Dead Men Tell No Tales Redone

by spentlizard

If you saw DMTNT, then you probably are thinking that the film was fantastic until you realized Jack Sparrow really had no purpose for being there. I decided to put the conflict between Jack and Salazar as the main focus instead of the supporting cast, including lots of character development for Jack. Still has Henry, Carina, Barbossa, Will, Liz, etc. but with variations.

21. Not All Treasure is Silver and Gold

Jack and Carina were still screaming as they fell down into the newly-formed abyss. The initial drop did not last long, for in a moment's notice they landed down hard against a relatively smooth incline and the both of them started rolling down together, eliciting grunts of pain and screams of terror. Neither of them could get a good look at where they were going, but from the stones they felt toppling over them as they slid to the brittle coral reefs their bodies crashed into, they were heading downward into the bottom of the trench.

Although Jack was fearing for his own life in this moment, he feared for Carina's as well. He couldn't bear to see her hurt even if they would survive this fall. But more than that, neither of them truly knew what awaited them once they reached the bottom.

After a few more moments of tumbling down the slope, Jack and Carina landed face first onto the damp, black sand at the bottom. Both of them grunted in pain once again when they made contact with the ground.

"Ugh," Jack winced, placing his arms in front of him and slowly lifting his head off the ground. He closed his eyes and shook his head, trying to reorient himself after the hefty fall he had endured. He felt aches all over his body, but it didn't feel like anything too serious.

Opening his eyes, Jack turned to his right to see Carina was lying down on the ground, her long dark hair obscuring her face from view. In an instant, Jack panicked, because he didn't know whether or not his daughter was okay.

"Carina!" Jack spoke, getting up on his knees and shaking her shoulder. When he did, he heard her give off weak-sounding complaint, and she started to pick herself off the ground.

"Ow," Carina said, spitting away some of the black sand from her lips before wiping the rest off with her right sleeve, "That hurt."

"Carina, are you alright?" Jack worriedly asked her.

"I'm fine, Jack," Carina responded, trying to get up off the ground. Jack immediately stood up and helped slowly pull her to her feet.

"Are you sure? Nothing broken?" Jack asked Carina again once she was standing and facing him. He had to be sure. She had to be okay.

"A few bruises, maybe, but I'm good," Carina replied in a strained voice, rubbing her right arm gingerly.

Jack heaved a sigh of relief knowing that she was okay for now.

They both turned away from each other out towards where the slope downward was leading them to, and when they saw just what both of their jaws dropped in pure awe.

In their immediate vicinity, they saw that there were a number of coral reefs surrounding them, some high and others low. The ground beneath them was black, wet sand and had an unusual luster to it. Looking up ahead of them, they saw the torn masts of fallen ships laid up against the rocky formations around them. Strangest of all, the ocean had stopped dividing, and now the trench was wide enough that two ships could fit into it travelling side-by-side. They looked upward to see daylight just up above the point where the ocean split, now separated into two massive "walls" of water that seemed to stretch for miles and miles without end.

They were standing at the bottom of the sea.

Carina was completely mesmerized by what she was seeing. Her mind is telling her that she's gone mad, but here she is standing on the dry ocean floor, watching as the water between them seemed to be held back by some invisible force. The sounds of the battle above were drowned out by the sounds of the rushing ocean water making a sort of "buffer" between the bottom and the top. Stray droplets fell from both sides, but otherwise the water remained parted. It was positively the most insane thing Carina had ever seen, which was saying something considering all that she had seen in this week alone.

"Unbelievable," she muttered. This was everything beyond even her wildest dreams.

Jack, having been accustomed to the supernatural after all these years, was nevertheless stunned himself after observing his surroundings. Galileo hadn't been exaggerating when he described the power of Poseidon's Trident after all.

"This is just like in the Bible," Jack began, "when God parted the Red Sea and helped Moses and the Israelites to cross."

A thought occurred to Carina, and she asked, "You don't think the two stories are somehow connected, do you?"

"At this point, I find it best not to dwell on matters like that," Jack answered her.

Carina started walking forward, attempting to reach a clear-enough section where she could see the water meeting the sand on the bottom. When she got close, she felt the spray of water droplets kiss her face, and once more Carina was in awe of what she saw. This completely defied the laws of physics.

Jack looked down on the ground where Carina had been standing a moment before, and noticed that Galileo's diary had managed to fall off of her person. His eyes widened in momentary concern, and then he quickly snatched the book up and held it in his hand. He was about to call out to Carina so she could take the book back, but Jack then noticed her attention was still fixed on the liquid wall.

Carina extended her left arm outwards and stuck her fingers into the water, watching the water ripple from her touch as if it were normal. Even then, the wall remained intact and unwavering.

"Truly unbelievable," Carina spoke again, her heart beating from the excitement of something as strange and wonderful as this. If only her father could be here to see it with her, she thought.

Jack placed the book inside his waistcoat for the time being; he needn't concern Carina with it for now. He walked over closer to where she was standing and saw her looking in awe as her hand harmlessly touched through the inverted water. He smiled as she looked to be enjoying herself for the moment.

Jack looked away from Carina out to the ocean just beyond the wall of water, noting the other coral reefs that looked just the same as over where he was now. He saw schools of fish of many varieties swimming through the nearby area, seemingly unaffected by the supernatural occurrence in their otherwise natural habitat. In another moment however, he saw all the fish begin to scurry away from the area, and Jack was puzzled as to why. Just then, he heard a faint, echoing sound, and he turned his head to his left to see a giant creature swimming in their direction.

"WHALE!" Jack exclaimed at the same moment that a ginormous humpback whale came into view, its right pectoral fin suddenly jutting out through the water barrier. Acting quickly, Jack seized Carina by her shoulders and he brought the both of them down to the ground just as the fin passed over where their heads had been, soaking the both of them with water.

Standing back up, Jack and Carina saw the fin recede back into the water completely, and then the humpback turned left and swam out to the open ocean.

"That was a close one!" Carina exclaimed, watching as the magnificent creature started shrinking into the distance.

"You don't see that every day," Jack noted, and the pair of them backed away from the edge of the barrier towards the center of the clearing.

"We have to hurry," Carina said, remembering that they still had to find the Trident, "This way."

Jack and Carina both started to walk down the newly-formed pathway, hoping to reach the Trident in time. Salazar had Henry, and who knew what nefarious plans the Spaniard had for the young Turner?

---

The Silent Mary was sitting in the middle of the ocean, battered more than it had ever been following the incursion with the pirates. Though the battle itself between the pirate fleet and the Royal Navy was still raging, the Mary had distanced itself from the fighting and was now resting idly by for the moment.

Henry had been brought to the quarter deck. His arms were being held back by two of Salazar's men, their grips firm and unrelenting on the boy.

"Let go of me!" Henry shouted, trying to wriggle his way loose from the ghosts to no avail. The other crewmembers of the Mary laughed as they watched him struggle.

"Basta!" Salazar ordered, limping forward from the crowd of Spaniards closer to Henry. In an instant, his men had stopped laughing and were eerily silent. Salazar himself got close enough that he was now face to face with Henry. The sound of his wheezing made Henry flinch a little, and he did his best to keep his eyes on Salazar as to not give the impression that he was afraid of him. Which he was.

"I gave you one simple task, boy," Salazar spoke coldly, but his tone of voice seemed to sound more disappointed than angry, "One... very... simple... task. Bring me Jack Sparrow. I saved your life, and this is how you thank me?"

"You're a murderer!" Henry nearly screamed in Salazar's face, "You killed all those men on the Monarch! Good men!"

"And so were my crew," Salazar spat angrily, getting some of the blood dripping from his mouth onto Henry's shirt, "Good men devoted to their country and to ridding the world of piracy. Now, half of them are dead, and the other half are still condemned to a horrible fate that no man deserves."

"None of that is my fault!" Henry argued, but Salazar became enraged and backhanded Henry's cheek, forcing his head back slightly. In another instant, Salazar grabbed Henry's chin and pulled his face closer to his own. They were close enough now that their foreheads were almost touching.

"You aided Sparrow! You helped him escape me! You're the reason my men are dead!" Salazar screamed at the top of his lungs. He then released his grasp from Henry's face rather roughly, and then spoke again in a lower tone, saying, "And now, you will be punished for your crimes."

"If you mean to kill me, get on with it then," Henry said, trying his best to stand tall in the face of adversity, "I'm not afraid to die."

But Salazar merely chuckled at the boy's act of defiance, much to Henry's confusion.

"Oh no, Henry," Salazar spoke, his cracked lips forming a devious smile, "I'm not going to kill you. I'm going to give you a chance to redeem yourself."

As Salazar finished his statement, Lezaro looked extremely anxious, whereupon he spoke up, saying, "Capitan! Don't do it!"

Salazar turned his head towards his loyal second-in-command. Even after all these years, his loyalty towards his captain had not wavered once, and Salazar knew this. But he knew what was at stake, and he knew the risks involved.

"There's no choice to be made, Teniente," Salazar replied plainly, "Sparrow is on land going for the Trident."

"Capitan, I implore you, think about this!" Lezaro begged, "You remember when Ernesto did it, he wasn't able to escape. Once you possess the living, there is no coming back. You will be trapped in his body forever!"

"What!?" Henry asked, his eyes widening in shock.

"If Sparrow gets his hands on that Trident, he could kill us all," Salazar continued, "It's a risk I am willing to take."

"Capitan, there must be another way!" Lezaro was practically groveling at this point, "Please, let me do it instead-"

"NO!" Salazar barked, causing Lezaro to flinch a little, "No, I... this is something that I must do myself. I can't allow any of you to take that risk."

Salazar looks away from Lezaro and quickly turns to look at the faces of his crew.

"If there is any hope of our curse being lifted, I can't have any more of you waste your chance senselessly. We lost many good men tonight, but trust me when I say that I will avenge them just as I will avenge you," Salazar let out a heavy sigh, "If this Trident is as powerful as the legends say, then there's a chance I can free myself. If not... it has been the greatest honor to serve with you men. Each and every one of you."

All of the Spanish on the deck looked solemnly at their captain, a man they had followed in both life and death. They couldn't imagine possibly going on without him, but nonetheless were touched by what he was willing to do for their salvation.

