Hello! Sorry this chapter took a bit of time to get up, there was just... so much dialogue to get through. And the entire scene became really long so I did cut it in half. But that means you get two chapters in a row! Enjoy!
Chapter 11
For a room full of pirates, Lena had to admit it seemed almost civilized. A large table sat in the middle of the room as a wide array of pirates sat surrounding it. They seemed to own their place at the table; she could only assume they were the other pirate lords. Not to mention the countless crew members that stood behind them, filling the room with loud conversations and endless energy. As she followed Jack and Barbossa into the room, she did her best to take it all in as she tried to figure out how risky it was to simply be standing in the room.
As Barbossa strode towards the table, Lena kept an eye on Jack as he lingered by the globe that currently housed eight of the pirate lords' swords. She could already see Jack's reluctance to take part in the meeting, unwilling to part with anything even temporarily.
Glancing between Jack and the rest of the room, Lena rested her hand on his arm and gently squeezed it as she quickly placed a kiss on his cheek. Leaving him to his own thoughts, she stood quietly beside him, watching as Barbossa called the court to order.
With a cannonball in hand, he banged it on the table, drawing everyone's attention. "As he who issued summons, I convene this, the fourth Brethren Court. To confirm your lordship and right to be heard, present now your pieces of eight, my fellow cap'ns."
As all the captains began pulling out items, Lena watched as Ragetti walked around, collecting all of them in a bowl. As he progressed around the table, it seemed more like a collection of junk than actual pieces of eight. And it seemed Pintel agreed as she overheard him speaking with Gibbs about it.
As Ragetti reached Barbosa once more, Barbossa held out his hand. "Master Ragetti, if you will."
"I kept it safe for you, just like you said when you gave it to me," Ragetti replied
"Aye," Barbossa shot back, "ya have, but now I need it back." He finished with a smack to the back of Ragetti's head, collecting his wooden eye as it fell into the bowl, claiming it as his piece of eight.
"Sparrow!" Villanueva shouted as only one more pirate lord present had a piece of eight to give.
Jack snapped his head towards the sound of his name, attention finally on him, as he thoughtfully touched the coin hanging from his bandana. "Might I point out that we are still short one pirate lord, and I'm content as a cucumber to wait until Sao Feng joins us," Jack stated as he walked towards the table with Lena just a step behind him.
He was already so reluctant to join the court, she could only imagine what would happen as things progressed. Somewhere in that head of his he had a plan, but she still wasn't sure how any of it would work out for them.
Before anyone could say more, Elizabeth barged in with Sao Feng's men behind her. " Sao Feng is dead. He fell to the Flying Dutchman." As she finished, she took her sword and stabbed it into the globe, making her place known at the table.
"And made you captain?" Jack said with disbelief, "They're just giving the bloody title away now." As he finished his words, Lena couldn't help but shove her elbow into his side and glare at the comment.
"Listen!" Holding everyone's attention, Elizabeth spoke urgently. "Our location has been betrayed. Jones is under the command of Lord Beckett. They're on their way here."
With the news suddenly dropped on them, Lena glanced at Jack sharply, knowing that he was somehow behind this. She certainly couldn't forget that he had made some sort of deal with Beckett. She only hoped that his plan truly worked out in their favor.
"Who is this betrayer?" Jocard demanded as he looked about.
"Not likely anyone among us," Barbossa assured him.
"Where's Will?" Elizabeth asked suddenly, realizing just who was missing from the room.
And as if to state the obvious, Jack jumped in, "not among us."
It would be impossible not to connect those dots when he laid them out like that. Of course he had every intention of letting Will take the fall for it. And Lena was hardly surprised with that, gently shaking her head as she caught Jack's eye. She wouldn't say anything though. What was the point when things were already being laid out.
"And it matters not how they found us," Barbossa went on, moving the conversation back towards its main focus. "The question is, what will we do now that they have?"
With a shout, Elizabeth replied, "We fight!"
Mistress Cheng however had other ideas as she laughed at the response, finding it foolish. "Shipwreck Cove is a fortress, a well supplied fortress. There is no need to fight if they cannot get to us."
Of course, Barbossa knew exactly what he wanted out of this and he was determined to convince them. "There be a third course. In another age, at this very spot, the first brethren court captured the sea goddess, and bound her in her bones… That was a mistake. Oh, we tamed the seas for ourselves, aye, but opened the door to Beckett and his ilk. Better were the days when mastery of seas came not from bargains struck with eldritch creatures, but from the sweat of a man's brow and the strength of his back alone. Y'all know this to be true. Gentlemen, ladies." He paused then, seemingly for dramatic effect. "We must free Calypso."
