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: Lorelac is seemingly gone, Jack remains as one of the most wanted men in the known world, Elizabeth's still pregnant, Will still doesn't know, Norrington's still without a job, and Jack's still got more of his grisly past to share.

Characters: Captain Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann, Chief James Norrington, Captain Zachariah Kruler

Author's Note: How about that? I got this chapter up just when I said I would for a change. Kudos to me! I hope you all enjoy this chapter. It was fun to write.

Rating: R for violence and language.

Chapter 6: Ravaging and Running

Jack didn't know how much time had passed while he had been telling his story. He knew he probably wasn't safe here-he was the most wanted pirate in the ocean at present-but he couldn't make himself leave, and even if he did, he didn't know where to go.

"I've heard that Captain Kruler was renowned for his cruelty, but dear God, I never imagined. Did he really tell everyone that you betrayed your ship?" Norrington asked with a deep frown.

Jack nodded. "In every way he could. He made me out to be some kind of ruthless criminal. Said I'd killed Sebastian myself out of pure spite."

"But…that wasn't true. Why would he do something like that? Why wouldn't he and his crew just take the credit?" Elizabeth asked slowly.

Jack fidgeted at the question, an indefinable emotion passing across his face before he answered. "They did it to hurt me; to make be come to believe what wasn't true. They were trying to break me. And it was working."

"Why you? I mean, why didn't they just kill you?" Will asked tentatively. "Not that I'm not glad they didn't, but why didn't they?"

Jack shrugged. "I don't know why they sought me out at first. Perhaps it was the way I was dressed; I was clearly better off than anyone else on board. Maybe it was the way I looked. I didn't know then, and I still don't really know now."

"What did they do with you?" Norrington was almost afraid to ask.

Jack hesitated a long time before speaking, long enough that Norrington thought he wasn't going to answer. Just when he had been about to tell him to forget he'd asked anything, Jack spoke up. "It wasn't enough that they broke my mind. That was important, but they had to break my body to before I'd fully be theirs."

WWW

Somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, pirate ship The Hangman's Knuckles, Captain Zachariah Kruler, 1674

"How long have you been with us now, Jack? Quite a few months by my count. And still you insist on trying to escape. You're going to have to be punished for that you know. It's not right that our little sparrow fly off now is it boys? You'd think he didn't want to be here with us, wouldn't you?" The pirates surrounding Captain Kruler and Jack made appropriate comments to appease their captain.

"Why won't you just let me go?" Jack moaned wearily, not bothering to wipe the blood off of his chin from the split lip he'd just been given. There was no point when the rest of your face was bloodied to match.

The smile Captain Kruler sent him at the question was nothing short of chilling, but Jack had become used to it over time. "We've gone over this, little sparrow," Kruler said in an almost kind voice that chilled Jack even more than the smile did. "You're ours now. Your wings are clipped and you'll never be let go. And truly if you did go, where would you run? Your family has turned their back on you for your betrayal. They know you sold out your family and crew, that you got your friend killed. This ship is your home now. There is no where else."

Jack didn't bother arguing with such dogma. He had once, but the argument had been beaten out of him until there was nothing left but grim acceptance. A part of him still screamed out his innocence-that he hadn't betrayed anyone-but that part was slowly being drowned out by despair. What was the use of fighting anymore? Kruler was right. Wasn't he? "Yes, Captain," Jack said despondently.

Captain Kruler's eyes narrowed and the gathered crew surrounding him collectively held their breath. "Yes what, little sparrow?"

Little sparrow.How he hated that name now. What had once been a kind pet name from his mother's lips was turned into a hateful moniker from Captain Kruler's. The crew had even started to call him little Jack Sparrow, laughing raucously as they did so. Something black crawled along his spine as he thought of ways to make them stop calling him that. Unfortunately, some of this hateful spite he was feeling made its way to his face where Kruler saw it and interpreted it as rebellion.

