat him to it. Sango thunked him on the heard, wistfully thinking of Hirakotsu, while Elizabeth kicked his shin...hard.

Then Will joined in....

Miroku had no chance whatsoever. He got kicked, thumped and punched to the deck, in that order, fairly quickly.

Inuyasha snickered, while Kagome sighed. Honestly....you'd think that after being engaged he'd restrain himself...

Anamaria looked on, noting the interesting way in which Miroku's face was now rearranged due to Will's overenthusiastic ness. "Aye. We are shallow on the draft" she said carefully. Idiot. Wasn't he supposed to be some sort of priest too?

"Well, then can't we lose them amongst those shoals?" asked Elizabeth, after kicking Miroku's twitching form once more for good measure.

Gibbs made another mental not never to get Sango mad...or Will! "We don't have to outrun them long, just long enough."

Anamariea raised her voice "Lighten the ship, stem to stern!"

"Anything that we can afford to lose...see that it's lost."

Will looked at Miroku, considering...

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"Apparently there's a leak." Said Jack, looking down the hall towards the brig. "I somehow don't think this is their best room at all..."

Sesshoumaru frowned....there was something wrong, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was exactly. There was a lot of movement in the room next door, but it sounded normal...

Sesshoumaru leaned back against the wall, and sat down. 'I wonder....how are Rin and Jaken doing by that well?' He didn't know when he would be getting back. There was no way to go back through the well immediately. His brother was effectively not going anywhere until he'd put his hands on the last shard of the Shikon, silly as that was, and it was Inuyasha, and Kagome who knew where the well was. If Sesshoumaru had been in Japan he'd know how to get to the well, but he was in a whole other world...and time.

Besides...there had been no well when he came out at this end, so even if he did find the well in this world, it might not work for him at all.

Distantly, the sound of Barbossa shouting orders about 'sweeps' intruded, punctured by Jacks muttered complains about the room, Barbossa, and the mistreatment of his precious pearl.

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On deck Barbossa stomped about the deck "Haul on the main brace! Make ready the guns! And run out the sweeps." Any minute now...any minute....if he was a nail biter, Barbossa would have been out a couple of fingers.

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What was that sizzling sound...? It was vaguely familiar, but Sesshoumaru just couldn't put his finger on it...

BBBOOOOOOMMM...CRACK...KABLOOSH

The world exploded in an incandescent flash of black, dazzling sound. Fuzzily, Sesshoumaru wondered where the roaring was coming from before the dark wave closed on his vision, blacking it out. He couldn't see! Sesshoumaru waved his hand quickly in front of his eyes.

On his side of the 'best room' Jack winced as the cannon roared its anger. Way too loud....some idiot had been FAR too generous with the gunpowder. Lucky they hadn't exploded the cannon, the way it had fired off...

"Idiots....now if I was captain again..." Jack stopped. Sesshoumaru was looking blankly at his waving hand. His eyes weren't following the hand at all...and he was muttering something under his breath. "Wha..." Jack stepped over, eyebrows scrunched in thought. "You ok there mate?"

"Its not there. I can't see." Sesshoumaru's voice came out slurred. He couldn't really hear what he was saying at all...he couldn't see...he tried standing up, and almost fell over. What was going on? Why was this....Sesshoumaru didn't show any of the panic he was feeling on his face, but inwardly he was squirming with anxiety. He didn't like losing control. Not at all. And with no vision, and only limited hearing through the ringing in his ears...and horrible balance...what was going on? Seshoumaru leaned against the wall with his one hand grimly. It had to be those damn pirates. Underhanded bastards.

Footsteps rang in the hall, and the door was flung open to reveal Barbossa, Twigg, Koehler, and several other crewmembers in the doorway. It took Jack one second to register their triumphant faces before they were in the room, swords drawn.

Behind them, Barbossa smiled evilly then went back up on deck to oversee the main attack. So that was how to take out someone with superior senses....use their own ability against them.

As Barbossa left, Jack drew his own blade. It didn't look like Sesshoumaru was up to fighting, not without his eyes, and not with his unsteadiness. He wasn't particularly attached to Sesshoumaru, but he wasn't about to let him get slashed to pieces. Besides, he was a valuable ally, and it never hurt to have favors to draw on...

Mostly though, it was just bad form to stab people in the back...

Sparks flew as Jack parried. Twigg snarled. They needed Jack for now. It would have been so much easier to kill them both, rather than being ordered to throw Jack in the brig and carve the other into mincemeat. Damn Jack for being so difficult!

Sesshoumaru turned his head blindly. Dimly, he could hear the melee of battle, but more important was the scents of fighting. Adrenaline and sweat mingled in the air, along with a small amount of blood from an old cut on one of the newcomers. Sesshoumaru set himself, and let poison pool in his hand. He might not be able to do as much as he could have with vision and his normal agility, but he wasn't nearly ready to roll over and die.

The trademark leather, kohl and personal scent of Jack was on the other side of the room. Sesshoumaru turned, and blindly flung his deadly ammunition at the scent of pirate. Faintly, he heard screams in amongst the ringing in his ears.

