Aaaah! Freaky Fish People!
By: SilverstartheWaterbender
Silverstar: Here's Chapter 6!
GigglesforJohnnyDepp: Thanks for reviewing!
Cat18: Thanks for reviewing!
MrsElleTurner: Thanks for reviewing!
spirochick39: Thanks for reviewing!
Little Miss Vampirate: Thanks for reviewing!
hikishianara: You know Tia had something to do with all this. Thanks for reviewing!
HoodiesRsoft: (in a sing-song voice) Gibbs is a pervert! Thanks for reviewing!
Wolfen-Ways: I'm still debating whether or not to make Toby change to his werewolf form. All the major battles happen in the daytime. Thanks for reviewing!
maccus lover: Thanks for reviewing!
Disclaimer: I don't own POTC or Toby, who belongs to Wolfen-Ways.
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Chapter Six: Story Time
(Toby's POV)
Later that afternoon, the crew sent two longboats down a long, poorly-lit river. Jack, Mary, Marty, Cotton, and a random guy were in the first boat; myself, Will, Gibbs, Pintel, and Ragetti, and Marty were in the second one. Every now and then, I felt like someone was watching me. And not just one person; a large group.
"Why is Jack afraid of the open ocean?" Will asked.
"Well," Gibbs answered. "If you believe such things, there's a beast does the bidding of Davy Jones – a fearsome creature with giant tentacles that'll suction your face clean off…" Pintel and Ragetti put their hands to their faces, and even I felt chilled. "…and drag an entire ship down to the crushing darkness…the Kraken." I caught my breath; the stories I'd heard about the giant squid had always frightened me.
Gibbs, heedless of our frightened glances, continued. "They say the stench of its breath is like…" He shuddered. "Imagine…the last thing you know on God's green earth is the roar of the Kraken, and the reeking odor of a thousand rotting corpses…if you believe such things," he finished brightly.
"Congratulations," I said to him. "Now I won't be able to sleep…for three years."
"And the key will spare him that?" Will asked, still curious.
"Well, that's the very question Jack wants answered…bad enough to go visit…her."
Will and I exchanged a glance. "Her?"
"Aye," Gibbs whispered.
I looked up at the next boat. Mary was staring back at me, straining to hear what we said. "Mr. Gibbs," I began, "on a lighter note, I'd like to know a bit more about this Mary girl. How did she come to crew the Pearl? Why does she seem to know everything?" Pintel, Ragetti, and Will looked at Gibbs as well.
Gibbs sighed. "Well you see, lads…Mary is loath to tell anyone of her past…not even Jack knows everything."
"Just tell us what you know," I pressed.
Gibbs nodded. "Aye. I'll start then with Mary's ability. She can see across time, viewing certain moments of the past, present, and future. No one knows how she knows or where she learned it from."
"Does she ever tell you what she sees?" Will asked.
"No; when pressed, she says that knowing won't help us."
"Strangely, I find that easy to believe," I noted, remembering Mary's distracted, sorrowful looks earlier on the Pearl. She must have seen something, perhaps in the future, that greatly disturbed her. Not sharing it may not help her cause, but t would keep the crew on task. "Do you know how Jack met Mary?"
Gibbs nodded. "A little over a year ago, Mary was down at the docks of Tortuga when two drunkards came up to her. You see, they wanted to have their way with her. Jack, spotting them, knocked one of them out. Mary took care of the other. Soon, it was realized that both Jack and Mary were headed towards the same place."
"Port Royal," Will whispered.
"Aye. The two made an accord; Jack would protect Mary from lusty drunks, and Mary would help Jack reclaim the Pearl. They've been working together since."
I looked back at Mary. Jack was whispering something to her. It was so hard to believe that she was shrouded in such mystery.
I froze as she looked back at us. Her eyes flashed, and Gibbs winced. I noticed the slight breeze was blowing towards her boat; she must have heard us. Her eyes softened and she shrugged as if to say, "Whatever, who cares?," and looked away.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
(Mary's POV)
I honestly didn't mind that Gibbs told my story. They had to learn sometime, right? But hearing Gibbs' words made me realize how mysterious and otherworldly I sounded. "Once I know everything about how I came here, and we've rescued Jack," I promised myself, "I'll tell Jack everything." It wouldn't be completely unheard of, seeing what sort of supernatural and crazy stuff we've been through already.
It was getting darker by the time we reached Tia's hut. The pirates climbed out of their boats, Jack at our head. "No worries, mates," he said reassuringly. "Tia Dalma and I go way back, thick as thieves. Nigh inseparable, we are…were…have been…before…"
"This is one of those times when the way you treat most females comes back to haunt you." I told him.
