Disclaimer: I am making no money. This is for entertainment purposes only—mostly my own!
Author's note: Anything familiar is taken from the film mostly as a set up for the angsty bits I've written.
Please read and review.
Beyond World's End
by Ecri
Chapter 4
The waterfall hadn't destroyed them. Elizabeth had to wonder at that. She was sure when she'd seen it that they were all about to die. Somehow, they hadn't died. What exactly had happened, she really didn't begin to understand. What she did understand was that without a ship they were as stuck as Jack…assuming that this was where Jack was stuck.
She whirled on Barbossa to take him to task, when she saw the Pearl coming down a sand dune. She stared at it in shock as it made its way across the beach and into the ocean, grateful to the ship when it stopped and seemed to wait just off shore, even thought she felt silly to feel gratitude to a ship.
Moments later, Jack Sparrow came tearing down the same sand dune. She should have realized. Jack had spent much of his life chasing after the Black Pearl. Why would the afterlife be any different?
Jack didn't seem particularly surprised to see them. He chattered away for a few moments, and they listened. She was first to decipher Jack's odd behavior and lack of surprise to see them. "He thinks we're an hallucination."
Jack turned to Will. "Are you here to convince me to help you save a certain distressing damsel…damsel in distress…either one?"
"No," Will admitted.
"Ah," he said, triumph plain in his voice, "Then you can't really be here."
"We're real, Jack." Will insisted. "We're really here. We've come to save you."
"Why should I believe you? Four of you tried to kill me! One of you succeeded!"
Will turned then in stunned surprise to look at Elizabeth, who was so startled by Jack's words, she could think of no response.
"Ah, didn't tell you, did she?"
Elizabeth looked away unable to bear the look of disbelief in Will's eyes. This was it…the beginning of the end. Fitting that her entire world would crash down around her At World's End.
**
Will heard Jack's words but was sure he misunderstood. Then he saw Elizabeth's face and knew it was true. Elizabeth had somehow killed Jack Sparrow. Jack was still speaking, but he didn't hear the words. He was caught in that moment trying to make sense it. Elizabeth had killed Jack Sparrow. Suddenly her reticence over the last weeks made sense. She was bearing a burden of guilt she was ill equipped to bear. It was one thing to kill an enemy in a fair fight, but quite another to kill a friend face to face—with a kiss. It had been her idea that he stay behind when the Kraken was attacking! How had she managed it? Was that a kiss of farewell or was it something else? A distraction, perhaps, while she restrained him somehow? Did she love Jack and kill him anyway? Why had she killed him? Had she not believed Jack could escape the Kraken?
Questions raced through his mind, and he took a step toward Elizabeth thinking to get answers, but Jack was still rambling about the ship and the Locker. Will's attention was split between Jack's raving and Elizabeth's avoiding his gaze. Why had she not spoken to him? Why had she chosen to bear this herself when he would have gladly helped her?
He pulled his attention back to his surroundings. The thoughts he entertained only bred darker thoughts, more suspicions, and infuriating questions. He would do better to concentrate on their escape from World's End. Elizabeth avoided him as they climbed aboard the Pearl, and that fact alone drove his heart to confront her.
Aboard the Pearl, Barbossa and Jack were engaged in belaying each other's orders. Will did what he could to get the Pearl ready to sail, but as soon as he was able, he sought Elizabeth.
"Why didn't you tell me?" The words almost stuck in Will's throat.
"It was my burden to bear. You shouldn't have to." The words sounded hollow to her ears. Should she tell him her true fear; that he would think less of her and want nothing to do with her?"
Will's love, pain, and sorrow were there in his eyes. "I did bear it. I just didn't know what it was." He looked away for a moment before returning his eyes to hers. He swallowed reflexively. "I thought..." he broke off and looked down.
Realization smacked Elizabeth in the face. "You thought I loved him."
Will shrugged, his voice soft, and filled with remembered pain. "I saw you..."
"...Kissing..." Elizabeth supplied the word when Will's voice failed him again. Before she could explain herself, he went on.
"How can I trust you if you keep these plans to yourself?"
"You can't." Elizabeth's words were no less true for their immediacy.
He could only wonder if Elizabeth hated herself for saying the words, but he knew they were true. How could they build anything on lies and half-truths? She turned and walked away, slipping past him without looking at his face.
