Disclaimer: I do not in any Way, Shape, or Form own Pirates of the Caribbean. If I did, I would have a Jack Sparrow at my side, and I wouldn't at all complain :)
All reviews are welcomed :)
Ch. 17
I couldn't help but walk backwards, holding my hands to my chest and biting my bottom lip. "Father... what happened to you..." I whispered
I don't know how long we were stuck down in the bridge, I didn't bother to count, neither did anyone else, but probably a day. I was leaning against the pole, thinking about my father when the door to our cell was opened. I looked up and saw Norrington. I frowned and walked over to him.
"What are you doing?" I whispered harshly, and heard my crew come up behind me. "Come with me... quickly." He said nodding towards the exit. I looked over to Tai Huang and nodded. He said something in Chinese to the others and they all quickly and quietly went out. Soon as my men were out I followed them, passing Norrington, who was following me.
"Why are you doing this? I'm pretty much your worst enemy next to Jack." I whispered. "I'm choosing a side, that's all." He whispered. I couldn't help but smirk at that. "I'll make sure to let Elizabeth know." I said quietly. He led us up to the back of the deck where it was pulling our ship. I urged the others to get on board, and to be quiet, but quickly. I stayed behind a bit and turned to Norrington. "You do know if you're caught, you'll be dead." I whispered to him. "It's a small price to pay to insure that to ensure that Elizabeth is alright." He said. "Then come with us Norrington, I'm sure Elizabeth would be glad. Things aren't how they were with her and my brother." I said.
Before he could answer though, one of the fish men spotted us. Norrington told me to go, saying that he would follow. "I know you're lying." I stated crossing my arms. All he did was chuckle at me. "Tell Elizabeth that our fates were intertwined together, but were never joined." He said and pushed me towards the line. I got onto the railing and started to crawl to our ship. I looked back and saw my father, stating that no one leaves the Dutchman. Before anything could be done, Norrington cut the rope, sending everyone who was still climbing down into the water, and at the same time, my father stabbed him as he turned around. I closed my eyes a bit then started swimming to the Empress. "Father... Will, will save you... I promise." I whispered, not looking back at the Dutchman.
Once on board I turned to the crew to see them starring at me. "Head to Shipwreck Cove." I ordered, and then turned to Tai Huang with a raised eyebrow, daring him to question me. He bowed to me, finally respecting me and turned to the crew, ordering them in Chinese. I walked down to the cabin with him following me. I turned to him crossing my arms in front of my chest. "Yes Tai Huang?" I asked. "You need something proper to wear if you are to be captain." He said and walked towards a closet on the other side of the room. He opened it up and looked at me. "These are at your disposal now... captain." He said. I smiled a bit and walked over to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Tai Huang, thank you, I know I won't be able to replace Sao Feng as Captain, but I hope we can at least work together as much as we can." I said
Tai Huang took his time answering me, then took his hand and took mine off his shoulder. "That is a fair enough agreement Miss Turner." He said shaking my hand once before he left to up deck. I looked back at the closet and decided it would be best to now change. I kept my black pants that I had one and changed my top to a sleeveless dark blue silk dress with a slit going up to a little higher than my mid thigh and tied a forest green sash around my waist. I left the collar of the shirt open, letting the ruby pendant, and the dream catcher, as well as the piece of eight to be shown. I pulled my hair out of its braid and pulled it up into a messy bun, letting my bands fall to the right side of my face, hiding my eye. I clipped it with a black dragon clip and placed all m effects in their proper places. I went over to another closet and opened it up. It held different weapons, some I was not familiar with. I took a few daggers and some metal war fans, placing them in the pouches I placed on the sash. I then pulled out a Talwar. I had read about it back when I still lived with our mother. It was a type of curved sword, like a European sabre. I pulled it out of its dark red sheath and stared at the silver blade that gleamed brightly in the dim lit room. I smiled to myself and placed it back in its sheath, tying it onto my sash again. I walked back over to the closet and looked at the shoes that were there. I pulled out some black flats and pulled them on, from what I could feel, they were perfect to fight in, even, since many of my men wore them, as did Sao Feng. I left the cabin then and walked up to the deck to see how everything was going. I walked up to the helm and went over to Tai Huang.