Jack's world spun and darkened as he fell to the deck from Kruler's blow. At first he didn't know what had happened, and it was in a daze that he reached up a roughly calloused hand to his mouth and extracted a bloodied tooth into his palm. I just lost a tooth. Jack thought numbly, staring down at the bloodied thing. He let it fall to the deck out of a limp hand and rose to his feet. He had learned through much prior experience that if he cowered, cried, or complained about the harsh treatment in any way, he would just earn himself an even worse beating than he had already suffered.

"I asked you a question, little sparrow," Kruler hissed through clenched teeth. His right arm was tense; preparing to hit Jack again if it was deemed 'necessary.'

Jack's mind raced as he tried to remember what Kruler had asked him and to think up an answer that wouldn't get him hit again. "I won't try and run away again. This is my home."

Kruler nodded, seemingly appeased. "Good, my little sparrow." He turned to two of the pirates at Jack's side-the belled one that Jack had discovered was named Xavier, and a truly vicious son of a French pox ridden whore named Alexander. "See that he gets ten lashes for disobedience."

Jack's world shifted as the men grabbed his arms and began to pull him to the midmast where he would be bound with his back bared to the whip to receive his 'punishment'. "What? No! I did what you told me to do! I didn't disobey! Please!" Jack pleaded, desperate not to feel the sting of the whip again. It was one of Captain Kruler's most favored past times. Jack had been lashed more times than he could count over the course of his 'stay' onboard. Kruler himself wasn't the bearer of the whip, but Jack knew he watched the proceedings avidly.

"Fifteen and saltwater." Came Kruler's clipped reply. Jack moaned and tried to struggle, but the pirate duo held him fast. "Would you like to argue more, little sparrow? 15 lashes won't kill you, but if you try my patience I'll have them give you enough to end your life aboard this ship right now."

Jack almost asked for more then and there, thinking that it must be easier in death than in this hell in which he was currently living. But he didn't. He couldn't. Not yet. Life hadn't gotten bad enough for him to want it to end now, not while there was still a hope that he might escape and see his family again, no matter what he promised to Kruler. He would never stop trying. This wasn't his life. He wasn't a pirate. He wasn't even a sailor for Christ's' sake. He was a scholar who had spent more time with his nose stuck in a book than he ever had on the sea. But that was changing. He no longer grew sick from the roll of the ship; the climb and descent of the waves. He had learned how to move with the ship rather than against it almost without trying. He didn't like to think about such things, but it seemed as if he had almost been born to the sea. Kruler no doubt noticed this as Jack did.

"Bring him to my cabin when you're finished with him," the Captain interrupted his thoughts. Jack shuddered. Time alone with Captain Kruler was almost as bad as the lashing.

"Yes sir," the pirates holding him answered in tandem. Jack put up a few more pathetic struggles, but with their combined bulk and strength they managed to tie him to the mast without much effort after they had stripped him of the dirty linen shirt that had once been white in another lifetime. Jack hissed at that; his back was still horribly sore from the last time he had undergone such torture. Xavier shoved a length of rolled cloth in-between his teeth for him to bite down on so he wouldn't chomp his own tongue off between his already aching mouth.

"We'll get the doc to fix you up a gold tooth later, Jack," Xavier whispered in Jack's ear before he pulled away.

Jack just stared after him, his eyes black with hate. He hated everyone aboard, it was true, but none more so that that fucking belled pirate that made life just a little more horrid by patronizing him with his so-called 'kindness.' He hated them all. As his back was laid out before the bite of the whip, he kept himself from screaming out by envisioning in blood-drenched detail just what he would do to each and every man on this ship before he killed them. He would wait; make them start to disregard their 'little sparrow' and he would get his chance for vengeance.

Anyone who had been watching Jack's face during the lashing might have been a bit taken aback by the truly cold grin that crossed his face.

