A/N: Thank you a million times to Manwathiel, Belphegor, master of time, and meowbooks for your sweet reviews. You're wonderful!
Thanks to jedipati for betaing this!
Disclaimer: POTC belongs to Disney
Mallot clutched his huge mallet in slender bone fingers. He didn't like this at all.
Grapple didn't either; the hulking skeleton-man was also holding his grapple like his life depended on it.
Down the silent, dark deck of the Black Pearl the two paced, close together. They had searched every rowboat, every corner of the decks and found nothing, and yet, something had been there; they had both seen it. And they could not find it.
Mallot slowed and turned to look back the way they had come, there was nothing. Grapple stepped around him and crept to the rail. Mallot approved and joined him there and the two leaned over and stared at the liquid night below.
From behind them, there came a surreptitious creaking, which quickly escalated to an all-out wooden groan. Grapple and Mallot looked over their shoulders just in time to get an excellent view of the rowboat hull that proceeded to slam them over the rail in dismembered pieces.
As the shattered monsters splashed into the water alongside their weapons, a great cheer rose from the deck. The Interceptor's crew, led by Gibbs and Elizabeth, emerged from behind tattered midnight sails. Exultant, they all stopped in the middle of the deck; Elizabeth broke away, continuing forward. "All of you, with me!"
Grand in her borrowed British soldier's uniform, honey-streaked hair gleaming and dancing in the moonlight, she marched to the rowboat that had thumped to the deck after causing Mallot's and Grapple's demise. "Will is in that cave!" she grabbed one of the rowboat's ropes, "and we must save him. Ready, and, heave!"
She heaved. The rowboat rocked unimpressively and settled heavily to the planks.
She turned to the group of pirates, stunned. They had not moved, and all looked at her gravely. "Please, I need your help!" she cried. "Come on!"
They were silent. Then Mr. Cotton's parrot coyly lifted a foot in front of its lemon breast and squawked, "Any port in a storm."
Gibbs looked to Cotton, and then turned to Elizabeth with restrained eagerness. "Cotton's right, we've got the Pearl." His eyes lovingly roved upward to the sails.
"What about Jack?" Elizabeth demanded. "Are you just going to leave him?"
"Jack owes us a ship," Marty said defiantly.
"And there's the Code to consider," Gibbs added.
"The Code." Elizabeth gaped at them. Some silent seconds passed, and then she exploded. "You're pirates! Hang the Code, and hang the rules! They're more like guidelines, anyway."
None of the crew could meet her blazing gaze. Five minutes later she was rowing furiously off alone. Her moonlit face beaded with sweat, she glowered at the Black Pearl as it slipped merrily away. "Bloody pirates!"
Pintel exploded onto the Dauntless' deck, stabbing a shocked soldier as he came. Ragetti followed, holding up his skirts. As soon as the pirate duo was in view, two fighting Marines whirled and shot them both in the chest.
The bullets exploded inside the pirates' ribcages, sending them reeling, but they recovered and threw themselves at their British attackers. Ragetti was slightly behind Pintel, so Pintel ripped into the Marines first, mercilessly of course. Ragetti abruptly stopped, stood oblivious to the vicious combat about him, and peered out into the fog.
"Hey," he said.
Pintel felled the second Marine; the lifeless body slumped on top of the first. "What?"
Ragetti pointed at the Black Pearl.
Their evil ship was slipping off into the fog. "Is it supposed to be doin' that?"
"They're stealin' our ship!" Pintel shouted hoarsely.
Ragetti looked at his friend in confusion then turned a malevolent stare to the Pearl. "Bloody pirates!"
Just below, the noble British rowboats clattered against the hull of the Dauntless. Commodore Norrington motioned his men forward. "Boarders, away!"
He led them, gentlemen howling with ungentlemanly bloodlust. They seized anything they could and climbed with weary arms past the hissing, steaming cannons to swarm up onto the deck.
Believing themselves to be finishing up the British, the pirates turned to find more of the cursed, noisy things bravely spawning about the railing. With frustrated impatience, they turned from their straggling enemies and charged the fresh ones.
"Cam' on!" Pintel howled. "Gaaaghh!" he shrieked joining Ragetti. They knocked a Marine senseless against the rail and both stabbed the bloke in the chest.
Norrington and his men fell back at the sight of the otherworldly horde of villains, but rallied to meet them at the last minute. Norrington was faced with an especially spectacular monster with a nightmare face and straggling, filthy-black dreadlocks. Face steely, he shot the pirate; the man lurched back in a clacking of beads, then righted himself and came right back.
Norrington felt a sickening tingle of horror spread through his arms. Mary, mother of God!
Bosun, devoid of his scarred chocolate skin and mountain-muscles, straightened after giving a soldier a fatal stab. He turned and saw a British officer staring at him. The little man held a heavy cleat suspended from the rigging in his white hands.
