Oh my lordie my jaw feels so much better. I got a mouth guard/retainer and my pain's gone almost completely away in just a few days. Here's our interlude. Next up: At World's End. Remember to review/fav/sub.


Lydia gasped as she woke up. Her eyes darted around her, taking in everything she was seeing. There was nothing but clear blue skies and nothing but white sand as far as the eye could see. She could feel the head of the hardened sand radiating up from her. She looked around her, trying to see some sign of life or something in the distance. Far, far away she could see a tall black speck, but other than that, there was nothing.

"Finally awake then?"

Lydia let out a yelp and spun around on her knees. There, sitting cross-legged, almost calmly, behind her was an unknown woman. She looked to be maybe in her early to mid-thirties. Her skin was a deep olive color and her dark brown hair flowed to her elbows in almost perfect waves. She wore a dark violet dress reminiscent of something someone from Ancient Greece or Rome would wear with a multitude of long necklaces covered in shells and pearls. Her dark blue-green eyes seemed to be taunting Lydia as the scanned her up and down. "Wow," the woman commented in her unaccented, middle register voice. She practically exuded confidence. "You're a lot denser than I thought."

"Who… who are you?" Lydia asked as she turned herself around completely. "Where am I?"

"Where do you think you are?" the woman snorted. Lydia looked around and her face fell. She knew exactly where she was. There was only one place where she could possibly be right now.

"I'm in the Locker, aren't I?" The women let out sad smile and nodded.

"Yeah," she said. "We both are. That's mostly your fault though. You got thrown down here and I got dragged along."

"What's your name?" Lydia asked. The women let out a chuckle and shrugged.

"Names, names, names," she said. "When you've had as many as me, they get all jumbled up. I've been Auda, Priscilla, Solveig, Nefertari, Zenobia… not to mention a hundred other names I can never remember." Lydia felt her jaw grow slack at that answer. Who was this woman? "But to answer your first question, technically, I'm you," the woman replied. Lydia narrowed her eyes in confusion. The woman scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Come on, you didn't really think it was you talking half the time on the Flying Dutchman. No way are you brave enough to taunt him. I admit, though, it was a bit stupid on my part." Lydia looked down thinking on her words. It was true; she didn't feel as if she was the one talking on that ship. Could it be…? "Ah ha, now you're getting it." The woman stood up and extended her arm.

"You're the Nereid," Lydia finally said. "The Nereid within."

"And she gets it!" the woman exclaimed with a laugh. Lydia hesitantly took the woman's hand and rose to her feet.

"But then, what should I call you?" Lydia asked. The woman paused for a moment as if to think. "What was your first name?"

"Thetis," the woman finally said. "I guess we go with that. Come on," she said. "Let's take a walk." Lydia furrowed her brow in confusion.

"To where?" Lydia asked. Thetis pointed to the large black speck in the distance. Lydia turned to her in shock. "Why?"

"It's the only thing we can see for miles," Thetis explained. "There has to be something there. Besides, what else are we going to do for eternity? Sit here and do nothing? Bo-ring. Besides, I can get some things clarified to you while we walk." She began to make her way forward. Lydia paused for a moment, pondering this woman. Did Thetis actually exist? Or was Lydia just going crazy again? Thetis turned around and let out an annoyed groan. She put on hand on her hip and tapped her foot impatiently. "Are you coming? Or are you just going to stand there slack-jawed? Because I'm still bound to you and I can't leave your line of sight. So if you'd be kind enough to actually walk…" Lydia nodded and rushed up to meet Thetis. When she was next to the brown haired woman, the two began to walk.

"What do you mean by bound to me?" Lydia asked. Thetis let out a long sigh and then turned to Lydia as they walked towards the large black speck.

