Little Sparrow
Summary: "Now up is down," was the last thing any of them heard before the rush of water drowned everything else out. Later, waking up on a random, deserted island, they almost immediately notice that something was not right with their Captain. Sparrington, Salazak, Willabeth, maybe others mentioned.
That migraine Jack had wanted to complain about? Forget that! He didn't think that the Brethren Court could unnerve or annoy him nearly as much as the staring guards and he could just see them opening their mouths to greet him. The glare he sent them shut up most of the the Keeper's men from outright saying anything to him, but that didn't mean they weren't whispering amongst themselves. They had been at it as soon as the supposedly destroyed Black Pearl docked in Jack's - for his older self -usual place and it had became almost an uproar when they had seen her supposedly dead Captain at her helm. They had been staring at him ever since, as though fearing he might just be an apparition and that he might disappear at any moment now.
What was even worse, his crew were starting to notice it. Barbossa, at least, was convinced that it was either because he'd fucked up some rule of the Code or because he had been reported dead but was obviously alive. Some of the crew had decided it was probably because he was twenty years younger and they were unnerved by his sudden youth. They didn't quite realize they had it two out of three dead center.
He was grateful they were a little too distracted with the scenery that they didn't see the guards placing to fingers on the side of their foreheads and saluting at him with a small nod as he passed, practically a bow to a prince as far as free men went. Them noticing the gaping was bad enough. He wondered briefly if they had already sent someone to run off and inform the Keeper of this turn of events and how much longer he had before he had to confront the one sure indicator of just how much time had passed. The man had been relatively youthful the last time Jack had seen him. He wasn't like Gibbs, who had only changed in number of gray hairs and the attire he wore or the now constant presence of a rum flask on his person. He wasn't like Tia Dalma, but she was a bit more otherworldly than his companions realized. He was an ordinary man - if that could ever be said about him in the normal context - and he aged with time. Like nothing else, he would be Jack's time telling device and Jack was suitably nervous about it.
The doors to the council chambers where the Brethren Court was to meet were suitably big and lavish to indicate they opened to a world only the Pirate Lords and their own crew ever had the honor to see. They were made of thick, dark brown wooden beams connected and kept together by iron bars and chains. What was binding it all was some special type of wood sap from Africa that could hold together two ships if applied right, starboard to larboard, just by the railings. In the wood, beneath the chains and bars, were engravings of native peoples, chants and spells to practically soundproof the room within so no spies could listen in on the important things the Brethren Court discussed ... Or simply spare the rest of the Cove from their endless bickering. Four guards stood before the doors, all four with the expected crossed swords symbol and all equally dumbfounded when their eyes beheld Jack. They snapped to attention and saluted him like everyone else had before opening the doors, their muscles straining as much as the pulled chains were.
Behind the door was a long, well lit hallway and beyond it Jack could already hear the bickering of the Brethren Court. "Sounds like we've arrived last." He mused to his companions and set a brisk, sure pace towards the noise. "Then again, I did see seven other ships beside the Misty Lady. The Keeper and his men seem to have their hands full."
"Is it always like this?" Elizabeth asked as she came to Jack's left, his right quickly relinquished by James for Theodor since his Lieutenant was an eager puppy whenever pirates were concerned. He, on the other hand, was more interested in the sway of Jack's hips and the ease with which Jack's shoulders held himself in this dangerous place. The thirty eight year old Jack Sparrow had refused to go anywhere near this place and yet this teenager seemed so at home. James wondered if he had done something stupid and had simply never returned here again for fear of the consequences. It wouldn't be such an impossible scenario.
"What? Tightly secured, overcrowded or loud?" Jack winced at the last one when a scream pierced the air shrilly, no doubt a hit to a very painful place or a wimp meeting his end.
"All three?" The woman more asked than answered, looking worriedly up ahead and wondering just what sort of chaos they were heading into.
"Always tight secured but never this crowded or loud. God knows the Keeper would go mad if he had to deal with them every single day for the rest of his life. I know I would. But don't you worry, Lizzie. As soon as all Pirate Lords are in, the meeting will start and they'll have to quiet down. At least for a little while."
"Do you know all the Pirate Lords?" Theodor asked as soon as the last words were out of Jack's mouth. Sparrow gave him an amused smile while he replied.
"I don't know the current ones, since I don't know if anyone had changed. But I did used to know the last Brethren Court. I even sailed with every one of them for a few weeks as a kid. Da wanted me to learn sailing tricks from all over the world and that Brethren Court had been halfway civil with each other." He winced at the sound of a bottle breaking against something, a man's skull, judging by the thud that followed. "I could easily jump from ship to ship without worrying about anyone getting wise ideas of throwing me overboard, marooning me or trying to use me against Da."