Salazar turned his attention back towards Henry, who was now struggling extra hard to break free of the ghosts' grips on his arms. His breathing had picked up immensely as Salazar limped towards him, seeing the expose cavity in the left side of his head plain as day.

"You monster!" Henry shouted, "You can't do this!"

"It may have escaped your notice, but life isn't fair, Henry," Salazar spoke, sheathing his rapier in his scabbard. Slowly, he raised his right hand upward.

Father, where are you? Please, please, please help me.

"You don't know anything about pain, do you Henry?" Salazar asked softly, his hand slowly moving closer to his face, "Don't worry, you'll learn soon enough. You'll learn all about my pain."

"No! Don't-"

Salazar wrapped his hand along the side of Henry's head, and then pressed his thumb directly on his forehead.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHH!" Henry screamed in pain, having never felt such an intense sensation in all his life. It felt like someone was pressing a white-hot iron to his skull, and his brain felt like it was already on fire. This same burning sensation soon shot through every one of his nerves throughout his body, and he started to shake violently. Soon, the burning sensation was quickly replaced by an icy, cold numbness that started in his stomach, then spread to his limbs, and then up to his mind. At that moment, he felt himself drifting off, the pain being too much to endure...

---

He was falling.

Henry didn't know where he was or why he was falling, but he was falling.

He was surrounded by dark storm clouds, and he could hear the thunder not too far away. In an instant, his eyes snapped open, and he saw the ocean beneath him. Quickly, he braced himself, and he fell into the water beneath him. The force at which he was falling propelled him far underwater. When his propulsion had stopped, he attempted to swim upwards for air. But after several seconds, it felt like he wasn't getting anywhere closer to the surface. His lungs screamed for air, but he couldn't get himself above water.

Suddenly, he felt a vibration surging throughout the water. Henry's legs had impacted a wooden surface. He was rising up through the water, and once he broke through the barrier, he was gasping for air. Once he caught his breath, he looked around him. He was on the deck of the Flying Dutchman, which looked to be abandoned.

He looked over towards the stern to see a silhouetted figure standing behind the seaweed-covered masts.

Henry was about to call out to the figure when he heard a young voice say, "Father?"

Henry turned to his left to see that there was a boy suddenly standing next to him, facing in the direction of the silhouette.

It was him. It was Henry when he was a child, when he tried to find his father. What was going on here?

Henry turned his head back towards the silhouette, only to see that he had disappeared, replaced instead with a monstrous-looking crew composed of elements of the sea working on the deck, manning the lines and the sails during a raging rainstorm.

"Secure the mast tackle, Mr. Turner!" one of the crew members shouted, and though he didn't understand why, Henry quickly got up and started to head over to where the mast tackle was. He saw several lines of rope covered in seaweed trying to lift a cannon, and made a rush to tie it down as per his orders. However, the moment he grabbed onto the rope, another pair of hands did as well.

"Step aside!" the man said, and Henry looked up to see who had spoken to him, and he gasped in shock at who he saw.

It was his father, Will Turner. But he was not covered in crustaceans, nor did he appear as old as he did as Henry remembered him to be. He was a young man, around about Henry's age.

How was he seeing all this?

Will had let go of the rope, and Henry, still gripping onto it tightly, went flying as the weight of the cannon dropped. He felt himself propelled through the air, and suddenly the storm increased in intensity. He fell onto the deck again and rolled into the port rail of the ship. Standing himself up, he saw something that was impossible for him to imagine.

He saw his father, young as he was a moment ago, lying on his back against the starboard rail. He then saw his mother, young as well, laying against the small stairway near his father. Standing over his father was a monstrous, octopus-like figure wielding a sword. And next to Henry stood Jack Sparrow, far younger than he was now, holding a broken sword in one hand and a beating heart in the other.

It was then that Henry realized that these were too vivid to be his imagination. These were memories. But they weren't his own. Why was he seeing the memories of things he had never seen?

"Heady tonic, holding life in death in the palm of one's hand," Jack mocked the monster with a cocky grin on his face.

"You're a cruel man, Jack Sparrow," the monster retorted in a thick, Scottish accent, and Henry realized this must be Davy Jones.

"Cruel is a matter of perspective," Jack responded right back.

"Is it?" Jones spoke, and in an instant, he turned around and pierced Will through his heart.

Will let out a moan of pain. Elizabeth gasped in horror. Jack's cocky demeanor quickly fell as he watched his friend being stabbed.

"AGH!" Henry winced and clutched at his chest, feeling an agonizing pain within his heart. He didn't understand; he wasn't the one who was stabbed, his father was.

He looked up towards his father, and saw that Jones was twisting the sword inside his chest. He then looked over to Jack, who was still standing there shocked while he held the still-beating heart of Jones in his hand.

He had just stood there. He did nothing while Jones murdered his father. Why didn't he do anything to stop him?

"No... stop it!" Henry called out loud. What had Salazar done to him? He started to back up, the pain in his chest increasing by the second, until he eventually stumbled backward off the Dutchman's port rail and fell into the raging maelstrom below.

Henry expected to impact the water, but instead he found himself rolling onto a checkered, marble floor. Quickly, he got up and looked around him. This wasn't a ship. It looked like a manor of some kind. There were fine assortments of furniture, potted plants, and painting adorning what looked to be a parlor, and a pair of glass doors opened out onto a balcony overlooking the sea. There was a golden sun beginning to set over the horizon.

Henry felt something brush past him, and he saw two young boys rushing past him, both of them holding wooden toy swords. He didn't recognize either of them, but at the same time something in the back of his mind said that he knew them. They stopped running when they reached the balcony, and began to swing the wooden swords playfully at each other, laughing while they did so.

"Prepare to die, pirate!" the brown-haired boy of the two joked, while the blond-haired one said, "Avast ye scurvy braggart!"

A woman's laughter sounded from behind Henry, and he turned around to see a rather beautiful looking woman walking towards them.

"I hope you boys haven't been having too much fun," the woman said in a Spanish accent.

"We were just trying to be like papa," the brown-haired boy spoke.

"Si, we want to help him when we grow up," the blond-haired boy spoke up.

"And I have no doubt that you will one day," a voice called out from around the corner, and Henry's eyes widened in absolute horror as he recognized the voice. He turned his head again, and he saw him.

Salazar emerged from the corner, but he didn't look like the ghost he was now. He looked very much alive, wearing his clean white uniform, his hair tied back in a neat ponytail, his posture upright, and a genuine smile on his face.

"No," Henry stammered, "It- it can't be..."

"How are my wonderful boys, mi amor?" Salazar asked the woman.

"Trying to be like you, Armando," the woman replied with a smile, and Salazar leaned in and kissed her.

Henry's breath picked up, and he started backing up in terror. He watched as Salazar and his wife walked out onto the balcony, and the both of them picked up one of their sons and held them in their arms. Salazar himself looked to be laughing in pure happiness surrounded by his family.

"No... please!" Henry called out, hoping that the real Salazar could hear him, "Stop it!"

Henry saw the image of Salazar and his family becoming blurry, and darkness surrounded them.

The ground gave out from under Henry, and he started falling again into a black abyss. He started his fall screaming, but the noise drowned out, and he knew no more.

---

Henry fell down upon the deck of the Mary, the ghosts holding his arms having released him. All of the Spanish soldiers had gathered around and watched as the boy started to pick himself up. Salazar was nowhere in sight.

Lezaro got down on one knee, placed a hand on Henry's right shoulder, and asked, "Capitan?"

With Lezaro's assistance, Henry got onto his knees, and he was still holding his head down.

"Capitan?" Lezaro asked again, and in that moment Henry's head lifted, revealing that several cracks had formed around his eyes. His mouth then became a wicked grin as he looked Lezaro in the eyes.

"Time to kill a Sparrow," Salazar answered, his voice a haunting blend of Henry's and his own. He now had control over the boy's body.

---

Jack and Carina had been walking through the trench for quite some time, navigating their way through the coral and the rocky formations that lay in their path. Carina was doing all she could to commit everything she was seeing to memory, not that she was likely to forget anything like this anytime soon. If only the university heads that rejected her for all these years could be here right now to see that she had made the discovery of the millennium.

Jack was observing his surroundings more solemnly. He had finally discovered what he had set out to find decades ago to find, but realizing what his actions had cost him pushed any thoughts of success or satisfaction far from his mind. Especially since there was a constant reminder of his past walking alongside him right now.

Well Bonnet, I kept my bloody promise to you.

The pair of them looped around a rather large reef, and they stopped in place when they saw a most magnificent sight. There were multiple broken archways ahead of them, each bearing their own series of decorative prongs. Columns of different sizes also were present. At the end of the pathway, there was a gigantic structure that curved unnaturally, and its centerpiece looked like the raging waves.

"Poseidon's tomb," Jack remarked, realizing now what this place was. This was a shrine dedicated to the sea god, and if he was buried here, then that also meant...

"Look, Jack! There it is!" Carina excitedly spoke up, pointing towards the center of the shrine. Jack looked ahead more closely, and he saw what looked like a massive stone coffin up ahead covered in Ancient Greek lettering. And up on top of the coffin, it was there, ensnared in wooden vines that seemed to have grown out of it and around the nearby archway.

The Trident of Poseidon.

It was a large, wooden object with an asymmetrical structure. Just like the constellation that lead them here, the one prong was jutting out longer than the others, which were not only shorter but also grouped closer together to each other than they were the longer prong. The Trident itself had an unnatural green glow shimmering from the cracks in the bark, which ran all the way from the tips of the prongs to the end of the handle. In addition, at the point where the prongs met with the weapon's handle, there was a large orange crystal glowing in the center, and a humming noise seemed to be emitting from it.

Carina never had been happier in her entire life. Her hands covered her mouth in awe, realizing that she had finally done it. After all these years, all the searching, and all the hardships, she had finally found the Trident of Poseidon! It was hers for the taking!

Jack stood there with his mouth agape. There it was, at long last. The legendary Trident of the Greek god of the seas. Filled with unspeakable powers anything beyond his wildest dreams. The very thing he had first sought out decades ago, only to lose hope at ever finding it once he had lost everything. But now, here he was. Standing mere feet away from the greatest discovery in his life, with his daughter by his side.

Jack smiled. For the first time in a very long time, he was genuinely happy.

"We found it!" Carina exclaimed with joy, "We found the Trident!"

