Title: Hand of Glory
Author: Pixie
Rating: If you're cool with the movie, you're cool with this.
Fandom: Peter Pan/Pirates of the Caribbean
Timeline: Pre-book for PP, after World's End for PoTC
Summary: One day, Jack receives a message from his father. It is long and ornate and very proper, as is everything about him, but the sum total is this: 'Dear Jack: Some flying kid cut off me hand. You're always mixed up with this magic stuff, come and help me out.'
Author's Notes: Yes, the title is blatantly ripped off from Harry Potter. My titling skills suck. Plot-wise, I maintain that this is all Disney's fault for constantly plugging Peter Pan all through the third movie. Keith Richards gave off serious Hook vibes, not only with his outfit but with his attitude (keeper of the code? Disney Disney Disney – and you get mad when I play after dropping pretty little hints like that), and the bit about the bird who couldn't fly, and then the fight on the top of the sails. Um, hello temptation. Nice to see you again. No, no, but I said I wouldn't write fic! Well, yes, you're right. I've never been good at resisting you. See you some time next week then?
One day, Jack receives a message from his father. It is long and ornate and very proper, as is everything about him, but the sum total is this: 'Dear Jack: Some flying kid cut off me hand. You're always mixed up with this magic stuff, come and help me out.'
The only problem is, he doesn't leave directions, and Jack can only assume that he's counting on his son's superior navigation skills. While he's touched at this faith in his abilities, most of the time there is some sort of clue for him to work off of, to formulate a plan that he will completely deviate from or forget the first sign of change in the wind. So it's pulling out that trusty old compass once again, and really, can he be blamed for wanting the fountain of youth – or the dragon's blood that would allow him to speak to his namesakes and their cousins – or the magical sword that he would need to slay that dragon – or better yet, the potion to turn lead into enough gold to hire someone to slay the dragon for him with the sword – more than his father? This was the man who administered beatings to him when he was small, and such things stuck in a man's mind.
So by the time he gets around to it he's wondering if the compass has its limits, and his doubts are nearly confirmed by the time he figures out that the needle is trying to contort itself into bending straight up. Of course, as soon as he's sure of this the needle steadily points toward Avalon, because who better to get fairy dust from so his ship can rise into the air and come and help his father (who really must be getting on in years if he can be bested by a boy) than the fairy queen.
Typically, there are many trials in which the compass spins towards many things, as Jack keeps running back and forth and in and out of Avalon to fetch the necessary items so he doesn't die, and really his father should be grateful. And who was he to know that for her fairy dust, the fairy queen would want to keep him for a year and a day – not that he could blame her for falling for that old Jack Sparrow charm, just that he had somewhere else to be – specifically not trapped on land, instead in his Pearl feeling the waves rock the ship. Luckily for him, he had found loose morals and large bosoms more attractive than austere grace and virginal purity, and so within the month had been kicked out on his tail – more than long enough to build up a sufficient supply of stolen fairy dust to lift his ship and crew for enough time to sail round the world and back again, and add a few more years onto their lives besides.
So it's really all his father's own fault that by the time he gets there – having lost and regained his Pearl half a dozen times in the interlude – his father has been eaten by a crocodile – fed, according to some of the other pirates left on the vessel, to the croc by the vicious little boy known as Pan. Jack nods, because Pan is a god and it's best not to mess with gods – Davy Jones found that out the hard way, and Jack is all for letting others find out the hard way for him, another lesson taught him by his father. He beat Jack when Jack was smaller, you know, and that sort of thing leaves an impression on a man.