012

Jack Sparrow

I smiled at these developments; things were going rather well, better than I would have thought. The offer of a way out of the contract was unexpected but useful in securing me some time, time where he would not be coming after me with full force. If I played my cards right, it would also secure me the opportunity for Tanya to steal the key.

All I needed now was to acquire the location of the Dead Man's Chest. That might take a bit of time, considering how troublesome the compass was being. But I was sure I could figure something out; I always did.

"So, Captain John, what is my soul worth? What number would be appreciated and allow me to go free?"

"Ha, alright, Jack, you want to know? You owe me a thousand years on the mast, so you would need to acquire 100 souls."

"You're a diamond, mate," I said, holding out my hand. "Just send over Tanya, and we'll be on our way to acquire you those hundred souls."

"Oh, I'm afraid that won't be happening," Jones said, shaking his head. "She's going to take the place of one of the souls, consider it a good faith payment."

I could always trust Davy Jones to do exactly what I was expecting him to do. Tanya would be on board his ship and have time to acquire the key. The real problem now, though, was making sure that Davy Jones didn't give her too much thought.

"Really now, Tanya, you know she's a Mage and a child of fine. Counting her as one soul is rather doing her a disservice, at least four, maybe five."

"Ba ha, you are a real scum, Jack. Find out one of your friends won't be coming back and decide to try and save yourself from serving alongside them. Amazing."

"No, Jack, you will get me 100 souls, and maybe, maybe if you get me 105, I'll consider releasing your girlfriend. You will have 3 days to do it, Jack. Three days. But I wonder, Sparrow, can you live with this? Can you condemn them to a lifetime of servitude, in your name while you roam free?"

I pretended to think about it, rubbing my chin between my fingers and thumb before saying, "Yep! I'm good with it." I only got my hand back, saying, "Let's shake on this."

"Fine, Jack," David said, taking my hand and shaking it, which was an uncomfortable sensation, to say the least, with his slimy tentacles. Once he was done, he stepped away, saying, "Three days, Jack. Don't have what I want in three days, and I'll let my tentacled friend find you."

I watched as he walked right off the side of the ship and disappeared into the wind, pretty much the rest of his crew disappearing into the shadows, leaving me there with my crew, William and Gibbs.

"Jack, this was a bad idea," William said, turning to me. But I waved my hand, saying, "We'll talk about this when we're somewhere safer. Make sail for Tortuga."

Tortuga, Gibbs said, raising an eyebrow before I commented, "Mr. Jones never specified that those souls had to be of good nature or anything of that sort. Nor did he say that the souls have to be in good condition. So, Tortuga will give us a crew. Not to mention we are at a minimum of a crew right now; we could use the extra help. We'll just keep secret the current goals of the operation."

"Jack, you can't just—" William began, obviously not liking the idea of sending almost innocent bystanders to the Mast of Davy Jones, but I raised my hand again, signaling him to wait. Not out here, not now. We'll talk in a moment.

I decided to wait until we were far enough away to explain my thinking to him. After all, we were still within earshot of that monster, and it was best not to be within earshot when discussing backstabbing. Did I really want to give Davy Jones 100 souls? No. Did I care if I gave him a hundred souls? Probably not. Most pirates did tend to be on the amoral side and had committed crimes that I would not be involved in. But was that why I was going to Tortuga? Not exactly. Most likely, Davy Jones would be watching my ship, and if I didn't go in the direction he suspected me to be going to for manpower, he would probably think I was trying to betray him. So yes, I'd waste a day moving toward Tortuga, gathering men and manpower for an operation. Then, I would have to figure out what to do about the situation of the Dead Man's Chest.

Stepping up onto the top of the bridge, I started to steer the wheel, and the crew got to work. Pulling out the compass, I checked it.

The compass was a rather ingenious tool, but I will admit it was having a bit of an issue right now. It was pointing toward the ship that now held Tanya, then it pointed towards some unknown direction before pointing in another way.

