Aboard the Royal Navy Battleship Dauntless.
The sailors were celebrating; they had just captured the infamous Ghost Ship pirates of the Black Pearl—a victory worth toasting.
None of them knew how the pirates had suddenly returned from the Living Dead state.
But no matter—an effortless win is still a win.
"Rest assured, Governor Swann, Elizabeth is on the island; we will bring her back safely!" Commodore Norrington declared confidently.
Swann nodded, yet his gaze drifted toward the island's flank.
Earlier, Dauntless had spotted a pirate craft there and fired a warning shot; Norrington assumed it was the Black Pearl, but Swann had his doubts.
The Navy knew the island's location only because a merchant sailor had informed them.
Yet that merchant vessel was the very one Fang Yuan had disguised, and the fleeting pirate ship had clearly lured them in.
When the attackers abruptly reverted from undead to human, Governor Swann could only credit Fang Yuan.
"He lured Dauntless here and broke the Ghost Ship curse—Black King really is… a good pirate!" Swann mused.
The thought itself felt absurd.
Since when are pirates good?
Norrington soon interrogated the captives, learning the cave where Barbossa and Elizabeth were held and how to reach it.
Dauntless was too large for the channel, so Norrington ordered the men into ship's boats—fifteen sailors per craft, ten boats in all.
The pirates claimed only five people, Elizabeth included, were inside; such force was overkill.
But Norrington also wanted the treasure the pirates had amassed—prizes of war for Dauntless.
Hence he led the party personally.
Halfway there, however, renewed uproar broke out aboard Dauntless.
"The prisoners revolted?"
Impossible, Norrington thought—barely twenty pirates remained against hundreds of sailors.
He raised his telescope and froze in horror.
"Undead!"
Nearly thirty skeletons swarmed the deck, far faster and fiercer than the previous batch.
"Back—now!" Norrington barked, wheeling his men around.
A shout rang from the shore.
"Commodore Norrington, since you're here, don't leave."
He spun about to see Fang Yuan, Elizabeth and others.
Behind Fang Yuan stood twenty more skeletons, cutting off any desperate landing.
"You!" Norrington seethed. "You're a pirate!"
"Wait!"
A Chinese face among pirate Captains was unmistakable in the Caribbean.
Only one Yellow-Skinned pirate Captain fit—
"Fang Yuan!"
"You… are Fang Yuan?" Norrington gasped.
The rival he had resented as a merchant was, in truth, the greatest foe of his naval career.
No wonder they had clashed.
"Dauntless is mine now, Commodore. Don't waste lives resisting," Fang Yuan called with a smile.
"The battle isn't over!"
Norrington refused surrender.
He could still fight his way back, sail Dauntless out.
As for Elizabeth?
She stood pressed against Fang Yuan as though fused to him; rescue seemed pointless.
Fang Yuan waved; Jack at once lit a Flare and fired it skyward.
A dozen pirate vessels of every size emerged, encircling Dauntless completely.
Fang Yuan ignited a black talisman; black smoke poured through Dauntless, and every sailor collapsed—save the undead pirates.
Escape?
Between the undead inside, the cannons outside, and the crew prostrate, Norrington knew Dauntless was trapped.
"Surrender, Norrington."
"In these waters you're a rare talent, already a commodore so young," Fang Yuan shouted.
"Me, yield to pirates? Never!"
"Reckless youth. Refuse, and you and your men die here for nothing—no glorious epitaph."
"With Elizabeth in my hands, Governor Swann will report to London whatever I dictate," Fang Yuan added bluntly.
"Damn you!"
Norrington's face was grim; he knew Fang Yuan spoke no lie.
If he couldn't even die in battle, then dying here would truly be pointless.
"On the contrary, if you surrender, as long as you work hard, I wouldn't mind promoting you even further." Fang Yuan spoke as though the British Empire were his personal property.
Norrington glanced at the surrounding soldiers and saw only fear in their eyes; none dared meet his gaze.
He realized at once that even if he ordered them to fight to the death, no one would charge with him.
Ordinary pirates would be one thing, but the Black Emperor Pirates?
