A/N: Just two more chapters after this one.. Well one chapter and an epilogue of sorts.
Replies: Sayla Ragnarok. Jack will spring back like he usually does.
Ogreatrandom: The alert thing seems to be down and I had to have a reunion between Jayne and Vera.
Dragon-Raptor: Thank you for the review.
They call me KEERAN: Thank you, and I have been crossing the lines on purpose.
Chapter 34: Victory
-
Jack Sparrow cannot remember the last time he had experienced such pain. He had been tortured before, cut, shot at, branded and had many broken bones, but the pain from the past could not be compared to the pain from Davy Jones’s claw. The points of the serrated edge cut through his skin and the strength and force of the claw had crushed through several bones.
Despite the excruciating sensation going through his left hand he was able to retrieve his sword and swung it up in time to block Davy’s strike. Through his squinting eye he studied Davy’s expression, trying to see if his nemesis was plotting on something.
Davy Jones’s eyes were wide, beard of tentacles no longer flaring and hung limp around his face. Rubbery lips were parted, allowing a few choking coughs to get through along with water and greenish yellow slime. His claw released its grip from Jack’s hand seconds before his legs weakened and he fell, landing on his knees first and then his side.
Jack ignored his pain, as he stood tall. “Not so tough now when ye are dead, are ye?” The lad did it, stabbed the heart like he said he was going to. “I wonder if it is possible fer ye to smell even worse now.” He kicked Jones’s head.
The head rolled away from the body, no longer attached. Jack blinked when he saw it move. That wasn’t the biggest shock. The head no longer resembled Jones, but had changed into an actual dead octopus. Jack examined the rest of Jones’s body; the claw had detached itself from the corpse as well as the long tentacle like finger. He looked back at the corpse. There was another head underneath the squid, a human head with an actual bead of hair, and a real nose.
“Gruesome,” Jack mumbled before he glanced around his ship and the rest of his crew. There were many who were dead and those who survived who had some injury.
Jones’s crew stood around in shock, none of them were reverting back to their human forms, but nearly all were gagging. Perhaps they were feeling the full pain of the bullets and stab wounds that had been inflicted upon them?
Jack’s question was answered when the first barnacle fell of the nearest crewman. He watched in mixture of horrified fascination and disgust as the aquatic growths fell from their bodies, leaving behind their original human forms before their corpses fell to the floor.
“Bootstrap,” He said the name of his former crewmate sadly.
-
William Turner did not remove his eyes from the heart until it had ceased to beat. It was over. He had kept his promise to his father and freed countless other men from Jones’s curse.
“We did it,” Elizabeth grabbed onto his arm and Will turned released his grip on the slimy and oozing organ to face her in time to receive a warm kiss on his mouth.
“Yes,” He stared into her beautiful brown eyes. “We did it.” He turned to his father. “Father, we did it. You are free.”
Bootstrap Bill smiled weakly. “Aye, free at last.” His legs gave away, causing him to stumble.
“Father,” Will grabbed him and tried to keep him steady. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing is the matter,” Bill answered as a few of bivalves fell off the side of his face.
“He’s changing back,” Elizabeth said as she helped steady him. “Mr. Turner, are you feeling all right?”
“I am glad my son has you to take care of him,” Bill stared at her before his eyes rolled back and the large starfish slid off his face.
“Father,” Will shook him slightly. “Father, say something.” He stared at his father’s cold eyes. There was no response. “Father, please.”
“Will,” Elizabeth whispered.
He ignored her. “Father, say something. You are free.” He still did not get a response from the body. He froze when the thought crossed his mind. His father was not dead. He couldn’t be dead.
“He is free,” Zoe Washburne approached them. She was holding onto a wad of cloth against her arm. “Some would believe death could be a form of freedom.”
Will did not look at her. He laid his father’s body onto the deck, while trying to fight back the tears.
“How could you say such a thing?” Elizabeth asked the question for him.
