Here it is folks, the deleted scene!
In the original storyline, I needed something to detain Elizabeth for a bit while I developed the other characters on Will's side of things. It ended up being harder than I thought and this was the first idea. I ended up cutting it out because I thought it rode a little too closely to At World's End, althought I did also intend for it to be a tiny tribute of sorts to the films. Anyway, enjoy!
Deleted Scene: Reunion with the Chinese Brethren
Elizabeth waited restlessly at the port side of the Pearl, her slender fingers trailing patterns in the dark wood's grain. Her impatience had multiplied ten-fold and every delay chaffed her horribly.
A gust of wind slid around her waist and tugged at her hair, taunting her with its speed. Riled, she pulled at a line, hoping to coax even a smidgeon more momentum from the sleek vessel.
"Ship! Starboard side!" Marty's pinched voice broke through the air.
Elizabeth's head darted up and she quickly joined the group of crewmembers staring at the oncoming craft. Her large belly made it difficult to lean over the wide rail but it was done anyway.
"She looks a bit Eastern." Gibb's veteran eyes roved over the dot on the landscape. "And listing on both sides…"
"Mr. Gibbs, there is a disturbing, reprehensible and deplorable lack of vocational exertion on my ship! Why, why is that?" Jack hollered, causing the crew to jump at the sharp edge in the voice.
"We've spotted a ship, Cap'n. Off the starboard side."
Jack peered past his motley crew to view the brown spot against the cerulean horizon. Seconds later he pulled back and looked to the older man. "Of course, there is. Didn' you know that?"
"I did Cap'n , I was just-"
"You were what, man! Spit it out! I 'ave no time for lollygagging lummoxes."
"She's of oriental make, sir." Gibbs blurted and watched as his captain's face twitched.
Jack's lips pursed and one word, hardly spoken, fell free. "Bugger."
"Jack, what is the matter?" Elizabeth inquired, utterly confused by the tension that now filled the strange man's body.
He ignored her. "Movement! I want movement! All sails released! I want every wisp, breath, measly scrap of wind behind my sails, now! Come on! Move, you lily-livered, pox-faced, bilge rats!"
"Jack!" Elizabeth burrowed her way past fleeing sailors to trot alongside him. "What on earth are you doing? It's just one ship!"
Jack didn't answer. He was too busy shouting. "Higher, you vertically challenged, recalcitrant imbecile! More wind! I must have movement!"
"Jack! Tell me what is happening!"
"What!"
"What is happening?"
He hesitated. "Nothin' is happening."
"Jack…" Elizabeth fixed a glowering stare on the Captain. "Who sails that ship?"
He offered, with an uneasy smile, after lengthy thought, "An old friend."
"Cap'n! With the wind as it is, we'll never outrun her!" Gibb's grizzly face looked strained.
"But I thought the Pearl was the fastest ship in the Caribbean!"
"'ave you noticed something, missy, we are no longer in your beloved waters." Jack's smile soured and he strode to the helm, taking the wheel from Cotton.
She followed at his heels, resolved to unravel the newest enigma. "You mean, she's faster than the Pearl?"
Gibbs answered for her. "Well, in different winds, the Pearl would have the advantage but Calypso has been a might moody these last few days-"
"She's catching up." Jack was oddly serious.
An inexplicable rage filled Elizabeth down to the very marrow of her bones. "You mean to tell me that there is another delay?!"
"I'd be more worried that this delay might be permanent rather than how quickly you'll make it back to your dearest love."
Gibbs watched for a moment, trying to discern what his captain was planning. "Cap'n?"
A sly grin eased across Jack's face and the first mate blanched, years of working together giving him a clue as to what was about to conspire. "Jack! That's a fool's errand! The waters are too unpredictable!"
Jack's bright mood didn't dampen in the least. "The funny thin' 'bout unpredictable is nothin' is ever unpredictable 'cause it's predictable in tha' it's unpredictable, savvy?"
Marty hollered again and this time Jack's face fell. "Ship ho! Port side!"
"Bugger."
The Black Pearl easily slid through the water but even so the two Oriental vessels caught speed and soon were just behind her.
"Jack!" Elizabeth shrieked. "They're coming up on both sides!"
"Move my ship, you pudgy sea scum!" He hollered.
Unfortunately, no more wind was to be cajoled from the sails and in moments, hooks and grapple lines flooded the Pearl's sides, lashing her to her enemies.
"Jack Sparrow. At last, we meet again. I have been looking forward to this day for many years." A man, heavily clad in leather armor, with long horrific scars etched down his face smiled grimly as he stepped in front of Jack and his subdued crew.
The aforementioned pirate was hunched forward and when the other man spoke he slowly looked up. "Sao Feng." He thrust his hands out uneasily. "Any particular reason for said anticipation?"
Elizabeth watched as the scarred man, now identified by Jack, strode forward and in a lightning fast move he rammed a fist squarely on Sparrow's nose.
"You have debt to pay."
Jack screwed up his face in pain and clasped his hand over his smarting nose, giving his voice a nasally tone, "What exactly would you be wanting?"
"I believe you owe me a map?"
"Do I?"
"One guarded by my father's spirit and buried in his remains?"
Jack looked as if he'd tasted poor rum. "Oh, that map." He paused and when he finally prepared to speak again his shoulders were tense with the promise of a new plan. "Maps are only so obliging, mate, perhaps what ye really be needin'-"
"I want those charts, Sparrow." Sao Feng growled.
Jack grimaced, a strange glint to his wily eyes. "Through a succession of undetected and utterly unprecedented state of affairs I find myself lock, stock, and barrel short of said charts."
