Without further ado, here is the first part of Part 2, which is I guess where you could say the story really begins, since most of the previous stuff was exposition (and, again, excuse me for the length, but it's so much fun to write...) At any rate, please read, review, and above all else, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing, we all know this, on with the show!

Part 2: In Dreams

6. Calypso's Agreement

The Locker was nothing like James had been expecting.

A sandy beach stretched for miles in either direction, no sign of grass or any other life. The only thing that broke the stark continuity of the beach was the wreck of some poor vessel (Chinese from the looks of the markings, James decided), looking for all the world as if it had fallen down an immense waterfall and been smashed to pieces. The heat was stifling; he wiped his brow with his sleeve, surprised that the shipwreck was not just a mirage after all. The sun's rays beat down upon the golden-white sand and rebounded harshly back up again. About a hundred stretches away from the soggy border between land and sea, an imposing dune rose up against the white-blue sky. All the colors seemed slightly bleached, washed out by the intensity of the sun. James watched as the women and children climbed over the dune, hand in hand, clambering up its steep slope with difficulty in skirts and breeches. Seeing as there was nowhere else to go, he shrugged and began to follow the crowd working its way up the dune.

'Now, where do you think you might be going, James Norrington?'

James paused – the voice was not like that of any he had heard, yet it had unmistakably just called him by his name. He paused, turning back towards the ocean. No one was in sight.

'Hello?' he called, feeling just a bit silly.

Then, quite suddenly, a very beautiful and fashionably dressed woman appeared out of nowhere, right in front of his eyes. Her eyes were dark and murky like the sea, her hair thick and wavy, and her skin was a dark bronze. She was clothed in a corseted dress made of shimmering blue silk. James blinked in surprise, feeling quite confused and rather awkward at his unkempt uniform.

'I suppose it was you who called me just now,' he said, sweeping off his hat with a low bow that was just the right height to keep his wig from falling off, 'Lady…?'

The strange woman laughed a quiet and refined laugh. James could not help but notice that she looked too well and alive to have been one of the women off of the boats – plus, he did not remember seeing her on the ship.

'Admiral, there is no need to give me such a name, for I have enough amongst men and do not need another.' The mysterious woman gave an enigmatic smile. 'Perhaps you have heard stories told of me using one of the names I already possess… Calypso?'

There was a time when James would have laughed at this woman for trying to claim that she was the legendary goddess of the sea… but in the past year, he had fought against undead pirates, commanded half-sea-creatures, lost and gotten back his job with a promotion, and even started a drunken bar fight on the rowdiest island he knew of. Although skeptical, he decided to go along with the notion until something either proved or disproved it. 'Charmed,' he said, kissing her hand.

The woman laughed, her brown eyes twinkling. 'Such manners,' she sighed. 'Not so common amongst pirates, but it seems even less so amongst the British Navy.' She tilted James's chin up with her hand, stared at him for a brief moment, and then smiled knowingly. With her eyes still on James, the lady pulled out a lace fan and began waving it lazily; James, to his surprise, felt gusts of cool, salty wind issue from the fan, and he worked to show no surprise.

'Would you mind,' said the goddess casually, 'if I changed out of these clothes? Corsets are especially dreadful when worn in hot weather.' James gave her a look of extreme surprise, not knowing whether to leave to give her privacy or not, but in the next minute, the lady was inexplicably gone, replaced by a rather wild looking woman wrapped in a tattered dress. James blinked in surprise when he realized that it was the same woman, only with dreadlocks and tattoos.

The goddess gave the admiral a smile devoid of oral hygiene. 'You believe me now, James Norrington?' she said with a thick accent. James could think of no other response than to bow again. The goddess laughed.

'You are probably wonderin' why I be talkin' here wid you,' she said. It was not a question, and James did not interrupt. 'Very well. I be watchin' you all dis while, an' I see how you freed Missus Turner.'

'Miss Swann, don't you mean,' corrected James, his heart sinking. The goddess shook her head, a smile somewhere between sympathy and vengeance lurking about her lips.

'I say what I mean,' she said simply. Damn it, thought James, hoping that this conference would end soon and he would have a chance to get over this nasty turn of events alone. He stared determinedly at the ground, willing himself to be emotionless.

'I will let you go soon enough,' said Calypso, calmly reading his thoughts. 'But what I have to say might be of use to you. I know dat Missus Turner be quite lonely, wid her husband out at sea for ten years. She be needin' a friend, someone she can trust…'

James felt a strange jolt of hope in his stomach. 'You mean, I can go back?' he said, trying not to sound too eager at the possibility. Calypso shook her head.

'I mean you can spend one hour's worth of time each year wid her, in her dreams.'

James blinked. 'Pardon me?' he asked, slightly confused. It was hard enough trying to understand the goddess's accent, but when she was saying things that didn't make much sense, he couldn't take any chances of having misunderstood.

'When she be asleep,' repeated the goddess a mite impatiently, 'you can speak wid her within her dreams, but only as a part of her dream.'

James breathed. It wasn't quite as good as being alive again, granted, but it was certainly far better than nothing. 'One hour's worth of time each year… for how many years?'

Calypso shrugged. 'That be your choice, Mistah Norrington. Whenever you decide it be your time to drink from de Waters of Oblivion and move on to your next life, that be when you move on. But that will be only when you know you are done wid dis life.'

James had no idea what she was talking about, but figured he would get a clearer idea of the whole matter as events unfolded. Rather spontaneous. James smiled to himself. For some reason, he couldn't help but wonder if this was how Sparrow felt most of the time.

'Fair enough,' he said warily, 'but how is this time to be split up? And what is the price?'

Calypso waved her hand impatiently in the air. 'You may spend as much or as little time during a given meeting, but that is for you and her to decide. As for the price…' The goddess frowned very slightly for a moment. 'The price is set, and you yourself will choose it when the time is right, but you will not know what it be till then. So, even knowing dis, will you accept?' She turned to James, who was weighing the situation carefully in his mind.

'Why are you doing this for me?' he asked, a bit more rudely than he had anticipated. 'I doubt that every soul that arrives on these shores receives such favors.'

She turned her face out towards the sea wistfully. 'I was once in love wid a man who loved me,' she said softly, her voice like the ripples on a lake. 'But we betrayed each other, and that betrayal led to both of our destructions.' She turned back towards the thoroughly bewildered James. 'But would it make more sense to you if I said dat the woman you freed, she held one of the pieces of eight dat allowed me to escape my earthly body?'

James thought he maybe had a sense of what was going on, even though he had no clue what a piece of eight was, nor what the goddess meant by her 'earthly body.' It was obvious that Elizabeth had helped Calypso with something, and that Calypso was trying to thank James for having saved Elizabeth. Again, James felt quite relieved that the goddess had not blamed him for Elizabeth's captivity in the first place. And at the thought of Elizabeth, James knew he could not resist the offer.

'Madam, I accept your offer,' he said, throwing caution to the winds. 'And I thank you kindly.'

Calypso smiled. 'Ah, you an' your charmin' manners,' she sighed, and then disappeared.