Hey guys, this is very long, or longer than usual. I've been working on this for a while, so I really really hope you like it. And you guys should definitely review, as an early birthday present (the big 1-6 this Saturday), it would be very VERY much appreciated. Thank you so much guys, and enjoy!

-Han

Anna couldn't see anything, but she knew she was traipsing. The jungle was wet beneath her boots, spongy moss and slick leaves blanketing the ground as she stumbled behind Jack, casting her eyes fervently beneath her blindfold, trying to read the mirage of shadows that made up her vision. The firm grip on her arm was numbing, the Quartermaster led her unrelentingly, refusing to slow when her footing slipped precariously on the slippery ground. Jack grumbled something just a head of her, facing the same debilitation, and wishing he could take in the layers of green above them, could see the way sunlight filtered through the trees.

"Is this really necessary?" she asked sullenly, squirming beneath the iron-clad grip on her shoulder. She had no idea where they were, but the terrain beneath her feet had long changed from sand to jungle. They were in the thick of La Florida now, a dozen men around her marching in a straight line towards the Fountain. The leader came to a sharp stop at the top of a hill, Jack a moment later when he crashed into the strong back of Edward Teach.

"Best you not know the exact whereabouts of my ship, I be a cautious man," Blackbeard muttered, glaring back at the two blindfolded pirates. The undead stepped back, hands falling to their sides and Anna's body rejoiced at the return of blood to the parched limb. She rubbed circles into her skin, trying to soothe the onslaught of pins and needles through her nerves and flexing her nimble fingers experimentally.

She removed her blindfold slowly, waiting for someone to stop her as she fingered the tie of the rough cloth. It slipped from her eyes, revealing blue to the rich green surrounding her. Anna blinked back the spattered sunlight that made it through the thick trees overhead, and switched her gaze to Jack. He was facing away from her, his eyes for Teach only, a hand falling to his compass.

"Adverse to popular belief," he said softly, staring back at Blackbeard with carefully blank eyes. "So be I." Jack turned, flicking his compass open with quick fingers as he faced Anna with quiet insistence. She moved almost gracefully across layers of wet ground, her steps well thought-out and planned until she stood at Jack's shoulder.

"But what we want first, is Ponce de Leon's ship," she murmured, watching the needle spin endlessly, wondering if they would be back to the second adventure, where it never stopped and no one really knew what they wanted. That was when freedom had a price and Anna hadn't realized that friendship went deeper.

The black needle paused, a sharp finger of the gods pointed at her chest for a second long enough to breathe before Jack slipped his hand into hers and it spun again. She smiled, proud of herself in some twisted way. She still messed with his bloody compass.

They were moving again before Anna could blink, quick steps with Jack and her leading, swords drawn to cut down the large hands of the jungle bearing down on them, trying to bar their way. She cast her eyes back, pausing a second too long at the sight of a glass coffin between two of the undead. Her brow furrowed as a pale mermaid pressed her hands against the glass, casting frightened eyes around her quickly changing surroundings.

"She looks terrified," she whispered to Jack, turning to face the unmade trail before them. The image of the mermaid, more human looking than ever, pressed against the glass, was burned into her mind. Wide eyes and frantic breathing, her chest stuttering in its constant movements up and down were imprinted in her memory. "This can't be essential."

"Apparently tears do not keep," Jack answered solemnly, his eyes trained on the terrain ahead. "And Blackbeard only has regards for himself." He seemed ashamed by that, disgusted by the very notion that not all pirates carried honor in their hearts and freedom in their veins. Some were taken by a blackness that could never be eradicated from their souls, a contract of malicious intent signed in blood and handed to the devil. Some were evil, and it couldn't be changed. Jack hated that.

"I miss Tia in times like this," Anna said suddenly. "She could fix him with a curse fit to down twenty men." She seemed assured, convinced in every aspect that the voodoo woman could help them. She remembered Tia Dalma as good, lacking the fury she seemed to possess as a Goddess and swelled with the softness of the sea on a calm morning.

"Have you ever thought that you overestimated her compassion?" Jack asked skeptically, brow raised and a smirk flitting around the corners of his mouth. They'd had this conversation before, and the answer was always a quick, soft 'no'.

"She told me about my mother," Anna said instead, moving a limb out of her way and ducking beneath the long reaches of a fern. The edges brushed against her face, painting dew on her cheeks.

