Henry had carefully made his way over to the prison in St. Martin, avoiding any patrols of Redcoats as he went along. When he finally arrived at his destination, he saw it was guarded pretty heavily, but considerably less than Henry's posting at Port Royal. Still, it would make sneaking in a difficult challenge and breaking Jack and Carina out even harder. Nevertheless, he had to try. He had made a promise to his father that he'd find the Trident, and he wasn't about to be deterred now.
He managed to sneak past the sentries posted on the towers, and made his way through the open courtyard into the open main hallway that lead to the guard posts. Carefully, he made his way up a flight of steps, and outside of what looked to be sleeping quarters hung a soldier's coat and hat, the insignia indicating that it belonged to a private. Knowing he'd have better chances of sneaking around with it, Henry put on the guard's uniform and made his way down to the prison cells. If he couldn't break the two of them out tonight, then at least he could attempt to come up with a plan for springing them out before they were executed.
Henry made his way down to the dungeons, careful to avoid drawing attention to himself, and started to see if Jack was in one of the cells. He gulped, because after all these years he was about to meet the legendary Jack Sparrow. He was nervous at the thought of meeting him at last, only knowing him through stories told by his mother and what he had heard as a boy. And for him to be saving his life, it seemed like a dream. But then Salazar flashed in his mind again, and Henry realized that this could very well be a nightmare.
"Psst," Henry whispered, coming upon a cell where an old man with a white beard lay slumped against the wall, "I'm looking for a pirate, Jack Sparrow. Have you seen him?"
"Bugger off," the old man muttered rudely, and Henry stepped back from the cell, intending to continue his search. He looked over at the adjacent cell, and he saw a figure wearing a large brown overcoat and a leather tricorn hat standing and facing the small window out of the cell.
"Hey," Henry called over to the figure, leaning against the cell bars, "have you seen Jack Sparrow anywhere?"
The figure gave no reply, and Henry, sighing, turned his back to see about the other prisoners. Before he could take a step forward, he felt something seize him from behind, and he was pulled back against the metal bars of the cell he had just looked in. An arm covered his mouth, and the commotion caused the hat that Henry was wearing to fall to the ground.
"Hand me your sword," a voice ordered, and Henry, struggling against the arm around his throat, weakly responded "I don't have a sword!"
"What kind of soldier has no weapon?" the voice spoke again, to which Henry replied "The kind that deserts their post."
"Ah," the voice said, "so not the very good kind, then?"
"Please, I don't want any trouble," Henry pleaded with the voice, "I'm just looking for a pirate - Jack Sparrow."
The lock around Henry's throat lessened, and then the arm released fully from around him. Catching his breath, he turned around to face who grabbed him a moment before.
"No matter how many times I've said it over a number of years I can no longer keep track of," Jack said, "it's 'Captain' Jack Sparrow. 'Captain.' Why does nobody remember the 'Captain' part?"
Henry just stood there, dumbfounded. Were his ears functioning properly? Was he sleep-deprived? Was he going mad? Had this man said he was Jack Sparrow? He looked over his appearance, and saw it was extremely shabby for someone who was held up to be one of the greatest pirates to have ever lived. Not only that, but the man's face seemed completely uncaring as to the situation he was in, he smelt heavily of booze and filth, and to top it all off, he wasn't wearing any trousers.
Henry gave a weak chuckle. This had to be some kind of joke, right? There was no way this was the Jack Sparrow. The man he had grown up to admire, hearing stories of his magnificent escapades across the high seas, was this?
"No," Henry said in disbelief, "It can't be. I've spent my entire life searching for you, and all I find is... this? Jack Sparrow is not some drunken fool in a cell."
"Tread very carefully with your words, boy," Jack threatened, none too amused by the remarks being made about him.
"No, I won't!" Henry nearly shouted, "Do you know how long I've waited for this day? All the risks I took to be here? The things I've seen?"
"Frankly, I don't even know who you are, so why should I care what you've been through?" Jack inquired, quickly becoming impatient.