"Not many have changed, from what I know." Hector grumbled, hand on his pistol as they approached the end of the tunnel. The entire group was tense, already readying themselves for what was to come as Jack finally stepped into a big, well lit room from where all that noise was coming from. It was indeed s gigantic room, stretching through almost two thirds of the entire structure, with a big, long table in the middle, where the Pirate Lords sat, their men flanking them. There was a big chandelier hanging from the ceiling and plenty of other lanterns all over the place and there were plenty of balconies to allow admittance to more people and they were all shouting or fighting with each other. Elizabeth was barely pulled out of the way in time by Pintel and Ragetti when a man almost fell on her from where he was thrown off of one of the said balconies. There were gun shots and clashes of cutlasses and even the sound of smaller, hand-held cannons firing all over the place. Will stared wide eyed as a corpse was thrown their way, obviously done in by someone from Singapore, if the spike going through his head from chin to temple was anything to go by. Tia Dalma had already clobbered some man over the head with Groves' pistol while said man along with Gillete was standing back to back with Norrington, weapons drawn and eyes weary as they watched them all.
Jack sauntered in with no weapon in hand but the cutlass he stabbed into the big globe at the head of the table, his sword easily falling into its place as he claimed his spot as the Pirate Lord of the Caribbean.
The action did not go unnoticed by the other Pirate Lords, especially not Sao Feng, and as one they turned to see who had joined them, only for half of them to go wide eyed and open mouthed with shock while others went pale and looked on in fear, as though they had seen a ghost. Sparrow in turn eyed them all, taking stock of who he recognized and who was new. There was only two new faces among the Pirate Lords he knew and he frowned at them in thought. The rest were the same. There was Mistress Ching, the blind Chinese woman who was the Pirate Lord of the Pacific Ocean, her unseeing eyes going wide as one of her men told her just who and what had caused all the commotion. He was pretty sure she had turned pale under all that white make-up. Then there was Jacord, the African man who had power over the Atlantic, who was also a few shades paler than his dark skin should be, although he seemed relieved to see Jack. Seems his relationship with Jack's family remained tight and sure. Eduardo Villanueva, who was never particularly fond of Jack, was staring wide eyed at Jack's new youth, the Pirate Lord of the Adriatic Sea undoubtedly jealous at whatever had rejuvenated Sparrow. Chevalle who had been fond of Jack when he was six and had been particularly sad to see Jack sail away from his Meditearian Sea, also looked almost weak with relief and happiness that his young friend was alright, but he looked expectedly stupefied by his appearance. Ammand, on the other hand, was half bitter, half shocked to see him and Jack wondered when he had made a long enough trip to the Black Sea to piss him off. Sumbhajee looked as indifferent of Jack himself but was intrigued by his apparent life and youth. Sparrow wondered if he was ready to start one of Gibbs anti-jinx dances, and if not him, one of his associates surely will do it for the chubby man.
Barbossa seemed to have been telling the truth about being the Pirate Lord of the Caspian Sea, for Jack could not see Boris Palachnik anywhere, not that he had ever felt particularly fond of the man. His Da, hadn't, either, and had sent one of his men with a five year old Jack with the excuse his son was troublesome for such a young age and needed looking after. Jack was sure that the old man would have killed him at the first given opportunity had he stayed longer than a week. Thankfully, Chevalle had been eager to accept him on board for almost an entire year, taking on most of the time he would have spent with Palachnik as well.
The teen briefly wondered if any of these people, besides Ching and Jacord, actually ever learned of his heritage in the years he no longer remembered.
"You!" The one man Jack did not recognize at all snarled in his face, startling him by grabbing him by his dreadlocks and pulling until he cried out so they were face to face. He was a bald, scarred Chinese man, from Singapore if his Piece of Eight was anything to go by, glaring at Jack fiercely, the men he had left behind on that island leering at him over the Pirate Lord's shoulder. A spike was shoved under Jack's jaw, as though in preparation to do upon him the punishment of failure or betrayal among the South China Sea pirates, the man's dark eyes flashing. "I will make you pay for all the humiliation you have bestowed upon me, Jack Sparrow!"
"Sao Feng, ya fool!" Jacord thundered from somewhere around the middle of the long table, jumping to his feet as his men trained their weapons on the Singapore pirates, who half did the same in return, the other half pointing their either at Jack or his crew behind him. "You will bring death to us all!"
"Let young Sparrow go now, Sao Feng." Mistress Ching ordered authoritatively, but the man, Sao Feng, didn't budge.
