Author's Notes: Jack's thoughts as he wakes up in his cell at Port Royal. The end of this story is before the Black Pearl attacks, and yes it does make reference to my POTC fic "Tale of the Intrepid Explorer" so if you haven't read that one yet, please do... and don't forget to review :-)
I've pushed the first word of a new paragraph in a little as FF.net doesn't seem to pick up the proper formatting in this fic.
This fic was inspired by Otherhawk's fic "Now, Until Then". If you haven't read it yet, I suggest you do so now!
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A cold breeze dragged Jack back to consciousness, accompanied by a strange, pungent smell. Opening his eyes, Jack saw the stone floor beneath him, littered with mouldy straw, and realised what the smell was. It was something he had encountered before, on the rare occasions he had not been careful enough to get out of trouble. It was the unmistakable odour of blood, sweat and fear. Terror mixed with a desperate hope of escape. There was, he suddenly understood, one thing which did not change throughout the world. Regardless of country, race, religion or culture, there was one common factor threading through them all.
Prison.
Wherever you were, whoever you happened to be, prison did not change. There was always the same smell of death, the same feeling of helplessness. What Jack couldn't figure out, was how he'd come to be in a gaol cell.
"Think mate," he murmured quietly to himself. He tried to recall how he'd gotten into the cell, but found he could not, so he thought hard about the events which had led him here.
A
girl, falling into the sea. Soldiers. Aztec Gold. James Norrington, as arrogant
as ever. Thinking hard, he remembered using the girl as a shield to ensure
his escape. Her righteous disgust at his behaviour amused him; she reminded
him of someone he'd known a long time ago. Before he'd come to Port
Royal, before he'd lost the Black Pearl, when he still had the freedom
of his ship, there had been a woman in his life much like Elizabeth. She had
once been a rich, upper class woman like Miss Swan; yet she had given up her
wealth and privileges to join the crew of his old ship. She had been his woman,
his lover, his centre. She had acted as his anchor on many occasions, keeping
him grounded when his plans became overly wild. He had planned to marry her,
but when she left unexpectedly he'd thrown his heart into the Pearl instead.
Now he'd lost both of them. The incessant calls of the prisoners in the
next cell to the dog which held the keys, which now bordered on desperate begging,
interrupted his musings.
"You can keep that up forever. The dog is never going to move," he said, without looking up.
"Well excuse us if we haven't resigned ourselves to the gallows just yet," the eldest snapped. Jack glanced at them, then slowly turned away; a strange half smile played across his lips as he considered their words.
"Have
I resigned myself to the gallows?"
he asked himself silently. Without his freedom, life had not been the same.
After losing the Pearl, he had considered getting himself killed, but his desire
to re-take his ship was too strong. When his former lover had returned to his
life at the time of his escape from the small island, he once more threw himself
into piracy with a vengeance. His actions became more and more wild, as well
as increasingly dangerous and, for a while, he felt a strange kind of freedom
again. Ten years later, that freedom had long since gone; as had the life which
went with it. His lover had abandoned him for a second time, and he had not
been able to reclaim his other love. On the rare occasions he was careless enough
to get captured, he persisted in trying to escape even though his heart wasn't
in it any longer.
Chance had brought
him to Port Royal for the second time in his life, but he thought maybe it was
fate which had thrown him into Norrington's path once more. He had been
surprised when young Elizabeth referred to him as Commodore; James had only
been a lowly Lieutenant when he and Jack had last crossed swords. He clearly
recalled the hatred in Norrington's eyes at the dock, but then the British
officer had good reason to hate Jack. At the time his beloved Ashanae had been
rescued from the burning wreck of the HMS Audacious, by the young Jack Sparrow
and his Captain, her marriage to Norrington had already been agreed. The fact
that Ashanae herself had not agreed to the marriage seemed not to matter; either
to Norrington or Governor Halcon, who had made the match for his niece. When
she ran away and joined the Explorer's crew, James had sworn to rid the
world of every last pirate.
"Norrington
never understood why," he mused. With a sudden insight, he finally
understood the final words Ashanae had said to him. Not long after joining the
crew of the Explorer, Jack had asked her why she had chosen to give up everything
she had to join them. She had simply answered "For freedom."
Years later, as she was leaving him a second time, she had whispered in his
ear "Life without freedom is no life at all, Jack" and
disappeared. Now, six years later, he understood what she meant at last. The
Black Pearl had become his life and soul; she was his freedom. Without her,
he was simply a shadow of the man he had been, drifting from place to place
with no real purpose; the legend of Captain Jack Sparrow had grown, as the soul
of the man had withered.
"She
was right. Life without freedom is no life at all..." he thought
sadly. Closing his eyes, he waited for morning to come, and with it the hangman's
noose...