Author's Note: Well, here is the end of "Dead Man's Chest"! I'm trying to get through Pirates of the Caribbean as fast as possible because now I have whole bunch of Lord of the Rings detail ideas…yes, Lord of the Rings is next on my list of fanfiction to-do's. Enjoy!

More Than Imagined

When Laura awoke, she first looked around to take in her surroundings.

She was lying next to a still unconscious Will on the deck of the Pearl.

Sitting up, she also noticed that Elizabeth was sitting next to Will.

The other woman looked up from her lover to glance at Laura, who had put her head in her hands, surprised that she did not have a huge bump from the swing of Jack's oar.

"Are you really Will's sister?" Elizabeth asked.

"Long-lost, yes," the piratess replied. "Are you and Will really in love?"

Reverted eyes were her only answer, so she continued,

"You deserve each other, Elizabeth. Know that."

Laura stood and walked to the ship's port side, out of hearing range, as Will stirred.

Suddenly, the Flying Dutchman burst out of the water alongside the Black Pearl.

Jack, with his jar of dirt, called out to Davy Jones,

"Hey, fish face! Lose something? Congealy…"

The funny little speech was cut off as Jack fell down the stairs. Seconds later, he held up the jar victoriously before jumping up from the floor himself.

"Got it!" he continued. "Come to negotiate, eh? You slimy git! Look what I got."

Then, in a sing-songy voice, he said,

"I got a jar of dirt! I got a jar of dirt! And guess what's inside it!"

"Enough!" Jones could be heard saying.

As if he had made specific orders, the Dutchman's cannons all popped out of their holes, ready to fire.

"Hard to starboard?" Jack questioningly ordered.

As orders were shot back and forth, Laura followed Jack back up to the helm and watched as the chasing craft slowing fell behind.

"They're giving up!" Marty called when the hunt seemed to be given up completely.

-That was too easy-

"My father is on that ship," Will said to Jack. "If we can outrun her, we can take her. We should stand and fight."

Laura was too deep in thought to care about the present argument.

"Why fight when you can negotiate? All one needs is the proper leverage," Jack responded. Just as those words left the captain's mouth, the jar went crashing down from its perch on the railing and onto the deck below, caused by the ship grounding on something.

Horrified at her realization, Laura ran to reload her gun, ignored by everyone else.

"Musta hit a reef!" one of the crew assumed.

"No," Will countered, clearly realizing the danger as Laura did and pulling Elizabeth away from the ship's side, "it's not a reef! Get away from the rail."

"What is it?" the other woman asked.

"The Kraken," he answered. "To arms!"

"Load the guns!" Gibbs ordered. "Defend the mast!"

"It'll attack the starboard," Will explained, "I've seen it before. Run out the cannons and hold for my signal!"

"Steady…steady," he said as the frightened sailors watched the giant tentacles coming up the side of the ship.

"Will?" Elizabeth muttered while pointing a lance at the reaching arm.

"Hold…hold…"

"Will?" Laura also questioned, soon followed by Elizabeth yelling,

"WILL!"

"Fire!"

The crew cried out in victory as the Kraken sank back down from the canon fire.

Laura ran up to the helm, sword still drawn, in hopes of finding Jack, but the captain was nowhere in sight.

Looking around in dismay as the crew prepared some knew defense again the Kraken, the girl noticed the longboat some distance from the ship. It could have only been one person: Jack.

"You couldn't have," Laura whispered.

Suddenly, the Kraken came back with an attack so ferocious that the piratess was nearly knocked off her feet at first from the shock of it.

Her first thought was to defend the helm with the thought of it being Jack's favorite part, until she brought herself to realize that they would be going nowhere without the mast (or any other part of the ship for that matter).

When Laura reached the deck, she had to practically dance so as to not be caught by the Kraken's flailing tentacles.

Then she caught sight of Will on a hanging mass of rum and gunpowder held by a net some fifteen feet in the air. His foot was stuck in the netting and he was desperately trying to cut it loose.

As he fell to the deck floor close to his sister, Laura noticed what the kegs were for. Dropping down at the same time as Will, the bundle exploded, sending pieces of Kraken flying everywhere. Standing, the girl heard Marty question the first mate,

"Did we kill it?"

"No," the other man replied, "we just made it angry. We're not out of this yet. Captain! Orders!"

Laura hadn't realized that Jack had returned. She almost ran to him, but caught herself. Even if he did come back, the captain had left her and the crew to fend for themselves.

