Norrington's Darling

Corpse On The Beach

POV: James Norrington

The instant I woke from my slumber, I knew.

I knew Zuri was back. 

It was as if I could suddenly feel her heart beating strong and wild in this world once more, as if I could hear the song of her soul. 

Staring wildly into the blackness of the chamber I slept in, I tried to even my breathing. I wasn't alone. Crewmen of Jones' slept here. They would know if I woke. I didn't doubt they reported everything to Beckett.

"Bad dream, Admiral?" one snickered. "Dreaming of death?"

"My wife, actually," I said coolly, pleased that I had managed to keep the tremble out of my voice.

"Ooo whoo! A little wifey back home, eh?" The dead man snickered. "I imagine she's bedding another man while the ol' admiral's away!" The three others hissed with laughter; only the fourth remained silent. "Will you be having her when you get home to her then, marine?"

"She isn't home," I snapped, "she's at sea. And I'll appreciate if you didn't speak of my wife as if she were some common tavern wench!"

The man cackled. "Trust her, do you? You shouldn't. No woman waits for a man while he's at sea—she goes and has someone else!"

"That might be your experience with your own wife," I snapped coolly, to which the others muttered, "but Zuri Sparrow isn't some prostitute."

They went deadly silent. 

"Zuri Sparrow?" one finally asked, not the one from before. This one had a starfish on the side of his face. He was one of the kinder ones. "She's your wife?"

"She is," I said curtly. "Now if you'll excuse me." I got up, threw on my coat and sword, and stalked away. I needed some fresh air.

Zuri was back. Soon enough, I wouldn't have to deal with this men anymore. Soon enough, we could go home.

POV: Zuri Norrington

Instantly, Jack, Elizabeth, and Will had all drawn their guns. Tense silence reigned. I moved beside Gibbs, who had drawn his own pistol. 

Then the four started to laugh and the tension drained from the air, until, almost simultaneously, all pistols went back up. My hand went to the dagger at my side—James's dagger that I would not part with, in life or in death.

"All right, then," Barbossa began. "The Brethren Court's gatherin' at Shipwreck Cove. And Jack, you and I are goin', and there'll be no arguin' that point."

"I is arguin' the point," Jack argued. "If there're pirates gathering, I'm pointing my ship the other way."

Elizabeth trained both pistols on Jack. "The pirates are gathering to fight Beckett, and you're a pirate!"

At the name of Beckett, my brother went still and my heart skipped a beat. Jack pointed his second pistol at her. Then Will pointed both of his at Jack. Jack moved one pistol back to him.

"Fight or not, you're not running, Jack," Will said.

"If we don't stand together, they'll hunt us down one by one, till there be none left, but you," Barbossa spat. 

"Quite like the sound of that," Jack said. "Captain Jack Sparrow, the last pirate."

"Aye," growled Barbossa, getting closer to him, "and you'll be fightin' Jones alone! How does that figure into your...plan?"

"I'm still workin' on that," Jack said, turning a pistol onto Barbossa. "But I will not be going back to the Locker, mate. Count on that."

Jack tried to shoot Barbossa as he once had when Barbossa had once again regained his life, but all that came from the pistol was a spray of water. Jack's face twitched.

The others tried their pistols as well; the same happened to them. Gibbs said, "Wet powder!"

"No wonder," I said sarcastically. "We were just hanging upside down in the water." Then I turned to my brother. "Jack, I'm going to the Brethren Court. Come with me. Make things easier."

The others turned away. Jack gave me a dirty look, which I returned with one of my own. My brother looked cowed by it and bowed his head subtly. He'd go. He just wouldn't go easily.

"WAIT!" yelled Pintel as we walked away. "WE CAN STILL USE 'EM AS CLUBS!" As if to demonstrate, Ragetti knocked him in the head with one. "Ahhh!"

"Sorry! Effective, though."

I rolled my eyes and left the pair before they could start another argument that would annoy me to the ends of the earth and back again.

Will stabbed at a spot on the map. We leaned over him, crowding around to get a better look. "There's a freshwater spring on this island. We can resupply there, and get back to shooting each other later."

I coughed. "Is the, uh, shooting each other part necessary? We did just go to the trouble of bringing him back from the land of the dead."

"You can lead the shore party, and I'll stay with my ship," said Jack. He glanced at me and I nodded; I'd stay with him.

Barbossa's glare was as foul as his breath. "I'll not be leaving my ship in your command."

Will rolled his eyes. I was not the only one exasperated with their fighting over the Pearl. "Why don't you both go ashore and leave the ship in my command. Temporarily," he added hastily when the two men gave him vile looks.

"Agreed!" I said before either captain could start an argument. "Jack, come on! Let's get to work planning!"

"We were just planning!"

"Nope, just us!" I called, dragging him away from Barbossa before he could instigate a fight.

On the beach, we discovered the Kraken. My insides melted to sludge before I realized the thing was dead. Slowly, Jack, Barbossa, and I approached the corpse. I toed a tentacle, then leaped away when the tentacle flopped on the ground. It was newly dead. My eyes searched the corpse; I found marks from bayonets and muskets...and a brand. Beckett had ordered Jones' beast killed.

Jack stared at the thing's eye. His face was set in the same expression it always held when he remembered the worst of things—what we'd had to do as children, our experiences with Beckett...namely his branding and the abuse Beckett had shown me.

"Still thinkin' of runnin', Jack?" Barbossa asked. "Think you can outrun the world? You know, the problem with being the last of anything, is by and by, there be none left at all." I shot him a warning glare. But he was right. If Beckett could kill the Kraken, what would he do to us, the two little birds he'd never managed to pin under his thumb? What horrors would he bring upon us? What gruesome death would he bring down upon us? But he would kill us, in one way or another. He would get us.

"Sometimes, things come back, mate. We're living proof, you and me," Jack said, gesturing between them. 

"Aye, but that's a gamble of long odds, ain't it? There's never a guarantee of coming back; but passing on, that's dead certain."

"Summoning the Brethren Court, then, is it?" The Court wasn't the real reason Jack didn't want to do this. It was the Keeper of the Code that scared him—that scared me, too.

"They're are only hope, lad."

"That's a sad commentary in and of itself," Jack muttered.

"The world used to be a...bigger place," Barbossa said. I thought of Beckett's map, of each edge filled in perfectly. My gut twisted painfully. I couldn't tell what the reason for it was, but I doubted it was Beckett.

But Jack shook his head slowly. "The world's still the same." He looked away from the Kraken. "There's just...less in it."