Barbossa let out a wistful sigh as the Isla de Muerta came into view out of the fog.
Even with the morning sun steadily rising in the sky, the island was nearly untouched by its light. Only the gentler light of the moon was able to reach its craggy shore. A contradiction that highlighted the mystical nature of their hideaway.
The dour sight did nothing to dampen Barbossa's mood, though.
This was it! Soon, he would be rid of this blasted curse!
They could have done it immediately if they had arrived a few hours earlier, but waiting half a day more could not compare to the ten years they've already waited.
No matter. The extra time could be used to hunt down the rat that stowed away on his ship. With the crew freed up from their duties, they'd have more than enough hands and eyes to track the bastard down.
Thinking of the bastard, Barbossa's hand drifted to Jack's compass.
Gone.
Barbossa patted around his hip, just to be sure he hadn't missed it. He hadn't. It was just gone.
Barbossa did from the leather strap it had been attached to; cut.
Barbossa hadn't slept. He couldn't, not since he was cursed. They had taken it from him right under his nose.
He almost exploded in anger, just from the sheer audacity the rat had to dare pickpocket him.
Then terror gripped his unbeating heart. If they could steal the compass…
Barbossa's hands dug around his coat. Each passing second poured more ice in his veins.
Gone.
"The coin is gone!" Barbossa roared, more out of panic than rage, but there was rage.
His shout stilled the crew. Comprehension dawned on their faces. Several abandoned their tasks to search the deck, hoping that it had simply fallen somewhere. The rest hastened to finish mooring the ship so they could join in the hunt.
Barbossa retraced his steps. He already knew the truth, in the back of his mind, but he couldn't accept it. He hoped against hope that he was wrong, that he had simply dropped it.
They all scoured the ship, from top to bottom. Not a single speck of dust was left unturned. They even searched the ceilings and the outer walls.
Nothing.
The last place was Barbossa's quarters, where the Turner girl was kept.
"Where is the coin?!" Barbossa stormed inside.
"You took it from me, remember?" Elizabeth snarked. She was leaning against his desk in a casual fashion that irked him.
"Don't play games with me, girl," Barbossa snarled. "That coin is your only chance to go home."
Elizabeth smiled and shrugged with maximum exaggeration. "I don't know what to tell you, bud."
Barbossa felt like something was off here. Not that she was lying right to his face, that much was a certainty. Rather, it was how carefree she was about it.
"Do you think we won't hurt you, girl?" Barbossa asked, his voice cold.
"Pbbbzt~" Elizabeth blew a raspberry at him. "That was the plan right from the start, wasn't it? Why should I bother being polite?"
Barbossa scowled. "How much we hurt you has yet to be deter-"
*thunk*
Barbossa blinked. She just threw a wad of paper at him and struck him right between the eyes.
"I-"
*thunk*
"You-!"
*thunk*
"STOP-!!!"
*thunk thunk thunk*
"ENOUGH!!!!!" Barbossa grabbed her by the throat and slammed her into a wall. "I will not be disrespected this way on my own ship!"
"Whose ship, mate?" The voice set the hairs on the back of Barbossa's neck standing on end.
In his shock, he released the Turner girl and whirled around, his eyes scanning the room and finding nobody else. However, there on the desk, was something that hadn't been there a moment ago.
A conch shell.
Barbossa approached cautiously, so paranoid was he that even his near invulnerability was forgotten. He took the conch into his hands and found that a circle had been cut into the back of it. When he pressed it-
"Whose ship, mate?" Sparrow Jack's voice, clear and true, spoke from within.
"What devilry is this?" Barbossa whispered.
"He's not on the ship any more," Elizabeth drew his attention back to her. "He left that with me, right before he climbed out the window."
Barbossa glanced around, finding that there was in fact a window that was just slightly ajar.
Searching the island would be far more difficult than just the ship. Just when did he have the chance, though? There weren't actually any places he could have hidden when disembarking.
Unless his idiot crew just ignored him, assuming he was one of them.
"Damn it," Barbossa stalked out to give his men new orders.
He didn't notice Elizabeth smirking at his back, nor did he see her pull the coin he was looking for from her bosom and roll it across her fingers to taunt him.
…
"This is incredible," Elizabeth marveled. "You called it a 'submarine'? An appropriate name, I suppose. How does it move without the wind?"
"The answer to that question is much more…" the friendly skeleton said. "Long-winded than you could imagine! Yohoho!"
If Elizabeth hadn't already seen an entire crew of skeletal pirates, ones much less friendly than this one, then she'd probably be freaking out right now.
The rabbit girl had almost tipped her over the panic ledge, especially when she'd jumped at her and started rubbing her face against Elizabeth's. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you looked at it, she was pretty numb to world view upending surprises by now.
"Indeed, it is," the pink haired woman, Reiju, agreed with the skeleton, Brook. "There are centuries of technological advancements to walk you through before we get to submarines. Even then, I don't think I could explain this submarine to you. Its secrets elude even me."
"There'll be plenty of time later, though, no?" the rabbit girl, Carrot, asked in her stead.
Reiju nodded.
"I see," Elizabeth tried to hide her disappointment. "Can you explain how Cherry was able to stuff me into her pocket, then?"
"That's a power of a devil fruit," Reiju said, as if that alone explained it. She must have seen the lack of comprehension on Elizabeth's face though, because she continued, "We don't understand a whole lot about them even where we're from. They're almost like magic to us."
"Magic. Right," Elizabeth supposed she could accept that answer, as unsatisfying as it was. She could at least take some solace in the fact that there were things that even these strange people didn't know. "Like the cursed coins."
"Oh, no, we don't even have a clue about those things," Reiju corrected. "That shit's weird."
Elizabeth looked at Brook, who smiled back at her. She didn't have a clue how she knew he was smiling without any skin or flesh. "Weird. Right."
"I'm not like those other ones! I ate a devil fruit that allowed me to come back from the dead!" Brook quickly explained. "It's just that my soul got lost for a whole year, and my body had already become like this when I found it again!"
"I think that makes less sense than cursed gold," Elizabeth said. "Do you have any clue why Cherry wanted my dress? I appreciate that she gave me this interesting robe to wear, but I don't really get why she needed me to change."
"I imagine that she wanted to impersonate you," Brook guessed.
"But she doesn't-" Elizabeth paused. "Can she look like me?"
Brook nodded, and Elizabeth thanked her lucky stars that Cherry was on her side.