- A Pirates of the Caribbean FanFiction -

It Led to Wickedness

Chapter 4: "Learning From the Best"

A/N: I apologize profusely for the apparent lateness of this chapter. I have been absolutely and completely swamped with school stuff these past few weeks – finals, you know how it is. And then summer happened, and I was like whatever bleh... Anyway, the Jack/Angelica alone time is as promised; however, it is not what I initially intended it to be, so it might not be all that fantastic as I priorly thought. In all sincereness, I hope you have the most MAGICAL AND WONDEROUS TIME OF YOUR LIFE READING THIS! Or not, you know, whatever works for you, I can be flexible, no biggy.

Angelica awoke with a start when she heard loud thumps and yelling through the wooden walls of the small cabin. Her headache pulsed through every neuron in her brain, pounding against her skull like the club of a troll trying to break through solid rock. Only worse. She groaned and slowly sat up, desperately trying to avoid the dizziness, nausea, and confusion that she knew was about to come. That was her least favorite feeling – a scrambled mind; knowing exactly what's going on around you, yet not having a clue at the same time, if that makes any sense at all.

She figured it didn't, but she was too exhausted to care. It tired her out to even think.

Funny... she didn't even know why she was so beat. She didn't do that much yesterday. Angelica slowly went through the events of the day. Convent... pirate... compass... pirate – again... ship... more pirates... pirate, pirate, pirate, pirate, gross smells, pirate.

Angelica widened her eyes and violently stood up. Her headache oddly receded. That sometimes happened when she needed it to.

"Oh, no. No, no, no, no."

She rushed out of the cabin to see the crew busily bustling around – the ship was out on the open water. Not a single sliver of land in sight. Fast ship, she thought.

Angelica just blinked at the sight in front of her. Captain Jack Sparrow was at the wheel, shouting orders at the crew, with a hungry glint in his eyes.

"What did I do?" she quietly muttered to herself. She left everything she had ever known, giving up her chances of ever getting what she wanted to know. She was only now starting to realize the consequences of her terribly timed actions. I was so close! So close to my vows! I was so ready!

This was really, really, really, really bad. She could only picture what Sister Maria was doing at this moment, realizing that Angelica had just flat out left. What was going on in her mind when she did this? She had been tired of the convent, she supposed, but to run off with pirates? What kind of a solution was that? She'd never done anything so blatantly stupid in her life! And she didn't really want to leave the convent... it was just a spur-of-the-moment decision.

Wasn't it?

Whatever she was thinking, she didn't know, but she did know one thing: She had to get back. She had to. It was the only way! The convent was her life, whether she was completely okay with that or not. She ran over to Jack who was at the helm of the black ship.

He didn't so much as even glance in her direction when she started her request.

"Where exactly are we going?" Angelica asked. She had to be very careful with her words. These were pirates after all.

"Exactly? That's a difficult question to answer," he started, still focused on guiding the ship. "You'd have to define the definition of 'exactly' because the exact location changes on the when, not the where. Exactly when we end up in the where changes the where itself because the sequence of whens and wheres change the next whens and wheres."

She stared at the captain with an utterly blank expression. Then, after about six seconds, her eyes lit up. "The when is immediately after this trip. Where will we be?"

Jack smiled a little with the corner of his mouth. "Isla Escondida."

"Escondida? Escondida means hidden. How do you expect to find an island that has 'hidden' right in the name?"

"Pretty easily, love."

"I think we should go back."

"Go back?" He turned his head to look right at her at that. "Going back is not an option. We're already halfway there and I don't think you have any authority to turn us around."

"Halfway? How far is this island from Spain?"

"It's a former Spanish colony northwest of the Caribbean."

"Ha! You cannot be serious, Jack. A ship cannot travel from Europe to the Caribbean in one night."

"You're right. It can only travel halfway." With this, he turned back to look straight ahead.

Angelica's smile faded. She was suddenly not so concerned about the convent. "Halfway. This ship is... where did you find this ship?"

Just then, before Jack could answer, Gibbs ran up to the helm. "There's another ship, Cap'n. In front of us. It seems to be from the English Royal Navy."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Bugger. How much time do we have?"

"I would say no more than an hour, sir."

"Right. Mr. Cotton! Take the helm." The man with the parrot on his shoulder ran over from the deck and took the wheel. "Master Gibbs, get the crew ready for battle." Jack turned to Angelica. "You, come with me." He grabbed her arm and led her to the hull of the ship where the gun powder and rum were stored. He let go of her arm and grabbed clothes from a crate in the corner. "Change into these," he said as he shoved the garments into her hands.

"Why?"

He smiled and said, "Can't fight in a dress, can you?"

"Jack, I can't fight at all."

"Well, that's why you're down here, love. Change into those, and I'll be right back," he said as he ran back up to the deck.

Unsure of where he was going with this, Angelica changed out of her dress and into the shirt, breeches, and boots.

She was infinitely more comfortable without her corset.

Jack came back down with a sword in his hand. He gave it to Angelica who stood there, holding it just as a soon-to-be nun would—awkwardly.

"What are we doing, Jack?"

He gently moved Angelica's arm up so that it was in a fighting stance. "You've got to learn how to use a sword in less than one hour," he said as he bent down and moved her feet wider apart, one in front of the other.

