A/N: Consider this and future chapters a continuation of the first chapter, which can still be considered a one-shot (see rest of A/N at the end of this chapter).
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It was still a shock to be able to sail wherever he wished, instead of being trapped within the confines of the Devil's Triangle. Odd, really, to be able to not run into some invisible barrier, barring both Salazar and his crew from seeing the daylight. To have their only contact to the outside world be those with the misfortune to sail into the cursed waters in which they had been trapped. The daylight had been a shock to all aboard the Silent Mary, followed by a joyous wonder that any of them could have ever forgotten what it was like to be beneath the sun and its warm rays.
And now, now that they were free, and Jack the Sparrow was dead and no longer hounding Salazar's mind, the cursed Spanish captain had a new objective to focus on. To find a way to lift the curse that had been placed on them decades ago.
With a dark scowl at the empty waters before him, Salazar gripped the wheel and tapped his sword against the deck irritably. It was easier said than done, and as the time freed from the Devil's Triangle passed the three year mark, Salazar knew that he had to do something. As captain, he needed to find a way to free them. For those three years, he had had the Silent Mary prowl familiar waters, yet it soon became apparent that that would do nothing to solve the riddle of whether or not there was something out there in this world that could end their suffering. Be it another curse or some witchcraft, as averse to the latter as Salazar was, he didn't care. He wanted something to go on. Something to look for. Anything to take his mind, and the mind of his crew, off their own daily struggles. Some glimmer of light in the darkness, to make it worth continuing on, despite being dead, their bodies broken and constantly in pain. Which was why they were now out of familiar waters, and sailing into uncharted ones.
"Capitan." Officer Moss was on the starboard side of the ship, peering through a spyglass. "There is a pirate ship, sir."
Salazar let out a raspy, pleased laugh, and tapped his sword against the deck again. This time his laugh was in anticipation rather than annoyance as he turned the wheel with his other hand, bringing the Mary in line with the pirate ship in the distance. Muttering under his breath in his native tongue about pirates, Salazar cocked his head to see his lieutenant wearing an unreadable expression. Shaking his head, and growling when his hair floated into his vision, Salazar spoke. "What is that look for? Just because we are looking to end this curse of ours does not mean hunting pirates has ended."
"...That was not the turn of my thought, capitan." A faint smile hovered over the lieutenant's features. "It is merely what you said just now. About finally finding another pirate ship to destroy."
"And what of it?" Salazar asked, briefly turning his attention to the seas to ensure the Mary sailed true. Satisfied, Salazar settled his eyes on his lieutenant as an impatient hand brushed the floating hair out of his vision.
"Merely that your passion for hunting down pirates is as strong as ever." Lesaro stated in return. "Many of the men thought you depressed these past few months, with no pirates in sight."
Salazar let out a terrible laugh, black blood oozing down his lips unchecked as he considered the other man's words. "Who among us would not be depressed in this state, eh? Hunting down those who taint the sea always brings me joy, mi amigo. I have not given any indication otherwise."
"Capitan, there are several pirate ships in the distance." Santos called from port.
"We will go after the closest." Salazar fired out rapid orders in Spanish, and as Lesaro echoed his captain's words, Salazar held tight to the wheel, eyes locked on the pirate ship. It was an offense to the cursed Spanish captain's eyes that there were still so many Jolly Roger's littering the sea. Despite yearning to be free of his curse and the constant pain it brought him, Salazar was elated that he could resume hunting down pirates after a dry spell of no sails for months. As he had said to his lieutenant, it gave the cursed captain great joy to rid the waters of those miserable miscreants that tainted the water. It had taken three years after killing the Sparrow, but finally Salazar could again enjoy the hunt without feeling that he was missing something.
With his crew at the ready, and the Silent Mary bearing down on the pirate ship like a vengeful wraith, Salazar guided the Mary with her now parted hull over the top of the pirate ship, and snapped the other ship in half like it was nothing more than a twig beneath his foot. Salazar felt savage pleasure that the Silent Mary, while decrepit and missing much of her former glory, could still take down pirates ship as she had before her crew had become cursed, and the Silent Mary taken heavy damage. With a grimace, Salazar took his cane in hand and limped across the deck, before he leapt over the side and landed on one burning piece of the pirate ship that had not yet sunk. Already, Salazar could tell without having to ask that all pirates were dead, but for one terrified, filthy individual who looked like he had seen the depths of hell open up before his very eyes.
"Where are we?" Salazar came to a halt before the frightened pirate, leaning against his cane for support as he glared down at the wretch. "Have you any charts of these seas?"
"We were...we were sailin' past the Philippines..." The pirate managed to stammer out with a squeak, when he saw the ghostly navy men closing in around him with drawn weapons.
"And the charts?" Salazar reiterated, as he moved closer with another tap of cane against the wood of the deck.
"In the cap'n's quarters." The pirate looked near ready to faint when he witnessed Salazar cough up some black blood, and skittered back across the deck when the blood dripped on the deck near him. "S'all I know."
"Ah." Salazar thumped his cane in thought, before he loomed over the pirate again. Aware that blood was welling up in his throat, the cursed Spanish captain spoke, blood again dribbling out and making the pirate recoil backward in disgust. "I always leave one man alive to tell the tale." With a comment in Spanish about the man's unruly appearance, Salazar then ordered his men to search for any charts. That they might replace theirs that had decayed over time while trapped in the Triangle with ones that were undamaged and whole.
