The gnawing emptiness in the pit of Elizabeth's stomach was easy to grow accustomed to. It was an irritant that went hand in hand with life at sea and she experienced it often enough that it was hardly bothersome. But the need for water wasn't so easily quashed. As the hot days rolled into each other her burning thirst grew steadily stronger. It was an ache in the back of her throat that wouldn't go away and refused to be ignored. It took all the willpower she possessed not to find herself in the cargo hold, where she knew that Barbossa had hidden the last bottle of rum. She imagined that the warm liquid would feel near orgasmic as it washed over her dry tongue and ran down her parched throat. But the bliss would only last a moment before her body would once more, and much more desperately, reel for Adam's ale.

Elizabeth used the back of her hand to wipe away the drops of dew that had gathered on her sun kissed skin.

It had been six days since they left the locker. Tia Dalma's promise echoed through Elizabeth's mind day and night. A week and they would be back in the world of the living, or else not at all. The idea of dying in the endless sea of dead had become more conceivable with each passing hour.

'One more day and you'll be back,' she told herself over and over that day.

With a defeated sigh, Elizabeth rested her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands. Her tired eyes went from Jack who's turn it was to try and break the code that was Sao Feng's charts, and then to the sunset, which threated to bring the final night to head. It would be her turn next to attempt to solve the mystery and so she occupied her mind with theories. The flash of green- everyone agreed that it signaled when a soul returned to the mortal world, but it was how one managed that which stumped them all. The day before she had fleshed out her best theory yet, and despite the crews current weariness of her character, it seemed that most were willing to agree.

'Pintel, you once told Will how it was that Bill Turner was sent to the locker,' she had clarified to Pintel, who stood as one of the many in a circle on the main deck. 'Barbossa-'

'-strapped a cannon to Bootstraps boot straps,' Barbossa had finished her sentence proudly, with a quick glare at William who stared at him with slit eyes.

Elizabeth had nodded. 'And sent him down to the abyss that is Davy Jones' Locker- perhaps a metaphor at the time, but we know now it is real and that Bill did in fact meet Jones himself and become a crewmember of the Flying Dutchman.'

'We know all this,' Jack had sighed, lazily toying with his telescope.

'And so we know that the locker is at the bottom of the ocean,' Elizabeth continued. 'We fell far down the falls at worlds end and since have not returned from whence we came from, so far above- we're in the locker, so are we not still at the bottom of the ocean?'

'Aye. . .' Mister Gibbs had agreed, with several others nodding with him. 'But how do we resurface as it were?'

'The flash of green. . .' Elizabeth had paced in thought, before pointing at Mister Gibbs. 'You said that the flash of green comes at sunset. . . or perhaps sunrise. So whatever it is, might it only be possible-' she stopped her foot in a sudden realization. 'Yes! If we are at the bottom of the ocean, then the sunset is sunrise and the sunrise is the sunset, so- wait, no-'

That had been last of Elizabeth's brilliant theorizing. She had no idea how it could be done and was equally perplexed by the charts that would give them that answer. All that she knew was that it had to be solved soon, within the next day or two at most, before they all withered away in the sun, their thoughts too jarred by the lack of food and water to think logically. The coming sunset could be the last they see.

Elizabeth ran her fingers through her hair and watched as Jack fiddled with the strange charts.

'Not sunset. . .' he mused, turning the wheels of the chart once more. 'Sun down, and rise. . . up!'

Jack Sparrow stood so suddenly and with such ferocity from his previous lethargic state that Elizabeth flinched.

'What's that!?' he shouted frantically, careening to the port side of the ship. 'What is that?'

Mister Gibbs and Will trailed after him. 'Where?'

'There!' Jack peered into the water for just a second before he gasped and ran to the starboard side, gathering a larger crowd keen to see what the captain had spotted.

With her dark brow pulled together, Elizabeth watched the group go from starboard to port and back again. Her mind was too clouded by dehydration to deduce what exactly Jack was up to. Was he hallucinating? Elizabeth knew it was likely that it was only the rambling of a mad man. But what if it wasn't? Curiosity took hold of her, and she found herself joining the small group looking into the blue waters on the starboard side.

Her eyes searched, but could only see the sea. 'What is it?'

