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Neutral Soil

After strenuous planning, Laura, Will, Barbossa, Tia Dalma, Elizabeth, and the remainder of Jack's crew finally traveled to Singapore. It had been decided that Will would fetch the charts which would direct them on their voyage from one of the great temples of the country. Laura, Barbossa, and Elizabeth, on their part, would go to the pirate lord, Sao Feng, and request a ship and crew, with the rest of their own crew prepared to attack if something went wrong.

At the time agreed, Laura climbed into a boat with Elizabeth at the inn they were staying at (the others had spent the night in several different locations so as to not attract too much attention).

About halfway to Sao Feng's bath-house, their meeting place, Laura quietly sang while she paddled,

"The queen and his men stole the queen from her bed and bound her in the bones. The seas be ours and by the powers, where we will we'll row. Yo ho, all hands. Hoist the colors high! Heave ho, thieves and beggars, never shall we die…"

When Laura finished the second section, Elizabeth continued onto the next verse,

"The bell has been raised from its watery grave; hear its sepulchral tone? A call to all, pay heed the squall, and turn your sails to home! Yo ho, all together, hoist the colors high. Heave ho, thieves…"

As they climbed onto the dock, a local stopped in front of them and interrupted,

"…thief and beggar, never say we die. A dangerous song to be singing, for anyone ignorant of its meaning. Particularly two women…particularly two women alone."

"What makes you think they're alone?" Barbossa asked, coming down a set of nearby stairs.

"You protect them?" the man questioned in turn before Elizabeth held a knife to his throat as Laura casually stood aside.

"And what makes you think I need protecting?" the woman hissed.

"We…she means we," the young Turner corrected.

"Your master's expectin' us," Barbossa continued while Elizabeth removed the dagger. "An unexpected death would cast a slight pall on our meetin'."

As they were led towards the bath-house entrance, Elizabeth spoke to Barbossa.

"Have you heard anything from Will?"

"I trust young Turner to acquire the charts, and you to remember your place in the presence of Captain Sao Feng," the gruff captain stated.

"Is he really that terrifying?" the other woman doubtfully queried.

-Since this all started, she has seemed more of a pirate than a governor's daughter-

Laura nervously laughed at Elizabeth's misgivings as Barbossa answered,

"He's much like myself, but absent my merciful nature and sense of fair play."

-Merciful? Fair? You're joking-

The native man led them down an alley to a guarded door and brought them in.

At the inner entrance, the three pirates were required to hand over their weapons.

Removing the long robe she had been wearing, it was revealed that Laura had stubbornly kept her usual garb on, while Elizabeth had changed completely into the traditional clothes of Singapore.

Barbossa openly rolled his eyes at the young Turner's obstinacy as the girl placed her sword, two daggers, pointed hair pin, causing her hair to flow over her shoulders, and two "borrowed" pistols on the table while her companions did the same.

When Elizabeth tried to go further into the building, the man stopped her.

"You think because she is a woman we would not suspect her of treachery?" he asked.

"Well, when you put it that way," Barbossa sarcastically reacted.

"Remove, please," the man continued.

Glaring at him, the other woman slipped out of her hat and robe, revealing an armory-worth of weapons over her Singaporean garb.

It was Laura's turn to roll her eyes as Elizabeth set a gun harness, several grenades, guns, and a miniature cannon on the counter.

When she tried walking through a second time, the man stopped again.

"Remove, please," he asked again with a sly grin.

They were finally able to go after Elizabeth had removed her pants, leaving only the almost knee-long blouse.

Walking through the hot and steamy bath-house, Laura saw that several of the men sitting in the tubs had plant-life growing on them, giving evidence that they had been there for a considerable time.

At last reaching the far end of the building, a bald man could be seen standing in the steam with his back turned to them.

Barbossa encouraged his companions to bow. Laura only slightly bent a knee as Sao Feng turned to face them.

-I can't believe I'm allying myself with one of my sworn enemies-

"Captain Barbossa," he began, not even glancing in Laura's direction. "Welcome to Singapore."

Turning to a servant, he ordered,

"More steam," before turning back to his guests.

"I understand you have a request to make of me."

"More of a proposal to put to ye," Barbossa corrected. "I have a venture underway and happen to find myself in need of a ship and a crew."

"This is an odd coincidence," the other man thoughtfully said.

"Because you happen to have a ship and a crew you don't need?" Elizabeth boldly suggested.

"No," Sao Feng contradicted, grabbing a roll of charts from one of his attendants. "Because, earlier this day, not far from here, a thief broke into my most revered uncle's temple and tried to make off with these: the navigational charts. The route to the farthest gate. Wouldn't it be amazing if this venture of yours took you to the world beyond this one?"

"It would strain credulity at that," Barbossa responded.

With a simple movement as an order from Sao Feng, two men standing on either side of the nearest tub, which appeared empty, lifted up on a submerged horizontal pole. It turned out that Will was attached to the pole as he stood up gasping for air.

-I wonder how he held his breath for that long. Not quite according to his plan-

Taking out a pointed stake, Sao Feng continued,

"This is the thief. Is his face familiar to you?"

All three of them shook their heads.

Elizabeth gasped and Laura held her breath as the pirate lord moved to stab Will with the stake.

It wasn't until Sao Feng abruptly discontinued his action that Laura realized that he had simply been testing their honesty.

She grasped her trench coat as the pirate looked back at them, resisting the urge to hide her face from him. The girl was not looking forward to the moment when the notorious man recognized her.

"So," he said, "you come into my city, and betray my hospitality."

