Author's Note: Thanks everyone for your lovely reviews! Also, I hate Elizabeth. I mean, when I was younger, I used to really like her. Then as I grew up and the Pirates franchise expanded, I grew to hate her (and I mainly mean when the second movie came out...). So as you will see, I dislike Elizabeth Swan… I hope that doesn't offend anyone, ha-ha. I also really hate the way I've written this chapter…
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.
"Will!" Elizabeth cried out happily, "You're alright! Thank God! I came to find you!" She ran up to him and kissed him passionately.
Kate's upper lip curled a bit in disgust at how easily her sister threw herself onto Will after only mere hours ago she had been trying to kiss Jack. She noticed Jack look a bit upset before he cautiously asked how Will had gotten there.
"Sea turtles, mate," Will nearly smirked. Kate laughed loudly at this while her sister looked confused. "A pair of them, strapped to my feet."
"Not so easy, is it?" Jack asked a bit happier; he clearly thought he was off the hook for sending William to near death. However, the look in Will's eyes told Kate a different story.
"But I do owe you thanks, Jack," Will stepped forward a bit. Kate inched a bit closer into the small crowd they had all formed.
"You do?" Jack asked, confused.
"After you tricked me onto that ship to square your debt with Jones-" Will was interrupted by his fiancée asking 'what' and looking at Jack with an accusing glare. A glare to which Captain Sparrow returned his own shocked exclamation of the word. Once he was sure they were done, Will continued on. To be honest, he couldn't care less if they were done arguing or not, he would have continued anyways. "I was reunited with my father."
"Oh, well, you're welcome then." Jack grinned.
"Everything you said to me," Elizabeth stepped forward, seething. "Every word was a lie!"
"Pretty much," Jack shrugged, "Time and tide, love."
Will swooped down, pulling out the key to the chest to unlock it. Jack's eyes widened, "Oy! What are you doing?"
"I'm gonna kill Jones," Will nearly snorted out the obvious.
Jack drew his sword immediately and pointed it at Will, "Can't let you do that, William," he explained as Will slowly looked up. "'Cause if Jones is dead, who's to call his terrible beastie off the hunt, eh? Now. If you please, the key."
Will slowly backed up until he was near Elizabeth. Kate saw what he was about to do and she reached for her own sword as Will pulled Elizabeth's out and held it to Jack's throat. "I keep the promises I make, Jack. I intend to free my father. I hope you're here to see it."
Kate yanked her own sword out and pointed it at her dearest and oldest friend, eyes hardened, "I can't let you do that, Will." Whether she was mad at Jack or not, she still cared about him, and she couldn't let he and Will kill one another.
Elizabeth gasped, "Katherine! How can you-"
She glanced at Elizabeth through the corner of her eyes, "You're lucky you're not in his place, Elizabeth. So if I were you, I would keep your pretty mouth shut."
Jack grinned, "Thanks, love."
She then turned her glare onto her Captain, "And if you think you're free from my rage, then you have another thing coming, Sparrow."
James drew his sword and pointed it at Will as well, "I'm afraid that I have to side with Miss Swann. I can't let you do that either, so sorry."
"I knew you'd warm up to me eventually," Jack grinned.
James pointed his sword at Jack this time and Kate moved hers to point at James now, instead of Will. Will's sword moved to her neck, his eyes glittering with the sting of betrayal.
"Lord Beckett desires the contents of that chest. I deliver it and get my life back," James explained.
"Ah, the dark side of ambition," Jack smiled.
"Oh, I prefer to see it as the promise of redemption."
"You gave up your career willingly, James," Kate spoke up. His sword moved to her at the sound of her voice and Jack moved his sword to Norrington as Will's sword moved back to Jack. Kate kept hers firmly on James. After a few more turns of switching whose sword was pointed at whom, the four began to fight one another. Will instructed Elizabeth to guard the chest and Elizabeth, insulted, screamed out 'no' before following after them. Kate snorted that she was told to go be the guard dog, but paid full attention to where James was striking.
"This is barbaric!" Elizabeth was screaming, "This is no way for grown men to settle- or you either, Katherine! The governor's daughter!" She whined out. "Oh! Fine! Let's just pull out our swords and start banging away at each other! This will solve everything! I've had it! I've had enough! Wobbly-legged, rum-soaked…pirates!"
Elizabeth threw a rock at the four of them, hoping to catch anyone's attention, but it went too far left for anyone to notice. Elizabeth was still screaming at the four of them before she pretended to faint, hoping it would work again. When she peeked, they were all still fighting. She sighed heavily before sitting up and noticing Pintel and Ragetti running off with the chest. She ran after them, knowing she'd have four very angry people after her if she lost the chest. Plus, Will wanted it.
