Jack raised his gun, smirked, and fired at Hungry Jack. The bullet imbedded itself in his chest and his eyes went wide; Hungry Jack dropped the fork and fell over backwards in his chair.

Jack sauntered forward, and picked up the peanut. He paused and looked over the table at the motionless clone. "My peanut," He stated, the popped it into his mouth.

Jack turned, and bellowed an order to another replica. "All hands! Slackened braces!"

The other Jack responded with an, "Aye, sir! Slackened braces!" And went off to help.

In fact, Jack was on the Pearl, accompanied by no less than seventy five Jacks.

"Step lively!"

"With a will!" They encouraged one another, striving to please their captain.

Jack swaggered along the deck, observing the behaviors of his clones.

Scared Jack was on the floor, staring into the sky, the other dread-locked pirates stepping over him as they continued their duties. His shirt was untucked and he looked rather sloppy. Jack turned away, but when he looked back, Scared Jack was doing a credible impression of a chicken.

Dull Jack was trying to tie knots on one side of the Pearl. He was failing miserably.

Lustful Jack was trying to get a goat's attention; looking stiff with his waistcoat buttoned up all the way. He scooted closer and closer, but the goat appeared indifferent. Jack rolled his eyes. He didn't recall ever actually ever sucking up to an animal.

Compassionate Jack was tying a tech line; shirtless under the hot sun. Jack strutted up to him, somehow irritated by the identical man's presence.

"Mr. Sparrow!" He called, swaying as he stood before him.

"Aye, sir?" Compassionate Jack paused in his grueling task to listen to his captain.

"What say you about the condition of this tech line?" Jack asked bluntly, an eyebrow raised. The rest of the crew began to gather around the two, sensing that a showdown was about to take place.

Compassionate Jack swallowed nervously. "It be proper to my eyes, sir." He said.

"Proper?" Jack sneered. "Proper? It is neither proper nor suitable, it is neither acceptable nor adequate, it is, an obvious fact, an abomination." He undid the knots as he spoke, then shoved the ropes back into Compassionate Jack's arms.

The clone diverted his eyes. "Beggin' your pardon, sir, but maybe if you gave a man another chance?" He began to hurriedly start over on the knots.

"Shall I?" Jack asked no one in particular, his eyes flashing.

He suddenly drew his sword, and ran Compassionate Jack through on the spot. The real Jack felt something within him twinge, but he paid no mind.

The twin choked and fell forward in surprise and pain. He toppled onto Jack, who hissed into his ear bitterly, "That's the type of thinking that got us into this mess..."

He drew away, and Compassionate Jack fell over onto the floor. "We have lost speed, and therefore time, precious time, which cannot recovered once lost, do you understand?" He asked the crowd of spectators loudly, cleaning his sword off on the railing of the Pearl.

The thing was, there was no blood on the sword.

There were no Jack clones.

It was all a figment of Jack's frazzled mind, a result of his being in the locker.

It was all a hallucination.

"Aye sir!" They chorused, in Jack's unhinged mind, except for dull Jack, who was a bit slow on the uptake.

"Do you now?" Jack asked, sauntering forward, looking furious. He gestured at them, sheathing his faithful cutlass. "It will all have to be redone! All of it! And let that serve as a lesson to the lot of you." Jack paused and made a bigger gesture with his arms. "Doldrums, sir, has the entire crew unhitched..." Jack told no one in particular.

He made his decision. "I have no sympathy for any of you fecculant maggots and no more patience to pretend otherwise!"

He spun around and leapt to the railing, taking a spare hanging rope and gripping it securely. "Gentlemen," He announced heroically. "I wash my hands of this weirdness."

With that, Jack swung off of the Pearl, down the rope and to the dry and cracked ground of the dessert the Pearl seemed to be beached upon.

Now that he was away from that...sorcery, he was lonely. Of all the things he was declined at the moment, Adeena was the worst. He missed her, all of her, her beautiful smile and her kisses, their playful banter, her challenging demeanor. The way she just infuriated him, but he loved her all the same.

And wherever he was, she wasn't there. Jack intended to get back to her, and to do that, he required the Pearl to be in working order. At the moment, laying lopsided in the sand, she was hardly that.

Jack licked his index finger and held it up to the air. "No wind," He commented regretfully. "No wind! Of course there's no bloody wind...on my soul I do swear, no gust, nor whisper, no tiny, miniature lick..."

He walked away from the Black Pearl, frustrated, and talking to himself.

"No, but why would she do that?" He asked the air, and he answered his own question. "Because she's a lummox, isn't she?" He spun around and headed back to the Pearl. "And we shall have a magnificent garden party, and you're not invited!" He laughed, and stopped, suddenly aware of another presence beside him.

Jack turned and looked down. There was a generic white stone at his feet.

He knelt and picked it up, staring at it inquisitively. Jack hadn't seen anything but dessert for what seemed like forever.

He shrugged mentally and chucked the rock away, then turned back around and continued back to the Pearl.

He had about reached it when he became aware of a now familiar presence beside him.

Jack slowly rotated, very wary. He turned his sharp gaze downwards.

There it was: A white, round stone.

He turned again, then suddenly spun around, trying to catch the rock off guard. The rock hadn't moved.

Jack stared at it. He raised his arms and made a gesture of throwing something away. "Shoo," He commanded.

The stone didn't flinch.

Jack, very curious, knelt down and picked it up. "A rock," He assured himself, gazing at it warily.

Just to further ground his suspicions, Jack touched his tongue to the stone. He made a face and threw the stone far into the distance. Definitely a rock.

He spun around, and sauntered to the Pearl. "Now we're being followed by rocks!" He announced, fed up. "Never 'ad that before."

He walked under the hull, and noticed the rope he had used earlier hanging. "Oh! A rope!" He exclaimed happily. He gave it a tug, and the rest of the rope uncoiled at his feet.

Jack had an idea.

He walked out until the rope was taught, and attempted to pull the Pearl along. He struggled and yanked, gritting his teeth, and straining against the hard ground. He had to get her moving. He had to escape this...place, and get back on the ocean, with Adeena.

Jack paused, panting. The ship hadn't moved anywhere.

He felt as if he was being watched. Jack slowed his breaths and turned his head.

The rock from earlier had transformed into a crab.

It was too much. Jack gasped, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he fell over backwards in a faint.

Jack was awoken by a rumbling noise. His eyelids flew open and he stared into the sky. Shadows were falling into his face, then sliding off over the ground.

He shot up and stared, flabbergasted.

The Pearl was moving.

She was being carried by thousands of crabs, not unlike the ones that the rock from before had transformed into.

Jack stood and stumbled backwards, unable to remove his eyes from the Black Pearl. He watched, absolutely bewildered, as she 'sailed' away, the ground vibrating.

Finally, he snapped out of his reverie and darted after the Black Pearl, deciding that even if this place was an insane figment of his imagination, and if he was going insane, he would accept it.