"You never told me what she said," Jack noted with a hint of surprise, like he hadn't even noticed. Anna shrugged, changing direction slightly when the compass moved.

"You hadn't asked."

"Well?" Jack asked insistently, flicking his gaze back to the band behind them, Angelica quickly gaining ground. Their conversation would end soon, he knew.

"She told me that my mother is a woman of legend and mist, one who had made many enemies, in England and in her own realm. That her greatest would face death in the coming months while she watched, the eyes of a leader trained on a fallen. That she would face a price if I couldn't stop it. Tia told me that my mother had freedom in her blood and a black flag waving in the wind behind her," Anna recited quietly, steps slowing almost unconsciously as her mind flew back to the deck of the Black Pearl and an impending war crashing down on them, Davy Jones ahead. Tia had become a Goddess, then, changed before her eyes and fallen into the arms of the sea. Anna missed her.

"Unhelpful as usual," Jack muttered, eyes flicking from the compass to her as she moved with purpose. "Why do these things have to be so ambiguously mystical?"

"Because it would be easy," Angelica cut in, announcing her arrival to their conversation with her husky accent. Anna nodded in half-hearted agreement, wondering if she should traipse ahead to let them speak privately. Jack's hard look in her direction kept her shoulder to shoulder with him.

"And you know of difficult?" Jack asked instead, watching as Angelica ran her fingertips over a snake entwined in the vines to their left. They were coming up on water, no other way but through. Anna fished her pistol and sword from her hip and held them carefully over her head.

"We must hurry," Angelica said stiffly, ignoring Jack as they stepped into the cool embrace of water. "We are outrunning armies on both sides."

"I count one," Anna interjected, the river pooling around her waist. "The English are not our only adversary?"

"The Spanish," Jack added as almost an afterthought, recalling the King's violent insistence that the crown beat out the Spanish heathens. A moment of silence passed between them, one where Angelica's face hardened and her eyes narrowed.

"A pirate more vicious than I have ever known, cut throat and ignorant to the word 'mercy'. Her eyes are as black as her soul, her hair the fires of hell; she is a demon of the seas." Angelica spoke with wrath laced in her voice, a hatred that seeped into their skin and infected their hearts.

"Is this your opinion or Blackbeard's?" Anna asked calmly, a smile tugging at her lips. Angelica turned, water sloshing around her waist until she was eye-to-eye with blue, fury meeting furiously calm. "Is this meant to intimidate me?" Anna hissed, her teeth clenched.

"You know nothing," the Spanish woman spat, glaring at the younger with hatred that laced her words.

"Whoever this pirate may be, neither she nor you can frighten me. You misjudge my fortitude, Angelica, do not think I'm likely to forget that slight." Anna's eyes were hard, her back straight, and her fingers numb on the handle of her sword. Jack grinned, unabashedly projecting his pride.

"We shall see how bravely you fight when the enemy is upon us, the Fountain before us, and immortality within your reach," Angelica whispered, turning sharply back towards the ever marching trail of men.

Anna smiled, shaking her head in amusement as they continued on. Jack nudged her on, water shifting with their every step as they moved onward.

"Is making enemies a pastime of yours?" he asked softly, his smile refusing to die. She shrugged, he laughed, the sound reverberated through the jungle, rebounding off the heavy growth of trees and the thick wetness of the humid air.

When they emerged from the water, dripping and beginning to tire, Blackbeard sent them a moment to breathe with a flick of his hand. Crewmen dispersed, finding places to rest and dry off, keeping the wetness from their boots and their clothes. Anna slumped next to Jack, resting her head lazily on his shoulder, wondering if there would be reprieve from the oppressive heat of La Florida.

"Clergyman. On the off chance that this does not go well for me," Jack started as sincerely as he could, facing Phillip with earnest eyes he hoped would not betray the not-yet-dormant fear of death. "I would like it noted that here now that I am fully prepared to believe in whatever I must, so that I may be welcomed into that place where the goody-goodies get to go once they pop their clogs, savvy?"

Anna remained silent, watching Jack's dark eyes grow far away, to planes of sand that never ended and the blinding insanity that took months to fully eradicate. Her eyes were sad, layers of blue that seemed depthless and drawn to Jack. She couldn't take away that fear, no matter how hard she tried.

"We have a word for that, Jack. You can convert," Phillip said softly, a smile lighting up his dirty face.

