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Their stolen ship, the Hai Peng, was a fast and sturdy ship that was just what was required of the journey. But it lacked certain creature comforts that other, larger ships might have possessed. Especially when they left the tropical waters of the equator and came upon the Arctic Sea with it's frozen tundras and ice burgs and endless drifting snows. Soon the only thing heated upon the ship were fast waning tempers...
Will's face was raw and red, as were his fingers and knuckles. He'd been on deck for hours, as he had taken his turn in the refuge below deck the night before and now must give some of the other crew a turn, lest they loose them all to frost bite. He studied the map which they had stolen meticulously, trying to make sense of it's endless spinning circles. He'd encountered many strange things ever since that first day he laid eyes upon Jack Sparrow, but never before had seen a map of this kind. It moved within itself, revealing seemingly endless combinations of destinations, most to places Will had never heard of.
"Over the edge, over again..." he muttered, reading the words as they lined themselves up before him. "Sunrise sets. Flash of green..." The riddle was vexing, but this was the path adherent to them, and there was no deviating from it, no matter what their reservations. Will cast his gaze to the helm, where he saw Barbossa standing proudly staring out into the endless blue and white surrounding them.
Hector kept his eyes on the horizon, watching the bow of the ship should they accidently run across a hidden ice burg and be doomed to a freezing watery death. Though his clothing was heavy enough to keep hypothermia at bay, he was still numb and frozen like the rest. He almost wished for the unfeeling state of the curse that had been upon him again. Almost.
His eyes wandered for a moment and found Miss Swann shivering on the stairs next to him, huddled in a thin wool blanket for warmth. This was hardly a place for a woman, and he pitied her. "Take the helm, Mr. Cotton," he called moving towards her, taking her shoulders and easing her up. "Come on girl, you've done yer time. An hour in my cabin and some sleep will do ye good."
She blinked at him, her chapped red face curious and pleasantly surprised. "Thank you." He gave her a little nod in return and helped her down the steps as Turner approached him, looking haughty and sour as he usually did when he approached. "Elizabeth, are you alright?"
"She'll be fine." Barbossa nodded, reaching for the cabin door and shooing her inside. Will made to follow her, but he stopped him, stepping inside the door himself. "I'll see to her, lad, never fear. Ye've a job to do out here."
"Why would you think I would trust you alone with her?" Turner demanded, looking hard at the older pirate, trying to look as threatening as possible. He was threatening, but not in the way he expected to be. Hector saw in him something volatile, on the verge of snapping completely. This was not the same doe-eyed whelp he'd kidnaped just a short year ago. There was something hard and mean in him now, and he didn't like the look of it at all. "It's not me ye need fearin', matey." And with that he closed the door in his face.
Inside, Elizabeth was sitting huddled on the bed, shivering violently and trying to keep her teeth from chattering. It was only marginally better inside than out, but at least in here she was safe from the biting wind and the endless snow fall which created a perpetual damp. He took the bed sheets and wrapped them around her shoulders before pulling off her shoes and setting her feet in barrel of hot water. Elizabeth sighed gratefully and he sat back in his chair and warmed his hand over a few lighted candles on his desk. "He wasn't always like this," Elizabeth said then, breaking the silence between them. Barbossa barely looked at her, not really caring. "He's changed since...we lost Jack."
"It not be for me to meddle in matters of the heart, Ms. Swann," the captain replied then to appease her. "I've always found that road leads to more trouble than it's worth." She looked up at him then and gave him a careful, knowing look that made him uneasy. "I don't think you really believe that." she replied. "Other wise I don't think you'd be heading this adventure."
He ignored her, but she went on. "Why are you trying to find Jack? I thought he was your enemy." He flexed his fingers, feeling some of the feeling coming back into them and shrugged himself out of his damp coat. "I thought I explained all that well enough in Sao Feng's court. We need Jack to summon the Brethern Court. If he hadn't been so stupid as to not pass his piece of eight to a sucessor before he decided to test fate with Jones, I can not help that."
"But it's not just that, is it?" she continued.
"You don't know what you're talking about, girl."
"I think I do." She looked at him hard, standing up and making her way towards him, looking down at him with those bright brown eyes full of fire. "I know what it is to go to extraordinary lengths for someone you care about." She reached for his collar, revealing the still faint marks Sao had inflicted upon him. "And you've already risked much in his name."
Hector yanked his collar closed and leered at her. "Clever girl. Not clever enough, though. Those pretty eyes don't see what's right in front of her. That her so-called beloved has another beloved. Your Mr. Turner is trying to get back what he claimed to be his." At this Elizabeth wilted a little and turned away, busying herself with reheating the bucket of water over the bucket of hot coals in the corner of the room that provided their heat.
