Hi guys! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, and that you take the few seconds to review after you read this. Thank you everyone!

-Han

Anna heard the clink of a lock before she opened her eyes. She sat up, her eyes wide and somehow her hair had remained in chopsticks. She stood hesitantly, water dripping from her Asian armor and silks. James Norrington stood before her with the keys, a small smile on his pale lips.

"James? What are you doing?" Anna asked in shock, stepping forward slightly.

"Choosing a side," he said with determination, opening her cell. She nodded encouragingly at the crew, trust she knew she should have rid herself of rushing back into her system. She let the crew go first, swarming out of the cell until she could step out with her head held high. She smiled at the man before her, the Admiral, and looked at him searchingly.

The moment between them seemed frozen, the swirl of water around their ankles made their movements heavy and slow. Before she could be sure what was coming out of her mouth, she was speaking, emptying her fears and truths into the air between them.

"You need to come with us," she whispered as they rushed above deck and to the stern, the ship- her ship ready to welcome them. "I know I'm not Elizabeth," she said quietly, the candle light making her eyes glow. "But I care about you, James. I know I'm not what you want, who you want…but I need you to be okay. I need you to come with us."

She had recognized the way he seemed to see through her, the burning in his heart to be sated by only one woman, one who wasn't her. The insistent way his soul yearned for Governors daughter had never faded, never blended into the background of his thoughts. Anna could tell that her arrival on the ship had only made his pain seem brighter, until it was all he could do to pretend Elizabeth was there. Until it was all he could do to blend Anna and his ideal together until they were one person and he needed to save them both.

Her words had made something like clarity rush into his grey-green eyes, as they rushed to the stern of the ship. They had reached the one of the lines connecting the two ships, half the crew had already made their way across, dirty fingers and legs clinging to frayed rope. The sea beneath them churned and swelled and it was black in the night, ominous. She spun James to look at her, eyes searching for a hint of the man she was once friends with.

"James," she whispered, drawing his attention and he looked at her as if seeing her for the first time. She could hear shouts of alarm in the background, but all that mattered was the honorable, good man before her. Tai Hung hovered beside her, an unwilling loyalty to his new Captain in his eyes. She cast her eyes to her first mate, giving him a long look and stern nod towards the line. He nodded at her gratefully, swinging his body up. He cast her an almost worried look as he prepared himself to go.

"Annie." She paused, looking back at James, the sound of her name shortened on his tongue made her afraid that this was the only time he would say it. Like he was letting it slip because this was the only opportunity he would have to say it aloud. "You are so much more than the girl I saved," he whispered. "So much more than the woman I had taken you to be."

He leaned close to her, pressing a soft, chaste kiss to her cheek. Her eyes slipped closed and she could feel his soft breath on her skin, the pressure of his lips. She would never admit that a tear fell from her cheek, the salty water making a trail down her skin.

"You must go, I will follow you," he whispered urgently.

The sounds of the watchman were closer; shouts and alarm raising and her heart was beating faster than it should have. The sea-drenched deck around her and the flicker of candle light made the moment seem eerie and more frightening. She breathed deeply, guilt and fear mixing in her heart as she nodded to herself and made the choice she knew James would make anyway. Instead of running, instead of pulling him with her, she wrapped her arms around his neck, goodbye's drying on her lips and she had so much to say to the man she'd known for so long. She had so much to tell him.

"I know you're lying," she said to him, her face in his neck. "Our destinies will never be joined, only crossed in time," she whispered, her eyes closing for a moment and James thought that she was something different. He thought she was something free and real. "I will tell Elizabeth, I promise. I'll tell her what you've done for us, the sacrifices you've made," she whispered fervently, and she knew that was enough for James. Enough for the good man who loved a woman that would never love him back.

She stepped back, and his smile was so genuine it caught her off guard, a sad contentment in his eyes and it made her heart clench. "Thank you," he said softly, pulling his sword from his belt and preparing to face his death. "Thank you, Annie."

"Goodbye," she whispered, stepping onto the railing and wrapping her arms and legs on the rope. The movement was slow, each agonizing pull of her limbs taking her further away from the man she should have saved. But somehow she knew that nothing she could have done would have made him follow her. She wasn't Elizabeth. She wasn't the woman he loved, but at least he had seen her for who she was for a moment, if only a moment.

