What I've planned for this story is long and there will be a sequel. I've come up with the name 'Moving On' for it. Of course, the series name "Pirates' Life' will be in the complete title too.

Chapter 18:

"Ye've seen what they did to Tortuga." Teague gestured to the rubbly remains of the area. "Do ye really think that we truly stand a chance?"

"No, Dad." Jack shook his head. "We stand no chance, but it's still worth tryin'."

"Is it?" Gibbs' voice was quiet, mourning the souls who were killed during the attack.

*X*

"Why did you come here, Jack?" Angelica's eyes were ablaze with anger from their last meeting.

"We need your help." He told her, seriously. After telling her about the circumstances that brought him to her, he asked the question that he really came to ask. He asked her if she'd join them.

"I will, Jack." She'd calmed down a lot, thankfully. "I have an idea too."

"An idea? What idea?" He asked, feeling slightly excited.

"Meet me at Whitecap Bay." She demanded. "That is where our final stand will be."

*X*

Lightning blasted the sky yellow, shouts and thunder filled the air. He glanced back to 'his' fleet, seeing a ship sinking.

"Keep going! We have to leave them behind!" He ordered his crew, who watched with horror. They had to stick to the Code.

'Any man who falls behind is left behind.'

*X*

The Bloody Dragon, faint in the mist, was on the horizon.

*X*

"Ahoy, Jack! Need some help?" William Turner grinned from his ship, waving an arm.

*X*

"Captain! They're 'ere!"

*X*

"Sparrow, we have incoming!" A man pointed to a huge fleet of twelve Navy ships.

"Cannons at the ready!" Jack ordered, his heart pounding nervously.

'This is it; the beginning of the end.'

*X*

He couldn't feel the ground under his foot. Too much weight on his back and he toppled over the edge, horrified as he realized where he was. The gorge.

He spotted some large rocks poking out of the river. He was right over them. Realization came to him moments before he slammed into one of the rocks, blacking out immediately.

*X*

"Why did you make me immortal, Jack?" She asked, clearly remembering to the Fountain.

"I told you the sword was poisoned and ye didn't listen." He told her, remembering the raw grief he felt when he saw the poisoned blade cut her. "I couldn't let you die…" He sighed, taking a deep breath. "I couldn't live without ye. Angelica, I love you. Truly."

'"What have you done?!" Angelica had screeched, racing to her fallen father's side.

"Angelica! DON'T! IT'S POISONED!" Jack had shouted at her, at the top of his lungs.

But it was too late. She'd already pulled the sword from her father's body and it had already cut her hand in the process. She'd gazed at it as it began to bleed abnormally, in a strange way.

The one-legged man spoke up. "I'm not such the fool to take on Blackbeard without a little...venomous 'vantage."

She turned towards the one person who had tried to warn her with pleading eyes. "Jack…"

He turned around to search for the lost chalices desperately. The destruction of the Fountain resumed and it was soon reduced to pieces. The one-legged man took Blackbeard's sword, claiming the man's ship and crew as his own. Then they'd left, as well as the Spaniards.

Jack had immediately resumed looking for the chalices, despite all the odds of being able to find them.'

*X*

Pain rippled through his left hip and he looked down to see his dark pants stained impossibly darker. Blood. He'd been shot.

*X*

A shattered sword stabbed into his leg as he'd tried to crawl unseen under the fighting men and into the camp. It was pushed deeper and dragged through his whole leg. A kick in the head. Someone dragged him out from behind.

"Jack, can you hear me?!" Angelica asked, urgently.

He blacked out.

*X*

"We're cuttin' off your leg." Teague told him.

"Why? It's not that bad, is it?" Jack asked weakly.

"That knee in't gonna work properly again, Sparrow." Grogan explained.

*X*

Intense pain and then it was gone. He knew why. His leg was no longer attached.

*X*

"I killed your mother, my wife." The Keeper sighed, looking him in the eyes.

"No…" He refused to believe it.

*X*

Two bullets had pierced his skin. Bruises and scratches covered most of his skin. His vision blurred from a few kicks to the head.

Teague lay next to him, the light leaving his eyes. "I'm sorry, Jackie."

"I'm not." He retorted.

"I know." The older man said. "I love ye, boy."

*X*

"Who's still alive?" Jack asked quietly.

"Gibbs is alive." Will answered. "The four of us, Henry, Carina, and about maybe five others."

*X*

"Did the Keeper have a heir?" Elizabeth asked him.

"Ye're talkin' to him." He responded, unhappily.

