A Gilded Cage: Sequel to Broken Wings, Part II of the Fallen Sparrows Trilogy
A Pirates of the Caribbean story by Merrie
Disclaimer: Jack, Norry, Will, Liz, Kruler, Lorelac and all others own me. I would never attempt to claim otherwise.
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, Chief James Norrington, Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann, Captain Zachariah Kruler, Lorelac and various others.
Author's Note: Sorry this took so long to post. It's been a long few weeks. WARNING, CHARACTER DEATH!!!!
Rating: R for violence and language. AND A CHARACTER DEATH!!!
Chapter 9: Telling Secrets and Taking Sides
Off the west coast of Africa, in the pirate ship The Hangman's Knuckles, Captain Zachariah Kruler, 1675
Jack stared at his forearm with the sparrow over water tattoo thoughtfully, as if wondering how it had gotten there. Oh he remembered when he had gotten it alright, it had been his rebirth. How could someone forget something as important as that? But yet, he had forgotten things. He could no longer remember the before. He could remember the now and he could remember the not long ago then, but not the before. He couldn't remember his mother's voice or his father's face. Was Kruler his father? If so, then why didn't he remember it ever having been so before? It didn't matter. The before didn't matter. He raised his gaze out to sea and was calmed. This was his home; the only one he had ever known or ever would know. And he was happy with that. He was at peace. He knew where his place was. His place was at Captain Kruler's side now. Killing beside him. Making men fear them all. And yet, he had his own ambitions. His own dreams. He would make men fear the name of Sparrow if he had to kill the whole world to do it.
Jack heard Xavier's softly ringing approach and therefore didn't need to turn to look at him. "What do you want?" he asked evenly. He had taken a dislike for the pirate almost immediately. He was far too soft; too weak to be of any real use to him.
"The Captain wants to see you in his cabin," Xavier said with a frown, looking over the young man he had helped to kidnap and turn into a murderer. Something-if he was being honest with himself, it was probably guilt-didn't sit well in the pit of his stomach every time he spoke to little sparrow. How could one man have changed so much in such a short amount of time? He truly hadn't been onboard that long, had he? Xavier was fairly sure he hadn't. And yet, the young man sitting before him and the younger man they had taken from the ship they had destroyed were incomparable. It was like looking at two different people who just happened to share some of the same features. He didn't even sound as he had back then. The smooth tones of his cultured British accent were gone, replaced by a pirate's halting dialect. When had that happened? He didn't know. The only thing he did know what that sparrow was turning into something the likes of which none of them had ever dreamed about. Not even their captain.
WWW
"You wanted to speak to me, Captain?" Jack asked, standing in front of Kruler's large mahogany desk. He had a sneaking suspicion that the ship was built around the desk rather than the desk being added later. It was far too heavy and unwieldy to move easily.
Kruler looked up from his desk, his obsidian black eye seeming to wink in the candle light. He laid down what he was doing and rose from his seat so that Jack wouldn't have to look down on him. It was a courtesy he would not have given him a year ago. He remembered when Jack had come aboard the ship. He had kept them all guessing from one moment to the next by constantly leading them to believe he was just about to give up and die and then turning around and showing incredible fortitude and ruthlessness. And the man he had become today…it was all beyond measurement. He had far surpassed any of Kruler's dreams for him and had become as ruthless as any a pirate that sailed these waters. It made him proud.
"Captain?" Jack asked gently, interrupting Kruler's wandering train of thought.
Kruler smiled at him and Jack frowned. He couldn't remember a time when the Captain had smiled like that. Ever. "I want you to be my first mate, Sparrow," he spoke up suddenly, nearly startling Jack with the suddenness of his voice in the quiet cabin.
"You want me to what?" Jack asked with a confused frown although he was secretly pleased by the request. "Sir, I'm not even an official member of your crew."
Kruler didn't ask Jack to sit although he was tempted for the occasion. He knew that Jack wouldn't react well to the further treatment as an equal rather than a subordinate bordering on a slave at times during their relationship. "Sparrow, you've shown more courage and ruthlessness than any member on my crew. All the men are either afraid of you or want to kill you. And even the ones who want to kill you fear you at least a little or else they wouldn't want to kill you."