Will watched her go. There was still so much to say, and yet, he was unable to say any of it. She hadn't denied loving Jack, yet she had implied in words and tone that Will's assumption was mistaken. Regardless, she had killed Jack. Yes, he seemed fine now, but they were still in Davy Jones Locker, and at the time she'd done it, Elizabeth wouldn't have known or even suspected that Tia Dalma would suggest bringing him back from beyond.
Could he love a woman who had done this?
He laughed cheerlessly at the thought. It was moot. He loved her still. If she took up a sword and plunged it through his own heart, his last thoughts before dying would be of his love for her. He could not help it. He had loved her too long and too well, though mostly from a distance. His heart was hers.
He shook off the thoughts. It was too soon to deal with such things. They had to find their way back to the real world, and from the sound of Barbossa and Jack arguing above deck, they were far from that goal.
Above deck, Jack and Barbossa argued over whose orders took precedence over whose. Will was about to step in and sort them out when he heard a soft voice beside him.
"She 'urt you, Will Turner."
"What?" He turned to face Tia Dalma. She was looking up intently at his face, studying it, her eyes seeming to drink him in.
"Elizabeth is a pirate. It is the calling of 'er soul. She de one set all dis in motion. She de one plotting behind your back..."
As Will listened to the words, he felt again that pain in his heart he'd felt before he'd left to steal Sao Feng's charts. Her words mesmerized him, and even as some small part of him told him that Elizabeth still had some feelings for him and that he could not deny his love for her, the pain grew. He looked at Tia Dalma, puzzlement on his face, but though she continued to speak, he could not hear her words. She reached up a hand and touched his face, feather light, and drew him to her. He had no choice but to follow.
They went below decks, just where he'd spoken to Elizabeth, and the thought of her was like a knife through his heart. His bewilderment grew. He had always felt warmth and happiness when he'd thought of Elizabeth. Why now was there pain? His mind reeled, reminding him of the pain of longing he'd felt for years as the poor apprentice blacksmith enamored of the Governor's daughter. That pain, the pain of betrayal, the pain her words had just caused…it all coalesced within him and became the only real thing in his world.
Tia Dalma brought both hands to his face now and drew him closer. She leaned forward and upwards and just as her lips touched his, Gibbs appeared.
"Oh, uh. pardon me..." Gibbs voice broke through Will's confusion and pain. He tore away from Tia Dalma and raced back above deck breathing deeply as he did not noticing the tears upon his face or the curses Tia Dalma muttered.
**
Gibbs followed Will Turner above deck deciding now wasn't really the best time for rum. Tia Dalma scared him. As any good superstitious sailor would tell you, a woman aboard ship was bad luck, but a woman voodoo priestess who spoke in riddles and knew how to bring back the dead and retrieve people from places where they shouldn't be retrievable was the worst possible luck! It was beyond comprehension how he always ended up in such predicaments.
He had hoped a bit of rum would bring Jack back from the brink of insanity, but now as he watched his Captain weaving strangely across the deck and deep in conversation with himself, he realized Jack had passed that brink a long time ago.
Turner, lost in thought, sat on the deck nearby, a hand rubbing his chest as though to relieve some pain. Gibbs shook his head. Both women aboard ship seemed enamored of the same man. That had to be bad luck!
He considered the methods of reversing bad luck, but he realized he had no idea if such rituals would work here at World's End.
He decided his best course of action would be to speak to Jack, but he wondered if there was enough of Jack left to speak back.
"This is the last supernatural adventure I will ever undertake," he vowed, spitting on the deck. In the days that followed, the heat made it seem unlikely they'd get out of here, and as he drank the last of the rum, he repeated the vow to himself, only without the spitting, as he had no spit to spare.
**
The Black Pearl sailed through the dark waters paying no mind to what lurked beneath the surface. Souls lost at sea, abandoned by Davy Jones and the Flying Dutchman, moved through the water searching for the other side. Pintel and Ragetti, stopped by Tia Dalma from disturbing their passage, brought the attention of the crew to the phenomenon.
Elizabeth saw her father and called to him excited that they'd found him now and certain it meant they'd crossed back over to the real world without realizing it. Tia Dalma's words to the contrary frightened her.
