Isabelle awoke with a start and stared at the tray that had been pushed beneath the cell door. She had not even heard her jailor approach her defense had been so great. She stared again at the darkness and remembered her visions and dream. She touched her fingertips to her lips and realized that her hands were trembling. What had just happened?

She crawled over to the tray and stared at the moldy piece of bread and the slimy piece of pork that swam in brine on her plate. She pushed the tray back beneath the bars and pulled herself upright. The burning in her knee had abated and though it still gave her some pain, it was not as bad as she was sure it would have been had Gisjbert not helped her. Light streamed through the port above and she realized that she must have slept for hours. She went back to the place in the wall where Gisjbert had slipped back into but could barely make him out, so faint were the whorls in the wood now.

"He won't come out again, missy. He expended too much energy on you." Isabelle turned to see the eel headed crewman staring at her through the bars. "He's part of the ship." Isabelle remained silent and watched as the crewmember unlocked the cell and entered. "You're wanted up above."

"Why?" Isabelle asked warily, backing further from the crewman.

"I don't ask questions." The eel head extended towards her and the two beady eyes blinked at her. "Unlike some people…."

"I won't go."

"You will if I have to drag you up them steps." The crewman growled.

"You won't lay a hand on me." Isabelle said sounding braver than she felt. She was angry, but anger and bravery were two completely different things. "I will be told right now why I am being taken above and for what…" The eel-man lashed out and struck her with the back of one of his huge hands, catching her high across her cheek. Isabelle crumpled against the hull of the ship and gasped at the pain shooting through her face. A dirty strip of wool was placed over her mouth and she was forced to bite down on it. Isabelle shrieked and tried to struggle as the eel-man tied the gag tightly behind her head.

"I told you no more questions." The creature's low voice hissed in her ear. She struggled against him as he hauled her to her feet and thrust her up the stairs ahead of him.

As she stepped out onto the deck a burlap sack was pulled quickly over her head and she shrieked again. She could see nothing now. Fear began to take over and she wondered why she was bound, gagged, and blindfolded.

"Right this way…" A rough hand grasped her upper arm and she was pulled across the deck.

Something snapped within Isabelle, a latent desire to survive and she tried to struggle against the direction with all her might. She swung her shoulder up into her escort and surprised them enough that they released her. Startled that she'd been so successful, she lost her balance and tripped sideways into more grasping hands and tentacles. She shrieked repeatedly as she felt the tentacles slithering their way up and around her arms and she struggled against them too.

"Oy! Enough of that! Lord Beckett says he wants her unharmed!"

So that's why she was being brought up. Cutler wanted to use her. Or parade her. She felt something wrapped around her arms and mumbled out a string of expletives that she thought were rather creative. She thought it rather unfortunate that no one could understand them through the gag. A hook was slid underneath the rope bindings and she was hoisted into the air. She hung perfectly still; afraid of what was to happen next. Her feet touched the warm wood of a boat that bobbed with the waves and Isabelle felt hands on her legs to guide her to a seated position within the boat. The hook was removed, as were the ropes around her arms, and she felt the boat ease away from the Flying Dutchman.

Eventually the boat ground to halt and Isabelle could hear the waves lapping against land. Had they come to an island? She was pulled to her feet and she was again forced to rely on her captors to support her as she stumbled across the loose sand, unable to find her balance with the bag over her head.

She heard the soft sound of boots crunching in the soft sand and the prickle of someone's consciousness trying to reach out to her own. She sensed shock and curiosity and satisfaction. Cutler was beyond the burlap sack that covered her face, but so was someone else. And if the sound of the sand shifting was any indication, there were a lot of someone's on the beach this day.

"You be the cur that led these wolves to our door." Isabelle recognized the gravelly voice as belonging to Hector Barbossa. She remembered it from her visions.

"Don't blame Turner. He was merely the tool of your betrayal." Cutler said. Turner was there too if what Barbossa and Cutler had said was any indication. "If you wish to see its grand architect, look to your left."