"So you're saying that all the men fear me except for those who want to kill me but they fear me too because they want to kill me. Is that it?"
Kruler took a minute to decipher that before nodding. "Accept the position, Sparrow. It's yours."
"Mine?" Jack asked, moving a single finger over his smoothly shaved chin in consideration. "If you say that the position is rightfully mine then I can do nothing else but take it."
"'Take what you can. Give nothing back,'" Kruler toasted after handing Jack a crystal glass filled to the brim with the best rum he had been able to come across. Their glasses clinked together and they drank; the agreement sealed.
WWW
"I can send your men out if you'd rather speak in private, Elizabeth," Kiquan addressed her softly so that her men wouldn't overhear.
She had been about to argue that they weren't her men, but then she thought about it. She was engaged to one, had considered marrying another, and had given her maidenhead and fathered children with another. They were definitely her men now. Bloody hell. Why did life have to be like this? It wasn't fair! Did she want them to leave? She had a pretty good idea of what this…Kiquan?...was going to say, but was she ready for him to say it? Was Will? Was Jack? She had an idea James already knew, but what if he didn't? And what would Will say when he found out? God, she wasn't ready for this.
"You must decide," Kiquan said gently, his voice calming her even as his exotic appearance did the exact opposite.
Elizabeth took a breath, the hope that he wouldn't ask her that vanishing with her inhalation. She was not some simpering moron like those idiotic women back in London. She would face this, no matter the outcome. "Yes, they may stay. They need to hear this." She hesitated. "All of them."
Kiquan's bald head bobbed as he nodded. He cleared his throat and spoke up so Will, James and Jack could hear his speech again. "You are with child, correct?"
Needless to say, there were quite a few different reactions to that one. Well, actually there were only two. Jack and Will both paled dramatically, more so in Jack's case than Will's though. Will also managed to look incredibly confused while Jack just looked horrified. Norrington on the other hand just nodded grimly, seemingly not surprised at all.
Elizabeth nodded, looking at Kiquan and no one else. How was it so easy to tell him all of this when she couldn't even tell her fiancé or her child's father? He was a stranger. That had to be it. "It's Jack's."
Every eye immediately turned to Jack who looked as if he wanted either run and hide or beg her to tell him that it wasn't true. "You're going to have my child, Elizabeth? Are you certain?" he asked, meeting her gaze briefly before looking out in the direction of the sea. He couldn't face her and he certainly couldn't face Will right now. Not only had he deflowered the man's fiancé and love of his life, but he had gotten her pregnant as well. This was one of those days when he wished he had died on that godforsaken island when Barbossa had left him there. How much grief would have been prevented?
"I'm certain. I haven't…um…there hasn't been anyone else," she said, blushing with shame. She couldn't face Will any more than Jack could right now.
A lot of things could be said about Jack Sparrow, but not knowing where his responsibilities lay was not one of them. The dim hope that he could just sail away on the Pearl and leave all of the past month behind him as a faint memory had not been much to begin with, but now it was mere dust in the air fading into nonexistence. "What…what do you want me to do?" he asked aloud, not directing the question specifically to her, but to Will as well. He wasn't sure he could just up and leave her like this when he was responsible, but if that was what she truly wanted, he would do it.
Before she could even begin to think up an answer to that, Will interrupted them all by quickly leaving the small hut, but not before Elizabeth saw the wounded look on his face.
"I'll go after him," Norrington spoke up after a minute of heavy silence. "You two," he gave both Elizabeth and Jack the same pointed look, "have many things to work out. I suggest you get started."
Norrington left without a further word to chase after Will, leaving Jack, Elizabeth and Kiquan in uncomfortable silence.
"I will leave. I think conversation would flow more freely if I were not here," Kiquan spoke up suddenly, startling both Jack and Elizabeth out of brooding thoughts. He nodded to each of them in turn and followed his chief out of the hut. Silence reigned again as neither Elizabeth nor Jack spoke a word. Jack opened and closed his mouth a few times, but each time he seemed to think better of what he had been about to say and stopped himself.
