009

Tanya

"Does he ever give up?" I moaned as another cannonball went flying over the starboard side, just barely missing the Black Pearl.

"Apparently not," Jack said, looking over his shoulder back at Norrington's warship as it plodded along with no hope of actually catching us in a straight race but doing a damn good job of finding ways to get around that issue.

We were just off the coast of Morocco, heading for the Canary Islands or the target we had determined was somewhere in that island chain. But we had run into a problem.

To find out that our target was in the Canary Islands, and which specific island, we had to infiltrate the court of the King of Morocco. Or the current "King" could just say "pirate king" at this rate, since Morocco and many of the North African states were, in this period of time and probably for a good while longer, their own pirate kingdoms. They had their own demands, treaties, and all kinds of stupidity that I would rather not remember how we had to get through.

Jack literally had to sell me into slavery to the Moroccan King to get the information we wanted from him.

I was not happy about this, but if it was for the cause, I would suffer through some of what I had to suffer through. Namely, getting into a harem girl outfit, perfumed, and being led to the king's bed chamber, only to take the first chance I saw to make a flying jump out of the open terrace. If I hadn't had my spellcraft, I would have died from a four-story fall. But because I could fly, well, I simply flew and suffered the indignity and jokes of landing on the Black Pearl in a harem girl's outfit.

I would remember this. I don't know how I would get him back for this, but I would remember this.

Anyways, we cheated the king for information on the location of the next part of the puzzle to prevent Jack from getting murdered by Davy Jones, and made our move towards the island. But that meant doubling back, which meant Norrington, who apparently had been chasing us, had had time to catch up. And waiting at a port we had hoped to take cover in to gather supplies. Well, now that wasn't happening. Now we were fleeing in the opposite direction from our main target, towards a storm currently brewing. I wanted to question this, but well, Jack knew his ship and I didn't. But then again, if I never questioned him, I was never going to learn anything, so I might as well.

"Jack, are you sure that's a good idea?"

"I don't know," Jack responded, as he looked at his little compass before saying, "We need to escape Norrington, and it says 'Dead ahead,' so dead ahead we go."

"Wonderful," I said with a shake of my head, looking towards the storm and noticing a strange hue to its colors, almost red. I wondered what that was about before I heard something coming across the sea off to our port side. Something familiar. Rushing across the deck, I pulled out a scope and infused it with a little magic to enhance my vision as much as possible. I looked out and quickly spotted what I feared I would see: a golden galleon on the way, moving towards us at top speed.

"Fine, it's here!" I said in complete consternation. Jack looked over at me, then past me at the golden horizon on its way.

"Oh great, so now I have the British Navy and an old girlfriend after me, just like old times," Jack said with a shake of his head before a cannonball came ripping across our forward deck, bouncing off the corner of the ship and landing in the waves.

Looking forward, I wondered where that came from before I saw the low-hanging ship in the water. It almost looked half-sunk, battle-damaged, and somehow not sinking in the storm's waves. Its cannons were firing wildly, and its crew...well, they looked like decayed husks of human beings.

"And we have the other guy," I said, annoyed, turning to Jack. "Your compass is taking us towards probably the one person we should not be heading towards."

Jack looked at his compass, then looked at it closely. Then he said, "Actually, it's pointing just past that guy." Scratching his head, he said, "Go get the green skull. Maybe we can use it to revive them again and leave them for Norrington to deal with."

Letting out a deep sigh, I nodded, rushing down from the bridge to the main deck and through the doors into the Captain's quarters. I searched through the shelves until I found the skull, as well as the sword we recently acquired. It was supposed to work on the undead, at least that's what some rumors said. And they were undead. Grabbing the sword, I strapped it to my side before grabbing the skull and rushing back out onto the main deck, looking at the quickly growing darkened ship.

"Jack!" came a loud screech from that vessel as Stubb appeared at the side of the ship, holding up his red skull. "I've come to kill you finally! You may have orchestrated my death twice now, but I will have your head this time."

"That's a lovely thought," Jack yelled back as the ships were coming closer, "but again, not here! We'll even let Tanya do the thing."

"Do the thing?" I said, annoyed, holding up the green skull and unleashing its energy. A wave of life hit the undead ship, bringing the crew back to life. And I would admit, there might be a little bit of other beneficial effects as I felt a bit healthier. I've been having a cold ever since wearing that damn harem costume.

There might be some medical use to this thing, something to keep in mind when I make it through the continent. Perhaps I could have Jack hand it over to me as part of my treasure for helping him save his soul from the Dutchman.

