Alright, let me say a few things first: I skipped directly to World's End because I was too lazy to make an alternate ending to Dead Man's Chest, and didn't want to leave the ending up in the air with Jack's death. So, hopefully, this works out well enough.

Kairi: "DarthKingdom doesn't own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Square Enix, or anything else he decides to use."

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Chapter 57: The Brethren Court

Salty air and the sound of crashing waves greeted Sora as his feet touched down on the wooden deck. The boards creaked below his feet as he walked around the deck of the familiar ship. The Black Pearl hadn't changed much since it had returned to Jack Sparrow's ownership.

"Woah..." Riku said, looking around. "This place is..."

"Kinda different?" Sora finished with a grin.

When Nehrut touched down seconds later with Bariss and Axel, he inhaled deeply and cringed. "Yeah, this place reeks of Jack Sparrow. Sweat, rum, and general lawlessness... pretty distinctive."

By the time the rest of the crew landed, Sora realized that this particular place was totally unfamiliar to him.

They were at a small island with an impressive mountain range on it. They were dotted with green trees. The Black Pearl sat docked in a cove of this island, facing what looked like a smaller island in the center of the cove. But it was comprised with the remains of hundreds of wrecked ships.

Lights were glowing all over the 'town', occasionally allowing a glimpse of its occupants. Even from a distance, the way they carried themselves, and their motley appearances, revealed that they were pirates.

All around the Pearl, either docked or floating freely, were huge numbers of ships. Most of them were dark, and quiet. The pirates were no longer on their vessels, and instead were likely on the island.

"Uh, where are we?" Goofy asked.

"I think I've heard of this place..." Nehrut said, staring intently at the town. "Jack mentioned it to me. I think this is Shipwreck Cove, in the heart of Shipwreck Island. And that's the town of Shipwreck."

"Pirates are pretty unimaginative when it comes to naming things aren't they?" Yuffie observed.

"I met a guy who'd lost both of his arms and part of his eye last time I was here." Nehrut said. "Know what Jack called him? 'Larry.'"

"Seriously?" Yuffie asked.

"What's significant about Shipwreck Cove?" Mickey asked.

"It's the meeting place of the Brethren Court." He explained. "There are nine Pirate Lords that control a certain portion of the oceans, you see. Jack is one of them (don't ask me how), and they make up the leaders of the Court. They only meet when the entire pirate population is in extreme danger."

"We're in the right place, then." Sora said.

"All these ships can only mean that a meeting is taking place now." Riku said, gazing across the water at them. "We should check out the town."

So, the ten of them walked across the gangplank at the stem of the ship to the dock. They walked silently around a winding series of staircases, to the place where they could hear plenty of noise. Most of the pirates they passed were walking in the same direction. They received some strange looks from those men that passed.

After several minutes of searching, they found exactly what they were looking for.

There was a long meeting room. The wooden walls slanted toward each other to where they met in a point at the ceiling. A long, sturdy, wooden table was in the center, stretching across the room. There were only nine chairs sitting at it.

The room was filled to bursting with pirates. Sitting at six of the nine tables were pirates that Sora was unfamiliar with:

An Arab pirate with a dark red and green turban and long, dark brown hair and a mustache. A Frenchman with pale face makeup and a dirty powdered wig. An older Asian woman with white face makeup and glazed over eyes. A tall, well-built black man with a braided beard. An old Hindu man with a green turban and a beard Yen Sid would have envied. And a short Spanish man with a graying beard and mustache.

Nearest them were three people that Sora recognized instantly. Along with a handful he had met briefly during his last visit.

Jack Sparrow (now wearing his grubby trenchcoat. His beloved tricorne hat was sitting on the table), stood near the head of the table. His saber and pistol were at his belt. He was flanked by two very different individuals.

The first was a young woman with long, dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. Elizabeth Swan looked a lot different from when Sora had last seen her. She had traded in her golden dress for an oriental, dark green and gold outfit that looked like it could be a set of light armor. A long sword was sheathed at her belt.

The other one was supposed to be dead.

Hector Barbossa looked much as Sora had seen him before his death: Scraggly brownish beard and hair. He wore his wide-brimmed hat with the ostrich feather. There was a little Capuchin monkey with a tiny outfit standing on his left shoulder. His dark eyes scanned the room.

