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Beyond World's End

By Ecri

Chapter 9

The Endeavor's crew adjusted the rigging as the battle began, trying to keep the ship close enough to the Pirate, though the sudden storm seemed determined to force a temporary cessation of hostilities. The crew shouted to each other above the din of waves and wind, crawling along the decks when the ship was tossed too fiercely, securing all that could be secured while still trying to fight the pirates that were Cutler Beckett's obsession.

Pirates had boarded Endeavor, and many of the crew not tending to the ship herself, were engaged in the fighting.

The sounds of swords clashing couldn't be heard above the sounds of the storm, and speaking was almost impossible. Rain flew at them almost horizontally across the deck as Will held fast to Elizabeth, unwilling, now that they had found each other, to risk losing her before they had a chance to speak.

He wasn't sure why Jack had come here, but he knew from his time aboard that Beckett held a grudge against Jack, Barbossa, and Bootstrap. He carried the proof of it in the beatings he'd taken at Beckett's orders. He would not have chosen to return, not out of fear of Beckett, but out of a desire to face the Privateer when he himself was healthy and strong. He would not let on to his friends, but he was feeling decidedly…not himself. He had followed Elizabeth and Jack only because he believed the only way they might all find a way out of this was together.

A flash of lightning showed the fast-moving form of Cutler Beckett scurrying below decks. Jack was on his tail and Will, Elizabeth, and Norrington followed.

They followed Beckett to his private quarters rifling through his desk. A stack of papers in his hand, he turned triumphantly to Jack. "It will all be mine."

"Too late." Jack whispered.

Beckett scoffed. "What would you know of my plans?"

"Enough."

Will watched Jack move closer to the other man, but he could not fathom what Jack might be planning. Unable to hold back, he moved with Jack, keeping pace with the pirate, eyes searching for some means of defeating Beckett once and for all. Norrington, he saw, seemed to be doing the same, though he was much more familiar with the ship and Beckett's potential means of escape.

Beckett stared across the room at Jack, his hands still clutching his papers. He stopped, freezing in place for a moment before tossing them to the floor as if they no longer mattered. "I have all I need to gain all I wish."

Jack smirked, a knowing look in his eyes as his hand slipped into his pocket and he drew out a book, one that looked too large to have been in a pocket and made Will wonder how Jack managed to conceal so much upon his person. It was then that Will realized Jack was rubbing a hand over a symbol on the spine of the book; the symbol of immortality that had been on that knife, he turned questioning eyes to Elizabeth, who shrugged, her own hand reaching for the knife she'd taken from Sao Feng's ship.

Jack seemed to be waiting for something, and, unconsciously, the others in the room all held their breath

Beckett's eyes blazed at this sight of it. "Hand that over to me, Sparrow. It's no use to you. With it, I will seize control of the seas, of the very lifeblood of this earth!" Beckett's eyes blazed and it seemed he saw some future they could not.

Will opened his mouth to speak, but Norrington beat him to it.

"You're mad." The clipped, reserved voice spoke calmly as though informing Beckett there was tea available if he desired it.

Will was surprised when Beckett merely laughed. The man cast his gaze with an imperious sneer at Norrington. "Genius is often mistaken for madness, and, you, Admiral, are hardly fit to judge me." Beckett moved toward Norrington.

Jack, Will, and Elizabeth all readied their own weapons as they moved closer to Norrington.

"Ah, Beck," Jack said softly. "Leave the Admiral alone. This is between you and me. It always has been."

Will wondered how much more he didn't know about the history between these two. He suspected it was quite a bit, and he hoped the not knowing wouldn't impede them in some way. It seemed he usually knew only a small fraction of what was going on in Jack's head and he usually ended up somewhat the worse for it.

Even now, as Beckett tossed insults at Jack and Norrington, Will had the distinct impression that Jack was biding time, stalling for some purpose Will could not yet discern. He watched Jack carefully and noted that his eyes darted continuously toward the windows. Jack was expecting something.