"So in order to get to that, I need to explain a few things about Nereids," Thetis said. "Long story short, we were created by Calypso thousands of years ago. You know the story of how Aphrodite was born out of sea foam when Zeus' blood hit the water?" Lydia nodded her head. She was well acquainted with the stories of Greek Antiquity. She'd poured herself over those books after her ordeal with Barbossa and the Isla de Muerta. "It's the same basic principle with me and my sisters. Calypso mixed her blood with water and fifty of us spawned. The only problem is that we had no bodies; we were just souls, awkwardly lingering on the sea. So in order to actually have a form and do something, we were granted human vessels by the Gods. Unfortunately, that also meant they decayed like humans and would eventually die."

"Was this what you looked like back then?" Lydia asked. Thetis smirked and nodded.

"When I was younger," Thetis said. "Can you blame Zeus and Poseidon for wanting this? I'm surprised I wasn't murdered in that first life. My mouth has always gotten me into some trouble. Well, then again, trouble is usually drawn to me." Thetis looked down and let out a sly smile. "The Trojan War might have started at my wedding… " Lydia widened her eyes in shock. "Not to mention stupidly forgetting to dip my son's heel in the river Styx… You think I would have remembered such a small detail, but I guess I was just that much of an idiot." her eyes filled with a grim darkness for a moment before returning to their teasing light. "Anyway, that's millennia in the past. I was explaining Nereids to you. So our bodies decayed and died… but our souls remained. So when we all died we went to the nearest baby girl who was born on or near the water around our time of death. In essence, we took on a host, a vessel if you will. These girls had their own souls, though. We couldn't exactly push the vessel's soul from their bodies, so we shared it."

"Two souls to one body," Lydia echoed.

"Exactly," Thetis said. "When that next body died, we moved to another, and another, and another… you get the idea. Then eventually I ended up in you." Lydia immediately thought about the story of her birth. According to her father, they had been travelling from Paris to London when her mother went into labor a month early. Lydia had to be delivered on the ship because her mother was too far along in the labor to be moved to shore. She was literally born on the sea. That was why she'd been chosen by Thetis.

"I think I understand," Lydia said. Thetis smiled and nodded.

"But we've never been the dominant soul of a body since that first lifetime," she said. "We just aren't strong enough, especially when we're dormant during those first eighteen years. We don't even know why exactly it's eighteen years until we can wake up. It just is." She simply shrugged and kept on walking. "Then some lives we never wake up because our vessel never touches the sea in their entire lives. We just sit inside, sleeping away as our vessel wastes their potential. I was afraid that would happen to you, Lydia, but thankfully you got kidnapped by a bunch of cursed pirates." She let out a light chuckle and smiled. "It's funny how that worked out for both of us. I get woken up, you fall in love… Life is strange like that."

Lydia looked down and stopped walking for a moment. Hector… she couldn't die in the Locker. She'd never be reunited with him. She'd never get to move on into the afterlife. The real afterlife. The good afterlife. That chance of ever seeing him or any of her family members after they died was gone. Thetis turned around when she realized Lydia had stopped walking and let out a sad smile. "I am truly sorry about that," Thetis said. "But it does no good to dwell on the past. Trust me, I dwelled for a long time and all it did was make me feel worse about myself." She took Lydia's hand nodded her head towards the large object that was in the distance. Now that Lydia looked at it, it almost looked like the silhouette of a ship. "Anyway, our two souls share the same body, the same vessel. Because they've been so close together for so long, parts of each other sort of bleed into the other. That's why I'm not just Thetis; I'm every other incarnation of my vessels. As long as you're still alive, our souls are bound to each other. And since you're the dominant soul, where you go I have to follow."

"Which is why you said you're technically me," Lydia said. "Because part of me is in you."

