Ch. 4 - Elizabeth's POV

"We're going to steal a ship?"

"That ship?" Will asked while pointing to the Dauntless.

"Commandeer. We're going to commandeer that ship." Jack pointed to the Interceptor. "Nautical term."

Jack turned to Will and I and gave us a critical look. "One question about your business or there's no use going. This girl? How far are you willing to go to save her?"

"I'd die for her." I firmly told him.

Jack looked to Will and Will nodded.

"Oh, good, no worries, then." Jack said and turned back to the docks. "Follow me."

Will and I trailed behind Jack as we snuck to the overturned fishing boats. Jack lifted one up a bit and crawled under it. It fell back down after him. Will and I looked at each other in confusion then we both shrugged and Will lifted up the boat for me to go under. Once I was underneath and Will too Jack sighed.

"Finally. Thought you two had chickened out on me." We got into position as Jack had instructed and on his count we lifted the boat and walked to the water. Once we were far enough in the water to walk on the sand beneath we held the boat up with our hands and walked to the docks.

"This is either madness or brilliance." Will panted behind me.

"It's remarkable how often those two traits coincide." Jack mumbled back.

We continued like this until we arrived at the Dauntless. We pulled ourselves on board and Jack calmly shouted to the Navy men who were on the ship, "Everybody stay calm. We're taking over the ship!"

Will unsheathed his sword and shouted, "Aye, avast!"

I stared at Will in astonishment and Jack gave him a look.

"Miss Swann!" I looked up to see Gillette staring back. "Your father has been looking for you!" Then to Will and Jack, "As for you two... This ship cannot be crewed by two men. You'll never make it out of the bay." His lips twitched in a self-satisfied smirk.

"Son," Jack stepped to Gillette and pointed his pistol at Gillette's nose. The navy man went cross-eyed at trying to keep an eye on the barrel. "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow." Jack cocked his pistol. "Savvy?"

Jack then led the whole crew of Navy men into one of the longboats at gun point and sent them off. I stood waiting, since I knew nothing of how to sail a ship, while Jack and Will began doing it themselves.

"Sir! They've taken the Dauntless!" I turned to where Jack had sent the Navy men off to and saw Gillette shouting and looking up. "Commodore!" Oh, no. I looked up and saw Commodore Norrington looking at us through a spyglass from the Docks. "They've taken the ship! Sparrow and Turner! And Elizabeth is with them! They've taken the Dauntless!"

I watched as the Commodore put his spyglass away and shouted orders to the Navy men around him. The Dauntless was moving but I knew Jack still had plans for the Interceptor. "Here they come..." I worriedly announced and we all rushed up to the crow's nest hanging onto ropes that would soon swing us over onto the Interceptor. I listened intently as grappling hooks attached the Interceptor and the Dauntless together. Gangplanks were put down so sailors could walk across from the Interceptor to the Dauntless.

I heard James. "Search every cabin, every hold, down to the bilges!" he commanded.

We waited only a bit longer and then silently swung over to the now empty Interceptor. We cut the grappling hooks connecting the two ships together. Upon hearing a gangplank fall and splash into the water the Commodore swung around and shouted, "Elizabeth! Sailors! Back to the Interceptor! Now!" Again I thought of Robin and how she would have loved to hear James being so commanding.

It was too late for them to get back onto the Interceptor however. We sailed away as Jack shouted and waved at James, "Thank you, Commodore, for getting us ready to make way! We'd have had a hard time of it by ourselves!" I yelped and ducked as pistols were fired at us but I could faintly hear James ordering the sailors to hold their fire because I was aboard the Interceptor. For once I was thankful for James' affections and for being a Governor's daughter.

As we began sailing the seas in search of the Black Pearl and Robin I leaned over the railing of the Interceptor and thought about the worry I was causing my father and the Commodore. I didn't want to cause more trouble but I had to find Robin! She was my best and only friend! She was there for me when my mother died and I was there for her when her mother had a miscarriage. She put up with my ridiculous talk of pirates when we were younger even though she's older than me. I smiled at the memory. When we returned to Port Royal from our voyage to the Caribbean was when my obsession had really kicked in. I would beg Rin to 'play pirates' with me for hours. She would always insist that we do something else but I would beg and beg until she finally caved. And now she's surrounded by pirates and it's all my fault...

