A/N: Thank you once again for reviewing!

Disclaimer: Disney owns Jack, Lizzie, etc.

I broke out of the captors' grasps and stood stock-still on deck. Nobody tried to catch me--someone attacked the two men and they had resumed fighting. I felt my mouth open as if to say something, but no sound came out. I stared wide-eyed and shocked as Jack shook his head and walked to his cabin. I heard the door close with a hollow noise, the click of the lock sounded like someone locking away my dreams.

"Jack..." I whispered uselessly.

With that simple move he had shattered my carefully-constructed, fragile world into a thousand tiny pieces. He had broken everything--my heart, my soul, my happiness, my hope of ever piecing them back together. It felt like someone taking a dagger and stabbing me in the chest, and pulling it out to stab me again--and again, and again...

I stumbled into the twins' empty cabin, half-surprised they weren't there before remembering they were on deck in the battle. The pain had made me numb, and I moved in a traumatized, trancelike state to a roll of parchment on one of the beds. I sat down and unrolled it, already knowing what it was.

... that a pirate Merlow will gain posession of a dangerous and unique weapon--a pistol, identifyable by the Sea Goddess's glyph embedded in gold on it--

There was a slightly smudged drawing of the symbol I had recognized on the pistol. I read on, curious.

that kills a victim the moment the bullet touches the skin, rendering Merlow invincible when he controls one of the world's fastest ships and an undead crew. He will be the most feared pirate to sail the seas, with almost complete power and only one way to break his spell. Should anyone willingly die from his pistol's shot, he will suffer for eternity at World's End, the pistol's power broken.

There was a long passage describing Merlow that I skimmed without much interest, reading only the bit about Jack's parents.

With his power, Merlow will have greed and lust... and fall in love with a woman who for a while loved him too, but her love is not deep, not permanent and before he can confess of his desire to live with her forever, her heart will be captured by another man.

I let my thoughts drift as I read, to the day not long ago... just before he told me about his mother.

"You occupy the highest rank in the Caribbean, luv."

"What about you? Aren't you Captain Jack Sparrow?"

"Of course. But you, darling, are my pirate queen."

My queen... I shook my head, choking on my sobs. I could taste the salty tears sliding down my face, knowing he was the one person I couldn't live without, the one person whose love I needed...

My tears fell onto the parchment and streaked down the sheet, but the words were unharmed. I smoothed it out and tried to concentrate on the black letters running across the page. They were written in a slanted, looping hand--messy but gorgeous. I wondered who had recorded the prophecy, and continued to read.

One day years after Merlow gains his power another man will die willingly from the pistol's shot, in the place of someone he loves. The spell will be broken and Merlow's power with it. The Sea Goddess, however, is angry that what is hers isn't returned. And though she knows it's possible the woman can survive with the man's sacrifice, she unleashes her power, killing the woman at sea while making it seem that it was a favor--uniting the lovers in the next world.

I looked up, dazed.

"He fulfilled the prophecy. Or at least part of it."

There had been more, that the twins had known. And I had ignored them when it seemed they were going to tell me. I should be dead right now...

I shouldn't be on board the Pearl. I should have been in the next world, beyond this world's end, with Will. With Will...? It didn't make sense. I loved Jack. Jack... I walked out of the cabin hopelessly and on deck, noticing without caring that there were only a few of Henry's crew left fighting, but on the Lady there were as many as before.

"Emera, Aryza," I said, approaching them.

"Elizabeth," they said in a surprised tone, looking at me and the parchment in my hand suspiciously.

"I don't understand," I said with a sigh, indicating the prophecy.

"Neither do we," they chorused, and Emera reached out to touch my hand.

"She's real," she murmured to Aryza.

"Of course I'm real!" I said, bewildered, but suddenly I understood. "But I should be dead. And you thought..."

"Yes, how did you come back?" asked Aryza.

"I never died!" I exclaimed impatiently. "That's what I don't understand at the moment... But explain this--what is hers isn't returned..."

"The pistol has her symbol on it."

"I have to give it back, don't I?" I whispered, realizing, staring at the paper. "Or she'll kill me..."

"You think like Mum," commented Emera. "Yes. But the Sea Goddess misunderstands. She thinks the woman the man loved loved the man in return."

I looked at her, just as someone rushed at me with a sword.

"One of you--" I shouted, pulling out my sword and clashing it with the oppenent's.

"--take me--" I ducked and tried to stab at the man's leg but missing.

"--to your island--" I evaded another blow and slashed the man's chest, pushing him overboard as I did so.

"--immediately!" I finished. "I--"

I pulled Henry's map from my pocket, handed it to Emera.

"It's an enchanted map. Will it be enough?"

"I'll take you," she said. "Get in the boat, it's in the water."

"Thank you." I scrambled over the edge of the ship and lowered myself into the rowboat. There were no oars. Emera jumped in gracefully after me, and stroked the wood with one finger. The boat sped forward through the water, its curved streamlined shape making it even faster, leaving a widening ripple of water behind. I watched the Pearl grow smaller and smaller. In what seemed like seconds I saw the outline of Isla de Profecia on the horizon, and Emera made the boat move so fast it was positively skimming above the water.

