When Jack reached the halfway point between the Revenge and the Pearl, he paused and trod water for a few moments to catch his breath. In the momentary quiet he heard the grinding sound of a ship tearing open its hull on the hidden reef. Over the water he heard his father shout exultantly, "Down to four!" and he grinned and started swimming again.

The Empress moved to intercept El Gavilón now that Barbossa and Teague only had three ships to worry about. She was no match for a warship the size of the Gavilón. She was getting by so far on sheer agility, but Jack could already tell that Elizabeth's luck couldn't hold out much longer.

Neither could his own. In order to reach the Pearl, he'd have to pass right between the two ships while they shot at each other.

The Empress had aft cannons and was smaller and lighter. Elizabeth sailed ahead of the Gavilón, skipping merrily along just out of reach. The Gavilón was in hot pursuit, but it was too big to be agile. It chased the Empress all around the entrance to the Cove. Unfortunately, with two of her ships now lost to the reef and run aground on the shoals, Angelica wised up and was avoiding those areas.

The Empress, with her aft cannons, could rake the Gavilón often. When she got far enough ahead, she would turn and deliver a broadside before turning tail and running again. The Gavilón wasn't agile enough to turn and return it in time. Elizabeth's broadsides were too light to do a lot of damage, but they were definitely nibbling away at the Gavilón.

It was a good strategy. The problem was that all this shooting was going on directly in Jack's path toward the Pearl, and he was starting to get tired. He was a strong and efficient swimmer (having none of the extra flailing in the water that he did on land), but the water was rough in the wake of all those warships.

Elizabeth made one last volley and then changed course, trying to lead Angelica away from the Pearl. It worked; El Gavilón changed course to follow. As the distance grew, Jack saw a small jolly boat with a single occupant in it, rowing away from El Gavilón just as the warship changed course to follow the Empress.

He swore. Angelica was rowing herself over to the Pearl while her ship kept Elizabeth occupied and not noticing. He started swimming faster as he neared his ship. He watched as she tied her boat and scurried up the side—"like a rat," he muttered to himself. She was on board a good five minutes before he got close enough to grab the lowest rung of the ladder where he clung, panting, for another few minutes.

When he was rested enough to climb the ladder, he paused close to the top to hold up first one leg and then the other, to empty his boots. Then he climbed up the last few rungs. He stuck his head up to look around before making his presence known.

Angelica was just coming up from below. She paused with her back to Jack, putting her dagger back into her boot. Jack took advantage of the moment to climb up the rest of the way, so when she straightened up and headed toward the captain's cabin, the captain himself cleared his throat quite pointedly at her.

She stopped short. Her head jerked around. Jack was leaning against the ratline with his arms folded.

"Hello, Jack," she greeted.

"Something I can do for you, Angelica?" he asked.

"Die painfully?" she requested sweetly.

Jack snorted. "What are you up to on my ship?"

"Oh, this and that," she said. "I do wonder how you got it out of that bottle, Jack."

"And I wonder how you got off that island," Jack said, "but I'm also wondering what you did with my men down below."

"Oh, they're not hurt. Badly. Yet."

"And what about the island?"

"Are you curious?"

"Aye, and so are you," he said. "So which one of us is going to have our curiosity... satisfied?" Jack infused a healthy amount of innuendo into the last word, knowing it would irritate her.

She didn't disappoint. She drew her sword and approached him. "As I recall, you were always the one who was satisfied," she said.

Jack shrugged and drew his own sword. It wasn't true, but the point wasn't to tell the truth; it was to keep her off-balance and angry.

"Then why should now be any different?" he taunted. "Tell me, who picked you up? And more specifically," he added with a leer, cautiously circling her, "What did you use for coin to barter your way off? Because I don't recall leaving you with any money this time, like I did in Seville." He let his gaze slide suggestively down her body and then back up.

With a growl, she attacked. Jack parried easily, smirking. Reason and swordsmanship had always deserted her when she got angry. "So how'd you get off?" he repeated.

"A ship came. They found me." She made a slash at him.

Jack knocked it aside. "And how'd you pay them? Same way you convinced the king to send half the Spanish navy along with you?"

He lunged. She parried and tried another slash. He ducked and slashed at her legs. She jumped back. He followed, attacking to the right. He remembered that she wasn't as good with cross-body parries.

She had improved with them, and parried his thrust. He got her to back off to one side, though, which was what he had intended. He circled slowly, to get her backing up toward the mast.

"I seduced the first mate of the ship that found me. Convinced him to mutiny. Just like you did."

She aimed a slash at his head and he parried overhand. "Not just like," Jack pointed out, "As my attempt at seducing the first mate of your father's ship was unsuccessful." He gave her a toothy grin. "I tried, but my heart just wasn't in it."

