Elizabeth startles at the heat as she slowly comes to. The pure white sand hot beneath her palms as she moves to sit. The limbs themselves heavy and aching as if she'd fought off an entire armada and somehow lived to tell the tale.
With a wince she stands, her gaze searching the shore with a furrowed brow at the sense of déjà vu that consumes her and suddenly she knows exactly where she is. Though the how and why of her coming to be here once again proves most elusive.
"Will?"
Silence reigns between her call and the wash of the tide
"Henry?"
"They're not here, luv."
Her head snaps round at the all too familiar voice that responds in lieu of husband and son. Her eyes wide and mouth agape as she stares in both wonder and confusion at the man stood at her side.
"Jack?"
She sways as the world suddenly shifts and warps around them. The sky above falling to darkness as the sand and sea is brought to life by the fire that rages just beyond. Two undeniably familiar shadows cast by its light as they dance about, singing and drinking rum as if they'd not a care in the world.
"Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me!"
"Oh, I love this song!"
She hears the echo of the past on the wind and startles at the warmth it suddenly brings her heart.
"Seems like a life time ago now doesn't it?"
Her gaze drifts to the long-missed profile of the pirate beside her. The lazy drawl of his words like a balm she'd not known she'd been in need of.
"Should've known then ye weren't te be trusted."
He hits a nerve and she bristles. The seemingly instinctual predilection to argue with the man to cover her own insecurities rearing its ugly head even now after all this time.
"We were rescued, weren't we?"
He snorts, his obsidian gaze roaming her face with that half smirk that never fails to annoy her for all she's longed to see it once again curl his lips.
"Aye, 'fer all the good it did me."
"You can't blame me for every truly horrendous choice you've ever made, Captain Sparrow."
"Ah, not all, indeed," He concedes with nod and a familiar flamboyant lift of his wrist, "But some."
She scoffs though she knows the accusation cannot be denied. A growl of annoyance passing her lips as she crosses her arms and glares up at him.
"What is all this, Jack?"
He gestures to the beach with an expectant raise of his brow.
"I would 'ave thought that rather obvious, luv."
"If I'd any idea why we suddenly find ourselves here reliving the past I wouldn't have asked now would I?"
"Ah uh, not we, luv," He corrects with a shake of his head that sets the trinkets in his hair jingling against one another. "You."
"Am I dreaming?" She ventures curiously, brow furrowing deeper as she reaches out to poke him tentatively in the shoulder and finds him pleasantly real enough to touch.
"As flattered as I am at the thought, darlin'," He supplies with a smirk that quickly falls away to a cringe, "The Locker is most assuredly not a dream,"
"The Locker?" She startles, somewhat surprised by his revelation though not entirely. Her eyes drifting back to their past selves sat in the sand, rum in hand and a smile upon both their flushed faces and scowls.
"I think I need a drink."
"Ye wouldn't be the only one."
She snorts at his muttered agreement.
"I should have known something like this was bound to happen eventually."
"Oh?" He raises a curious brow, "Do tell, dearie."
"The Trident was never meant to be found, Jack," She offers with a quiet sigh.
"But there was no stopping Henry once he'd set his mind to it."
She catches the curl of Jack's lip, his expression a mixture of annoyance and disgust.
"So we're stuck ere 'cause yer idiot spawn couldn't leave well enough alone?"
"He's a good man." She bristles with a pointed look, "Though much like his father before him and a certain pirate captain we both know, he demonstrates little concern for how his actions may affect others."
Jack's lip quirks into that infuriatingly smug smirk of his once again though she ignores it along with his stirring.
"Trouble in paradise, luv?"
"I shouldn't be surprised to hear your ears might have rung for a solid week after Will's return." She snorts, "He was furious Henry had gone in search of you, well other you-"
She paused suddenly uncertain as she looked to him with a curious expression, "Real you?"
"I'll try me best not te be insulted, dearie." He scowled.
"You're either here or you're not, Jack," She rolls her eyes in exasperation, "You can't have it both ways."
"Who says I can't?!" He objects rather vehemently, leaning back on his heels to stare incredulously down his nose at her and she can't help but scoff at the absurdity of it all.
"Perhaps I really am losing my mind?"
"Finally, something we can both agree on."
"You can bugger off if you find my company so very objectionable, Jack Sparrow." She warns, ignoring his smirk at her colourful choice of language.