WWW

"I've still got scars from those bloody bastards and their fucking whip," Jack muttered darkly, looking across the room into his audiences' faces but clearly not seeing a one of them.

"How often did it happen, Jack?" Norrington finally spoke up after a few long minutes of silence. While his voice still held the clean and even tones of his obviously rich upbringing, there was something clipped and harsh as he spoke so causally about the gross mistreatment Jack had suffered at the pirates' hands. He had just been a boy, for heaven's sake! An innocent. Such thoughts made him want to go pirate hunting again.

"Every few weeks or so. Just long enough for my back to nearly heal before they did it again. But they had plenty of other ways to punish me in the mean time, I assure you," he said bitterly. "But such things are better left not talked about," he said after a long moment of silence. He had been about to speak again when a loud knocking sound interrupted him. He jumped immediately to his feet, his hand searching out a sword off of a nearby table without thought.

Will ran to the window and looked out, his face pressed up against the glass as he tried to discern what was going on. "Oh bloody hell. It's the local guards, Jack," he said with a worried frown, pulling away and looking to his friend. "They seem to be going door to door and searching for someone."

"Me," Jack said with an air of resignation. "They're searching for me. They must have spotted The Pearl."

"You can't know that, Jack," Will tried to insist, but his argument sounded hollow even to his own ears.

"Maybe I can go out and talk to them. Perhaps they'll still recognize my authority even if I'm…not in charge any longer," Norrington said firmly, moving across the room to go out and talk to the guards.

"I'll go with you," Elizabeth spoke up softly, moving to stand next to Norrington. Will moved to protest, but she held up a hand. "I'll be alright. They won't harm me, Will. I'm the governor's daughter, remember?"

"None of you bloody fools are doing anything of the sort. I'm leaving out the back way so you might as well stay where you are," Jack spoke up with loud irritation, moving to leave by the other door. Will moved to stand in his way. "This is becoming a bad habit of yours, Will. Once more you are between me and my way out. You remember what happened last time, don't you?"

"Yes, you cheated, got knocked out by Mr. Brown, and arrested by Norrington," Will said dryly.

"Yeah, well that drunken fool's not here, and the Commodore's on my side now." Jack sent a considering glance Norrington's way which Norrington acknowledged with a nod. "So if you would kindly move, I'll be on my way."

"Not until you tell me where you're going. Do you even know, Jack?" Will asked with a frown. "If they're really searching for you, then they've no doubt got someone keeping a close eye on The Pearl. You won't be able to get to it, Jack. And even then, where would you go? You're the most wanted pirate in the ocean at present, Jack. Or had you forgotten?"

"I haven't bloody forgotten," Jack said harshly, his voice like cold steel. "I haven't forgotten a single bloody thing that bastard did while he had control over me and I never will for the rest of my godforsaken life, so don't you dare start insinuating that I have."

Will faltered. "I'm…not, Jack. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. But you're not safe out there."

"I've been looking after myself for longer than you've been alive, lad. I'm Captain Jack Sparrow, remember? I'll be bloody fine," Jack said with a grin that looked more than a little forced.

"You're not going to be 'bloody fine,' Jack! Do you know the bounty on your head now? Do you?" Will shouted. "Every man on this island is going to be out for your head! They already are!"

"If it's so bloody much money then why don't you just claim the fucking reward? You could obviously use it, you dimwitted prat!" Jack returned in rage.

The argument went full steam after that, with each man calling out curses and insults to the other. Norrington and Elizabeth could just stand and watch utterly dumbfounded as these two so-called friends tore chunks out of each other with the sword-sharp tongues. The argument had been about to come to blows when Norrington stepped in, forcefully separating the two combatants.

