It's so strange, the look Adrienne gives her. The fear in her eyes subsides and she looks almost… almost approving of Emily's actions. But Emily has no time to think on it further, because Adrienne does indeed jump.
There is a loud SPLASH moments later.
That, Emily allows herself to believe, is the end of that.
Emily lowers her pistol slowly, and just stares at the spot Adrienne is no longer occupying. She finds that she can't quite decide whether she should be proud of herself or not. She thinks of little Charlie and wonders how she could have forgotten about him up until now.
She contemplates the likelihood that Adrienne will be alright. Really, there is a chance, though a rather small one, that she will be. They'd been sailing all morning, though, with strong winds, and Tortuga was no longer in sight…
She finally decides she'll just be happy that Adrienne is finally gone.
And then she is pulled back to reality as she realizes that everyone is staring at her.
It takes her a moment to find her voice again.
"W-what are you…" She stutters a bit, curses herself for it, tries again in what she hopes is a more commanding tone. "What are you staring at? Anyone else have anything to say?"
The men glance at each other, but say nothing.
"Good! Back to work you mangy bilge rats!" She shouts and hopes she doesn't sound silly.
Apparently she doesn't. They scramble back to whatever their posts are without hesitation. She lets out a breath she hadn't known she was holding but doesn't give up whatever façade she's got going, stalking below decks.
Unbeknownst to Emily, or anyone else for that matter, Ana watches the whole scene play out from her position beneath the steps leading to the helm, where she has been hiding for several minutes.
She wonders how everyone could have not noticed her stepping out into the morning sunshine. She supposes they were a little preoccupied with Adrienne and the pretty brown-haired hurricane of a young woman that was Emily Turner.
She smiles softly, remembering the conversation she'd had with Emily the night she'd made the girl her first mate.
"The crew will never listen to anything I say."
"You will have to earn their respect, then, they will listen if you give them reason to. Do you think it was easy for me to gather a crew in the first place?"
Well, it appeared Emily had done just that, and Ana finds that she couldn't be prouder even if the whole thing had been her idea.
Emily hasn't seen hide or tail of Alex yet and thinks it high time he greet the world, so she barges into her cabin carelessly.
Something about the way he's laying with his head buried into the pillow, appearing to shield himself from the little light spilling in from the cabins one small window, lets her know he's awake.
"Morning head?" She asks and he buries his head further into the pillow. She snorts. "Serves you right! Come on, out of my bed already!"
He says something, but it's muffled by the pillow.
"What was that?"
He seems to sigh before finally propping himself up and facing her.
"Must ye shout so?"
"Do you even remember last night?"
"Member comin 'ere I think."
She only rolls her eyes at him.
"Yes, and I spent the night in the cabin with little Charlie and was rather rudely awakened by your favorite little French whore this morning. Don't worry, you'll be making it up to me somehow, but I'll be kind and just tell you to get the hell out of my cabin for now."
"Little French…" He stares at her blankly with unfocused eyes. "What?"
"Adrienne. I was talking about Adrienne."
"Adrienne. Oh. Oi!" He scowls at her.
"You're still in my cabin. I did just tell you to get out, didn't I?" She scowls right back.
"S'Adrienne still in her cabin, then?" He asks, finally standing, but freezing as his eyes widen a bit. "Rooms… spinnin. Woah. I don' feel so good…"
"Go get some water, you'll be alright." Emily tells him. "And no, Adrienne is..."
Adrienne is just starting to feel the beginnings of real panic, because she can't even see Tortuga, and she's quickly tiring of treading water in her heavy dress.
She swears if she makes it out of this she will find some simpler dresses to wear.
She hopes for a moment that maybe, just maybe she'll be saved somehow… that maybe Alex will find out what's just happened and insist on saving her.
Then she remembers just how unlikely that is; she'd gotten him good and drunk (a task which hadn't even lead to what she'd been hoping for) the night before and no one had seen him yet that morning.
"…Adrienne is…" Emily suddenly isn't sure how to go on. She's sure that Alex will not like what she's just done. He seemed to really like Adrienne, though Emily couldn't imagine why. Thinking quickly, she says the first thing that comes to mind. "Sh-she fell."
"Fell?" Alex's eyes widen a bit. "Fell where – what – 'ow do you mean?"