“No,” Will shook his head weakly. He was in denial and refused to accept it. His father was dead. He had no idea the men would instantly die when the curse was lifted. He had thought it would have been similar to the Aztec gold curse.
“Fight it all you want, little one,” Zoe said in her strong and cold tone. “He isn’t coming back.”
“Don’t you dare speak,” Will glared at her, only half ignoring the gentle touch of Elizabeth’s hands on his shoulders. “A woman of ice could not understand.”
Zoe looked like she was about to strike him, but retained her ground. “My husband died in the cockpit of our ship. I was right there next to him when he was impaled, right through the chest. I refused to believe he was dead. I kept trying to get him to stand up and run with us. It was Malcolm who pulled me away.”
“I’m sorry,” Elizabeth said.
Zoe nodded while two tears ran down her cheeks. “His final words were “I’m a leaf on the wind. Watch as I soar.”
Will sat up. Those were the same words they were shouting as they went into battle. No wonder she was angry when he mocked them.
“I didn’t know at the time, but I was a few weeks pregnant with our son,” Zoe continued. “Wash would have hated the fact I named him Hoban Washburne Jr. We call him Hobby as a nickname.”
“Where is your son?” Will asked.
“With my cousin’s family on another planet,” Zoe explained. “Our kind of lifestyle isn’t suitable for an infant. When he is a little older we will take him with us.”
“Do you visit him?”
“As much as we can.”
“You will see him when you return?”
She nodded again. “I plan to spend at least a month with him.” Zoe turned to where the youngest member of her crew was kneeling next to the body of a fallen crewmate.
“Turner, Lizzie,” Jack waltzed up to them cradling his left hand. “And my dear Zoe. Seems we have won if that is what you want to call it.”
“What about the Navy?” Zoe asked.
“I do not think we have to worry about them,” Elizabeth said as she pointed towards the direction of the Naval fleet, all the ships with one exception had turned around. The rest of their fleet was sailing towards them. “They started to change direction not long after the Kraken was destroyed.
“Can’t use Jones and the beastie anymore, can they?” Jack grimaced. “Decided to turn tail and run.”
“Jack,” Elizabeth pointed at his injury. “Your hand.”
“It will heal love,” Jack grinned before he winced from the pain he felt.
“I’m not too certain what this means,” a detached voice spoke out to them. Everyone turned to see the flying ship had returned to The Haven. “From what I had figured over the years is that when the other side turns around they claim to be defeated. So we can all stand tall and cheer.”
“Sir?” Zoe turned around to face the ship as the hatch at the bottom opened and the gangplank was let down.
“Get all your injured aboard and anyone with any medical know how aboard to help. Going to find the nearest bit of land to settle. I’m sure all your navigators will know where it is.”
“You heard him.” Zoe said before she turned to face Will. “I believe Anamaria is going to need your help guiding this ship the nearest island.”
“Might make it easier,” Jack said before he tossed his compass towards Will. “Make sure she gets this.”
“And you believe this will help her?” Will asked.
“Her heat’s desire, despite the fact she won’t admit it,” Jack said as he along with Zoe, Gibbs and several others went to the gangplank.
-
Malcolm Reynolds new it was going to be a long wait for the sea faring ships to catch up to them. It had only taken Serenity half an hour to find the land and they were going pretty slow for her. Translate that to wind speed that would take hours if not a day at least for the others. It did give Simon plenty of time to try and heal everyone’s injuries.
There were a few people who had some medical know how of the time to help the young doctor, and Simon was like the commanding officer leading his team of ship doctors into battle against infection.
Mal didn’t know many of the folk who had been treated and needed treatment. His main concerns were for Zoe, Jack, and Norrington.
He had found a half awake Norrington stretched out on one of the common room couches. Sparrow was talking to a man who had his arm in a cast. Others were seated around and laying down.
“Where is Zoe?” Mal asked when Inara walked past him, carrying a pot of tea.
“She is about to have her arm treated,” Inara explained as she poured more tea into a cup and handed it to one of the recovering patience. “She insisted on being last.”
