Jolly Roger
Jolly Roger drummed his skeletal, claw-like fingers against the rails of the Harkaway as the dying screams of souls echoed from the settlement. Wither these souls were innocent or not, he cared not. All who stood between him and Jack Sparrow paid with their lives.
Roger gritted his teeth and a spark of lightning illuminated the fog around him. The thought of the Sparrow still agitated him after all these years! After serving as their personal mercenary and assassin, Roger had been certain the Brethren Court would vote him in as the new Pirate Lord of the Caribbean. The moment they chose Jack Sparrow over him, Roger had vowed vengeance! What right did that dog have to take what was rightfully his?! Roger had decided to take his revenge slowly, first through a simple, playful game of poker with Sparrow in order to get his hands on the position of Pirate Lord. He had to win, whatever the cost, so he hired the voodoo witch doctor by the name of Amo Dorsi to deal the cards.
That's when everything went wrong. Sparrow had won the final game, and in his rage, Roger turned on Dorsi and shot him to death. In his dying breath, Dorsi placed a terrible curse on Roger, transforming him into a skeletal monstrosity. Half-man, half-beast, Jolly Roger would walk the face of the earth as an entity of the undead for all of eternity, unable to enjoy the pleasures of life ever again.
It wasn't all that bad. Shortly after the curse settled in, Roger learned that he had inherited all of the voodoo powers and secrets Dorsi originally held, and decided to take his revenge a step further. He raised an army of the undead, influenced a number of wildlife to do his bidding, and began his quest to conquer the Caribbean. Oh he still wanted Jack Sparrow's head delivered to him on a bloody silver platter, but now he wanted more. He wanted the entire Caribbean to bow to his whim! There would be no more Brethren Court, only him!
Invasion after invasion, siege after siege, and one massacre to the next, Roger never even got close to his goal! Somehow Jack Sparrow, through his sheer dumb luck, had gotten a number of pirates to join against Roger's cause and thwarted him over and over again! The breaking point was the betrayal of Lord Cutler Beckett of the East India Trading Company.
Much to his reluctance, Roger had formed an alliance with the Company and their assassins in order to destroy the Brethren Court, and Beckett had decided to cut it short. With his forces depleting on all fronts, the moment Jolly Roger was forced to retreat was when Beckett gained the Heart of Davy Jones, and began his own crusade to conquer the seas.
Davy Jones. Roger's bones rattled against his will. Jones was the being that all sailors and pirates, even the most wretched and bloodthirsty, had come to fear, and Roger was no different. There had been a time when Roger thought his curse was strong enough to overwhelm the dreaded king of the seas, and had learned the hard way that that wouldn't be the case. Drunk by his power, Roger had one day forgotten the ancient law set down by Davy Jones and the first Brethren Court, and tried to claim a number of dying souls out at sea for himself. The same number of souls Davy Jones had claimed beforehand.
The result ended with Roger losing one of his most prized vessels, a good number of his crew, and a claw wrapped around his bony neck, pinning him against the hull of his own ship. Jolly Roger stood over a foot taller than Jones and carried an inconceivable amount of dark power, but the heartless monster had overwhelmed him as though he were nothing.
"Ye've forgotten your place-ah." The Captain of the Flying Dutchman had snarled viciously into Roger's skull. "Nothing lays claim on what the sea has already taken."
Davy Jones had gripped Roger's arm then, the one without his multi-purpose appendage, and to his horror Roger watched as blood, skin, and muscle returned to him, only to vanish as soon as Jones released him.
It was a warning. If Roger disobeyed the laws that gave Jones leverage over all souls who perished at sea, then he would personally remove Roger's curse and send him to the Locker himself!
Roger had done well to avoid making that mistake again, but when Lord Beckett gained control of Davy Jones through his captured heart, Roger decided to take no more chances. He put a hold on his quest and fled into uncharted waters, biding his time until the day came when he could rise again. And that day had arrived.
The War Against Piracy was over, and rumor had reached Roger's ear holes that Davy Jones had been killed in the final battle. Brought down by a broken blade, while Cutler Beckett was destroyed aboard his own vessel.
It was too good to be true, Roger had laughed the rumor off until he discovered the truth for himself. The ancient grim reaper of the seas was gone, the Flying Dutchman bore a new captain who carried out her original, discarded task in the worlds beyond, and the East India Trading Company was brought low without their cunning leader to guide them.
If he could, Jolly Roger would have smirked in pure delight. Time for a new king to claim the seas!
It had taken much longer than he anticipated re-building his army and armada, too long. His powers had waned during the time of his absence, but they were coming back to him, little by little. With the world weak and unsuspecting, he should conquer the seas in no time! Why settle for only the Caribbean when he can have all the Seven Seas under his boot now with its king dethroned?
