Not All Treasure is Silver and Gold

King for A Day

The room fell silent for a moment, truly shocked and baffled this location was betrayed.

This was is a fortress. All, and I mean all the pirates in the world who want to be heard come here.
Who would be dumb enough to give this place up?
And to Lord Beckett? There was no way he had a fleet bigger than ours.. right?
"Who is this betrayer?"
Said a Jamacian Pirate lord, bringing me from my thoughts.
"Not Likely anyone among us"
Barbossa spoke with disinterest.
"Where's Will?"
Elizabeth asked, much to my confusion.
I raised my brow, poking my chin
"I thought he went with you to Sao Feng's ship?"
I asked in a slightly heightened voice. Elizabeth shook her head as a look of panic took over.
I look over at Jack who had been suspiciously looking at his nails and cleaning them.
"Yeah Jack, where is he?"
I asked crossing my eyes and giving him a stern look.
Jack snapped his head up to us
"Not among us"
He said with a smirk and a shrug. Elizabeth and I both gave him a glare with a raised brow but before we could interrogate him, Barbossa's voice rang clear and loud
"It matters not how they found us! The question is, what will we do now that they have?"
Barbossa asked as he looked around the room.
"We fight!"
Elizabeth and I yelled in unison. We exchanged looks and smirked at one another but our smirks diminished realizing we were.. the only ones who had said fight...
All the pirates in the room, save for Barbossa, Liz, and I, erupted with laughter even Jack.
I glared as the female Pirate Lord spoke
"Shipwreck Cove is a fortress.There is no need to fight"
She laughed but I sigh, shaking my head as I glanced at Elizabeth
"There be a third course. In another age, at this very spot, the First Brethren Court captured the sea goddes and bound her in her bones"
Barbossa said as all the pirates nodded
"That was a mistake"
Barbossa said as I and every other pirate looked up in confusion of what his point was.
"Oh, we tamed the seas for ourselves,aye.But opend the door to Beckett and his ilk.Better were the days when mastery of seas came not from bargins struck with eldritch creatures, but from the sweat of a mans brow and the streanght of his back alone.You all know this to be true.Gentlemen! Ladies"
Barbossa spoke that last part tenderly as he looked at Liz and I as well as the Pirate lordess
"We must free Calypso"
Barbossa said with a smile as he looked around. All the pirates were quiet. Too quiet.
Then, of course, all the pirates started yelling
"Shoot him"
"Cut out his tongue!"
Said a couple of the pirate lords
"Shoot him and cut out his tongue,then shoot his tong.And trim that scraggily beard"
Jack yelled out. I shot him a glare and he laughed nervously before hiding behind Mr. Gibbs. Mr. Gibbs eyes widened throwing his hands up.
I rolled my eyes and began to pay attention, or at least try, to all the chaos going on around me.
"Sao Feng would have agreed with Barbossa!"
One of Feng's, or should I say now Elizabeth's, crewmen spoke.
"Calypso was our enemy then, she will be our enemy now"
Said one of the other pirate lords
"Bloody hell it's been close to 59 years since they bound her, I'm sure she'd rather be a free goddess than a bound witch"
I called out, looking around but this didn't seem to hold any weight to the lot of them.
"It is unlikely her mood has improved"
Said a french pirate lord with crossed arm and an expression of displeasure .
"I would still agree with Sao Fang! We release Calypso!"
Said an Indian Pirate lord pulling out his pistol and pointing it at the French Pirate Lord.
"You threaten me?!"
Said the french man standing from his chair in outrage.
"I silence you!"
He argued back but the French lord punched the Indian lord in the face and now everyone but Liz's men, Liz,Barbossa,Jack and I were fist fighting.
I smacked my head in annoyance
"This is madness"
I shook my head In irritation as a pistol flew twords Jack and I but we quickly dodged it, going opposite directions as it flew between us and out a closed window with a loud shatter
"This is politics luv"
Jack said looking back at the window and then at me
"Meanwhile,our enamies are being down upon us"
Elizabeth said in annoyance
"If they not be here already"
Barbossa spoke in a dull annoyed voice.
Everyone stopped moving as we all heard a gon shot. It became so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Barbossa had climbed up on the table and shot his pistol
"It was the First Court who imprisoned Calypso.We should be the ones to set'er free.And in her gratitude, she will see fit to grant us boons"
Barbossa said and Jack looked at the cannon balls hanging at Barbossas waist
"Whos boons?Your boons?"
Jack said making Elizabeth and I to smack our heads in irritation.
"Utterly deceptive twaddle-speak says i."
Barbossa got off the table
"Bloody old man's pirate talk"
I whispered under my breath as I rolled my eyes.
"If you have a better alternative, please share"
Barbossa said looking at Jack.Jack thought for a long while as we stared at him trying to decide if he actually had an idea or was once again stalling. Jack smiled and looked around.
"Cuttlefish"
Jack said to all of our confusion. Nobody said a word, we all just shared looks of bewilderment.
"Aye"
Jack nodded, making hand movments to make pirates move over so he could walk around to all the lords as he spoke
"Let us not, dear friends, forget our dear friends, the cuttlefish. Flipping glorious lil sausages.Pin them up together, theyll
devour eachother without a second thought.Human nature isnt it? Or...or fish nature.So yes,we could hole up here well-provisioned and well-armed.Half of us would be dead with in the month. Which seems quite grim to me, any way you slice it. Or..."
Jack bumped into a very tall and buff jamacian pirate guarding the Pirate Lord
"Uhhh"
Jack said moving around this man cautiously with his hands held up.
"As my learned colleague so naively suggests,we can release Calypso, and we can pray that she will be merciful.I rather doubt that. Sorry Williams, she may be merciful to you and you alone, but I just don't see her being merciful to the lot of us. Can we pretend she's anything other then a woman scorned like which fury hell hathno? We cannot. Res ipsa loquitur,
