Oh, geez. I dunno what to say for myself. I've been really stupid and lazy and I'm sorry I made you guys wait soooo long. I wouldn't blame you if you didn't review me now, but please do! I'm really really REALLY sorry.

Also, if there's any mistakes as far as the actual Pirates of the Caribbean movie goes, that's on purpose. I don't wanna be accused of plagiarism.

Read on!

SPLOOSH!

"Curse you for breathing, you slack jawed idiot!" Solomon Mutou screamed as water was thrown on him. His grizzled gray bangs hung limp and he pushed himself away from the pigs he was laying with.

"Mother's love!" he said, recognizing the pirate. "Yami Bakura!"

He then grew solemn.

"You should know better than to wake a man when he's sleeping, Yami. It's bad luck."

"Ah, but fortunately I know how to counter it. The man who woke the man who was sleeping buys the man a drink. The man who was sleeping drinks while hearing a proposition from the man who did the waking.
Solomon thought a moment, then smiled.

"Aye, that'll about do it."

Yami Bakura helped him up, then Ryou Bakura dumped another bucket of water on him.

"Blast! I'm already awake!"

"Well…that was for the smell."

The two Bakuras eyed each other, then looked to Solomon. He bowed his head, as if to say "you're right."

In the bar, Ryou was quite uncomfortable. Fighting everywhere. Yami Bakura passed him with a warning.

"Keep a sharp eye."

He then sat with Solomon, giving the man the smaller of two glasses of beer.

"Now, what's the nature of this venture of yours?" Solomon queried.

"I'm going after the Black Magician."

Solomon choked on his beer.

"I know where it's going to be, and I'm going to take it."

"Bakura-sama, it's a fool's errand. You know better than me the tales of the Black Magician."

"Uh-huh. That's why I know what Yami-Malik is up to. All I need is a crew."

Solomon chuckled.

"From what I hear tell about Captain Yami-Malik, he's not a man to suffer fools, nor strike a bargain with one."

"Well, then I'd say it's a damn good thing I'm no fool then, huh?"
"Prove me wrong! What makes you think Yami-Malik will give his ship to you?"

"Well, then," Yami Bakura said, sly as can be, "Let's just say that it's a matter of 'leverage,' aye?"
Ryou heard that snippet of the conversation, but he didn't say a word.

Solomon grunted in confusion. The thief motioned to his ward, using his head.

"Huh?"

Yami rolled his eyes and motioned more prominently.

"Huh!"

Yami Bakura was getting fed up. He made sounds in his throat, pointing clearly to Ryou with his head. Solomon looked to see Ryou blushing as a drunken woman collapsed on him.

"The kid?" Solomon finally said.

Yami nodded.

"That is the child of Bootstrap Shen Bakura. His only child, savvy?"

"Ah, is he now? 'Leverage' says you. 'I think I feel a change in the wind,' says I."

The captain nodded. Finally, something in his miserable 19 years of existence had gone right.

"I'll find us a crew. There's bound to be some sailors on this rock as crazy as you are."

"One can only hope."

They picked up there glasses.

"Take what you can…"
"Give nothing back!"

They clunked their glasses together, then drained them to the dregs.

ON THE MAGICIAN

Colina paced the room she was in, then Bones and Sid came in, the latter bearing a dress.

"You'll be dining with the captain. And he requests you wear this," Sid informed her.

"Well, you can tell him I'm disinclined to acquiesce to his request," Colina said sharply.

"He said you might say that. He also said that if that be the case, you'll be dining with the crew. And you'll be naked."
He and Bones began to snicker. Right up until Colina snatched up the red dress up.

"Fine!" Sid said nastily.

In the captain's quarters, a magnificent feast was laid out. However, Colina ate like a proper young lady. Yami-Malik chuckled.

"There's no need to stand on ceremony, nor call to impress. You must be hungry."

Colina glanced at him, then felt her stomach groan in hunger. Abandoning all etiquette, she grabbed a turkey leg and bit into it ravenously. Yami poured her some wine into a cup as she grabbed a roll, then held it out to her.

"Try the wine."

She took it and gulped it down greedily.

"And the apples," he added, "One of those next?"

She dropped her food in tension.

"It's poisoned."
Once again, the captain laughed.

"There would be no sense in killing you, Ms. Bakura."

"Then release me," she countered a bit fearfully. "You have your trinket. I'm of no further use to you."

Yami-Malik pulled the Millennium Ring out.

"You don't know what this is, do you?" he asked calmly.

"It's a pirate medallion," Colina spat smartly.

"This is Egyptian-forged gold," he corrected her. "One of 182 pieces (counting each in the puzzle) the ancient inhabitants of Kuru Eruna village sent to pharaoh Akunamukanon himself. Blood money paid to stem the slaughter he wreaked upon them with his armies one day. But the greed of his priests was insatiable. So the Egyptian gods Ra, Osiris, Set, and Anubis placed upon the gold a terrible curse.

