A/N: There's about ten billion separating-line-things in this chapter! I did this to keep the POV changes from sliding into each other and being confusing. If these lines have a more bad effect than a good effect, please feel free to tell me!

THANK YOU to meowbooks and Starling Rising for their reviews!! And as always, a huge thank you to jedipati for being my beta.

Disclaimer: POTC belongs to Disney

Twigg dragged Elizabeth from the longboat by her bound wrists. Her bare feet sank in cool, black sand. Torches half-illuminated the underground shore, and the pirates bearing the torches were rapidly disappearing into multiple passageways. Their rough voices reverberated painfully. Dreadlocked Khoeler jostled Elizabeth from behind and Twigg rushed forward, towing Elizabeth behind him. She struggled to keep her footing as she careened through the passage's twists and turns, tugged brutally by her bindings, her nose filled with the immortals' stench.

Twigg halted so abruptly Elizabeth almost ran into him. He stepped aside, gleefully giving her a full view of the cavern that now lay before them.

It was a thing of wild tales that no one believes. Light struggling through breaks in the stalactite-coated ceiling illuminated endless piles of coins, chests, mirrors, tableware, bolts of silk, statues, and jewelry. All around, the pirates streamed down into the cavern, tossing their plunder onto the piles without glancing at it. Their guffawing filled rang in the chamber's endless secret coves and passages, smacking Elizabeth's ears as she looked toward the cavern's center.

Surrounded by a moat of inky water, the greatest plunder-coated hill swelled upward. At its peak stood a stone chest, closed and glaring in the a single shaft of daylight. Barbossa stood over the chest, a black bear absorbing the light, watching over everything like a king. Waiting for her.

No, there would be no endless stairs carved by slaves of ancient civilizations to climb, but this was worse. Elizabeth had been chilled, but panic flooded her with warmth. She wasn't ready to die. Something new inside her had just broken, and she now knew it was hope she hadn't realized was there. She had been hoping for a rescue the whole time she had believed herself resigned. Stripped now of this last ghost of optimism, she became truly helpless. Her sight swam and every inch of her burned; her knees quivered.

"Move." Khoeler gave her a hard shove.

"Ten years 'a hoarding swag," Pintel exclaimed.

"Now we finally get to spend it," Ragetti warbled, and giggling, the two pirates dumped the contents of a trunk to the floor.

Dresses, shoes, a chemise, and parasols thumped to the ground and the pirates' laughter faded. They tossed the trunk away. His frown fading, Pintel picked up one of the white parasols. Ragetti held one of the gowns to himself.

"Once we're quit 'a th' curse, we'll be rich men," Pintel said, closed parasol resting on his shoulder like a musket. Ragetti dropped the gown and picked up one of the other parasols. He opened it and copied Pintel. The delicate material caught daylight and glowed like a harvest moon.

"An' you can buy an eye what actually fits an' is made 'a glass," Pintel continued compassionately.

"This one does splinter somethin' terrible," Ragetti quavered, and pitifully began to rub his wood eye; it creaked.

"Stop rubbin' it!" Pintel exclaimed. Then, "Oh." He became a broomstick, a frightened smile on his face.

The bosun glared at Pintel, the raised scars on his face turning the fearsome expression horrible. He eventually turned away with a grunt of disgust.

Scowling, Pintel lifted his parasol and smacked Ragetti as hard as he could.

The lantern's circle of yellow glow suddenly illuminated a small jutting shore. Will grimaced as a crab waved its claws defensively, but then the light reached beyond the crustacean and Will froze.

A skeleton sprawled belly-down, its jaw wide in a soundless scream, a sword stabbed straight through its spine. Neck prickling, Will tore his eyes away and looked ahead. "What Code is Gibbs to keep to if the worst should happen?"

"The Pirate's Code." Jack glanced back. "Any man who falls behind is left behind."

"No heroes among thieves, aye?" said Will scornfully.

Jack carefully maneuvered the rowboat through a lumpy arch that extended its arms from the ceiling. "You know, for having such a bleak outlook on pirates, you're well on your way to becoming one."

When the only response was stony silence, Jack continued: "You sprung a man from jail. Commandeered a ship of the Fleet, sailed with a buccaneer crew out of Tortuga..." He twisted about on his bench and looked over Will's shoulder. The young man was leaning forward, mesmerized. The floor beneath the clear water was coated deeply with gold doubloons, and the coins caught the light of the lantern, sending ripples dancing over both men's faces.

"And," Jack added, "you're completely obsessed with treasure."

They edged around a corner into a wide cavern. A beach on one side was cluttered with longboats, and a faint uproar echoed off the rocks. The lifeboat soon scraped onto the black shore and Will leaped out to haul it up. Jack lurched onshore and as he clinked past Will, the younger man murmured fiercely, "That's not true. I am not obsessed with treasure."

Jack was already scrambling up a narrow path. Will followed and found him illuminated, perched before a long, low opening in the wall.

Jack's eyes gleamed. "Not all treasure is silver and gold, mate."

A rough voice echoed: "Gentlemen! The time has come!" Roaring voices filled the cavern in response.

Will knelt down beside Jack and gaped.

"Our salvation is nigh!" Captain Barbossa shouted. "Our torment is near an end."

Will stiffened. "Elizabeth!"

She stood with Barbossa at the peak of a hill, small beside the passionately gesturing captain. Her eyes darted over the assembly like a trapped rabbit's.

"For ten years, we've been tested and tried, and each man jack of you here has proved his mettle a hundred times over." Barbossa threw his hands up. "And a hundred times again!"

"Suffered, I have!" Ragetti cried.