Why was it doing this? Conflicting directions. I knew deep down why it was being temperamental. I wanted to get Tanya off that ship, obviously enough. That was a new change in its course. Another pointed toward running away, which would probably take me inland to North America, not a bad idea, but my life was here at sea. The other directions were a quick break. Probably one of them was leading to the Dead Man's Chest. Which one? I wasn't entirely sure. What would be required to claim the Dead Man's Chest? Supposedly, there could not be a Dutchman without a captain. So, if I were to kill the captain of the Dutchman, now that was concerning. The possibilities of what could happen, and all my freedom that I quite enjoyed with how I traveled across the ocean, would be gone, lost to a new purpose that I did not entirely like.

Plus, if I ended up looking like the last captain of the Dutchman, it would not exactly be good for my looks and love life. More reason to avoid it, as far as I was concerned. But I needed to get it to prevent my soul from being taken aboard the Dutchman's.

A catch-22, I think Tanya would call it. Either way, I was going to end up in trouble. I just needed to stay focused. Once I had the chest, perhaps there would be options that I didn't know about yet.

Looking back at the ship, I hoped Tanya would be able to pull this off. Her mission would probably be more dangerous than mine. I just had to gather the crew and find a way to access the Dead Man's Chest. I was already starting to get an idea about it as I glanced over at William, who looked very annoyed with everything around him. She, on the other hand, would most likely have to avoid swearing any oaths to that monster and ending up as a tentacle monster of some kind. Being half crab or half fish was not a great way to spend your life. Hopefully, she'll be able to pull it off.

Tanya

So, that was not how I expected things to go. I stood at the front of the ship, the Flying Dutchman as it was called, helping with some ropes as the waves tugged at it. I had been informed that my soul was now collateral for Jones, and he needed to acquire 99 other souls to save his own and a few more to save mine. Wonderful. If I believed Jack was one to betray his own friends, I'd probably be cursing his name. But then, if Jack was a traitor, why would he give me a blade that could cut right through these creatures or even risk this plan of betrayal? I had the ability to escape this situation. Everyone else on this ship had to rely on the ship to move about, but I could simply use a flight spell, and I would be gone. Still, I might use a flight spell to get away once I had what I was looking for. That could take some time, but I knew what it should look like. After all, the Dead Man's Key was kind of distinctive, and I memorized its shape from the cloth we had been able to recover.

Blackbeard said, how was I going to acquire this key? That was still up in the air. There were some easy ways to figure out where it probably was. A man as menacing as Davy Jones had very few options for where they would store something they wanted to keep secret and safe. I could ask the crew, but I doubted any of them would be very helpful in that matter. They were more likely to sell me out to Davy Jones than actually inform me of what was going on.

It must be in his private quarters, that I could say with certainty. I mean, wherever his private quarters were on this ship, I was sure they were rather expensive. I could hear organ music coming from back there, way too many notes for it to be just a minor piece. Most likely, it was a full church station of the organ.

Sighing, I kept at my work, doing manual labor and trying not to draw notice from the crew. It was hard, especially since I was probably the only female on the ship, and they all noticed that I kept the sword that had burned some of their members. It was quite noticeable, just as a threat that I was here as collateral, not as their next target.

Finishing tying a rope, I got up and bumped into a member of the crew, a man with a starfish attached to his face. He wasn't as corrupted as the others would be considered. He must be new, I thought, as the man looked at me annoyed.

"Watch where you're going, New Blood."

"Sure, sure," I said, moving past him to tie the rope on the next one.

"You seem a little too chipper and happy for someone who just got thrown in by the Captain and Jack Sparrow," the starfish pirate said.

I raised an eyebrow and looked at the starfish pirate. "I trust Jack to get 105 souls," I said with a smile. "After all, I helped him get rid of Barbarossa. I doubt he'd betray me after something as good as that."

"Barbarossa is dead. Should never have gone along with that mutiny."

"Mutiny?" I said, turning towards him. "How do you know about the mutiny?"

"I was part of it, though I'd like to think I was mistaken and just doing my part. Considering that I ended up at the depths of the ocean strapped to a cannon, I'd say I was probably right in assuming that we had done a bad thing with that mutiny."

"Strapped to a cannon?" I said, tapping my chin before continuing, "Wait, are you Bootstrap Bill, Will's dad?"

I saw a twinkle in his eye that indicated a yes, indeed, this was Bootstrap Bill, Will's dad. The mention of his son's name apparently had an unfortunate effect on him. He turned towards me, a look of panic on his face, and said, "Please tell me my son has not become a pirate and joined Jack."