"What in the name of god is going on here?!" Norrington roared over Jack's string of what he assumed to be curses since none of them were in English. "The bloody guards are on their way and you two are arguing like schoolchildren! Stop it, right now!" He wheeled on Will. "You, Mr. Turner are going to stop acting like such a hotheaded young upstart and get us all out of here." Will tried to protest, but Norrington cut him off with a sharp glare before turning to Jack who had been smirking smugly at Norrington's berating of Will. "And you, Captain Sparrow are going to stop acting the fool and use your brain for a change! Now granted it must not be a very good one since you're wasting time by arguing now, but surely you must have one! Now both of you shut the hell up and let's get out of here!"

"The island," Elizabeth spoke up for the first time, looking just as angered with the two men as Norrington did. All three men turned to her; matching expressions of confusion on their faces. "James' island," she elaborated. "We'll be safe there, won't we? James is the chief after all."

Norrington sighed, but nodded. The title still didn't sit well, but it looked to be the only one he had left. "Kiquan will look after us if I tell him to. And we have no other choice." He turned to the two men before him. "Are you two going to stop fighting and remember you're friends again or am I going to have to drag the both of you out by your ears?" Norrington's expression was utterly serious, but Elizabeth couldn't stifle a small laugh at the image such a scene would have made.

Will nodded gruffly, and Jack just pushed past Norrington and headed towards the back door as he had been in the first place. "I don't know where this bloody island of yours is, Commodore, and I don't care. Anyplace is better than this bloody town right now. We just have to get to The Pearl."

"Leave that to me," Elizabeth offered. The men nodded after varying lengths of hesitation, and the group was on its way.

WWW

"I say, Miss Swann was that entirely necessary?" Norrington asked slowly, his fair skin bright red in a vivid blush as they rowed out to the cove where The Pearl was anchored.

"Was what necessary?" Will asked with a confused frown. Elizabeth had done something to get the small group of guards they had encountered to leave them alone, but he hadn't seen nor heard of what it had been.

"It got them to leave, didn't it James?" Elizabeth responded with a bit of coquettishness in her voice. Or maybe Will was just imagining that.

"It, uh, certainly did, Miss Swann," Norrington managed to choke out after clearing his throat rather loudly.

Jack didn't respond. He had seen stranger things in Tortuga than the little 'maneuver' Elizabeth had just pulled off. It was a shame Will hadn't seen it. Although if he had, he might have felt honour-bound to run each of the guards through and that would have only slowed them down. He decided it was better to just keep his mouth shut on that count, and kept his mind on his rowing.

"Just what kind of crew have you currently assembled, Jack?" Norrington asked suddenly while Will was busy trying to get Elizabeth to tell him what she had done. "Are they to be feared or will they follow you?"

Jack sighed and glanced over his shoulder at The Pearl's looming shape as it grew in the distance. "My last crew…Lorelac'slast crew mutinied. He killed them all in Tortuga when they tried to take himdown. He was forced to pick up a skeleton crew in order to make his way here. There aren't a lot of them, and each one'd be more likely to piss himself than stand up to anyone I say is under my protection," he said softly. "A reputation's a funny thing, init?"

"One minute you're cursing it for the trouble it's brought you, and the next you're relying on it to get you out of that same trouble. I sympathise, Jack," Norrington said with a small smile.

Jack let out a wry snort of amusement at that and shook his head slowly.

"What? Was it something I said?" Norrington asked with a perplexed look on his face that just made Jack laugh.

"Whoever would have thought that you, Commodore James Christopher Michael Norrington III, the world's most well-known and successful pirate hunter would sympathise with me; the most dreaded pirate in the known world. It boggles the mind, mate," Jack said with a short laugh again.

"Yeah, well I'm not a Commodore anymore, and perhaps your insanity is catching," Norrington returned dryly but with a hint of humor in his blue eyes.

"Dear god, I hope not. There is enough of my special brand of madness going around already for you to be adding to it now," Jack said with mock severity. "Just look around. I've turned you all into accomplices to a known fugitive fleeing the law. Not to mention you commandeered a ship to come rescue me on our last little 'adventure,' Father Norrington." Jack's grin was practically splitting his face now. It hurt-his missing tooth was crying out to be recognized-but he had had worse, and he couldn't pass up this opportunity to smile. With the way things were going, he might not have another for quite a long time.