"My name is Henry Turner," he responded, "son of Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann."
Jack blinked a few times at that last bit, and his mouth opened slightly. He hadn't heard those names in a long time.
"Come again?" Jack asked, uncertain what he had heard.
"You knew them long ago, right?" Henry inquired. He had to make sure that he had the right person, "You saved my father's life."
Jack couldn't believe this. They had a son? Never had that thought ever crossed his mind. When Bootstrap Bill was part of his crew, he knew he had a son, but to picture Will and Elizabeth as parents... it just seemed out of the ordinary for him. Though the boy did bare a striking resemblance to his father in particular, it was simply hard for him to see that in his mind. After all, they were practically kids themselves when Jack knew them.
"You're the spawn of those two? Uggh!" Jack said in disgust, "I don't know how that's possible considering your father's a cursed eunuch and your mother - hey does mummy ever ask about me?"
Henry rolled his eyes and exhaled in annoyance, but Jack continued, saying "I remember her vividly. Golden-haired, stubborn, neck like a giraffe, and two of those wondrous-"
"Do you want out of here or not?" Henry said, his voice becoming tense as Jack started to get on his nerves more and more.
"Maybe, maybe not," Jack said, turning away and resting his arm on the straw dummy he had set his coat and hat upon, "I've spent a great deal of my life trying to avoid the gallows. I think chancing it would be a nice change of pace, eh? I'd probably have better luck with that..."
Henry swallowed as Jack's voice trailed off at the end there. He remembered what the old man aboard the Monarch had said to him about Jack being "long gone." He expected him being slightly off-kilter in any scenario where he met him, but here he just seemed defeated. Like he had given up on himself completely and was just waiting for his own demise to come.
"Someone told me that you had died and were buried in an unmarked grave," Henry said, adding nothing else to his statement.
"Yeah?" Jack listened, "Well, I might as well be. Pirates like me, we're a dying breed. We'll probably all be gone within a few years anyway. Whatever it was you heard about me, I'm not the man I once was. I've lost me luck."
Henry's frustration with Jack not being what he expected dissipated, replaced with a sense of pity for the aging pirate. What had happened that made him the way he was?
"Sorry if I'm not the Sparrow that you imagined meeting, Henry," Jack apologized, looking over his shoulder at the young Turner, "All I can say is that your parents were some of the best people I ever knew."
Jack heaved a heavy sigh, and Henry thought it best to move on from Jack's misfortunes to more pressing concerns.
"Jack," Henry began, "I came here because I need your help. I don't know how to help you turn your fortunes around, but I can't have you swing from the gallows just yet. I think I've figured out a way to save my father."
Jack turned around to face Henry, placing his other arm on the straw dummy, and then explained "The only way to save your father from the Dutchman's curse is to open that chest and stab his heart. Death is the only way he'll ever be free."
"Actually, not quite," Henry began, "there may be something else that can save him. The Trident of Poseidon holds the power of the sea and can break any curse. I have a solid lead on it."
Jack froze, his eyes widening and his grip on the dummy tightening.
"The Trident?" he asked, "It's real?"
"Yes, and I need your help to get it if my father is to be freed," Henry elaborated, and Jack turned around again and walked over towards the window of his cell and looked out into the night sky.
"The Trident can only be found with the map no man can read," Jack said, "Are you saying you've found the way?"
"Well, not me, but there's a girl inside this prison that holds the answers," Henry explained, "She ran into you earlier today. She's sentenced to be hanged for witchcraft."
"Her?" Jack inquired, thinking back to earlier when he encountered that girl twice, "I knew she was a witch!"
"She's not," Henry continued, "Her name is Carina, and we'll need her in order to find the Trident."
Henry waited for a response, but none came from Jack. He was continuing to gaze out the window.
"Jack?" Henry asked, thinking he had lost his attention.
"Sorry, I was just thinking for a moment," Jack said, turning around to face Henry, "Carina... that's a pretty name."
