Chapter Six
Reunion

"It wasn't your blood they needed." Will was saying in the candlelight. "It was my blood they needed. The blood of a pirate."

"Will, I'm so sorry."

Arlen winced at the sound of a hand slamming onto the table. After that was a disconcerting silence.

I'd better check. For the sake of my shreds of sanity.

She knocked at the door.

"What?" Will snapped.

"...are you kissing?"

"...no."

"Oh. " With that, she sidled in.

Will and ELizabeth sat at opposite sides of a table, pointedly looking away from each other. The medallion that started this whole bloody mess lay on the table, winking in the candlelight in a smug testament to the destructive greed of men.

"What do you want, Arlen?"

"We left someone behind."

"...I'm aware of that."

"Will, the crew listens to you. Tell them to go back. We can't just leave-"

"They listen to you more. You tell them yourself."

"So you don't care about Jack. At all."

"He's a pirate." ELizabeth remarked.

"And that means we don't have feelings?" Arlen snarled back. "We're less than human? Well, the man you love is a pirate, so both of you have to get used to the idea."

Both of them blushed at such a frank statement of what they were trying to bury inside themselves. Arlen shook her head at them.

"Get on deck. They're coming, because we didn't go back for them."

-x-

"So, to sum everything up, what we've decided here today is that we're going to leave Barbossa of his own free will on an island and shout the name he needs to him?" Li said.

Everyone in the captain's cabin on the Black Pearl turned to look at the teenager pirate. Barbossa himself hadn't really noticed she was there. She was a footnote in his day, another prisoner to be dealt with in the great 'after.' when the curse was lifted. Now that he noticed her, his eye took in more detail than before.

"Wolf cub?"

"Aye."

Jack steamed. He'd spent the last weeks trying to convince her of who she was and in an instant Barbossa was able to recall Black Wolf from the depths.

"Well now, this is a surprise. We never did find the bodies." Barbossa shrugged it off. After. He'd deal with it after. "And did you ever find the young Star?"

"Who? Arlen? She's a star only in her mind."

Jack nearly threw the apple at her. One step forward, three steps back.

Barbossa raised an eyebrow and shook his head. Those girls were never quite right in the head. Death hadn't helped.

"Captain, we've caught up." The first mate said.

Everyone followed him out into the sunlight wincing. The sea foamed angrily about them. Surely enough, there was a ship on the horizon. It was the Interceptor.

"So why don't I scurry over there, talk to them, snag the Medallion and come back here." Jack said quickly, standing in front of Barbossa like he could make him forget that the ship was there at all.

"You know Jack, you never did learn that people are easier to search when they're dead." Barbossa smiled. "Take them to the brig."

Li looked over her shoulder at the retreating daylight in time to see Barbossa toss the apple out to sea, his shoulders tight with rage, and realize that she was in way over her head.

-x-

Arlen stepped on deck, Will and Elizabeth behind her, and felt her stomach clench at the sight of how much closer the Pearl had come. Her mind ran unconsciously through the motions of calculating the wind and glancing at the current, trying to discern if there was any way to preserve their fragile lead. She was continually forgetting that Jack and Li were on that approaching ship.
While Arlen was debating with herself, Elizabeth had actually found a way to be more productive than she was. She was shouting to Anamaria about shallower drafts and reefs, and then Gibbs shouted: "Anything that we can afford to lose,see that it's lost." He used this as a transparent excuse to attempt to throw Arlen overboard, but she escaped and began to help with the unloading, steeling herself for battle and praying she could find what she'd lost before one of them got themselves killed. Jack she wasn't particularly worried about.

The battle went steadily from bad to worse even though a shot hadn't even been fired. Arlen stood in a daze, convinced that she knew what to do and at the same time paralyzed. She'd never been in a battle before, right?

She certainly remembered the terrifying still right before the cannons fired and the way she couldnít hear after they did. She tried to stay out of the way but everywhere is in the way in the middle of a battle, especially when a ship is boarded. All the pirates blew right by her, leaving her in a mostly clear space when she saw Li coming over.

"Will!" Came ELizabeth's shout.

"Elizabeth!"

"Monkey!" Jack cried, darting away.

"You!" Li and Arlen called, pointing to each other and meeting again on the Pearl.

"I'm so sorry we left you!" Arlen cried, gripping her shoulders.

"Never mind that. We need to-"

It was at that moment that the battle halted. Jack was frozen nearby them, watching as Barbossa received the medallion from the monkey.

"Why thank ye, Jack."

"You're welcome."

"Not you. We named the monkey Jack."

At any other time, Arlen and Li would've been laughing. At that moment, they were too scared to.

"If even one of you so much as thinks the word 'parley,' I'll have your guts for garters." Pintel, pacing around the group as they were tied to the mast. The Interceptor was shrinking across the blue sea. They still hadn't seen Will.

In an almost animalistic instinct, they all tensed before it happened. They all knew it would happen.

"No!" Elizabeth shrieked, slipping their bonds as the Interceptor shattered under the force of the explosives. "Barbossa, you godless savage!"

He held her still, his hands white-knuckled on her arms, and grinned.

"Welcome back, Miss. You took advantage of our hospitality last time. It holds true now that you return the favor." With that he shoved her into the arms of the waiting pirates, who pulled at her hair and dress.

Arlen and Li froze side by side, convinced that they would be next. They were the first to notice when the drenched body leapt up onto the Pearl's railing, outlined by the sun.

"Will!" Elizabeth whispered.

"Well,"Arlen sighed. "We're all back on the same ship at least."

A/N: So what did you think? Hmm? Soumds good but we both think you should make a reply. So R&R! Plus even if it is just one reply it would be the greatest thing of all time! You would be a hero I can't wait 9 days till Pirates 2! So forthe next couple of days chapters will be coming then to the second book! Later! Black Wolf & Lone Star