Aquatic Kingdom Hearts

Chapter 22: Battle of the Immortals; A Shot Wasted?

Isla de Muerta

Outside

The night sky's cleared up from the clouds blocking the moonlight. A full moon was shown in the night sky, as it lit up the dark murky waters. The atmosphere gave the whole night scenery an eerie feeling, but those who were on a ship, didn't find it at all scary. That is unless, if they were diving underwater; underneath the Dauntless, a haunting scene was forming underwater. Schools of fish were swimming away from the Dauntless, as were a few sharks; whatever it was making its way to the Dauntless, was pretty scary if it spooked away the Hammerhead Sharks.

And then coming in clear from the waters, the Black Pearl's crew was making its way towards the ship. With the moonlight peering through the murky and dark waters, it touched the pirate crew, revealing them in their skeletal undead forms. With their weapons at the ready and their joints cracking and squeaking, they made their way to the Dauntless, being darkened by the ship's massive shadow.

Under the shadow of the ship, the crew's human forms revealed, showing that they were unable to drown or die down there. Though that didn't concern them as they stepped back into the moonlight, reverting to their undead forms. They looked up towards the ship, and smiled evilly at their next step to commandeering the Dauntless.

Back aboard the Dauntless

Frey spotted that the moon was full and turned towards Murtogg and Mullroy as he ordered, "Okay, go get the crew and Commodore out and tell them to get ready for the pirates." The two nodded and ran towards the stairway as Frey turned his attention back to the cave. But it was then that he took notice of something slightly odd; only one boat was coming out there. He raised an eyebrow at this as he asked himself, "Only one boat?", he then pulled out a pair of binoculars to get a better look, and then stepped back a little as he nearly was surprised by what he saw, "What the…?"

On the boat heading for the Dauntless, the two that were on the boat were none other than Pintel and Ragetti. However, the two were in dresses and shielded by the moonlight to prevent their skeletal forms to show up like that. They were the setup for the decoys; they would keep those on the boat distracted, keeping them from noticing the crew coming aboard.

Ragetti chuckled at this as he pointed out, "This is just like what the Greeks done in Troy.", Pintel grumbled at this as Ragetti then pointed out, "Cept' they was in a wooden horse instead of dresses."

While the crew of the Dauntless and Norrington were finally coming back on the deck, another crew was slowly coming aboard. The skeletal crew of the Black Pearl slowly made their way up the chain of the anchor. They climbed up the sides of the ship as well, doing their best to keep silent and stealthy, ensuring they were never spotted, as they quietly drew out their weapons.

Back aboard the Dauntless, Milo was hastily looking back at the deck. He saw that Norrington, accompanied by his crew, were swarming the ship back up once more. Norrington had Frey cornered at the railing, interrogating the boy on the whereabouts of Jack Sparrow. But he knew they would turn their search elsewhere, so Milo ran back towards the end of the ship, where Ariel was waiting.

She was standing at the other side of the railing, holding on to it and keeping her balance. Dax was standing on it next to her, waiting for the heads up from Milo. It was then that he was running up and stopped in front of them, and caught his breath as he said, "The Navy's loose; they're circling the ship.", but then he pointed out, "But the pirates aren't showing up. Just a small boat with two women on it heading towards the ship."

Dax raised an eyebrow, "Just one boat?", he then pointed out, "I was sure that that rat-faced, straggly bearded Barbossa would take the bait and send up his whole crew."

Ariel shook her head as she replied, "That doesn't matter right now." She then pointed to the Black Pearl as she turned back towards Dax and Milo, "As long as the Black Pearl's deserted, I can 'commandeer' it back from them." She then was about to jump off, but not until Milo ran up to her and hugged her.

Ariel was a little surprised by this, but then Milo stated out, "Just promise me that you and Eric'll come out of this alright, okay?", he then broke the hug as he smiled at Ariel, like a proud father would as he said, "You know, any uncle who had a niece-in-law like you would be proud. And I couldn't be more proud to have you as a part of this family."

Ariel smiled brightly at that, and returned Milo's hug with an even fiercer one. And then she broke it for a moment as she smiled at Milo and gave him a small kiss on the cheek, saying, "Thank you.", and then jumped into the water. The area she jumped in suddenly glowed a bright blue, and what Milo and Dax saw swimming towards the Black Pearl, was Ariel in her mermaid form.

Dax then saluted to Milo, "Wish us luck, old man.", and then dived in after her, leaving Milo to wave at them goodbye before someone else popped up. Unknown to Milo as he walked away and ran back to the deck to help out Frey with the Commodore, the cursed pirates crept aboard the deck in the shadows. They looked around, preparing to slaughter all those aboard the ship.

Back on the deck, Norrington and his men, including Murtogg and Mullroy, were holding Frey at gunpoint range. Norrington had ordered the boy to drop his weapons to ensure he didn't commit another rash act like he did beforehand, and Frey did what he was told as he dropped the daggers to his feet. Norrington ordered the crew to look about the ship to find Mr. Thatch and the girl, as well as Jack Sparrow, and for the men to go and ready the ship to depart back to Port Royal.

However, in the shadows on some corners on the ship, some of the men were the lucky ones…to die first, that is. As they looked through the shadowy areas on the deck and back, they were met by grizzly deaths as they were pulled in, and brought out as they fell flat on their stomachs, choking on their own blood by the slit throats that were induced upon them. As the dying sailors just lay there, the undead forms of the pirates crept silently towards the center, where the main unit of the crew stood there at the rail.

