Disclaimer: don't own POTC

A/N: last chappie!!! i think it'll be good. don't worry, there's still an epilogue

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Esperanza couldn't believe it. Jack had come from her. Just like Elizabeth had said he would. And now after this battle was over, they could finally be together again. She fought the crew mechanically, not really seeing the men attacking and dying before her. Her thoughts were already planning ahead to what she and Jack would be doing in the near future. Pirating, sailing, freedom...and then she heard a clatter and a loud cry of triumph. It was not Jack's voice.

She ground the broken bottle neck into her opponent's gut and whirled. What she saw was enough to make her blood run cold. Jack stood before Alderman, weaponless, arms spread in a gesture of surrender. Alderman grinned and reached for his pistol.

Everything seemed to slow. She started forward, desperate to reach Jack before Alderman drew his gun. Jack, almost instantly dove for his sword, only a few feet away. He reached it and stood, just as Alderman pulled out his gun and adjusted his aim to compensate for Jack's movement. He pulled the trigger and time snapped back to normal.

Will, with a final yell, yanked his cutlass out of the last crewman's dying body, grateful that Esperanza had been competent enough to deal with the rest. Then he realized there was dead silence. He was halfway turned around when there was a loud cry of distess and a simultaneous gunshot. Will finished the turn and took in the scene before him.

Elizabeth was fine. That was his main concern. He could see her standing to one side with his peripheral vision. But even as he registered this, Alderman gurgled, blood running down his chin, and collapsed onto the floor. He lay there twitching for several seconds before the life in his eyes faded forever. Jack was crouched on the floor, cradling the head of a strange woman in his lap. And he was crying. That alone was enough to scare the shit out of Will.

Esperanza stared up into Jack's face, numbly observing the pain as from a great distance. All the plans, the wild and crazy schemes she'd had for them were dissappating as fast as mist on a sunny morning. When she had diven for Alderman, she'd never expected that he would change his aim from Jack to her. He'd missed her heart, but she could feel the bullet lodged in her lung, could feel the air leaking out of her punctured organ to fill her chest, slowly obstructing her breathing. She had a long slow death ahead of her, unless she decided otherwise.

Jack was frantically trying to staunch the blood gushing out of her wound. She raised her hands and stopped his efforts. He stared uncomprehendingly at her restraining hands before lifting his gaze to look her in the eyes.

"Jack - " she began, then cut herself short. She felt something running down her chin and tasted a metallic flavor in her mouth. Jack reached forward and wiped it off. His fingers came away bloody.

"Esperanza - "

"Don't Jack," she rasped, half-choking on the blood bubbling up in the back of her throat. "It's no use. The bullet's in my lung. You'll never reach it." Then she rolled onto her side, coughing violently, spraying vermillion beads of blood across the dusty stone floor. She then forced herself back to her original position, panting. It was becoming increasingly difficult to breathe. The pressure in her chest was slowly crushing her lungs to the point where she had to struggle to inhale.

"Why does this happen?" said Jack hopelessly. He stopped trying to staunch the blood. He trusted Esperanza enough to believe what she had said about it being no use. He brushed her hair out of face, and traced a finger down her jawline. "Why couldn't we have had more time?"

Esperanza tried to say something, something to console him. But she found with faint surprise, she could barely breathe. Her lungs were getting crushed, and she was beginning to drown in her own blood. Things were starting to fade, and her body was slowly growing numb. It was too late for her. Too late for her and Jack to make things right again. But she was alright with that. She'd been trapped in the Soul Bottle for so long that she'd come to be familiar with the idea of death. Her only regret was that Jack was going to have to learn to live without her. He would have to go on alone.

"Jack," she whispered. "It hurts."

Jack's eyes were glistening with unshed tears, but his cheeks remained dry. Carefully, he slid his arms under so he held her closer to him. "I know, love," he said, his voice shaking slightly. He kissed her forehead. "I know."

"Jack." Esperanza tried again. She had to ask him before she could no longer speak. "You have to kill me."

"What?!" he cried, aghast. "No! I - I can't!"

"Do it!" she rasped. "If you don't - " she stopped, gasping for breath. " - then I will suffer until my death. Do you want that?"

Jack stared down at her, torn in an agony of indecision. He didn't want her to suffer, but how could he kill the one person who meant everything to him? How could he end her life? Maybe there was a chance, a hope that she would be alright, and it was just the pain making her say these things. But in his heart, he knew that was just a fool's dream. Esperanza was dying. She was slowly suffocating on her own blood. He knew what he had to do. He just didn't know if he was strong enough to do it.

Jack pulled her closer to him, resting his forehead against hers. A single tear fell to land on Esperanza's cheek. "I love you," he whispered. Then he pulled out his pistol and cocked it back, locking the last shot into the chamber. The forbidding click echoed throughout the cavern.

Esperanza looked up at him one last time, her eyes glittering with pain, love and gratefulness. Then Jack bent forward, and kissed her. One last deep kiss, a kiss that expressed all his love and regrets.

Then, with his lips still on hers, he put the gun to her temple.

His hand slid up to cradle the back of her head.

And then he pulled the trigger.

The gunshot reverberated in the silence, and Esperanza went limp in Jack's arms.

Jack broke the kiss and dropped the pistol. A cry of inhuman anguish tore out of his throat, and the tears that he had held back flowed freely down his face. He pressed his forehead against Esperanza's, rocking back and forth in the pain of a lover left behind.

Elizabeth drifted over to Will, and buried her face in his chest. Esperanza had been her friend, despite the short time she had known her. She did not want to see her like this. She wanted to remember Esperanza as she had been, not lying cold and dead in Jack's arms.