Jack turned to face Carina and saw the pure excitement on her face. None of this would have been possible if it hadn't been for her. If she hadn't showed up in his life, they wouldn't be here now. If she hadn't shown up, Jack would've gone the rest of his days believing he would never be truly happy again. She had shown him that he still had something worth living for.

I'm so proud of you, sweetheart.

He wanted so badly to tell her this out loud, but he knew that he never could. Carina would be mortified if she learned that she carried the blood of a pirate, and Jack didn't want to put her through that.

The moment of self-reflection was cut suddenly by the sudden shouting of "JAAAAAAAAAACK!"

Both Jack and Carina turned around at the shout, and they saw that Henry was running across the ocean floor towards them.

"Henry!" Carina called out, surprised to see Henry had seemingly been freed from Salazar's clutches, "How did you manage to escape?"

Jack, who was relieved at first to see Henry unharmed, noticed that his running didn't seem to let up as he drew closer to them. He also noticed an angry scowl on his face as he came nearer and nearer. Finally, he saw his hand reach for the hilt of his sword at his belt and began to draw it as he ran up the inclined surface of the reef they had passed moments before.

"He didn't!" Jack voiced cracked in terror.

Henry had his sword drawn and he leapt off the edge of the reef. In a quick moment, Jack pushed Carina's right shoulder and caused her to fall upon the ground, whereupon he drew his own sword and was able to block Henry's aerial attack.

Carina had begun to pick herself off the ground, and she looked over her shoulder to see that Jack was now trying to defend himself from an aggressive Henry. The two exchanged a series of quick blows from each other before Jack was able to knock him back for a few seconds. Afterwards, he looked down at Carina and shouted, "Carina, get to the Trident!"

Carina started to get up, watching as Henry continued to press a series of quick strikes against Jack. What the hell had gotten into him?

"Jack!" Carina called out from the sidelines as Henry and Jack's blades became locked in place. She had to do something.

"GO! NOW!" Jack ordered her, and after a moment of hesitation, Carina took off running towards the Trident. She could still hear Henry and Jack's blades clashing together from behind her, and knew she had to act quickly before anything happened to either of them. Carina knew that this wasn't like Henry at all. Why was he trying to kill Jack?

Carina had reached the coffin, which looked to be much larger than that of an ordinary human. But she couldn't dwell on that right now, not while there were lives at risk. Hastily, she climbed up on top of the coffin where the Trident was, and took hold of the handle and attempted to pull it out of its spot. But no matter how hard she pulled, it was of no avail; the Trident remained firmly in place on top of the coffin.

---

Jack had been deflecting more and more blows from Henry's sword, but the boy kept pressing into him, channeling rage into his every attack.

"What's the matter with you!?" Jack shouted at him. Henry reeled his sword back and tried to hack into Jack's left side, but Jack quickly responded and blocked the sword strike. At the same time, however, Henry had pulled his left arm back and punched Jack across the jaw, causing the pirate to stumble for a moment away from the young Turner.

As Jack attempted to regain his stance, he placed his free hand to his jaw to try to nurse the pain, and he looked ahead to see Henry standing there with a devilish grin upon his face, pointing his sword out towards him.

"Lighten the grip, square the pommel. Remember?" Henry spoke, but it was then that Jack realized what was going on here. He recognized the technique he was using, despite having no prior skill with a sword. Past his hair which was now dangling to his shoulders, he saw the unnatural cracks surrounding his eyes that looked all too familiar. He heard a voice that was a combination of Henry's and a dark, sinister cracking one that he would not soon forget.

"Salazar..." Jack uttered, taking his hand off his jaw. He saw now what had happened to Henry. Salazar had taken control of his body.

"Surprise, Jack," Salazar smiled with Henry's mouth, outstretching his arms like he had already won, "Happy to see me again?"

"No," Jack said, readying himself, "You let the boy go, Salazar! We can settle this like men!"

"I'm afraid that is something I cannot do, Jack," Salazar spoke again, "The only way that I leave this body is if you kill me."

"I won't do it!" Jack shouted at him in defiance.

"Then I suppose the only choice left is for me to kill YOU!" Salazar shouted back at the moment he swung forward fast and hard with Henry's sword. Jack evaded the blow at the last second, and he and Salazar continued to fight among the rocks at the bottom of the sea.

While they were fighting, Salazar's men had descended into the ocean, landing on the sandy floors just inside the water barriers. Lezaro and his men drew their swords and got closer to the water wall separating them from the dry area where the living were. They could not step beyond the water or else they would all turn to dust, but if anyone had gotten too close they could easily dispatch with them.

Jack continued to block Salazar's attacks, easily discouraged from going on the offensive because he was using Henry as a weapon against him. He couldn't bring himself to hurt him. This was Will and Elizabeth's son. It was tearing him apart right now at this moment to fight him, nevermind the fact that he might have to kill him.

"Henry!" Jack called out, hoping that the boy could still be reached from within, "I know you're in there somewhere!"

Salazar continued to press into Jack despite the pirate's pleas. Eventually, Jack had to evade a number of quick strikes from Salazar and got backed up into a rocky reef. He turned around to see if there was a route to escape from his current situation, but he saw that Lezaro was standing there, brandishing his own sword with murderous intent in his eye.

Jack turned back around to see Salazar prepared to bring his sword down on top of him. He got out of the way at the last second, and Henry's blade made contact with the rocks instead. Jack got himself into position and raised his sword. Salazar swung his blade directly from the point where he hit the rocks and attempted to behead Jack, who subsequently ducked below before he was killed. Acting quickly, Jack swung his sword upwards in an attempt to knock Salazar off balance, and he heard the sound of blade cutting skin as Salazar stood there for a moment holding Henry's head back to the left.

Salazar slowly began to regain his composure, and he reached his free hand towards Henry's face to feel a thin cut along his right cheek. It stung only a little, but to Salazar that meant so much. He hadn't been able to feel proper pain in decades.

He looked over towards Jack, who looked mortified over what he had done. Salazar grinned, knowing he could use this to torture him even further.

"You cut me, you cut the boy, Jack," Salazar spoke menacingly, and right after he resumed pressing into Jack, using every skill he knew to try to beat his sworn enemy.

Carina was still trying to pry the Trident out of the coffin, but it just wouldn't move. Worriedly, she looked over to see Jack and Henry still fighting each other, and she saw that Jack was getting more worn out by the second. She knew she had to do something and fast.

"Henry!" Jack called out again when the fighting had broken for a moment, "If you can hear me, fight back!"

Salazar swung towards Jack's legs, and Jack jumped to avoid it. He looked up and saw Salazar's wrath behind Henry's eyes.

"He doesn't control you, Henry!" Jack shouted, "No one does! You get to decide who you want to be, Henry! It's not up to me, it's not up to Salazar, it's not up to your father, it's who you want to be!"

Salazar kept on fighting, using the boy's youthful body to his advantage as he continued assaulting the aged pirate. Jack and Salazar swung at the same time and their blades locked together.

"Do you know why?" Jack asked, "Because you're Henry Turner! You're free! Now fight back!"

"He can't hear you, idiota!" Salazar shouted, breaking the hold between the two. Salazar attempted to deal another heavy blow, but by some amazing stroke of luck, Jack had managed to disarm him and his sword went flying from his grasp.

Salazar scowled at him, but he backed up a couple of steps while Jack had his sword at the ready. Kneeling down slightly, Salazar reached into Henry's right boot and drew his knife from the sheath, holding the blade downward as he brought it back up. He didn't even hesitate before he started to swing the knife at Jack, who backed up when he saw Salazar's blade mere inches from his chest. He did so about two or three more times before Salazar decided to bring his knife down upon Jack's skull. As he began to thrust down using both hands, Jack dropped his sword from his grasp and caught hold of Henry's arms before the knife could cut into him.

"Henry!" Jack begged, holding onto the small hope that Henry could somehow hear him from within. Salazar was using all his strength to press the knife down, but Jack was resilient enough to stop him from killing him. The blade's tip was a mere inch from his eye, and Jack began to panic. He attempted to force Salazar off him, but at that precise moment when he tried to push him off to the side, his blade had come down and managed to cut across the top of Jack's left arm, tearing the sleeve and causing him to bleed.

"Agh!" Jack grunted, placing his right hand upon his newly-acquired wound. He saw that his left sleeve had been torn back as well.

He had no time to lament upon it, because Salazar had raised the knife again and was prepared to strike down on Jack once more. Jack caught Henry's right arm with his left hand, and subsequently caught on the other arm and held it in place.

"Please don't make me do this," Jack begged solemnly, but Salazar was unrelenting. He continued to press down with the knife.

In an instant, Jack kneed Henry's stomach, causing him to nearly double over and lose his grip on the knife. Jack caught onto the blade with his right hand while still holding onto Henry's arm with his left, quickly raised it upward, and stabbed through just below Henry's wrist.

"AAGH!" Salazar hollered, stepping back as Jack pulled the knife out of Henry's arm. Salazar looked down at Henry's right arm where Jack had stabbed him, and he felt an almost unbearable amount of pain when he tried to flex the boy's fingers. The wound would heal, but now Salazar was left without his dominant arm to fight with.

The Spaniard looked up at Jack, who made no move to press him. He merely stood there, still holding onto the bloodied blade in his hand.

"Why don't you just go ahead and kill me, then?" Salazar outstretched his arms, "Make sure you do it right this time."

"You can stop all this now," Jack spoke, tossing the knife from his grip onto the ground.

"I don't want to stop!" Salazar shouted, his rage filling him once again, "Don't you understand!? The only way this ends is if one of us dies!"

Salazar lunged forward and grabbed Jack by the throat, tackling him to the ground. He held his injured hand around his throat, and reeled back his fist and began straddle punching him in the face. One, two, three times over, again and again, using his blind fury to inflict as much pain as possible on him.

Eventually, Salazar let up, and Jack started to cough heavily, his eyes drooping down. Salazar stood up over Jack, and then turned around and walked over towards where Henry's sword was laying on the ground. He picked it up with his left hand, and started to slowly walk over towards Jack. He had had his fun. It was time for Jack Sparrow to die.

Jack was still having his coughing fit when he saw Salazar approaching him holding his sword. With what little strength he had, he started to crawl backwards as the Spaniard drew closer to him. But he couldn't see any way out of this.

