“So you decided to stay, eh?”  Jack looked down at the little dog, chuckling as he shut the door behind Elizabeth.  “So she wants to know what she is to me.”  He crossed to his desk and sat down.  Sammy followed him, raising himself on his hind legs and putting his paws on Jack’s knees.  “You know, Sammy, if I had the answer to that question, I’d, well, I’d be something at least.  Happier having some idea what the bloody hell was going on.”

The dog whined.  “I know.  I shouldn’t use such language.  But this is just between us guys, right?”  He winked at the dog and tried hard not to think about the fact that he was, in actuality, talking to a dog.   “I don’t know what is going on.  I want to hate her.  Yes, I know.  That isn’t very nice, Jack.”  He said the last in a high-pitched voice, surely reminiscent of someone’s mother somewhere.  “But she killed me.  Don’t cock your head like that!  I know it seems odd that she killed me seeing as how I am currently actually not dead.  But she did, ol’ boy.  She tied me to a mast and sent me down to the depths of Davy Jones’ Locker.  And she did it all by her onesies.”

Jack nodded sagely at the dog.  “And do you know how she killed me? No?  She hasn’t told you that story?  She seduced me to my death with a kiss.  I’ve heard men refer to women as ‘the kiss of death,’ but I had never expected it to be so literal.”

The dog sat back down, eyes staring up intently at Jack.  He had the uncanny feeling that the little three-legged creature would return to his master and tell her all he had learned from Jack.  “Do you understand me, boy?”  Jack half expected the dog to nod.  When he didn’t, he laughed in consternation.  

“Well, I don’t quite know what to do about her.  She runs hot and cold.  I know, not with you.  With me, you scruffy little mangy cur.”  He knew something wasn’t quite right in his mind as he swore the dog wore an offended look.  “Sorry.  May I continue?”  At the dog’s silence, he decided he could.  “One moment she’s flirting with me, playing with me, hell, even seducing me.  And the next she’s running off, offended, as if I did something wrong.  You know what the one thing she does not seem to do, Sammy?  That’s right.  She never seems to remind me that she’s actually a married woman.  I know she is.  But somehow, when the man can’t even set foot on land, when he can’t even come to her whenever he wants, it’s easy to forget.  I still call her Miss Swann.  And it doesn’t even bother her that I don’t call her Mrs. Turner.”

Therein lay the dilemma.  She was married, yet seemed to continuously ignore that idea.  She had said she had betrayed Will, had doomed him to a lifetime as Calypso’s servant.  All for a kiss…ok, a little more than a kiss…and more than once.  But yet, she had done it time and time again, had admitted that she wanted to do even more with him.

There was an attraction there, one even Jack could not figure out. One, he was afraid, might doom them yet again.

“Barbossa is not after treasure here.”  He changed the subject.  The dog did not seem to mind.  “That much I know.  I know there’s quite a bit left, but after what happened the last time he took things from that island, I can’t imagine he’d risk it again.  There’s a lot of treasure out there for a pirate to go after.”  He doubted Barbossa would want to live out his undead curse yet again.  “There’s something else.  I just wish I knew what.”   He had minor ideas as to a general plan, but not knowing what they were going to walk into meant he was not able to formulate a plan that took into account every eventuality.  “We’re going to be relying on a hell of a lot of luck, my boy.”

The truth.  The complete and unvarnished truth.  Captain Jack Sparrow did not know what the hell he was doing this time.  He just hoped that whatever he decided on did not get them killed in the end.

“Land ho!”  The shout came from far up in the crow’s nest.  Jack grabbed his spyglass and strode to the fore of the ship.  Indeed, there was land.  The Isla de Muerta.  Not really the place Jack wanted to return to…too many memories.  He did actually kill Barbossa here though, so he could smile fondly on that memory at least.

Ahhh Barbossa.  The man had taken off with his Pearl one too many times.  Actually, he had taken off with it three too many times if he wanted to be exact.  Bugger.  She was here somewhere.  He could almost hear her calling to him, the siren song of a ship with a will of her own.  He had chosen the location correctly.  His compass, which was still in Elizabeth’s possession now that he thought of it, was never wrong.  It knew where the Pearl was.

“She’s here somewhere, isn’t she?”  Elizabeth came up quietly behind him.

Jack nodded.  “Can you feel it?  The air hums when she’s around.”

“You’re connected to her.”

He remained quiet, not acknowledging her question entirely.  There was indeed a connection between him and the Pearl.  How could there not be?  They had died together twice and had been resurrected together twice.  No time in history had a captain ever been so connected with his ship.  And then there was Elizabeth.  Somehow she was connected in with him, with the Pearl.  That second time they went down together he went at her behest.  He would have abandoned the Pearl to the depths.

Yet…he hadn’t.  They had gone to Davy Jones’ Locker as a pair yet again.

Elizabeth?  Had she known?  Had the Pearl somehow spoken to her and directed her actions.

“You knew, didn’t you?”  He suddenly turned to her and his eyes were excited, too bright.

