Sorry if this isn't long enough for you guys, but i really really really wanted to upload today! I didn't end up getting six reviews until i'd fallen asleep, so i'm sorry for that. Today we'll go with five, and i'll upload tomorrow. Thank you so so much for your continued support, it means so much to me. Seriously, you have no idea.

-Han

"Blessed sweet westerlilies, we're back!" Gibbs shouted, staring at the sunrise with a grin of triumph.

Jack leaned down further, his face all the closer to Anna's and they froze for a moment and she thought he might kiss her, like he had on the battlements of Port Royal. But he only slowly extended his arm to help her up, his eyes dark and bright at the same time and she took it just as slowly. Her hand tightened around his as she stood and she imagined leaning forward the extra few inches and crushed her mouth to his but she was too weak. She looked down, stepping away from him slightly as he looked at her with that unreadable gleam in his eyes that made her scared.

She could hear Elizabeth talking in the background, pointing at the rising sun and the way it cast a pale light on everything and made Anna's eyes seem bluer. She watched the crew sigh almost as one in relief and paused when the mood turned. Barbossa turned, pointing his guns at Jack, the barrels seeming to call him back to the land of the dead and Jack wasn't having it. Will and Elizabeth both pulled their guns as Jack raised his own and everyone was pointing at someone.

Except Anna, who rolled her eyes and stayed behind Jack, leaning against the railing and waiting to see what would happen. Everyone laughed suddenly, looking almost ashamed of themselves for even trying to threaten another one of them.

"All right then!" Barbossa shouted, and everyone was back in position, smiles erased and backs straight and faces hardened and firm. "The Brethren Court's a-gatherin' at Shipwreck Cove. And Jack, you and I are a-goin', and there'll be no arguin' that point," the Captain said to the other Captain, both pistols pointing at him. Jack returned the sentiment, a coy grin on his angularly carved face.

"I is arguin' the point. If there's pirates a-gatherin', I'm pointing my ship the other way," he said factually, as if it were simple and complete and just a fact of life. Anna stared at the back of his head, trying not to be disappointed in him.

Elizabeth turned, pointing both guns at him and Jack smoothly swung his arm in an arch for one gun to face her. "The pirates are gathering to fight Beckett, and you're a pirate," she said with conviction, the bruise along her jaw doing nothing to hamper her words.

"Fight or not," Will added, pointing both guns at him and watching as Jack moved to aim at Will. "You're not running Jack."

"If we don't stand together, they'll hunt us down one by one, till there be none left, but you," Barbossa said mockingly, a fake smile plastered onto his decaying teeth.

"I quite like the sound of that. Captain Jack Sparrow, the last pirate," Jack said with a smile and Anna tried not to think about how much it hurt to hear him say it. She had to pretend she knew he meant that he wanted to live forever. She had to pretend he remembered she would be with him.

"Aye, and you'll be fightin' Jones alone. And how does that figure into your plan?" Barbossa asked, his eyes flicking behind him to Anna for only a moment. A moment long enough to make her feel alone and sad and fragile. She shook herself, her shoulders stiffening as Jack spoke again.

"I'm still working on that. But I'll not be going back to the locker, mate, count on that," he said darkly, his pistol rising, his finger about to pull down.

"Wet powder," Anna said before he could pull it, already walking towards the helm and the maps. She heard the resounding clicking behind her, of all of them trying to shoot. Her eyes rolled, almost of their own accord and she plopped herself down on a barrel, flicking through maps and waiting for the others to arrive.

Will made it there first, picking out a large, detailed map and searching for an appropriate island. He sent her a quick look of kindness, a soft smile and a gentle touch to her shoulder. She smiled back, looking over the map with him and pointing out the closest island. The others crowded around them and Jack stood behind Anna, placing a ringed hand on her shoulder and she would never admit it felt more than amazing on her skin.

"There's a freshwater spring on this island. We can resupply there, and get back to shooting each other later," Will said logically, his voice like a man of high propriety and Anna was surprised at the cool charm to it.

"You can lead the shore party, and I'll stay with my ship," Jack said with a smile and Anna couldn't help but grin to herself. She didn't think he would ever allow himself to be separated from his ship again.