After a few long minutes of that, Elizabeth finally decided she had had enough and spoke up. "Well? Are you going to say anything or are you just going to stand there looking like a gobsmacked fool?"
"Definitely the latter, Miss Swann," Jack murmured with a strange quirk of his mouth. It might have been a smile under better circumstances. "Are you going to keep the child? I know midwives can—" Before he could go into any graphic details of the specifics of just what those particular midwives did, Elizabeth cut him off with a glare.
"I am not going to do…that. I don't care how this child was begotten. It's still mine. I'm keeping it," Elizabeth said determinedly.
"And…where do I fit in with all of this?" Jack asked tentatively. "If you want me to leave…say the word and I will. You'll never have to lay eyes upon me if that's what you truly want. The ocean's a large place."
"No…that's not…I don't know, Jack. I don't know how I feel about all of this. It's too fast and too soon for me to have to decide but it looks like I have no choice," she said with a sad smile. "You're a father Jack. It doesn't matter how it happened, I don't want to talk about that ever again, but it's true. If…my father finds out…I don't know what he'll do. And Will…god." Tears gathered bright and shiny at the corners of her eyes but she didn't let them fall. Not in front of Jack. Not in front of anyone.
"And when he kills me after he's cooled off enough to think of the idea?" Jack asked, not saying who 'he' was, nor needing to.
Elizabeth had been about to say that Will wouldn't try to kill him, but was she really sure of that fact? She didn't know what to expect. How would a man react upon the knowledge that his fiancé was pregnant by another man? Not just another man, but his best friend? No woman could know. "We'll…burn that bridge when we come to it, Jack," she said softly.
He nodded slowly before speaking. "I'm sorry for…putting you in this position, Miss Swann," he said, looking down at his feet in a clearly uncharacteristic manner. "All of this is my fault."
"I thought I told you that I didn't want to talk about it anymore, Captain Sparrow? I meant that. It doesn't exist anymore. I can't say it never happened, because there's considerable proof that it obviously did, but I can and will forget the rest. And the father of my child has the right to call me by my first name, Jack," she said pointedly.
Jack almost frowned at her at that. How was she able to put all that had happened between them aside so easily when he was still suffering with the idea that he had raped her let alone gotten her pregnant? Denial, pure and simple. You've seen it before and now you're seeing it again. It will all hit her hard sooner or later. You might not want to be around when it does. "Alright…Elizabeth," he said at last, nodding slowly in her direction. "If…there's nothing else, then I should probably attempt to make peace with your blacksmith," Jack said with a pained smile. Elizabeth nodded, thankful for his direction but angry at herself that she didn't have the confidence to do the same yet. "I'll send him back to you when I'm done." He left her to her thoughts before she could answer him.
WWW
"I know you're upset Will, but be reasonable. This isn't Elizabeth's fault. And it's not Jack's either," Norrington argued as he watched the young blacksmith place up and down the beach. He had moved as far away as he could from his fiancé and pirate friend as he could without becoming lost and that meant the beach. Norrington had no doubt that Will would have kept on distancing himself from them had the water's edge not stopped him.
"Then who's fault is it?" he asked angrily, still stalking back and forth along the water line like a caged animal. "If it's not Elizabeth's and it's not Jack's, then whose fault is it?"
"That bastard Lorelac's," Norrington answered without hesitation.
"Please," Will said derisively. "How easy was it to defeat him? If all Jack needed to do was to destroy a tiny fragile crystal to stop him, then why didn't he do it earlier? He knew, Norrington. He knew about the crystal beforehand and he did nothing about it."
"You don't know that," Norrington said with a frown. "You're upset and reasonably so but that's no excuse to turn on your friends and especially not your fiancé," Norrington didn't want to chastise Will like this, but the man seemed to be giving him no choice. He vaguely wondered how had had gotten himself mixed up in all of this. Oh yes. That fool pirate had gotten himself possessed by an evil spirit. It's all coming back to me now, he thought dryly.
"What do you know about being upset?!" Will shouted back at him, still stalking angrily up and down the beach. Norrington laid into him without hesitation.