When it happened, Will was more shocked than Beckett. The weather cleared and in a sudden splash the Flying Dutchman sailed where a moment before there had been nothing. Will saw in the bow, two watery figures, and, at the wheel…his heart skipped a beat.

"Father…" his voice was a whisper, and his mind was whirling as if in a tempest. His father, free of the curse, sea creatures, seaweed, all gone. He was himself again, and he seemed fit and strong.

Will's distraction brought the attention of the others to the window, and they stared in awe or outrage at what they beheld.

"No!" Beckett screamed taking note of the Dutchman's altered form. Beckett whirled around, pointing his sword at Jack.

Will stepped calmly between them. "I won't let you kill him."

"I shall kill you first, shall I?" Beckett thrust forward with his sword only to hit metal. He looked startled at his adversary.

Norrington, his blade neatly blocking Beckett's, spoke in a voice of steel. "No, you won't."

Beckett tossed aside Norrington's blade with a twist of his wrist. "I will kill you all!"

Four blades held at the ready pointed at Beckett seemed not to lessen his confidence that he would emerge victorious. Will was surprised when a glance over Beckett's shoulder showed him the Dutchman closing the distance to the Endeavor. His thoughts raced and skittered about. He seemed less able to control them than he'd been before Tia Dalma's odd attentions. What did the transformation mean?

He forced himself to look at Beckett, whose eyes seemed to be transfixed on his. Will blinked and risked a glance to Norrington and Elizabeth on his left, but they continued to threaten Beckett with their weapons. Will glanced to Jack's position on his right and saw the Pirate Captain looking in his direction with an odd look on his face. It seemed half apprehensive and half chagrined. Will glanced back at Beckett and took a step back, raising his sword a bit and adjusting his grip on it. "Jack..." he whispered.

To his astonishment, Jack stepped in front of him, blocking Beckett's view of him, but also his own of Beckett. Will placed his free hand on Jack's shoulder, squeezing slightly in hopes of garnering some explanation, but when Jack spoke, it was to Beckett.

"So…Beck, that's your game. I admit, I didn't guess it right away. I thought Tia Dalma was after him on her own. She wasn't though, was she? No, too easy. I see that now. It also explains why she didn't lose interest as she usually does with men she thinks fit the bill. He would have been her leverage with you. You told her he'd be better for your purposes, didn't you? You told her he was what you needed." Jack took a menacing step forward, slipping his free hand to rest on his gun.

"Jack? What's going on?"

It was Elizabeth's voice, and Will turned to look at her. Her eyes caught his for a moment, and she looked frightened, but what of, he couldn't guess.

"Answer me!" Jack screamed the words, and Will, startled, released his hold on Jack's shoulder.

Beckett spoke calmly, as though to remind those present that he did so by his own volition and not on Jack's order. "He would suit my purposes better, Jack, but what do you know of my purposes?"

Will could hear the smile in Jack's voice and pictured it, a lopsided grin, almost a smirk. "I have my own sources. You'll not get what you thought you would." I've read this book you think you've memorized. I know what it is you think he is. You're only have right. He fulfilled the prophecy, but he won't give anything to you. See," he waved a hand out the window toward the transformed Dutchman. "It's already done. He's just a man now, not the potential power to change the world. The potential is spent. Jack looked pleased with himself. "If you'd read more carefully, you'd have seen that." He waved a hand dismissively. "Of course, you shouldn't feel too badly about it. I mean, not understanding that you had a limited amount of time and that, if you were planning on killing him to drain that potential power in some secret ritual designed to turn that God-Given, world altering power into a God-Making power…No, you shouldn't feel bad about not being able to keep up with me…after all," he leaned slightly forward and lowered his voice as though confiding a secret. "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow."

Beckett laughed. His laughter went on much longer than was reasonable, but Jack never glanced away. Will shifted his stance so he could peer over Jack's shoulder. The minute Beckett could see Will, he stopped laughing, his eyes once again on Will's.

"Perhaps I shall simply take you instead, Jack. I think I'd get more out of him, but I'm sure you'll do."