"I was thinking more of an as needed basis," Jack admitted dully, kicking at the spongy ground beneath him. Anna smiled, memories of half-forgotten gods clinging to their crumbling thrones fresh in her mind. Jack believed, so did she.

"When did you convert?" Anna asked, bringing the subject away from Jack's blackened morality and sense of justice. Phillip met her eyes with a cool aqua gaze of his own that seemed to drive her in memory.

"During the pirate raid of London." His voice was steady and assured, the smile erased from his features, earnest replacing it as he begged her to remember. Her eyes widened, shock overtaking her body as she grew still, frozen with her head on Jack's shoulder. "A Princess pushed me into a church amidst the gunfire and told me not to look back."

She was racing, mind tumbling over itself in the attempt to sort reality and fiction, those sea-colored eyes bursting with need and softness and that was the look of a missionary. That was the look of a Man of God that knows the word and lives by it. And he was alive.

She sat up on automatic, her eyes slipping in every direction, attempting to find some grip on reality, some way to answer him that wouldn't leave her stuttering and stupid. The coffin lay behind her, the glass fogging and a hand flat against the side, scrambling for the air Anna was taking for granted as she tried to control her uneven breathing.

"Dear Lord," she whispered, scrambling to her knees and rushing towards the mermaid. Phillip was just behind her, his movements frantic and numb over the edges of the coffin, tracing the bronze lock.

"Quartermaster, she cannot breathe," he nearly shouted, his voice carrying a power Anna was unaccustomed to. Jack stood beside her, unwillingly calm to bring Anna back from the edges of her own mind. He stood strong and it kept her grounded.

"She has water," the undead man answered flatly.

"She needs air," Phillip urged, curling his fingers under the edge and trying to pry the lid open. The lock wouldn't budge, neither would the Quartermaster. "Open this."

"She will escape," the Quartermaster stated calmly.

"You're killing her!" Phillip owed her a debt. She saved him, and he knew it, tumbling rock and a sky of fire swept through his vision, but she had pushed him down.

"I support the missionary's position," Jack added, watching the dark-haired mermaid with sympathy. Anna watched the unmoving puppet to Blackbeard with fury burning in her veins. She refused to stay still longer, standing in a fluid motion and slamming her sword into the lock, forcing it to break. The mermaid gasped, shoving her body towards the slim crack of air and sucking it down like it was beautiful, breathing deeply, her eyes rolling back in content.

"See?" Phillip asked nearly triumphantly, smiling at Anna's accomplished look. The undead moved haltingly, as if caught on strings they couldn't see. He jerked the sword back, the lid falling shut with a swish of air that seemed to break through Anna's chest. Phillip shoved his Bible into the crack, keeping it open, the words of his God keeping a mythical creature breathing.

"Onward," Blackbeard muttered, sparing them only a glance as he moved back onto their course. Anna stood, gripping her sword loosely as she faced the missionary.

"You haven't changed much from the dirty pirate boy I found in the streets. Still as honorable as ever," she said around a chuckle, a brightness in her eyes that refused to die. He smiled softly, turning back to face the mermaid. Her eyes were large, hopeful even, trained on the missionary only.

"Managed to be captured again," Phillip added, allowing his body to be pushed back into marching, walking next to Anna and Jack as they followed the will of a broken compass. She shrugged, falling into step with him as her eyes found the small pieces of the sky overhead, the rest blocked by green.

"But I am not the savior this time, just another prisoner," she said quietly. Jack nodded softly, empathy ringing through his head and seeping into his veins. They were bound here, more so than ever.

"Is it true? What they say befell you once you returned to the palace?" Phillip asked suddenly, a guilt swimming in his eyes that she hadn't seen before. She grinned cheekily.

"That would depend on which story you've heard. I have almost as many as Jack," she said proudly, as if each word spoken was a badge of honor she carried on her vest. Phillip watched her grin, childish and quick, a flash of fire in her eyes he'd never seen before. Jack seemed to know it better than himself, the look that overtook his eyes was soft and sweet.

"Never as many as I, love," Jack murmured, placing a hand on her shoulder. She leaned into him instinctually, flicking her gaze to his demurely.

"One day, birdie, one day," she promised, the child-like burning in her eyes going strong.