"So, Teague was your father." Will realized.

"I'm sorry, Jack…" The Pirate King told him, sympathetic.

*X*

The boat spilled them out, into the water. He looked around, panicking. 'Where's the bloody wooden leg?' Spotting it, he grabbed it and strapped it on. Then, there was pain in his other leg and he looked to see a shark biting it. Blood tinted the water.

*X*

As soon as he made it aboard the boat, Angelica pulled him into a tight hug. "What was it?"

"A shark."

*X*

Her crying in his arms for the first time since their younger years.

*X*

Jack's eyes snapped open, only for him to squeeze them shut as the sun burned them. Wait...sun? He opened his eyes again, slowly, sitting up from the position he'd fallen asleep in. He groaned, his injured left leg aching painfully. He stretched, pulling himself onto the closest bench and sitting upright. When did I fall asleep, and for how bloody long?

His stomach growled and a hunger pain tore through him. He gasped lightly before looking down at himself. He was much thinner than he'd last looked, before the battle. His ribs easily showed through his skin. God, he was thin. Thin, injured, and weak.

"I see something!" Will's excited voice snapped him out of his thoughts and he stood up on the bench, trying to look over the others' heads.

"Land." Jack smirked as he saw what looked like a beach. It looked bigger than just a tiny island like Isla Cruces, proving that there would be a town or city somewhere there. "Looks promisin'."

"If you're not ready to get off the boat, get ready." The Dutchman's former captain suggested, as he began paddling the boat towards the beach.

The injured pirate captain climbed off of the bench, nearly falling overboard. His stomach slammed into the wood of the edge of the boat. He used his arms to push himself backwards, back up all the way. He cursed under his breath as he half-sat, half-laid back in the bottom of the boat and realized that his first wound had opened up again along with the gunshot wound in his left hip and began bleeding.

"Jack?" Angelica glanced at him with concern.

He wanted to say I'm fine, but he knew that after the previous night that she wouldn't accept it as an answer. He gave a light smirk at her, before looking up at her. "Nearly fell overboard."

She spotted the fresh blood on his skin and sat down next to him. She fingered the bleeding wound that penetrated the skin over his ribcage. A chill went up his spine and he forced himself not to shudder.

"You reopened a wound." She sighed, concerned.

"Aye, one or two." Jack responded.

"What do you mean 'or two'?" She demanded, head snapping up to glare at him momentarily.

He shifted uneasily, only to groan in pain. "Me hip...the gunshot."

"Let me look at it." She reached over in attempt to pull down his breeches to examine his wound.

He slapped her hand away. "Not 'ere, love. It can wait 'till we get somewhere with more space, maybe somewhere more...private." He cast a glance at Will and Elizabeth.

Reluctantly, Angelica agreed. "Fine, but as soon as you and I are alone, I will check to see how bad it is."

She sat there next to him, leaning back to be in the same position he was. She rested her head on his shoulder, one of her hands fidgeting with his dreadlocks and the other holding his wound to help prevent some of the blood loss. His right arm wrapped around her lower back to hold her close, his left arm resting on the edge of the boat.

Minutes later, as he'd lost attention to what was going on around him, the boat reached the shoreline with a rough bump as it slid onto the edge of the sand. He snapped back to reality, realizing they'd finally reached land.

Angelica got up and climbed out of the boat, as well as the other two. Jack was a little slower, as his body was against every little movement. He nearly tripped and fell face first out of the boat, only for Elizabeth to grab him and steady him.

"Careful, Jack." She warned.

He raised his eyebrows, a duh look on his face as he finally managed to get onto the beach. Will pulled the boat higher up the beach to make sure it wouldn't float off to give away their location to hunting Navy vessels or in case they ended up needing it again after all. As he did so, Elizabeth stood out of the way near- but not quite next to- Jack, who was supported by Angelica.

"Should we get going then?" The Dutchman's former captain asked once the dinghy was well on the beach.

"Aye." The injured pirate captain responded.

"What about Jack?" Elizabeth asked her husband. "Clearly he can't get far on his own."

"I will help him." Angelica spoke up, the first time Jack had heard her talk to the couple.

"Alright." Will nodded to her, before turning back to his wife. "See? No problem."

"Well?" Jack raised an eyebrow impatiently. "Are we goin' or not?"

"He's right. We need to get a move on before we all starve to death." The other man agreed.

"Let's go then." Elizabeth muttered.

They walked up the beach, reaching the tree line. Then, they began to trek through the forest.

Never been so glad to see land in my life...