"Truth hurts, doesn't it?"
"Will loves me, I have never doubted that."
"Love is a fickle emotion, Elizabeth." he answered gravely. "You'd be surprised how easily it can be cast aside." She saw that the expression on his face had grown melancholy and lonely then as she had seen it change from time to time. "Maybe so...but it never really dies, either." she answered. She chose her words carefully then, licking her chapped lips; "What came between you and Jack?"
He would not look at her at first, then decided that denial was no longer the best course. She was too smart for that; "Another Turner." he answered bitterly. "Which is why I say to you, Miss Swann, that you should be sure of his devotion to ye. The Locker will test that."
She did look nervous then, for many reasons though Hector only knew of one. She looked near tears as she nervously threaded her long flaxen hair through her fingers. "I don't mean to be cruel," he added at length. "You're young and have many mistakes to make yet. I'm old...and I've made my bed. So I guess it makes me a bit bitter at times." He leaned his head back against the chair and tried to sleep and thus end their conversation. But he felt her small hand upon his then and looked up in surprise; "But you aren't the same man you were, either. You can be kind."
His pale blue eyes stared up into hers, uncomfortable under her gaze. Just like Tia Dalma, the woman seemed to be looking right into his head. She leaned in and kissed his cheek, causing Barbossa's face to turn scarlet for a moment and he waved her off. "Get on with ya! If yer not going to take the bed, leave me so that I can!"
She smiled like a cat and returned to the bed as Hector yanked his hat down over his eyes and pretended to be sleeping until he drifted off...
The thunk of a dagger hitting the wood of his desk caused him to open one eye and peer upwards. Elizabeth was gone, and in her place stood Turner, looking nearly blue with cold and visibly shaking. But his eyes were full of fire. "Have I disturbed you, Captain?" he snarled.
"Water's hot, warm yerself before ya freeze and I have to dump ye overboard." Hector muttered, motioning to the bucket behind him. Will moved around him and shoved his hands and face inside it, hissing as it burned against his frozen skin but relishing the feeling of it. "How long ye been out there?"
"It's been three hours."
"Idiot." Hector snorted, "You'll not get far on this journey by trying to prove yer made of steel, Turner. No one doubts yer resolve. But you're no good to anyone as dead man, understand?"
"You wouldn't mind that though, would you?" Will muttered from behind him. Hector flicked a glance at him, leaning his hand against his lips in thought. "Have ye a bone to pick me with, boy?" he asked quietly, almost amused.
"Exactly what are your intentions with Jack when we find him?"
Hector grinned behind his hand. "What are yours?"
Will blushed a little, looking slightly flustered. "No good hiding it, boy," Barbossa replied carelessly, "We all know yer feelings for the good captain. Even Miss Swann." Will's mouth set in a hard line for a moment as though he were biting back words. Hector liked watching him squirm. "Who will ya choose when the time comes? Or do you intend to string them both along while it amuses you."
"How dare you!" Will thundered finally. "How dare you question my feelings for–!"
"For whom, boy? Ye can't have both." He stood up then, cracking his back and scratching the back of his neck where his hair had been sticking to him. "Or have you already made up yer mind and are loath to admit your fickleness to the other? It be a cruel thing what you're doing to that woman." He picked up his coat and made to leave the cabin and Will behind, until he spoke again; "And you really think Jack is going to choose you over me?"
This stopped Hector cold in the doorway and he whirled on the boy, eyes wide. The man from Port Royal folded his arms arrogantly across his chest, giving Hector a haughty smile. "What vexes you more, Barbossa? That my father stole Jack from you? Or that I'm doing the same thing?"
Hector tore his sword from his scabbard and made to attack, but two pairs of hands grabbed him from behind them, holding him back; Tia Dalma and Gibbs. "Stay thy hand, Barbossa!" the dark skinned woman bellowed, pulling him aside as Gibbs moved to block Will from doing the same. "Alright now, tempers all be short! But killin' each other is not going to get us any closer to rescuing Jack!"
"It might," Will muttered, still leering at Barbossa. Hector turned, storming out of the cabin, Tia Dalma following behind as Gibbs gave Will a questioning look. "Why are ye provokin' him, boy? Ye know he's dangerous!"
Will ignored him however, pushing past the old man. "My battles are my own. I'll beg you to remember that, Mr. Gibbs." Behind him, the old first mate balked, surprised. Will had never spoken to him disrespectfully before. It was a change that worried him deeply. "Oh Jack, you don't know what a world of trouble you've left behind..."