"How?" Emily repeats, her mind racing to come up with something believable. A story begins weaving itself in her mind and she scowls at him. "Oh, come now Alex, are you still drunk or what? What other way is there for her to fall? She went overboard!"
"Overboard." His shoulders slump a bit, and she forces herself to ignore it.
"Y-yes."
"What happened?"
"Does it matter?" Emily snaps, and he looks surprised. She forces herself to calm a bit before going on. "The point is – I'm sorry Alex." And she hopes desperately that he can't tell she is lying through her teeth. "L-let's just hope she doesn't stay with Mother."
He stares at her, all color drained from his cheeks, and seems to try to form a sentence. Nothing comes out. Another brief moment passes and he stands suddenly and lurches for the window. Emily hears him wretch. She takes it all as a sure sign that he believes her.
Jack would probably be proud of her in a way. Her Papa, on the other hand, was no doubt rolling over in his watery grave.
Emily is not at all proud of herself, but isn't sure there's anything she can do about it now.
Adrienne thinks, off handedly, that she is actually rather proud of herself in a way. Granted she had underestimated the quiet, awkward brown haired girl – she certainly hadn't expected Emily to have it in her to make someone shark bait.
At the same time, though, it gives her a strange sense of satisfaction, this knowledge that she created something of a monster.
She wonders if Emily has yet realized just how alike she and Adrienne actually are.
She is just about to give up on trying to stay afloat, too tired to keep trying when there was nothing to keep going for, when she sees the ship coming up to sail just alongside the Sea's Queen.
She can't see what colors it's flying, and really doesn't care, as long as there is the possibility that they will take her aboard. She gathers all the strength she can and swims towards it.
Someone knocks on Emily's cabin door and she tears her eyes away from Alex to walk to the door and open it.
Timmy is standing there and looking rather nervous.
"I-I'm sorry m-miss, but, uhm, a ships been spotted and…"
"Colors?" She asks, almost on automatic.
"Royal Navy, b-but they …"
"Did you tell the Captain?"
"Well, n-no, I…"
Emily brushes past him and heads down the hall, knocking firmly on Ana's cabin door.
"Captain, there's a ship come up alongside us!" She calls. The door flies open seconds later. Emily goes on before Ana can ask. "Navy. Orders?"
"Keep alongside her and leave them alone unless they move against us."
"But –"
"Emily." Ana's tone is warning.
"Aye, Captain." Emily sighs, turning to head out on deck.
Alex is stumbling out of her cabin, looking pale and shaky still, shoving his pistol into his belt as she passes him.
"What's 'app'ning."
"Captain wants us to leave them alone."
"Smart move, we'd never win that battle, right?"
"Captain didn't even seem worried …"
Adrienne's relief at being saved is short lived when she realizes the men around her are all wearing uniforms.
Navy uniforms.
British Navy uniforms.
And the Sea's Queen is sailing beside them within plain sight, and not flying any colors, so it will be (sort of rightly) assumed she is basically a pirate.
She hopes none of the men around her will put two and two together – or maybe she'll be lucky enough to have them think she was the pirate's prisoner.
She's already formulating a plan of some kind in her head, thinking that perhaps she can feign complete innocence, pretend she does not even know English. Maybe, just maybe…
And then suddenly it doesn't matter anymore as an incredibly, wonderfully familiar gruff baritone shouts at the men around her to move away.
"W-what!" She exclaims, looking at him from her position on the deck, where she had collapsed after being hauled aboard.
"Adrienne?"
"Que faites-vous sur un navire de la Marine?"
"Sir, that ship is not flying any colors…"
Captain Barbossa ignores the man speaking entirely in favor of answering the girl in front of him.
"Tis a long story, my dear, and perhaps we should save it for later." He takes her arm in a gentle grip and helps her to her feet. She stands, shivering for a moment, and staring at him, dressed in the same uniform as the others around her.
He slips off his coat and drapes it over her shoulders.
"Sir she could be a pirate, we should…" The same man who had spoken before moves forward as if to grab Adrienne, but hesitates smartly.
"I'll thank ye not to lay a hand on me daughter!" Barbossa barks at him. The man backs off. Another man – who is the only one not wearing one of the uniforms and looks to Adrienne like he belongs on a pirate ship – seems startled at what her father just said. His eyes widen as he seems to look her over, then eyes Barbossa. Adrienne notices the crutch her Papa is using and follows it downwards to…
"Papa?" She glances around and decides to go on in French again. "Qu'est-ce qui vous est arrivé!"
