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Scarlett's Tale	By : lotusbalm Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (All) > Het - Male/Female Views: 5322 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own anything pertaining to the Pirates of the Caribbean. Disney owns it. I make no profit off of this and no infringement is intended.

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Scarlett's Tale

Chapter 3

Scarlett's feminine high-heeled boots dragged along the dirt-packed floor as her brother and another unsavory man with bulging muscles and dark skin hitched her under her armpits onto their shoulders. The woman named Angelica was at her back with the pistol to make sure Scarlett didn't start any funny business.

It was like everything was happening in slow motion, and all that she could hear was the pounding of her heart beat crashing in her ears.

Her home of three years was on fire. She slowly blinked as she watched the bright red-orange flames burst bigger and brighter, consuming everything. The townspeople of the Spanish fort were frantically running. Ladies in their long skirts and aprons protectively led their children along, trying to find cover from the gun blasts and cannon fires. The men heroically bared arms to protect the ones that they loved. All of their mouths were opened wide, so Scarlett knew they all were screaming - but she couldn't hear anything besides the rapid beat of her heart.

...Until she caught a scene that immediately cleared the white noise and made her flail at the iron clutches gripping her.

"No!" she screamed, kicking at anything within her vicinity. She watched in horror as Carlos was sent spluttering into a stone well. Scarlett looked up to see that Maria had barricaded herself in the second story of her and Carlos' home, and was framed within an arched window with the wooden slats opened wide. She was crying and praying to God and all His Saints. The bubbling of someone surfacing from water led Scarlett's gaze back to Carlos, who was strung around his middle with the rope that was meant to dip a pail into the well. His face was shiny and red from the water and lack of oxygen.

"Don't tell them anything, Carlos!" Maria screamed.

The pirates that surrounded the well were not very happy with her meddling. One aimed his pistol and shot in her direction. Maria screamed again and quickly closed the wooden slats to her window.

"Maria!" Carlos bellowed in anguish before he was sent spluttering into the water again.

"Let go of me! Let go!" Scarlett shrieked, as she watched the people she had grown to care about face danger. She managed to thrash her arm free from the muscular man holding her on one side and used her momentum to slap her brother across the face and rake her nails along the cut she had given him on his temple earlier. Her brother bellowed in pain and accidentally knocked into Angelica from behind him. The female pirate cursed in Spanish as she dropped her pistol. Thinking quickly, Scarlett used the momentary distraction to her advantage and swooped down and fetched a bucket of slops that was meant to be feed for pigs and threw it in all three of her captures faces. As the muck burned at their eyes she hopped up onto a series of wine barrels and climbed her way onto the terracotta roof, making sure to kick with all her might so that the barrels toppled onto the three dirty and irate scoundrels below her.

She didn't stick around to see what happened. Time was of the essence, after all. She sprinted across the red-brown connected rooftops, her boots clacking a heated rhythm against the shingles and her intricate skirts fluttering behind her. She made her way towards where Maria was trapped, dodging stray bullets that flew in her direction. Right when she was nearing Carlos' and Maria's home, a giant wall of fire burst up and a part of the roof collapsed inwards. She pinwheeled backwards, her arms flailing out behind her as the heat licked at her. She regained her balance as the blast died down. A sigh of relief escaped her lips as she patted down her form as if to check that none of her body parts had melted off. Her little brush with death over, she gave the collapsed part of the roof a wide berth and made her way to the roof ledge nearest to the window that Maria had last been seen in.

"Maria!" she screamed out as she flopped down onto her belly and slid her torso over the ledge so she was hanging halfway upside down. Her arms hung down in front of the window opening, as if ready to receive someone like a trapeze artist. "Maria grab my hands! I'm going to pull you out!"

There was no response. Scarlett screamed her name out again, but still there was no answer. Her breath coming out in harsh pants, Scarlett's wild gaze searched the smoke-filled room...

A petite little booted foot caught her eye. Maria. It was just shy of almost being out of Scarlett's view from the window, but from what she could see Scarlett could tell that by the angle of Maria's foot the little Spanish woman was lying unconscious on the floor. It must have been from the smoke fumes... Or at least she hoped it was the smoke fumes, because then she might still have a chance of being alive. "Maria," she screamed again at the top of her lungs, trying to rouse her. Silence, still.

Trying to get a better view of her unconscious friend she slipped a little lower - but the disproportion of her weight hanging over the ledge caused her booted feet's grip on the shingled roof to slip. She was slowly slipping to her death...

Down, down, down...

Smoke filled her lungs as she prepared to give her final scream. Her wide eyes took in the unconscious form of Maria - the last thing she would ever see.

Even Scarlett's terrified scream was a sweet, tinkling note. A beautiful sound to end the final curtain call with.

