A/N: Whoo! Superhumongous chapter but so well worth it! There are two slight homages in this chapter. One (maybe two) to the original ride, look for em. The other is not quite as well known as POTC. In the 1940's Gene Kelly and Judy Garland made a lot of movies together and one of them was a fun little musical called 'The Pirate'. At one point, they break out into a huge fight where Garland just hurls stuff at Kelly. Decided to pay my respects to such a great movie about pirates in the caribbean with Pirates of the Caribbean. Enjoy! And please take the time to review this and many of my other stories. Especially Princess Diaries. Wouldn't want me to stop writing that one now would we?
peace, love and lipgloss,
Mlle.Fox
Will Turner thought they really had sold him out and were holding him prisoner. Why else would they keep him locked in this cell for nearly a day and a half? Waiting around for Arabella and Barbossa to hopefully make a move gave Will a lot of time to think. That kiss...He kept seeing it over and over again in his mind. Elizabeth's arms on Jack's chest pushing him back against the mast, how Jack was beginning to engulf her in his arms, how the pirate leaned his head to the side to fully partake in Elizabeth's sweet and desirable mouth. And every time he thought of it, his heart broke all over again.
He thought he could never forgive Elizabeth for what she done, but the more he thought about it, the more he resolved to win Elizabeth back. He was a pirate now after all, and he had the scars to prove it. Jack Sparrow wouldn't be stealing Elizabeth's heart from him. For a moment he entertained the thought of killing Jack, but he paled at that. Jack had somehow, without warning, become Will's best friend...despite lying to him and tricking him and confusing his fiance over and over again. At the heart of it all, Will stood by his own proclamation of Jack being a good man. Only now he realized that Jack was also human. And if anyone was a living example of being a good person who did wicked things, it was Captain Jack Sparrow.
He was even beginning to realize Elizabeth was human as well. Of course she would be confused over her kissing another man. She had told Will he was the first man she'd kissed. And she had told Will she had always dreamed of being taking away by a pirate and living a life of freedom. Jack stood for her dreams and fantasies. Will was sure that was her attraction to Jack. With a smug grin to himself, Will mused that HE would become the seductive pirate of her dreams making her kiss with Jack but a pale memory of but one of many adventures. What had happened to the two of them? Growing up Will strove to be a perfect gentleman who'd win Elizabeth over with his perfect way of treating her like the perfect goddess she was. He use to hate pirates, now he was one and the lust for the perfect Governor's daughter was slowly being burned away into a deep and steady longing for the imperfect pirate girl Elizabeth who lied, fought, betrayed and kissed other men. Will guessed the two of them were finally growing up.
He kept thinking about Jack too. Was he suffering in pirate's hell? Was there the slightest chance he'd survived the kraken? Will only entertained that thought last night when he could have sworn he'd heard Jack's voice singing 'Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me'. Suddenly, a click came to the door and Will sat up as the door slammed open and in stomped Barbossa holding a bowl of stew.
"Finally! What took you so..."
Will stopped when Barbossa backhanded him across the mouth and spat out,
"Belay your tongue Whelp! Eat this swill so ye won't look so sickly on the auction block!"
Will glared at the pirate and hissed out at him,
"You miserable lying son of a..."
Barbossa squatted down to eye level with Will with a dangerous quiet gleam to his eye. That's when Will noticed the fat Chinese guard taking in the scene. He put two and two together when he heard Barbossa whisper to him in a mock threatening tone of voice,
"Sorry about the treatment Boyo, but these types ain't ones for mercy. After we've gone you'll find the key in the swill. Wait an hour. Unlock the door and then creep out to the second floor in the wing wing. You'll know which one is the west wing cause you'll see the sun setting through the windows. Sao Feng's collection is in the room at the end of the hall. The map is in a gold cylinder."
"Where's the cylinder?" asked Will feigning contempt in his voice.
"Not sure...Arabella says you can't miss it though. Then just jump out the window to the ocean below. Gibbs is under orders to retrieve you in the ship when the clock strikes seven." Barbossa said before adding as he stood up and shouted, "AND don't you forget that!" Barbossa spat at Will's feet and stomped out, leaving the guard to shut and lock the door once more. Will waited until the footsteps died away before digging into the soupy substance in the bowel and pulling out the iron key. He was beginning to think that maybe he had been wrong about Barbossa as well.
