Chapter Ten
The New Beginning

Home turned out to be the gallows. None of them were strangers to it; they'd seen friends hung there and they'd escaped it more than once before. Arlen and Li stood in the crowd, feeling helpless as they listened to Jack's crimes being read. Any other time they might've laughed, but now? Now they felt closer to crying. They were trapped between two worlds, and he was their link. If he died, any answers they'd been seeking would be lost forever.

Will and Elizabeth, and even the Commodore, had promised they would help the girls find out what happened and how they could save them, but they wanted Jack.

"This is wrong." Elizabeth echoed their sentiments.

"Commodore Norrington is bound by the law. As are we all."

At that moment, another familiar face pushed through the crowd and rejoined them. Li glanced up and then gave Arlen a shake. She pointed to the parrot sitting on top of a flag nearby them and then to their favored pillow. Arlen smiled, and realized what was happening.

"Governor Swann. Elizabeth. I should've told you ever day from the moment I met you: I love you."

"Oh God. Whenever someone says that it means they're about to do something-"

"Incredibly stupid." Li finished with a groan. Trust the whelp to do one such thing now. The best laid plans could always go wrong.

There was the heart stopping moment when the lever was pulled and Jack plummeted, but it was followed by the sound of a sword striking wood. Deciding that even if it was a stupid thing to do, they'd join sides with Will and leapt at the gallows, cutting Jack down. They seized the rope along with he and Will and ran like hell, tripping up soldiers and commoners alike. This was where they belonged. They were home.

They almost got away with it, too. They got all the way up to the tower before they were caught.

"I thought we might have to deal with some manner of ill-conceived escape attempt, but not from you." Norrington sounded almost betrayed as he looked at Will.

"On our return to Port Royal I granted you clemency. And this is how you thank me? By throwing in your lot with him? He's a pirate!"

"And a good man."

Jack pointed proudly to himself and then gestured to the girls.

"What about us?" Li asked. Arlen was too busy playing with the feather in Will's hat to notice the deep philosophical conversation going on around them.

"If all I've achieved here is that the hangman will earn four pairs of boots instead of one, so be it. At least my conscience will be clear."

"Easy for you to say." Arlen mumbled, losing interest in his feather the moment she realized her life was on the line.

"You forget your place, Turner."

"It's right here. Between you and Jack."

Elizabeth came to stand beside them.

"As is mine."

"Elizabeth! Lower your weapons. For goodness' sake, drop them!" Governor Swann cried. They listened to him. Arlen and Li began to believe that they might actually make it out of this alive.

"So this is where your heart truly lies, then?" Norrington asked after swallowing.

"It is." Elizabeth replied softly.

There was a soft cawing noise and a bird flew overheard. Jack smiled at the sight and prodded the girls.

"Well, I'm actually feeling quite good about this. I think we've all arrived at a very special place, eh? Spiritually? Ecumenically? Grammatically?" He turned to Norrington. "I want you to know that I was rooting for you, mate. Know that. Elizabeth, it never would've worked between us. I'm sorry. And Will?" He grinned. "Nice hat. Shall we, girls?" With that, he took Arlen's arm. He tried to catch Li's too, but she pulled away.

"Li, what are you doing?" Arlen asked.

"How can you be sure that this is where we're meant to be?"

"I just know. Please, just come with us."

Jack continued backing up with Arlen.

"Friends! This is the day that you will always remember as the day that-" With that, he and Arlen toppled off the top of the wall and into the water below.

"Idiot!" Gillette cried. "He's nowhere to go but back to the noose!"

"Sure, he's an idiot," Li smiled. "But he's our idiot." With that, she too jumped.

"So what's your plan of action? Sir?"

"Perhaps on the rare occasion the right course demands an act of piracy. Piracy itself can be the right course."

-x-

There was a spray of sea and sunlight as the three pirates were hauled on board the deck of the Pearl. They looked around them and smiled.

"I thought you were to keep to the code." Jack said to Gibbs.

"We figured they were more guidelines than actual rules." He grinned.

"Amen to that." Arlen said fervently.

Jack received his coat and his hat and then went to stand at the helm. With a slight tremble, he put his hands on it and took control of the Pearl for the first time in ten years. Arlen and Li stood at his side.

"Where do we go from here?"

Jack smiled. "To that horizon." To everything we lost.

"Hey, Li," Arlen called as they were running across the deck. "Jack taught me the most awesome song the other day. Want to hear it? It goes 'yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me...'"

The words had never felt more true as they sailed into the sunset, the wind at their backs and everything before them.

A/N: This would be the end of this story. But not the end of the journey of Black Wolf and Lone Star with Captain Jack Sparrow. Please REVIEW! Thanks so much for those who have and the next story which is called The Forgotten Isle will be up in a few.

silverwolf of the night & Countess Verona Dracula