"Oh, no, no," I said, waving my hand dismissively. "Your son's a blacksmith about to marry the governor's daughter of Port Royal, actually. From what I hear, he's probably doing much better than you ever thought he would."

"Really? Oh, that's good news," Bootstrap said, leaning against the banister. Then I added, "Well, there is, you know, the East India Company causing some trouble. That got him on Jack's ship right now."

"What? What does the East India Company have to do with the Caribbean and my son's life?"

I smiled, an idea forming in my mind as I leaned against the banister. A wave hit the side of the ship, and a lot of water splashed over, but everything seemed to be under control. Besides, something told me that a ship fueled by dark magic was not going to sink due to a little wave action.

"Apparently, because he stole a royal ship to save the governor's daughter with the help of Jack, a member of the East India Company is taking an interest in acquiring Jack and is using that against him, even though he should have been pardoned," I explained. "It's one of those really dumb things against me."

"So he's not a pirate, but he's got my impulsive nature, well, 50% of me, 50% his mother, I guess," Bootstrap mused. "If only I could see him, maybe talk some words of wisdom to him so he gets out of this mess before it's too late."

Smiling, I said, "Well, I'm sure you'll get a chance. Just have to wait a little bit." I winked before adding, "Though I could speed things up."

Bootstrap raised an eyebrow and asked, "What do you mean by that?"

Still smiling, I replied, "The sooner I'm off this ship, the sooner I can help your son get out of the issues with the East India Company. Let's just say I'm not leaving this ship until I acquire something important, and that important thing may result in you having a run-in with your son. That way, you can spread your words of wisdom before being forced to return to this hellish existence."

Bootstrap Bill nodded before saying, "Alright, alright. We'll talk more about this at a later time. Right now, you should look over the horizon. I notice a rather massive wave coming our way. You're probably going to be busy; you better keep working. The Captain's favorite punishment is lashes, and he doesn't care if you're a man, woman, or what. Do your job, or you get the lash.

Jack Sparrow

"So, how many have we gathered so far, Mr. Gibbs?" I called from my seat, where I was enjoying a drink. We had arrived at Tortuga about three hours. Leaving Tanya to that monster still bugged me; I regretted doing that. But the plan would work, I was sure of it, 90% sure of it, anyways. So, I was gathering supplies and what few crew I could before we set sail. Two more hours and getting drunk enough to not think about my mistakes, hoping that I was drunk enough for the compass to work without needing to risk certain conditions.

Gibbs, who was standing nearby, turned to me, saying, "Seven, and it doesn't look like many people are very interested in joining your crew."

"Really? I wonder why that is," I mused before taking a swig of my alcohol.

"Probably because word's gone out that our last few missions haven't been the most profitable out there. I mean, some of our crew are rich, but most of that got drunk away. And being that your last few missions have been a personal crusade, you know how it is. Bringing wealth, people want to join; bringing adventure, some people will want to join, but not all."

"Damn unfortunate. I don't know what they're missing. Not signing up for adventure. Oh well, I'm sure we'll pick up plenty of crew in a moment."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure. Very well," Gibbs said, looking through some paperwork. He then looked at the next individual and said, "All right, what's your story? Why do you want to join the Black Pearl?"

"My story," a voice that sounded drunken and tired replied. "Well, my story is I lost everything when my ship was smashed into an island by an unnatural wave. My commission, my crew, all taken away from me simply for hunting down a no-good pirate."

My head swiveled as I turned to look, seeing what appeared to be a very roughed-up naval uniform of the English Navy and a man looking even rougher. A familiar man.

"Commodore, long time no see," Gibbs said as he moved his hand slightly towards the edge of the table.

"Long time no see, pirate," he said, turning his head to look directly at me and adding, "Same to you, Sparrow."

"Hey, commodore. But I guess you overplayed your hand with that little maneuver. Not your fault, who could have seen a sea witch interfering."

"Who could have seen a sea witch interfering? Yes, keep saying that, like you didn't have that horrid creature summon that wave to save you."

"Technically, she was actually trying to take Jack hostage," Gibbs offered, getting a look of contempt from the former English commodore.

"I don't care what that pirate witch wanted with Jack. I just know that my career, my life, is ruined because you would not surrender," he pointed at me directly.