Will wrapped his arms around Elizabeth, holding her close, thanking God that it was not her who had died. He could not tear his eyes away from the tragic sight on the floor before the portal. He had never seen Jack like this, had never thought that Jack was capable of feeling so deeply, hurting so deeply, loving so deeply. Suddnenly, Will couldn't bear to watch any longer. He turned away from Jack and Esperanza, leaving Jack to grieve in private.

"Well, well, well," a familiar voice rang out. "What have we here?"

Everyone in the cave whipped around to find none other than Commodore Norrington and Governor Swann.

Governor Swann stepped forward, his face contorted with hatred and rage. "William Turner, you are under arrest for the murder of my daughter, Elizabeth!"

Commodore Norrington, however, stood staring, slack-jawed. Elizabeth was alive and well, standing right beside the so called accused. What on earth - ? It was obvious that Elizabeth was fine, so the charges against Will were instantly dropped. So why was Governor Swann still acting as though Elizabeth was dead? Was he so bent on revenge that he would stop at nothing to get it?

Suddenly, there was an explosion of noise and light. The portal changed from the vivid blue to a sickly green color. The lightening within it flashed more and more rapidly until the portal split in two. A hand wearing a familiar ring reached through it. It groped about for a second before it seized Ochiri. It yanked her through the portal. Ochiri shrieked as she was sucked back to hell for all eternity. And then through the rip emerged Elizabeth's worst nightmare come true.

He had crept up from the deepest circle of hell, the circle reserved for bertayers and mutineers. He was both. He had followed Ochiri to the surface, and now was emerging to take her place in the world of the living. He was bound by the same rules that she had been, but he didn't care. He had returned to fufill a single purpose: revenge. He had returned from the grave to carry it out.

Captain Barbossa.

Out of the shadows, the monkey emerged, and leapt up onto his shoulder. Barbossa stepped away from the gateway, laughing sinisterly. He looked down from his perch on the altar at the shell-shocked crowd.

"A welcoming committee. How decent of ye." He grinned and focused his attention on the one person who wanted to have it the least. "Ah, miss Elizabeth. So kind of ye to join us, so I may exact my revenge for yer trickery the last time we met." He pulled out his pistol and started towards her.

Elizabeth whimpered and tried to hide behind Will, but at that exact moment, Governor Swann decided to try to lunge for Will.

Barbossa fired, not even pausing to see who it was he was shooting. "SHE'S MINE!!!" he bellowed. "She must pay back fer trying to delay my quest for the Aztec gold. No one is to move, D'YOU HEAR ME?!?!"

Elizabeth was too horrified to speak, let alone scream or move. Her father lay on the floor, his eyes glazed over and blood oozing from the bullethole directly between his eyes. Governor Swann was dead.

Barbossa glared around the room, making sure no one was going to interfere with his conquest for revenge. Then he continued his slow and steady advance towards Elizabeth.

Will stepped in front of her, ready to face down Barbossa, to the death if necessary. He was not prepared to see Elizabeth lying dead on the cold stone floor. But suddenly someone spoke.

"Barbossa."

Barbossa spun around. Standing by the altar was the man who had killed him. Jack Sparrow.

Jack's shoulders were slumped, and his breathing shuddered. His eyes were red and his cheeks were damp. Streaks of black kohl ran down his face, marking where the tears had been. His hands and shirt were spattered and smeared with blood. Esperanza's blood. But the thing that had Barbossa riveted was not the fact that the notorious Jack had been crying. No. It was what this shattered soul held in his hands that had Barbossa capivated.

In his hands he held Alderman's pact with Ochiri. The reason the portal had been created. The reason why it was still open. The reason Barbossa was still here, and not in hell where he belonged.

"No!" cried Barbossa, and started towards Jack, gun drawn.

Jack smiled faintly as Barbossa rushed forward. "For Esperanza," he whispered, so quietly that no one heard him. Then he ripped the parchment in half.

A huge explosion of light blinded everyone in the cave. A roaring sound filled the air and a powerful suction started pulling everything towards the rapidly shrinking portal. Though it was difficult for most everyone to resist the wind, Barbossa found it nigh impossible. He struggled and fought, but to no avail. Within several minutes, he was halfway into the portal. Then with one last shriek of dismay and dispair, Barbossa and the gateway to hell vanished.

The air stilled and everything went silent. For a moment no one moved. Then Elizabeth gave a small cry and fell to her knees beside her father. She rolled him over and shook him slightly, as if trying to rouse him. Then the harsh reality sank in and she started crying.

Will gently took her by the shoulders and levered her to her feet. "Elizbeth, it's no use. He's gone."

Elizabeth flung her arms around him and broke down. She had just lost her father and friend in a few short minutes. For a while, no one spoke, unsure what to say if they did. Jack knelt by Esperanza's body, observing Elizabeth cry with emotionless eyes. Esperanza was gone. He didn't care anymore.

Finally Commodore Norrington spoke. "Perhaps it's better this way. The governor was not himself. He was corrupted by the desire for revenge. It twisted him beyond all reason."

"But he was still my father!" said Elizabeth brokenly.

"We should return to Port Royal. We have to tell the rest of the city and send word to England."

Elizabeth nodded and, with Will's arm around her shoulders, started to slowly walk out of the cave. For a moment, no one moved. Then Jack scooped up Esperanza and morosely followed. One by one, they filed out of the cave, pirate and soldier united by the tragdy they had witnessed in the cave.

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A/N: didn't that make you sniffle at least? Poor jack...Im so mean to my characters, aren't I? Okay, here's the epilogue