011

Tanya

"I should have kept my guard up," I muttered to myself, berating my mistake. Letting my guard down for just one drink and I was completely rendered out of my mind on some LSD-like substance made from mushroom alcohol or something. I don't know what was in that drink, but I regretted every moment of that mistake. I had a little bit of fun with some of the native girls while I was not fully sane.

It wasn't worth the cost of both my pride and my dignity, and nearly getting eaten alive. I learned later that I would have been killed, as a part of the whole sacrificing my body to become a goddess thing, as the story goes.

Thankfully, I've been rescued, but now I had to live down the humiliation of knowing that Jack had saved my life, and I now theoretically owed him one.

Which, on the whole, wasn't a big thing. I would soon come to an account when I helped him escape the judgment of Davy Jones, but there was supposed to be the other way around, with him owing something to me, which I could use at a later time. Oh well, at least I was alive, and life meant I could pull something out of this sooner or later.

As for this exact moment, well, after we'd escaped the cannibals, we sailed to Cuba. The kraken that had been in our path had apparently moved on or gone hunting other ships, which allowed us to reach the shores of Cuba and make our way up the coast. But this is where things became a bit more problematic.

You couldn't sail the Black Pearl too far up the river because it was rather shallow, so we had to switch over to the rowboats, paddling our way up the river. Thankfully, the water coming down the stream was relatively slow, so we were not fighting the current as much.

I mostly kept my head down as we did our work, pushing our way against the water pushing back at us. Sooner or later, we would reach somewhere Jack was supposed to know where we were going, and he only consulted his compass once or twice to confirm something. Otherwise, it was a quiet trip. Our boat was currently carrying Jack, Gibbs, myself, and, surprisingly, Will.

He'd explained the situation with a problem with the West Indies company. I had to laugh because, in this period of time, the East India Company was the world's first mega-corporation, almost a nation unto itself. Granted, it could be restrained by the English crown when it wanted to, but it didn't want to, and it probably wouldn't until sometime in the 18th or 19th century, if my memory serves me right. The reservation, when they integrated it as a full province of the empire and not just a location under the control of the West Indies company.

If memory serves, it had something to do with a rebellion and the Queen of England wanting to be the Empress of India or something of that matter. It's been a long time since I looked at that particular history; my specialty was more of the 20th century.

Turning to Will, I asked, "So this Lord Beckett, what exactly does he want besides making Jack a privateer?"

Will turned and looked at Jack's compass before saying, "His compass, for some reason."

"Which is not happening," Jack said, "there are many reasons I would never part with this compass, from how useful it is to things I'd rather not talk about. But the most important reason is things would go badly for me if I let some stuck-up British git get it."

"Why is that?" I asked.

Jack looked at me before saying, "The compass takes me to what I want, it's that simple. If someone like Beckett's got his hands on it, well, he has quite interesting appetites, I'm sure."

"Perhaps he wants to stop a pirate invasion, perhaps he wants to track down every pirate on the sea, perhaps he wants to stop the rebellion."

I blinked before saying, "You're basically saying that in the hands of a pirate, it's a minor tool for finding treasure; in the hands of a governmental official, it could be used to predict problems and stamp down on them early."

"Yes," Jack said with a nod, "I think we can all agree having someone arrest people for no cause but what they believe is going to happen is not the best out there."

I sighed while rubbing my forehead, "Same, how did you get this thing?"

Jack smiled before saying, "It was one of my earliest acquaintances with magic, picked it up from my old captain. Saved my life and the lives of many, many friends of mine, and I've kept it ever since. But if I ever parted with it, I'm sure nothing good would come of it. Magic items like these are temperamental, you know. I don't know how you have not had problems with that little orb device you keep around your neck; in fact, if you've lost it and we're getting it, I would have assumed something horrible would have happened to you."

"More horrible than nearly being eaten by cannibals?" I asked.

That got a chuckle from Jack, "Much worse than that, I would assume."

I shook my head before saying, "The orb around my neck, I created the magical tool, not some mystical mumbo jumbo like the sword on my side, at least mostly mystical mumbo jumbo. Fine, and Will say some rather weird things about magic that make me wonder if we talk about the same thing but in different ways."

"Oh, do tell, what exactly does she say about magic?" Jack asked.

I shrugged before saying, "That not all magic comes from willpower and spiritual control but from other dimensions, cracks in the world that allow powers of unnatural energy to seep through. The type that I know and the type she prefers to teach are magic that come from this Earth, but there are other versions, a version she calls Divine magic that's self-fulfilling, self-fixing, and rather undefeatable if it sets itself against you."

