Author's note: Once again, I own nothing, Disney owns POTC, I just created some characters. Read and review sil vous plait!

As James made his way back to The Guardian when he had emptied his bottle, his head was still spinning. How could Jack be eaten by a monster, and yet end up at the end of the world? It made little sense—but then again, everything made little sense to him nowadays. He walked back up the boarding plank, his first mate holding out his captain's jacket, an inquisitive smirk upon his face.

"Captain, do we have a heading?" he questioned. Norrington declined the jacket.

"Avery, I need some time to think before we set sail for our destination. For now, we sail about the island." Norrington was sure the stench of rum was fresh on his breath, but he cared not. He meandered to his quarters and fell asleep, fully clothed, above the covers.

His rest was interrupted in the middle of the night by one of the sailors, Camron Sharpe.

"Captain! There's a ship that just descended into the ocean, and a building's aflame just on shore!" Norrington sat upright.

"The Dutchman!" he leapt up, "Rouse Avery, get a small crew to come ashore with me." Norrington, Avery, Sharpe, and some other crew members piled into a longboat and went ashore, a woman's screams becoming more evident the closer they came. Running up to the building, they saw a woman clutching a young boy, her hand bleeding profusely, and the boy badly bruised. Norrington rushed up to them, and then turned to his crew.

"Search for other survivors, salvage what you can, but for god's sake don't lose anyone," he turned to the woman.

"Hush now, everything will be all right. I'm James Norrington, and I'm going to help you," he smiled at her. She wailed and winced, and James picked up the boy. "Come with me now, careful there," he guided her back to the ship. He handed the boy off to a crewmember.

"Take care of him, get him cleaned up, and get me some bandages," he said, taking the woman by her good hand and guiding her below deck. "Hush now, we're searching to save everyone else.

"There is no one. It was just Simon and I in the house," said the woman, accepting a handkerchief from Norrington and wiping her eyes. Norrington nodded, and looked up at a sailor who was bringing him first aid supplies.

"Farmer, ring the bell, get the sailors from ashore back on the ship, there's no one else to save," Norrington put a tired hand to his forehead, then looked up at the woman. "May I see your hand Miss…um…I don't think I caught your name…" Norrington wanted to take the hilt of his sword and bash it on his forehead. He was not a simpleton, no average sailor. He still had manners, and he was forgetting them in times of trouble.

"Ginevra Shields," she said, her hand resting atop the table. "Acquaintances call me Ginny…well they would if I had any. Living on Tortuga, you don't find many people worth your time; they're all drunkards with another thing on their mind," she winced as James cleaned off her wound. He scowled.

"How'd this happen Miss Shields?" he nodded towards her hand, which he wrapped gently in cloth. She shook her head.

"I woke because I heard noises, and I assumed it was a group of drunks thinking my simple residence a bed and breakfast, so I made for the door, but before I could make it there, it was taken down by force. A group of, well, I wouldn't call them pirates, they were more like something you'd find at the bottom of the ocean, they wanted to know where 'his' heart was. Now, I had no idea what they were speaking of, and I told them that if they didn't get off my property, well that didn't suit well with them, and they began to destroy my home searching. The boy came downstairs, wanted to know what was going on. 'I'll fight them Miss Ginny,' he says, I tried to stop him, but he wouldn't let me. One of them, he threw the boy about like a rag doll, and I threw out my hand to stop him, he caught me with what looked like a backbone, and it destroyed my hand, but they wouldn't kill us, they just set our house aflame and continued to search but found nothing, I still don't know whose heart they were looking for, because who could live without a heart?"

Norrington blinked a few times, he had hardly caught most of the story, all he knew was that Jones suspected this woman to have his heart, yet he had never seen her before. She had no reason to be connected to this chase, this wild goose chase that Norrington was putting himself on. Why was he connected to this in the first place? He was merely supposed to give Beckett the heart, and be off easy, and yet here he was, chasing down pirates, something that after the hurricane, he swore never to do again.

"Miss Shields, I'm going to do something I rarely do, and insist that you stay on board the ship for a few days until we get you to a more…well…until we find some place other than Tortuga," he said. She nodded.

"Bless you Captain," she said, smiling. He nodded.

"Yes, yes, I'm going to go find a place for you and your son to--"

"He's not my son captain," she said quickly. "He was left on my doorstop about 5 years ago," she said. James nodded.

"How nice. I'm going to go find a place for him," he winced as he walked away. There had been no reason for him to be so unkind. He put a worn hand to his face again.

After sleeping conditions were decided upon, Norrington assured his men a heading would be decided upon in the morning. He collapsed into bed once more, but was awoken by the morning bell shortly thereafter.

"Damn you," he mumbled, rolling over in his bed. Avery knocked on his door.

"Captain, have you woken?" James rolled his eyes. Had he woken? What kind of a brainless question was that.

"Yes, unfortunately," he muttered dryly, getting up. He ran a comb through his scraggly mane, and splashed water on his face. He had given up completely on wearing his captain's jacket. It no longer suited him, no longer suited the man in the mirror.

"Captain, have you a heading?" Avery questioned from outside the door. James sighed. He was still unsure of where to send his crew.

"Avery, come in here," he said. Avery opened the door.

"Yes captain?"

"I have a question for you, and you're going to think me crazy for it. What do you know about the end of the world?" Avery looked at him and laughed.

"Captain, you have quite the sense of humor. Now, what do you need?"

"Avery, that was not a joke, I'd highly suggest you know what is and what isn't and not laugh at your captain when he's asking you a serious question."

"Captain, I think you've lost your bloody mind, and, no offense to be taken by this, sir, but I don't know why Lord Beckett trusts you, just because you brought him the heart, which he could have gotten just fine if you had not interfered, because he could have gotten Jack Sparrow's compass easily!" Avery walked out. Norrington made to go after him, his hands going after his sword, but he stopped and shook his head. Thoughts ran through his head. Mutiny, what if he was mutined? Did Avery have enough power over the rest of the crew to convince them that he was crazy? James sighed heavily, and turned away from the door. He heard footsteps.

"Captain," said a voice. He turned to see Camron Sharpe. "Captain, I've heard stories of the end of the world…they say it's just past the new land our country has acquired…the large island in the south…just past there, there are massive waterfalls. If you follow the falls, they'll take you to Davy Jones' locker, and if you're unlucky…to the Land of the Dead. Some say that if you can figure out how, you can save people from their horrid fate," Camron said, looking around. Norrington nodded. "Captain, I'd be careful if I were you. Avery has his eye on your job, and he'll do anything to manipulate the crew, I know, I've worked with him for years. Just be careful captain," said Sharpe, walking away. Norrington knew what he had to do.

"All hands on deck! We have our heading!" he said as he jogged up the stairs. Avery, who wasstaring at the wheelmercilessly,spun wildly. "Men…set sail for Austrailia!"