"And vice versa," Thetis said. "Why do you think you got a bit braver when the markings first appeared? That was me waking and realizing, 'oh damn, this idiot's going to drown me.' I'm sorry I put the dolphin idea in your head, by the way. Experiencing your first creature possession death is always hard." Lydia looked down, remembering that damned dolphin. Since then, she'd never let herself stay inside a creature for too long and severed her connection as fast as she could. Suddenly Thetis let out a loud laugh and pointed ahead of her. "Looks like I was right. I thought it might be the Black Pearl." Lydia furrowed her brow in confusion and looked up. She dropped jaw and let out a smile. There before her, sitting beached and tilted to one side, was the Black Pearl. The ship was just as destroyed as she would have expected it to be after being attacked by the Kraken, but it was no longer covered in pieces of debris and the bodies of the men the beast killed. No, this Black Pearl was just full of holes.

"Oi! What are you doing down there?"

Lydia looked up and saw none other than Jack Sparrow standing on the ship. He was wearing the same hat that he wore when he escaped the gallows over two years ago. He looked completely healthy, completely clean, and completely as if he hadn't been devoured by a large sea monster. His clothing didn't possess a single tear and it didn't appear as if he had a single injury on his person aside from his preexisting scars.

"Jack?" Lydia asked. Jack appeared to glance down at Lydia, and then turned around behind him as if watching something.

"You all know Lydia," he shouted to something behind him. She turned to Thetis, who was staring at Jack with a furrowed brow. "Well I don't care what you think. I'm the captain and what I say goes." He turned back to Lydia and then tossed down a line. "Come on aboard then."

"And what about her?" Lydia asked, pointed to Thetis. Jack tilted his head and furrowed his brow.

"What about who? I only see you down there," Jack said. Lydia narrowed her eyes and turned to Thetis who was shaking her head.

"Can he not see you?" Lydia asked.

"Apparently not," Thetis answered. "Looks like the only person here I can talk to is you." Lydia shrugged and took the rope, climbing up it as fast as she possibly could. She felt Thetis follow behind her, based on the tugging she felt beneath her feet. When she finally neared the top of the rope, she felt Jack grab her arm and help her over the rail.

"So how'd you end up here?" Jack asked the moment she set foot on the ship. He dragged up a barrel and took a seat. He turned his head and snapped, "Hush you lot. Back to work!" Lydia narrowed her eyes and looked around the ship, seeing no one but Jack.

"I guess you're not the only one with a hallucination around here," Thetis said as she hopped off the rail and sat down on top of a cannon. "The only difference is that I actually exist. I don't know what in the hell Sparrow's seeing." Lydia turned back to Jack, only to see that he was staring at her funnily. Perhaps they were thinking the same thing about each other. After all, they both seemed to be talking to people that the other couldn't see.

"Jones wanted one less Nereid on Earth," Lydia said. "By sending me here, he never actually killed me."

"So you couldn't be reborn," Jack concluded. He smirked and said, "At least you weren't eaten by the Kraken. Terrible breath. Not to mention the teeth…"

"I'm surprised you didn't flee with the rest of the survivors," Lydia said.

"I would have if your sister hadn't manacled me to the mast," Jack replied with a bitter snort. Lydia widened her eyes and dropped her jaw. "Elizabeth. Not Alice." Lydia looked down and felt her breath catch in her throat. Elizabeth had actually killed Jack? "I doubt she'll tell anyone, though."

"Poor Alice," Lydia whispered.

"Yeah," Jack replied. "I'd be drinking myself into a stupor right now if there were any rum. I guess this truly is hell. No sea, no rum, and about fifty of me running around."

"Is that who you were talking to?" Lydia asked. Jack nodded and quickly turned around, glaring at something. Probably one of the copies of him that Lydia couldn't see. Thetis let out a snort and rolled her eyes.

"Oh yeah, this is going to be one long eternity," Thetis said, crossing her arms. Lydia looked back to Jack, who had just jumped off the barrel and started running about the deck, screaming at nonexistent people. She frowned and turned back to Thetis. This definitely was going to be a very, very long eternity if this was just the first day. Lydia only prayed that she wouldn't go as insane as Jack would inevitably become.


