A/N: I'll be completely honest. This update is happening quite by chance. Obviously I don't plan on abandoning this story...in face I guarantee that I will never do such a thing, but to be perfectly honest with you all, I had lost the will to update. I just completely forgot how much I loved this story. Not necessarily my writing it, but all the behind the scenes planning that goes into the world of Pirates of the Caribbean and all the history that's actually hidden in the script. Nevertheless my love is restored, and to prove it, here's 12 whole pages worth of chapter.

Thank yous to: KylieAyn (for being my most awesome reviewer and always making me smile), JohnnyDeppIsMine (I beg to differ love, but I'm willing to share =P), and storywriter1994

As Alina and James were making the Empress ready to sail, Jack, Hector, and the rest of the Black Pearl were mere hours from Shipwreck Cove.

"Look alive and keep a weather eye," Gibbs called, "not for naught it's called Shipwreck Island, where lie Shipwreck Cove and the town of Shipwreck!"

"You know for all that pirates are clever clogs, we are an unimaginative lot when it comes to naming things." Jack pondered.

"Aye."

"I once sailed with a geezer lost both of his arms and part of his eye."

"What'd you call him?"

Jack gave pause as if unwilling to admit to the unimaginative name, "Larry."

"Well that's a fine name for a gentleman." Gibbs looked confused.

"Oh his name wasn't Larry," Jack called as he walked off, "that's just what I called him." Gibbs shook his head and turned to help the crew enter the cove safely.

On the other end of the ship, Hector and Tia Dalma were stuck in a heated debate, and to the untrained eye both were giving as good as they got. On the other hand, Brandy had gotten very good at Hector-watching, and saw not only the fear creep into his eyes as Tia Dalma grabbed his hand and he stared at something only he could see, but she also saw the moment his mind had been set. She saw the cogs in his head whirling and churning as he seemed to work out a master plan in mere seconds. More importantly, she saw the flicker between emotions, and knew doubt had begun to creep in. She chose this moment to approach.

"Masters Pintel and Ragetti! Take this fishwife to the brig." Hector spat as he passed the priestess along.

"Right this way, Mrs. Fish." Pintel snickered.

"Hector?" Brandy called gently, "Are you all right?"

"Course I'm alright, why wouldn't I be?" He sneered.

"I saw what happened Hector. I don't really understand what I saw. But I saw it."

"T'was nothing," he murmered, but she saw his eye twitch, "just a trick o' the old harpy." He gave a long sigh when he saw Brandy's stoic face and crossed arms, the girl was a bit like Alina. When she wanted answers, she wouldn't settle for anything less than a half truth hidden as the whole. Of course, should Alina ever discover she was only told a half truth, she'd hunt ya down and get the whole, but that's only if discovered, Hector shrugged and chuckled to himself, "She thinks she can outwit me a'cause she brought me back from the grave." He grumbled.

"Well," Brandy linked her arm through Hector's, "I'm sure between you and Alina, you'll find a way to prove her wrong."

"What about Jack?"

"Yea…let's not trust important matters of life or death to the bird-brain."

Hector chuckled as he slipped his arm from her grasp, choosing instead to sling it around her shoulder, "I knew I liked you." He grinned.

"I cannot be summoned like some mongrel pup!" Davy Jones hissed at Lord Cutler Beckett, pheh.

"Apparently, you can." The man smirked, "I believe you know each other." He gestured to the man sitting with his back to him. William Turner smiled and raised his cup in cheers.

"A-ha-ha-ha. Come to join my crew again?"

"Not yours," Will gestured to Beckett, "his. Jack Sparrow sends his regards."

Jones smirked inwardly, using a great deal of effort not to reveal what all he knew, "Sparrow?"

Will turned to Beckett as if pitying Jones, "You didn't tell him?" He turned back to Jones with a small smirk, "We rescued Jack from the locker along with the Black Pearl."

"What else have you not told me?" Jones marched into Beckett's face, applauding his own skill as an actor. Honestly these men, the locker is of my own design, the hell is of my choosing, I am the very soul of the sea itself, and they thought I wouldn't notice a new vessel come to life?

"There is an issue far more troublesome." Beckett calmly explained, "I believe you're familiar with a person called Calypso?"