"So do we have an accord?" Henry asked, extending his hand, "You help me free my father, the Trident is yours. With it, you can become the pirate you once were, the one I heard stories about growing up."
Jack thought on that for a moment, thinking of what he could do with the Trident. He would never lose another battle. He could even perhaps restore the Pearl to its former glory. He took the boy's hand and shook it, saying, "That we do, Mr. Turner. That we do."
A thought then occurred to Henry, and he cursed himself for not mentioning it sooner. Releasing his grip from Jack's, he started to say "One more thing, Jack. I have a message from someone you know."
"And who would that be?" Jack asked, curious.
"Armando Salazar," Henry said flatly, his mind going back to Salazar's horrifying image beading down upon him.
Jack walked back a couple of steps from the bars of his cell. Surely this had to be a mistake. He remembers what happened at the Devil's Triangle. What he did to him.
"S-Salazar?" Jack stuttered, his voice quivering, "He's dead. Very, very dead. That was a long time ago. His ship went down-"
"Inside the Devil's Triangle?" Henry finished for him, gulping knowing he would now have to recount what had happened, "I was stationed aboard the Monarch. We followed a pirate ship into the Triangle, and Salazar and his crew came upon us and slaughtered everyone. I was the only survivor."
Jack backed up more, his breath picking up very fast.
"No, no that's not possible," Jack said, "I saw the fire. The Silent Mary went down and the crew with it. Salazar's dead."
"Whatever was inside the Triangle, it cursed him and his crew," Henry explained, "They're ghosts that can't be killed. They're... broken. Their bodies were ashen and disfigured, their ship the same."
Jack couldn't believe this. He knew Salazar was dead. But now not only had he returned, but he was unable to be killed? If he was dangerous back when he was alive, Jack didn't want to imagine what he was capable of now that he was undead.
"Assuming you aren't making any of this up, which I hope you are," Jack began, walking up to the bars again, "What did the Spaniard say?"
"He told me to tell you that death would come straight for you," Henry said, fear in his voice, "He's trapped in the Triangle, but... the way he spoke about you, it's almost as if he knew he would be freed soon. I don't know how, but he said that you were the key to his escape."
Jack froze. He remembered when he had given up his compass earlier that day. The shaking that had engulfed the entire island, when the needle began spinning in circles. He had no explanation for how that happened. Had that freed Salazar?
"I believe the Trident may be the only thing capable of stopping Salazar," Henry added, "He craves vengeance, and I don't think he'll stop until you and every other pirate in the sea are dead."
"Well, I suppose now we have double the reason to find the Trident, don't we?" Jack inserted.
"We do," Henry said, "So you'll help me?"
Jack was about to respond, but the sound of metal creaking filled the dungeon hallway, and a voice called out saying "Your pants are done bein' scrubbed, pirate!"
"Oh no," Jack said, "Henry, you've got to go. But before you do, I have a plan."
Henry leaned in, listening quickly to what Jack had to say. When Jack had finished, Henry nodded that he understood what he needed to do, picking up his fallen hat, and then Jack said "The answer is yes, mate. You get me and the girl out of here, and we'll find the Trident together, savvy?"
Jack smirked, and Henry did the same. Afterward, Henry took off as quickly as possible to avoid being caught by the guards.
Carina woke inside her cell the next morning. She groaned from having slept on nothing but a pile of straw the night before. As she sat up, she took in her surroundings, seeing that she was indeed confined within a prison cell.
"Oh no," she said aloud, hoping that all of this was just some bad dream that would go away when she woke up. But it didn't. This nightmare of hers was real.
Quickly, she checked to see if she still had her pouch underneath her dress, and fortunately enough for her the guards hadn't taken the diary, the ruby, or the chronometer watch. She heaved a sigh of relief when she saw her items were still there, but it wouldn't do her much good if she was locked in a cell. She ran a hand over her forehead and through her hair, only to realize that the pin holding her hair together in the back was missing. Carina started to search the floor for it, but she found nothing. But it mattered little; it was only a pin, and too small to try to pick the lock with. Still, it made for less distractions when working.