It was so secret to Hector Barbossa that the only people in his crew that trusted him even a little were Pintel, Ragetti, Alice, and Tia Dalma. And Tia Dalma didn't even trust him; she merely trusted him to honor their bargain. Alice, on the other hand, was the only person who actually trusted him. Yet here he was, sitting alone in a table in the back of the Faithful Bride. The rest of the crew was sitting in one of the tables closer to the center, all half-drunk and telling stories about Jack together. Alice was sitting quietly and solemnly, nursing a cup of water. It had been a month since that night in Tia Dalma's hut and Alice was beginning to show very slightly. Anyone who didn't know her would have suspected nothing, but to everyone else in the quest to World's End, it was definitely noticeable. Though she was still managing to wear the trousers that she preferred, they were beginning to get tighter as her stomach grew larger.

Alice looked distant, like she wasn't even paying attention to the drunken tales of her late lover. She seemed almost trapped in her own thoughts, staring blankly off into space. Barbossa hadn't known the girl long, but even he could tell that it wasn't typical behavior for her. He sighed and took a long, long drink of his rum. When he put his cup down, Alice was no longer at the table with the rest of the crew. Instead, she was making her way over to his lonesome, dark corner. "And here I thought I'd be spending the evening alone," Barbossa said as he took another swig of rum. Alice shrugged and took a sip of her water.

"It's no fun being the only sober person amongst a bunch of drunken idiots," Alice said with a slight smile.

"Aye," Barbossa said. "I understand the feeling. I liked getting drunk in my younger days. Not so much now. Hangovers get worse with age."

"I can imagine," Alice said. "Any update on where those charts you were talking about might be?" Barbossa shook his head and took another sip of rum. There were two reasons they'd spent so long in Tortuga. One) they currently didn't have the funds to get a ship, and, two) Barbossa had no idea where the maps to the Locker currently were. He knew they existed. He just wasn't sure of who possessed them. They'd figure it out eventually, though. Barbossa always had a way to get what he wanted. Nothing on this Earth or beyond would stop him from getting Lydia back from the Locker. The same could easily be said for Alice in regards to Jack. Perhaps that's why they'd been getting along so well over the past month. "I'm working on the rest of the crew. I think Gibbs is beginning to finally come around. And when he comes around, I have no doubt that Marty and Cotton will follow. Cotton's parrot on the other hand…"

"Do you really think I care if they trust me, shrimp?" Barbossa asked. He'd taken to calling Alice 'shrimp' as of late and he wasn't entirely sure why. The nickname just appeared and seemed to stick. As long as Alice didn't seem to mind it, he was content with continuing to use it. "They don't need to trust me. They just need to be willing to follow orders."

"Yeah, but if you truly didn't care about gaining their trust, why would you ask me to help bring them around?" Alice asked.

"That's more so I know they'll actually listen to me," Barbossa said. "Having their trust would just be an enjoyable side benefit." Alice let out a laugh and took another sip of her water. "Them telling stories about Sparrow bothered you, didn't it?" Alice shrugged and looked down.

"It's hard, listening to all these tales about Jack before I met him," Alice said. "It makes me doubt whether or not I actually knew him. You probably feel the same way when Elizabeth and I talk about Lydia." Barbossa frowned and took a long, long drink of rum. She hit the nail right on the head with that.

"Aye, but it my case it makes me want to know more about her," Barbossa admitted. "I know I never knew her as well as I would have liked. I only had about a month or so with her and nothing came of it. Your case is different. You had Jack for two years." Alice let out a faint smile and nodded.

"I was such a terrible little sister," Alice said. "Actually, I was just a nightmarish child. I played jokes on everyone." She let out a faint laugh before saying, "There was one day where I put a bunch of fish in Lydia's bed. I was probably eleven at the time. Father was furious with me. Lydia screamed when she found all those fish, but I don't think she was ever actually angry with me. She's the closest thing to a mother that I've ever had. Maybe that's why she's always been so selfless; she always needed to help care for me and my sisters."

"How much older is she than you?" Barbossa asked. It hadn't occurred to Barbossa until now that he had no idea how old Lydia even was.