Jack grabbed the key off of William before grabbing Kate's hand in the same hand that held the key as to be able to keep his sword out. He ran, dragging her along, as James and Will continued to fight.
"Let go of me," she hissed angrily.
"Take the key," he muttered, "They'll never expect you to have it."
With that, she felt him drop her hand, key in it, and run up into the church. She shrugged, putting the rope of the key over her head and tucking the key itself under her shirt, in-between her breasts while she still ran after Jack. She heard Norrington catching up and she began to yell, "Sparrow! You get back here!"
He was chuckling to himself as she somehow got behind James. He wondered for a moment, as he ran up the many stairs, if the former Commodore had pushed her. However, he kept running until Norrington got too close and he kicked him back down with his foot. Kate jumped over James, throwing out a "Sorry!" as she went. She made her way to hide behind Jack as James got back up and began to fight Jack.
Kate panicked when James got a bit too aggressive and pushed Jack towards the rope so that he could grab onto it. He flew downward, sending Will, who had grabbed the rope, upwards. Jack held onto the rope so that he was propelled back up to the top and he joined the duel between James and Will on the roof, a bit peeved that Kate had gotten him out of the way. He checked to see if she still had the key, but he couldn't tell.
Norrington, noticing that Jack was back, turned to duel him. Kate wondered for a moment if they had all noticed that the key was gone. Did they realize that none of them had it? She nearly smirked.
As soon as the thought crossed her mind, Jack's sword was knocked from his hand and it flung to the ground below. Kate was, in an instant, pointing her sword at James, ready to strike if he got too violent again.
"Do excuse me," James turned to Will, "While I kill the man who ruined my life."
Kate gasped, "NO!"
"Let us examine that claim for a moment," Jack spoke up before either Norrington or Kate could stab someone, "former Commodore, shall we? Who was it, who at the very moment you had a notorious pirate behind bars, saw fit to free said pirate and take your dearly beloved all to hisself, hey? So who's fault is it really that you've ended up a rum-pot deckhand what takes orders from pirates?"
"Enough!" James cried out.
Jack somersaulted off of the roof as James swung at him, "Unfortunately Mister Turner," he turned to Will, "He's right!"
Norrington and Will began to fight and Kate had no idea what to do. She decided to aide Will now and began to help him fight James. Suddenly, the three of them were on the mill's water wheel and the axle of the wheel broke off. Kate screamed as the wheel began to roll away from the mill. They continued to try and duel as they ran on the wheel as it ran over a fence and then, Kate looked down and frowned, Jack?
He was trying to climb into the wheel to at least run inside of it, but he was struggling. Once he finally did get in, he was so pleased with himself, that he hit his head on a metal bar and fell out. Kate dropped through the hole that had once housed the now unconscious captain and jumped out of the wheel, Norrington and Will still on top, dueling.
She ran over to Jack and shook him, "Jack! Come on! Let's go! I've still got the key!"
He stirred, "What? Oh! Key! Yes!"
They each looked up to see a crewmember of the Dutchman running through the palm trees, carrying the chest. Jack picked up a coconut, whirled it, and threw it at the man. His head, which was inside of a conch shell, flew off and caused Kate to gag momentarily.
The head began to yell directions for his body to find his head, and he was doing poorly. Kate laughed as Jack told him to shut up before he kneeled at the chest. He held his hand out, "Key, please?"
She took it off and handed it to him, proud that she'd kept it safe the whole time. He unlocked it and square bolds protruded when the lock clicked. As more crewmen of the Dutchman approached, Jack tucked the heart into his vest and closed the lid to the chest.
Kate and Jack were the first to arrive at the longboat and she stood watch as Jack emptied out the jar of dirt a bit before putting the heart in it and scooping the dirt back into the jar.
"Jack!" Kate cried as a crewmember arrived. He swung around with an ore and began to fight the fishy pirate.
Everyone looked up as the water wheel rolled up to the beach, went into the water and dropped. Kate could have laughed at the two men walking as if they were drunk in the ocean, but the fight at hand kept her busy.
She began to fight as well and her attention was soon taken from the boat, Jack, the jar of dirt, everything. She just fought with whatever strength she had left from running after the boys earlier.
Suddenly Jack knocked Will out and Kate glanced over as Elizabeth ran towards him.
"Leave him lie!" Jack ordered, "Unless you plan on using him to hit something with."
"We're not getting out of this," Elizabeth whined.