She stood up, looking around the tiny cell she was confined in. This was not good at all. She didn't have time for prison. Carina was so close to finding the Trident that she couldn't afford to lose another minute.
"Father, if you can hear me, help me," she said aloud to herself. Carina didn't believe in the supernatural, but if there was a time that somehow he or her mother could listen to their daughter's plea for help from beyond the grave, now was the time.
"Good morning, witch," Carina heard a voice say from the far end of the hallway left of her, "You have a due appointment with the gallows today!"
"What!?" Carina asked, shocked and appalled, "Aren't I supposed to get a fair trial before my sentence is ruled?"
"That was already decided this morning, witch," the voice said again, and from the corner emerged Captain Scarfield, escorted by two armed soldiers.
"A trial that I was not present for? You're suspending my right to habeas corpus!" Carina shouted at the officer, who opened the door to her cell with his keys.
"No such right applies to witches," Scarfield stated, his voice firm and uncaring. His men pointed their rifles at her as to prevent her from trying to escape.
"For the final time, I am not a witch!" Carina bellowed, "How can you people be so stupid as to not see it?"
"You mistake your place," Scarfield said, "The British Empire will not be made to look like fools in front of the rest of the world if we don't properly deal with insubordination."
Carina scoffed, saying "You stupid, arrogant, self-righteous prick!"
Scarfield lost his temper, and he backhanded Carina across her face. He tried to justify himself by saying "You best watch what you say, girl. You haven't got many words left."
Carina, feeling the sting of Scarfield's hand, said nothing more. His two underlings then seized her arms and began to escort her down the hallway. She was scared now, more than she had been in her entire life. She wasn't ready to die yet.
Jack, now wearing his full attire minus his weapons belt, was being dragged through the dark hallways of the dungeon by two soldiers. He knew full well that he was to be executed this very day, but if things went according to plan, that wouldn't be the case. Jack considered himself lucky that Henry arrived when he did, because he had just about resigned himself to be hung. Now, things were different. Maybe this was a sign that his luck was finally changing for the better. But that gleaming, optimistic feeling of hope was fleeting given what he might be up against. Armando Salazar, El Matador del Mar, was quite possibly back from the dead, and he would stop at nothing to kill Jack if he was. The thought of him sent a shiver running down his spine, and Jack hoped, if he survived what was to come next, that finding the Trident would be enough to stop Salazar. He had forgotten about the Trident completely until the night before, never doubting its existence but doubting if he truly wanted to search for it again.
As the guards dragged him along, Jack heard singing from down the corridor. It was coming from one of the cells, and it was a singing voice that Jack recognized almost immediately.
"Oh dirty Maggie Mae they have taken her away, and she never walk down Lime Street any more-"
"Hold on a moment, wait, wait, stop!" Jack abruptly said to the guards dragging him, and without hesitation they came to a halt. Jack looked into the cell where he heard the singing coming from, and he saw an older pirate dressed in attire not unlike his own sitting at a small table. He looked to be playing poker with two other guards, and he was continuing to sing.
"Uncle Jack!" Jack Sparrow said with enthusiasm at seeing his uncle. The older pirate turned around in his chair, and his face broke into a wide grin as he saw his nephew.
"Jacky-Boy!" Jack Teague called out in good spirits. He turned to the two men he was playing cards with and said "Excuse me for a moment, gents."
Teague got up out of his seat and made his way over to the bars of the cell, and he said to the younger Sparrow "You look great! How's it going?"
"Can't complain, really," Jack deadpanned despite the guards taking him to be executed, "You?"
"I'm fine. I won't be in here for long. I'm only in here because I may have had one too many drinks and burned down a bar," Teague said, "When they brought me here, they actually thought that I was dead, and I was a look-alike poser of myself!"
"Really? Now that's just ridiculous," Jack remarked, "How's Dad?"
"Oh, he's fine," Teague said, "He needed some time after your Uncle Ronnie passed, but he's good."
