So, I just heard yesterday that a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film is going to come out in 2011! 'On Stranger Tides.' Now, this could be either totally awesome, or a huge disappointment.

Sorry to make you wait for this chapter. I've been through a lot of school crap these last few days.

Roxas: "Excuses, excuses."

(Glares at Roxas) Would you feel like doing anything after finishing a three-page essay for an incompetent teacher?

Roxas: "Fair enough. DarthKingdom doesn't own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Square Enix, or anything else."

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Chapter 61: Battle of Shipwreck Cove

Sora, Nehrut, and Jack found it very easy to get out of the brig and back on the main deck. Roxas had long since returned to Sora's body, leaving his four very confused pursuers down somewhere in the depths of the ship.

They could tell that the battle had started, the ship was shaking, there were shouts and screams from above deck, and once Sora had been nearly beheaded by a cannon ball that shoot through the side of the ship.

"So, what?" Sora asked on the way up. "We just do as much damage as possible?"

"Do what you will, mate." Jack said from his place behind him. "But me, I'm going after the heart of Davy Jones."

"Unfortunately Sora," Nehrut said, "I think we'll have to go along with him. Maybe Jones will stand down if we get it."

"It's all about leverage, lads." They stepped out onto the deck into the storm. Their clothing was drenched immediately. The nearest soldiers noticed them almost immediately. But they were clearly not used to fighting off-worlders, and were struck down before they even had time to fire a single shot.

It didn't feel quite right to Sora. He had killed plenty of Heartless, and lots of Nobodies, too. He had destroyed cursed pirates, and those possessed by Darkness. But these were just normal people.

Nehrut obviously felt what he was thinking. "I know what you're feeling, Sora. But you shouldn't feel too horrible about it. The East India Trading Company is hopelessly corrupt; a lot of these soldiers are nothing but thugs." Sora felt a bit reassured, by this, but not entirely.

They moved quickly to a door that Jack pointed out as Davy Jones's quarters. Surprisingly, it was unlocked (not that this would have made a difference), and they walked right through to find an unpleasant surprise.

"And here I thought I'd have nothing to do all day." Xigbar had both of his bizarre guns in hand. One was aimed at Sora, and the other at Nehrut. Under one of his feet was the Dead Man's chest. He had that annoying cocky smirk on his face. "So, how are we going to do this?"

"You've two options, mate." Jack said, holding his saber in one hand and his pistol in the other. "Option one is that we take the chest and you crawl back into whatever hole you came from."

"Option two is that we kick you into that hole and bury you there." Nehrut added, pointing Presul at the Nobody.

"Think I'll take option three." He responded. "That's the one where I kill you two and take Spiky here back to base."

******************************************************

Kairi and Riku had taken flight into the stormy sky. Their Keyblades and the Guardian were ready to fight. They met the Heartless and Nobodies half way between the Pearl and the Dutchman, directly over the center of the whirlpool.

Kairi's blade descended, cutting an Air Pirate cleanly in two. She twisted in the air and blocked a strike from one of its fellows. She struck her blade into its side, destroying it. She flew under the 'hull' of a Battleship and blasted its underside with a blast of Light. It fell to pieces, and down into the whirlpool as it faded.

Riku's blade was enveloped in Dawn, and moving so fast it was an orange blur. He took the heads off of two Air Pirates, and then drove it into the head of a Great Black. Two Sky Pirate Nobodies flew toward him, shooting green-tinted energy bursts at him as they came.

The Guardian flew toward them, catching the blasts as it went. As it approached, they tried to back away, but it just kept coming. It grabbed their heads in each of its massive fists, and squeezed hard.

Kairi buzzed over its head toward a Great Black. Its gaping mouth was spewing ice particles at her. She put up a Light shield, catching the ice, and then shot the shield forward, smashing it into its face. Two Air Pirates took its place. One aimed a punch at her face, while the other struck at her stomach.

She quickly destroyed the higher one, and was spared having to finish the other one by Riku. He had come from behind and stabbed it through the back. The two turned in the direction of the Flying Dutchman. There were still plenty of flying enemies in their way. The bright explosions from the ships of both cannons stood out easily against the dark water.

