Disclaimers: I don't own POTC nor its characters.
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From what Lawrence had gathered, they were sailing towards Cuba to meet some kind of voodoo priestess, she didn't quite get who they were supposed to see, in order to find where the key was.
The journey didn't last long but gave her enough time to get to know more this Will Turner. To her, he had proved to be a decent young man; after all, he had saved her life and risked his in doing so. But then she learned that Will actually was her friend Elizabeth's fiancé; and she liked him all the more. She was sorry to hear about their failed wedding and her arrest; there was one thing she didn't understand though: how is it that he got out without problems and didn't rescue her? She felt something was not right about this but dared not ask him.
Until they reached the Pantano River, she spent the few days talking with him to pass the time as Jack wasn't one for conversing lately; he seemed rather worried about something and kept looking at what she supposed was a cut on his left palm.
At last, they arrived near Cuba and went upriver on board of two boats. The setting was quite eerie; Lawrence could see faces emerging from behind the trees that overran the swamp; the foliage was even so dense that the sun rays couldn't go through, adding to the gloomy atmosphere. The only things she could hear were some distant birds, and Will and Gibbs whispering on the other boat about the mythical creature that is the Kraken.
When they finally arrived to the shack, Jack stepped out and tried to reassure them.
'No worries, mates, Tia Dalma and I go way back; thick as thieves. Nigh inseparable we are…Were. Have been. Before…'
'I'll watch your back' said the ever so faithful Gibbs.
'It's me front I'm worried about…' Jack said as he climbed up the stairs leading to the cabin, closely followed by Lawrence who was growing more and more suspicious. 'Whatever we'll be doing there, I'm pretty sure I won't like it… But as long as this Tia Dalma isn't cannibal, it's all fine with me!'
Jack lowered himself and cautiously pushed the door open. The room was filled with burning candles, jars, strange artefacts, and animals, dead and alive, as Lawrence instantly noticed the albino python perched on a the door.
'Jack Sparrow!' a voice said with a thick Jamaican accent. The woman that was before them instantly fascinated Lawrence; her brown skin almost matched the ragged dress she was wearing; her hair was a mess of black dreadlocks and dirt. She smiled at him with a greyish smile.
'Tia Dalma!'
'I always knowed the wind was going to blow you back to me one day.' She rose up, leaving the bones she was fiddling with and walked towards them. She nodded when she walked past Lawrence, giving her a sly smile, then pointed Will with her bony finger.
'You. You have a touch a' destiny about you, William Turner.'
Will startled.
'You know me?'
'You want to know me…' Tia cooed, leaning over him.
'There'll be no knowing here!' Jack exclaimed, separating them. 'We've come for help and we're not leaving without it.' He led her away.
Lawrence looked at them interact with each other; there definitely was history between the two, and Jack was being so jealous! She wondered under what circumstances they had met and whether they had really been lovers at one point.
She focused again on the conversation when she heard Will ask about the drawing of the key.
'The compass you bartered from me, it cannot lead you to this?' the swamp-witch slyly smiled at Jack, enjoying a private joke.
'Maybe. Why?'
'Aah. Jack Sparrow does not know what he wants. Or do you know but are loath to claim it as your own. Your key go to a chest. And it is what lay inside the chest you seek. Don't it?' The woman looked at Lawrence then at the rest of the crew. 'You know of Davy Jones, yes? A man of the sea, a great sailor. Until he run afoul of that which vex all men…'
Will voiced Lawrence's perplexity.
'What vexes all men?'
Tia Dalma touched his hand, giving a look of what seemed like longing.
'What indeed…?'
'The sea?' tried Gibbs. Lawrence rolled her eyes, sometimes Gibbs could be so thick, how could any man trap the sea into something that could be opened by a key!
'Sums?' said Pintel, eyes glistening with hope.
'The dichotomy of good and evil?' ventured Ragetti.
'Wait, how does he know such a thing?' Lawrence wondered, impressed.
'A woman!' Jack finally said, sighing with annoyance.
Tia Dalma turned to the only other woman in the room and gave her another smile then looked at the others.
'A woman, he fell in love...'
'No no no no, I heard it was the sea he fell in love with' Gibbs tried to correct her.
'Same story, different version' she shrugged. 'And all are true. See it was a woman as changing, and harsh and untamable as the sea. He never stopped loving her, but the pain it caused him was too much to live with. But not enough to cause him to die...'
'What exactly did he put into the chest?' Will asked.
'Him heart!' she said, putting her hand over her chest. 'It was not worth feeling what small, fleeting joy life brings. And so, him carved out him heart, lock it down in a chest, and hide the chest from the world. The key he keep with him at all times.'
Will and Jack started to arguear.
'All that's left is to climb aboard the Flying Dutchman, grab the key, you go back to Port Royal and save your bonnie lass, aye?' Jack finally said.
'The Flying Dutchman? Is he serious? Does he realise that this is a legend? Oh God… we're not going after Davy Jones for real?'
