A/N: Sorry, a little late on the upload for this week, but here it is. This chapter is a bit longer anyway. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter Five

Pain...and cold. Had there been a time where she knew anything besides pain and cold? She wasn't sure. Every fibre of her being seemed to scream in agony, but at the same time she felt numb. How was that even possible? Again, she wasn't sure. Her mind was so foggy she couldn't even remember her own name at the moment. Just pain. And cold. There was something else, though. Something that rose dully above her limited knowledge of pain and cold. A voice. Someone was talking to her in a voice that seemed so familiar, yet she couldn't place it.

"Jess...Jessica...please," the voice said.

It sounded so far away. So physically near, but so distant in her mind.

"Jess...come on, please. You've got - you've got to hold on. This was my bloody fault and I can't… I can't lose you too. Not now."

Damn it all, she had to know how she knew that voice. But everything hurt. Gods of the sea, it hurt so badly to even attempt to move.

"No, no, don't move. Jessica, don't move," the voice pleaded.

Yeah, she didn't think she would do that again, anyway. It hurt too badly. Instead, she tried to open her eyes even just slightly. She just needed to see - When had her eyelids grown as heavy as a damn cannonball? Out of pure frustration, she managed to push down the tidal wave of pain long enough to barely crack her eyes open. Her vision was so blurry she could only make out the dark hair and warm eyes of the face looking down at her. There was another face too, gnarled and bearing the same dark hair, only standing behind the one looking at her. She let her eyes close with a sigh. The pain returned to the front of her mind with a vengeance.

"Just a little longer, Jess, and you'll be okay...you have to be okay…"

Sad. He was sad. Yes, she knew whose voice it was. She hated it when he was sad. He shouldn't be sad. The pain was starting to fade, anyway, nothing to be sad about.

"Jack…" she managed.

It was little more than a breath, a weak attempt at speech. But it made her smile. His name always brought a smile to her face.

Then...nothing. She felt nothing, saw nothing. There was just darkness. Darkness as black as a starless night at sea. Someone had forgotten to light the lanterns. No, there was one. One small flame of a lantern that was growing ever larger, closer. In this darkness she couldn't tell. Then all at once, the vision of roaring flames filled her mind's eye. A ship...burning. The dangerous smell of burning wood flooded her nose. All three of the ship's masts were engulfed in red-orange fire, towering columns of flame like candles someone had left burning for too long. The sound of heated glass shattering rose over the crackling of the flames. Thick, black smoke curled across the deck and spilled into the sea. The wood planks of the deck were quickly turning a charred, black color. She wanted it to stop. The ship was too beautiful to burn.

"Jessica!"

She woke with a start, spurred to her feet by the image of charred wood around her. The ship was burning! They had to —

"Jessica," Will's voice snapped her mind back to the present.

Jessica blinked. Not charred, not burning. No, she was on the Black Pearl. She wiped her face with her sleeve. Why was her face wet? She was below deck, her face shouldn't be wet.

"You were crying...in your sleep," Will clarified when her face wrinkled in confusion.

"Oh," Jessica said flatly.

"Are you okay?"

"It was just a nightmare. Nothing more. Thank you, but I'll be fine."

Even as she gathered her effects and made her way up to the deck, Jessica felt that what she experienced was more than a nightmare. More than a memory, even. Whatever it was, it left her with an unsettled feeling, like she had lost something very important.

Will did not seem to be convinced that she was fine because he followed her above deck. Once on the deck, Jessica saw that it was already late in the morning. She hadn't realized how tired she had been. The crew was busy stowing the sails and securing the anchor. The Pearl was anchored just offshore of a thick-forested island. The landmass was riddled with green, rolling mountains, but unlike the last island, a large river seemed to cut through the middle of it. Jessica had only heard a few stories about the Pantano River. She knew the people who lived in its basin were said to be mysterious, most of them practitioners of Voodoo magic. The stories had also often included descriptions of man-eating alligators and massive, deadly Venus fly traps. Each story she heard reinforced that this was a strange island of strange people where strange things happened frequently. Perhaps their proximity to this island is what made her feel out of sorts.

"Did Jack tell you why we were coming here?" Will asked.

"No, he didn't."

"Do you know this place?"

"Only through stories."

"Does it have anything to do with Davy Jones?"

"Not that I know of. Listen, I don't know why Jack bothered mentioning that, but Davy Jones is just a story. An old story, but as I understand it, a story to keep even pirates humble."

Will gave her a look that encouraged her to continue.

"Davy Jones was said to be the cursed captain of the Flying Dutchman, a ghost ship. A ship which brings omens of death to anyone who sees it. Any soul unlucky enough to die at sea would find themselves in eternal torment in Davy Jones' Locker. As some legends have it, you could make a deal with Jones to escape punishment, but at the cost of your soul. Growing up, it was a story mothers used to discourage their children from wanting to live a life on the sea. Or at least to warn them to be careful."

"I take it you never believed those stories."