I simply smiled, saying, "Well, have you tried the other side of the law? I mean, I've seen you in action, and besides being a bulldog who doesn't let go of his target, I would say you're a rather good seaman. Welcome aboard my ship; restart your career. Maybe, just maybe, Commodore of the English Navy is not for you. Maybe you should be the Commodore of a pirate's navy. There are plenty of republics you can join out in the Caribbean if you go looking in the right places."

The look he gave me said "No," and his hand slowly drifting towards his pistol indicated that he was about ready to shoot me.

But then Will came over, not noticing the commodore, as he said, "Jack, I'm trying to get as many people to sign up as possible, but there's not a lot who are interested in this whole idea. Looking for some mythical treasure that I can't tell them the name of. At least if you could tell them something, I think they could judge it for themselves, but because we keep having to not tell them exactly what we're looking for, they say no."

"Wise move on their part," I said with a nod before looking at the commodore. "Commodore, Will. Will, Commodore."

The commodore, well, he looked like he'd been through hell.

"Aren't you supposed to be getting married around now?"

Will sighed before saying, "East India Company decided no."

"Ahhh, I knew those guys would be a problem, interfering with military matters for too long. Probably took my loss of the Black Pearl as a moment to break into the military," he shook his head before looking at Jack. "What mythical treasure are you looking for, Jack? The last one created the walking skeletons, and then the one before that created walking skeletons. What is this one going to create?"

I raised an eyebrow, ideas starting to form in my mind. I couldn't work on it; he would never go for it. "Well, to be clear, this mythical treasure would give a person power over the seas not seen in a very long time. But, you know, I'm sure someone like you wouldn't want anything like that."

"Oh really? So, you're taking me out on a search for another cursed object that'll probably leave them all skeletons because apparently that's just how cursed things work."

"Well, not skeletons, something worse. But hopefully, we would not fall to such a curse, hopefully, anyways. This object is important, so important that it could possibly help you get your career back if you help us."

"You're kidding me. How exactly is one cursed object under your control going to help me get my career back as a member of the Royal Navy? I'm pretty sure that's completely destroyed. The East India Company's taking over command of this area; they're not going to just let me get back in."

I smiled, looking at the wheel, but said, "Well, considering how they treated my good man, Will here, I'm more than likely going to find a way to get rid of the East India Company from the seas if I can. After all, they seem to be a problem, in my opinion. Join us, and maybe we'll get rid of the East India Company in such a spectacular way that their opinions on matters will be considered... What's the word I'm looking for here? Idiotic. If they had any hand in your forced retirement. Well, then, if you happen to be involved in showing their idiotic opinions, the Navy will want you back right away."

"You want me to sell my chance at revenge on you for destroying my career for a chance at possibly getting my career back? For what? One I can be sure of, one pull of a trigger and you're gone, the other I'm not so sure of. Very likely it would not help me."

"Jack is a good man," Will said, speaking up, "before saying he has some weird ways of handling it, but he is deep down a good man. If he says he'll help you get back in the Navy, he'll help you get back in the Navy, even if it means you'll be dogging his feet for the rest of time."

The commodore looked at William, sighed, before saying, "You're a fool. Maybe I'm one too. Fine, Jack, I'm in. So then, how exactly are you going to find this treasure that will change the course of history and my career?"

"Well, that's quite simple," I said, getting up and walking over to William and the commodore, holding out my hand with the compass on it.

William hesitated, holding my compass for a moment and thinking about what was needed to get his life back on track. "The Dead Man's chest."

Will raised an eyebrow before doing as I asked, extending his hand and holding it up for me to put the compass there. I waited a bit before flipping it open and peeking in, seeing it pointing directly in the direction I was hoping would be the right way.

"Wonderful," I looked left and right, making sure nothing was wrong as I picked it up. There was a chance it was a technically cursed compass, that something horrible could go wrong if I did what I had done. I had not given away ownership of it, so I think I was fine; I just loaned it to a man.

And considering things didn't look too bad, well, perhaps we had a chance of victory after all. I said "We have our heading and a way to get it, let's get moving. We have a chest to find. Come along, Commodore, we'll get you back to the Royal Navy as soon as we can," I said, leading the way out of the bar.

