Filia Maris [Pirates of the Caribbean | Captain Jack Sparrow]

Davy Jones

It was from the deck of Captain Teague's Ship that Maris had watched the Brethren Court release her mother from her mortal bonds, and it was from the deck of the Troubadour that she had watched the Black Pearl—her Pearl, she thought bitterly—surge forward to meet the Flying Dutchman. She had felt the fury and anguish that fueled the Maelstrom deep within her bones, and watched with her heart in her throat as the Pearl and the Dutchman circled endlessly within the grip of the tempest. But she was powerless to do anything.

She probably could have been aboard the Pearl herself, had she been so inclined. But she was too cowardly to face that chapter of her past. So, instead of stepping forward and wheedling her own way onto the Pearl, she had stood back, hidden among the shadows as the Fourth Brethren Court met and decided to try and change their fate in the face of Lord Beckett's threat of annihilation. Obviously Tia Dalma had succeeded in reviving Captain Barbossa, as he stood before the Court, and he had fervently led the argument for freeing her mother; Calypso. The very thought had nearly caused Maris' blood to freeze in her veins. What little affection Tia had ever shown Maris was sure to disappear when Tia did. After all, what use did a heathen goddess have for her part-mortal daughter, especially one that took after her father...the man who had betrayed her.

But it wasn't crossing paths with Barbossa that made her heart pound with anxiety; that dubious honour belonged to one Jack Sparrow. She had been all over the Seven Seas, and had been a pirate, of sorts, for most of her life, but she had never met a man so infuriating yet charming as Captain Jack Sparrow. He drove her mad, yet somehow she had lost her heart to him.

They had met for the first time onboard his father, Captain Teague's, ship, but it was later that their tumultuous relationship developed. He had been young and cocky, and she had been younger, so to speak, and growing jaded as more years slipped past. He halted that for a time. They had had adventures together, searching for one legend or another, seeking treasure and adventure and freedom.

Then he had lost the Pearl. She blamed him for losing her hard-won ship, though as the years had passed, she came to admit that she had played an equal part as well. He had vowed to get it back for her, no matter what the cost. He knew what that ship meant to her, for it meant the same to him; it was their means to freedom. She had merely brushed him aside, too stricken with grief and rage to bear his presence. That had been so long ago, and she had said so many things she regretted...

Now, watching him from a distance, she wished, deep down, that she had forgiven him then. They had been children together, really, even though she had essentially been a woman grown. He had given her a childhood and an adolescence that she wasn't sure she had truly experienced. That she had blamed him so thoroughly still hurt, manifesting as a terrible ache deep in her chest as she had watched him swagger amid the pirates gathered around the Brethren's Table.

But even though in her heart she knew she could forgive him—and honestly already had—she still couldn't bring herself to confront him. She still had too many issues of her own that she had to work out; like the true identity of her mother, for instance. No one currently alive knew for a fact that Tia Dalma was her birth mother. No one living even knew who Tia Dalma truly was, save Maris and Captain Barbossa. At least, until the heathen goddess had been freed. Not even Captain Teague, who had become almost a father to her during her time on his ship—regardless of the fact that she was technically older than he was—and a trusted friend since, knew of her parentage. Even though she grew to trust him implicitly, she never revealed her heritage to him, though in more recent years she began to suspect he knew something. Then again, she suspected he wasn't entirely mortal himself, sometimes.

So it was that she watched the seas churn and roil, pulling the two infamous ships deeper into its terrible embrace. The anxiety and fear she was fighting was a feeling shared by every pirate that lingered on the sidelines of the battle. It was not a feeling she bore well. As it stood, she was destined to lose something no matter the outcome of this battle.