Salazar stopped and looked down over him. His face contorted into a vicious sneer as he raised his sword up.

Jack closed his eyes and prepared for what was to come.

Salazar swung with all his fury down upon the pirate captain, ready to take his revenge at long last.

CLINK!

The sound of metal impacting metal rang through the air. Jack opened his eyes and saw that Salazar's blade had been stopped by another blade. Salazar looked down in confusion as his killing stroke had been blocked. The Spaniard turned his head to his left, and he saw that it was Carina that had stopped him from killing Jack.

"Henry!" Carina begged, holding her sword in both hands, doing her best to keep Salazar's blade away from Jack.

Jack's lip began to tremble, and his eyes widened in fear.

NO! Please God, no! Don't do this!

Salazar pulled his sword away and took a few steps back, studying Carina with curious intent.

"Ah," Salazar spoke, "I had almost forgotten you were here."

"Get away from him!" Carina ordered, raising her sword up.

"Very well, chica," Salazar grinned, pointing his sword towards her, "You die first."

Salazar swung towards Carina, and she deflected it, backing up away from where Jack was. All she had to do was keep him preoccupied for a few moments, until Jack could get back up again. She just hoped she remembered all of Jack's training.

Salazar lunged forward with his blade, and Carina parried the advance to her right. Salazar fell into the momentum of his strike and spun around, trying to hit Carina' left side. Fortunately, Carina was able to turn her blade back and blocked the incoming blow. Immediately following, Carina raised her right foot and kicked Salazar in the chest, knocking him back a little bit but not enough to make him fall down.

Salazar grunted as he attempted to regain his stance. This girl was youthful and inexperienced, but he couldn't deny that she had some talent. Still, if his dominant arm weren't injured he would've disposed of her already.

Carina swung her sword in a quick circle, obvious was her intent to intimidate the Spaniard. But Salazar was anything but fazed by the girl's attempt to act tough.

"Come on!" Carina shouted at him, her face contorted into an angry scowl. Salazar, however, merely chuckled at her.

"You really think you can beat me?" Salazar asked.

"We'll see," Carina threatened, and without hesitation she charged forward at Salazar with her sword raised. Salazar was quick to raise his blade and block her strike, and then started to press back into her, using a series of rapid strikes against her. Carina ducked under one of Salazar's strikes, then popped back up to repel more of his incoming attacks.

Jack, summoning as much strength as he could, began to crawl over towards his sword. He felt himself drained of all energy, but he knew he had to keep going. Carina was in danger, and if she got hurt Jack could never forgive himself. Salazar was a problem that he created. His daughter should not have to suffer the consequences for what he had done.

Carina and Salazar were still fighting, Salazar being the more aggressive of the two in his fighting technique. He was forcing her back towards some of the rocks, but Carina couldn't do anything about it. Most of what Jack had taught her was defensive in nature, so she had to improvise on the rest.

Salazar tried striking at her legs, but Carina leapt up and landed on top of one of the small boulders surrounding them. Salazar reeled his sword back and tried to strike at her boots again, but Carina then jumped off back onto the sand. A rapid series of quick strikes from the pair of them followed, their blades clinking together with sharp clarity. Salazar had managed to parry one of Carina's strikes towards him, and then used his right hand to backhand her across her face.

"Ugh!" Carina grunted, stumbling backwards from where she and Salazar were dueling. She held up the back of her left hand to the right side of her face in response to the pain, and then looked forward at Salazar again. He was making no move to press her at the moment, as he looked to be gritting his teeth with his attention fixed on Henry's arm. He felt a sharp twinge of pain right where Jack had stabbed him.

Seeing an opportunity, Carina grabbed her sword with two hands and swung forward at Salazar. But the Spaniard's reflexes were too quick, and he leaned back away from the girl's strike. Carina carried on from the momentum of her attack and brought her sword back around her head, swinging it forward to strike down with a heavy blow. However, Salazar was able to dodge her attack again, stepping to the right as her blade cut through nothing but air. Carina stumbled forward from the force of her strike, quickly turning herself back around to keep her eyes on Salazar. He turned his sword in Henry's hand twice, and slowly approached Carina, who was backing up slowly away from him.

Jack had managed to crawl over to where his sword was laying, reached out, and grabbed it by the hilt. He then turned his head towards where Salazar and Carina were, and saw the Spaniard closing in on his daughter with lethal intent.

Carina held a firm grip on her weapon, and Salazar raised his sword up and swung forward. Carina likewise struck as well and halted the attack. Salazar turned his sword low, and Carina blocked that as well. Salazar then spun himself around and threw all of his weight into a downward strike, which Carina raised her sword up in response. Their swords came into contact once more, only this time the pair of them held the blades together. Salazar exerted all of his energy into pushing Carina back, eventually ramming her against the side of one of the reefs.

"Henry!" Carina called, hoping the man she knew could hear her. Their swords grinded together hard.

"The boy can't hear you, Senorita Smyth," Salazar growled at her, and he noticed the look on her face upon saying her name, "Oh yes, I know all about you. Everything Henry knows, I know too."

Carina was still resisting Salazar's blade, gritting her teeth while she did so.

"He cares for you, you know... in his own way," Salazar gave a wicked grin, and this caught Carina off guard for a moment. Salazar broke the deadlock between them and tried to strike at her, but Carina was able to step away at the last second as his sword struck the reef. Salazar quickly turned around and started to go all out on Carina, using as many quick strikes as he could. After a few moments, he was able to nick Carina on her right arm just below the shoulder, causing her to recoil in pain. She hardly had time to lament on her injury when Salazar struck hard and her sword went flying from her grasp.

Carina's breath picked up in terror, for now she had no weapon to defend herself with.

Salazar raised his sword back and was prepared to kill Carina, but out of nowhere Jack rushed in with his sword raised before Salazar could deliver the fatal blow.

"DON'T TOUCH HER!" Jack shouted at the top of his lungs.

As Jack and Salazar resumed fighting again, Carina looked over and saw her sword lying on the ground. Quickly, she rolled across the ocean floor and picked her sword back up. She rushed over up alongside Jack and struck forward, and Salazar blocked her attack.

Jack and Carina were both swinging forward with their swords, father and daughter fighting side-by-side against a common foe. When Jack would strike high, Carina would strike low, and vice-versa. Salazar had to move with lightning fast speed in order to meet their attacks, and for the most part he was successful.

Eventually, the pair of them forced Salazar backwards, and then they retreated towards the Trident. They knew they couldn't keep up the fighting forever, and they weren't going to resort to killing Henry either. Salazar gave chase, and they had just about made it to Poseidon's coffin when he lunged for Jack again. Carina climbed up on top of the coffin to try grabbing the Trident again, while Jack would keep Salazar busy.

An idea suddenly came to Carina, and she looked at the base of the coffin where the Trident was attached. Quickly, she raised her sword and began to cut off the wooden vines ensnaring the weapon, and then she struck down at the bottom of the weapon to try to dislodge it. However, the precise moment the blade made contact with the base, the Trident broke free from its confines, and a tremendous amount of water shot out from inside the coffin, sending both the Trident and Carina flying.

Carina landed onto the sand, while the Trident landed against one of the reefs. The moment it hit the rocks, the humming coming from it increased in intensity and the jewel inside glowed even brighter. Not another moment later, a large amount of water started to jettison out of the sea barrier, and it was heading towards Jack and Salazar. The two stopped fighting to see the water coming at them, and the pair of them started to scream in terror as they were both carried away in separate directions by the powerful waves. Jack was sent flying over a reef away from the shrine, while Salazar flew in the opposite direction towards it. The area around them was consumed with a violent wind, spraying water droplets in a circular motion all around them.

Carina had gotten up off the ground, sheathing her sword, and started to rush over to the Trident. She still couldn't get over it. She was finally going to hold the Trident of Poseidon in her very hands.

She saw it just lying there, up against the rocks. Carina made haste and rushed towards it, and when she got there she kneeled alongside it.

"I've got it, father," Carina spoke aloud, unable to help the smile forming at her face despite the situation. The Trident was hers!

She reached out, placing her own hands upon the bark. But the moment she did, another pair of hands grabbed onto the Trident, and Carina looked up to see that Salazar was gripping onto the Trident, a look of rage on Henry's face.

"Henry, no!" Carina shouted, and both she and Salazar began fighting for the Trident. Carina pulled as hard as she could, but Salazar was too strong. Suddenly, a burst of energy shot out of the Trident, sending Carina flying backwards and crashing against one of the archways. She fell onto the sand again with a violent thud.

Salazar looked away from Carina to the Trident, which he now held in his grasp. So this was the instrument of a god? Salazar thought it should be able to do what the legends say it should.

He walked over closer to the coffin, and once he had straightened it out, Salazar, concentrating on what he wanted, slammed the endpiece into the ground, and another burst of energy emanated from the weapon.

Suddenly, Henry's facial features morphed, becoming more gaunt and cracked than he had ever looked before. Salazar shook in place, and finally, Henry's body suddenly went limp and fell onto the ground looking just the same as he did before Salazar possessed him, save for the injuries he had sustained fighting Jack and Carina. Fortunately, he was only unconscious.

But standing in place of where Henry was moments before stood the ghastly apparition of Armando Salazar, now holding onto the Trident of Poseidon. He was standing on dry land, but somehow the Trident's powers prevented him from disintegrating.

Jack had placed his hands on the reef and began to pull himself up, grunting in pain from the force of the waves. Once he did, his eyes widened in panic when he saw the familiar stature of Salazar standing and holding the Trident. Salazar tilted the Trident to show his cracked face and flowing hair, and his lips formed an evil grin as he stared down the pirate.

"Hola, Sparrow," Salazar spoke, sending a chill down Jack's spine.

Salazar lifted up the Trident and began to study it, thinking of the many ways in which he could use its magic to kill Jack. He pointed it towards the watery wall to his left and focused on it. He looked to be in awe when he saw a large quantity of water swish from within the magical barrier at his command. Salazar smiled, realizing the power he held in his hands.

Jack stood up and started to walk backwards slowly. Salazar was free from the mortal confines of Henry's body, walking on land, and had control over the power of the sea.

He was afraid.

Salazar began cackling like a madman, and he reeled the Trident back and started to gather a gigantic ball of water together from the wall. He swung forward with the Trident, and the ball of water came shooting out of the side and straight at Jack. The pirate screamed in terror as the water slammed against him and sent him flying, crashing against the back of another reef. He slumped onto the ground, trying to catch his breath.