I let myself slowly sink to the deck floor of the Interceptor as my shoulders shook and my face scrunched up and I silently sobbed. I felt arms wrap around me and someone pulled me into their chest.

"She must be so scared..." I rasped out through heaves of breath. "She's always hated pirates and now she can't get away and she... must be so... terrified!" I sobbed audibly while the person that was holding me rocked me slowly back and forth in attempt to calm me down.

I don't remember when I fell asleep.

When I woke up I was in a bed.

I gasped and sat up. Was I back home?! When did they find us?! How was I supposed to get to Robin now?! My father will never find her in time unless-

I felt a slight bob of waves under the bed and sighed. We were still on the Interceptor. I smiled to myself, happy we were still on our way to save my friend. I stood up and went to the door of the cabin and opened it.

"Will!" I screamed when I saw the sight before me.

Will was hanging onto a sail boom that hovered over the water. I ran to Jack and began beating my fists against his back. "What are you doing you bloody, stinking pirate?!"

Jack whipped around and grabbed my wrists stopping my abuse on him. "I'm having a conversation here, dearie. I'd appreciate if you let me finish it."

I huffed and Jack let go of my wrists. Jack bent down and picked up a sword laying on the deck and pointed it at Will. "Now as long as you're just hanging there, pay attention. The only rules that really matter are these: What a man can do and what a man can't do. For instance: You can accept that your father was a pirate and a good man..."

"What?" I asked.

"Still having a conversation." Jack turned to me and said. He turned back to Will and continued, "...or you can't. But pirate is in your blood, boy, so you'll have to square with that some day. Now me, for example, I can let you drown..."

"No!" I shouted.

"But I can't bring this ship into Tortuga all by me onesy with a Governor's daughter who knows nothing of ships, savvy?"

"Still here!" I shouted angrily.

Jack ignored me and swung the sail boom around, flinging Will onto the deck. I wanted to run to him but Jack blocked me with his sword which he stood over Will and pointed at him with.

"So. Can you sail under the command of a pirate," Jack flipped the sword, offering the hilt for Will to grab. "Or can you not?"

Will took the sword and thought a moment. "Tortuga?"

"Tortuga." Jack said with a smile.

"Why are we going to Tortuga? We should be looking for Robin!"

"Elizabeth, it takes much more than just two men and a Governor's daughter to man a ship. I swore to you on pain of death that I would get you to the Black Pearl and your friend but in order to do that, I need a crew. I'll round up some mates in Tortuga and we'll be on our merry way to saving the pretty bird, Robin."

I nodded and walked to Will who was pulling himself up. "Are you all right?" I asked him.

"Yes. I'm fine." Will smiled at me and my heart fluttered.

"Were you the one that carried me to that cabin earlier when I'd fallen asleep?"

Will looked down. "Yes."

I gripped his bicep making him look up at me in surprise. "Thank you."

"Your welcome, Miss-"

I gave Will a stern look.

Will smiled and breathed out, "Elizabeth."

By nightfall we docked in Tortuga. I had thought the jail in Port Royal was bad but there was no comparison to Tortuga. Here, the air smelled of rum, puke, urine, manure and something else that I couldn't identify and truthfully didn't want to. Men fired guns and guzzled rum and painted up women stumbled around showing off what they had to offer.

As we walked Jack appraised the awful place we were in. "...More importantly, it is indeed a sad lot that has never breathed deep the sweet proliferous bouquet that is Tortuga, savvy?" Jack breathed in deeply and it was a wonder to me that his nose didn't fall off. "What do you think?"

Will looked around. "It'll linger."

Jack turned to me. "I want to find Robin." I stated.

Jack grunted and continued his appraisal. "I tell you, mates, if every town in the world were more like this one, no man would ever feel unwanted."A woman with dark eyes, red hair and a scarlet dress strode up to Jack. "Scarlett!" Jack exclaimed. Scarlett slapped him hard making his head turn way around to face us. Scarlett walked off as Jack mumbled, "Not sure I deserved that." Jack turned back as a smiling blonde woman in a pale, yellow dress cam up to Jack also. "Giselle!"