&&&
"Well Arabella...what do you think?" Sao Feng said extending a hand over the view they shared over the island. Swirling a cup of porcelain Saki in her hand, Arabella replied,
"It's bigger than the last time I was here isn't it?"
"Hmm...I've sacked quite a few fleets in the last five years. You?" Sao Feng asked sitting on the railing.
"Oh...smuggling here...smuggling there...The usual..."Arabella said.
"How profitable is it?" he asked.
"Considering I have my own plantation near Tortuga...very." Arabella replied with a pride filled smirk. Her expression dropped when she felt his hand on hers.
"Does it get lonely? I know I could use a resourceful woman like you by my side." he told her. Arabella glared at him,
"Who are you kidding Feng?...We hate each other."
"I know. I'm the one who gave you that rather interesting scar remember?" Feng said as she gingerly touched her stomach. He continued standing to his feet and walking to the other side of the balcony they stood on,
"But hate and love are merely meaningless in the grand scream of life. My people believe that to reach Nirvana, all thought, all emotions must be absent from the mind. I need a queen. A smart queen. Someone who can help me achieve...heaven on earth."
"Your wife died twenty years ago Captain. I'm guessing you didn't think love was meaningless with her." Arabella said as she watched his back tense up. The tattooed pirate king turned to her, rage present in his calculating black eyes.
"Just as your heart still burns for the love of Jack Sparrow." he said advancing on her. Arabella smashed the cup on the ground.
"You don't know my heart Feng! And I'm not about to give it away to someone who thinks love is useless." Arabella snapped at him. Sao Feng grinned and said into her fuming face,
"Then why did you give it away to Jack Sparrow?"
"Go to hell where you came from!" Arabella said before stepping around him to move away.
"Oh Arabella...one more thing...You're not going to miss the auction are you?" Feng asked casually.
"Wouldn't miss it for the world!" she said before turning her head and stopping dead in her tracks. There were three of Sao's guards waiting for her and blocking her path. She looked back at the pirate king who smiled evilly,
"I'll make sure you don't."
"What is this?" she demanded him.
"I tried to give you a chance to be my queen willingly Arabella. Perhaps if you beg up on the auction block, I'll be willing to outbid the other buyers. I'll even sweeten the offer with a pretty gown." Feng said. That set Arabella off. Without warning, she drew her sword and elbowed a guard in the stomach making him double over in pain. She blocked the attack of a second guard, slicing the arm of the third. The first joined into the fray as Feng stood and watched the display. The woman was struggling to keep up. She pulled every pirate trick she could think off. She jumped up on tables, chairs, kicked plants and vases in their way. But within five minutes the guards had surrounded her. One grabbed her from behind, another taking her sword away.
"You should have brought your whip ashore Arabella. Even if I wouldn't have let you in otherwise." Feng told her as Arabella kicked and struggled.
"You no good dastard! You can't expect my crew to sit idly by and let this happen, do you?" Arabella said.
"Oh but I do...for no one defies Sao Feng and lives." he said. Arabella smiled smugly,
"Jack did..."
Sao Feng bristled and then smiled to himself as he nodded for his guards to take her away.
"Not for long..." he mumbled under his breath before finishing his Saki.
&&&
James Norrington groaned and got up to his knees. His head was pounding but he managed to stand. When water hit his feet he looked down and then gasped in shock as his line of vision took in the remains of his sinking ship. She was broken in two and taking water on the deck. The masts were down, tattered sails dancing in the wind. Fire was ablaze in one or two spots and cargo and cannons were everywhere. And he was all alone.
"Anamaria!" he called unsure why he called her first.
"Over here Captain!" came her voice to his relief. He followed the direction her voice echoed from and found her sitting on what used to be a ship's ladder leading to the bow. She held a crewman in her lap, his eyes glazed over, sputtering for breath.
"He's nearly dead...and soon he'll be here..." she said calmly.
"Are you alright?" asked Norrington.
"Aye that's the rub of it...Why am I fine and no one else is? It's not fair..."Anamaria said looking up at him with stubborn tears.
