Thank you to all that have reviewed this story! I really enjoy reading them! Special Thanks to 88dragon06, who has been with me from the very beginning!
I have the next chapter already typed up for this story, so as soon as I receive 10 reviews, I'll upload.
Please enjoy!
Chapter 3: Queen Anne's Revenge
The hammock swayed with the rocking of the ship sending Jack back to the days when he had been a simple cabin boy on his fathers ship. His father' ship.
Jack's eyes jerked open as a burly sailor tipped his hammock upside down and his face landed flat on the dirty deck.
"Show a leg sailor!" shouted a harsh voice from behind Jack.
"Aye sir!" Jack shouted from habit before his head sprang up in surprise, he should be the one giving orders on a ship.
The same scruffy sailor he had seen at the Captain's Daughter sidled up to him, shoved a mop in Jack's hand and dragged him to an open spot of deck.
"There's been a terrible mistake," Jack started growing slightly frustrated with the way this day was going so far.
"Keep moving," grumbled the scruffy sailor.
Jack tripped over a pile of rope on the deck tumbling slightly onto the scruffy sailor who turned with an extremely frustrated look towards Jack.
"I'm not supposed to be here," growled Jack through gritted teeth.
"Many a man's woken up at sea, no idea what, when, wherefore or why, no memory of the night afore whence he drank away all his bonus money!" the scruffy sailor said with a slightly vindictive laugh.
Jack stopped in front of the scruffy sailor forcing him to look at Jack in the eye, "No, no, no, you don't understand mate. I'm Captain Jack Sparrow. The original. The only!"
"Scrum," the sailor answered plainly, not at all impressed with Jack's introduction, "And the pleasure's all mine. Now keep moving," he said trying to shove past Jack.
Jack reached out and grabbed Scrum by the shoulder of his grimy shirt, and drawing him so close so as to prevent anyone else on the ship to overhear their conversation. Scrum for the first time in his interactions with Jack sobered to the point where he took Jack incredibly seriously.
"Listen here very. Closely," Jack said, carefully annunciating every word so that there would be no confusion as to exactly what he was saying, "Your lovely recruiting officer as it were, was so kind as to take me away from my wife who at that particular moment, was in the clutches of the British military. If you do not help me find a way off this bloody ship, I will not hesitate to kill you," Jack said with a fiery anger in his eyes.
The last thing in the world that Jack would have expected Scrum to have done was to laugh in his face.
"What exactly are you plannin' on doin' then?" Scrum asked still chuckling somewhat, "Chase after her in a rowboat?"
Jack calmed somewhat, "If I have to."
Scrum sobered, "Look, we are at least a couple days out at sea, even if you were to make it out on a rowboat without one of the officers killing you, you would be dead before you reached England again."
Jack thought for a moment before growling, he let go of Scrum and angrily scrubbed at the deck. If anything was on the deck when Jack began to scrub, it was certainly scared away by the sheer ferocity of his cleaning.
Several officers were hammering a glass coffin behind Scrum. Jack observed these for a while before he scrubbed his way over to the sailor.
"Scrum," he said quietly, aware of the officers keeping a very close eye on him, "Why is there a glass coffin?"
Scrum looked at Jack in amusement, "Do I look like the man in charge?"
Jack's jaw tightened at the lack of answers he was able to obtain from the incredibly annoying sailor, "Where am I?" he asked, hoping for at least one good answer.
"'Scuse me, Captain Sparrow, sir," Scrum said, drawing himself up proudly, "I be right honored to welcome you aboard the world renowned vessel of infamy – Queen Anne's Revenge."
Jack immediately stopped, now very aware of the predicament he had managed to get himself into, "Blackbeard," he murmured with a distant look on his face.
Jack could not remember the last time he had scrubbed so many decks in one day, but he was as always, doing his best to look as if he was working, while in reality, he was paying very close attention to the entire crew that surrounded him. He sat up briefly from scrubbing the top deck to survey the entire crew but the sharp crack of the officer's whip against his back sent him immediately back to his scrubbing with a grimace. It felt like the whip had broken through the skin again.
"He's a curios one," Jack commented noticing the white-eyed glare from the officer.
"He's been zombified," clarified Scrum.
"Eh?" said Jack in confusion.
"Zombified," stated Scrum again, "Blackbeard's doing. All the officers are the same. Makes 'em more compliant."
The officer in question growled and cracked his whip causing the entire line of pirates to jump.
"And perpetually ill tempered," Jack noted.
The officer glared at Jack again, his hand itching to send him another good whipping.
"Come on," said Scrum, eyeing Jack carefully, "scrub."
"Yeah…" said Jack distantly.
The afternoon passed in much the same, scrubbing deck after deck on the ship until Jack's fingers resembled very fine prunes.
Jack and Scrum were tying off a rope on the deck when a breeze caused an incredible smell to waft up from Scrum.
"Five days underway, at least," Jack commented.
"Aye!" said Scrum, now incredibly impressed, "You can tell by the smell of the sea?"
Jack grimaced as Scrum reached up for a better grip of the rope, "The smell of the crew," he said tying off the rope.
Jack looked up the main mast as he stretched noticing a poor sailor strung up high above the deck that had obviously been there for some time.
"Oi," he said poking Scrum in the direction of the tied sailor, "What did that poor sod do? How can I make sure to no?"
Scrum squinted trying to make out the sailor on the mast, "Him?" he asked, "Churchly fellow. Always going on about the Lord Almighty."
"Bible-thumper on this ship?" Jack asked surprised taking a small sip from the giant pot the cook was carrying around.