"No! Father! Come aboard!" She pleaded with him barely listening as he explained how he'd died. She kept pace with him, racing along the deck of the ship, her eyes never wavering from his face, desperate to bring him aboard. If they'd saved Jack, couldn't they save her father as well? She could not lose him! He spoke of learning that killing Jones meant taking his place as the Immortal Captain of the Flying Dutchman. Some part of her heart screamed at the memory of how close Will had come to doing just that. If Norrington and Sparrow hadn't fought him for the right to the chest, Will would have been lost to her forever.
She'd embraced her adventures with something akin to enjoyment. A secret thrill raced through her as she encountered pirates and outwitted them, as she issued orders to men who'd sailed the seas longer than she'd lived, and as she stood beside the love of her life with the sound of the sea as close as his heartbeat.
She'd handled all the sea and fate could throw at her, but this? This she could not bear! Somehow her involvement with pirates had led her father to his death!
She raced to keep her father in sight, throwing a rope to him and pleading for him to take it up and climb aboard. She was about to fling herself overboard and swim to him, when she felt strong arms grab and hold her. Will. She clung to him and cried into his chest, her despair flooding through her. His arms, his chest, were all she knew. Warm, strong, rocking her gently even as he spoke to Tia Dalma, asking what she should have thought to ask, was there a way...
She saw then that he would have done anything for her. If Tia Dalma had spoken of the remotest possibility of saving her father, he would have risked anything, even himself, anything save her alone, to return her father to her. He had always been willing to do anything for her. That's what had brought him to this. He had broken the law, consorted with Pirates--whom he passionately hated—held a gun to his own throat, prepared to be lost at sea, followed Jack to an island of cannibals, squared off against Davy Jones himself...
He'd done it all for her. Not because she would look pretty on his arm, or because his social standing would improve, or because she was the Governor's daughter. He did it because he loved her, and whether she loved him back or thought of him in any way was inconsequential. He did it all for love.
It made her weep all the harder, and she buried her head in his chest, breathing in the scent of him, and letting her heart fill with the love of him. Love she hadn't allowed herself to feel since she'd killed Jack. It felt like coming home.
**
Will held her. It was what he felt he'd been born to do. Tia Dalma's admonition not to allow her to leave the ship had struck fear in his heart. The thought of losing her now was not one he willingly entertained. He held her trying to be of some small comfort to her, but certain he could do nothing to ease the pain she must feel at the loss of her father. In desperation he asked Tia Dalma if there were any way, but her reply seemed only to make Elizabeth sob all the harder. He tightened his grip on her sheltering her from harm, and wishing he could protect her from such hurt. He whispered softly to her, just soft sounds and quiet words to ease her grief, giving her what he'd never gotten no matter what loss he'd ever faced.
He walked with her, moving her away from the sympathetic eyes as well as the curious ones, and easing her steps forward to a secluded corner of the ship. He sat her down on the deck, and let her cry until she could cry no more. When she fell silent, he leaned close to her ear and spoke in a whisper only she could hear. "I'm so sorry, Elizabeth. If there were any way..."
A hand to his lips stopped his words. "That's what you said when Jack died."
He gave her a small nod. "I suppose it is."
"Will..." she paused. "Why do you love me?"
On a day when he thought nothing more could surprise him, this question did. "I...I don't understand. I love you because...I am unable not to." The earnestness in his voice and the illogic of his words made him smile and laugh lightly.
She joined him, but her laughter turned to tears, and she cried herself to sleep on his shoulder.
He held her while she slept wondering if this was the beginning of reconciliation or the end of their relationship. She was his fiancée, but had too much happened for them to marry? Port Royal seemed a world away, and since he'd no idea where they were, it could be in fact.
Would they be able to return? Without the pardons Beckett had offered, they had death sentences on their heads. Could that be expunged? Without Elizabeth's father in their corner, there was no one on whom they might depend for aid in this. Norrington had taken a pardon for himself, but had he left Will and Elizabeth out of his negotiations? He did not expect Norrington to give him a second thought, but what of Elizabeth? He who had professed to love her once...could he have abandoned her?
If they were able to go back to Port Royal, would she desire it? Her father's Governorship was all that kept her there. Would there be too many reminders of her father, of their past to return?