'Let me see your hand' Tia ordered, seizing his left one when he had given his other one.
'The black spot!' Gibbs gasped, signing himself and performing a strange ritual to ward off evil spirit. Pintel and Ragetti did just the same.
Tia went to a closet and gave a jar filled with earth to Jack.
'Davy Jones cannot make port. Cannot step on land but once every ten years. Land is where you will be safe, Jack Sparrow, and so you will carry land with you.
'Dirt... This is a jar of dirt.'
'Yes.'
'Is the... jar of dirt going to help?'
'If you don't want it, give it back.'
'No!' Jack exclaimed, clutching it close to his chest.
'Then it helps.'
'It seems... we have a need to find the Flying Dutchman' Will announced to stop this silly conversation.
The voodoo-woman went to her table, dropped several bones and stones over the map that was spread out.
'Touch... of destiny!'
She instantly gave Jack the exact location of the legendary ship thanks to her black art.
Jack hurriedly thanked her and ordered his crew to go back to the ship, the sooner they found the Flying Dutchman, the better.
Lawrence followed them but Tia Dalma caught her arm with one hand and pulled her back.
She smiled at her, showing once again her grey teeth; she put a hand on the young woman's cheek. Lawrence knew she was no danger to her, so she didn't move away.
'Luck surrounds you, my child. It warms my heart to know some have brighter destiny than others… You will find him, sooner than you think. But his heart's corrupt. Only your love can save him…'
Lawrence opened her mouth to ask her what she meant by that, but the woman shook her head and gently showed her out. She went on board with Jack and Mr. Cotton and didn't say a word, thinking over and over the words Tia Dalma had privately said to her.
Jack leaned over, feeling suddenly talking now that he knew what to do.
'What did she say to you?'
'Nothing that concerns the mission…'
Jack narrowed his eyes.
'No really! It was, it was about James.'
'Ah… He'll try to win Elizabeth back and let you end up with Will?' he said meaning it as a joke but Lawrence gave him a side look that cut him short.
'Sorry. I didn't mean that. Being the perfect gentleman that he is, I'm sure he's anxiously waiting for you to come back and give you plenty of beautiful children!' he smiled, trying to amend himself.
'Oh my God, Jack!' Lawrence gasped. 'Why does it always revolve around the same thing, for Heaven's sake!'
'You'd better watch your language, young woman! I'm not so sure the Commodore would like you as much if you keep swearing like a pirate!'
She shrugged and smiled back at him.
'What can I say, I've learned from the best!'
The Pearl caught sight of the Flying Dutchman a few days after. Lawrence was disappointed to see that the ship didn't live up to the legend that surrounded him.
'Surely, this can't be her; it's a wreck! I knew it was only a stupid legend!'
She didn't agree with the plan, but one voice against a dozen wasn't much, so she watched Will sail away on a boat towards the wreckage.
From where they were, they couldn't see anything; except from Jack with his telescope.
Will had been gone for half an hour, she was starting to worry when suddenly she found herself threatened by a sword by someone who had seized her by the neck and who reeked rotten fish. She noticed the rest of the crew was in the same position as she was, and then she saw him. Davy Jones. Even a feverish dream wouldn't have conjured up such a creature. The man standing in front on her and threatening Jack looked hardly like a man; his whole face and beard was a green-yellowish octopus, one of his arms was made of tentacles, the other a giant crab claw; as for his legs, one looked human, and the other was like a crab-like peg leg.
'You have a debt to pay' the squid-face man threatened Jack. 'You've been Captain of the Black Pearl for thirteen years. That was our agreement.'
'Technically, I was only Captain for two years, then I was viciously mutinied upon.'
'Then you were a poor Captain, but a Captain nonetheless. Have you not introduced yourself all these years as 'Captain Jack Sparrow'?'
'Yeah, I gave you payment. One soul to serve on your ship is already over there' Jack said, talking about Will.
'One soul is not equal to another.'
As the two captains argued over the price to pay and Will's worth, Lawrence examined the members of the crew of the Flying Dutchman and noticed with much repulsion that they all looked like sea-creatures, covered by mussels and bits of corals.
'Three days!' Davy Jones warned before disappearing with his crew.
Lawrence looked everywhere but they were nowhere to be seen. The whole crew had disappeared along with their ship.
'How do we intend to harvest these ninety-nine souls in three days?' she heard Gibbs ask.
'Fortunately, he was mum as the condition in which these souls need be…'
'Aah, Tortuga' nodded Gibbs in understanding.
'Tortuga!' their Captain agreed.
'Jack!' Lawrence protested. 'What about Will? Where is he?'
'He's paying one hundredth of my debt, sweet heart…'
'What?! So you mean… we won't see him again then? You're leaving to die in their hands, or rather claws?'
'Nah, don't worry; he'll find his way back to us, and with the key. But for now' he said, putting his arm over her shoulder and squeezing her to his chest, 'we're going to Tortuga, how's that for a plan?