Meanwhile, Frey was doing his best to convince Norrington of the upcoming threat as Milo was walking down the steps. Frey pleaded with Norrington as he stated, "Don't you get it? The Black Pearl's pirates can't be killed; their cursed! Their true forms pop up when the moonlight is shown!"

The crew groaned at this as Norrington shook his head slowly, completely disgusted by this whole fiasco. Frey had been going on and on about cursed pirates and so on; Norrington scoffed at the idea that such things even existed. It was also shared by his crew as Gillette scoffed at the boy as he mocked him by asking, "Oh, and how, Mr. Asapin, were you informed by this? A little mermaid flopped up on deck and told you the whole story?", he chuckled smugly as everyone joined in.

Frey just groaned at this, thinking, 'Maybe I should let the pirates kill these guys.' he then shrugged as he told himself, 'Nah, that wouldn't be right. Plus, I want to rub it in when they see the crew.'

It was just then, they heard a soft 'Yoo-hoo' coming from on their side. The men rushed to their stations, fearing the worst, and worked feverishly to get the guns at the ready. They all had them aimed at the direction, but Norrington halted them, "Hold fire!", and took out his binoculars to see what it was. He had spotted the tiny little longboat headed straight for them, with the cross dressing duo still at their little game.

Pintel and Ragetti had gotten pretty close to their intended target, and were about to pull it off. That is until Ragetti pushed it a little too far by 'Yoo-Hooing' to the ship as he waved at them with a fold up fan. Though he made clear certainty that the moonlight didn't 'expose' them at all, less the plan would fail completely. However, that was short lived as Pintel growled and complained to Ragetti about his acting job, "Stop that. I already feel like a fool."

Ragetti stopped and slumped a bit, but then foolishly commented on his partner, "Well…you look nice though."

Pintel smirked at that…but then scowled as he growled viciously as that comment sunk right in there; his anger reaching the breaking point now. He threw down his umbrella, and swatted at Ragetti, as he yelled, "I LOOK NICE?!", and then began throttling Ragetti for the time of his life. However, in doing so, he had to knock off the umbrellas…exposing them both in their cursed, skeletal forms. However, the two stopped as they realized what they had done at this point in time.

Norrington, the men, including Gillette, paled at seeing this insight…especially Gillette seeing as he looked like he was about to jump out of his pants. And just then, they all heard some strange rustling right behind them, and they all turned around to see the ship had been infested with the cursed pirates…all completely undead-looking and thirsty for blood and a brawl to be fought. Their cover had been blown, much to the annoyance on that, and they drew their weapons and charged right at them.

Norrington looked to his men and shouted, "TO ARMS! GIVE THEM NO QUARTER!" The men pulled out their rifles at the ready and the swords. Frey looked at them all with his arms crossed, silently telling them a big fat, 'I Told You So', but decided to save it until after this battle. He then rolled forward, scooping up the daggers in his hands and held them at the battle ready.

The pirates and navy officers collided with one another as sword met with sword, or sometimes steel met with flesh. Frey leapt on in as a pirate took a swing at him, but luckily Frey dodged it to the side, and stabbed him right in the back. This caused the pirate to arch up, yelling out loud in pain. Then he pulled the dagger downward, not that it did much damage to the pirate's back, but it caused him to turn around, with Frey doing a spin punch to him, causing the pirate's head to spin around as he kicked him away from him.

Frey smirked at this as he told himself, "If this wasn't a life or death situation, this would be kind of fun." He then spotted Mr. Thatch coming down the stairs, and nearly had his jaw drop at seeing the cursed pirates. Frey shouted, "GO! GET IN THE CAPTAIN'S CABIN! IT'S SAFE IN THERE!" A little freaked out like this to argue, Milo ran back to the captain's cabin and locked the door.

Frey looked back at the cave and whispered, "This had better work, Jack.", and then dodged another pirate's slash as he joined with the Navy to fight these villains.

Back in the Cave

Back in the cavern, the only ones left there were Jack, Barbossa, Bo'sun, Monk, Jacoby, and some straggly pirate who had Eric's Seablade strapped to his back for safe keeping, along with a still bound Eric, who was being held by Bo'sun. The moonlight from outside came pouring in over the cavern trove, as it touched the water and priceless treasure that lay strewn about it. Sitting down near the chest was Barbossa, while Bo'sun stood at the edge of the hill next to him, holding Eric hostage. Monk and Jacoby were busy guarding and keeping their eyes out, while Scraggy was skipping stones.

However, Jack was looking around the treasure, taking a good look at it. However, he was making sure that the light was kept off of him; for some odd reason, he was avoiding the moonlight, which didn't make much sense to anyone at that point. However, Barbossa commented to Jack, getting the pirate's attention, "I must admit, Jack, I thought I had ye figured.", but then he nodded as he complimented, "But in the end, it turns out you're a hard man to predict."

Jack stopped ogling the treasure as he turned around and started to walk towards them. But as he did, he advised Barbossa, "Me? Oh, I'm just dishonest. And a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest.", and then turned his way towards Scraggly as he gave out an important piece of information to everyone, "But honestly. It's the honest ones you've really got to watch out for.", he turned to Eric's way and winked a bit.

And then he reached for his compass, to where Sebastian was hiding and scooped him up without the others knowing it. And when he was right behind Scraggly, he then finished, "Because in the end, you can never predict when they're going do something incredibly…stupid." Barbossa raised a confused eyebrow to that trying to figure out what Jack meant by that. But then it was too late, as Jack snatched the Seablade, and then kicked Scraggly out of the way, and threw the Seablade, with Sebastian on it, at Eric, who caught it.