"On each Millennium Item was bestowed a power, but also a curse. Any mortal who removes but a single piece from that stone tablet…shall be punished for eternity…"
"I hardly believe in ghost stories anymore, Captain Malik."

"Aye. That's exactly what I thought when we were told the tale at first. Carted off and buried on a Caribbean island what cannot be found, except by those who know where it is. Find it, we did…"

Colina noted how several veins began to work in Yami-Malik's face as he spoke. His eyes would also widen and twitch at certain points.

"…There was the tablet. Held on it was the gold. And we took it all. 'Damn the fake powers!' we thought, selling and trading them and flittering them away on drink and food, and pleasurable company."

Malik paused for a moment, then began again.

"The more we gave them away, the more we began to realize the drink would not satisfy, food would turn to ash in our mouths, and all the pleasurable company in the world could not slake our lusts. We are cursed men, Ms. Bakura. Compelled by greed, we were, but now we are consumed by it."

At that, the monkey chattered wildly, as if adding his opinion.

"Of course, the powers were a plus. The Eye afforded the power to read minds, the Necklace could see past and predict future, the Scale could way sins, the Key could allow someone into another's heart, the Puzzle could free souls and time-travel slightly, the Rod can mind-control, and the Ring," he said devilishly, twirling the pendant, "The Ring could do so much…"

Yami Malik pet his monkey calmly. Seeing her opportunity, Colina concealed a knife.

"There is one way we can end our curse," the captain whispered, handing the Ring to his pet. "All the scattered Millennium Items must be restored and the blood repaid."

He stretched his arm down so that the monkey could jump from it; it bounded away with the Ring.

"Thanks to you, we have the final piece."

"And the…blood to be repaid?" Colina asked fearfully.

"That's why there's no sense to be killing you," Yami-Malik chuckled fiendishly.

"Yet."

He held out the same green fruit he had offered her before.

"Apple?"

She knocked it away, and pulled the knife. Yami-Malik grunted in surprise, then amusement, and she screamed, running away. With only a pillar of wood between them, she panicked. She moved from one side to the other, but he was always there, like a haunting specter.

"Arrgh!" he yelled in bemused tones. Colina bolted, but the Egyptian man caught her in a viselike grip.

"No!"

She impaled his chest with the knife, but nothing happened. Yami-Malik pulled it out with a chuckle.

"I'm curious. After killing me, what is it you're planning on doing next?" he snarled.

She burst out of the room—straight into a crew of skeletal pirates.

"Aahh!"

Swabbing the deck, manning the helm, securing the rigging—they were all rotting corpses. Screaming, she tripped into a lower section—onto a sheet with which the pirates flung her several times before another pirate swung down and grabbed her in midair. She screamed once more into his face.

When they came to the ground, Colina broke into a run, putting the helm between her and the skeleton. With a decisive jerk, she pulled at the wheel, nearly decapitating the pirate.

He merely straightened his head and snarled at her.

She ran yet again, right under the stairs, daring to take a breath.

Chiieeeee!

"Aaaahhh!" she yelled.

Even the monkey was a mass of rotting flesh and bones, dangling by its tail and holding the Millennium Ring. She ran to go into the captain's quarters and ran directly into Yami-Malik's arms.

"Look!" he sneered, turning her. "The moonlight shows us for who we really are. We are not among the living, and so we cannot die, but neither are we dead!"

He turned her around, several veins working under his manic eyes.

"For too long I've been parched of thirst and unable to quench it. Too long I've been starving to death and haven't died!"

He stepped forward.

"I feel nothing. Not the wind on my face or the spray of the sea…"

He held a hand to where Colina had stepped out into the light and it was stripped of living flesh, muscle, and youth.

"…or even the warmth of a woman's flesh," he finished dolefully. He then stepped into the full light of the moon and his entire face decayed in a grotesque form of fast-forward.

"You had best start believing in ghost stories, my dear. You're in one!"

He uncorked a bottle of wine and took a heavy swig from it. The wine was visible through his rotted chest. Colina looked on in horror for a moment, then ran past him.

Smashing the bottle on the side of the doorframe, Yami-Malik turned on his heel and slammed the doors shut.

"Ahahahahah!"

The other pirates joined in on his laughter.

"What are you lookin' at? Back to work!" he spat.

"You heard the cap'n, back to work!" Keith added.

Meanwhile, Colina was curled in a corner of the cabin, her face horrorstruck.

I need to get out of here! She thought desperately. And quickly!

R and R pretty please! And sorry for the wait again! It was unneccesary and mean...