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It didn't take long to break out of the brig. If Will was in his right mind, he might question the stupidity of locking him up in a brig like that when his ability to break out of cells is pretty much what got them all into this mess in the first place, nearly two years ago. But Will isn't in his right mind.

His plan was destroyed. Elizabeth is lost. To Sao Feng, that pirate Lord who tortured Will with near drowning, and who looked at the woman he loves with such animalistic lust. Will's only hope to save his father, by gaining control of the Black Pearl, has failed, and the fastest ship known to sail is now in control of the most selfish excuse for a pirate ever to return from Davy Jones' Locker.

Will's last hope is to complete his betrayal, and lead Becket and Jones to Shipwreck Cove itself, there for one final barter for the lives of Elizabeth and his father. And right now, he has no care at all for how he does it.

Most of the men crewing the Black Pearl now were never loyal to Jack. They were Sao Feng's men, given over to Will as part of the plot to gain the Black Pearl. Will's surprised Barbossa and Jack allowed them to stay - but then, they still needed some men to crew the ship. Nevertheless, for a while Will considered them his men, and he feels no remorse at all as he sneaks up each one he finds alone, kills him cleanly with his father's knife before lashing the body to an empty keg. Haulling it overboard, Will trusts the scavenging sea birds will be enough to lead Beckett on their trail.

Everything Will has ever done in his dreams with Elizabeth, to Sao Feng is doing forcibly, at knife and gun point in his every waking thought. Will almost takes pleasure in killing that man's crew.

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The voice floats on the salt breeze, coming from above.

"You escaped the brig even quicker than I expected."

Jack's reclining comfortably against the length of the bowsprit, watching him.

Will had been lost in thought,turning over his father'sknifein his hands and reliving past vows. When Jack speaks, he starts, and holds the knife forward in threat.

He'll even kill jack if he needs to.

Jack sighs.

"William?"

He grabs a rope and pulls himself to his feet, swaying slightly as he starts to make his way along the wood toward the deck below.

"Do you notice anything?"

Keeping the knife out, Will darts a look to the side.

He's been on full alert. Really careful. What is there for him to notice?

"Or rather," Jack continues, very reasonably, "do you notice something that isn't there to be noticed?"

He's nearly reached the railing now, and pauses there, looking to Will for an answer.

Will looks about again, and finally gets it. But his arms stays out.

"You haven't raised an alarm."

There's no gratitude in his voice. There's still no reason for Jack not to kill him where he stands.

"Odd, isn't it?"

A beat, and he waves one hand at the deck below-- quite pointedly including the dead man bound to the barrel before Will.

"Though not as odd as this." There's something wearily resigned in Jack's tone as he adds,

"Come up with this all by your lonesome, did you?"

"I said to myself, think like Jack," Will says bitterly.

A year, a year Jack let Will think that Elizabeth was unfaithful. Then Jack was on haggling for his life with Beckett while she was taken off by Sao Feng.

It may not be rational, but Will still blames Jack at least partly for what happened. And he's willing to bet Jack would do the saem thing, in his position.

"And this is what you've arrived at?" He waves again at the dead body.

"Lead Beckett to Shipwreck Cove, so as to gain his trust and accomplish your own ends?"

A beat, and Jack sounds flabbergasted-- although there's a quick, nearly-hidden flicker of amusement in the black eyes.

"It's like you don't know me at all, mate."

Will has to admit, it does sound rather... well, treacherous, when Jack puts it like that. And even though he sees that flicker of amusement, for the first time he manages to feel a little ashamed of himself.

But this is Jack, and it's disappointingly hard to be angry at Jack when he's actually there, talking to him with that grin of his.

Will lowers the knife.

Jack nods approval, eyeing Will carefully.

"... and how does your dearly beloved feel about this plan?"

She probably doesn't feel much about it, given she's a prisoner of Sao Feng's, and probably has more on her mind right now than Will's betrayal.

He hadn't intended it to be a betrayal of her.

Will looks away towards the corpse, for fear Jack will see how much he's hurting.

"Ah."

There's an utter lack of surprise in his voice.

"You've not seen fit to trust her with it."