Bo'sun was about to smack the boy, but then Eric round house kicked him in the side, causing him to fall face first in the water. Barbossa shot up and brought out his sword to handle the boy, but then Jack charged at Barbossa first with his sword drawn. And then the two pirate captains were duking it out with their blades; the final duel that they knew was upon them at this point.

Eric was struggling with the ropes that bound his wrists together, but to no avail. Luckily Sebastian crawled to his wrists, and snapped at the rope, breaking it and setting Eric free. Bo'sun got back up and drew out his battle axes pouncing at the boy. Sebastian shrieked, "AAAAH! DO SOMEDIN', MAN!" Without answering, Eric brought out his Seablade, and blocked Bo'sun's attack. With Jacoby slashing from behind, Eric blocked it and punched the bombing nutcase out cold, but only for a moment.

A brilliant and daring battle began in the cave; Jack fighting against Barbossa, while Eric fought off against Bo'sun and the other three. Jack made a daring neck swipe at Barbossa, only to have the pirate duck and nick off the feathers in his hat. Jack smirked at that, but Barbossa growled at that as the two continued to fight it off. Eric fought against Monk and Scraggly for a moment, until Eric threw a screaming Sebastian at Scraggly's face, causing him to pinch at the pirate's nose and lips. Scraggly ran around like a headless chicken screaming in pain and forgetting about the fight.

Eric dodged a vertical slash by Monk, and then locked his blade with his, and punched him three times in the face. The time spent with Jack training with the swords had earned Eric a terrific skill in sword dueling, fairly, unfairly, or when it came to using two swords in both hands. Kicking him away, Eric turned around, and nearly paled as he saw Bo'sun and Jacoby in their cursed forms, growling at him.

Eric slightly wished to himself in silent, 'Now I wish Dalma gave me two swords…', and just then, suddenly, his Seablade glowed for only a second, and then split in two. Surprised by both himself and the pirates, what was one sword was now two Seablades in both of his hands, except the second one was colored in a somewhat sea rust color instead of the aqua blue blade his original had. Eric smirked at this as he thought to himself, 'Thank you, Lady Luck.' Their moment of confusion past as the two pirates charged at him, but this time, Eric fought the two with ease, now that he had two swords in his hands and fought fiercer than ever.

Jack and Barbossa were nearly at each other's throats in their own duel. Ignoring the running and screaming Scraggly, the two continued their duel and then locked blades with one another. It was then when they backed off a second, Barbossa honestly but sarcastically winced at Jack, commenting, "Ya know what the heart-wrenching part about this betrayal is, Jack? I was startin' ta like ya again."

Jack nodded as he sympathetically replied, "I know.", and then continued to battle one another once more.

One or the other tried to push the lock out of place, but then Barbossa leaned in and glared with a yellow grin being worn, and stated, "You and the lad are off the edge of the map, mate. Here, there be monsters."

The Black Pearl

The ship lay silent as two figures reached the ship in time. Ariel and Dax had made good time and reached the ship as Ariel grabbed on to the climbing ladder on the side. Dax gave her the bracelet and jumped on to her shoulder; Ariel slipped on the bracelet and in a light blue swirl flash, she was human again in her purple bikini bathing suit. She climbed up the ladder, and stopped for a moment as she looked through one of the windows.

She saw Grappler and Mallet sitting down at a table, smiling and laughing with one another. Grappler chuckled, "Alright!", Ariel looked carefully as she saw the table had a wonderful and rich set up of some pretty good food, including an exquisite chocolate cake.

Then Mallet asked Grappler, pointing to the food, "So…what would you pick to eat first?" He then smiled with anticipation at this, "I think we should decide now. Just so we're ready when the time comes."

Grappler looked around for a moment, and then answered, "Well, I'd go for the cake."

Then Mallet soured as he stated, "I picked cake too!", and then angered, by appearance, Grappler grabbed a big kitchen knife from the table, and stabbed it into the table. This caused Ariel and Dax to get a little startled by that as they continued to watch this.

Then by the mermaid's and otter's surprise, Grappler pushed the knife to Mallet as he smirked, "You cut. I'll pick."

Ariel sighed in relief as she continued to climb the ladder up to the deck. When she got up there, she jumped on deck, with Dax jumping on to the railing. Dax looked around, sensing the coast was clear; he then turned towards Ariel who nodded equally. She then reminded Dax, "Okay, we need to find Mr. Gibbs and the crew…"

But then stopped as she and Dax were both startled by the arrival of Jack the Monkey popping up, who was in cursed form due to the full moon being out. The monkey shrieked at the two, trying their best to scare them both. However, Ariel was only a little startled by him as she scolding looked at the little furball. After seeing that scaring them didn't work, Monkey Jack shrank back a little, looking at them innocently as possible.

A few seconds later, as Mallet was slicing the first piece of cake, something caught their attention. They heard a clanging sound; along with it were screeching sounds and someone shouting. The two looked to each other and asked in unison, "What was that?" And then turned to see the most bizarre fight ever. An otter, was doing battle against the captain's monkey….and the otter was winning.

The monkey was right on top of Dax, as he plopped his feet on the chimp's stomach as he growled, "This is where you get off!", and kicked the little monkey over the side, dropping him into the water. Dax took a deep breath as he walked towards the open window and walked on in near the stunned pirates. He then commented to himself, "Wow. Good comeback. Usually I never think of those until later." He then suddenly stopped as he slowly turned his attention towards the pirates…the ones getting their weapons out to kill him with.

