AN: Another chapter very soon after the last update, I was having a good writing day so I wanted to upload it already! Hope you guys love it. Thanks for the reads and reviews on the last chapter, I really appreciate it. After this chapter, we arrive at the end of Pirates 3 and Emerald Seas II continues on where At World s End ended, so the next chapters won't be following the movies :) Please, as always, I'd love you hear your thoughts on the story so far, it makes me happy!

Chapter 9

It was the end of the war against the Pirates. Cutler had lost the Endeavour to the Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman. Closed in by two large hulls, firing at will, it was where his ship saw her end. Going down, together with it´s Captain.

Cutler felt the waters crush against his chest, closed in by the cold that waved over him. It was right this moment, drifting along the waves inside the fabric of the flag of the Endeavour, that everything that had occupied his mind came flashing by. The deal he made with Jack, the reason Cutler was unable to blow the Pearl back to the depths where it once was. Jack needed to be unharmed in order to lead Cutler to his goal, of getting her back. He would have let him escape, letting the Pearl go its course and run from the fight, something Jack had always been good at. If it wasn't for the Dutchman. But Cutler had survived, he still didn't know how, it was only a bright light he could remember, but it made him calm. And he would keep Jack to his promise, he was sure of that.

And so even though it wasn´t time for victory nor celebration, it was now Cutler felt an overwhelming sense of hope wash away all the fear. After all, the only thing stronger than fear, was hope. But while the crystal blue of his eyes watched the same blue up in the heavens above him drifting, Cutler realized there was something much stronger than all that: Love.

Location: Inside the Locker

A flash of light. Another dream, another part of the endless madness deep within the Locker, or was it Calypso who send her, that always remained the question.

Her feet carried Kate through the surface of what seemed to be the bottom of the ocean. Endless terrain that showed the brightest colors nature had ever shown, the ground sown with coral, which had looked like flowers from afar. Barnacles cracking beneath her feet, the wind making her long red hair flow onto the waves it appeared as if she was underwater, but she could breathe. Strange circumstances to behold, but then again not so strange, it was the weirdness, the weirdness of Davy Jones' Locker that no longer surprised her, did it? It always felt like a dream and a nightmare at the same time. Kate had seen this surrounding before. It took her to the very bottom of the sea as it had before. Walking past coral reeves, fish swimming by, and in the very distance, she saw wrecked ships, almost like a ship graveyard. Her fingers moved along one of the hulls, titled to the side. Grand golden letters revealed her a name. A large warship Kate knew of, she had recognized it from a book she once read.

After some time she crossed the same ships she had seen before, almost all remembering them one by one since the last time the Locker had brought her to this very specific place. Kate for a moment wondered why it brought her here once again. But suddenly she saw something different from last time, her sight moved upon a ship she had not spotted before, it was laying slightly tilted to the left, in the corner of the large reef, hidden in the shadows. Her curiosity moved her closer. And the closer she came, the light of the sun above sea level moved along the grand hull of the ship. Kate squeezed her eyes as the bright light now fully revealed it from out of the shadows. Her heart made a jump once she saw the blue and yellow paintwork of the ship. Lifting her dress she moved herself to the back quickly, her heart beating faster and faster with every step. Looking high up Kate's eyes quickly settled upon the large plate at the back of the ship to read her name.

'Endeavour..' Kate could hardly speak, but she whispered underneath her breath. Her hands started trembling and she collapsed down to her knees, her sight not moving away from the letters, reading them a thousand times over and over to be sure of what she saw. She could still not believe her eyes and released a sigh. The ship she had not seen for what felt like forever. A lot of memories had faded from her memory, but some did not and felt like happened only yesterday, probably that side effect, being in the Locker, like Calypso told her. Hundred years could be just a few weeks. Lifting her body from staring at the ship's back for a long time Kate moved closer. Once reaching the wooden hull her fingers moved closer and closer. As she finally felt brave enough to actually touch it she closed her eyes.

Once again another flash, it was bright, even though her eyes were still closed. Opening them slowly again she tried to get back her vision as it was blurry. As her eyes were used to its surroundings Kate moved her hands to her lips. Her sight moved through what seemed to be the inside of the Endeavour's office, a well familiar sight. Once again she felt her heart jump as her eyes settled on a desk, Cutler's desk. Kate tried to keep herself together and swallowed by the sight of Cutler's stuff as if it had never changed, but still, she noticed a slight difference, it did change over time, like quite some time had passed, years, thirteen years to be exact.

For a moment Kate wondered if it was all a reflection of the real world out there. But there were no people, the ship was empty and abandoned, it was just her. Disappointed at the thought Kate moved through the room and stared at the large table with the golden globe of the world inside. Moving it around slowly her eyes went to her hometown, her fingers caressing the small letters spelling´Nassau´. Oh, how she longed to be back. Even though it felt like yesterday she saw it last, there was a feeling inside her of great missing, like her heart knew it wasn't just a day away, but a long dreadful decade.

