Aztecs' Curse

Chapter 20

     The Governor watched in pure terror from behind the pitiful safety of the cabin doors aboard the Dauntless, squinting through the fogged glass, watching quietly as the living and dead alike fought one another. When it appeared that one fight in particular was drawing near, he quickly pulled back, breathing quickly and heavily, and jumped as one of the soldiers slammed against the door face first and slid down the glass. The pirate who had killed him--some skeletal man with dreads, that the Governor could see--spotted him, and peered into the glass, making him gasp and attempt to hide from sight. But, this did not stop the living dead man from bashing his arm through the glass, drawing a scream from Swann.

More arms followed, of which drew more screams from the terrified man as he crawled backwards on the floor of the cabin, not even considering the fact that he could roll away from the doors. One of the skeleton hands grabbed a hold of his wig and pulled it off his head, drawing his attention, which cut his screams, and he grunted as he struggled to keep a hold of his precious wig, sweating in pure determination. In fact, this was enough to encourage him to grab the nearest object and bash it against the pirate's arm, breaking it apart.

* * *

Within the caves of the Island, Barbossa and Jack continued their fight, both desperately attempting to outmatch each other. Though Jack's mind was set upon rescuing Will from his fate as well as actually restoring the pirates to their living form, he couldn't help but let his thoughts stray to Victoria, of which all distracted him. In fact, his thoughts distracted him enough to not see Barbossa's foot heading for his face causing him to fall flat on his back, and he found himself glaring up at his former first mate, which sneered down at him. But then, though it was surprising enough, it was also what Jack was counting on to happen.

"You can't beat me, Jack," Barbossa said, throwing his arms out before dropping them to his side, having had tossed his sword in the process, as smug as ever.

Jack, not wasting any time, leapt to his feet and slid his sword neatly into Barbossa's chest. Barbossa, after a deep sigh, pulled it out and quickly did the same to Jack, who gasped before slowly looking at Barbossa, who grinned madly. It was painful, of course, but fortunately Jack had nothing to worry about, which he showed for as he stepped back into a ray of moonlight, his form turning from flesh to bone, wiping the smile from Barbossa's face.

He held his hand up, examining his skeletal self, feeling rather odd to be without his skin and organs--if anything, he felt nothing, and yet he felt cold. "That's interesting." He lowered his hand, and lifted his other level to his face, balancing the gold piece he had grabbed earlier between his knuckles and watching as it rolled back and forth across his fingers before he looked over at Barbossa, his face formed in a permanent grin. "Couldn't resist, mate."

With a scoff, Barbossa quickly leaned down, grabbing his sword with one hand, and snagging a handful of coins, throwing them at Jack, who moved just as quickly as he lifted his arms to ward them off before scrambling back as he was attacked, managing to catch Will's awed and confused expression before he too was attacked again.

The two pirates warded off one another's attacks, Jack stepping back quite a ways until he finally sent Barbossa spiraling backwards, down the steep ridge they fought each other upon, forms flickering from solid to skeletal as they passed from shadows to moonlight. Though Jack had managed to send Barbossa to his knees, the man still fought as if unfazed.

* * *

Upon the ship, the Governor scrambled backwards as the skeletal arm he had dismantled from the skeleton outside the room crawled towards him, frantically casting a look about as he rose to his feet. Then, quickly, he grabbed a hold of the item he had used to disconnect the arm in the first place, a grim look of determination set in his eyes as he brought it down upon the arm, constantly smacking at it as it bounced about the floor.