-I'll question him about that later-

"Abandon ship. Into the longboat," he ordered.

Everyone froze in place.

Gibbs voiced what all of them were probably thinking.

"Jack! The Pearl."

"She's only a ship, mate," Jack sadly responded before walking to the mast, deep in thought.

"He's right," Elizabeth reciprocated. "We have to head for land."

Ignoring the rest of the conversation, Laura walked up to Jack. All she wanted to do was to comfort him, tell him that everything would be alright, but she was always a bad liar, so she instead said,

"I'm so sorry, Jack. After you reclaimed the Pearl, I assumed that I was going to spend the rest of my on it by your side…not running from Jones' feared leviathan."

"You know that you don't have to run with me, luv," the captain commented.

-I've traveled with you for more than five years…why would I leave now?-

Laura quickly pivoted and strolled over to where the rest of the crew was.

Soon, most of the remaining crew sat in the longboat. Laura was standing in the craft, handing guns to the men from Will, who was on the ladder passing the weapons down from Gibbs on the deck.

Abruptly, the older Turner stopped giving the guns to Laura. Seeing that her brother was staring at something, she quickly stepped onto the ladder next him.

Betrayal and jealousy flooded the girl as her eyes settled on the sight of Elizabeth passionately kissing the captain on the deck. She was too stunned to react the way she felt as Gibbs began climbing down the ladder and forcing the twins to get into the boat.

"Prepare to cast off! There's no time to lose!" the first mate was calling as he climbed. "C'mon Will! Laura, step to!"

Elizabeth, without Jack, followed close behind.

"Where's Jack?" Will crossly asked her.

"He elected to stay behind to give us a chance," the woman replied. "Go!"

Glancing at Elizabeth's guilty face, Laura relied on her instinct telling her that Jack wouldn't do something like that if the fate of an entire town depended on it.

"Liar!" she yelled, rushing toward the ladder, already five feet away, only to get held back by Pintel, Ragetti, and Cotton. "Jack!" she cried out.

Laura didn't give up her struggle to leave the boat until they were a good fifty feet from the ship and the Kraken's tentacles could be seen crawling up the sides for a final attack.

Moments later, the ship of legends was dragged down to the depths.

No one spoke, even after they reached Tia Dalma's hut.

The only noise for some time was the thumping of Will throwing Bootstrap's knife into the table, until Tia Dalma offered Elizabeth a drink, saying,

"Against the cold, and the sorrow."

Next, she presented the drink-filled tray to Will.

"It's a shame," she said. "I know you're thinking that with the Pearl, you could have captured the Devil and set free your father's soul."

"It doesn't matter now," he replied. "The Black Pearl is gone, along with its captain."

"Aye," Gibbs agreed, taking a drink, followed by the other crewmen, "and already the world seems a bit less bright. He fooled us all right till the end, but I guess that honest streak finally won out."

As Laura hesitantly took the last cup from Tia, the woman addressed her,

"You try hard to deny that Jack Sparrow was more than a captain to you."

"He was a good friend," Laura answered, trying to keep the shakiness from her voice.

When Tia opened her mouth to further comment, Gibbs raised his mug, offering a toast.

"To Jack Sparrow!"

"Never another like Captain Jack!" Ragetti stated, lifting his cup, followed by Pintel and the others.

"He was a gentleman of fortune, he was."

"He was a good man," Elizabeth finished as everyone took a drink.

After this, Will turned to the woman.

"If there was anything that could be done to bring him back…Elizabeth…"

He was interrupted by Tia Dalma, who asked,

"Would you do it? What would you, what would any of you be willing to do? Would you sail to the ends of the Earth and beyond to fetch back witty Jack and him precious Pearl?"

"Aye," Laura affirmed, soon followed by Gibbs. The rest of the crew, including the parrot, followed in suite.

Last of all were Elizabeth and Will.

"All right!" Tia stated triumphantly. "But if you're going to brave the weird and haunted shores at World's End, then you will need a captain who knows those waters."

Barbossa appeared, coming down the stairs, with Jack the monkey on his shoulder.

-Oh, anyone by him-

"So tell me, what's become of my ship?" he asked, biting into an apple and hysterically laughing.

The next chapter will start at the beginning of "At World's End". I hope you enjoyed this, so far, as much as I have. Thanks for reading! Please, R&R.