They shot toward the Dutchman, cutting through their foes fairly easily. The whole time, the swirling whirlpool was pulling the two very different ships closer and closer together. Within minutes, they were rotating near its center, trading fire from a much shorter distance.

******************************************************

Mercer understood this. He held his hat on his head tighter, and rushed to the railing overlooking the main deck. "Prepare to board!"

"Cover!" Davy Jones shouted, still at the helm. He grabbed Mercer by the shoulders, and shoved him to the starboard side of the deck. No sooner than he did, a cannonball from the Black Pearl struck the side near the helm.

Chunks and splinters of wood exploded from the deck nearby. They reduced the four soldiers with Mercer into piles of shredded meat, and threw what was left to the angry ocean. Jones and Mercer were unharmed.

Jones noticed this as he and Mercer got to their feet. A manic light came to his eyes. He grabbed both of Mercer's arms tightly, nearly breaking the one he held with his claw. Understanding what Jones intended, Mercer glared at him as if saying, 'You can't do this to me!'

Jones's reply was a smirk that said, 'Who's going to stop me?'

Mercer's death was an agonizing one. The tentacles on Jones's face slithered up his face into his nostrils and mouth. The stronger ones wrapped around his scrawny neck. Jones smiled horribly as his tentacles began to suffocate him. Then, his constant gurgling noises started to get on his nerves. With barely a move, the tentacles clenched, and Mercer's neck snapped.

As the man's body fell to the ground, one of the tentacles grabbed something that had been hanging around his neck. A long, iron key. The key to the Dead Man's chest.

Jones let out a noise that sounded like a snort, satisfied. He left the helm to one of his crew, and walked down to the deck. He tucked the key safely away into an inside pocket of his trenchcoat.

The door to his quarters suddenly exploded in a shower of splinters and scraps of metal. He thought for a moment that a cannon blast had struck the door, but saw something quite different.

Jack Sparrow was backing out of the doorway, in one hand was the Dead Man's chest, the other held a pistol, and he was shooting into the doorway. Sora was next, Keyblade held at the ready. Nehrut was last, and he had both his hands stretched out to block oncoming laser bullets with his powers. They burned out and fell to the floor before disappearing.

Xigbar followed them out, both guns blazing. They all stopped when they realized they were no longer alone.

Jones laughed. "Lookie here boys!" He said, advancing toward the three. But he was looking directly at Jack, who held his chest. The fish-people crew that wasn't manning the guns gathered around them. "A lost bird! A lost bird that never learned to fly!" From his belt he drew a rusty broad sword.

Jack backed away from him toward the railing of the ship. "To my great regret... But!"

He hopped onto the railing and grabbed onto of the ropes to stabilize himself. "Never too late to learn, eh?"

Using the chest to knock the rope loose, he was yanked high into the air. They gazed after him in total shock. The line went taut, and Jack was somehow pushed to land on the long plank holding the sail in place below the crow's nest. He balanced precariously on it.

"Like he could ever do that again." (1) Nehrut rolled his eyes. Jones snarled, and walked toward the mast Jack was on top of. To Sora's amazement, he sank into the wood and ended up on top of the mast in front of Jack.

"The chest!" he said, advancing toward him. "Hand it over!"

"I can set you free, mate!" Jack holstered his pistol and pulled out his saber. He didn't let go of the chest.

"My freedom was forfeit long ago!" Jones let out a battle cry, and charged at the pirate.

"We have to help him, don't we?" Sora asked rhetorically.

"You've got enough to worry about, kid." Said a female voice. The men parted to let Liasa through. She was smiling, and had a slightly manic gleam in her eyes that reminded Sora a little bit of Axel. "Leave this one to me, boys. Just get back to your jobs."

She held her hands at her sides, palms facing out. Her hands were suddenly enveloped in golden flames. Then two long beams of fire shot out, and she was holding two meter-long bars of flame, like swords.

