Elizabeth hauled herself the rest of the way onto the deck and drew her sword. "Hold it right there, Miss Teach!" she ordered.

The Spanish woman stopped short and whirled around. "Who in God's name are you?" she demanded. Quick as a flash, she swooped down and grabbed up her sword again.

"Ironic you should mentioned God," Elizabeth taunted. "Considering what you've been up to lately, I shouldn't think you'd be this eager to meet Him!"

Angelica circled around slowly, eyes fixed on Elizabeth's. "Who are you? What are you talking about?"

"Me? Oh, I'm just the woman whose village you sacked, and whose baby you tried to kill."

Angelica's eyes took on a hard, mocking expression. "Oh, you must be Jack's whore, then." She made a lightning-fast lunge straight at Elizabeth's heart.

Elizabeth parried, scoffing. "Don't know where you've been getting your information, but whoever it is ought to be ashamed of himself." She stayed in an en garde position and waited to see what Angelica would bring.

"Don't you have a child? And no husband? And isn't the baby Jack's?" Angelica pressed. "Or don't you know who the father is?" She lunged again, this time for the wrist.

Elizabeth used a different parry, starting to get a feel for the other woman's style. "His father is William Turner, my late husband, and the only man I have ever lain with," Elizabeth told her.

She tried a thrust, trying to slide her blade along the other woman's, but Angelica parried and lunged again. Elizabeth parried with prime, which threw Angelica off for a second. Hardly anyone ever used prime.

"I'm a respectable widow. I am not, nor have I ever been, anybody's whore!" Elizabeth raised her sword with a sweet smile and asked politely, "Can you say the same?"

Angelica snarled and lunged again. Elizabeth parried and lunged. Angelica parried and tried to disengage, but Elizabeth slid her blade along her opponent's blade and nicked her wrist.

Angelica swore and glared at Elizabeth when she saw the blood. Elizabeth smiled. If there was enough blood, it might make Angelica's grip more slippery, and if she could keep her upset she wouldn't fight as well and Elizabeth would stand a better chance of getting herself and Jack out of this.

Having learned from William Turner, Elizabeth was the better swordswoman; unfortunately, but she was still out of practice and her illness had wreaked havoc with her endurance. Angelica on the other hand had the energy of a small child. Luckily, she seemed to have the discipline of one, too. She was easy to rile.

Behind Angelica, Jack rose slowly and silently to his feet. His eyes met Elizabeth's for a split second before she looked back at Angelica and he turned his attention to the shackle on his wrist.

Elizabeth wanted to keep Angelica talking. "So why are you out to kill Jack, anyway?"

Angelica lunged again. "He ruined my life!"

Elizabeth parried and scoffed. "Oh, please. You did a fine job of doing that all by yourself, dear. Stop being such a baby."

Elizabeth lunged again, stomping her foot loudly on the deck. Startled, Angelica lost ground as she parried. Elizabeth used the extra split second to start her slash from much farther back, making it a stronger attack. Teague had taught her that trick—to drive the opponent back first, and then use the extra time for your own blade to gain some momentum when you slash.

Angelica blocked the blow, but it rattled her frame and she fell back again. Having experienced the incredible power of Teague's attacks, Elizabeth could sympathize.

By mutual consent, they both lowered their blades a fraction to rest for a moment. "He seduced me! He took advantage of my innocence!" Angelica wailed.

At that, Elizabeth laughed aloud. "You mean to tell me you had no choice? Jack doesn't force women to his bed and you know it."

"'S right," Jack chimed in from the mast, where he was feeling desperately through his pockets for something. "Proper gentleman I am."

"Shut up, Jack!" exclaimed both women simultaneously.

Elizabeth was getting tired. She would have to end this soon, or else she would start getting sloppy. She fought not only for her own life, but for Jack's. She would not lose!

She attacked with words as she prepared her next attack. "At some point you made the choice to lift your skirts for him, dear. Yes, he can be charming. Yes, he's very handsome. But he's not irresistible—" She thrust again for the heart.

Angelica parried, but she was getting angry.

"Oi!" protested Jack, as he abandoned his pockets and started searching through his hair.

Elizabeth thrust for the shoulder as she pressed her point. "—You could have told him 'no' at any time."

Angelica parried the attack. She only used four basic parries, Elizabeth noted, grateful that Will had taught her all eight, and had drilled her and drilled her until they were second nature.

Angelica growled and slashed for the shoulder, but it lacked power. Elizabeth pushed the blade aside easily. Angelica thrust again, and Elizabeth didn't bother parrying. She ducked it and thrust upwards as she did.