“She is a strong woman,” a middle aged pirate answered as he accepted one of the glasses of water Kaylee was handing out. Both she and River were providing water to help the injured take their pain relievers. Serenity was on the ground and did not need her pilot or her mechanic.
“Course she is,” Mal did not remove his eyes from the monkey perched on the man’s shoulder. “Why is that on my ship?” He pointed at the creature.
“I told you he wouldn’t like him,” Jack said. His entire left hand was covered in a cast. “Nobody want the little beastie around, Barbossa old mate, except for ye.”
“There is no data on that monkey,” River stared at the simian. “He is not meant to be.”
“What is she blabbering about?” The older man, Barbossa asked. “Jack makes more sense than she does.”
“You had no data,” River turned to him. “You took what was not yours and your data was removed. You pushed Jack off, sent him away, took his love, took the coin and there was no more joy, no more apples.”
Jack stared at her, mouth parted slightly while his eyebrows were raised. “Ah,” he smiled and turned back to Barbossa. “She’s talking about yer curse.”
“How did she know?” Jack’s pirate friend, the man named Gibbs, asked. The gray haired man came aboard with his arm in a sling and was given a proper cast. “Did ye tell her, Commodore?”
Norrington just shook his head. “She knows all.”
“You stood on the same line as James,” River stared at Gibbs. “On Jack’s ship you were nice to him.”
“River, honey?” Inara addressed her in worried tone.. Kaylee was too busy handing out glasses of water to say anything.
“Don’t want to scare the guests’ darling,” Mal said. Half the folk were too tired and too busy recovering to care, but there were those like Gibbs and Barbossa who stared at River in bewilderment.
“I do wonder how she knew that part about Beckett,” Jack tried to fold his arms, but gave up when his hand bothered him too much. “Not just what I did to him, as amusing as that was to hear,” he smiled. “the other part.”
“She knows too much,” Gibbs used the finger on his good arm to trace an image of a cross in front of him. “Has the same witch brain as Tia Dalma.”
“Not a witch,” Norrington said. “An angel, saved me from the devil, Beckett. Sparrow is not the devil. Sparrow is the fool.”
“What has he been drinking?” Sparrow waltzed over to the commodore. “Can I have some?”
“Wasn’t born with gift,” Norrington droned on. “They poked at her mind, scraped away the filter, scientists made her read people and fight.”
“Someone tortured the lass?” Barbossa blinked.
“Good Jesus, Mary and Joseph,” Gibbs turned to Mal. “This is what your science does? Turn people into witches?”
“Not a witch,” Norrington opened his eyes briefly. “Science is power.”
“And power can be corrupted,” Mal pointed at him. “And no, Jack you can’t have some. The doc used some of his drugs to put the commodore and several others under so he can operate on him, got make sure all you folk are healed proper before you leave my ship.”
“Hopefully it will be soon,” Gibbs stared at the ceiling. “Can’t wait to vacate the belly of this metal beast.”
“A beast?” Kaylee turned her head towards his direction and looked like she was about to drop the tray she was carrying.
“Serenity is not a beast,” Norrington closed his eyes once again. “She’s beautiful.”
“Yes she is,” Kaylee beamed towards his direction before she walked past them towards the galley, giving Gibbs a sharp look on the way.
“I like him like this,” Jack pointed at Norrington. “Can’t stay that way?”
Mal folded his arms. “No he can’t.”
That night they had to find places for everyone to sleep. There were several beds in the passenger bay and a few more opened up when Simon spent the night in Kaylee’s cabin and River was moved to the unused cabin for the night. Inara helped create sleeping arrangements in the other shuttle. Anyone left over slept in the infirmary and on the upholstery of the common room.
Breakfast came in the form of cereal with no milk, protein packs molded to look like and taste similar to bacon and pancakes and cans of juice. Not a single person objected.
Well almost no one.
“Hey Captain, I gots a bone to pick with you,” Jack said once breakfast was eaten. Most of the patients chowed down at the dining room or in the commons. “Why is there no rum?”
