NOTE: A few months had passed since the events from "The curse of the Black Pearl". Will and Elizabeth got married, beginning a life together in Port Royal, while the mighty pirate Jack .. pardon, Captain Sparrow (hope he didn't hear that), continued his adventures together with his new crew, aboard the Black pearl.

II) Three friends, a thief and a map

In Governor Swann's manor in Port Royal, Elizabeth, her father and Will were all having super.

"So tell me William, now that you have married my daughter, do you intend to continue working as a blacksmith or perhaps you want to start a career as a pirate, hmm?" the Governor asked his son-in-law on a rather ironical tone.

"Father?" Elizabeth frowned at the Governor.

"Sir, I .." Will begun with a forced smile on his lips, being a bit uncomfortable with the question, but was interrupted by a load noise that came from upstairs.

"What was that?" the Governor asked concerned.

"I will go see," Will responded while quickly standing up from the table and heading for the stairs.

"Will, wait for me," Elizabeth sprung from the table as well, following her husband.

"Elizabeth, come back."

"I'll be fine father. Don't worry."

Will drew out his sword as he approached the room from where the noise had been heard -Elizabeth's room, now his room as well. He slowly pushed the door open and stepped inside, with Elizabeth walking right behind him, when out of a dark corner of the room, a man sprang out, with a cutlass pointed at him. But as soon as the two men crossed blades, they immediately stopped, recognizing each other.

"Jack?" Will asked both happy and surprised.

"Aye! Terribly sorry about that, mate, but I thought ye was one of them guards," Jack answered, putting his sword way.

"Jack!" Elizabeth exclaimed with obvious glee.

"M'lady!" the captain took a bow, removing his hat while doing so.

Just then, the three of them hear the Governor talking to some guards downstairs.

"Hold on one second," Elizabeth said, rushing out of the room. "Father, there's nothing to worry about. Matilda (her maid) accidentally dropped something, but now Will and I are helping her to clean up so, you can return to the dining table. We will join you shortly."

The Governor intended to ask further questions but his daughter quickly ran back into the room and the Governor was forced to dismiss the guards and resume his meal.

"So, what are you doing back here Jack? If Norrington sees you he'll send you to the gallows without any second thought."

"Ah, .. IF, he sees me!" Jack exclaimed, holding up the forefinger of his right hand, to state his point. " .. which he won't. And if he does, so what? It'll be yet another famous escape to enhance the fame of Captain Jack Sparrow .. which is me, by the way."

"We certainly don't doubt that, but what did you say you were doing here?" Elizabeth asked.

"Straight to the point, aren't we, love? Very well then, I am here to inform you of two things. The first one concerns dear William here."

"Me? What kind of news do you have for me?" Will interrupted Jack, being quite surprised.

"I've been hearing some rumors about ol' Bootstrap Bill, your father. They say he's alive and still sailing the seas somewhere."

"My father? He is alive?"

"That's wonderful, Will. What is the second thing you have come to tell us?"

"Second thing? What second thing?.. Ah yes, the second thing! Well, it's nothing important really, just that on my way here I have seen a thief of some sort sneaking into your house."

"What?" Will and Elizabeth burst at the same time.

"Nothing to worry about. The lad looked quite harmless. His face all covered, so no way of identifying him, great moves, incredible agility and most likely armed to the teeth, but apart from that, quite harmless."

"Oh my God!" Elizabeth exclaimed terrified.

"What? Don't you have the brave King's men guarding you? Don't you?"

But Elizabeth was too concerned about her father to listen to Jack. Without saying one more word, she rushed out of the room and down the stairs, with Will right behind her.

"Elizabeth, wait!"

"Was it something I said?" Jack asked himself, seeing the two of them making such a run for it, after which he decided to follow them.

After climbing down the stairs, Elizabeth and Will turned right and went to see if the Governor was still in the dining room, but unfortunately he was no longer there.

As Jack was climbing down the stairs as well, he suddenly stopped after hearing a suspicious noise. With his sword drawn, he jumped over the remaining steps and quickly turned to his right, landing with the tip of his sword at the thief's neck, taking him completely by surprise.

"Ahoy there, matey!"

The thief, dressed in black and red robes had his whole body fully covered; even his head was covered by a red turban and his eyes hidden behind a black vail, that allowed him to see but prevented others form seeing his eyes.

But the thief knew a couple of moves as well. Letting himself fall backwards as to avoid Jack's blade, he quickly sprang to the right, twisting himself and drawing out his own sword -that he kept on his back. While the thief was doing this, Jack attacked but the thief blocked the attack wit his own blade, pushing his opponent away to give himself time to stand up straight. Now it was the thief's turn to attack, leaving not even a moment for Jack to react to the previous strike.