Staring at the globe her eyes shifted to the corner of the room, it was covered by shadow and for a moment Kate's shrieked softly as she saw two eyes staring at her. Taking a few steps back she moved her hand before her mouth, trying not to breathe too loud. But soon she realized it wasn't a person in the shadows. Stepping forward again the shadow disappeared once she stood before the two eyes staring into her soul. A large golden frame appeared from the dark and soon the painting within the frame got clearer in the light that shone through the windows of the stern. The corner's of Kate's mouth slowly moved up, a cold tear ran down her cheeks. Her sight moved along the face of the man she had missed so deeply.

'Cutler..' Kate's fragile voice whispered. It was the painting she had made for his birthday, so many years ago. Oh, how he had teased her by telling her over and over again that he looked vain. Yet she had been so proud of him and painting him she could not have seen him in any other light. She did not care what people thought of it. Whether it looked like vanity or conceit, she had bagged him a hundred times if she could put it in the office on the Endeavour. So she wouldn't miss him once he wasn't with her. So he had promised her, and like every other promise to her, it seemed like he still held onto it.

Moving the tip of her finger across his face slowly another tear dove to the wooden floor. After a while, Kate slowly moved back to the desk. Lowering into his armchair she swore she could have smelled him for just a moment. Raising her bare feet up on the seat of the chair Kate hugged her legs. After staring at the painting for a while her eyes lowered to the desk, where the tiny sailors on it gazed back at her. Suddenly her eyes moved to one at the back standing on top of a wooden box. She couldn't help but smile softly, it was another one of her gifts she once gave him, the small figure that represented Cutler himself. Moving her hand forward slowly reaching for it she took it. Laying in the palm of her hand she stared at it for quite a while before she moved it to the pocket of the dress she was wearing. Kate wasn't sure whether this was allowed by the rules of the Locker, but she couldn't care less. If this was the one thing that would bring him at least a little closer to her, she'd take it.

Leaning her head back into the armchair Kate closed her eyes. And for what felt like hours, she sat there, she just sat there in silence. She didn't want this memory, dream, illusion, or whatever the Locker made her see, to end. Kate was afraid to open her eyes again, frightened of another flash that might bring her back to that bloody lighthouse, where it all had begun.

However, she had to at one point. And so she did open them again. A sigh of relief moved from her lips as she was still aboard the Endeavour. Her sight moved through the room, but suddenly it dropped back to the desk. At the very front, she noticed an object which she swore wasn't there before. Her eyes moved along an iron chest, richly decorated with curls and what seemed to be a heart with in the middle a keyhole. Wondering if it was locked slowly her hands moved to the strange object, gently as she was afraid it might be another wormhole to wherever. But as she touched it, to her relief, once again nothing happened. Her hand took the lid carefully as her skin touched the ice-cold metal. Kate gasped for air as the pins which seemed to hold the lid on the chest shut, opened with a soft pound. To her surprise, it wasn't locked. Kate couldn't see inside even though she opened it fully now. Still sitting on the chair, she moved up, taking the silk of her dress tightly in her other hand she lifted herself from the armchair to peak over the edge of the now opened chest. Her sight went by a strange object inside, it was moving. Suddenly Kate realized what it was, she wasn't easily grossed out, but it was the astonishment and disbelief that made her gasp. It was a living human heart inside the chest, and it was pounding like it was still alive. Kate did not know why, but she moved her hand that just lifted the lid move closer and closer, slowly but surely. But just before she could touch the heart there was a sudden movement. It felt like the ship started moving. Kate fell behind the desk to the ground as a loud explosion was heard and made the ship rock. Knocking over all the tiny sailors on the desk Kate quickly lifted herself from the ground, desperately holding onto the desk as the explosions kept on entering the room. She recognized it to be cannonballs piercing themselves into the wood of the ship.

Kate's eyes shifted back to the surface of the desk, but the chest had disappeared, she moved underneath the desk, her sight moving along the ground searching for it, but it was gone. Still underneath the wood of the desk, as if it could protect her from the cannon blasts, Kate crawled to the side of the desk where she stared at the entrance of the room. It was now or never. Kate lifted her dress so she wouldn't trip and started running for the doors. Opening them quickly she moved through the so familiar halls that led to the upper deck.

