When they reached the top deck, Will dropped Angelica's hand. "Don't say I didn't warn you," he told her. He cupped his hand around his mouth and called toward his ship, "Eddie!"
Blackbeard, Edward Teach, the pirate all pirates feared when he was alive, appeared out of the shadows on the deck of the Pearl. He looked very different. Gone were all the accoutrements of a captain—hat, coat, sword, pistol, even boots. He appeared barefoot in his shirtsleeves and ragged trousers, and and he was clean-shaven. His fearsome black beard that he'd used to tie smoky fuses into, to terrify his enemies, was gone with no trace. Underneath it, his face looked haggard, worn, and wrinkled. His hair was tied back in a neat tail. He had dark circles under his eyes and looked very old. Every line of his body bespoke obsequiousness and he kept his head down as he touched his bandana and said, "You sent for me, Captain Turner, sir?"
"Yes, Eddie, I did," Will answered. "Your daughter is here and wanted to see you."
Teach's eyes flicked up to see his daughter, and then back down, as if he was embarrassed. He said nothing.
"Father! Father, it is I!" Angelica pleaded. "Father, please! Are you all right?"
"Yes, thank you, daughter," Teach replied, still not looking at her. "Captain Turner here was good enough to take me on as cabin boy on his good ship the Flying Dutchman, so I'm doing quite well. And how are you?" he asked politely.
Jack's jaw dropped at the politeness and humility of this man, who had turned all his officers into zombies, hung his entire crew in the rigging, burned a man alive, tortured a mermaid, maimed a clergyman, and had tried to save his own life by killing his daughter. He gave Will an incredulous glance.
Will, standing next to him, nudged him with one shoulder. "It's like you told me, before. Death changes one's perspective," he told Jack quietly.
Jack nodded vehemently, eyes wide.
"And technically, I am now Death. I have the power to change one's perspective. So in his case… I regenerated his conscience," Will explained.
Jack grimaced and winced in sympathy. Considering what sort of man Blackbeard had been, that had to hurt.
Angelica said, "Father, I tried to save you. If it hadn't been for Jack, you would still be alive and on your own ship!"
Teach glanced up at her again. "I would have been alive, but at the expense of your own life, daughter. Mine wasn't worth that. If it hadn't been for Captain Sparrow's quick thinking that day, you would be dead. I'm grateful to him. So should you be."
He looked over to Jack, and then dropped his gaze again. He said, "Captain Sparrow, I thank you for my daughter's life."
Jack was quite taken aback, and could only reply with, "You're welcome… Eddie."
Teach nodded humbly.
"That was very good, Eddie," Will complimented. He turned to Angelica. "Now, young lady, you are going to make some apologies as well. You are going to apologize to my wife and to Captain Sparrow for the pain and grief you have caused them."
"I never will apologize!" Angelica hissed angrily.
"I hope, daughter, that you're not too proud to take some advice from your dead father," Edward Teach told her quietly.
"Oh, no, Father!" Angelica replied fervently. "I have always listened to you."
"Then promise me you won't travel the road of violence and pain. Stop being a pirate, if you can. Stop making ill choices. I assure you, Mr. Turner has made me deeply regret the way I led my life. I was wrong. Promise me that you will be a better person than I was!"
He raised his eyes to meet hers, and his gaze showed his pain and guilt. "Please, Angelica. Do what is right, and avoid this agony of remorse that I suffer!" He reached out and brushed the back of his hand down the side of her face, and then looked down again.
Angelica's eyes welled with tears. "Yes, Father. I promise." She looked up at Will again. "Captain Turner?"
"Yes, Angelica?"
"Is it too late for me? Are you going to kill me?"
Will wrinkled his nose. "I'd really rather not."
"Then sent me back to Spain!" Angelica begged. "I will make confession at the convent where I grew up. I will take the veil this time and never leave my convent again! I swear it!"
Will looked at Elizabeth and Jack. Jack nodded. Elizabeth shrugged.