"That's good to hear," Jack responded, and then Teague motioned for him to lean in and said, "Hey, Jacky, just so you know, the oceans have turned to blood. The guards here informed me that countless ships across the Caribbean have been sunk by something really dangerous."
Jack froze. This couldn't be Salazar's doing, could it?
"Best to stay on dry land where it's safe," Teague advised, but Jack, observing his current surroundings, said "I'm about to be executed on dry land."
"Fair point," Teague acknowledged, "Hey, did I ever tell you the one about the skeleton?"
Jack let out a small sigh, "Yes you have, many times-"
Teague interrupted, saying "Skeleton goes into a bar, orders a beer and a mop."
From down the corridor, a very wheezy laugh from another prisoner could be heard laughing at the joke. Jack shook his head, deadpanning "Funny as ever."
He looked to his uncle, and then Jack said "Good to see you, Uncle Jack."
"You too, Jacky," Teague smiled, and the guards began to drag Jack away from the cell.
"Oh! I almost forgot!" Teague called out, "If the lobsters decide to disembowel you, ask for Victor! He's got the softest hands!"
"Thank you!" Jack called out, reaching the end of the hallway.
"Mention my name and they won't cut your feet off!" Teague added, and then Jack was gone.
A large crowd had gathered in the center of St. Martin. It was around ten in the morning, and executions were about to begin very soon. There were numerous setups for the various ways that the British would be killing people, and it was almost a terrifying sight to see the sheer number of people that were actually anticipating the deaths of others.
A carriage stopped right on the outskirts of the town's central plaza, and a Redcoat opened up the backdoor of the carriage to reveal Carina sitting by herself with her wrists in chains.
"Oi, witch! Time for a short drop and a sudden stop!" the soldier catcalled, but Carina ignored him. Two other Redcoats entered the carriage and escorted her out, taking her through a gap between the crowds as she marched towards the execution platform. Carina looked around her to see that everyone's eyes were upon her, booing her and shouting obscenities as she paced along. She ignored their shouts and insults, but she wasn't any less terrified that she was going to be executed in a few short moments. Worse still, these people were calling upon her to die like she was a plague to society or something. Carina was an academic, and she was being treated no better than a common criminal. And that's how she was going to be remembered.
As she got to the platform, Scarfield was there waiting for her along with the hangman.
"Hello again, witch," Scarfield said with an evil grin, "I'm afraid this is the last time we shall speak. Enjoy the gallows."
"Go to hell," Carina said to him, spitting at his feet. Unlike before, Scarfield did not react, but simply walked off the platform to join the other officers in the crowd. Carina swallowed, her anxiety rising and her pulse pounding as she looked onto the massive crowd that had gathered to watch her die.
"Just relax," she said quietly to herself, closing her eyes, "Just relax. You are Carina Smyth, you are an astronomer. If you are to die, you are to do it with dignity."
As she said this, Carina felt the hangman put the noose around her neck and tightened it.
On the other side of the plaza, another carriage stopped, and the guards opened it to escort Jack, his wrists cuffed behind his back, to his own death. A guard came up to him and said "Well, well, if it isn't the famous Captain Jack Sparrow!"
"Thank you! Somebody remembers!" Jack said, forcing a smile.
"It seems we have a celebrity pirate here, gentlemen," the guard remarked, "So, pirate, how would you like to die? Hanging? Firing squad? Or a new invention - the guillotine?"
"The guillotine?" Jack inquired, curious as to what it was, "Sounds French."
"It is, as a matter of fact," the guard replied, "The French left a plethora of them behind when we cleared them off this island."
"Well, then I'll take that then," Jack replied smugly, "I love the French. Hey, did you know they invented mayonnaise? I mean, how bad could it be, eh?"
Jack looked over to his right, and saw what the guillotine looked like. It was a large wooden frame with an angled blade inside it, and the soldiers manning it were testing it out. The blade dropped down from a rope and made a distinctive cutting noise.
"Oh. That bad," Jack said, his skin turning pale, "I've changed me mind."
