Welcome back to Sarah and Abby's adventure in the lovely world of Pirates of the Caribbean! This is going to be the only chapter for a while since my time is pretty much taken up by other things, but I will write another one soon and put it up! It depends on my motivation/inspiration...
And a special thanks to my beta Hatsunation!
Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to Pirates of the Caribbean. I only own Abigail Unger and Sarah Williams.
Chapter 11: We Release Calypso
Sarah tried to keep calm, but she couldn't stand still. The Brethren discussed their fate to each other, quite chatting up a storm.
"You look jittery," Jack commented beside her as calm as ever.
Sarah rolled her eyes. "Of course I am. War was declared. Wouldn't you be jittery too?" Jack rested his hands on her shoulders to keep her still. She raised an eyebrow.
"It helped," He said.
"You don't feel anything? Excitement? Fear?"
Jack pursed his lips and stood still for a moment. When that moment passed, he relaxed his shoulders. "Nope, nothing. These situations don't affect me anymore."
"Is it because you already have a way to get out of this?" Sarah leaned against the table and crossed her arms.
Jack leaned in close to her, brushing back her short hair. "You could say that."
Deep down inside of her, she liked her position with him sweeping her hair off her shoulder. But on the surface the gesture made her uncomfortable. Scoffing, Sarah pushed him back before the feeling deep inside surfaced. "You're such a coward, Jack."
"Ah, not a coward exactly, but more clever than the average mind."
"You're so full of it."
Jack smiled. "But that's what you love about me, love. Isn't it?"
Sarah stared at incredulously. "No, not at all. I love your...caring heart. You know, that comes around once in a blue moon."
He kept the smile on his face, is eyes lingering in hers. "A compliment with a piece of criticism..."
"Is that what you love about me?" She asked, repeating him. Sarah kept her face calm, hiding the grin that threatened to appear.
"You know the answer to that question." Jack pulled away from her. The guitar paused behind Jack and he turned. "What?" He strolled toward Teague, lifting his arms. "You've seen it all, done it all. You survived."
Sarah was lost for a moment before she registered he was talking about the war. She inched towards them. Abby called her name from the door, but she waved her off.
"That's the trick, isn't it? To survive?"
Teague shook his head. "It's just not about living forever, Jackie." Setting the instrument aside, he stood up. "The trick is living with yourself forever."
"How's Mum?" Jack asked. Teague pulled a small shrunken head off of his belt and held it up for Jack to see. The head was an ashen grey with its eyes and mouth sewn shut. Jack grimaced but lifted the corners of his mouth. "She looks great."
"What happened to her?" Sarah came closer to the head, Jack's mother's head, and inspected it.
Teague gave the head to Jack, not taking his eyes off of it. They were full of sorrow and grief. "She died."
Nodding to the obvious point, Sarah tilted her head. "And a lovely family reunion you are all having. Isn't that nice?" She looked up at Jack who stared at his mother's head, then tied the string it hung on to his own belt, and left.
Teague laughed lowly. "Sarah Williams is it? I've heard many stories circling around about you."
"Yes, it is." It still amazed her how uncanny the resemblance between the father and son was. She didn't even know Jack had living relatives or ones that knew of his existence. "And I bet you have. My friend Abby and I have only just heard of these stories. Interesting ones, am I right?" The room was silent, meaning the Pearl and the other ships were about to set off.
"Interesting ones indeed," Teague murmured, back in his seat. His hand dangled over the edge of the arm rest by his guitar. "A lot of them mysterious and questionable."
"Questionable how?" Her heart sped up. Were there more stories that she haven't heard of?
"Questionable in the sense of you and your friend having not set foot in our time until a few years ago." His eyes calculated her feared expression.
She looked at the door and back at him. "Can you keep a secret?" Teague nodded curiously. She wiped her palms on her pants and began to pace. How she was about to confess her secret that she had held in for so long? "The one about us, Abby and me, are true. Abby and I... we are not from this world. I don't remember all the details but I remember a beach we were on and a storm. Then I woke up in Port Royal and found Abby, meeting Jack along the way."
"Ah, I see" the old captain drawled. "Your secret is safe, but I wouldn't go about telling anyone else."
Sarah sighed of relief. "Thank you. You have no idea how good it felt to at least tell someone. Keeper of the Code, yeah. Thank you. I gotta go, they might need me." She turned on her heel and scurried out of the room as a weight lifted off of her.
