A/N: Yes, this is a very long chapter because I want us to get to Jack as soon as possible. I'll try to keep my promise and do it in two more chapters. But as you'll see in a minute, there have been complications…

But the first big problem arose before they even reached the Gates. It was a warm and lazy morning, a nice breeze and quiet seas…

Until, without any warning whatsoever, a massive spray of water roared up, drenching the deck and everyone aboard. Something was erupting out of the ocean and nobody needed to wait for the spray to settle to know what it was.

The Flying Dutchman.

In mindless terror Elizabeth grabbed for the captain's arm and cowered behind him. His face showed dismay but little surprise.

"Get below deck," he murmured. "Before you're seen. Go!" He shook her off and stepped close to the rail.

Elizabeth fled as far as the mast and hid behind it. She wanted to put as much distance between herself and the loathsome fish-people as possible, but under no circumstances would she run away and hide where she could be of no use. She watched Barbossa call Will to him and give him instructions that, judging by the gestures that accompanied them, were: Stay put!

She held her breath and watched as Davy Jones himself moved to the Dutchman's railing to put himself in shouting distance.

"Smooth sailin to ye, Davy Jones" Barbossa called over, tipping his hat. "Might I ask what moved ye to pay me a visit?"

It seemed Jones was not in the mood for pleasantries. "You have a debt."

Not that! Elizabeth very nearly groaned aloud, but Barbossa took the pronouncement in stride. "The last time we spoke you said there was nothin I could do for ye," he recalled. "Have you decided now?"

"I have. And if you refuse me I'll have you and all your crew slaughtered."

"Oh, there's probably no need for that," Barbossa assured him quickly. "I still won't part with me soul, but as for anything else...just tell me what you want and you'll have it."

The monster raised his claw and pointed. "Him."

Barbossa frowned as Will edged closer to him nervously. "The boy? Will Turner?"

"None other. He and I have a score to settle. Give him over, and I'll let you pass."

Elizabeth gasped no but Barbossa still didn't seem rattled. "No need to worry - I'll handle this," he said quietly to Will, who looked about ready to panic. He put a reassuring hand on Will's shoulder and stepped close to him, making his position clear to the Dutchman's captain. "I'm afraid you've asked for something that's rather important to me and my crew."

Will let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. He felt the tension drain out of his whole body and suddenly felt incredibly light and confident. Barbossa was going to stand up for him after all! Nobody was hanging him out to dry. Everything would be fine.

Barbossa immediately capitalized on this momentary unpreparedness. In one smooth motion, he drew and cocked and fired his pistol into Will's chest before Will even knew what was going on.

Bang.

Will stood staring in shock at the blood pouring down his shirt. It hadn't started to hurt yet. He watched it for a moment and then looked up at Barbossa and all he could think to say was, "You cheated."

"I'm a pirate, boy." Barbossa's knife was in his hand in a flash and he slit Will's throat to speed up the dying process. "Apologies."

It wasn't until Will crumpled lifeless to the floor that Elizabeth got herself together enough to scream.

Barbossa ignored her. He calmly reached down and, once he was satisfied that there was no more heartbeat, heaved the body over the railing. Elizabeth tried to follow it, still screaming, but several men held her back.

Barbossa didn't like the way Davy Jones was watching her. "I would never rob the sea of its prey. You have what you want," he added a moment later, when Jones still didn't seem to be listening. "So may we pass?"

At last Jones tore his attention away from the hysterical woman fighting to dive over the side. His tentacles writhed in irritation. "I would much prefer to have had the boy alive, Captain," he said finally, "But I see I was not clear with you. You've done your duty by me. We're quits, and you may pass." He turned to his crew and bellowed "DOWN!" and a moment later the Dutchman had disappeared beneath the water.

Barbossa was so dizzy with panic and adrenaline and relief that he couldn't yet let go of the railing. He closed his eyes and waited until he felt able to talk again, then turned around to look at the crew. Judging by their faces, the general consensus was a sort of horrified awe.

All except Elizabeth, that is. She seemed to have fainted.

So much the better."Does any man here think we could have fought the Kraken and won?"

No answer.

"Does any man here wish he had given his life to try?"

No answer.

