Wow, I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to update - junior year (ew) has been absolutely exhausting. At any rate, thank you for your patience, and thank you to all of my wonderful reviewers! Please keep the feedback coming - I love hearing from you!

So, here at last we introduce Elizabeth Swann. (Whom I really don't mind - other than the fact she gets to kiss three very hot guys, which is SO not fair - so my opinion of Elizabeth is not the same as Anamaria's, just thought I'd clear that up right here and now.) As always, I don't own "Pirates." Waah.

9. Jealousy

I hated Elizabeth Swann from the moment I set eyes on her.

Five days at sea, through storms and ship graveyards, and the girl who had just clambered onto the deck in front of me, sopping wet, did not look anywhere near worth the amount of trouble we had gone through to rescue her.

'Not more pirates!' she whined piteously, her pretty face screwed into an expression of the greatest distress.

'Welcome aboard, Miss Elizabeth,' said Mr Gibbs, taking a step forward.

'Mr Gibbs?' said Elizabeth, confused – I glanced from one to the other, wondering where on earth they had met.

'Hey, boy, where be Jack?' said Mr Gibbs gruffly to an equally-wet Will Turner, who had just climbed onto the deck. I could tell that Mr Gibbs was trying not to look too pleased at the fact that Elizabeth had recognised him so quickly.

'Jack?' said Elizabeth quickly. 'Jack Sparrow?' I narrowed my eyes at her tone of voice – she made it sound as though she and Jack were old acquaintances and it had just been announced that he had arrived for tea.

Will put a protective arm around Elizabeth's shoulders. 'He fell behind,' he said, an unreadable expression on his face as he steered Elizabeth down below the deck.

The entire crew turned and stared at Mr Gibbs, who was standing as still as though he had just been slapped. After a moment of obvious internal struggle, he said, 'Keep to the Code,' although the miserable look in his eyes betrayed the pain he was feeling at the loss of his friend.

For a moment I was inclined to shout, 'Are you crazy?!' and insist that we go rescue Jack. But then I thought again about the pitiful Miss Swann. Jack had known that there was a good chance he would get killed during the course of this adventure, and if he thought that either a ship or this detestable girl were worth death, then that was his problem, not mine. Gritting my teeth, I instead shouted, 'Weigh anchor!' and began ordering my crew about the ship, ignoring Mr Gibbs's regretful sighs.

'You know Jack, then?' I asked Elizabeth. She jumped in her seat when she heard my voice directly behind her.

'Yes,' she said, 'yes, we've met.'

'Care to explain when and where?' I sat down across the table from her and fixed her with a determined stare. She shot me a look of contemptuous superiority and flicked her hair over her shoulder.

'He saved my life. I fainted into the ocean, and he dove in to rescue me.' I resisted rolling my eyes – she made it sound as though being rescued by Jack was a unique privilege that only she was privy to. 'And then he was caught, so he threatened to kill me, and then escaped. And that was the last I saw him, although I know that they caught him anyway. Heaven knows why Will decided to spring him free.' She stopped and winced horribly in pain at the scratch on her hand. I could not stop myself from rolling my eyes this time – not only was the girl clueless, but she also had no sense of perspective whatsoever when it came to pain (I briefly imagined what her expression would be like if she was ever whipped).

'Well, I'm glad to see you appreciate the fact he just died for you,' I said sarcastically. Elizabeth looked up questioningly. With a snort, I turned on my heel and returned to the deck, nearly crashing into Will as I left the cabin.

'You might want to go bandage up that scratch on her hand – it seems to be giving her quite a bit of grief,' I snapped, gesturing below deck. Will gave me a startled look that could have stemmed either from concern for Elizabeth or else from confusion as to why I was so snappish, and hurried down the stairs.

'Captain,' said Mr Gibbs hesitantly. I whipped around and glared at him.

'Yes?!'

Mr Gibbs pointed wordlessly behind me. I ran to the edge of the railing and peered around the back of the ship to where he was pointing. I swore when I saw the Black Pearl hot in pursuit behind us.

