Lord Beckett was never one to give up. Certainly not in front of a subordinate. Yet, as he tromped through the coarse brush, was pricked by nettles he found himself lamenting his rash decision to track down the sinners who should be waiting in the plains of Purgatory. . His belly ached, complaining that he hadn't eaten in…well only God knows how long. He had no water, and his feet were aching inside of his suddenly too hot boots.

He paused, for what seemed to be the hundredth time to pull the pricking nettles from his trousers and he wondered briefly what his sole companion had gone to. The dreary island wasn't terribly large, they were bound to run into one another sooner or later…hopefully.

Every crunch and crack set Beckett's teeth on edge. Seeking out the scum of the island was seeming more foolish by the second. Supposing he found one what was he going to do? Forcefully drag the filthy lout back to his camp? Certainly not! No common criminal would share a treehouse with Lord Cutler Beckett as long as he was-…dead?

"Blast it all," He cursed to himself as his boot sunk with a nasty squelch into a muddy patch. "Of course the only damp patch of land and I manage to sink my new boots into it."

Beckett yanked his foot out – or tried to. His foot, boot and all, remained stuck firmly in the mire, which upon closer inspection didn't seem all that wet after all. Panic struck the young lord like a thunderbolt and he renewed his efforts to extricate himself from the new peril. He grasped onto a little shrub and pulled with all his might.

As it would happen, Beckett's fear wasn't of dying, per se. Since, of course, he was already dead, but what the result would be should he find himself in a position where death would usually occur.

Norrington's words about the volcano eruption and turning them both into undead ash-piles came to mind and Beckett wondered vaguely, as he noted his leg was now buried up to the thigh, what undead horror this might make him. He held fast and prayed (for the first time in a very VERY long while) to whatever deity might receive his pleas.

"Not that we've had the best relationship, but I don't want to end up as a walking sand bag. So, if you don't mind, send that bloody officer along, preferably with a rope, and with his mouth stuck shut?"

Thunder grumbled through the sky menacingly.

"Alright! Alright! Just the rope then. He's going to be bloody impossible,"

The sky calmed and Beckett was left to muse on his position with nothing to entertain him but the insistent pull of the sand at his leg, as he tried to keep the other from suffering the same fate.

….

James Norrington wandered the shoreline. He was thoroughly fed up with his purgatorial companion. Indeed, he was well aware that they were in purgatory! That wasn't up for dispute. It was the mountain that had him worried – or rather, the volcano. Just because one depiction of purgatory had a mountain didn't mean all manifestations of the place would contain the same or even similar landmarks. The volcano could be just that: A mountainous lava spewing piece of rock. James, for one, desperately preferred having a corporeal body versus existing for the rest of eternity as a piece of charcoal.

He shuddered at the idea. As his aching belly reminded him, they could certainly feel pain and sensations in Purgatory. Burning up in lava certainly wasn't on his 'To-do' list.

Absently, James waded out into the shallows. He always had found comfort in the sea, and being technically dead didn't change his inclinations at all. He inhaled slowly and as he let the air out once more he pictured all of his troubles blowing away on the breeze. He closed his eyes and repeated the process until he had calmed.

He felt lighter, as though a weight had been moved from his shoulders. "It will all return tenfold once I find my companion, no doubt,"

"If you believe it to be so, then it will be."

James's eyes flew open at the sound of a new voice. It was like nothing he had ever heard before, living or dead. It was melodic and familiar almost like a song from his childhood, yet he knew it was foreign to him.

The sight which met his eyes when he turned toward the sound would stay with him until the end of eternity. An ethereal girl clothed in what almost appeared to be liquid silk draped across her form stood nearby atop the lapping waves. The water around her stilled, but her clothes moved slowly, mimicking the eddies and tides that should have moved at her feet. Her hair such a light shade James wondered if it was even a color known to man. Yet, the most wondrous thing about the girl, whose age he could not discern, were the wings which were half spread behind her. They were a pearlescent white and the soft feathers lay atop one another with the order and perfection of a painting.