Elizabeth had succeeded in her goal to rescue Jack. He hadn't been able to tell her about his goal to rescue his father. Would she help him? It seemed heartless to him to ask her to help him save his own father when nothing could be done for hers. Did he have the right to ask that of her? What if he failed? If she did not love him enough to marry him, would she join Jack's crew?
It always came back to Jack. Will didn't know whom she loved. He had no idea what life she would choose. Jack could offer her the world. Will could offer her the meager salary of a blacksmith if he ever returned to Port Royal or else found another town in need of one, assuming of course that he could afford to set himself up in business, and he was not hung upon his return.
He stroked Elizabeth's hair as she slept. He pondered these questions and the road he now tread. So absorbed was he that he didn't notice Tia Dalma standing several feet away when the stabbing pain in his heart returned.
**
When Jack Sparrow began to run across the deck, Gibbs was sure the man had lost his mind. He'd been speaking to himself more than was usual for him, and it seemed he was getting answers. In the end, when they were well and truly returned to their own waters, Gibbs laughed at himself for doubting the man. Jack Sparrow was many things, but Gibbs would follow orders from a mad, dead Captain Sparrow before he'd follow orders from many a sane, alive captain. He knew loyalty wasn't something Pirates generally had, but Jack, he was different.
How such a man could inspire a crew of cutthroats to do the impossible was a conundrum. Gibbs knew they still had much to do. They'd saved Jack, but what price had they paid? Jack wasn't exactly himself, and they still had aboard ship a woman voodoo priestess who spoke in riddles and knew how to bring back the dead and retrieve people from places where they shouldn't be retrievable. Besides which, Barbossa and Jack on the same ship was never a good idea. It wouldn't be long, he was sure, before the two were plotting to throw each other overboard.
The crew would back Jack rather than Barbossa, he was sure, but Barbossa seemed awfully chummy with Tia Dalma, and Tia Dalma was awfully chummy with Will Turner. Not that it was his business if Turner chose Dalma over Elizabeth. It did seem out of character though.
Gibbs took a look at Jack, who was smiling and breathing in the fresh salt air as though it were the best thing he'd ever smelled. Gibbs breathed it in himself smiling at the familiarity of it.
He would stay with Jack now until the Good Captain chose to give up the life. Besides which, now that they'd returned to the real world, he could regale people with the tale of how Captain Jack Sparrow returned from Davy Jones Locker...rising from the dead to get even with the Captain of the Dutchman. He'd get more free rum than ever the sea turtles story had gotten him!
**
The smell of salt on the air and the tang of it on the lips combined with the slight breeze coming from starboard to ease Jack's mind. He had finally convinced himself he wasn't in the locker any longer because hallucinations in the Locker were never this comfortable or pleasant. No, this was real. The locker was behind him, and ahead of him was open sea. He wasn't sure the Brethren Court was a good idea, but he'd say his piece once he got there. Certainly all nine would never agree to any one course of action. He simply had to find a way to manipulate the situation so it worked out as he wished. He had to get aboard the Flying Dutchman at some point. He had a score to settle with Davy Jones, and now that he'd had time to think on it, Captain of the Dutchman seemed a fine career move. Ten years at sea was nothing to him. All he had to do was sneak aboard, find the chest, stab the thump-thump and Bob's your uncle!
The crew would have Barbossa to look after them, which left Elizabeth and Will. They'd have to find passage to somewhere, but he imagined he could trail the Pearl and threaten Barbossa with the Dutchman until the man took the couple wherever they needed to go. Maybe they'd join the Pearl's crew...but no, Barbossa wouldn't willingly take either of them on; too much chance of either one being made captain.
Thoughts of the crew and Will and Elizabeth reminded him of what they'd been through. He'd been surprised that they'd come for him. That had been the hardest thing about the experience to accept. His crew, they were pirates. They lived by the credo take what you can and give nothing back, and, if they followed the code, a pirate never purposely saved the life of another pirate.
He knew there were ulterior motives here. He wasn't sure what the crew wanted, but it was likely linked with Barbbossa's tale of the Brethren Court. Elizabeth, the distressing damsel herself, was likely trying to assuage her guilt at being the cause of his untimely demise. He'd called her a pirate, and would do so again, but while he believed she could be ruthless when she had to be, as she'd proven, he wasn't sure she'd understood how it would feel to have blood on her hands. She had a lot to come to terms with.