“Because I don’t got any,” Mal said without looking at him. “Didn’t the doc say you were not supposed to touch any of the hard stuff?”
“Only when I take those pills he gave me.” He held up his bandaged and cast hand. All Mal learned about the Jack’s injuries was something about multiple fractures and how the pirate had to leave his hand in a cast for two months before soaking it for several hours to remove the plaster. “A little rum won’t kill me.”
Mal choose to ignore the pirate. Jack skated the edge into revealing his identity back on the Intrepid, now that he had removed his top half of his uniform he had gone into acting like a total idiot.
“You glorify that stuff too much,” Mal said as both he and Jack stepped outside, onto the sand. “I know that fermented sugar juice is the cheapest stuff out here in the blue, but I’m sure even you would rather be sippin at something that tastes a bit better if ya got the coin for it.”
Jack blinked and nodded. “You mean like wine?”
“Wine or brandy, heck even whisky and bourbon is better,” He shrugged and caught sight of Norrington and River walking on the beach. The girl was pointing at various spots on the ground, probably identifying the various seashells “Course my pallet got itself spoiled with the 31 flavors of rum that I’m used to.”
“Thirty one flavors?” Jack’s jaw hung. “And you don’t have any?”
“We don’t even have any beer on my boat, not until we touch dirt and refuel,” He grinned. “Going back home, back to the black where everything makes sense.” It had felt good to take the controls of Serenity even if it was for a few minutes to deliver Jayne’s weapons while River fought against Jones’s crew, but he needed to see nothing but black all around him. He needed to return to space. “Drop of cargo, see some friends, fill our bellies with real food, do a few thing for my crew and then back to work as usual, gotta keep her flying.”
“What I do. That is what I do. I felt that abut this.” He pointed his thumb back to Serenity. “She is what my ship is, Freedom, mate. That is what both our ships about. Noticed something else. Ye don’t have a woman in your life unless it’s this ship and the sea, or in your case the sky, or maybe there is a woman. I’m pretty sure I seen her but your head wont agree with your heart, a bit at odds as you are, unless everything is working.” He pointed towards Mal’s crotch.
Mal glared at him, trying to imitate the same annoyed look Norrington gave the pirate. “I believe that is none of your gorram business.” This guy has an obsession with other men’s goods it seemed. “I do have the occasional roll in the sheets, but no steady girl, now no more of that talk.”
“Sorry, mate,” Jack shrugged. “Just trying out we has a bit in common, even if ye do talk funny.”
“I talk funny?” Mal stared at him, dumbfounded at how the guy could even say that.
“Don’t let it get ye down,” Jack reached up to pat his shoulder. “You know the ways I sees it since ye being from the future and all that, ye may as well as be me own great-great-great-great-“ He counted down his fingers of his healthy hand. “Well many greats grandson.”
“Yeah, I could.” He turned away, coming face to face with Norrington while mouthing ‘No way.’
“Sparrow, please do not insult the man,” Norrington rolled his eyes. The commodore had recovered from his stab wound.
“They’re here,” River, pointed towards the sea.
“They are?” Mal squinted at the waves. He could make out what appeared to be sails in the distance. “They are here.”
-
Malcolm watched and waited for both the Pearl and the Haven to sail close to the surf before the sails were folded and the mooring lines were sent out. There were folk he wanted to see on both ships. Most of his other crew were on his sea going ship and he had to say good bye to them and even though he often joked about leaving Jayne behind he couldn’t, not knowing the possible damage Jayne and Vera could cause.
“James,” a young girl, close to River’s age was the first to depart from The Haven and run towards them. “They have healed you.”
“Doctor Tam is very talented,” Norrington gingerly pat his side where he was stabbed. “They had to remove my appendix.”
The girl stared at him in a curious manner. “Will you be the same?”
“One of the most expendable parts in our bodies, Miss.” Mal said. “All I heard it does is filter germs, practically a ticking time bomb waiting to go off.”
“I’m sure you don’t have to worry about your own, Miss Swann.” Norrington said to her before he gave Mal a look.