---

Carina, groaning in pain, started to pick herself up of the ground. She looked up, and she saw that Salazar was now wielding the Trident, and he was now using it against Jack. If Salazar was now free, then that meant...

"Henry!" Carina called out, seeing Henry's unconscious form lying on the ground. Quickly, she rushed over to his side and started to shake his shoulders violently, saying, "Henry, wake up!"

Salazar's men began to step closer towards the barrier separating the ocean from the dry land. They had their swords drawn and were ready to strike the nearby Carina and Henry if they could.

"Salazar's got the Trident! Wake up!" Carina continued to shake Henry, but he wasn't waking up, "Please don't be dead!"

She stopped for a moment to see the ghosts approaching them from the side, and Carina, agitated at this point, shouted "Oh, piss off!"

One of the ghosts looked offended, but Carina couldn't care less. She looked over towards Salazar again, and she knew time was running out.

---

Salazar extended the Trident forward, sending another huge ball of water towards Jack. Instead of slamming him back again, it trapped him inside the raging waves and started to lift him upward. Jack was screaming in terror, and it was like music to Salazar's ears. He then began to start moving slowly in a circle, turning the Trident along with him. This in turn started to spin Jack around, sending him crashing through the water barrier where his screams were drowned out. Salazar kept on turning him around, sending him back out through the water where he continued screaming.

Out of the corner of his eye, Salazar saw Carina charging towards him with her sword drawn, and his focus on Jack was broken, the pirate landing on the sand with a thud. Quickly, Salazar drew his rapier from his scabbard and blocked an incoming strike from Carina. Forcing her back with his sword, he directed the Trident towards her and she was pushed back by a sudden burst of water.

Salazar, sheathing his sword, refocused his attention back on Jack just as he was about to get up, directed the Trident at him, and sent him flying into the other sea wall. He was low enough that some of Salazar's men tried to grab hold of him. One of them did, but as Salazar forced Jack out of the water again, the man holding onto him turned to dust, and Salazar broke off his torturing of Jack when he saw this.

Another one of his men had died, and it was entirely his fault. He was done toying with Jack.

"Hey!" Carina shouted, and Salazar turned to see her coming at him again with her sword.

"You never learn, do you chica?" Salazar taunted, and Carina tried to strike at him in a vain attempt to stop him from killing Jack. Salazar leaned back from her strike, and then brought the Trident forward and used it to smack her sword from her grasp. Salazar did not hesitate any further, and so he positioned himself behind Carina and quickly held the Trident against her neck, causing her to yelp.

Jack was beginning to pick himself off the ground when he heard Carina's scream, and his head quickly bolted when he saw that Salazar had the Trident pressed against Carina's neck as she struggled to escape.

"NO!" Jack screamed out, and without even a moment's hesitation he stood up and whipped his pistol out, pointing it straight at the monster who was holding his daughter hostage.

"Give it up, Sparrow!" Salazar shouted, holding on as tight as possible to keep the Trident pressed over Carina, "I will break the girl's neck, I swear to God!"

"Let her go, Salazar!" Jack bellowed, never having been more angered than he was at that moment, "This is between you and me! She's innocent!"

"No one who sails with pirates is innocent!" Salazar shouted back, "All your kind do is steal and kill, and you expect mercy to be shown!? You filthy hypocrite!"

"I never claimed to be a saint, mate!" Jack replied through gritted teeth, his grip on the pistol tight as can be, "But you're as much of a monster as I am! Using a girl as a hostage, how dare you!?"

"Surrender now, and she'll be allowed to live!" Salazar barked, "A fair trade, is it not?"

Jack looked into Carina's eyes. Those beautiful blue eyes that she got from her mother. He saw the terror in her eyes, scared of dying at the hands of the ghostly Spaniard. Jack didn't know if he had admitted it to himself before, but if he was unsure before he was damn certain now of one simple truth.

He loved her. He would do anything for her.

He would die for her if need be.

"Alright then," Jack spoke in a low voice, and without any warning, he turned his gun away from Salazar, and pointed it right under his jugular.

"Jack! No!" Carina shouted, struggling against Salazar's grip.

"What the hell are you doing!?" Salazar shouted, his temper flaring once again.

"Let the girl go, or I swear I'll take my own life!" Jack threatened. He had always been one to look after himself, his own survival taking precedence over everyone else's. But he had changed. He was a father, and the needs of his child came first.

"It's funny," Jack remarked, "I was stranded on an island, left to die, and I was given this pistol to kill myself with. Only fitting that this is how it should end for me, eh?"

"What are you playing at, Sparrow!?" Salazar demanded.

"I did a terrible thing to you," Jack began again, and Salazar went livid.

"A terrible thing!?" Salazar shouted, looking like he was about to cry, "I LOST MY ENTIRE FAMILY BECAUSE OF YOU!"

"Don't pretend like your the only one who's lost someone, Salazar!" Jack retorted, "I lost my family too! A long time ago!"

There was a tense pause as the words sunk in between the two captains.

"I'm sorry!" Jack shouted, "I wish I could go back and change everything I did wrong, but I can't! And don't think that I didn't try!"

Salazar furrowed his brow as Jack held the gun to his head.

"None of it changes the fact that I'm the cause of your pain," Jack spoke plainly, "I deserve to be punished. You deserve your revenge. You deserve the chance to be able to put a blade in me, twist it in me, watch me writhe in pain as I die. Because I'm the pirate that destroyed your life!"

Salazar's eye began twitching, and he wheezed heavily. His temper was rising like never before.

"You can't have any of that if I pull this trigger, and you know it!" Jack shouted.

Salazar knew Jack was right. If he killed himself, then he would never know the satisfaction of killing him. He was so close now! He couldn't let revenge escape him! For his crew! For his family! For himself!

Jack thumbed back the hammer, and Carina shouted, "Jack, don't do it!"

"It's alright, Carina," Jack spoke gently, "Everything's going to be just fine. You've made your father proud."

Jack gave a weak but genuine smile towards her.

"Alright then, hombre," Salazar spat, black blood dripping down his chin once more, "If that's the way you want to play it, then so be it!"

"Come on then, Armando," Jack said, "Let's finish this the way we started it. Together!"

All at once, Salazar threw Carina to the side, drew his rapier, and began to charge right at Jack, hollering at the top of his lungs. Jack immediately dropped his pistol and rolled out of the way before Salazar could kill him. He snatched onto Carina's fallen sword and used that to defend himself from Salazar's blade, fending him off as best as he could.

Carina had scurried away from where Jack and Salazar were, and rushed back over to Henry's side, who was still unconscious.

"Henry, wake up!" Carina begged, shaking his shoulders, "He's going to kill Jack!"

Running out of time and options, Carina smacked Henry hard across his face, and in an instant his eyes snapped open as he drew in a sharp inhale.

"Henry, it's me! You're alright!" Carina reassured him, but Henry still looked panicked, breathing in and out at a fast pace.

"Carina..." Henry's voice sounded weak, "I'm- I'm sorry I hurt you."

"Don't worry about it right now!" Carina told him, "Salazar has the Trident and he's going to kill Jack!"

"Salazar..." Henry's voice still sounded weak, like he had the wind knocked out of him. He shut his eyes tight, and he said, "The pain, Carina. So... much... pain..."

Carina thought she saw a tear roll down his cheek. What had Salazar done to him?

"He's hurt," Henry spoke, his eyes still shut, "He misses them... he wants to die... he needs to... he needs that release..."

Carina realized something when he said that. How could she have forgotten about it?

"Wait a minute, 'release'..." Carina remembered now, "The Trident holds the power to control the wind and tide, and to release this power, all must divide."

"What?" Henry asked, opening his eyes.

"It's a riddle in Galileo's diary," Carina explained, "If the Trident holds all the power, then-"

"Then that means every curse is held inside!" Henry finished, realizing what this meant.

Jack had managed to disarm Salazar once more, sending his rapier flying from his grasp. Because the sword was cursed just like him, it disintegrated the moment it touched the dry ground. Enraged, Salazar swung the Trident in his other hand towards Jack, and this time the force snapped the blade of Carina's sword right in half. Jack dropped the now useless sword, and Salazar lunged forward with the Trident. Jack reached up and grabbed the prongs of the weapon before they could claim his life, using all of his failing strength to stop El Matador Del Mar.

"And to release the power of sea, you'd have to-" Henry began.

"Destroy the Trident!" Carina said aloud, realizing what needed to be done.

"Destroy it!?" Henry asked, incredulous, "But Carina, it's the Trident of Poseidon!"

"If we don't destroy it, Salazar will kill Jack!" Carina shouted, "And your father will still be saved! We break the Trident, his curse is lifted too!"

As much as Henry wanted to protest, he knew she was right. It would be a shame to lose the power of the sea, but no amount of power compared to family.

Jack was struggling to resist Salazar, who was unrelenting as he tried to kill Jack. Eventually, his patience disappearing completely, and he shouted "This is where the tale ENDS!"

Salazar drove forward with all his might, and the Trident's longest prong pierced over Jack's heart.

"AAAAAAGH!" Jack cried out, and Salazar began pushing Jack back.

"NO!" Carina called out, her and Henry watching as Salazar had struck Jack.

They had stopped moving back when Jack was pushed up against the edge of a boulder, groaning in pain. Jack looked up at Salazar in shock, and the Spaniard was showing his teeth in what had to be a look of pure evil.

Jack's initial shock faded away, replaced by a look of apathy.

"So..." Jack began weakly, "You've finally gotten what you wanted most."

"No, Jack Sparrow," Salazar began, "I have not."

Salazar pressed harder with the Trident, making sure that this would kill him. Jack hung his head down low.

"Shhhhhh," Salazar spoke softly, "It will be over soon."

Jack lifted his head back up, and Salazar saw that he was smiling mischievously. Confused, he looked down at where the Trident had pierced Jack over his heart, and Salazar saw that there was a small, leather-bound book tucked inside his waistcoat blocking the prong. Galileo's diary had saved him.

"What is this!?" Salazar demanded.

"Pirate," Jack retorted, and he grabbed onto the prongs of the Trident before Salazar could pull it out again.

Henry and Carina both saw that Jack was still alive, and Henry then said aloud, "Divide."