"What are you talking about?" Elizabeth's voice cut through the atmosphere of the room and seemed to ground Will.

Jack spoke shifting again, to keep Will out of Beckett's line of sight. "You'll take neither of us, mate. I've already told you. It's too late. Killing either one or both of us won't make you a God, so why do it?"

"Because," he whispered calmly, reasonably, all signs of madness momentarily gone, "It will make me feel better.

"Jack," Will whispered, and Jack spoke softly, his head just slightly turned so that Will would know the Pirate was addressing him.

"If you value your hide, Will Turner, for the love of Elizabeth if nothing else, be quiet." Then he turned again facing the man before him.

Poseidon stepped forward then, appearing from nowhere, his hand, seemingly of flesh and bone one moment, became water and spray the next as the watery limb grasped Beckett's throat and raised him from the floor. In desperation, the man tried to force the deity to release him, but his own hands passed right through the water, finding nothing substantial to hold.

Poseidon leaned his face closer to Beckett's. When he spoke, the sound of his voice was soft, quiet, holding the promise of power and of might. "You have gambled everything. You have lost."

Beckett's eyes widened in fear and surprise, but he still could not speak.

The God of the Sea turned to Sparrow. "Captain Sparrow, you have upheld your end of the bargain admirably. I am a God of my word. You have what we agreed upon. It is yours.

Will could not keep silent any longer. "My father…"

Jack sighed audibly. "Can you not once do as I ask?"

"I always do as you ask."

"Not always." Jack turned to Poseidon, and Will turned with him.

"Please, sir. I mean no disrespect, but…my father…"

Poseidon looked him over and smiled, not unkindly. "Your father has his place aboard the Dutchman."

Will shook his head and unconsciously tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword. Poseidon raised a hand to forestall whatever rash action the young man was considering. "Your father has his place. You have yours."

Will shook his head, a determination alight in his eyes. "I have vowed to free him of his enslavement! That has not changed even if the enslaver has!"

All hint of compassion and understanding melted from the Sea God's visage and he turned to face Will Turner. "You had best rethink your words, whelp!"

Will took a step back even as Elizabeth stepped closer, bringing her sword to bear. Norrington intercepted her as Jack prepared to intercede on Will's behalf. Poseidon waved a hand in Will's direction, his eyes unblinking and fierce.

Disoriented, Will dropped his sword and swayed slightly on his feet. Jack's strong arm supported him, and he allowed himself a moment to right himself. He nodded to Jack. "I'm all right."

Jack didn't release his hold on Will's arm, but turned back to Poseidon. "We had an accord."

"I have lived up to it." Poseidon waved out the window. Fighting had ceased. The God of the Seas locked his eyes upon Jack's. "You have what you requested. It is yours. All of it. Your young friend is free. Just teach your friend to think carefully before accusing a deity of enslaving anyone.

Jack nodded as though he understood, but Will was still in the dark. "Jack," he began, but stopped.

Jack was speaking again to Poseidon. "Are you taking him with you?" He gestured to Beckett.

Poseidon considered this. "He would cause less trouble if we did. He can live in peace at World's End."

Jack shuddered and Will was certain he was remembering the place. He recalled it too vividly himself, and he hadn't been there long at all. He couldn't imagine what Jack had gone through.

"Can't you just take the lust for power from him? Make him forget it all…" Will asked, wondering if speaking at all and thus bringing Poseidon's attention back to him was at all wise.

Poseidon seemed to admire his courage or else was amused by his "I could. But there is the agreement to consider. He made a bargain, a bet if you will, and he lost. He could not keep his part. He knew what he would have to endure if he lost."

"But…" Will began, but Jack interrupted.

"Will…let it go."

Will turned to Jack to argue, but something in the other man's eyes stopped him.

Poseidon reached out a hand to his wife and together they returned to the sea bringing a broken Beckett with them.

Will broke away from Jack and raced to the window. "Wait! My father…wait!" He called out to them, but they disappeared. He stared at the transformed Dutchman, which began to shimmer. Instead of submerging as it had with Davy Jones at the helm, it transformed again, this time into water as Poseidon had done. With a splash it was gone.

