Hello readers! Sorry that this update took so long. Over the course of the semester, I had to write something like 125 pages with all of my assignments combined. So I did not have any energy left to write this. But now that school is over for a little while, more fun writing for me!
Title: Facem Et Navis Nigrae = Burning Brand Black Ship
Hope you enjoy this chapter, and always I love reviews, and I try to respond to all of them!
Previously in Chapter 8 -
Lucifer studied him sagely for a moment. "I believe that you give yourself too little credit sometimes Jack. I also believe that you have a supreme difficulty with trusting yourself completely. Both memories we have seen so far have been acts that were committed for good; to save another. The memories that we have yet to see contain events of a similar nature-"
He paused abruptly, at the confused look on Jack's face.
"You seem to be laboring under the misconception that I believe myself to have no self-control at all! I assure you that I would not harm another for no reason, or out of unjust anger. However, what if someone whom I love does something that could warrant harm? How exactly would I be able to reason that out with myself? Surely, I have no problem-removing dangerous people. But how would I be able to bring myself to justify punishing someone whom I have grown close to?"
He stood close to the demon now, and saw the look of dawning comprehension as soon as it washed over Lucifer's face.
"You love Elizabeth Swann. That is why you are having this whole dilemma. You still love her, and for all of your talk of doing it, you truly believe yourself incapable of harming her for what she has done. This is grave indeed Jack, very grave. I promise you, Elizabeth Swann does not deserve your love or forgiveness, and I will not permit you to give it to her. She is beneath you, pirate, and you would do well to see it for yourself."
His lips twisted into a sneer, glaring at Lucifer as though the demon has just upturned his rum.
"Love her? You clearly are a couple of oars short of a dinghy if you think I am in love with that wretched woman."
Lucifer turned away, chuckling. "Love is one thing, Jack. Denial of love is quite another. Sad, really. No matter, as I have already said, you cannot love her."
"If you were not who you are, I would bury the barrel of my pistol into your mouth and pull the damn trigger, and then finger paint in what remained of your head on the wall."
That drew a full-blown laugh from the demon. He turned back to him with a shit-eating smirk on his face. "What pistol?"
His hand was already at his belt when he realized that said pistol had mysteriously disappeared.
After a healthy moment of glowering, he decided that dwelling on Elizabeth was going to get them nowhere.
"Which memory are we delving into next, oh evil one?"
All of the light in the room was extinguished with a wave of Lucifer's hand. "This one will be a mite further in the future. Exactly ten years, in fact."
He paled slightly but kept his composure. "What could possibly come of seeing that memory again? I have no confusion or misdirected thoughts about it. Everything on that day happened for extremely clear reasons, and I regret none of those reasons."
Lucifer began to walk in a slow circle around the pirate, keeping his red eyes trained on his face.
"You are honestly trying to convince me that you feel absolutely no insecurity about obtaining that brand on your arm due to your inability to follow simple orders?"
He bristled. "Those orders were for me to allow innocent people to be traded as slaves. Those orders came from an inhumane selfish prick, one that even you would not want anything to do with."
"Ah, quite the contrary, Jack. There is, in fact, a shiny gold seat just begging for Cutler Beckett to sit on it deep in the bowels of Hell. And I would want everything to do with him. I find the man fascinating in his disregard for humans in the name of business."
"As much as I would like to stand here and engage in mutual dislike for that man, the faster we get through this memory, so that you will realize that there is nothing to gain from it, the better. How are we going to proceed this time? Shall we walk through a magical teleporting door, or do you have something better in mind?"
The demon smirked once again. "The door was simply to add variety, pirate. Since this is all happening inside your head, I really could do just about anything I wanted to instigate transportation from one memory to the next. This time, I think closing our eyes and wishing for rainbows might do the trick."
He stared at the offending demon, and then rolled his eyes dramatically. His lips twisted into a smirk as he made a show of gesticulating his hands into a meditative posture, and miming a monk practicing deep breathing.