'I knew it would be bad luck to have more than one woman aboard,' muttered Mr Gibbs, wringing his hands.

'Well I'm so sorry to be half of your bad luck,' I snarled. 'I'll tell you this much, Mr Gibbs – if you only want one woman onboard, it'll be Miss Swann to go, not me.' The fierce look on my face made it only too clear that I was dead serious on that point. Mr Gibbs immediately retreated, lamenting the lack of rum on the ship in an undertone as he did.

'Heave to and set sail, mates!' I shouted over the crash of the waves. 'It looks as though we've got some company coming with us.'

In a flash, my entire crew was on their feet and following orders. Sails were hoisted, a new course was set, and all was confusion and footsteps on the deck as people rushed to and fro. I had been in several battles at sea before, and I always felt the same exhilarated rush when danger arrived, as if it was the first time all over again and I was about to test myself against Death, not knowing whether I would win or not. Baring my teeth, I gripped the wheel at the helm, feeling the need to fight well up in me.

'What's happening?' asked Elizabeth, popping her head up above the deck.

'The Black Pearl,' I explained. 'She's gaining on us.'

Elizabeth peered at our pursuers, taking in the ship's billowing sails and the black mist that floated eerily about it. 'This is the fastest ship in the Caribbean!' she insisted.

'You can tell them that after they've caught us,' I replied shortly. Honestly, how stupid could this girl be? Obviously a cursed ship with an undead crew was bound to be faster than even the best ship in the Navy.

Elizabeth bit her lip slightly. 'We're shallow on the draft, right?' she asked.

'Aye,' I answered in surprise, not having expected her to know anything about ships.

'Well, then can't we lose them amongst those shoals?'

I was too stunned to say anything. It was a good plan, I had to give her that much. Perhaps the girl wasn't as stupid as I'd thought.

'We don't have to outrun them long,' said Mr Gibbs, looking very proud of Elizabeth. 'Just long enough!'

Well, I certainly didn't have a better plan, loath as I was to execute one devised by Elizabeth Swann. 'Lighten the ship, stem to stern!' I called to my crew, watching again in pleasure as my orders were swiftly carried out. I rather liked being the captain, I decided.

All seemed to be going well, until Will put his foot down on top of a cannon to keep it from being thrown over board. 'We're going to need that,' he muttered darkly.

I looked over my shoulder behind me. Sure enough, the Black Pearl had run out its sweeps and was now using the power of both the winds and its own crew to gain on us.

'It was a good plan,' I said to Elizabeth, 'up till now.' I figured that if I was going to die, I might as well acknowledge the girl's one moment of brilliance. I suddenly wished that Jack was there to alleviate the tense mood with some witty comment, anything to distract me from the fear that had unexpectedly washed over me. And I wondered how he had felt just before Barbossa had killed him. The thought that I was responsible made me feel sick.

'Gibbs!' Will was shouting. 'We have to make a stand! We must fight! Load the guns!'

It was almost sad, watching the poor boy trying to act all heroic when all was more or less hopeless. 'With what?' I asked sharply, not even needing to remind Will that we had just dumped all of our ammunition overboard.

'Anything. Everything! Anything we have left!' cried Will passionately.

I shrugged. Might as well go down fighting, like a true pirate. I gave Mr Gibbs a half-hearted nod and tried not to show any fear as he raced up the length of the ship, barking orders to the crew and watching as they stuffed everything available into the cannons.

'The Pearl is going to luff up on our port quarter. She'll rake us without ever presenting a target,' he panted as he rushed back to my side.

I bit my lip. We were lost. My crew was about to smashed to bits by the cannons of the bloody Black Pearl, and there was absolutely nothing I could do. I briefly toyed with the idea of telling everyone to abandon ship, but what good would that do? We would still be captured and killed. I cursed myself, feeling utterly stupid that we had not at least tried to rescue Jack, seeing as the results of such an expedition would have turned out no differently from the fate that was about to befall us.

'Lower the anchor on the right side.'

I stared. Elizabeth was looking very pointedly at me. I raised an eyebrow.