But that was a thought for another time. Right now, I watched as the crew of the half-sunk ship revived and then started fighting each other. Why were they fighting each other? Well, that was easily explainable. A third of the crew was wearing red coats. Yes, some of the undead were just recently necromanced and didn't follow Stubb. And once they were unnecromanced, well, they were probably not happy to be aboard a pirate ship.

As for the pirate ship itself, as soon as chaos broke out, the captain, Stubb, turned it, aiming to cross our beam and hit us on the side.

"Jack, go faster!" I called out as I watched the enemy ship aiming for a direct hit on our side.

"Working on it!" he yelled back as the Black Pearl turned, scraping along our side instead of a direct collision. It caught up on the side of the Black Pearl, redirecting us towards an island that was already in the midst of the storm. The waves were buffeting the ships against each other. I watched as several enemy pirates and redcoats jumped from their ship to ours. It was understandable, considering their ship was only being held up by the negative energy of the magic of the gold skull. And that said gold skull was in the possession of Stubb, who jumped aboard our ship. Meanwhile, I watched as the crew of the vessel that didn't escape started to go under with it.

"I'm here to kill you, Jack. You know I'm the one who actually shot you," I pointed out, holding up the green skull. "And I can put you down and destroy your red skull."

"Like to see you try, Tanya," he said, drawing his sword and charging at me. I dodged out of the way, holding up the green skull and summoning a shield in front of it to block his attack. This allowed me to reach out and grab his other arm as he reached for the red-adorned skull.

That was a mistake I soon realized. One should not hold both skulls. Apparently, they didn't like each other. I could feel my body being torn in half by the negative and positive energy emanating from both of them. I let go of the red skull and stumbled back, breathing heavily, blocking another attack from his sword as he tried to take advantage of my moment of confusion.

"You can't take what belongs to me!" he laughed, which confused me until I realized he didn't understand what had just happened.

Smiling, I threw the green skull towards him and said, "Catch, then."

The fool actually caught it, holding the green and red skulls in either hand. He began to scream as the radiating energies from both skulls ran up his arms and into his body. It was a battle of positive and negative forces, until there was a flash of light and a skeleton collapsed upon itself. Stubb was now nothing but a pile of bones and clothing, with the two skulls rolling around on the deck.

"Well, that's the end of that," Jack said happily before adding, "Now, can someone get that wreck off my ship?" I looked and saw that indeed, the wreck of Stubb's ship was starting to sink. If we didn't push it off, it would take us down with it. Members of Stubb's former crew and the Royal Marines who were smart enough to jump ship joined us in pushing debris off and freeing ourselves from that ship. We worked to save ourselves from sinking or being forced into the approaching island.

Looking back over the rear of the ship, I could see the Golden Valkyrie, a fine vessel, getting closer, as well as the menacing heavy ship of the Royal Navy.

To add to the misery of the situation, the storm was intensifying. We were now fighting to move forward as we were stuck right off the coast of the island. The other two ships were gaining on us fast. It seemed like we wouldn't be able to escape this. We were going to have to fight.

The marines who had jumped aboard to avoid being pulled under by the sinking ship looked towards the nearby island, made a decision, and apparently decided they could swim for it. Some of them jumped overboard, while others stole our boats. Jack would probably complain about that later, but right now, not having the marines aboard was probably for the best.

Norrington's ship was quickly gaining on us, somehow being faster than the Valkyrie, which I would have thought could move much faster than anything the British Royal Navy could pull off. But what I was seeing seemed to say otherwise...

My thoughts trailed off as I realized the heavy ship's sails were glowing gold, and it was being propelled forward much faster than it should be. Something was interfering with it. Stretching my senses out, I followed the magical trail from the heavy ship's sails all the way to the Valkyrie. It told me enough. That feeling was aiding the British. I didn't know that she had such a strong dislike for Jack that she would surrender him to the British.

Hard to say. I didn't know. The ship kept moving quicker, and then it passed the Black Pearl by a good pace, which seemed to take the crew by surprise.

I thought they would have stopped and opened fire, but they just kept going. Then a massive wave hit the side of the ship with such force that it was propelled over the shallows and into the island, flooding the island in fact. It took any survivors from Stubb's ship and the marines who had jumped overboard into the island, either drowning them or stranding them. The wave, which had caused all that, had avoided us for some reason, seeming to have gone around us.

Considering that this storm was probably magical and based on the Red Skull's magic, perhaps there was a natural avoidance towards its creator. I didn't know. All I knew was that we had dealt with Stubb, and now the Valkyrie had just dealt with the Royal Marines for us.

