Author's Note: I have been away from writing for far too long! Also, I am getting used to this new laptop, I went from one brand to an entirely new one and it's quite different. However, it is different in a good way. So, here's my stab at a new chapter for you lovely folks. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pirates of the Caribbean, any of the fictional characters save for my own or any ideas that come from the movie. Please don't sue.

"Where are we, Gibbs?" Kate glanced over at the first mate from where she sat with Will. She and Jack had exited his cabin earlier, thankfully while no one had been nearby, and the two had stayed separated since. Kate did not want Will to know what had happened between the Captain and herself behind closed doors earlier. He already frowned upon whatever fascination she had with the pirate captain, but if he knew it was a physical one now, there would be no stopping him from going mental.

"Well," Gibbs glanced over from where he was lowering the long boat that they sat in, "This be the Pantano River," he seemed as if he was speaking about a very grave subject as he most usually did.

"Is there any reason why Jack brought us here?" Will asked, leaning forward.

"Aye, well," Gibbs faltered and as the boat hit the water his face lit up, "Well, best be off now, eh?"

The crew began to row the boats down the river and Kate cuddled herself into her oldest friend's shoulder. It was cold and dark and the people sitting eerily on porches and rocks staring at them did nothing much to comfort her.

As they made their way further down the river, Will pressed on for the subject, "Why is Jack afraid of the open ocean?"

Gibbs nearly jumped at the question as Kate frowned to herself. "Well, if you believe such things, there's a beast that does the bidding of Davy Jones. A fearsome creature with giant tentacles that suction your face clean off," Kate shivered involuntarily at the words and Will put an arm around her shoulder, pulling her closer to him, as Gibbs carried on, "And drag an entire ship past the crushing darkness. The Kraken!"

Marty turned around from the front of the long boat at the mention of the beast and Pintel and Ragetti glanced at each other fearfully. When no one said a word, Gibbs moved forward, "They say the stench of it's breath is like –ooh!" he shivered, just thinking about it, "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." He paused, "If you believe in such things."

Will frowned, "And the key will spare him that?"

"Now that's the very question Jack wants answered," Gibbs frowned, "Bad enough to even go visit…her."

"Her?" Will asked, as his eyebrows rose upwards.

"Aye."

"Her?" Kate asked again, raising both of her own eyebrows up towards her hairline, "And who is her?"

Joshamee Gibbs frowned at the young girl. He knew that she had fancied Jack a few months ago, but it seemed that she had not gotten over it quite yet. However, before he could form any sort of a response, Jack had given the signal to stop rowing and the long boats glided elegantly to a slow stop.

"No worries, mates," Jack grinned as he got out of his boat, glancing back at the other one. "Tia Dalma and I go way back. Thick as thieves…nigh inseparable we are. Were. Have been," he frowned, "Before."

"I'll watch your back," Gibbs offered as he climbed out and stood next to his captain. As Will helped Kate out of the boat and step onto the ground, Jack muttered, "It's me front I'm worried about." He then became slightly cheerful again, "Mind the boat."

Gibbs turned back to Will, "Mind the boat."

Will turned to Kate, "Mind the boat," he scurried after Gibbs, away from her. She scoffed, insulted, before repeating it to Pintel and hurrying off after Will.

As she caught up, Jack was just pushing the door to the shack open. Kate noticed a live snake hanging from the ceiling. She tilted her head, confused and looked back at the crew. After a moment she noticed that it must have been Cotton that got stuck watching the boat, as his parrot was here, but he was nowhere in sight.

A dark skinned woman with dark hair sat at a table playing with what looked like, to Kate, crab claws. She looked up to see Jack in the door way and stood up, "Jack Sparrow!"

"Tia Dalma!" he called back, moving closer to the woman with a smile.

"I always knew de wind was goin' blow you back to me one day," she made her way over to Jack, smiling. Kate cringed inwardly. Her teeth were filthy. Surely Jack didn't…she sighed, but of course he did. The woman, or Tia, moved to Will next, "You. You have a touch of destiny about you, William Turner."