'On the starboard side!' she repeated. How insulting – you'd have thought she thought that I didn't know which side was the right. I shot a quick glance at Gibbs, whose eyebrows were furrowed as he worked slowly through this new plan.

'It certainly has the element of surprise,' Will pointed out.

'You're daft, lady!' I said. 'You both are!' Facing death was one thing – suicide was another. And I would not be any more responsible for the deaths of my crew than I had to be.

'Daft like Jack!' Mr Gibbs's face was suddenly alight with a reckless fervour. I suppressed a groan – what sort of madness was about to occur? Before I could stop him, he was shouting more orders at the crew, all of whom were obeying him, much to my annoyance. With a loud splash, the anchor was dropped overboard. A second later, I winced as a loud cracking sounds made it quite clear that we had just run into the shoals.

'Let go!' Elizabeth shouted to me. I quickly let go of the ship's wheel, which I had been gripping as hard as I could in an attempt to alleviate my anxiety.

As the Interceptor slowly rotated to face the Pearl, I could see the jeering faces of the many pirates on the decks, screaming and laughing at us. A fierce hatred suddenly filled me – these were the men who had killed Jack, who had dared to murder the pirate who would not be caught, the man who had bravely laughed in the face of death so many years before as he lay captive on the floor of a heartless man's study…

'Fire!'

And with that scream, the air between the ships was suddenly filled with the smell of gunpowder and the boom of cannons. I seized a rifle from a nearby crewmember and, loading it quickly, fired at random into the billowing cloud of smoke, praying that, with each shudder the recoil of the rifle sent through my arms, I would somehow become absolved from the cruel fate to which I had abandoned Jack.

It was impossible to discern what was happening, for everything seemed to be occurring at once. Screams filled the air, mingled with bloodthirsty shouts and the splash of water. I dashed across from the helm down to the main deck, keeping as low as I could. The first people I saw were Gibbs, Will, and Elizabeth, all three firing haphazardly over the edge of the boat.

'We could use a few more ideas, lass,' yelled Gibbs over the blasts.

'Your turn,' Elizabeth screamed over the din as she aimed a shot at the Pearl.

Gibbs shook his head as I stole up behind them.

'We need us a devil's dowry,' he muttered desperately.

'We'll give them her,' I snarled, grabbing Elizabeth roughly from behind and aiming my pistol at her head. I was in no mood for sympathy and understanding. She was what had gotten us stuck in this mess, and if Jack hadn't so stupidly decided to go after her… I gritted my teeth. I would not feel anything for Jack at this moment, not when he had thrown away all our lives for this pathetic creature. Not when he had sacrificed his own life for a girl who was not worth half the price. I would not let myself.

Will looked alarmed at the fierce, unyielding look on my face; he seemed to realise that I was completely serious. 'She's not what they're after,' he said slowly.

To my revulsion, his eyes wandered from Elizabeth's face down to her chest. Really, was that all some men thought about, even when on the verge of being captured and killed by a band of notoriously merciless pirates?

Elizabeth followed his eyes, and her eyes grew wide. 'The medallion!' she gasped, staring wildly at Will, who returned her look of shock and leapt up.

I let go of Elizabeth and was about to stand and ask where he was going… when I heard a sickening crack. Looking up with a sinking feeling in my stomach, I saw the mast of the Interceptor fall, as if in slow motion.

Damn.

I knew what was coming. Grabbing my rifle, I aimed carefully as the first pirates began to swing across the distance between the ships on ropes. I shot and reloaded until I was out of bullets. And then I drew my sword. I felt rage building up inside me. I hated the accursed pirates leering at me from across the deck. I hated Elizabeth Swann for having been captured by the crew of the Black Pearl. I hated Jack for having been so stupid as to go rescue her. And, most of all, I hated myself for having abandoned him, for having been so selfish and unforgiving. With a cry of rage, threw myself into the mêlée.

Well of course you all know what happens, but please keep reading nonetheless! Once I get past the events of "Curse of the Black Pearl" (which I'm trying to keep as accurate as possible), we'll return to the romance in the story, I promise!