He doesn't answer her. Instead he begins barking orders to his crew, telling them to move in closer to the Sea's Queen and fire off a shot or two...
"N-no!" Adrienne shouts in protest before she can think about what she's doing.
"S'only to get their attention." Her Papa puts an arm across her shoulders and some of the men around her stare a bit as if this is the strangest thing they've seen, including the man who obviously doesn't belong.
She tries not to look at any of them as her Papa ushers her below decks. She waits until they are in (what she assumes is) his cabin and she is sure no one can hear.
"Papa! What are you doing on a Navy ship! Commanding a Navy ship! A-and attacking other pirates! And w-what has happened to your…"
"Calm yourself, lass, I can answer naught but one question at a time." He interrupts her firmly, and she quiets instantly. "Firstly I think it best we get ye into something dry 'fore ye catch yer death."
"You sound like Mum." She murmurs in response as he produces a pair of trousers and a shirt from a chest of drawers and hands them to her.
The Navy ship fires a shot right across the bow of the Sea's Queen. Emily has so quickly grown used to Ana and how she thinks that she automatically begins shouting out orders.
"All hands on deck, now! Load the guns and prepare to return –"
"Belay that!" Ana's shrill voice over powers hers as she comes up next to Emily.
"Captain?" Emily asks, rather incredulous. "If we can fight them off just long enough to…"
"No. I know what they want, and they won't sink us for fear of losing it."
"W-what could they want from us?"
Ana stares out at the other ship and is silent for a moment. Another shot is fired, closer this time – too close for comfort.
"Captain…" Emily prompts.
"Come with me." Ana turns her back to the other ship and the nervous crew of the Sea's Queen, slipping back below decks and towards her cabin. Emily does the same, allbeit much more hesitantly.
"You want to know what's been going on? You're not the only one who had visions of mermaids. Our goddess showed me that if we wait – someone else will get the tear for us. Now, it's time."
"Tear? Captain, I don't…"
"This." Ana interrupts her firmly, gesturing towards something on the table she is now standing in front of. Emily walks forward and looks down at it, and it takes her a brief moment to realize the large, circular object is some strange sort of map. "This map…"
Emily's eyes widen as she remembers her Papa telling her a story about Singapore, a strange old map, and a man named Sao Feng…
"This map is the same one…the same one that took my parents to Worlds End!" Her eyes widen as she stares at it.
"Now you see why I was hesitant to show this to you."
"Captain, you've had this… you've had this for weeks!" Emily is angry suddenly, so angry. She told her Captain about almost every dream she had, she'd told Ana about seeing her father, and Ana had told her… "You told me it was, it was lost, you told me I would be foolish to look for it!"
"Any one would be foolish to try and make it to Worlds End!"
"My parents did it!"
"Not everyone would be so lucky!"
The ship is rocked violently as a cannonball actually hits its target this time.
"I suppose it's the map they want, then." Emily says.
Ana nods and places her hands just so on the map, turning it.
"There's something else it will lead us too and – I'm not sure I like that look you've got on your face, girl." Ana does a double take before turning fully back to Emily.
"If this map could lead me back to my father, they aren't getting it." Emily responds, then turns around and leaves before her Captain can get out another word.
"Papa, please, don't hurt them!"
"They have somethin we'll be needin, and Anamaria's going to give it to me. Whether I destroy that ship is up to her, not I."
"B-but Papa…"
"They tried to send ye to yer death, why should ye care?" He barks, rounding on her.
She cares mostly because Alex is on that ship. But her Papa would hardly care about that. She also, of course, cares because her baby brother is on that ship too.
"Charlie is on that ship!" She stands tall, her glare mirroring his own. "If you want your son to die." She gestures towards the Sea's Queen. "Soyez mon invité."
A short staring contest ensues, two pairs of identical dark brown eyes locking onto each other, unwavering. Adrienne wins.
"Cease fire!" He growls whilst still staring at her. The command is echoed by others and soon the roar of cannon fire is gone, replaced by what now seems an eerie calm.
"They've stopped firing. I don't understand, why have they stopped?"