An Emperor of the Seas isn't just a title; over the years Fang Yuan's fame had spread across the oceans, especially the Caribbean Sea.
Which ships could leave the Caribbean depended entirely on Fang Yuan's say-so.
Although the Black Emperor Pirates rarely slaughtered indiscriminately after seizing a vessel, that very restraint had only widened their reputation; many of these sailors had heard of the Black King before joining the navy, and now that they faced him they trembled uncontrollably.
Norrington was locked in a fierce internal struggle—surrender or die in battle?
Had it been his look-alike, Captain America, the man might have sworn never to surrender and boasted of fighting Fang Yuan all day long.
But Norrington was different; he was a rational man.
So when the Dauntless fell under the control of Fang Yuan's undead crew, Norrington made his decision without hesitation: "I surrender!"
Fang Yuan wasn't surprised; in the original story, after failing to capture the black pearl and losing his fleet in a hurricane, Norrington had turned pirate.
It was a pity about the Dauntless—such a fine ship consigned to the seabed.
In that sense, Fang Yuan was actually doing good by saving the crew of the Dauntless.
Had Norrington known the ship's fate, he should have thanked Fang Yuan for sparing it.
Hearing Norrington's surrender, Fang Yuan smiled in satisfaction.
That's more like it.
And so the grand confrontation between Port Royal's navy and the black pearl ended with Fang Yuan reaping the spoils.
Both the Port Royal Navy and the Black Pearl lost; only Fang Yuan emerged victorious.
Yet in the long view, Jack had regained the Black Pearl, Fang Yuan would help him deal with Davy Jones, Norrington had preserved his naval career, and Barbossa had escaped death and had his curse lifted—no one had truly lost.
Fang Yuan had no need for Norrington to become a pirate; pirates he had in abundance, but inside the navy he lacked allies.
For now, Norrington would have to disappear for a time; with the Dauntless in Fang Yuan's hands, returning immediately would make him the scapegoat.
Once the storm blew over, Fang Yuan would find the right moment to return Norrington to the navy.
Fang Yuan had plenty of practical experience with such arrangements.
Only after everyone boarded the Dauntless did Fang Yuan lift the sorcery binding the ship.
Governor Swann was overjoyed to see Elizabeth safe, but his eyes widened in shock when he spotted his daughter, Commodore Norrington, and unfamiliar pirates all walking behind Fang Yuan.
"Commodore Norrington has defected?" Swann exclaimed in disbelief, then rushed to Elizabeth to check if she was unharmed.
Norrington?
Never heard of him.
Elizabeth showed herself openly to her father. "Don't worry, Father, I'm perfectly fine!"
Only then did Governor Swann breathe a sigh of relief.
Yet he could see that while his daughter was physically unhurt, her heart had changed.
As Elizabeth spoke, her eyes kept drifting toward Fang Yuan, and Swann knew the girl was hopelessly smitten.
At that moment Swann realized something else—he no longer needed to fear that his cooperation with pirates would leak out.
Because everyone here had switched sides.
Governor Swann could only accept the situation; a civil official with no knowledge of warfare, he was simply grateful Elizabeth had returned safely.
As for Port Royal, let Fang Yuan have it—before long Elizabeth would give it to him anyway.
"Mr. Swann, you may word the dispatch to London thus: Commodore Norrington engaged the Black Emperor Pirates with the Dauntless, but was outnumbered; the commodore is now missing, presumed dead," Fang Yuan instructed his future father-in-law.
"Ah... very well!"
Swann could only nod in agreement.
Norrington offered no objection; at least this version left him some room to maneuver.
Of course, from now on the Caribbean would have no room left, falling entirely under Fang Yuan's control.
With the navy in his pocket, merchant vessels would obediently pay their protection fees.
Fang Yuan wasn't worried about loose tongues; every naval sailor had swallowed a pitch-black pill, warned that revealing the Black Emperor Pirates' secrets would mean instant death.
He need only pick two "lucky" men and stage their deaths as a poisoning, and no one would dare whisper a word.
Now, as Fang Yuan ran his hand over the Dauntless—already his own—
"Time for a major refit!"
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