I have now sat the exam, and it went surprisingly well, so I would now like to apologise for the cliff-hanger. But, hey I am writing the next chapter the next day, which has to mean something right?

Cast of thousands: Means you don't have a life, mate.

Me: Silence, bloody eunuchs. By the way, someone was asking so I'm answering - no Jack and Norrington are not going to be gay. In that last chapter they were simply coming to an understanding of each others qualities, or whatever. I do reckon they'd make a cute couple, but not in this fic.

Cast of thousands: She's waiting for the opportune moment.

Me: I need to stop watching that movie. Or you do.

Cast of thousands: Touch that DVD at your peril, mate. No stealing our precious.

Me: Would you make up your minds whether you're trying to be in POTC or LOTR And why do all good movies suddenly have abbreviations? Oh, other point, someone else - sorry, I'm on a time limit here, they will close the computer room eventually so I don't have time to go check names - complained that I'd shot Jack twice now. This is the first time I've shot him. Also the first time I've blown him up.

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Will had rarely felt so proud of Elizabeth, or so terrified for her. She was there, watching his back, holding her own against the pirates that threatened to overwhelm them. After they had watched the soldiers fall, she had snatched up a sword from one of the bodies and moved into a stance defending him, without a word being spoken. How could anyone not love her? He was glad to see Norrington out of the corner of his eye; he didn't personally like the man, but he deserved more than an ignoble death being shot in the back by pirates. Now where was Jack? His heart leapt as he saw his friend being forced back by three men. He must be hurt; Will had fought with Jack and against him, he knew that he wasn't that easy to defeat. Yes, he could see blood. That was a lot of blood.

He returned to his own fight, having taken a mere fraction of a second to observe all that. These pirates were good, but they were nothing compared to him, and they didn't seem to be trying to kill them. He had no compunctions about ending their lives however. He thrust his sword through one, and had to duck to allow Elizabeth to slash at another. He risked another look at Jack, just in time to see a cannonball smash into the ground inches from where the man was standing. The deck cracked; splinters exploded everywhere. He saw Jack thrown backwards by the force of the blast. He hit the railings and then, slowly, fell overboard.

"Jack!" he yelled. He ran a few steps towards the stern, but turned back at the sound of Elizabeth's voice.

"Will!" she sounded desperate. He turned round, in time to see her being grabbed by two pirates and forced to drop her sword. He ran back towards her, but missed another couple of the enemy pirates behind him, who seized him. He struggled fiercely but it was no use. The pirates appeared to have been carrying rope especially for this occasion, in an instant both his and Elizabeth's hands were bound. He could see Commodore Norrington still fighting. One of the pirates holding Elizabeth called out to him;

"We've got your friends, mate. Put down your sword." Will felt a sword prick his throat. Inclining his head - very, very, carefully - he could see that Elizabeth was receiving similar treatment. He felt a wave of anger, which he quickly suppressed. Don't do anything stupid, he told himself and felt a lump in his throat, that there was no-one else to say it. He watched in humiliation as Norrington slowly put down his sword and was restrained. Will felt the blade at his throat relax.

"Our friend." He said quickly. "He fell ."

"And he won't be coming back." He was answered roughly. "You're lucky we need captives, or you would join him." He could feel Elizabeth and Norrington's eyes on him. As they were pushed or dragged on to the Pearl, he glanced round to see the looks on their faces. Elizabeth was crying; mourning for the pirate, their friend. Norrington looked totally shocked. Probably horrified that he wasn't the one to kill Jack, Will thought, unfairly.

"Parley." Elizabeth said suddenly. The pirates looked at her.

"Yer not pirates, he don't honour the code, an' we're taking you to see Captain Masters anyway." The spokesman said.

"Oh." She looked totally helpless. Will moved a little closer to her, so that their shoulders were rubbing. They were hauled apart. Suddenly there was an explosion. Turning around, Will saw the Interceptor II blow apart as surely as the ship she was named for. He heard Elizabeth gasp at his side. He himself felt numb.

"I'm sorry about your boat, she was a pretty thing." A voice said. They turned to see a tall, red-haired man with a scar on the side of his face. He was wearing a rather battered hat at a jaunty angle. He grinned a little to see them staring at him. "Captain Robert Masters. That's me. And who might you be?" He looked first at Norrington.

"Commodore James Norrington of his majesty's navy. And I must tell you that this act of aggression will be treated ."

"No doubt." Masters interrupted. "And you, Miss?"

"Swan. Elizabeth Swan."

He looked her up and down, slowly. "Delighted to meet you. Elizabeth" He said, lazily.

Will glared. Masters noticed. "Well, well. The whelp doesn't like me looking at his wench. And what is your name, boy?"

Will blinked. A name, a name that isn't his own. Can't use Swan, can't use Sparrow. "Will Brown." He said, trying to make his hesitation seem like defiance. Masters looked at him thoughtfully, but nodded, apparently satisfied.

"No doubt," he began, "Your wondering why you're still alive. Well, we're in need of some people to do some digging and heavy lifting. We got some earlier, but rather short-sightedly, we sold most of them and a few more seem to have died. So you're the replacements. Means you get, maybe as much as a week more of life, which will be filled with hardship and hard labour. Generous, aren't I?" He smirked at their horrified expressions, then turned to his men. "Take them below and stow them with the others."

They were shoved roughly down the stairs to the brig. One of the cells was full; there must have been eight people in there. The other was empty and it was in this one that Will, Elizabeth and Norrington were pushed.

"Tata. Have fun." One of the pirates jeered as they left.

As soon as the door closed, a voice called out.

