Chapter 4
Remembered Elegy

They were STILL laughing (much to everyone's annoyance) for some time after that. But when Gibbs finally lost his patience and ratted on the girls, they began to miss the laughter. Jack yelling at them certainly wasn't much fun in comparison.

"You told them to WHAT?" He howled.

"Well... you see sir... they wouldn't stop laughing..." Gibbs said
nervously, shifting from foot to foot.

"What, is that suddenly bad luck?" Jack seethed. "What did you tell them to do?"

"He told them that if they were going to keep laughing like that they might as well jump into the Caribbean and see if it amused the sharks to have dinner and a show because it was wasted on him." Anamaria, ever the bold one, stated loudly and plainly. Gibbs' face paled to match his hair and he shot her a death glare before turning back to Jack.

"You... told them... to jump in the ocean... and talk to sharks..." Jack said slowly, quietly. "Gibbs, can we walk and talk? Anamaria, at the helm. The rest of you... BACK TO WORK YE SCURVY MUTTS!" Mr. Cotton's parrot squawked in something that might have been the birds version of righteous anger.

"Eh, Captain? Mr. Cotton's parrot wants you to know that he's a purebred." Gibbs managed to stammer out.

"Well that's nice. AND I TOLD YOU ONCE, I TOLD YOU A THOUSAND TIMES! BACK TO WORK!" This time, the crew listened. And for once in his life, Gibbs wish he was back to work instead of having a one on one with Jack.

Captain Sparrow- he was so serious in that moment, it made sense to call him that -led him to the stern. The Interceptor was gliding along smoothly; the Caribbean hugged them like silk. The Captain looked out over it, something like a painful longing in his eyes. But it was hard to tell; he WAS Captain Jack Sparrow, after all.

"Gibbs, do you know what we're dealing with here?" He asked quietly, after a moment. Now, raging fury Gibbs could deal with. But... intellectual conversation? He was tempted to ask if Jack wasn't on rum, but decided not to push his luck.

"Cursed pirates?" He answered after a moment.

"I wish." Jack shuddered. "No, it's something far worse... irrational teenagers." There was a pause, but Gibbs wasn't sure what to say to fill it. "Now, Gibbs, I know this might be hard, seeing your advanced age, but try to think on this... Do you remember what you were like as a teenager?"

"...irrational?" Gibbs answered, hoping he was right. God, this calm, thinking Jack was terrifying.

"Exactly. And they take every little thing you say literally. You told them to jump off the boat and laugh at sharks. Being highly irrational and literal people who might be on a hangover from ice cream, what do you think they did?" Jack finished calmly. Gibbs cringed, waiting for an outburst.

"Jumped... in... the... water?"

"There you'd be wrong, dearest Gibbs." Came a smug voice from behind them.

The two whirled; there stood Liash and Arlen, wearing smug faces that befitted Liash's voice.

"You didn't jump over!" Jack cried.

"Not yet, of course!" Arlen cried indignantly. "Gibbs said we should give them dinner and a show,"

"So what's a show without music?" Li finished brightly. Only then did they notice there was something behind both their backs.

"What do you have there?" Jack asked cautiously.

"Guns." Arlen said with a roll of her eyes. "I have a violin,"

"And I have a flute." Li continued once more.

"That's getting annoying." Arlen warned.

"Well deal with it!" Li shot back. "So, can we practice for you before we go visit the sharks?"

"Sure..."

Li rolled her eyes and waited for Arlen, who was proceeding to tune her violin.

"Why do you have to do that after every single song?"

"It's the ocean air, it screws with my strings!"

"What do screws have to do with this?" Gibbs muttered.

"This has nothing to do with an actual screw. I mean the verb screw, when people-"

Li quickly covered Arlen&'s mouth, which of course made everyone assume the worst. SO it was actually a lot longer later when they started playing.

They started off with a jig, and within moments everyone was dancing. It was more than a little frightening to see Jack dancing, but it was worth it. It was even more worth it when someone dragged Will into it, and he tried desperately to pick up on the steps. When the musicians noticed his distress, they froze.

"EVERYONE STOP!"