tabula in naufragio. We are left but one option. I agrees with, and I cannot believe the words coming out of me mouth...Captain Swann and Captain Williams"
Jack finished, to our utter surprise.
"We must fight"
Jack gave me a wink, making me crack a smile and roll my eyes as I looked down and shook my head. My hat covering the blush forming.
"You've always run away from a fight!"
Barbossa yelled across the table to Jack.
"Have not"
Jack objected
"Have so"
Barbossa retorted
"Have not"
Jack said again.
"Have so"
Barbossa said
"They're arguing like children"
I whispered to Elizabeth with wide eyes but a look of disgust. She facepalmed and she sighed
"This is who our fate rests upon..."
She whispered back in annoyance.
Bloody hell...
"Have not!"
Jack said
"Ya hav so and ya kno it"
Barbossa said with anger in his tone.
"Have not. Slander and clumny. I have only embraced that oldes and noblest of pirate traditions.I submit here and now that this is what we must do. We must fight...to run away"
Jack said smiling as he looked around.
That didn't sound like too bad of an idea actually...
"Aye!"
Everyone in the room, even Liz and I agreed with that.
"Aye, As per code, an act of war; and this be exactly that, can only be declared by the Pirate King"
Barbosa said and Jack looked up with shock and anger.
"You made that up!"
Jack acused Barbossa
"Did not. I call Cap'n Teague keeper of the code."
Barbossa called out.
My ears rang, hearing the captains name..
Mum's best friend...
I looked at Jack and noticed his smile had faded as soon as he heard the name
"Sri Sumbhajee proclaims this to all be folly! Hang the code! Who cares-"
One of the Pirate Lords' guards got cut off from being shot in the chest.He dropped like a dead fly.
I looked up and saw an older pirate on a floor above us, overlooking us all blowing on his pistol.
I stared at this man for a long time...
The hat...the bandanna...the beard...the...dreads...
"Liz...why does he look so bloody familiar?"
I couldnt finish asking Liz because Jack shushed me
"Come on let's go outside, they can handle it from here"
Jack tried to drag me to leave but I dug my heel into the floor
"You can leave if you'd like, but I'm staying. I told you I wasn't running. Don't make the same mistakes Jack"
I said staring at him with a raised brow.
No need to be rude"I said but my attention was drawn back to Captain Teague when he spoke.
"Code is the law"
After he said that, all the lords sat back down. I guess they knew better than to cross him, less ye be like the man on the floor five minutes ago.
I look back to where Jack was as Captain Teague walked closer but saw he was trying to sneak away.
"Jack..."
I said to him but he said nothing. People weren't moving out of his way quick enough and Captain Teague came up right behind him. Seeing them right next to each other really gave me some realization...
Captain Teague is his father...
"You're in my way,boy"
Captain Teague spoke deep and with no emotion.Jack said nothing still looked disturbed and slowly moved aside for him to stand at the opposite side of the table from me.
Everyone started mumbling the code the code the code amongst themselves. Weird.
Two old geasers put down a gigantic book on the table with a loud bang.
Blood hell that's bigger than the holy bible
A ratty looking dog put his head on the table and Captain Teague grabbed the key that was hanging in the dogs mouth and unlocked the giant book. Elizabeth and I stard in astonishment.
My mother told me stories of the Pirate Code of Conduct be she said she had never seen the actual book with her own eyes because they had never gone to war.
I saw it and was utterly shocked at the size.
I didn't think it'd be that big.
Captain Teague had opened the big book and everybody just stared in anticipation.
"Barbossa is right"
Captain Teague declared and Barbossa nodded in appreciation with a look of triumph.
"Hold on"
Jack said reading it himself
"It shall be the duties, as the king, to declare war, parley with shared adversaries"
Jack looked up with raised brows and a thin mouth.
"Fancy that"
Jack said looking from Barbossa to me.
"There has not been a king since the First Court. And thats not likely to change"
Said the french lord
"Not likely"
Captain Teague's dull tone chimed in.
"Why not?"
Elisabeth asked and I laughed at her innocence.
My mom before she died said she was
"The Pirate King is elected by popular vote"
I said with a smirk. This was never gonna happen.
"And each pirate only ever votes for hisself"
Barbossa shrugged in a bored tone, looking down at us as Captain Teague sat down and played on a guitar while the arguing began to start back up
"I call for a vote"
Jack said smiling with amusement.
Barbossa and I groan
"Wait...Barbossa do I have to vote?"
I asked, hoping to get out of it all together and he smiled, but that smile wasn't sincere..
"If ye be a captain in yer life time and ye stab the globe, ye must vote"
He said to my dismay.
"Damn it"
I groaned under my breath in annoyance.
So all the pirates voted for themselves but it's not like we really wanted any of these fools to be king.
The last two to vote were Jack and I
"Ladies first"
Jack said to me with a smirk. I look around seriously trying to think, if not myself or Elizabeth.. then who..
Jack is a power hungry coward, as much as I care for him that's too much responsibility for him and even he would probably abandon it.. Barbossa is too power hungry.. just like the rest of them..looking at the land and sea as a prize to claim.. we should consider ourselves lucky to be able to sail the seas at all... bloody hell who do I choose...screw it.
Before I could speak, my own name rang in my ears
"Jessica Williams"
My head snapped to Elizabeth as my jaw dropped
"Are you insane? They already are weary of me no way they'll listen to me"
I whispered but she smiled down at me
"If not you then me. So choose"
She said with amusement. I raised a brow at her
What is she getting at?