Jack once more ran to the port side. Elizabeth and the others followed suit. As their bodies heaved against the railing of the port side, and then back to the starboard, the ship lurched with their movements and she finally realized. 'Sun down, and rise up,' just as Jack had said. They were at the bottom of the ocean, sailing upside down, and below was the world above. Sunset would be sunrise in the mortal world, and they had to be right side up when it happened.

'We're rocking the ship!' Mister Gibbs confirmed.

The ship rocked further as more crew members joined in and when the cargo was unstowed, its hull vibrated with the amount of iron that roamed the lower decks freely. Soon the ship began tilting enough that it became difficult to run up and take hold of the railing. It would fall and again the group would run to the opposite end. When the keel and rudder lifted out of the water, it was clear that they had managed it. Elizabeth held tight to the wooden railing and hung with her fellow crew members from the starboard side.

A few men down, one of Sao Feng's men let out a bellow as his fingers slipped. Elizabeth glanced over her shoulder and caught sight of the helpless man landing on the ratlines, just before a cannon crushed him in place. She looked away just in time, but was able to hear the sound of crushing bones just as the cannon hit. Her mind wasn't able to linger on the horrible sound long, as the ship tilted further, its topsails first hitting the water.

Elizabeth held her breath as she went under and felt the weight of her own body lifted from her shaking arms. The groaning of the Pearl rung in her ears as the ocean water rushed in every crevice of her hull. Salt water burned her eyes, but Elizabeth couldn't help admiring the strange sight of a ship underwater. How weightless it seemed, rather like the first time she set eyes on it on the journey to Jamaica, when the dead ruled it's decks. It was ghostly. She looked down, or up, at her feet to see the glassy top of the ocean. It came closer and closer until it broke over the very top of the ship. What happened next came in a blur. Elizabeth felt her body slammed like a ragdoll into the hard wood of the main deck. The force of the fall left her gasping for air that she felt her lungs refused to breathe in. After a moment of panicked heaving, the wind finally returned to her body and she climbed to her feet.

The first of the mortal world that she set her eyes upon was the golden ball of fire as it peeked over the oceans edge. As it touched the sky of blues, it bled hues of amber and pink in a glorious ring. The sea was calm, the only indication that it was alive at all were the winding tides, intertwining as they reached out to the horizon where the ethereal light rose. Seagulls cawed in the distance, in search of a morning meal of fish for their young and a wet ocean breeze graced her skin. Elizabeth had to bite her cheek not to cry.

'It's the sunrise,' was all she could manage to say.

However, the peaceful moment would not last long. Barbossa turned and gave her a passing glance. Elizabeth was ashamed to say that she now knew the man well enough to know exactly what he meant. They had made it back to the mortal world, but their troubles were really only just beginning. And so the negotiating would begin; or rather, what Barbossa would consider negotiating; he pointed one pistol at Jack and the other at Will. Elizabeth followed suit and aimed at Jack and Barbossa; the latter was a sham, as they had agreed long ago that the others mustn't know of their comradery. Will set his sights to match Elizabeth's, while Jack pointed at the latter. Elizabeth warned Jack with a seething look, but understood that if he were to shoot anyone, it would be her.

'All right, then,' Barbossa began, 'The Brethren Court is a-gathering at Shipwreck Cove. And Jack, you and I are a-going. There'll be no arguing that point.'

'I is arguing that point,' Jack argued. 'If there's pirates a-gathering, I'm pointing my ship the other way.'

Elizabeth knew well what needed to happen; she had ran it through her head time and time again. Together she and Barbossa needed for Jack to attend the Brethren Court to release Calypso and assist them in gathering the pirates in a fight with their enemy. Barbossa so that he may be debtless to Tia Dalma for his resurrection, and Elizabeth to find she and her husband out of whatever grave they have dug themselves. They needed the goddess freed and the pirates rounded up for a losing fight, which could only be the beginning of her requests. Jack choosing not to attend the court was not an option. The stakes were too high.

Elizabeth brought her gun from Barbossa and pointed it at Jack, who pointed his at her. 'The pirates are gathering to fight Lord Beckett, and you're a pirate.'

'Fight or not, you're not running Jack,' Will warned with his pistols now facing the captain.

'If we don't stand together, they'll hunt us down,' Barbossa declared, 'One by one 'til there be none left, but you.'

