Little Sparrow
Summary: "Now up is down," was the last thing any of them heard before the rush of water drowned everything else out. Later, waking up on a random, deserted island, they almost immediately notice that something was not right with their Captain. Sparrington, Salazak, Willabeth, maybe others mentioned.
"So, Jack," Elizabeth began that night at dinner when Jack, for the first time since that first night, joined the crew for their evening meal instead of stargazing and humming songs to himself at the helm. Said man looked up from his turkey jerky and bread to regard her with expectant black eyes and Swann barely held in her full excitement. "Mermaids?"
"Aye, and sirens, too." He replied when he swallowed while one (maybe former by now) Lieutenant Philip Gillete choked on his drink. ''What about them?''
''Do they jump on decks of pretty ships and warn sailors of cursed pirates often?'' She continued innocently while Gillete tried to regain his breathe, glaring at her through teary eyes.
''Wretch!''
''Not unless you're name is Jack and you have one of these,'' he paused in his eating to show off the blue bead, the brightest thing in his collection beside the little string on his bandanna with a coin at the end. ''But the truth is that I'm the only sailor who actually has one of these, so, yeah ... Everyone else is fair game.''
''What is that, anyway?'' Elizabeth asked curiously, eying the bead. It really was one of the prettiest things she'd seen and she was a Governor's daughter, used to luxury and glamor. She'd seen all kinds of jewelery yet this was the only jewel or treasure she didn't see anywhere else but in Jack's hair until today, around that mermaid's neck. "It must be something special."
"It is, luv. It's a crystallized mermaid's tear, the key to immortality." Sparrow revealed, leaning closer, his eyes catching the light of the lanterns and getting a mysterious glow to them. The others - except Tia Dalma, who knew this well; she had tried bargaining with him for it once but Jack had refused to even consider it, no matter what she offered -leaned closer as well, all eyes raptly fixated on the blue bead now. "Every mermaid get's only one of her own but she inherits the ones of her mother and grandmother and every other foremother before her. Those of particularly long lines have enough to make a necklace, like sweet little Lucia did. But," he leaned back, well away from any grubby, greedy fingers that might try to take the bead from his hair. "There is a catch. The tears, to be used, must be given freely. And a mermaid can give away only her own tear. Those who came before her had had their chance to give the their tear away. Once a mermaid reaches sixteen summers, the other tears are given to her. As for her own ... She has a human life time until the birth of the next mermaid to find someone to gift the tear to. And that's where the catch is. Since a mermaid can give away only one crystallized tear," he leaned in again and pitched his voice lower, grabbing even more of their completely snagged attention greedily. "It is to be given only to he whom she believes she can give her heart to, whom she can gift immortality to spend forever with. A mate, if you will. True love."
"You mean to say ... Lucia is in love with you?" Out of all of the things Jack had just said, Elizabeth was stuck on that. The men around her turned to look at her incredulously while Tia Dalma looked away. Touchy, she always was, when love was brought up in conversation. His words' spell on them broken, Jack once again leaned away from the crew, quickly finished his dinner and set the dish aside so he can comfortably continue with the story telling.
"Of course not. She's just got a little girl's crush on an older boy. Although she is older than me at the moment." He frowned to himself before shrugging it off. "I was just the first human, a first man to treat her kindly so she just grew to like me, I guess. I was shocked when she insisted I take her tear, especially after what she told me it meant. I tried refusing, saying she'll find a better mate in the future, someone who will accept what she was offering, but she was a stubborn little six year old and insisted that, if she had to, she will never again turn back into her mermaid form and sail with me as my wife. That was, like, three years ago to me so it was quite a shock to see her all grown up."
"Havin' secon' thoughts, Jack?" Hector teased the teen, who just chuckled. If you listened carefully, you could tell it was more than a little forced. There was very little humor behind it. Gibbs glared at Barbossa even though he knew the older Pirate Lord had no idea what Jack was going through while Frederico just handed his ration of rum to the young Captain. James was watching him worriedly so Jack took a long drink from the tankard before focusing back on the conversation.
"I said I'd hold on to it for her until she found someone to love and who would love her in turn, but I guess she never did. Stubborn little bubbles." He smiled fondly, a finger playing with the crystal.