"Really Jack, sometimes I truly wonder how you have not been shot to death on account of your cheek."
His smirk grew wider. "I try. Now, are you going to follow suit?"
It was the demon's turn to glare. "Picture the memory in your head clearly."
It took a few moments, but suddenly the air smelled quite different.
"Oh, nothing like the smell of perfume adorning the heads of housewives, or the lingering cigar smoke of self-important egotistical men."
The room held a desk at the north wall, and a large map adorned the east wall. The floors were covered with handsome cherry wood, and the tables that stood on the south and west walls held sailing accessories. An attractive gold spyglass, a pristine sextant, and several smaller maps.
A quiet chuckle made his eyes snap open.
"One might think that you were describing yourself with that last one."
He turned away from his traveling companion to walk around the edge of the room.
"The difference is, I am important. They just think they are. And I do not smoke cigars."
The cigar smoke smells fresh. This must be just after the meeting that delayed my meeting with Beckett. Strange that the memory starts here.
"Yes, I did, in fact, choose to start this memory at that point in your timeline, rather than the point where the head of the harbor noticed that you were captaining an empty ship. Oh, did I mention that I can hear all of your thoughts during these memories if I choose to? Oops, must have slipped my mind."
He turned very slowly back to the demon, deciding to douse his temper once again.
"Then you might take care to notice that the fun part of this memory is just beginning, and if you wish to gain anything from it, I suggest that we both be quiet."
Lucifer nodded his head just as the door opened.
A man adorned in a white and blue uniform stepped through, with a sour look on his face. His black hair was held in a ponytail at the base of his neck, but disheveled. He was clean-shaven, yet his uniform was wrinkled.
He stepped over to the desk sitting on the back wall of the room, and rested both hands on top of it, dropping his head to stare at the floor. The lines on his face spoke of a far older man than his mere twenty-one years.
Another man stepped through the door, looking quite different from the man that was already there. He wore a white wig, with a pristine uniform.
"Lieutenant Sparrow. I have just now heard a very intriguing tale about you. Since it is my duty to act upon suspicious knowledge of people under my command, I have called you hear to...discuss this story in more detail straight from the source. As a disclaimer, lest you make the mistake of thinking that this belongs on a personal level, any result of this discussion is merely because I have a drive for pursuing the best business decisions for the Company."
The lieutenant's hands tightened on the edge of the desk. "For the Company? I suppose it was a good business decision to force your captain into transporting two hundred slaves."
"You might remember when you were accepted into my command, I explicitly informed you of a policy which you explicitly agreed to. It is not necessary for you to approve of what cargo your ship is holding, but you are required to transport the cargo that I order without resistance, before or during the voyage."
Jack spun around, knocking several things off of the desk, causing Beckett to glance at them distastefully.
"I agreed to that stipulation without knowledge of the lengths you would take my service to. When I saw those people, humans, packed into that hold like cattle for slaughter, I made a decision. I was not going to condemn them to a lifetime of servitude. I was not going to condemn them to a life without freedom."
Beckett scoffed. "Freedom is an illusion. Tell me, Jack. Why were you so eager to serve under my command? Furthermore, why were you so vigorous when you walked down your father's path? Neither of those choices involved any freedom of your own, let me assure you. Yet, you throw your entire Navy career away, and possibly your life, for a couple hundred people? I did not take you for the self-sacrificing type."
Jack narrowed his eyes. "You cannot seriously expect me to believe that the punishment for this will be death, Cutler. My choices, everything I do, are carefully calculated moves. I only sacrifice my freedom when I know that the outcome will result in something better, let me assure you. Being that I find myself on the side of self-awareness, I can see right through you, and I am no more under your command than I am under anyone else."
Beckett took a step toward Jack, who tracked every second of his movement carefully. "What, precisely do you expect to get out of this calculated move? I believe you underestimate my disregard for your position. While I may not kill you, I will assure that you die at some point, when it is most painful for you, and until that time, I will see to it that you do not have a life in which to experience any freedom."