Gibbs could handle recruiting a few more men for the mission.

Tanya

I'm a little bit in awe of magic's rules. Really, it's impressive what you can do when you have the ability to cast a spell and make yourself disappear. So all I had to do was wait for the right opportunity. The ship had powered its way through a rather annoyingly long storm, and even though a giant wave had tried to knock me from the ship and put me in a position that would probably have required me to swear to the creature, I had, of course, avoided that. Magic is amazing no matter what universe you're in; if you have the ability to cast spells to affect outcomes, you're going to have a percentage chance of pulling through that the enemy does not expect.

For instance, one percentage point I had considered was the games that apparently went on on this ship. The Damned crew played games for years of service, a dice game to be exact. They bet against each other to determine who had the higher dice roll and such and such. If I wanted to, I probably could play that game and win easily enough with a simple spell to ensure I rolled all ones. However, I'm not a fool.

Davy Jones knows about Fine. If Davy Jones knows about Fine, that means he knows about the magic that she wields. And knowing that I learned from Fine, he would probably assume I knew some of her spells, which I did. Put that all together, and trying to use magic to win a dice game is very likely to get me thrown overboard before I even find my target. Instead, I just kept my eyes down and avoided the captain as much as possible, waiting for my moment of victory. That moment was tonight.

The captain was asleep, judging by the sound of the music not coming from the back of the ship. Most of the crew was in similar shape; no one was really considering anything mysterious happening. Mr. Bill had given me all the information I needed to do my job. He had even stupidly offered to perhaps take up watch to allow me to do what I wanted to do. Thankfully, I didn't need to do that; there were plenty of other ways to pull this victory off. A simple spell to make myself invisible, or at least unnoticeable, was what I was going to be using. I moved through the ship, and all they saw was maybe a little bit of shimmering in the air as I made my way to the back, carefully and quietly sliding open the door to Davy Jones's private quarters.

Now, where would Davy Jones keep his key in his private quarters, I thought as I moved through the ship, noticing plenty of places to hide it. But then again, probably the worst place would be the best place to hide it. What better place to hide an item that guarded your life than on you? Carefully, I moved through the ship, finding my way to the sleeping, occupied man, and carefully looking him over.

Now, how to do this? Obviously, I needed to be careful and quiet. It's a little spellwork to make his tentacles float up, giving me a view of his chest. There it is. I smiled, seeing the key I was looking for, hanging from one of the tentacles, gripped tightly as if it was a small child holding onto the thumb of its parent. It was going to be a bit annoying but not impossible. Carefully, I looked around, finding what appeared to be a stick, a pen with metal nib. Not hard to do this, not hard at all, I thought, grabbing the nearby pen and then carefully moving in close to the captain. I just had to be quiet and make sure not to make a noise. I thought as I slipped the pen in between the key and the tentacle, then carefully withdrew the key, leaving the pen behind as I moved away, not breathing and using a little bit of spellcraft oxygenation so I could last longer without air.

Silently, I moved through the front of the ship, not breathing until I was outside the door of the captain. Victory was mine, of course. Now, things got hard. The captain would no doubt figure out something had gone wrong as soon as he woke up. He would go out looking for me, and, knowing his abilities of the sea, he would probably assume I'd taken a boat and escaped. I could probably increase that opportunity if I went out and knocked one of those boats free, someone would just grab the boat and move as far away from the Dutchman as possible. I would not be doing that. Instead I slipped the key into my pocket. The captain was worried about the key; he would go looking for it. Once he'd either recovered it or didn't, he would then go towards the Dead Man's chest. With a little magic and finding the right place, I could stay hidden from him, and he would take me directly to my target. Hopefully, Jack would be there, and we could work this out. But if he didn't, well, I'd have the chance to find the heart and a sword with purifying flame that could pierce it. Hopefully, that would just end the whole situation. If not, I'd just keep cutting until he's either dead or the ship's destroyed.

Those were my best options, I thought, as I moved to the back of the ship, untying the rope and letting the dinghy go free before climbing down the back of the ship, finding myself a little hidey-hole underneath the back window that was not visible from above.

There, I made myself comfortable, like a rat in the floorboards, waiting to surprise Davy Jones with just how forward-thinking I was about my survival.