"Will! The compass! Are ye sure of where it's pointin' us?" Jack jogs along the deck towards Will, who is nimbly swinging down from the rigging where he had been helping to mend a sail.
"Well, it wasn't spinning aimlessly, if that's what you mean." Will replies evasively, looking nervous. He pauses, then his brows furrow. "Why?"
"I've just mapped out where tha' means we'd be headed. It's pointin' us towards London, Will."
"London? London, England?" The younger pirate asks, as if there is any other place called London. "Are..you sure?"
"Course I am!" Jack replies indignantly. "Sure as I know that we can't go there, no' wit' the Pearl! I'd rather no' make it all the way to the lass only to be met with a short drop and a sudden stop, if ye know what I mean." He brings a hand up to rub his neck at the thought.
"Unless…unless she's not in London, but she's still on the Revenge and they're heading there. Is it possible we could head them off?"
"We can't know exactly where they are now. We could be days behind 'em, a week even."
"Do you have a better idea?"
For once, it appears, Jack doesn't. He turns and heads up towards the helm where he begins bellowing out orders, telling the crew to step to and brace the sails so as to get the Pearl moving a bit faster.
"Captain?" Bill calls out quietly from just outside Elizabeth's cabin.
A ship has been spotted on the horizon, and though they are too far away just yet to know what colours the ship is flying, he thinks they should take the Dutchman below the water anyways.
With Elizabeth displaying such...unstable…behavior, he thinks it best to avoid a fight with anyone at all costs. He only hopes he can get her to agree some how. But that will be difficult if she continues to keep herself locked up in her cabin.
She doesn't come out unless she must now, ever since she'd gone mad on Jaimee, the poor boy…
He isn't surprised when she doesn't respond.
"Cap'n Swann, please. We're coming up on a ship and I think we should travel below for a bit, just to be sure."
He swears he hears a woman's voice murmuring from within the cabin, a voice that is a bit too low to be Elizabeth's. This has never happened before…
It reminds him of the rumors he's begun to hear; the crew have some how gotten the impression that Calypso was keeping their lonely Captain company. He'd heard it heavily implied, more than once, that the two were even lovers. The idea of a woman lying with another of the gentle sex is not completely foreign to him, but he has never pictured Elizabeth as the type for such strange unions.
He can't be sure if these rumors are true, but hopes for Elizabeth's sake that they aren't.
But of course, his hopes are dashed when Elizabeth opens the door, looking considerably less grim than usual.
Her hair isn't pulled back in its usual braid and rests freely on her shoulders; her white sure is clearly untucked. She has none of her other affects on.
Her eyes no longer look as crazed as they did before, and his nerves calm a bit at the thought that she seems more like herself again.
"Forgive me, I…" She trails off, glancing back into her cabin with a hint of a smirk pulling at her lips, then turning back to him. "Perhaps your right. Prepare for a dive and take us under, you know what to do. I'll..be up on deck in a moment."
His eyebrows rose.
"May I be so bold as to ask what has brought your spirits up so high?" He attempts to look over her shoulder and into the room, and swears he catches a glimpse of someone lying on her bed. In a rather interesting pose, no less.
Her eyes dance with amusement as she does her best to block his view with her petite frame.
"No." She says curtly, and there is the slightest hint of annoyance in her voice. "I told you what to do, so get going."
"Aye, Cap'n." He replies. She closes the door. He turns to head back up on deck, mumbling to himself. "The goddess and the Pirate King. A royal couple. How fitting."
Anger. She's never felt the feeling before, never like this, never to the point where she's wished she could hurt someone because of it.
They have hurt her officer, the only other man who's been nice to her. Emily had heard them say his name was Turnbuckle as they came to drag him away from her cell.
They're keeping him locked up in another room now, calling him a traitor. She supposes it was bound to happen because he'd said he was going to try and find a way to let her out when they got close enough to London, to give her a chance to run.
"I've heard what they plan to do with you…I can't just sit and watch it happen…" He'd said.