A dead silence filled the room as his words settled. Lena had no idea a room of pirates could ever be so quiet. It stayed for one moment… then another… and suddenly the room burst into noise, the pirates creating an uproar as they protested the idea. Lena had never seen a group of people react so negatively to merely a suggestion. Wide-eyed and unsure what would happen, Lena unconsciously stepped closer to Jack, bumping into him as she listened to all the shouting. Perhaps she was wrong, they weren't very civilized about it after all.
"Shoot him!" Ammand demanded.
"Cut out his tongue!" Jocard added as they gestured with their hands, seemingly ready to carry out the act.
And not one to be left out, Jack jumped in. "Shoot him and cut out his tongue,then shoot his tongue." As he paused to glance at Barbossa, he suddenly added, " and trim that scraggly beard."
Tai Huang stepped forward then, letting his thoughts be known, "Sao Feng would have agreed with Barbossa."
"Calypso was our enemy then, she will be our enemy now," Jocard continued to argue.
Chevalle wasted no time in adding to the argument against Calypso. "And it's not likely her mood's improved."
Villanueva had other opinions however as he faced Chevalle. "I would still agree with Sao Feng, we release Calypso!"
"You threaten me?" Chevalle asked as he stepped towards Villanueva, ready to start a fight.
"I silence you!" Villanueva shouted.
And then the chaos truly started. With fists being swung and pistols being aimed, the once civilized conversation fell apart in an instant. Everywhere Lena looked, someone was fighting with someone else. At one point a gun had even gone off, fired towards the ceiling. Almost the entire room was being turned upside down. The only ones still standing seemed to be their crew. And for how much ruckus they could cause, it was amazing to see just how rowdy a different group of pirates could get.
And Lena wasn't the only one to notice.
"This is madness," Elizabeth said as she watched the chaos from her spot beside Jack and Lena.
"This is politics," Jack reasoned.
"No politics I've ever seen," Lena muttered as she kept an eye out for any possible fights inching towards them.
"Meanwhile our enemies are bearing down upon us," Elizabeth added, knowing that Beckett's ship surely wasn't stopping just because they were arguing there.
Barbossa couldn't help but agree. "If they not be here already."
As the minutes ticked by there seemed to be no sign of things settling down. The second one fight ended another began. Finally, Barbossa had had enough and fired his pistol into the air, cutting through all the fighting and bringing a stillness to the room.
Barbossa wasted no time then continuing his speech. "It was the first court what imprisoned Calypso, and we will be the ones to set her free, and in her gratitude she will see fit to grant us boons."
"Whose boons? Your boons?" Jack asked, playing down his speech. "Utterly deceptive twaddlespeak, says I."
"If you have a better alternative, please, share," Barbossa sarcastically said.
Jack, not one to pass up an opportunity, started. "Cuttlefish."
As the word settled over the group, Lena was starting to think Jack had actually lost his mind. She could only imagine what the others were thinking.
"Aye. Let us not, dear friends, forget our dear friends the cuttlefish. Flippant glorious little sausages. Pen 'em up together and they'll devour each other without a second thought. Human nature, isn't it?...or...or fish nature."
As Jack continued, he made his way around the table. "So yes, we could hole up here well provisioned and well armed and half of us would be dead within the month, which seems grim to me any way you slice it. Or… as my learned colleague so naively suggests, we could release Calypso, and we can pray that she will be merciful. I rather doubt it. Can we in fact pretend that she is anything other than a woman scorned, like which fury hell hath no? We cannot. Res ipsa loquitur tabula in naufragio."
Jack paused after rattling off the latin phrase before he jumped right on. "We are left with but one option. I agree with, and I cannot believe the words are comin' out of me mouth," and he looked as if he were going to be sick from the words, "Captain Swann… We must fight."
"You've only ever run from a fight," Barbossa spat out immediately.
"I have not!" Jack argued.
"You have too!"
"Have not!"
"You have too!"
"Have not!"
As the two carried on, Lena could hardly believe that the two men standing there bickering like children could actually be grown men. And pirate lords at that. And their fates were left in the hands of people like that. She wondered briefly if they might actually be doomed.
"You have too, and you know it!"