"Except for a pounding headache I think I'll live." he said with a dry humor trying to lighten the situation they were in. She gave him the smallest of smiles and then stood to her feet stepping over to her fallen crew mate to her captain,
"Here...let's have a look see."
"Oh no really it's fine...ow!" Norrington cried out when she slapped the back of his head.
"Hold still...hmm...ye might have a small concussion...but you'll be fine." she told him.
"Was that diagnosis before or after the slap?" Norrington quipped rubbing his head. Anamaria looked around and asked,
"Can you believe this?"
"I know...I have incredibly bad luck with ships..." Norrington joked.
"Seriously! In case you haven't noticed...This ain't a place for a reef to be now is it?" Anamaria told him. Norrington looked over the shattered remains of the railing. She was right. There was no land. Just open ocean for miles and miles. Where did this jagged reef come from? As a rumbling came from the waves, he knew the answer.
"Oh...bugger..." Norrington said as he and Anamaria watched with awe as a large ship the size of a Spanish galleon burst from under the water. Instead of being crusted with barnacles she was made from barnacles. Her cannon deck looked like great gaping gargoyles as the water poured out of them. The sails where tattered living coral, oven seaweeds the ropes and riggings. Suddenly, Norrington noticed the fallen crewman, barely able to move before stood on his feet as if hypnotized and not of his own power. Looking to the deck Anamaria saw their own ship becoming encrusted with barnacles which sprang alive to form misshapen, deformed, ugly half men, half sea creature monsters with sword fish swords, conk shells and shark heads for heads, some with beady black fish eyes, some with human. All of them had sharp fangs. They surrounded Norrington, Anamaria and the crewman in a circle as the monster crew laughed wickedly. Out of instinct, Norrington stood before Anamaria, trying to protect her when a rhythmic thumping made the crew give way to silence. The creatures parted and the remaining crew of the Lady Virgina gasped at the sight.
Davy Jones. In the pale blue green fishy flesh. His eyes and build were the only thing human that remained. He wore a hat that peaked up to two points like devil's horns. Where his nose had been was now a little mound of flesh that connected to his mouth. His beard and hair were really long, slithering tentacles. One hand was a tentacle holding a wooden cane, the other a crab's claw. One foot was human and decked in thick worn leather. The other was a crab leg, much resembling a wooden leg. His eyes were cold and dark and devoid of human interest as he glowered at his prey. He spoke in a thick Scottish borough,
"You two...are not dead nor near dying."
"That's..."Norrington squeaked before clearing his throat and responding normally, "That's correct..."
Davy Jones attention turned to the crewman. He advanced on him saying,
"You however...I offer a bargain. A hundred years of service aboard my ship. To prolong death and final judgment. You do fear death...don't you lad?"
Norrington looked at the sailor, noting he wasn't a day over seventeen. The young man gulped and said softly,
"I do Sir...but I fear hell more..."
Glaring at the lad, Davy Jones looked down to see the young man clutching a crucifix around his neck. He pulled it off the boy and then ran him through with a dagger held by one of his tentacles for a beard. He muttered to one of his mates who looked like a hammerhead shark,
"Bloody Reformation! No one wants to trade their soul anymore!" Davy Jones commented as he began to head back to his ship. Norrington spoke up to him,
"Wait! Wait! What about us?"
"I give it three days. If you're not picked up by a passing ship and starving to death, I'll be back." Jones said still walking.
"You can't just abandon us!" Norrington said.
"Try me...I've learn me lesson taking living souls aboard trust me!" Jones said not turning.
"Wait!" Norrington said squeezing on the leather bag on his belt. Davy Jones cried out in pain, clutching his chest,
"AGRRGGHH!"
"CAP'N! Cap'n what is it?" one of his crew asked him helping him up. Norrington looked down to the bag suspiciously as he watched Jones say,
"It's...it's...close...nearby..."
"What is?" asked another crewman. Norrington squeezed the bag again.
"AHHGGG! That! That...useless organ! My heart! Agh!" Davy Jones said in pain. Then his eyes turned hot with fury towards Norrington and Anamaria. "You two...you...have my heart...Get it!"