He gulped as he nervously smiled and waved at them, until he squeaked, "Hi…gotta go!" And then quickly sprinted out of there, with two angry pirates coming after him. He jumped and ran up the stairs as fast as his tiny body could get him up there. The pirates chased after him, going into the moonlight to reveal their cursed forms.

Unknown by the two pirates, Ariel hid behind the stairwell, waiting for them to leave the scene. She then looked up to silently apologize, "Sorry, Dax. I'll get you out of that quickly.", and then rushed down the stairs to where the brig was located.

Down in the brig, Gibbs and the crew were trying to come up with a way to get out of there, or just sitting down awaiting their unjust fate. Just then, Gibbs shot up as he heard something and shushed everyone. He, along with Anamaria and Cotton and his parrot, looked over from the cell door and saw someone coming down the stairway. And then they saw Ariel, running down the stairs in her bathing suit, along with ho9lding a pair of military green pants with the hip sides cut out to where the pockets should have been, and a crowbar in her other hand. Gibbs was mighty surprised by this but smirked with hopeful anticipation, "Miss Ariel!"

Back aboard the Dauntless

The battle aboard the Dauntless was as mighty and vicious as anything before. But to one side, it wasn't looking as good, seeing it was a losing battle. Even though the Navy had the ship and more fighting and fire power, they couldn't hope to defeat an enemy that felt the cold breath of death, and an unquenchable thirst for violence and an insatiable need to inflict pain on others. Truly, this was not the best of luck for the Dauntless's crew, or the young pirate buccaneer that was helping them.

Frey ran up the stairway that led to the Steering Cabin, with Twigg and a hook-wielding pirate following behind him. But then as he reached to the top of the stairs, he pulled out the dagger knifes, and double-slashed across at Twigg's bony throat, causing him to become a little disoriented. He then vertically slashed him across the chest, grabbed the railing and did an amazing upper cut horizontal kick to the pirate, causing him to fall back down the stairs comically. The hook wielding pirate slashed at him with his hook, but Frey locked his hook to his dagger, and forced it down on the stair armrest, locking it in place. The pirate struggled to break it free, but then Frey elbow-punched him in the chest, punched him in the face, and then jumped up, to deliver a scissor kick to the side of his skull, sending the pirate falling down and crashing into Twigg.

Norrington was also holding his own to push them back, as he held his sword to his side. He currently had up two Punisher 9mm caliber guns pointed at the cursed pirates and shot at them. True enough the bullets didn't kill them, but it did slow them down a bit as they charged at Norrington, only to crash on their backs from the bullets hitting them. However, before he knew it, one of the pirates had snuck up behind him and jumped him, causing him to drop his guns. He struggled to get the pirate off his back, but to no avail as the scallywag had a metaphorical death grip on him.

That is until the pirate suddenly arched in pain on his back, giving Norrington a chance. He broke the chokehold the pirate had on him and punched him hard in the face as he drew out his sword. And then stabbed him in the ribcage, then using the momentum, tossed the pirate aside. As he did, he noticed a hook-looking weapon embedded on the pirate, and then looked to where it was thrown at. He saw Frey Asapin, saluting towards Norrington until going on to battle again.

Norrington simply nodded as he silently commented, "Well done.", and then charged back into battle with only his sword at his side.

In the Captain's cabin, Milo tried to look around to see what was going on. All he could see was a massive fighting going on outside; the windows were kind of blurry, but then he made out the shapes. And then was startled by a navy officer, slain right in front of him, and sliding down the door. And then Milo paled as he saw what had killed the man; he saw a group of undead pirates standing there, moving and walking…and then looked through the window as they saw Milo.

Seeing that he was standing too close to the door, the pirates smashed through the window with little ease. Their bony and skeletal hands grabbing at him with effortless ease. Milo struggled to break free of them as they grabbed him; for a moment they had pulled at his mouth, then they pulled at his nose, and then at his ears…but all were done in a comical way, making him look slightly stupid. Then one of them had Milo in a chokehold; with a little struggling, Milo was able to reach for an Emergency Fire axe. And with a few well-placed swipes, he knocked off a few of the arms, causing the pirates to scream out in pain as they pulled back and tried to get their arms back.

As Milo coughed to regain his breath again, one of the arms jumped up at him. He struggled with it as he reached to the desk that was nearby in the cabin. There he was able to pull it off, open one of the drawers, and shove the hand right in there. Milo sighed as he leaned on the desk, sighing in relief…that is until the desk started to shake. Milo held it back as best he could, knowing full well that the hand within the desk was putting up a pretty good fight on wanting to get out of there. It was then that Milo prayed that Ariel and his nephew were having a better time than this.

Back in the Cave

The duel between the two heroes and the three, minus the scraggly-looking one who was still attacked by Sebastian as he screamed out loud, was still on going and getting more desperate for the heroes. Jack was parrying against Barbossa as best as he could; but he knew better, seeing that he remembered that Hector was known to be extremely skilled with a sword. In fact, he was one of the finest of the Caribbean swordsman, next to Jack who used trickery and minding his surroundings.

Eric, as well, was parrying against three opponents, but the only one who seemed to want him for himself, was Bo'sun. The African American pirate was swiping at Eric with his mighty battle axes, trying to break the boy's blocks and kill him once and for all. But Eric was still vigilant as he blocked as much as he could, but was backing into a corner as he knew that he couldn't keep up with it.

Jack and Barbossa were dueling their way up a rocky stairway of treasure, leading up to a lit up path with moonlight. Jack was being pushed further in to the light, but then lunged at Barbossa. However, he missed as Barbossa kicked him hard in the gut, causing him to kneel over, and glare at his mutinous first mate. Barbossa chuckled a little, and threw his sword down in arrogance as he held out his arms, showing he wasn't armed, "Ya can't beat me, Jack. None of ya can."

