bringmethatnpc (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bringmethatnpc) wrote2007-10-20 08:56 pm
bringmethatnpc) wrote2007-10-20 08:56 pm
Stabbing the Heart
He'd almost made it. Jack had been sneaking across the Dutchman's deck, chest secure in hand, when Jones and his crew had spotted him.
"Looky here, boys -- a lost bird that never learned to fly!"
As they advance on him, Jack backs up against the edge of the deck -- then leaps up on the rail and wraps one hand in a particular lanyard. His sudden grin is filled with manic amusement.
"Never too late to learn, aye?" With no more warning than that, he slams the chest against the half-rotten wood brace securing the line and is promptly yanked aloft.
Unfortunately, Jones doesn't need any such trick to go wherever he wishes to on this particular ship, and as Jack turns to make his swaying way toward the tenuous safety of the mainmast, he finds himself facing the Dutchman's furious captain over the point of a sword.
"The chest-- hand it over!"
Jack backs up a step, drawing his own sword, and there's something strangely knowing in the black eyes.
"I can set you free, mate."
"My freedom was forfeit long ago!" Jones snarls, and strikes.
Now, as one battle rages on the decks below, another takes place on the yardarm of the Flying Dutchman. With a wild slash, Jack sends several wiggling tentacles from Jones's beard falling to the deck below -- one of them still clutching the key to the chest. He receives a blow in return that sends him staggering backward, and as he brings his sword up in defense Jones snaps it in two with his claw.
Having no other defense left, Jack counters the next strike by using the chest itself as club, which in turn brings it within reach of Jones, who promptly grabs it. As Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones engage in a strange tug-of-war over the chest that contains Jones's heart, Jack can't help but grin.
Bloody ridiculous, is what this is.
Evidently Jones agrees, for with a particularly harsh, violent swing, he manages to yank Jack from his perch and send him flying through the air in truth.
It's a stroke of fortune that the air's so full of invading fishy pirates, however, and as he falls Jack collides with one swinging across on a rope. In the ensuing scramble for a good grip, Jack notices a pistol shoved in the other man's belt. Black eyes widen in shock.
I know that gun!
On the instant, Jack snatches Mal's pistol free and delivers a hard blow to Clanker's head with the butt of the gun.
"Oi! My pistol!"
As the stunned pirate falls, Jack swings himself around, searching for Jones--
--there!
BANG!
Jack's a good shot, and as Mal Reynolds could tell anyone who asked, it's a good gun. The bullet goes true, knocking the chest from Davy Jones's hands and into the chaos below.
"Looky here, boys -- a lost bird that never learned to fly!"
As they advance on him, Jack backs up against the edge of the deck -- then leaps up on the rail and wraps one hand in a particular lanyard. His sudden grin is filled with manic amusement.
"Never too late to learn, aye?" With no more warning than that, he slams the chest against the half-rotten wood brace securing the line and is promptly yanked aloft.
Unfortunately, Jones doesn't need any such trick to go wherever he wishes to on this particular ship, and as Jack turns to make his swaying way toward the tenuous safety of the mainmast, he finds himself facing the Dutchman's furious captain over the point of a sword.
"The chest-- hand it over!"
Jack backs up a step, drawing his own sword, and there's something strangely knowing in the black eyes.
"I can set you free, mate."
"My freedom was forfeit long ago!" Jones snarls, and strikes.
Now, as one battle rages on the decks below, another takes place on the yardarm of the Flying Dutchman. With a wild slash, Jack sends several wiggling tentacles from Jones's beard falling to the deck below -- one of them still clutching the key to the chest. He receives a blow in return that sends him staggering backward, and as he brings his sword up in defense Jones snaps it in two with his claw.
Having no other defense left, Jack counters the next strike by using the chest itself as club, which in turn brings it within reach of Jones, who promptly grabs it. As Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones engage in a strange tug-of-war over the chest that contains Jones's heart, Jack can't help but grin.
Bloody ridiculous, is what this is.
Evidently Jones agrees, for with a particularly harsh, violent swing, he manages to yank Jack from his perch and send him flying through the air in truth.
It's a stroke of fortune that the air's so full of invading fishy pirates, however, and as he falls Jack collides with one swinging across on a rope. In the ensuing scramble for a good grip, Jack notices a pistol shoved in the other man's belt. Black eyes widen in shock.
I know that gun!
On the instant, Jack snatches Mal's pistol free and delivers a hard blow to Clanker's head with the butt of the gun.
"Oi! My pistol!"
As the stunned pirate falls, Jack swings himself around, searching for Jones--
--there!
BANG!
Jack's a good shot, and as Mal Reynolds could tell anyone who asked, it's a good gun. The bullet goes true, knocking the chest from Davy Jones's hands and into the chaos below.
no subject
"I won't leave you!"
It's a shriek full of desperation, but Jack's grip is far too sure. Despite her best efforts, he rips her away from Will.
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I won't go back there -- we've got to get free before she goes down--
It doesn't take long to spot what he needs. First the lanyards, which he yanks loose with grim desperation, then the musket, snatched up from the deck...
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He kneels beside the body of his son and raises the knife.
It was always in my blood to die at sea. But that was not a fate I ever wanted for you.
"The Dutchman," he says softly, "must have a captain."
And quickly -- he can do that much, at least -- he brings the blade down.
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"Hold on!"
As she clings to him, Jack fires the gun at the line securing the rigging, then lets the musket fall and wraps both hands in a tangle of rope as the small topsail falls free of the mast.
A 'parasail', Wellard had called it once, when he'd been explaining tricks that might be used to make his own ship fly. Jack spares a second to think that he'll have to thank the lad for showing him this one as the canvas billows out into the wind of the storm, lifting them into the air and free of the sinking ship's deck, just as it's supposed to do.
(Even the blasted monkey, which scurries toward them in time to leap and catch the tail-end of the rope.)
As they soar higher into the air, Jack looks down at the maelstrom below, watching as the Flying Dutchman is dragged down to the sea's depths--
(a captain goes down with his ship)
-- and as Will Turner goes with her.
no subject
(If he saves me, he loses you)
In the end, Will had tried to secure the best possible outcome for everyone, but it hadn't mattered. The choice had been taken from Will -- from Jack -- by Davy Jones. And now they are taking his heart, locking it away from her, and he very well might be the next captain of the Flying Dutchman.
(I had a meeting with Destiny)
Elizabeth doesn't finish watching the Flying Dutchman sink beneath the rapidly calming waves. She buries her face in Jack's chest and trusts him, just this once, with his own still all too mortal life at stake, to see her to relative safety. There's no need to watch; her imagination is already far too sharp. Captain William Turner will be at the helm of his new ship, his new love, and Elizabeth wonders what she'll see in his eyes if it all worked and husband and wife somehow meet again.
(No course is lost if there is but one fool left to fight for it)
The vicious winds have become nothing more than a bad memory as a gentle breeze lifts the hair off her neck and ceases to fill the sail above them. Jack and Elizabeth plunge into the sea not far from the Pearl, and she closes her eyes and lets the water clear her head for a moment before she starts to swim.