-1Chapter 4
Sorry it took so long, I had some girl issues I had to deal with…But anyways, back on track with the climactic continuation!
Chapter 4-The Heart of the Flying Dutchman
Will, Jack and Jess ran out onto the deck, their eyes wild and alert. Will went to Gibbs to discern the status of the situation, while Jack and Jess stood watching him.
"He's made a good captain in your absence, Jack. And now he has his own ship." He smiled and looked at the other pirate, their eyes full of irony and love.
"Three captains, one bond." Jack kissed Jess Greengage and took a running leap across the space between Will's ship and the Black Pearl, landing for once on his feet. Jess also jumped ship onto Poseidon's Blessing, his crew already preparing the ship for battle. He walked forward to the Captain's Wheel and took it in his hands, ready to steer his ship into the fray to save the lives of his lovers, one old and one new. He closed his eyes, his mind lost to the precious moments before when Jack had kissed him, the taste of rum and salt-slick lips plaguing his thoughts, and when a slender arm reached round his neck and placed a dagger to his throat, he snapped out of his reverie and grabbed the wrist in his palm, pulling its owner around into his field of vision.
"Ah, Miss Swann." Her eyes widened and she glared at him, trying to pull away. Jess curled his lip and looked over at Will's ship to see the other captain lounging on the rail of his ship, watching the scene play out. Jess shot him a questioning glance and Will Turner shrugged, stretching and turning his back on Elizabeth Swann forever. "It seems the one man who would have saved you once, will leave you to your fate."
"Jack-" she muttered. "Jack will forgive me…He will save me…"
"Hey, Greengage! Tell ol' what's-'er-face to have fun sucking the shrimp off the floor o' the briny deep, will you?" Will called in a very well done imitation of Captain Jack Sparrow. The Pearl itself, was at this moment swinging itself around to the side of Poseidon's Blessing. Jack and the intermittent crew, who looked very disreputable, that he had picked up at World's End worked the ship into a position alongside of Jess and her Captain docked and crossed onto the Blessing.
"I see ye still have this old clam shell to deal with, Jess." He smirked at the sight of Greengage holding a struggling Elizabeth. "Aw, let 'er go, mate. Our destiny awaits us." He glared at her and stomped over the creaking driftwood boards toward her. "I could kill ye for doin' what you did, Lizzie. Know that. I won't save you from Jess's wrath, or Will, because then you would be free to feel the burn of my ire, savvy?" He turned away from her stricken face and watched as Will boarded the ship from his side. "By the way, whelp, your ship…she needs a name."
"She has one." He too glared at Elizabeth Swann and turned a loving eye on Jack. "It's called the Sea Sparrow."
"Hmm, I like it." Jack turned to see the Dutchman on the horizon. "So boys, what's the plan? Pretty soon, we'll have the Kraken on our tail again…Are we going to fight Jones?"
"We have to get at the heart. Where is it?" Elizabeth stood, her eyes drying quickly with the aid of her frosty defiance. "I aim to make this right, with all of you, so I-"
"Oh, catch a case of scurvy and choke on your own diseased tongue, you filthy two-faced wench!" Greengage shouted. "The only way to make this right is to die, and I don't aim to rescue you from World's End. Good riddance." He spat on the deck at her feet and turned away.
"No, wait…" They turned to see Jack staring off in the opposite direction. "An English ship…" His eyes lit up as realization swept through him. "NORRINGTON!" He turned and glanced at the others as they watched the ship approach fast over the leagues that separated them. "What did Beckett want, my boys, tell me that?"
"The compass." Will shrugged.
"NO! he wanted the compass to find Jones's heart!" Jack shrieked in a frenzy.
"So he could run the sea…The East India Company would be the largest nautical power in existence with the help of Davy Jones…" Greengage whispered in horror. "Cutler Beckett?" he asked, giving Jack a significant look. The other man nodded.
"Fabulous. Another of your lovers with five miles between us…" Will and Elizabeth looked at each other quizzically and then at Jack.
"Later for explanations. A ship of England is coming to face Jones. Why?" Jack shrugged, his question totally rhetoric. "Because they have the heart! Even if they don't know the Dutchman by sight, they know the tales and can identify it! Any ship with anything to lose would steer clear of it! But they're coming right for us!"
"But how did they get it?" Jess quizzed, pegging this as one of Jack's conspiracy theories. But Will answered.
"He took the chest to ward off Jones' creatures…But Jack, your jar of dirt! You thought Jones' heart was in it! What if he stole the heart, and then just dumped the chest off so they would stop chasing him, and took it to Beckett?"