"Well, that was unlikely, but hey, I'll take a win," Jack called out, and I replied, "Your ex-girlfriend did it."

That got a chuckle out of him as he realized the power she was probably wielding at this moment through her songs.

Looking back, the crew and I watched as the Valkyrie sailed on through the storm, coming to a stop right next to the Black Pearl. Its golden radiance seemed to reflect off the black sails of the Pearl as the storm seemed to come under control around the two ships.

Standing on the side of the Valkyrie was Tanya, wearing the most amused smile a woman could have, carrying a whip on one hip and a sword on the other.

"Oh, Jackie boy, it seems I finally caught up to you," she said before jumping off her ship and onto The Pearl. Tapping her foot against it, she said, "And the wicked witch is looking a lot better than the last time I saw her."

"Fine, Jackson," Jack stepped out from behind the wheel. "I didn't know you were looking for me. What brings you to my lovely little adventuring ship?"

"Sure you didn't, Jack. Sure you didn't," she replied. "Well, I told you that you needed to help me with a grand plan I had to raid Havana and take the city for myself. But then you and a couple of other captains I was depending on all just vanished. It was very unfortunate for me, very annoying. Most of them I was able to track down and find out that they were paid off by the East India Company for one reason or another. But you just seem to vanish off the face of the map. What was that about, Jack?"

"Ah, well, you see, I was actually paid off by the East India Company to do a job, one that I ended up betraying them on because of moral reasons," Jack said with a shrug. "Not a big fan of moving people, you know. But they didn't tell me that until after they were loaded."

"So you were offered a contract by the British to not be involved in my attack on Havana. That's very low, Jack."

"I think it was rather, my dear. But to be fair, things didn't go well after that. So how about we call this a draw? There's no reason to turn me in or anything unnatural."

"I should throw you overboard and take the damn ship for myself, but Jack, you have managed to intrigue my notice once again."

"Huh?" I asked from where I was standing.

"Fine," clicked her fingers, and the two skulls that had been rolling about on deck lifted into the air and hovered over towards her.

"These are some rather powerful relics, quite interesting what they can do. And I'm quite interested in studying them. Do not fight me taking them, and maybe, just maybe, I won't come after you again, Jack, at least not for another year or so."

Jack looked at me, and I looked at him before he shrugged and said, "Have them. They've brought us nothing but bad luck."

"Wonderful," Fine said, clicking her fingers and sending the skulls across onto her ship. Two men grabbed them from the air and quickly escorted them beneath the deck to a storage of similar relics. One of the few things I knew about the Valkyrie was that she was packed to the gills with such relics. Fine liked to study them and try to use their properties for her own plans. Some of them even possibly gave her ship protection force fields and such.

Fine looked at me and said, "Well, good to see you, Tanya. How are you enjoying life out on your own? Hope you haven't been bothered too much by this... loud," she said, emphasizing the word while looking directly at Jack as if he was a waste of space.

"Things are going fine," I said matter-of-factly, pulling my arms under my chest. "Just been helping Jack deal with a few magical items that he's come across—crust of gold, weird skulls, this sword," I said with a shrug, hoping that she wouldn't ask too many questions.

Of course, knowing Fine, she liked to think of herself as a scientist of faith, which meant she walked right over and grabbed the sword from my side.

"Hey," I said as she looked it over, before saying, "What an interesting treat! Not a full relic, but it appears to have been infused with a relic in the past. I'd say the alchemist responsible for this was on the right trail, though not very great at the job, in my opinion. Stone Mason, definitely 13 hundreds, possibly just at the start of their order after the old organization of the Templars were destroyed, give or take," she said before handing the sword back.

"Be careful with that weapon. Put too much of yourself into it, and you might not find yourself here anymore. The blade was definitely forged using parts of Durandal blade, a French blade which can draw out the rage of its wielder for more devastating effect."

"How do you know that, Jackass?" I got a look from Fine as she said, " 'Cause I have the rest of the blade. You don't collect relics for thousands of years without gathering information about how they work. Come on, Jack, think."

I moved over towards them before saying, "By the way, just because I'm letting you off this time doesn't mean I'm not going to want something in return in the future. You promise to help me take Havana, well, I'm planning to do that again in the future, within the next three years. Promise me that you'll help me with that mission, and I will forgive your transgressions."

Jack nodded before saying, "Three years? So, if I'm still around, sure, gladly, I will help you. What do you need in Havana, anyways?"

