Author's Notage: AHHHHHHH! I didn't update two weeks ago on Friday, and then I didn't update just this past Friday either! What happened to "every Friday until the story's complete"?! I'm a terrible person. Please forgive me.

Disclaimer: Leave me alone. I already know what you were going to say.

More Author's Notage: So, basically, I'm beginning to think about thinking about a sequel. And I want you all to think about thinking about it as well. Would you read it if I wrote one? Should I even write one? Should it follow DMC? Let's see how the story folds up in the next few weeks and we'll talk about it.

And, as always, please do take the time to review! I think my review count is lowering, which makes me sad. :(

Chapter Twenty-Three—Because Cliff-Hanger-Like Things are Fun

"Sorry, but it's for you own safety," Gillette told them, dragging Elizabeth and Jessie into the cabin they had been in before, when they had been given a change of soldier's clothes and told to wait. Then, though, they had been allowed to come back out—this time, it was obvious they were going to be locked in.

"Coward! I don't care what the commodore ordered! I have to tell him! The pirates! THEY CAN'T BE KILLED!" Elizabeth struggled against Gillette's hold, shouting angrily.

"Don't worry, miss, he's already informed of that." He released Jessie and Elizabeth. "A little mermaid flopped up on deck and told him the whole story." He laughed and shut the door on them, locking it from the outside.

"This is Jack Sparrow's doing!" Elizabeth called through the door, slumping against it in sad defeat.

"Che'yeah," Jessie replied, examining her nails in a sign of boredom. They waited a few minutes in silence, until Jessie spoke up, grinning mischievously.

"So, about that plan you talked about earlier… How long do we have to stay here before we can put into action?"

-o0o-

Amber watched Barbossa shove Will over the chest and pull out his golden dagger. He held one medallion in his hand, Will's, and had already put Amber's unceremoniously into the chest, where it now lay gleaming in all its fakeness at the top of the chest. "Begun by blood," he started, but never got to finish, because just then Amber gave a gleeful shout and pointed out into the crowd.

"Look!"

"Excuse me, pardon me…" Jack Sparrow was saying, pushing his way through the cursed pirates to reach the bottom of the treasure pile. Barbossa stared, gaping at him.

"It's not possible!" he said, lowering the dagger away from Will so he could get a better look at the pirate coming closer and closer.

"Not probable," Jack corrected smartly.

"Where's Elizabeth?" Will asked anxiously, struggling against Barbossa's hold.

"Why isn't Jessie with you?" Amber asked at the same time. Her friend wouldn't have missed this bit for her life, she knew. Despite herself, Amber found herself grinning. Bet she's ticked.

"Elizabeth is safe, just like I promised," Jack said, making calming motions with his hands to Will. "She's all set to marry Norrington, just like she promised. Jessie's stuck on the Interceptor, and not here, therefore breaking her promise to save you." He pointed to Amber, and then said, "but you're not harmed, just like Barbossa promised; and Will gets to die for his bonny lass, just like he promised. So, we're all men of our word, really, except for Elizabeth, who is in fact a woman, and Jessie, who is also a woman and didn't keep her promise."

"Shut up!" Barbossa snarled, gesturing for the Bo'Sun to grab hold of Jack. "You're next," he warned. He once again brought the dagger to Will's throat.

"You don't want to be doing that, mate," Jack said, wincing. Barbossa sighed.

"No, I really think I do."

"Actually, you probably don't," Amber said. "If you think about, once you break the curse, you won't be immortal, and you will be able to die—"

"Exactly!" Jack said, pointing at Amber like a teacher would had their favourite student got the right answer in class. Barbossa ignored them and went to slice Will a third time. "Your funeral," Jack said quietly, shaking his head and sighing.

"Okay," Barbossa said, looking thoroughly annoyed now. "Why don't I want to be doing it?"

"Because." Jack slapped the Bo'Sun's hand off him, looking annoyed. "Because," he repeated, coming closer; "the HMS Dauntless—pride of the royal navy is floating just off shore…waiting for you."

Barbossa looked mildly interested.

"Just hear me out, mate," Jack continued. Amber wandered off a bit, sitting as delicately as she could in her dress, on the ground, picking up handfuls of dirt and letting it fall through her fingers like a child. As soon as she moved, Barbossa eyed her sharply; but Amber just kept playing with her the dirt, so he turned his attentions back to Jack.

"You order your men to row out to the Dauntless; they do what they do best." A chuckle went through the crowd at this. "Robert's your Uncle, Fannie's your Aunt, and there you are with two ships." Jack looked pointedly at Barbossa. "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?" Jack's voice softened. "Name me Captain; I'll sail under your colors; I'll give you ten percent of me plunder, and you get to introduce yourself as…"; he paused for effect; "Commodore Barbossa. Savvy?"

"And I suppose in exchange you want me not to kill the whelp," Barbossa said, still sounding irritated and annoyed; though he looked like he was considering the proposal.