Jack reaches the end of the bowsprit and hops nimbly to the deck below, then comes up beside Will.

Will doesn't object to this at all. Truth be told, he's tired of fighting with everyone, tired of not talking to Elizabeth, and even tired of the animosity with Jack.

Jack who, after all, did nothing worse to Will than be in possession of the ship he needs.

"I'm losing her, Jack," he confides, looking out to sea. "Every step I make for my father is a step away from Elizabeth."

He shouldn't have to choose.

Quietly and with a strangely rough certainty, Jack informs him,

"Mate, if you choose to lock your heart away, you'll lose it for certain."

He turns away from Will and strolls over to the outside wall of his cabin, reaching for a dangling line as he adds,

"But if I might lend a machete to your intellectual thicket-- avoid the choice altogether."

Jack's looking at the rope as he runs his hand over it, and not at Will.

"Change the facts." He half-turns, addressing his words to the open air between the two of them. "Let someone else dispatch Jones."

Will is quiet while Jack speaks, listening. Jack so far hasn't... well, he has led Will wrong, a number of times, but sometimes he has good ideas, and he's the only thing Will has to someone able to give advice.

When Jack voices his suggestion, which hadn't even slightly occured to Will, he furrows his brows.

"Who?"

There's an odd little smile playing over his face.

Jack slants a sideways look at Will, waiting.

It takes Will a second, which is is probably only to ve expected, but he gets there in the end, turning around to face Jack.

"You?"

The word is loaded with disbelief.

He starts to say something, then stops. Jack changes his direction both in words and outwardly as he walks over to confide,

"Death has a curious way of reshuffling one's priorities."

A beat.

"Now. I slip aboard the Dutchman, find the heart, stab the beating thing-- your father goes free from his debt, and you're free to be with your charming murderess."

The sardonic weight on the final words is clear, but Jack doesn't sound any less sincere for it as he finishes his proposal and looks expectantly at Will.

It... it does make sense. And Will can't see any way in which Jack could be playing him for his own advantage.

That doesn't mean he isn't, of course. Just that Will can't see the catch. What he can see, is a hitch in it for Jack.

"And you're willing to cut out your heart and bind yourself to the Dutchman? Forever?"

"No, mate. I'm free forever."

It's said with absolute finality, and it's unlikely Will's ever seen Jack look quite this certain.

"Free to sail beyond the edges of the map," he continues, throwing one hand out wide to indicate that mysterious unknown distance.

"Free from death itself."

Will has his own certainty as well, though. He leans in to Jack, confident that he knows what he's talking about in this.

"You have to do the job though, Jack. You have to ferry souls to the next world. Or end up just like Jones."

One hand strokes a long, imaginary beard. Will's spent a lot of time considering the curse and what it means to the man who stabs Jones.

Jack looks visibly unnerved as he raises a protective hand and strokes his own braided beard.

"I don't have the face for tentacles."

A breath, and a quick, wry smile. "But immortal has to count for something, aye? Oh--"

He reaches to his side, deftly unworking a complicated knot, and then holds out his compass.

Will takes the compass, examining the smooth black case in confusion.

If he opens it, he knows it will just point to the Empress.

"What's this for?"

A tiny smirk appears on his face as he watches Will with the compass.

"Think like me. It'll come to you."

Jack studies him for a second, then leans forward and blows out a breath -- straight into the other man's face.

Oh dear god...

So that's why there are so many empty kegs lying around the ship.

Will jerks back suddenly, away from Jack's incredibly pungent breath, only to stumble against the railing, lose his balance, and tumble over into the sea.

A moment later there's a second splash, as Jack pushes the keg with its deceased passenger over the side.

He leans out over the rail and touches two fingers to his hat in mocking salute as he calls out,

"My regards to Davy Jones!"

Will gasps as he resurfaces, thinking angrily that this is the fourth time recently he's received an unwanted soaking.

But he has enough presence of mind to splash over to the keg, grabbing on to the corpse to use them both to keep afloat.

"I hate him," he confides in the dead man.

(dead men tell no tales)

There's no answer from Will's silent companion.

Nor is there any cry of alarm raised from the ship. The Black Pearl sails off into the night, leaving Will Turner behind.

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