But the guards were now pushing him towards the guillotine, undeterred by Jack's persistent begging not to. He started to ramble nervously, saying "Hey! Here's an idea! Why don't we have a regular, good ol' fashioned stoning, eh? It's biblical, and it gets the crowd involved! I don't know about you but I'd kill to be stoned right now."
They had escorted Jack up to the guillotine's platform, and they removed his hat before laying him forward on the guillotine and locking his head in the circle around his neck. Looking down, Jack saw that there was a basket beneath him, and there were two decapitated heads lying in there, with flies on them and one of the heads looking right at him.
Jack's eyes widened in fear, and then he said to the guards, "I'm not one to complain normally, but this basket is full of... heads."
The guards began to walk away from the platform, and they passed Jack's hat off to the executioner who walked onto the platform. The executioner then put Jack's hat back on his head once he was properly in place, and as he started to walk behind him, Jack began to shout "I would like to speak to Victor in disembowelment! I would like to speak to Victor in-" He gave up, "Bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger!"
Back over on the hanging platform, Carina looked out into the crowd again, knowing her end would be coming shortly. If she was going to die, she would at least attempt to make a point and save what honor she had.
"The final words of Carina Sm-" she began, but her own voice was drowned out by the rowdiness of the crowd before her. Her temper quickly flared up at the people cutting off her last words, and quickly but firmly she shouted at the top of her lungs "QUIET! I'M TALKING HERE!"
The crowd instantly hushed without a whisper, and Jack looked up to see her with a noose around her neck. Carina, content with their silence, cleared her throat and resumed her statement.
"Ahem," she began, "I would like to say a few words before I am executed. Good sirs and madams, I regret to disappoint you with the truth, but I am not a witch. I am an academic looking to further her understanding of the world as we know it. That being said, I forgive your common dim-wittedness and feeble brains for not being able to comprehend." The crowd gave an audible gasp, but that did not stop Carina, "In short, all of you have the mind of a goat, and I don't expect my words to hold much sway over you lot, because I know you wouldn't believe the truth even if I told it to you, which I have. Repeatedly. So you can go about living your dull lives as simpletons while I die here for trying to better myse-"
"Ahem!" Jack cleared his throat, and both Carina and the crowd's attention were directed at the pirate, "Pardon me for interrupting, but is it not common practice for those about to be executed to be, I don't know... worried or something or rather?"
"I- I believe I was making a point just now," Carina stated, perplexed at Jack's interruption, the crowd's attention going back to her, "If you could just be patient for a moment."
Carina was about to resume her statement, but Jack interrupted again, shouting over "No! My head is about to be lobbed off, hence the urgency!"
"And my neck is about to be broken!" Carina shouted back, and the crowd continued to look back and forth between the two.
"Did you know that, on occasion, your neck doesn't actually break?" Jack began, "It just... hurts."
"What?" Carina asked in the rhetorical sense, cursing herself because that gave Jack a reason to continue speaking.
"I've seen it happen before," Jack explained, "Men would be hanging for hours in pain before they died, if they died at all."
"May. I. finish?" Carina said through gritted teeth, to which Jack responded, "What makes your statement so urgent compared to mine?"
"Well, for one thing, you're a pirate and I'm an astronomer. I think my last words matter more than that of some hapless drunk," she stated bluntly.
"Hey, watch what you say about me, lass!" Jack shouted back, "You're lucky! Wish I was hung!"
Carina rolled her eyes, saying "Kill the filthy pirate. I'll wait." At least she would be granted the satisfaction of seeing that obnoxious fool dead.
"The witch first!" Jack shouted, annoyed at the girl insulting him.
"Enough!" the magistrate of St. Martin shouted from the crowd, "Kill them both!"
The crowd erupted in a cheer, and the executioners were about to pull the levers that were going to end Jack and Carina's lives. Suddenly, a voice called out from above them, and everyone directed their attention towards the sky.
