The Cry of Liberty

Chapter Twenty Eight: Warmth

"What do you think, Jack? Too gaudy?" Sasha adjusted the ornate crown on her head in a broken gilded mirror amongst the piles of treasure.

"Gold isn't really your color." Jack shrugged, looking over a large statue before tossing it aside.

"Well what do you know?" She pouted, turning to Barbossa. "Hector?"

"Ye be as lovely as the sky at sunset." He offered from his seat by the chest.

"Lovely as the sky at sunset." She repeated in mocking disbelief. "Hear that Jack? You could learn a few things about talking to women, maybe it'd save your face whenever you stepped foot in a tavern." She replaced the gold crown with a silver tiara set with brilliant rubies, frowning because he had been right. Jack offered her one with sapphires instead.

"They match your eyes better." He spoke so only she could hear, fixing it in her hair and threw the other one away. Their eyes locked for the briefest of moments before she turned away and continued picking through the jewelry.

"William, let's pick something out for Elizabeth's wedding day. I think pirate treasure counts as 'something borrowed'." He watched her slip something shiny in her boot before wandering around the room.

"I must admit, Jack, I thought I had you figured but it turns out you're a hard man to predict."

"Me? I'm dishonest. And a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest." Jack swaggered back towards the remaining crew and Barbossa himself. "Honestly. It's the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they're going to do something incredibly...stupid." He spoke the last word to Will before grabbing the sword of the pirate skipping rocks, tossing it to the young man.

Everyone sprang into action. Will broke free of the man holding him, Jack and Barbossa lunged at one another, and Sasha pulled a sword from one of the skeletons and raised it to block a swing from one of Barbossa's men. Will was trying to fight off three pirates and nodded gratefully when Sasha joined him, back to back. Jack seemed to be handling Barbossa on his own but she kept an eye on him in case she needed to switch fights. She took the hard hits for the boy, stabs and landed cuts, one knocking her into a pool of moonlight. Startled, Will paused in the midst of the battle.

"Stay with us, William." Sasha threw her sword at an advancing man, keeping him from killing Will. She continued to fight in her skeletal form, using it to her advantage to catch blades in her bones and rip them from her enemies hands. They managed to fend them off long enough to notice Jack standing, admiring his skeletal hand, where he and Barbossa stood across the cavern. A sword stuck out of his chest and Sasha was thankful he had thought ahead with grabbing that coin. "You seem to be able to handle these idiots, I'll go help him." She darted towards the two men as they started their duel once again.

"Sorry!" Jack shouted over his shoulder as he bumped into a small end table, nearly tripping Sasha as she joined them. Barbossa was still a worthy opponent, even outnumbered. He stopped them for a moment and raised a fair point.

"So what now? Are we three immortals doomed to fight for all eternity?" The haggard man laughed bitterly.

"You could surrender." Jack suggested, infuriating the man. He chased after them as they ran to get better ground to fight on. One of his men threw an explosive at Will, startling them all. Sasha bowed out, patting Jack on the shoulder.

"Time for me to return to the boy." He nodded and watched her jump down from the ledge, knocking a skeleton to the ground as she landed. Will was trapped at sword point by an angry crewman.

"I'm gonna teach you the meaning of pain!" He raised his arm to strike and Sasha feared she wouldn't reach them in time.

"You like pain?" Another female voice joined the raucous. Elizabeth knocked the man aside with a large ornate staff. "You should try wearing a corset." Sasha smiled, rushing to their aid. Elizabeth helped Will to his feet and they shared a stare of longing for one another.