"Punished, we were, the lot of us," Barbossa ardently agreed. He pounded a fist in his hand. "Disproportionate to our crime! Here it is!" He shoved the cover off the chest with one booted foot; the thick slab of stone slammed aside.

Elizabeth jumped back then gawked, squinting. The chest brimmed with medallions, each grinning just as hatefully as the one about her neck.

Reverent silence fell.

Barbossa dragged a filthy hand through the clinking coins. "The cursed treasure of Cortéz himself. Every last piece that went astray," he clutched a handful, "we have returned." He let each medallion fall one by one into the chest. "Save for this!" He pointed to Elizabeth and a louder roar went up.

"Jack!" Will frantically tried to lunge forward, his hands, dislodging several coins, but Jack hauled him back out of sight.

"Not yet. We wait for the opportune moment."

"Eight hundred and eighty-one we found, but despaired of ever finding the last," Barbossa's voice continued to rant.

Will followed Jack back down the path. "When's that?" he demanded, then spat, "When it's the greatest profit to you?"

Jack went still, his eyes very wide. Mechanically he turned on Will. "May I ask you something? Have I ever given you reason not to trust me?"

His intense face was in Will's taut one; the younger man didn't respond.

"Do us a favor," Jack said through clenched teeth. "I know it's difficult for you, but please, stay here." He began to turn away, then paused. "And try not to do anything...stupid." He gave Will one of his placating smiles then shuffled rapidly off.

Let's just say it's a matter of leverage, mate. Will's anger rose as he heard Jack's secretive words again in his mind. He stood with fists clenched for five seconds before his face cleared. He rushed to the shore.

"And who among us has paid th' blood sacrifice owed to the heathen gods?" Barbossa shouted.

"Us!"

"And whose blood must yet be paid?"

"Hers!" Weapons and fingers pointed at Elizabeth, who shook visibly.

"You know the first thing I'm gonna do after the curse is lifted?"

The pirates laughed, nudging each other and looking at Elizabeth.

Barbossa turned to her. "Eat a whole bushel of apples," he said softly, then grabbed her by the back of her neck and forced her to bend over the chest. Below, the pirates began to chant, a wordless, quickening assault of voices. He grabbed a stone dagger that lay on the medallions. The blade was pale, sharp. Over the chanting he pronounced, "Begun by blood. By blood undone."

Barbossa you're the son of the biggest fool ever to–wait! Bug–Jack whirled in time to recognize Will before Will's oar clobbered him. He dropped like a stone.

"Sorry, Jack." Will tossed the oar on top of the pirate. "I'm not gonna be your leverage."

Barbossa could feel the maid trembling as he grasped her medallion and yanked it off her. He cradled one of her slender hands, and then used the dagger to make a cut in the soft skin below her thumb. She went rigid as blood welled in a two-inch long line, then stared at him as he placed the medallion in her palm.

"That's it?" she whimpered.

"Waste not," he told her, and smiled at the horror that filled her dark eyes. He closed her fist about the medallion.

Elizabeth gasped at the pain. Now what? Her nightmare would come true, except Barbossa would not bite in his rage, he'd, he'd…she couldn't breathe right. She'd have an entire disappointed crew of male monsters itching to take their rage out on her. She was beyond saving, beyond trying to be brave, beyond even thinking. She was the epitome of doomed.

Barbossa turned both their hands downward, and then forced her fingers open. The medallion fell.

The medallion's impact was thunderous in the sudden quiet. Barbossa released Elizabeth and stepped away, eyes closed expectantly. The stillness held, then stretched awkwardly as the pirate crew all watched themselves for signs of change.

Barbossa's eyes opened.

"Did it work?" Khoeler looked about.

Ragetti turned to Pintel. "I don't feel no different."

"How do we tell?" Pintel demanded.

Barbossa rolled his eyes. From his sash he pulled a long-muzzled pistol free, firing it in the same motion. Pintel rocked as the bullet pierced his heart. Horrified, he stared down at the charred hole in his coat.

Khoeler broke the stunned silence. "You're not dead!"

"No." Pintel grinned joyfully, then looked up at Barbossa. He frowned, pointed. "He shot me!"

"It didn't work," Ragetti quavered.

Barbossa tucked his pistol away. "The curse is still upon us!" Twigg cried.

Barbossa examined the crimson staining the edge of the knife then wheeled on Elizabeth, who was numbly inspecting her wound, and seized her arm. "You, maid! Your father, what was his name?" He dropped the knife, clutched her shoulders, and shook her hard. "Was your father William Turner?"

Her eyes gleamed and her mouth, garish in her white face, curled upward at the corners. "No."

"Where's his child?" He shoved her. "The child that sailed from England eight years ago-" he brandished the medallion in her face "-the child in whose veins flows the blood of William Turner? Where?"

His face was contorted, his voice had risen to a hysterical volume, and his gaze was cold enough to kill. But Elizabeth Swann drew herself up and, consuming the very last dregs of the spunk that had driven a father to headaches, she stared Captain Barbossa straight in the eye and didn't say a word.

Baring his rotted teeth, he viciously backhanded her with the fist that held the bloodstained medallion. The pain was all it took to shatter her strained consciousness and everything went black…until she began to tumble. The rough fall to the bottom of the hill brought her back and by the time she had landed inches from the water, she was awake enough to hear what could have been the medallion clink behind her. Beyond that, she could do nothing except keep her eyes shut to hold back tears of pain.

Five yards away, deep in the shadows, Will Turner breathed shallowly with rage and shock. Bent in half, he slipped out and into the moat, clenching his teeth against the cold water.

Thank you for reading! :)

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