“Like you and Kaylee,” River said, her eyes were on Norrington and the girl.
“How is your hand?” Will asked Jack.
“It’s seen better days,” Jack raised his plastered and immobile hand. “Least there is nary a dark spot on it, at least I don’t think there is. Can’t tell with these bandages on.”
“How long will you have to keep it like that?” A beautiful pirate woman approached him. “Hard for you to sail in this condition.”
“Only for a few months,” Jack smiled weakly. Mal turned back to the two ships, there were several more from the fleet still on the waves. Mal didn’t really care about those. What he cared about was running straight towards him.
“Finally caught up, Jayne?” Malcolm asked of his mercenary.
“Can’t talk, gotta see a man about a mule.” Jayne said as he continued to run past him, carrying Vera.
“Mr. Cobb wait,” Gusty shouted as she followed after him, carrying the tattered pirate flag they had found on The Haven. “Ye said ye wanted t’ keep this.”
“Oh yeah,” Jayne accepted the flag before he continued to run. “Thanks.”
“What are you going to do with that?” Mal asked. “Have your mother turn it into a pillow?”
“Thanks for the idea,” Jayne shouted as he ran past Zoe, and the rest of Serenity’s crew. “Why y’all getting off?”
“We have to say good-bye,” Kaylee explained.
“We also need some of our things,” Inara explained while she pointed at Whistler and Hooky. The lanky young man held onto Inara’s purse and Kaylee’s toolbox while the cook had Simon’s medical bag.
“I reminded them of the medical bag,” Elizabeth took Will’s hand into her own. “They remembered the rest.”
“I remembered this,” the youngest member of Mal’s crew carried folded brown leather in his arms and wore a familiar hat on his head. His eyes were bloodshot from weeping for his fallen friend.
“Thank you,” Mal said softly. He took is coat first. Once he slipped inside something clicked. He had felt a bit off when he was aboard the Intrepid and now he knew why. He couldn’t remember the last time he was on a job or an adventure without his coat. “I can’t be me without my brown coat. Been with me since the war, it’s a part of me.”
“The soldier part,” Norrington nodded.
“Yeah,” Mal said as he placed his new hat on his head. “I guess we all are getting some form of a souvenir. Going to save my naval uniform for a nice little costume shindig. Thinkin of naming that wig, Snowflake.” He ignored the muffled laughter from Jack and the parting words exchanged by his crew.
“Ready to take her to the air, sir?” Zoe asked. The long cut on her arm was stitched up and her entire arm was covered in bandages
“Got Captain’s duties first,” Mal said as he took Gavin aside. “I gotta thank you and the others back there.”
The older man nodded. “You don’t have to thank me with such words, Captain.”
“I know,” Mal knew exactly what he was hinting at. “Actual thanks in the form of something you can hold. Don’t have much that aint Alliance regulated except for the bit of coin Inara and Jayne picked up in Tortuga. I know that is not enough. The Haven is also yours.”
“Captain,” Gavin’s eyes widened. “A ship like her is worth much more. Even if I worked for you for ten years it still wouldn’t be enough.”
Mal smiled. He knew he was about to make the right choice. “It’s obvious you have a lot of love for her. Now we cant take her back with us, that is why she need’s a new captain.”
“You want me to captain her?” Gavin asked.
“You are a better sea going than I could ever hope. I know she will be in the right hands.” He turned to the rest of his crew. “Time to board.” He walked passed Norrington and River. “Sorry Commodore, she belongs with us.”
“Goodbye James,” River gave the commodore one last hug before she followed after Mal.
“No need for worries, love,” Jack placed his healthy hand on Norrington’s shoulder, ignoring the look of pure hatred Norrington had inflicted upon him “We will take care of him.”
“Right,” Mal didn’t look back. “Make sure the folk who belong here get off our ship.” Everything was settled. He had his ship back, Davy Jones and his monster was dead. His entire crew was reunited. All that was left to do was get Jonas’s machine working and get back home.
-