Glad to know the way Kate arrived on deck and her sight moved across an empty deck. No Company men, Lieutenants, Admirals, or sailors shouting for orders or stopping the attack. No cannons firing back. If this was a memory or a reflection of reality Kate couldn't see how a warship like the Endeavour would not fire back to defend herself. Running to the side of the ship Kate's sight moved along the ship firing at them. Gasping for air she saw the Flying Dutchman at the starboard side of the Endeavour. Without having time to think why the Dutchman would attack Kate turned her head to the port side of the ship. At first, she did not recognize it. A black ship, the sails covered in holes, and a pirate flag on top of it. But as Kate studied the ship by the design her eyes widened, it was the Wicked Wench, she remembered again, seeing her earlier inside the Locker. Her heart sank into her chest. Kate still couldn't believe it where possible, the Wicked Wench sailing under a pirate flag. But she had no time to think of why these two ships were attacking, she needed to leave the Endeavour as soon as possible.

Kate stumbled along the railing of the ship, surprised by the fact nothing had hit her yet, but it must have been cause she was only a ghost to the real world. Tripping over Kate pulled herself up on the balustrade of the large stairs that led up to the helm. Standing up Kate for a moment wondered why she didn't try to abandon ship, but like a force inside her, it pulled her toward the helm of the ship. As she had reached the bottom of the stairs after getting up again Kate stopped. Staring up at the very top of the stairs, the force inside her pulling her along, made her stop abruptly. The sound of the explosions, cannon blasts, and wood getting destructed felt like it had faded, it was still there, but in the background. Kate wondered if it was her hearing that disappeared again, but there was no beep. Just utter silence.

Until it felt like she heard a heartbeat, followed by what felt like angels singing in her head, it made her calm and peaceful in all the chaos. Kate still staring up widened her eyes as she suddenly saw a figure at the very top of the stairs. Her heart started pounding in her chest, it felt like it was giving up and would stop within seconds. Her breath got stuck in her throat and she started breathing heavily. The figure came closer and closer, walking down the stairs in what felt like slow motion. Kate backed away from the stairs, she kept on taking steps backward slowly. The pieces of wood both surrounded her and the figure before her, but without getting hit. Kate stared at the figure now reaching the very bottom of the stairs. The figure still coming closer and closer Kate froze as her eyes recognized the person marching from the smoke.

Her eyes beheld Cutler standing before her as he had come to a halt as well. His eyes showed despair, fear, and stared past her standing on the deck right before him, only inches apart. Kate felt like she couldn't breathe, sure her heart had stopped beating. He was in danger, grave danger, she could feel it. And there was nothing she could do about it, was there?

Kate stared into his watery blue eyes. It broke her heart to see him this way. But suddenly there was a peace inside her, it swept away all her fear, it made her stand tall, without moving. As if she was able to save him Kate slowly raised her arm in his direction. The fabric of her long dress was waving upon the wind that moved along the silent deck, like a white blanket of light it brightened up the darkness that covered the ship. Her hand pointing in his direction as if she wanted to reach for him, but she was pinned to the ground. Cutler moved his eyes and Kate felt a power streaming through her veins. It felt as if the air returned to her lungs like life was entering her body. There was a white light slowly surrounding them, moving away the darkness, swallowing every moment of fear, pain and.. death.

Cutler's eyes came to a halt and were now directly staring into hers, as if he finally noticed her, piercing into her very soul. Kate had expected herself to collapse, faint, or just burst out in tears, but she felt that force still, like she was stronger than anything in the world right this moment. It felt like they were staring at each other for a long time.

And then everything around them was the blinding white, a soft rushing sound like the wings of angels. Kate, in all the chaos, felt peaceful and bodyless. Free of terror, free of rage to those who tried to destroy them. A quiet happiness.

Kate opened her hand slowly as it was still reaching for Cutler. They were swallowed by the bright white light that blinded her. Kate saw in the background a sea of fire reaching for them, but as this power inside her tried to ban them from even death itself, Kate felt a strength that she had not felt before. Cutler disappeared before her eyes, surrounded by both the fire and the white light. Even the soft rushing sound vanished. Then there was utter silence.

Kate gasped for air as her body moved up quickly. Breathing heavy, hands stroking away her red locks from her face in a rush, her sight went along the room. It was once again the lighthouse with the large bed she always found herself back after another 'dream'. Kate sitting on the bed moved her knees up and surrounding her legs with her arms, tears were running down her face as she realized what she had seen. Witnessing Cutler's death. She had felt it, his life slipping away from her hands just moments earlier. Feeling hopeless, lost, and weak. But there had been a strength inside her she had never felt before, a power that overcame her without knowing how or why. Now back inside the lighthouse, still going through everything that happened, there was something inside telling her it was all real, Cutler was saved and safe.

Then it came to her, the words Calypso had spoken before, the prophecy, the lost soul that was meant to save Kate, did she save the soul before it could save her? Was this 'lost soul' Cutler? Was this what Kate witnessed like a butterfly effect? After saving Cutler, Jack back in the living world knowing Kate was alive, was this setting in a motion of continuous events that might lead her to freedom and awakening from this horrendous curse?

Suddenly Kate felt there was this light overhanging all the shadow, fear was replaced by hope, and hope is at the very heart of love..