But before his men advanced on them, Norrington held the heart up, drew his sword and shouted,
"HOLD! Hold or I swear I'll slice it up and fry it!"
"WAIT!" shouted Jones in fear stopping his crew. Speaking over his shoulder, Anamaria whispered,
"Fry it?"
"Shush..." Norrington said softly watching Jones desperately eye the leather bag while he clutched his chest,
"What do you want?"
Norrington spoke plainly,
"A bargain."
&&&
Captain Jack Sparrow didn't struggle. He didn't even refuse to let them bound his wrist with course rope. In fact, he merely whistled 'A Pirate's Life for Me' as Sao Feng's guards took him from his isolated and enclosed iron cell towards the open courtyard for the pirate auction Sao Feng had cooked up today. No he didn't have a plan...currently...But all good plans be they thought out for weeks or seconds all had one thing in common. The opportune moment. Sao Feng, dressed in his finest silks approached Jack in the hall and greeted him cordially.
"Good day Captain Sparrow. How are you holding up?"
"Good...Very good. Free room and board...total darkness so I can sleep deeply...I haven't felt this refreshed in ages!" Jack said sarcastically. The Chinaman smiled,
"Excellent. I hope you'll enjoy today's auction Captain Sparrow."
"Oh I'm sure I will right up until I'm up to be sold." Jack said.
"Oh no Captain. You are not for sale...even if there are dozens of your enemies out there who would pay the highest price to silt you from stem to stern." Feng told him. Jack furrowed his brow,
"Then why am I here?"
"All in good time Captain...All in good time." Sao Feng said leading the way into his private box looking over the crowded courtyard with the makeshift stage. Jack was stumped. Why was he allowed to watch the activities from behind a wooden screen with an open pattern he could see through? What was Sao Feng so confident about? Before Jack could try to decipher his old adversary, he heard a voice. A very familiar, very blood boiling voice.
"Ladies and Gents! Welcome to the auction! We have tons of items up for interest today..."
"Barbossa!" Jack hissed in rage as he saw his old mutinous (and very much alive) first mate step up on the stage.
"What was that Captain?" Sao asked not hearing him. Jack cleared his throat,
"Nothing."
Below, Barbossa had finished explaining the rules when he started the auction with a few fake magic scrolls allegedly (emphasis on the alleged part). But he scanned the crowd for Arabella. Where was she? She had told him she would be keeping watch in the crowd in case Sao Feng or any of his crew got suspicious. He also wondered if the whelp was doing alright.
&&&
With a click of the lock, Will turned the handle and slowly creaked the door open. He looked to the left and to the right of the hall, wary of the guard but he didn't have to for they were watching the auction same as everyone. He came down the hall and slowly crept to the palace outside the prison. His eyes traced the windows, finding the edge of the setting sun. He passed a grandfather clock that read twenty after six. He didn't have much time.
&&&
Gibbs looked at the girl who sat on the rail of the ship he was acting captain of. He had known her when she was a young girl sailing over from England and he was a Navy man. Back then the young lass with a heart that longed for the sea annoyed him by asking a million questions about pirates and sailing. Now he almost felt like a father, looking on with pride and pity at the young woman she had become. He approached her and asked,
"How ye faring Miss Elizabeth?"
She gave him a ghost of a smile and said,
"Not very well to tell the truth. I'm worried Gibbs. I have a feeling something is wrong."
"Just pray you're the one that's wrong Lass." Gibbs said.
"I'm also worried..." Elizabeth trailed off.
"About Will?" Gibbs asked with a comforting hand to her shoulder.
"And my father back in Port Royal...with Beckett there who knows what has happened to him." she said.
"Aye...No offense Lassie, but from what I remember of your father he wasn't much of a match for anyone." Gibbs said. Elizabeth smiled sadly,
"He is a smart man Gibbs...just naive...When my mother was alive, no one could put anything past him. She wouldn't let them. But when she died...so did his common sense."
"Don't fret Miss Elizabeth. We'll beat Beckett once we get Jack Sparrow back." Gibbs told her.
"I know...but then what? What happens after we beat the East India Trading Company Gibbs? How can a Governor still love his daughter...when she's a pirate?" Elizabeth asked with tears in her eyes.
