DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl or any of the characters included in the package. I do like to play with them and often end up giving them back worse for the wear. (Especially Captain Jack Sparrow!) ;
CLAIMER: I do, however, own the plot of this story and all my OC therein. Some stay around, some don't. That's life, ne?
Part 16: Revival
Jack froze mid-step as his blood ran cold in his veins. He swallowed dryly, his amber eyes being held hostage by her intense black gaze. "Could you repeat tha-"
Faster than lightning, Anaia was mere inches from his face, hovering lighter than a feather in the air. The golden serpent-shaped bracelet wrapped around her left foreleg glittered in a strange dark light, but went unnoticed by Jack as he found himself trapped in her piercing, all-knowing gaze.
"I'm sorry Jack," she whispered, delicately touching her left paw to his forehead. Two thin red beams of light shot out from the serpent's ruby eyes and wrapped themselves around Jack's body.
Anaia lifted her paw from Jack's forehead and watched as his eyes slowly fell shut and his jaw hung limp. Her expression remained emotionless as his body wilted, held up only by the delicate strands of red light and all signs of life left him.
"Come back Pharaoh."
The red strands dissipated at the sound of her voice, but Jack's body remained where the strings had suspended it. After a long expanse of silence Jack dropped and when he landed he was supporting himself on his hands and knees. Raising his head, he peered through the heavy black locks with stormy gray eyes.
- - - - -
"It's…gone…" Dozell trailed off as he looked around the chamber in disbelief. The Black Stone immortalized in the legends was really, truly, gone.
"Who cares about a rock when I just left my captain in the corridor?" Ana hissed, her anger getting the better of her even though it was no one's fault but Jack's that the pirate captain was dead.
"Would you have preferred it was you?" Dozell retorted, the anger apparently contagious.
"Yes." Ana replied without missing a beat. "And fer all I care, you can join Jack."
"Alright, break it up," Will said quickly, physically stepping between the two. "Look, we can't find what we came for so let's just go."
Ana glared at the ground and Dozell looked away, slightly ashamed that he had gotten into an argument over nothing.
"Will's right, we should leave. Enough has happened to deter us already." Chelsea said quietly, her hands resting on the heads of the two large dogs seated near her.
There was a sense of general agreement and the group left the Stone's chamber, each engrossed in their own thoughts.
As they exited the pyramid, they were surprised to see that the sun had risen and hovered directly above them. The horses were mulling around the pyramid's entrance where the group had left them the night before. Slowly they went to the animals and mounted up, turning back across the desert. Back the way they had come but this time with one less in their company.
As Ana swung herself up onto the black horse's back, she felt a pang of regret, feeling as though it were her fault Jack wasn't getting on with her. She closed her eyes against the feeling and waited it out.
A long howl cut through her inner meditations. It was followed shortly by a whinny and a sharp yip.
Ana's eyes shot open and she found herself—and the rest of the company—faced by three immense beasts: the fiery hound, the unicorn, and a blue and white fox creature ornamented in aqua crystals and a bell around its neck.
"Run!" Will screamed, kicking his mount into a gallop with the cart horse following closely. Dozell kicked his and Chelsea's horse into a gallop as well and Ana soon followed suite.
Before any of them got very far, they found themselves in the shadow of an immense bird and all eyes looked up. A huge horned eagle loomed above them, its talons gleaming in the sunlight. The bird swooped ahead of them and landed in the sand, kicking up a dust storm that forced the riders to a stand-still.
The blowing sand died away as the eagle folded its wings and the other three creatures surrounded the group, closing them in.
"Leaving so soon?"
The humans looked to the eagle fearfully. They all knew that voice, but it was impossible that said voice had just spoken. The voice's owner was dead.
"Jack?" Ana whispered, daring to hope. She had no idea why her captain would be seated on a giant mutant eagle, but at this point she could care less. All she wanted was to see him again.
"More or less," Jack's voice replied. In a moment he was standing carelessly next to the giant bird.
Dozell, Will, and Chelsea watched in awe as the bird took to the sky again and suddenly shrunk and changed form. It morphed into the small eagle that had accompanied them across the desert and in the pyramid.
"Jack!" Ana dismounted in a bound and bolted across the sand before wrapping Jack in a tight hug, not caring what the others thought of the contact. She was on the verge of tears anyway. He was solid and warm and alive and…shirtless? Ana stepped back and looked her captain over slowly.
What had he done?
His hair was cropped short, reaching to just above his chin and his shirt and boots were gone. The kohl and trinkets that were part of his identity were absent. The oddest feature was perhaps the two large burns that covered most of his chest and arms. They were in the shape of two large paws. Also, the talisman he had kept with him ever since the encounter with the voice awhile ago was replaced by a single black stone hanging from a solid gold chain. The stone was glimmering with ever-changing specks of blue, gray, yellow, and red.
There was something distinctly wrong with him. This wasn't the Jack she knew.
"Jack?" Ana asked quietly, carefully, fearing that her suspicions would be confirmed. As her gaze locked with his words of confirmation were no longer needed. "No," she breathed sadly, her heart sinking.
"What? What's wrong?" Chelsea asked with concern filling her voice as the other went pale. "Ana?"
"He's gone." Ana answered simply, allowing a single tear to fall.
"What do you mean? He's standing right there!" Will gestured to where Jack stood just a few feet off.
"S'not him…" Ana trailed off, her gaze remaining locked with the fireless gray eyes of her captain as she backed away. Except it was not her captain. "Jack, please, come back," she whispered knowing that the words were audible to her alone.
Jack's voice came but it spoke in a language unknown to her and lost completely on the others.
"What did he say?" Will asked.
"If ye're gonna use his voice at least speak 'is own language!" Ana snapped, her grief and anger powering the argument.
Jack cocked his head, making his cropped hair fall lightly on his cheek. For a moment the eyes became unfocused and a hint of milky brown shown in their depths.
"Jack…please?" Ana begged, having caught the flash of brown.
"To whom do you speak woman?" Jack repeated in English his eyes gray once more and the casual drawl missing from his voice.
Ana's eyes narrowed dangerously and her lip twisted up into a snarl. "You, ya bloody dog."
The gray eyes darkened in turn and his mouth fell into a frown. "Do you have any idea to whom you speak?"
"I was hoping t' speak t' my cap'n, but you have yet t' introduce yerself." Ana replied sarcastically not fazed by the man's flawless posture and the immense difference in him from the Jack she knew.
"I am the eldest son of the late Pharaoh; now the ruler of Egypt. Show your respect. Bow to me."
Ana snorted in amusement her body tense with defiance and her eyes hard. "I don' care who ye are, jus' let my cap'n go."
"Bow to me."
"No." A challenge flared as hazel fire in her eyes.
"You will show respect to a prince of Egypt!" Jack snapped, stretching his left arm at shoulder level and spreading his fingers to their limit. Red tinged the bland grayness of his eyes, crimson sparkling like flames in the cloudy orbs.
Ana tensed as an unknown force seemed to shove down upon her shoulders with unbearable weight. She stubbornly resisted the burden, fighting it with all her strength. The strain soon became too much to bear and her eyes rolled up as her knees buckled and she succumbed to the darkness.
Will, Dozell, and Chelsea watched in horrified fascination as Ana sank to the sand then lay still. Moments later their eyes shifted up to Jack who had returned his arm to his side and wore a satisfied smirk.
[a/n: Sorry this chapter is kinda short, but there's some stuff I can't exactly break up coming next…please forgive (and review? pwease?).]