"Henry!" Jack called out to him, holding the Trident in place as Salazar attempted to pull it back out, "HENRY!"

"Break the Trident-" Carina began.

"- and you break every curse at sea!" Henry finished, getting up off the ground and drawing his sword. Time slowed down as he rushed towards Jack and Salazar, but he found that he didn't have as much strength as he thought. He started to feel lightheaded, and he felt like he was going to pass out again. But he had to get there. He had to save Jack.

But he couldn't do it. As he ran closer to the pair, Henry called out to Jack, and both Salazar and Jack turned their heads towards the boy. Henry got as close as he could and then he started to stumble and fall onto the ground, but not before he tossed his sword out, and Jack reached out and grabbed the hilt with his right hand.

As Henry passed out again, Jack raised Henry's sword up on high, and he swung down hard, striking the Trident right at the centerpiece where the glowing crystal was. The weapon shattered, and a large burst of energy came from the center, making a very audible sound as it spread throughout the abyss. The swirling water droplets all around them suddenly stopped, and the sea was calm.

Salazar stepped back, dropping the Trident's handle. He stumbled backwards, eventually having to lean against a nearby rock so that he wouldn't suddenly double over. Jack stood there, still holding onto Henry's sword, watching what was happening.

---

Up above, the Hydra had been causing no shortage of grief for the pirates or the British. But in an instant, it started to writhe and howl in immense pain, its dragon-like heads moving in any which direction as it started to collapse.

Scrum rose up above the cover of the rail of the Queen Anne's Revenge, seeing that the Hydra looked to be dying. Finally, the massive beast came down with a mighty splash into the water, and the ships in the vicinity were rocked by the force.

The majority of the pirate fleet was still afloat, and the pirates were cheering in victory now that the Hydra was no more. Better still, the few surviving Royal Navy ships began to turn tail, sailing back the way they came. Scrum threw his hat and cheered alongside the men of the Revenge.

The Flying Dutchman was nowhere in sight.

Over on the British frigate known as the HMS Sabre, the redcoats were fleeing alongside their compatriots, seeing that continuing to fight the pirates would be nothing short of total disaster.

There was a British officer, soaking wet from head to toe, sitting on the quarter deck and draped in a blanket. He was shivering from not only the cold waters, but also from what he had just lived through.

A young private came forward holding a bottle of rum in his hands, offering it to the officer and saying, "Sir."

The officer took the bottle roughly and started to drink right from it.

"Captain Scarfield," the soldier questioned, "what happened over there?"

"Pirates," Scarfield bitterly replied.

---

Jack continued to watch as Salazar was hunched over, gasping for breath. Slowly but surely, Jack started to notice changes in Salazar. The watery motions of his hair and clothing were beginning to dissipate, and natural gravity took over. His hair stopped waving and started to droop down low, and his clothes looked extremely baggy as copious amounts of water dripped from his blackened overcoat.

Over along either side of the trench, Salazar's men started gasping for air. Bubbles came out of their mouth as water flooded their systems. Quickly, it looked like the missing body parts of the crew members started to reform. Those that had lost major body cavities, arms, legs, even heads, soon found themselves restored as they were before they were cursed by the Devil's Triangle, apart from their clothing which remained blackened and charred.

Lezaro was the first to step out from the water, coughing up water from his lungs as he collapsed onto one of the rocks. Soon, the rest of the men started to stumble out, their bodies restored and their skin not the deathly pale it had been.

Their curse had been lifted. The crew was returning to the land of the living.

Salazar felt his wheezing breath become a steady, normal breath once more. The cracks in his face and hands were filled. Blood started to flow through him and his heart started beating, restoring color to his face. His back and legs had healed, leaving him no longer hunched and limping. And most of all, the ginormous gash left in the left side of his head began to fill in, and his skull, bones, tissue, ear, and hair all were restored to what they had been in life.

Salazar put a hand to his face, feeling his smooth, living skin for the first time in decades. He looked down at his hand in disbelief, seeing it was now fleshy and warm once again. He put his other hand to his restored ear, and he gasped in joy. Simple sensations he took for granted years ago had been given back to him. He was alive once more.

Salazar laughed. Not his usual malicious cackle, but a genuine laugh, one that was content and full of nothing but positive emotions. Salazar outstretched his arms, held his head back, and began to bask in the overwhelmingly good sensation of being alive again.

Jack was watching as Salazar came back to life, and was genuinely shocked to not only see his humanity restored, but to see him not full of the anger or rage that he had bottled up inside him for all those years.

Salazar turned his attention towards Jack, and the first thing Jack thought is that he would try to kill him, still wanting the revenge he had been craving for so long.

But he didn't. He looked at Jack straight in the eyes, and he continued to smile with glee. There wasn't a hint of anger in his face, and Jack was puzzled. Salazar had been obsessing about the day he would kill him, and now he was looking at him with a look of genuine happiness.

He stepped forward, his arms outstretched, approaching Jack real slowly.

"Th-"

BOOM!

A deafening noise rang out through the abyss, and the look on Salazar's face had switched from pure joy to abject horror. Jack did not know what had just happened. Salazar reached a hand to the spot on his chest over his heart, and when he removed it he saw it covered in blood. Not the black kind he had spewing from his mouth for all these years, but it was thick and red.

He had been shot.

Salazar's hand started to shake as he looked down on it in horror, and then he looked back up toward Jack. Jack then looked down at his belt, and he saw that his pistol was gone. He looked back up at Salazar, who, for the first time since Jack had met him, was afraid.

Salazar fell onto his knees, and Jack looked behind him to see Carina standing there, holding his pistol. Smoke was emanating from the barrel. Her arm was outstretched. Her hand was shaking. Her face had gone pale with horror.

She had shot him.

Jack stood there, stunned by what Carina had just done. She continued to stare at Salazar, pointing the empty pistol towards him. She looked like she was on the verge of tears.

Jack looked down at Salazar again, who was clutching to his chest. The Spaniard looked upward towards the pirate with a terrified look in his eyes. His skin was becoming pale once more.

Salazar slumped over and fell onto his back, and started to wheeze heavily. Quickly, Jack dropped Henry's sword and got over to his side. Salazar now had his left arm clutched over his chest, drawing quicker and quicker breaths with every passing moment. Jack extended his right hand out and tried to put it on his shoulder, but Salazar's own hand reached up and grabbed his own before he could. Jack jumped at this sudden movement, but realized there was no use fighting it. Salazar pulled his arm closer to his eyes, being able to make out the pirate branding and the sparrow tattoo just above it.

He took his other hand off of his chest and patted the back of Jack's palm twice very slowly.

"You... you showed me... mer...cy..." Salazar spoke weakly, looking at the pirate who not long ago he was trying to kill. As he lay dying, with Jack by his side, he realized how wrong he'd been in life, believing that all pirates were selfish and cruel and nothing more.

Not all of them, it seemed.

"Thank you..." Salazar uttered, smiling one last time. His eyes then turned away from Jack and looked upward at the morning sky above the abyss, the light at the end of the tunnel. His grip on Jack's arm loosened, and his arms came back to his sides. The smile slowly disappeared from his face, and the mighty Spanish captain exhaled his last breath.

I'm coming, Maria.

Armando Salazar was dead. For good, this time.

Jack extended his hand forward and closed Salazar's eyelids.

"Rest in peace, mate," Jack remarked. He died as a mortal man, able to feel the joy of living for just a moment. Jack had seen that, at the very end, he had let his anger go. He had died with dignity.

Jack looked upward at Carina, who was staring at Salazar's now-lifeless body, still holding the pistol out with her hand shaking tremendously. Quickly, Jack got to his feet and saw she was still staring at Salazar, too mortified by what she had just done to look him in the eye. Her eyes were red, and tears started to pour out of them.

She had killed Salazar.

"Carina," Jack spoke, trying to get her attention away from Salazar, "Carina, it's over."

"What have I done?" Carina's voice cracks, and Jack is heartbroken to see her so distraught. Jack steps over Salazar's body and walks towards his daughter, watching as the gun slipped out of her grasp and onto the ground. Carina slowly brings her hands to her face, repeatedly saying, "What have I done? What have I done?"

As Carina begins to collapse onto her knees, Jack closes the distance between them and catches her in a tight embrace, saying, "Shhhhhhh, it's alright now."

Carina sobs uncontrollably into her hands, pressed up against Jack's right shoulder as he takes the pair of them slowly towards the ground.

"I killed him!" Carina managed to get out through a muffled sob, and Jack's heart shattered. She should never have had to go through something like that. Not ever.

"You didn't do anything wrong, Carina," Jack consoled her. He knew that it probably wouldn't be enough to quell her grief, but he was going to try the best he could.

Carina pulled back from the embrace, her eyes red and puffy, but had to avert her eyes from Jack's. She couldn't bear to look at him, overwhelmed by what she had just done.

She turned her head downward, and that's when she saw Jack's exposed forearm. Salazar had torn his left sleeve during the fighting, leaving his arm bare.

That's when she saw it.

She looked closely at his arm and saw the self-inflicted scar he had given himself.

It was the constellation that Galileo had drawn in his diary, the one that lead to the Trident.

At that moment, Carina's eyes widened in shock, realizing what this meant. No one else could've had this.

She knew who he was.

Slowly, she looked up towards Jack, facing him directly in the eyes. She looked for any signs of him deceiving her, but he wasn't. Jack looked at her with a combined expression of heartbreak and pride.

No. No, it can't be! How? That's impossible! It doesn't make any sense! He's dead!

Carina's jaw dropped, as about a million different emotions flooded through her mind. Shock, confusion, anger, sadness, longing, disbelief, joy, surprise, disappointment, and relief were the most prominent of everything she was feeling at that moment. Jack looked upon her solemnly, never wanting her to have discovered the truth about herself but nevertheless relieved that she had.

Carina couldn't believe her eyes. There was no way this was happening right now. Her mother had told her her father had died before she was born, that he was a merchant sailor for the East India Trading Company that had perished in his pursuit of the Trident. Jonathan Smyth, captain of the Wicked Wench. A good man.

There was no way that the man holding her right now was her blood. Not Jack Sparrow. He was a notorious pirate. A thief, a plunderer, a scoundrel who did as he pleased with little regard as to what others thought.

