Chapter Eight
Full Circle

"You missed a spot." Mr. Cotton remarked.

Pintel shoved the mop he was using at the bars of the brig. The crew of the Interceptor had been shoved into the darkest, dankest part of the ship. They were tired, wet, and hungry, and all of them still found time to annoy their captors.

"You knew William Turner?" Will asked quietly at that moment. He alone seemed to have lost his spirit since they'd been captured.

"Old Bootstrap?" Pintel gave an odd half-smile. "We knew him. It never sat well with him, what we did to Jack Sparrow, the mutiny and all. He said it wasn't right with the Code. That's why he sent a piece of to you, as it were. He said we deserved to be cursed, and remain cursed.

"Stupid blighter." Ragetti muttered, his wood eye rolling endlessly in his head.

"Good man." Gibbs shot back.

Pintel chose to ignore the comment and looked back at Will. "Well, as you can imagine, that didn't sit too well with the captain."

"That didn't sit too well with the captain at all. Tell him what Barbossa did." Ragetti prodded his mate.

"I'm tellin' the story!" Pintel shouted.

"Well, you're not very good at it." Li muttered.

"Oh, we never missed you much, I hope you know. None of us lost any sleep when we saw that ship go up in flames." Pintel said vindictively.

Li winced at the sudden memory of searing heat, tears on her face, and Arlen's hand in hers. It left as suddenly as it came, leaving her as lost as ever. It had never occurred to her to try and get out of this mess. She still wasn't certain this wasn't a dream. At the moment she just cared about staying alive.

"So what the captain did, is he strapped a cannon to Bootstrap's bootstraps."

"Bootstrap's bootstraps." Ragetti giggled.

"The last we saw of ol' Bill Turner, he was sinking to the crushing black oblivion of Davy Jones' locker. 'Course it was only after that we learned we needed his blood to lift the curse."

"Now that's what you call ironic." Ragetti sighed.

"You knew my father?" Will asked Li.

"Oh, yea. Bootstrap was fun. He was the first one who got me to buy ice cream on Jack's account."

"Like father like son." Will muttered.

"Pirates aren't so bad, you know." Li began to say.

"And how would you know? You don't even know who you are or how you got here!" Will snapped. Li drew away, sitting in her corner of the cell, as struck by the truth of his words as he was by hers.

In that still moment there was the heavy clod of boots on the stairs. Barbossa stood in the doorway to the brig, his bulk filling the door.

"Bring them." He said, throwing the keys at Pintel.

Everyone realized that they must've been back at Isle de Muerta- right where they started.

A/N: Short chapter but another is on its way. Please people reply! If you send me your stories I will read and reply if you do it for us! Pirates Honor! LOL! So please respond I know people are reading or at least people are and I'm not going crazy like Arlen. (Hehe)
Black Wolf