The ones behind them were members of Jack's new crew. Joshamee Gibbs, Cotton (and his parrot), Marty, Pintel, and Ragetti.

The pirates had been in the middle of a heated discussion when they appeared in the doorway. All conversation abruptly stopped when they noticed the newcomers. They looked at them for a moment in silence, and then there was the tell-tale clicking of firearms being readied.

Sure enough, several varieties of guns were pointing at them. Pistols, shotguns, and military-style rifles.

"Hold your fire!" Three voices exclaimed. Jack, Elizabeth, and Barbossa.

"They're with us mates!" Jack called to the room at large. Not many people seemed reassured (since this was after all, Jack Sparrow), but the guns were put away, at least. Jack gestured at them to come fully into the room. "Perfect timing lads, lasses. Might you be willing to provide us a bit of aid, here?"

"The great Captain Sparrow needs our help?" Nehrut asked, one eyebrow raised.

"We all could use help, lad." Barbossa's eyes shifted from him to Sora. "Pleasure to see you again, boy." Though by the sound of his voice, it wasn't.

"Sorry to interrupt, but does someone care to explain the situation here?"

"Barbossa was brought back to life, by our acquaintance, Tia Dalma." Elizabeth explained. "I know that's what you're probably most confused about. He's here because he's one of the nine Pirate Lords."

"And we're here because the pirate way of life is in danger." Barbossa continued. "Our enemies have united, and vow to destroy us."

"Which enemies are those, exactly?" Riku asked.

"Lord Cutler Beckett, of the East India Trading Company." Jack said. "Right nasty piece of work that man. Hates we pirates enough to seek out the heart of Davy Jones."

"Davy Jones?" Sora didn't know anyone who had actually gone by the name. Though he, like anyone had heard the phrase 'Davy Jones' Locker.'

"Heart of Davy Jones?" Kairi asked.

"Many years ago." Gibbs said, stepping forward. He nodded at Nehrut as if he knew him (and he did). "Davy Jones was a sailor, until he ran afoul of that which vexes all men."

At their silence, Jack rolled his eyes. "A woman. He fell in love."

"Aye. And that woman was the sea goddess, Calypso."

Not more gods.

"She gave him the task of ferrying the souls of those who died at sea to the next life, with his ship, the Flying Dutchman. But he would have to stay at sea, and not step foot on land for ten years."

"But after those ten years were up," Barbossa took over, "Calypso wasn't there."

"In a rage," Gibbs continued, "He cut out his heart, and locked it away in a chest, and hid it far away. Then, he told the first Brethren Court, how they could bind Calypso into a human form. Giving them control of the seas."

"But then opened the door to people like Beckett." Barbossa said. "He recently acquired the heart."

"And he's been using it as leverage against Jones." Jack said. "They've been sinking every pirate ship they've come across."

"And he's been passing strict laws regarding piracy." Elizabeth said. "Even looking at a pirate earns you a trip to the gallows."

"So this is why you're all here?" Sora concluded. "To do something about it?"

"Aye." One of the other pirates said. "And if we could get on with this..."

Sora and the others went silent, and Barbossa stepped toward the table. "Aye, time be of the essence. I hereby convene this, the fourth Brethren Court. To confirm your Lordship and right to be heard, present now your pieces of eight, me fellow captains.

Ragetti picked up a wooden tray from the table, and walked around the table to the first captain (the Hindu man). He dropped a snuff box fashioned out of a calf's horn into the tray.

As the Frenchman dropped a queen of spades playing card into the tray, Pintel and Kairi leaned toward Gibbs, confused.

"Those aren't pieces of eight..." Kairi said in a whisper.

"They're just pieces of junk!" Pintel finished.

Gibbs nodded, and explained. "Aye, the original plan was to use nine pieces of eight to bind Calypso, but when the first Court met, the Brethren were worth one; skint broke."

Pintel still looked a little confused. "So change the name."

"To what? To 'Nine Pieces of Whatever-We-Happen-to-Have-in-Our-Pockets-at-the-Time?'" He rolled his eyes. "Oh yes, that sounds very piratey."

The Spanish man added a broken bottle-neck with a cork. Then the black man added a pair of tobacco cutters. The Asian woman added a pair of spectacles. And the Arab added a small, pewter brandy goblet.

When Ragetti came back around to their end of the table, Barbossa held out his hand, palm up. "Master Ragetti, if you will."

"I kept it safe for you, just like you said when you gave it to me." He said.