Phillip wondered if they knew how visible it was, that bond they had at the waist that kept them coming back, one rarely seen without the other. They seemed to never tire of each other's company, finishing thoughts and reveling in silence when they were alone. He wondered if they knew of the silent communication they seemed to have, when Jack's hand dropped from her shoulder and she took the compass from his fingers. Phillip wondered if they knew that others could see them, when they stared at each other like they were alone. He wondered if even they understood the levels on which they felt, endless understanding and friendship that could go deeper.

Phillip wondered if they realized they were in love.

Xx

The cliff seemed to be the gates to hell, nowhere to go but down, it would lead to the center of the Earth where the Devil play with his victims. The Locker for those who die on land, fire burning in the pits of their souls and it wouldn't end. Anna swallowed, staring down at the white water crashing over rocks, imagining her body being caught between them, slamming her into sharp edges and immobile forces again and again and again until she was only scraps left over. The waterfalls would have torn her, the currents ripped her, she would be dead.

"Just as I thought," she muttered, flicking the compass closed. "Not this way!" she called to the caravan behind her, Jack nodding along fervently. Angelica moved to their sides, flicking her gaze over the edge to follow the rock siding down.

"This is the way, isn't it?" Angelica asked, staring at a broken bridge near them, pieces of wood ripped and shattered, falling into the swirling madness beneath them.

"'Course it is, but we should go around, to the east," Jack said quietly, gesturing noncommittally to the right, wondering idly if that was actually the east. He wouldn't know.

"That will take us out of the path of the Chalices," Angelica pointed out, her gaze rapt on Jack.

"Then we circle back, keep everyone still alive safe," Anna propositioned calmly, the memory of dead sailors in White Cap Bay still fresh in their minds. Angelica glared at her, previous argument not yet forgotten, bitterness refusing to fade.

"We do not have time, our enemies are upon us. She is not far behind!" Angelica shouted, her voice echoing off the sides of the ravine.

"You're the one who insisted on bringing a bloody mermaid!" Jack refuted, crossing his arms in contempt. Anna smiled to herself, judging the distance it was to jump to land safely, wondering if Tia Dalma could keep her safe this far upriver.

"The mutiny did not help!"

"You walk like a girl!"

"You would know!"

"Someone must go," Blackbeard said quietly, his soft voice carrying more weight than either of the shouting pirates. He stood stoically near the edge, too close to Anna for comfort.

"You mean split up?" Angelica asked, her eyes consumed suddenly with worry and Anna wondered if she did care for the crew. If she had a conscience.

"You mean jump?" Jack asked in surprise. "This I would love to see."

"Sparrow will go," Blackbeard said firmly. The smile slid from Jack's face, falling into an instinctual fear that Anna felt burning in her own chest. "Find the ship, retrieve the Chalices."

"What makes you think he'll come back?" Angelica asked, stepping forward to face her father.

"Yes, what makes you think he'll come back?" Jack parroted, his eyes flicking between Blackbeard and the water below. Anna watched him with soft eyes, wondering what her role would be.

"We cannot trust him, Father. I'll go," Angelica announced, passing off her sword and gun to Scrum as she prepared to jump. Teach slung out an arm, shoving her back towards the jungle with decisive movements.

"How much farther to the Fountain? I'm running out of time," Blackbeard asked Anna, watching her eyes flick to the compass then out over the canyon again, her expression critical.

"About a day's march north following that river, you get to a series of pools...then you're close," she said finally, flipping the compass shut with dirty fingers. Teach approached her, prying the black box from her hands with only a dark look thrown at her.

"You will go," he said to Jack, not bothering to look at him. Anna swallowed, flicking her eyes to Jack again in something like comfort. He stared over the edge nervously.

"You know that feeling you get, sometimes, when you're standing in a high place, sudden urge to jump?" Jack asked rhetorically, his hands nearly shaking. "I never have it." Swords were pressed in on him, urging him forward, but he remained standing straight. Anna rolled her eyes, watching the events playing before her eyes as if a bystander, watching a play and not liking the plot, wanting to change something, anything.

"I need those Chalices," Blackbeard hissed, his pistol level with Jack's eyes. He had the sense to show no fear, spreading his arms wide like a man crucified.

"Shoot. Save me the trouble of the fall," he whispered, refusing to turn his eyes to Anna, who watched with growing trepidation, her hands fisted at her sides.