Jones did give a small, honest start at that. Not at the knowledge she lived. Of course he knew the moment she stepped off that pathetic little inland isle of hers. He knew the moment she graced the waters with her footsteps aboard a vessel. He knew second she had crossed into his hell with that unworthy crew, and felt the very pull and ache in his soul that drew him to her in the beginning, yearning again to keep her in the Locker, if only so she couldn't run away from him again. No, his surprise came at the shock of anger that spread through him at hearing the codswallop mention her name.

He shook himself out of his reverie, "Not a person, a heathen god. One who delights in cursing men with their wildest dreams and then revealing them to be hollow and naught but ash." He felt the searing pain of her betrayal once more, as if it were brand new. The hollowing of his chest, the literal locking away of his heart, did nothing to ease the agony of being ripped from the only thing in this world and the next that ever really mattered. Though it pained him to continue, he kept the pretense of knowing nothing, "The world is well rid of her."

"Not quite so well actually. The Brethren Court intends to release her."

"No, they cannot!" He feigned his terror, "The first court promised to imprison her forever! That was our agreement."

"Your agreement?" Beckett was slowly beginning to understand how much he did not know about the world of pirates and how they functioned.

Jones winced slightly. He had not meant to give the whelp his guilt. Of course he knew the hell that would be unleashed with Calypso, and while he was fully prepared to accept the consequences of his actions, he did not want the sea witch to have more ammunition against him. "I…showed them how to bind her. She could not be trusted, I…she gave me no choice!" He shook his head, refusing to dwell on that fateful day any longer, and resumed his act, "We must act before they release her."

"You loved her," Will smirked, "she's the one. And then you betrayed her."

Jones snapped, how dare the whelp pretend to know what happened between them, "She pretended to love me! She betrayed me!"

Will took a sip of his tea, "And after which betrayal did you cut out your heart, I wonder?"

Jones smacked the teacup out of Will's hand, "Do not test me, boy!"

"I hadn't finished that." He then stood, "You will free my father," and turning to Beckett, "and you will guarantee Elizabeth's safety, along with my own and Alina Carter's." Will didn't know if his once friend would ever forgive him for what he had done to her, but he wouldn't leave her to the non-existent mercy of Lord Cutler Beckett and the East India Trading Company.

"Your terms are steep, Mr. Turner." Beckett turned his back on the boy, not wanting to show how this deal was beginning to trouble him, "We will expect fair value in return."

"The source of the pirates' hope, the very reason you tremble beneath your decorated coat, is Calypso. Calypso's aboard the Black Pearl. Jack has sailed the Pearl to Shipwreck Cove."

"And with you no longer aboard her, how do you propose to lead us there." Beckett huffed, tired of being told things he already knew and turning to face Will once more.

Will held up Jack's compass, the smirk having never left his face, "What is it you want most, Cutler Beckett?"

The isle of Shipwreck was indeed named appropriately. As the crew sailed closer to the infrastructure at the center of the cove, a hideaway built entirely out of the carcasses of countless shipwrecks, they were in awe, not only of the impressive monument before them, but of the sheer number of pirates approaching.

"Look at them all!"

"I'm impressed no one's tried to kill anyone yet." Brandy added to Pintel's dumbstruck remark.

"That be because our dear Cap'n Sparrow has not yet arrived." Hector chuckled.

Upon entering the hideaway, the Pearl's crew immediately sidestepped the wounded globe blocking their way and moved to take their positions behind two chairs at the grand table where six pirate lords already sat. Hector pierced his sword into the Caspian Sea and, as the lord who convened the others, took his place at the head of the table, impatiently waiting for the others to acknowledge his presence.

Jack walked around the globe once, taking count of the lords already in attendance and noted that, of course, the one he wanted least of all but needed there most was the only one not yet in attendance. With a long-suffered sigh he stabbed his sword into the Caribbean Sea and leaned against it, watching the door with rapt attention, refusing to sit until Alina was back with him.

Hector rolled his eyes at the man he still considered a boy, but he could not conceal the glimmer of hope in his eye that Alina may just be able to pull him out of his idiocy and wind up with someone worthy of her devotion in the end. He also took note that Brandy seemed very comfortable standing just behind and to his right, rather than taking her place with the crew where she technically belonged. Even more curious was his inclination to keep her there, his reluctance to have her away from him even though, by right, he should have been the only lord to stand behind, or sit at this particular seat at the fourth only meeting of all the world's pirate lords. He shook himself of his stupor and moved to start the meeting, knowing Alina would be along shortly with Sao Feng in tow.

