The stench of must and mold filled my nostrils. The humidity of the cave we were being lead back into took my breath away and I could feel my hair starting to frizzle (not that it mattered much, I hadn't bathed for days and I already felt disgusting). My step faltered and I fell face-first into the cave floor covered with gold coins. I had no time to take in my surroundings and what had happened before being jerked back onto my feet by Pintel.

"No reason to fret." His booming voice told me, echoing along the dark tunnel. His fingers dug into my arm as he started dragging me behind Will. "It's just a prick of the finger, a few drops of blood."

But I'm allergic to blood...

A hand grabbed my shoulder, causing me to suddenly stop and almost fall over once again. "No mistakes this time." The hand's owner whispered into my ear, I turned my head slightly to find two menacing brown eyes glaring at me. "He's only half-Turner. We spill it all and leave the girl for our pleasures!"

The pirate suddenly pushed me forward, but not before I saw Pintel's greedy eyes travel down my body.

"I guess there is reason to fret." I heard him whisper to his friend before they both burst into laughter.

I felt like I was in a dream standing upon a pile with two pirates holding me back. Will was being forcefully bent over a large chest filled coins by two others while Barbossa stood in front of us, with what looked like an evil twinkle in his eyes. The pirates started cheering as he spoke his first few words.

"Begun by blood..."

The feeling of hopelessness suddenly washed over me and I lowered my head in defeat with tears in my eyes. There was no way out of this, no magical solution, no miraculous method, no inexplicable-

My watery eyes had caught an unusual movement in the crowd.

"By blood undone!" I heard Barbossa continue, but didn't pay attention.

Tears rolled down my face and cleared my vision to see a familiar someone making his way toward us.

"Jack!" I heard myself call to him, my voice cracking. Barbossa had stopped his speech to stare wide-eyed at Jack's approaching figure, who flashed his famous smile at me. The pirates cheering came to a halt as they also stared at this thought-to-be-dead man. Barbossa had recovered from his shock and glared down at him.

"It's not possible."

"Not probable!" Jack exclaimed coming closer towards us.

Got that right...

"Where's Elizabeth?" Will stood up, asking frantically. I almost rolled my eyes at his question, since I knew it was probably the first thing that was going to come out of his mouth.

Jack pushed past the Bo' sun and trampled into water. He looked up at Will breathlessly and smiled. "She's safe, just like I promised. She's all set to marry Norrington, just like she promised." He pointed to Will. "And you get to die for her, just like you promised. So we're all men of our word really...except for Elizabeth who is, in fact, a woman and Cassandra-" He now pointed his finger toward me. "Who did a very horrible job at making sure William didn't do anything stupid."

I opened my mouth to retort but kept silent.

"Shut up!" Barbossa snapped. "You're next!"

The Bo'sun grabbed Jack and started to carry him away. Barbossa grabbed Will's hair and pulled him down to his level. He started to raise a knife to Will's throat when Jack's voice echoed around the cave.

"You don't want to be doing that, mate..."

I knew if looks could kill, Jack would have been dead a long time ago, but the look Barbossa gave him I swear should have burnt him to a crisp right then and there. "No, I really think I do."

"Your funeral." Jack responded with a shrug, motioning to the Bo' sun to start carrying him away again.

I saw Barbossa roll his eyes in Will's face before standing up and face Jack's direction. "Why don't I want to be doing it?"

A smug grin crossed Jack's face. "Well, because..." He struggled out the Bo' sun's grip." Because the HMS Dauntless, pride of the Royal Navy, is floating just offshore...waiting for you."

That's when the uproar started.