He and Lucifer both saw the flash of fear in the lieutenant's eyes, but like the flicker of a candle flame going out, it was instantly gone.
"You are going to brand me."
Beckett was standing in Jack's face now. "Ah, what a waste of intelligence. Your mind could have gone on to do great things under my command. You may last a couple of years avoiding the noose, but your time will come."
He turned away, and headed towards the fireplace. He rang a bell that was hanging from the mantle, and several more men stepped into the room.
"I do hope you do not mind that I have called for an audience, Jack. I wanted this moment, where I crush the man who thought he could beat me, to be witnessed."
Jack turned towards the newcomers. "My first mate, and a pirate. The perfect choices."
"Joshamee Gibbs seems to see some kind of greatness in you, which must be why he continues to follow you around like some kind of watchdog. And Sao Feng is a personal friend of mine, one that you will come into contact with quite frequently once you have your brand. I imagined that he would like to see his competition, even though I attempted to explain to him that none existed."
"I suppose your friendship with Feng is just another of your business decisions?"
Beckett's sinister grin seemed to cast a shadow over the room. He reached down and pulled a long metal rod with a 'P' on the end of it, and admired the glowing hot metal for a moment.
"As I am a considerate man in most circumstances, I have decided to give you the option of having something to bite down onto, lest the pain becomes too much for you. Are you going to accept this offer, Lieutenant?"
Jack leveled his piercing glare at the man.
"No."
A look of surprise flitted across Beckett's face just for a moment before it was replaced with a look of satisfaction.
"Well, I suppose not many men can say that they chose to take the pain without any aid, so regardless of how stupid that decision is, I have to give you credit for your willpower. Should you pass out from the pain, and hit your traitorous head on my floor, I shall have no sympathy for you. Now, let us begin."
Jack eyed the brand as Beckett walked towards him.
"Get on your knees, roll your jacket sleeve up, and hold your wrist out."
Jack sank down slowly, keeping his eyes on Beckett the entire time. He rolled his sleeve up, keeping the brand in his peripheral. Then, he paused.
"This isn't my only punishment, is it?"
Beckett tilted his head only slightly.
"Once again, wasted intelligence. No, Jack, there is something else. Whenever I rang that bell, it not only signaled some of my men to escort your audience here. It also gave notice for my selected group of men to prepare for starting your precious ship on fire. Do not worry, they will not begin until you are there watching."
Jack tensed as though he wanted to launch himself at the man.
"You can brand every inch of me and make it your life conquest to burn down every ship I touch, but know this. You are going to die by my hand, and any plans you may have for my death pale in comparison to what you will suffer before I kill you."
The glowing metal of the brand reflected in the Lieutenant's eyes, like a beacon of death, as they pierced into Beckett's. Then, his wrist rose without hesitation.
Beckett leaned down so that he was level with Jack's face.
"I look forward to it."
He rose, and brought the hot metal down, letting it hover just above Jack's skin.
"I hereby brand Jack Sparrow as a pirate under the watchful and just eyes of the Royal Navy, and any other laws across the vast oceans. May they be merciful to him in providing him with a quick death, and may the noose do its job well should he meet it."
The smell of burning flesh permeated the air immediately as the brand touched his skin, but he did not make a sound. Tears flowed down his cheeks, but no cries of pain escaped his lips. His shoulders shook, but he did not break.
Breath left his mouth as he exhaled upon the brand being lifted away from his seared flesh, and he fought the urge to rub at the mark.
Beckett appeared to be disappointed as he placed the metal rod back into its holder next to the fireplace.
"Every man I have ever marked has screamed themselves hoarse, except for you. Once again, I lament the fact that you will not have a continued place among my men. No matter, I am sure there will be replacements. Now, onto the subject of your ship. Since my generosity does not extend to giving you time to recover, I think we shall attend to that matter of business right away."
