A/N: Abigail, I wasn't going to even think about continuing this story after I wrote the last
chapter, but you have triggered me to continue writing this again. I don't know when I'll
continue after this chapter, because I decided I was done with fan fiction a while ago, but
I'll at least give you this next chapter. Hope you like it, 'twas written just for you!


One week later…


Jack woke up to the sound of the heavy bar sliding out of place from in front of his cabin
door. When Anamaria entered, Jack took one glance at the look on her face and smirked
in spite of himself.


"We're in Tortuga, aye?" Jack asked, shifting his position atop his bare cot and squinting
through the shade of his hat, trying to adjust his eyes to the sunlight he hadn't seen in days
that poured through the door. For a week he had been locked up, refusing to accept that he
was "insane" and telling them truthfully that the instant he was let out, he would fight them to
the death to take the wheel and keep it until they reached Port Royal.


"Aye," Anamaria answered at long last, looking grim.


"How did you find out about Port Royal?" he asked.


"So you know?" she inquired in return.


"This is the first time you've opened the door, captain." He said 'captain' nearly
sarcastically. "Other than that, I notice you haven't been listening to me; otherwise you
would know that I've been warning you of what would happen since last week. Now you
feel foolish. Perhaps I'm not insane, after all, aye?"


"Don't mock me," she said dangerously.


"I have every right to, love," Jack replied lightly, yet he implied severity. "You turned my
crew against me only to have hundreds of people killed who could have been saved if not
for you." This was the first time, he realized, that he had ever accused this woman of
wrongdoing; also the first time he'd ever truly enjoyed her affliction. He immediately regretted
his words.


"Jack, they're all dead," Anamaria stated. She added quickly; "I thought you were mad!
Don't you understand? I didn't know."


"You should have listened to me," he responded.


"I know," she muttered. "I'm sorry."


"Worse has happened to me. What about Port Royal?" Jack inquired.


"What, am I sorry for it? For the people? Somebody massacred them and the whole thing
could be blamed on me because I could have let you stop it but instead I went along to
Tortuga, and you're asking if I'm sorry? I'm sorry I'm so stupid and didn't trust my captain!
I'm sorry for locking you up for days and shoving food under your door and keeping you
captive on your own ship! In your own cabin! If I had just done what you said, if I had
listened to you, believed you for one moment, everything wouldn't have happened this way,"
she replied bitterly.


"It still might have," Jack said, suddenly. "What if… What if you couldn't have done
anything differently? If it was already planned out for you that way?"


"I'm finding it hard to follow," she said truthfully. "But you're obviously not insane. Go on."


"I came back in time by way of a silly contraption that I thought could change the past, but
what if it can't? What if the path you take the first time is the only chance you get, and no
matter how many times you try to go back and fix it, it will always end up the same
because your past has already been set for you, and you can't change it no matter what
you do?" Jack asked, more to himself.


"Are you saying that the people of Port Royal were meant to die?" she said.


"Maybe," he mumbled.


"Jack?"


"Aye?"


She rummaged into her pocket and took out the Kismet, saying; "I think you should try
again."


Jack seized it from her quickly, and she looked shocked. "It's evil," he said. "I don't want
you getting hurt."


"I picked it up after that scuffle last week," Anamaria informed him, eyeing the hand that held
the pencil-looking object.


"Evidently I dropped it," Jack replied, turning the Kismet with his fingers to inspect it. "I
agree with you, though. I should make at least one more attempt before I accept the fate of
Port Royal."


"Attempt?" Anamaria repeated with fire in her eyes. "Captain, you will not make attempts.
You will save the town or you will not. If you choose to go back, you are choosing to let the
Port Royalists live. You do not give up, and you never will. And if I know you, you will not
accept the fate of Port Royal. Forget what you've concluded, about how going back in
time won't change the future. Time is no match for Jack Sparrow."


He gave a silly grin and tilted his hat at a jaunty angle. "Well, at least you have your facts
straight about me, love!"


"You're an ass," Anamaria snorted. "But you know how to make it work?"


"I think so," Jack said. "Last time, I had to think about the time and place I wanted to be…"
He instantly became quiet and seemed in deep thought for about five minutes, before giving a
heavy sigh and saying; "Nothing's happening."


"Is there anything else you did? Think," Anamaria encouraged him.


"It's hard to remember," he said. "I was in a pretty bad position and I wasn't really thinking
about it..."


"Quit rambling and just think," Anamaria snapped.


"All right, all right; easy," Jack muttered, standing up and beginning to pace in concentration.
He raised a finger, shook his head, put it down, looked at the Kismet and muttered under his
breath.


"Okay, maybe I spoke too soon when I decided you weren't insane," Anamaria said,
following Jack's movements with her eyes.


"I got it," he said, suddenly. He raised the Kismet as if to write and added; "If I scream,
don't be surprised." With that said, Jack drew an X into his hand, held his breath, and
waited for it to do something.


"Are you going to scream yet?" Anamaria asked, sarcastically.


"It's not working," Jack uttered. "There's something wrong, something different…"
And then it hit him. "It's not working because it WON'T work," he said, dreadfully.
"Before, I had to take it from my father - don't ask - and when I did, it began to pulse
throughout my whole body, like an inferno. It doesn't have that power now, it's lifeless."


"Why?" she asked.


"I don't know," he said in frustration. "Probably because it's not mine."


"That's right," a familiar voice said from behind Anamaria, causing her to whip around
and Jack to freeze. "It's mine."