Will was shocked. Had Jack told this mysterious woman about him? Before he could say anything to her, she was already right in front of Kate and Will would have been a fool to miss the guilt, confusion, and fear on Jack Sparrow's face as the older woman stared his friend down.

"You," Tia Dalma whispered to the youngest Swann. "Your life has been intertwined in another's that you weren't meant to be in," she smiled, "And your fate, your destiny…has changed."

"Is that…good or bad?" Kate frowned, confused.

"Good, very good. Without you…Katherine Swann, many would die. Many innocents…you will be faced with two paths…and you must choose one. Whichever you choose, determines who lives."

"Well, don't put any pressure on me," Kate spoke sarcastically. Tia Dalma laughed.

"Wait a second," Will spoke up, "You know us?"

She moved closer to Will, "Do you want to know me?"

Jack stepped in, wrapping his arm around Tia Dalma's shoulders as he led her away from William Turner, "There'll be no knowing here. We've come for help and we're not leaving without it." Once he thought they were out of earshot he whispered, "I thought I knew you."

Will caught the redness of fury on Kate's face but saw that she relaxed when Tia Dalma nearly snapped back, "Not so well as I had hoped," she moved away from Jack and walked back to her table, "Come."

"Come," Jack repeated, following the mysterious woman.

Tia turned on the spot nearly causing Jack to topple over her. "What…service…may I do you? Hmm? You know I demand payment."

"I brought payment," Jack grinned. He whistled once and a crewmember brought him Jack, the undead monkey, in a cage. He grinned, cocking his pistol and shooting at it. Kate let out a small yelp, though she knew that the bullet wouldn't hurt the creature, she still thought it was cute. At least, when it wasn't a skeleton monkey. "Look, an undead monkey! Top that!"

Tia nodded and undid the cage door allowing the monkey to scamper away. Gibbs cried out, "No! You've no idea how long it took us to catch that."

Kate and Tia each threw Gibbs a look as if challenging Tia's abilities, but Kate could sympathize. The remainder of their journey over to Tia on the Pearl, the entire crew had been instructed to catch that monkey at any cost. It had finally been Gibbs who had done it, so Kate understood his frustration.

"The payment is fair." Tia walked away and Kate could just make out the monkey in the next room touching a pair of…boots? When she turned her attention back to the crowd near her, Tia was sitting down and joking with Jack.

"The compass you bartered from me," she was saying, "It cannot lead you to dis?"

"Maybe," Jack frowned, speaking quickly, "Why?"

"Ayee," Tia grinned, glancing over at Kate momentarily before her eyes flickered back to Jack, "Jack Sparrow does not know what he wants! Or…do you know, but are loathe to claim it as your own…be there opposing parties…" she glanced over at Will and then, shockingly to Kate, at Gibbs. When Jack didn't answer, Tia frowned, bored. He wasn't being any fun to play around with, "Your key go to a chest, and it is what lay inside the chest you seek, don't it?"

"What is inside?" Gibbs asked, trying to ease over the tension that Will's glare was feeding the room. Kate was curious as well and she could see by the look on Will's face that even he was. Well, he especially was, because according to Jack, this item was going to save Elizabeth. Or so Jack said.

"Gold!" Pintel cried out, causing everyone to turn and look at him. When no one responded, he continued on, "Jewels?" He tried again. Nothing. Not giving up, he tried once more, "Unclaimed properties of a valuable nature?"

Ragetti then spoke up from beside his friend where he was glancing at a jar of eyeballs. Kate smiled sadly, realizing that he was probably begging that he had something to pay Tia Dalma with, because surely she out of anyone could fix his eye problem. "Nothing bad, I hope."

"You know of…Davy Jones, yes?" Tia asked. "A man of de sea. A great sailor, until he ran afoul of dat which vex all men."

"What vexes all men?" Will asked.

Kate rolled her eyes at her friend, knowing the answer as Tia responded to him with a nearly sarcastic 'What'.

"The sea?" Gibbs guessed.

"Sums!" Pintel cried out.

"The dichotomy of good and evil," Ragetti added in. Kate giggled, patting him on the back and he smiled at her. She did not seem to care that Ragetti had been on Barbossa's crew at one point or another and may or may not have tried to kill herself and her sister. Ragetti was one of her favorites on the crew at the moment.