"Yikes, well hopefully we don't run into anything like that," Jack said with a nod as we continued up the river.

"Well, that's fine and dandy, Jack," William spoke up before asking, "but that kind of leaves me in a pickle here. I either need to bring you in or that compass to get my name cleared."

Jack nodded before saying, "I wouldn't worry too much about that, first of all, if I don't get this situation with Davy Jones handled, you're not getting either. So, it would be better to help me get this situation handled and then we can deal with your problems. As for helping you, Tanya, what would you suggest?"

"Take the letter of marque and reprisal, but keep a secondary ship on standby to expedite your escape if it's all betrayal." I advised.

Jack looked at me in shock before saying, "You'd have me become not a pirate?"

"You're already not a pirate, you're an adventurer. At least I need to have some legal protections, and to be frank, the only reason you're a pirate is because you have that scar. Letters of marque, what do you need to get yourself free of that?" I asked.

He shook his head before saying, "That's a point of view I disagree with, but I will consider it. After all, the second part of that plan's not so bad. I turn myself in, get the letter of marque, get you off the hook, and then if it turns out that I don't want to be part of it, I just skip town and be done with it. They can't exactly blame you for me leaving, can they?" Jack said, looking at Will, who gave him a nod. Seemed they had come to a gentleman's agreement between the two.

I shook my head at that, as it seemed rather unlikely that it would be that easy, but hey, at least they had a plan this time, probably a lot better than the time they'd stolen a ship to try and rescue the governor's daughter.

Which was a step in the right direction, which was commendable, I believed.

Changing my focus to helping Gibbs row the boat up the river, I noticed with the slowly dimming sunlight that there was something in the distance, a cabin perhaps. It was lit up with several torches, and the near jungle-like forest, almost swamp-like conditions we were entering, tended to imply that we should not be seeing something like that. Though with a few other torches placed here and there, I would imply there were also more people than just what that one building could sustain. Something was off, and I wasn't exactly going to poke at whatever was off since this person supposedly could help us with our mission.

The boat slowly came to a stop near a makeshift dock. Not exactly a well-built one by the looks of it, but sturdy enough that the men who disembarked from the boats didn't fall through the wood into the water below. Which was good because I saw alligators or crocodiles moving around in the water. I wasn't exactly familiar with the differences between the species; I assumed alligator, though alligator seems more of an American thing. Either way, they were moving about on the water, which was a reason not to fall beneath the waves. As the men and I moored ourselves onto the dock, brushing myself off, I said, "So, who leads the way?"

"Well, It'll be me, of course," Jack said as he stepped forward, carefully moving along the dock and up the steps to the door, giving it a couple of brisk knocks.

The door opened on a woman with wild hair and dark skin who gave Jack a look that said, "Oh, it's you," as Jack said, "Tia, good to see you."

"Good to see you too, Jack. I was not expecting you to come by this time of year, but it's good to see you come by nonetheless. What brings you all the way to my little abode?"

She said, opening the door fully and stepping back, looking pissed. "Jack," she said, "I see you have a new crew," her eyes going over William before focusing on me, smiling. She said, "Oh, now isn't that interesting, one with a touch of destiny about her. Welcome to my home, Tanya von Degurechaff, or do you prefer Tenya?"

I felt my pulse go through the damn roof. The woman used the name I had not heard in several decades at this point. Heck, I barely even remembered it as my original name, but to hear it used so openly was disconcerting, to say the least, especially with the damn come-hither eyes she was giving me.

Jack was looking at me confused, and I simply waved it off, saying, "It's nothing. I don't know how she knows that name, and I really would like her not to know it."

"Haha, one who is open to the world can know many things. If I was a bit more open, perhaps I would know a bit more, but unfortunately, my services are quite bound to this plane of existence."

I blinked as I saw where her eyes were looking, staring at that piece of eight that Jack had, implying he was some sort of pirate lord. I wondered if there was something she was trying to convey to Jack without tipping something off. Whatever it was, it was quite intriguing, something to remember in case I needed that information for the future.

"Tia, I need your help with something," Jack said, getting down to business as we made our way to a central table.

She took a seat and was rather relaxed as she looked at Jack, saying, "You need my help with something, something unusual. What do you need my help with Captain Jack Sparrow?"

Jack reached into his pocket and pulled out the parchment we captured from the Canary Islands, laying it out, saying, "We need this key, and we need to know where the chest is that it goes to."

"Jack, the great Jack Sparrow, can't find an object? Isn't that compass that I help to get you supposed to help with that sort of thing?" I raised an eyebrow. That was not exactly the story Jack had just been mentioning about how he came to acquire that compass, but Jack brushed past it. "It seems something's up with it. I can't locate that key."