"Fine," Will said, "but you're still going to apologize to Captain Sparrow and Mrs Turner."
Angelica nodded, humbled. "I am very sorry, Mrs. Turner," she said to Elizabeth, "For what I did to you and your friends in Flimwell. I am sorry for trying to attack you and your son. You were absolutely right in what you said to me."
She looked at Jack. "Jack—I am—"
Will interrupted, clearing his throat pointedly. "To 'Captain Sparrow,' I said."
Angelica flushed, but started again. "Captain Sparrow, I am very sorry for trying to kill you in Saint Dominique. And at the Fountain of Youth. Thank you for helping me in Seville, and for saving my life with the mermaids. And at the cliff near Ponce De Leon's ship. And at the Fountain. I apologize for all the grief I have caused you, and Mrs. Turner, and Captain Turner."
"Fine," Elizabeth said.
"Good." Jack was satisfied.
Angelica looked at Jack miserably. "Are you really going to marry her?" she asked, indicating Elizabeth, who stood watching silently.
"Aye, I am," Jack said.
"But why?"
"Mostly because I love her, and she loves me."
Her eyes began to fill with tears. "I always wanted you to marry me, Jack. I loved you so!" She took a step closer and looked at him with pleading eyes, welling up with tears.
Jack laughed scornfully. "No, you didn't! You've lied to me, betrayed me, double-crossed me, stolen my identity, press-ganged me, manipulated me, tried to kill me, murdered my lady's best friend in Flimwell (not to mention 48 other settlers besides her), attacked me with a voodoo doll, attacked my lady with a sword, and led an armada against me in my own home waters. If that's your version of love, Angelica, I want no part of it!"
Angelica's jaw dropped at this enumeration of her crimes. Her father sighed and shook his head. "Angelica..." Teach said sadly. "Oh, daughter!"
Jack cocked his head for a moment, thinking. Then he went on. "You know, forget what I said before, about your sister and the dog. Let me put it this way. I have been eaten by a giant kraken with a thousand teeth, suffered agonies you couldn't even imagine in your worse nightmares. Given the choice between that and marrying you, I'd take the kraken again any day of the week. And twice on Sundays," he added as an afterthought.
Angelica looked from Jack to her father. His obvious disappointment and heartbreak over her criminal career affected her, and her chin wobbled for a moment while she tried not to cry. She looked back up at Will. "Captain Turner? The convent, sir?"
"Very well," Will said. "I will take you back to your convent in Spain, on the condition that you never leave it." Will held out one hand in a closed fist, concentrating for a moment, and then he opened his fist. In it lay a tiny vial on a chain.
"This vial contains seawater from the bitter sea at World's End—or, as I'm sure it will come to be known, 'Will Turner's Locker'," he said with a half-smile.
Jack stifled a chuckle.
Will slipped the chain over Angelica's head. "You will keep this on for the remainder of your natural life. If you ever take it off, I will know. If you ever try to hurt another innocent person, I will know. If you ever have any dealings with Jack Sparrow, Elizabeth, my son Jacob, or any children they may have together in the future—I will know. Once you have taken your vows, you will never leave your convent again for the rest of your natural life. If you do, I will know."
Jack grimaced and reminded him, "Uh, Will… I did make her drink from the Fountain of Youth. 'S a hell of a long time to stay inside a convent."
Will relented. "I did say you would spend the rest of your natural life there. When you have spent a natural lifetime there, if you would like a natural death, just break the vial and I will come get you and you will be reunited with your father."
"What if it breaks on its own?" she asked.
"It won't break until you break it with intent. Now that we have a true destination, I can take you to Spain on the Dutchman. Eddie, take her back to the ship," Will ordered.
Teach touched the edge of his bandana, and then he touched Angelica's shackles and they dropped free. He took her arm and the two of them disappeared.
"I hope she can find some healing in that convent," Elizabeth said.
"I hope she's not beyond it," Jack added cynically. He looked regretful.