bonus chapter this week to celebrate me finishing writing this story!! updates will continue once a week after this, but i'm so pumped right now that i wanted to get more words out here for y'all to read. <3

It wasn't long after the dreary ceremony that the expedition to Tia Dalma's lair began. Leaving Ho-Kwan and Lejon with the Black Pearl, the leftover pirates (and Will) piled into two longboats, aiming to reach the mysterious swamps as night fell completely.

As Joanna dropped into her assigned boat, she fixed a heated glare to the space between Jack's shoulder blades. Perhaps if she stared hard enough, those dreads would catch alight and she would succeed in winning his attention.

"What is it?" Will asked unobtrusively, joining Joanna, Gibbs, and Pintel in the second longboat.

Joanna ceased craning her neck to see Jack's insufferable figure. "Jack will be Jack," she replied in a murmur. Why did you ask Will about Davy Jones? Why do you need to see Tia Dalma? What's wrong with your hand? Why are you afraid of the sea? These were all questions Joanna would like to pose to her captain, but he had made himself very scarce since their altercation belowdecks.

"I can't argue that," Will returned.

"Who could?" Gibbs cut in with wry amusement, having overheard their discussion. Without preamble, he shoved the oars in Pintel's direction. Pintel, already on thin ice, began rowing with naught but a scowl.

They coasted toward the mouth of the Pantano River in relative silence, broken only by the sluggish drawl of oars through water. Joanna, left with nothing to do but think and observe, noted the strange tension that hung over the crew. It had been a terrible few days, to be sure, but the sprout of that tension grew more from the incongruous attitude of their captain.

Joanna's trailing thoughts led into sudden remembrance. She asked Gibbs, "How faired Jack's little adventure, while I was away?"

Gibbs' expression flickered with irritation at the reminder. "Successful enough for Jack's peculiar taste. We were waitin' outside that Turkish prison for three days for 'im, and he returns with a useless piece of paper." Gibbs shook his head at Jack's apparent idiocy.

Joanna blinked. "The paper, like...with the key on it? That paper?"

Gibbs nodded long-sufferingly, tired of hearing questions about the useless piece of paper.

There was a pause. Joanna murmured, "I'm surprised he would risk the crew's favor like that."

"Aye," Gibbs concurred vehemently. "I was busy those three days, let me tell ye."

"Jack's lucky to have you, Gibbs," Joanna apprised the quartermaster with a smile.

"Ain't that the truth." Gibbs grinned, unashamed to admit it.

By that time, the longboats had reached the shade of the tree canopy. More bugs, Joanna ascertained, slapping at a few with distinct resentment. Now, all life is precious, Anna, Jack would say, if he was beside her -- and then she'd slap him, too.

"Gibbs," Will piped up questioningly. His expression was one Joanna rarely saw on William -- guileful and a little scheming. "You said the paper is useless?"

"'Tis," Gibbs groused. "I imagine Jack's true motivations regardin' infiltratin' that prison were information."

Joanna's ears perked up. "Information?"

"On what?" Will added.

Gibbs looked cornered. But if Gibbs had one thing in common with Jack, it was a flair for the dramatic. He delineated to Joanna and Will in detail, "Well, if ye believe such things, there's a beast that does the bidding of Davy Jones. A fearsome creature -- with giant tentacles that suction your face clean off! -- and drag an entire ship down to the crushing darkness."

Joanna, a purveyor of sea stories, guessed timidly, "...the Kraken?"

The oars stuttered fearfully as Pintel overheard.

"Aye," Gibbs nodded severely. "They say the stench of its breath is jus'...ooh." He shuddered. An echoing chill crept up Joanna's spine. "Imagine -- the las' thing ye know on God's green earth is the roar of the Kraken and the reeking odor of a thousand corpses."

It was a grim fate indeed. Even Will looked a shade paler.

"If ye believe such things," Gibbs finished lamely as if he wasn't the most superstitious sailor to sail the seven seas.

