A Gilded Cage: Sequel to Broken Wings, Part II of the Fallen Sparrows Trilogy
A Pirates of the Caribbean story by Merrie
Disclaimer: They're still not mine. Although if they were…they'd probably all hate me for what I do to them, so I suppose it's just as well.
Summary: Captain Jack has been possessed by a demon god by the name of Lorelac who's used Jack to become the most infamous, hated, and wanted pirate in the ocean. Can Jack reclaim his life back? Will Elizabeth and Will be able to help while encountering problems of their own? And what about Chief Norrington? Sequel to Broken Wings.
Characters: Captain Jack Sparrow, Lorelac, Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann, Chief Norrington, many other random extras.
Author's Note: Sorry this wasn't up sooner. I was on holiday and without my computer.
Rating: R for language, content, and violence. Lorelac gets a little nasty.
Chapter 3: Catching Tigers and Causing Trouble
Elizabeth froze, not believing her eyes. There, standing before her looking larger than life was the object of her current hatred. "You," she hissed. "What are you doing here? You're not wanted here. Get out."
"Aww, I'm hurt, Elizabeth. Is that anyway to treat an old lover?" Lorelac asked with a wicked smirk.
Elizabeth betrayed herself by immediately looking at Will, her eyes wide.
"Is what he says true?" Will asked, not believing it, but finding it hard to argue with the clearly guilty look on her face.
"Will it's—" Elizabeth started.
"Is what he said true?!" Will cut her off.
"Yes," Elizabeth said, her voice almost too low for the other occupants of the room to hear. Filled with guilt, she found she couldn't meet Will's piercing gaze, so she looked away. Her eyes landed on Jack's face and the guilt was replaced by anger. "Yes, it's true. That filthy bastard standing next to you raped me like an animal in the dirt. He laughed as I begged him to stop. He laughed, Will. He could have cared less about me. The only thing he cared about was defiling what we had together. I was nothing more than a means to an end with him."
"You give yourself far too little credit, Elizabeth," Lorelac said snidely. "You're a beautiful woman. So passionate, so willing."
"I seriously doubt any woman let alone one as respected as Miss Swann would be willing under that circumstance," Norrington said resolutely.
"You're a food if you believe that. How much do you really know about your dear Miss Swann? Did you know that she would have given anything to get away from here? Anything at all? She's a whore. That's all she ever has been. It doesn't matter if it's her body, her wealth, her very soul that she's giving up, that doesn't change what she is." Lorelac smiled coldly as blood trailed down his chin from his mouth from the knocked out tooth.
It was Norrington's turn to take a swing at Lorelac, and after the demon's words about Elizabeth, there was no hesitation. He slugged him with the full force of his arm, but felt no stirrings of victory inside of him as Lorelac tripped backwards over the hammer Will had dropped and toppled to the ground.
"You'll pay for that," Lorleac hissed from the ground. With a fluid motion he rose to his feet and held up a hand. Will and Elizabeth's faces were drawn in mirroring looks of horror as Norrington's hands went to his throat and he held them there as if he couldn't breathe. Which seemed to be the case, for he didn't make a sound.
"Stop it! Let him go!" Elizabeth and Will both yelled simultaneously. Lorelac didn't seem to pay them any mind, his attentions focussed on Norrington. "No one would miss you except the people in this room. You realize that? And I wouldn't put much stock in their opinions. They considered Sparrow their friend." He let out a short laugh at that but didn't let go of Norrington's throat with his crushing, invisible grip. Norrington's face was turning blue and his eyes were beginning to flutter shut.
So this is how I die. Norrington thought to himself, the world beginning to fade around him as his body was denied the life-giving air that was needed to sustain it. As soon as that thought went through his mind, a wave of fury flooded over him. No! I refuse to end it like this! He was James Christopher Michael Norrington III and he refused to be killed in such a…undignified manner. If it had Sparrow who was doing this, he might have felt differently-Sparrow was a worthy adversary-but this demon in front of him was nothing. A specter with a bag of cheap parlour tricks. That was all. His struggles continued in intensity.