James was lost for words, so he spat out the first thing that came to mind. "Admiral James L. Norrington of the East India Company and Royal Navy at your service miss," he said, glad his title slid out with practiced ease, though the 'miss' sounded a bit breathless and rushed.

She smiled at him, her luminous eyes growing bright. "Yes, James. I know you. The boy lost on the wrong path. I have been waiting for you to come. You aren't like the others, James…you're a good man who took several wrong turns. But here you are at last and your redemption has already begun."

James felt his guard go up. "I beg your pardon, miss, but I do no follow."

If possible her almost childlike glee increased. "Indeed you do, James. You just do not allow yourself to! Your life was lived as a good man. You deviated from your path by associating yourself with the company, but your last act in the mortal world is what earned you your place in Purgatory."

She gestured to the mountain as she caught his shocked expression. "Aha! So you didn't believe? Yes, young human, this is Purgatory and that is the mountain which appears, with great accuracy, in Dante's manuscript."

James took some offence at being called young. He was well into manhood and for all he could tell the winged girl couldn't be more than 18 years old, but he held his tongue as she continued.

"Both you and your companion, Cutler are redeemable or I would not have let you pass. If you can overcome the trials of the mountain your souls will be at peace," she said. And then, as though she'd been glad to be finished with a particularly boring bit of business she clapped her hands together and said brightly, "Any questions?"

James was quite lost. He had a suspicion, though. But it was hard for him to believe that this…girl was well…IT. "You…you are the guardian of Purgatory?" he asked slowly, an eyebrow slowly creeping up despite his every attempt to remain polite and…well…not his usual sarcastic self.

The girl fluttered her wings. "I am Lycina, the guardian!" She said, pride filing her voice as her wings arched up joyfully over her head.

James folded his arms. "I thought the guardian's name was Cato?" he asked before he could stop himself, skepticism lacing his tone.

She waved a hand. "He was the last guy. He's retired now, up...well…up there."

James glanced up. "How pleasant for him. I suppose the wings helped?" he said sardonically. As the shock of suddenly finding himself face to face with a winged young woman wore off, he found his ill humor returned quite acutely.

Lycina, who seemed quite oblivious to the undead officer's ire walked on the water's surface to the shore and joyfully dug her toes in the stone grey sand. "Well, yes. Climbing the mountain sounds so tedious. I do rather love my wings. They're new, though. Just got them this century! They take a little getting used to. At least they're not as long as Azrael's. His drag on the ground!"

James stared at the young woman incredulously. "You're not born...er…made with them attached?"

Lycina laughed. It was a music sound that sent a sense of calm trickling into James' heart – quite unwillingly mind you. "Of course not! Humans are so strange sometimes! They're as removable as your coat, Mister Norrington. It just…is a bit of a process to get them off. I can't do it alone – not that I'd want to! They mean I've moved up the ranks. I'm a full on angel now!"

He raised an eyebrow, suddenly quite interested in the feather contraptions protruding from the small woman's back. "You mean, they're a symbol of rank?"

She nodded, her shining hair bobbing in the air. "Yes! And an incredibly useful symbol too. IF I didn't have these I'd still be spirit shifting to get around and that's exhausting, let me tell you!"

James raise his brows but didn't comment. He certainly didn't know what Spirit Shifting was and he wasn't particularly curious. He felt the less he knew about the supernatural the better. His previous encounters with the less than earthly creature had only attested to that feeling. One lead to his resignation from the navy, another was his direct cause of death.

Yes, the supernatural was not for him, James decided.

"Was there something you needed, madam?" he said at last, watching her with a new wariness.

"Oh! Yes! I was here to tell you that you and your friend Cutler-"

"We're…not exactly friends," the former admiral interjected.

Lycina gave him a look, which silenced his protests. "The two of you have been given a second chance to redeem yourselves in the afterlife. There are many perils on this island. If I were you I'd get climbing, Admiral!"

James glanced at the looming rock on the other side of the island. "You want us to scale the outside of a volcano? What if it erupts?!"

