Jack kept his gaze upon his lost son whilst the Navy crew continued to stare down at him, their weapons readied. Beckett was grinning, full of self-satisfaction of a job well done. He hadn't expected to kill the boy in this way, he'd been planning on hanging him at the same time as Jack, but this was a bonus not to be sniffed at. Now Jack was emotionally depleted, he could tell by the way he was slumped, desperately clinging at the corpse, his eyes dark and empty of feeling for anything other then the life that was once within it.

"Get up Jack." Beckett demanded sharply, but Jack didn't move from his place, but simply looked up at Beckett, an expression pleading for someone to explain why such an unfair act had been committed, how it could even be possible that he had lost so much in the shortest of moments.

"Get up!" Beckett repeated, irritated.

Jack stared coldly at his enemy for a few more long moments until finally, he started to stand, picking up David's body at the same time, holding him close to his chest, not yet ready to let go. Beckett savoured the sight.

"Sir?" Commodore Richmond suddenly spoke up, "Are we to go after, and round up the other pirates? I believe they ran into the forest when they saw us here."

Beckett contemplated this for a few seconds before giving his answer, "No," he said, "I have a much better idea." he smiled wickedly as the unspoken plan formed in his head. Then, he started to walk over the rope bridge, the rest of his crew following and escorting their new prisoner.

~P~O~T~C~

"But I heard gunfire, we have to go back and help them!" Gibbs yelled at the crew after they had crammed into the secluded space behind two monstrous sized rocks, keeping them out of view of the Navy. They had ran deep into the trees after they had spotted Beckett emerging on the mountain platform. At the time they had assumed that everyone was together, but it had soon occurred to them that Jack and David were absent from the group and had been left behind.

"No!" Barbossa yelled back, "Jack will get the both of 'em to saftey somehow, ain't no point in putting the rest of our men in danger."

"But they are outnumbered, they will need our help!"

"And feel Beckett's wrath when they take us all prisoner? Tell me Mister Gibbs, are you looking forward to gettin' a rope put around ye neck? Because that's what will happen if we go out there!"

"Then what? We hide here like cowards?" Gibbs asked frustrated.

"Thats what I be suggesting, yes!" Barbossa snapped.

Gibbs looked around from each crew member to the other, "I don't believe the one of you! Not wantin' to fight for two of our own!" He shook his head in disbelief, "And you!" he turned back to Barbossa, "You just want to take back the captaincy of the Pearl, so it would be mighty convenient for your cause if Jack should be captured now, wouldn't it?"

"This isn't about the captaincy, its about basic survival, and you'd do well to remember that!" Barbossa retaliated.

"Well just so you know, it will be a cold day in hell before I sail under your command!" Gibbs fired back, he turned to the others, "Well I'm going to go and help them, I'm not afraid to face Beckett! We've had to before, and so I shall again." with that, he strode off, pushing past the rocks and headed back through the forest.

Chatter started to erupt between the rest of the crew, then a few plucked up some courage and bravely followed after Gibbs, ignoring the frown that Barbossa gave them as they left. In fact, soon Barbossa was left completely alone. Annoyed he sighed heavily, and against his own opinion and better judgement, he reluctantly went after them.

~P~O~T~C~

After crossing the rope bridge, Beckett stopped and looked again at David's body which was still being held tightly by Jack. "Put him down!" he snapped.

"No!" Jack yelled, his eyes filled with fury.

"Lets not make this any more difficult then it has to be, Jack. Hes dead. You can't do any more for him now, so put him down on the ground." he then nodded to Richmond who stepped up close and cocked his pistol at Jack's head.

"Go ahead and shoot." Jack said stubbornly and expressionless.

"Well that wouldn't be any fun now, would it Jack. Wouldn't you prefer a more dramatic exit on the gallows? After all, your death will go down in history. Events such as that deserve a big show." Beckett mocked.

"I don't care how I die! You killed my son!" Jack yelled unleashing his pain verbally.

"No Jack. You killed him. If you hadn't have been so selfish and dragged him along on this journey for the sake of your own greed, he'd still be very much alive. You started this whole thing. I may have pulled the trigger, but it was you who put him in front of the gun."

Jack quickly bent over and put David down carefully, then he raced towards Beckett, punching him in the jaw as hard as he could. Beckett swayed on his feet slightly as the force hit, a trickle of blood rolling from his mouth, but due to his immortality, he was for the most part very much unharmed and would heal very quickly anyway.

As two of the Navy crew seized Jack into their strong hold, Beckett wiped the blood from his lower lip with the back of his hand, then looked at the bright scarlet on his pale skin. He let out a startling laugh before looking back at the restrained pirate. "Well that was rather pointless Jack, you know you can do no harm to me! I am a fortress that cannot be penetrated, a leader everyone will look up to and envy!" he said this proudly as he sneered at Jack.