"Father…" Will whispered as it faded from sight.

Jack stepped over to him and placed a hand on Will's arm, and Will winced, pulling away and clasping a hand to the spot Jack had touched.

"What is it?" Jack looked concerned.

So did Elizabeth, who was by his side in a moment, trying to move the sleeve of his tattered shirt so she might examine his arm. He struggled, trying to pull away, but in doing so, the cloth was pulled back on his right arm.

What was revealed shocked both Elizabeth and Jack.

"Will!" Elizabeth sputtered with more words, but could get nothing out.

Jack gripped his friend's arm and swore.

"What is it?" Norrington asked, stepping forward.

Will, in a panic tried to hide, but Jack had too firm a grip. Will watched his friends take in the sight. The P stood out, angry red, still healing.

"He…Beckett did it while we sailed to Shipwreck Cove." The confession was difficult. It felt almost as if he expected they would believe that this made him a pirate. Almost as if he believed it himself, that this P branded on his arm might lure him to the ocean and force him to forsake all he loved. For if a blacksmith was a poor match for a Lady of Port Royal, then how much worse was a branded man?

He recalled the moment clearly, and without thinking, he began to explain it all. His voice was low, almost a whisper, and he heard the defeat and shame in it, though he could do nothing to alter that.

"It was just before we reached Shipwreck Cove, but I didn't know that at the time. I was being held in the brig…

Beckett walked to the door and opened it a crack, whispering a word to the men who stood beyond it. When he stepped back inside, a man followed. He carried a metal bucket full of flaming hot coals…and a branding iron.


Will squirmed involuntarily at the sight.

Beckett smirked and took the handle of the iron firmly in his grasp. Will saw the flaming hot "P" and his eyes grew large as though he awaited the appearance of some thrice cursed demon from the depths of hell itself. He was a smith. He knew with a glance exactly how hot that brand was. His mind could calculate what it could do…how much hotter it needed to be to create a sword, a hinge, a horseshoe. What it could do to human flesh he did not care to discover. He had suffered burns in his career, of course, but nothing severe. How ironic that a man who worked with flame, fire, and molten steel and iron would receive a near fatal burn not at his own forge, but at the hands of a pirate.


For pirate was what Beckett had to be. If he had been friends with Jack and Bootstrap Bill, and Hector Barbossa, then Pirate, or possibly Privateer, he had to be, and the distinction between the two was one of semantics, not of practice or profit.

"Why?" He asked, as he forced himself to be still, knowing a struggle would only exacerbate the injury.

Beckett's expression grew feral and lethal once again, and he leaned close to Will's ear, his voice soft, almost the whisper of a lover. "Because I can."

Will was looking down. Tentatively, he brought his eyes up to Elizabeth's. Once again, though he still felt on shaky ground with her, she was all that mattered in his world. To his surprise, there was no shame, no disgust, no pity…but only love in her eyes.

"Oh, Will." She whispered and stepped into his embrace, kissing him so well that he forgot on the spot and never again remembered the Sea Goddess's affections.

Jack placed a hand on Will's shoulder and looked him in the eye the moment Elizabeth released him. "You've got two choices, Will. Live with it. Learn to hide it. Risk being hung if the wrong people see it…"

Elizabeth gasped and clung all the more tightly to him.

"Or…" Will asked.

"Or burn it off, cut if off. Mutilate that P until it cannot be recognized. Replace it with something else…"

"No!" Elizabeth screamed. "He can't! He can't go through it again!"

Will would gladly endure more than physical pain to secure her happiness and said as much. "Elizabeth…if you plan to marry me, we surely cannot marry with this on my arm. If anyone were to see it, you would be hung as well for aiding me in hiding it."

She shook her head as though his argument were irrelevant. "We still have a death sentence on us! Do you think we can return to Port Royal?"

Will shook his head. "Even if that's so, what do you propose? We cannot become pirates."

"We are pirates!" Elizabeth insisted. "Beckett turned us into Pirates. He pushed us to it holding those pardons over our heads…I'm the Pirate King, Willl!""