"Jack Sparrow doesn't know what he wants? That's strange, very, very strange. What could be interfering with your desires, I wonder."

Will coughed, trying to get back on track. "While it is interesting that Jack apparently has a malfunctioning compass, can we get back on topic?"

"Of course, Will Turner. We will get back on topic, need to get you back home to your lovely lady."

Will looked confused, as did most of the other pirates that followed us in, and she apparently just knew his name. I took a shot at it and said, "You have a very good spy network, don't you?"

Well, that got a deep laugh from the sea witch as she looked at me, saying, "Oh, that's one way of saying it. Yes, but if that's what you need to feel comfortable, that's fine. But I know a lot more than I ever let on; it's just how it is, Tanya."

Eyebrow still raised, she turned back to Will and said, "All right, so you want to know about the key. Well, then, do you know the story of Davy Jones?"

Will shook his head, saying, "Not really, I'll give you a rundown of it. Quite simple, Davy Jones fell in love with a woman. This woman had powers that could allow her to live a long time, thus he wanted to make sure he came back to her. A deal was struck with a being that would allow him to do that, but he could not step on land except for once every 10 years. He went out to sea, did this job that would give him this immortality to be able to be with the woman he loves, but when he returned, she was gone. It broke his heart, and in such pain and sorrow, he carved out his own heart, wanting to feel nothing."

There was an audible gulp from behind me as several of the pirates started to question if that was even physically possible. I didn't give it that much thought in my last world; that probably would not have been possible. In this one, well, I've talked to Fine about some rather interesting magic in my time, and it was not an impossibility for some sort of relic to be used to replace a person's heart to keep them alive from what I understood.

"So that's what's in the chest then?" Will said, which got a nod from the witch woman.

"Inside the Dead Man's chest is the only way to kill David Jones, his still-beating heart. Oh, I would recommend not doing that. Davy Jones's soul is bound to that ship, and the ship's will is bound to him. If something were to happen to him, well, something must replace the loss," the woman said.

"Where's the key?" Gibbs asked, the question that we were all wondering, to some extent, I'm sure.

"The key that is the only access to the item that protects your immortality? Where would you keep it, Mr. Gibbs?"

"On me at all times, of course," he said matter of factly, leaving with an odd pause before saying, "oh…"

William sat up from his chair to look at Jack, saying, "You know there's no way you didn't know."

Jack shook his head, saying, "I did not. If I had known that, I wouldn't need you to come here. I simply knew what was in the chest; I didn't know where the key was."

"So, you've known that we're looking for Davy Jones's heart and we're looking for a way to kill him, but you didn't know that the only way we would be able to gain access to it is to go aboard his ship and try and recover it," William asked, sounding very skeptical, as I was myself, but I spoke up on his behalf.

"He's been rather straight with me on this matter. He's been looking for ways to deal with this situation for a while now. Trust me, if he knew the key was on Davy Jones, he would've let you know."

William gave me a look but then took a seat as we returned to speaking with the witch.

There's a moment of silence before Jack spoke first, saying, "Well, do you have any idea how we can accomplish our goal of getting the key?"

The witch shook her head before saying, "Jack, Jack, Jack. As much as I like you, I can't help you there. You already know how to bring the captain to you, you already know what keeps them away. Your choices are quite simple, just use your wits."

"I was afraid you'd say that," Jack said before turning to us, "So who wants to play a dangerous game."

"Actually, any chance I could, hold off on this mission, go do something else. I've heard Tortuga's nice this time of year." Came from somewhere, then there was an audible punch as someone hit him in the shoulder hard enough to make him regret saying that out loud.

Letting out a breath, I stood up and said, "I expect an equal share of the loot from this mission, but otherwise, I'm in."

"What do you mean?" Someone asked from behind me, causing me to turn to them and say, "Davy Jones is a pirate with the ability to not die. What did the last pirates we came across who could not die do, besides the ones who were on a vendetta to kill us?"

"Stash all their gold on a hidden island." Gibbs said with a smile.

"Exactly, the last gold stash we had kept us going for a few months. Then the Royal Navy took whatever we couldn't. With this one, we probably get away with everything if we play our cards right. We just got to find out where it is, and I assume it has to be somewhere close to his chest, possibly with the Dead Man's chest. So, are you all interested in getting ourselves wealthy beyond our dreams or not?"

There was an audible cheer before Gibbs called, "All right, man, then let's get back to the boats and back to The Pearl. We got an undead pirate to find."

Quickly, everyone who was not necessary to the conversation started to drift through the door, leaving only the witch, myself, Will, and Jack in the room.

