Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of POTC. Sadly, they're not mine…
Summary: An alternative take on the first POTC movie, starting from when Jack saves Elizabeth. Ever wondered what would have happened if she insisted in protecting her saviour even knowing he was a pirate? Here's the answer! Please read and review! By the way, you'll recognize moments from the movie, and quotes too, although not perfectly the same because I'm Italian so I translated in English the quotes from my language…It's not me trying to copy the movie but using those moments and quotes in my alternate version of it.
Pirates of the Caribbean: "Curse of the Black Pearl"
Chapter 1: A Good Action Doesn't Erase The Bad Ones
Elizabeth Swann suddenly started breathing again. Someone had finally taken that dress off of her, and she gulped air in her lungs eagerly. Suddenly she saw someone inspecting the medallion on her neck.
"Where did you get that?" the man asked her. She had no time to answer though, as Commodore Norrington's sword had appeared, pointed on the man's throat.
"Stand up" he coldly ordered.
Governor Weatherby Swann had arrived too, and seen a guard with his daughter corset in one hand glared at him, who pointed toward the strangely dressed man.
"Shoot him" the Governor commanded, thinking the man had harassed his daughter.
"Father. Commodore. Do you really want to kill my saviour?" she defiantly said. The soldiers lowered their weapons, while the Commodore outstretched his hand.
"Thanks are in order" he said, and the other man shook his hand just to be pulled toward the officer, who lifted the sleeve of the man's shirt, just to reveal an engraved P on his arm.
"We've got something to object with the East Indies Company, uh, pirate?"
Elizabeth looked at the man in surprise, while her father ordered him to be hung.
"Keep your aim on him, Gillette, handcuff him" Norrington ordered. But before his soldiers did that, he lifted the pirate's sleeve.
"Ah, Jack Sparrow" the Commodore continued, seeing a tattoo on the man's arm.
"Captain Jack Sparrow, if you allow me" the man replied.
"I don't see your ship, captain"
"I was just about to buy one, let me tell you"
"He said he wanted to commandeer one here" one of the soldiers said.
"See, he was telling the truth" another soldier said to the first one. "These are his, sir" he added then, giving the Commodore the pirate's effects.
"No shots and no gunpowder, a compass which doesn't point to the north…" the officer started, then extracted the sword. "This I almost thought was made of wood" he commented, mocking the pirate. "You're sure enough he worst pirate that one can remember"
"At least they remember me" the pirate spat back.
"Commodore, I strongly protest " Elizabeth intervened, putting herself between the pirate and the soldiers. "Pirate or not, he saved me from certain death"
"Miss Swann, a good action is not enough to redeem a man from a lifetime of villainous actions"
"But it seems enough to damn him" Sparrow said, referring to the fact that if he hadn't saved her, they would have not arrested him at all.
"Of course" Norrington spat back, satisfied. Elizabeth couldn't let her saviour to be arrested, pirate or not.
So she did something unexpected, and grabbed the pirate's possessions from one of the guards, pulling out the sword.
"Then you've got to kill me if you want to kill him" she dared the soldiers and her own father, who immediately ordered them to stop aiming at the man.
Jack Sparrow was beyond amused.
A girl he had never seen before was putting herself between him and the soldiers, stopping them from arresting him. But it became even more interesting when the girl took some handcuffs from a guard, and chained herself to him.
"Elizabeth! What are you doing?" her father said, seeing that.
"Simply paying my debt with this man" she answered. "He saved my life, I save his own"
"Don't be silly dear, he's a pirate" the Governor tried reasoning.
"And a good man, if he saved me, someone he didn't know, from certain death. I can't allow him to be arrested and then hung" she said, stepping even closer to the man.
Captain Jack Sparrow took that chance to put one arm around the girl's waist.
"Good day, gentlemen. You'll remember this day as the day you almost caught Captain Jack Sparrow" he said, and pulling on a rope he lifted both of them in the air, using a cannon as a counterbalance.
They managed to escape the guards who couldn't shoot without risking to hit the Governor's daughter. That granted them some advantage, and they effectively used it hiding under a small boat.
"Thanks, luv" Jack whispered to her.
"I just did what I felt was right" Elizabeth answered. "Plus, I've always loved the pirate stories, and hated the high class life I was forced to do…this is my chance to leave all of that behind and go on some adventure" she winked at him.
"Luv, if this is what you really want, I'll bring you with me then. Although, you must be really sure because I can't very well bring you back here if you change your mind once we've set sail"
"I'm sure, Captain Sparrow" she said.
"Very well then" he said, and cautiously led the small boat toward the Interceptor.
"We're gonna commandeer that ship, lassie" he explained. He had seen them prepare it to sail, so he knew they would be leaving soon.
The two of them managed to snuck into the ship, and once it was ready to sail, they acted.
"You better stay calm, we take control of the ship" Jack said, his gun in one hand, while Elizabeth brandished his sword.
So they sent the crew away on a boat, and Jack went at the wheel, directing the ship outside the bay.
When the Commodore noticed it, it was already too late to intervene. The Interceptor was, after all, their quickest ship, so they would never catch the two.