"The sea is already dangerous enough. I didn't need a story to teach me that."

"But you were stuck on the Black Pearl with Barbossa and his cursed crew. Why not believe in this Davy Jones story too?"

"Will, don't get me wrong. Of course I believe in curses. How could I not? It's just…the stories about Davy Jones and the Dutchman are so inconsistent it's really hard to believe any of them are true."

The crew, along with Jessica and Will, loaded into the longboats and started to row upriver. According to Gibbs, this journey upriver would take them most of the day. Jack was in the longboat ahead of them, silent and focused on the river ahead. It was not long before they left the mouth of the river and started to be closed in on all sides by thick trees. The forest eventually became so overgrown that there was permanent shade cast over the river, which gave little relief from the stifling humidity of the swamp. Jessica couldn't shake the feeling that just out of eyesight there was something or someone watching them. It made her nervous. She looked around, but saw nothing but the occasional monkey in the trees or alligator sinking below the surface of the water. Exotic birds squawked overhead. When Jessica looked around again she spotted people in the swamplands above the river. The people watched them silently, staying where they were.

They had been rowing for a few hours when they started to pass the first ramshackle huts built on the river's edge. It seemed that now everywhere she looked, Jessica saw another native of the swampland. But not one of them spoke to the Pearl's crew. They only watched the strangers to their lands row by on the river. She was starting to realize why those stories always described them as odd. No one liked just being watched silently, it was unnerving.

"Why is Jack afraid of the open ocean?" Will finally asked Gibbs.

Jessica turned from looking out at the swamp to face Gibbs. She wanted to hear this too. If there was one person who knew Jack better than anyone else it was Joshamee Gibbs.

"Well, if you believe such things, there's a beast does the bidding of Davy Jones," Gibbs started.

Jessica had to keep from groaning. Yet another variation of this story. But if it gave her any clue to why Jack was acting strange, she was going to entertain the idea.

"A fearsome creature with giant tentacles that'll suction your face clean off and drag an entire ship down to the crushing darkness: the kraken."

The word drew the fearful gaze of everyone on the longboat, save for Will. Even Jessica's eyes grew wide at the mention of the creature. This she had heard of. Mentions of the kraken were not to be taken lightly, though she had never heard the beast related to Davy Jones before. She may not believe the stories of Davy Jones, but she had heard plenty of stories of the kraken. A kraken was something she knew to take seriously, even if most pirates and other ocean voyagers made silent pacts never to think too hard about the potential threat. After all, what could be done in the moment you realized the stories of a gargantuan, malevolent octopus were actually true?

"They say the stench of its breath is like…"

Gibbs lost his sentence to a shudder that racked his body.

"Imagine. The last thing you know on God's green earth is the roar of the kraken and the reeking odor of a thousand rotting corpses."

It seemed the entire group aboard their longboat was holding a collective breath at Gibbs' story.

"If you believe such things," Gibbs added after seeing Will's skeptical look.

"And the key will spare him that?" Will asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, that's the very question Jack wants answered. Bad enough, even, to go visit…her."

"Her?"

"Aye," Gibbs answered, looking off into the distance as if remembering something terrible.

Will looked to Jessica, who just simply shrugged. She had no idea who this woman Gibbs spoke of could be.

The farther they went upriver, the darker the forest seemed to get. By the time the sun actually set, the forest was nearly pitch black. The only light came from the fireflies flitting about in the air. A fog also seemed to settle over the water. Large cypress trees shot up from the river, their knobby roots threatening to catch the sides of the longboats. Gibbs said no more of this woman they were traveling to visit. Will curiously asked Jessica if she believed the kraken stories, which she affirmed. The last hour or so on the longboat they spent in heated discussion over her variation in superstitions. For some reason unknown to Jessica, Will found it hard to believe that she could believe in krakens yet not believe the stories of Davy Jones.

"All I can tell you, Will, is that the kraken is real, but I've never heard that it was some pet of Davy Jones."

"So some superstitions are more superstitious to you than others?"

"I can't explain it more than that. It's just what I grew up believing and what I've learned after being trapped with a psychotic, cursed pirate crew for most of my life."

"Aye, not even Barbossa believed the stories of the cursed treasure of Isla de Muerta…until he had no choice but to believe," Gibbs commented.

"Gibbs, are you saying you believe the stories about Davy Jones?" Jessica asked, not sure she wanted an answer.

Gibbs looked away from her, "Er…"

He was saved from having to answer her as the river came to a head and their longboat slowed behind Jack's.

They seemed to be heading for one of the raised huts on the riverbank, though this hut was much larger than the others. There was light coming from inside of this ramshackle house. The longboat Jack was in pulled up to a small wooden dock under the hut. Jack stepped onto the dock and turned to the crew.

"No worries, mates…Jessica. Tia Dalma and I go way back. Thick as thieves. Nigh unseparable we are — were — have been," Jack said, faltering.