"You do realize he's not a pirate," the witch said, tilting her head as she looked at me. "He was a tradesman, a transporter of goods."

"Oh, I'm quite aware of what he was," I said, looking at her with a smile, before adding, "sometimes you need a little offering to the men to make sure they're interested in doing their job."

"In other words, you lied to them." Will said, looking at me as if I was corrupting evil incarnate.

"Well, would you rather not have a crew, or would you rather do the job necessary to succeed?"

"We're outside." I said, "all right, all right. So how are we going to do this?"

"Well," Jack said, leaning back, "I'm thinking we sail out to deep waters, and from there, I think I have a few ways to pull this off. Though it will be a bit underhanded and unfortunate for some poor sailors."

"Why do I get the feeling this is going to be a rather stressful operation?" I said, shaking my head before signing, "All right, Jack, let's go find ourselves an unkillable specter of the sea."

"Yes," Jack said, leading the way out of the shack, with Will following as he got up.

I started to leave after them, but I decided to poke at the witch with one question, asking, "That name you spelled earlier, you didn't happen to find it from another entity known as 'Being X'?"

The witch smiled before saying, "I have no idea who that is. I have gifts and knowledge, that is all."

I shook my head and left.

Tanya

Looking across the way, I could see the fairly damaged ship, appearing to have run aground on a sandbar in the middle of nowhere. I could tell it was aground because it wasn't sinking. Its spine appeared to have been shattered down the center, and by the looks of it, the ocean was going to try and claim it, though it would probably take months at the rate it was going, unless some massive wave came across this area.

Turning to Jack, I said, "That's bait, isn't it?"

"What? No, no, no. It wouldn't be something we put out there ourselves. Now, that's just a natural recruiting ground for Davy Jones."

I looked at Jack before saying, "So what you're saying is those people need help, but instead of trying to help them, we're just going to watch Davy Jones come in and recruit a crew, and then sail over there and ask him to hand over a key?"

I chuckled at that before saying, "No, no, you want me to paddle over there and meet Davy Jones and get myself on his ship, don't you?"

Jack smiled and said, "You've got the smarts about you. No, really, could have been Will, either way, but you have a better chance of surviving with your magics and that sword." he said, looking at the blade in question.

"Fine," I turned to look at the ship before saying, "I'd ask for a drink, but the last time I did that, it was a mistake. So I'll just go over there sober. Anything I should tell Davy Jones while I'm over there?"

Jack was already looking at the ship before saying, "If things don't go as planned, tell him Jack Sparrow sent you to settle his debt. I have a vague idea of what to do, but we'll see what happens. We just need to buy time, that's all, you know."

"Right," I signed, and climbed over the railing using the ladder to go down the side of the ship before getting into the boat. I could have used a flight spell to get all the way over there, but in case anything was watching, it was probably better for me to use the boat, and considering Jack had already lowered it, well, he probably thought the same. Carefully, I started to make my way, watching The Black Pearl as I went, appreciating Jack's smart move of turning off the lights.

A smart move in my opinion, as it would make it less likely for the Dutchman to spot his ship.

Of course, depending on how Davy Jones' magic worked, it may not mean anything. Guess I'll find out in a moment.

After a good 200 yards or so of paddling, I reached the remnants of the ship, and I carefully pulled myself on board. Looking around, I saw that it was a complete disaster, with what appeared to be no one alive, at least at first. My eyes watched everywhere before I spotted one man trying to pull ropes, attempting to get the ship moving off the sandbar, which was a mistake in my mind; the ship would just sink deeper if he even managed to get those sails up.

Walking up to him, I said, "Sailor, what are you doing?" Best I could, he's sounding completely out of his mind.

I would have asked another question, but I heard a splash behind me, which was odd. It sounded like something heavy fell. Turning, I looked and saw a body struggling in the water, not exactly floating but stumbling, trying to pull itself onto the makeshift deck that was left. I carefully walked down the wooden deck to the body and flipped it over to see if I could do anything to help, though I quickly realized this was beyond my capabilities.

Frankly, I didn't know what the hell I was looking at. Where a man's face should have been, there was a barely smooth patch of skin—well, not exactly smooth, there were crevices. It was like some internet horror show. The man reached out for me, and I backed up a little bit, not really sure what to do. I couldn't exactly fix his face, and he wasn't probably long for this world. Really, the only thing I probably could do was put him out of his misery, but I was unlikely to do that myself. I needed to save my spells and ammunition in case something tried to attack me.