"My hands are clean in all of this….figuratively." Jack! Isabelle moved her feet in the warm sand uneasily, trying to figure out if she should be grateful or fearful at Jack's presence.

"My actions were my own and to my own purpose." Turner spoke up. "Jack had nothing to do with it."

Then how did you get the compass? How did you know where the court would convene? Isabelle's mind raced.

"Well spoke. Listen to the tool." Jack replied.

"Will, we've been aboard the Dutchman. I understand the burden you bear, but I fear that cause is lost." Elizabeth was here too then, and who was the mouse in her pocket? Isabelle assumed one of the Empress crewmen had accompanied her. They were the only ones to have been on both the Dutchman and make it to the meeting of the court. Damn her for not listening to Norrington and following through on his last request of her! She never should have gone to Shipwreck Cove!

"No cause is lost if there is but one fool left to fight for it." Isabelle felt something crackle in the air but wasn't sure what it was, so distracted was she with her angry thoughts at Elizabeth. She was unable to orient herself to what was going on with the sack over her head. Why did they blindfold me? What purpose does this serve except to disorient me? If that was their intent, then they succeeded.

She wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know everything that was going on. But being so off balance and virtually in the dark was frustrating to her. Better to be safe than sorry though….She kept her defenses high and strong in a blanket effort to keep everything out of her mind. She wanted no one where they didn't belong, she'd let too many people get too close over the years.

"If Turner wasn't acting on your behalf, then how did he come to give me this?" Cutler drawled. "You made a deal with me Jack, to deliver the Pirates and here they are! Don't be bashful. Step up! Claim your reward!" So then, Cutler hadn't been so stupid as to think that Jack would hand over the court while they were convened. How many pirates now lay in the sea beyond? She only hoped that now the Dutchman and Endeavor would have to face a fleet of pirate vessels. Unless of course, the armada that Cutler had been collecting also bobbed somewhere in the surf behind her….

"Your debt to me is still to be satisfied!" Jones shouted. What was Jones doing on land? His ten years was not yet up. "One hundred years in servitude aboard the Dutchman. As a start!" Jones snarled.

"That debt was paid, mate. With some help." Jack said.

"You escaped"

"Technically"

"I propose an exchange." Elizabeth suddenly said breaking up the argument over technicalities. "Will leaves with us….and you can take Jack."

The air was electrified with shock and outrage. Isabelle shifted her feet again and struggled briefly against the crewman holding her.

"Done!" Turner said quickly.

"Undone!" Jack replied.

"Done!" Cutler's authority and pride at getting what he wanted was palpable in the tropic air.

"Jack's one of the nine pirate lords, you have no right…" Barbossa began to shout but was cut off by Elizabeth.

"King." She said as if that settled everything. What was going on out there? What had happened in the days since the Empress had escaped from the Dutchman?

"As you command, your nibs." Jack responded.

"Blaggard!" Barbossa shouted and a monkey screeched. Where had the monkey come from? Isabelle heard it scurry across the sand and then back. There was a low murmuring and Isabelle couldn't pick up on what was said with the sound of surf and wind surrounding her. She heard the crunch of boots in the sand slowly move, as if in dance and felt the crewman detaining her sweep and arm out as if to bump someone away from her. Jack must have been coming to stand beside her but had been maneuvered to another position.

"Do you fear, death?" Jones leered.

"You have no idea…"

"There are obviously other hostages to be considered." Isabelle's head snapped towards this new voice. It sounded familiar but seemed impossible.

"Oh, this?" Isabelle flinched when she felt a gloved hand run up the length of her arm. She knew it was Cutler, it felt as if there were a trail of slime left in the path of his touch. "I wanted you all to see that punishment for crimes is universal. There is no begging out of it."

"What crimes?" Elizabeth sounded shocked and indignant.