"And Beckett would have pardoned him…" Elizabeth smirked bitterly. "Well, then I guess I shall be saved, whether I want to or no."
"What in blazes does that mean?" Will whirled on her, his eyes harsh.
"Who do you think is captaining that ship? Norrington, with full pardon and carte blanche to do whatever he wants so long as he coerces Jones. Who does he hate? You and Jack. Who does he love? Me. And now, I should rather guess you lot wouldn't mind him taking me-" she cut off in mid-sentence and swallowed, looking through the trio. "Captain?" All three men turned and came face to face with the hate-filled eyes of Davy Jones. His tentacles curled and danced angrily and he smirked.
"Where is it, Sparrow?" Jones said in his peculiar voice. He reached out with his claw and gripped the front of Will's jacket. "Ah, hello, Mr. Turner…I'm sure your father can't wait to see you back on board.." He laughed and threw the boy away from him. "But first, I have matters to attend to with your captain."
"Ah, but Mr. Jones, we are all Captains here." Jack Sparrow bowed and motioned toward Will and Jess. "We are actually co-captains in our own little militia of sorts, and very soon, all three ships should be firing at your very own dear pile of cracked driftwood and barnacles." He waved his hat frantically and suddenly, booming cannon shots were heard as the three ships began their frenzied pummeling of the Flying Dutchman. All around the foursome, creatures began appearing out of the very ship itself. They knew without looking that the fight had already begun aboard the Pearl and the Sparrow. Four swords unsheathed themselves and they broke apart, fighting feverishly against the cursed crew.
"Jones is mine!" yelled Jess, attacking the Captain furiously.
"Ah, wondrous, and when I kill you, you may be obliged to join my crew, dear Captain Greengage. Any friend of Jack's is a friend of mine!" Their swords clashed as Jones pressed Greengage back, until Jess came in contact with the rail. Their blades, locked, pressed him into the wood harshly and he could smell Jones' foul breath, the tentacles of his beard snaking out to touch his face. The ship jarred unexpectedly beneath them and Jones stumbled back, Jess springing forth and attacking again, pressing his advantage across the deck of his ship.
"C'mon, Jones, you hardly seem worth the trouble." He spun and parried and thrust against his adversary with every ounce of love he had for Jack, and every ounce that was taking root for Will.
"You are a fool!" They broke apart and were about to rejoin the battle when a voice was heard yelling Jones' name.
"Davy Jones! I call for parley with you!" Commodore James Norrington stood at the prow of the ship, holding something in his hand and waving it slowly. Jones's eyes widened and he took a step forward. Norrington placed a dagger to the heart he held, smiling widely.
"Do it, mate!" Jack called. "If you don't he'll find some way to turn it around! But I'll still be rootin' for you!" Jones whirled around and smacked Jack in the temple with hi claw, knocking the pirate cold. Will took a step forward but was grabbed by one of Jones' crew. Greengage looked around and saw that he was surrounded by many of the strange men. He sighed and smiled. At least he would die protecting Jack…and Will Turner.
He roared and let loose with all of his fury and strength, his sword flashing in the fog that Jones's appearance had conjured and he felled five, six, ten, twelve of the evil crew before he could see Will before him, also hacking away at the fish-men hybrids. They cut a path to Jack, finding Elizabeth Swann already there, fighting off the creatures as well.
"Why don't you help Jones? I could've sworn both you and he wanted Jack dead!" Greengage yelled. Elizabeth only glared at him and kept fighting. After a moment, the fell crew stepped away from them and Davy Jones waded through the crowd, his eyes filled with anger and tinged with sadness. He glanced down at Jack Sparrow.
"It looks like my…commodore…wants you dead, mate." Davy Jones spat the word as id it were the most hated in all the world. And perhaps in that moment it was. "And seeing as its either you, or me this time…" He raised his sword.
"But its not." Elizabeth gasped, her hair falling in her eyes. "Do you honestly think Norrington would kill you now? He needs you to make himself more powerful in the British Navy and more of an asset to the East India Company." Jones glanced at her. "And when he's done with you, he'll hand you off to Cutler Beckett, and he'll usurp your freedom." Her eyes flashed and she stepped close to him. "And your freedom is all you have left in this world, is it not, Captain Jones?" He looked at her silently, respect dawning in his usually cold eyes. "You lost your lover, as I have, " she swallowed and glanced at Will. "And Norrington will have me as well, or try. He wants the same thing from us. Our freedom. I will not give it to him. I would rather die. Is a woman less afraid of death than you are?" Jones turned his impassive face away and glared at his crewmen. "Do not look to them. They do not care for you, they fear you. How would she feel if she could see what you have become? How would this woman you lost feel? You stole all these men's lives to stave off the frost of loneliness, and took their freedom to maintain your own façade of stoic piracy. Turn from them, Jones. Face your destiny. Die here, or serve another master, who will be as cruel to you as you have been to your crewmen." Jones looked at Norrington, so sure in his military splendor, so calculated. He took a few steps forward and Norrington squeezed the heart in his closed fist. Jones stumbled and fell to his knees.