"Would that I could, luv." He offers with a lazy shrug of his shoulders.
"What do you mean?" Her eyes narrow at the remark, "Why would you-"
She stills at the far too knowing smirk he shoots her as he backs away, the world once again warping around them until she feels the familiar worn wood of the Pearl beneath her bare feet. Feels the ship sway gently beneath them both as she and Jack stand upon her deck the day she'd fed both man and ship to the Kraken and suddenly she knows all too well why he's here and sighs somewhat in resignation.
"Curiosity."
"Aye, luv, curiosity."
Their gaze locks as he stands beside the vision of himself shackled to the mast and her heart aches in remembrance of having left him behind. A wave of disgust suddenly crashing through her as she watches the ghost of her former self steal the very breath from his lungs before fleeing over the side of the ship.
"Not a bad way te go if ye ask me," He offers conversationally as he circles the mast.
"But ye should know I'd already made up me mind te go down with me ship."
Her eyes widen as he manages to prise the shackles over his knuckles just as the Kraken begins to curl itself about the Pearl. It's gaping maw rising up from the depths with a thousand razor sharp teeth within ready to consume him whole and she realises she can't do it again as she watches him don his beloved hat and move to draw his sword.
"No," She begs quietly, her voice suddenly seeming to fail her, "No not again, Jack. Please."
"It's alright, luv."
"No, it's not," She shakes her head in objection, "I didn't- I never wanted this…"
"I know, Bess," The Jack stood at her side offers a smile that more resembles a grimace in reply. His voice soft and his eyes flashing with a sorrow she can't help but flinch at the depths of, "An I know exactly why ye did it, too."
She recoils at his quiet accusation before attempting to skirt the truth of the matter entirely.
"I'll not apologise for saving the lives of your crew, Jack."
"Oh, stop lyin' te yerself, 'Lizabeth." He scoffs, his past poised upon the Pearl's rails, sword aloft and ready to strike as the beast lurches ever forward.
"Ye were scared an' ye bloody well know it!"
"I'm still scared!"
She grits her teeth at the truth she'd held back acknowledging for the sake of her pride, for the sake of her betrothal to a man more concerned by the plight of his father than his own fiancé rotting in a jail cell after fate intervened the first time.
She'd loved Jack. Always had, always would. Even though he'd lied to her and sold them out more times than she'd care to count. He'd always come for her in the end, protected her. Even after she'd sent him to his death.
"Finally, after all this time," He breathes, so close now she can feel the rush of his breath against her cheek and hears the distinct sound of a latch opening and she knows what it is he's presented her with. The weapon of her ultimate downfall.
"Now tell me, Bess," He places the compass gently within her open palm and she shivers as his fingers draw away, "What exactly does your heart truly desire most in this world?"
"Oh Jack." She sighs. All traces of pretence suddenly gone as she lifts her fingers to trace his cheek with the back of her knuckles. A lump forming in her throat as he leans into her touch.
"What I felt for you terrified me, Jack Sparrow. Consumed me as it blazed like the very sun itself and unlike anything I'd ever felt before. So I used you. Used whatever it was you'd felt for me in return to my advantage and damned us both in the process"
He stares her down with the same prideful gaze he'd worn the day he'd both condemned and absolved her of the crimes against him in just one word and though he doesn't say it, she knows it to be true.
"I loved Will. He was honourable and sweet, safe." She shakes her head in wonder at the recollection of it for a time before her gaze finally gives way to accusation, "But you?"
"Oh no, not even death could bloody well shift you from the place in my heart you'd somehow managed to worm yourself in to."
"Say it."
"How can I, Jack? Besides, what difference would it make now-"
"Say it, Bess."
"Alright then, I'll admit it. I made the wrong choice." She grits her teeth in pain at the admission and he growls in response, "It should have been you."
"Aye."
Her lips tremble as he slips from her fingers.
"Jack, no, wait what are you-"
"Jack? Jack!"
She screams as he charges forward into the face of the great beast. His name torn from her lips over and over until finally her eyes snap open to greet the monster than remains of Davy Jones and she curses the nightdress she'd arrived as it impedes her endeavors to keep her distance.
"Missus Turner, we meet again."
"Swann, actually," She corrects primly, the Pearl's deck slippery beneath her bare feet as she backs away from his cold calculating glare of disdain. "And it's Captain. As you well know."