"Have not, slander and calumny!" Jack finished as he pushed on with his argument. "I have only ever embraced that oldest and noblest of pirate traditions. I submit that here now, that is what we all must do, we must fight... to run away.'
"Aye!" Gibbs cheered, supporting the idea and within seconds, other joined in with their own shouts of support.
"As per the code," Barbossa knowingly countered, "an act of war, and this be exactly that, can only be declared by the pirate king."
"You made that up," Jack said petulantly.
"Did I now?" Barbossa questioned. "I call on Captain Teague, keeper of the code."
SeSumbhajee's assistant protested. "SeSumbhajee proclaims this all to be folly! Hang the code! Who cares-"
Lena jumped as a shot rang out, and Sesumbhajee's assistant dropped to the ground. Snapping her head towards where the sound originated from, her eyes fell on Jack before they traced the man that walked up from behind him.
"Code is the law." Captain Teague paused behind Jack who stood very stiffly at his sudden entrance. "You're in my way, boy." At his words, Jack shuffled to the side, awkwardly stepping out of the way.
As he stood by the table, Lena watched in confusion at Jack's strange behavior. It wasn't often that he was so uncomfortable by someone's presence. Then again, the whole room seemed to hold their breath at this man's entrance.
Two old men walked in then, lugging between them a giant book containing the pirate code. As everyone watched what was going on, Lena pushed her way through the crowd until she reached Jack's side.
Wordlessly, she seeked out Jack's attention, grabbing his hand and gently squeezing it. A flash of a smile crossed his face in return, though it did nothing to ease her thoughts when she saw him watching everything very closely. His eyes never drifted off the book as they waited for it to be unlocked.
With the book now on the table, Captain Teague gave a quick whistle. Out from the back came a dog, one that Lena could swear was very familiar.
Across the table, Ragetti caught on as well as he questioned the dog's appearance. "How did…"
"Sea turtles, mate," Teague said with a shrug, before he began looking through the codes.
As he looked over it, Jack stood over his shoulder, trying to see for himself. With the two standing side by side, Lena couldn't help but notice a resemblance, between the sea turtle excuse and how they dressed, there had to be some kind of connection. She wouldn't put it past them being related in some way. But wouldn't Jack have mentioned at some point on their way here that he had family here?
"Barbossa is right," Teague announced with a tap towards the rule in the book.
"Hang on a minute," Jack cut in, needing to check for himself. As he read over the rules himself, he muttered as he read. "It shall be the duty of the king to declare war, parlay with said adversaries... fancy that."
"There's not been a king since the first court, and that's not likely to change," Chevalle said, already dismissing the idea.
"Not likely," Teague agreed as he walked away from the table and sat down with a guitar in hand, plucking at the strings.
"Why not?" Elizabeth asked as she turned towards Gibbs.
"Because the king is elected by popular vote," he explained.
"And each pirate only ever votes for hisself," Barbossa added.
Unperturbed still, Jack continued, "I call for a vote."
Immediately, Barbossa groaned at the idea as chatter filled the room. And as expected, one by one, each pirate voted for themself as they circled the table.
"I vote for Ammand, the corsair."
"Capitan Chevalle, the penniless French man."
"SeSumbhajee votes for SeSumbhajee."
"Mistress Cheng."
"Gentleman Jocard."
"Elizabeth Swann."
"Barbossa."
"Villanueva."
And then it was Jack's turn. With a knowing smirk, Jack spoke. "Elizabeth Swann."
"What?" Elizabeth asked, shocked.
"I know, curious isn't it?" Jack said with a smirk.
And yet again, the arguments started, shouting at Jack to change his vote or general disbelief. It was turning into chaos again and Lena could only watch in disbelief. Everything with this group turned into yelling.
"Am I to understand that you lot will not be keeping to the code, then?" Jack asked.
With the break of a guitar string, everyone immediately noticed the look of warning on Teague's face. And just like that, a silence fell over the room as each pirate lord slowly lowered themselves back into their chair. There was little to do except accept the ruling, else they may be the next to take a bullet.
"Very well," Mistress Cheng said with a sweep of her hand towards Elizabeth. "What say you Captain Swann, king of the Brethren Court?"
"Prepare every vessel that floats," Elizabeth said, taking her new role in stride. "At dawn, we're at war."
SeSumbhajee stood up then, speaking for the first time, as he announced, "And so, we shall go to war."
Thus commenced the meeting of the Brethren Court. And now they would be at war in the morning. Lena was sure there was still much to get ready by morning.
To be continued in the next chapter!
