(A/N: And the next update is here. I feel like I may have missed the bandwagon a little with this story. It probably would have been better if I had written it a few years ago when POTC was more popular since the hype for the series has really died down, but oh well, I'm still having fun writing it, and I hope you're all enjoying reading it. So, now that we've got a look at what our old pal Jack is doing, it's time to check in with our other characters, and get a little backstory on things. Enjoy.)

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 3: Origin

For being as old as the stories were, the Jolly Roger was a rather grand ship in great condition. Under different circumstances, Jolene would have enjoyed marveling at its structure, but seeing as she was less of a crewmember and more of a prisoner, it greatly lessened the appeal.

There was also the fact that the ship was flying thousands of feet in the air, which made her feel extremely uncomfortable. While she felt quite at home on a regular ship, soaring through the sky on one was making her very nervous. She didn't think she had a fear of heights, having never had a problem with them before, but being so high up with nothing underneath her was unsettling to say the least, and she wished that the ship was sailing on the water rather than the air. Or at the very least wouldn't go up so high.

No such luck though, as the Jolly Roger seemed to favor hiding high up in the clouds until another ship was spotted. It would then swoop down and go on the attack, just as it did with the Gray Dolphin. No warning, no parley, just instant carnage. And in the days that followed, it attacked several other ships using the same method of attack it had used on the Dolphin; swooping down and assaulting the targeted ship with cannon-fire before settling on top of it and dropping anchor, which not only attached the ship to the Jolly Roger, but more often than not kept it from sinking while the crew went on a killing and pillaging spree.

But with Jolene having taken up the only opening in the Jolly Roger's crew, there was no sword-fighting contest afterwards. Instead, all survivors were mercilessly cut down. And upon departing, the Jolly Roger's anchor would topple the captured ship, letting the sea claim it.

Jolene took no part in any of these raids, and instead remained onboard the Jolly Roger, keeping as far away from the railing as possible, unable to shake off the feeling that she was going to fall. She briefly considered trying to negotiate for the lives of the crewmembers from the ships the Jolly Roger attacked, but after the way Hook had used a loophole to get out of sparing the Dolphin's crew, she knew that there would be no point. And so things had continued with her remaining silent.

And then one day, a little over a week after having 'jumped ship', she was called to the captain's quarters, and a feeling of dread gripped her as she wondered what she was wanted for. Thus far, despite receiving some inappropriate comments from the crew, none of them had actually laid a hand on her. She hoped her luck in that area hadn't run out and that wasn't why she was being called to Hook's quarters.

Fortunately, that didn't seem to be the case, as when she entered the room, she found Hook sitting at his desk, studying a map as he puffed on his pipe. He didn't even bother to look up at her, and merely motioned to the chair on the other side of his desk. Jolene cautiously slid into it, then waited for the captain to speak.

"We have finished replenishing all our supplies," he told her, still not looking up from the map. "We'll not make way for Tortuga."

Jolene nodded, even though he couldn't see her. "Ok," she said, not sure what else to say. "Do you… need me to tell you where it is?"

A smirk grazed Hook's face, and he finally looked up at her, looking amused. "I'm well aware of its location. I called you here for a different purpose."

He rolled up the map and set it aside, leaving his desk mostly clear, then slid his chair back. At first, Jolene was afraid he was going to go to her and that this would indeed turn into an intimate encounter, but instead he leaned back and rested his feet up on his desk.

"I'm curious to hear more about this Jack Sparrow," he told her. "One or two of my newer men have a few stories of him from before they joined my crew, but it's been many years since they've been recruited. Last they heard, Sparrow had been mutinied upon and left to die on an uninhabited island, only to escape and begin searching for his ship. Obviously, much has happened since then that I'm not aware of, so I would like you to educate me on what you know."

Jolene felt herself relax. So he wanted more information on Jack. She could provide that. She had heard, perhaps, all the stories there were about him; though she wasn't entirely sure how many of them were true and how many were just exaggeration or even rumor.

"There's much to tell," she replied. "There's stories of how he reclaimed the Black Pearl from his mutinous first mate, of how he defeated Davy Jones and the Flying Dutchman, of how he escaped the Kraken and returned from the Land of the Dead, of how he defeated Blackbeard and traveled to the Fountain of Youth, of how he defeated the pirate killer, Captain Salazar, and discovered Poseidon's trident. Many stories."