Joanna's brow furrowed as she analyzed the fresh evidence -- it hardly fit what details she had already collected. Davy Jones' pet was an omnipresent, antique legend. What would cause Jack to so suddenly and vividly fear it?

Regardless, Gibbs' thespian speech was awarded what it deserved: an appreciative, disconcerted silence. But another question remained, and so Will asked, "Jack thinks the key will spare him that?"

Gibbs quirked a smile. "Now that's the very question Jack wants answered. Bad enough, even, to go visit..." His eyes turned haunted. "Her."

"...Her?" Will pressed.

"Aye," Gibbs said in a sotto voice. "Her."

Joanna had never met Tia Dalma and therefore did not know if Gibbs' fears had foundation, so she restrained herself from rolling her eyes. She explained to Will, "Tia Dalma. From what Jack has told me, she's some type of witch."

"A witch?" Will raised a skeptical eyebrow.

Joanna elbowed him. "William. Really. Nothing should surprise you, at this point. Has civilian life gotten to you?"

Will cracked a grin. "I'm but a blacksmith, Jo."

"Like hell you are." Joanna couldn't help from beaming. When Joanna arrived in Port Royal in unfamiliar dress, she had resigned herself to only seven days with Will. And here he was, still at her side. The circumstances were unfortunate, but the company was not.

...

Tia Dalma's home was nestled in a grove of swooping tree canopies, surrounded by a moat of brown water. Joanna wasn't sure, but she thought she saw peering eyes in between the dark tree trunks. The air wavered with warm humidity and glowing fireflies, but Joanna felt chilled nonetheless. Her thoughts refused to deviate from voodoo and giant squids.

Jack broke his unsettling silence as they docked at Tia's spindly shack. With a reassuring grin, he faced his crew. "No worries, mates -- Tia Dalma and I go way back. Thick as thieves, nigh inseparable, we were. Are." Jack's smile melted into a discomfited frown. "Were. Have been...before."

Gibbs scaled the ladder to join Jack on the slim dock. "I'll watch your back," he assured Jack.

"It's me front I'm worried about," Jack murmured in reply, shooting Tia's home a dubious glance.

"Then I'll watch your front," Joanna said, weaving around Gibbs to Jack's side. Jack stubbornly refused to meet her eyes. Doggedly, Joanna squeezed his shoulder.

"Mind the boat," said Gibbs to Will.

"Mind the boat," said Will to Ragetti.

The chain continued in the same repetitive manner over Joanna's shoulder. Her concern was greater than protecting the beat-up longboats. That concern was reaching for the doorknob.

"Wait!" She hissed at Jack. He froze, looking directly at her for the first time in several hours. "That's rude. You have to knock."

Jack's face flickered in annoyance. Without dropping her gaze, Jack knocked pointedly on the door. Asshole piece of shit scum, Joanna mouthed at him, feeling the prickles of true aggravation.

Jack's fist barely left the face of the door before it slowly, menacingly, swung open.

The onlooking pirates whimpered and murmured in consternation. Even brave Will's spine went rigid.

"...Neat trick," Joanna whispered.

Wavering on sea legs, Jack edged inside. Joanna peeked over his shoulder, flicking one of his braids from her field of vision.

"Jack Sparrow," drawled the cabin's single, enigmatic occupant. Face slowly splitting into a silver grin, she stood.

Joanna was reminded immediately, in some strange way, of Jack. Perhaps it was in the way Tia Dalma crossed the room to them, swaying and drawing her fingers purposefully through the air. Perhaps it was her mass of dreadlocked, ornamented hair, twisted and piled into arrangements even more ostentatious than Jack's.

"Tia Dalma," Jack replied graciously -- respectfully, Joanna realized. Her genuine welcome had set him at ease, but he did eye a hanging jar of eyeballs with due perturbation.

"I always knowed the wind was gonna blow you back to me one day," Tia simpered, curling her fingers in Jack's direction. Joanna had never seen Jack smile bashfully, but she did now.