This declaration was a lie, Elizabeth knew, for the members of the Pearl were already safe from the Company's fatal cannonade. All thanks to her, though she felt that it was a tainted good deed that didn't deserve a thanks.

'Quite like the sound of that. . . Captain Jack Sparrow,' he smirked, 'last pirate.'

Barbossa stepped forward and held his pistol just inches away from Jacks nose. 'Aye, and you'll be fightin' Jones alone. How does that figure into your plan?'

'I'm still working on that. . . but I will not be going back to the Locker-' Jack raised his pistol to the centre of Barbossa's forehead- 'you can count on that.'

Jack pulled the trigger and the whole circle of gun wielding pirates flinched. But nothing happened, save for the droplets of sea water that spit pathetically from the guns barrel. Elizabeth, half hoping that her powder wasn't wet, pulled the triggers of her two pistols several times over, only to here disappointing clicks. Jack tried his on her and Will tried to shoot Jack.

'Wet powder,' Mister Gibbs tutted lightly with his lip held tight and a small shake of his head, as if they hadn't all just failed at blowing one another's brains out.

And so relative normality once more resumed.

'There's a fresh water spring on this island,' Will pointed at the charts that he had laid across the table, as everyone stood around. 'We can resupply there and get back to shooting each other later.'

'You lead the shore party,' Jack side eyed Barbossa. 'I'll stay with my ship.'

Barbossa gave the same look back. 'I'll not be leaving my ship in your command.'

Will let out a sigh. 'Why don't you both go ashore and leave the ship in my command,' he suggested, but upon the looks of speculation and distrust from the two captains, added, 'Temporarily.'


Hidden behind the island with the fresh water spring that they spoke of, just moments before the sun would rise The Endeavor laid waiting for the return of the Black Pearl. The morning hummed on just like any other. Lord Beckett stood in the chart room, lethargically leaned against the war table, plotting moves and counter moves against the miniature ships that represented the very real armada that now lay dormant off the coast of Jamaica. Occasionally he shifted his eyes to the ever spinning compass, which remained opened on the corner of that table, and wondered when it would stop.

'The Empress awaits nearby,' Mister Mercer informed Lord Beckett as he tossed an apple in the air. 'Sao Feng's understanding of the situation remains unchanged. Turner will be in charge of the Pearl by the time the Empress takes her. Feng has promised the boy the ship to free his father, but has no intention of keeping that promise. He instead intends to remain on our side, with the Pearl under his command and so under ours as well.'

'That won't do,' Lord Beckett drummed his fingers on the table. 'Feng works only for himself. He cannot be trusted. Did he give any indication that his decision on releasing Calypso has changed?'

'No,' Mister Mercer said. 'That is why I told him that by your word the Black Pearl is his. It will be, but rather like his promise to Turner, it shall only be for but a moment. We take the Pearl upon our arrival and so forcing Sao Feng to think like his fellow pirate lord Barbossa. To free her in hopes that she will reward them by taking her vengeance out on the company.'

Lord Beckett let out a sigh and shook his head. 'The Black Pearl is needed by our allies, among which is my wife.'

'Then we allow an escape,' Mister Mercer shrugged his shoulders. 'We know that Jack Sparrow will attempt it no matter the outcome of a negotiation. Our allies aboard the Pearl are still able to gather with the pirate lords and Sao Feng will still be wounded by our betrayal. He'll follow to shipwreck cove. Calypso is released and takes her anger not out on the company, but upon those who bound her in the-'

Mister Mercers words were cut short by a sound, or rather, the lack of one that the frequent occupants of The Endeavors chart rooms had grown used to. The ever spinning compass had come to a sudden halt. The eyes of most in the room wondered to the mysterious compass, all half expecting for it to resume it's now familiar hum. A moment passed in silence. Lord Beckett struggled to think for a moment at what it so obviously meant, until-

The chartroom first turned a shade of green before filling with the first light of day.

'The sunrise,' Commodore Groves said. 'Feng said-'

'The flash of green,' Lord Beckett muttered as he snatched the compass from the table. It was now pointed towards the north east, past the island which they hid behind. Just where the Black Pearl was due to make its first appearance from the world of the dead. He couldn't help the smirk that curled at the corner of his lips. 'They're back.'