Lorelac saw Norrington's weak struggles and shook his head. "I do not understand you mortals. Your lives are so fragile, so meaningless, but when they're threatened, you fight. You fight as if your very fighting could make a difference. It never does. Don't try it. You make one move towards him or me and I'll snap his neck like a trick," Lorelac addressed the tensing Elizabeth and Will who weren't about to stand idly by and let Norrington die. "And doing that would upset me. I like to see people suffer, you see? I have never enjoyed quick deaths."
Will paused at Lorelac's words but then took another look at Norrington. The man's arms had dropped limply to his sides, and Will was sure that if Lorelac hadn't been holding him upright with whatever force he was using to strangle him with, the former military man would have slumped to the ground. If he did as Lorelac said, Norrington would be dead soon. If he didn't, Norrington would be dead sooner. Not good odds, but Will had to try.
A second after Will took a step in Lorelac's direction; Norrington slumped bonelessly to the ground and didn't move. "No!" he yelled.
"Will! He's alright! I think he just passed out!" Elizabeth reassured him, running to Norrington's side.
Will took a second look at Norrington's crumpled body and he was relieved to see that the man was still breathing. Then he frowned and turned to Lorelac. "Why did you let him go? Are you going to kill one of us now?" he asked coldly. Lorelac didn't answer, just stared down at his right hand as if he had never seen it before. "Answer me, you bastard!"
Lorelac's head snapped up to look in Will's direction at the sound of his voice, and Will gasped. It wasn't Lorelac's cold blue eyes that stared back at him, they were Jack's. "Jack?" he whispered, not believing what he was seeing and taking a step towards him. Jack immediately took a step back from him, his eyes going wide. "Jack, we're not going to hurt you," he assured him, holding up a hand in an attempt to calm the man before him. His eyes fixed on Jack, he didn't notice the cold, hate-filled glare Elizabeth sent in Jack's direction over Norrington's still unconscious body.
"Jack? Not-not…Lorelac?" Jack asked in a small voice, looking at Will for answers.
Will frowned at the question. "No, not Lorelac. You're you, Jack. Jack Sparrow. Captain Jack Sparrow of the Black Pearl."
"The Pearl," Jack responded, a slightly wistful look on his face. "I remember the Pearl." The wistful look turned to horror. "Oh God. The Pearl. All those people. I've killed so many people."
"No. It wasn't you. It was Lorelac," Will said forcefully, trying not to show a look of horror on his own face. He had heard stories of what Lorelac had been doing, how the Black Pearl had become the most feared and cursed pirate ship in the ocean, and those stories were enough to give him nightmares. Watching as your own hands did those things-helpless to stop them-Will couldn't imagine that. Nor did he want to.
"No. It was me. I could have stopped him. I should have stopped him. Oh God, all those people."
"Then why didn't you? Why didn't you stop him?" Elizabeth asked coldly. "Maybe you liked doing all the things he was doing. Maybe you liked the power you had. If you had really wanted to stop him, then why the bloody hell didn't you?" The part of her that wasn't vengeance was screaming at her to take pity on the man before her-the friend before her. It was trying to tell her that none of what had happened was Jack's fault but she pushed it aside, the sight of him smiling over her as she was brutally raped filling her sight and hardening her heart. "Kill him."
"What? No! How can you say that? He's our friend! Your friend!" Will said incredulously, not believing the hatred he was hearing in Elizabeth's sweet voice.
"He's no one's friend. He raped me, Will. Or have you forgotten that so quickly," she asked coldly.
"It wasn't-it wasn't him," Will said slowly as if he was trying to convince himself of his own words. "It was Lorelac."
"He is Lorelac, Will! They share the same bloody body! Kill him and you get them both!"
"You're not thinking clearly. I can't believe you're saying this! Jack's our friend! He didn't ask for this!" Will tried to reason with her, his world crumbling down around him with every venom-filled word out of his beautiful fiancé's mouth.
"Oh and you think I did, is that it? You think I asked to be raped? You think I asked for him to laugh as he stole my virginity away? Treating me like nothing as he pounded me into the sand? Do you?!" she screeched.
"No," Will said softly, looking down at his feet.
"I'm sorry, Elizabeth," Jack spoke up so quietly that they almost didn't hear him. "You're right, you know. I deserve to die for what I've done. And for what I will do."