"You will go," Blackbeard warned. "Or I will kill her." A gun was pointed at Anna, the barrel keen on her chest, the ever beating heart nestled beneath muscle and sinew. She froze, twenty paces from the edge and on the fringe of the undead sailors, Jack too far away to help and the gun unyielding.

The world seemed to pause for Jack, moments where sunlight made his skin warm and the air heavy, where Anna breathed evenly, and her eyes were wide and lips open half-way, as if to form a word. He wouldn't have another death on his hands. Not this woman, not this time.

"You wouldn't," Jack hissed, his eyes hard. Blackbeard turned his attention back to him, long enough for Anna to breathe, suck in air and narrow her eyes. She cursed herself in her mind, refusing to be the weak little bird trapped in a cage. She didn't need saving, she would do it herself.

She was running before she was sure what was happening, boots gaining traction as they dug into the wet ground and wind brushing against her face. The edge in sight and everyone else still struggling to catch up to her sudden decision, she felt herself crouch, leap, fall. Air was everywhere, caressing her body in a cool embrace as she plunged downward, having enough sense to aim her body straight down.

A scream tore from her throat in only the last seconds, drowned out just as quickly by the sudden, harsh embrace of fresh water. She choked, forcing her body towards a surface she needed more than anything else. She broke water, breathing like it was a gift, clutching a rock to her left to keep from being swept away.

"You coming?" she shouted up to Jack, smiling despite herself, grinning past water droplets tracing down her face. His shout lasted so much longer, starting from the top and calling out to the world for seconds until he plunged into the water next to her. She laughed when water splashed her face, putting off the ache in her muscles and the weariness in her bones. When this was over, she would spend a week on the Pearl, doing nothing but enjoying the sun and the soft way it bathed her skin.

"Wet, wet again," Jack muttered as he surfaced, glaring at her. "Why'd you do that?" he questioned, a frown coloring his lips.

"Because someone had to," she said with a shrug. "Because that man had a gun on me and I had a way out. And I didn't want to stay there if you were gone," she admitted in a low mumble.

"What was that?" he asked around a grin, his hands digging into the same rock as her, his body wishing to be swept away by the current. "Did I hear you would miss me?"

"You won't be hearing it again with boldness like that," she said around a grin, pushing herself from her perch to swim back towards the beach and the ocean. He followed, chuckling lowly as the water helped them along.

"Boldness is what drew you to me in the first place, darling, don't deny it," Jack called, catching up to her quickly, his strong arms pushing him forward.

"For fear of sounding too much like our dear Elizabeth," Anna muttered. "I do fall victim to adoring such a boldness. Though often, I wish I didn't."

"But where does that leave you? One as bold as yourself should know the risks of hating to love the boldness which you yourself harbor. That would be hypocrisy, darling," he said charmingly, managing to flash her a quick smile through the river around them, water splashing against his face and the current pulling him towards the mouth, towards the ocean.

"I don't think I'll ever be as bold as you, Jack," Anna answered quickly, kicking almost lethargically through the cool water. Her boots were heavy, her clothes weighted down with water, but without the sense of urgency the night before carried, when they were surrounded by black water and mermaids. She was content.

"Just bold enough to jump from absurdly high places?" Jack questioned, his voice drifting dangerously close to serious, his brow furrowed. He shook himself, forcing a smile back in place and pretending like his heart hadn't stopped when she jumped, that his hands hadn't shaken and a scream hadn't been working its way up his throat. He pretended like he hadn't been terrified.

"If it keeps me breathing."

Jack paused at that thought, remembering the way water had crashed through his senses when he jumped, air stolen from his lungs with the cold fingers of fresh water. "You are very strange," he answered finally, pausing in the rhythmic strokes of his arms through the water to look at her, and let his body be pushed softly by the current.

"You've said that before," she whispered, her voice almost lost among the sound of water rolling against the rocks.

"But it hits harder every time, adds a sense of drama, I think. Plus, it never grows to be untrue, you're always strange."

She smiled, rolling onto her back to face the uninterrupted blue sky above her for a moment long enough for the sun to hit her skin just right, to make her look like something else, something more than just a dirty pirate. "Thank you."

"You're very welcome," Jack whispered, grinning as they picked up their movements again and swam faster for the white sand and crashing waves. The water carried them on, on their side for what felt like the first time in forever, the soothing touch of the river like an embrace that held eternal.