Tortugan Beginnings

The Jade Lady

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"Pirates!" The captain of the Jade Lady, hissed as he realized who and what they were. The portly Frenchman was shaking with rage, his small blue eyes pinching up and his comical wide set nose flaring in his obvious anger. The French man was in fact, what Jack had been expecting. A fool.

"Where!?" Jack cried, jumping mockingly at the captain. He turned to him and narrowed his eyes on the French man. "Oh you mean us?" The Pearl rumbled with mocking laughter.

"We will not go down without a fight!" The man shouted back at him, his pistol already drawn. Jack snorted; this wasn't going to be as easy as he believed. "Tell me your name before we die! If we do die!"

Foolish frog. Too hot headed. Too stupid. And now they were going to pay for their decision to fight back.

Jack studied the man for a moment and smirked. "Captain Jack Sparrow at yer service, mate." He spun around and eyed his crew.

"Open fire, mates!" He bellowed.

The Pearl shook with the cannons shots. It was loud, screams and cries. Jack could already smell the slaughter that was to follow. Within moments, Gibbs and a few of the crew members set up planks to board the ship. "Board the ship, mates!"

Boarding the hideously green ship had been ridiculously easy. Although the crew looked tough, they looked skilled in fighting. They stood no chance. This was the Black Pearl and Jack was a pirate lord. No one stood a chance against them. No one.

He grinned, unsheathing his sword and walking the plank onto the other ship. To his amazement, Audrina Hart had already boarded and her blade was slick with blood. Lucas on the other hand, simply pushed men off the ship to their ultimate demise, he smirked. That was certainly interesting. He was hesitant to skewer the opponent. Lucas couldn't bear to see a man die so horribly while his sister was quite the opposite in fact. Rather ironically, they despised themselves for being what they were. A coward and a bloodthirsty wench when in reality, they just really wanted to be a bit more like each other.

Jack Sparrow watched Audrina for a moment. The way she handled a blade wasn't in anyway graceful or remarkably excellent but the fact that she fought dirty was incredibly fascinating to Jack Sparrow. The raven-haired man impersonator more of danced around the ship then actually fought, her blade would distract the men while she would quickly shoot them in the gut with her pistol. He saw her doing that on more then one occasion.

The clink of a sword against his own brought him back to the situation and grinned at a burly man attempting to take him down. The swords clanged against each other, the man was undoubtedly stronger then Jack and had pushed him into several uncomfortable positions. Jack was a pirate and this man was not, he fought too…abiding by the rules of engagement. Jack dodged an attack and whirled around; sticking the blade deep into the large man's back and was pleased to see him grow limp. Jack had no condolences for the man.

Audrina Hart was doing rather well in fact, her bullets had run out but the merchants were growing fewer in number. The blood seemed to soak into Audrina's clothes and rivulets of sweat cascaded like a waterfall down her face. Covered in sweat and blood, some of it her own and some from her victims, she might have managed to look very demonic even at her meager stature at five foot three.

She smirked at the portly man in front of her, his black eyes gleaming with malice. He stepped forward and swung his sword, barely missing her collarbone as she parried. She gritted her teeth and used the butt of her sword to knock the man's nose painfully; in his pain he brought a hand. As he nursed his nose out of reflex, she curled her fist and punched him square in the jaw. He roared with anger and swiped the cutlass at her, out of reflex she caught it with her own sword and moved all her weight downwards, causing her blade to slip and cut straight across his stomach. He looked shock and as he was tipping forward, his bowels fell straight from his stomach and on to the deck. She stared at it stupidly and blinked, it wasn't quite registering with her.

Pain erupted through her arm as she realized her shirt was drenched with blood. Somehow during the battle, he had swiped her arm from shoulder to elbow and deep. It burned with pain and she uttered a low moan. Wearily, she lifted her eyes and gazed at the fighting Sparrow across the ship before falling in a heap on the floor, the blood rushing from her arm at alarming rates.

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"We leave no survivors." Jack growled, he didn't really feel it necessary to kill the Frenchman but he couldn't appear weak for Jack Sparrow was quite that opposite. "Sorry, mate, but it's really yer own fault. Yer killed a few of my crew and that's just not savvy with me."

The Frenchman shook suddenly, at terms with his ultimate demise. His eyes averted from Jack's frightening face and focused on his deck. The ship itself was a frightening color of dark green as if to look like the color of the thrashing sea. The painter had failed miserably. It was dirty, unkempt, rather large but in no comparison to the Black Pearl. Although heavily gunned, it was ironic that they went out with such a little bang. Jack Sparrow felt himself feeling sorry for the man but that soon diminished when the captain lifted his small blue eyes and narrowed on Jack, teary eyed and bloodshot.

"I hope a dirty, rotten scallywag bastard such as yourself hangs before the eyes of God!" He spat, his body now shaking more with rage then sadness or perhaps a mixture of the two. "You will see your finally judgment, Jack Sparrow!"

Jack frowned and aimed the pistol at his head and pulled the trigger, the blood splattering on his face. He grimaced and wiped it with another dead man's shirt, limp against the railing of the ship. Jack, himself, had done rather well. A few nicks on his arms but nothing too serious. Moving his eyes over the ship, he realized guiltily that they had slaughtered them like dogs. The bodies of the former crew of the Jade Lady were limp, scattered around the deck like animals. The blood stained the ship heavily and Jack almost wished they had just surrendered; it made sleeping easier at night.

