I do not own potc

Thanks soooo much for the reviews! Funky i completly forgot about that, i'll put it somewhere in the story! Moulin you were right, your mind is in the gutter, but it would appear Untouchable's is too! You pair will have to fight each other for him! lol, by the time you'r finished i'll be half way across the world with him myself! Thanks again Funkified Beans!

Devon stared with mournful eyes at the ship before her, an eerie silence wrapping The Echo as she bobbed gently in the quiet sea. Jack stood next to her, he'd given up his sulking the previous day and was at last back to his normal self. Devon hadn't told him, or anyone else her plans for the Echo, primarily because she wasn't completely sure herself what she was going to do but staring at it now, she knew what was to be done.

Jack turned to her, beads clicking together in his hair and he regarded her for a long moment.

"What do you want me to do luv? I'll send the men across to clear the dead? Yes? No?" he held out his hands to try and encourage an answer but Devon only sighed and reached into her pocked to retrieve the small white pebble the witch had given her. Holding it high, she threw it hard over the placid water and onto the deck of the Echo. Jack frowned, his hands and fingers curling into his chest.

"Shall we go and clear the deck Devon?" he tried again edging closer towards her, peering down at her with confused eyes.

"Sink it." she replied abruptly and Jack swayed back, his face shocked.

"What? Sink it? There is not a scratch on that boat." he waved a frantic hand over towards the Echo. Devon closed her eyes for a moment, did Jack not know how hard this was for her without him prattling on as well?

"Jack, please. I'm telling you I want it sunk." she turned to him eyes searching for acceptance in his face. There was none.

"We can trade it, sell it? We cant just sink it." his attempt at reasoning with her resulted in a stinging slap across his cheek. Devon's eyes were a blaze with a painful anger.

"Tis my ship and I want it sunk." she cast a futile glance at The Echo. "My crew died on that Echo and they shall be put to rest on it too. Nobody will benefit there death." her voice softened and she lowered her eyes, "Sink it Jack." Jack stared at her for a long moment before he shook his head.

"I'm not going to luv, I think you need some more time to think about it before you make some rash decisions." he turned to leave but Devon caught his wrist and yanked him back with incredible force.

"Why is it that you always question my decisions? Why is it you never trust that I am thinking straight?" her growl exposed the hostility in her voice. Her grip tightened on his wrist as he tried to pull free, fingernails digging into his flesh. Jacks eyes wavered uncertainly but he held her burning eyes. "I'll tell you something Jack. I want to sink that ship. I WANT to. Understand? And if you don't do it, I will." she snatched her hand away and Jack didn't move, his eyes locked on hers and his head cocked to one side.

"Mr Gibbs! See that the cannons are not touched, I don't want anybody down there." a smile crawled across his lips as Devon's face reddened with rage.

"You infuriate me Jack." she snapped turning on her heal to walk away.

"I know that feeling darling," he shot back watching as she stormed off towards the stairwell.

XXXX

Devon was only mildly surprised Jack hadn't come to find her later that evening, he'd be blind drunk by now and probably unconscious in the next half an hour. She smiled at the thought of him. Blasted fool that he was. She completely understood why he didn't want to sink the Echo, if was the other way round she would put up a fuss if Jack had tried to sink the Pearl but then, nothing in the world would make Jack want to sink his own ship. Devon sighed as she begun to wonder if perhaps Jack was right, maybe she was being rash, the Echo was a fine ship and it didn't deserve to be lost to the sea. The tiny row boat knocked gently against the hull of the Echo and Devon set about getting herself and the gunpowder barrel onto the deck.

The rancid smell of rotting flesh made her retch instantly, it overpowered her and brought tears to her eyes. Quickly, once she had finished empting her lunch over the side of the ship, she tied a length of cloth around her nose and mouth before picking up the barrel and heading below deck.

The hot Caribbean sun had been merciless to the dead crew and Devon could not look at them. All doubts about sinking the ship had gone. She would never be able to Captain this ship again and she would be damned if she would let anybody else have it. Below deck was quiet and still, as if her crew were merely sleeping in their quarters, she smiled gently at fragments of memories came to her.

The galley was were she chose to rest the barrel, she tipped a long trail along the pale floor and upended the rest in a pile in the corner, it wasn't enough to blow the ship up but it was enough to set it on fire and sink it.

She sighed and sat down on a stool looking around the large room with fondness, so many times she had drunk and played cards in here, told her crew stories of Jack and the Pearl, Always by the end of the night Crawford and Tommy were up dancing on the tables and for the briefest of moments Devon could hear Josh's banjo and his brothers harmonica playing the fast jolly music of the Irish kind. A shiver rippled down her spine as the air in the galley stirred, a breeze from the door most likely. The white pebble popped into her mind for a moment as she lit the powder trail, a gift from a witch, Shelika knew she was going to have done this and Devon had somehow known to sink the ship with the pebble on board but its significance she could not tell.

Standing slowly, she watched the powder spark and crackle as it crawled towards the large pile in the corner, she glanced about in the stale air.

"If you're here guys, I'm sorry." her voice was alien and strange in the silence of the ship, it seemed to linger around her ears like fog, she shivered again as she made her way back up to the deck, taking care not to trip and fall over somebody limbs.

The small explosion happened when Devon had got into the small row boat and begun her journey back to the Pearl, The bang had echoed round the isle and sent a flurry of black smoke into the night air. Devon watched as she rowed, flames beginning to lick the deck and curl round the masts. Climbing out of the row boat Devon stood on the deck of the Pearl for a long moment.

"I had to do it." she explained not turning to look at Jack as he sat in shadows observing the burning Echo.

"Waste of a ship," he slurred, "waste of a good Captain." he stepped forward, his face flickering in the hue of the flames.

"A captain no more." she sighed, "The Echo will be thick with death had I chose to sail her again, the blood would stain the deck, I would be haunted with memories." she shook her head and stepped towards the pirate. "I'm weak Jack, I deserve to be haunted with their spirits." Jack let out a long, slow breath, studying her with sorrowful eyes.

"Your weakness is that you chose to destroy the ship that you fought for so hard, two years ago you would have scrubbed that deck till your hands bled, buried the dead and revenged their murderer." he tipped his chin towards the blazing Echo as she began to slide beneath the inky waters, "Where are you Devon? I don't see you here, not the lass that I fought with anyway."

Devon was taken aback with Jack's cold tone, she guessed he was right however, she could feel all that had held her so strong and determined slip away from her soul, like sand in an hourglass. Jack was disappointed in her, disappointed that she had not chosen to hold her head up and sail on despite her set back. "My father will get what's coming, and I will get my feet back behind the wheel of another ship. But for now I'm doing what I need to do and if you choose to condemn me for it, then so be it Jack. I can love you without needing you ." she lowered her eyes as the fire that had doused the deck with light went out. The Echo had gone and with it so had Devon's will and fight. She faced her pirate with rawness and new emotion, anger and sorrow gone and the beginnings of a new glint formed in her eye. There would be no remorse for her father or indeed Jack had he chose to not to stand with her. He narrowed his eyes on her, trying to figure out her new feeling of contemptment for the world.

"Your father will be somewhere around Tortuga I expect, he'll be lapping up the attention for fouling my name, and yours I suppose. You sail tomorrow." "I sail?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Aye, this is your fight luv, you sail the Pearl, you kill father and then with any luck I'll have you back the way you were before all this mess." he waved a hand over 'this mess' as if it disgusted him. Devon softened.

"I'm still me Jack, I just need to finish it." Jack's eyes were weary on her.

"you'll not be you until you get back that arrogant, stubborn sharp tongue of yours." he smiled and lent down to kiss her gently.