"You underestimate a father's love Miss Elizabeth." Gibbs told her as she looked back over to the floating isle of ships.
&&&
The auction was halfway over and Barbossa was actually worried. He hadn't seen hide nor hair of Arabella at all. Either she was really keeping to the background or something was up. He leaned toward the latter seeing the smug satisfied grin on Sao Feng's face as he puffed on his long pipe. He also noticed the figure standing behind the wooden screen to Sao Feng's left. Who was that? Why did Barbossa get the feeling he figured into all of this? He took a scroll from a guard and said to the crowd,
"Our next batch of items to be sold include a vase from the ming dynasty carrying the spirit of the warrior Fao Mulan, a potion to cause great wind in your sails, a priceless gem said to make any wench fall in love with ye and...ARABELLA MORGAN!" Barbossa snapped his head up as Sao Feng's guards led the young woman onto the stage a dry and annoyed expression on her face. She was dressed in a figure hugging red velvet dress, striped stockings and short black boots with a high heel. The dress fell off her creamy white shoulders and showed off plenty of enticing cleavage. Jack saw her too with shock. He knew those eyes, that hair, those shoulders and that enticing cleavage anywhere.
"Arabella..." Jack whispered with a stunned longing. Hearing him perfectly, Sao Feng smiled and commented to him,
"How do you like seeing your lost love again Captain? And all this time you thought her dead! And now you shall see your two bit whore sold to the highest bidder. My men tell me that Shunkhead Sallarie...that round fat Italian sweating over there in the corner...just raided a Navy ship that raided an Armada. And not only does he have enough gold to buy all of Tortuga...he has a weakness for redheads...Something you both share obviously."
"So that's your game is it? Make me suffer by watching the woman I use to love...go into the arms of another man?" Jack asked.
"If you use to love her, that would imply you no longer love her. And then you won't suffer. However...I have the strangest inclination...you will be squirming like kalimari..." Sao Feng said as he turned his attention back to the auction. Barbossa looked over the catcalling crowd casually watching the Chinese pirates clutch their weapons, silently threatening Barbossa to continue. He stepped close to Arabella and whispered,
"What the devil are you doing here and in that dress?"
"Things didn't go according quite to plan...The dress is a sick joke for Feng..." Arabella whispered back.
"Looks nice on ye." Barbossa complimented her.
"Shut up! Just go on with the auction. If we play our cards right, this could be just the distraction we need to give Will more time." Arabella told him.
"Aye..." Barbossa agreed stepping forward.
"Whatever you do...make sure I don't go to the fat one in the corner..." Arabella asked as she watched in disgust as the fat sweaty man licked his lips.
"I'll try..."he said to her before shouting out to the crowd, "All right you bleeding cockroaches listen up! Who will give me twenty for the vase? Twenty! Twenty do I hear twenty?"
"Give us the redhead!" shouted an old man from the crowd as everyone else agreed with him. Barbossa exchanged a look with Arabella,
"Oh bugger..."
On the other side of the fort overlooking the courtyard, Will Turner had taken a wrong turn. He groaned in frustration as he saw the west wing where he needed to be on the other side. Sao Feng's box was on the North side of the fort facing South, overlooking the crowd below. He looked to the left seeing guards blocking his path and watching the festivities. He tried to go to his right only to stop in his tracks as more of Sao Feng's men blocked the path. He needed to get out of there and fast. His eyes drifted upwards seeing the two mast beams that crisscrossed over the top of the courtyard and holding the many ropes and canvases creating shade. The sun cast a perfect x over the crowd.
"X marks the spot..." he mused to himself. He saw that he was near the beam that secured the mast overhead...and there was rungs to climb up them. He quickly pulled himself up and began to make his way to the crisscrossed beams of wood. When he reached the top he steadied himself and watched the crowd below. Then he focused his attention ahead, slowly crawling across the beam like an infant, praying he wouldn't be seen. But he was seen. By Jack. At first Jack was about to say something, but he shut his mouth because of Feng. Why was Will here? That's when he realized it. Will, Barbossa and Anabella together in the same place was either one heck of a bloody coincidence or they were here to rescue him! Seeing Feng about to look up from lighting his pipe again, Jack said executing two plans at once,
"Captain! Sensai! Can I call you Master? Fenny Ol' Chap I'll give you thirty thousand gold coins for Arabella right now. That more than covers my debt to you."