Angelica pushed it aside so the blade didn't stab her in the heart—but her shoulder was cut now. She feinted high and slashed low, and pinked Elizabeth on the bottom of her forearm.

Elizabeth really had to end this soon.

They had circled around so that the voodoo doll lay next to Angelica's feet, off to the side where she had tossed it before. Angelica lunged again, and Elizabeth fell back. Angelica stooped to pick up the doll.

Elizabeth cried, "Oh, no you don't!" She ran and knocked Angelica's blade aside, and then kicked her. Hard, in the solar plexus.

Angelica, already bent over and off balance, went over. She landed hard on her behind, but rolled to her feet with the doll in her other hand. She crouched, coughing and gasping, sword-point wavering.

Elizabeth made a swift underhand cut to Angelica's wrist, and the doll went arcing through the air in a high parabola.

Jack yelled in fright.

Elizabeth yanked the doll out of the air, and Jack abruptly stopped yelling. Not knowing what else to do with it, she shoved the doll down her shirt.

Jack shut his eyes in relief, and then as the sweet scent of Elizabeth's skin rose around him, he inhaled deeply, grinned, and opened his eyes. He started patting down his pockets with renewed determination.

Angelica started to recover. "That wasn't nice," she scolded Elizabeth. "You been hanging around Jack too long."

She attacked again, a weak thrust that Elizabeth parried with quarte, then a slash from the side aimed at the ribs.

"It sounds to me," Elizabeth said, panting, "that you just don't want to take responsibility for your own actions and are blaming them all on someone else. Know what that makes you, Miss Teach?"

Elizabeth attacked high, an overhead chop to the head—hard to parry with the basic four. Angelica ducked and just barely parried, clumsily

Angelica growled. She whirled around and responded with her classic riposte—the one that Jack had told her no one else on earth knew.

Elizabeth knew it, and parried with octave. She doubted Angelica had ever even seen octave before.

For just an instant, Angelica glanced over at Jack, looking utterly betrayed as she realized that he must have taught Elizabeth how to counter her signature move.

Elizabeth took advantage of Angelica's inattention and attacked again. She got her off balance, punctuating her words with strikes as she advanced and Angelica retreated.

"That makes you a spoiled—"

Clang!

"—Little—"

Clash!

"—Child!"

Angelica parried again and the two of them ended up in a blade-lock, face to face.

Faster than Angelica could blink, Elizabeth disengaged, pulled back, and smashed Angelica in the face with the hilt of her sword.

Angelica cried out and went down.

Elizabeth lunged forward again—her front foot landed on Angelica's sword-wrist, and the tip of her sword was at Angelica's throat.

"Darling, that was ab-so-lute-ly gorgeous," Jack remarked as re-attached the manacle key to his lock of hair he'd got it from. He sauntered over. "Well done, love. Almost hated to see it end."

"Jack!" Angelica looked to him, face streaming with blood and tears. "Help me. She'll kill me!"

Jack picked up his sword and stalked over to them. Elizabeth never budged or changed expression, keeping the point of her sword firmly at Angelica's throat.

Jack pointed his sword straight at Elizabeth.

Angelica looked up at Elizabeth with a smug smile on her bloody face.

Note: This chapter borrows elements of the dueling scene from Robert A. Heinlein's Glory Road. I doubt that dueling with cutlasses would be very much like the classic fencing portrayed in that story, but on the other hand Will Turner is widely accepted to be the best swordsman in the whole "Pirates" series, and he's the one who taught Elizabeth "how to handle a sword." It is not outside the realm of possibility that he would have taught her classic fencing with all eight parries-only adapted for cutlass use. Most fencers only use four to six of the eight parries; hardly anyone uses prime or octave unless they're showing off. Angelica would probably only be trained in the most common ones, and would be thrown off by Elizabeth's mastery of all eight.

If anyone is interested, check out the youtube video by "Flaze3" called "The Eight Fencing Parries." Flaze3 is not a professional and the video quality is not great, but I found that his more exaggerated motions were easier to study than the more subtle parry-demonstrations of the pros. Not being a fencer, I couldn't tell the difference in some of the more polished videos between one parry and another. However, Flaze3 makes more pronounced movements, which would probably be more appropriate for cutlass work anyway!

I originally forgot to mention that I borrowed one idea in this story, Elizabeth and Angelica fighting over the doll, and then Elizabeth shoving it down her shirt, from Geekmama's adorable oneshot called "Distressing Damsels." Look for it if you haven't seen it yet; it's adorable! There aren't that many Angelica-meets-Elizabeth stories out there, so make sure you don't miss that one.