Barbossa's Daughter

Chapter 49

The Pearl sailed along the edge, Hector holding it there with the magic of his blood for having someone else at the helm was simply too unreliable.

"The Pearl! My Pearl!" Jack cried as Cora glared at him.

"The Pearl only obeys those with Barbossa blood. It hasn't been yours in decades," she spat at him, Henry's arm still around her.

"Ye can debate this later," Henry said.

"Climb!" Carina cried as they ran back towards the altar as the anchor grew closer.

"Move! FAST!" Hector called as he neared them and they bolted up, but by now, the Spanish had caught on.

"JACK!" Salazar bellowed as he gave chase.

"Jump! Faster!" Hector urged them as Jack and Henry ensured that Carina and Cora got up first before they climbed after. And up the chain they began to climb. "Up! ANCHOR!" he ordered as the metal chain began to rise, aided by the men turning the wheel on board the ship as they cranked in the anchor.

But even with magic, they weren't fast enough as some of the Spanish grabbed on, and the rest of the crew realised that their captain had abandoned them. And they realised that they were about to die.

The anchor chain cut through rocky peaks that jutted out from the shrinking trench before the anchor suddenly began to fall as one of the handles on the wheel broke and the men aboard lost momentum.

"UP!" Cora screamed as she reached out her hand and forced the anchor to change direction.

But what she didn't account for was which hand she used. Because not only was the anchor chain wet and dripping with water that rained down on them from above, but the hand that now was the only thing holding her to the chain, was the one that was covered in blood.

What a slippery substance blood is.

And even still, all of them were jarred and shaken when the anchor chain stopped falling before it slowly began to move upwards.

But while it went up, Cora was falling down.

The sudden shaking of the chain caused her to lose what little grip she had on it already as she slipped, and her heart sunk into her chest as she tried to grasp for a handhold, but it was no use. She was falling and that was that. She would fall and she would die in this trench as the ocean swallowed her for even without the stupid curse, the sea seemed intent on keeping her and Will apart. Where one was free, the other would now be claimed and there would be no bringing her back from this. That was the truth, plain and simple.

In her effort to save them, Cora was going to die.

"MOTHER!" Henry screeched so loudly that it scratched at his throat as she let out a scream of her own as she fell.

But once again, when all hope seemed lost, a ray of light was found.

And that light was in the form of her father as he latched onto her wrist, his hand now being the only thing keeping her from falling as she dangled, and she allowed relief to wash over her because she knew that her father would never let her fall. He never had. Not once in her oddly long lifetime.

"I gotcha, me Cora!" he said to her as swung and her free hand grabbed the anchor chain.

"I know you do," she said, their hands still joined, and she was completely unaware of Salazar below her, his sword in hand as he neared them.

"Hold on!" he told her as he let her other hand latch onto the chain, the girl completely unaware of the ring that he'd slipped onto her thumb.

"Hector!" Jack called from above as he dropped Cora's sword that he'd picked up from the ground where Henry dropped it.

"Daddy?" Cora called and Hector's heart twisted with the knowledge of what he was about to do, for his daughter hadn't called him that in decades. Not since she was a child. But only now did she realise that even though she was an adult who was older than most, she was always going to be her father's daughter.

"Remember, me Cora," her father said. "I'll always love you."

And Cora's heart shattered. It was obliterated. She doubted that any of it was even left as she watched him push back from the chain as he grabbed the sword and went plummeting down.

And while Hector was not regretful of his choice, for he saved his only daughter and the person he loved most in the world, his heart also broke from the expression of utter heartbreak in Cora's eyes as he levelled with her for a fraction of a second. And as he fell, her scream tore itself from Cora's mouth.

The sound was earth-shattering. It was grief and heartbreak in a beautiful symphony of sorrow as Hector Barbossa plunged the knife into Salazar.

As he was prophesied to be the fall of Blackbeard, the famed one-legged Commodore felled another savage pirate who fell on the rest of his crewmates as the chain was freed of them.

And as the water began to rush in and fill the gap and enclose the trench, swallowing the survivors, the last thing Hector saw before the sea claimed his life, was his beautiful, strong daughter. And there was no other way he'd rather go out.

Cora wasn't even given time to grieve as Jack held onto a feral Henry, trying to keep him from falling after his grandfather. And whilst she was tempted to do the same and fall, she was not going to let her father's sacrifice be for nothing as she hugged the chains with all she had and the ocean closed in around them as she trapped her breath within her lungs.

Up and up they were pulled until air and light claimed them and they were yanked out of the water as the crew cheered, but they were not very cheerful.

They were hauled aboard, but where the others found their feet rather quickly, Cora simply stayed sat on the ground, in too much shock to properly process everything. And the pieces of her heart broke into smaller pieces as she finally noticed the weight on her hand, specifically her thumb.

Her red eyes were the only sign that she was crying as the saltwater that leaked from them mixed with the saltwater already on her face.

"I'm so sorry, Mother," Henry said, his eyes also misty as he placed a blanket around his mother's shoulders and she leaned into his touch.

"I'm sorry too," she said. "I never wanted ye to see something like that," she said before she choked up. "I thought it would hurt less, seeing him die a second time. It hurts more." She choked up before she continued speaking, her hand gripping Henry's. "But when he came back, part of me knew, even then, that he'd end up like my mother. That he'd give his life so I could live mine." She gave a teary laugh as her son hugged her tighter. "He told me back then that it be the purpose of a parent's life to see their child live, not just survive. To give them better lives than ye had."

"He was a good man," Henry said. "The best pirate to ever sail these seas."

"Aye," she agreed as she twisted the ring on her thumb before she reached up to cup Henry's face. "His sacrifice ain't gonna be in vain. We are going to live long, exciting and amazing lives that we be proud to tell him one day."

Henry nodded. "Aye. That we will, Mother."

And for a second more they stayed like that as the others realised what had happened. That one of the greatest captains the Pearl has ever had was gone.

"A pirate's life, Hector," Jack said in farewell as he stared at the water. And their hats came off in a moment of respect as others held their hands to their hearts.

For Hector Barbossa was dead. And this time, he would stay dead.