"Aye, you did. Now I need it back." He wacked him in the back of the head. His right wooden eye easily popped out of it's socket and into his hand. Kairi wretched. Barbossa dropped the eye into the tray.

Jack reluctantly put in one of the coins hanging from his bandanna, woven into Moroccan beads. And Sora was surprised when Elizabeth added something as well: a Jade Captain's knot.

"Now then," Barbossa addressed everyone in the room, "Our location has been betrayed. Jones and Beckett are on their way here."

"Who is this betrayer!?" The black Pirate Lord asked. Looking around the room with anger etched on his face.

"Not likely anybody among us." Barbossa said.

"Where's Will?" Sora looked around.

"Not among us." Jack replied.

Will betrayed them? Somehow Sora couldn't imagine it.

"It matters not how they found us." Barbossa said. "The question is: What will we do, now that they have?"

"We fight!" Elizabeth said.

Instantly, half the room burst into laughter. "Shipwreck Cove is a fortress!" The Asian woman said. "A well supplied fortress! There is no need to fight if they cannot get to us!"

"You'd stay hidden safe and sound inside your fortress while others died, Ching?" Nehrut said, glaring at her (though she couldn't see it). "I thought you liked to take risks."

Sora thought he might have been pushing his luck a bit. Then, the two men on either side of Ching pulled out their weapons; a broadsword and a pistol. They looked more than ready to kill him where he stood. The first had aimed his pistol, when Ching raised her hand. They put their weapons away.

"Do not press your luck, telepath." She said coldly, "The service you performed for me in Tortuga was not that great."

Barbossa held out his hands and brought silence back to the room. "There be a third choice." He walked around the room as he spoke.

"In another age, at this very spot, the first Brethren Court captured the sea goddess, and bound her in her bones." There was some general mumbling of assent, and a few nodding heads. "That was a mistake." They looked at him in surprise.

"Oh, we tamed the sea for ourselves, aye. But opened the door to Beckett! And his ilk! Better were the days when mastery of seas came not from bargains struck with hellish creatures, but from the sweat of his brow and the strength of his back alone! You all know this to be true!"

He had circled the room, and was now back at his original spot. "Gentlemen... Ladies." He paused for dramatic effect. "We must free Calypso."

This statement was greeted by total, absolute silence. Even the waves outside seemed to have gone quiet. Even the monkey and the bird were silent.

"Anyone got a pin?" Roxas asked, though he knew only Sora would hear him. "I bet I can hear it hit the ground."

That's not funny.

"Yeah, I'm running out of material."

The room was silent for exactly five seconds after Barbossa's proposal. Then a nightmare was unleashed.

Loud shouting filled the room, the Pirate Lords leapt from their seats, and threats and accusations flew toward Barbossa.

"Shoot him!"

"Cut out his tongue!"

"Shoot him and cut out his tongue! Then shoot his tongue!" Jack threw in excitedly. "Maybe trim that scraggly beard."

Soon after, a full-out brawl broke out between the two halves of the pirates. One half agreed with Barbossa, the other didn't. Jack, Barbossa, Elizabeth, and Sora's groups stayed by the door, and watched.

"This is madness!" Bariss exclaimed.

"This is politics." Jack corrected.

Barbossa rolled his eyes and stood up on the table. He took his pistol from his belt and fired a single shot into the air through the roof. At the sound of the gunshot, the fighting came to a complete halt.

"It was the first court that released Calypso, we should be the ones to set her free! And in her gratitude, she will see fit to grant us boons!"

"Whose boons? Your boons?" Jack asked. "Utterly deceptive twaddlespit, says I."

"If ya have a better alternative, please share." Barbossa stepped off the table.

"This oughta be good." Nehrut said to Axel.

"Cuttlefish." Was all Jack said.

"See?"

Jack walked around the room like Barbossa had. "Let us not, dear friends, forget our... dear friends the cuttlefish. Pen 'em up together and they will devour each other without a second thought. Human nature, ain't it? Or... fish nature."

He stopped behind Ching, and spoke directly to her. "So, yes. We could hole up here, well provisioned and well armed, and half of us would be dead within the month! Which seems quite grim to me any way you slice it. Or..." He kept walking.

"As my luni- colleague so naively suggests, we could release Calypso. And we can pray that she will be merciful... I rather doubt it. Can we pretend that she is anything other than a woman scorned, whose fury like which Hell hath no? We cannot."