"Woah!" Henry shouted, descending from a line of rope from the bell tower of the nearby church and swinging towards the plaza. He had acquired a new set of clothing, and he was wearing Jack's weapons belt containing his sword and pistols. He dropped from the rope onto one of the soldiers in the crowd, tackling him to the ground, and proceeded to punch another while kicking back yet another. But it was a futile effort, for the guards swarmed around Henry and grabbed his arms.
"Did you really think that you could defeat us, boy?" Scarfield mocked, but Henry, panting for breath, said "No sir, I'm just a diversion."
Before Scarfield could process what Henry had said, Henry shouted "FIRE!"
The crowd began to scream in fear, and they moved away to reveal Gibbs and the rest of Jack's crew standing there armed to the teeth. They removed a tarp off of a small object, revealing it to be a small cannon that they had snuck in.
"FIRE!" Gibbs ordered, and Pintel lit the fuse of the cannon and a six-pound ball shot out from the barrel, striking the guillotine platform's base and causing it to become unstable. Afterward, the crew began to open fire on the Redcoats present with their pistols, taking down a great number with a single volley.
"Oh my God!" Carina said, her ears ringing from the gunfire and wondering just how absurd this could get.
Jack began to laugh seeing his crew again. Quickly, he fiddled his fingers around until he had a solid grip on the hairpin that Henry had given him. He didn't say where he had gotten it from, but it didn't matter. Using the battle as a distraction, he stuck it in the cuffs keeping his hands bound behind his back, and played around with it until he heard a clicking noise and the chains fell off his wrists. Now he just had to get out of this contraption.
Henry had broken free from the two guards restraining him, and punched one of them in the face. The other tried shooting at him at point-blank range, but Henry grabbed the barrel and directed it away from him, the shot going past his head. He snatched the musket from the soldier's grasp, and hit him square in the nose with the weapon's butt. He then used it as a melee weapon to block incoming attacks from more British swords and guns.
"Reload!" Gibbs ordered the crew, and using the crowd scurrying as cover, Marty loaded in another cannonball while Pintel rammed it into place, while Ragetti and Cotton were reloading their firearms. When they had finished, Gibbs, Marty, Cotton, and Ragetti rushed forward with their swords raised and their pistols at the ready, while Pintel stayed behind with the igniter.
Jack was attempting to pry himself loose from the guillotine's confines, but as the platform was becoming more unstable, the angular blade at the top began to drop downward. Acting quickly, Pintel fired off another cannon shot, breaking away the foundation of the guillotine and liberating Jack from it's confines. Jack fell face-first onto the ground, and next to him the blade that would have cut through his neck instead landed in the dirt beside him.
"That was lucky," Jack remarked, looking at the blade next to him. Pintel then ran away from the cannon to join the rest of the crew in the fight against the British.
The crowd had practically vanished, leaving only the pirates and the British remaining as they fought tooth and nail against each other. But the pirates were prevailing over the might of the Royal Army, their cutlasses swift and their shots accurate, and they were making substantial headway.
"JACK!" Henry called over, and Jack, getting up off the ground, saw the young Turner brandishing both his sword and one of his pistols. Quickly, Henry threw both weapons over to Jack who caught them at the perfect moment, for two Redcoats were about to swarm him but he used the sword to cut the one down and used his pistol to shoot down the other.
"Thanks, mate!" Jack said, holstering his empty pistol. He then extended his hand out, and Henry tossed over his other pistol. Jack grabbed it, and he resumed fighting the Redcoats with his sword, cutting through any man that opposed him. His skill with a sword had improved considerably over the years, but he was inclined to use it less because he noticed that as time went on he got exhausted quicker when swordfighting. Guns were faster, but they only had one shot.
Jack saw a Redcoat that was attempting to stab Gibbs from behind with his bayonet. Acting quickly, Jack fired his pistol and struck the soldier in the head. Gibbs turned around and faced his Captain during all the fighting.
"Thanks for that!" Gibbs said.
Jack, instead of replying that Gibbs was welcome, said "Knew you'd come crawling back, traitor!"