Emily sits in the corner of her cell with her knees hugged to her chest, staring down at the floor before her and trying to memorise the faces of the two officers who had dragged him away. The same two officers who had been so rough on her when putting her back in the brig.
She is still only eight years old and isn't sure what she'd do to them even if she had the chance, but she does know this feeling she has growing inside her must be what people lable as hate.
She feels even angrier at the officers for making her feel something so terrible. Tears begin to slide down her cheeks and she buries her face in her arms.
They are just about to slip below the calm waters before them when Elizabeth comes up on deck, dressed properly with her hair tied back as usual.
"What colours is she flying?" She asks, looking out towards the other ship.
Bill doesn't respond, hesitant to tell her. She turns back to him, expecting an answer.
"Both the British flag and the Company flag, Cap'n."
She gives him a smirk that can only be described as mischievous.
"Good. Take us below and take us in as close as possible. I think it's high time we had some practice with the guns."
"B-but Cap'n…" He sounds worried. The smirk never leaves her face.
"Don't worry, Bill, I don't mean to massacre them, I just want to be sure of what my ship and crew can do. What say we get them running back to their friends with a story to tell?"
A smile slowly makes its way onto Bill's face. Now she's starting to sound more like the Pirate King out to have some fun, and he is sure they can all handle that.
"Aye, Cap'n."
"On the wheel then, Mr. Turner. Marie… " Elizabeth turns to the younger girl, who is already at the helm and doesn't meet her eyes. "I know your Jaimee's been helping you practice with that sword, now we'll see what you can do with it."
She doesn't apologize, because she knows it would never be enough. Marie does meet her eyes for a breif moment though and nods before allowing Bill to take the helm.
The H.M.S. Royal Pride has been sailing through only the most peaceful waters for days, has encountered only one ship in said time, and is the second largest ship in the Company's arsenal.
Its Captain is sure it will be smooth sailing right to England. What have they to worry about with a ship as well armed as theirs is?
Of course, it is a bit odd that the one ship they've seen a ways behind them seems to have disappeared rather abruptly, never mind the fact that said ship wasn't flying any colours.
"Captain?" His first officer comes up, looking a bit worried. "What shall we do, sir?"
One never knew what they'd find out on these waters, but he is sure the Royal Pride can easily take on any ship that comes their way. He can no longer see the ship, and that should mean there is nothing to worry about.
"As you were, all of you. Who ever it was is gone now."
They have only just settled back into normal routine when the impossible happens.
A ship even more massive than theirs comes up alongside them. The front looks more like a crocodile's mouth than the figure head of a ship. There are guns being rolled out of the sides of the ship, quite a few of them.
And yet the size and appearance of the ship aren't even half as frightening to him as the way it came up through the water right next to them, water spilling out of of the windows where the cannons were as well as the cannons themselves, and from ever other crack and crevice visible.
He stands frozen for a moment. The other ship does not fire, though it seems poised to.
He knows he should try to get the other captains attention, but he has a feeling it won't do any good. It is more than obvious that the other ship is a pirate, though he has never seen a ship of any kind that is anything like this one.
He catches a glimpse of the words Flying Dutchman on the side of the ship and his eyes widen.
"All hands on deck, make ready to defend yourselves!" He yells and that finally gets things moving. His men, frozen to there spots in shock moments before, come back to life, grabbing rifles and loading cannons with all their usual militarian efficiency.
He grabs a rifle himself and fires the first shot.
He swears he hears a woman's confident voice give the order to fire for the other ship. They are peppered with cannon fire, but the other ship doesn't seem to be aiming for either of the Royal Pride's two masts.
He catchtes a glimpse of the Flying Dutchman's captain. It is indeed a woman, and she does not look like much at first glance, but the way she holds herself tells him there is more to this woman than meets the eye. She catches his gaze and he sees amusement in her eyes.
She is toying with him. This is good sport for them. The thought makes him angry.
He yells out for his men to board the other ship before aiming his rifle at the captain and firing...