"As he who issued the summons," he began after banging a shackled ball to gain everyone's attention, "I convene this the fourth Brethren Court. To confirm your lordship and right to be heard, present now your pieces of eight, my fellow cap'ns."

As the lords each pulled out their "treasures", a snuff box, a playing card, broken bottle, tobacco cutters, Ragetti's wooden eye, Pintel could be heard questioning the pieces and turned to Gibbs, the master of stories for explanation.

"Sparrow!" Eduardo Villanueva called when all but he had presented their piece.

"Might I point out," Jack turned from the door, glaring at Hector for beginning the meeting already, "that we are still short one pirate lord? And I am as content as a cucumber to wait until Sao Feng joins us."

"Sao Feng is dead." Alina's voice called from the doorway and Jack, in an exasperated flail of his arms, pivoted to look incredulously at the woman who would of course only enter once his back was turned. "He fell to the Flying Dutchman."

"The plagued ship!" Mistress Ching's voice rose above the terrified chatter of the others. The entire population of pirates in the room had sneaking suspicion as to why Hector Barbossa had called them together, and now that Alina had confirmed Davy Jones himself had killed one of their leaders, they were even more reluctant to hear him out. Alina, ignoring their collective outrage, marched toward the imposing sphere, unsheathed her sword, and with a dramatic twirl of her wrist, plunged her blade into the South China Sea.

"He made you captain?!" Jack and Hector chimed together.

Alina's sharp whistle pierced the air, forcing silence among the room, "Jones is under the command of Lord Beckett. We've been betrayed. The EITC is on their way here, armed to the teeth."

"Who is the betrayer." Gombo Jocard stood, slapping his hand on the table in outrage.

Hector scoffed, "Not likely anyone among us."

"Where's Will?" Elizabeth called, finally having made her way around the room and having not spotted her elusive fiancé.

"Not among us." Jack told her with an apologetic glance.

"And it matters not how they found us," Hector gestured for them all to calm down, "the question is, what will we do now that they have?"

Elizabeth stepped forward, infuriated by the implication that Will would betray them, well betray her anyway, and team up with Beckett, "We fight!"

There was not even a moment of silence before laughter erupted from every mouth but those of the Black Pearl. Alina rubbed a tired hand over her face before snatching the dirtied neckerchief off a random pirate and stuffing it in Elizabeth's mouth. "You are not a pirate lord. You have no piece of eight. You barely register as a pirate at all, let alone any low lying member of the Brethren Court. You. Do. Not. Speak."

"Shipwreck Cove is a fortress." Mistress Ching interrupted with a smirk, "A well supplied fortress. There is no need to fight if they cannot get to us."

Alina turned her steely gaze to the overly smug idiot, "No matter how well supplied, we will eventually lose out to an armada. They need only send out a handful of ships with a minimal crew to resupply and maintain an impenetrable barricade therefore we must take action."

"And there be a third course to consider." Hector piggy-backed, "In another age at this very spot, the first Brethren Court captured the sea goddess and bound her in her bones." He circled the table slowly, clenching his fist and bowing slightly to level his head between Sri Sumbhajee and Chevalle, "That was a mistake. Oh, we tamed the seas for ourselves, aye, but opened the door to Beckett, and his ilk!" He continued his circling, gauging those who would agree with him versus those he knew would need convincing, "Better were the days when mastery of seas came not from bargains struck with eldritch creatures," he made his way back to the head chair and throwing an arm around Alina's shoulders, "but by the sweat of a man's brow," he grunted slightly at the elbow dug into his side and amended his following statement, "and the strength of his or her back alone." Hector slung his second arm around Brandy's waist and pulled her to his side, "Ya'll know this to be true! Gentlemen, Ladies," He gave pause for dramatic effect, "we must free Calypso."

This time there was pause as the pirates all meditated on the words of Hector Barbossa. He made a fair point. Binding Calypso had hailed a new age of piracy, a golden age, but the ability to rule the seas independently, the ease with which pirates encroached upon the rest of the world, diminished the pride they felt. Took half the fun of piracy away. It almost wasn't worth it anymore to be a pirate at all.

But to free Calypso?

"Shoot him!" Ammand suddenly called out.

"Cut out his tongue!" Jocard added.

"Shoot him and cut out his tongue." Jack smiled, "And then shoot his tongue…and trim that scraggly beard."

"Sao Feng would have agreed with Barbossa!" Tai Huang supplied, speaking for his deceased lord.