"How did you two even meet?" The curious young woman asked, contemplating who she was more likely to get to leave Jack's side, at least for the story. She could try James but Theodor seemed to already be doing the puppy dog eyes on him and maybe Frederico was as much of a courteous gentleman? She could only hope. She'd really like to hear this story.
Jack hummed, leaning a bit to the side until he was resting against Norrington's shoulder, much to the Navy man's surprise. That ruled out asking James to give up his spot. Groves and Elizabeth were equally disappointed. James' face was a rather lovely pink.
Frederico narrowed his eyes in thought.
"Well, let's see. I was fifteen and sailing on the Wicked Wench as a cabin boy, under Captain Morgan. Good man, he was. May his soul rest in piece." Jack for once didn't mock the whole religious aspect of that wording and just continued on, fiddling with his Compass as he continued the story. Anyway, one day, in New Guinea, where we were making port during a nasty summer storm, there were several English Navy ships docked near us pirates as well. Any port in a storm, aye? Well, it's the truth."
He looked each former Navy officer in the eye, daring them to contradict him. Frederico raised his hands as though in surrender, Groves nodded in agreement, Gillete huffed but didn't say anything and James just stayed quiet, arching an eyebrow at the teen. Satisfied that no one was arguing a logical point, Sparrow went back to his story.
"Well, being the curious lad that I am, I couldn't help but go closer to the ship, inspect her, if you will. The Wench was far from happy about me eying another ship but I had to make sure a ship as big as that English vessel could not catch up to us when the storm passes and we are at open sea. Anyway, I heard crying coming from one of the portholes, conveniently close to one of the lines tying the ship to the docks. Real sloppy work, if you ask me, since no one was on watch either on deck or down at the docks. As you can guess, I went to investigate." Jack's hands, as they were wont to, were a blur of moving and fluttering fingers as he told his tale, enchanting his audience with them as much as he did with his eyes and his words. "Once I was level with the porthole, I found little Lucia, six years old, half dunked into some barrel, hands tied above her head, crying her little eyes out. She looked bloody tired and terrified and she flinched away from me when I reached up to untie her. Unfortunately," he sighed in exasperation. "That was when one of the more competent men came along and saw me with the mermaid. He knocked me out and tied me next to her barrel. In the morning, they set sail with the tide despite the weather, in a hurry."
"In a hurry to where?" Theodor asked in barely a whisper, eyes wide with excitement. Jack smiled mysteriously and reached into his coat, where he had taken to secretly carrying the Mao Kun Map since he found it aboard the Black Pearl and realized no one knew it was still there, shocking his audience now as he took it out, spread it and turned the circles until they formed the image of Cube with a silver cup above it, an angel of heaven and an angel of death facing against each other over it.
"To the Fountain of Youth, mate. A race to immortality." He told his fascinated crowd, quickly snatching the Map back and hiding it in his coat again. He'll have to keep it in his chest now, lest they steal it. "I don't know all the details, but I do know that mermaids are needed in order for the Fountain to work. Lucia told me they wanted her tears, which was why they were taking me with them now. They had been torturing her for days on end but she healed and she didn't cry. Mermaids be too tough for that. They thought sorrow might be the case and, since I tried saving her, she might feel pity for me. They never realized how scared she was. They had captured her in the Pacific but were now in the Caribbean. You can just imagine the types of torture they had put her through. She hadn't cried until she was well alone so no one could collect her tears."
"You obviously escaped." Will offered when Jack fell into a furious silence, his fists clenched so hard they were almost as white as Will's used to be before he started sailing with Jack. It was rare to see Jack truly mad but he was obviously fond of Lucia. And she had been just a child! Who wouldn't be furious.
"Of course we did. One of the idiots had a letter opener on him, came down to read some secret missive - a spy for the French, he was. Anyway, while he was reading, I made some noise and he thought someone was coming, so he quickly stashed away the letter and knife, only he didn't secure him in his hidden inner pocket and they fell out in his rush. I managed to reach it after some maneuvering that I would not have been able to do had I not visited India that one time and I started cutting my ropes. I managed to free myself and Lucia just in time before the guards came down to check on us, threw her out through the porthole and followed after leaving the letter on one of the nearby crates. Don't know what they were alarmed about most: our escape or the enemy on the ship. Anyway, there was a great big confusion on the deck and they were getting ready to shoot me - Lucia had swam off immediately after I freed her - when something started dragging me down. I resisted, fearing what it might be and my fear only amused the Englishmen."