Tia's esoteric presence inflated the room with tangible mystique. Joanna thoughtfully altered her perspective -- perhaps it was Jack who took after Tia, not the other way around.

"You," said Tia Dalma. Joanna blinked to awareness and found herself on the receiving end of the witch's pointer finger. Joanna raised her eyebrows -- me? -- and glanced over her shoulder for what else could have caught Tia's attention. Sure enough, Joanna located Will Turner.

"You have a...touch of destiny about you," Tia continued reverently, brushing past an insulted Jack to study Will. "William Turnah."

Will glanced nervously at Joanna, who shrugged with bafflement. Will resolved to eye Tia cautiously. "You know me?" He asked.

Tia grinned. "You wan' to know me?" She cooed, walking her fingers up Will's chest. Will's eyes went wide.

Jack slid in to save the day, frowning deeply. "Oi. There'll be no knowing here." Deftly, he slid an arm into Tia's and drew her away. "I thought I knew you."

"Not so well as I had hoped," Tia returned sharply, abandoning Jack's side in favor of her disheveled desk. "Come," she added over her shoulder.

As they obeyed, Joanna warily glued herself to Will's side. Tia appeared friendly, but she also appeared to consider pickled body parts as eloquent interior decoration. If any of those embalmed toes came to life and scuttled after Joanna, she trusted Will more than anyone else to slice and dice the errant extremities.

Tia boasted one other chair in addition to her own. Will took it, belligerently stepping in front of Jack to reach it. Jack looked to the sky for patience. Forcing down a snicker, Joanna slipped to stand over Will's shoulder.

The remaining pirates rallied nervously around Tia's eclectic desk, fixing one eye on their eldritch hostess and one on the massive boa constrictor slumbering in the corner.

Will's seat awarded him a front-row seat to Tia Dalma's show. She brushed a finger against his jaw, asking sweetly, "What...service, may I do ya?" On a dime, she flipped to brusque. "Ye know I demand payment," she snapped at Jack.

Jack waved his sparkling fingers and Ragetti brought the cage forth. "I brought payment -- an undead monkey!" He brandished his pistol. With great satisfaction, Jack fired a shot at the furious creature. "Top that," Jack said over the cacophony of furious screeches, smiling smugly.

Tia's eyes glinted as she accepted the cage. "Hm," she hummed and released the latch. As the monkey scurried away to freedom, she announced, "De payment is fair."

Gibbs, meanwhile, winced emphatically. "You've no idea how long it took us to catch that."

"You didn't even do anything," Marty pointed out.

With great piratical flair, Will stole the drawing of a key from Jack's pocket. Jack barely noticed, preoccupied with his own thievery -- Joanna watched out of the corner of her eye as he slipped a clinking pouch into his pocket. "We're looking for this," Will informed Tia, unfurling the ratty paper before her.

Tia's face went hard and still. "De compass ye barter from me," She began suddenly, tearing her eyes from the key in order to stare at Jack. "It cannot lead you to this?"

Joanna blinked as she realized she had never asked Jack about the compass's origins. He had enough glamour about him that a magical, desire-omniscient compass was hardly his most mysterious foible.

Jack evaded Tia's question defensively, saying, "...Maybe. Why?"

Splitting into a playful grin, Tia Dalma sank gracefully into her throne. Her speech bounced like ocean waves. "Aah. Jack Sparrow does not know what he wants!" Jack's jaw tightened; Tia giggled and continued. "Or do ye know, but are loath to claim it as your own?"

Jack intently studied a scroll hanging from Tia's wall, determinedly ignoring the prickling gaze of every person present. Joanna knew they all shared the same query: What would Jack Sparrow fear chasing after?

"Your key go to a chest," Tia explained, taking mercy on Jack. "An' it is what lay inside the chest you seek, don't it?"

Gibbs' eyes sparkled. "What is inside?"