"I'll not be leaving my ship in your command," Barbossa said lightly. Anna stood again, turning towards him with a biting glare until he nervously stepped back and away from her. Her fingers itched to yank at his scraggly beard again and bring him down to her level.

"Why don't you both go ashore and leave the ship in my command...temporarily," Will said with a smile that made Anna unnerved. She nodded slowly, her eyes fixed on Will's, the warm brown telling her to trust him.

Xx

An hour later they were tromping up white beach, the image of a creature in front of them. Anna could feel jack stiffen and responded in turn, her eyes fixed on the dead Leviathan down the beach. They walked closer almost against their wills, each step taxing his strength and taxing her emotions.

The grey body of the Kraken lay broken on the sand, the open eye staring at nothing, white water swirling around tentacles that once gripped at ships and sailors and dragged them to hell. Anna stopped before it, watching Pintel and Ragetti run forward, climbing atop it and found the eye of the monster and couldn't stop staring. It was sad, in a way.

Another part of her felt victory and retribution and it took every ounce of self-control not to break before the monster that had already broken. Jack was closer to it, watching himself be reflected in the yellow-green eye of the monster that had killed him, his own eyes sad and soft. Anna moved to stand beside him, her hand slipping into his, his rings pushing into her skin with the force her gripped her back.

For a moment they held to each other, memories of white foam and crushing darkness and splintering black wood playing in their minds and Anna remembered the moment she realized she loved him and Jack remembered the way his compass pointed back to the ship. To her.

The moment seemed to carry on for a lifetime and there was so much she could have said. She could have told him how much she had missed him, how much it hurt to see him dragged away from her and life, how much she loved him. But they were both silent and maybe they shouldn't have been.

Barbossa walked beside Jack, facing the beast with calm, undisturbed eyes when the two next to him stared down the monster with hollow, haunted eyes.

"Still thinking of running, Jack? Think you can outrun the world? You know, the problem with being the last of anything, is by and by, there be none left at all," Barbossa said calmly, quietly, softly. Anna felt like an outsider, staring in on two men who knew freedom better than her. Who knew life, so much better than her.

"Sometimes, things come back, mate. We're living proof, you and me," Jack said, his gaze flickering to Barbossa and back to the creature in seconds, images of life and death swirling behind his eyes.

"Aye, but that's a gamble of long odds, ain't it? There's never a guarantee of coming back, but passing on, that's dead certain," Barbossa replied and Anna thought there was wisdom in that. There was wisdom in piracy and life and in death, no matter how much the concept scared her. How much she feared Death taking another person she loved.

"Summoning the Brethren Court, then, is it?" Jack said after a moment of silence and Anna felt the somber moment had passed and she could participate again.

"It's our only hope, lad," Barbossa said and Anna thought he sounded like a father and the idea made her wonder about what the two were like before mutiny and cursed treasure.

"That's a sad commentary in and of itself," Jack said sullenly, like a small boy. Like the small boy he really was, on the inside. A boy who knew freedom, but not consequences.

"The world used to be a bigger place," Barbossa said, a true sadness in his voice and his eyes and Anna closed her eyes as a soft breeze floated around her.

"The world's still the same," Jack started, his eyes drifting to the woman beside him, who finished for him as if it was rehearsed.

"There's just less in it," she whispered, her voice carried on the wind and sounding sad.

Xx

The spring didn't look right to Anna, a darkened color that looked sick and putrid. She stood next to Jack again, their hearts beating in time, though neither knew it. She watched Barbossa walk forward and lean down to the body floating in the water.

Face down , the man looked too pale, tattoo's along his back and she thought they looked Asian. She turned to Jack and whispered this to him as Barbossa turned the man over, a wooden spike driven into his mouth and she wondered if it had been opened in a scream. Jack looked back at her, his eyes wide with curiosity.

"He was in Singapore," she said almost acidly, her face furrowing in concentration and anger as it rose. "How did they know where we would be?" she asked herself, turning suddenly and swearing so loudly Jack gave her a side-long glance.

"Oy!" Ragetti shouted from his position as lookout. "We got comp'ny!" he shouted and Jack followed Anna's line of vision and swore himself.

Sao Feng had found them.