Jack blinked. "Most?"
I shrugged. "You've been pretty good with me so far." Jack looked happy at that. "Don't think about Elizabeth…don't think of Jack falling in love with her and leaving me behind…too late."
"I'll watch your back," Gibbs promised.
"It's me front I'm worried about…"
"I'll keep an eye on that," I said, smiling. "Mind the boat," I told Toby.
"Mind the boat," Toby told Will.
"Mind the boat," Will said to Ragetti, but we were too far away to hear the rest.
Jack opened the door, and Tia looked up from her voodoo. She smiled. "Jack Sparrow."
"Tia Dalma." Jack answered, a hint of wariness in his voice.
Tia stood and made her way over. "I always knew de wind was going ta blow ya back to me one day."
I blinked in surprise as Tia turned to me. Should've seen that coming. "Mary Anderson," she whispered softly. She placed a hand on my shoulder. "Your heart be filled wit questions, child…questions ya cannot answer. Questions dat tear you apart."
I nodded, looking down. Of course, many of my questions had to do with my Sparrowbeth and Jack's death dilemmas, but there were the questions of, "What am I doing in these movies? How did I get here? Why was I the one?" Not that I was complaining or anything, but I'd be nice to understand everything that's happening for once.
Jack stared at me, eyes filled with concern. I guessed that he had known I was upset about something, but had no idea I was this troubled. He quietly walked over and put an arm around me. Grateful, I leaned against his shoulder.
Tia finally noticed Will. "You…you have a touch of…destiny about you…William Turner."
Will's eyes widened. "You know me?"
"You want to know me," Tia answered seductively.
I shuddered. "That is wrong in so many ways." Toby nodded slightly.
Jack cut in between the two. "There'll be no knowing here. We've come for help and we're not leaving without it." He blinked at Tia. "I thought I knew you."
Tia stood her ground. "Not so well as I'd hoped. I thought ya knew ya woman."
Jack looked at me. "I do, but…you see…"
"He doesn't know me as well as he'd like, I'm sure," I clarified. Jack nodded.
Tia shrugged. "Him know ya well enough." Jack stared at her, but consented to agree. "Come." Tia walked back to the table.
"Come," Jack repeated. Will, Toby, and I sat down. Tia smiled and caressed Will. "What service may I do ya?" She looked up at Jack, business-like. "Ya know I demand payment."
"I brought payment!" Jack answered. He whistled and waved his hand. Pintel brought over a cage covered with a cloth. Toby snorted. "This should be good."
"You have no idea," I answered, trying to contain my laughter.
Jack removed the cloth, revealing the monkey. "Look!" He cocked his gun and shot the monkey, who screeched and crouched back against the cage. "An undead monkey! Top that!" He placed the cage in front of Tia.
Tia opened the cage. "No!" Gibbs warned, but it was too late. The monkey went scampering off to the back room, where a pair of boots were lying on what appeared to be a bed. "You've no idea how long it took us to catch that," Gibbs moaned.
"The payment is fair," Tia assented.
Toby stood, eyeing the room where the monkey had disappeared. "Those boots…"
I yanked his arm, forcing him back into his seat. "Easy, mate. One scene at a time."
Only Tia seemed to know what I was talking about. Will handed her the cloth. "We're looking for this…and what it goes to."
Tia stared at it. She turned to Jack, who was observing Tia's various knickknacks. "De compass ya bartered from me, it cannot lead you to dis?"
Jack stared at her. "Maybe. Why?"
Tia sat down, grinning. "Ah…Jack Sparrow does not know what he wants! Or do you know, but are loath to claim it as your own?"
I looked down, fuming. I saw my hands clutching the table so hard, my knuckles were turning white. "Damn you, Elizabeth," I whispered so no one could hear. Tia reached past Will and put a comforting hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see her smiling empathetically.
Jack looked between us. "Am I missing some sort of inside…voodoo…fortuneteller…female conversation?"
"Yes!" We both snapped at him. I caught my breath. "Sorry, Jack, I just…I really don't feel like talking about it." Jack nodded and squeezed my other shoulder.
Tia took her hand off my shoulder. "Your key go to a chest, and it is what lay inside de chest you seek, don't it?"
"Yes," Toby said impatiently. "But as we said, we don't know the location of either object."
"What is inside?" Gibbs asked.
"Gold? Jewels? Unclaimed properties of a valuable nature?!" Pintel asked greedily.
Ragetti nervously glanced at a jar of eyes. "Nothing bad, I hope…?"
Toby stared at him. "With our luck, it could be like a severed head or something." Ragetti whimpered.