"Shows how great the Navy is," Ahmed looked tempted to spit at the curse but knew better than to do it on the ship and would rather not have to get up to do it overboard and miss a part of the story. "They do what they want and call it the law. And then they go calling pirates merciless and blackguards."
"There's no absolute good nor evil on either side, mate." Jack almost admonished, interrupting before any of the present (possibly or already former) Navy men could speak in defense of their beliefs and former jobs. "We're all just men, trying to survive by the strength of our backs and the sweat of our brows and the courage - or cowardice - of our hearts, depends on who you ask. Why do you think the sea goddess is so fond of us? We fight and accuse each other of being the bad guys and she right enjoys the show. She'd be bored as hell otherwise."
"An interestin' thought, Witty Jack." Tia Dalma threw in with wry amusement. "Wot makes ya think she like dem sailors at all?"
"Because she'd be lonely without them." Sparrow answered surely, holding her gaze, a thousand unspoken conversations passing between them. "She needs someone to worship her and only a true sailor worships the sea above all other gods. The Navy boys are all Christians, so of course it is pirates that she favors. Or she did, until they grew bold and stupid when they bound her in her bones. Idiotic, really. The sea is not to be bound or controlled. I agree with Barbossa that Calypso should be freed but I don't agree with the notion of further complicating the spat between her and Davy Jones. We should wait for the opportune moment."
"Ya speak as wisely as always, Witty Jack. Tia missed this side of ya."
"If I really ever stop speaking like this, I ask someone to put a bullet in my head."
"Don't make offers like that, Sparrow. You might regret them." James sardonically told him, cutting in on the strange conversation no one but Barbossa seemed to be quite following. "And there's far too many eager individuals who'd take you up on that offer, so be careful. You won't be able to talk yourself out of every single one."
Jack grinned. "But that's what I have my friends for, aye? And I have some pretty interesting friends."
"Not everyone will be afraid of a mermaid, Jack." Will pointed out but the Captain just snorted.
"Mermaids are not the strongest of my friends, or the scariest of my allies. Heavens help you if you decide to kill me."
"How did you end up on our ship?" The Spanish accented words cut off Elizabeth's and Will's intrigued would-be questions and they all turned to look at Frederico. He was staring intently at the teen, waiting for an answer, his face set in a determined expression that looked somewhere between a glare and a stern face.
Jack answered without waiting, guilt making him answer more than anything. "The thing dragging me bellow the waves ... It was Lucia. Since I saved her and showed her kindness, she was returning the favor. The English realized it was she who was dragging me down and tried to shoot us both, but she finally managed to pull be bellow and she kissed me before going deeper under the surface. After a while, she stopped kissing me and I started panicking, thinking she was surely going to kill me and eat me, but I wasn't suffocating and she didn't go deeper than a dozen meters. We swam like that for hours, she mostly dragging me in the currents and we at times surfaced to try and figure out where we were. It was in those instances that she offered the tear to me and tried to persuade me to become her mate. The only semblance of rest we found a day later, on some rocks in the middle of nowhere. We couldn't stay there since we were both hurting, exhausted, hungry and thirsty in my case, but we took a nap before we continued on. When we saw your ship, we were both ready to just ... collapse but Lucia refused to let me die. She made that final part of the journey, swimming under me to make me float closer to the ship. I was not very conscious of what was going on by that point but I do remember when she kissed my cheek, weaved the tear in my hair and swam away and I remember being carried by Armando to the surgeon. I remember catching a glimpse of two other mermaids, whom she had talked about - we had to talk in order to keep ourselves from panicking while we swam in the middle of nowhere; did you know that rivers Amazon and Nile have their own species of mermaids who actually walk on land most of their lives and don't bother with sinking other people's ships? I wonder if I ever went to investigate that? - pulling her away. When I woke up two days later, I had almost thought it a dream but I wasn't aboard the Wicked Wench and the same strange Spaniard who had carried me was dozing by my bed."