"How quickly you forget," Norrington said in a calm and collected but undeniably rage-filled voice that stopped Will's anger in its tracks. "Whether or not you work things out with Elizabeth, after this is all over you will be able to return to Port Royal and back to your life there."
"James, I—"
"I'm not finished," Norrington interrupted evenly. "Any life I might have led there is gone. There is nothing for me there. I have been stripped of everything I have so callously and quickly that it sickens me just to think upon it. So don't talk to me about being upset, William Turner, for you know nothing of it."
It was Will's turn to rebuke Norrington. "What the bloody hell are you talking about? My fianc's been raped by my best friend and conceived a child by him. I think I'm entitled to be a little bit upset. If you don't think so you can go straight to hell." Will stopped his mindless pacing but turned his back on Norrington in his now cold anger.
Norrington took a breath, held it, and released it slowly. Arguing was solving nothing. "Are you going to talk to Elizabeth?" he asked after a few minutes had passed in silence.
"I don't know."
"She's still your fiancé, promised to be your wife, despite all that has happened, Will," Norrington reminded him gently.
"Don't you think I know that? And still…I have no idea what to say to her. I…can't talk to her now. I'm sorry. I'm not mad at her…I don't think…but I'm not ready."
Norrington nodded, seeming to accept this. "Do you want me to tell her that?"
"Would you? I mean, make sure she knows I'm not mad at her. I'm not. I just need some time to think. Will you tell her that for me?"
Norrington nodded again and left Will to his thoughts. He intercepted Jack on the way back to the village. "I don't think he's going to want to talk to you right now," Norrington told him seriously.
"I imagine that is so, but I have to try anyway. For Elizabeth's sake if not his," Jack answered with a sad sigh. Norrington turned and gave him a piercing look that made Jack frown in confusion. "What? Spit it out, man. If you want to take a stab at ol' Jack, now's the time."
"What are your intentions?"
"My intentions regarding whom—oh. You mean Elizabeth." Norrington nodded. "Why? Are you planning on running me through if I tell you I intend on abandoning her and…our child?"
"Are you?" Norrington asked, keeping his face and voice free of emotion as he waited for Jack's answer.
Jack scoffed at him. "Listen. I don't know what you've heard about me or what you think you know about me but I wouldn't do that. Especially not to Elizabeth."
"So does that mean you'd do it to someone else?" Norrington pressed, still keeping his voice emotionless.
"Stop putting words in my mouth! That's not what I meant and you bloody well know it! No matter what…I may or may not have done in the past, I wouldn't hurt her," Jack said firmly, glaring in Norrington's direction. "And to think I shared my rum with you."
Norrington gave him a weighing look. "You also let me steer the Pearl."
"You're not helping my mood any, Commodore," Jack muttered.
"I'm not trying to, Captain," Norrington responded tit for tat. "I'm trying to gauge your intentions regarding Miss Swann. I thought I had made that clear."
Jack opened his mouth to retort but stopped himself; showing restraint that Norrington admired. "And are you satisfied?"
"I suppose," Norrington said after a long enough pause that Jack was about to snap his fingers in front of Norrington's face to see if he was still awake. "Are you?"
"It's not up to me," Jack murmured. "It's all up to her."
Norrington nodded. "Good. Now you'd better go and find Will. You and he need to have a long conversation. I wish you the best of luck."
"I think I just may need it. And more," Jack said with a sigh.
"More than likely," was Norrington's only response before he turned and went off to do whatever he did on this island when he came here on his own from time to time. Chief-y things and the like. Jack took a deep breath and headed off to go talk to Will, dreading the conversation with each step closer.
WWW
Off the west coast of Africa, in the pirate ship The Hangman's Knuckles, Captain Zachariah Kruler, 1675
"What do you have to say for yourself, Xavier?" Jack hissed to the belled pirate in front of the gathered crowd as Captain Kruler watched on silently.
"I have nothing to say to you, boy. You're going to have me killed no matter what I say so what's the point?" Xavier asked.