Gentlemen Jocard stood, "Calypso was our enemy then, she will be our enemy now!"

"And it's unlikely her mood's improved." Chevalle followed.

"I would still agree with Sao Feng." Vallenueva looked to Tai Huang, "We release Calypso!"

Alina rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, knowing her right to speak for Sao Feng was not important to them. The rest of the lords and their crews broke into riot, flinging bottles and boxing each other about the ears, not willing to risk killing a lord in the melee, they kept their blades sheathed and their pistols locked. Hector, seeing the opportunity, jumped onto the cleared table and raised his pistol, firing into the air and effectively stopping the brawl.

"It was the first court what imprisoned Calypso. We should be the ones to set her free, and in her gratitude she will see fit to grant us boons."

"Whose boons?" Jack interrupted, finally speaking, "Your boons? Utterly deceptive twaddlespeak says I."

"If you have a better alternative," Hector spat, stepping down from the table, "please, share."

Jack paused for a moment, a childlike look of confusion sweeping his face before he smiled and said, "Cuttlefish." He looked around at the confused faces all turned to him, "Eh? Let us not, dear friends, forget our…dear friends..the cuttlefish." Jack approached Mistress Ching, carefully putting his hands on her shoulders to represent his response to her course of action, but being wary of the two guards watching him intently, "Flipper, penurious, little sausages. Hang 'em up together and they will devour each other without a second thought. Human nature isn't it? Or…fish nature? So yes, we could hole up here well provisioned and well armed, and half of us would be dead within the month," he squeezed Ching's shoulders slightly, "which seems rather grim to me any way you slice it.

"Or," he moved to Vallenueva, who was in full support of Barbossa, "as my learned colleague so naively suggests, we can release Calypso, and we can pray that she will be merciful." He dipped his head as if to make a side comment to one of Vallenueva's men but kept his voice even so all could hear, "I rather doubt it." He stood up again, spreading his arms to address the whole room, "Can we in fact pretend that she is anything other than a woman scorned like which fury hell hath no?" Lowering his arms again, he walked a few more steps until he was standing directly opposite Barbossa and continued, "We cannot. Res ipsa loquitur, tabula in naufragio." He smiled and looked at the faces around him, frowning again when no one understood the clever words he just spoke, but smiling again when he saw Alina smack her forehead, "we are left with but one option. I agree with, and I cannot believe the words are coming out of my mouth, Elizabeth Swann. We must fight."

"You beslubbering, pottle-deep, whorer!" Alina slapped her hands on the table and made to leap forward. Hector quickly pulled her back so she couldn't actually throttle the man, and received an elbow to the gut in thanks.

"You've always run away from a fight!" He glared at Jack, his voice slightly winded.

"Have not!" Jack shot back.

"You have so!"

"Have not!"

"You have so!"

"Have not!"

"You have so and you know it, you craven troglodyte!" Alina smacked at Hector, wriggling to free herself from Hector's tight grip.

"Have not, slander and calumny." He frowned. Surely Alina should be able to follow his train of thought. He was not agreeing with Elizabeth because she was Elizabeth, he was agreeing with her because it offered them a way out. Staying meant certain death, either by 'friendly' fire, by starvation, or by Beckett's men. They had to fight their way out! Why couldn't Alina see that? Why was Alina no longer on the same thought pattern as he was? Why did they no longer understand each other? And why was she so determined to see the worst in him? He shook his head, dispelling the evil thoughts, everything was fine. Everything would be fine.

"I have only ever embraced that oldest and noblest of pirate traditions. I submit that here now, that is what me all must do. We must fight…to run away." He waggled his eyebrows at the revelation of his brilliant plan.

"Aye!" Gibbs immediately called, earning the repeated chime from the rest of the lords.

"As per the code," Hector crossed his arms and eyed Jack with smug satisfaction, "an act of war, and this be exactly that, can only be declared by the pirate king."

"You made that up!" Jack pouted.

"Did I now?" He said slowly, patronizingly nodding his head along with his words before smirking, watching Jack's face intently, "I call on Cap'n Teague, Keeper of the Code."

Jack's face twisted immediately. How could he face the man who warned him against becoming the very man he had become? Teague had never wanted his son to go soft, but by the strict old man's world view, Jack had gone true lily-livered. And Jack did not want his da to know about Alina. True the man was probably listening to the whole thing, he'd probably seen and heard Alina, but no one had yet said her name, and he doubted his da would recognize the little girl who died as the grown woman, now captain.