"I thought you didn't have the gold Captain." Feng said as Will inched his way past him overhead.
"I do...I lied...It's not on me person of course but I do have a private cache. I lied about Jones too. The Pearl's fine! Waiting for me back in Tortuga as we speak. So what say you? Do we have an accord?" Jack said as he watched with relief as Will moved out of their line of vision and was about to climb down to the West Wing. Sao Feng thought a moment, looking to the auction below. Barbossa was trying to sell off the fake love charm,
"Do I hear forty Gents? Forty for this magical talisman of love!"
"I'll buy it if it gets that pretty wench to fall for me!" shouted one pirate earning a laugh.
"We wants the redhead!"
"Gives us the redhead!" the crowd cried randomly.
"Mr. Smithe!" Sao Feng called down to Barbossa. Barbossa went quiet along with everyone else, waiting on baited breath. Sao Feng smiled wickedly,
"Start the bidding on Miss Morgan."
"YAY!" cheered the crowd as Jack and Arabella's shoulders simultaneously drooped. Barbossa sighed and pulled Arabella forward by the rope around her waist.
"Next up for bid is Miss Arabella Morgan. Wanted for piracy, smuggling, arson, looting, and illegally creating eunuchs. I'll start the bidding at ten gold coins Gentlemen. Who will give ten for the fine Miss Morgan?
"Fifty!" shouted Sallarie. Sao Feng looked to Jack and said,
"If you want Arabella so badly Captain...you'll have to do better than cover your debt."
"A hundred then!" Jack told Sao Feng.
"Do you love her Captain?" Feng asked.
"Feng..."
"Do you love her?" asked the pirate king. Jack looked to the woman he kept trying to tell himself was a ghost. He smiled at an old memory,
"I always have..."
&&&
He had just turned sixteen. He thought by all means he was a man. So he made the manly decision to take his life in his own hands. He had stowed away on a ship and arrived in the famed pirate town of Tortuga. For a pirate port it wasn't that bad. The wenches calling for him from the doorways, the fights, the ships in the harbor, the drinking, the laughing the singing all amused him...Until some bit dumb pirate stole his sack.
Now it was pouring down rain and he had followed the thief into a tavern called the Faithful Bride. He felt her eyes before he saw them. Finding her, and watching her catch her breath, his anger dwindled for a moment. She was beautiful. Skinny as a rake but with a developing figure she would be ravishing. Straight red hair pulled back into a messy bun with two strands falling down and framing her heart shaped face. She had warm brown eyes, almost golden brown. They bore into his soul with fascination. Freckles of youth and sun splashed across her nose making her adorable.
He had refocused his attention on retrieving his effects, but only ended up starting a huge fight. She had pulled him out and into the alley. With more strength he'd give her credit for, she slammed him into the wall and started lecturing him. All he could think of at the time was,
'Bugger...so this is the girl I'm going to marry...'
&&&
Jack returned to the present when he heard someone shout,
"Three hundred twenty seven!"
"Three hundred twenty eight!"
"Stop going up one you git!"
Jack shook himself and told Sao Feng,
"Five hundred."
"Five hundred!" shouted Sallarie below.
"Six." Jack said.
"Six!"
"Seven fifty." Jack said.
"Seven fifty!" repeated someone from the crowd below as Jack gritted his teeth in annoyance.
"ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND GOLD COINS!" shouted Jack silencing the crowd below.
"That voice..." Arabella whispered to herself. Barbossa whispered to her,
"It came from Sao Feng's box. I don't know about you Lass but I wouldn't want to take my chances with whoever is up there with him. Time to end this auction." Then he shouted for the crowds benefit,
"Strike your colors ya brazen wench!"
"Don't ruddy push it!" Arabella hissed at him as she began to lift her skirts to show off her legs. As the men below salivated, Jack felt his desire for her, which he had thought dwindled, ignite and rage war between his body and mind. His mind was telling him to wait, hold his ground, save her at the opportune moment. His heart and body however, were quickly regaining control of his actions. They told him what they had told him before when it came to Arabella. Save her.