"Well I pity you!" Jack countered,

This set Beckett off on another wave of laughter, "You? Pity me? How on earth do you figure that, Jack?" he said looking highly amused.

"Because you will never know what it is like to have someone that means anything to you, you will be alone forever, chasing shadows until you find what it is that you are looking for. But the thing is, you will never find it Beckett because nothing you can have will ever satisfy you, it will never be enough!"

"I'll have whatever I want Jack! It will be enough! And I won't be doing it alone, there will be plenty of people to follow me!"

"And so your greed will kill the them, the same way, as you reminded me, that got my son killed because of me!"

Beckett simply stayed neutral about the last comment, and just kept his eyes firmly locked on Jack. He was about to lead them all back to the Commander, when just then, he became aware of some movement behind. He turned to see the rest of the pirates tearing towards them at full speed with their weapons ready in attempt to ambush them. Quickly he drew his sword, paced over to Jack, and held it threateningly to his throat.

As the pirates, headed by Gibbs, drew closer, Beckett yelled out, "Come any further and I'll cut him open!"

Gibbs suddenly slowed, the others copying him, but it wasn't because of what Beckett had said, it was because of the body that he had spotted lying on the ground. "Heavens no! David!" he almost collapsed to the ground in shock.

"Thats right! Your little excursion has forced me to take the boys life! If you do not want to end up meeting the same fate, I suggest that you listen real carefully to what I have to say!" Beckett shouted out confidently.

All of the pirate crew had now come to a complete stop a few yards ahead and were looking extremely disheartened at David's body. Ragetti looked sadly and nervously at Pintel, who simply gave his chum a knowing, sympathetic look.

"As much as I would love to see you all take a drop south," Beckett explained, "I am willing to make a deal, thus saving time on our part. After all, I am very eager to return to Port Royal to deal with your captain here as soon as possible. Therefore, as long as he comes quietly and without a fuss, I will leave the rest of you here on the island, alive." he then turned his eyes on Jack, still holding the sword steady at his flesh, "So how about it Jack? Do they get to go free, or do you want to chose death for them, like you did with David?"

Beckett's question stabbed painfully at Jack's heart, but he knew what he had to do. "Okay, I'll let you take me and I won't fight back." he said sorrowfully.

"Jack, no! You can't!" Gibbs yelled. He looked over to David quickly, then back up at Jack. "You can't give up! It wasn't your fault he died! He would want you to keep going! Don't do this, or he would have died for nothing!"

"Becketts right. Its my fault hes dead. I can never take that back. I failed him and I failed myself. I can't live with that."

Gibbs took a few steps closer, "Damn it Jack! Can't you see that this is what hes wanted all along! You can't let him win!"

"Stand down!" Beckett shouted at Gibbs, "Or I shall change my offer as not to include you remaining alive!"

"I'm going to do this Gibbs. I couldn't save him...but I can save all of you. You said that he wouldn't want me to give up, but I know that he also wouldn't want any more blood to be spilled because of me, so you are going to stay here..."

"But Jack..."

"That's an order from your captain!" Jack fused the sentence together with anger, even though it was put on to encourage his crew to leave him to the fate of his decision.

Gibbs's eyes pleaded with Jack, but he realised that it would do no good. Jack had made up his mind, even if he didn't agree with it. Beckett had tricked Jack well; to convince him to willingly commit suicide of sorts, to relieve the guilt he felt over David's death. Grief had turned his captain and friend into a weak stranger, a side to him that he never thought could have existed.

"Then it shall be!" Beckett exclaimed happily as he holstered his sword and began walking in the direction that they needed to go in order to leave the island.

Jack looked one last time at his shocked crew as he was led away. He noticed that Barbossa was having to hold Gibbs back so that he wouldn't follow. Well, he thought, if there was ever one thing that I did get right in this life, it was picking a loyal first mate.

~P~O~T~C~

Once they had emerged back on the beach from the mysterious palm tree portal, Beckett turned to two of his crew, "See to it that you cut those trees down before we make sail!"

Jack felt a pang of hopeless concern. He knew Beckett's motive behind this. With the trees gone, it would be impossible for his own crew to ever escape the island, not that they would have a ship to get away in anyway; he'd noticed that those of Beckett's crew who had remained aboard their own ship whilst the others were on the island, had already taken charge of the Pearl, and had got her ready to sail back to Port Royal with them.

He watched silently from the boat as the two officers hacked away at the bark until the trees fell to the sand, closing the magical gateway forever.