"You heard about that?" Norrington asked in a small voice, his face going red again as he looked side to side surreptitiously to as if to ward off other listeners.

"Bloodiest funny thing I've heard in my life, mate. Wish I could have been there to see it." Jack laughed again before pausing. "'Course, if I had been there, there wouldn't have been need for such dramatics, so it's probably best for humour's sake that I wasn't."

"Indeed," Norrington said dryly.

Jack just grinned at him again and rowed in silence the rest of the way. His grin faded away into nothingness when they approached The Pearl's hull. "We're here."

WWW

Somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean, pirate ship The Hangman's Knuckles, Captain Zachariah Kruler, 1674

The sound of gunfire was deafening above him, so Jack covered his ears and prayed that a well aimed cannon blast would sink this godforsaken ship he was imprisoned on. He was currently locked within the cell he had come to know as home, left alone to his musings while the pirate crew above him warred with whoever they set their greedy sights on now. He had been about to offer up a brief prayer for their souls but stopped himself. Why should he care if the pirates killed them all? It wasn't his problem. Such a thought might have troubled him once, but whatever caused the ache in his chest that made him care for the lives of the crew's victims-whether it be God or his conscience-had faded with each ship they sacked and each man that didn't survive to come rescue the captive held within The Hangman's Knuckles' bowels.

Damn them all. Jack thought to himself bitterly. No one is coming to rescue me. Not my family, not anyone. I'm on my own. Like always. He was a bit taken aback at how bitter his own thoughts sounded, but he had a right to be bitter, didn't he? His family had turned their backs on him for his betrayal-No, you didn't do it! Remember! It wasn't you!-and now he was on his own. And what was more, with each man that was killed above, Kruler and his crew seemed to take less interest in killing him. And if the swag they took from the ship was good, that would keep them otherwise occupied even longer. "Kill every last one of them," Jack said fervently, thinking about the times he had suffered when the 'Knuckles' Captain and its crew had been in foul moods. Moods they had taken out on their 'little sparrow.' Jack received more near-death beatings in those thankfully brief periods of time than anytime else he had been here.

Jack was started out of his thoughts by the sound of some one or some thing falling down the stairs and into the brig with him. He rose from his dirt-covered cot to his feet and pressed his nose up against the bars to get a better glimpse of just who or what was coming after him. He didn't dare call out in case it was one of the crew, they would punish him for such an action just because they could, but that didn't dampen his curiosity.

"Hello? Is anyone down here?" An unfamiliar voice called out. By reason that each man of the Hangman's would have known he was down here, Jack assumed it must have been a man from the victim ship. How had he managed to make his way down here?

"I am here," Jack called out softly, moving to stand away from his cell door.

"Speak up, lad! I can't bloody hear you!" The man called out, rubbing his ears. Jack assumed they must have been ringing from all the gunfire on deck. "Prisoner or pirate?" the man asked, standing in front of Jack's cell with a ring of keys that Jack heard the sound of and recognized before he saw them. "And if you lie to me in any way, I'll slit your throat, savvy?"

Jack nodded. "Savvy," he said after a moment's hesitation. "I'm a prisoner, sir."

"I thought as much," the man said, unlocking Jack's cell without pause. "You've just been freed by a member of the British Royal Navy. What is your name, son?"

Jack clearly saw the man's red coat for the first time and nodded. "Little Spar—" Jack paused and frowned.

"Little Spar's not a name I've ever heard, but to each his own I say," the man said wryly.

"My name is Edward John Corentin Alexandre Sperling sir, and I beg your thanks," Jack said quickly. "Most people call me John or Jack, sir."