"The captain was very worried about you." Sanchez said by way of explaining, as though that said everything. To Jack, it did and he smiled sadly, opening the Compass to see it still pointing West. He closed it when the two ex Navy men on each of his sides leaned over to peer at it.
''I guess he was.''
''So you have a way to immortality yet you seek Davy Jones heart to stab it?'' Will asked in confusion and Jack's head snapped up, his hand moving in a blur to make a cutting motion before his throat, waving it left and right.
Norrington whipped around to glare at Turner. ''You told him?!'' He hissed angrily and the other realized what had happened, all of them turning to glare at the blacksmith. "When, exactly, have you found the opportune moment to tell him when we all specifically agreed that we won't?"
Jack snorted, straightening up so he was no longer leaning on the Admiral. "It's better if one of you told me instead of the Pearl doing so because I wouldn't be able to trust you at all. As it were, I already felt uneasy enough around you lot to call Lucia. Don't get any stupid ideas, since there are five mermaids trailing us. You try anything and they'll know. And they'll act." It was as much a threat as a warning and a promise. Seeing how fond Lucia is of him, Sparrow was probably doing them the favor of even telling them this instead of letting them find out the hard way.
"They won't be able t' follow us into the Cove, as it is fortified against magical beings making the Crossing by a strong magical barrier, and we're now only a few days away." Barbossa pointed out, taking up Jack's challenge. The teen snorted and Gibbs looked somewhere between rolling his eyes or wringing his hair out with stress and worry.
"Yes, I do hope one of you blokes will be stupid enough to break the Code by attacking a Pirate Lord in the Cove. Can't wait to see your faces when the Keeper lays in on you. Maybe he'll be merciful enough to just flog you to death instead of getting creative."
"It's not against the Code for another to challenge a Pirate Lord for his position."
"No, but it is strictly forbidden by the Code for it to be done in the proximity of Shipwreck Island, let alone within the Cove itself." The two Pirate Lords had all but forgotten about the rest who were now watching them avidly as they discussed the inner and outer workings of the Brethren Court.
"Says who?"
"Says the Code. Specifically, page seven, section five, subsection C3, sheet four-two-six, paragraph fourteen." He noticed all the stares he got, even Barbossa's dropped jaw and glared at them. "What?"
"Why do you ... know the Code in such detail?" Elizabeth asked hesitantly. She was pretty sure no judge or lawyer knew the law that good, in that much detail, although Elizabeth wasn't sure if Jack was bullshitting and pulling their leg or was he actually serious. It was hard to tell, really. Extremely hard to tell. The Jack she had grown accustomed to hid himself behind a mask but a mask had a pattern and you just need to figure it out to see beneath it. This Jack still hadn't developed that mask and that in itself hid him from pondering gazes. They didn't know how to deal with this Jack, the real Jack Sparrow and that was more than defense enough. When you didn't know anything about an unpredictable individual like Jack, you have no idea what to expect from him at all.
Jack's eyes flashed with a strange emotion but it was covered in seconds by a grin in Will's direction. "Every form of immortality has a price, whelp. Tearing out your own heart and serving on the Dutchman for eternity with only one day of shore leave every ten years, taking the years of another person in order to extend your own life, losing all feeling and all that makes you human, or never being able to leave the sea ever again. You see, merpeople who were once humans can't surface for a hundred years and after that, another hundred would be needed before they can set foot on land. I'd rather be free than immortal, mate. And being dependent of a Fountain to stay alive is pure imprisonment without the bars."
"So why not give the tear to someone else?" Ragetti asked, blinking at the de-aged Captain he had once betrayed.
"It wouldn't work. The crystallized tear of a mermaid works only when you crush this outer layer that looks like glass and only the one the mermaid gave it to can break it. And only if they really want to. Besides, anyone else who drinks it will die instantly. I'm the only human who had been given it and is still keeping it instead of using it right away." Jack shrugged with a grin. "I don't need it. But it's a memento and I gladly keep it with me at all times. Maybe, some day, Lucia will come and take it back when she finds someone to love."
"She already did, Witty Jack." Tia Dalma said as she stood up, taking her leave for the evening. "She already did."
The man in question just looked down, no emotion on his face or in his voice. "I know." He excused himself from further questioning and went back to his cabin for some sleep.
It will hopefully be better than the last time he slept.