Gillette smirked at the hulking pirate and shoved the cleat forward. It swung toward the pirate's head for a shattering impact, but the skeleton man dodged it and it whistled off into the rigging.
For an instant, the pirate gazed at Gillette with bemusement. Then he glared and stalked forward. Gillette gulped and edged back.
Meanwhile, the swinging cleat was coming back. This time it hit something: the back of Ragetti's head. The pirate froze mid-giggle as his wooden eye was knocked out of his head. Disoriented, he wove and then felt his face, poking skinny bone-fingers into his gaping eye socket.
"Me eye!" he wailed. He caught sight of it rolling cheerily along the deck, kicked and bouncing by fighting heroes and villains. With a sob he threw himself after it on all fours.
Murtogg pulled himself up level with the deck; hand clapped on his hat. Mullroy pulled his heavier bulk up beside Murtogg and they both gaped in panicked dismay at the hell that faced them.
Murtogg nobly grabbed Mullroy's hand. Looking at each other with overwhelmed eyes, they shook, then, banishing all but instinct from their minds, they turned to join the battle, screaming like animals.
Smoke-Beard's animal shriek grated on Will's ears.
Will turned toward the devilish noise and was faced with Smoke-Beard's smoky grin. Not again- with weary panic he noted the sparking grenade Smoke-Beard held, and then the grenade landed at his feet. He knew he could not be lucky a second time, but he turned and tried to run anyway –BANG!– he was thrown up into the air by the explosion–
Behind him, Stone Skipper and Savage lurched about, overwhelmed. Only Smoke-Beard was unaffected and he watched Will's flight happily.
Will crashed on his belly to the cruel stone, mere inches from the swishing water. He rolled, pulverized treasure raining down around him. Dazed, unable to hear a thing, he rolled onto his back, one aching arm shielding his face. Blinking frantically, he was just able to see Smoke-Beard's round face appear above him.
The pirate shoved his sword in Will's face. "I'm gonna teach you the meaning of pain!"
"You like pain?"
Will heard that clear, high voice from a distance. Then a terrific, ringing clang broke through the cotton in his ears and he saw Smoke-Beard tumble down without a sound.
And there she was.
"Try wearing a corset," Elizabeth snapped after Smoke-Beard, clutching a long golden staff. Then she looked to Will.
Utterly floored, he gaped at her through streaming eyes. Her hair was loose, her face flushed, and she looked ready to bite something. It was then that Will realized a demure English maid would never do. An Amazon element was certainly a must. Drat, he was ruined forever.
Then he realized that she was extending the knobby end of her gilt staff toward him. He grabbed, she pulled, and he painfully came to his feet, stumbling close to her.
She smiled. He smiled.
Then she looked to Jack and Barbossa, who were wading and clanging in the moat below, frothing the moonlit water. Barbossa turned aside. Jack shoved him the rest of the way around and slashed his back. Barbossa threw back his head and howled, then wheeled to face Jack and on they went, lost in their own violent world.
"Whose side is Jack on?" Elizabeth demanded tightly.
Will blinked, then turned from gazing at her to look at the two antagonists. He sighed, shrugging beatifically. "At the moment . . ."
Elizabeth was already moving on, pulling the staff from Will's hands as she marched vengefully toward the recovering trio of pirates who had been trying to kill him.
Stone Skipper was the first to receive punishment. He had finally pulled the gold urn off his head and was laughing in victory. His chortles bunched into a pained cry as Elizabeth hit him over the head with all the force she could muster.
Will heard the high music of the ringing staff and, more impressed with Elizabeth than ever, he rushed up behind her. He grabbed the free-swinging end of the staff as Savage and a revived Smoke-Beard attacked. Elizabeth followed Will's lead and together, they shoved the staff up horizontally before their faces, neatly deflecting both of the charging pirates' blows.
Smoke-Beard and Savage separated to the sides, forcing Will and Elizabeth to separate as well; Will let Elizabeth take the staff. After a few searing seconds of glaring, the pirates charged, Savage heading for defenseless Will as Smoke-Beard warily approached fiery Elizabeth.
Elizabeth looked to Will; Will looked to her, and she heaved the staff at him; he caught it neatly and whirled to Savage, who hesitated in an instant of surprise. Will lunged forward and cracked the bald pirate over the head then reversed the staff's direction and brought it up in a vicious blow to the bent, stunned pirate's jaw that sent him flying, yelling in pain.
Before Savage's frame slammed to the stone Will was at Elizabeth's side, facing the attacking Smoke-Beard, who refused to be cowed and shouted his crazed courage. Will happily hit him over the head and Elizabeth added a sharp kick to his midsection. All that he could do was grunt and stumble back. Then Elizabeth turned to Will and grabbed the staff. They held it between them, eyes meeting in wild agreement. Bracing together, they ran at the disoriented pirate three, the staff extended like a knight's lance.