"Well-met…Jack," the man said with a grin, offering his hand to shake. Before Jack could grab it to shake it however, the military man pulled it back and used it to pull out the sword he had just sheathed. "What did you say your name was, lad?" the man asked with narrowed eyes.

"Edward John Corentin Alexandre Sperling, sir. I don't understand—" Jack was cut off by a blade pressed against his windpipe.

"Traitor! I know who you are, you bloody Judas! Everyone in England does! You're the one who betrayed his family and crew to pirates! I ought to kill you where you stand!" The man spat hatefully. "I think I bloody will! Do the world and your disgraced mother a favour! Die, you dog!"

By all rights, Jack should have been killed then and there. As the military man fell, clutching at his bloodied chest, Jack could only stare in confusion and try to discern what had happened. The man had been lunging for him, about to run him through, and then what? Had he really grabbed at the knife on the man's belt or had that been a dream? Was that the same knife in his hand right now?! Dear god, it's got blood on it still. Jack dropped the knife to the ground as it were hot to the touch and backed away from the man he had just killed.

"No, I didn't do it. This isn't happening. I'm not a killer. I'm not!" Jack muttered to himself as he pressed his body against the curve of the ship behind him and sank to the ground. He stayed in that position, still shaking his head and denying what he had done until a voice interrupted his thoughts once more.

"My little sparrow, what have you done? I told you that you were a killer. You believe me now, don't you? Welcome to the family, sparrow." Captain Kruler's laughter drowned out the sound of Jack's cell door once more. Jack didn't even notice it over the sound of his own denial. He wasn't a killer. Kruler was wrong. He hadn't killed anyone. He wasn't a killer. He wasn't! The dead man that Kruler had left to rot just outside his cell spoke otherwise.

TBC

A/N: Ok, I'm evil yes, but hey I got my chapter up on time! That's got to count for something, right? Right? Heh, heh. See you in a week.

Reviewer Response

FalconWing: Sorry Author Alert didn't work. But I'm glad you found the chapter anyway! No, the Hangman's is definitely not a good place to be. But Jack doesn't really have a choice at the moment. :-) And see? I actually updated within a week! Go me!

Holliday1081: Thankfully, you didn't have to wait near as long for this chapter. :-D Thanks so much for the review! Yes, I love Norrington and truly believe that there's more to the man than the uniform. I figured that if anyone could understand Jack best, it would be him. And Norry and Jack do seem to be getting along, which is always nice. ;-) Ahh Liz. Well, Liz is definitely conflicted. She didn't seem as much this chapter, but believe me, it's there. Just wait til she can't hide her pregnancy anymore and then see what kind of "fun" we get! ;-)

Ellenar: An update again! Merrie rejoices And when I said I was going to, too! :-D I really do owe the gang something after this fic's done, don't I? Hmm, maybe I'll write a piece of fun fluff in between this fic and the next one. That could be fun. I could get the boys drunk and Norry tattooed. :-D

OpraNoodlemantra: I updated again! Double yay! :-D Yes indeed, poor poor Jack. I've really been rather mean to him, haven't I? In Broken Wings too. Hmm, I make no apologies. ;-) Yes, I'm not sure whether to slap or console Liz these days either. She's being difficult. Understandable, but she needs to cut it out. :-) She probably won't, but I guess that's just as well. I hope you liked this part of Jack's past. It's going to get much darker soon….

iLuVrAiNeYdaYz: Goodness, that was hard to type out. Lol. Thank you for the review! Feel free to hug Jack any time you like. I know I have. ;-)

Neon Daises: takes a bow I'm very glad you like it. Thanks for betaing this chapter by the way! :-D Yes, I do find myself missing Halia's angst. (I didn't almost call her Aida, that seems to be your problem. ;-)) She had a way of inspiring me to do my worst. Ah well. There's plenty of angst in store, I assure you. insert evil laugh here

To anyone I might have missed, thank you for your reviews! See you in about a week or so with the next chapter! :-D

-Merrie