"C'mon Keyboy, let's see what you've got." She took up a fighting stance, holding one blade cocked high behind her head, and the other held defensively in front of her chest. She rushed at Sora, and brought her first one flying at his face.

Oblivion went up immediately to catch it, and pushed it away. The other one descended toward his head. His fine-tuned instincts allowed him to move the blade to intercept it. He struck out with the Keyblade, and she back flipped agilely away from it. "Come on!" She goaded, and he rushed after her.

"Guess that leaves you and me, dude." Xigbar smirked, and aimed both guns at Nehrut.

"Hey, careful with those things!" He responded, faking concern. "You could shoot your eye ou- Oh! I'm sorry!"

"Funny. You want to make a lame pirate joke while you're at it?"

"So two pirates, a Moogle, and a Nobody walk into a bar..."

He opened fire. "I hate that one."

******************************************************

The second Liasa struck Sora's Keyblade with her fiery weapons, the crews of the Pearl and the Dutchman began the dangerous process of boarding a hostile vessel. From long ropes strung around the masts, the crews swung toward the opposite ships like Tarzan on a vine. Some were shot down by the opposite crew, or their ropes were cut by the other ones swinging by.

Among the Dutchman's boarding party were Koleniko (who had chased Roxas), Clanker (a man covered entirely by mussels and barnacles), Jimmy Legs (the sadistic bosun), and Finnegan (a hideous man even by Dutchman standards who looked part rockfish), plus over a dozen EITC soldiers and fish-people crewmen.

On the other end were Axel and Bariss and several pirates. Yuffie was close enough to where she could skip the hassle and teleport over to the Dutchman in a puff of smoke.

The second they landed, chaos broke loose. Swords were pulled from their sheathes. Guns were cocked. The pirates soon discovered that long term exposure to the Flying Dutchman made her crew nearly impossible to kill. And the Heartless were no picnic either.

Riku and Kairi, meanwhile, were battling the airborne Heartless and Nobodies high above the dueling ships.

Riku fired a blast of Dawn at an ascending group of Air Pirates. It exploded against the face of the first, and took out the rest. Kairi floated directly over him, and blasted the Battleship approaching from above.

"These things are really getting on my nerves." Kairi said, deflecting fire from a Sky Pirate with a Light shield. She then charged at it and ran it through with her Keyblade. She yanked it out, and then fired a blast of light energy down the throat of a Great Black.

"It's either flying guys or super-tough fish people, your choice." Riku took the head off an Air Pirate and then sunk it into the face of a Battleship.

"Or you could help me with the trigger-happy Nobody!" Came a voice. They looked down just as Nehrut shot past them, followed by a stream of glowing red bullets. He came to a stop several feet above them, and deflected the fire. Below them, Xigbar was pulling the triggers on his weapons so fast he never seemed to let go of them.

Riku's Guardian went into action, and shot down toward him, shoulder first. Xigbar smirked at it, and teleported away at the last second. The Guardian passed through thin air.

Xigbar reappeared right behind Kairi. He dismissed one of his weapons, and used his free arm to get a firm grip around her neck. He pointed his remaining weapon at her temple. She and the other two held totally still.

"You're coming with me, Princess."

"Am I?" She had an odd smile on her face. Her entire body shone silver. "Purifying Pulse!" There was a huge flash of Light energy. Xigbar was thrown backwards down toward the churning sea far below. Kairi looked very satisfied with herself. "I've been working on that move for days!"

"Where's Sora?" Riku asked Nehrut. The Heartless and Nobodies had come back, and were attacking them from all side.

"At the moment?" Nehrut blasted a Great Black into the side of a Battleship targeting Kairi. "Last I saw him, he was fighting that Liasa chick Bariss told us about."

"What about Davy Jones?" Kairi blasted a Sky Pirate, and then stabbed backwards to catch another in the stomach.

"Jack has his heart in the chest, and right now they're fighting for it." He plunged his sword into the jaw of a Great Black. Then he threw another Heartless into one of its fellows.

Xigbar reappeared, sending a hail of bullets at them as he shot up toward them. Riku fired blasts of Dawn from behind his protective Guardian, who took the bullets with hardly a move.