The three men in the room watched as the now-branded pirate rose to his feet on shaky legs, clutching his wrist.
"Lead the way."
Gibbs glanced back at Jack continuously as they made their way out of Beckett's office with a sympathetic look, but Jack ignored him, choosing instead to glare hatefully at the back of Sao Feng's head.
The other officers stared at the passing group as they moved through the house, looking mildly surprised at Jack.
He and Lucifer trailed behind them, making a point to catch any whispers or comments that the crowd made.
"I do admire the willpower that you displayed back there, Captain. I imagine that you will have great satisfaction when you finally seize the opportunity to...what was the terminology you used...ah, yes, make him suffer. You must share your ideas for that with me at some point."
He scoffed, amused at the demon's amusement.
"Care to share with me the point of seeing this memory again?"
Lucifer glanced sideways at him. "There are several reasons, though I admit they are a mite more obscure than the last several memories. One, I wanted you to objectively see yourself next to a truly evil person that you have no personal attachment to, so that you can see that your choices are on a completely different spectrum than his.
"Two, I wanted to reinforce the idea that you must seek...revenge, for a lack of a better word, on those who have wronged you. Here you accomplished this by remaining unbroken despite the lengths that Beckett took to see that it happened. You will accomplish it again when you kill him.
"Three, and this one is important, Jack. When you are reunited with your murderer, you must see her as equal in evil as Beckett, because his burning of your ship and branding of your wrist is equal to her robbing you of your freedom and taking your life away from you."
He clenched his jaw. "I do not think that she is innocent, demon. I do not think that she deserves to live. However, I will concede on an earlier statement of mine. I may have...certain impulses towards her that stall me from wanting to kill her myself. Make no mistake, when the time comes for that to come to pass, the decision will be mine and mine alone."
A frustrated look passed over the demon's face. "You can disguise the word love any way you want, and you can bury it as deep into your head as you feel necessary, but it is there. I just hope that you make the right choice, pirate.
"There is another point I wanted to make with this memory. You said that you were afraid of becoming your father because of the choices you make. I assure you, that man would have never freed two hundred slaves from his own ship under the knowledge that he would be punished this extensively. You can kill all those that deserve death, yet it is acts of kindness like these that truly set you apart.
"And you mentioned earlier that you are extremely self-aware at all times, and that every decision you make is a carefully calculated one. While your father was a reckless brute, albeit smart, you are a quiet predator. You are not a murderer, but a reaper of those men who will continue to live without your interference."
He was quiet and remained that way, lost in a new array of questions.
When they reached the entrance to the building, Beckett turned to face Jack. To Jack's left, Feng removed a pistol from his coat, and pointed it at the pirate's head. By this point, a rather large crowd had gathered to watch.
"Before we proceed any further, I will be needing your uniform, your pistol, and your sword. Standard protocol for officer exile. Remove them slowly and place them on the ground to your left. I suggest that you refrain from any attempt at escape, as he is extremely quick on the trigger."
Jack glared at Beckett as he did as he was told.
"It might have been hard for him to squeeze that trigger with the barrel of my pistol buried in his throat, had you actually allowed me to keep it."
That earned him a sharp rap on the head from the pirate in question.
"It may be in your best interest to remain quiet for the rest of this, Sparrow."
Beckett's lips curled up in disgust when Jack spat on the floor.
To Jack's right, Gibbs was making a valiant effort to contain his smirk.
"Come, Sparrow, your ship awaits."
Beckett took the pistol from Feng and kept it trained on Jack's head as he led the pirate out of the building.
The sun was shining on the group of men as they walked through the town towards the docks, where Jack's ship was anchored. Whispers followed them, some of them confused, some malicious, and some harmlessly curious. Eyes lingered a second too long on the fresh pirate brand, and hands reached instinctively for their hidden firearms.
When the clear blue Caribbean water was in sight, the whispers turned into shouts of anger, and jeering taunts from the dock hands.
