Ambiguous Allegiance
Author: williz
Summary: Alternate Universe; A lone man was found one stormy night, washed up on the Port Royal shore behind Governor Weatherby Swann's manor. The appearance of a pirate captain will change the lives of all citizens of Port Royal.
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters in the Disney film Pirates of the Caribbean. Any unrecognizable characters pertain to my story and my story only.
"Well, if I'm goin' ter 'ang, m'glad it's at least a beautiful, cheerful day," Jack muttered darkly as he and Will were pulled out of their cells and handcuffed. It was the day of the hanging. Jack Sparrow and William Turner, the two pirates who had committed those crimes most heinous against the Crown were to hang.
And rightfully so, according to many Port Royal citizens.
Will just shook his head, completely spent and in pain.
"Ye alrigh' whelp? Yeh look blue." Jack laughed, but received a rough shove from behind and glowered back at the redcoat, shutting up and walking. When they reached a wooden door, they heard loud eruptions coming from what sounded like a large crowd of people waiting for the hanging.
Will pondered the validity of the statement that human beings were a sick species, ready to watch a man squirm from a rope strung about their necks, ready to watch a man's neck snap.
And for what?
Pleasure. They all received pleasure out of this sick execution, so much so that they would hang the bodies of those who committed the crimes from their caves to exploit their deaths to the fullest extent. Will's mood was dark, indeed.
He had a difficult choice to make and less than a half hour to make it.
Either he was to go through with this and be free to live a life of freedom with Elizabeth, the love of his life, or he could not go through with his and hang alongside his father's friend. He didn't know what to think anymore.
"Yeh thinkin' 'bout yer lass, Will?" He heard Jack ask from beside him. He turned and looked at the pirate captain, surprised to see the sincere look in his dark eyes.
"What do you care?"
"I don't really…bu' I kin tell yer 'eart is 'urtin' an' I know wot it feels like."
"Oh, shut up."
"Aye, I'll shut up."
Both Jack and Will received sharp blows to the backs of their heads and winced. "Both of you shut up!" The soldier behind them barked.
As they waited for the doors to open, Will hung his head, his eyes shut. He could do this. He really could. All he had to do was…and then…Jack would be dead. He would live on to marry Elizabeth and have a family and treat them the way his father never treated him.
The way his father never…
His father. And Jack. They were friends. They were good friends, according to Jack Sparrow. How could he betray the friend of his father. It would be like betraying his father.
My father betrayed me.
But could William Turner betray his father? Could he really get revenge on his father for putting him and his mother through the pain and anguish of life without money, without the necessities of life? Could he seemingly kill a man? A living, breathing man?
The answer was yes, he knew. He had already killed a man. A pirate. To save his Elizabeth. Then wasn't this the same?
Was he not doing this to save Elizabeth?
But when did Jack ever pose a threat to Elizabeth?
Will thought about this hard. Jack had made many threatening remarks to Will about Elizabeth. He told him he would find her if Will told and kill her. If Will didn't shoot Jax, Elizabeth would die. Jack promised him this.
Jack was a threat to humanity.
Wasn't he?
Will glanced over at the pirate and watched as he stared at the floor. His eyes were sad, reminiscent, even lonely. The young man wondered what it must feel like to know you were going to die alone with nobody that truly loved you. No one that cared about you in your entire life.
If William Turner was to die today, it would be with the knowledge that he had the love of the most beautiful girl in the world, Elizabeth Swann. And he would be happy with that. With his last breath, he would say her name. His last vision would be of her face. The last thing he heard would be her voice when she told him she loved him.
When Will was a boy, he knew he would die alone. He just knew he would. His father would never come home and he would die alone. The most horrible part of it was that he had no way of knowing his mother would die alone. He wanted to be with her when she died. When she died of old age. But it wasn't to be, for she had died a young woman, alone and with a broken heart.
That was how Will saw himself, as a young man killed on a ship. Alone.
But now he was going to the gallows to die with the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow. Of course, if he went through with the plan, he would not die. And he would live out a full, healthy life.
But the plan was so complicated.
As were the thoughts circling round the young man's head. There was so much to think about. He didn't know where to start. Should he just let the man beside him die, knowing he committed treachery, knowing he was a traitor to a man who befriended his father?
Why did he feel a connection with the vile creature named Jack Sparrow? He remembered being beaten, whipped, threatened. The man threatened the one person Will loved more than anything else in the world. He threatened his Elizabeth.
Was there anything good about Captain Jack Sparrow?
William Turner did not know.
But the look on the captain's face at that moment brought him face first into solid ground. There were tears in the older man's eyes, tears that threatened to spill over and ruin the coal that lined his eyes.
Will was completely taken aback.
"Jack?"
"Captain."
"Captain Sparrow?" Will asked again.
"Wot?"
"How is it that a man as hard as stone and as sympathetic as the sea during a storm can have tears in his eyes when the gallows are before him?"
"Wot kind 'o question is tha', mate? Obviously cuz they's the gallows."
Will shook his head. "You've surely faced the gallows before, Jack Sparrow. And deadly storms. Other pirate captains, battles. Hell, you've probably had curse after curse placed on your name, Jack. Why tears now?"
"It's the end, mate. An'm jus' startin' ter realize tha' this time, I wont escape. I can' escape. I'm no' as young as I used ter be," Jack said. "I'm old. I'm sickly."
"Jack, you aren't much older than forty, are you?"
"Tha's not th'point."
"What is the point then, Captain Sparrow?"