At the melodious sound Maria abruptly sat up, gasping for air and meeting Scarlett's terrified gaze as the redheaded beauty slid lower and lower. The shock of seeing her friend come back to life silenced Scarlett's scream as she descended.

It turned into a choked gasp as her ankles were forcefully gripped and pulled upwards, away from death.

"I've got you, Roselyn!" a deep, rumbling male voice called out. The most beautiful voice in all the world to Scarlett at this moment.

"Jack!" she shrieked in exhilaration, unable to see him.

He was pulling her up...

Away from Maria.

"WAIT!" she bellowed. "Lower me down again!"

There was a pause.

"...Come again? It sounded like you just unrealistically asked me to keep lowering you to your untimely death," was his incredulous response.

"Not to my death - to my friend Maria. I'm saving her," Scarlett called up to the pirate gripping her by her ankles on the rooftop.

"Oh is that what you were doing? Because to me it looked a lot like falling."

"Just do it!" she shrieked in exasperation.

"All right, all right. No need to act like a fishwife... You sure about this? Because there is a slight - and when I say slight I mean grotesquely grandiose - chance that all three of us will die instead of just one."

"STOP PIDDLING AND JUST LOWER ME DOWN YOU RUM SOAKED, SELF-SERVING SCALLYWAG!"

Jack cleared his throat. "I'll take that as a yes," he said as he carefully lowered the spitfire back down so she could pull her friend out of the window.

Maria had dragged herself up to the window ledge at this point, coughing all the while because thick black billowing smoke was filling the room. "Rosalia!"

"Maria, take my hands. My friend Jack and I are going to pull you out of here, all right?"

Maria nodded tremulously, her fear apparent in her big dark eyes. Scarlett managed a reassuring smile - even though all the blood was rushing to her head because she had been upside down for so long. They gripped each other's hands for dear life.

"All right, Jack. Pull us up," Scarlett called over her shoulder.

Jack grunted in response, heaving with all his might because he now had the weight of two women bearing on him. Scarlett gripped the roof as steadfastly as she could with her legs and feet, hauling her upper body and Maria up when she felt that she had been pulled up far enough. With collective grunts and exhausted gasps they landed in a pile with Scarlett on top of Jack and Maria on top of Scarlett.

"Not exactly the type of situation I have in mind when I find myself sweaty with two heaving women on top of me," Jack muffled around a mouth-full of Scarlett's wavy red hair.

Scarlett had just enough strength to roll her head to the side so that she could glare at the cheeky pirate. "Arse," she said half-heartedly, but she couldn't really be indignant with him - he had just saved her life. Again. Her glare turned into a grin and she kissed him full on the mouth. It was a brief, celebratory kiss. All lips and no tongue. But it seemed to shock the infamous Jack Sparrow none-the-less because he usually had to work harder than that before receiving Scarlett's attentions.

Maria's coughing fit brought Scarlett's attention away from Jack's puckered mouth. The pirate frowned grumpily as she pulled away. "Maria are you all right?" Scarlett asked as she gently sat the plump little matronly woman upright and patted on her back.

"Yes, I will be fine," Maria said, turning to face Scarlett. Tears and soot streaked down her face. "Oh Rosalia, I am so sorry that I let that deceitful man into your room. He told me- I thought-" she couldn't finish her words because she had broken down in sobs.

"Oh Maria it's all right. Everything will be fine," Scarlett said, stroking the dark sweaty hair at the crown of Maria's head.

"Not too sure about that, Love," Jack said in a distant voice.

Scarlett stopped mid stroke as she felt an ominous wave pass through her.

"Look," Jack said, sitting up and motioning to the ground level below them.

Except for the crackling flames, everything and everyone had gone dishearteningly quiet. Scarlett felt her heart freeze in her chest as she took in the sea of faces staring at her. Her brother and Angelica Malon were at the very front of the buccaneer crowd. The muck that Scarlett had thrown on them was smeared off as best as they could get it off but even their best efforts couldn't get out the hideous dark stains on their clothing. Clumps of their hair were dried muddy strings. She could tell by the set of their jaws and the hate in their eyes that they had both seen her and Jack Sparrow kiss. She didn't know how invested Angelica Malon's emotions were in Jack but she knew very well that the sight of her kissing a pirate would incur her brother's rage...

Angelica pulled a dampened Carlos in front of her by the scruff of his shirt and wielded a silver dagger dangerously close to his neck... Now Scarlett was sure that the sight of Scarlett and Jack's kiss incurred her rage. "Come down here or I will slit his throat," Angelica said with a lethal edge to her voice.

"Angelica," Jack said enigmatically, drawing everyone's attention to him. "Got off that island, I see. You look..."

'Like a mud-loving toad,' Scarlett thought privately. Jack however settled on saying, "Lively." He stood up and bounced on the balls of his heels, sweeping his arms out in a grand gesture. "In fact, your whole crew looks like a lively bunch. What do you say to drinks all around, yeah?" he said in crowd-pleasing voice.