"...Pirate!..."
"...Traitor!..."
"...I bet that scum planned it all along! Thank goodness the law has prevailed once again. I hope he meets a noose not a moment too soon!..."
With each remark, the smirk on Beckett's face grew.
"You see what heroics get you, Jack? Nothing. They don't even know what you did, and I would wager that they do not care, as long as they can join each other in condemning yet another man to death due to piracy. Keep that in mind should you ever think of playing the hero again."
When they were standing in front of his ship, Jack turned and met Beckett's eyes.
"Go to hell."
Beckett sneered at the pirate and waved his hand to someone behind Jack.
A group of men stepped past, all carrying torches. Once again, Jack appeared as though he wanted to beat them all to a bloody pulp, but remained still.
"Just count yourself lucky that I am not forcing you to go aboard. I trust that you don't fancy the idea of being burned alive."
Finally, Jack began to lose his composure.
"I swear to God, the next time I see you I am going to gut you with your own damn sword-"
His words were cut short as the butt of a gun connected with his head, sending him reeling forward. Beckett knelt down and yanked at Jack's collar, dragging the front half of his body upwards.
"Sparrow, your mouth is going to do you no good here. It will be best if you shut up and accept your punishment! No man here is going to stop me from killing you if I choose that course of action."
The pirate's collar was released violently, sending him pitching forward. Coughing, he managed to stand up just as the side of the ship began to go up in flames.
Instinctively he ran in the opposite direction, only to be caught by Beckett. He was dragged to the man's side, and just then, he could see his entire ship, his beautiful ship, as it was engulfed in flames.
Jack shook his head back and forth.
"...my fault...this is my fault..."
The wood began to turn charred, and transformed to black, as black as charcoal. Then the ship began to fold in on itself. A loud cracking pierced the air, and the water seemed to raise up to accept the drowning vessel. She was sinking.
The light of the flames dancing in Jack's eyes even more brilliantly than the hot glowing metal of the brand, and their viciousness seared itself into his very soul.
As the mast of the ship disappeared beneath the waves, Jack yanked his arm from Beckett's grip, and turned to face the man again.
The pirate's face had lost all of its color, and his eyes were wild.
"Why are you not condemning me to the noose now? Why not save yourself the trouble!"
The barrel of Beckett's pistol was trained on Jack's forehead within seconds.
"Do not tempt me Jack. I will put a bullet between your eyes right now if you wish to be dead. I am not giving you the noose because it will cause me greater satisfaction to see your life squandered away on the run, as a criminal; as a wanted man, branded as a pirate.
"I am going to give you until nightfall to arrange a way out of this town, and if you are not gone by then, I shall have to reconsider my decision to have mercy on you. And I promise you that if you do meet the noose in my gallows, you will not escape. I suggest you make haste, Sparrow."
With that, he turned and walked away, signaling the other men to follow, sending a burning glare at Gibbs when he hesitated.
"Quite a sight isn't it? Watching a ship burn down..."
He turned to stare at Lucifer, before rolling his eyes.
"Leave it to you to make humor at my ship's expense."
The black cloth of the demon's robes swirled around him as he paced around the dock.
"Oh, don't pout. You got your ship back eventually. The mighty Black Pearl was raised by Davy Jones himself, upon your request. Don't worry, we will be seeing that memory next."
He raised his eyebrow.
"What, do you hope that by seeing my mistakes, I will learn from them and become a better man?"
The demon chuckled, but it was humorless.
"No Jack. I have no gain for you in this memory. I only wish to observe your reaction to one of the greatest mistakes you made. And do not argue, for it was a mistake. One that cost you very dearly the last couple of months."
He rubbed his forehead, shifting his red bandana around.
"Please don't remind me. That black mark on my handmade my skin crawl for weeks. Let's get on with it shall we?"
Lucifer looked around at him in surprise.
"In a hurry, Jack?"
He grunted in frustration.
"No, not at all."