"Who was she?" Giselle asked, nudging her head to where Scarlett had walked off to. Giselle didn't wait for an answer and slapped Jack making his head turn way around to face us again.

"I may have deserved that." Giselle walked off and Jack lead us toward a bar. "We should escape this wretched pit as quickly as possible."

"With a crew." Will reminded him.

"Ah, yes. Well it just so happens that you two know the man who knows the man who knows the finest sailors in all Tortuga."

We entered a bar called the Faithful Bride. Jack looked around a minute and then led us out of a back door. We rounded a corner and came upon a barn where we found a man who was sleeping, in the mud, with three pigs and using one as a pillow. Jack grabbed a bucket of water that sat next to the barn doors and threw the bucket of water over the man who was sleeping.

"Curse you for breathing, you slack-jawed idiot!" The man opened his eyes and looked up. "Mother's love, Jack! You know better than to wake a man when he's sleeping. It's bad luck!"

Jack knelt down next to the man who looked like...

"Mr. Gibbs?"

The man looked up to me. "Why, little Miss Swann!" Gibbs gasped in surprise, then turned serious and glanced around. "What are you doing here hanging around pirates? You should be in Port Royal!"

"This coming from a man who resigned from his position some years ago and looks to have become a pirate himself?" I asked smirking down at him.

Gibbs only smiled up at me. "Ah, you always did have a quick tongue, even when you was a young 'un! But you Jack!" Gibbs turned to Jack with a cocked eyebrow. "You've just put years of bad luck on both our heads!"

"Ah, fortunately, I know how to counter it. The man who did the waking buys the man who was sleeping a drink. The man who was sleeping drinks it, while listening to a proposition from the man who did the waking."

Gibbs looked as if he was trying to work out what Jack had just said but eventually gave up. "Aye, that'll about do it!" Jack helped Gibbs up and once he was on his feet another wave of water hit Gibbs. "Blast, I'm already awake!"

I turned to Will who was holding a bucket. "That was for the smell." Will told Gibbs smugly.

Gibbs looked to retort but shrugged.

We walked back into the Faithful Bride but I couldn't bear to smell this filthy air any longer so I told Will, Jack and Gibbs that I was going to go board the Interceptor again and wait for them there. Will looked as if he was going to say something but Jack interrupted and told him, "Keep a sharp eye." Then gestured for me to go.

Author's POV

About the time that Elizabeth was safely aboard the Interceptor Jack Sparrow was sitting down across from Joshamee Gibbs and drinking from his tankard of rum.

"Now, what's the nature of this venture of yor'un?" Gibbs asked Jack.

Jack leaned forward and so did Gibbs. Gibbs took a drink while Jack answered in a whisper, "I'm going after the Black Pearl." Gibbs choked on his drink but this did not falter Jack. "I know where it's going to be, and I'm going to take it."

"Jack, it's a fools errand. You know better than me the tales of the Black Pearl." Gibbs tried to warn the younger man.

"That's why I know what Barbossa is up to. All I need is a crew." Jack explained.

"From what I hear tell of Captain Barbossa, he's not a man to suffer fools nor strike a bargain with one."

"Well, then I'd say it's a very good thing I'm not a fool then, eh?" Jack asked with a smile.

Still not believing Jack can conquer what's ahead, Gibbs stated, "Prove me wrong. What makes you think Barbossa will give up his ship to you?"

"Let's just say it's a matter of leverage, eh?" Jack jerked his head toward William who was looking to be getting more and more uncomfortable with where he was within the second.

"The kid?" Gibbs asked.

"That is the child of Bootstrap Bill Turner. His only child. Savvy?"

Gibbs' eyes widen over his tankard as he goes to take another drink. "Is he now?" Now Gibbs is with Jack. "Leverage, says you. I think I feel a change in the wind, says I. I'll find us a crew. There's bound to be some sailors on this rock crazy as you."

"One can only hope." Jack lifted his tankard in a toast. "Take what you can."

