This is my first fan-fic, originallly posted on IMDb's board for AWE, now brought onto in a newly organized, clumped-together format for continuity.

Summary: As Captain Jack is tested in the purgatory of World's End to regain his ship, Elizabeth and Will must come to terms and must deal with treacherous waters.

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, they are the property of the Disney Corporation, yadda yadda, I do not mean offense to Mickey or the board of directors, yadda yadda, why do they own Pirates?

1. Beginnings and an End

The waves crashed up against the shore, foaming red, and a man crawled out of the tide, clutching a bloody sword and a pistol, gasping and vomiting, his mind blank...for he had been reborn again, soaked in Kraken blood. His first breath was of seawater when he fired and slashed his way out of the monster, his first movements had been paddling and kicking to get away from the sharks that had been approaching, and his first words were spoken as he crawled up from the tide-line.

The man muttered, "I need...I need something."

He collapsed on the beach, muttering to himself as he released his weapons and pushes them aside, clutching at something in his pocket...he pulled out a compass, the point spinning widely, and he fell asleep, dreaming of the spinning point.

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The sun rose as the few surviving pirates loaded up their rowboats in the upriver swamp of Pelogosto, Tia Dalma and Elizabeth helping as Captain Hector Barbossa petted his monkey Jack, gazing out at the swamp.

Barbossa murmured, "To see the light of day after so long in darkness...and to feel the warmth when I could feel nothing for so long before. 'Tis another chance, that's what it is...I suppose I owe it to you, Tia Dalma."

Tia Dalma paused and turned to face him as she told him, "I knew when you died, true enough, for both your spirit and soul were struggling so in departure...you wanted to live. I went out to the Isla de la Muerta and brought back your body, still warm even though it had to have been two days since you were killed, but it still took me a long while to ease your soul and spirit back into the livin' realm. I said nothing to the others when they first came, I was still uncertain whether your soul would be stable enough to stay, for the soul is perhaps more important than the spirit and body, but it was lucky that they brought Jack."

Elizabeth blinked and quickly queried, "So did Jack know, Barbossa, did he see you?"

Barbossa sighed and responded, "She meant me monkey, the cute little thing...my soul stayed for him. Right, we're nearly ready to sail out...I know a friend in Tortuga, I think I can scare him into giving me a ship. Tia Dalma, will you come with us? I still don't feel right, you know, and I want to stay as long as I can..."

Tia Dalma nodded and neutrally told him, "I will keep you livin', for as long as you're needed by anyone."

Barbossa grinned and said, "I thank you kindly, I suppose, to be used in such a way."

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Troops of soldiers, members of East India Company, paraded in the square of the fort of Port Royal under review of Lord Cutler Beckett and a grim Governor Weatherby Swann. Murtogg and Mullroy stood at attention close by, glancing at each other, as the two gentlemen turned and walked to a private balcony, accompanied by the two soldiers.

Beckett turned his head to Swann and queried, "What did you think of my men?"

Swann slowly nodded and responded, "They're fine enough, I suppose, so long as they are ordered not to harm Elizabeth when they find her. I will approve of their deployment, though in my opinion, Norrington isn't the right man to command them...he has failed before and I'm afraid he's too bitter, he might harm my daughter and then what would have been the use of all this? They're pirates, true, but they're still men...I pity them for what they're about to face."

Beckett frowned and asked, "How can that be so when you never pitied my mother, your cousin on the 'poor' side of your family?"

Governor Swann winced and answered, "Oh, Cutler…I am so sorry. I cannot amend for what happened all of those years ago, but I had no affection for her, not when I had my Natasha, and then I lost contact with her when she married your father and moved aboard…I never knew of their poor affairs."

Beckett growled and muttered, "Yes, it was a poor affair when, for all my titles and nobility, I still had to wear worn clothes and then I had to fight to earn a living as a poor clerk of the East India Company. Life was cruel to me and so I had to be cruel to survive and now I have become the manager of its affairs here in the Caribbean."

They reached the balcony and Beckett dismissed Murtogg and Mullroy, who warily retreated off to the side. Beckett spun about to face Governor Swann.

Beckett told him, "The fact of the matter is, Weatherby, you're too soft. When you were made governor of Jamaica, it was for the purpose of civilizing and taming the Caribbean, but the pirates continued to reign, even with the zeal of such men as Norrington, and your daughter even fraternized with them. The officials back in England have finally grown weary of your gentle ways. One of the tasks assigned to me when I came here was to examine your leadership and, if I found it to be unsuitable, I was given the power to relieve you of your duty. Mr. Weatherby Swann, you are no longer the governor of Jamaica. All of your wealth and title, here and in England, will be stripped from you."

Swann gasped and whimpered as he cried, "This is outrageous! Cutler, you're doing this just to spite me with your anger at your father, you're betraying me for my truthful choice of a life with Natasha! What about Elizabeth, you swore to me that she would be safe!"

Beckett sneered and remarked, "Why would a lord like myself promise to protect a pirate, even if that pirate is a girl? My pact with you means nothing, you are of no further use to me...and my name is Lord Beckett."

Cutler Beckett slapped Weatherby Swann and pushed him, he was so unbalanced by these betrayals that he fell, his head slamming on the stone as Murtogg and Mullroy rushed over, halting at the glare of Lord Beckett.

Beckett orderd them, "As governor, I will allow you both to take him to a doctor, much good it will do him."

Lord Beckett strode off and the two soldiers bent down, aghast at all of this as Weatherby Swann lifted his head and murmured, "I see her...my darling Natasha."

Murtogg whisperd, "It'll be fine, sir, the doctor can save you."

Swann grunted and murmured, "You two...I bid you both to be loyal to me, to find my daughter and protect her...my Natasha wants my daughter to know something. There are words, powerful words, that she must know..."

Swann murmurs these words and Murtogg and Mullroy memorize them, promising to obey him, as Weatherby Swann dies, the noon sun crisping the stones of the fort.