"Today is the day you meet your maker, Jack Sparrow."
Jack, strangely, didn't look scared at all. Besides the initial shock, he lacked any surprise or fear for his life. If anything, he looked pityingly at the man threatening him.
"Sorry, mate, but if you continue on like this, it will be you meeting my maker and then your own. Better just put the spike down, aye?"
But Feng didn't budge. "Your words will not weaver my resolve, Sparrow. This is your en-aaaaah!" Sao screamed as an arrow pierced the hand holding the spike, lodging deep into the wood after it passed cleanly through his hand, skin, flesh and bone as though it were nothing but air. He jerked away for Jack in pain while a few of his men were shot dead right behind him. Frederico snatched Jack back away from him even as James and Will came to stand in front of the teen, Elizabeth keeping his back. Not that it was needed, as ten of the Keeper's men came and pointed various weaponry at the Singapore men, dozens more keeping them on target from further away. Jack didn't even need to look up to know where the snipers and archers were, having at one point been the one to suggest certain crooks and crannies and balconies for them to the Keeper himself, since he had been trained by his mother's tribe and understood quite a bit about it all.
He watched as the Keeper's men viciously subdued any who dared oppose them, a big, burly, slightly older man with a graying ginger beard and curly short hair, tanned skin and dark eyes bringing Sao Feng to the ground while cursing him in Gaelic. Jack winced at some of the things that reached his ears as a twenty years older than he was used to Victor nearly crushed the Singapore Pirate Lord's head under his boot.
"Tried to warn you, mate. Just be glad they decided to take care of things on their own without summoning the Keeper of the Code to interfere." Sparrow told him half apologetically before nodding to the two men that came to stand as his two shadows. "Ivan. Ian. You look ... "
"Young Master Jack," the blond, blue eyed Russian twins greeted together, eying him up, either for injury or trying to figure out the source of his youth. "You look even younger."
"Yes, well," Jack shrugged, perfectly acutely aware that everyone was keenly watching and listening to him. Evidently, they had all heard about his death and wanted to know the truth of the matter. "I apparently was swallowed by the Kraken, dragged to Davy Jones' Locker, was trapped there for a year and this lot here," he pointed to the core crew of the Black Pearl casually, doing his best not to reveal how fond and thankful he was to have them at his side. It wouldn't do to have any potential enemies he might have made in the years he didn't remember to go after them for some, to him, inconceivable reason. "Then came and busted me out, but my stay there apparently had some very bad effects on me so Tia Dalma, my dearest voodoo knowing friend, did this," he indicated at himself with a sweeping hand. "To me in order to preserve both my mind and my body. So now here we are, waiting for the spell to wear off and hoping I had enough time to heal."
He swept his gaze around the room, stepping further into the chamber, going for Mistress Ching and Jacord first. The old lady greeted him surprisingly - to the others who knew her as extremely temperamental and prone to yelling - warmly, running her hands over his face and marveling at his youth. He wondered briefly when he saw her last before he was sent to the Locker. She had called him her guest protégé, her best protégé out of all who she had mentored and had been somewhat sad when he had left. She used to say that, in his presence, she swore she could see sunlight reflecting off of the sea again. And he had loved all of her stories as a boy. He didn't like her brutality, though. She did her best not to let him see that side of her and her men. He still saw it and that was how, by twelve, he hated piracy until he saw that none-pirates could be just as cruel.
Jacord hugged him warmly, talking with him in one of the 'wilder' African dialects that Jack had learned from him. He had used to carry Jack on his shoulders as they walked through port towns, telling him local stories and legends of Africa. Sparrow always liked being around Jacord. It made him feel closer to his own Mum, whom he had no memories of but knew to be of both Haiti and New World native origins.
The next he greeted was Capitaine Chevalle, the penniless Frenchman, whom he had already stated was very fond of Jack. He was the first to teach Jack French, Latin, Spanish and Italian and even some Greek, which he later perfected on his own. With his knowledge of these languages, Jack could later learn Portageese and all the weirder dialects that have developed in the colonies, which had in turn saved him quite a few times, as far as he could remember. Not to mention that it had impressed Armando, Jack thought with a barely suppressed blush. He thanked his lucky stars that his skin was darker or else it would have been obvious.
He only nodded to the other Pirate Lords, keeping clear of the now released but still held at gun, sword and arrow point Sao Feng and his men, returning to where his crew was standing by Barbossa and the big globe of the world. He gave James a wink and his friends a reassuring smile before gesturing for Barbossa to get the meeting underway.