"No, no, not all. By all means…kill the whelp." Amber raised her head to glare at him, and Will's eyes widened in alarm. Jack continued on, not taking notice of either. "Just not…yet. Wait to lift the curse until the opportune….moment." He ran his hands over the medallions in the chest, fingering them, picking up a few. "For instance, after you've killed Norrington's men. Every…"; he began dropping a coin back into the chest with each word; "last…one."

He stepped back, then, grinning and sticking his hands in his pockets. Amber was impressed; she hadn't even seen clearly what he had done, and she had been looking for it. Will's eyes grew even larger, suspecting, but not understanding.

"You've been planning this from the beginning," he said, "ever since you learned my name." He struggled like he wanted to have a go at Jack, but his captives held him back.

Jack grinned. "Yeah," he said bluntly.

Barbossa had been deep in thought while this exchange went on. "I want fifty percent of your plunder," he said matter-of-factly.

"Fifteen." Jack turned back to face him.

"Forty."

"Twenty-five!" Amber said loudly, standing up. When everyone looked at her, she grinned sheepishly and waved.

"And I'll buy you the hat," Jack said, going with it. "A really big one…Commodore." He grinned hopefully.

"How about, you don't buy him the hat?" Amber interrupted. "Because your choices of hats are a little…well, let's face it, they're just odd, aren't they?" She frowned, thinking hard. "No, wait, that's mostly just Johnny Depp… You just have the one, and it's awesome!"

Jack looked at Amber in wonder, and then turned to face Barbossa. "And I thought I ended up with the strange one," he said.

Barbossa smirked. "Aye, she's a odd one, that girl." He grabbed Jack's hand in his and shook it. "But we have an accord."

Jack grinned, twirling around to face the crew. "All hands the boats!" he said happily, his arms in the air. Then he caught notice of Barbossa's expression, and sheepishly backed away, bowing a little. "Apologies. You give the orders," he said.

"Gents," Barbossa said with a smirk, "take a walk."

Jack looked confused. "Not to the boats?" he questioned. Barbossa just laughed.

-o0o-

"A moment, please. Elizabeth, I just want you to know, I believe you made a very good decision today. Couldn't be more proud of you."

Elizabeth stopped tying the bed sheets together when she heard her father's voice outside the door. She and Jessie had been knotting the linen for nearly ten minutes now, but it never seemed to be long enough to reach the dinghy below the window of the cabin they were in.

"But you know, even a good decision if made for the wrong reasons can be a wrong decision," the governor's voice continued. Elizabeth began looking hopelessly guilty.

"Oh, no," Jessie hissed, snapping her fingers in front of the other girl's face to draw her attention away from the man outside the door. "You are not backing out on me now, Princess. Remember Will? You want to save him, don't you?"

Elizabeth shot one more, lingering, look at the door and then nodded. "We have to save Will," she whispered. "Faster now, it's almost done." And they continued tying; Elizabeth's fingers seemed to fly over the cloth, but Jessie was awkward and slow. However, they finished quickly after that and dropped their makeshift rope ladder out the window.

"Perfect," Jessie exclaimed gleefully when she saw it was the right size. Elizabeth's eyes dilated a little and she "ssh!"-ed Jessie as quietly as she could. "Sorry," the younger girl said. "Are you ready?"

"Elizabeth? Are you there? Elizabeth , are you even listening to me?"

Elizabeth eyes grew wider in panic; she gestured quickly at Jessie to get out of the way, and she began the climb down the ship into the dinghy first; Jessie followed close behind, and they rowed their dinghy out of site just as Governor Swann opened the door to check on them.

-o0o-

Amber's hands were sooty and black from playing in the dirt this whole time, but she didn't really mind. Distractedly, she traced shapes in the pile of soot she'd built up in front of her, humming to herself. She could feel Barbossa's eyes on her occasionally, watching to see if she made any movement to run off; then they would flicker nervously back to Jack, idly roaming around amongst all the treasure, examining ones of particular interest to him; or over to where two pirates still held tightly to Will, waiting for further instructions from their captain.

Finally, Barbossa seemed unable to stand the silence. "I must admit, Jack, I thought I had yeh figured. Turns out, you're a hard man to predict."

Amber looked up to see Jack toss an artifact over his shoulder carelessly. "Me?" he said innocently. "I'm dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly." He walked right past where Amber sat, and stood in front of Barbossa. "It's the honest ones you have to watch out for, because you can never tell when they're going to do something…stupid." And with amazing speed, he tossed a sword to Will, that the blacksmith in turn managed to free himself with, and used it against the pirates who'd been holding his arms.

Barbossa quickly drew his own sword, but Jack was just as speedy—before Amber had even blinked, everyone was engaged in a sword fight with someone else, except for her. Meekly, she abandoned her dirt pile and slunk off to wait patiently in the shadows. She knew nothing about fencing, and the thought of chopping off her own head wasn't exactly appealing.

-o0o-

Jessie hoisted herself up aboard the Pearl after Elizabeth. They stood leaning against the railing for a minute, each taking a moment to catch their breath—it wouldn't do if they panted so heavily everyone heard them coming no matter how stealthily they walked.