Several of the men looked confused at Jack's care-free suggestion. Others murmured that they could go for some rum.

Angelica's eyes narrowed. "You're not going to get out of this one with your smooth talk, Jack Sparrow. I was merely giving you the benefit of choosing to cooperate. But now - now I think I will make the choice for you." There was a flash of silver and suddenly Carlos fell to his knees. Dark crimson blossomed on his white billowing shirt and his glassy eyes stared at Maria for a brief moment before the glimmer went dull and he went face down into the dirt floor. Angelica gave a swift nod and a group of hulking men weaved their way out of the crowd and easily jumped up and pulled themselves onto the ledge of the roof.

"Carlos!" Maria screamed in despair. "My love!" she continued in Spanish. "You murderous witch! You have taken him from me!"

Scarlett felt like a physical blow had been dealt to her. She stared in shock at the man who had been the closest thing to a father she'd ever had now lying dead in the dirt in his own pool of blood. So stunned was she that she didn't even take notice of the heavily muscled men making their way towards her. Jack, however, did and pulled his sword out with one hand and a pistol with his other. He shot the one closest to her while stabbing another through his navel with his sword. The loud bang brought her back to the present and she quickly pulled the sword off the dead man that Jack had shot and took a defensive stance just in time to clash blades with one of Angelica's minions. She fought valiantly, but her skill was no match for their sheer brawn. One extremely large man with biceps as thick as palm tree trunks clashed blades with her and had her bent over almost backwards just from his sheer bulk... So she cheated and kneed him in between his legs. He squealed and toppled over. Scarlett hit him with the hilt of her pilfered sword, knocking him unconscious.

Jack, who had witnessed the scene, grimaced as if he could feel the man's pain in his own genitals. "My sympathies, Mate," he said before he was back in the fray. They fought for a short while longer, but soon they were back to back and closed in on all sides by the enemy.

"Jack..." Scarlett said on a tremulous breath as she poised her sword defensively. "I really hope you've still got a few tricks up your sleeve."

"I do," he said as he circled around as the crowd of men drew nearer. "That is...unless I've been deserted by me crew again. Which is highly probable," he said with a regrettable sigh.

"But not at all for certain," the gravelly voice of Jack's first mate, Mr. Gibbs, suddenly said very near by. To Scarlett's (and Jack's) amazement an outpouring of Jack's buccaneer crew suddenly made it on to the scene, evening out the odds. A crowd of them had joined Jack, Scarlett and a sobbing Maria on the roof while the rest fought at ground level. With renewed hope, Scarlett let the buccaneers take over the sword fighting while she ducked and dodged and made her way over to Maria.

At the sight of Maria's red and puffy face from all her tears, suddenly all of the sympathy remarks died on Scarlett's lips and she didn't know what to say. A heavy ache slammed into her chest. She looked down into the crowd at Angelica Malon, who was carrying her own in a sword fight against one of Jack's crewmen, and a deep and abiding hatred swelled within her at the sight of the lovely, lethal Spanish woman.

She would exact revenge against the woman, if it was the last thing she ever did.

Suddenly she was ripped away from her thoughts - and ripped away from Maria's side as well. Marcus' hand clamped over her mouth, and he had her barred against his chest with his other arm. She knew it was him because it wasn't the first time he had pulled her to him by force. She screamed against his hand but only a muffled sound came out.

"Rosalia!" Maria wailed with an arm outstretched to her.

Scarlett's thrashing would not work for her this time. Her brother was running on pure rage. He forcefully dragged her down a series of roofs until he reached an area where a pile of straw was on the ground, and jumped with her in his arms. They landed and she quickly rolled out of his grasp - but her escape was short lived because he pulled her back to him by her hair and smacked her so hard that her world went black.

"Sorry about that Roselyn," he said mock-sympathetically. "But you've become rather unruly and it simply had to be done."

And with that he took her to his ship, The Red Temptress, and locked her in a cell below deck.

Scarlett woke with a groan. Her head felt as if it weighed a ton. She was, however, abruptly sobered when she blinked her eyes all the way open and realized that she was barred within a cell. There was a certain sway that also let her know that she was on a sea bound ship.

"Ah, you're awake. Thought you were dead, you slept so long," a clipped feminine voice spoke.

Scarlett quickly turned to the sound and was led to the only other occupied cell. A woman with smooth skin the color of dark brown coffee stared at her with large, pretty dark eyes. She wore plain, sun-bleached sailor's clothing and did not look as if she smiled often.

Scarlett clutched her throbbing head. "Where am I?"

The woman peered at her for a long moment, taking in Scarlett's wild red hair, green eyes, and decadently seductive dress. Scarlett could tell by the shuttered look in the woman's eyes that she had all ready decided that she didn't like Scarlett based on appearance alone. Most young women didn't. "You're on Captain Marcus Fane II's ship. We've been captured... He's your brother, in'nt he?"