"Which do I fear most…Death, or servitude…" Jones muttered as his eyes raked the deck as if it would grow a mouth and give him the answer. His body trembled with the weight of this choice.
"He can't decide…" Jones' crewmen glanced around at each other.
"Look at you, Jones," yelled Will taking up Elizabeth's argument. "Your men are losing faith in their Captain. You killed them all, and cannot endure one of the two things they have endured. You have a choice between death and allegiance to a fool, but they had to abide by both." The crewmen grumbled and glared at Jones. "They died, and served on your ship to prolong their half-lives…but you cannot serve, Jones. A Captain cannot serve as crewman on your ship. You cannot deny the truth. This is the end. They see your cowardice, they will no longer serve you."
"And without them, you cannot release your little beastie, the Kraken," Jack sang out, standing up shakily. "Your jig is up, mate. What will you do now?" Jones stood and stepped into nothingness.
"He's trying to escape!" someone yelled.
"To what end, mate? He can't crew his ship alone, can he?" Jack drawled. He pointed up at Norrington. Davy Jones grasped him and disappeared again to stand before Elizabeth, Norrington in his clutches. He shoved the commodore to the deck and Norrington rolled over onto his back, clutching the heart weakly in his hand. He tried to stand but found the swords of Will, Jack And Elizabeth pointed at his throat. Jones turned away and looked out over the open ocean for what he knew would be the last time. He turned to the assembled men and the four who had brought him to this moment.
"If you would be so kind, Miss Swann." He indicated the heart in Norrington's hand. The commodore began breathing harshly, and Elizabeth laughed at him.
"Never thought the tables would be turned so, eh, Jones?" Jack drawled. "I hope you remember me in your hellish after-existence."
"Aye, ye wily bastard. I will always remember today as the day I almost…" Elizabeth raised her sword, "caught Captain Jack Sparrow." And she plunged it through Norrington's hand around the heart, locking them both to the deck. Jones gasped and looked up at the sky, his eyes rolling back into his head. He leaned backward, clutching his chest silently, stumbling up against the rail of Poseidon's Blessing. His eyes closed and he fell into the sea, his body changing into that of an old, tired man as he plunged downward and then into fleshless bones, and then finally into dust that was swept away by the ocean's currents.
"Well, glad that's over." Elizabeth sighed and ignoring Norrington's screams, she stepped over him and glanced at Jack, Will and Jess. "It seems I have a transport awaiting my return to Port Royal and civilized society." She nodded at the ship that seemed to be readying itself for a fast getaway.
"No, me lass, you don't." Jack pointed at the Dutchman's triple guns that were emerging and taking aim at the ship. Moments later, Elizabeth flinched at the sounds of the barrage and the screams as the men died, a few escaping onto longboats and rescuing the survivors. "Looks like you'll be ferrying 'em over."
"What?" Elizabeth glanced at Jack, perplexed.
"The original chore of the Flying Dutchman was for its Captain and crew to ferry the souls of the dead to the afterlife. Jones didn't do his job, hence his fishy façade." Jack laughed. "The person who stabs the heart, that would be you, darling, has to take on the job."
"So, why did you want it?" she asked.
"To call his giant sea-beast off me arse, and to gain immortality." Elizabeth and Will gaped.
"Immortality?" Elizabeth glanced around at the former damned sailors, who were turning into normal sailors and smiling at her before her very eyes. "What are they smiling about?"
"Because you've returned them to normal." Jess stepped forward. "We didn't really have time to council you, but seeing as Jones saw fit for you to take on the Dutchman's work, there wouldn't have been a difference, and better the devil we know, than the devil we don't." He gestured at the men around him. "Or hell, even some of the devils we know would have been a worse choice." He looked down at the now silent Norrington who had blacked out from loss of blood and shock. "You have now been saddled with ferrying the dead to the afterlife, and any sailor you meet, you can give him the choice of going straight there, or redeeming his soul by serving on your ship for a starting time of 100 years. You know the rest of the bargain."