She fell silent after this, gauging Hook's reaction. The captain's eyebrows had risen up in interest as she spoke, clearly not having expected her to have such tales to tell.

"You've impressed me, Miss Jolene," he told her sincerely. "It's not that often I encounter a woman who is so well informed of pirate tales."

She held her chin up proudly. "I have a deep fascination for the myths and legends of the sea, so I know many stories of it, and of those who sail them." She made a show of looking around the room. "But I must admit, I don't know much of yours, just small details that survivors of your attacks have spoken of. I would like to know more. Like how does your ship fly? Have you really achieved eternal life? And what exactly is the Pan, and why are you so… determine to find it?"

She's almost said 'obsessed', but upon recalling the captain's anger the last time she had mentioned it, she thought it best to avoid any chance of offending him.

Hook studied her for some time. At least he didn't seem to be angry this time, which Jolene saw as a plus. But then he removed his feet from the desk and stood up, slowly making his way over to her.

"I respect those who make a point to know their legends," he told her as he walked up behind her, letting his hook grave through her hair. "And seeing how you know mine is going to end up benefitting me, I suppose you should hear more than the small bits and pieces the few survivors I've left have been able to tell."

He moved away from her after that, to which Jolene was grateful for. While he did indeed come across as charming and charismatic at times, the sense that he was also very dangerous was constantly present, and it made Jolene nervous whenever he was too close.

Making his way over to a window, Hook looked out at the passing clouds. "There was once a time when my ship, my crew, and I were no different from any other pirates, reputations aside of course. Ah, that was so long ago, I've forgotten how many years."

He let out a chuckle, and then turned around to her. "Way back then, back when I was," he held up his hand, "whole, my crew and I managed to get our hands on the ultimate treasure. A chest that some say was the treasure of the gods. To any eye, it appeared to be nothing more than a standard chest. Made of wood, about the size of a breadbox, nothing extraordinary about it. And inside, it was filled to the brim with jewels and gold coins; blank gold coins at that."

Jolene cocked her head to the side. For a chest that supposedly contained the 'treasure of the gods', as Hook had put it, it certainly didn't sound any different from the countless other chest containing treasure.

"However," Hook continued, "the contents of the chest were utterly worthless compared to the chest itself. For the chest held unlimited treasure within it. You could dump all its contents out until it was empty, but close the chest again and reopen it, and it will once again be filled to the brim, despite its former contents still being present on the floor. You can actually feel the weight of the chest increase upon closing the lid as it refills. Build an entire pile of treasure if you so choose, the chest will never stop filling with treasure anew."

Jolene felt her eyes go wide. A chest of unlimited treasure? Now that truly was the treasure of the gods. It was also a tale she had never heard if, and she wondered how Hook had managed to obtain it, and from where.

"And what happened to this chest?" she asked cautiously.

Hook's face darkened, but it seemed as if her question was related to his story, because he answered. "Holding onto an item that is quite literally priceless would have been foolish. It could be lost or stolen, possibly even destroyed if we were to engage in battle with another ship, maybe by a stray cannonball. So after we took our enough treasure to satisfy our greed, for the time, we sought to find a place to hide the chest, one where only we could get to and be able to find. From there, we could always return to obtain more treasure should we need to."

He looked back out the window and grazed his hook against the glass. "It just so happens that I heard tale of such a place. A place that does not appear on any map, a place that no one can get to unless they know how." He gave her a smile. "You see, Miss Jolene, there is a certain star in the sky one must look for. I will not tell you which one, but when the sun goes down and this star appears, if you set sail for it and follow it straight on 'til morning, when the sun rises, regardless of which direction you sail towards it from, an island will appear to you on the horizon. An island where, while the sun may rise and set upon it, tomorrow never comes. It is an island where time stands still."

Jolene blinked. She had never heard of such an island. Other enchanted islands popped up in different stories, but this one was new to her, and she was intrigued to hear more.