"Jail Breaks too numerous to count, slander, threats against the monarchy…just to name a few. Some charges are obviously going to have to be dropped though…."

"You're mad…" Turner said.

"Am I?" The burlap sack was pulled from her head roughly and Isabelle closed her eyes against the sudden brightness of the sun. She flinched and tried to turn away from where the sun hung directly in her line of vision. "No no my dear. Don't be shy or bashful….look at your friends…." She opened her eyes and glared at Cutler. "Oh, your 'supposed' friends I guess I should say…"

I will fight you. I will win.

Isabelle transposed the thoughts into Cutler's brain, her dark eyes burning with an anger as bright as the sun. Cutler's eyes widened at hearing her voice so clearly in his head and he instantly tried to withdraw from her. She followed his consciousness as a cat would follow a mouse it was toying with. Cutler's only mode of defense was to break her eye contact and he did so by grasping her chin in his hand and forcefully turning her gaze away from him and towards the others.

Isabelle looked at the barely interested gaze on Hector Barbossa's face. He turned a charm of some sort over in his fingers and narrowed his eyes as he took in her disheveled appearance.

"What interest and use does that waif have for that foul cur of a man?"

She saw Elizabeth who looked quite shocked and dismayed at her appearance. William Turner looked apologetic, having seen her so soon after she'd been degraded and having not been able to do anything. She turned her eyes to the fourth figure on the beach and her breath caught in her chest.

"Well, well, well." Cutler drawled when he saw the shocked expression on her face. "I see you are quite shocked to see our friend the former Admiral standing here. I suppose you thought him good and truly dead."

He's alive!!!! Isabelle's heart near to burst at the sight of James Norrington standing in the sand opposite her. He was alive! She hadn't killed him!

"You see, she was also charged with the murder of Admiral Norrington, but since he's standing here with us today, I suppose I shall just have to drop that charge…."

"Let her go." James said. Isabelle shook her head and tried to mumble something through the gag. Don't trade yourself for me. It's not worth it! The grasp on her arm tightened painfully and she stopped struggling, a squeak of discomfort escaping through the gag.

"Oh no…you see. She's too valuable an asset to me right now. I'll keep her close. I'd also like her to be an example to others. Show them that I don't play favorites." Isabelle pulled away from Cutler as he tried to stroke the side of her face. He turned his attentions back to Elizabeth.

"Advise your brethren you can fight and all of you will die. Or you can not fight, in which case only most of you will die."

"You murdered my father." Elizabeth murmured.

"He chose his own fate." Cutler responded. Isabelle saw in her mind's eye Governor Swann's assassination. She forced Cutler from her mind, repeating her mantra of her victory over him. She would not allow him to control her!

"And you have chosen yours." Elizabeth practically growled. "We will fight. And you will die." Isabelle watched as Elizabeth, Will and Barbossa turned and went back towards their small rowboat at the opposite end of the sandbar they were standing on. Her eyes swept to James Norrington's eyes, his dark hair sweeping across his face in the salty breeze.

Go! Now!

James backed up several steps, never once losing eye contact with her. He had taken ten steps before he finally turned on his heel and quickened his paces to catch up with the others.

An image flickered in her mind and she cocked her head at the wonder of it. She slid her gaze across and saw Jack staring at her with his intense, chocolate brown eyes. She nodded her head slightly, a movement made difficult by the tightness of the gag in her mouth pulling against her hair and her neck.

Two marines came across the beach and picked up the tub that Jones stood in. The tub was filled with water and Isabelle now understood how it came to pass that he was able to participate in the parlay. The men bailed water from the tub in an effort to lighten it and get Jones back to the deeper shoals. The men struggled beneath the weight of the barrel, heads down and Cutler, the shark headed crewman, Jack and Isabelle watched as they puffed, grunted and eventually managed to drag Jones close to the water's edge. They followed along behind at a slower pace and made for the small boat.