“I did, Jack.  I always knew.”  The words were sincere and soft. 

“I had to go down with the ship, with my girl.”  Elizabeth nodded, opting not to say anything to what Jack was saying.  He had just realized the truth, something even she hadn’t known herself.  “And the kiss?” he asked.

“Not the Pearl’s directions, I can assure you,” she said with a laugh.  “Curiosity, I suppose.  You proved you were a good man, Jack.  I proved that I did want to taste it.”  It was as close to a confession as he would ever get out of her.

“Are you ready to face Barbossa, love?” Jack asked, giving her a sidelong glance.

“Aye, captain!”  The first words were upbeat, but then her brow crinkled.  “I think.  He was…almost a friend, once.”  That much was true, she suddenly realized.  Barbossa had been an enemy at first, a filthy old pirate who scared her half to death.  Then they had been fighting a common enemy.  He had married she and Will.  They had parted on good terms.  Even Jack had parted on good terms with him, sailing off to Tortuga together where Barbossa was supposed to find a new ship and crew.  Instead, he had stolen Jack’s while he was away in the town somewhere.

The man never would learn.  Jack and the Pearl belonged together.

“I know he was, love.  But we can’t let that get in the way, now can we?”  He winked at her.  “Now come on!”  He walked away and got several steps away before he realized she wasn’t following him.  He turned back to her, a snappy motion on one heel. 

“Plan?” she asked, the word deliberate.

“Ah yes, those pesky things.  First we have to find out what’s going on.  We’re all set.”  He seemed rather distracted, looking beyond her somewhere.  Finally, he just grasped her and turned her in the direction he wanted her to head.  “Gibbs has the boat ready.  We’re heading in.”

“That’s it, Jack?”  She stopped in her path and rounded on him. 

“That’s it!”  His voice was bright and his hand moved upward into the air.  He sniffed as if annoyed by her question.  “We’re investigating, my dear Miss Swann.”  He moved past her and she had little choice but to follow him to where the boat had been lowered into the sea.

The boat Jack, Elizabeth, and Gibbs were in had entered into the darkness of the cavern.  It was a strange feeling, returning here, Elizabeth suddenly realized.  The last time she had come here she had come first as a prisoner of Barbossa and his crew and then she had come over on her own to rescue Jack…or Will…or someone.

The cool dampness of the cavern quickly eased its way into her bones and left her feeling unsettled.  “Something’s not right here,” she said darkly.

Gibbs looked alarmed.  Jack looked unbothered.  Elizabeth wanted to scream.

“Listen to me, Jack.  We need to go back…now.  There is a darkness here that we cannot fight against.  I know you want the Pearl, but there has to be another way.”  Her voice was low, frantic.  She moved onto her knees in the boat, jostling it slightly.  “Jack…please…turn back.”

Jack looked down at her and his eyes glittered strangely.  They looked…wicked, if Elizabeth could describe them accurately.  “We keep going,” he said quietly and continued rowing.

“Jack, she’s right.  We need to go back.”  Gibbs stopped rowing.  “I can feel it too.  There’s a darkness here.  I don’t like it.”

Something just wasn’t right.  There was no reason for feeling the way they did.  The path into the cavern was quiet.  The water splashed against the sides of their tiny boat with little sound as it glided through.  Elizabeth watched water drip off the sides of the cavern.  It was damp, cold, silent as the grave.

Silent…

“Jack,” Elizabeth suddenly said.  She crawled back through the boat, ended up at his feet and kneeled to put her hands on his knees.  “Jack…listen to me.  Think about this for a moment.  If Barbossa were here, celebrating with his men, why don’t we hear anything?”

“Aye!  She’s onto somethin’ Jack.”  Gibbs toss his oars into the boat and leaned forward.

Jack sniffed, his look dismissive.  “It looks like I’ll have to be the one to keep rowing then since you lot have slacked off from your duties.”

“Jack. Listen to her!”  Gibbs very nearly shouted. 

Jack stopped rowing long enough to lean forward and throw the other sets of oars at Gibbs.  Gibbs caught them in the gut, letting out a soft grunt when they hit.  “Damn you, Mr. Gibbs!  We continue forward!  Now row or I shall be forced to toss you overboard.”

Gibbs picked up the oars and gave Elizabeth a look before starting to row.  He wouldn’t go against Jack.  She had no choice but to retreat to her seat and wait for whatever came.

The darkness would overtake them.  She knew it would.  It was almost palpable.  The further they went into the cavern, the closer they got to the cursed Aztec gold they got, the faster Elizabeth’s heart beat and the more silent it got.  The silence was almost overwhelming and she actually reached up to put her hands over her ears. 

Gibbs eyed her strangely.  Jack ignored it, intent on rowing their way into whatever they were about to face.  As they rounded the corner, Elizabeth got her first glimpse into what they were getting into.  She stared into the strange bluish light of the gigantic cavern, looked past all the gold and jewels strewn across the ground and gasped.  “We need to get out of here,” she muttered, looking to Jack.  He still had that same, predatory look on his face. 

This is definitely not good…