Sumbhajee nudged the man to his right who promptly stood, "Sri Sumbhajee proclaims this all to be folly! Hang the code! Who cares a-"

Captain Teague stood at the balcony of one of the many inward facing ships that made up the walls of their fortress and blew at the end of his pistol, having just shot dead the man who questioned the code. "The code is law." He walked down to the table, curiously eyeing the girl standing behind Sao Feng's chair. Her attitude was familiar, but her mannerisms were off. There was something upsetting the girl, throwing her off her mark. It struck Teague as odd that she had said so little over the course of events. "You're in my way, boy."

Two old codgers brought forth the Pirata Codex and rested it gently on the table of lords before Teague whistled sharply, and the scruffy dog that once held the keys to Port Royal's jails now trot forward with the single key to unlocking the original code set forth by pirates, Morgan and Bartholomew.

"Wait…that can't…how did-?" Ragetti stumbled as he recognized the dog they had left at the cannibal island what seemed like eons ago.

"Sea turtles mate." Teague smirked propping himself against a chair, but not quite sitting on it. The dog barked twice in agreement.

"Oh good god, the story's hereditary." Alina rubbed the bridge of her nose, much to the amusement of those who knew Jack's relation.

"Who exactly are you, child?" Teague looked at her suspiciously.

"Aww, I'm hurt you don't remember me, Captain." Alina put an exaggerated hand to her heart.

"Da-"

"Jacky." Teague cut him off.

"Teague?" Alina smirked, calling his name in a baby voice with a sing-song inflection and cocking her head like a puppy dog.

Those closest to his end of the table heard his gasp as he realized who stood before him, "Lina?" At her salute, Teague fell out of his chair. He barely registered the floor as it smacked him in the face before he was standing once more, clearing his throat and skimming through the words written before him as if nothing had happened at all. "Ah, Barbossa is right."

"Hang on a minute," Jack smirked, holding up a finger and about to comment on what his father had just done. Teague's head snapped to look at Jack, who gulped under the icy glare that could wither a garden. He instead lowered his finger to the ancient text and read aloud, "It shall be the duties of the king to declare war…parler with shared adversaries…fancy that."

"There has not been a king since the first court," Captain Chevalle said, "and that's not likely to change."

"Not likely." Teague agreed.

"Why not?" Elizabeth whispered to Gibbs, daring not to speak louder for fear of what Alina would do to her.

"The pirate king is elected by popular vote," Gibbs informed, "but only the lords have the right to vote amongst themselves."

"And each pirate only ever votes for hisself." Hector looked at Jack with a pointed look that clearly said he had thought everything through in advance. They would not simply march out to war against the Company.

"I call for a vote." Jack called, earning a derisive snort from most of the lords. Teague turned to sit in a corner chair, away from the madness, plucking at the strings of his guitar as he came to terms with the knowledge that Alina Carter was alive, his son had found her again.

"I vote for Ammand, the Corsair!"

"Captain Chevalle, the Penniless Frenchman."

"Sri Sumbhajee votes for Sri Sumbhajee."

"Yes because the man who refuses to speak for himself would make a great king." Alina snorted, contemplating how events could turn out.

"Mistress Ching."

"Gentleman Jocard."

Hector saw Alina's hunched pose, saw her nibbling her bottom lip and playing with her thumbnail against her teeth, and knew she was planning her vote. He stepped forward and took her turn before anyone could pressure her to make her choice quickly, "Barbossa." He threw mockingly at Jack, who glared having seen him allow Alina to skip her turn.

"Vallenueva."

Jack looked at Alina, his gaze zeroing in, his emotions bubbling to the top, clouding his eyes and praying she understood his intentions and his plan like she always used to, "Alina Carter."

"What?" Her head jerked up immediately hearing her name where she should have heard Jack's. The entire room stood still, no one daring to make a sound just yet. Jack smiled at her, waving his hand indicating she was the only one left. That all she needed to do was say her name and she would be king. The first king since the first Brethren Court. The first female king ever.

Alina took a deep breath, looking Jack straight in the eyes. She squared her shoulders, lifted her chin, and proudly declared, "Hector Barbossa."

Note: Ha-HA! I bet you didn't see THAT coming now did ya? Be honest now, did ya? And don't worry, I didn't forget about ol' Norry, we'll see him in the next chapter ;)

Reviews let me know I'm not making horrible mistakes here!