"Things I ne'er said ter people. Things I could o' apologized fer an' ne'er did 'cause o' my stupid pride. Like I…" He cleared his throat. "M'sorry 'bout this, mate. Ne'er in me career as a pirate 'ave I gotten someone else sent ter the gallows 'sides me." After another pause, Jack spoke again.
"I din't mean ter git yeh killed. Yer brave an' strong an' deserve tha' princess's love…an' yer goin' ter die without knowin' wot it's truly like to 'ave a woman." He laughed hard, making Will laugh a little in return.
"Shut up, Jack."
"Captain."
Elizabeth Swann stood beside her father, fanning herself vigorously, despite it being a nice cool day. She was worried, even though Governor Swann told her countless times to stop fussing. Everything would go according to plan.
As long as William Turner did his part of the plan, which was an extremely large part, everything would turn out alright. She had fear deep in the pit of her stomach. Will was stubborn and if anything, he was honorable. She was upset she hadn't thought of this before, but she wondered whether Will was capable of pulling of this sort of treachery, even to a man who had ruined his life.
She turned her gaze to the empty space beside Katharine Norrington, where Commodore James Norrington was supposed to be standing. Elizabeth sighed in annoyance. Where was the man when you needed him?
Elizabeth turned to Katharine and subtly hid behind her fan.
"Katharine…"
The other woman glanced sidelong at her, to let her know she heard her.
"Where is your husband?"
"Making sure the prisoners arrive at the gallows in one piece. You know how the people get…they enjoy throwing rocks." Katharine shrugged apologetically when Elizabeth looked severely at her.
"The man I love is walking through those animals…don't tell me these things!" She whispered, vehemently.
The roaring grew louder and Elizabeth knew she had to send word to Norrington about her suspicions of Will. She now had a terrible feeling that he wasn't going to go through with it. She felt he would die next to Jack and she was afraid.
What would she do if he allowed it to happen?
She did not know. But she would cross that bridge when she came to it.
Right now, she was going to save Will Turner's life. Whether he wanted her to or not. If he wasn't going to go through with the plan, then by God, she would.
James Norrington watched as the two prisoners were guided from the fort to the platform. His head ached furiously, as it always did when something was going to go wrong. He had no clue why his aches were acting up now, though. Why now? Turner knew the plan. And he gave the navy man his word that he would go through with it.
But what if….?
No, James could not deal with this right now. He had to get this over with, then when the pirate was dead, he could go home with his wife and spend the rest of the week nursing his annoyed soul, and bruised body.
This entire thing was ridiculous. And annoying.
As the ropes were lowered around the necks of the prisoners, Norrington saw rocks flying through the air at the two men. He honestly didn't care, anymore. He felt bad for young William, but the man was going to live, so he could deal with a few rocks at his own expense.
He felt a hand roughly grab the back of his coat collar and turn him around. He opened his mouth to yell at the owner of aforementioned hand, but stopped when he saw it was the governor's daughter.
"Elizabeth! What is wrong with you?? What are you doing?" He whispered viciously, getting in her face.
"James, Will isn't going through with it."
"Of course he is!" He said, hearing the sentencing ringing throughout the crowd.
"No, James…there is something in him, a damn large amount of pride, loyalty…he wont go through with it. Captain Sparrow was a friend of William Turner Senior, James…he wont betray his own father's friend." She shook her head desperately at him. "He just wont!"
James looked up at the boy, watching his proud figure slump slightly. He shrugged Elizabeth's grip from his jacket and straightened himself out, walking closer to the platform and looking up at the two men closely.
Jack Sparrow seemed resigned to his fate, his face stony and his eyes set grimly. He thought he was going to die. Better yet, Sparrow knew he was going to die. If Will Turner was going to change the plans for the better health of the pirate captain, the pirate captain sure wasn't in on it.
Will, on the other hand, was slumping a bit, his eyes fastened to a spot on the wooden planks below him. What made James Norrington uneasy was the way they flitted back and forth, as if he was thinking.
'Damn,' the commodore thought. 'Just for precaution, I should have made sure the rope was severed just in case Turner did this sort of thing.' But it was too late now.
Will braced himself for what was going to happen. He was going to die…did he have to die?
No…no I don't. Neither does Jack.
His mind began soaring through the possibilities…but how would he do it? He could not save both himself and Jack at the same time. It would not possibly work. It could not.
The sentencing stopped, the drummers beginning their drumming on the snares. The audience went silent, listening to the loud tapping of the drums, watching the pirates.
Will turned his head and looked at Jack Sparrow, who looked back at him. Jack was nearly taken aback by the forgiveness in the boy's eyes, the care and devotion…the loyalty. He opened his mouth to speak, but stopped when the drumming was cut off.
The echo of the last drum beat coursed through Port Royal's town center, everything else silent, and in that last moment, the moment in which William Turner was to act out his plan, Elizabeth Swann caught her love's eyes and knew it was the end.
"Will, NO!!!!!" She closed her eyes.
Elizabeth Swann heard the lever pulled, the snap of the ropes, and nothing else.
(A/N:) Eat your heart out, Sylvester Stalone.
I'm the NEW cliff hanger.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH!
Omg, what will happen? I don't know!!! (gasp gasp gasp) And neither do you so you must WAIT!!! I'm trying to finish this before Monday, so don't bother me and AA will finally be finished.
Of course, if you'd like...go ahead and bother me to review. Hehe...hehe...hehe...
-williz
P.S. I forgot to give a shout-out to my bitches and hoes. SHOUT OOOOUT!! HEY HOES! BACK ATCHA BOYS!!!