"Lorelac's the one who deserves to die, Jack. Not you. Never you. You're not a killer, he is." Will couldn't believe this. They had been searching for Jack for so long, and here he was finally, right before them. And all they were talking about was killing him.
"Yes I am," Jack murmured. "I was a killer long before Lorelac, Will. Don't forget that. A man doesn't become a pirate captain by being unafraid to do what is necessary to get on top.
Will didn't know what to say to that. He had never thought of Jack's life before he had met him, never considered just what Jack's life had been before had met him. Or since. Kiquan's words on the island came back to him then. He had said Jack had been ruthless. Even after Barbossa. But Will hadn't believed it then. Looking into Jack's eyes and seeing the seriousness of his expression now, he almost believed.
"If you're going to bloody do something, you'd better do it now," Jack gasped. "I can't-I can't hold him back for much longer." He groaned and shut his eyes tightly but not before Will saw a flash of Lorelac's cold blue in them again. He acted without thinking, bashing Jack over the head soundly with the hilt of a nearby sword. Jack dropped to the ground and didn't move.
###
Norrington came to slowly, his throat a lancing ring of pain. When he felt that, his eyes snapped open and he looked around the room frantically, not understanding why he was still alive. The last thing he could remember was his life slipping away from him while he was helpless to do anything about it. He had tried to fight, but in the end it hadn't been enough. Or had it? "What-what happened?" he rasped, his throat swollen so that even though he was apparently no longer being strangled, breathing was still difficult.
Elizabeth laid a gentle hand on his shoulder before helping him to his feet when he refused to continue lying down. She didn't answer his question however.
Norrington was about to ask again when he saw Lorelac's body seemingly unconscious on the ground. Had Will managed to stop him? "How?" he couldn't manage much more than that with his bruised and swollen throat so he hoped Will knew what he meant.
"I didn't stop him. Jack did. Jack took over. He was here talking to us," Will whispered from his position of standing guard over Jack's body. "I had to knock him out because Lorelac was taking over again."
"What are you going to do?" Norrington whispered, holding his uninjured hand to his throat. That was something positive about being nearly strangled, the pain in his throat now overcame the pain of his skewered hand.
"I don't know," Will said, his shoulders slumping. "There has to be a way to stop him."
"There isn't. Except killing him," Elizabeth said evenly. "It's the only way, Will."
"Don't talk to me about that. I don't want to hear it. I can't begin to tell you how sorry I am for what happened to you, how much I would like to kill the man who did it slowly, but it wasn't Jack. I won't make Jack pay for things he had no control over. He didn't…rape you…" God that was hard to say and even harder to accept, "Lorelac did. And I will make him pay."
"Lorelac's a spirit, demon, specter, whatever you want to call him. He has no flesh. It was Jack who raped me, not him. Lorelac might have been in control of him, but that doesn't matter." A part of her knew she was being irrational in pinning the blame all on Jack's shoulders, but there was no one else. She was tired of feeling helpless. Tired of feeling afraid around her own husband and friends because she thought they might hurt her too. She was just tired. Well, when you're pregnant, that's to be expected. The voice of her rage hissed at her. So Will knows you were raped. Are you going to tell him the rest? No. She wasn't. She couldn't. Not now, maybe not ever. But she didn't know what to do. It wouldn't be too much longer before she could no longer hide the signs of her pregnancy from him. What would she do then? She had no answer for that one.
"We're not going to kill him," Will insisted firmly. "And who knows that by killing Jack you'll kill Lorelac too? What if all that's left when you've done it is the corpse of our friend and an angry god out for revenge? What then?"
"I-I don't know," Elizabeth said softly. "I hadn't thought about it."
"Of course you hadn't. All you can think about is getting vengeance for what Lorelac did to you. I want that too, Elizabeth, more than you can imagine, but not at the cost of Jack's life when we may be able to help him."
"All right. So what do we do now?" Elizabeth asked with an air of resignation.