"Quite in a hurry, aren't we, mate?" Jack managed to speak while trying to block each of the thief's violent strikes.

Luckily for him, Will quickly appeared and joined the fight. The thief fought for as long as he could the two men, but in the end he was overcome and the sword flew out of his hand.

But this didn't mean that Jack and Will had defeated him, for the cunning thief had an ace up his sleeve. Just as the sword flew out of his hand he quickly reached to his belt and put his palms through two large metal rings that had slightly bent spikes on the sides that went inside his palms.

Reaching forward, he grabbed Will's blade on the right and Jack's blade on the left, bringing and clanging them together, using the metal spikes inside his palms, from the two metal rings. Then, he pulled the swords out of their hands, flipped backwards and threw the two blades, while doing so, as far as possible.

Landing in a crouched position, the agile thief quickly stretched one leg forward, dragging himself closer to his adversaries. All these happened in less then three seconds, leaving Jack and Will no time to react when the thief suddenly jumped from his crouched position and kicking Jack in the face, the same doing to Will after miraculously twisting to the right in mid air.

With Jack and Will knocked down, the thief retrieved his own sword and ran up the stairs. Elizabeth, who had been looking for a sword ever since Will engaged as well in the fight with the thief, had finally found one, and with it she ran up the stairs in pursuit of the thief. But the intruder was nowhere to be found, as he had escaped through the open window of Will and Elizabeth's room -the one Jack had also used to get in.

Both disappointed and enraged, Elizabeth returned to the main hall, where Jack and Will were beginning to recover from the blow they had received.

"He escaped," she informed them, at the same time throwing aside the sword she had been holding.

"Then we shall go after him. He must be punished for what he did."

"He must be. He must be. Definitely," Jack agreed with Will.

Despite the agitated state she was in, Elizabeth allowed a faint smile to enlighten her face.

"Who are you two trying to fool? You just cannot stand the idea that a single man defeated you both, and with no great effort I might add."

"Perhaps. But still, he must be held responsible for his deeds," Will spoke.

"He will be most likely searched for but right now what worries me is my father. He is nowhere to be found. What if this .. man has done something to him?"

"I'll say what. How about you two go look for honorable Mr. Governor and I'll take care of the thief," Jack suggested.

"All alone? You've seen what he can do," Will advised him.

"Aye! And now that I know him moves, I'll be ready for 'im. There hasn't been born yet the man to defeat Captain Jack Sparrow," he spoke while going up the stairs.

"Jack, wait!" Will called him back. "What about that deal with my father?"

"Meet me tomorrow morning on the beach, by the port. You know, the place we went last time."

"The place from where we took that ship?"

"No, the place from where we commandeered that ship. Start talking like a pirate boy."

Will and Elizabeth both smiled at the comment, while watching Jack disappearing inside a room.

"Let's look for your father then. He might be in his study."

When they entered the study, they found the Governor lying motionless beside his desk.

"Father!" Elizabeth screamed with fear, running to him.

As she took his head in her hands the man began to slowly open his eyes.

"Father! Father, are you all right?"

"What did he do to you?" Will asked.

"Did he hurt you?"

"Who?" the Governor asked surprised while Elizabeth and Will were helping him to stand up.

"The thief who broke in a while ago," Will informed him.

"Thief? There was a thief here? Then it must have been him."

"Why? What did he do to you?" his daughter asked worried.

"Not much actually. The last thing I remember is that I was standing in front of my desk, looking through some papers, when all of a sudden I felt two hands on my shoulders and some fingers pressing at the bottom of my neck. After that I believe I have fainted. But what about you two? Are you all right? And where is this thief?"

"We are fine father, don't worry but the thief managed to get away."

"What's strange though .. ," Will spoke after examining the room, " ... is that, apparently, the thief didn't take any valuable things. By the look of things he was rather looking for something."

The Governor walked to his desk to find out what was missing and soon afterwards started laughing.

"This is quite amusing. It seems our thief has only taken some maps given to me by a rather mentally disturbed old explorer. He claimed that those maps showed the way to an ancient place where one could find the cure for any disease or injury. He came to me to sponsor his expedition to that place. I told him I would think about it but I never had any intention of spending throwing money away on such nonsense. Now I'm actually glad this thief came and got me rid of those darn maps."

"But father, what if that man was telling the truth? What if this place really exists? Don't you remember that a few months ago we were being chased by walking skeletons? Didn't that seem real enough to you?"

"And now some ordinary thief will benefit from this power," Will continued.