That did not give Jessica much confidence as she, Gibbs, and Will also stepped onto the dock.

"Before," she heard Jack mutter.

"I'll watch your back," Gibbs said to him.

"It's me front I'm worried about," Jack said, starting to climb the ladder to the hut.

Jessica stared up at the hut as the message of "Mind the boat" was passed down the line of crew members. The structure seemed to be drawing her in, begging her to step through its doorway. A chill ran up her spine. Something in the back of her mind seemed to tell her that going in this place was tempting fate. Nevertheless, she found herself scaling the ladder without a contrary thought.

What Jessica found at the top was that the hut appeared much larger on the inside than the outside. She entered just behind Gibbs.

"I always knew the wind was go'n blow you back to me one day," a woman with a thick accent was saying to Jack.

The woman had long, dark hair laced with beads and bronze skin that seemed to glow with the light of the candles in the hut. She wore strange makeup around her eyes that accentuated them, making them seem to glisten. Jessica found her rather beautiful, in an odd, mystical sort of way. Numerous bottles full of things dangled from the ceiling of the hut. Everywhere she looked, Jessica saw something weird or odd that she had never seen before in her life. Other things she did recognize, like bottles with small animal bones and clipped bat wings that also hung from the ceiling. The place was absolutely packed full of oddities. The woman approached Jack, but stopped short of him and looked toward Jessica.

"You…" she said with a commanding voice different from the casual tone in which she had addressed Jack.

Jessica's blood ran cold before she realized the woman was pointing past her, at Will, who had come up behind her. The woman approached him and he seemed equally drawn to her.

"You have a touch of…destiny about you…William Turner."

The woman looked Will in the eyes, or rather up at him, since she was much shorter. Jessica was sure no one had mentioned Will's name and Will looked very confused, so she doubted he knew this woman. Which left Jessica wondering how she knew his name.

"You know me?" Will asked.

An eerie tension seemed to fill the air as the woman smiled at him.

"You want to know me," she said.

The trance Jessica found herself in snapped as Jack ran over to the woman.

"There'll be no knowing here! We've come for help and we're not leaving without it," Jack said.

Jessica looked over at Will, blinking away the fog in her mind slowly, and saw that he also seemed to be coming out of some sort of trance. For a moment, their eyes met and tears stung at Jessica's eyes, one breaking free and rolling down her face. The scar on her back twinged with pain for the first time since she was a little girl and she found herself grabbing on to Will's arm to steady herself. When she looked up at him, Will was frowning down at her. Not just a normal frown, either, a profoundly saddened expression that she had never seen on his face before. All of this lasted only a few seconds before both of them started to feel normal again, the only remnant being their confused expressions. Jessica wanted nothing more than to leave this place.

"Come," the woman, who Jessica now assumed to be the infamous Tia Dalma, said.

"Come," Jack repeated, beckoning Will and Jessica over to a table.

Will walked over and sat at the table, but Jessica remained standing, not feeling exactly comfortable there.

"What service may I do you?" Tia Dalma asked, running her fingers over Will's face.

Will looked up at her uncomfortably, but didn't say anything.

"You know I demand payment," Tia Dalma said firmly to Jack.

"I brought payment."

Jack whistled and beckoned at Pintel, who produced a large item covered with a cloth. He threw the cover off, revealing a wooden cage. Inside the cage was Jack the monkey. Jessica cocked her head in confusion as Jack grabbed his pistol from his belt.

"Look," Jack said, firing a shot at the monkey.

The monkey screeched loudly at the noise, but seemed otherwise unharmed.

"An undead monkey!"

Jack sat the cage on the table.

"Top that."

Tia Dalma inspected the cage before taking the bone pin out of it, letting the door to the cage swing open.

"Don't…" Gibbs groaned in opposition.

The monkey chirped and ran to the back of the hut.

"You have no idea how long it took us to catch that."

Jessica reckoned it had probably taken them all night, given that she hadn't seen a sign of the boisterous primate when she woke that morning.

"The payment is fair," Tia Dalma said.

She guessed that to get information from Tia Dalma, one needed more than just gold coins.

Turning her attention back to the table, Jessica saw Will spread out the tattered piece of cloth with the key drawing on it.

"We're looking for this."

After placing the wooden cage on the floor, Tia Dalma turned and saw what was on the table. Jessica got the impression this woman was not often surprised, but she stopped cold when she saw the drawing of the key on her table.

"And what it goes to," Will added.

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence before the Voodoo woman looked over at Jack, who was oddly not paying attention to this conversation.

"The compass you bartered from me…it cannot lead you to this?" she asked Jack.

"Maybe. Why?"

Tia Dalma sat at the head of her table and smiled. She seemed amused at Jack's response.

"Jack Sparrow does not know what he wants…or, do you know, but are loath to claim it as your own?"

So the stories of the compass Jack had told Jessica were true. That was about all the confirmation she needed. Otherwise, she was about tired of feeling confused. For once in the past few days she just wanted to know what the hell was going on.