'Get your hands off of me,' Elizabeth snapped at Tai Huang. 'What is the meaning of this?' The cool clank of the shackles around her wrists sounded, signally no further sense in arguing. 'Where is Will?' To this, Tai Huang only snickered. All at once the Black Pearl had erupted into chaos. Sao Feng's men had taken over swiftly, carrying out the command of someone unknown. Tai Huang pushed Elizabeth into the small gathering of her fellow shackled shipmates. Mister Gibbs caught her only just by the sleeve of her jacket before she tumbled to the deck.

'Miss Elizabeth,' he whispered. 'This be Will's doin'. I heard 'im order a mutiny-'

Elizabeth slit her eyes in confusion. 'What?'

'Aye,' Ragetti whispered in her other ear, agreeing with what Mister Gibbs claimed. 'Saw 'im stalkin' into the captains cabin just before.'

'It seems you're not the only traitor aboard your ship, Lady Beckett,' the words that Mercer had spoken to Elizabeth in Singapore seemed more relevant than ever. Just as she had before, she suspected that he spoke of Will, and now it seemed this was the ugly head of Wills traitorous ways. Her eyes scanned the ship for any sign of Will. His absence confirmed in her mind that what she and the others suspected was true. She cursed him under her breath.

One of Sao Feng's men waved his arms and shouted words that the crew could not understand. The captures cheered and Elizabeth stood on her toes to see what it was that they celebrated for. A coming ship, one identical to the ship that they had taken over the worlds edge, gifted to them from Feng's fleet, came sailing their way. It wasn't but a handful of moments before the ship was on the port side, and men were crossing the sky blue waters over to the Pearl. One long boat carried Sao Feng, who boarded the Black Pearl, proud of its capture. On a second long boat, the one that came from the Pearl, were the remaining crew members with the weapons of Feng's men aimed at their chests. Barbossa was the first of theses men to shamefully climb to the deck.

'Sao Feng. . .' Barbossa growled as he heaved himself over the Pearls edge. 'You showing up here is truly a remarkable coincidence.'

Sao Feng smiled, but something dark lingered in him. Elizabeth watched as his eyes moved slowly from her, to Barbossa, and then finally to the coward that hid behind the latter. 'Jack Sparrow. . .' he hissed. 'You paid me great insult once.'

Jack emerged from his hiding spot and gave a nervous smile. 'That doesn't sound like me,' was all he could utter before Feng's quick fist met his nose, which cracked loudly. 'Shall we just call it square then?'

Feng's eyes once more filled with fire, but thankfully for Jack, someone interrupted what was going to end in another fist to his face.

'Release her,' Will made himself known once more as he pushed through the crowd of men. 'She's not part of the bargain.'

Elizabeth's brow pulled together. 'Bargain?' she thought bitterly. Suddenly she was filled with more feelings than she was capable of. She was hurt, angry, and confused; but mostly angry. Her features held tight as she tried not to explode.

'And what bargain be that?' Barbossa asked Will with a scowl.

Feng smiled. 'You heard Captain Turner,' he instructed, 'release her!'

'Captain Turner?'

'Aye, the perfidious rotter led a mutiny against us!' Mister Gibbs let out from somewhere in the group of men.

Tai Huang approached Elizabeth once more and unlocked her shackles. She couldn't resist giving him a seething glare of triumph as he was forced to undo what he had done.

'I need the Pearl to free my father,' Will interjected, 'It's the only reason I came on this voyage.'

Once the heavy shackles were free from her wrists, Elizabeth stepped towards the traitorous man she once called her fiancé. With her eyes slit and mouth open, she almost spoke, but found no good words to use. It was an indescribable betrayal. It wasn't that she herself wasn't actively playing the part of a traitor, she was and she never tried to convince herself that it was anything less. Elizabeth thought back to just the week prior, when he had been so wounded over her deceit, when all the while he had his own lies and schemes. And for what? At least the worst she had done served a purpose; she had saved people and now she could say that she saved Jack too. Even the lie that she found herself wrapped up in wouldn't end in those she knew best dead- matter of fact they would be spared of any harm and she had made sure of it. While he was willing to hand over the very lives she had saved only to free the father that left him in the first place.

'Why didn't you tell me you were planning this?' The words weren't as hardened as her face, but it was all she could think to ask.