Not accepting defeat, Jack got up and lunged at Barbossa one more time, this time gutting the pirate. However, due to the curse, Barbossa was unable to even die, and just looked at Jack with a look, saying to him 'What'd I tell ya.'. he then looked up in the air and sighed with discontent for his former captain. Then he grabbed the sword in his gut, and then before Jack could do anything, and stabbed it into Jack's chest.

Jack gagged and gasped at the cold steel in his chest as he doubled back a bit. Barbossa smirked evilly at this as he looked down to see if the Thatch boy had bee watching this at all. This would have scared the boy into giving up and wouldn't put up much resistant.

Eric did stop for a moment as he heard the gasp and gagging sound, and turned to look up. Eric went wide eyed at his ' friend's' defeat and almost demise…and then a similar look was on his face as he nearly gasped in pain. He looked down at his chest, and saw the sharp end of a sword sticking out. In his weakened state, he dropped the extra Seablade from his hand, the sword disappearing without its master's touch. He then turned around to see it was none other than Bo'sun, who had run him through.

The pirate smirked evilly, exposing his rotting teeth, as he mocked, "This is ironic. Two Thatch brothers…killed by de same band of pirates.", and then pulled the sword out of him as Eric doubled back towards the moonlit area.

Jack did the same, as Barbossa shouted to Bo'sun, "You cocktailed idiot! We need the…!", but then stopped as he saw Jack step into the moonlight, accompanied by Eric as he was near confused at what happened.

As the two staggered back into the moonlight, they were then shown exactly what they were now. When they entered the moonlight, like Barbossa and the others, they too became immortal, as well as cursed, as they were both now rendered as skeletal undead pirates. Barbossa looked at the two slightly confused as to how the two became like that. Eric's form was more skeletal and still retained flesh on the upper part of his head as he still had eyebrows, but left his clothing, like Jack's tattered, as the two examined themselves.

Jack, lifting his hand up in a flailing hand gesture, as he examined himself, as he commented, "That's interesting.", it was then that Jack pulled out the medallion coin that he stashed away form the chest, dancing it around his fingers. He then looked to Barbossa as he innocently smiled, with the lips that he had left, and replied, "Couldn't resist, mate."

The three pirates down below, looked to Eric confused as to how the boy gained it as well. Then Eric lifted his free left hand to his mouth, and then spat into it, and showed them the coin that he had in his mouth. Then it was pieced together; when Bo'sun had shoved Eric's face into the chest, he had scooped up one of the coins in his mouth. Eric flipped the coin to show them, and then innocently smiled as he caught the coin and put it in his pocket, "Jack was right about one thing: I am completely obsessed with treasure."

Barbossa snarled at this as Jack drew his sword of his chest, and then threw a bunch of treasure at Jack, blinding him for a moment. He then picked up his sword and ran at Jack, exposing his cursed form, as the two immortals fought it out. Barbossa dueled at Jack as they went further up, but then when Barbossa was close enough, Jack elbowed him hard in the face, sending the pirate to fall back down the stairway, with Jack following him.

The same went with Bo'sun and the other two as they charged at Eric, duking it out as before. But this time it was different, as Eric let himself get stabbed by Jacoby, only to pull in closer to punch the pirate three times in the face, and pull away without dying. He then twisted his back a whole 180 degrees, and parried with Bo'sun as the rest of his torso turned back in place to his front. Bo'sun then stabbed at the boy with his dagger, though Eric didn't feel any repercussions as he sliced off the arm that Bo'sun had stabbed him with, pulled the arm away as well as the dagger, and then smacked it against Bo'sun's face a few times as he threw it back.

Then suddenly, Jacoby charged at the boy, parrying with him a few rounds. Then suddenly, Eric noticed Monk charging behind him, and ducked out of the way, letting him get stabbed by Jacoby. The bald pirate screamed out in pain, as Eric ducked behind Jacoby, who slashed at the boy a few times, and then stabbed through his shipmate to get to the boy. Seeing that he couldn't feel the pain, Eric slid out of the blades point and then stepped aside for a moment, watching the two for a moment, but then they pulled apart with their swords and chased after the boy.

Jack and Barbossa were still dueling their small war battle as their blades rung through out the caves. Their blades sparked and rang out as the duo dueled each other fiercer than ever. Although the two, as well as Eric, were now immortal, the battle was ongoing, with no one fully dying at all. It was when Barbossa was shoved into the moonlight by one last strike from Jack, that he was pushed at a stalagmite and leaned on it.

He heaved a little as he caught his breath, and then spat out at Jack, "So what now, Jack Sparrow? Not only the boy, but are we to be two immortals, locked forever in an epic battle. Until Judgment Day and…trumpets sound? Hmm?"

Jack thought about it for a moment, but then shrugged as he smirked, "Or…you could just surrender."

That earned a hard-earned snarl from Barbossa as he charge swiped at Jack, causing him to step into the moonlight to expose his cursed for as well. The two clashed at one another once more, until Barbossa smacked Jack at the face, causing him to fall on the ground. Jack got back up, and then goofily ran away as Barbossa let out a war cry, and chased after Jack laughing maniacally.

Back aboard the Black Pearl

Grappler and Mallot, both on deck and exposed in their cursed forms by the moonlight, were searching on deck for the little otter. They had been chasing after the furball for sometime to no avail in finding it at all. And then when they finally had it cornered, it up and disappeared. So now they spent the rest of the time walking around with their weapons brandished and glaring daggers at finding the little critter.