"You're weak, Xavier; a threat to us all. You have been told before and again to grow a backbone, and you haven't listened. It's too late now. Your life is forfeit," Jack said with grim finality.
"What happened to you, Sparrow? No. Sparrow's not your name. You're name's—" Xavier was cut off by a sword at his throat. He looked down the blade to it's owner and saw Jack standing there, looking at him with a icy fury that turned his dark eyes into two cold lumps of coal. It was then that he knew, truly knew, that he was going to die. He had had a good idea of it before then-the fact that his hands were bound in front of him and that he was standing at sword-point was a good hint-but a part of him still held out for mercy even then. That part was now dead. There would be no mercy from Kruler's murderous protégé. None at all. It didn't matter that Sparrow wasn't really his name. It was who he was now; a rabid sparrow that was set to pick his eyes out.
"You're a monster, Sparrow. They were children, innocent children for god's sake. And you killed them," Xavier accused. "They cried and they pleaded for mercy and you killed them all as if you hadn't even heard them. Innocent children, Sparrow! You sent them home to their mothers and fathers in boxes."
"No. I didn't send them at home at all. And especially not to their mothers and fathers. They were killed along side them. A bit of mercy on my part, I rather think. I didn't separate them in the end. They all died together. They deserved it."
"You're out of your bloody mind. How could anyone deserve that?" Xavier asked incredulously, no longer afraid of death. Once he had decided that it was inevitable, there was nothing left to fear. Now he wanted answers.
"They stood against us," Jack said simply as if it were the most reasonable explanation in the world. "Everyone who stands against us will die. They should know that by now."
"Everyone who stands against you, you mean. Because before you bloody came along, we weren't like this. We didn't kill without reason. We stole, we plundered, we ravaged, but we didn't kill unless we had to. That's all changed now."
"Yes. I've made this ship better; something to be feared." He leaned in close to Xavier so that his words were for the condemned pirate only. "I've made this ship what it is. It has nothing to do with Kruller. He's as weak as you are. He just hides it better. I've taken his ship out from under him and you know what the best part is? He's let me do it. It's only a manner of time before he outlives his usefulness and I maroon or kill him."
"But he's your captain," Xavier said in shock. "That would be mutiny."
"I don't owe him anything. He made me this way and now he has to deal with what he's created. I know you think I've forgotten what he did to me, but I don't. I remember everything." This wasn't exactly true, but was close enough for a dead man's purposes. Jack wasn't entirely sure why he was telling him all of this-probably because he was about to send him to David Jones' embrace-but that didn't stop him. "This ship will be mine and the world will fear me." Before Xavier could respond to that, Jack had slit his throat and pushed him overboard for the sharks.
WWW
"I don't want to talk to you right now, Jack. So leave," Will grumbled as he sat down on the beach and stared out to sea.
"I'd be more than happy to oblige your request, but I'm afraid I cannot, lad," Jack answered with a sigh as he walked up behind him. He didn't ask how Will knew that it was him. Some things were simply shared between the two of them, and curiously, knowing where the other person was without looking was oftentimes one of them.
"Do not call me that. I'm not your lad. Or whelp or boy. I have a name, and I'd think that since you've taken advantage of my wife and caused her to become with child I have a right to be called by it. Wouldn't you think?" he asked dryly.
"William it is then," Jack said softly.
"What are you still doing here? I thought I told you I wanted you to leave. I have absolutely nothing to say to you. Nor do I want to hear any of your excuses or your lies. I have heard more than enough."
"I haven't lied to you, Will," Jack said with a sigh.
"All you've done is lie. That's all you ever do. You're a pirate. I suppose I shouldn't be all that surprised. All pirates are liars. And murderers. And rapists."
Jack gasped as if Will had dealt him a physical blow. But he was right. That was what he is. And what was more; Elizabeth hadn't been the first unwilling woman he had taken. He remembered others now. "You're right. About everything."
"So you admit it then?" Will asked bitterly. "You admit that you raped her. Not Lorelac, but you."
Jack nodded but then realised that Will couldn't see him. "Yes. I did it. I've killed, I've raped; I've done it all and more. I am a damned man. I always have been. You should have let me die."