"One hundred thousand gold coins...I certainly hope you actually have that amount Sparrow. " Sao Feng said as below, Arabella looked up through her hair at the Chinese pirate. One of her hands lifted her skirt up to her thigh, where she had strapped on a dagger. Without warning, she pulled the dagger out and flung it towards Feng. The pirate luckily saw it and ducked in his chair just before it would have struck him in the head. Jack took advantage of the guards confusion and stepped on their toes, pushing them back. He cut his bonds with the edge of the dagger and then tipped Sao Feng, chair and all over saying,
"Put it on my tab, Mate!"
Jack pulled the dagger out of the chair and then climbed up on the railing, cutting a rope free and swinging out just before Sao Feng's guards could grab him.
"KILL HIM! HIM HIM!" Feng shouted as he was pulled up. Soon, arrows and shots were being hurled from all directions in the courtyard, Jack swinging back and forth barely missing them.
"WOAH!" he shouted as the crowd erupted into a fight below. Barbossa had drawn his sword and was fighting off some pirates trying to grab Arabella as she pulled off the rope around her waist, using it as a whip to beat men back. Then three pirates grabbed the rope and grinned at her wickedly. They began a tug of war, when Jack swung over the stage and knocked the three pirates over. As he began to swing back, he grabbed Arabella round the waist and she began to swing with him.
"Oh! Let me go! Let me go!" Arabella cried as Jack grabbed another rope and swung over to the west wing of the fort. He landed on the balcony arms still held round her waist as she beat on his chest and shouted,
"Let go of me you wanker!"
"Never again darlin'." Jack replied. Finally looking up at the face of her captor, Arabella gasped,
"Jack!"
"The one, the only..." A bullet whizzed between their noses, "And currently the endangered species! Come on Luv!" Jack said taking her hand and pulling her along. Below, Barbossa had finally managed to find a path out of the fortress saying to himself,
"This was not a part of the plan!"
Jack had ducked himself and Arabella into Sao Feng's private gallery. It was filled to the brim with art, china, silver, silks, furniture and various and glowing stones and stoic little wooden idols. Will turned from his ransacking the desk, a telescope in his hand to the newcomers.
"Avast!" he shouted. Jack sighed,
"William...for the last ruddy time...pirates don't actually say that...Savvy?"
Will blinked in disbelief, lowering his makeshift weapon,
"Jack? You're alive!"
"Course I am! After all Mate I am Captain Jack Spar..." Jack was cut off when Arabella smashed a vase on the floor. The two men looked in fear at the woman who was more or less muttering to herself,
"Thirteen years...After thirteen years you are still the same egotistical...self serving...full of hisself...cocky little prick you always were!"
"Now...now Arabella...Sweetheart...don't get all in a..." Jack started as he and Will slowly began to back away towards the enraged woman. Arabella took a small vase in her hand, speaking in a sickening sweet voice.
"Don't get all in a tizzy Jack? Oh no...I'm well past a tizzy Jack...I AM DOWNRIGHT MAD AS HELL!" she began to shout before hurling the vase at Jack. Jack and Will ducked as Arabella began to throw more at them, paintings, plants, statues whatever she could lift. She began rambling on angrily,
"I came here cause I thought you were dead! I thought for once I could save you! Now I find you alive and well and you don't even bloody act like you're sorry about what you did!"
"For living?" Jack offered as he ducked behind a chair just as a flower pot smashed into it. Will began to run towards a hiding spot in the corner, when he noticed Arabella wasn't aiming for him. Just Jack. He watched in fascination as Jack took up a golden shield to protect himself as Arabella came over to a stack of plates,
"For lying!" Arabella said throwing a plate at him, "For cheating on me!" she said throwing another. "We promised to stay chaste for each other Jack!" she shouted as Will's brows shot up in surprise.
"Not in front of the whelp aye Luv?" Jack pleaded. Arabella continued throwing a plate with every pause,
"And what do I find? I know you thought me dead Jack...but you...didn't...even...wait...ten...minutes...before...bunking...Tia...Dalma!"
"I was very vulnerable at the time!" Jack said in his defense.