Then there was Will. Elizabeth was not missing or otherwise imperiled, so what did he want? It had to be Bootstrap. He'd said as much once before when Jack had stopped him from stabbing Davy Jones' heart. He wouldn't rest until he'd freed Bootstrap Bill from the Flying Dutchman. How did he think Jack could help him do that? First off, there was the Brethren Court to worry about, and then, finding the Dutchman was never easy...of course if he could get the Dutchman to come to the Brethren Court, that might make things easier. He could turn Bill over to his son, while he took the Dutchman. He'd miss the Pearl, but Immortality was hard to pass up.
He was about to search out Will and talk to him about plans, when he happened upon Gibbs. He had a rapt audience and was telling tales again. Jack smiled. Gibbs was an artist when it came to story telling. He listened for a moment, and realized this wasn't tall tales. This was gossip.
"The lad is over there now, one cradled in 'is arms, and the other kissing him hard!"
"What?" Sparrow asked, his voice a squeak.
Gibbs whirled as if shot. "Sorry, Captain. It's Will. He's down below. He's been a right Pirate lately! Relations with the fair Elizabeth have been, well, strained I guess you'd say, and I've seen him a number of times with Tia Dalma!"
Jack Sparrow ran. He was off and racing for the bunks as if the Kraken were back on his tail. Arms flailing, legs churning, hair flying, he didn't even pause when his hat flew from his head.
He found them in an odd tableau. Will was holding fiercely onto Elizabeth, and Jack wondered how it was she hadn't woken. Tia Dalma knew her way around a sleep potion of course, and that was the most likely explanation. Will was resisting Tia Dalma, and that act alone garnered Jack's admiration. Tia Dalma was trying to draw the lad away from Elizabeth.
"You should have made your move when he wasn't with her," he smiled a crooked smile at the woman, and she whirled to face him, though her hands never left Will's face and chest.
"Dere's naught you can do! This one will be mine, Jack Sparrow! "
"Captain Jack Sparrow."
Tia Dalma smiled. "Ah, Jack, we saved you from de locker, and now you see, I need payment. I always demand payment."
"Was this payment negotiated before you set sail?"
"Of course it was."
Jack bit back a curse. How could Barbossa be so...."Hector was in on this...let you have the lad, and what? Thinks you want a plaything? Is that it? You're looking for more than that, and we both know it. Why do you need him?"
"I want dis one, Jack. 'im is a pure one...do nothin' by 'alf measure. 'im put 'im heart and soul in all 'e do. It is a passion I want!"
"You've tried this before. It didn't work!"
"You weren't de one! Dis one is!"
"You don't know that!"
"You've suspected it yourself! You tried once to find de boy, but too late you were! Barbossa and 'im Pearl got dere first!"
Jack's face hardened at her words. "The Pearl is mine."
She scowled at his words in return. "De Pearl is more den she seems! You know better than anyone!"
"I do. And she's mine. If you expect the support of the Brethren…"
"IF! I bring Barbossa back from death for 'im piece of eight!"
Jack smiled and stepped closer. "Barbossa ain't the only one with a piece of eight."
Tia Dalma's eyes blazed in fury. "You dare 'old back! I will 'ave my desires!"
Jack smiles, his eyes dancing. "Aye, you do. We all do. It's satisfying them that's the tricky part" He held up a hand to ward off the words she would have spat at him. "And you'll be satisfied. I'll see that you are. If you let him go."
Tia Dalma's rage brought the hand above Will's heart into a fist. Will began to tremble, and Jack took a step forward, but was stopped in his tracks by a look from the woman. "I 'ave been denied too long! De Brethren will do as I demand!"
Will screamed in pain, snapping Elizabeth awake, and bringing Jack forward another step.
"Don't do anything hasty, Tia Dalma! You might need him! We haven't freed you yet, and he's part of my plans! At least wait until the Brethren Court is convened to claim him!"
Elizabeth stared at Jack. "What are you promising?" she shrieked.
Jack shushed her with a wave of a hand. "Come on, love," he said practically purring at Tia Dalma. "You've waited so long, you can wait a bit longer."