The lumpy end of the glorious staff rammed through Savage's frame first; the tall monster threw back his head and gave a horrid scream, his intact teeth glowing like square pearls in the moonlight. The staff then nabbed Smoke-Beard crosswise through the ribs, and then broke through Stone-Skipper's spine. Elizabeth and Will jumped back and watched the skewered trio slide back and forth and into each other, trapped by the staff's elaborately carved ends.
Then Will strode up to Smoke-Beard and wrenched a grenade off his bandolier. He tossed it to Elizabeth who lit it in the nearest torch and rushed it back to him. Then Will shrugged hopefully and shoved it into Smoke-Beard's grimy ribcage. The short pirate began immediately to scrabble at his curved ribs as Elizabeth and Will quickly shoved the trapped three out of the moonlight.
Smoke-Beard's fingers tugged frantically at his clothes and skin, but the grenade was buried in his flesh. He looked at Will, who was retreating with Elizabeth. His nostril ring gleamed. "No fair," he whimpered.
When the grenade went, Will was already around the curve of the moat and was sprinting for the chest-crowned treasure mountain, springing over the steppingstones. Elizabeth, yards behind him, reeled at the explosion, a hand up to shield her face.
Barbossa and Jack were both in shadow and solid; they paused again and, distracted, looked to the smoking place where three pirates had just existed. They saw Elizabeth scrambling after Will, who leaped to the base of the mountain and began to climb.
Jack produced his stolen medallion and slapped his sword on top of the cursed gold. He closed his hand over sword and medallion, and then drew his sword sharply downward, not flinching as the blade brutally sliced his palm. Blood oozed over the Atzec gold, slippery and wet.
Jack struck at Barbossa, forcing the other pirate into a surprised defense that didn't hold. Barbossa stumbled back, leaning over backward and trying to catch his balance.
With exquisite timing, Jack delicately tossed the bloody medallion over Barbossa's nose. Barbossa straightened to see Will grab the medallion from the air. In an instant Barbossa's pistol was free of his sash. Without looking, he aimed to his left. Its muzzle leveled straight at Elizabeth.
She saw this and froze like a doe in her headlong rush for the treasure pile, trying to regain her balance. Barbossa turned toward her. He looked at her frightened face and thought of how pretty it was, a slight smile curving his lips.
A shot cracked the air in two and Elizabeth jumped, stricken eyes fixed on Barbossa, who reeled back as the bullet slammed into his chest.
Barbossa looked at Jack. Jack looked back at Barbossa, smoking pistol steady.
"Ten years y'carry that pistol," Barbossa announced smugly, "an' now you waste yer shot."
"He didn't waste it," Will's hard voice rang out.
Barbossa's smirk fell and he looked over his shoulder, lowering his gun.
Will stood on the mountain's flattened peak, glowing like a spirit. The freshly stained ceremonial dagger was in his right hand, and his other hand hovered over the open Aztec chest.
Will opened his fist, and a double gleam of gold glared, then fell from his slashed palm.
Suffocating silence, like sitting under water, filled the cavern. The entire island seemed to join the breathlessly staring humans and they together watched the twin gold pieces tumble, flashing, grinning, down, down . . . down . . .
Clink-clink –
With that whisper, the silence of the caves lifted, and the deep patience of the stone and water ended, and the Isla de Muerta breathed, and the humans breathed with it, sucking in the cool, clear air.
One of them was breathing his second-to-last breath. Now a different silence descended like a blanket. This silence was loose and satisfied anticipation, a silence that Jack Sparrow and the island shared.
Barbossa felt the attention of the cavern and those in it fall on his shoulders, but didn't comprehend it. He was too busy feeling. Every inch of his skin tingled painfully, every scratch and old injury spoke. Ah, to smell. To taste. To truly hear. What a glorious world he had missed…now it was too late.
He tore his gaze from Jack's dark, steady eyes, and looked down at his rioting body, dropping his sword. Slowly, his arms came up, his hands grasped the opening of his overcoat, and he pulled the two sides apart. There, over his right breast a ruby pool began to grow on his shirt, spurting and flowing warm.
Red, the blood was so bright and red and hot . . .
Barbossa's eyes, covered by a wondering haze, lifted and found Jack's. He huffed softly, feeling his warm life stream over his newly sensitive skin. Remembering, he pulled his apple from his pocket.
He could not lift it to his mouth.
Jack lowered his empty pistol.
"I feel . . ." Barbossa's face was entranced, confused, and his gaze focused inwardly now as his brows tried to come together, " . . . cold."
He fell backward and landed on a treasure pile. And from his limp left hand tumbled the perfect green apple; it rolled mournfully then settled among the treasure like a ball of green jade. None of the living moved.
They gazed at Barbossa who stared, visionless, at the ceiling.
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