The Nobody vanished as the blasts approached.

"Not this time." Kairi said. The microsecond she heard the phimp sound of a teleporting body behind her, she shot high into the air. Bullets followed her up. Nehrut leapt into the way, and intercepted the bullets with his blade, he reflected some of them back toward their source.

Xigbar was struck twice in the left shoulder. He let out a barely noticeable grunt of pain, and kept on firing. The whole length of Destiny's Light began to glow. Kairi swept it through the air, and a disk of Light energy shot from the blade. Xigbar shot over it, but his jaw met the heel of Riku's foot.

He lost altitude, and nearly lost a lot more when Riku fired blasts of Dawn at him. He teleported high above them, and fired from above. Nehrut shot up toward him, deflecting his fire easily. Kairi followed him up, spraying Xigbar with Light blasts from below him. Xigbar teleported around them, and never ceased fire. When Nehrut reached him, he stabbed forward, but, of course, he was gone.

This whole process where he teleported away from them was getting very annoying. It happened three more times before Nehrut got an idea. He reached out with his mind. Xigbar was below them now, firing at Riku, who had called up a shield to protect himself.

He grabbed Xigbar with his powers as if with a giant fist. He held Xigbar in place. He struggled in the invisible grip, trying to get loose. Riku and Kairi took advantage of his immobility, and fired rapid bursts of Light and Dawn at him. They struck him all over, and he thrashed around in his invisible prison, howling.

Both of his guns dropped from his hands, and Nehrut caught them. He pulled them towards him, and took one in his hand. He fired both of them at Xigbar, adding to the punishment.

It went on for minutes. Minutes where Sora battled Liasa, Jack fenced with Davy Jones, and pirates and soldiers fought to the death. Finally, after a very large blast from Kairi, a smoky hole appeared in Xigbar's chest. The fire abruptly stopped, and Xigbar's appropriated weapons vanished into thin air.

Xigbar stayed in the air for a moment longer, fading into black clouds. Nehrut released his grip on the Nobody, and he fell two hundred feet down into the violent ocean, still fading.

******************************************************

Sora quickly discovered that Liasa was one of the deadliest people he had ever faced. She was fast, agile, and very skilled. Her flaming weapons flashed through the air, striking from every angle.

The two of them were fighting at the bow of the ship, and Sora was being forced toward the edge. The raging waters below were waiting to swallow him up. Sora ducked under a strike from the left blade, and then blocked a follow-up strike from the right. Then she brought both crashing down toward his head.

His blade shot up to stop them. Unfortunately, she had space to kick him in the chest. He staggered backwards, and fell off the ship.

Axel and Bariss saw this as they landed on the ship's deck. Their mouths fell open in horror and outrage. Axel snarled and ran toward Liasa, summoning his chakrams. "You little b-"

She twisted around and kicked him in the jaw. She struck at his chest, but one of his chakrams intercepted it. She pulled back, and observed him for a moment. Her eyes lingered over his face and chest. Axel was too angry to notice.

"Hello handsome..." She said quietly.

Axel snarled. His hands shot out. Blazing plumes of fire burst from them at Liasa. She crossed her blades in front of her. They seemed to absorb the fire into them without any real effort on Liasa's part. He called off his attack and leapt toward her, chakrams returning to his hands.

While he was still in midair she released the excess fire she had gathered, all in one massive burst. His eyes widened. He held out both weapons in front of him, just as the blast was about to hit him. He shot through the flames with his weapons held out in front of him. He landed directly in front of Liasa, and struck at her head. She ducked under it, and stabbed at his stomach.

He jumped back. He threw one of his chakrams at her, and she ducked away from it. She pointed her right sword at him, and small blasts of flame shot from the tip at him. He moved his chakrams everywhere, deflecting the flames. He approached her as he did this.

When he was within striking range, he struck at her with the left weapon, and she blocked with hers. He brought the right one down, and she blocked it, as well. He pressed down with all his weight against her weapons, glaring at her.