''As he who issued summons, I convene this, the Fourth Brethren Court.'' He said with all grandeur of someone calling a king's court and Jack repressed a snort. True enough, maybe Barbossa wasn't even aware of how accurate that description may be but Jack wasn't about to enlighten him. He was a little too busy watching out for a certain Keeper of the Code so he almost missed the Caspian Sea's Pirate Lord's next words. "To confirm your lordship and right to be heard, present now your pieces of eight, my fellow cap'ns."
"Oh bloody hell, they know nothing about all of this." He muttered to himself as he watched each of the Pirate Lords warily or uncaringly hand over their Piece of Eight. Barbossa even openly showed that he had let an idiot carry his for him for the past decade or so and Jack wondered if it would be too bad a reaction if he called them all out on their rather limited knowledge on the Code. He ignored Gibbs' and Pintel's grumbling conversation about the nature of the Nine Pieces of Eights as he met gazes with Tia Dalma, who seemed to be eagerly watching the items be placed in a bowl held by Ragetti. She smiled charmingly at him but it came out too sharp for his liking and for the first time he questioned his motives for de-aging him to back when he'd just became a Pirate Lord.
''Sparrow,'' Hector called when he realized that only eight out of nine were there and turned to the only possible culprit. Deciding this was possibly his only chance to test his new suspicions, Jack resorted to what he did best.
"According to the Pirata Codex, more commonly known as the Pirate Code, or simply the Code, once all Pirate Lords are convened inside Shipwreck Cove and this very meeting room, according to page 13, section 7, subsection 3l, sheet 52, paragraph 8, row 2, all Pirate Lords must present their Piece of Eight so it is visible." He smiled at the stunned faces of most of the room's occupants, knowing that this very well might bring out a more violent reaction than whatever Barbossa was planning with Calypso. ''In other words, since I keep my Piece of Eight in plain sight, for all to see whether they know what they are looking at or not, I am playing by the rules and you cannot make me hand over the very symbol of my lordship over the Caribbean.''
There was a long moment of flabbergasted silence as the Pirate Lords all absorbed this, wondering if what he was saying was true or not. Finally, Sao Feng, always eager to make things difficult for Jack, slammed his fist on the table. "You made that up!"
The Keeper's men were already cocking their guns and preparing their arrows in warning and Jack wondered why he felt no pity for this man he had never met before, to his knowledge at least. "Wanna check it with the Keeper?" There was a collective wince among the older Pirate Lords and any pirate present, even Barbossa and his little monkey. Sparrow gave them a perhaps too sharp smile. "Thought so. Can we carry on?"
Despite feeling like he had been outright dismissed and vowing to himself that he will find Sparrow's Piece of Eight before Tia Dalma - who seemed somewhere between angry, impressed, betrayed and proud at the moment - decides to return him to the dead, Barbossa straightened his back and addressed the room as a whole once again.
Jack tuned him out as he absently reached for his Compass, straining to hear his Pearl's explanation about Sao Feng when he noticed something ... strange. The item under his fingers gave a violent tremor when he touched it, as if elated he had noticed it and he frowned in confusion. Without much thought and no hesitation at all, Jack half registered that his beloved ship had stopped talking with peaked curiosity at his confusion and waited for a reaction out of him as he opened the Compass.
At first, noting seemed out of the ordinary. It seemed to be working as it always was, pointing in the direction of what Jack wanted most at the moment. But then he realized something was off. Besides teaching him Haitian and other tribal languages, Jacord had also taught Jack how to never feel lost in space without the use of any usual indicators as to where which point of the world was. Such skills were later perfected throughout his years of sailing and being taught to memorize the entire map, as detailed as they are before he even met Fitzwiliam and the rest of the Barnacle's little crew. So he knew, without a doubt, where the one place that haunted his sleep at night was even when he woke up after the most disorienting nightmares. And that was not the direction of it, the one his Compass was showing. It was too much to the West.
Jack looked in the direction his Compass was showing and blushed when he thought, perhaps, it was working just fine but that Jack's initial desire to return to the Devil's Triangle had been replaced from his top priority list a little lower by his new lover, who was standing right there. James arched an eyebrow at him, finding his staring strange, since he couldn't see the Compass or understand what was puzzling Jack so. But when Jack looked back down to the Compass, he was surprised to see that the needle was trembling before it moved a little bit more West-South-West.
'What the?' He frowned, thinking hard and watching the needle of his most treasured possession besides the Wicked Wench/Black Pearl trembling until he realized it wasn't exactly trembling, but moving! Moving with what it was pointing at. Moving with ... "Oh bugger."