She flew out of the room and down towards the docks, unknowing that someone stood outside the whole time.
"You what?" Abby hissed, seething with rage. "You told Captain Teague?"
The last one aboard the Black Pearl, Sarah pulled Abby to a secluded area to tell her what happened. "He is the flipping Keeper of the Code! I couldn't bottle it in for any longer and he seems like someone who can keep something like that hidden well!"
"You just exposed a weak point, Sarah. People can use it against us in ways I don't even want to imagine. They could come after us not only for the situation now but for answers of what our world, the future, is like!"
Sarah rolled her eyes. "That wouldn't work anyways, we are from another dimension."
"You are not getting the point. I can't believe you just did that."
"It's not like you wouldn't have told Will sooner or later, right?"
Abby glared at her. "Well at least I actually know him!"
Sarah laughed and ran her fingers through her hair. "You're overreacting. This secret will still be kept a secret until the day I die."
"Watch that happen soon," Abby grumbled, stalking off. Sarah huffed and wiped away the forming tears. She was just overreacting, Sarah told herself, just overreacting.
Enclosed in the fog, all nine ships floated on the water, waiting for their enemy in front to show themselves. They waited patiently as one emerged as a dark blur.
"The enemy is here! Let's take them!" Marty exclaimed from above the group, hanging off the side of a net. He pulled out his gun and raised it, yelling.
Others followed in suit, raising their own weapons. Abby watched them, her nerves building up. Let's not take them, she thought. Let's have a tea party like Sarah said. Yeah, that would be nice. Clenching her fists, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She used to be excited for battle, but this was too overwhelming for her to take.
Behind the first ship, dozens more, revealed themselves in unison.
So about that tea party...Abby swallowed, feeling faint. She watched the faces of the others to see if it was just a hallucination. It wasn't.
Cotton's parrot squawked and flew off towards the nearby island. "Abandon ship. Abandon ship."
"I hate you so much, Jack," Sarah whispered. She moved off to the side to ready the longboat for the trip to the small strip of land between the two sides.
The two captains and newly named Pirate King stepped down into the boat. Sarah went to follow along. Gibbs pulled her back.
"Hey, what are you doing?" She pulled out of his grasp and narrowed her eyes.
"I think it would be best for just them three to go," he answered. She huffed and went back to the boat just to see it row away from the Pearl. No one on it met her eyes. Her shoulders fell as she stared at it, watching it grow smaller and smaller.
"Sarah-"
"Shut it, Abby," Sarah snapped, shoving past her and up to the helm.
Abby sighed. "I told you she would try to go with them," she told Gibbs, folding her arms.
The longboat reached the island and the negotiation began.
Sarah waited for what seemed like hours until the longboat returned. She hopped down the stairs, pushing past the crowd on the side where the boat was now unoccupied and raised up.
Elizabeth's face was in a scowl as she pulled herself onto the deck. Sarah met her. "How'd it go?"
"We are still fighting," she replied, taking off her small hat. Sarah stepped aside, letting her through to the other side. Barbossa stepped up next with his usual annoyed face that Sarah barely registered anymore. Will came up next.
Wait...Will?
Will looked around at the others, greeting them with a short nod and a frown. Sarah looked past him, waiting for Jack to step up. But no else came aboard.
"Hey, where's Jack?" She pulled Will aside. "Why wasn't he in the longboat?"
Will sighed. "We made an agreement. He is with Beckett and Jones now."
"What?" She dropped her hand. Who traded Jack for Will? Even if it would be a valuable trade considering both Beckett and Jones hated Jack's guts for Will, but why? Is that why she wasn't allowed? So she wouldn't stop the trade?
Abby ran and tackled Will into a hug. Will stood still, not wanting to stumble, and then wrapped his arms around her. "I'm glad you're back," she said into his shoulder.
"I'm glad too. I didn't know how much longer I could stand being there."
She pulled away. "I'm surprised you didn't try to escape."
"I couldn't, knowing why I was sent to Jones once again," he sighed.
Looking up at him, Abby's face paled at the reminder of their time as part of Jones' crew. Though they haven't spoken in a while she did miss him. It's rather rash to admit it, but she longed for the small moments between the two aboard the Dutchman.