"You've really done all that?" Will asked suddenly, keeping his voice free of emotion as best he could.
"Yes. When I was younger. I was…a different person then," Jack said softly, bowing his head a little in shame. "I've done horrible things, Will. What I did to Elizabeth is only one of the more recent."
Will couldn't take it anymore. He was a man of action; a man of honour; and this had gone too far. It wasn't enough that Jack had raped and gotten Elizabeth pregnant, but that he had done it to others as well? Why hadn't he been stopped before now? How had he managed to escape all those times? Because he's good at getting fools to trust him and help him. You let him go. The thought was whispered so quietly within his mind that he wasn't even sure he had heard it in the first place. It served its purpose however, sending Will into a rage that had him grabbing for the hilt of his sword and lunging for Jack.
Jack barely had time to draw his own sword and meet Will's enraged lunge before ending up with his guts spilled out onto the sand at his feet. As it was, the clang of their swords together sent a painful jarring through his arm and he nearly dropped his sword. He kept ahold of it purely by his overwhelming sense of survival. "Will, stop this! I don't want to have to kill you!" Jack pleaded with him as they fought.
"You deserve to die, you honourless bastard. You should have been killed long ago. How many people would have been safe if you had died then?"
If Jack had cared to stop and think about it-or had the time to-he might have been able to give Will an answer to that question. He might have even let Will kill him after thinking about all the things he had done then and now, but as it was now, he could only fight for his life with every fibre of his being. This was survival, pure and simple. "Will, stop this. For Elizabeth's sake if not your own." That, it seemed, had been the wrong thing to say.
WWW
"Are you sure they're going to be all right left out there alone? Will seemed awfully mad," Elizabeth said softly.
Norrington took her hand and did his best to reassure her. "They're friends, Elizabeth. They'll remember that and together they will work this out."
"I hope you're right," Elizabeth said with a worried look in the vague direction of the beach.
WWW
"Will please, I'm begging you. Stop this. I'm your friend and you're not a killer," Jack pleaded with him.
Will shook his head. "That's not true. I am a killer. I've killed pirates. I threw my axe at one when they were invading Port Royal and merely pulled it out and moved on. I didn't feel guilty for it at all. And I'm not going go feel guilty for killing you either. And if I ever do, I'll only have to think of the lives I will have saved by your death and I will be mollified."
What could Jack say to that? He could see the righteous light in Will's eyes as he swung his sword to meet his. Will was right that long time ago. It was a fair fight, and it looked as if Will was winning. And what was more; Jack was holding back. He truly didn't want to kill Will. No matter what had happened between them now, Will was his friend and friends didn't simply kill each other. Oh really? And what about Barbossa? Wasn't he your friend? Jack ignored that thought. "Stop this, Will. Please. Don't let yourself be turned into me. Are you going to enjoy killing me?"
"Yes," Will answered without hesitation, something inside of him cheering at the answer why another part was railing against it.
"Then that should be all the reason you need to stop. You're a good person, Will. Someone your father would have been proud of."
"You don't get to talk about my father. He was a good man. Unlike you. You tricked him somehow. You had to have or else he wouldn't have been your friend. Did you kill him?"
The question threw jack aback enough that he dropped his guard and Will's sword got through his defenses to score a stinging line across the tender flesh of his side, cutting through clothing and skin with ease. It wasn't a truly serious wound, but it would bleed, and blood loss meant a lack of the energy he needed to fight off a man half his age and fed by righteous anger. He wasn't going to make it. He was going to die by Will's hand on this bloody beach.
WWW
"I think I should go check on them. Do you think I should go check on them?" Elizabeth asked in a worried voice. "They've been gone for quite a long time. What if they had a fight?"
Norrington didn't want to worry her, but his thoughts had been traveling along the same lines. "No. You stay here. I'll check on them. I wouldn't want you to become caught in the middle of something."
"I'm already in the middle, James," Elizabeth reminded him gently. "And I'm not going to break if that's what you're worried about. I'm coming with you. Maybe together they'll listen to us. If they're really fighting."
