I'm back! Anybody miss me?

(A few people raise their hands slowly)

Ah... Okay. Thanks! You guys are all my new best friends. Anywho, this is a sort of short chapter, so I'll update another one fairly soon.

Davy Jones: "DarthKingdom doesn't own Disney, Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix, or anything. Who wants to join my crew? We'll sail up to the Square Enix office, and take the game for ourse-"

Hush.

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Chapter 58: Bargains with the EITC

In the captain's quarters of the East India Trading Company flagship HMS Endeavour, a bargain was being made. There were five very different people in the room.

The first was a young man with dark brown hair and a thin beard and mustache wearing a thin black jacket. He was standing by the window at the back of the ship, watching the sea churning behind them.

The second was a slightly older man in a dark violet coat. He wore a powdered wig, and had an arrogant air, as if he was used to seeing things done only his way, or else bad things happened.

The third was a terrifying sight. He was over six feet tall and wore a dark blue trench coat crusted with barnacles and all other manner of small sea creatures. Same with his tricorn. His head looked like an octopus replacing a human head, with the many tentacles hanging down his face like a moving beard. His left arm was a huge crab-like claw crusted with algae. His right index finger was a long tentacle. His right leg was that of a crab's, and resembled a peg leg.

The fourth was the exact opposite. She had long, waist-length fiery red hair and brown eyes. She wore a brown, sleeveless top, and had stylistically wound red bandages around her forearms, only exposing her fingers. Her feet were propped up on the table as she leaned back in her chair facing the second man.

The fifth stood near her. He was garbed in a black cloak. He had long black hair, streaked with grey, that was tied back in a long pony tail. He had a jagged scar on his left cheek, and an eyepatch over his right eye (the other one being bright yellow).

William Turner II. Lord Cutler Beckett. Davy Jones. Liasa. Xigbar.

"I admit that your offer intrigues me." Beckett said, pouring a glass of hot, steaming tea into two china glasses. He took one for himself and offered one to Liasa. "Though I must admit, I don't believe that your aid will be entirely necessary."

"Don't be so sure." She replied, pushing the cup of tea away. "The Keybearers are on this world now, and your little soldiers aren't good enough to stand against them."

"I'd say that my crew would be enough to deal with them." Jones said, walking up and down the length of the room, his leg making a clunking noise whenever it touched the ground. "Nigh impossible to kill."

"So was Barbossa's crew." Will said, smirking. Jones glared at him from across the room.

"Do not test me, Master Turner." He said the first word grudgingly, apparently disappointed that he wasn't allowed to kill him. But Will looked totally unafraid.

"The cutie has a point." Liasa said, smiling slyly. "You need my Heartless. And all I want in exchange for our services is the Keybearers. You can kill the rest."

"And why do you want them?"

"That's our business, little man." Xigbar said. "Not yours."

Beckett's lip curled in distaste. He took a sip from his cup and said, "You make a valid point. Three of these off-world urchins defeated those undead pirates before. But they've also defeated vast numbers of Heartless as well. So how do I know that this arrangement will be worth it?"

"Because you have quantity, and I have quality. Our forces together will easily destroy the pirates, you'll have Jack Sparrow's head on your desk, and I get some Keybearers for my friends." She turned her head to Jones. "And when this is over, you my scaly friend may have a spot in the Brotherhood of the Dark if you want it."

A thoughtful look came to Jones's face. "I'll... consider your offer."

"But Jones will stay here on this world until our task with the Brethren Court is finished." Beckett said, glancing meaningfully at Jones.

Liasa smirked. "So, we have an accord?" She held out one slender hand. He chuckled low in his throat and shook it.

"Now on to more pressing business." Beckett said. "Jones, I believe that you're familiar with a person named 'Calypso.'"

Jones's head snapped toward him, an expression of shock and unease on his green face. He quickly tried to disguise it by acting casual. He walked toward the window. "Not a person. A heathen god who delights in tempting men with their wildest dreams and then revealing them as not but ash!" His even tone had turned into a snarl and he was talking faster. "The worlds are well rid of her."

"Not quite so rid of, actually." Will said, more casually than Jones. "The Brethren Court intends to release her."

Shock once again showed on Jones's face. "No! They cannot! The first Brethren Court promised to imprison her forever. That was our agreement!"