She was expressionless for a few moments. Then she did something really unexpected. She reached up and kissed him right on the lips.

His eyes bugged out, and he was totally still for a moment.

Unfortunately, that was all the time she needed. She brought her knee up into his stomach, hard. He got the breath knocked out from him. Their lips parted abruptly, and Liasa swept his legs out from under him. He landed hard on his back on the wet wooden deck. He dropped his weapons, and hers was instantly at his throat.

He glared up at her. She smiled slyly down at him, completely disregarding the brutal fighting all around them. She licked her lips once. "Thanks for that kiss hot-shot. Not the worst I've ever gotten."

"Thanks for the memories, you-" Axel replied, growling.

Half a second later there was a Keyblade being held at her throat. More specifically: Oblivion.

Liasa seemed extremely surprised. Her eyes shifted, and she saw a very wet Sora to her right. He was completely unharmed. He just looked annoyed. It was interesting to note that his hair was still spiky.

"Oh, come on."

Before anyone could make a move, the deck near them was struck by a cannonball. The deck to Liasa's left exploded, and she leapt away reflexively. Axel sprung to his feet, picking up his fallen weapons. Sora aimed a cut at her leg, leaving a gash across it. She stumbled backwards and fell off the front of the ship much like Sora had. The two ran over and looked down.

Liasa hadn't hit the water. She was struggling to keep her balance on the seaweed covered nose of the ship. Neither she nor Sora had actually been in that much danger, it seemed. She looked up at them. She gathered fire underneath her feet, and sprung up toward them, pulling out her weapons again.

She leapt high enough to make it back to the deck. She struck at them as she came up, but both of her strikes were blocked. She landed on their other side, weapons held out. She brought both her blades flashing toward them, and each of them blocked one blade.

They stayed like that for a moment before something highly unusual happened.

Liasa was struck in the side of the head by some sort of furry, slightly singed projectile. She cried out in surprise, when she realized that it was Jack the monkey. Someone on the Pearl had actually fired him from a cannon.

Jack crawled up her head and started yanking at her hair. He started jumping up and down on top, and bit her once or twice. Finally, she got a firm hold on him and tossed him to the deck. He landed unharmed between Sora and Axel.

Liasa backed away from them and looked around. She could see Xigbar falling into the whirlpool below, she saw the soldiers being overwhelmed by pirates. She saw Heartless being decimated in the sky. She shook her head in annoyance.

"Time for me to abandon ship." She summoned up a corridor of Darkness. She winked at Axel. "I'll see you next time, handsome." She backed into the portal quickly, and vanished. But as she did, she added, "Got it memorized?"

Sora looked down at the monkey, and he hopped onto his shoulder. "Thank you, Jack." He smirked at Axel. "By the way, I saw that kiss."

"Shut up and fight." He ran toward one of Jones's crew and struck him in the back with his flaming weapons.

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The fighting was thick on the deck of the Black Pearl. Up in the crow's nest, Marty was taking pot shots at Jones's crew and the soldiers. Cotton held a saber and was doing an admirable job fighting the enemy off on the bridge. Occasionally, he pulled out a shotgun and fired toward those farther off. Barbossa was a monster, fighting off attackers on the bridge with cutlass and pistol.

Mickey was engaged in a duel with one of Jones's officers, Koleniko (the puffer-fish like man who had chased Roxas). The larger man's cutlass descended toward the mouse. He slid out of the way and struck at his legs. He blocked it, and stabbed down toward him. Mickey leapt into the air. He smacked him in the head with the blunt side of the blade, and leapt away.

He pointed the tip at him, and a small ball of light shot from the tip and hit him in the stomach. He flew backwards, and hit his head on the mast. He stumbled around awkwardly for a moment before falling unconscious on the ground.

Will was fighting not too far away. He fought quickly, and fiercely with the ease of a practiced fencer. He was fighting three soldiers at once, and soon had disarmed and killed them all.

"Elizabeth!" He ran toward her, and stabbed the man she had been fighting in the chest at the same time she did. He staggered away from them, still not totally defeated. During the pause in the fighting he looked into her eyes. "Will you marry me?"