"Your key go to a chest," Tia Dalma suddenly claimed. "And it is what lay inside the chest you seek, don't it?"

"What is inside?" Gibbs asked hopefully.

"Gold? Jewels? Unclaimed properties of a valuable nature?" Pintel asked.

Jessica rolled her eyes…pirates.

"Nothing…bad, I hope?" Ragetti ventured, looking rather put-out.

"You know of Davy Jones…yes?" Tia Dalma asked.

Under normal circumstances, Jessica felt like hearing that name again would have caused her to throw something in anger…but these were far from normal circumstances. Though she had never once been afraid of the stories she heard as a child, the way Tia Dalma said that name made her shiver as though she'd feared it her whole life. Everyone else seemed to hang on Tia Dalma's every word.

"A man of the sea. A great sailor…until he run afoul of that which vex all men."

"What vexes all men?" Will asked.

Tia Dalma chuckled, brushing Will's hand with her own.

"What…indeed?"

She looked directly at Jessica for the first time and Jessica immediately understood. This was no longer just a story.

"The sea?" Gibbs answered.

"Sums?" offered Pintel.

"The dichotomy of good and evil?" Ragetti wondered.

Jessica was curious if he knew what that meant. She wasn't even sure she knew.

"A woman," Jack said firmly, not a hint of uncertainty in his voice.

"A woman…he fell in love," Tia Dalma finished.

"No, no, no, I heard it was the sea he fell in love with," Gibbs defended.

"Same story, different versions!" Tia Dalma snapped, waving him off. "And all are true."

Jessica had never, in fact, heard this particular version of the story.

"See, it was a woman," Tia Dalma continued, gesturing to herself, "as changing and harsh and untamable as the sea. Him never stopped loving her. But the pain it cause him was too much to live with, but not enough to cause him to die."

"What exactly did he put into the chest?" Will asked, not as taken with the story as everyone else seemed to be.

"Him heart," Tia Dalma said, smiling.

"Literally or figuratively?" Ragetti asked.

"He couldn't literally put his heart in a chest…could he?" Pintel asked.

Jessica was about to scoff at the absurdity of it. When she saw Tia Dalma's expression, she decided that was not a good idea.

"It was not worth feeling what small, fleeting joy life brings. And so…him carve out him heart, lock it away in a chest, and hide the chest from the world. The key," Tia Dalma said, looking down at the drawing, "he keep with him at all times."

Jessica was still stuck on processing that Davy Jones was being spoken about like a real person, that her mind was spinning when she tried to grasp "actual heart in a chest." It was absurd, all of it. Cursed pirates were one thing…this just strained her idea of what was real.

Will took a moment, no doubt processing what he had just heard, and then stood. Jessica could feel the tension from across the room as he stared Jack in the eye.

"You knew this," Will accused.

"I did not. I didn't know where the key was. But now we do. So all that's left is to climb aboard the Flying Dutchman, grab the key, you go back to Port Royal and save your bonny lass, eh?" Jack said.

With each sentence he spoke faster and his voice rose in pitch. Will looked angry and Jack looked about ready to weasel his way out of this mess he'd just created. Jessica pinched the bridge of her nose, her head was physically hurting now.

"Oh, come on, this is absolutely absurd!" she finally exclaimed.

"Let me see your hand," Tia Dalma said to Jack, standing and holding out her own hand.

Jack made as if to give her his right hand, but she glared at him. He rolled his eyes and offered her his left. It was only now that Jessica realized he had a large, torn piece of cloth tied around his left palm. Tia Dalma unwrapped the cloth and Jessica found herself leaning in to see. As soon as the cloth was pulled away, Jessica saw a large, black mark on Jack's palm that seemed to writhe on its own. Like a moving tattoo. Her eyes widened and she quickly drew back. Gibbs gasped behind her.

"The black spot!" he exclaimed, brushing himself and spinning in a circle.

Pintel and Ragetti followed suit, also scared of what they saw. The black spot. An omen Jessica knew well. It was an omen of the kraken.

"My eyesight's as good as ever, just so you know," Jack commented.

She bit her lip, not sure of what to make of all of this, but sure that Jack's life was in danger. Will looked utterly confused and Tia Dalma disappeared into the back of her hut. When Will met her eyes, Jessica shook her head and frowned, which seemed to give him the message she intended. This was not good.

Now at least some of this convoluted journey made sense to Jessica. Jack had received the omen of the kraken, how she still did not know, and had been trying to dodge it. Beaching the Pearl had been his ingenious way of keeping it out of the water…krakens weren't exactly built for land, after all. Unfortunately, the island Jack chose to beach his beloved Black Pearl on had not been abandoned, as he probably hoped. And keeping to shallow waters? Well, the kraken was known to be so massive it surely needed deep water to live. Clattering came from the back of the hut, as Tia Dalma rummaged around looking for something. Jessica looked at Jack, not believing what she was putting together in her head. Why had he not told her the truth? Maybe they weren't as close as they once were, but she would be lying if she said it didn't hurt her. Jack caught her looking at him and immediately avoided eye contact. Tia Dalma returned from the back of the hut carrying a large, glass jar.