Gibbs looked at him in confusion, before warding off another Redcoat's attack. After doing so, he said "I'll admit that it wasn't the right thing to do, but a little gratitude would be appreciated!"
Jack and Gibbs continued to fight off the Redcoats. While doing so, Gibbs said "Besides, we'd heard that half of Barbossa's fleet had been sunk, so we decided it was best we abandon that venture!"
Jack slightly panicked for a moment. Again he was being told that ships were being sunk all around. He feared that Salazar really had been freed from the Triangle.
Rather than deliberating the matter, Jack asked "How did the lad convince you to save my skin?"
"He offered us ten pieces of silver a person," Gibbs said, "You know, the kid looks awfully familiar! Where'd you find him?"
"His name's Henry Turner," Jack called out, "Will and Elizabeth's son!"
Gibbs looked at Jack for a moment, saying nothing. Jack then said "Fight now, contemplate later!"
Gibbs did as told and he and Jack resumed fighting with the rest of the crew.
Carina watched the whole battle unfold in front of her while the noose was still tied around her neck. It seemed as if the pirates were winning, but she didn't trust them anymore than the British. Scarfield, observing the situation and realizing that persisting further would result in death, retreated to the hanging platform where Carina was. Looking over at him, she saw that he had his grip on the lever to drop the panel out from under her, and she began to panic.
"Goodbye, witch," Scarfield said, pulling the lever and Carina fell.
Carina closed her eyes, preparing for the end.
"Gotcha!" Henry's voice said, and Carina opened her eyes to see that Henry had caught her at the last second before the rope had snapped her neck, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, thanks for asking!" Carina deadpanned, trying to stay as still as possible so that Henry wouldn't collapse trying to hold her up.
"We're still allies, correct?" Henry asked.
"Considering where your left hand is, I'd say we're more than that!" Carina shouted.
"Well, well," Scarfield's voice said with his devilish grin, and both Henry and Carina turned to see him brandishing his pistol at them, "Isn't this quite the predicament. If I shoot you, boy, the witch hangs. Two birds with one stone."
Henry and Carina braced themselves for Scarfield's shot to come, but it never came. Jack had gotten behind him and whacked him in the skull with the butt of his pistol. The officer then fell to the ground unconscious. Jack then holstered his pistol, and behind him the crew stood victorious over the British.
"Gentlemen," Jack addressed his crew, "these two are going to lead us to a prize far more substantial than ten pieces of silver. We will be sailing for the Trident of Poseidon!"
Jack's crew then gasped and then chattered amongst themselves. Jack himself then walked forward and picked up Scarfield's pistol off the ground, aiming it above Carina directly at the rope tied around her neck. Firing the weapon, the bullet broke the rope's bond, and Carina fell on top of Henry in a very awkward position. They both looked at each other with embarrassment.
"I don't care what you two like to do in your personal time," Jack remarked, noting how they looked at this particular moment, "but time is of the essence here. Chop, chop!"
Jack dropped Scarfield's pistol on the ground, and then Henry and Carina both got up off the ground.
"Now, if you'd be so kind as to follow me to my ship, we'll be on our way," Jack said, strutting away.
"Oh, no, no, no, no, no," Carina retorted while Henry broke away the chains on her wrists, "There is no way in hell that I am getting on the same ship as you."
"You need to learn to watch your language, love," Jack responded with a smirk, "Time to partake in the pirate's life."
Jack began to strut away followed closely by his crew, and Henry joined after them. Carina hesitated for a moment, unwilling to put up with Jack Sparrow let alone trust him, but she realized that he was her best shot at finding the Trident in time before the path was lost.
Sighing, Carina reluctantly began to follow the group of pirates. She just hoped that this venture would be successful. She bet her father didn't have to put up with this nonsense.
A/N: Hey guys! Spent here! Sorry for the delay. Life and stuff. Anyway, here's an extra long chapter to keep you satisfied for the time being. More is to come soon. Until then, be sure to read, review, and share this story with as many people as possible. Thanks so much you guys, and stay classy!
-Spent