"Suppose Adrienne could have convinced them to do so, assuming they've got her. Her brother is still here with us."
"C-Captain?"
Ana holds up a hand as someone from the other ship calls out to her.
"Are we really to trust –"
"We don't have much choice, do we? I don't know what they think this will accomplish."
"You can't actually go over there, Captain, they'll kill you." Emily pauses as these words leave her mouth, a thought wiggling its way into her head. "Wait. That's it. Let me go!"
"What?" Ana asks, looking incredulous.
"I-I can't get hurt. Captain, they may not be able to kill me!"
"Emily, you don't know that."
Emily's not sure of exactly what's changed in herself; between throwing Adrienne off the ship, lying through her teeth to her – whatever Alex is, and defying her Captain the way that she is, she's also not sure it's a good change.
"Turner!" Ana calls, sounding enraged and all Emily knows is that she feels like an entirely different person as she grabs a rope anyways and swings over to the other ship.
She finds herself staring down the barrels of several rifles the minute she lands. She supposes it was a bit impulsive – she's little more than a girl in all reality, wearing men's clothing, carrying a sword and a pistol (well, that the sailors around her can see).
She stands tall anyways.
"You won't shoot me. If that was your plan, then why bring me here?" She says, and the over-confident words don't feel like they're her own.
The men seem to glance at each other, but the rifles remain fixed on Emily. She puts both hands up where they can see them and tries to look anything other than nervous.
"Now, now, I think we can afford to be a bit more hospitable than that." A somewhat familiar gruff baritone calls out, and the sailors circling her part just far enough to let a tall man with just one leg through.
Barbossa, Emily identifies him, and by her goddess, how on Earth did he end up here?
He looks her over, and she fidgets a bit as it makes her uncomfortable.
"Miss Emily Elizabeth Turner, I assume." He says, and Emily wonders how he recognized her so easily when her father hadn't the one time she'd seen him. Then again, years in the locker had probably scrambled her Papa's brain a bit. A worrying thought. "Where's Anamaria?" Barbossa goes on, getting straight to the point.
"With her ship, where a Captain belongs." Emily replies, then begrudgingly adds a, "Sir."
"Well, who are you to come over here in her place, then."
"First mate." Emily says, trying to inject as much confidence as possible into the statement.
"A ship run by two women. And they say one is supposed to be bad luck. It's a wonder you can even make it in and out of port. Very well, ye hand o'er the sword and pistol, we'll go have a proper talk."
Emily doesn't move immediately, hesitant to hand over the sword her father had made for her.
"Don't worry, lass, I'll be sure they're given back to ye."
Assuming you let me go, Emily thinks, but does as she's told because she's got little choice. The sword comes off, she hands it over with her pistol, hopes no one thinks to ask if she's got anything else on her – could be useful, the knife hidden in her boots.
No one does. The sailors lower their rifles and Barbossa's command, albeit very hesitantly.
Emily follows Barbossa across the deck of the ship – his ship, she still wants to know what he's doing as its Captain, he's no Navy man, even she knows this.
She sees someone else as they slip below decks, and does a double take.
"Mr. Gibbs?" She murmurs.
She's never seen Gibbs without her Uncle being nearby. She wonders what he's doing here, with Barbossa of all people, and wonders if Jack's alright, and… and suppresses a sigh as she realizes that she'll most likely not be getting answers to any of this any time soon.
"Miss Turner." He mutters back with a nod, looking somewhat relieved in a way. To see a familiar and friendly face, maybe? Emily has no idea.
Barbossa leads Emily below decks quickly, heading to what she assumes is his cabin. Obviously the Captain's cabin. Which again brings her to the question of how on Earth this man ended up Captain on a ship of the fleet.
"Sit, please, Miss Turner, and we'll not beat around the bush, as it were. I'm sure you know what it is I need."
"I know what it is you want." Emily replies. "And I know you're only chance of getting it will be over my very dead body." The rather threatening words come spilling out of her mouth too easily. She is beginning to frighten herself a little.
"Let's not be too hasty, now. I'd be willin to bet I know just why you want it." He seems to take her silence as answer enough. She doesn't know what to say. "That's a dangerous journey to undertake." He goes on. "You'll be needin help."
"And I suppose you'd be willing to do that." She says skeptically. "To help me?"
