A/N: As promised, seeing as the Huskers totally dominated Arkansas on Saturday (42 to 13) here is the next chapter of pirates! (If you have no idea what promise I'm talking about you should go check out the Willy Wonka story I started earlier this week as a birthday present to ThePurpleness - one chapter away from completion that should have been completed on Saturday but of course I'm running behind schedule as usual and will instead be completed on Monday)

Thank yous to: QueenOfWeird1995 , Prettyangel18 , AdaYuki , MirandaNoles , and storywriter1994 for the kind words


Alina had known it was a long shot for Jack and Hector to cease their bickering since she took the most important dispute away from them with eighty percent of the crew cheering for Alina's brilliance. The other twenty were surviving members of Tai Huang's crew and didn't care to cheer or were too terrified of Jack and Hector to express their approval. Elizabeth hid below deck after the decision was made, fearing she might be keelhauled or marooned in the locker.

Jack and Hector were now not so subtly fighting for dominance by way of telescope and Brandy tried to suppress her giggle when she saw Jack's teeny spyglass.

"Boys." Alina drawled, "I have an easy way we can settle this." When both turned curiously towards her she continued, "Well I already know Jack and I'm sure Hector wouldn't be too put out if Brandy here took his measure. Then us girls could compare." She smirked evilly.

Jack looked disgusted at the thought of being compared to Hector, Brandy choked on the saliva she had just swallowed, and Hector's cheeks filled with blood only serving to confirm Alina's suspicions. She had seen the two continuously glance at each other and she could have sworn she saw Brandy linger when she snatched Hector's hat earlier – though admittedly, it could have been hesitation from fear. Nevertheless, at least on Hector's part, there was something there.

"Now that's just wrong, love." Jack grumbled.

"Don't you 'love' me, Jack Sparrow. Now after the way you sidled up to the undead bitch." Alina's opinion of Tia Dalma had only worsened after the woman had thrown Sir Crabbington overboard muttering something about a traitor.

"Undead?" Hector questioned.

"Tell me she doesn't look like something chewed her up and spit her back out."

"Jealousy is not a flattering color for you, Chariste." He chuckled.

Alina rolled her eyes and grumbled childishly to herself. She knew he was right, he usually was; but she couldn't let it go. What had Jack ever seen in that woman-thing? Her moody thoughts were interrupted when Ragetti jumped three feet in the air with a disgusted cry.

"Eerie." Pintel commented, no worse for wear from the sight before them, "That's downright macabre." He added, remembering Jack's use of the word earlier. Alina looped a knot around the wheel and joined the gathering crew at the rail.

"I wonder what would happen if you dropped a cannonball on one of 'em." Ragetti chuckled. The two paused to look at each other and turned excitedly to get cannonballs until they noticed the group of people standing behind them and staring at them incredulously.

"Be disrespectful it would." Pintel reprimanded with a semi-innocent smile towards the crew who simply rolled their eyes and looked over the railing for themselves.

"They should be in the care of Davy Jones." Tia Dalma informed, her voice thick with emotion no one thought possible, "That was the duty him charged with by the goddess Calypso. To ferry those who die at sea to the other side." She turned back to the bodies floating in the water so no one could see the soft smile on her face, "And every ten years, him could come ashore to be with she who love him, truly." Her voice turned hard once more, "But the man has become a monster."

"So he wasn't always…tentacley?" Ragetti asked, mimicking the appendages by wiggling his fingers under his chin. Alina nudged him in the ribs at his lack of respect for the legends of old.

"No. Him was a man, once." She smiled again, this time for the crew to see, and Alina's suspicions about the woman grew. Her eyes narrowed when she saw Hector speculating the woman as well which only served to further her anxiousness and earn a pounding in her head. There were too many damn plots going on behind her back!

"Now it's boats coming." Ragetti nodded towards the oncoming dead.

Mr. Gibbs began loading his musket before Will stilled his hand, "They're not a threat to us, am I right?" He looked to Tia Dalma for the answer.

"We are nothing but ghosts to them." She confirmed.

"It's best just let them be." Hector added solemnly hugging Alina close to him when he saw the concerned look on her face.

"What happens to those with no guidance?" She asked Tia Dalma, momentarily forgetting her hatred of the woman.

"Nothing. Davy Jones was meant to ferry them to ease them crossing. To give them peace. Those without him help are left to find them own way. Only to find rest by chance."

"And when did Jones stop doing his duty?" Alina's eyebrows furrowed.

"Some time before any here was born."

Alina swallowed thickly as she thought about her own father. Gibbs had told her he had scuttled himself and if Jones hadn't been doing his duty that meant for all she knew her father could be wandering the endless seas even now. She may have held a grudge with her father for sending her away but that didn't mean she didn't still love him. She was her father's daughter after all. She looked out at the endless dead and felt her heart break for all the others from whom peace was snatched.

Twin girls sat in one boat, staring forward into nothingness. A watchman floated behind them in a second boat; an old fisherman; a captain; a young boy who no doubt had dreams of being just like his father. Alina's eyes fell upon a man in a distinguished old man in a heavy blue coat and wearing a powdered wig and a black hat with gold trim, decorated with black plumage. She could no longer withhold her tears and they fell silently down her cheeks.

"It's my father." Elizabeth gasped, "We've made it back! Father!" She called to him, "Father here, look here!" Alina turned her head into Hector's chest to hide her grief. Despite the wrong buried deep in her heart from Elizabeth's actions, even then she could not hate the woman in this moment.

"Elizabeth." Jack looked at her sympathetically, "We're not back."

Elizabeth looked at him in disbelief, not understanding what he was telling her for a brief moment before the horror overtook her face, "Father!" She called more desperately.

Weatherby Swann looked around dazedly, "Elizabeth? Are you dead?"

"No." She shook her head violently, "No!"

"I think I am." He replied calmly.

"No you can't be!" Elizabeth slammed her hands on the ship's railing and gripped it tightly.

"There was this chest, you see, this heart. At the time it seemed so important." Alina removed herself from Hector and wiped her eyes, coming to the rail beside Elizabeth to look at Governor Swann one last time.

"Come aboard!" Elizabeth tried.

"And the heart." He continued, failing to acknowledge her, "I learnt that if you stab the heart, yours must take its place…and you will sail the seas for eternity." Jack drank in the words of the late governor, "The Dutchman must have a captain. Silly thing to die for."

"Someone cast a line!" She screamed at the crew. Only Marty moved to help her as the rest realized the pointlessness, "Come back with us!" She tried again.

While the rest of the crew were preoccupied with the frantic woman, Tia Dalma reiterated her words to Will from almost two years before, "A touch of destiny."

"Take the line!" Elizabeth threw a rope over to her father's boat.

"I'm so proud of you Elizabeth." He was beginning to float further away from the ship now, "And Alina. I know you think I'd forgotten you after the entire debacle with Sparrow. The truth is you remind me entirely too much of my late wife. Sometimes I wondered if you weren't really my daughter all along despite the fact that you were a handmaid." He chuckled as the rope began to slip into the water.

"Father! Father, the line! Take the line!" Elizabeth ran to keep up with her father, ready to dive after him if need be.

"She must not leave the ship!" Tia Dalma warned, and the entire crew ran to stop her.

"Father! Please come with us! Please! I won't leave you!" Will pulled her back firmly onto the ship and restrained her in a desperate hug.

"I'll give your love to your mother shall I?" Weatherby called as he floated into the mist.

"Please, I won't let you die!" She called over Will's shoulder who turned to Tia Dalma whispering if there was a way to save the man.

The priestess shook her head morosely, "Him at peace."


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