thank you Libby
wow we are like nearly finished me and Libby it feels so strange
CHAPTER 12 BATTLE TO THE DEATH
"I don't care for the situation. Any attempt to storm the caves could turn to an ambush," Norrington complains from the front of the longboat.
"Not if you're the one doing the ambushing. I go in, I convince Barbossa to send his men out with their little boats. You and your mates return to the Dauntless and blast the bejesus outta them with your little cannons, eh? What do you have to lose?" Jack tells him.
"Nothing I'd lament being rid of," he tells us.
I glare at him and mouth the word, Elizabeth, to him. He winces and looks away.
"Now, to be quite honest with you, there's still a slight risk for those aboard the Dauntless, which includes the future Mrs. Commodore," Jack tells him with a secret smirk to me.
Norrington begins to send the signal back and everyone in the first longboat begins to switch boats leaving only me, Nnorrington, and Jack. He nods to me, glares at Jack-who glares back-before switching to another boat and pushing us toward the cave. I push the oars towards Jack, who reluctantly picks them up and begins to row to the cave.
"We're not sticking to the original plan, are we?" I ask Jack, smirking.
"No," he replies.
"Why doesn't this surprise me?" I drawl sarcastically.
Jack just smirks, before pulling us up onto the sand and wandering round the caves until we find the crew.
"Beg your pardon," Jack mumbles to people.
"Move it, pardon me, coming through. Move!" I snarl to my ex-crew mates as they whistle and make comments in my ears.
"Begun by blood!" Barbossa shouts, holding a knife to Will's throat, ready to slit it.
"Excuse me," Jack says, as I say, "Move."
"By blood un..." Barbossa finishes.
"Jack! Jaz!" Will cries out, and Barbossa looks up.
"S'not possible," Barbossa murmurs, looking between Jack and me. He smirks at me.
"Not probable," I say, a smirk escaping my face as Barbossa's face falls into a frown seeing me not panic.
"Where's Elizabeth?" Will yells. I roll my eyes.
"She's safe, just like I promised. She's all set to marry Norrington, just like she promised. 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" Jack exclaims.
"Shut up! You're next, then Jasmine. She'll just give up after you're dead, making her no fun," Barbossa yells.
"You don't want to be doing that, mate," Jack comments.
"No, I really think I do," Barbossa replies.
"Your funeral, so I recommend you go through with it, considering I want to see your funeral,"I happily suggest, only to get jabbed in the ribs by Jack's elbow, making me hiss in pain.
"Why don't I want to be doing it?" Barbossa drawls.
"Well, because…because the HMS Dauntless, pride of the Royal Navy, is floating just offshore. Waiting for you," Jack says, pushing a pirate's arm off his shoulder as I turn to punch mine in the face when he tries to stop me from following Jack.
"Just hear me out, mate. You order your men to row out to the Dauntless. They do what they do best. Robert 's your Uncle, Fannie 's your Aunt, there you are with two ships. The makings of your very own fleet. 'Course you'll take the grandest as your flagship, and who's to argue? But what of the Pearl? Name me Captain, I'll sail under your colours, I'll give you ten percent of me plunder and you get to introduce yourself as…Commodore Barbossa. Also, you can have Jasmine whenever you please. Savvy?"
When he says about my part in the deal, I look at Jack in shock but he doesn't look at me. I look at Barbossa, whose eyes are gleaming in expectation only imagining what he could do, and I look back toward Jack who just turns his head to me. His eyes that usually hold warmth only hold coldness for me and I flinch back, stumbling slightly.
"How could you? How could you betray me like that?" I say softly, my eyes shining in hurt.
I stumble away from him and unfortunately right into the arms of Barbossa, whose arms wrap around my waist, holding me to his chest. Barbossa's hand finds my chin and he forces my chin up, making me meet his eyes, and I let a silent tear slip from my eye. He just laughs cruelly.
"Do we have a deal?" Jack asks, holding his hand out to shake.
" I s'pose in exchange, you want me not to kill the whelp," Barbossa says, signalling to Will who, I notice, is behind him with two pirates holding on to him.
"No. No, by all means kill the whelp. Just not yet. Wait to lift the curse until the opportune moment. For instance…after you've killed Norrington's men… every… last… one," Jack says, pocketing one of the medallions which he had picked up a handful of.
I look up to barbossa who is in deep thought, and I quickly pocket a medallion for myself and feel the change from the curse.
"You've been planning this from the beginning. Ever since you learned my name," Will accuses and I can't help but agree with him. We had planned parts of it, but this was obviously something he hadn't planned with me.
"Yeah," Jack agrees, confirming my suspicions.
"You're a bastard! After everything we've been through!" I snarl at Jack and watch as a flash of hurt passes through his eyes.
"I want fifty percent of your plunder," Barbossa says, pushing me aside.