"Sao Feng, I assure you, I had no idea…" Barbossa began, only to be cut off as Sao Feng retorted,

"That he would get caught?! You intend to attempt a voyage to Davy Jones' locker. When I cannot help but wonder, why?"

Tossing a piece of eight to the pirate lord, Barbossa replied,

"The song has been sung. The time is upon us. We must convene the Brethren Court. As one of the nine pirate lords you must honor the call."

"More steam," Sao Feng offhandedly ordered.

When the attendant pulled the lever and no steam quickly rose, he insisted,

"More steam!"

The woman pulled the lever again, actually getting what was requested that time.

"There's a price on all our heads, it is true," he went on. "Since it seems that the only way a pirate can turn a profit anymore is by betraying other pirates."

"The first Brethren Court gave us rule of the seas," Barbossa responded. "That rule has been challenged by Lord Cutler Beckett."

"Against the East India Trading Company, what value is the Brethren Court? What can any of us do?"

"You can fight!" Elizabeth broke in as a man behind her tried to keep her from approaching Sao Feng. "Get off me! You are Sao Feng, the pirate lord of Singapore. Would you have that era come to an end on your watch? The most notorious pirates from around the world are uniting against our enemy, and yet you sit here, cowering in your bath water!"

"Elizabeth Swann," the pirate addressed her, circling like a vulture, "there's more to you than meets the eye, isn't there? And the eye does not go wanting. But I cannot help but notice. You have failed to answer my question. What is it you seek in Davy Jones' locker?"

"Jack Sparrow," Will put in. "He's one of the pirate lords."

"The only reason I would want Jack Sparrow returned from the land of the dead," Sao Feng growled, "…is so I can send him back myself! And you along with him!" he loudly added pointing at Laura. "Laura Lark, did you think you wouldn't be remembered here as the thief who stole Jack Sparrow from my deepest dungeons along with yourself the night before your execution all those years ago?"

The piratess quickly looked around for an escape, but as two men grabbed her arms to guard against that, she settled on talking her way out of the situation.

"To correct you on one point, Sao Feng," she said, "you would have regretted executing Jack anyway since he is, after all, one of the pirate lords. Secondly, the only reason I also ended up in your filthy dungeons was because I happened be in the same place as one of your men when he stole that piece of rock you call a precious metal. To sum up that day into one sentence, you blamed me rather than your treacherous lapdog, sent me to the dungeon, and I broke out with Jack…you made the mistake of building those with half pin-barrel hinges."

-I'll leave out reminding him that I was here originally following rumors of the famed captain's location-

"I will have your head, yet," the captain angrily hissed.

"Why?" Laura retorted. "Because I robbed you of your chance to kill Captain Jack Sparrow, the hardest-to-catch pirate in the seven seas?"

"Another one of your old friends that you haven't told me about, Laura?" Will put in.

"Going back to our original subject," Barbossa interrupted, glaring at Laura, "…Jack Sparrow holds one of the nine pieces of eight. He failed to pass it along to a successor before he died. So we must go and get him back."

"So, you admit, you have deceived me. Weapons!"

On that cue, the entourage was surrounded by Singaporeans with swords drawn.

"Sao Feng, I assure you, our intentions are strictly honorable," Barbossa haggled just before six swords flew up through the floorboards from the crew underneath, a pair for each of the three.

Holding his sword to a native's neck, Sao Feng ordered,

"Drop your weapons or I kill the man!"

"Kill him, he's not our man," Barbossa offered.

"If he's not with you, and he's not with us…who's he with?" Will asked just as a mass of British soldiers burst into the room, causing the pirates to band together against their common enemy.

Laura quickly ran over to Will, cut his bonds, and handed him one of her swords as Elizabeth also tossed one of her own.

-Hilarious…he went from being tied up and helpless to formidable and with two swords-

While this was occurring, there was an explosion, causing part of the floor to collapse, giving room for Jack's crew to climb up to ground level and fight the British.

As chaos was erupting around her, Laura grabbed her pistol from Cotton as he handed it to her and ran as fast as she could to where she and Will had agreed to meet.

Approaching the meeting site, she witnessed her brother beginning to exit the hut with the charts in his hand.

"I assume you made the deal as planned?" she asked the older Turner when she caught up to him. When he nodded to confirm that the deal had been made, Laura continued,

"I hope we're doing the right thing."

The siblings gained a crew for their acquired ship as they ran past, finally reaching the dock and meeting the rest of their party.

"You got the charts?" Barbossa asked.

"And better yet," Will replied, tossing the charts to the pirate, "a ship and a crew."

"Where's Sao Feng?" Elizabeth queried.

"He'll cover our escape and meet us at Shipwreck Cove."

At last reaching the small ship and heading out of the dock, Laura ended up standing next to Tia Dalma when Elizabeth walked behind the strange woman.

"There's no place left for Sao Feng to cower."

"I cannot say," Tia responded. "There is an evil on these seas that even the most staunch and bloodthirsty pirates have come to fear."

After Elizabeth had left, leaving Laura alone with Tia, the girl addressed her companion.

"That story you told at your hut about Davy Jones and the woman he fell in love with…it's about you, isn't it."

When Tia looked slightly shocked, the younger Turner continued, motioning to the large heart pendant the other woman was wearing around her neck,

"That pendant. The first time I was on the Flying Dutchman, Davy had an exact duplicate of that one on his organ. It took me some time to figure out, but that was more likely than both of you simply stumbling onto these."

Tia Dalma opened her mouth as if to say something, but closed it again.

"There are some secrets that should not be revealed until a time of their owners choosing," Laura quoted, receiving a grateful smile from the other woman in return.

For some time after that, they simply stared into the distance in silence as Singapore disappeared in the eerie fog.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please, please, please R&R.