Pintel's hands fluttered in excitement -- rather excited for one who uncommitted to the ship's articles, Joanna scoffed. "Gold? Jewels? Unclaimed properties of a valuable nature?"

"What's inside, it's, um," Ragetti peered from around a jar of eyeballs floating in golden syrup. "Nothing bad, I hope?"

Tia raised her chin. "Ye know of Davy Jones, yes?" Her audience nodded their assent. "A man of de sea. A great sailor. Until he run afoul of that which vexes all men." Tia smirked.

"...What vexes all men?" Will prompted.

"The sea?" Tried Gibbs.

Pintel's eyes widened. "Sums."

"The dichotomy of good and evil!" Piped up Ragetti. He received several puzzled stares in response.

Impatiently, from over Joanna's shoulder: "A woman." Joanna turned to meet Jack's stony eyes. Unexpectedly, he offered her a soft smile.

Do I vex you? She wondered.

Tia gestured grandly to her own self. "A woman." She repeated with glee. She proceeded to fall into the dreamy mien Joanna so often observed Will wearing in Elizabeth's presence. "He fell in love."

"No, no," Gibbs shook his head, bravely contradicting Tia's tale. "I heard 'twas the sea he fell in love with."

"Same story, different version, and all are true!" Tia snapped, holding up a hand to stave off more irritating commentary. "See, it was a woman -- as changing, and harsh, and as untameable as the sea. Him never stop loving her. But de pain it cause him was too much to live with --" Tia held up a finger, "-- but not enough to cause him to die."

Tia's passionate tale had each onlooker hanging onto every word, silent and still with anticipation. When Will spoke, gently prodding Tia into further elaboration, Joanna jolted at the sudden sound of his voice. "What, exactly, did he put in that chest?"

Tia smiled with the slow warmth of sunrise. Draping a hand over her breast, she cooed, "Him heart."

"Literally, or figuratively?" Ragetti interrogated.

"He couldn't literally put his heart in a chest," Pintel snapped at his counterpart. He followed up with a hesitant glance toward Tia. "...Could he?"

Tia's smile had vanished. "'T'was not worth feeling what small, fleeting joy life brings! And so..." A chill ran through Joanna as Tia continued, glaring through her enthralled guests with stormy eyes. "Him carve out him heart. An' he hide it in a chest, an' hide de chest from the worl'." She had crept forward in her ardor. Relaxing as her prologue concluded, Tia raised her chin. "De key he keep with him at all times."

The culmination of Tia's story reminded Joanna of the very reason she had jumped into it -- Jack Sparrow, admiring his acquisition of a fat, gold ring, punctuated by a violet stone. Her eyes narrowed as she took note of his casual, distracted thievery.

Will's chair scraped against the mismatched wooden floor as he stood. "You knew this," he accused.

Jack's eyebrows rose to hide beneath his bandana. "I did not!" He exclaimed. "I didn't know where the key was. But now we do! So, all that's left's to climb aboard Davy Jones' crocodile machine or whatever the bloody thing's called, grab the key, you go back to Port Royal and save your bonnie lass, eh?" Having concluded his vomit of words, Jack pivoted and moved with intent toward the exit.

He's lying about something, Joanna read, faced once more with Jack's back. He came here for information, but perhaps he didn't find it.

With a rustle of skirts and beads, Tia Dalma rose to her feet. "Let me see your han'," she commanded, extending her own to Jack.

Jack froze, as rigid as a board. With a forced, drawn-on smile, he turned and offered his right hand. His left, embraced conspicuously by a rag, dangled limply at his side.

So suddenly she received a headrush, Joanna's fragmented thoughts congealed into a stream of foreboding knowledge. She breathed sharply and held it, eyes glued to the hand Jack had protected so fiercely during their odder-than-usual conversation.

"De other hand," Tia corrected impatiently.

A prisoner to the events unfolding before her, Joanna watched in horror as Jack revealed the rotting, macabre black spot.