"I can only touch land and the ship make port every ten years…" She smiled grimly. "Well, there's nothing left on land for me anyway." She gasped. "My father! Will, you must go and tell him what has become of me!" She grasped Will by his shirt and stared grimly into his eyes. "You may no longer love me, but you owe my father your life, and you love him. Please, go to him!" He nodded and stood away from her.
"Now, Captain, there's the not-so-small matter of my father." He hadn't seen his father during the fighting, and he wondered what had become of him. Elizabeth, not knowing how she knew, nodded at her first mate.
"Johnson, fetch master Turner from the brig and bring him to his son. He is free to live." She glanced at Jack. "Am I allowed to do that?" He nodded.
"You hold the power of life and death over your crew, dearie." He smiled crookedly. "You could consider anyone's debt null and void, but most of the men on that boat…er, ship…won't leave it, ever. They'd rather stay on board than give in to death…"
"Most of 'em have lost too many games of Liar's Dice to leave it unless you let them, anyway." Will turned at the sound of his father's voice and they embraced warmly, Will crying into his father's shoulder quietly.
"And what of Norrington?" Jack asked, kicking the unconscious man.
"Do what you will with him. I won't take him aboard my ship to serve, he isn't to be trusted." She grimaced. "When and if he dies, and I have no choice but to take him, I will, but I wish to prolong that moment for as long as possible."
"A woman Captain." Gibbs limped tiredly across the deck towards them. "Of the Dutchman itself no less. Why look at her, she certainly has had a woman's touch added." They all spared a look at the ship. She shone in the dying sunlight, a beautiful vessel, no longer its moldy, rotting form. Elizabeth looked around to see her men watching her.
"Well, everyone back onto home deck." She sighed. "We have souls to ferry home." They cheered and melted back into the ship, reappearing, she could only assume onboard her ship. She looked at Will, Jack and Jess., sighing. "I guess we should get started. I wish I could say I hope we meet again, but that would mean you were dead…" She trailed off, her eyes only for Jack in that moment. She placed a hand to her heart, the thumping organ appearing in her fist. She sighed and handed it to him without comment.
"Elizabeth…"
"I killed you once, now you have the power to avenge yourself if you wish, and have your immortality to boot." She turned away and a fog swallowed her form. They watched the Dutchman begin to move away, to begin its eternal chore.
"Well, she made it right, didn't she, Jack?" Jess whispered, folding himself into the other Captain's arms.
"Yes, she did." Jack held the heart, speechless for the first time in his life. He swallowed past the lump in his chest and dropped the heart into his pocket for the moment. Will came up on his other side and joined the hug.
"She gave you her heart in the end, Jack. I knew she would." Will chuckled quietly. "What are we going to do now."
"We are going to plot a course for Tortuga and sell your ship, and then make haste to that beautiful island Barbosa marooned ol' what's-'er-face and I on and bury it, luv, and then we are going to go and pirate until we can't pirate no more."
"As long as we do it together, Captain Sparrow. But what of Jess's ship?" He looked over at the aforementioned Captain in time to see Jess raise his ring and snap his finger calmly. Before he knew what he was about, they were all standing on the deck of the Pearl, and there were no other ships in sight.
"We don't have to sell anything. My ring is a portal to my own private cove in my mind." He smiled. "No one can get to my ship or yours, and when we need either of them, we can 'summon' them, I guess you'd call it."
"That's some ring you've got yourself there," said Jack eyeing it jokingly. "How would you like to trade it for a roll in the old hay?"
"Nothing doing, Jack. I'd trade me life for a roll in the hay, but this ship was there for me when no one else was, as was my crew."
The three men listened to their crews amalgamate themselves and acclimatize to the new men around them. Then Jack, Jess and Will were separated and walking the deck, three Captains in their element.
"Men, brace the foreyard!"
"Drop sails!"
"Captain Sparrow, do we have our heading?" Gibbs yelled.
"Aye, Gibbs, the isle ye lot marooned me on, what feels lie centuries ago! Set sail!"
The three smiled at each other and Jack, needing a moment walked to the prow of the Pearl and held Elizabeth's heart in his hands.
"I'll hide it for ye…Elizabeth…" Jack was joined after a while by Will and Jess, who grasped his hands on either side, long after he had returned the heart to his coat. And if he squinted, old Jack could swear he saw the Dutchman hovering on the horizon, it's sails waving mournfully in the wind.
SO that's the end. What do you think? There may be an epilogue because we still haven't dealt with Beckett and Mayor Swann, or Norrington, and we still need a slashy scene with all three men. REVIEW PLEASE and tell me if you want one last chapter of Jack, Jess and Will before I abandon this story! I have some things planned out, so don't disappoint!