Her jaw dropped, and she looked at him even while Finnegan got back up and came charging back toward them with a shout. She caught his blade with hers and said, "I don't think now's the best time!"

She threw his blade off of hers, and ducked under his swipe at her head. She stabbed at his stomach, and it hit home, but didn't do much good. He backed away, and was hit by one rogue lightning spell Donald had cast.

"Now may be the only time!" Will replied, kicking a soldier in the jaw, and then running his blade through his chest. He twisted around and left a cut across the face of one of the fish-people. "I've made my choice. What's yours?"

They came back together again, a cannonball striking the ground behind them.

Elizabeth looked at him for a few frozen seconds before shouting, "Barbossa!"

Will looked at her for a moment, totally lost, until she looked up toward the bridge (where Hector was fighting) and added, "Marry us!"

He was fencing with an eel-like henchman (Morey), and a handful of soldiers with Cotton's aid. He kicked the henchman away, and used the moment of opportunity to shout back at her (sounding incredulous). "I'm a little busy at the moment!"

Will smiled, and the two went back into the battle for a moment, Will drove his sword into the hilt into one Jones's crew. Elizabeth's blade met that of a soldier, and then dove past it and slashed across his chest. Then she turned around and punched one of his fellows in the jaw, knocking him flat to the ground.

"Barbossa, now!"

Barbossa leapt away from two of his opponents, who accidentally stabbed each other because of his maneuver. "Fine then!" Barbossa kicked his opponents out of the way, and stood precariously balanced on the railing directly in front of the helm. He stabbed one of them in the face, as he got up, and then knocked the blade out of the hands of another. He put his hand over his heart.

"Dearly beloved, we be gathered here today to- Take your gizzards to the mast ya clumsy cur!" He had, of course, said this last part to Koleniko, who had regained consciousness after his fight with Mickey and had turned his sights on Barbossa. The captain kicked him in the face, breaking off a few of the spines stuck there.

Will and Elizabeth fought on the deck again. Will faced off with a soldier, and pressed him back so far that he fell off the side of the ship into the ocean. Elizabeth slashed her sword across the face of one of the Dutchman's crew. They met again in the center of the ship.

"Elizabeth Swan," Will began, "Do you take me to be your husband?"

"I do!" She responded immediately, and excitedly.

"Great!"

They jumped apart just as Finnegan's blade crashed down between them. He chased after Will, sword flying everywhere. He backed away from him, parrying any blows rained down on him. Eventually, he saw a window of opportunity, and struck him in the stomach, knocking him away long enough to get back to Elizabeth,. She had just finished off another of Jones's crew.

"Will Turner, do you take me-" She blocked a blow from Jelly (a crewman covered in a jellyfish-like membrane), and pushed him away for a moment. "To be your wife?" They kept fighting, killing one soldier, and removing a finger from one of the fish-people. "In sickness and in health-" They came back together, and stabbed Jelly together. "With 'health' being the less likely?"

"I do."

Barbossa was dueling two opponents at once, easily, while still balancing on the railing. "As captain, I now pronounce you-" He smashed a soldier's face into the railing with one hand, and deflected the blow of a fish-person with relative ease. "You may kiss-" He pulled out his pistol and shot a hapless soldier in between the eyes.

He leapt down from the railing and kicked another soldier painfully in the groin. "You may kiss-" He turned around and blocked a strike from Koleniko. He knocked his blade from his grasp and stabbed him in the stomach. "Just kiss!"

And kiss they did. Right in the middle of a battle, Will took Elizabeth in his free arm and pressed his lips to hers. They passionately kissed, and the world around them seemed to slow down. Explosions occurred all around them, crewmen were dying, though neither of them cared at that moment.

Donald and Goofy, who were watching from not too far away, smiled.

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Ta-da! I had fun writing this chapter. Probably since the guys are finally fighting something other than Heartless and Nobody fodder.

(1) This is exactly what I was thinking when I saw the movie, even as I was grinning.

Please review!