"Give nothing back!" Gibbs finishes. They clink their tankards, down the rest of the rum within them and slam them down on the table.

Robin's POV

I absolutely refused to touch or sit on any of this Captains things- or any pirates things for that matter! When I got restless I walked circles around the small cabin making sure that my nightgown didn't touch anything. When my legs got tired I sat perfectly in the middle of the cabin away from everything with my legs crossed and my arms crossed over them. I would not sit in a chair owned by a pirate or on his desk and certainly not his bed.

All I could do while I was stuck in the tiny cabin for hours on end was think of Elizabeth and James.

Hopefully all of the pirates had retreated before Elizabeth got back to Port Royal. I hope she's safe. At home. I want to go home. I want clean clothes and a warm bath and my hair to be washed. I wonder if James is all right. I hope the pirates didn't harm him. The Commodore... Commodore Norrington. Me as Mrs. Commodore James Norrington. Oh. But wait. The Commodore loves Elizabeth. He proposed to her after all. I'm sure Elizabeth's father had given his blessing. Elizabeth won't be able to get out of the engagement. I wonder how their engagement party will look... I bet it will be beautiful...

I cried mostly all throughout the day. Thinking those same thoughts over and over again and again arriving at the remembrance that James had proposed to Elizabeth and I would cry again. I wasn't jealous, no. I was very happy for Elizabeth, truthfully. James is the perfect man to marry and any woman who could find a man like him is lucky. I was just heartbroken that over all the years that I had been in love with James Norrington he never once realized it or noticed me.

At one time I had gotten up and walked over to a cracked and dirty mirror that lay on the Captain's desk. I leaned over it and looked at my reflection. My hair was mussed and in disarray. My eyes were puffy and bloodshot. My nose and cheeks were red. I thought to how I normally looked when I wasn't crying and wondered why Norrington hadn't noticed me. I was pretty. Granted, not beautiful like Elizabeth. I was older than Elizabeth too. Only by six months but I was still older.

I had tried to distract myself by looking around the cabin for a way out but I could find nothing to be of use and I was merely a girl born to be a wife. I knew nothing of escaping or dealing with pirates.

It had grown dark outside and I was absolutely famished. Did they not treat ladies how they were to be treated on this ship? Well, they are pirates after all. Pirates have no hearts or room for manners inside them like true gentlemen do.

I was walking around as I had become restless when the door to the cabin opened and the two pirates that brought me here entered. Pintel was holding a beautiful red-wine colored dress.

"You'll be dining with the Captain, and he requests you wear this." He thrust the dress towards me.

"Well, you may tell the Captain that I am disinclined to acquiesce to his request." I smiled at the fact that I reused the Captains words to turn them on him.

"He said you'd say that!" The balding pirate smiled. "He also said if that be the case, you'll be dining with the crew... and you'll be naked."

I gasped angrily and held out my hand for the dress. The grin on the pirates face faded and he handed over the dress. "Fine." he grumbled.

Once Pintel and Ragetti left I pulled the dress on over my nightgown and waited. A while later many members of the crew came in and I watched as they cleared one of the tables and put down an impressive spread of food. Complete with perfectly placed silverware and lit candles. I waited a bit more and as I did I walked around the table looking hungrily at the food. My stomach growled as the door to the cabin opened again and in stepped Captain Barbossa. I turned to him and waited.

Barbossa's eyes roamed over the dress he requested I wear. "Maid or not, it suits you." he commented with a smile.

"Dare I ask the fate of it's previous owner?"

"Tsk, tsk. Now, none of that. Please, dig in."

I nodded and sat. Barbossa sat at the head of the table which happened to be right next to where I chose to sit. Once Barbossa was seated I picked up my knife and fork and cut a small piece of meat from the chicken on my plate. I gently placed it in my mouth and chewed it, savoring the flavor as it had been my first thing I had to eat in nearly 20 hours. I could see Barbossa smiling and watching me.

"There's no need to stand on ceremony, nor call to impress anyone. You must be hungry."

I hesitated a moment. I wanted to sneer at the pirate and explain to him that I was raised to be poise and act as a lady and not as he us was used to but I was starving... and considering the circumstances...