"Not with the chest," James explained hurriedly. Kate kicked her opponent away from herself and backed up to where the others were. "Into the boat," he grabbed the chest.
"You're mad!" Elizabeth cried.
"Don't wait for me," Norrington ran off.
"Uh," Jack frowned, "I saw we respect his final wish."
"Aye!" Kate cried out at the same time as Pintel. They all hopped into the long boat, yanking William in with them as they rowed off.
Kate stood by Jack's side on deck as if she had never been mad at him in the first place. She briefly wondered if that had been his plan, to get her mad enough at Elizabeth to threaten Will and then gain her back by trusting her with the key. She shook her head at the thought as Will awoke and began to ask questions. At the same time, Ragetti and Pintel began to argue. Kate nearly groaned, sensing a migraine.
"Where's the Commodore?" Gibbs questioned.
"He fell behind," Jack commented, moving along.
"My prayers be with him," Gibbs nodded solemnly before lightening up, "Best not wallow in our grief. The bright side is: You're back. And made it off free and clear."
Suddenly the Dutchman surfaced alongside the Pearl and Kate groaned. "Lord almighty, save us," Gibbs muttered.
"I'll handle this, mate," Jack smirked, going to the edge. "Hey! Fishface! Lose something? OH!" he fell down the stairs, causing Kate to giggle as he stood up, holding the jar of dirt proudly, "Got it!" he strutted across the deck, "Come to negotiate, eh, have you, you slimy git? Look what I got! I got a jar of dirt! I got a jar of dirt! And guess what's inside it!"
"Enough!" Jones cried, and at his order the cannon covers of the Dutchman slid down, the cannons emerging from the holes.
"Hard to starboard," Jack ordered.
"Hard to starboard!" Elizabeth repeated. Kate glared at her, what the Hell?
"Brace up the foreyard!" Will cried out now. Kate cried out at the same time as Gibbs, "Hard to starboard!"
The Dutchman began to fire at the Pearl mercilessly and Kate screamed at the gaping hole in the stern as Pintel cried that they were on them.
Jack grabbed Kate amongst the chaos, knowing that he needed to apologize,"Love, I'm sorry about the business with your sister earlier," he spoke quickly and quietly, "I didn' mean for it to upset you."
"Of course it's going to upset me, Jack," she frowned, "Why wouldn't it?"
"I just needed to get her to trust me," he explained before pausing for a moment. "Wait a minute, you still defended me," he looked at her, confused.
"Yes I did, and you trusted me with the key even though you knew I wanted to kill you. Figuratively, of course."
"Yes well, I guess this sums all of what needed to be said up."
She smiled softly, realizing that they were losing the Dutchman, "No, Jack, it really doesn't," she teased him, "What are you trying to say?"
He gave her a glare, "Now's not the time."
"Now is the perfect time," she sang out.
"I guess that I will always trust you," he spat out quickly, glancing around to make sure no one heard him.
"And you should know that I will always defend you."
He grinned, leaning down and pulling her in for a kiss. Elizabeth had glanced over at her sister and frowned. So she really had acted on her feelings for Jack Sparrow, then.
Elizabeth took this moment to interrupt her sister and the Captain by screaming out that the Dutchman had fallen behind.
"Against the wind the Dutchman beats us. That's how she takes her prey. But with the wind…"
"We rob her advantage," Will finished off Gibbs' sentence. Gibbs just grinned as the crew began to cheer that the Dutchman was giving up.
"My father is on that ship," Will ran up to Jack and Kate, "If we can outrun her, we can take her. We should turn and fight."
"Why fight when you can negotiate?" Jack grinned, leaning on the railing and tapping his jar of dirt, "All one needs is the proper leverage."
Suddenly the Pearl was badly jarred and Jack's dirt fell to the lower deck, breaking open and spilling the contents all over the deck. He let out a cry and ran down to it, searching frantically for the missing heart.
"Where is it?" he cried out as Kate ran down to him, "Where is the thump-thump?"
Someone began to cry that they'd hit a reef as Kate tried to pull her captain away from the pile of dirt.
"No! It's not a reef," Will cried, "Get away from the rail!"
"What is it?" Elizabeth asked, eyes wide.
"The Kraken," her fiancée replied, "To arms!"
"It'll attack the starboard," Will told Gibbs, "I've seen it happen before. Break out the cannons and hold for my signal!"
Gibbs instructed the crew to do as Will asked as Kate tried to calm the Captain down from whatever was going on with his jar of dirt. With a deep rumbling sound, the Kraken's tentacles began to slide up the hull. Kate's eyes widened considerably. The beast had come for Jack.