But she had gotten to know Jack the past couple of days, saw his intelligence, his skill, and the way he would go about being a hero despite believing he was anything but. She saw the way that he was holding her, very affectionately but in a way that said that the bond between the two of them was a special one. It was at this moment that Carina realized that Jonathan Smyth and Jack Sparrow just might be the same man. She had no idea how he was still alive, or how he had become a pirate in the first place, but he was here now.

Somehow, this eccentric, rum-soaked, dreadlocked pirate that she only met a week ago was her father.

"Who..." Carina began, tears still rolling down her face, "... what am I to you?"

Jack brought his hand up to her face and gently caressed her cheek with his thumb, wiping the tears away. He smiled, and his eyes began to water as well. Maggie had given him the greatest gift that any man could ever ask for.

"Treasure," Jack let the word escape his lips. He had never been more honest with himself than he was in that moment. She mattered more to him than all the silver and gold in the world.

Carina continued to gaze at him, her shock and confusion still present on her face. But out of the corner of Jack's eye, he saw that a hint of a smile was starting to form at her lips as well.

Carina leaned in and wrapped her arms tightly around her father. Jack did the same with his daughter.

They had finally been reunited.

Time slowed down for the both of them. Neither of them couldn't believe this was actually happening. Jack had given up on all hope of ever being truly happy again, and Carina never thought she would be able to know what a father's love felt like. And yet, here they both were, holding each other tightly, feeling the other's warm embrace, sitting at the bottom of the sea.

"You have your mother's eyes," Jack whispered into her ear, and Carina started to cry even more. This was her father after all.

While father and daughter were now happily reunited, Henry started to regain consciousness once more. Still laying on the ground, he saw his father's knife lying near him and grabbed it, tucking it in his boot. Once he did that, he noticed something very peculiar in front of him.

A small, orange jewel that was glowing brightly. It looked almost identical to the one that had been the Trident's centerpiece. Had this been contained inside?

Henry reached out with his hand and grabbed it, and instantly he felt a small shock of electricity surge through his arm for a brief moment. Getting onto his knees, Henry stared down at the jewel in his hands, watching as it continued to glow.

"Unum annum pacem," an eerie, disembodied voice whispered out. Henry looked around to see who had said it, but there was no one near him that could have said it.

"Unum annum pacem," Henry repeated, staring at the jewel. What did that mean?

Placing the jewel in his pocket, Henry looked ahead and saw that Salazar's crew was now human again, still coughing up water and trying to regain their energy. Some of the men that had fully recovered began to cheer, overjoyed that they were living once more.

"All curses are broken," Henry remarked, taking in the view of the Spanish. Had this freed his father too?

Suddenly, a loud rumbling noise sounded throughout the trench, and Henry looked at either side and saw that the water was beginning to push in slowly. The Trident had been broken, so the magical barrier holding the water back had been broken as well.

"Oh no," Henry uttered. This was not good.

Jack and Carina let go of each other when they heard the rumbling, getting up slowly to their feet. They saw the walls were closing in. Jack picked up his pistol, tucked it away in his belt, and began to panic.

Lezaro was wiping water off of his face with his coat's sleeve, still breathing heavily as he had come back to life. He heard the panicked exclamations of the crew, and turned to see the water coming in closer towards them. He was now terrified, but hopefully his captain could come up with a plan.

Lezaro turned his head towards where he saw Salazar last, and just as he was about to call out to him, he saw his lifeless corpse lying back on the black sand.

"Capitan!" Lezaro called out in horror, not being able to process that the man he had served under for so many years now lay dead. At this exclamation, the other Spanish turned their heads and looked on in grief as El Matador Del Mar was no more.

Lezaro looked up, and saw that Jack, Carina, and Henry were all still alive. His temper began to rise, enraged by his captain's death and driven by his absolute loyalty, and he drew his rapier from his scabbard.

"SPARROW!" Lezaro shouted out, and all at once Jack, Carina, and Henry looked towards the Spanish and saw them begin to draw their weapons. Henry got up off the ground quickly and picked up his sword, standing in front of Jack and Carina, preparing for the attack.

But then, they heard the sounds of a metal chain clinking, and the three of them looked up to see an anchor on a chain descending down towards them. Standing on top of the anchor was Barbossa, absent of his hat, coat, and weapons. He was holding onto one of the chain's links, somehow being able to maintain his balance with his peg-leg. All of them looked up above Barbossa to see the Black Pearl sailing along the edge of the abyss, barely keeping itself from falling in.

"The Pearl!" Henry remarked.

"Move! Fast!" Barbossa called out to them, as the anchor descended nearer and nearer towards them.

Jack seized Henry by the back of his shirt, pulling him back as he shouted to him and Carina, "Go, GO! NOW!"

Henry and Carina took off running back towards the shrine, Jack following close behind them. At that moment, Lezaro and the surviving Spanish charged forward in an attempt to catch them before they escaped.

Up above, Gibbs was handling the Pearl's wheel with care as he called out to the men manning the capstan, saying, "Hold it steady, boys! Don't let her slip!"

At the capstan, Pintel, Ragetti, Cotton, Murtogg, and Mullroy were all moving in a counterclockwise motion, using all their strength to push the handles forward so the anchor could lower.

Back down below, Jack, Carina, and Henry rushed past the shrine to Poseidon, Lezaro and the rest of the crew hot on their heels. Eventually, they saw a reef that had a smooth, high incline, and they started to rush up it just as the bottom of the anchor became parallel with the surface.

"Jump!" Barbossa called out again, and when they made it to the top of the reef, the three of them jumped onto the anchor and grabbed hold. Once they had all securely grabbed onto the anchor, Barbossa shouted, "Climb up! Now!"

Barbossa started to climb up the chain, grabbing hold and moving up as quickly as he could. Following behind him was Carina, having just grabbed onto the chain and started to climb as well. Henry followed soon after, trying his best to climb fast despite his injured arm, and Jack right behind him.

Jack looked below as he climbed to see that Lezaro and the crew were still hard-pressed to catch them. Salazar had certainly inspired loyalty in them, that much was certain.

As they were climbing upward, they all saw that the chain was continuing to descend downward. Barbossa called out up about, saying, "Weigh anchor!"

Gibbs and the rest of the crew heard Barbossa's order, and Gibbs relayed it, saying, "Get the anchor up! Quick!"

"Stop, stop!" Pintel said, getting the attention of the other men at the capstan, "Bring it up! Bring it up!"

The pirates suddenly stopped, and then started to move in a clockwise motion, raising the chain.

But it came a moment too late, for just as the pirates started to raise the anchor, Lezaro and two other men had grabbed the bottom of the anchor and started to climb. As the anchor lifted upward, Lezaro looked down to see the remains of the Spanish crew calling up begging for help. But there was nothing he could do for them now. Suppressing whatever guilt he felt at that moment, Lezaro began to climb up the anchor, the other two surviving Spanish right behind him. He had a firm grip on his blade, a strong hold on the chain, and a burning desire to avenge his fallen captain. His half-destroyed hat had flown off his head, but it didn't matter to him.

Gibbs was exerting all of his strength to keep the Pearl from falling into the narrowing trench, having to work against the weight of the port anchor. The rest of the crew were managing the sails as best they could so the winds could not do them ill, and the crew at the capstan were moving as quickly as they could to bring the anchor up.

Jack looked down, and saw that the water was becoming more and more unstable. The ocean started to flood at the bottom, consuming Poseidon's tomb and having the sea reclaim it forevermore. He couldn't see or hear them, but he knew that the rest of the Spanish crew were to be trapped under the waves and remain there.

Barbossa was getting closer to the top, with Carina right below him and Henry close behind her. It wasn't long to go now. The crew had to get the anchor up before the waves crashed against them. But Barbossa looked out ahead of them, and saw they were approaching a reef jutting out from the water barrier on the righthand side. It was too low to hit any of them on the chain, but if they collided with it, it would shake the chain before it could be fully raised.

"REEF!" Barbossa called out, and all heads were fixated on the reef just ahead of them. Quickly, they all started to climb faster towards the top of the chain, but soon enough the chain collided with the reef in the sizeable gap between Jack and Lezaro. As metal struck through brittle rock, Lezaro and his men narrowly avoided the debris, and the chain began to shake.

Back up on the deck of the Pearl, the force of the collision caused the handle Ragetti was pushing to snap in half, causing Ragetti to fall and the broken handle to be dislodged. As a result, the capstan lurched, and started to move counterclockwise on its own. The other men were being pushed back from the weight of the anchor, and the chain started to lower again quickly.

Carina's hand slipped on the chain as she struggled to maintain her grip while the chain descended. She panicked, as did everyone else on the chain who was trying to keep themselves from falling off.

The pirates had managed to press hard enough against the capstan that it stopped lowering the chain, stopping in place with an audible clink. When that happened, the force of the sudden stopping caused the chain to shake even more, and Carina lost her grip on the chain completely. She started screaming as she fell off, and Barbossa and Henry looked on in fear as she fell.

"CARINA!" Henry called out to her.

Jack watched as his daughter was falling up above him, and he was terrified in that moment. Acting quickly, he extended his arm out and caught onto her just as she fell past him.

"I got you, girl!" Jack reassured her, and Carina heaved a heavy sigh of relief. She thought she was dead for certain. Carina looked up at her father, who looked like he was strained for breath holding onto her.

The pirates above started to raise the chain again, taking every precaution they could to make sure they didn't slip again.

Jack was shaken. If he hadn't acted when he did, Carina would be lying at the bottom of the ocean now. He looked upon her, relieved that she was safe, but still terrified that he had almost lost her again.

Jack looked over her shoulder, and saw that Lezaro was closing in on them, sword in hand. He was a problem Jack had created, one borne out of Jack's sense of self-preservation. And now he looked as he was prepared to kill his daughter for what had happened.

No. You're not going to lay a finger on her, you bastard.

Carina looked down and saw Lezaro as well, then looked back up at Jack and saw the look on his face, realizing what he was thinking.

"No..." Carina spoke in a hoarse voice, "Father, NO!"

Barbossa and Henry looked down, watching what was now unfolding.

Jack took a moment to register what she had just said. She had called him "father" for the first time. Not "Jack," not "Captain Sparrow," just "father." Jack smiled at her, proud of the woman that she had become. He wanted to say so much to her, to tell her that he was sorry for not being there for her growing up, that he loved her completely and unconditionally.