"A missionary's the story what I heard, was he got captured in a raid. Rest of the ship got killed- but not him. First Mate wouldn't let it happen, on account of his premier standing with the Lord. First Mate sticking her neck out for some prisoner? That you don't see," finished Scrum with a note of appreciation for the odd circumstances.
"Her?" Jack asked with a sinking feeling, "First Mate is a her?"
"GET BACK TO WORK!" shouted an officer causing Scrum and Jack to jump back to their work.
Jack noticed a rather familiar figure walking from the upper deck to below deck and with a quick glance at a very occupied officer, Jack snuck silently and unobserved to the lower deck just as the figure walked down the steps.
Jack looked around for anything that could be used as a weapon, as his sword and pistol were no doubt being held ransom in the Captain's room. He picked up a large hook that lay resting on a barrel and jumped towards the emerging figure quickly positioning the hook up against her throat.
"You…are a ruthless, soulless crossgained cur," Jack spat, holding Angelica against a column and out of sight of the many wandering officers.
Angelica simply smiled her devilish smile, "I told you I had a ship."
"No," Jack growled, "Blackbeard has a ship. Upon which I am now imprisoned."
Angelica lightly pushed the hook away with one finger, "We can do this Jack. The Fountain of Youth. Like you always wanted."
"Key word love," said Jack, not falling for her forward advances, "wanted," he said turning away from her, not wanting to become ensnared in any of her devilish schemes.
"Its because of her isn't it!" seethed Angelica grabbing Jack and pulling him back towards her, and closer than Jack ever wanted to be to the scheming sorceress.
"There is one, other thing, dear Angelica," Jack said, pushing the hook Angelica was now brandishing at his face, away, "Blackbeard. Edward Teach. The pirate which all pirates fear. Resurrector of the dead in his spare time."
"He will listen to me," Angelica said with a sly smile.
"He listens to no one," Jack said in his usual drunken manner.
"Maybe his own daughter?"
Jack looked at Angelica curiously, "Daughter as in beget by?"
"Long-lost, recently found," Angelica said with as much drama as she could muster at that moment.
"He bought that?" Jack asked with a smile at her incredibly transparent act.
"I sold that!" she said angrily.
Jack grabbed her and pulled Angelica down behind a stack of barrels just as a zombied officer walked by and turned towards her.
"Then it's the Fountain of Youth for him or him and you, not you and me," Jack said pointing out the flaws in her plan.
"No Jack," said Angelica seductively, "That's the best part. He will be dead."
"Ah," said Jack starting to understand some of her plan, "You'll be handling that part yourself then."
Angelica looked around to make sure they were alone, "There is a prophecy. Maybe you don't believe in the supernatural."
Jack scoffed at this, "No, no, no, I've seen a thing or two."
Angelica gestured over to the zombified quartermaster, "The Quartermaster. The man with no eyes. He is known as eleri ipin, witness of fate. He sees things before they happen. He is never wrong."
"I can do that too," said Jack nonchalantly, "if you don't count women, weather, and other things that are hard to predict."
Angelica smiled, "The prophecy is this: Blackbeard will meet his death, within a fortnight, at the hands of a one-legged man" she seductively dragged the hook over Jack's face, who grimaced in disgust, "That's why he needs the Fountain, Jack. Get me to that Fountain, and I will let you chase after your… darling wife."
Angelica gave Jack one last shove before storming out of the storeroom and to the upper deck.
Jack stared after her with a thoughtful expression on his face, "Interesting."
Barbossa looked out at the sea in front of him, very much enjoying the fact that he was away from that blessed monarch.
Groves turned from the railing beside Barbossa, "Orders sir?"
"I require a heading. I'll have my navigator to the helm," he ordered.
Groves nodded and saluted, "Aye Sir!"
Barbossa rolled his eyes in boredom, and waved Groves away, "Well, smart now!"
Only a few seconds later, Gibbs was thrown at Barbossa's feet. Barbossa opened his mouth to speak when he heard Catherine's sultry tones coming closer.
"I think I can manage walking by myself you bloody imbecile!" she yelled shoving the unfortunate sailor that drew the short stick for watching her.
"Barbossa," she said marching straight up to him to look him in the eye, "This is ridiculous."
Barbossa immediately motioned for her to be silent, looking at the guard that had brought her forward, "She wouldn't shut up," the unfortunate guard said.
Barbossa simply shoved her aside walking towards Gibbs, "Be we on the proper course Mr. Gibbs?"
Gibbs paused for a moment to look at Catherine, they had been kept separate since they arrived on the ship, and as he looked at her he couldn't help but notice that something about her was not quite right.
"Mr. Gibbs?" Barbossa growled.
Gibbs looked at Barbossa with pure loathing, "Aye, it be proper," he growled, "there's your proof," he said pointing towards the oncoming ship.
Barbossa took out his spyglass pointing it towards the captain of the advancing ship, "…The Spaniard. ALL HANDS! BATTLE STATIONS!" He yelled as the crew scrambled about the deck, "GET TO WINDWARD! HARDEN UP TWO POINTS!"
"Two points!" shouted Gillette, "Cast loose the cannons!"
Catherine ducked out of the way as several crewmen rushed by her carrying armfuls of pistols. Catherine remained extremely calm, not moving at all. She knew exactly what the Spaniards wanted and it in no way involved the destruction of their ship.
Gillette turned towards Barbossa who was watching both the Spaniards ship and Catherine's increasingly mocking smirk, "Orders sir?" Gillette asked.
Barbossa paused for a moment thinking, "He never so much as turned his head," Catherine pointed out.
Barbossa shoved his spyglass back together, "The Fountain is the prize. It appears we be not even worth the time to sink us. Now we've fallen behind! All hands! Make more sail!" He shoved the waifish officer from the wheel, "Rid hard between wind and tide!"
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