"How goes it?" I asked looking out ahead of us into the sea. "We should be arriving tonight if we keep this pace." He said, and I smiled. "That's good news then, thank you." I said with a nod. 'Now all we have to do is wait.' I thought.
Just like Tai Huang said, we arrived at Shipwreck Cove that night. I looked at the place in awe, never before having imagine it being so grand. "Amazing." I whispered, beside me Tai Huang chuckled. "This has never happened in our life time before, to gather all Nine Pirate Lords." He said and I nodded. Once docked some of my men and I went up to where the gathering was being held.
"Now all we need to do is wait for Sao Feng to arrive and..." I heard Jack say and decided to make my appearance.
"Sao Feng is dead." I spoke up walking towards everyone, I brought out my sword and stuck it into the globe where my domain was. "He fell to the hands of the Dutchman." All of the other Lords stood up, all speaking at once. I saw Jack looking at me up and down, taking in what I was wearing. I whistled loudly to get everyone's attention.
"There is a betrayer among us, Jones is under the command of Beckett and they're on their way here." I stated. The pirate Lords were not pleased with this and one of them asked who it was. Barbossa interrupted them saying that it didn't matter who it was, since obviously it wasn't any of them. I looked around and saw that Elizabeth was there, but not my brother.
"Where's Willy?" I asked looking over to Jack, who shrugged. "Not here?" he said weakly. I shot him a look, knowing that he knew something, but I didn't say anything.
Barbossa then went on saying what we should do, and Elizabeth jumped in, abruptly. "We fight!" she said. I closed my eyes a bit and let out a sigh, shaking my head. The Lords started laughing, finding her statement hilarious. Mistress Ching then started to speak, saying that Shipwreck Cove is a fortress, a well supplied fortress, why should we fight, when they could not get to us. The other Lords nodded in agreement with her. I went over to Jack, and let myself sigh a bit.
"Having fun luv?" he whispered to me, leaning in close. "Tons." I said sarcastically, before tuning into what Barbossa was saying. He said that there was a third option to this, that at this very spot, years before our time, when the first Brethren Court was made, that they bounded Calypso in her bones, and that it was a mistake. I felt Jack grab one of my hands that were placed behind my back and I shot him a curious look. He just shook his head and nodded towards Barbossa, telling me to pay attention.
"We should free Calypso." I heard Barbossa say. It was that statement that caused the other Lords to start yelling again. Captain Ammand said to shoot Barbossa while Captain Jocard said to cut out his tongue. Jack, being Jack of course said to shoot him, and then cut out his tongue, then shoot the tongue. I nudged him to be quiet and shook my head. Tai Huang stepped up beside Barbossa and said that Sao Feng would have agreed with him. Captain Chevalle, and Captain Eduardo Vallenueva soon got into a dispute, which caused Eduardo to draw his pistol, but Chevalle was quick and punched the man in the face. The other's soon joined the brawl and I leaned against Jack a bit.
"So, is this normal then?" I asked raising an eyebrow. "It's politics luv." He said simply placing his hand on my hip lightly. I looked at him in surprised and strange look, but he didn't seem to notice them. "Jack you seem anxious about something, mind telling me what it is?" I asked raising an eyebrow. Jack looked at me and grin. "Besides that I've never seen you wear anything like what you are, and find you absolutely ravishing, it also unnerves me that you were made captain." He whispered into my ear. I chuckled quietly, not being able to keep my smirk down. "You just want to see me naked in bed." I whispered back and pulled away from him.
Barbossa got onto the table and fired his pistol getting everyone to settle down saying how it was the first Brethren court that sealed he, and how it was us that should set her free. That she would grant us boons. Jack though, thought it was a ridiculous idea, and Barbossa told Jack to share what he thought.
"Cuttlefish. Eh? Let us not, dear friends, forget our dear friends the cuttlefish... flipping glorious little sausages. Pen them up together, and they will devour each other without a second thought... Human nature, in'it? Ooor... fish nature... So yes... we could hold 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... ahh... as my learned colleague so naively suggests, we can 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, we are left with but one option. I agree with, and I cannot believe the words are coming out of me mouth... Miss Swann. We must fight." Jack said as he walked around the table, and started making other some people angry, as usual.