"A woman," Jack rolled his eyes after narrowing them at the exchange between Ragetti and Kate, tired of the guessing. He glanced back over at Kate, wondering if she was going to be a blessing to him, or a curse.

"A woman," Tia repeated, smiling. "He fell in love."

Kate smiled softly, glancing over at a few more odd jars. Her head pricked up at Gibb's disagreeing tone.

"No, no, no, no, I heard it was the sea he fell in love with."

"Same story, different versions," Tia waved off Gibbs' comment with the back of her hand, "And all are true. See, it was a woman he fell in love with. One as changing, and as harsh, and untamable as the sea. Him never stopped loving her. But the pain it cause 'im was too much to live wit. But not enough to cause 'im to die."

Will gulped, nervous, "What…exactly did he put into the chest?"

Tia smiled eerily again, putting her hands over her heart, "Him heart." Kate gasped.

"Literally, or figuratively?" Ragetti's eye widened.

"He couldn't literally put his heart in a chest!" Pintel cried out before turning, "Could he?"

"It was not worth feeling what small fleeting joy life brings and so he carved out him heart, lock it away in a chest, and hide da chest away from de world. De key, he keep wid him at all times."

Will turned to Jack, "You knew this."

"I did not. I didn't know where the key was. But now we do," Jack smirked, "So all that's left is to climb aboard the Flying Dutchman, grab the key, you go back to Port Royal, and save your bonnie lass, hey!"

Kate frowned, was she to go back to Port Royal as well? As if he could read her mind, Jack glanced back over at her and one look at her sad expression caused his face to fall as well.

Tia halted him before he could say or do anything, "Let me see your hand."

Jack tried the same trick where he showed off his right hand, but Tia grabbed the left and undid the makeshift bandage to reveal the black spot.

Gibbs screamed out, "Ah! Black spot!" before wiping his hands on his chest, spinning around once to the left, and spitting, "Black spot! Black spot!"

Seeing as how Gibbs was generally the superstitious one and that he usually made the most sense, Pintel and Ragetti copied his ritual in complete unison.

Jack frowned, not liking that the crew had found out. "My eyesight's as good as ever, just so you know."

Tia left and went into a different room. Kate's eyes widened at a few crashing noises and the sounds of jars clinking together. She glanced up in time to see Jack put a ring on from off of one of the tables before Tia came back in with a large jar.

"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 with you," she held out the jar and as Kate moved closer to the pair she could see that there was dirt inside of it.

"Dirt," she and Jack both blinked, stating the obvious at the same time. Jack continued on, "This is a jar of dirt."

"Yes?" Tia blinked.

"Is the jar of dirt going to help?" he looked at her, questioning her logic.

"If you don't want it, give it back," she reached for it.

"I'd say that if she says it'll work, then keep it," Kate piped up. Jack nodded, "No!"

"Then it helps." Tia smirked at Kate.

"It seems we have a need to find the Flying Dutchman," Will spoke up. Tia nodded and made her way back to the table. She grabbed her crab shells and began muttering in a language Kate couldn't even begin to understand before shouting, "A touch of destiny!" and throwing them down.

Kate raised an eyebrow and looked around. Jack and Gibbs looked completely comfortable with whatever Tia had done and eager to leave. However, those who had never met Tia Dalma before today looked at one another confused until she opened her mouth to explain. Jack beat her to it and ushered his crew out to the long boats.

As she made her way to the boat that she had been in earlier, seeing her spot next to Will still open and welcome, Jack's hand closed around her forearm gently. She turned to look at him, confused. Hadn't he been the one who had directed her into a separate longboat back on the deck of the Pearl and then got into his own?

He looked into her eyes, searching past the confusion that was clouding them as she searched his for any emotion at all. Finally, she found what looked as if he was almost begging her to stay with him and her eyes lit up as her lips curved upwards into a smile.

She followed him into the other long boat and sat next to him, leaning her head on his shoulder. He smiled to himself, before dropping it. He didn't want his men to see him smiling over a woman. But as her hand found it's way into his, he couldn't stop the small smile that placed itself back on his lips.