* * * * * * * * * *



..........Twenty-seven years, two months and four days earlier..........


Jack Sparrow was thirteen years old, and a strong, fearless boy. Two years earlier, he
had docked the Black Pearl alone at a Guantanamo port and picked up a few street boys
to help him out with sailing his ship. He had been confused about his past, and wondered
why he couldn't remember most of it, and why he hadn't sailed under an adult captain.
Now, the same Guantanamo street boys were still under his command on the Black Pearl,
and although they were young, they had learned much about the sea and piracy.


All of the boys had been pickpockets and thieves before Jack hired them, and had already
been skilled in the ways of cunningly disappearing under the eyes of many people, taking
short cuts to escape, and stealing money and food right under a person's nose. They had
taught Jack their secrets in return for him teaching them how to sail, and although they were
boys, they were unstoppable pirates all the same.


Jack was at the helm of his ship, proud of his inexorable, youthful crew. He could hardly be
troubled by the fact that he couldn't remember much of his life before the age of eleven in the
comfort of bright daylight on a warm sea, but at night, his past still haunted him in his
nightmares.


He often dreamt of an immortal evil, and he normally woke up confused and frightened,
remembering for brief periods of time a man so terrible that it sent shivers up his spine. Jack
had no idea where he had thought up such a man, for he was certain that he had never met
him before, but in a corner of his mind, he knew he had seen the villain somewhere before.


One night, he was dozing off to sleep peacefully in his cabin, when he heard a soft voice.


"Jack…" it whispered, as if carried on a breeze. The boy stirred and pretended to sleep, but
he was more alert than ever. When the voice said nothing after a long time, he decided it was
of his imagination, but he couldn't help feeling a presence about him that he couldn't explain.


Someone was in the room with him.


"Jack," it said again, more distinctly this time. It was not the voice of a human, Jack was
certain of that. The boy felt a rush of cold air, and he could take it no longer, whipping his
pistol out from under his pillow, and in a flash he was pointing it toward the direction of the
voice, sitting up in bed. There was nobody.


"I know you're here!" Jack growled, fiercely, fingering his gun and clicking the barrel into
place. "Show yourself, I'm not afraid!" But he was terrified. He knew that the being that
was in the room, was the same character who haunted his nightmares so often.


"You don't… remember me… Jack?" the voice asked icily. It was all around him now,
echoing off the walls. Jack spun around and searched the small cabin frantically. His hand
and voice were steady.


"Who are you?" Jack demanded, pointing his pistol at the tiniest creak of the wood around
him. The voice laughed softly, which made him almost lose his composure.


"Put the gun down," the voice said. "It cannot do me harm. Not after what you did to me,
Jack. Or should I say, did FOR me."


"Who are you?" Jack repeated.


Suddenly, the voice was behind Jack. "You don't know," it confirmed with a sneer.
"Maybe if I show myself, it would refresh your memory."


Jack started and turned around to come face to face with the intruder. He froze and gaped
as the figure gazed at him spitefully. The figure was tall and ghostly pale, with a sickly green-
yellow look about it. His long, black hair hung around his face wildly, and his yellow eyes
had deep, black circles around them. His pupils were red, and his face was so white, Jack
thought he could almost see through it. His lips were pale brown, and when he grinned, his
teeth were yellow and black, his gums white and pasty.


"What are you?" Jack whispered breathlessly, unable to bolt for the door as he had
completely frozen. The man raised a nearly bone-thin hand, with long, jutting and dirty
fingernails.


"It'll all come back to you right now," he said with his chilling voice, touching the boy softly
on his face. His hand was cold as ice, and the man might as well have hit Jack with all his
might. The boy couldn't breathe as memories flashed into his brain so fast that they were all
a blur. The Black Pearl, Jack Sparrow, a boy, a man, a sound, a crack, a laugh, lightning,
thunder, blood, flailing, beating, a cry, a scream, a heartbeat, blood, a boy, a man, a grin,
evil, blood, evil, blood, Jack Sparrow, night, sea, crashing, Jack-


"You are Jack Sparrow!" Jack the younger shouted in horror, trying to pull away from the
thing that was once his living father. The figure laughed with glee and caressed the boy
mockingly, sliding his hand up Jack's neck and digging his sharp fingernails into his hair.
The child could smell the rancid odor of the creature that seemed to be rotting away on the
spot.


"I must go now," the man said, content at the petrified terror the boy was showing him. "I
will come back for you, my boy, and I will send you into hell!" He cackled and an instant
later, he was gone.


Jack was alone. And he would never see his father again for twenty-seven years.



* * * * * * * * * *



Will was sleeping. Jack had made sure he was safe and had locked Anamaria's cabin door
behind him. He would not let Will die, no matter what. But he had spent nearly an hour with
his friend, and still he needed to find out if his father was still in Port Royal, waiting for him as
the old woman had said.