###
Somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean of the coast of Spain, 1673
It had been only a week since Jack had been at sea on his cousin's boat, and already he hated it. The seasickness that had plagued him for the first two days seemed to have finally passed, a small blessing that he was unbelievably thankful for. He looked down at his hands as he lay on his hammock in the bowels of the ship and tried to get some sleep. They were bloodied and raw, covered with calluses. Captain Sperling-he no longer called him by the informal Sebastian any longer even within his own head-had wasted no time in showing him where his place was on the ship-under the heel of everyone aboard. He missed his mother and sister terribly, but he couldn't go back to them now. For better or worse, this is where he would have to stay.
"Jack? You still awake?" Emmett's voice whispered next to him.
"Yes. As usual," he whispered back with a small smile. In even such a short amount of time as he'd been there, Emmett had become a close friend. While the rest of the crew seemed to look down on him both for being the cabin boy and for being Captain Sperling's cousin, Emmett had treated him as an equal. A part of Jack complained about being on equal terms with a peasant who was also younger than him, but he was learning to ignore it.
"Can't sleep?" Emmett asked softly.
Jack sighed. "No. As usual." He had been having trouble sleeping in the uncomfortable and unfamiliar hammock, but Emmett was the only one who cared enough to ask about it.
"You just have to get used to the swaying of the boat. Soon it'll put you to sleep faster than you can blink, and you'll find yourself having trouble not rolling with the swells of the waves on land as well."
Jack had seen men who had been at sea long stumble about on the dry land like drunkards and couldn't imagine getting used to being on the water enough for that to happen to him.
Emmett seemed to know Jack's thoughts so he went on, rubbing a hand through his dirty blonde hair. "How's the sunburn?"
Jack winced just thinking about it. A day in the sun had turned his fair English skin red and blistering. Emmett had warned him to keep covered up, but he hadn't listened. "It sill hurts, but it's beginning to fade." That was true. And as the reddened skin fell away, he could see the hints of darker skin underneath. "Thank you for asking," he said softly.
"I remember what it's like being the new cabin boy. I remember how the crew ignored me. I promised myself then that when someone took my place I wouldn't treat him the same way they had treated me. But don't worry, Jack. The crew'll come around eventually, you'll see. You're smart, and you do your work without complaint. Well, not in public at least." He paused, seeming to consider his next words. "It's almost as if you're trying to prove something."
"I am," Jack said after a moment's hesitation. "My mother sent me here to…make a man out of me, I guess. She thought it would be good for me." Jack shrugged, the thought of his mother making him a little homesick.
"It is. You've only been onboard a week and I can already see the changes," Emmett said with a nod that Jack couldn't see in the dark.
"What changes?" Jack asked curiously.
"Well, when you first got here you hardly said two words to anyone; including me. Now I can't get you to shut up," Emmett said with a laugh.
"Very funny, Em," Jack said dryly.
"Well you asked," Emmett said with a laugh. "But you have changed. You're not the same person you were when you first got here, I know that. I don't really know quite how you've changed, but you have."
"That makes everything clear now, thank you," Jack said with a short laugh.
"Hey, don't look at me. You're the one with the fancy education. If you can understand we poor peasants' mutterings, that's not our fault," Emmett joked with a laugh.
Jack didn't share the laugh. That was another sore point between him and the crew. He was one of the very few who knew how to read and write, let alone anything else. As it was, Jack read, write, play the piano-badly-and speak a handful of languages. While he seemed to have taken to sailing fairly easily, he remained a scholar at heart and through his learnings.
"I'm sorry. It was a poor joke," Emmett said when Jack grew silent.
Jack shrugged. "Don't be. I guess I'm just not in the mood to laugh right now. I think I'll try and get some sleep. Goodnight, Emmett."
"Goodnight Jack. I'll see you in the—wait, what was that?" Emmett asked, sitting up straight in his hammock.
"What was what?" Jack asked.
"Shh, be quiet. I thought I heard something." The two young men grew quiet until they were startled by the ship's bell ringing loudly and the men around them waking and dropping to their feet.
"What's happening?" Jack shouted frantically, not knowing what to do.
"Do you know how to fight?" Emmett asked, rising to his feet and pulling on his boots quickly.
"I was a master fencer on my team, why?" Jack asked with a worried frown, moving to pull on his own boots but not knowing why.