"Fifteen," Jack bargains.
"Forty," Barbossa tries.
"Twenty five," Jack says, "and I'll buy you a hat. A real big one, commodore."
"We have an accord." Barbossa smirks.
"All hands to the boat!" Jack yells. "Apologies. You give the orders."
"Gents, take a walk!" Barbossa smiles.
"Not to the boats?" Jack asks, confused.
"I must admit, Jack , I thought I had ye figured. But it turns out that you're a hard man to predict," Barbossa quickly calls to Jack.
I am beside Will, my hands bound behind my back with knots I am already nearly finished undoing.
"Me? I'm dishonest. And a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly… stupid," Jack says.
He pulls a sword from another man's sheath and pushes him into a pool of water ,before throwing that sword to Will and quickly trapping Barbossa in battle.
The rope I had finally undone has fallen from my hands, and I strike up a short battle with another pirate. Once I cut off his head, I stand watching as Barbossa and Jack battle. I see Barbossa trip Jack up and watches him fall. Diving in toward their fight, I hear Barbossa snarl to Jack, "You're off the edge of the map, mate. Here, there be monsters."
"Yeah, and I'm looking at one," I say, jumping in front of Barbossa and holding my sword ready.
He strikes first and I block it. We keep going like this with Jack following closely behind Barbossa throws all his weight into his next jab and I block it again, but the weight forces me to the floor and I take Jack down with me. We share a glance.
You can't beat me, Jack, Jasmine," Barbossa growls.
"Together?" I ask. He nods.
Both of us take our swords and stab them through his chest. He just sighs, then takes the swords out of his chest and stabs our bodies with them. We stumble back and fake dying.
"You stupid man. Did you honestly think Jack would let you have me, that he would give me up, give up the pearl, to you? How stupid can you get?" I laugh.
Standing straight, I step back into the moonlight and Jack does the same. We look down and notice our skeleton bodies, before each taking a coin from where we hid them.
"That's interesting," I comment, snapping one of my fingers and watching as it snaps back into place.
"Couldn't resist it, mate." Jack smirks, rolling his coin over his fingers as I flip mine between each hand.
Barbossa snarls at us and then picks his sword up from where he threw it. He charges at us. I instantly step in, recovering my sword from my chest, and ,fighting the man, we make our way up to where Jack is. He trips Barbossa and we watch as he rolls down the rocks. Running past him, Jack knocks me out of the way as Barbossa gets up, and then knocks his head on the wall.
"Sorry!" Jack yells.
"So, what now, Jack Sparrow and Jasmine Pearl? Will it be it three immortals locked in an epic battle until Judgment Day and the trumpets sound? Hmm?" Barbossa comments as he takes a breather on a rock.
"Or you could surrender," I say.
"Arrrrr," Barbossa laughs as we run in separate directions.
Whilst running in and out of our crazy three-way fight, I notice Will has made his way up to the stone chest. Quickly checking Barbossa is busy with Jack, I slice my hand open and then throw my medallion to Will, who catches it. I take on Barbossa again whilst jack does the same. Barbossa takes his pistol out and points it at Elizabeth. She can't be shot now, not after all I've done for her. Running toward the woman, I quickly push her into the water behind and take her place, pointing my own pistol at Barbossa and firing straight for the heart at the exact same time as Jack. Our shots ring out together.
"Ten years you carry those pistols, and now you both waste your shots," he drawls at us.
"They didn't waste them," Will says as he drops all three medallions.
Barbossa looks at us all in shock. Turning to me, he shoots and I dive for the water. The bullet skims my arm and hits the rock behind me. Coming up to the surface. I watch what barbossa does next. He opens his shirt and watches as blood coats it.
"I feel cold," he says, before dropping down onto a gold pile, an apple rolling from his hand .
The curse was lifted. Jack quickly comes over to me, helping me out of the water.
"Good acting in the deal, love. The tear pulled it off," he tells me. I smile slightly.
Jack and I begin to root around the treasure for something we like the look of. Jack has already picked up a crown, some jewels, and many pieces of gold. All I have is a small anklet which would fit a child and most likely, with a bit of magic, expand as the child ages. Pocketing it, I keep looking and find a crown to match Jack's.
"We should return to the Dauntless," Elizabeth suggests.
"Your fiancé will be wanting to know you're safe," Will replies.
"If you were waiting for the opportune moment…that was it. Now, if you'll be so kind, I'd be much obliged if you'd drop me off at my ship," Jack says, swaggering over to the man.
"Our ship!" I yell.
"I'm sorry Jack, Jasmine," Elizabeth tells us.
"They done what's right by them. Can't expect more than that," Jack says.
"Well, they should not have left me. Don't they know what a Pearl's temper is like? Are they so stupid?" I snarl, anger lacing every word in my voice.
