Title: Beginnings of an End

Author: SuperiorityComplex88

Pairing: Jack/Elizabeth (WEE!)

Summary: (ONE-SHOT) During DMC – SPOILERS! An account of Elizabeth's thoughts during the crew's return to Tia Dalma's shack. Follows "Leaving an Impression".

Rating: T

Disclaimer: I do not own Pirates of the Caribbean – The Curse of the Black Pearl or Dead Man's Chest. Nor do I own any of the characters… although, if the afterlife is as sweet as I think it is, I shall own Captain Jack Sparrow one day. WOO! Hehehe…

Thanks: My awesome-possum beta reader, Remy-Gilmore! (Go read her stuff – she has a lovely little group of Harry Potter/Gilmore Girls one-shots that are right clever…)

Author's Note: This is a follow-up to my other one-shot, "Leaving an Impression". I originally intended to add this bit to the end of that one, but I decided it deserved its own one-shot space. The entire scene is just too kick-ass; Tia Dalma's lines rock my socks. Enjoy…

As much darkness as there was in Elizabeth's mind, there was much more surrounding her. It pierced the fog and bounced off of the rippling water beneath the longboat with a gentle and sinister surge, much too powerful for her liking. Somewhere, in a vaguely functional corner of her mind, she imagined that it seeped through her sea-tattered clothes and straight through her skin. She felt cold.

They had turned a corner, and as she lifted her blood-shot eyes, she strained to properly see the surprising sight that accommodated Tia Dalma's shack. Parting a way for them in the river were dozens of native people, all as still as the thick night itself, and holding candles. A collective humming seemed to gather within them; each had a look of sorrow on his or her face, and Elizabeth even spotted a tear streak on a cheek or two. She involuntarily flinched; she knew for whom they must be mourning.

Onward they floated, and Elizabeth couldn't help but let her mind latch onto the infectious humming coming from the surrounding natives. One synonymous, threaded sound between them all… It made her forget things.

With a gentle creak, the boat made contact with the tiny pier below Tia's shack. Will stepped off of the boat ahead of her. Vaguely, she felt Gibbs hoist her up from behind. Walking seemed a very complicated thing to be asked to do, she decided, making her way through Tia's doorway. She found herself annoyed at the fact that her body ached like she'd never believed possible, and she was so cold…

The lot of them had settled amid the trinkets in the tiny shack, perching at whatever spots seemed promising. Resigning not to do much else, Elizabeth stared at a single plank on the floor of Tia's home and listened; the rest of the crew barely made any noise. She heard a deep breath or two from Gibbs, who stood across the room and faced the river, and a few whimpers now and then from Ragetti, who sat stock still beside Pintel. Will kept digging his cutlass into the table, prying bits of wood up with it each time. Tia, it seemed, was bustling around in an adjacent room, wisely staying away from whatever tension was trying to work itself out in the air.

Otherwise, it was silent.

She took the opportunity to shut out her thoughts and look around. Jewels… some shiny, some ridden with grime. Pots, pans, and teacups of various designs. Voodoo dolls; Elizabeth remembered reading about them as a child, in conjunction with pirates.

She blinked, and for whatever reason, her thoughts chose to come loose at that moment.

For all intents and purposes, I killed Jack Sparrow today.

A pang of self-loathing ran deep within her, and she shook slightly… She couldn't deal with the fact that it had happened at all, let alone the fact that it was she who was responsible for it. Among the most vivid memories of her adventures of the last few years, she now knew that none would stand out more profusely than the image of Jack's eyes burning into hers. She recalled, with no small stitch of guilt, how flawlessly the both of them had fallen into the kiss… and how she had advanced it… enjoyed it, her mind added… let her feelings run wild. She remembered fastening the shackle on his wrist, and the stark contrast between its cold metal and Jack's warm mouth.

That damned smirk. Of parted wet lips, gold teeth, and stilled breath. That smirk would stay with her.

Yes, those images stood out to her the most… but only one sound could accompany them at any given time.

"Pirate."

Elizabeth felt tears welling up in her eyes, much as they had then. God, it was such a wreck of a moment. Winning Jack Sparrow's approval and becoming aware of her own betrayal at the same time – to Jack and to her dear father, who would have rather died than hear his daughter be called a pirate.

The plank on the floor of Tia's shack was blocked from her view as Tia Dalma herself came to stand before her, bearing a candle-lit tray of cups. Elizabeth had no doubt that she could do with a drink, but preferred not to be troubled. Instinctively, she shied away and turned her head.

Tia looked at her with a trace of trouble in her eyes and lifted the tray a bit. "Against de cold… and de sorrow."

However hollow or heartfelt the words may have been, Elizabeth found that she couldn't argue with them. Hooking two fingers under the handle of a cup, she brought it towards her chest and held it with both hands, letting a breath out. It was blissfully warm.