"Good. Because that bell can only mean one thing."
"What?" Jack was almost afraid to ask.
"Pirates."
###
Lorelac came to slowly, not understanding what was happening to him. He seemed to be on some kind of table, and he couldn't move his hands or feet. "What—" he started, beginning to struggle a bit. "What's the bloody hell is going on?! Let me go on by all the gods I'll tear you apart!"
"Maybe this wasn't the wisest of ideas," Norrington said raspily. "He doesn't need to be tied up to hurt us."
"Jack will stop him. We have to believe that," Will said firmly, refusing to allow the worry that was coursing through his veins as well as he watched Lorelac or Jack stir show on his face.
"You can't honestly believe that," Elizabeth said with a frown. "And Lorelac's too strong. And who's to say that Jack even will fight, let alone want to?" she asked hardly, but her anger was beginning to wane.
"He stopped Lorelac from killing me," Norrington reminded them softly. He had no delusions with how close he had come to death then. He could still feel the crushing invisible fist of iron encircled around his neck, stealing his life and breath away. He imagined that he always would.
"And yet he didn't stop him from hurting your hand," Elizabeth said, gesturing down to Norrington's wounded left hand which she had just finished wrapping.
"I don't hold it against him," Norrington rasped with a shrug. "I wasn't using that hand anyway," he joked softly, trying to make light of the situation. He wasn't one to make jokes, but the tension was so thick in the room right now that he thought if they didn't start laughing they might start crying or worse yet, start arguing again. He could feel the tension especially between Elizabeth and Will over their stances on what to do with Jack and Lorelac.
If he was being honest with himself he sided with Elizabeth. Unlike her or Will, he had heard firsthand just what Lorelac had been doing the past month-the people he had killed, the towns and villages he had left in flames. He needed to be stopped. And if he were forced, he would sacrifice Jack-someone didn't really know, but had begun to consider a friend-for the sake of all of Lorelac's future victims.
Neither Will nor Elizabeth shared his humour. They were both concentrating on Jack/Lorelac's scowling form.
"Your precious Sparrow is dead. You'll join him soon." He was about to break Elizabeth's lovely neck when he found he couldn't. The power to do so was there, but it was beyond his reach. "No, it's not possible. You're dead. I killed you!" he screamed, his voice filled with fury.
"You tried to kill me, you miserable bastard. But you forgot the same thing that everyone else does. I'm Captain Jack Sparrow, and you're less than nothing to me."
Will couldn't stop a small cheer from escaping his lip at the sound of Jack's words again. He was winning!
"If you think you can destroy me that easily, you're sorely mistaken, Sparrow," Lorelac said coldly.
Norrington couldn't believe what he was seeing. He had seen some-granted-unusual things in his former career, but nothing quite like this. While neither Jack nor Lorelac were moving physically, Norrington could see the battle they were waging reflected in their eyes in shifting dark brown and blue. It was almost nauseating to watch. He could only hope that Jack had the strength to keep fighting. From the looks of it, he had that at least. But could he win?
Elizabeth, for her part, didn't know what to think. She wanted Lorelac gone, that much was for sure, but what then? Would he come back to inhabit someone else? Where would he go? Where had he come from in the first place? Why Jack? Why not someone else on his crew? Why did it have to be him?
"The cryst---get the bloody crystal!" Jack yelled, every muscle tense, his voice clearly pained as he shut his eyes tightly and strained at the chains they had bound him with.
For a moment the trio just stood and stared at him, completely dumbfounded at to what the hell he was talking about. Crystal? What bloody crystal? Then Will remembered. The single crystal that he had noticed earlier. The only one Lorelac had left. He knew now why that had been. Because it had a purpose.
"Do it! Now!" Jack shouted upon seeing the realization upon Will's face. His eyes gave him a start, one was his own dark brown color, and the other was Lorelac's ice blue, but Will didn't hesitate. The blue crystal was in his hand before anyone could react, sparkling in the dim light.
"No! It's not fair! You can't—" Lorelac's rage-filled shouts echoed in the room long after Jack cut him off, lying back on the table and breathing heavily.
After a long moment it was Norrington who spoke first. "Is he gone?"