"Oh, a relic that will help me build a cannon to shoot the Moon. Hopefully, trying to find one that's still active is nearly impossible, and the rumors are conflicting on what is there."

"Magic? What was that about you saying if you're still around? Is there something going on you should need to tell your former girlfriend?"

"What? No, no. Unless you have any idea where the Dead Man's Chest is," Jack asked, getting a look from Fine.

"Oh, Jack, what mistakes have you made?" Fine sighed, shaking her head. "No, I don't know where the Dead Man's Chest is. I assume you're already on the path of possible routes. So, I wish you luck, but I will not hold it against you if you don't show up in three years because you're dead or serving upon a certain captain's crew. I do wish you luck in avoiding that fate. Oh, it would be nice to have a face I recognize the next time I have to switch bodies," Fine said, reaching out and touching the side of Jack's face.

"And your face is rather memorable," she leaned in and gave Jack a deep and passionate kiss, surprising everyone who was expecting violence to break out. It went on for a good minute, only breaking when Fine had to come up for air, saying, "Still a great kisser," and then slapped his face hard. "Now, don't forget to show up in 3 years."

She turned her back on Jack and walked over to me before saying, "That's for you. Well, you've done your job, and I will ignore your petty running away. After all, if you're hanging with Jack, that means there's a good chance you might actually save his life from the stupidity he gets himself involved in. It means he'll show up in 3 years for my plan."

"Of course, yeah, I'm sticking with Jack until he's safe, and I'll make sure he shows up in 3 years if he's alive," I replied.

"Good, good. Now, what did I tell you about saying 'Fine'?" She sighed and said, "I'm not allowed to call you Fine, mother."

"That's better, daughter," she said, leaning in and giving me a light kiss on the lips, which was still a very unnerving aspect of her character that I wish I didn't have to deal with. "See you in a few years. Make yourself a good first mate or whatever your career choice is. And if you betray me, well, there are things far worse than being turned into something unnatural. Remember that."

"Yes, Mom," I said as she nodded with a self-assured certainty and floated off from the Black Pearl onto the Valkyrie, turning and giving a bow before signaling her crew to start moving. Annoyed, I watched the golden-hulled vessel sail away as if it were a floating temple off on some journey across the waves.

"That could have gone so much worse," I said out loud, which got a nod from Jack. He said, "Oh, definitely. Thank goodness we had those skulls around. At least that kept her entertained enough not to just sink us outright." Shaking his head, he then continued, "But now that that's handled, we can continue on with our journey."

He moved back up to the top of the ship and sat behind the steering wheel, turning it to direct the ship away from the island that still held the warship smashed onto its trees. Looking in that direction, I thought I could just see the captain of that ship looking extremely ticked off and annoyed. Well, perhaps that was my imagination. Either way, we finally got rid of that admiral, we got rid of the pirates after us, and we bought ourselves a reprieve from the continued tracking by Fine. Everything was looking up. Now, we just needed to find our way to the Canaries, properly get to this island prison, and retrieve the map we were after.

"All right, you heard the captain. Stop just staring slack-jawed at everything. If you're part of our crew, help get the ship moving. If you're not part of the crew, well, you're part of the crew now, so start helping. And if you're Royal Navy, I doubt any of you are still aboard, but if you are, we don't care. We'll drop you off at the next spot," Jack commanded.

There was a call from inside a barrel, sounding great, which got a couple of laughs as a Royal Marine pushed open the top of the barrel and waved.

"How did you get in there, Gibbs?" asked Jack.

The Marine shrugged before saying, "Bayonets make great leverage," as he got out of the barrel.

Shaking my head, I looked out as the ship began moving, heading off towards the next destination, trying to decide if I should consider jumping ship sooner than later to avoid any games with Fine.

Oh well, that was a concern for the future. Now, how were they going to get into this prison?

Tanya

Thankfully, it wasn't hard at all, at least as far as Tanya was concerned. It wasn't hard because Jack had made her pose as a slave girl on their last mission, volunteering for an infiltration mission and allowing himself to be arrested to gain access to the prison facility. All the Black Pearl had to do was wait for his escape, which was taking some time. It had been three days, and he was supposed to be out sometime tonight, according to the plan that didn't work well. Well, I guess I would have to blow open the walls of the prison to see if he was dead or alive.

I'd rather not have to do that, but a pirate's life means you have to do things you don't agree with. By this point, I had become quite accepting of the criminal things that needed to be done. This world was a lot harder than the modern age, and well, you either do what's necessary or you get rolled over. And I'd rather not be rolled over.