"Six years," Alice said. Barbossa did the simple math in his head. Alice had mentioned she was nineteen once. Lydia was twenty-five, give or take a year depending on when Alice had been born. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Alice smiling almost gently. "We'll get them both back. I can feel it. The spawn's going to meet its father one day. And I'm going to get the chance to slap Jack for knocking me up in the first place." Barbossa let out a ghost of a laugh and nodded. For the rest of the night, the two told idle stories about anything from Barbossa's life as a cursed man to Alice's other antics when she was a child.


Kitty paced around the drawing room, her skirts brushing against the carpeted floor. In the corner, her father was playing with Little James while her husband leaned against the wall, locked deeply in thought. They'd received a message earlier that day that Lord Beckett would be coming over to see Little James. As much as Kitty hated it, she wasn't really in a position to deny him the right to see his nephew. It frustrated not only her, but Governor Swann (though the title of Governor was more of a courtesy now, since Lord Beckett had essentially taken over Port Royal) and James as well. "But what if he tries to use Little James as leverage against us one day?" Kitty asked.

"Beckett's fond of our son," James said. "He wouldn't hurt him. If anything, he'd try and sway Little James to his side. His wife is still 'missing.' If he never gets Lydia back, then he'll more than likely train him into taking his place one day. I honestly can't think of another reason why Beckett could possibly be this interested in spending 'quality time' with his nephew. He's not exactly the most family orientated person unless it suits him." Kitty bit her lower lip and started to pace around the floor even faster. As if any of that made her worry any less about Beckett being around her son.

"Kitty, you mustn't fret so," Governor Swann said. "It's not good for you."

"I hardly care about me right now, father," Kitty snapped. "It's not even me you should be worried about?" She paused for a moment and narrowed her eyes at James. "Why are you so calm about this?"

"Because I know he won't get hurt," James replied. He walked over to Kitty and took her hands. "Katherine, you need to calm down. It's scaring Little James." Kitty turned her head and looked down at her son. Sure enough, the one-year-old was frowning and clinging to her father's leg. She sighed and shook her head.

"I know, I just…" she let out a long sigh and sat down on the nearest armchair. "I almost lost you once, James. In the coming months I could lose you again, and not only you. I could lose you, father. I could lose Little James. I don't think I could take it if I lost any of you, especially to Beckett." She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see her father now standing next to her. Little James was crawling towards his set of wooden blocks, babbling to himself as he grabbed the blocks and repeatedly banged them on the floor.

"Kitty, everything will work out in the end," he said. "Perhaps not in the way we expect, but they will work out. Have faith in your sisters. I have no doubt that they're working to stop Beckett and retrieve the Heart." Kitty took a long, slow breath and nodded slowly. He was right; if she knew her sisters, they were going to stop whatever plan Beckett had in store. Lydia would never let anyone endanger the freedom of the sea and Alice would do everything in her power to protect her pirate brethren. With Lydia's gifts, Alice's ingenuity, and Elizabeth's persistence, they were sure to succeed in stopping Beckett. Their conversation paused at precisely the right time. Their butler entered the room, announcing the arrival of Lord Beckett. The arrogant toe-rag strolled into the room, looking just as cocky as ever. He stepped up to Kitty and took her hand, lightly kissing the back of it. The action made her feel sick to her stomach every time. How did Lydia even stand sharing a bed with this man?

"Sister," he said. "Lovely to see you, as always."

"Likewise," Kitty said, feigning a smile. As much as she would have loved to strangle the man, she had no choice but to pretend as if he were a close confidant. Beckett smiled an equally false smile at her and then turned to Little James, who was still attempting to stack up the wooden blocks.

"And there's my favorite nephew," he said as he turned to face Little James. The child's face immediately lit up into a large smile. Kitty had to hide the sense of disgust she felt within at her child's obvious love of his uncle. He was so blissfully ignorant of the atrocities that man had committed. She only prayed that she could protect him from whatever dark plans Beckett had in mind for her son.