However, their hunt ended as they heard something heading right for them. They looked and saw a pair of headlights heading right for them, and crashed them into the railing, causing them to fall into the water in pieces. The strange lights were attached to an armored-out and weaponized jeep that was designed for pirate usage on land, but had never been used at all.

The driver's door opened as the engine cut off, and out stepped Ariel, who was now wearing the hipless pants, and Dax jumped on the hood of the car. Gibbs and the pirates ran up to them, cheering at this little victory, as Dax jumped at the edge of the hood. He then looked down to where Grappler and Mallet were and shouted triumphantly, "HA! That teaches ya to mess with me! Ya skinless sacks of bones! I'm from Aspen!"

He was then scooped up by Ariel who had walked over, and then much to his delight, she snuggled him across cheek-to-cheek. Ariel thanked him properly at this, "Oh, Dax, thank you for keeping them busy while I freed Gibbs and the others. You were so brave out there."

Dax immediately went all goofy as he could never resist the compliments of a lady, "Well…what can I say…", but it was long ended as Ariel placed him on her shoulder, making him stop in confusion.

Ariel raced over to one of the longboats as she ordered, "Gibbs! I need you and a few others to help me for a moment. Eric and Jack are in that cave and we have to help them!", but then she stopped as she turned around and saw that the pirates were just standing there. Ariel looked at the confused and desperate as she pleaded to them, "Please, I need your help. I can't do this on my own."

And then Dax defended as hopped on to the railing, stating, "Yeah. Honestly, look at me. You pirates think I can do much when I'm around half a foot tall, excluding my tail?"

Cotton's parrot squawked, "Any port in the storm."

Gibbs nodded to Cotton as he looked to Ariel and Dax as he answered, "Cotton's right. We've got the Pearl back."

Then Dax crossed his arms as he asked with a raised eyebrow, "And what about Jack? Ya just gonna leave him behind?"

Marty the dwarf, simply answered, "Jack owes us a ship."

Then Gibbs pointed out, "And then there's the Code to consider."

And then Ariel looked at then with much shame and exasperation as she bluntly asked, "The Code?", she was getting fed up with this and then stated out loud, "You're all pirates! Hang the code, and hang the rules! They're more like guidelines than actual rules, anyway, right?" The pirates including Gibbs looked to each other a slight bit uncertain about that.

Later on

A few minutes later, Ariel and Dax were swimming towards the cave entrance that led to the Treasure Trove. Ariel, returned to mermaid form, looked back to the Black Pearl as it started to sail away. She growled under her breath in frustration at this, "Blood pirates.", and then started to swim back to where she was going.

Back at the Dauntless, the fight had gotten even more intense as only a few of the Navy officers fell to the blades of the pirates. This was obviously a losing battle Pintel and Ragetti had arrived from the longboat and were brawling with the others. But it was during the brawl, Ragetti noticed something amiss. He saw the Pearl sailing away in the other direction, and turned to Pintel asking, "Hey.", and then pointed to the Pearl, "Is it supposed to be doin' that?"

Pintel looked at the moving Pearl in surprise, and then snarled, "They're stealin' our ship."

It was then that Ragetti snarled as well, as he shouted at the Pearl, "Bloody Pirates!", and then was about to vent out his frustration at one of the sailors. When all of a sudden, one of the navy officer's guns was thrown at his skull, causing his wooden eye to get knocked out of his head. He then saw it roll down the brawling and screamed out, "Me eye!", and got on his knees, crawling after it, while the fight continued.

Norrington and Frey were at each other's backs now, fighting for their lives and even doing so much as to survive it. Currently, the two were fighting against two familiar pirates; Norrington was facing against Koehler, while Frey fought against Twigg, who wanted payback for the kick in the face. It was during the fight, Norrington looked back to Frey and asked, "There's no end to them. How can we win?"

After stabbing and punching Twigg, Frey answered, "The curse is over when these pirates aren't in undead X-Ray vision when the moonlight hits them."

After slashing at Koehler, Norrington simply replied, "Well, whatever Sparrow or Thatch are doing, they'd better do it quickly!"

Back in the Cave

Jacoby threw a couple of bombs at Eric's form as he was dueling against Monk. Then the two bombs hit the ground, erupting into an explosion and sending the two flying back a few ways. Jack's attention was momentarily taken from Barbossa as he looked back towards Eric. He knew that they were running out of time, and brought his attention back to Barbossa. And dodging a quick slash from Barbossa, Jack reached out to the villain's neck, and grabbed the coin medallion, stating quickly, "Oy, my coin.", and dodge a punch from Barbossa as the two continued to fight, now in the moonlight once more as they fought in a small puddle, being slowed down as the puddle was up to their knees.

Eric was thrown out of the moonlight and into the shadows, returning to his human form. He groaned to himself as he tried getting up, "Man, I thought the terms of the curse stated we couldn't feel anything.", he then saw his Seablade in front of him as eh crawled to it, "They didn't mention anything about still being able to feel pain." And then reached out with his right hand towards the blade.

When suddenly, a boot slammed on to his hand as he yelled out in pain from it coming down so hard and fast. He looked up to see Bo'sun, smiling evilly with his axes at the ready. However, he was not the one to kill the boy, as Jacoby ran up and held his sword up, advising Eric in the ways of pain as he threatened, "I'm gonna teach you the meaning of pain!"

"You like pain?"

The two pirates turned to where the voice came from, and saw the redhead, Ariel, standing in the moonlight with a rower's oar as a weapon and Dax on her shoulder. She smacked at Jacoby's face, and then force-poked Bo'sun in his eye, causing him to get off of Eric.