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Barrels, extra roes, sailcloth, food...all was tossed overboard. Will looked out at the Black Pearl. It was coming on fast. Then the sweeps came into view, pulling deeply at the waves and giving the black ship the appearance of a spider.

A single, loud shot echoed across the water. "What was that?" asked Kagome.

"Loud, whatever it was" said Inuyasha.

"A canon....but at this range it shouldn't be that loud. I don't know why it fired, but whoever loaded it did a damn poor job" commented Anamaria. Shed save that little mystery for later.

Below, Will stopped a cannon from being thrown off the boat with his foot. "We're gonna need that."

"Bring em on! I'll win this time!" said Inuyasha, hearing Wills comment. He had a score to settle!

Kagome just sighed.

Anamariea noticed the sweeps, and looked at Elisabeth "It was a good plan...up 'till now." She rolled her eyes as Inuyasha put on hand on his sword. Men and their ego's. Honestly

"Gibbs ! We have to make a stand. We must fight! Load the guns!" said Will, standing beside Inuyasha.

"We can win this! We'll make them sorry they ever existed" said Inuyasha, grinning. He definitely had to win this time. His pride wouldn't take another defeat.

Anamariea put her hands on her hips and rolled her eyes again. Idiots "With what?"

"Anything. Everything! Anything we have left!"

"Anything?" said Kagome thoughtfully.

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"Load the guns! Take shot and langrage. Nails and crushed glass! With a will!" People rushed to stuff the cannons mouths with whatever came to hand. Cutlery, nails, glass and powder. One enterprising person even nabbed Gibb's canteen.

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"The Pearl is going to luff up on our port quarter. She'll rake us without ever presenting a target." Said Anamariea critically to Will, Elisabeth, Kagome and Inuyasha.

"That's no problem. I'll just blast the ship away with Tetsusaiga!" said Inuyasha excitedly.

Kagome closed her eyes. "There's a possibility Jack and Sesshoumaru are on there. Plus, we said we would help Jack get his ship back. NOT destroy it."

Inuyasha looked very disappointed.

Elisabeth smiled behind her hand, then had an idea.

"Lower the anchor on the right side. On the starboard side!"

"It certainly has the element of surprise." Said Will dubiously.

"You're daft, lady! You both are!" said Anamariea.

"Daft like Jack ! Lower the starboard anchor! Do it, ye dogs, or it's you we'll load into the cannons!"

The anchor was dropped, and it drifted for a moment before puling taught, and digging into the wood with a splintering crash.

"Let go!" shouted Elisabeth to Anamariea. She let go of the wheel and the ship swung about.

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"They're clubhaulin'! Hard to port! Rack the starboard oars!" Shouted Barbossa franticly, trying to avoid a collision. That would do nothing for anyone!

The Bo' sun echoed him "Hard to port!"

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Inuyasha gripped the rail tightly, bracing himself It was going to be loud and bloody. Sango had reappeared, after dragging Miroku below deck. Beside him, Kagome's face was calm. Will shouted "Keep us steady now. Now!"

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"Fire!!" screamed Barbossa.

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"Fire all!" screamed Elizabeth

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The world exploded into the watery chaos of ocean warfare.

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small note: I'm sure Sesshoumaru has encountered loud noises as bad as a cannon before, and I'm sure he handled them admirably. But lets just say he wasn't expecting a cannon to go off next door, savvy?

Well. There's ch 12 for you! Somewhat longer than last time too I hope. I had a pd day....yay! so I typed....and typed....and then went to a swim meet, and then typed some more.

Lol. I'm so happy! I didn't come last in 1 event!! Yay! (we'll forget the other 3 for now...)

Thanks to everyone who reads this!! Especially to those who review!

DogEars22: (blinks) um...ok. That's a little disconcerting (takes away rope VERY firmly) I'm glad you think its well written....i think I've gotten better as it moves on. At least, I hope I have...lol

Shadow Fox777: yes...thank you. Some things just shouldn't happen, but they do, and we must deal with them.

Gangsta-girl: yeah, sorry about shortness. But it was either post as short, or wait a long time and post then....i decided to post sooner. Thanks!

Tetsukon: thanks! Hope you keep enjoying!

Naomi-Starcloud: I know.....one of my fav movies too

Consumed Rachel: thanks....theres a few other stories in the same vein out there too, actually, and some are really good. Lol. So I'm not first, nor, I think, last to think of this

CometsChaos: thanks! I thought making Barbossa a little superstitios would be interesting...

Why?What?Shutup: glad you liked

Deppfan1016: I don't know...to me, a life is having enough time to write, draw, browse the net, download all the stuff I want to, and work on various personal projects. That's a life! (although I've been told its rather sad to have a computer on at 6:30 am...)Lol. Barbossa's a sailor, and I decided I'd make him a little leary of the unknown....but he got over it. And yes, I was planning on the gropping, just not first time round. Miroku is at least ATEMpting to control himself! Lol. And that's ok. I love long reviews!:D And thanks on the take your time! lol

Bomhammer: ouch. That has to hurt. If i lost all the stuff on my computer.....ouch. and heres an update! Woot!

Again, many apologies for the lateness. I hope this was longer too......I honestly don't know how long I'll write up a ch till I write it out...please review!