Sao Feng pivoted slightly, one large, blemished hand stroking his head while his face twisted into a furious scowl. It looked as though he was a bomb whose fuse was rapidly being devoured by a fire of rage.
Elizabeth had been watching the exchange with increasing trepidation. She had faith in Jack, yes, but that faith was being siphoned away at each turn.
"Jack Sparrow," Sao Feng's tone was lethal. "You will tell me how you lose those charts or I kill de girl."
An icy muzzle found its way to Elizabeth's temple and she stiffened in response, though it was not out of trepidation but escalating frustration.
Jack feigned disinterest. "Who says I care about the girl?"
"Surely she is latest strumpet of yours."
Here, Elizabeth's temper reached boiling point. Batting away the hands holding her back and the pistol pressed to her skull, she stalked towards the pair, amber eyes snapping in indignation at the slight to her honor. "I am not his strumpet! I am no one's strumpet! I am Mrs. William Turner!"
Sao Feng, for the first time, regarded her fully. "Very well, then perhaps you wouldn't mind telling men how you come on ship, hmm?"
Elizabeth lifted to her full height and started hard at the oriental man, "I came here for my own reasons, none of which concern you."
"Strange how reasons become hidden when threatened but when in no danger they fly free from many mouths."
"And so, also, kind words hold little coercion when whispered behind a thicket of guns and blades."
"You have very intellectual head, Miss Turner."
"It's Mrs. Turner."
Sao Feng whirled back on Jack, fingering his weapon and a thoughtful glaze to his face. "I make you offer, Captain Sparrow."
"Aye?"
"You give me girl and I forgive your debt."
"W-what?" Elizabeth nearly choked.
"Done!" Jack smirked.
"Undone!" She shouted, practically seething. "Jack, I am not some bargaining tool you can use to insure your freedom!"
"We did agree that you would help me with a debt…well, love, this be it." Jack's smile was ever present but somehow it didn't contain the same confident aura.
"Jack!"
"Done." Jack held out a hand to the other pirate.
"Jack! Undone! What would Will say to this?" Elizabeth said her beloved's name clearly, hoping to knock some sense into her would-be betrayer.
"The bloody whelp isn't here therefore 'e doesn't have a say in said transaction."
"How can you live with yourself?!"
Jack's face squirmed as if he was trying to suppress a powerful emotion. "Sao Feng, you know I'd be more than relieved to get this…woman outta me hair," he paused, noting Elizabeth's glower, "figuratively speakin' of course "in consideration of your best interest…I'd be thinking that taking 'er would only bring you debacles and tragedy and lots of…calamityness." He finished with a wave of his hand then he came along side Sao, one slender finger raised in thought. "Tell me truly, is that what you really be wantin'?"
"What I be wanting is my charts."
"It seems that on my person I 'ave somethin' better than your charts, aye?"
"I could just kill you now."
"Correct, but then how would you know, which thing that is better than your charts that I have on my person that you don't know what it is but you want, what it is…and you'd find yourself wishing, 'oh, if only I had left someone alive so he could find that something'."
"What do you have, Sparrow?" Sao Feng actually appeared amused.
"This," with a flourish he lifted a small gold trimmed black box, "my compass."
"And why would I want another compass?"
"This may appear to you as a normal compass but in fact…it is anything but ordinarily ordinary." Jack grinned, gold teeth glinting in the sun and he continued as if speaking to a child, slowly and dramatically, "it points to what you want the most."
Sao Feng laughed huskily but it seemed as if he was forcing the mirthful sound and he really did believe what Jack was telling him. "Why should I trust you?"
"Because, mate, I'm Cap'n Jack Sparrow, savvy?"
"That means nothing to me."
"Nothin' I own is customary."
"Fine, we shall test it."
"I knew we could agree on somethin'." Jack lifted his compass, walked over to Elizabeth and handed her the instrument. "Love, what you want most is to find your whelp, aye?"
"Of course."
With a theatrical air he threw back the compass lid then watched as the pin spun crazily in circles before halting, its head pointing Northwest.
"Now," Jack snatched the compass away and sauntered over to Gibbs, standing beside her. "Gibbs, you want rum."
"Aye, Cap'n, powerful bad." The portly man answered but a confused expression made itself known on his side-burned face.
"And rum is in Tortuga."
"Among other places…"
"But Tortuga is where you be wantin' to go."
"Uh, aye, Cap'n."
The compass was placed in Gibb's thick hands and the head twirled blithely before freezing dead on Southeast.
"Will that be testimony enough for your…lordship?" Jack turned his dark eyes on the oriental captain.
"I will take this compass you offer but if it does not lead me to what I desire I will never let you forget it."
"Then we have a pact?"
"Aye."
"Jack?" Elizabeth moved next to the pirate captain as she saw Sao Feng's ship disappear on the skyline.
The pirate turned to face her, a lazy expression on his face.
"Thank you…Will would be proud."
"Why would I care about the whelp an' what 'e thinks?"
"You care," Elizabeth's tender smile turned smug. "I know you do…and so does Will…you are practically brothers. And you know it."
Jack squirmed under her gaze. "How come ev'rybody's gone all philosophically bent?" He threw a hand into the air. "Next thing ya know Cotton's parrot 'ere will be tellin' me 'e wants rum!"
"Rum all around." The parrot chirped, blissfully unaware of the ranting captain.
"What did the parrot say?!"
"Wind in the sails!" There was a flutter of wings and the parrot disappeared in the voluminous black canvas above them.