"Your agreement?" Xigbar asked.

It seemed that Jones had said more than he had intended to. "I... showed them how to bind her. She could not be trusted." He turned away from them all. "She... She gave me no choice! We must find her..."

"You loved her..." Will looked genuinely interested for the first time since Liasa and Xigbar had come aboard the ship. Jones snapped around to face the man. "She was the one... And you betrayed her."

Jones took a few menacing steps toward Will, a look of pure rage on his face. "She pretended to love me. She betrayed me!" He was directly in his face now.

Will calmly replied. "And after which betrayal did you cut out your heart, I wonder?"

Jones had murder in his eyes, but he only continued to glare at Will.

"You will free my father." He said to Jones. He walked around him and addressed Beckett. "And you will guarantee Elizabeth's safety. Along with my own. Or I won't be taking you any farther to Shipwreck Cove." He held out a compass that was very familiar to anyone who knew Jack Sparrow.

"Done." Beckett said, calmly taking another sip of tea.

"Xigbar," Liasa said, standing up. "Make sure our Heartless are hyped up for a big battle, they're about to get a lot more hearts." He grinned, nodded, and disappeared through a corridor of Darkness.

Jones walked out to the deck in silence, and she followed him. The two walked across a wide gangplank to a ship that looked as if it had come from the bottom of the ocean. Indeed, it had spent a lot of time down there before the East India Trading Company had moved some of its soldiers in.

"So, tall, dark, and scaly." She said, passing up a crewman that looked like a humanoid hammerhead shark. "What exactly are you?"

"What am I?" He asked, not turning around, just walking toward his own cabin. He didn't sound like he was particularly pleased to have her company, regardless of the fact that she was pretty easy on the eyes. "Speak sense woman, or not at all."

"Your heart is intact, and separate from your body, yet there's no Heartless." She elaborated. They walked into Davy Jones's quarters. It was rather like the rest of the ship. The walls were covered with algae, barnacles, and other crustaceans, giving them a lumpy, greenish appearance. At the far end of the room was a large pipe organ with a similar appearance.

Liasa continued. "Your body lacks a heart, and yet you still seem to feel certain emotions. So what does that make you?"

"How should I know?" He said, turning around. "But the souls I've brought into my service aren't the only members of my crew."

He snapped his fingers in his semi-normal hand. Corridors of Darkness appeared, and two Nobodies quickly stepped through them. They were silvery, of course, and humanoid in shape. Their heads were oddly shaped, as if they were wearing tricorn hats like Jones's. They held large rifle-like weapons across their broad chests.

"The Sky Pirates have long answered my call." Jones said.

Liasa smiled. "Oh, there is definitely a spot for you in our Brotherhood, my crusty, scaly friend."

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Several minutes later, Liasa entered the Flying Dutchman's brig. Her nose immediately wrinkled at the smell that greeted her, but apart from that, she could ignore it.

She walked through a few inches of salt water that was sloshing around over the floor, and walked to the nearest cell. If it was even possible, the brig was more slimy than Jones's quarters, and the cell bars were all covered by algae.

The cell Liasa had chosen had one occupant. A single man was inside, if he could even be called a man any more. He looked a little more human than the rest of the Dutchman's crew, with greenish grey skin. The right side of his face was partially covered by a starfish that had made its home there.

This man seemed to be stuck to the wall of his cell. His body was partially covered by coral that was clinging to the wall he was leaning against. He didn't seem to particularly care, and merely gazed up at his visitor with dull blue eyes.

Liasa opened up the cell. "Out you go, pops. Your sentence is over, and the captain wants to see you."

With a sickening crunching noise, the man detached himself from the wall, taking a large chunk of coral with him. He walked heavily, and with slumped shoulders, from the cell, sloshing through the brig, and up the stairs that led to the deck.

Liasa watched him go, wondering why he had looked so dead inside. She pushed the issue aside as much as she could, and got to work preparing the cell for some very special prisoners that they would hopefully have by the end of the next day.

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Yeah, really short. And I am seriously disappointed with you if you don't know who that last crewman was.

Moving on, I have a poll on my profile. If you've played Prototype or inFamous, please check it out, would you? It'd make me very happy! :D

Anyway, please leave a review!