Chapter 8: 1741 - Up is Down

A night of bitterness and sadness died away and was followed by a new morning, and soon the sun burnt down mercilessly on the "Black Pearl" and her crew again. The hours crept by uneventfully, and those who could spent the day dozing in their hammocks, while everyone else tried in vain to catch a glimpse of a cloud somewhere in the pale blue sky stretching above their heads.

It was a day like so many Jack had experienced over the bygone months in this unreal place, and he knew if they wouldn't find a way back soon, they would be doomed to sail on this Sea of Infinity forever. Caught somewhere between death and life, time and space, and dream and reality.

He let his gaze wander across the deck and there was no longer any doubt that eternity would become long, especially since their supplies were nearly exhausted. And this applied not only to what food they still had aboard, but also to their last reserves of water and rum, like Gibbs and Pintel had to painfully realise, as they tried to get the last drops out of one of the small water kegs and one of the last rum bottles.

Much to Jack's astonishment, Barbossa had given up any attempt to decipher Sao Feng's magical map betimes, and even he found it difficult to understand the meaning behind all the cryptic sentences and enigmatic symbols of which there were so many that probably not even eternity would suffice to fathom them all.

But Jack wasn't the only one who marvelled at Barbossa's unusual taciturnity and reserve. Will, too, leaning on the rail next to Tia Dalma, seemed to be wondering what was going on behind the otherwise so reckless pirate's brow: "Why doesn't he do something?"

Without waiting for Tia Dalma's reply, and with Gibbs in tow, he walked over to Jack, to take a look at the map for himself: "Over the edge! Back! Over again! Sunrise sets! Flash of green! What's the point?"

"There's no sense to it. Sunrises don't set," Gibbs replied with a shrug.

"And the green flash happens at sunset, not sunrise, right?"

They both glanced at Jack, hoping to get an answer from him, but when he, too, did nothing more than stare thoughtfully at the map and move the rings in all imaginable directions, they decided it was better to leave the matter alone for the time being.

Jack himself had heard their discussion very well, but he was too busy reading the map for answers to his own questions.

Then, as the next ring's spin revealed the next encrypted message, "Up is Down", he too, gave up his attempts - frustrated and slightly annoyed: "Up is down. That's maddeningly unhelpful. Why are these things never clear?"

"What is not clear here? The solution is quite simple: Stab the heart!" Jack blinked, not quite sure if he really heard what he thought he heard, but the voice continued: "Stab the heart and become captain of the 'Flying Dutchman'. Then you can sail the Seven Seas forever..."

Before he could even make an attempt to reply, a second voice intervened: "Don't stab the heart. As my dear counterpart just revealed so frankly: The 'Flying Dutchman' needs a captain! Stab the heart, and ye have to sail the Seven Seas forever."

"What's the difference, if I may ask?"

It wasn't like those unwelcome voices were helpful in any way!

Quite the contrary!

They only made things more confusing.

"Thought, you'd know the difference between 'can' and 'have to'! And what about port," the second voice asked.

"I prefer rum," Jack replied.

"Making port," the first voice told him.

"Where we can get rum. Once every ten years," the second gave him to bethink.

"Ten years is a long time. But eternity is longer still, isn't it," the first tried to lure Jack.

"And how will you spend it? Dead, or not?" The second had a point here.

Jack shook his head!

None of this made any sense. And even if some of it would make sense, one question would remain unanswered: "What about my girl? What sense would eternity make for me without her?"

Silence from both sides until another whisper from the second voice got to him: "Come sunset, none of all this will matter anymore..."

At that moment, Jack's eyes first fell on the tattoo on his forearm, the sparrow in free flight against a sunset, then on Sao Feng's chart - and the last piece of this confusing mosaic fell into place as he turned the ship in the centre of the map upside down and when the finely drawn lines it was surrounded by made visible the rays of a sunset: "Not sun-set. Sun-down. And rise up!"

The "Black Pearl" rushed back to the surface like a pitch-black image of the "Flying Dutchman".

A flash of green light lit the horizon as Jack's soul returned to the living once more. Into a world that was no longer the same as the one from which he had been torn a year earlier. And it no longer made any difference whether he had done so voluntarily or whether Elizabeth Swann's actions had forced him to do so: The world he had known had fallen victim to greed: The boundless greed for riches, prestige and power of a single man and his accomplices.

Within months it had brought the lives of every pirate who sailed the world's seas to the brink. And this man was not only ready to blot out the pirates with all their ships and fortresses from the face of the earth: He was also willing to walk over the corpses of all those innocents who in his eyes aroused even the slightest hint of suspicion to be attached to a pirate, or to piracy itself.

This man had sacrificed thousands on the altar of his lust for power over the bygone months, just as he had once sacrificed Jack Sparrow and Caithleen Stevens on the altar of his lust for power: Lord Cutler Beckett...