Lycina laughed again. "Don't be silly! You climb up the inside! And it won't erupt. It's a gateway to Hell."

James felt his heart stop. Or, he experienced a similar sensation as he heart was no longer beating to begin with. "Oh. Yes. Nothing to fear, just a gateway to Hell sitting innocently inside a volcano. I'm sure it will be a lovely, relaxing excursion.

The angel sniffed. "Well if you're going to be rude about it, I'm not sure I want to help you! If you'd only given me a chance I would have explained that gateways are different from passages. You of all people should know the difference, having spent so much of your time in those feeble little human fortresses you create."

James drew himself up. "Of course I know the difference. A gate blocks an entryway while a passage is…clear." He paused glancing down at her burning eyes. "The gateway is locked, then?"

She smiled then, and skipped around him in the sand, her wings extending a little to catch the air behind her. "In a sense. The gateway is seals so that no demons can come out, except the ones who are meant for your tests. They're minor demons, easily returned from whence they came if you know the trick. That's part of the test. Unfortunately, the gateway is also designed to let things in. If you fall, you will be trapped in Hell for eternity. That's the fate that awaits those who fail to pass the tests of purgatory."

James' eyes darkened. "Fantastic. So one good push from Beckett and I'm spending the rest of forever burning in a pit of fire while he tromps his insufferable little self up to heaven? Sounds peachy."

Lycina rolled her eyes. "You can't fall in or be pushed. You can only jump. A decent into Hell is from the choices you make not the actions of others. Besides. You are the first group to come since Dante himself. You must pass the tests together or not at all."

Just as James was about to fire off another snarky retort, thunder grumbled through the sky.

"Oh…OH dear!" Lycina suddenly placed her hands on his back and with a great flap of her wings she pushed him forward. "You must go save Cutler! He has entrapped himself! His greed will consume him! GO!"

James didn't know how the angel-girl knew, though he had his suspicions. But the terror in her voice was real. Anything that as bad enough to scare an Angel was enough for him. "Where?" he cried. The island was large! He wouldn't find cutler without knowing his route.

"Follow the light in the clouds! Go! You must defeat the mountain together! Your destinies were joined by the heart of a demon you must free him before it's too late! One without the other will not pass through the gates of heaven!" She beat her wings and James felt another strong push between his shoulder blades that sent him stumbling forward.

And without another thought he ran. He ran with his eyes trained on the foggy clouds above him. The white spec in the sky showed the way, like the North Star had done many a time during his life.

As he charged through the undergrowth he heard the Angels words in his head. 'Your destinies were joined…' She said it in a way that made him think. He'd made the mistake of believing his destiny was joined to someone once before…Pain lanced through his silent heart.

. 'Our destinies were intertwined, but never joined…' His last words had come back to haunt him.

As he stumbled through the coarse brush, his mind whirled wildly. He had learned as he lay dying on the deck of the Dutchman, that destiny did not mean love, nor did love mean it was destiny. Destiny was merely the plan of the higher powers.

And those powers had chosen his fate. Beckett was his partner in death and indeed, when he thought about it, every action he ever took lead him to the power hungry lord. Sparrow, who had been connected to the company before, the hurricane, The Heart….it had all lead to his service to Lord Cutler Beckett. But to what end?

Neither of them were righteous, good men. They were considered villains by most who knew them, James reflected with not a little pain. Why, then did the Powers of Heaven decide to throw them together, only to ensure their deaths soon thereafter? It didn't add up. It was as though, their destiny lay…beyond death itself?

James didn't know and didn't spare the energy to ponder. Instead he focused on his task of finding his companion of destiny and rescue him from being 'consumed by his greed'. Whatever that meant.

The former admiral did know one thing, though. Once he had extricated the lord from whatever power held his life…or rather death – in peril, he would be returning to the Guardian for some real answers.


HI THERE, READERS! Did you miss me? Here's the next piece of Purgatory you! Please read and review so i know you liked it!

Bye bye for now!

~Dolfin