Strangely enough, even the captain listened to them.

"Will, come here."

Looking like he was being led to the gallows, he complied.

"You can't be on a pirate ship if you don't know how to dance." Li said sternly.

"Who do you think you are, nobility? Only people at court have to dance."

"Of course we're nobility!" Arlen quipped. "Now pay attention, dumb ass."

Out of habit, Jack looked at the anatomical part in question.

"I dunno, it doesn't look dumb to me."

"Jack... Keep your eyes where we can see them!"

In response he fixed his eyes on them, which made the girls try continually to hide behind one another, which caused Will to try and sneak away, which caused Anamaria to try and catch him, which caused her to run into Mr. Cotton, which caused his parrot to shout "Aussie aussie aussie, oi, oi, oi!"

The end result was that everyone was back where they were before, and no one was really hurt except for Will, who was more terrified than ever.

"Please, I'm not a dancer."

"No, but you're a pirate." Li remarked casually. "Now watch us."

They started the song again, more slowly. With heavy, thumping steps, the whole crew followed their beat. The girls even managed to sway to their song, keeping their feet up. The sunlight glanced along the silver of Li's flute and the polished wood of Arlen's violin, and as the tempo picked up and Will truly began to dance, it occurred to him that it might not be so bad after all to be a pirate.

Everyone seemed to forget for a while that they were supposed to be on a daring mission to rescue the damsel and get the Pearl back from Barbossa and that the entire British Navy was probably following them. They danced for long after they should've continued on, suspended in the moment.

At some point or another, probably after the night's ration of rum ran out, it occurred to the crew that they were going to have one hell of a hangover and that they should get started on their sleep. Everyone was turning to go, the watch taking their positions. Arlen and Li remained alone, their instruments limp in their hands. Then they raised them again, barely thinking.

Everyone turned to the baleful cry of the flute, pitched high above the violin's low murmur, like a whispered plea for help. They were two completely different instruments, two completely different girls, but with the music of the sea around them they blended into one unending song of mourning.

No one knew how long the song continued, but none of them could turn away while it lasted. Flute and violin wrested control from each other time and time again, and they remained spellbound. No one's eyes were dry, though they had no idea why the song was so sad or what it was mourning. No one but the captain, who stood apart from everyone else in the shadows.

He remembered seeing Black Wolf run by him and below deck, where Lone Star had run just moments before. He remembered hesitating, then following them down and standing outside the door and listening. He remembered the trail of blood on the ground, thin but sinister.

"What are you doing here, Black Wolf?" Lone Star's voice was tearful.

"Dying."

"Me too."

"Why are you dying?"

"Everything."

"Yea, me too."

"My god, did you cut your wrist?"

"...yes."

Jack's hand clenched, but he remained where he was. He couldn't open that door. They had to heal their own wounds. Inside, he knew his girls were really to strong to go out like this.

"Why?"

"I told you, I'm dying."

Lone Star had no response to this.

"Star, it's just time. My heart's out of it. Hank's finally killed me."

"My father finally started." She said with a weak laugh. "He blamed me, Wolf. He said it was my fault my mother died. He... he hit me, Wolf."

Jack cursed Caylyn for being drunk, forgetting he was drunk himself. He'd always handled it better.

"So will you die with me, then?"

"I guess. We always said we would."

Jack's trust in them finally started to falter. He gripped the doorknob. No. Not here. This isn't your end. Then he heard something that froze him for a moment.

It was the sound of a flute, one high sustained note hanging in the air. It was joined by a violin, octaves below and just as hurt. It was a last song. It was completely spontaneous, and that made it hurt more to hear it.

Jack came back to the present just as they finished. Black Wolf and Lone Star didn't die that night. They didn't kill themselves. He killed them.

He cursed himself for being drunk as he went into his cabin, thinking that now he was no better than Hank or Caylyn.

A/N: Hey Everyone sorry it has taken us so long to update. Yesterday June 24, 06 we went to the Pirate World Premiere and got all excited to keep going with the series. Just as a heads up this is a totally different plot unlike Disney. We thought of this along time ago. Just so you know. Please Review and Respond!