"Oh God, I bloody hope so," Jack groaned. "I think he's trapped in that crystal. You didn't touch it, did you, Will?"
Will shook his head, still holding the chain in his fist tightly, the crystal swinging back and forth under it slowly. "What do we do with it now?"
"Smash it," Elizabeth said without hesitation, moving to take the crystal from Will's hand.
"No!" Jack shouted, his eyes going wide. "We have no idea what would happen if you did that, Elizabeth. He might be freed to do whatever the bloody hell he wants after that. Don't do anything. And for God's sake, don't touch it. He can't possess someone without the crystal being in direct contact with their skin as far as I can figure. And as for him being really gone?" He held up his right hand and Will moved in to pull back the sleeve.
The trio gasped to see the blue and black lines of Lorelac's tattoo receding up Jack's arm as if they were alive. They watched as the lines moved back down from Jack's neck and across his body to his right shoulder where the stopped. Jack frowned and lifted his head up to look at his left arm after trying in vain to sit up.
"Here," Will said, moving to unlock the chains binding Jack's wrists. He didn't unlock the ones at his feet, and he wouldn't until they were certain that Lorelac was really gone.
Jack nodded his thanks and sat up on the table, pulling up his right sleeve all the way to the shoulder. The tattoo remained. "I guess I'm stuck with that one," he said with a sigh. "I suppose it's for the best. It'll be a reminder of all…of all the people I've killed," he whispered. He cleared his throat and looked at them. "It would seem that bastard demon is gone. For now."
TBC
A/N: Ok, once again, I'm sorry this took so long to post! I was on holiday for a week in New Orleans without my computer. Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter, may Lorelac rest in pieces. ;-) Also, I'm looking for a full time beta reader. Due to real life conflicts, my old one can no longer beta, so I'm looking for a new one. Any takers? Email me at dragoness987aol.com or IM me at Fireapple Shark if you're interested. Thanks!
Reviewer Responses
FalconWing: Hi! Thanks for the review! I love writing cliffhangers. It's so much fun!! I'm glad you like the story still, the next chapter should be up in a week! Hopefully less!
Swankles: Thank you, thank you, thank you. And I am. :-)
Miss Anya: This story will never be abandoned. Darkness Rising never will either. I'll finish them all even if it kills me! That is a promise. I looovvvveee Norry. Although I was really mean to him in this chapter! Poor Norry!
Neon Daises: Aww thanks. I hurt Norry again! Ahh! I didn't mean to I swear! Sigh. You're hopeless. I'm not going to kill Jack. Well, probably not anyway. ;-)
BURN THE R.U.M.: Cliffhangers are evil, I agree. But so much fun to write!! And a good ramble is always appreciated. I don't know what lies in store for Will and Lizzy. They haven't let me know yet. It doesn't look good at the moment though… :-(
OpraNoodlemantra: Love the name! LOL! If you're a big enough Johnny fan to know that, you should Johnny's Angels, a message board for Johnny fans. It's a lot of fun. Look us up! Anyway, thanks for the review!! It's always nice to hear from new people! Oh, and Jack's past will be delved into soon. I warn you, it's not going to be pretty.
Emma: I can't explain all of Lorelac's thinking. I think he maybe wanted to see Elizabeth again to see the look on her face when she was confronted by the rape. That's my best guess anyway.
Jackfan2: Unfortunately, I'm not sure Jack will ever recover for the things Lorelac did while in control of him. We'll see. I'm seeing problems for Will and Liz in the future. Things are a little…rocky between them now. Not good. Revenge for Lorelac hasn't come yet, but it will. You can be sure of that. Sorry about the nails.
Mistress of Destruction: Yeah, sorry about the wait! Yes, poor, poor, Norry! I was wretched to him in this chapter as well! As for Liz's baby being a demon or demi-god? We'll just haveta wait and see. :-)
Mara: Again, forgive me for the long wait. I love giving Norry chapters of his own. He rocks. Embrace the Norryluv! Anyway, I hope you were pleased with the demise of Lorelac. I hope you all were. He didn't want to go down without a fight. He still doesn't.
Thanks again for all your continued reviews! You guys are the best!!
-Merrie