"So I left you to her! Not caring if you ever found out I was alive or not!" Arabella said looking around for something else to throw. Poking his head out from behind the shield, Jack said,
"I did care!"
He ducked again as a small clock whizzed past his head, Arabella continuing,
"No where to go I went to Singapore...Feng found me...tried to seduce me! But I kept out promise Jack! I kept it! I refused him and he tried to gut me!"
"I'm sorry Luv! I'm sorry!" Jack cried. Arabella stopped in her tracks, looking at him incredulously,
"Sorry? YOU"RE SORRY!"
She began hurling larger, heavier objects at Jack, who dropped the shield and ran around the room trying to placate her,
"Now Arabella I made a mistake! I said I was sorry! I didn't know you were alive! Arabella!"
Will heard a noise from the hall, and went to peek out, seeing guards advancing. They had heard them! Will began barricading the door pleading with them,
"Quiet both of you! We have to get out of here!"
The two ignored him as Arabella chased Jack around the balcony back inside with a frying pan in her hands, Jack shouting,
"Bell Luv you're not being very big about this!"
Will knew he should have helped Jack, but he considered this his small revenge on Jack for kissing Elizabeth. He waited two more seconds before running up between a cornered Jack and Arabella who had inadvertently picked up the golden cylinder Will had been trying to find for over a half hour. Just as she was about to smash Jack's head in, Will grabbed her wrist and told her,
"We don't have time for this!" Then the clock began to chime seven, the guards pounding on the doors trying to break them down. Will added to Arabella, "See?"
Arabella sighed, shutting her eyes to calm herself down. Then she glared at Jack as she handed Will the cylinder,
"Guess I'll have to kill you later."
Jack gulped regaining his collected composure,
"It's a date then!"
&&&
Elizabeth and Gibbs exchanged a look as Barbossa, Pintel and Ragetti returned in the long john.
"Where's Arabella?" asked Elizabeth. Stepping onto the deck, Barbossa told them,
"Things didn't go quite according to plan! Have we picked up the whelp yet?"
"His name is Will and no not yet." Elizabeth told him annoyed as she watched the approching balcony overhead. Suddenly, three figures, one in a dress and one she recognized as Will jumped from the balcony and into the waves below.
"Man overboard! Haul them in lads!" Gibbs barked as they watched from the side. Mr. Cotton sent out three ropes to the swimming jumpers to pull them up and over to the deck of the fishing boat. There was Will, Arabella in the aforementioned dress and...
"JACK?" cried Gibbs, the crew and Barbossa.
"DAFT AS HE IS DRUNK! AWRK!" said Mr. Cotton's parrot. Wringing out his sash, Jack said,
"None other...now that where all reaquainted..." He pulled his pistol from his belt and aimed it at Barbossa's face, "WILL SOMEBODY EXPLAIN TO ME WHY THIS MANGY CUR IS STILL BREATHING?" Jack raged. Elizabeth stepped between them,
"Jack...Barbossa was the one who captained this ship to bring us here...Barbossa was the one who recruited Arabella...Barbossa was the one who helped come up with the plan to save you."
Jack hesitated, his finger inching to pull the trigger,
"Why?"
Barbossa shrugged,
"Tia Dalma told me too."
Jack sighed and lowered his gun,
"Touched mate...truly...Now Gibbs let out canvas and make sail before Sao Feng decides to figure out whose ship to sink, Savvy?"
"Sorry Jack...but I'm Captain of this wreck...Gibbs! Make sail and head to Tortuga on the currents!" Barbossa ordered as he made his way to the quarterdeck. Looking ashamed at himself, Gibbs said,
"Aye Cap'n."
Jack sadly watched Gibbs and the crew begin their duties. He saw Arabella, looking even more enticing dripping wet. He said to her,
"Need some help drying off Bell, Darlin'?" She stomped on his foot as he shouted,
"Bugger!"
"Go to hell Jack Sparrow!" Arabella hissed at him before stomping off below deck. Wincing from pain, Jack noticed Pintel and Ragetti smiling stupidly at him.
"Ani't you glad to be alive Cap'n?" Ragetti asked innocently. Jack just glared at them until the took the hint and went away.