"Davy Jones cannot make port…cannot step on land but once every ten years. Land is where you are safe, Jack Sparrow, and so you will carry land with you."

She handed Jack the jar and he took it, hesitantly. Jack looked at the jar.

"Dirt. This is a jar of dirt," he stated.

"Yes," Tia Dalma said.

"Is the…jar of dirt going to help?"

"If you don't want it, give it back."

"No," Jack said, holding the jar closer.

"Then it helps."

"It seems we have a need to find the Flying Dutchman," Will said.

Tia Dalma sat back down at the head of the table and grabbed up what appeared to Jessica to be a bunch of crab claws.

"A touch…of destiny," she said and dropped the claws on the table.

The claws fell on top of what looked like a crude drawing of map lines etched into the table.

Tia Dalma told the heading to Jack, who was still clutching his jar of dirt. Will stood from the table, looking less than pleased, and walked over to Jessica. The rest of the crew and Jack were loading into the longboats.

"Do you believe any of this?" he asked.

Jessica could not answer him. She wasn't sure what to believe. Tia Dalma walked back over to her table and looked in their direction.

"Give her time…she will see," she told Will.

Jessica frowned and the Voodoo woman walked over and took her hand. As soon as their hands touched, Jessica felt strange. Neither in a good or bad way, just…strange. Tia Dalma took her hand and traced a finger over the lines in Jessica's palm.

"Fate has not been kind to you, young sparrow. Trust your intuition and you may find more than what you seek."

She released Jessica's hand and the strange feeling immediately went away.

"Come on, Jess," Will said from the doorway.

Tia Dalma grinned at Jessica as she turned and followed Will out of the hut.

Once back aboard the Pearl, the crew fell into positions to ready the ship to sail. Jack scuttled off with his jar of dirt, no doubt locking himself in his cabin. Will stayed with Jessica for a moment before going below deck, grumbling something about finding the key. Jessica stood at the Black Pearl's railing, staring down at the ocean below. Tia Dalma's parting words rang through her head continuously. She wondered what that feeling had been when she and Will locked eyes. She had all of a sudden been completely overwhelmed with sadness. For seemingly no reason at all. And when Will looked down at her, it seemed as though he'd felt something similar. She just wanted to know why. But she got the feeling that this was the reason for Tia Dalma's reputation which Gibbs hinted at. Jessica started to absentmindedly pick at the railing's wood with her fingernail. Jack and all his antics had somehow led to this ill omen. The kraken, of all things. Somehow this also included an old sailor's tale Jessica hadn't even really believed before today. Did she believe it now?

No, she told herself.

But she wasn't confident that was the answer.

Lightning streaked across the sky, illuminating the Black Pearl in the night. The sudden burst of light showed Jessica that she had managed to dig out a small splinter of wood from the railing. She placed the piece of black wood in her palm, where it settled unevenly to one side. When lightning flashed above the ship once again, Jessica noticed something curious. It had to have just been a trick of the light. She went to the nearest lamp and inspected the sliver of wood under it. For years she'd always assumed the Black Pearl's wood was just black, or at least painted so. But this tiny piece of wood was not just black on the top, as if it had been painted, nor was it black all the way through, as if it was naturally that color. It was black on top, yes, but the center was a dull cherry color with black lines streaked through it. If she hadn't just taken this from the railing of the ship, she would have thought it had been burned. Something told her to place the wood piece into the lantern. Intuition, perhaps. She watched as the flame licked the undarkened edges of the wood, eventually turning them to the same black color as the rest of it. Thunder roared overhead and lightning lashed the sky once more.

At the same time the sky let down a torrent of rain, the wood in the lantern popped. The sudden burst of flame startled Jessica and she slipped backwards. She fell to the deck on her back, looking up as another streak of lightning lit up the sky. It seemed to arc behind all three of the Pearl's masts, illuminating them with an eerie glow. Pelting, cold rain stung her face, but Jessica continued to stare at the masts of the ship. Another burst of lightning took her back years, to the deck of a different ship. The image of that burning ship she saw from it seemed to be imprinted on her eyes. She screwed her eyes shut, but the image of the burning Wicked Wench was also figuratively burned into her mind. She opened her eyes again and no longer saw the Black Pearl. How had she not seen it before? Eight years aboard this ship, every single day, and she had never noticed. She hardly noticed how fast she was breathing as she looked at each landmark of the ship. The bow. The masts. The railings. Even the sails. What little she knew of that ship, she knew well. She had seen it in her dreams. Maybe, deep down, she chose to ignore it. But now she couldn't. A pit formed in her stomach as her mind jumped to another realization. She looked up at the wheel and saw Jack there. She ran.