"I know not of how this island came to be, nor how or why it came to be enchanted as such," Hook continued, "but it was real. It was a place where nothing ever changed. Even the plant life never withered or died. Even fire would burn forever if never extinguished. Inhabited by savages who never aged a day, and who had no care for gold or jewels. Other than them and the island's wildlife, the only other residents were the mermaids who lived in the lagoon and the fairies who lived in the forest."

This caused Jolene to raise an eyebrow. She knew that mermaids were real, but this was the first she had ever heard of fairies being real. She supposed it could be possible, but even she doubted their existence. "There's no such thing as fair-"

Hook suddenly charged across the room at her and clamped his hand over her mouth, his red eyes flashing. Jolene let out a muffled cry as his fingers dug into her face hard enough to bruise. He brought up his hook, and her eyes moved to it fearfully.

"You will never say that!" he snarled insistently. "Ever. If you so much as think those words, I will gut you like a fish. Do you understand?"

Unable to answer, she gave a small nod, and Hook slowly removed his hand and stepped away from her. Her jaw ached from how tightly he had gripped it, but she didn't dare move to massage it.

"I meant no disrespect," she assured him, then looked for a way to quickly change the subject. "Is that how you and your men have lived so long? You stayed on an island where time never moves?"

Hook seemed to slowly be calming down, and he took a few more steps back. "Aye. Not by choice mind you. While it's true that the island offers agelessness to all those on it, even those in its waters, once you sail out of the island's range, time will start moving forward once more, so we only ever left the island's proximity to replenish our supplies when they got low, much as we did when we recruited you."

Which explained all the attacking and raiding ships they had been doing Jolene realized. It wasn't mere pirate pillaging; they were taking what they needed so they could return to this mysterious island.

"However," Hook continued, "as appealing as eternal life is, I would take no pleasure in being stuck on a jungle island with naught but savages for company, never to be able to wander far from its shores. No, I became a pirate for the life of a pirate, not to remain stuck on a primitive speck of land, cut off from the rest of the world."

It suddenly occurred to Jolene that this island was the eternal life Hook had spoken of when he offered it to the crew of the Gray Dolphin. But if he found the idea of island life so unappealing, then why did he and his men stay there for so long to be able to live this long?

"But if you didn't want that kind of life, then why stay there?" she asked curiously. "You must have; your story has been around for 200, 300 years, perhaps longer. So you must have stayed there until now."

A look of frustration crossed Hook's face, and he began drumming his fingers against the curve of his hook. "As I said, it was not by choice. Not exactly. You see, there was one other person living on the island who was not one of the savages; though he was on good terms with them, and the mermaids and fairies. A young boy. A boy who refused to grow up. A boy who fled from his home so he wouldn't have to. A boy who was found by the fairies and brought to the island many, many years before I was even born. That boy is the Pan. Peter Pan."

Completely against her control, Jolene felt her mouth drop open. She hadn't known what the Pan was, but she hadn't expected it to be a person, let alone a child.

"A boy?" she repeated in astonishment. "A boy? The Pan is a boy?"

Hook slammed his hook against the wall in a fit of rage. "A boy in body and mind, perhaps, but a devil at heart. Ancient in years, with no care for anything other than what his next game would be, made all the more bothersome after the fairies taught him to fly. He's been a thorn in my side ever since our paths first crossed. The arrival of pirates on the island was nothing more than a new exciting game to him. And so he swooped down upon my ship and stole the very chest we had gone to the island to hide and flew off with it, hiding it somewhere on the island."

As he spoke, Jolene found herself nodding as she began to understand. Hook had had the ultimate treasure, all the gold and jewels he could ever want, only to have it stolen away by a boy who could fly.

"Naturally," Hook went on, "my men and I went in search for the chest. We searched for years, but have never been able to find it, nor Pan's own hideout. The island's savages made it difficult. We were unwelcome trespassers to their home, and they did not appreciate the way we were, according to them, 'defiling' their island, so they had no qualms about filling us with arrows should our paths cross, just as we had no qualms in filling them with bullets. Hence why we occasionally need to recruit more crewmembers. You see, once you join my crew, you are a member until death, or until we find our treasure, and we have not yet found where Pan has hidden it."

"Then why seek out the boy?" Jolene asked. "You can just use the compass to find where he hid the chest."