"I'd be willin to exchange almost anythin for what I'm after."
Emily's brows furrow as she realizes that she still isn't quite sure of what's really going on here. What is Barbossa after? For that matter, what could he possibly want to so badly that Anamaria would also have her eyes on?
"For what you're after." Emily parrots, grimacing now. "What are you after?"
A strange sort of smirk spreads across Barbossa's lips, and Emily is inexplicably reminded of Adrienne.
"Ah, so Anamaria's not bothered to tell ye, then? And yet she calls ye first mate."
Emily huffs, exasperated now. She is getting tired of all the games being played.
"Why don't you explain then," she nearly demands, and then hastily adds a, "sir." Just so as not to make him angry.
"That map, if ye know how to read it, will lead ye straight to the Aqua de Vida. The Fountain of Youth, Miss Turner."
"Fountain of… by the goddess, you must be joking." Emily mutters. "And Captain called me mad for wanting to… why didn't she tell me!" She'd read something about the Fountain of Youth in her books. She vaguely recalls something about a ritual of some kind, and that if done properly the waters were supposed to give one a longer life, if not complete immortality, as well as something about it being able to lift curses. It seems a little ridiculous to her.
But then she's seen enough of the ridiculous and impossible by now, hasn't she? Her mother alone is proof that the world doesn't always work the way that most think.
Barbossa is silent for a moment, apparently giving her a moment to work through what he's said.
She eyes him warily. Something tells her, and she's not at all sure why, but something tells her he's not after the Fountain. Not the Fountain alone anyway.
"Alright." She says finally, her mind racing as she tries desperately to come up with a way to get around all of this. Please, my goddess, she sends up a silent prayer as a last resort, tell me, what should I do?
"Perhaps Miss Ana didn't tell ye because she doesn't trust ye." Barbossa goes on slowly. "Perhaps the only reason she's kept ye close is because she thought ye naïve. A silly girl who wouldn't ask questions."
Emily isn't stupid. She is well aware that he is trying to turn her against Ana. Or, at least, to get her thoughts heading in that direction.
A thought comes to mind, and the idea seems so right, so easy for her to see happening already, that it can only have come from her goddess.
She goes with the idea, because she's got no others, and she only hopes that her Captain will forgive her, just as Emily is willing to forgive Ana.
"Unfortunately for her, I am neither." She says finally, trying to sound angry, to coat her words with venom, although she isn't really sure what she feels at the moment. "Tell me, Captain Barbossa, just what would you be willing to do to get what you need?"
They talk for a long while, Barbossa keeping her just long enough to 'rattle Ana a bit', upon Emily's suggestion. She plays her part as best she can, and by the end he is standing and shaking her hand and, to her shock, giving her the same amount of respect one would suspect he would've given her had she been a man.
It is only as she is just about to cross back over to the other ship and begin weaving what would soon become a rather tangled web, that someone catches her eye.
She has to bite her tongue to keep from cursing out loud as a wash of jumbled emotions sends her head spinning.
Because sitting calmly at a table set up off to the side on the quarter deck, wearing a man's trousers, shirt, and coat… is Adrienne. Adrienne, with her long dark curls, and piercing eyes, and she is smirking.
Smirking.
Phrases she wasn't even aware she knew, curses that would make a sailor blush, run through her mind as she forces herself to look away. She doesn't know what to feel. Relieved that Adrienne wasn't actually dead, or angry that she wasn't actually out of the picture. And on top of all of that she wonders what kind of person she's becoming, that she even half wishes someone dead.
"I see ye know me daughter, then." Barbossa's says, obviously having noticed the strange exchange between the two.
Emily doesn't reply, doesn't trust herself enough to even open her mouth, so instead she just climbs down into the long boat Barbossa had lowered for her.
Daughter. Adrienne Barbossa. Emily finds, after thinking on it a moment, that this makes perfect sense.
I'm sorry this took so long. I have a tendency to do this a lot, lose interest in my stories for a while. Anyways, this chapter is plenty long, so I hope that makes up for it. :)
Next chapter shouldn't take as long…
French:
Que faites-vous sur un navire de la Marine? – What are you doing on a Navy ship?
Qu'est-ce qui vous est arrive? – What happened to you?
Soyez mon invite. – Be my guest.
Thanks for the reviews and favorites and all of that good stuff. :)