She thought she heard Tia giving her sentiments to Will about losing the opportunity to free his father by way of the Pearl, but she kept her eyes downward. She couldn't look at Will. If she did, she would think of their engagement. His loyalty. How he had undoubtedly seen the kiss that transpired between she and Jack… if his chilly attitude as of late was any indication.

"Where's Jack?" Will asked as soon as she'd reached the longboat.

Elizabeth turned to look at him and was startled at his stony expression. Never had he looked at her that way before… She fixed her own to match it on impulse. "He elected to stay behind to give us a chance," she heard herself answer monotonously.

Will may or may not have understood the business of it, and Elizabeth knew that it would take only one simple, forthcoming conversation to explain to him her intentions with Jack. She owed him that.

And she would have gladly initiated it by now… if she had any idea of what her intentions had been… are, she amended with blind hope.

"It doesn't matter now," she heard Will announce. "The Pearl's gone… along with its captain."

Elizabeth heard the stilted tone in his voice and closed her eyes. She distantly wished he would stop toying with his bloody cutlass.

"Aye," came Gibbs's voice clearly, and Elizabeth had never heard him sound more morose. "And already the world seems a bit less bright." He paused to turn and look at them all. "He fooled us all, right to the end… but I suppose that honest streak finally won."

Quite so, Elizabeth thought, clutching her cup and cursing her very soul. She watched as Gibbs took a breath and raised his own cup. "To Captain Jack Sparrow!"

Ragetti whimpered a bit before speaking. "Never another like Cap'm Jack!"

Across from his companion, Pintel raised his cup as well, face pulled into a somber knot. "'E was a gentleman of fortune, 'e was!"

Elizabeth's cup was in the air faster than her mind could register. "He was a good man," she declared firmly, but she could hear her own voice waver clearly. The statement was too true.

The silence stretched, and she still couldn't bear to look at Will, the only one (save for Cotton) who hadn't spoken. His cup hung half in the air, and his lips opened as if to say something.

Elizabeth prayed for something to pierce the air from him – a comment, a quote, a curse, anything – but she only heard him set his cup down again, and her conscience wound tighter around her heart. She tried to stop the tears from returning, but she was miserably unskilled at it.

And suddenly she felt Will's eyes on her.

"If there was anything could be done… to bring him back…"

She felt her hand twitch, but kept her eyes on the floor plank. God… her fiancé, who had obviously seen her kiss another man, was offering to help her get said man back… She pressed her lips together and breathed. He wasn't going to let up on her now. And sure enough –

"Elizabeth—"

"Would you do it?" a new voice interjected.

Elizabeth looked up along with everyone else to find Tia Dalma standing before Will, gazing at him with a look of fervent questioning. "Hmm?" The spark in her eyes was apparent.

A thin strand of hope made itself maddeningly known in Elizabeth, and suddenly, she found that Tia had spun around to face her; she nearly started at the intensity in the priestess's eyes. "And you?" Tia challenged, taking a step forward. "What, would you…?"

It was as if Tia had sensed it in her. Speechless, Elizabeth could only stare at the woman, who now turned to the room at large. "What would any of you be willing to do? Would you sail to de ends of de eart' and beyond… to fetch back widja Jack and him precious Pearl?"

The tension in the room snapped. Amidst the doubt that had set into their hearts and minds, it was clear that Tia Dalma was offering them an alternative. Elizabeth didn't dare to think it possible…

Stepping forward slightly, Gibbs surveyed Tia evenly and answered with a resolute, "Aye."

Pintel was next. "Aye!"

And one by one, she watched her comrades pledge to find their lost captain and his ship – without question or abandon. When Cotton's bird screeched a harsh, "Aye!" in agreement, she found herself too overcome to notice everyone turn their gazes towards her, until she felt Tia's eyes pierce into her own. They were now gentle and coaxing.

Sod it. If there was a way, then there was a way. "Yes," she whispered. And this time, she moved her eyes over to Will, almost in experimentation. He looked as overcome as she felt; resolution clearly befell him as he looked at Tia and agreed softly. "Aye."

Then the tension in the room was gone, and Tia set the tray down and grinned in delight. "All right," she said with relish, eyes lighting up with fervor. "But if you want to brave de world and haunt its shores at world's end…" Her smile grew; the crew held its breath. "…you're going to need a captain who knows 'dose waters."

What captain? Elizabeth thought, mind spinning. Who's left? Surely, no sailor was fool enough to navigate such seas…

Tia turned towards her staircase, on which there was an immediate clunk of a heavy boot.

Elizabeth hurried forward behind Gibbs, and the lot of them looked on in trepidation. A pair of brown boots… dark breeches… a tattered coat… a scraggly beard…

"So tell me," Captain Barbossa queried grandly with a wicked grin, "what's become of my ship?"

As he bit into a green apple with delight, Elizabeth sensed a menacing drop in her gut, and knew that it would be a horribly long journey to world's end.

A/N: Reviews are to me as the Jar of Dirt is to Jack. Hehe...