The storm tossed the ship around and soaked it with rain. Jessica's heart pounded as she ran for the helm. She nearly caught her foot on the last, uneven step up to the wheel, but nothing else mattered to her right now. Nothing except Jack. He was bone-soaked as well, but was so focused on the rough waters ahead that he didn't see her coming. Gibbs did, however. As Jessica grabbed Jack by the arms and pulled him away from the wheel, Gibbs grabbed it, keeping the ship on course.

"What did you do!?" Jessica yelled breathlessly over the storm.

Jack looked genuinely startled and confused. She stood in front of him and gripped both of his forearms tightly with her hands, desperate to cling to something real. Desperate to make him answer her for once in his life.

"Jessica, what's wrong? Are you well?" Jack asked.

She must have seemed like a madwoman to him right now, but she had to know.

"What ship is this?!" she begged more than yelled.

Jack reached a hand toward her head.

"You're not well. Did you hit your head? You probably should go lie down..."

"No!" she exclaimed, grabbing his arm. "Answer me!"

"This is the Black Pearl, love. The ship you were on for eight years. My ship."

"But she had another name, before, didn't she! Thirteen years ago, what was she called!? That day, when I was a little girl— the day when Beckett almost killed me. The ship burned. This is the same ship. This ship burned."

"You remember that?" Jack asked, the color draining from his face.

"Of course I do! I nearly died! The Black Pearl and the Wicked Wench, they're one and the same, aren't they?" her voice dropped as she felt more and more like she was going insane.

Jack's silence was an answer enough for her.

"But that's impossible, because the Wicked Wench burned. I saw it with my own eyes. Beckett destroyed that ship. And, yet, here she is," Jessica said, gesturing broadly to the Pearl. "So...what did you do?"

Up until this point, Jessica hadn't considered if she really wanted the answer. Up until this point, she just needed it. Jack looked her in the eyes and in his eyes she read an emotion she wasn't used to associating with him...helplessness. She had released him from her grasp moments back, but he still stood in front of her, staring at her. His mouth tensed and he pointed at her with a finger before biting at his fingernail and dropping it. He looked conflicted. Jessica was patient, however, she could wait for this answer. Jack started to pace in front of her, muttering under his breath.

"Jack," Jessica urged. "The truth."

He scoffed, turning to face her again.

"See, what you need to understand about this is—"

"Ship, ho!" came a loud cry from the crow's nest, cutting him off.

Jessica turned to look for this ship that had been spotted, mostly out of instinct, and Jack was gone. She shook her head in frustration and focused on spotting the ship. Through the pouring rain and darkness, she made out something on the horizon. When lightning flashed in the sky, what she saw looked more like a shipwreck than an actual ship. She looked down at the deck and saw Will, Jack, and Gibbs also looking out at this ship. Disheartened by the story she was starting to piece together in her head, she approached them.

"So, what's your plan then?" Jack was asking Will.

"I row over, search the ship until I find your bloody key," Will said.

"And if there are crewmen?"

"I cut down anyone in my path," Will said, walking toward where Jessica stood.

"I like it. Simple. Easy to remember," Jack commented.

Jessica had a bad feeling that there was something else going on. Assuming the stories about Davy Jones were real and assuming Tia Dalma was right, the key shouldn't be on a ship that was wrecked in the middle of a reef.

"I'll go with you," she said to Will.

"No, it's too dangerous."

"Will Turner, if it's too dangerous for me, then it is certainly too dangerous for you to go alone."

"You should listen to him," Jack suggested.

"I didn't ask your opinion. Besides, you wouldn't send Will into a dangerous situation alone, would you?" Jessica said, sarcasm dripping in her voice.

All of this time, he'd lied to her.

"Please, Jessica, stay here," Jack pleaded.

Jessica was starting to gather that there was something Jack was holding back. Now she definitely couldn't let Will go alone. She glared at Jack.

"No. I'm going with Will. That is, unless there's a really good reason that you don't want me to go on that ship? And 'it's too dangerous' is not a good reason," she said defiantly.

Whatever Jack had planned for Will to do, he was going to have to be okay with Jessica doing as well, unless he decided to tell them both the truth. Jack seemed to turn a shade of pale green, but didn't stop her. She shook her head in disappointment and followed Will.

"Your chariot awaits you, sire!" Ragetti called tauntingly to Will from below.

Jessica lowered herself down the side of the Pearl after Will. The storm had churned the sea into a fit of rage, making it difficult for Jessica to cling to the Pearl and lower herself into the dinghy at the same time.

"Oi! If you do happen to get captured, just say Jack Sparrow sent you to settle his debt! May save your life!" Jack called after them.

And yet another piece of the story fell into place in Jessica's mind. She continued.

"Jessica! Turn back!" Will yelled over the roar of the storm.

"Too late!" she replied, dropping into the dinghy.

"Bon voyage!" Ragetti yelled at them as he pushed the dinghy away from the Pearl.