And then she whacked at his head, knocking them both away as she glared and growled at them, "Try having someone like your captain hit on you." She then turned towards Eric's direction, and returned to her normal self again as she extended a hand to him to help him up. Forgetting that he was still cursed, Eric took it, and allowed her to pull him back up in the moonlight…which exposed him in his cursed form.

Ariel's' eyes went wide with fear, and gasped as she stepped back a little. She whispered, "Eric? Wha…? What happened?"

Dax kind of gulped at that as he pointed out, "Well, um…wow, kid. You lost a lot of weight…and a lot of flesh, too."

Eric then suddenly remembered that he was still under the curse, and now felt ashamed by letting her see him like this. He felt now that to her, he had become like Barbossa and his crew: a monster. He then shunned his face away from Ariel, closing his eyes in shame as he apologized, "I'm sorry, Ariel. I know I must look like a monster…but…it was the only way to match up to Barbossa in this fight without getting killed."

Ariel then looked at Eric, not in fright anymore, but with sympathy and understanding. To prove that he didn't scare her, he reached up with her left hand, and touched his skeletal face cheek, turning him to look at her. When he was now faced to her with his eyes open, she still held her hand there, and spoke softly and warmly to him, reassuringly, "I think I already knew why you did it. But you don't have to be ashamed of what you've become now; to me you'll always be Eric Thatch."

She almost looked tearfully at him as Eric looked the same at hearing those words, and then she slightly whispered to him, "I love you." But then their moment was interrupted as they heard yelling coming form opposite their side. there, the two teens and otter saw Jack Sparrow, dueling it out with Barbossa once more as neither one of them were letting out. Seeing him in his cursed form, Ariel asked Eric, "Whose side is Jack on again?"

Eric shrugged as he answered in a question, "At the moment?"

But then the two turned their attention back to the three pirates, as Scraggly finally gotten Sebastian off his face. He then threw him at the teens as Dax caught him, commenting, "You…are a lucky crab.", and then Eric, who had scooped up his Seablade, punched Scraggly with the handle of the sword. Monk and Jacoby, who had both recovered, charged at Eric with a downward slash, only to have it blocked by Ariel with the oar just in time, and shoved them into the moonlight, as Eric parried with Scraggly, throwing him into the moonlight along with the other two. And then Ariel and Eric, who both held on to the oar, charged at the three.

AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGHH!

That was what the three pirates yelled at as they had been impaled by the oar. The piece of wood had rammed through them, like a shish kabob as the two tried to pull away from one another. The two teens took a small breather by this, but not until Ariel grabbed one of the grenades that Jacoby had on him. She then pulled the pin, and then shoved it into his ribcage. Then the two teens pushed the trapped trio out of the moonlight, returning the pirates to their true from, locking the grenade in Jacoby. The two teens and sea critters ran for cover, leaving the pirates to their well-deserved fate, as Jacoby whimpered, "No fair…", and then in an explosion, blew the three pirates to scattered pieces as the teens ran for the cursed chest.

Jack and Barbossa were a little distracted by the explosion, but that gave Jack enough time to do one thing. Out of the light, and back to his normal self, he took out the coin he took from the chest as well from Barbossa and slashed his hand to bleed a little on the coin. Eric noticed what Jack did, and now out of the moonlight and near the chest finally, he took the Seablade and his coin, and slashed his open hand to bleed on his coin. And then before Barbossa knew what he was doing, Jack knocked Barbossa's sword out of his hand, and then threw the two coins to Eric.

Barbossa then decided to end this little fight as he took out his Walter P38, and aimed it at Ariel. Ariel stopped for a moment in fear at this, but then didn't notice as Bo'sun was sneaking up behind her with one of his axes held high and prepared to chop her in half. Seeing that this was not going to end well, Ariel looked at this in fear as Barbossa's finger squeezed on the trigger…

BLAM!

BLAM!

Everyone winced at the sound of those two shots being made, but Barbossa looked in confusion. It was then that he knew he didn't fire those shots at all, but then turned his direction to Jack. Jack had taken out his Silver Eagle…and shot it at Barbossa in his black heart. Bo'sun looked at to who he shot him right in the chest, and he and Ariel looked to see Eric Thatch, standing near the chest in the moonlight, in his cursed form. Holding his right hand over the open chest, and holding a black 9mm Eagle, stolen off of Monk during the fight.

Barbossa, knowing full well that Jack had made a mistake, gloated to Jack as he smiled smugly, "Ten years, ya carried that gun…and now you waste your shot."

"Who said he wasted it?", Eric replied to Barbossa, getting everyone's attention as they saw him open his right hand. Then everyone saw that he had held the coins, all bloodied up, and now falling into the chest, landing on the 879 brothers and sisters, lifting the curse up. This was proven directly as now in the light, and in a flash, Eric was restored back to his flesh, blood, and living self once more.

Ariel smiled at this victory, as Sebastian and Dax shouted out with joy and victorious smugness, "Yeah!"

Barbossa paled at that for a moment, realizing what had been done at this point. He dropped his gun, and opened his coat, exposing his white shirt, as a little blood spot revealed itself, growing larger with blood coming out and not turning to dust as usual.

And then, Barbossa's fear disappeared into one of joy as he smiled to Jack, who put his gun away. Barbossa smiled as he declared, "I feel…", but then frowned, as something else crept back to Barbossa as the curse was gone, "…cold.", and just like Bo'sun who slumped to his knees in defeat, Barbossa fell flat on his back at the chest, and the two were dead as doornails now that they couldn't recover from the fatal shot.