"That went incredibly well, don't you think, Isabelle?" Cutler smiled back at her. "Just think, now you don't have to be tried for murder; that must be such a relief for you."

Isabelle struggled against the crewman behind her and glanced again to Jack. Was the image she had seen really from him or had it been wishful thinking on her part? Nothing proffered nothing gained. It is worth a shot…..

She dug her feet into the sand and stomped back on the big shark headed creature's foot.

At least, it was what she assumed was a foot.

Jack moved swiftly to her side and took a heavy handed swing across the creature's head. She ducked as the swing came across and the creature lost his balance and toppled into the sand.

"Run!" Jack hissed, shoving her in the direction that the crew of the Pearl had taken.

Isabelle looked to him but he was already being grabbed at by the creature and looked as if he had no interest in fleeing. Isabelle took off as fast as her legs would carry her. Her feet slipped in the loose sand and she heard a gunshot report behind her. Sand kicked up on her left as the bullet buried itself in the sand. She nearly tripped but somehow managed to catch her balance in the shifting sand. She saw James and the others up ahead. They had almost reached their small boat but James had turned and started back for her having heard the commotion behind them. Isabelle heard footsteps coming up fast behind her and she tried to run faster. Her chest felt tight and her knee was starting to hurt again.

"Isabelle! Get Down!" Isabelle saw James level a pistol in her direction and she quickly dove forward. Her shoulder dug into the sand and she heard the gun go off over her head. There was a grunting sound behind her and she turned to her side to see the crewman who had detained her stagger back, a gaping hole in his chest. Isabelle staggered up to her knees and found it difficult to rise to her feet. Her legs burned and her knee gave out beneath her when she tried to stand. She was in the attempt of rising again when she felt someone grasp her arm and haul her to her feet. Instantly she thought it was another crewman coming to get her and she struggled against them.

"Isabelle, it's me! Open your eyes!" Isabelle stopped struggling as she looked up into James Norrington's eyes. "Come on, we have to go now!"

She staggered along beside him as he reached behind her to try to unknot the gag. He got it loosened enough to slip it down around her neck. She took a gasping breath and spit into the sand to get rid of the disgusting taste of the fabric.

"Thank you." She rasped. She coughed a few times as they waded into the surf. Will and Barbossa sat in the boat at the oars keeping the boat close to the shallows. Elizabeth sat near the rudder staring back at them. Isabelle trudged into the surf beside James and hissed at the feeling of cold water coming up her legs, the salt stinging the brand in her knee. She almost fell but James had a tight grasp on her arm and didn't let her go down. His hand was warm on her bare arm and as they reached the side of the boat, his hand drifted to her waist. Isabelle didn't have time to think about James Norrington's hands being warm on her waist. They had to get away from the sand bar, Cutler and Jones. William Turner leaned forward and grasped her shoulders, helping to pull her into the boat. Barbossa helped Norrington in and there was a change in positions as Elizabeth came forward to sit beside Isabelle and Barbossa took the rudder.

"How much time do you think we'll have?" Elizabeth asked as James shrugged from his coat and pulled it around Isabelle's shoulders.

"Not enough, I assure you." Barbossa growled. Elizabeth held a water skin to Isabelle's lips and watched as Isabelle drank as much as she could.

"Are you alright?"

"I am now." Isabelle said wiping one of her hands across the back of her mouth. "I'd be better without this hardware though…"

"Will?" Turner looked over his shoulder as he rowed the boat and his lips pulled up into a slight grin.

"Not a problem. We'll take care of it when we get to the Pearl." He said taking in the sight of the shackles. "It won't be long at all and we'll have you free."

Isabelle sat in the boat and watched as the figures on the beach got into their own boats and headed back to the towering masses of the Flying Dutchman and the Endeavor.

She had made her decision. SHe had chosen sides.

A/N: Hmmm...so what do you all think of this latest twist? Tee hee hee hee...