I couldn't help but let out a small groan as Barbossa and Jack started arguing like little kids about Jack always running from a fight or not. "Such children..." I muttered. "I agree, I thought this was supposed to be different..." Elizabeth said beside me, and I snorted a bit.
"I suggest we should fight. To run away." Jack said, Gibbs, always following Jack, along with the crew all shouted 'Aye' in agreement, causing the rest of the captains and their crew to agree as well. Barbossa then said that an act of war, which is what this was could only be decided by the Pirate King. I slipped through the crews heading over to Jack, as Jack tried to start another banter, but Barbossa put stop to that by his next words.
"I call on Captain Teague. Keeper of the Code." Jack's face faltered a bit as I reached him. Askay, relayed Sri Sumbhajee's message about the code and was shot everyone looked at the fallen man then over to where the shot came from. Leaning against a door was a man that looked very much like Jack, except older, and probably more wiser.
"The code is the law." He said, causing Jack to gulp and everyone else to sit back down in silence. He walked over to us and I respectfully moved to the side near Chevalle. "You're in my way boy." He said and Jack moved over to me making room for the man. Turning to the room and motioned for two older men to come over. They were carrying a very large, and very old book, the code. I looked at it amazed as it was set onto the table. Teague whistled and the prison dog came over with keys in his mouth like always. Ragetti and Pintel were confused about this, since the last time they saw the dog was on that man eating island. He then went to unlock the code and look through it.
"Barbossa is right." Teague said, causing Barbossa to grin victoriously, Jack not wanting to be out done, said that it couldn't be right and looked through himself. As this was going on, I looked at both Teague and Jack, finding the similarities between them, they had the same kind of hair, same type of beard, both of them had stuff in their hair and wore wrapping around their hands, and rings. 'So my first thought was correct, father and son eh...' I thought.
Jack soon asked for a vote, despite the fact that every pirate would vote for themselves. I raised an eyebrow not really wanting to do a voting, but all he did was wink at me. Teague had walked near the back and sat in a chair putting his feet up on a crate. He picked up a guitar and started playing around with it.
Ammand soon stood up, starting the voting. " I vote for Ammand, the Corsair!" he said and his crew clapped him on the back. Chevalle went next. "Captain Chevalle, the penniless Frenchman!" he said, also standing up. Sri Sumbhajee's assistant spoke for Sumbhajee, saying that he votes for himself. Mistress Ching stood up next. "Mistress Ching." She said. Then Jocard stood next. "Gentleman Jocard!" he stated. "Barbossa." Barbossa said. Vallenueva stood up next. "Captain Vallenueva." He said proudly. I sighed and shook my head. "Gabriella Turner." I said dryly, wishing I wasn't being dragged into this.
I heard Teague stop playing his guitar after I said my name and I could feel him looking at me for some strange reason. I ignored it and waited with everyone else for Jack to say his vote. "Gabriella Turner." He said smoothly, causing me to look at him with like he had three heads, and the rest to start yelling. "Excuse me?" I asked, needing him to say something else. "Curious aint it?" he said. He gave me a grin before turning to the other Lords. "Im I to understand that you lot will not be keeping to the code then?" Jack said. At that everyone became quiet and one of the strings on Teague's guitar broke as everyone looked at Jack surprised. Everyone sat down, except Ching.
"Very well." She said and turned to me. "What says you Captain Turner, King of the Brethren Court." She asked. I looked over at Elizabeth and nodded to her. "I say we do what Miss Swann wants. We will listen to 'er." I said, and everyone turned to Elizabeth. "The floor's all yours Eli." I said and crossed my arms. "Prepare every vessel that floats. At dawn we're at war." She said seriously. I nodded to her, and she nodded back, for now we have an agreement and for now, we will be allies to each other. From the corner of my eye, Jack nodded, pleased with this development. Before anyone went anywhere, I decided to state something. "Before everyone leaves to get ready, I have one thing to say." I started, and felt everyone's eyes on me. "If anything happens to me, Elizabeth Swann, shall take my place as King of the Pirates." I stated. Most of looked taken back, but I held firm in what I said, and the Lords of the Sea accepted the fact, thankfully.