He had reached the other side of the room. "Therefore, we are left with one option. I agree with –and I cannot believe that the words are coming out of me mouth- Captain Swan. We must fight." Elizabeth looked extremely satisfied.

"You've always run away from a fight!" Barbossa accused.

"Oooh, now watch this." Nehrut said.

"Have not!"

"You have so!"

"Have not!"

"You have so!"

"Have not!"

"You have so!"

"Have not!"

"You have so and you know it!"

All throughout that increasingly childish exchange, the other occupants of the room had followed the two back and forth as if watching a tennis game.

"Have not. I have only ever embraced that oldest and noblest of pirate traditions. I submit that here, now, that is what we all decide. We must fight... to run away!"

"Noble?" Kairi asked into Sora's ear. He shrugged.

Suddenly, the room was filled with exclamations of 'Aye!'

But Barbossa wasn't moved. "As per the code, an act of war (and this be exactly that) can only be declared by the Pirate King."

"You made that up!"

"Did I now?" He smirked. "I call out Captain Teague; Keeper of the Code!"

There was a collective gasp. Jack looked slightly put off, and the corner of his mouth began to twitch.

Sora was about to ask what the big deal was about this Captain Teague when the Hindu man nudged one of his aids, who spoke for him. "Sri Sumbhajee declares this all to be folly!" The aid exclaimed.

"Oh boy..." Nehrut closed his eyes.

"Hang the code! Who gives a-"

A single gunshot rang out. And then there was a single, clean, bloodless hole directly through the middle of the man's chest. He was completely still and silent, before he fell over backwards, and landed with a dull thud.

The room was totally silent again for the next time in the past few minutes. All eyes turned toward the doorway the shot had come from.

A man stood silhouetted against the pale gold light from a single lantern. He held up his smoking pistol and blew away a few wisps of it from the barrel. "The code is the law."

He walked down into the light, and Sora was astonished to see an exact replica of Jack Sparrow with about thirty years added on.

"Is that...?"

"Yep." Nehrut replied, already knowing the question.

"And he...?"

"Uh-huh."

Teague walked slowly toward the table. He turned his head slightly, and nodded toward Nehrut as he did. "Safety and Peace." He muttered. He stopped at Jack's back. "You're in my way boy." He stepped to the side.

Teague gestured to someone in the direction he had come. Out came two extremely old men, carrying a huge book between them. When they set it on the table, he opened it up slowly, almost reverently. He seemed to know exactly what page he wanted. He scanned the page for a moment, and then tapped a certain spot with his finger. "Ahhh... Barbossa is right."

"There's not been a king since the first Court!" The Frenchman said. "And that's not likely to change." The Pirate King was elected by popular vote. Each Lord would only vote for themselves.

"I call for a vote!" Jack said.

"Okay, what's he doing?" Sora wondered out loud. There were a few annoyed sounds from the pirates. Teague, his job done, walked to a corner of the room, picked up a guitar, and began to play a quiet tune.

"I vote for Ammand, the Corsair!"

"Capitain Chevalle, the Penniless Frenchman."

"Sri Sumbhajee votes for Sri Sumbhajee."

"Mistress Ching!"

"Gentleman Jocard."

"Elizabeth Swan."

"Barbossa."

"Villanueva!"

The guitar stopped playing when they reached the final Pirate Lord. Jack half-smiled.

"Elizabeth Swan."

"...What?"

"I know. Curious, isn't it?"

Instantly, the Pirate Lords broke out into loud protests, trying to convince them to change his vote, or at least vote for himself and be done with it.

"Am I to understand that you lot will not be keeping to the code, then?" Jack asked calmly, knowing what would happen.

A guitar string suddenly snapped, and everyone noticed. Teague sent a strange look at the others, murder in his eyes. The Pirate Lords fell silent immediately, and slowly sank back into their chairs.

"Very well." Ching said, after sending a –hopefully- calming gesture toward Teague. "What say you, Captain Swan, King of the Brethren Court?"

Sora knew he would remember her look of pure determination for the rest of his life. "Prepare every vessel that floats. At dawn, we're at war."

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Yay... Anyway, hope you liked reading what was basically a retelling of the scene from the third movie. --;

I'll be going out of town for a few weeks soon, so I'll try to update before I leave.

Please review!