Back Outside

Aboard the Dauntless

The pirates and Navy officers stopped the fighting as Norrington impaled Koehler, and Frey stabbed Twigg in the chest with the daggers and left them there. It was then that the fighting had stopped as the pirates looked around them and saw that they were no longer the undead. They looked up towards the moonlight and saw the moon was still out, but they were not in skeletal form anymore. Back in the Captain's cabin, Milo noticed the desk wasn't shaking anymore as he opened the drawer, and then nearly threw up as he shoved the drawer closed again.

This was confirmed as Koehler and Twigg both fell to the deck, dead from their inflicted and fatal wounds. The remaining officers pointed their guns and swords at the pirates, ordering surrender. Knowing now that they were no longer immortal, the pirates dropped their weapons to the ground, fully surrendering to the Navy now. And finally, Ragetti had gotten to his eye, as he stood up next to his partner, Pintel.

As soon as he popped it back in, the two pirates were at gun range by Murtogg and Mullroy. Raising their hands up in surrendering, Pintel smiled as he innocently asked, "Parley?"

Both Frey and Norrington smirked at knowing that Sparrow and Eric had turned the tide of the battle. And Norrington announced, "Gentlemen, the Dauntless is ours again." The men all cheered out at a victory well done; this battle would probably forever go down as one to remember.

Back in the Cave

Eric sat over near one of the treasure hills, wrapping his hand up in a bandage to stop the bleeding. Ariel saw this as she walked over to help him out, "Here…let me help you with that." She took the bandage away for a moment, and then dabbed it in the salt water. She then walked over to Eric as she dabbed it with the soaked rag, cleaning the wound. She was being very gentle with this, lightly holding his hand with hers; both never tearing their eyes way from each other as they watched the work on the wound.

Both Sebastian and Dax were watching this scene, but then Sebastian stated to Dax, "Okay…I dink we should wait for dem back at da boat. Dis is sorta feelin' like we walked in when yer parents are makin' out."

Dax nodded, "Yeah, let's hit the wave.", and with that, the two scurried off to leave the two teens alone.

After Ariel had cleaned the wound, she wrapped it up with a clean cloth. The two stood up; with Eric flexing his hand to be sure he didn't do any permanent damage to it during the battle. But then he winced slightly as he felt the pain surging in his hand. Ariel looked at him concerned as she took his hand into hers and held it up as she closed in on him, asking with concern, "Are you in pain?"

Eric nodded a little as he answered, "A little, but it's not bad compared to getting stabbed like that." He then smirked slightly as he said out loud, "You know it's funny. The curse is supposed to make you feel nothing. But instead you end up feeling a lot of pain, instead of pleasure."

Ariel remembered that back on the Black Pearl, when Barbossa had mentioned in detail of the curse's effect on him. He didn't even feel the warmth of a woman's touch due to the curse in affect on him and the crew. And just then, Ariel sparked an idea as she held Eric's hand up to her face. She then looked to Eric mischievously, and asked, "So…now that you're free of the curse….can you feel this?", and then lightly kissed his hand.

Eric, feeling a little embarrassed by that, and slightly blushing at Ariel's lips on his hand, stammered, "Um, well..uh…yeah?"

Then Ariel stopped for a moment as she asked, "Well, can you feel this?", and then slowly reached up to him, and gently kissed him on the neck.

Eric gulped at that as Ariel stopped and looked to him for an answer. He generally sighed at that feeling and answered, "Well, I did feel a tingling sensation creep up my spine…"

And then she leaned in to him, her hands resting on his chest, and his arms wrapping around her waist. She then stepped up on her tiptoes as he leaned down towards her. She then asked in a whisper, "And…how about…this?", as their lips almost touched each others. But then a loud clanging sound broke the mood. The two teens broke apart from embarrassment as they saw Jack, rummaging through the treasure, and paying to attention to them at all. The mood all forgotten, Ariel sighed at that, and smiled to Eric hopelessly, "We should go back to the Dauntless now."

Eric nodded as he let a half-smile creep up, "Frey's probably having kittens now at how worried he is about us."

The two laughed at that, feeling the tension leave them both behind. The two teens then held each other's hand as they prepared to walk out, but then stopped as Jack walked up to Eric. He was currently loaded up with a few treasure pieces of his own, and then advised Eric, "If you were waiting for the opportune moment…that was it." Eric sighed as he rolled his eyeballs at that, but then Jack walked away from the two as he headed for the longboats, but not before saying, "Now if you'd be so kind, I'd be much obliged if you'd drop me off at my ship."

Ariel paled at that, knowing Jack wants going to like what he'd see.

Outside

The teens, critters, and Jack were all on a longboat heading for outside. But Jack wasn't looking too happy as he saw the Black Pearl all gone and out of sight from him. He sighed at this small defeat; all that hard work and fighting all for nothing now that the Pearl was gone…again. Ariel, feeling slightly sympathetic, scooted up to Jack as she placed an apologetic hand on his shoulder, "I'm really sorry, Jack."

Looking to the Mermaid, Jack patted her hand as he looked back out to sea, answering, "They done what's right by them. Can't expect more than that."

It was just then that after hearing that, Eric, who had been manning the engine, looked to Jack. Jack had done all this to help him, and in the end had gained nothing…except for killing Barbossa. He sighed at this, conflicted on what to do now; knowing that when they got to the Dauntless, Jack would be executed by the end of the week once they got back to Port Royal. For now, they just headed straight for the Dauntless, not knowing what would come next.

Next Chapter: Knowing One's Place; He's a Pirate