Falling Behind

            The drums pounded their steady yet seemingly hallow beat.  Jack Spar- your pardon, that is Captain Jack Sparrow had been caught.  Again.  And this would be the last time.  This time he would die.

            If only he hadn't been so utterly stupid!  Of course he should have known that Victoria was trouble.  If it weren't for her he wouldn't be here now!  He could still remember her smile when she led him into her trap: A secluded cave that dead-ended.  He wanted to scream or bang his head on something.  Or better yet, find some rum.  But neither of those options were possible.  He just had to stand there and listen to some old man with one of the ugliest hairstyles he had ever seen read a long list of what he had done wrong in the eyes of the law.

            And Will was not here to save him this time.  No, definitely not this time.  They had guards posted everywhere!  Some of them were so close they could have stood on top of him, had they wanted to of course.  He had heard that they had put guards in front of the blacksmith shop and in front of Will and Elizabeth's home.  So much for that hopeful dramatic rescue.

            Jack rolled his eyes and then shut them tight as they met the glare of the sun.  Memories, bitter and sweet at the same time if that was possible at all, came flooding back.  One in particular…

            "Come on Jack!  The treasures in here!"  He had followed her blindly, trusting her completely.  She had scampered on ahead, her slight stature suiting the cave excellently while he struggled to follow; his hat had kept being pulled off at the most inconvenient places.

He had finally reached a place where there were no rocks. He wasn't sure if it was the back of the cave or not but he did know that he couldn't see Victoria anywhere!  Well, it hadn't been like he really could see much anyway but he had heard her slightly panted breathing until he had stepped out of the rocks.

            "Victoria," He called out breathlessly.  "Victoria, where are you love?"  Then he was blinded by the harshness of lamp against pitch black.  Then…then a voice he had prayed never to hear again.  The one voice that was so cold and harsh that it struck fear in the hearts of all.  "Well, well.  If it isn't Jack Sparrow, back from Davy Jones locker.  Where you should have started rotting five years ago!"  Jack felt himself fall backwards and land on his back.  He couldn't see for a moment and that terrified him.  He scrambled backward until he felt the cold touch of a large, pointed rock.  His sight came back into focus and he looked into the merciless eyes of Captain Kinley.

            The brother of the (now dead) dreaded Captain Barbossa.

            Jack swallowed only to learn that his throat was sore.  Nothing rum couldn't fix, he told himself.  His eyes stung from the sweat that ran off his forehead.  He wanted to be on the Pearl, his beloved Pearl… Most of the crew was dead at the bottom of the sea.  The others that had escaped, and how few they were, were probably trying to figure out the fastest way out of Port Royal.

            They had made a bargain with the Commodore.  He groaned as another flashback came…

            "Come on mates, we're almost out of here!"  Jack jumped off the edge of the wall surrounding some stuck-up wealthy person's house.  He stumbled slightly as he hit the dirt but managed to keep his footing.  In a flash he had rounded the edge of another house ("Stuck-up," he muttered under his breath.) and met up with his comrades in commandeering.  "Come on lads!"  Anamaria shot him a dark look, which Jack could see even in the dark.  "And lass, around this way!"  A boom echoed through the night air as the crew reached the docks.  But they wouldn't be going anywhere.  "The Pearl!"  Jack's cry of despair echoed into the night as the last remains of his beloved ship rose up out of the water and sank to her watery grave.

            "Jack, this way!"  Jack ran blindly, following Gibbs' order and pulled ahead of him.  "Jack watch-" he ran smack into something solid.  The force pushed him backwards and he crashed to the rocks.  "Oh blast," he muttered under his breath as he locked eyes with Commodore Norrington.

            "Ah, Captain Sparrow.  Back for another miraculous escape I see."  Norrington reached down and yanked him roughly off the floor.  Jack took a quick glance around.  They were surrounded on all sides by…well, whatever Port Royal called their pompous, hopelessly unreliable military force.

            "And it appears we will have a party of sorts tomorrow morning when you are all hung."  Jack's eyes met Anamaria's briefly.  She took a step forward.

            "Commodore Norrington, you have mainly what you want.  You want Jack, we want our freedom.  What would you say if in exchange for letting us go we set our sails in the opposite direction of Port Royal and never return?"  Jack gasped.  Wasn't this a sort of…mutiny?

            He had fallen behind.

            A movement caught his eye.  A cloaked figure that had been standing near the back of the crowd was slowly making its way forward towards him.  The crowd was clearly uncomfortable.  The guards made a move as if to go down to the figure when-

"May God have mercy on your soul."

"Move!"

            "Will Tur-?"

            The rope went taunt.

A/N: I'm not entirely sure what I plan to do with this story so any plots anyone could suggest would be very helpful.  Thanks to Annab1989 for helping me out with this!