Jack walked steadily down a plank to the banks of the silent port. Fog swirled around the
bodies, and he carefully stepped around them, trekking further and further into the city. He
made sure not to look down at the corpses directly, but instead trust his peripheral vision to
be able to step around them so that he didn't have to see their haunting faces. He didn't
want to see anybody he knew.


"Where are you, rogue," Jack muttered to himself. The dense fog didn't carry his voice, yet
he felt he had disturbed the peace of the noiseless place.


"I'm right here," the evil thing responded, voice echoing even among the fog. Jack gritted his
teeth and turned calmly around to see the villain who had not materialized for him in decades,
yet it seemed as if he had been with the pirate captain the whole time. The man grinned his
awful grin and spread his arms. "Welcome home, Jack," he whispered. "I told you I'd be
here."


"Aye," Jack replied. "But you also said you'd send me into hell. It seems you're the only
one here who's battled that place, you pathetic fiend."


Instead of the man growing angry like most did when insulted, he grinned again and stepped
calmly up to Jack. The pirate stood straight and daring, reminding himself that he was not a
boy anymore. He glared straight into the yellow eyes of the creature.


"Remember your place, boy," the thing said, disappearing swiftly and taking Jack from
behind, grabbing him by the neck and swinging him around so that Jack was inches away
from the older man's inhuman face. Jack stumbled when forced about, but was held up by
one strong, icy hand.


"You don't scare me anymore," Jack growled to the man, but it was an obvious lie, which his
eyes gave away.


"I could kill you now," the villain said calmly, squeezing his hand tighter around Jack's neck
so that his breath came out in gasps.


"If you were going to, you would have already," Jack snarled, tearing at the stony hand.


The creature laughed and threw Jack harshly to the ground on his back. Before he could
spring up, Jack Senior shoved his foot into his chest, pinning him to the earth.


"Clever boy!" it cackled. "You're right, you know. I am not going to kill you yet. See, I
have something to tell you that you might be interested in knowing."


"And what would that be?" Jack said almost fearfully, struggling to get out from under his
father's boot, knowing that his efforts were useless.


"Listen up," the evil thing said seriously. "I knew that you were going to follow the Quietus,
even though you have a weakness when it comes to helping your friends. Although I wonder
why you came to Port Royal when you realized that it was not me on that ship, but your
foolish little comrade. You wouldn't happen to remember, in the deepest corner of your
mind, what happened last time… But, no… You wouldn't remember… For you, it never
happened…"


By now, Jack was confused. "I happened to come across a source which informed me of
what was to occur," he shot. "What do you mean by that for me, something never
happened?"


"Ah, so you bumped into a psychic, you lucky devil," it spat in response. "No problem.
You still ended up here. Your future didn't change, you understand…"


"How did you know it was a psychic?" Jack demanded, finally giving up his struggling and
glaring up at the man.


"Let me tell you something, boy. I've come to discover that whenever a psychic - and only
a real psychic - sees the future, they're not really fortelling what is to come, but what has
already happened and is to be repeated," the thing replied.


"But I hadn't chased you here before!" Jack protested. "This is the first and only time it's
ever-"


"Are you sure of that?" the creature interrupted nastily, digging his boot harder into Jack to
hopefully get a cry out of him, but the pirate did nothing of the sort. "Let me show you
something," it hissed.


Jack's father dug into his jacket and revealed-


"A lead pencil?" Jack laughed, trying to sound fearless but only sending shooting pain
through his straining lungs. "You're mad."


"This is not a pencil, boy," the other shot, laughing louder with such evil that it shut the
younger up. "I call it Kismet. Do you know what kismet is, child?"


"No," Jack replied.


"It is fate. Destiny. This object, which I have come across by no ordinary means, can
change that, can send you back in time to repeat an event so that it can be mended of
mistakes. With this, I am invincible."


"So you're saying - that Port Royal has already been destroyed - and you've just gone
back in time and have recently destroyed it again!" Jack uttered. "And the old psychic
only recited to me what has happened? But why did you repeat this?"


"That, I cannot tell you," the thing hissed. "But that doesn't matter, for we have caught up
to the time before, and now there is no way I can be stopped. My mistakes are fixed, and
now, young Sparrow... you will die."





A/N: Thank you all for your wonderful reviews! Pineapple1, hope this clears stuff up for
you, and Yakkorat; thank you so much for your wonderful reviews! Heather, Abigail,
JeanieBeanie33, Marie the Black Rose, Should be Studying, Notallmachine, Jack Sparrow's
Black Pearl, PED-Sarah, TPP, SOS1, pot clover, atticap, Bulletproof Dork, Sihaya,
Martian Aries, melia, Sinopa, Greywolf Lupous, Chaa and Xaa - thank you all for
reviewing! Much appreciated! :D :D :D :D