But he saw Lezaro below her, ready to kill his baby girl. There was no more time. There was no other decision to make.

"I'm sorry, Carina," Jack spoke to her, placing her hand along the chain, which she took hold of, "I love you."

As Carina looked to be in shock, Jack looked up, and called out above to his longtime friend and rival, saying, "HECTOR!"

Barbossa looked down at Jack, realizing what he was about to do. This wasn't like Jack to make the sacrifice play, but it was the way he wanted to handle this. Quickly, Barbossa extended his peg-leg out and put it through the handle of Henry's sword. Lifting his leg up, Henry watched as Barbossa removed the blade from his belt, and watched as it was falling down toward Jack. Jack then reached out with his right hand and caught onto the weapon's handle, holding the blade downward.

"FATHER, DON'T DO THIS!" Carina begged, her heart racing and the tears starting back up again. But Jack had made up his mind. As much as he didn't want to do this, he knew this was the only way to keep her safe.

And honestly? He couldn't imagine himself going out a better way.

"Go beyond," Jack told his daughter, and with that, he let go of the chain.

Carina was mortified, and she watched in stunned silence as Jack let himself descend downward. Jack looked up towards her with a solemn expression, up into those beautiful blue eyes of hers.

He was beyond glad that he had gotten the chance to know her.

Jack looked down, and focused his attention on the one-eyed Spaniard, who was mere inches away from striking at Carina. With all his might, Jack let out a mighty yell, and plunged the sword right through Lezaro's heart.

"AGH!" Lezaro cried out in pain, and he had let go of the chain, dropping his sword in the process. Jack let go of Henry's sword, and watched as Lezaro started to plummet downward, screaming while he did so. He ended up colliding into the other two Spaniards on the chain, and the three of them started to fall closer into the raging sea below them. Lezaro kept on screaming until his face made contact with the anchor, and he and his men fell into the water.

Time slowed down for Jack again, and he managed to twist himself that he was looking upward towards the sky.

First, he looked up towards the Black Pearl, the magnificent, beautiful ship that he had sold his soul to raise from the depths. He had gone to numerous lengths to keep his beloved ship and make sure it remained in his hands. For the longest time, that ship mattered more to him than anything else in the world.

He then looked at Hector Barbossa, his mutinous first-mate that had betrayed him and left him to die. The man he was now proud to call his friend. Barbossa looked down in shock watching Jack fall down the trench.

His eyes then moved to Henry Turner, the son of Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann. It was then that he realized he was never going to see either of them again, but he was glad to have at least met Henry. He was a good, noble young man who knew right and wrong, just like his parents. In a way, Jack cared for him like he were his own son. Henry's mouth was agape as he watched his hero descend further and further down the abyss.

Finally, his eyes rested on Carina, who was reaching out with her arm in a vain attempt to save him. Her cries of defiance were drowned out by the sounds of the rushing waves around them. Jack never knew she had existed until a week ago, and he loved her like he had loved nothing else.

For his whole life, Jack had been searching for purpose. In his old age, he had lost all hope. But Carina had restored his hope, and gave him something to believe in.

Jack extended his arm outward, reaching out towards Carina, as he kept falling. The barriers were all but broken, and the raging waters lay waiting to claim him. When he extended his arm, the tattoo of the sparrow flying across the horizon could be seen, as could the pirate branding that Cutler Beckett had given him all those years ago.

He had lived as a pirate, and would now die as a good man.

Jack closed his eyes, the image of his daughter being the only thing on his mind.

Maggie... I'm coming.

Captain Jack Sparrow fell between the waves, and he was claimed by the sea.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Carina cried out as she watched the raging waves engulf her father. She didn't care one bit about the water walls finally collapsing, consuming them all with water.

---

As the water collided together, there was a tremendous splash, rocking the Pearl and the crew with it. Gibbs had let go of the wheel and slammed against the port rail. Looking over, he saw that the sea was calm again, and the water had returned to normal.

But there was no sign of anyone that was down there.

"Get the anchor up, double-time!" Gibbs shouted, and hastily the pirates turned the capstan to raise the anchor up all the way. Gibbs looked down as the rising chain with bated breath.

"Come on, come on!" Gibbs called out.

All at once, there was a splash in the water, and out rose Barbossa, Henry, and Carina, all gasping for breath as they had been lifted up out of the water. The crew hurried over and helped the three of them climb over the rail onto the deck, soaking wet from head to toe. Some of the men began to cheer for they had saved them, but soon it became clear to them that something was very wrong.

Gibbs came down off the quarter deck, and the chatter had died down. As Carina, Henry, and Barbossa had stood themselves up properly, he dared to ask the question everyone was dreading.

"Where's Jack?" he asked.

Carina's lip was quivering as she couldn't bring herself to face Gibbs, Henry looked shocked beyond all belief, and Barbossa looked towards Gibbs with the most solemn expression he ever had.

There was a stunned silence. None of them could believe it. It was impossible. There was no way that it was true.

The crew all looked over the port rail in hopes of being wrong, that Jack's luck had kicked in and saved him from meeting his demise at the last second.

But nothing came up.

"Pirate's life, Jack," Barbossa remarked, "Pirate's life."

The crew were in complete disbelief. Jack could survive this, he could survive anything. But the more time had passed the more time they had to admit the bitter truth to themselves.

Jack Sparrow was dead.

Murtogg and Mullroy were the first to take off their hats and placed them over their hearts. The rest of the crew that had hats did the same. Gibbs placed his right hand over his heart, paying his respects toward the man he had served alongside for twenty years. Pintel, Ragetti, Cotton, Marty, and the rest mourned silently for the loss of their captain.

Pintel and Ragetti noticed something pop out of the water towards the stern. It looked like a small book. Quickly and quietly, they departed from the edge of the rail, grabbed a fishing net, and scooped it up from the water. Setting the net down, Pintel and Ragetti took hold of Galileo's diary, and wondered what they should do with it.

All around them, the pirate fleet was celebrating their victory in the battle, but it hardly felt like a victory to those aboard the Black Pearl. Even watching the remains of the Silent Mary, free from the curse of the Devil's Triangle, sink down to the depths was not enough to lift their spirits.

Barbossa walked backwards away from the mourning crowd, leaving Henry and Carina by themselves near the bow. Barbossa placed his hand along the starboard rail and limped his way over towards the helm. When he got there, Pintel had placed his overcoat over his shoulders, while Ragetti handed him his blunderbuss-cane. They did so without a trace of their usual antics.

"We found this, sir," Ragetti spoke up, holding out Galileo's diary towards him. Hesitently, Barbossa took the diary and eyed it before putting it in his coat pocket. He then looked upon the Pearl's wheel, which had been damaged during the fighting. Barbossa started to limp towards it, and outstretched his free hand to grab the wheel.

However, he stopped himself before he could touch it. He realized something at that moment, something he should have figured out a long time ago.

"What do we do now, Captain?" Pintel asked him, but Barbossa didn't know what to do now. However, he knew what not to do.

"I be the captain of the Revenge, aye," Barbossa remarked solemnly, "but not the Pearl. It was never mine to begin with. I am not its true master."

Its true master now lay dead at the bottom of the sea. Barbossa never thought he would find himself mourning the loss of the man who had killed him.

"I... I think I'm done, gents," Barbossa said, "I think I'm done."

Pintel and Ragetti stood in stunned silence to hear Barbossa say that. This would be the man who would stop at nothing to obtain more and more power for himself as he always had. And now with Jack gone, he could control the Pearl again and make himself unquestionably the most feared pirate of the Caribbean.

But Barbossa didn't want any of that. Not anymore.

As Barbossa limped away from the helm back towards the mourning crew, he reflected on all the terrible things he had done. Every sin he committed on his path to power, paved with the blood of guilty and innocent alike. Salazar had given him pause to reflect on everything he had done for power, and he had to admit he was just as much a monster as he was. But it wasn't until Jack had died that he truly understood the mistakes he made, and felt such a burning desire to take it all back.

He limped back over next to Henry, pulled the diary out of his coat, held it out and said, "Mr. Turner."

Henry turned around, and he saw Barbossa holding out the diary to him. Without question, he took the book and nodded his head towards the one-legged captain. Barbossa returned the courtesy, and left him be.

Henry turned towards Carina, who was still looking over the port rail, silently trying to suppress her heavy sobbing. Henry felt so terrible for her right now. She had been reunited with her father, only to watch him die before her very eyes. He couldn't imagine the grief she was going through.

"Are you alright, Carina?" Henry asked, but even he felt unsure if he wanted to disturb her at that moment.

"For a moment..." Carina began, her voice weak, "... for a moment, I had everything, Henry. I had everything I had always wanted."

She looked down at the sea, watching her own tears fall in and dissipate with the rest of the water.

"Now it's all gone again," Carina spoke, not willing to look Henry in the eye.

"Its not all gone, Ms. Smyth," Henry said, holding out Galileo's diary towards her. Carina turned towards Henry and looked at the book, exasperated that he had it. Gingerly, she took the book, and then she looked up at the young Turner, and said, "Thank you, Henry."

Carina turned away from him and continued to cry, but was feeling a little better now than she was before. She held the book in her right hand, and Henry wrapped his fingers around Carina's.

The two stood there in silence, as the morning sun shone brightly over the crew of the Black Pearl.

---

A/N: Okay, that took WAAAAY longer than I wanted it to be, but it's complete now. Just so you guys know, I wrote about two-thirds of this in a weekend. Sorry for the delays, just busy with school-related stuff and the like, but hopefully this super-long chapter is worth the wait. I don't mean for the chapters to get this long, but that's just what happens. I promise that the next chapters will be significantly shorter.

So, yeah. That ending. To be honest, I made myself depressed just writing it. It was one thing to experience the actual ending in theaters (which had no real emotional buildup IMO), it's another to reconstruct it with the ending in mind. I know probably most if not all of you are saddened by the approach I took, but it was how the story had to be to match up with the character arcs of everybody.

If you have any thoughts or anything you wish to express, feel free to leave a review or PM me. As always, I hope you enjoyed reading, and I promise to have the next chapter up soon. Yes, we still have a few chapters to go, PLUS an epilogue (yippee!) so keep your eyes peeled.

Stay classy, and drink up me 'earties, yo-ho!

- Spent