Hook nodded in agreement. "Aye, that may be true, but there is something else I seek, something I want even more than the chest. I want Pan's head."

A shiver ran through Jolene at how he spoke of his desire to murder a child. A child hundreds of years old perhaps, but still a child nevertheless. And the way he spoke the boy's name, with such hatred, Jolene knew he meant every word.

"You see, my dear," he continued, "all this was a game to him. In his mind, he was the hero stopping the dreaded, cutthroat pirates from getting the treasure. Whenever our paths crossed, he would joyfully engage us in sword battle. A boy he may be, but he was one with centuries of experience with a sword, coupled with his eternal youth and energy, including flight. It made him… quite a formidable opponent, even to the best of us."

He held up his hook, pulling his sleeve back to reveal the ugly fusion of flesh and metal. "One day when he and I were engaged in combat, he managed to cut my hand from my arm. Severed it right at the wrist he did. It was a wound as painful as it was humiliating, especially since it was inflicted by a child. And to add insult to injury, the very next day, he came flying over my ship and tossed down a hook to me. This hook. He said I should use it in place of my hand, and that it would suite me since it would go well with my name. Ah, he was certainly right about that, and I look forward to the day I can gut him with it, after I force him to tell me where he hid my chest."

Jolene felt like she was understanding Hook and his obsession more and more; for it was indeed an obsession. The man was consumed by greed and vengeance. Both powerful motivators on their own, but even worse when coupled together. And they both centered around this Pan boy.

"That's why you want to find him then," she stated matter-of-factly. "To get back your chest, and to get revenge for your hand."

Hook's eyes flashed dangerously. "Either reason on their own would be cause enough, but there's more still. You see, my dear, the island isn't just home to humans, merfolk, and fairies. It's also home to various wild beasts as well. One of them is a crocodile. Not an ordinary crocodile, mind you, but an ancient creature from the prehistoric age that survived the extinction of the rest of its kind, somehow finding its way to the island and making its home there, unchanging, for millions upon millions of years. The beast was swimming in the lagoon when Pan and I had our duel that robbed me of my left hand. But taking my limb was not enough. No, Pan saw fit to throw it to the crocodile, and the beast snapped it up."

Jolene made a disgusted face. Even if it was a child who performed the act, it still seemed unnecessarily cruel, though she doubted it had been done out of malicious intent, not like the intentional cruelty Hook seemed to revile in.

"I'm sorry," she said, if only to make it sound as if she sympathized with him.

A humorless smile crossed Hook's face. "If you feel sorrow now, just wait, for this was only the start of my troubles. I don't know if this was simply the first time that croc had ever tasted man-meat, or if it was simply my flesh in particular, but the creature took a great liking to the taste of my hand. Ever since, it has been relentlessly pursuing me. Day in and day out, this creature is on the hunt for the rest of him. And it can track me anywhere. It could even smell me clear across the island."

Jolene raised an eyebrow at this. "I find it hard to believe that a crocodile can smell where you are from the other side of an island."

Hook swung his hook through the air, stabbing the pointed end into the wall, and dragged down, leaving a deep scratch in the wooding. "Is it so hard to believe? A dog is able to smell up to 20 miles away."

"But that's a dog."

"Reptiles share such traits as well. The komodo dragon can smell prey up to six miles away and are known for relentlessly pursuing them. Even the crocs of today can smell a meal four miles away. Well, this croc is an ancient creature from the age of the dinosaurs, where the beasts were greater and more vicious predators than they are today. Is it really surprising that these ancient creatures have senses vastly superior to the ones in this day and age?"

She considered this. While there was no way of knowing for sure just how well the sense of smell a crocodile from prehistoric times was, she had to admit that he made a good point. And the idea that such a monster was constantly after you was utterly terrifying.

"The beast constantly pursues me. When I was on land, it followed. When on my ship, it always swam close behind, able to swim nearly as fast as we could sail. And the beast was so large, over 40 feet from nose to tail, that it could leap right out of the water and snatch a man right off the deck. It almost got me that way a few times."

"Couldn't you have just killed it?" Jolene asked, somehow feeling that she was going to sound stupid for asking something so obvious.