The one thing that concerned him was Calypso. The goddess of the sea had been released shortly before the final battle between the Brethren Court and the East India Trading Company, but so far she had not interfered with Roger's resurgence. It was possible that she didn't care for affairs outside of her own, but the daughter of Atlas was unpredictable. Roger kept an eye-socket out for her just in case.
It all brought him here, the present. As before, he planned to take his return slow, but the moment he heard Jack Sparrow was still alive and en-route toward a remote island settlement by the name of Barton, Roger took no chances and followed him…
Another building erupted into flames, and Roger cackled with sadistic glee. How he missed this! Carnage displayed by his own hand, it had been too long!
Roger relished the destruction before focusing back on the settlement, or what remained of it anyway. He had sent a number of his crew out ahead of time to take care of any resistance, and judging by the screams already dying out, the sneak attack had worked out nicely. The invasion was quickly coming to an end.
How unfortunate, Roger thought before straightening himself out. A snake, one of the many coiling within his long, black hair slithered out with a flick of its tongue, and Roger itched its chin before teleporting onto the harbor of the island.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Roger dragged the mangled goat hoof that replaced his left leg across the dock. It was still a burden to him after all these years, but he refused to walk with a cane. What an image that would make for himself: Jolly Roger, the horror of the Seven Seas, a cripple.
A civilian ran blindly towards him, and Roger put an end to them with a swift thrust of the dagger attached to his multi-purpose appendage. They never saw what was coming.
"Can't be too reckless now," the cursed captain reminded himself as he tossed the body aside. "I need one alive." At least one survivor to spread the tale the dead can't tell: Jolly Roger has returned.
As Roger marched his way across what was left of the settlement, a robed skeleton emerged out from behind a barrel and greeted their captain with a bow, "Yer' invasion is successful, Captain Roger!" It announced.
Roger scoffed. "Of course it was," he replied dryly. The skeleton he addressed was one of the few he left with a tiny portion of free will, if only so he had someone to talk to. Speaking to mindless slaves grew tedious after a time. "Report! Is Sparrow to be found?"
The minion hesitated. "No sir, but-"
The skeleton was flung backwards by a blast of darkness that suddenly erupted out of Roger's body in rage. "SPAAAAAAARRRRRROOOOOOOOWWWWW!"
Of course the Sparrow wasn't here! He had evaded him so many times since their last conflict, Roger was surprised he wasn't used to it! Damn it all, he had the yellow blaggard in his sight!
Chains suddenly materialized out of thin air and lashed furiously out at the undead standing nearby, as though multiple, invisible boatswains were using them as whips.
The robed skeleton waited until Roger's temper had eased, which took much longer than usual, before managing to speak up. "I have discovered something ye'd be interested in, Captain!"
Roger huffed and snarled like a wild beast before glaring down at his servant. "Ye' have my attention…" He uttered in a low, dangerous voice.
The skeleton rose to its feet, and quickly adjusted itself before recounting what it saw. "During the attack, sir…"
If Roger had eyes, they would have gaped in pure shock and disbelief at his servant's story. "That is impossible!" He grabbed the skeleton by the neck and bore down onto it. "If this is a lie…"
"It-it is not a lie captain, I assure you!" The skeleton choked despite the lack of flesh and a windpipe. "She be the daughter of the sea!"
Roger tossed the undead minion aside in another fit of rage. It is a lie! He told himself, that is all!
Yet what could his crew gain by lying to him? As long as they were under his control, they couldn't lie at all!
Roger paced, trying to gather his thoughts. It was impossible! How could something like this happen?
Calypso. The name resonated in his head. It can only be the witch's doing!
An ominous wind drawled passed Roger as he halted before a burning pile of debris. So the squid and the crab have managed to mate. His twisted mind said, and produced a little hell spawn…
He whirled back to the memory of his encounter with Davy Jones, and how the old fiend overpowered him so easily. If this girl really was of Jones' blood, and she was spawned from Calypso herself...
Roger paused, if he had a regular heart it would have been racing. For the first time in many years, Jolly Roger felt something he never wanted to feel again: Fear.
"FIND THE CHILD!" His order echoed across the island like the demonic howl of an evil spirit. "BRING HER TO ME!"
Our introduction to the ruthless Scar/Captain Salazar/Shriek (from the two Ori games) of this story. I hope I did Jolly Roger justice. There is so much to the character and yet so little (For those wondering, he was the primary antagonist of 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Online', a game that sadly no longer exists). If only they brought him into the movies. If done right, he could have been as great as Davy Jones and Barbossa (I can also imagine him singing 'Be Prepared' at some point, another reason for the Scar similarity).
Speaking of which, how was Davy Jones able to life Roger's curse, if only temporarily? Well, it's been hinted that Jones lifted the Isla De Muerta curse off of Bootstrap Bill when he recruited him, which has led many to speculate that Jones had the ability to lift all sorts of curses. So why not put Roger's on the list?