Leaving the quivering pirate be, Salazar limped back toward his own ship, teeth gnashing against the sensation of more blood welling up inside his mouth. Some days it wasn't so bad, so it was inconvenient that his body chose today to make him appear so horrific in the eyes of others. The disgust on the pirate's face hadn't escaped Salazar's notice, and for a brief moment, the cursed captain found it maddening that he shared a filthy pirate's sentiments about the constant blood that he was forced to deal with. The blood that came with being struck in the head, and it made his anger rise at the mere thought of being so repulsive, both from blood and the gaping hole in his head. The limp Salazar had come to accept, just as he accepted the need of support from cane or sword once it was made clear that the fall from the destroyed Mary had broken his body in more places than just his head before death.
"Capitan." Lesaro tactfully said nothing of Salazar spitting blood into the sea in a rather undignified manner. "What do you hope to gain with the charts of pirates?"
"I do not want their charts. They are not likely to be legible." Salazar boarded the Silent Mary, and limped to the helm, Lesaro trailing along after him. "No, I want any charts they may have stolen. Ones they may not know what to make of." Salazar did not have to wait very long before Officer Magda came up alongside him and presented him with a few rolled up charts, and more importantly, a functioning compass.
"Bring them over here." Salazar ordered, having a few of the crew shove a decaying table from inside one of the cabins near the helm. Salazar tapped his cane absently against the deck as he and his officers poured over a few of the charts, considering where they were to go next. After a few more minutes mulling over the charts, and a quiet, yet rapid conversation in their native tongue, it was decided that they would continue to sail west.
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As the Silent Mary glided unimpeded through stormy seas early the next morning, yet another one of the pirate ships that had slipped through Salazar's clutches was spotted.
"Capitan. There! It is the ship from yesterday evening." Santos called out.
Salazar was not feeling in a particularly merciful mood, not that he ever was when hunting down pirates. It incensed him that one ship had sailed so easily out of sight for near a whole day, and he had ordered his crew to follow after it until they found it again. Which they had. The cursed captain took the helm, and guided the Silent Mary swiftly after her quarry, the hull again rising out of the sea to grind down on the pirate ship like the mouth of some hungry beast. Explosions rocked the deck of the pirate ship as the Mary tore the pirate ship in half. Salazar bared blood-stained teeth, savagely delighted by the destruction wrought on the pirates.
"There will be no mercy." Salazar said, noticing that his men had looked to him for orders. "Kill them all." Salazar noted Lesaro's silent gaze, but said nothing. His lieutenant knew how much he despised pirates, and not one would live, unless Salazar chose one to allow one to live to tell the tale. And now that Jack Sparrow was dead, less pirates need be left alive. The only reason Salazar let any pirate live now was because he wanted his presence known. To make the pirates still left fear him once more, as they had decades ago, and not know when they would be the next to die. And right now, since he had already let one sniveling pirate live the previous day, Salazar was not willing to let one more pirate roam free until they entered new territory.
"Sir, there is something in the water!" An armless man called out, once the pirates had been dispatched of.
"Land!" Officer Moss added in a panicked shout.
Salazar kept the Silent Mary a safe distance from the land, but he and his men did not mistake the sight of what appeared to be several women swimming near shore, a few giving them curious glances.
"What are they doing?" One headless ghost asked, though the slight shift in the way his body was positioned indicated he was now facing away from the sight.
"They are indecent. Where are their clothes?" Another ghost asked, his words leaving him at the sight of one woman half lifting herself out of the water.
Silence reigned on the Silent Mary at the realization that the woman's chest was bare, and only long, tangled hair kept what was beneath hidden, unless she shifted and-
"Detener que a la vez*!" Lesaro said sharply, as he slapped down a spyglass one man had lifted, and gave the officer an admonishing one-eyed glare. Lesaro's attention was diverted from the hapless ghost cringing before the lieutenant when one woman swam away from the others, and approached the ship with an eerie grace.
The moment the woman caught sight of Salazar and his crew up close, however, she became less pretty as she suddenly bared sharp teeth and let out an alarmed hiss. With a flash of a long, finned torso, she propelled herself away from the ship.
Mermaids.
Salazar and his crew were seeing mermaids, yet another myth of the sea none of them had ever given any weight to.
"She was beautiful, until those fangs." Santos commented into the continued silence.
"It appears as though the feeling is mutual upon seeing us as we are." Salazar, recovering from the madness of the sight, wheezed out a disbelieving laugh. He guided the Silent Mary further away from the land and the mermaids still swimming gracefully through the water, though now a safe distance from the ship. The cursed Spanish captain wondered what other fanciful sights he and his crew were going to come across as they continued to sail in their still fruitless search of a way to end their curse.
Salazar looked out toward the horizon, away from the mermaids, and knew, as he had since he'd been trapped in the Devil's Triangle, that he would overcome this fate he and his crew had been dealt, no matter what the cost.
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A/N: To those of you who are interested on a whole story about Salazar and his crew trying to find a way to lift the curse on them, I decided to just continue it on this fic instead of starting a new one and having to recap the whole thing.
I apparently couldn't resist, thinking about the what-if's (and really, any time someone wants to see more of a story, I'm usually going to oblige, so thanks to dapper-teacup (and a reviewer over on Ao3) for launching me headfirst into deciding to continue this with your comments).
I will try to make the characters as IC as possible, though only Salazar seemed to get character development (in the novelization as well), to a point, and kind of Lesaro. The way the whole crew, Salazar and Lesaro included, behave/act in this fic is my take on them. It took months but I finally got hit with an obsession for these characters after repeatedly watching of the movie on DVD, so this fic is likely going to be very self-indulgent.
*Detener que a la vez (supposedly translates as 'stop that at once'-correct me if I'm wrong, please).
I'd love to slip more Spanish words in here and there, but again, with rough translations, I don't want to terribly butcher the language, so I'll try and limit them.