Hook threw her a look that told her that he did indeed find the question to be insulting, yet he answered all the same. "Ah, we tried, but the beast's hide is so tough that neither sword, bullet, or even cannon-fire can pierce it. We even dropped a bomb onto its backside once, and that only made it angry."

Jolene almost pointed out how even if the crocodile's hide was incredibly strong that its underbelly should be much more vulnerable, but to exploit such a weakness would mean getting far too close to the creature, and it wasn't going to just roll over and expose itself either, so it seemed pointless to mention anything at all.

Instead she said, "But your ship can fly. Surely you could escape through the air."

Hook nodded at that. "Aye, when we achieved flight, we remained out of the beast's range. But even when we are in the air, the beast could still follow my scent, and so it continued its pursuit. Even when we would leave the island to replenish our supplies, it would continue to follow."

This Jolene found to be a little hard to believe. She could accept that the crocodile could find him anywhere on or around the island, but able to track him down over miles and miles of the open ocean seemed a little too farfetched.

"You've never been able to shake it?" she asked doubtfully. "Not even when you left the island?"

He must have detected the doubt and perhaps a small trace of ridicule in her voice, for he stormed over to her, pointing a finger in her face. "I don't care for your tone, girl. Do not forget which of us is the captain. I'll not tolerate disrespect."

Silently kicking herself for her blunder, she gave him a small nod. He slowly backed off, then let out a frustrated sigh.

"Of course we've managed to lose it. The beast is a highly skilled hunter, not a supernatural creature. It tries to follow when we leave the island, but it can't track me for miles and miles out in open-ocean. Eventually, we get far enough ahead of it so it can no longer follow, so we're usually able to lose it if we keep moving out of its range. The problem is that whenever it does lose my scent and can no longer track me, it simply turns around and heads back to the island. And seeing as we always return to the island after we restock, it's always able to pick up my scent once again when we go back."

Jolene supposed that made sense, but then she remembered what Hook had said about needing to follow a specific star to get to the island. "But how does it know how to get back? Surely it doesn't know how to read the stars."

Hook scoffed at that. "Highly unlikely. In fact, it most likely found the island by chance the first time it ever traveled there before making it its home."

"Then how does it keep getting back once it leaves?"

Hook shrugged. "How do whales know where to migrate? How do birds know to fly south? How do salmon know where and how to swim upstream to where they were born when the time comes for them to spawn? Instinct, I suppose. The island has been the beast's home for millions of years; it probably has some built in instinct. I doubt it intentionally follows the star, but it likely knows which direction to swim in, and simply continues swimming from dusk 'til dawn, and so gets there no different than if it actually were following the star. In the end, it doesn't matter, because any time I do manage to shake it, the beasts always waits for me to return. And I will return until I reclaim the chest and make Pan pay for all that he did to me."

He held up his hook. "Do you see now why I so despise Pan? Not only did he steal the ultimate treasure from me and take my hand, he set a monstrous creature on me, causing me to constantly be fearful for my life, and quite unable to enjoy the sea, knowing that such a beast was always in it, hunting for me."

Almost subconsciously, Jolene glanced at the window, watching the clouds fly by. "So it's out there right now, following us?"

Hook's eyes went to the window as well. "Perhaps, if it still has my scent, it will be after us. If I lost it, then it'll have returned to the island, but it could still be tracking me."

He slowly walked around her and returned to his desk, taking a seat on top of it. "Fortunately, I have a way of knowing when it's near. You see, one time when it approached my ship, I was having a rather distressing day. In my frustration, I snatched up a clock that was freshly pillaged from one of the ships we raided and threw it at the beast, and it swallowed it whole."

He took a deep puff on his pipe, and breathed out a cloud of smoke. "Somehow, it must have gotten caught or stuck somewhere in the beast's gut. And that beast's stomach is such a vast cavern that you can hear the tick-tock of the clock echoing from inside it when it gets close enough, so it can no longer sneak up on me. And, fortunately, thanks to the island's timelessness, that clock will never stop ticking, so long as it's not away from the island long enough to for it to stop. Even so, I can still never set my ship down on the water for too long before I hear that insistent tick-tocking, and so must take to the air again."