"Yes," Scarlett said on a shuddered breath. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!

The woman played with a hole at the bottom hem of her breeches, her dark calves a striking contrast to the light clothing she wore. Her next words were flippant, but packed with meaning. "It's true what Jack says about you, then. Every man that meets you is left smitten and wanting more... Even your own brother."

Scarlett curled her upper lip in disgust and gripped the bars of her cell. She decided that she didn't like this woman much either. "Oh, I see. You must be another of Jack's conquests. I'm going to give you a very important piece of advice when it comes to him," she said with narrowed eyes. "Save yourself the jealousy - he doesn't love you."

The woman looked scandalized. "I'm not one of his girls! ...He stole my boat," she said indignantly, sitting up ramrod straight and putting on airs as if she wasn't in a God forsaken cell.

Realization dawned on Scarlett. "You're Anamaria! Jack's told me about you..." Suddenly she liked the woman a bit more, recalling that she had walloped Jack good a time or two. "You know you're never going to get a boat from him, don't you?"

Anamaria did not look pleased with this statement. But she deflated as if she knew it were true... Scarlett found this curious. If the woman knew that she would not be getting a boat from Jack, then why did she stick around? Suddenly she wondered if she had struck a nerve when she said that Jack didn't love her. "Are you...ah, are you taken with Captain Jack Sparrow?"

Anamaria looked as if she had gotten a giant whiff of rotten fish. "Ugh, God no. Anyone whose daft enough to fall in love with that drunken lunatic is a fool..." Her lips twitched into an almost-smile, as if she was recalling fond memories. "I suppose I stay around because, well-" This next part seemed as if it took her a Herculean effort to utter, "Because my crew mates are...my family," she said with a look in her eyes that said if Scarlett dared to make fun of her she would suffer the consequences.

Scarlett didn't laugh at all. She understood perfectly. "Were you there when that pirate woman Angelica Malon slit that man's throat after Jack and I saved the woman from the burning building?"

Anamaria nodded curiously.

"He was my family."

Understanding sunk into the buccaneer woman's dark eyes. She gave Scarlett a brief nod. Suddenly the atmosphere changed by their confessions. Scarlett knew that she had just gained an ally. "When did you get captured?" she asked Anamaria.

She sighed, "At the end of the skirmish. Some coward hit me over the back of the head and I woke up here." She paused thoughtfully. "That lady that you and Jack saved - she's alive. She made it onto The Black Pearl with Jack and the crew... I was so close to makin' it back to the ship," she griped, shaking her head slowly as if she couldn't believe her bad luck.

Scarlett nodded, a bit of relief sinking in knowing that at least Maria was safe. "What brought you all to Fuerte San Jerónimo?"

Anamaria eyed her in a way that suggested she thought Scarlett a bit slow. "Treasure, of course - least in my case. The Panama forts are where the Spanish ship their silver and gold before they import it to Spain, as every pirate in the Caribbean knows... Though it was originally Jack's idea to go there." Anamaria suddenly gave her a strange look. "He kept eye-in' his compass...muttering that what he wanted most was at Fuerte San Jerónimo. But when we got there we found that someone had gotten to the plundering before us. Jack didn't want to turn back, though. He headed into the fort while the rest of us decided on whether or not to follow him or set sail... Finally we decided that we owed it to our captain to stick by him and we found him on a roof saving you."

"Saving Maria," Scarlett corrected. "He was helping me save my friend Maria."

"No offense, lady, but you looked like you needed some saving as well," Anamaria said with an indelicate snort.

"I s'pose you're right," Scarlett relented, but then she pointedly looked around at their surroundings. "Saved only to be captured anyway... Fat lot of good that did me, eh?"

Anamaria shrugged. "'Least in here we're still alive. If you'd fallen you'd not have any chance of survival."

Scarlett took in her surroundings - took in the sight of her brother's ship. Distantly she said, "Oh I'd fallen long ago.." She looked Anamaria dead in the eye. "But now - being here in this ship - this is where my fall comes to an end and I suffer the consequences."

Before Anamaria had any time to react, the chilling voice of Scarlett's brother, Captain Marcus Fane II, intruded in on their conversation. "And here I was hoping that you would take a shining to The Red Temptress... It's named after you, you know." Scarlett whipped her head around and found him staring at her with those cold blue eyes. He was impeccably dressed once again with his white-blonde hair tied back and a new captain's hat on his head - since Scarlett had thrown muck on the other. "Now that you're awake it's time for you to meet the crew..." He broke into a slow smile. "I think you will find at least one of them familiar... Someone from your past who will...shed light on your current situation."

To be continued...

Author's Note: Dun dun dun! Feedback is appreciated :)
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Scarlett's Tale