After a minute, Elizabeth put a finger to her lips for silence, and just as the two girls turned to go, Barbossa's blasted monkey dropped down in front of them with a horrible screech. Jessie nearly jumped out of her skin.

Elizabeth regarded it, eyes narrowed. "I've had enough of that creature," she whispered. "If you'll just excuse me." She grabbed a heavy board off the deck, and in one quick swoop, hit the monkey over its head and it tumbled over the railing.

Jessie watched it land with a grin. "The animal lover in me should say something about abuse to you," she muttered, "but it is undead, so… Ni-ice." She drew the word out with another jesting grin, before charging down the stairs to the brig as quietly as she could, hiding in the shadows with Elizabeth until the two pirates were gone.

"It's Jessie!" Gibbs said in a whisper scream as they stepped into view; he pressed his face to the bars to get a clear look at the people coming down the steps. "And Elizabeth!" He looked exceptionally relieved as the two girls looked around for the key to free them.

"Oh, we're wasting time!" Jessie said in frustration, before grabbing the mop that lay abandoned on the floor where the pirates had swabbed the decks. She placed it between the bars, and with its leverage, pulled off the cell's hinges like Will had taught her to do that night in the jail cell, what felt like a million years ago.

The mop wasn't as strong as the bench, but it held enough to lift the door. She tossed it aside afterwards, deciding it was only slightly curved and disfigured. The pirates scrambled out gratefully, and Jessie barely managed to grab hold of Marty before he disappeared after the others and Elizabeth.

"Is Amber not on the ship anymore?" she asked, hardly surprised. Marty hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

"Barbossa took her with him to shore."

"All right. Then let's go." And they arrived on deck just as Elizabeth was pulling the dinghy's rope into position.

"All of you with me!" she called; "Will is in that cave and we must save him! Ready? And heave!" When she discovered she was the only one pulling, she froze. Eyes pleading, she looked at each pirate in turn. "Please, I need your help, come on! Jessie!"

"I'm here, I'm here." She stepped forward to stand by Elizabeth, then regarded the others sadly. "But they're not with us," she said.

"Any port in the storm," Cotton's parrot squawked.

"Cotton's right, we've got the Pearl," Gibbs explained.

"And what about Jack?" Elizabeth asked sharply. "You're just going to leave him?" Jessie shook her head, disappointed. She'd never liked that they wouldn't help.

"Jack owes us a ship."

"And there's the code to consider," Gibbs said.

Jessie rolled her eyes, muttering darkly. "Any man who falls behind, is left behind," she growled under her breath. "That is such a stupid rule. Honestly, why not go back and help one of your crew? It's so dumb…"

Elizabeth apparently agreed with Jessie. "You're pirates!" she said. "Hang the code and hang the rules! They're more like guidelines, anyway." Jessie suddenly noticed Anamaria looking at her, remembering when she had said that same thing to her before.

"Come on, Ana," Jessie said tentatively. "Let's go get Jack."

-o0o-

"You can't beat me, Jack!" Barbossa declared. Amber wondered about this; maybe, just maybe he was right…as far as skill with the sword goes, she was pretty sure Jessie had told her once—or maybe she had read it on her own—that Jack Sparrow was actually the worst. But he was tricky, and that went a long way.

The pirate thrust his sword into his former first mate's chest; Amber, from her spot not too far away, shook her head. "I wonder sometimes, Jack," she said, "if you were planning this from the beginning, or if you just forgot he CAN'T BE KILLED!"

Barbossa sighed and rolled his eyes. Amber wasn't ready for it—she was never ready for it—when he took out the sword and plunged it into Jack. She gasped audibly, not only at the quickness of his movement, but out of surprise—Jack had dodged the blade, and instead of being hit square in the chest, the sword got him in the right shoulder, entering on one side and coming out the other.

Amber knew that when he stepped back into the moonlight he would turn into a skeleton, but the gurgling noise he made seemed so real, as if it's owner really was in pain. She grew worried, especially when the pirate fell to his knees, wincing, gripping his injured shoulder with his other hand. Even from here, she could see it was covered in blood.

"You're off the edge of the map, mate," Barbossa said maliciously, Jack's sword held high in his hand. "Here, there be monsters." Grinning like some banshee from Hell, he made to stab Jack again, but Amber screamed, distracting him.

"Oh, my god! NO!" She was running now, tearing her dress a little, but not noticing or caring. Reaching the spot where Jack lay, grimacing still past the pain, and Barbossa stood like a lion going in for the kill, she grabbed Barbossa's wrist. "Don't you dare," she hissed. "This isn't how it was supposed to happen."

Never letting go of Barbossa (she knew he could easily overpower her if he felt like it; but was hoping confusion would still his hand for a moment or two), Amber kicked at Jack's hand, feeling like some evil torturer. He gasped audibly when it connected with the hand covering the wound, but made no other noise to show his discomfort; his hand however, did what Amber wanted it to—move out from the shadows and into the moonlight. When she saw it, Amber wanted to cry.

It had stayed a completely normal, flesh-covered hand.