Tia leaned forward, in full storyteller mode. "You know of Davy Jones, yes? A man of the sea. A great sailor, until he ran afoul of that which vex all men." Jack looked up from his pilfering of Tia's stuff and glanced at me, smiling slyly.
"What vexes all men?" Will asked.
Tia smiled and slid her hand over his. "What indeed?"
"The sea!" Gibbs said confidently.
"Sums!" Pintel corrected.
"Power?" Toby guessed.
"Close," I told him, "but there's something else…"
"The dichotomy of good and evil?" Ragetti tried. Everyone stared at him.
"Do you guys need a hint?" I sighed. They nodded meekly. "There's two of them in the room." The pirates looked around, more confused than ever. "Oh, bloody hell, you guys! This is simple!"
"A woman," Jack finished, sounding a bit bored.
"Thank you!" I muttered.
"A woman," Tia confirmed. "'E fell in love."
"No, no, no, no" Gibbs interrupted. "I heard it was the sea he fell in love with."
Tia stared at him coldly. "Same story, different versions, and are all true!"
"How can they be all…?" Toby started to ask, but Tia ignored him. "See, it was a woman as changing and harsh and untamable as the sea. Him never stopped loving her, but de pain it caused him was too much ta live with…but not enough ta cause him ta die."
"What exactly did he put into the chest?" Will asked, trying to get back on topic.
"Him heart," Tia whispered.
"Literally or figuratively?" Ragetti asked.
"He couldn't literally put his heart in the chest…could he?" Pintel asked fearfully.
Tia glanced at him. "It was not worth feeling what small, fleeting joy life brings. And so…him carve out him heart…lock it away in a chest, and hide de chest from the world. The key…he keep wit him at all times."
"And the icing on the cake?" I murmured. "The heart's still beating."
"Hmm," Toby mused. "Severed head…still-beating heart…I was close." He looked suspiciously at Tia. "You seem to know an awful lot about Davy Jones."
Before Tia could answer, Will stood and challenged Jack. "You knew this."
"I did not. I didn't know where the key was…" Will and I rolled our eyes. "…but now we do. So all that's left is to climb aboard the Flying Dutchman, grab the key, you go back to Port Royal and save your bonny lass, eh?" He turned to leave.
Tia stood and held out her hand. "Let me see ya hand."
Jack hopefully held out the wrong hand. Tia stared stonily at him. Jack sighed and held out his other hand. I walked over and gently held his other hand. He gave me the smallest of smiles. Tia undid the bandage, revealing the Black Spot.
Gibbs gasped. "The Black Spot!" He brushed off his vest, spun around, and spat.
"The Black Spot!" Pintel and Ragetti echoed, doing the same.
I glared at them. "Oh, shut up, you superstitious muttonheads!" I wasn't really in the best of moods.
"My eyesight's as good as ever, just so you know!" Jack added angrily.
Tia walked to the back room, muttering. I ignored the clattering and stared at the boots, willing them to disappear. They didn't.
Tia reemerged holding the jar of dirt. "Davy Jones cannot make port. Cannot step on land but once every ten years. Land is where you are safe, Jack Sparrow, and so you will carry land wit you." She held out the jar.
Jack took it and stared at it cynically. "Dirt. This is a jar of dirt."
"Yes."
"Is the jar of dirt going to help?"
"If you don't want it, give it back."
Jack held it out of her reach. "No!"
"Then it helps."
Will turned to Tia. "It seems we have a need to find the Flying Dutchman."
Tia smiled, sat down, and held a bunch of crab and lobster claws in her hands. "A touch…of destiny!" She let go of the claws, and they landed in exact position.
I tipped my hat. "Much obliged, Tia." I turned to the others. "Okay, people! All aboard the Davy Jones Crocodile Machine!" They stared at me. "It's an inside joke." The pirates nodded and walked back outside.
I was about to follow when I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around to see Tia. "Do not fear, child. De future is not always set in stone. Perhaps now, wit your arrival, you can change de outcome of de story."
My eyes widened. "You…know?" Tia only smiled. I blinked twice. "Oh my God, it's so obvious!"
Jack poked his head in. "Mary? You coming, luv?"
"Uh, yeah, I'm…I'm coming." I looked at Tia. With a quick "Bye," I rushed out the door.
Once we were settled into the boat, Jack said, "So what she said earlier was true? About you having a troubled heart or something like that?"
I nodded slowly, feeling a tear come to my eye.
Jack pulled me in closer. "Well, luv, if you ever need help, I'll always be here for you."
"T-thanks, Jack," I whispered, letting the tears fall.
If only he knew what I did.
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Silverstar: R&R!