Author's Notes: This is a contest oneshot for a collaborative story at one of the websites I frequent. There's a lot of backstory to this character, Dala Sen, but I couldn't include it all here...but fortunately, I wrote this is a way that you should be able to understand what's happening. This takes place, relatively, after Jack and company visit Tia Dalma in PotC 2. However, there are some spoilers about Tia Dalma from PotC 3...so read at your own risk. Please review, but no flames!

Disclaimer: I do not own Jack Sparrow or anything related to Pirates of the Carribbean, sadly. Dala Sen is my own original character, however...and I reserve rights to her.

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Dala's clear voice rang out against the silence of the night. Darkness surrounded her, but her voice became an outlet...allowing the light within her to pour forth into the encroaching nighttime air. As she sang, her nerves were eased, and the tension that had been building up inside her slowly dissipated until it was gone altogether. It was during these cold, lonely nights at sea that Dala felt isolated, detached from the world of the living that she had been forced into again.

Once she had desired to remain among the living, when she'd laid dying after they'd captured the Goddess Calypso, but now that she knew what it meant...she no longer did. Being alive meant being trapped within a shell of what she once was, unable to express herself as she'd been able to in the Heavens. It constantly felt as if she were suffocating, drowning. She felt helpless, worthless. She did not feel strong, powerful, able as she once did...but that was thanks to Tia Dalma, Calypso's human identity, and the torture she had forced Dala to be subject to.

She shuddered, closing her eyes momentarily. Even now, far away from the wicked woman--if she could even be called a woman--she was feeling the affects of her torment. In her sleep, she was plagued by nightmares, and even during her waking hours...she could almost hear Calypso whispering in her ear. Often times she thought she was crazy, but who was sane during these dark days?

Her voice died down to a quiet murmur as she heard someone approaching.

"Singing on a pirate vessel," the man commented. "That's new."

Dala turned to face her captain. "I'm sorry, Captain."

Jack walked up beside her, two rum bottles in hand. "Didn't say it was a bad thing."

He handed her one of the bottles, which she reluctantly accepted. "Thanks."

"Wasn't a compliment either."

Jack was purposely being antagonistic, and Dala was well aware of it. Jack Sparrow wasn't a very difficult man to understand once you were around him long enough...but he did always have a few tricks up his sleeves, and surprises underneath his bandana.

Dala looked down, opening the bottle of rum. She'd never been a heavy drinker, especially knowing what affects it could have on a person, but she firmly believed that certain situations called for the murky liquid. This was one such situation. It'd been a long voyage thus far, and an even longer time spent on land before that when she had been imprisoned as Tia Dalma's slave.

Lifting the bottle to her lips, she allowed the burning liquid to slide down her throat, giving her a warm feeling, awakening so many senses that had been dead as of late. Jack did similar, though half of his bottle had already been gone by the time he had joined her on deck.

"Thanks for the rum, Captain," Dala said.

"Think nothing of it," Jack stated nonchalantly. "Rum is more potent in groups...and potency is worth bearing any sort of company!"

She almost smiled at that, but there was still that nagging voice in the back of her mind knawing at her very being, preventing her from smiling or feeling true happiness. It was that subconcious being, no doubt a side effect of Calypso's torment, that had been making her miserable throughout the voyage, since she'd escaped her captor. In fact, thinking on it...it was pure luck that Jack's ship had been passing by Tia Dalma's small island at the time that she had made her escape.

She thought back to that moment, when she saw the ship in the distance, approaching quite quickly too. The Captain and his crew had gone to speak with Tia Dalma while she had snuck aboard the vessel, her presence unknown until they were far away from that forsaken island. Surprising her, and his crew, Captain Jack Sparrow had allowed her to stay...obviously thinking she'd be of some use to someone at some point in time. It was really hard to say exactly why he'd let her stay, especially when women were considered bad luck on ships, but who knew what really went on inside Sparrow's head? Certainly not her.

"A piece of silver for your thoughts?" Jack offered lightly, breaking into her thoughts.

"I don't think they're worth that much," Dala replied wistfully.

"I think I'll be the judge of that meself, eh?"