She could hear Bootstrap approaching, cries of alarm and prisoners escaping on his lungs and Anna felt herself starting to crawl back. Panic in her blood made it pump faster through her veins her breathing was shallow and fearful and she could hear Tai Hung call her back from his position yards away from her. She saw James raise his sword, the beautiful craftsmanship stirring her mind until she remembered the way she and Will had slaved together over it for weeks before the ceremony. The candlelight caught the steel of the sword and for a moment it was all she thought about and she barely even noticed her fingers go numb around the thick rope supporting her weight.

"James!" she screamed as Bootstrap advanced, his sword drawn. James Norrington, Admiral of the British Royal Navy, turned and shot the line supporting her and her crew, sending them plunging into freezing black rolling waves. Her head broke the water, her breath coming raspy and long-suffering, and a violent gasp for much needed air. She struggled beneath her thick armor to stay afloat, James' name refusing to die on her lips. Tai Hung was pulling her arm, his face impassive in the dark, but maybe it was empathetic.

She shook off his assistance and swam the rest of the way to the Hai Peng, her arms cutting through black rolling waves and seeming to push her towards it. She climbed aboard by herself, her head held high as she made her way to the helm, each step echoing and she was sure she had their attention.

"Cast off! Separate all connecting lines. Bring her around, hard to port; let's put as much space between us and the Dutchman as we can," she instructed in a monotone, her voice clean and clipped, her eyes trained on the helm ahead of her. "Adjust course to 16 degrees," she spouted off, the men rushing to do as she commanded in every direction. She reach the helm, her hands spread flat o the railing. "Men, we're going to Shipwreck Cove."

Xx

Then sun bathed the deck of the Black Pearl, the sky a bright, clear blue. Gibbs stepped easily among the crew, spouting orders as they entered Shipwreck Cove. Piles of broken and battered ships lined they bay, splintered wood and the remnants of flags floated calmly above the water, mixing together until they could have made ships of their own. Cliffs lined both sides of the bay, the entry thin enough to look foreboding.

"Look alive, and keep a weather eye! Not for naught it's called Shipwreck Island, where lies Shipwreck Cove and the town of Shipwreck," Gibbs said with excitement in his eyes and his voice for the first time in a while.

Pintel repeated the order and crewmen rushed in the cool morning to their stations, a gentle breeze fluttering their clothing. Jack walked closer to Gibbs, his swaying steps almost natural on the deck as his head tipped up and he took in the beautiful sky. He wished briefly, and only briefly, that Anna could be there to see the way his ship rode the gentle waves like a stallion. The pride of his life made the scene look so complete.

"For all that pirates are clever cobs, we are an unimaginative lot when it comes to naming things," Jack said truthfully, his eyes tracing every expanse of Cliffside.

"Aye," Gibbs agreed, coming to stand beside him at the railing as they watched the clear blue water.

"I once sailed with a geezer lost both of his arms and part of his eye," Jack said suddenly, that old excitement in his eyes as he prepared himself for any sort of story anyone would listen to. He was a sailor at heart, and all sailors loved to be listened to.

"And what did you call him?" Gibbs asked.

Jack paused, his head tilting slightly. "Larry," he said finally, finishing lamely.

Both men paused as their eyes found Barbossa and Tia talking quietly, talking in forced whispers that wanted to rise to shouts. Jack could read lips, and he was grateful for the skill as he watched them speak.

He grunted to himself as Barbossa spoke about why he had to be brought back, and why Jack couldn't stay dead. "My end was not well deserved," Jack muttered to himself at Barbossa's words. There was a pause, in which Jack watched closer until he nodded almost sadly.

"Somehow I knew she was the one," he said to himself, watching Calypso be taken away. Tia's mocha skin seemed to catch the light and Jack wondered what she would look like without the binds, without the pirate lords tying her down. Before she sank below the deck and towards the brig, she caught his eye, a dark smile rising to her lips. He swallowed, deciding quickly that he did not want to find out.

He didn't want to know what Calypso would look like once freed, because he somehow knew all that would matter. He knew her eyes would be alive with fire and fury and it would be set on those that had bound her in the first place. Her power would swell within her being and she would set it loose on the seas he thought he knew so well. She would change them and make them violent and he would be at the mercy of the rolling waves, along with every other man, woman, and child who dare sail the seas again.

No, he did not want to know what Tia Dalma would be like stripped of her bonds and set free as the Goddess Calypso.