"Then I'm not goin to hear a single word about what just happened, am I." He made a point of staring down every single person who looked uncomfortable.

The only one to speak up was Gibbs. "T'was unfortunate, sir. And we all understand that."

A while later Barbossa banged on his cabin door. "Elizabeth? May I come in?" She only sobbed louder, and he took that as a yes. He entered the cabin, stepped over her, and poured drinks. "Before you get started, just remember: there's not much you can say to me that won't make a hypocrite of you." He put her glass on the floor beside her and then stood back up.

"I don't care," he made out through her tears. "I hate you, that was Will, it was Will and you k-k--killed him!"

"What would you have me do, hmm?" He took a sip, trying hard to contain his irritation. The girl was grief-stricken, after all. She should be given a little latitude. "Did you think we could have fought the Kraken? You know better than most how that turns out." Of course she had no answer to that. "Then would you rather I'd left him to the mercies of the monster? Missie, I've been on that ship, I've seen what Jones does to them and heard how he feels about your man. Take it from one who knows: death is not the worst there is, and what William was headed for was-"

"I d-don't CARE!" Elizabeth screamed, to shut him up. "I don't care if you're right or anything else! You killed Will, my Will, you took him from me! How, how could you? Will?" She dragged herself off the ground into a sitting position, downed the drink he had poured for her in one swallow, and recommenced sobbing.

"Come on now – get up," he snapped. "Lyin on the ground doesn't solve anything."

"Oh, would you rather I solved things your way?" Elizabeth lurched to her feet and came at him. "And just did whatever brutal thing I could think of at the moment?" She didn't happen to have anything sharp handy, so she just hit him as hard as she could.

For a moment they both stood frozen in surprise, but then Barbossa turned away from her, rubbing his cheek. "At least you had the dog's wit not to do that in front of the men," he muttered.

"I'm s-sorry," she said after a moment, still crying. "I kn-know it's n-not your fault and I did the s-same thing given the same choice. I know that. But Will...my life...he...Will, oh God...I'm sorry but I hate you. Get out of this room or I swear I'll kill you."

It didn't even occur to Barbossa that she was throwing him out of his own cabin. He went without a word. And left her the rum.

Having taken possession of the captain's cabin, Elizabeth proceeded to sob and drink her way through most of the perils that edged the world. She was snoring soundly when a snarling beast with several doggy heads snatched three people from the rigging and tore them limb from limb in front of their comrades. (General opinion was that the captain had deliberately given those particular sailors tasks in the rigging at that time...but since everyone was glad not to have been chosen, nobody asked him about it.)

The rum made it impossible for her to know when the ship was hitting things, since she was always lurching about unable to keep her feet under her, but she knew from the frantic bailing and repairs going on outside that they had been blown against rocks at least once or twice. At the thought of people working on the ship – the way Will had when he'd risked his life to climb up in the storm for them – Elizabeth would start crying and drinking all over again. She got a dim and petty satisfaction out of throwing up all over Barbossa's desk and then his bed... before she realized that she now had nowhere to sleep. Bah. The floor then.

Elizabeth missed the first sea-serpent, which was unfortunate because her Kraken-fighting experience might have come in handy. It came creeping up the sides of the ship, a massive snakelike creature with scales too tough to pierce with a mere cutlass. It ate one person and maimed several more until it was finally dispatched by Jack the monkey, who put a dagger between his teeth, scampered down the beast's throat, and wreaked havoc there until it stopped moving.

She did see the second sea-serpent. Sick of hearing screams and thuds and crashes, Elizabeth stumbled up on deck with a fresh bottle of rum in her hand (it was already her third of the day) just as the serpent boarded. "Leavusalone!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "Wouldja just bloody go AWAY!" She flung her rum at it and the bottle shattered over the beast's head. "GOAWAY!" She picked up the nearest objects she could find and threw them next - her shoe, someone's severed hand, and a lantern. While the shoe and hand were not of much use, the lantern shattered and the serpent was suddenly wreathed in flames. It flopped straight back into the sea to cool down, and Elizabeth chased it as far as the railing shouting at it before she passed out again, dead drunk.

When Elizabeth woke up next, she was still on deck and Gibbs was standing over her. "Where am I?"