"I sincerely hope they're not Elizabeth, for your sake. But if you insist, then you may accompany me," Norrington said and offered her his arm.
Elizabeth took it without hesitation and the two of them made their way through the camp and down to the beach where Norrington had seen them last.
The scene they were met with halted and horrified them both into silence: Jack was standing on the beach with a bloodied sword in a his hand standing as still as a statue and looking as if a vital part of his existence had simply been snuffed out. He was staring downward at Will but it didn't seem as if he were really looking at him. It would probably be more accurate to say that it seemed like he was looking through Will rather than at him. And Will…
Will was lying at the ground at Jack's feet, staring up at him with the same intense gaze. He had also gone as still as a statue, mirroring his friend. But something was different. Something was wrong.
Elizabeth saw it before Norrington did and ran to her fianc's side, shaking him roughly and yelling at him to wake up in a loud hysterical voice. Will didn't stir, and neither did Jack. Norrington moved to the pirate captain and began to do much the same as Elizabeth; attempting to bring Jack to awareness so that he could get an answer out of him as to what had happened. Norrington hadn't yet noticed that Will didn't seem to be breathing while Jack clearly was even as he didn't move anything else. Norrington hadn't even seen him blink.
"Will! No! Don't do this to me! Don't you dare leave me! I love you! Please, please, come back to me! I'll do anything you want. I won't have the child. Just talk to me, please. Don't leave me." Elizabeth's shouting turned into loud whimpers and random sobs as Will remained as he was.
Norrington whirled around and looked down at Will for the first time; fully seeing what Elizabeth had the instant she had run to her fianc's side. Will was dead. And Jack had killed him.
TBC
A/N: -Merrie runs and hides from the angry mob-
Reviewer Response Time! Woowww!! 100 plus reviews! I love you guys!!!
OpraNoodlemantra: Yeah, ee, that was a long time between updates again. Very sorry about that. Was this chapter angsty enough for you?
BraveSymbol: SS, please don't kill me. I didn't mean to make it that cliffhanger-ish, I promise! –attempts to look innocent-
AJB-Same for you, AJB. Please don't bury me in scrollies. I wouldn't be able to write the new chapter of DR then. ;-)
Arenas-Yes, Mr. Evil Breakfast is going down. Probably soon. Our dear evil Jack wants his own ship. Far be it from me to try and stop him. ;-)
HF-woot! Glad to have you back, HF! Sorry the wait was so long for this one!
FalconWing-This one was a little more dark. Well, a lot actually. I hope you liked it.
Ellennar-Yes indeed. Kruler will be made to suffer for what he's created. Don't you worry. ;-)
Ellie-Yea! A new reviewer! –hands out a Lorelac action figure complete with temporary tattoo- Well, you got your image-Jack standing still as stone, mouth open in shock, hope you liked it. And I'm glad you like my Norry as well. I love that man. :-) I do hope you come back next chapter.
Mistress of Destruction-Do you still think you're getting used to the darkness after this chapter? Lemme know. ;-)
Mrs Sparrow-Yea! Another new reader! One who thinks I need therapy! Lol –hands model version of the Back Pearl, complete with dead crew- ;-) I like writing and reading twisted stories, I must admit. And this one's now done twisting and turning yet obviously. I hope you will continue to like it!
The Phantom's Christine-Yeah, Jack killed them slowly. He is turning out to be a real evil jerk, huh? Makes me wonder how he's going to get back to the Jack we know and love from the movie. As soon as I write it, I'll let myself and all of you know. ;-)
Holliday1081-I like Jack and Norry's growing rapport as well. They're fun to write together. The pirate and the albeit formal naval officer. Who would have thought? I'm very glad you liked the tattoo scene. That was something that had been in my head for quite awhile and I'm glad to see that it appealed to someone else as much as it did to me. Also, yes, Kruler is very evil and cruel and Jack is turning out to be the same way, but don't forget. These are flashbacks… I'll get him loveable again. Somehow.
Anyway, thank you to everyone who reviewed and even to those of you who didn't. Hope to see you all back next chapter!
Oh, and Happy All Saints Day everyone!
-Merrie