Of course, the moment I thought that, a giant shark-like man appeared out of thin air, seemingly walking right out of a wall, and grabbed a sailor I hadn't even seen hiding in some rigging, causing him to fall onto the deck. As I watched, more crustacean and sea-life themed monsters started to pull themselves seemingly right out of the water and swarm the ship, grabbing sailors and any living men still on board. One of them came right at me with a Warhammer, seemingly intending to knock me out.

I made him regret that, grabbing my sword and channeling some energy into it. I slashed at the man's arms, cutting them from his body. He screamed as another creature made a move, attempting to run me through with a blade. I funneled more energy into it, knocking the blade up with my sword, then poked him in the skull, the blade penetrating right through the overgrown coral that made up his face. A small spell, and he was sent flying in the other direction.

More sea-themed monsters were coming forward. Channeling more magic into the blade, I held it up and unleashed a little bit of a flashbang. Bright lights scoured the sky. If I were in a more charitable mood, I might have said, "I have the power," but I was more interested in making a show of it to stop the attack and disorient the enemies. Ruining their night vision was my main goal here.

My own vision was fine, a little bit of magical spells here and there, and my eyesight was protected. As they screamed in pain and were blinded, I could easily go on the attack, knocking the next three down and sending them into the water where they flopped about like dying fish for a bit.

The sea monsters were about to start attacking again, I assumed, but something stopped them. Hardy laughter, the sound of a thumping gate, as if someone was missing a limb, was approaching. That became apparent as I turned behind me and saw a figure that could only be Davy Jones standing at the deckhouse of the ship.

"Take the prisoners back to the ship. This one doesn't want to die today and seems to have the powers to prevent their death." Davy Jones ordered.

There was some grumbling as the monsters grabbed the humans on board and pulled them away across the way onto a nearby ship as it pulled up. Said ship was rather more of a wreck than the one I was standing on, looking like it had been pieced together from debris from beneath the sea.

Keeping my blade up, I turned to face the tentacle-bearded creature as it stepped down the stairway, saying, "Well, now you're not one of the crew here. You're neither dead nor dying. What is your purpose here?"

"Parlay," I said matter-of-factly, before continuing, "On behalf of Jack Sparrow, regarding the matter of settling his debt to you."

"Oh, is that so?" he said, his head turning directly in the direction of the Black Pearl as if he just knew where it was. Chuckling, he turned to look at me again. "I'll have to ask him about that in a moment. You know, not many people would willingly go across the sea to a stranded ship. Most would see this and sail on. I ask you, do you fear death?"

I smiled before saying, "I fear death, but I fear the reset it brings. All the work I put into the last life thrown down the drain, to restart in the next."

Jones tilted his head before saying, "Fine died again, was hoping to grab her this time."

I chuckled before saying, "Not quite. I'm acquainted with Fine though, and we share some similar traits."

"Interesting. Very interesting," Davy Jones muttered before, well, his body fell apart into water, and I was left confused as to what just happened.

Jack Sparrow

What are they talking about? I wondered as I watched Davy Jones talking to Tanya. She had put on a spectacular show, fighting those monsters to a standstill and blinding them with a light we had seen from here. It seemed as if the night sky had turned to day for a few seconds. That blade in her hands was probably more dangerous than anyone else's.

And she successfully drew Davy Jones from his ship to the vessel he was harvesting for recruits. He only got off his ship for important reasons. Looking through the telescope, I saw him looking in my direction again, and I wondered if he could actually know where I was. Otherwise, I lowered it, realizing, yes, yes he could, as he was standing right in front of me.

"You have a debt to pay, Jack Sparrow." he said, stepping towards me as I stepped back. Many of the crew around me didn't lift a finger to help, as many of Davy Jones' crew appeared around them, their blades already drawn. I noticed a few seemed to have been struck by Tanya's blade, and they weren't recovering easily. Maybe she could get a lucky shot in and take them out entirely.

Jones continued, "You've been captain of the Black Pearl for 13 years. Now the time has come to serve aboard my ship."

"No, I was kept on the Pearl for 2 years. Eleven of those years, I was removed from the captain's ship by a mutiny," I replied.

"Then you were a poor captain, but a captain nonetheless," David continued.

"Is that contract written up anywhere? Tanya, the young woman you just spoke to across the way, is a bit of a contract lawyer, and she wanted to take a look at it."

"A contract, a contract! Your word was your contract, so was mine. I raised the Pearl, and you will serve on the Flying Dutchman for a thousand years."

"Well then, if there's no signed contract, we could come to another accord. After all, I've only had two years, and that's not exactly meeting your expectations. Perhaps we could come to another agreement."

David checked all that and shook his head before saying, "You want to come to another agreement, all right, Jack? Want to dig yourself deeper? Let's talk of an agreement."