"Captain," Gibbs called, "She's awake." He squatted down very carefully to see how she was, and that was when Elizabeth noticed that the lower part of his right leg was entirely encased in bloody bandages.

"What happened?"

"Things got a little rough earlier while you were, um, restin," he said. "Sea snakes boarded. A rock pillar grew out of the very sea in front of us, shot right up and nearly-"

"I'm sorry!" Elizabeth sat up and began to cry. "I should have been there, helping, I'm useless! I'm so sorry!"

"No, no, now don't you fret, Miss Elizabeth," he comforted her awkwardly. "You've had a rough time too, we all know that. With Will and all."

"Wiiiiiillllllllll!"

Gibbs winced. "Miss Elizabeth? Come on now, lassie, stop it. I have me an idea."

He looked simultaneously crafty and stupid, but Elizabeth didn't have any better prospects right now. "An idea?" she repeated without much hope.

"Aye, an idea." Gibbs looked around to make sure nobody was watching. "Given your, um, special relationship with the captain-"

"Special -hic- relationship?" Elizabeth interrupted. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Gibbs rubbed the back of his neck. "To be perfectly honest, it means yer not afraid of him the way the rest of us are. Now listen. If you dare ask him...my thought is...what's to stop...that is, why can't we go searchin for young William in the land beyond World's End too, the same way we're searchin for Jack?"

Elizabeth's breath caught in her throat. "Will? Save Will? You mean we could bring him back..." she almost fainted. She had been wallowing so deeply in grief and drink that the thought hadn't even occurred to her until now. "Where's Barbossa, I have to talk to him."

She stood too fast, fell down again, and tried a second time. There. Feet beneath her. Run. Cabin. "CaptainpleaseIhavetotalktoyou!"

He had stripped down to his undershirt and was removing the stinking blankets from his bed. "I should whip you for this." He sounded exhausted, so much so that he couldn't even summon the energy to be bad-tempered.

But Elizabeth couldn't stop and wait for a better time. "Please, forget about the bed for a moment, listen to me, look." As soon as it looked like she had his attention she began to beg. "When we get to the lands beyond, Will's there isn't he? I mean if he's dead he must be, well we can find him, please, you have to look for him, please, if he's there we can find him and bring him back-"

"Is that what this is?" he turned back to gathering up the vomit-soaked bedding. "Do you think I hadn't thought of that already? Never mind. Move." He shoved past her and dumped the mess on the floor outside. "Rinse this out when you get a chance," he snapped to Cotton, who seemed, judging from the bandage, now to have only one eye. Barbossa pushed his dirty hair out of his face and turned back to Elizabeth. "It's not that simple, miss. Sober up and then we'll talk."

"S-" Elizabeth echoed, outraged. "But I am sober! What do you mean -hic- talk, there's nothing to talk about, there's Will, we have to save Will!"

After he'd swallowed down the urge to bite her head off, it struck Barbossa how very pretty she was at this moment. He knew he was a mess but he couldn't resist reaching out and touching her cheek with the back of his fingers. "You really are in love, aren't you," he observed. "It's very becoming."

All her insistence to the contrary, Elizabeth was in fact drunk as a skunk. All she understood from him was that he looked sad, he touched her, and he thought she was pretty. Aha. Perhaps he wanted to negotiate? Elizabeth could live with that. Will was the important thing, saving Will by any means necessary. It was unfortunate that the pirate was covered in sweat and dirt and blood and vomit, but she thought she could handle it.

-hic-.

"Is that so?" Elizabeth asked. "Well, you know what I want, I've told you, I want to get Will. I'm prepared to offer things in exchange." He didn't answer. "Anything,"she clarified sloppily. "You can ask me for anything you want, and I promise..." She reached up and began to unlace her undershirt right there on deck. "... I'll give it to you."

His hand shot out and yanked hers away. "None o'that, missie, not here," he growled. "If that's how you feel we'll talk. Come on."

He dragged her into his cabin and tossed her down on the bed.

TBC.

Oh, don't worry, I'm not going to have my second-favorite pirate take advantage of a drunk widow half his age. That would be too screwed up – even for me. :o)

And it's not random that the Dutchman showed up when and where it did. More on that later.