Leaning outside, I waited, looking over the side of the vessel, wondering where the hell he was, when I heard splashing. Not loud splashing, but a little splashing. As I watched in the darkness, I saw something starting to come towards us.

"Mr. Gibbs, I think the captain's here," I called in a low voice, not wanting to alert too many people to what was going on, just in case I was wrong and in case we made too much noise and drew the attention of the Spanish prison.

Gibbs walked over and joined me as we watched Captain Jack paddle a coffin right next to the Black Pearl, as if it was a damn kayak. He pushed open the end of it and grabbed onto the wooden ladder that would allow him to climb the side of the vessel. As he made his way up, the impromptu kayak sank under the water with a wave, immediately bubbling as it went.

"How did it go, Jack?" Gibbs called as Jack climbed aboard the vessel, patting himself down.

"It could have gone better, but it did not go worse," Jack replied.

"Did you retrieve what we're after?" Gibbs asked, as Jack was trying to head for the bridge of the vessel. I followed quickly behind, wanting to learn what success we had.

"Did I retrieve what we were after? Well, yes and no," Jack said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a little parchment with an image of a key, saying, "I have found what appears to be the key, or at least the image of the key, that will open the Dead Man's Chest. Once we find that, we can find the chest, presumably. And from there, well, the sky is the limit. I'm told wealth is in our path, we just need to be lucky about it."

"Uh huh, how are we going to get paid if we're all just involved in trying to save your life?" someone asked, drawing a lot of eyes on them.

I spoke up, saying, "And if you haven't been paying attention, you have been getting paid up to this point by working with him, gathering loot, treasure, and all that. Well, over the last few months, Jack has led you to wealth if you're working for him. So why not help him save his life from a problem?"

There was some murmuring amongst the crew, but I folded my arms under my chest and said, "You either do this or you get off at the next stop. It's your choice. But all I'm going to say now is, as long as you're aboard, there will be no mutinies, no changing of directions, no nothing." I snapped my fingers and several rifles floated into the air to make my point.

"Damn sea witch," someone muttered.

"She prefers Mage, thank you," Jack called out, before adding, "And she's a little bit overzealous, but she's got a point. We need to worry about getting to the key. Don't worry about what might be chasing us. We still have plenty of time before it's necessary. Now, set the sails and let's make a westward direction. We're heading for Cuba."

I blinked and looked at Jack. "Cuba?"

"Yes, Cuba. This image here is helpful, but for more information, I think we're going to need to ask an old friend of mine who lives in Cuba. We must make all haste."

"Alright, Cuba it is. Mr. Gibbs, tell the crew where we're going," I said.

"You heard the captain, Mr. Gibbs. Cuba it is. Get to work, no laziness, no nothing. We are moving as fast as possible. The sooner this thing is found, the sooner we can get to real pirating again," I declared.

"Well, that's not fair. Adventuring is a form of pirating," Jack pointed out.

"True, but there's not as much money in adventuring compared to pirating," Gibbs responded, which garnered a lot of agreement between the two. It was nice to see that they could come to understandings. As for me, I moved over to the back of the ship and lowered the guns, keeping them close by just in case. After all, Jack had already been through one mutiny. It wouldn't do for him to accidentally cause another.

I kept my eyes on the crew as the ship began moving, heading towards the west, the setting sun illuminating the horizon. Jack stepped closer and leaned against the railing I was on, saying, "We don't have as much time as I thought."

I raised an eyebrow as he unwrapped his hand, revealing a black spot on his palm.

I was visited by an agent of Jones while in prison. He's coming, don't know when, but he's marked me, so our time is running short, and we're going to have to cross a lot of open water and hope we don't run into him.

I nodded before saying, "I can help with that."

Jack raised an eyebrow, asking, "And how can you help with that?"

I smiled before saying, "Well, if you don't mind me modifying a bit of the ship. I pulled out the spare magic orb I've been carrying since, well, the last one got stolen by a damn monkey. If I embed this in a part of the ship and power it with a little bit of an illusion spell, we might be able to avoid the notice of anyone looking for us. It could work, or it could just create a lot of misleading effects for people trying to find us."

"So it's a 50/50 chance. It's better than nothing, have at it then," Jack said, clapping me on the shoulder, quickly hiding his hand away. "I'll take any chance you can give me."

"Any chance," I said, taking out a knife and moving towards one of the corners of the ship, trying to figure out the best place to try and insert the orb.