I dropped my silverware and grabbed the piece of chicken with both hands, ripping a piece from it. I ate and ate trying to shove as much food as I could in my mouth. I grabbed a roll of bread from the basket and hungrily bit into that too.

"Try the wine." Barbossa held out a glass of wine to me and I took it, gulping a huge swallow. I bit into the bread again. "And the apples. One of those next?"

I looked up to the green apple Barbossa held out for me and I remembered that I was dealing with a pirate.

"It's poisoned!"

Barbossa laughed. "There would be no sense to be killing you, Miss Turner."

"Then release me! You have your trinket, I am of no further value to you!"

Barbossa pulled out the medallion and let it dangle from it's chain. "You don't know what this is, do you?"

"It's a pirate medallion." I stated, telling him all I knew of it. Other than that Elizabeth and I had found it on Will the day we met him.

"This is Aztec gold. One of eight hundred and eighty two identical pieces they delivered in a stone chest to Cortez himself. Blood money paid to stem the slaughter he wreaked upon them with his armies. But the greed of Cortez was insatiable. So the heathen gods placed upon the gold a terrible curse. Any mortal that removes but a single piece from that stone chest shall be punished for eternity."

I certainly did not want to hear any more of this retched pirates tale and set to tell him so. "I hardly believe in ghost stories any more, Captain Barbossa."

"Aye! That's exactly what I thought when we were first told the tale. Buried on an Island of the Dead what can't be found 'cept for those know where it 'tis. Find it, we did. There be the chest, inside be the gold, and we took them all. We spent 'em and traded 'em and frittered 'em away... on drink and food and pleasurable company. The more we gave them away, the more we came to realize: the drink would not satisfy, food turned to ash in our mouths, and all the pleasurable company in the world could not slake our lust. We are cursed men, Miss Turner. Compelled by greed we were, but now we are consumed by it."

I was now terrified. I had to get out of here. Had to get away from this cursed man and his cursed crew! Barbossa's monkey screeched and while Barbossa reached over to pat it and calm it down I nervously slipped my dinner knife into the napkin on my lap.

"There is one way we end our curse. All the scattered pieces of the Aztec gold must be restored and the blood repaid. Thanks to ye, we have the final piece."

"And the blood to be repaid?"

"That's why there's no sense to be killing you. Yet." Barbossa held the apple out to me again. "Apple?"

I smacked the apple away and stood from the chair, raising the knife. Barbossa stood. I wanted to stab him but I knew that I wasn't capable of murder. Barbossa grabbed my arms and we struggled a moment. The knife slipped and I accidentally stabbed him. I gasped as I felt the blade slide through his clothes and skin.

Barbossa didn't even look to feel it. He opened his coat and pulled the knife out of himself. His blood was on the blade but none was on his person.

"I'm curious. After killing me, what is it you're planning on doing next?" Barbossa asked. I backed away and whirled around to the door. I threw it open and-

I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry, I wanted to do something but all I could do was stare.

All the crew that I had seen as flesh were now skeletons. Moving skeletons, working at their stations and swabbing the deck. Barbossa came up behind me and shook me, "Look!" The skeletons fell silent as I looked up at the moon. "The moonlight shows us for what we really are! We are not among the living, and so we cannot die, but neither are we dead." Barbossa spun me around to make me look at him. "For too long I have been parched of thirst, and unable to quench it! Too long, I have been starving to death and haven't died! I feel nothing... not the wind on my face, nor the spray of the sea... nor the warmth of a woman's flesh..." Barbossa reached for me and in the moonlight his hand turned skeletal. I flinched away and Barbossa fully stepped into the moonlight. "You'd best start believing in ghost stories, Miss Turner. You're in one!" Barbossa grabbed a wine bottle and uncorked it with his teeth. While he guzzled it down the liquid ran through his jaw and rib cage, soaking his clothes.

I ran around him and into the cabin. I heard the smashing of the bottle and the doors flew closed. I scurried to a corner and huddled there. Terrified that this was at all possible. If I hadn't taken the medallion from Elizabeth she would be here in this wretched place. I was happy for that. That she's not here, surrounded by undead pirates. Happy that she was safe at home. Safe.