A bullet sails just past Elizabeth's head. She narrows her eyes at the other captain, but has no time to do anything further about it as the Royal Pride's men begin boarding the Dutchman. One man heads straight for her, and she assumes he's the Pride's first officer.
She draws her sword slowly and does a few fancy spins with it. The deck below them is filled with the sounds of cannon fire and now sword play. The officer before her draws his own sword, eyeing her closely.
"You are a woman!" He states the obvious bluntly, looking shocked.
She smirks and goes at him, thrusting forward with her sword. He only barely has time to block her.
"Yes, I am. Do you have a problem with this? Or are you just afraid I'll kill you anyways?"
His eyes narrow and he comes at her forcefully, and the air around them rings with the sound of clashing metal.
Marie does not feel afraid facing any of these men; it takes her precious few seconds to take down the first to come at her, and not much more time to cut down the second. She'd been practicing almost non-stop with Jaimee, and now fighting the terrified soldiers seems far too easy.
She has never killed anyone before now, and that thought slows her down a bit, but there's no time for her to think about it as yet another officer comes at her.
Elizabeth jumps when the officer, who had tripped over the body of one of his own men and fallen, swipes at her legs. He tries to get up; she thrusts forward with her blade and it goes through his right shoulder. He cries out in pain.
She pauses long enough to allow him to get to his feet.
"You know…" He says, walking towards her. "I had a daughter killed by pirates. That ship was captained by a woman too. The captains name was Anne, I believe."
He brings his sword back up and lands a few sharp blows; she parries them all, but barely. He is moving faster, spurred by his own anger.
He tries to bring the sword down on her head and hers meets his just before it hits its target. She is backed up against the railing of the ship now.
"When I found her near death, I promised her that I would never let any pirate get away with murder like that again."
Pictures of Emily run through Elizabeth's head. The thought of her daughter meeting a similar fate by the hands of the men who are supposed to be the good guys sickens her.
"Particularly." He goes on, taking back his sword, then thrusting forward with it hard with each word he says. "If. That. Pirate. Was a. Filthy. Wench. Like. YOU!"
Her sword slips. His sinks straight into her chest where her heart should've been. He buries it there to the hilt and twists.
She gasps.
Marie is now locked in a battle with a rather large and brutish officer, and he is starting to make her angry.
She pushes forward with all her might and manages to get him stumbling backwards. He swipes at her and catches her stomach with the tip of his blade. She doubles over in shock and then pain.
The large officer hovers over her, breathing heavily, and makes as if to cut her right in half with his sword. She brings her own sword up and braces herself and…
…and the large officer freezes in place, his eyes going wide before he falls sideways, dead.
Marie looks up and around and sees Jaimee, her wonderful Jaimee, standing just a few feet away with his gun still pointed at where the soldiers head had been.
He gives her a questioning look, glancing down at where she clutches her stomach.
She looks down. The cut is deep, but not fatally so, and they can't die anways. She looks back up and nods to him with a shrug before getting to her feet.
Elizabeth smirks. This is what she's been waiting for; to remind these boys just what they are dealing with.
"I have a daughter too." She says, bringing a hand up to grasp the hilt of his sword. "She was taken by the Revenge, know of that ship?" She pulls the sword out slowly. "And it's not as though you boys are being exactly kind to her, though she's only eight."
His eyes are wide, his skin is pail.
"Witch! Sh-she devil!" He screams.
She brings both swords up to his neck threateningly.
"You go back and tell whoever has my daughter that I'm coming for her, and if they put up a fight…" She chuckled, flipping his sword around skillfully, holding it out to him. "It'll be the devil to pay."
He takes it and yells for what's left of the men he'd boarded the Dutchman with to retreat.
She watches as the other ship limps its way along the waters before them. It's damaged, but not too badly, she'd made sure of this.
She looks around at the rest of her crew, only a few of which appear to be hurt in some way, and they are already healing. My goddess, she thinks, that was almost too easy.
So…yeah…not much to say here, except I'm having far too much fun writing this. Gotta love spring break, means you guys get a whole bunch of chapters. :D
Reviews are much appreciated, as always.