"I hope you're considering that I haven't got any powers to miraculously survive a crash," I said warningly. "I intend to make it to your island alive, at least."

Emera grinned. The doors to the cavern opened, the boat flew into them, and the doors had barely closed again before I found us right in front of the main chamber, the boat at a complete stop.

"Are you still alive?"

"Surprisingly, considering that the pistol is still somewhere in here. Can't you do anything?"

"I'm saving my energy for the return trip."

I heaved a sigh and searched the cavern floor. It seemed to take an eternity for me to finally find the pistol. I picked it up with scratched and bloody hands.

"It's too shallow here, the tide will bring it back," I said. "We've got to get back to the Pearl."

We got into the boat and once again Emera made it speed across the water, arriving back at the Pearl immediately.

I climbed up the side, taking the pistol and turning it over in my hand as I stood on deck.

"Elizabeth."

I looked up and sucked in my breath.

"Jack."

He walked to me, eyes dark and unfathomable.

"I'm real," I whispered. "I'm not dead. I'm not an illusion."

He reached out to stroke my hair. He touched my arm, and squeezed it hard.

"Don't!" I screamed.

"Go tell the captain o' the Lady that we're surrendering," he said in a blank voice.

"No!" I exclaimed. "Why would you do that—"

"Yer my Lizzie," he said, and wrapped his arms around me. And all of a sudden I was laughing and smiling, and it felt like I had never been broken before—I felt whole, and new, and perfect.

"Let me return the Sea Goddess's possession," I said. He let me go, and I took a last look at the weapon in my hand before I flung it far out into the ocean. I watched as it fell

into the water, and waited until the ripple had smoothed again. And all of a sudden he was kissing me with such a deep passion, and I found myself kissing him back, and it felt like nobody else existed except for us--in a glorious, beautiful trance... He kissed my hair, my eyelids, my neck, my face, my hands, and finally he came back to my lips, and I felt like I was floating, drifting, on a gorgeous, endless wave...

"As much as I'd like not to point out something so displeasing as to ruin the flawlessness of the moment," said Jack, pulling away at last, "the clouds are gathering, and the storm looks nigh unescapable."

"What are we going to do?"

"Well, it looks like now that we've defeated the Lady and killed everybody they've got, we should try to run."

I looked at the Lady, surprised, and found that it was damaged beyond repair and sinking. I watched the Pearl's crew members swinging back, and suddenly saw another ship approaching.

"What's that?"

"Not good," said Jack hastily. "It looks like another East India Trading Company ship..."

"What's happening, why are they here?"

"Good question. Why are they in my sight? Why are they... shall I say, spoiling my vision with that hideous flag?"

"They haven't gotten a new chairman already, have they?"

"They have, I think."

"Should we... negotiate, then?"

"Not yet, darling. Wait. And watch."

The sky was dark as the rain started to fall, soaking us to the skin. A fierce wind started to blow, and lightning streaked across the sky, accompanied by the low growl of thunder. I stood with Jack by the mast, watching as the ship grew nearer. When it was level with the Pearl, I heard a voice shout, "Fire!"

There was a flash of cannonfire, and wood splintered all over the deck.

"All hands!" Jack called. "Run out the cannons!"

I glanced at the water as the crew started to rush onto deck, not yet ready to start working. The water was becoming violent, the waves crashing heavily onto the wood and pouring more water on deck.

"On the ready!"

"Captain!" shouted Gibbs, awaiting orders.

"Fire!"

"Fire!"

"Fire!" I screamed.

The noise of the cannons was defeaning, but I had heard it so many times it seemed to offer me some comfort in the lashing storm. I saw a group of crewmen swinging aboard the EITC ship, and I was about to climb up the ropes to fix the sails when Jack called me.

I ran to Jack, who was standing at the helm, turning the wheel a little.

"The twins were just captured and brought to the other ship," he said.

"I didn't see anybody!" I exclaimed, bewildered.

"Well, ye can't expect to see much in a battle, even if it's just started," he said reasonably. "But looks like I've got a blood debt to pay. Man the helm while I'm gone."

"But, Jack--" I began. "I--I can't--"

"Lizzie," he said, letting go of the wheel and taking my hands into his, "I trust you to sail us through this storm. I trust you to see that all's well and we'll be able to ride out the storm."

I stared at him and found myself lost in his eyes.

"Jack," I said worriedly. "Be safe. For me. You're all I have."

"And vice versa," he whispered, "Stay strong, Lizzie. I trust you to be the morning sunlight that will chase away the storm, savvy? If I don't come back--"

"I have faith in you," I said, trying to convince myself I could possibly be strong enough to be morning sunlight. "And you must come back. Make sure you come back!"

I let go of his hands. It felt like letting go of hope, letting go of life...

"Stay strong."

I held on to the helm and watched as the reason I woke up every morning, the reason I took every breath, grasped a rope and swung away into the storm.