Which brought up Jolene's remaining question. "And how do you manage that? What is it that makes your ship fly?"

Hook gave her a hard look. He considered her for a bit as he ran the tip of his hook through his mustache. "Since you do not believe in them, I assume you don't know much about fairies."

She wobbled her head back and forth. "About as much as others, I suppose, but I haven't seen or heard of any actual sightings or evidence of their existence."

A light chuckle escaped the captain. "No evidence, you say. Well then, what does this do for your belief?"

He reached over beside his desk and snatched a cloth off something that was hanging from a pole. Jolene's eyes widened in astonishment as she saw the lantern hanging from it; a lantern that had a chain wrapped around it. But it was what was inside the lantern that astonished her. Trapped behind the glass, no more than an inch tall, was a small creature that seemed to be made of light. It had a humanoid shape, but was made of light. It was impossible to make out any of its features, but it had transparent butterfly-like wings growing out of its back that glittered and sparkled as it flew about in its small space.

Jolene's eyes were glued to the creature, unable to believe what she was seeing. She moved in to get a better look, and the creature backed away from her, clearly terrified, making a noise that sounded like a small bell ringing.

"Is that a…" she whispered, "a… a…?"

"Fairy," Hook finished for her, finding her amazement amusing. "Aye. Caught it a century or two ago. This is what allows my ship to fly. What more, a fairy's wings produce a magic dust that can even provide others with the power of flight for a short period of time. That's why I always keep some on myself in case of emergencies."

He patted his waist, upon which he wore a belt that had a sack tied to it, but Jolene was still focused on the imprisoned fairy. She didn't get to look long though as Hook picked up the cloth and covered the lantern once more. "That's why I stopped you from saying those words before. Whenever someone says those words, the closest fairy in proximity will die. So unless you wish to have this ship fall from the sky, and you along with it, you'll never speak those words."

Jolene nodded in understanding, her eyes darting to the covered lantern. Her heart went out to the poor creature, which had been Hook's prisoner for the past few centuries, used as a power source so his ship could fly. It was unbelievably cruel.

Moving to sit at his desk, Hook rested his chin in his hand and the curve of his hook as he surveyed her. "So now, Miss Jolene, you know my story, but I'm afraid I don't know yours. You say you'll take me to Jack Sparrow, but I can't help but wonder why you're searching for him."

She looked away. "What makes you think I'm looking for him? I told you I'm just a sea tale enthusiast."

He smirked at her. "Come now, my dear, do not think me a fool. With your extensive knowledge of him, your insistence that you know where to find him, how you claim that you can get his compass from him, and let's not forget how quick you were to bring him up to strike a bargain with me, all tells me that there's more to this story." He gave her a knowing look. "You were already seeking him out, weren't you? Care to tell me why? Perhaps we can even help each other."

Jolene hesitated for a short while, then let out a sigh and turned back to him. "My mother. She died almost a year ago."

"My apologies," Hook replied, though he sounded more as if he only said it because it was expected of him rather than because he actually felt any sympathy for her.

"Thanks," she grumbled, not bothering to hide her irritability. "But I'm hoping to fix that. There are stories of how Jack came back from the Land of the Dead. And not just him, but acquaintances of him as well. I want to find out how he did it. Maybe then I can bring my mother back. It wasn't fair that she was taken like that."

She wasn't sure what Hook would make of her after that, but to her surprise, he was looking at her with renewed interest.

"You surprise me," he confessed. "I did not think your reason would be so… sentimental. But if what you say is true, then I see no reason why we can't help each other. I take you to Jack, you find out what you want to know from him, then bring me his compass. We both get what we want. However," he leaned forward, holding up his hook so it was right in front of her face, "if you betray me, then it will be you joining your mother rather than her joining you."

(A/N: Ok, so we got to know a bit more of Hook. Yeah, yeah, it's the same basic story that we already know, I just tweaked it a bit and added a few extra things to make it more interesting. And now we know how his ship is flying. We also got to learn a bit more about Jolene and why she knows about and is looking for Jack. She wants to bring her mother back to life. It makes sense she would seek out someone else who managed to come back from death. But is it really going to be as easy as Hook thinks it's going to be? Stay tuned to find out.)