Norrington cleared his throat. "I still have rank. Beckett could not have informed the Navy that I have been helping you. Without his presence, I am not without influence…"

Will shook his head. "But you cannot erase this!" He brought his arm up holding the still painful injury to Norrington's eyes. "Tell me, Admiral Norrington, if you ran across a man with a huge burn upon his wrist, would you not assume he had burned off a brand? Would you not then imprison him and try to get him to confess? And what of his family?" His voice cracked and he swallowed twice before he could continue, emotion plain in his eyes. "I will not risk Elizabeth."

"Surely that's my choice!" Elizabeth screamed. "I am willing to risk…"

"NO!" Will's vehemence silenced the room. His eyes blazed. He had endured too much, compromised too much all his life; biting his tongue against angry retorts to his social superiors, allowing himself to be called names if spoken of at all, being thought of as an apprentice even when he himself was more a blacksmith than his master had ever been, watching Elizabeth from a distance when all he wanted was to be near her, not to mention Pirates, the undead, power hungry madmen, torture, lies…he would endure more for her sake, but on matters concerning her safety he would not compromise. If he did all he had endured would be for naught.

He took a moment, turning away, looking at the sea, at where the Dutchman had been, at where he'd last seen his father. His heart was in turmoil. They'd managed to defeat Beckett, unite the Pirates and deal a substantial blow to the East India Trading Company. Yet, he and Elizabeth were still fugitives. He had failed in the one mission he had consciously set out to complete when he had left Port Royal. When he had left Elizabeth in that prison…he could not risk her freedom or her life…not again. Losing her would destroy him even if she were not his to lose.

He felt a hand upon his shoulder. It trembled slightly, but then steadied as it moved to his neck. "Will…" Her voice again, a sweet whisper. "We have been through so much. There must be a way."

Will heard the heartbreak in her words, in her tone. He turned abruptly and caught her in an embrace, holding on like he would never release her. She buried her head in his shoulder, and he rocked her, refusing to open his own eyes for he was sure to do so would release tears he had held back for too long. He made soothing sounds and whispered to her of his own undying love for her. Finally, swallowing hard, he opened his eyes and looked to Jack and Norrington, who both stood watching.

Help us. He mouthed the words to them. He never would have asked for help for himself, but for Elizabeth's sake, he had no other recourse.

Jack nodded once and looked to Norrington. "What about it, Norrington? Shall we put our heads together and see what we can come up with?"

Norrington nodded and looked Will in the eye much as he had when Will had saved Jack from the hangman's noose and Norrington had remarked what a fine sword he had forged. "You have my word, Will Turner. I will see this set right."

"As will I."

The voice was not Jack's. Familiar, yet not so, it silenced them all as effectively as Will's earlier shout. All four turned as one to face the door to the cabin. There, in the doorway stood…

"Father!" Will called, grasping Elizabeth's hand unwilling even now to be parted from her. He hugged the older man fiercely, making up for years in the one gesture. "How…when…"

Bootstrap shook his head, hugging his son, but speaking to Jack. "There's been a cease fire. The Endeavor has agreed to allow the Pirates to leave the vicinity. The Pearl is out there, but Barbossa is unable to weigh anchor."

Jack grinned. "As it should be." He turned to Norrington. "If you don't mind—and even if you do—I'll be taking the lovebirds with me. No offence, but it's best none of your men see the brand until something can be done about it."

Norrington nodded. "Where shall we meet to make our plans?" He looked to Bootstrap. "And to hear what tales we haven't yet shared with each other."

"We'll wait it out here. It won't take long for the Brethren to get under way. Stick around, Admiral, and we'll parley before the hour is up." Jack moved toward the exit.

Elizabeth moved to Norrington's side. "Thank you, James. For everything."

He smiled wryly. "I haven't done everything, but I'm sure we'll get around to it."

She returned the smile, and gave him a small kiss on the cheek before departing with Will, Jack, and Bootstrap.

To Be Continued…