Elizabeth came up to them. "We'll need to use the Black Pearl as a flagship to lead the attack," Elizabeth told the two. Her eyes stared ahead and Abby followed her gaze.
The gaze followed to Tia Dalma, rope wrapped around torso and arms, coming up on the deck lead by five men. Will stormed up to Barbossa. "Barbossa, you can't release her."
"We need to give Jack a chance," Elizabeth stated, not affected by the weapons that were pointed at them.
Barbossa spun around, right in her face. "Apologies, Your Majesty. Too long my fate had not been in me own hands." He tore a necklace with a ball tied on the end off of Elizabeth's neck. "No longer." He unpocketed a small strand of beads with a coin on the end. Then, he took it and the necklace, placing it in the bowl full of the other junk from the other Pirate Lords. Tia Dalma peered down into it as it was placed in front of her.
Gibbs squinted in the sunlight up at Barbossa. "Be there some manner of rite or incantation?"
"Aye," Barbossa answered. "The items brought together, done. Items to be burned...and someone must speak the words: Calypso, I release you from your human bonds."
"Is that it?" Pintel watched oil pour into the bowl.
"'Tis said it must be spoken as if to a lover."
"I don't know what kind of person speaks like that to a lover," Sarah commented with a shake of her head.
Barbossa glared at her before lifting up a torch to the sky. "Calypso, I release you from your human bonds!" He lowered the torch into the bowl. Sarah watched, waiting for the pieces inside to burn, but the bowl did not lit. "Still not how you speak to a lover."
"How else would it be said?" Barbossa barked, swinging the torch out of the bowl in frustration.
"Smoother? Less yelly?" She looked at Pintel. "Did you think he said it right?"
Pintel looked up with his one eye and shook his head. "No. He didn't say it right." His words stumbled at the attention given to him. "You-you have to say it right." He inched toward Tia Dalma who glowered at him. "Calypso," he said. His voice grew soft and low as he came close to her ear. "I release you from your human bonds."
Tia Dalma rolled her head back, eye clenched shut, and rolled it back down, setting fire in the bowl. The group jumped back, clutching a rope that was tied to her. The bowl floated as the fire burned down, smoke rising from the ashen pieces and into the air. Tia Dalma's head was forced over the smoke, breathing it in. Her body shook as the smoke entered her nostrils, her eyes still shut.
"Tia Dalma!" Will exclaimed, edging forwards, pulling against the restraint of two men. "Calypso." Her eyes snapped open and the bowl fell onto the deck with a thud. "When the Brethren Court imprisoned you, who was it that told them how? Who was it that betrayed you?"
Claypso trembled, her black locks hiding half of her face. "Name him."
"Davy Jones."
Calypso lifted her head, a sob racking through her body. Her body grew, stretching tall above everyone. The ropes around her loosened, stretching to the new circumference of her body. Her body increased in size and height as if it was a normal thing she would do.
The roped Sarah and Abby held onto chafed their hands. "Holy shhh..." Sarah trailed off, gaping at the goddess towering over her. Some ropes snapped under the pressure and flew free as if they
"He's right, Sarah," Elizabeth said, looking at her with a somber expression. "Then what shall we die for?" Her eyebrows drew together and her jaw clenched. "You will listen to me. Listen! " She climbed up on the railing of the ship, holding onto one of the ropes tied down. "The Brethren will still be looking here to us, to the Black Pearl, to lead as Sarah said. And what will they see? Frightened bilge rats aboard a derelict ship? No. No, they will see free men and freedom! And what the enemy will see is the flash of our cannons. They will hear the ring of our swords, and they will know what we can do." Elizabeth paused, looking around at all them. "By the sweat of our brows, and the strength of our backs, and the courage of our hearts. Gentlemen...hoist the colors."
In that single moment, the mood shifted from failure, to hope. Sarah wished Jack was here to be in the moment with them. "Hoist the colors!"
"Aye," Gibbs breathed. "The wind's on our side, boys. That's all we need!" The crew shouted in at once. lifting their pistols and blades high into the sky.
One by one the message spread among the rest of the Brethren like wildfire. Sarah and Abby watched every single flag go up around them along with the Pearl's in unity.
"This is it," Abby murmured in awe. Her green eyes were wide taking in the moment. "This is what we have been waiting for."
Sarah nodded, her arms limp at her sides. "Aye it is."