Will hardly glanced her way and seemed to favour looking just over her shoulder. There was an air of cool indifference about his features. 'It was my burden to bare.'

The unanticipated retort left a clean cut in Elizabeth's ego. Like a well made dagger it was simple, but it had finished her off quietly, with no need for brute-like confrontation. Though her mind ran rampant with witty remarks, she could not conjure up a single one that was as sharp as his. And as much as it wounded her to admit, it would be plainly hypocritical for her to dare speak out loud on the manners of falsity, knowing that she firmly held the position as the most deceitful of all the pirates present. So instead she let her crude remarks simmer angerly in her skull, clawing at the back of her throat, urging her to speak. She bit her lip hard and took a step back in shame.

'He needs the Pearl. Captain Turner needs the Pearl.' Jack pointed a dirty finger at Will and then at Elizabeth. 'And you felt guilty. . . and you with your Brethren Court. Did no one come to save me just because they missed me?'

For an uncomfortable moment of silence, Elizabeth, Barbossa, and Tia Dalma all gave one another knowing glances. No, they hadn't saved him because they missed him. They had saved him only to meet their own ends which intertwined more often than not. Not even Mister Gibbs made a sound of protest to the claim, which surprised Elizabeth most; she wondered what it was that the otherwise wholesome man sought out by saving the captain. Or perhaps it was just that he was more clever than taking up a troth so openly to a man under fire. Just before Jack's tight smile uttered an insult to those most quiet, Marty raised his hand. Pintel, Ragetti, Cotton, and Jack the Monkey followed suit.

'I'm standing over there with them,' he quipped.

Before Jack could amble over to his waning number of loyal crew members, Sao Feng took hold of his shoulder. 'I'm sorry Jack,' his voice was anything but apologetic. 'But there is an old friend who wants to see you first.'

'I'm not sure I can quite survive anymore visits from old friends,' he admitted with a nervous smile.

Sao Feng pulled the captain by the sleeve of his lawnshirt through the parting crowd of his men. 'Here is your chance to find out.'

Elizabeth was quick on their heels to see what it was that the men all taller than she now set their eyes upon. Unconcerned by the fierceness of Sao Feng's armoured men, or rather too vexed to care, she pushed past them and came to stand by Jack's side. A menacing man of war approached with a large English flag beating in the wind above it. Elizabeth couldn't help but let unjust happiness wash over her and had to hold a hand over her mouth to conceal a smile that formed there. She held her breath. Her free hand instinctively went to the enchanted compass on her waist to check if her elated state was all for naught, but alas, it was gone, just as it had been since Singapore.

'Oh. . .' Jack's worried voice interrupted her steady gaze. 'Would it be such a trouble to ask who might that old friend be?' The uneasiness about his features said that he already knew the answer to that question.

Sao Feng gave a twisted smile, happy to pass on bad news to the captain who once wronged him. 'Lord Cutler Beckett.'

Writers Notes!

Thanks for reading! It means a lot.

I'm so happy I have actually had time to update so now I'm on a roll. I'll probably write the next chapter tomorrow or start it tonight so it should be out this week. I'm excited to write what will be the next part to this story. I have a general idea of what I want to happen in that, but it is lacking any detail at all. It's mostly just a beginning, a middle, and an end. It will probably be a piece where I just write and upload and we'll just see where it goes. I'm trying so hard not to just start writing little pieces of it when I'm bored, because when I do that for other things that I write I end up with a ton of little plotless pieces that I end up really loving, but can't connect the lines between each to make a decent story. But we're kind of coming to an end, I'm not sure how many chapters this will have now but it won't be many, so the next part we'll be coming soon. Like I said when I first started this, I wanted to write this fic going along with the movies half because I have never written fanfic before and half just for fun, but I am much better suited at writing with no script to keep to and have intended on the second part since I wrote the first chapter.

I don't really know where I'm going with my blabbing so I'll stop. Next chapter will be out soon and the new part will be coming immediately after the last chapter.

Oh and a couple of days ago I wrote the first chapter to a fic that I've been considering writing and I don't know whether to post it or not. It takes place in the forties in the Harry Potter universe, kind of tied to the main story, but only by a couple of characters and the main is OC. I feel like it's going to be fairly dark. Idk even if one person wants to read it I'll probably post it.