"Will! Elizabeth!" they turned to the other cell to see Gibbs pushing his way through the mass of people, closely followed by Anamaria. Looking closer, both Will and Elizabeth recognised another few of the inmates of the cell as belonging to Jack's crew. Cotton was there, with his parrot, and so was Marty.

"Gibbs?" they said together, completely stunned.

"Aye."

"What are you doing here?" Will asked.

Anamaria rolled her eyes. "This is supposed to be our ship. A better question would be what are you doing here and an even better one would be what are they doing here." She jerked her head towards the roof.

"Um ."

Gibbs took pity on them. "We were surprised by those bastards in port nearly three months ago. At first they forced us to sail the ship for them, then they got their own crew in and locked us up. Said we'd be useful later. There were other people in that cell you're in before, but they took them out yesterday. I think there are some more in the cargo hold . is that Lieutenant Norrington?"

"Its Commodore now." Norrington answered.

Gibbs paused. "Congratulations."

Anamaria interrupted. "What are you doing here?"

"We were looking for you." Will answered. "Jack ." he trailed off.

All the pirates spoke at once.

"Captain Jack?"

"He's alive?"

"Where is he?"

"Dead men tell no tales." The parrots voice rose over the rest, long and ominous.

After a second's hesitation, Gibbs spoke. "That Captain" he pulled a slight face "Masters told us he'd arranged that Jack be hung. Didn't know whether to believe him or not." He laughed. "Should have known they couldn't kill Jack Sparrow." He looked at the trios faces. "Right?" he said uncertainly.

"They didn't hang Jack." Will's mouth was dry. "But he is dead. There was a fight. He was hurt, I don't know how. Then a cannonball hit the ship and he was thrown overboard." He finished in a whisper. There was silence. Anamaria's eyes had tears in them. Gibbs closed his eyes for a moment, as though in prayer. Elizabeth was crying again, and Will moved close to her, putting an arm round her, close to tears himself.

Norrington stood alone, watching the others grieve. He was surprised at the weight in his chest. A Commodore of the Royal Navy shouldn't be grieved by the death of a pirate. But still ..

"He saved my life."

"What?"

Norrington glanced up to see the others looking at him. He was surprised; he hadn't meant to speak aloud. But he had to explain now, and he wasn't altogether sorry. "He saved my life." He repeated. "On the ship, the pirates were firing at the soldiers. He knocked me out of the way. He got shot himself. That was how he was hurt."

Gibbs smiled sadly. "That's Jack alright. Always doing the stupid thing. Was, I mean."

"I'm sorry." James Norrington had never felt more useless.

***

There was sand in his mouth. He lifted his head slightly and spat it out. OK, sand in mouth and a headache. Was this a hangover? His legs were wet. Odd. No, not really he was lying in the sea. Nice to have that cleared up. So, lying in the sea, headache and sand. And blood. What? He rolled over quickly and sat up. The world moved disconcertingly for a few moments, but finally settled down into a gentle spinning motion. Not quite normal, but he could handle it.

Blood. Ah yes, his arm. He looked at it. The sleeve of his shirt was entirely soaked in blood. Not good. He only had so much of the stuff. Needed a bandage, the rational part of his brain prompted. What could he use for a bandage. Unthinkingly, his fingers flew to his bandana. No. Not a good idea. Instead he removed the sash round his waist. He rolled his shirt sleeve up. It didn't seem as bad as the volume of blood had suggested. Definitely a bullet graze. It had happened when he threw himself on top of Norrington, he remembered. Where was everyone? He turned and looked out to sea. No ships in sight. Worry about that later. Right now ..

He gave the wound an experimental prod. He hissed in pain. Not one of his better ideas, that. OK, bandage then. It wasn't bleeding heavily now, but it was still bleeding. He wrapped the bandage around the top of his arm and, using his teeth to hold it in place, pulled the bandage tight. It hurt a lot. He felt himself hit the sand before the darkness took him again.

When he woke up again, it was dark. And cold. Cold and alone on an island. That was a familiar feeling. They'd sailed off without him. No. Couldn't help it. They'd probably been captured. Or killed, another part of his mind whispered. He ignored it. They'd been captured, which meant he had to do something before they did anything really stupid. Right. He stood up. He managed to remain on his feet, swaying, for all of ten seconds before he fell over again.

"Man down," he muttered. He tried again and this time remained upright. He shivered; it really was cold. So, first things first, build a fire and then come up with a brilliant and daring rescue plan. He staggered around the beach, gathering driftwood. At last, he had a blazing fire going. The pain in his arm and in his head was considerably worse. He curled up tightly beside the fire, intending to just shut his eyes for a minute.

He felt a shadow fall on him and opened his eyes. The sun was shining and obviously had been up for some time. He looked round to see the source of the shadow.

"Good morning, Jack." A voice said. A very familiar, and unwelcome voice. He looked over, already knowing and dreading what he would see.

Howard Stenson stood there smiling maliciously, surrounded by his men. He was wearing Jack's hat.

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Hmmmm, suppose I now have to apologise for that cliff hanger. If it is a cliff hanger, its now one o clock in the morning and my brain is a little fuzzy on such points.

By the way, if anyone's wondering, yes Masters is supposed to sound a little like Jack. He's kind of supposed to be everything Jack could be but isn't. I know what I'm talking about, but I suck at explanations. Anyway, could people please tell me if that works, or indeed if its just a bloody stupid idea anyway.

I may not update for a bit - I have this plan where I'm going to try and write a nine chapter story in nine days. Why? I have nine days absolutely free. No other reason. However, I'll probably wind up updating this too, the trick's going to be keeping them separate as the new ones also going to be POTC. I think its going to be called Before. Anyway, please read it.

Also, please review this.