Dala paused. "Do you believe in magic, Jack?"

"Hard to say," Jack drawled. "What sort of magic are we talking about?"

"Reincarnation."

Jack thought for a moment, taking a long swig of rum. "No."

To be honest, neither did she. However, she was living proof that rebirthing, or reincarnation, was possible. technically, she wasn't reincarnated, but had been brought back to life by unnatural means. Regardless, she shouldn't have been there at all.

"Why?" Jack asked.

Dala shook her head. "No reason."

She turned to leave then, but found herself still in the company of Jack Sparrow as he snaked an arm around her shoulders and began to walk--or rather swagger, as it was with Jack--beside her, much to her chagrin.

"Playing hard to get, aye?" he grinned for a moment, as his dirty hand brushed her bare shoulder.

"Nay," she replied, growing uneasy.

Jack sobered then--emotionally speaking, as the captain of the Black pearl was rarely ever truly sober--and looked at her. "Why don't you tell ol' Jack what the problem is?"

Dala nearly smirked. Jack could be quite charming if he tried to be. "Nothing to concern yourself with, Captain."

"If one of me mates has a problem, it becomes mine as well, non?"

"No."

Jack sniffed. "So, you'll be a brooding woman instead? How typical and dreadfully boring."

Dala stiffened. "What?"

Jack released her, turning away and giving his back to her. "Nothing, jus' thought you'd be prone to less feminine...sulks."

"I am not sulking!" Dala snapped, growing frustrated with the tiresome and antagonistic captain.

Jack turned back around sharply. "I should hope not! Man up a bit! We're on a pirate ship, after all! Saavy?"

Dala felt her jaw drop a bit. She felt her anger flare up, as she watched Jack's retreating back. He just spoke to her as if she were some petty simpleton bothering him with nuances. He, obviously, was not aware of whom he was speaking to!

But just who was he speaking to? She couldn't very well be the same pirate who had terrorized the Indian seas all those years ago, could she? Thanks to Tia Dalma's torture, she had been broken and bent to the will of a fallen Goddess. Dala Sen had lost herself...that much was true. And, as much as she tried to ignore it, she was nothing more than a slave now.

And if she wasn't a Pirate Lord...than who was she?

Nothing.

She was nothing if she was not a pirate. Tia Dalma may have beaten and bruised her physical body, but she could not touch her immortal soul. Deep down, Dala was still Sin, the most fearsome pirate of the Indian Ocean.

Her eyes widened a little with the abrupt realization. Could she return to what she once had been? Could she envoke a sense of loyalty among men again? Could she reclaim all that had been violently ripped from her in her previous life? Could she become that which she once had been...return to being an idol among pirates everywhere? Was it even possible?

The answer was yes. Yes, she could.

And she would.

"Captain Sparrow" her voice called out to the staggering man. He turned around just as Dala closed the space between them. Lowering her voice, she growled, "you will address me with proper respect, Captain Sparrow. I'm not one of your lackeys that you may order about. I may be a guest on your ship, but that does not make you my Captain. Do I make myself clear?"

Jack smirked. "Indubitably."

There was a pause as Dala calmed down; her harsh, authoritive demeanor returning to her fragile, quiet one. But she had a taste of what she once was, and that delighted her to no end. She was still Sin the Pirate Queen beneath her wounded shell...and that gave her an incredible sense of hope, and of freedom.

The only problem that remained was how to unlock that fiery side of herself that Tia Dalma had forced away.

"Will that be all, Love?" Jack asked, amused, breaking into her thoughts a second time.

She nearly blushed, realizing how demanding she'd just sounded. He could very well kick her off his ship for that little outburst! But he wouldn't, and deep down, she knew that. "Yes."

He gave her a mock bow, before swaggering away...a smile present on his dark face.

Dala watched him depart, feeling that familiar fire settling down into the pit of her stomach. When he was well out of sight, the last vestiges of her old self seemed to fade away completely, diminishing once more into the cold night. The murkiness in her hazel eyes did not go away as she was left feeling confused and bewildered, watching the last place she had seen Captain Jack Sparrow standing.

Little did she know that she had found the answer to her problem.

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A/N: Please review! Thanks!