"Very well then, Captain Swann." He spits, the loathing clearly evident in his tone.
"What do you want, why am I here?"
"Ah I suppose you would consider yourself due some sort of explanation now wouldn't you?"
"Don't toy with me, it won't work," She replies coolly. Eyes trained upon the creature that holds her captive as he continues to circle her like a shark about to move in for the kill, "You've brought me to the Locker. Why?"
"Why?" He chuckles bitterly, "Why revenge o' course!"
She gasps as he suddenly surges forward. Her back slamming hard against the mast as she tries to flee only his deformed body holds her entrapped.
"What do you want from me?!"
"What I want, is for the two men whose hearts would break most te be rid of you te suffer at my hands for all I have endured in the past at theirs."
"Your suffering was of your own making," She sneers in objection, "And my son will play no part in your acts of petty revenge so don't you dare-"
"Fool, I've no interest in the boy," He cuts her off with a chortle, "The same though can't be said however for his sire an' that blaggard Sparra!"
"Jack?!" She can't help the sudden guffaw that leaves her lips despite her earlier visions, "Oh no I think you'll find you're quite mistaken in thinking my capture might inspire any sort of reaction from Captain Sparrow."
"Oh?" His answering expression seems far too knowingly smug for her liking and she suddenly wishes he were closer and she in possession of a sharp blade.
"An' why not?"
"Because I haven't seen nor spoken to him in over twenty years," She retorts, ignoring the bitter twinge in her tone. "The last I saw of his ship being nigh on six months ago as she disappeared to parts unknown."
"Did ye break his heart then?"
She shakes her head in disgust as his beady eyes widen in what appeared to be intrigue.
"Sent im' off te lick his wounds like the dog he is?"
She scoffs. "A grudge for chaining him to his own ship and feeding him to your pet I'd wager."
She flinches at his sudden bark of laughter.
"Served him right too."
"What does?" Her brow furrows in both objection and confusion.
"To have the only woman te ever claim his heart be the one te break him so thoroughly."
"The only things in this world Jack Sparrow might indeed claim any affection for is the sea, his precious ship, and himself," She retorts dryly, "Though not exactly in that order, I'm sure."
"Yet he gave up his chance at immortality for you?"
"That proves nothing," She scoffs, "I know Jack to be a good man, despite what you or he might care to claim otherwise."
"A good man ye'd once condemned te death." He muses just loud enough to make her flinch in recollection as he paces a half circle around her, "Tell me girl, do ye know just what sort of stain such a deed leaves upon ye soul?"
"I beg your pardon?" She counters sharply, "I helped fetch Jack back from the Locker, as you well know. My conscience is clear so don't try to-"
"I speak nothing of guilt, pet," He chuckles, her eyes narrowing at the condescension in his accented tone, "But of the bond created in an instant so innocuously simple as a kiss."
"Bond? What bond?"
"One can only escape the Locker by means of that which put ye there te begin with," He croons, a sly smirk curling his fishy lips, "A soul for a soul an' ye forfeit that te him the moment yer lips touched. A piece of each sealed away in the other an' inevitably bound no matter time nor distance."
"Pure fantasy by the sounds of it," She drawls despite her mounting concern, "I am not however, nor have I ever been in love with Jack Sparrow, nor he with me. So whatever you'd thought to achieve in my imprisonment, it won't work."
"Oh, but it already has," He chuckles, stepping away, "After all, what choice does yer William have but te seek out the compass?"
"Then it shall be a long wait for us both indeed if you think it is I whom either of their hearts truly desire most in this world anymore." She scoffs. "We were all each to the other nothing more than a means to an end. One that came and went so very long ago."
Her eyes fall shut at the truth of her own words and she wonders just what she'd done to anger whatever deity that had cursed these near constant trials upon her relationships time and time again. Cutler Beckett's words suddenly whispering the answer through her mind she'd no more wished to acknowledge now than she ever had then.
Marriage interrupted, or fate intervened.
She grits her teeth as the rancid cackle of Davy Jones laughter echoes long after he's disappeared from whence he came. Her illusion returning in his wake to slide to the deck beside her with a groan of protest and a tinkle of trinkets.
"Well that's it then," He murmurs, "Trapped here for good now by the looks of it. Not so bad though the company this time really."
"Oh Jack," She whispers curling herself into his chest, "Jack, I need you."