She paused and seemed about to acquiesce when she made a move as if to push Will down.
Jack closed the distance between them and took her wrist. His eyes held a fury of their own that so shocked Tia Dalma that she stepped away from Will. He immediately slumped forward, but Elizabeth caught him and eased him down onto the bunk.
Jack stared into the dark depths of Tia Dalma's eyes. "If you try to take him now, I'll never vote your way, and I'll make it a stipulation, legal and binding with Captain Teague, that my piece never be used in your favor no matter the possessor of said trinket. Now..." Jack leaned down so his face hovered by hers. His eyes locked on hers, unblinking and hard. "Leave. Him. Be."
Scowling, she shook off his grip and walked away.
Elizabeth cradled the still hurting Will in her arms. When he continued to moan and failed to respond to her, she turned to Jack. "What was that? What is she? What's she done to him? What did you promise?"
Jack held up his hands in a gesture of surrender before bringing them together in a more prayerful position. "Your William will be fine, love. Let me have a look at him."
He sat down next to William and pried the boy's hands away from his chest where he'd clutched them when he'd been released. "Come along, lad, let Jack take a look." Slowly, Will began to recover his composure, and Jack was able to raise his hands and take a look at his chest. With a sigh very much like relief, he patted the boy on the shoulders. "You'll be fine. No permanent damage."
Will looked down at his chest, and Ellizabeth leaned closer to get a look herself.
"No damage! He's bleeding!"
"No permanent damage! Trust me it could have been a lot worse." He rubbed at his own chest momentarily, before casting an eye to Will's chest, taking in the outline of Tia Dalma's hand, still visible against his skin, and how the edges of it bled ever so slightly. He looked Will in the eye. "You've caught her attention, lad. Tia Dalma has a crush on you. If I'd've been less concerned about that Kraken I might have taken more notice." He looked accusingly at Will. "I did say there'd be no knowing, now didn't I?"
Will was puzzled. "When...what are you talking about, Jack? What's happened?"
"You never can follow a simple story, can you?" Jack sighed. He couldn't hide behind wit or madness. This was not the time. "Tia Dalma is the woman to whom Davy Jones lost his heart…literally."
"She loves Davy Jones?" Elizabeth asked.
"I didn't say that. I said he loved her. It's complicated. She's not what she seems. I won't say she doesn't love Davy Jones, but I will say she's incapable of endless, abiding, forever sort of love that you two seem to have found." He paused a moment when this didn't get the two to look at each other longingly. "You do still love each other, don't you?"
When neither answered, he grew more frantic. "You do love each other, don't you?"
Before either could confirm or deny, he went on. "We'll sort that out before the end, then. The fact is that Tia Dalma at the very least lusts after our William." He looked to Elizabeth. "At the very least she wants to break you to up and claim him for her own."
"Oh, she does?" Elizabeth whispered, and Jack was glad to note the possessive tone to the voice.
"Aye. She does." He turned to face Will. "I've bought us some time telling her I need you, Will, and so I do."
"Why?"
"I have a plan. We're going to achieve everything on this one, my lad."
Dubious, Will raised an eyebrow and Elizabeth crossed her arms.
Jack rolled his eyes. "Have a little faith! When have I ever led you astray?"
Elizabeth's eyes widened, and Jack raised a hand, waving it slightly in front of her. "No, wait. Don't answer that!"
"Jack…" Will began, then something caught his eye and he moved away from Jack toward the rail. He pointed a short distance away. "Sao Feng's ship!"
Startled, Jack peered intently in the indicated direction. It was Sao Feng's ship, and it was under attack.
"We have to help them, Jack!" Will demanded.
"We can't do much…"
"We can try!"
Jack stared at Will. There was just no convincing the lad of the merits of the Pirate's code. Jack took Will by the arms. "Don't you get it lad? There's nothing we can do!"
"We can't let them die!"
"They'd let you die!"
Will fell silent.
Jack had known the lad would have no answer to that. It was true and they both knew it. Why then, he wondered, was he giving the order to head towards the battle rather than away from it?
Shaking his head, he admitted to himself that somewhere during all his planning and searching, Elizabeth and Will had awakened his conscience. He'd spent so long plotting its demise, and it had risen from the dead. "Just like everything else in my life," he muttered.
To Be Continued