From the moment Jack had figured out what he had to do to free the "Black Pearl", his crew and himself from Davy Jones' Locker, he had once again relied on his immense talent for improvisation. And he knew he had won the moment he saw the big grin on Hector Barbossa's face when he realised that there was actually more behind his former captain's facade than he had thought he could see all those years ago, when he first hired aboard the beautiful black galleon.

Water gushed from every window, door and hatch as the "Black Pearl" left the realm of the dead, and her exhausted crew blinked eastward in wonder, where a bright sun was rising on a clear morning sky.

"Blessed sweet Westerlies! We're back!" Gibbs stumbled to his feet and, like himself, almost everyone aboard was enjoying the gentle breeze that blew across the sea and billowed the Pearl's sails.

"It's Sunrise!" Elizabeth allowed herself a split second to feel the warmth of the sun on her face with her eyes closed, until she, like everyone else, was caught up in reality, because within a second they were all facing each other with pistols drawn - though not sure which bullet would go to which of them, should they actually shoot each other, and why...

"All right, then," Barbossa turned to Jack, both unusually stern and remarkably determined: "The Brethren Court is gathering at Shipwreck Cove, and, Jack, you and I be going there, and there's no arguing the point."

Jack shook his head and replied just as determined: "I is arguing the point. If there's pirates gathering, I'm pointing my ship the other way..."

Van Dijk watched them both and at first didn't notice anything unusual about their banter, except that it seemed oddly staged, and he began to wonder what it was all about.

However, before he got around to answering his question, Elizabeth snapped him out of his thoughts: "The pirates are gathering to fight Beckett. And you're a pirate."

And Will added: "Fight or not, Jack, this time you're not running."

Barbossa looked at Jack intently, and van Dijk couldn't help but ask himself once more what was going on between the two men: "If we don't stand together, they'll hunt us down, one by one, 'til there's none left but you, of course."

Jack shrugged and replied with a grin: "Like I told you before, I wouldn't mind the idea of being the last pirate..."

"Aye, and, like I told you before, you'll be fighting Jones alone, then. How does that figure into your plans?"

"Still working on it. But I'm not going back to the locker, Hector. Count on that..."

After another fruitless attempt to thicken this debate and after the idea of shooting each other failed because of wet powder, embarrassed laughter and throat clearing could be heard from all over the deck.

It was Will who turned their minds to something else and for the moment all agreed that the boy was right: "We've other issues to deal with. We can get back to shooting each other later. When the powder is dry! First of all, we need water..."

Shortly thereafter, they all stood around Sao Feng's map and Will explained, finger on a small dot marking the coordinates of a nearby island: "There's a fresh water spring on this island, where we can resupply."

Jack looked at the boy briefly. He was dying to know where and when Will Turner had learned to read maps and chart a course, but he said nothing, for now , and just turned to Barbossa: "You lead the shore party. I'll stay with the ship."

"I'll not be leaving my ship in your command," Barbossa hissed back.

As everyone on board braced themselves for another battle of words, Will remarked: "And he'll not be leaving his ship in your command, so, here's an an idea. You both go, and leave the ship in my command. Temporarily, of course..."

Barely an hour later, the island that Will had suggested to replenish their water supplies came into view, and to his great surprise, van Dijk, being on his way to take the helm, found Jack and Barbossa leaning against the rail, apparently deep in further conversation.

"An uneasy alliance," Barbossa asked.

"An unholy one," Jack replied.

"So you really believe the boy is planning something behind our backs?"

"I don't just believe it, I know it. You wouldn't be here if he hadn't struck a bargain. I'm just not sure with whom."

"You think he betrayed you to Beckett?"

"Not to Beckett, but most likely to Sao Feng. As I have already told you: Where else would he have gotten the ship, the map, and the men for this expedition from, if not from our dear and honourable fellow pirate lord?"

"What makes you so sure?"

Jack nodded towards the island: "This seemingly godforsaken spit of land is anything but godforsaken. This island, Hector, has the only source of fresh water for miles. Anyone who's in need of taking on water and who sails in these waters comes here: Traders, English, Spaniards, pirates. And as long as I can remember, it all remained peaceful most of the time, when all those captains and crews met here. My father used to come here before he went on his raids, and Pat and Rose were ambushed close to this island once while being becalmed. Believe me, mate, if the boy has something planned, it'll happen here..."

"And you still want to go ashore?"

"I, well, we have no choice! We need water, no doubt about that! You're dying to live up to your title as Pirate Lord of the Caspian at the gathering on Shipwreck Island, and I..." His eyes darkened: "I want to settle my score with Beckett!"

Both kept silent for a while until Barbossa remarked: "I'll give you that, lad, you really had the right instinct when it came to getting us out of the Locker."

Jack grinned: "Let's put it this way: I had some helpful advisors in this, although, come to think of it, they were actually rather un-helpful. Never mind! We need to figure out how to get our young pirate who doesn't want to be a pirate back on track. Also, it won't become easy, either, playing the Council and Beckett against each other. I hate to say it, mate, but in this case, you're the only one I trust..."

"What are you up to?"

"I'll tell you later but I'm sure you'll like what I have in mind! Savvy?"