She snarled and attacked again. Lunge, thrust, slash, thrust, slash. Apparently she'd felt insulted by that.

Jack fended off the flurry of blows "And the navy?"

She lowered the tip of her sword for a moment, and Jack followed suit. He didn't need a break quite yet, but he really wanted to know how she'd managed to bring so many war galleons with her.

"My first mate's father is adviser to the Viceroy of Trinidad. I just had to drop a hint about where the pirate lords were hiding in the Caribbean, and His Excellency was more than willing to provide us with ships and crews."

"Aye, but by so doing, you've broken the Code and betrayed us all," Jack told her. "Even if you were to kill me—which you won't, by the way—the others would hunt you down like an animal. They'd not rest until you're dead, Angelica."

She smiled, a slow and feral smile. "I'll take that risk for the pleasure of killing you!" She drew her sword back and made another slash. This one had the power of momentum, but was slow enough for Jack to duck again.

He thrust again, and when she parried, he circled her blade for another attack. She knocked his blade aside. He didn't really want to hurt her, but she was probably counting on that fact. Time to turn the tables.

He lunged again, but followed her blade when she parried so that he got inside her guard. She couldn't reach him with her sword. He pushed her with his body, back past the mast, right up to the outside wall of his cabin.

He grabbed her sword-arm and pinned her wrist to the wall. Her other hand flew up to hit him and he pinned it to the wall with the hilt of his sword. He struck her sword hand hard against the wall once, twice. On the third time, her sword went clattering to the deck.

He leaned right into her face. "What's it going to take to get you off my ship and out of my life forever?" he growled, glaring into her eyes.

She struggled, but couldn't throw him off her. "Death!" she hissed. She tried to head-butt him, but he jerked his head to the left. "Yours!"

She wriggled her left hand out from under his sword-hilt. She jerked up her left knee, trying to get him in the groin. Instinctively, he turned sideways to protect himself. She pushed him off her and pulled a dagger out of her left boot.

Before he regained his balance, she had cut him.

She was too far away to sink it into his flesh, but she managed a glancing blow on his ribs.

He backed away so he could reach her with his sword. She brandished her dagger at him again.

Jack scoffed. "Wot you planning to do with that now, Angelica? I have more reach, and it's not balanced for throwing."

Angelica stopped short and started to smile. She reached up under her hat and withdrew the voodoo doll her father had made to look like Jack. She held it up, waving it back and forth with a mocking smile.

"I don't have to get near you!" she taunted, making little feints at the doll with the dagger.

"Where did you get that?" Jack asked uneasily. "Thought it got thrown into the river in Florida."

"Sí, it did," Angelica replied, setting the tip of the dagger against the doll's chest. "But it came back to me."

"Did it, now? That was incredibly stupid of it," he growled.

Angelica didn't miss the implication, and scowled at him. She poked the doll gently with the dagger and Jack hissed. "You'd better drop your sword, Jack," she said in a sing-song tone. Then her voice got more grim. "Or I'll run you through and you'll die right here without my even touching you!"

She poked the tip of the dagger a bit further in and Jack gasped in pain, the tip of his sword wavering. She tightened her grip and pressed deeper with the dagger. Jack doubled over, groaning, and his sword fell to the deck.

He braced his hands on his knees and stayed bent over; hardly able to breathe.

"Now, then, Jack," Angelica said. "Back against the mast, or I give you another little squeeze!"

"Might've known you'd go for the mast," Jack grumbled. "You're not even original." He shuffled painfully over to the mast, slowly straightened up, and folded his arms.

Angelica gave him a hateful look, and tickled the doll with her dagger again. He gasped. "Hands out, Jack," she said.

He glared at her, unmoving. She shrugged and grabbed the doll's arms, spreading them out to the sides. Jack's arms flew out straight, and Angelica pounced, shackling his right wrist to the mast before he could react.

He grabbed for her with his free hand. She bent the doll's left arm behind its back, and Jack cried out as his own left arm was twisted painfully behind his back.

Suddenly Jack caught a flash of motion from the corner of his eye.

Elizabeth.

He cocked his head at Angelica. "What, no kiss?" he sneered, loud enough for Elizabeth to hear him and know he'd seen her. "Last time a woman chained me to this mast I got a kiss first."

Angelica smiled at him. "The only thing you'll get from me," she said, holding up the doll again, "is this." She rapped the doll's head smartly against the mast, and Jack sagged woozily to the deck, one arm still held up by the manacle.

"Think… I pr'f'rred… the kiss," he slurred, reaching up to rub his forehead.

Angelica held up the doll and tossed it off to the side. It hit the deck and Jack groaned and went limp.

With a triumphant smile, Angelica turned back toward the captain's cabin.