The old sea dog stormed to bow of the ship, trying to put as much distance between himself and the rest of the crew as possible. But Tia Dalma was right behind him. "Barbossa!"
He gripped the rail, dizzy with outrage, teeth grinding. "I'll not be spoken to that way aboard my own–!"
She put a hand on his shoulder and he felt his energy drain as though she was sucking the life out of him. "You will control yourself. Do not rise to his baitin'. De boy has his own demons he be battlin'. I expect better from you."
He sunk his head into his hand, trying to catch his breath as she released him. "If ye be havin' so much faith in that boy why didn't ye send him to do the job alone and leave me to rot where I was?" She put her arms around him gently, "Because, William Turner will t'ke a different path. But dere be no hope of fetchin' back yer beloved Jack wit'out you."
"I'd hardly call him 'beloved'."
She chuckled, tickling his cheek with her fingers. "Still pretendin' I see. Well, I'll leave ya yer fictions for now..." she turned, pulling her shawl closer around her shoulders and let him be alone with his thoughts.
***
By nightfall they had passed through the frozen waters into calmer seas where the wind blew slightly warmer and it was so dark that there was little difference from the sky above and the sea below. Barbossa and Will kept their distance from one another, each taking an end of the ship and staying there. Elizabeth remained somewhere in the middle, and took up a seat next to Ragetti and Pintel, who were dozing in the dark, counting stars.
"Evenin', poppet," Pintel smirked, eyeing her as she came to sit across from them on the deck looking lonely and concerned. "Still havin' a row with young Turner, are ya?"
"I don't know anymore." she answered, wrapping her arms around herself and resting her head on her knees. "Things used to be much simpler."
"Aye," Ragetti nodded. He looked up and caught a glimmer of Barbossa standing at the helm, staring out into the dark. "Things used to be a lot simpler when Barbossa was captain. Not that they were good, per-say. No...not good at all. Things not been 'good' since he was First Mate and Jack was Captain."
"Aye, them was good days. We lived like real pirates then...plunderin' and adventurin'..." Pintel sighed. "We've had it nothin' but bad since." She leaned a little closer to them then, casting her eyes about to see if anyone was ease dropping. "Is it true then...about Jack and Barbossa?"
"How'd ye mean?" Pintel asked suspiciously. She rolled her eyes in frustration. "You know, that they were..." she dropped her voice to a whisper. "In love?"
"The captain don't like us to mention that little detail. Threatened to cut out our tongues last time we brought it up." the stout balding pirate warned. Ragetti nodded eagerly. "Very sensitive about ol' Jack, Captain Barbossa is."
"I can see that." Elizabeth nodded. "Why?"
"Well...it's a long rather tragic story, actually," Ragetti pipped up, obviously eager to tell it. "Ye see Jack and Barbossa go back a long ways; they used to serve aboard another ship together under the command of Jack's father, the nefarious pirate lord Captain Teague. They started a love affair and were thick as thieves for years."
"Aye, neigh inseparable!"
"Then somethin happened ye see...Jack was captured by Lord Beckett in a raid, and Barbossa went out in search for 'im, though Teague was sure his son was dead. But ol' Jack he returned...and not alone. That's when Bootstrap Bill came aboard for the first time."
"You mean Will's father?"
"Aye, just the same. Now, Bootstrap and Jack had formed a tight bond over that time while Jack was missin', and Jack felt indebted to him for savin' his life and cause he caused Bill to be branded a pirate, thus ending his good standing in the world."
Pintel nodded, "But Bootstrap and Barbossa...they never got along see. A rift started form, things went sour. Then of course, we learned about the Isle de Muerta..."
"It all went down hill from there." Ragetti nodded grimly. He flexed his hand, remembering how it used to turn skeletal in the moonlight. "Mutiny and all..."
"So it's true that Bootstrap came between them?"
"Sure is to say," Ragetti nodded. He cast an eye out nervously for Will, hoping his was not in ear shot. "Now to rub salt in the wound as it were, your young beau Will seems to be followin' in his twice cursed father's footsteps."
At this Elizabeth stood and excused herself without a word. Pintel clapped him on the back of the head for his insensitive remarks. "Idiot! Why'd you go an tell 'er that for?"
"I didn't mean it!" Ragetti whimpered. "It's only well...weren't they together? Jack and ol' Will there?"
"Who knows. Sure seemed the like."
"And what about Elizabeth?"
"Well, that's what's called a love triangle, my friend."
"I'm glad I'm not in one." Ragetti nodded gratefully. Pintel put his arm around him. "Aye, me too."