The tumultuous ocean tossed the dinghy around like a child's toy. Rain poured on its passengers from above. Each wave threatened to capsize the small vessel as it grew distant from the Black Pearl. Jessica had immediately moved to help Will row the small boat, but it seemed they were merely directing the boat in the general direction they wanted to go. Overall, they were at the mercy of the sea...and she was not being kind to them. As they drew near to the shipwreck, Jessica lost sight of the Pearl. The lanterns were going out one by one.

"Why were you so adamant to accompany me?" Will yelled over the storm.

"I don't like this! Something is wrong."

"You're telling me this now!"

"Would it have stopped you?"

He didn't have to respond for her to know the answer. She grabbed the line from the front of the dinghy as they approached the wrecked ship. It had been torn to pieces by the sharp, unseen reef below. Jessica watched as the water around them started to be capped in furious white, indicating shallower waters. She gripped the side of the dinghy to ensure she didn't end up like the ship. Reefs were indiscriminate. They ripped everything to shreds, people and ships alike. Once they were close enough, Jessica balanced precariously on the edge of the dinghy before jumping toward the ship's piecework railing. She made the jump, but her foot slipped as she landed. She caught herself in time not to fall, but felt a sharp sting below her knee.

"Jessica!" Will called in worry.

"I'm fine!" she called back, tying off the rope.

With the dinghy secured, Will grabbed the lantern he brought and joined her on the ship. She looked around quickly, but couldn't make out much in the darkness.

"Your leg," Will said as he approached with the lantern.

She looked down in the lantern light and saw her leg had been torn into, either by the reef or the ship she couldn't tell. Her pant leg was ripped and blood streamed down from below her left knee, disappearing under the topline of her boot. It wasn't a deep cut, thankfully.

"I'll be alright. Let's look for that damned key," she said.

"Here," Will said, handing her the lantern.

He ripped off a piece of cloth from the bottom of his shirt and wrapped it tightly around her leg.

"Thanks."

She handed him the lantern back and they started to search the ship.

Shipwrecks were an ugly sight, but this one seemed to be worse than most. To Jessica, it looked as if the ship had been torn clean in half across its deck. Debris lay scattered everywhere, even in the waters near the ship. This had happened recently, she found herself realizing. She bent down when she saw what appeared to be a person among the wreckage. Will walked nearby to one of the tangles of lines. She looked down at the body of a man who probably wasn't much older than herself. His body had been shredded badly and his blood was being washed into the ocean by the continuing rain. Jessica frowned and stood back up, shaking her head at Will. He held the lantern up and also shook his head as the light flooded over another bloodied figure wrapped in the lines. Then, she heard something over the rain. At nearly the same time, she and Will looked toward the damaged bow and saw a man. The man did not seem to notice them, however, and kept pulling on a detached rigging line as if his life depended on it. He was muttering intelligibly as they approached.

"Sailor!" Will called to the man.

He continued to pull on the rigging, not noticing Will.

"Sailor!" Will called.

"Hoisting the jib...captain's orders," the man muttered.

"It's no use. You've run aground," Will said.

"No! Beneath us!" the man said, terror in his eyes.

Something splashed from behind them and Will turned to investigate. Jessica was frozen in place, a chill running up her spine.

"Will...we should go."

All of a sudden, something breached the surface of the ocean from underneath. Jessica could only stare, mouth agape, as a ship burst up from under the waves. It turned and kept parallel with the shipwreck. It was a ship unlike any she had seen before. The bow was jagged like some beastly mouth with sharp teeth and tattered sails hung from its three masts. It looked as though it belonged at the bottom of the ocean. Beside her, a figure emerged from one of the wrecked ship's masts. Jessica gasped, backpedaling as she drew her sword. The humanoid...creature lunged at her and she sidestepped, avoiding its blade. She caught sight of Will for a moment before more of these things attacked.

"Down on your marrowbones and pray!" she heard one of them yell behind her.

If she didn't know better, Jessica would have said these things were animated sea life roughly mixed with actual humans. She found herself locked in a swordfight with a six-foot-tall, bipedal creature that resembled coral more than anything else. She lunged forward, but her sword caught on whatever rock-like skin this thing seemed to have. It snapped her blade in two and she drew back, only to be met with another creature. She barely had time to register the clawed hand that went for her throat. Her attempt to step away was hindered by the sharp pain in her leg. She heard Will call her name and saw a flash of fire as the clawed creature tightened its grip around her neck. She fought to loosen the vice on her neck, but struggling only made the darkness race into her vision faster. She felt consciousness fading as everything went black.