The words of the captain didn't really bother Jack Sparrow. He had gotten many pleas from victims before they took their last breath. Some prayed, others didn't. Some banished him to the depths of hell, it didn't matter to Sparrow. If there was a God, he knew he was going to Hell anyway; why not go out with a bang? Give the devils really something to talk about, Jack thought with a sly grin.

Lucas Hart was at his side momentarily as was Joshamee Gibbs; Jack moved his eyes from the bloody mess and focused them on the azure sky. "Take what we can." He ordered and Gibbs grinned and he placed a hand on his shoulder.

"And give nothing back!" He bellowed and Jack grinned back at his first mate, his eyes twinkling in the sunlight.

"Aye, mate! And I thought yer didn't know me!" Jack laughed and walked amongst the deck, checking for survivors.

He saw only two faces of the Black Pearl, the rest were of the Jade Lady. No survivors, none lived. Walking further along the deck, his eyes widened as he saw Audrina, her body limp on the floor but her eyes were half opened and her chest heaving in protest to the pain. He bit his lip and was at her side almost immediately. He almost thought she was dead.

The cut on her arm was horrifying to say the least. Deep and fleshy, the cut itself was not clean but instead ragged. The blood poured from it added heavily to the blood that was on deck. Her face was flushed with pain but she did not cry. Tears did not grace her face. Pain was something she could live with. Gathering the limp woman in his arms, he quickly boarded the Black Pearl. Lucas' eyes went wide with shock and then teary when he saw the state she was in.

"Audrina!" Lucas bellowed and ran after Jack while most of the crew looked at them in bemusement, wondering who this 'Audrina' was.

Jack laid her on a cot in the sick bay. Jack glanced at Lucas, the tears evident in his eyes. Audrina fluttered between the realms of consciousness and unconsciousness. The wound wasn't incredibly life threatening but ought to be very painful, Jack imagined.

"Cotton!" He called and the older crew member went to Audrina's aid within moments.

His face clouded over when he saw the girl and smiled briefly and nodded to Jack. With sea water, he cleaned the cut up and inhaled sharply, miming for Lucas to grab her hand. Lucas let out a sigh and gripped her hand tightly as the hot needle pierced her skin and he was sewing her up. Due to that the cut was rather deep and ran from her shoulder to her elbow, Cotton sewed her up a few times. Audrina had thankfully been unconscious; as were Jack and Lucas, both couldn't see her in such pain. Lucas couldn't bear it because of his overwhelming love for his sister and Jack because his inability to see women cry. They both let sighs of relief while Cotton left the room, blood fresh on his hands.

Gibbs walked into the sick bay, his face clouded when he saw Lucas gripping the 'boy's' hand and Jack look equally as worried. In reality, Jack was merely worried that she would wake and start bawling her eyes out. Jack Sparrow may be able to escape death on more then a few occasions, battled undead pirates and sacked Nassau without a shot but he did not think he could manage a woman's tears. He didn't like to admit it, but women crying bothered him. It was a reason he stuck to the whores in Tortuga. Whores didn't cry. But real women did.

"Audrina?" Gibbs puzzled while looking down on the boy. Realizing what had just happened. With the blood soaked black bandana wrapped around her head gone and the kohl smudged from her eyes and her black hair fanned out around her, he realized how womanly this Audrina really looked. "He was a really a she? I'll be damned!" Gibbs gave a short laugh that was silence by a look from Lucas.

"Don't talk about my sister like that! She was forced to do it!" Lucas said angrily while Jack put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Mates, mates. Calm yer bleedin' selves down." Jack said, narrowing his eyes on Gibbs. "I'll look after the darlin' myself. She can take my bed and I'll sleep in the hammock."

Lucas didn't seem so happy about that. His bronze face darkened and his hands tightened in a fist. Too many years of cruel captains had left him being very distrusting, especially when it concerned his sister. He expected that Jack was only going to take advantage of her in her unfortunate state and Lucas Hart couldn't allow that to happen. Not again.

"No!" He raged, his hand on the hilt of his sword. "Don't touch her!"

"Calm down, boy." Jack started, he smirked, he wasn't quite sure if Lucas could run him through with that sword. He was too much of a softie and seemed rather squeamish as well. He couldn't take the blood. But Jack had a feeling the Hart family was rather unpredictable so he wasn't about to take his chances. "Nothin' will happen. I just want ter make sure she'll be comfortable. Yer can visit her whenever yer want, lad."

Lucas allowed his grip to relax for a moment and he sighed. "If you touch her, I swear to God." He scowled at his captain. At that moment, he was actually waiting to be thrown off the ship and was surprised to hear no order came from the Captain's mouth.

"If I touch her, yer can castrate me yerself and make me a bloody eunuch." Jack laughed, that was the second time a member of the Hart family was threatening to castrate him, even if he, himself, brought the threat up this time. He reasoned that Sparrows and Harts just did not go together.

During the next few months, he never realized how quite wrong he was.

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