"Jack, I hardly think I'm going to need—"

He clasped her mouth shut with his hand from behind her, with his head reaching over her shoulder so their cheeks were no more than an inch apart. "Shut it."

She felt his hand move away from her mouth and when she didn't say anything, he slid from behind her so they were facing each other, pulled out his own sword from its sheath, and touched it to her sword.

"Alright," he began. "The first lesson: Keep in step with your opponent. If I move this way—" he stepped to the right "—you're going to circle that way as well, so you'll always be facing me straight on." He kept moving around in a circle and she did the same. "Don't put your sword down; the sword stays up—there you go. Keep it up, because if I do this—" he struck downward with his sword, and she quickly parried the blow. "Good. Good reflexes. Just keep blocking the sword. Parry in the opposite direction I strike, so you're not just stopping the sword. You want to blow the sword back." He struck again, this time from the side. Angelica easily blocked it. "Easy, right? Keep stepping with me. If I move forward, you move back. Alright, now try to hit me." She did as she was told, and he blocked the move. "Step into the swing. Force me backwards—" unexpectedly this time, she did it again with much more strength, causing Jack to jump back and barely stop the blow in time, with Angelica's sword merely inches from his throat. He swallowed and said, "Like that..."

Angelica smiled pulled her sword back. "This is fun."

"Bloody magnificent," he mumbled sarcastically. "Alright," he said louder, "let's par a little."

And so they went back and forth, neither of course trying to kill the other, but just hard enough to work up a sweat. As they were practicing, Angelica took it upon herself to find out a little bit about their "quest" as it were.

"Why are you—" clang! "—going to Isla Escondida?"

"There's—" clash! "—apparently some mystical jewels somewhere around the area."

"That's all you know? You heard from someone—" clang! "—that there could be, possibly some magic gems?"

"Yep."

"And you just decided—" clash! "—to sail across the entire Atlantic Ocean to get them?"

"Well, love—" clang! "—they're quite important jewels."

"'Important jewels?' What does that even—" clash! "—mean?"

"It leads—" clang! "—to something else that is of—" clash! "—much more value. What do you know—" clang! "—of Davy Jones?"

"Davy Jones? I heard—" clash! "—he takes the lives of innocent men."

"Saves their lives, love—" clang! "—and then takes their souls."

"That's worse!"

"It's rumored—" clash! "—that the key to his hidden chest—" clang! "—is on this island."

"And the jewels?"

"Are how we—" clash! "—get to the key."

"I still don't—" clang! "—understand this."

"Neither does my—" clash! "—crew." Jack said this as if he's tried to explain it to the crew more than just a few times before.

"So you're getting—" clang! "—treasure just to get—" clash! "—more treasure?"

"That's right."

Angelica rolled her eyes. "Pirates," she said under her breath. "Can I—" clang! "—try something?"

"What?"

Angelica stepped on his foot with a force that was very unexpected to the captain. "Ow!" She smashed against his sword and he was barely able to block it, but she kept swinging and pushing him back until he was up against the wall. Then she kicked his sword up and put hers against it to stop him from swinging.

"I win," she said, out of breath.

"Did you just make that up?"

"I was making it up the entire time."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"If you did some flips and spins somewhere in there it would be even better."

She smiled and put her sword down. "I'll try that next time."

He replied only with his famous half-smile.

"So what treasure is in Davy Jones' chest that's so special that you're going all this way just to get the key?"

"It's said that Davy Jones is a heartless man."

"Heartless... you mean evil? I kind of got that already."

"But maybe you didn't take it literally enough."

At first she was confused, but then her eyes widened. "His... heart? In the chest? How could that be?"

"Don't ask me, love; all I want to do is find it."

"And when you do?"

"Then we'll see."

"That's hardly a plan."

"I think it's a great plan! Simple, easy to remember. Find the key, find the heart... the rest is open for speculation."

"I can't believe I came with you."

"I can," he said matter-of-factly.

"What do you mean?"

"You were bored sick of that convent, love."

"You don't know that!"

"Do too."

"You can't just make claims about my life, Jack. You've only known me for a day."

"And I already know you well enough to know that you would never be a nun."

"I don't want to talk about this right now."

"Suit yourself, darling."

"And stop calling me those names!"

Just then, Gibbs climbed down the stairs to the hull. "Cap'n! The English ship is sailing towards us!"

Gibbs' voice snapped Jack back into reality. "How far?"

"It won't be long now, Cap'n. She's a fast one. She'll be smashin' wood without hesitation, mark my words."

Jack turned back to Angelica. "Alright love," he said teasingly, "do what you just did and you'll be fine."

Then he ran up to the deck with Gibbs. Angelica had quite an idea of what this would be like in her head, but she did not want to see it become a reality.

A/N: Well, there you have it folks! The long overdue (LONG overdue) fourth chapter! I know it was mostly dialogue, but you know, what can ya do... Anyway, I hope I'm keeping the characters, like, in character because I have seen many-a-times when an author fails to do that and it angers me to my very core. I just despise it with a passion... Which is whyyy it helps a lot when you review and critique so that I can make my story better! So... do that! I honestly want to know if you were angered to your very core! And I hope you liked the fancy move that Angelica did; it was a reference to the Jack & Angelica fight scene in the beginning of the fourth movie. If you watch closely, Angelica does actually do a flippy-spinny thing so yay! XD