The next thing she knew, Jessica was being shoved into a line beside Will. Her mind was still groggy and unfocused, but at least she could see that Will seemed alright. They were forced to their knees beside the remaining crew members of the shipwreck. The strange creatures that had attacked them stood around them, laughing in amusement. Jessica slowly realized that it was no longer raining, but she felt even colder than before. Then she heard thudding. Slow, uneven thudding, like footsteps approaching. A large man with a wooden leg was approaching them from the split in the ship. He walked up out of the water and as Jessica looked up she realized he barely resembled a man at all. His face resembled that of an octopus, smooth and green with a beard made of long, writhing tentacles. One of his arms was a massive crab claw. His clothes were covered head-to-toe in barnacles. When he looked over at her and she saw the deadness of his human eyes, Jessica's blood froze. She swore for a moment that her heart forgot to continue beating. She had never felt this kind of raw terror before, not even when she was face-to-face with Beckett. It was a terror that had little to do with his strange appearance. The man continued to walk up the line of prisoners, Jessica assumed that's what they were to this crew of unnatural beings. One of the crew of the shipwreck was whimpering loudly. The large man with the tentacled face leaned down in front of the sailor and lit a pipe.

"Do you fear death?" he asked the whimpering sailor. "Do you fear that dark abyss? All your deeds laid bare. All your sins punished."

The whimpering man was shaking terribly and nodding at every word.

"I can offer you...an escape."

"Don't listen to him!" another of the sailors called from up the line.

The man's head immediately snapped over to the sailor and he approached. Jessica dared to crane her neck over slightly and saw the sailor was trembling, but clutching a rosary. She had the sinking feeling this was not going to end well. The man walked over and grabbed the second sailor's throat between his crab-clawed hand.

"Do you not fear death?" he asked, taking another drag from his pipe.

"I-I'll take my chances, sir," the sailor stammered.

"To the depths," the man said to one of his crew.

The coral-like creature Jessica had fought earlier produced a knife and slit the sailor's throat, tossing him overboard. Jessica, as well as the rest of the prisoners, gasped. She started to shake in fear herself as the unnatural sea-beings tossed the sailor's body overboard, laughing cruelly. Will looked at her with a sideways glance, keeping his head down, and she could tell that he was just as afraid as she was.

"Cruel blackguard!" another one of the sailors cursed at the man.

"Life is cruel," he answered, tapping out his pipe on his clawed hand. "Why should the afterlife be any different? I offer you a choice: join my crew and postpone the judgment. One hundred years before the mast. Will ye serve?"

"I-I-I will serve," stammered the first sailor.

"There," the man said. The crew of unnatural sea-beings started chuckling at the terrified sailor. As their laughter echoed around her, Jessica realized who that man was. Making deals to postpone final punishment, the ship, and the feeling of absolute terror...it made sense. Her eyes widened as she looked upon this man once more, far more terrified now than before. This was Davy Jones.

It was only seconds after Jessica realized that for her entire life she had been denying the existence of this man standing right in front of her, that Davy Jones took notice of his last two prisoners.

"You are neither dead nor dying," he barked at Jessica and Will. "What is your purpose here?"

Jessica looked down at the deck of the ship, not sure she trusted herself to answer. She saw Will shift uncomfortably beside her.

"Jack Sparrow sent me to settle his debt," Will answered quickly.

"What is your purpose here?" Davy Jones asked again.

It seemed that he thought he might have heard Will incorrectly.

"Jack Sparrow... sent me to settle his debt," Will said again, slower this time.

"Did he now?" Jones asked rhetorically, chuckling. "I'm sorely tempted to accept that offer."

Davy Jones turned around, looking in the direction of where the Black Pearl was...and vanished. Most of his crew vanished as well, leaving only one to guard the prisoners aboard the shipwreck.

"Jess…" Will said softly.

She continued to stare down at the damaged boards of the ship's deck, frozen in fear.

"Are you—"

"Fine. I'm fine," she said before Will could finish.

She knew he could easily see she was anything but "fine", but it didn't matter. What could she have said? That she felt she had made a grave error that was now coming back to haunt her? That this one man scared her more in this moment than anything on the Earth and she couldn't place why?

"What has Jack gotten us into?" Will growled under his breath.

"I don't know…"

"That was him, wasn't it? Davy Jones?"

Jessica nodded, but she didn't know where Davy Jones and his crew had gone. It wasn't long, only a few minutes, before they reappeared again. They seemed to emerge from the very ship itself. They were chuckling as they grabbed the prisoners who had sworn themselves to Davy Jones and disappeared again. Jessica was concerned they would come for Will and her next, but it was Jones who appeared in front of them again. He looked down at Jessica, a cold grin crossing his face after staring at her for a moment.

"I couldn't help but notice: you failed to answer my question...little bird," Davy Jones said.

He spat the last word at her as if it had tasted foul in his mouth. A chill shot through her with the implication of it. How did he know her? When she didn't answer, Jones started to laugh; a cold, vicious laugh that made Jessica flinch.

"Jack Sparrow must be truly desperate to send you to me in his stead."

Two of his crew members approached, one each hauling Jessica and Will to their feet.

"Bring the boy...and young Miss Sparrow," Jones barked.

Jessica blinked and found herself on the deck of the strange ship. Davy Jones still stood in front of her and Will, his mouth twitching in a malicious grin.

"Welcome aboard the Flying Dutchman."