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Deliverance	By : Bluemidget57 Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (All) > Het - Male/Female > Jack/Elizabeth Views: 7843 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Pirates of the Caribbean movie series, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Deliverance
- 2-Elizabeth
- 3-will
- 4-Sand
- 5-Pearl
- 6-Journey
- 7-Cave
- 8-Ritual
- 9-Calypso
- 10-Return
- 11-Awake
- 12-Asleep
- 13-Reunion
- 14-Avoidance
- 15-Cabin
- 16-Jones
- 17-Tattoo
- 18-Irrevocable
- 7
- 8
- 9
Ritual

At dawn the following day, Elizabeth tumbled out of Jack�s bed, tired and still uncomfortably achy from the intensity of her dreams, but filled with the certainty that the time was right.
Grabbing her satchel, she staggered bleary-eyed onto deck and was not at all surprised to find Barbossa waiting for her, one hand resting loosely on the wheel. �Aye, Miss Turner, it is time,� he said in greeting. �Take a look,� he pointed behind Elizabeth in the direction the Pearl was heading, and she turned to see what appeared to be a massive grey granite cliff face rising up from the ocean on the horizon.
Unlike the yellow fog wherein they had found the Black Pearl, this image seemed insubstantial despite it�s bleak darkness. It shimmered and pulsated in the early dawn light, seeming to flicker in and out of existence, and the harder Elizabeth tried to stare at it, the more elusive it became.
She frowned at Barbossa. �Why does it look like that?� She asked, confused.
�Because it�s not really there, Miss Turner,� Barbossa replied. �It is a place for lost souls and travelers caught between two worlds. It is not part of our universe, so it has no physical presence here -�
�Then how can I get Jack out of there?� Elizabeth asked dejectedly. �If I can�t touch it and it isn�t really here then how can I possibly do any good?�
Barbossa beckoned her up to the quarter deck; apparently he could not leave the wheel here as he had in the fog yesterday. When Elizabeth was standing beside him he smiled at her almost kindly, and held out a hand to her. After a momentary debate within herself she stretched out her hand and he tugged on it, pushing up her sleeve in a way which reminded her painfully of the way James had tricked and exposed Jack�s brand that first day in Port Royal. Barbossa however, only ran one of his long grubby fingers over the rune which Tia Dalma had tattooed there. Then he tapped her forehead with the same finger.
�These, Miss Turner,� he said. �There is power in these symbols. They will open a channel between yourself and the Guardians at World�s End. Make no mistake, it will not be easy, and it will most probably be painful. You will be tested for sincerity and the depth of your commitment, and your answers will be taken directly from your heart. You will not be able to lie or bluff your way through these tests.� He looked at her considering. �Is there another mark? One which we have not seen? Anything else Tia gave you to assist?�
Elizabeth gnawed on her bottom lip. No one else knew of the tattoo on her chest, save Tia Dalma and herself, but Barbossa had raised the Pearl and seemed to know a lot more of what was expected than he had admitted to thus far. She nodded her head, and since he seemed to expect it, she slid her shirt sufficiently off her shoulder for the Captain to see the symbol inked over her heart.
Although he appeared to remain impassive, a minute flaring of his nostrils and the small puff of air he expelled, alerted Elizabeth to the fact that he recognised the mark. Pulling her shirt back into place, she fixed him with a stare. �You know this symbol?� She asked.
�I�ve seen it before, aye.� Barbossa replied evasively, looking away from her and back to the horizon.
Elizabeth was startled by this admission. �You have? Where?� She demanded. �Will it help with what I have to do?�
Barbossa allowed his glance to return to her hopeful face, and sighed. �I imagine it might help, could also hurt a lot more, too.� He said and would not comment further, no matter how much Elizabeth pressed him, save to elaborate that he had meant it might cause her physical pain, rather than hurt the outcome of the mission.
�We have arrived here quite speedily,� he said, changing the subject, �and drawn the place to us far faster than I had expected. Obviously Tia Dalma had some tricks she shared with neither of us. I had asked her if she could provide us with another compass alike to Jack�s, but she told me it was lost with him.�
�He was carrying it when the Pearl sank,� Elizabeth said painfully. �I do wonder why you never took that from him when you stole his ship, Captain Barbossa?� She asked aggressively.
�Aye, and well you might,� Barbossa replied, not at all intimidated. �Truth is, I didn�t know it�s - unique - qualities then; the tales only came to us later, after we had found the gold and cursed ourselves.�
�Then why not the second time - when you marooned us on the island?� Elizabeth demanded. �For you surely knew by then?�
�Indeed, that was a grievous oversight on my behalf. Though I doubt �twould have done much good. You will recall I am sure that �twas only a couple of days later that Jack shot me dead, and he would have taken it back then anyway.�
Elizabeth found it encouraging that he could speak so casually about his own demise. It gave her the hope that when Jack returned he would be able to look back to his time on the other side with equal equanimity. Of course, Barbossa�s death, unlike Jack�s digestion by the Kraken, had been quick and mostly painless and had not come at the hands of someone he might, with all good reason, have believed to hold at the very least a form of friendship - if not something much deeper and more dangerous - for him.
So really, it was hardly likely that Jack would return hale and hearty and ready to forgive, even though he had looked so proud of her when he had whispered his last avowal to her as she abandoned him to the beast. Especially if time had passed as agonisingly slowly for him in whatever hellish dimension she had consigned him to as it had for her, left here alone with the guilt.
�What�s it like there, Barbossa?� Elizabeth asked fearfully. �Is he going to be in terrible pain, subject to all the torments of Hell? Will he hate me for sending him there, if we manage to bring him back?�
�You know I can�t tell you that, Miss Turner,� Barbossa replied with a sigh. �Hell is different things to different people. For all I know, Jack�s Hell could just be a world where they have never heard of rum. �Tis pointless beating yourself up about it until we�ve got him back and you can ask him yourself.�
A sudden pain from the marking on her chest made Elizabeth wince, and Barbossa narrowed his eyes at the involuntary action. �Time to begin, Miss Turner,� he said, and Elizabeth nodded, feeling the truth of his words in her very bones.
She descended the steps and laid her satchel in front of the mast, removing the rune stones, candles and potions Tia had provided her with. There was a diagram of a protective circle on a folded up parchment which Elizabeth laid out before her as she prepared the paints to inscribe it on the deck, enclosing herself and the mast within the circle. Immediately the circle was formed Elizabeth, and to a lesser extent Barbossa, both felt a surge from the magics which had been invoked.
Elizabeth felt strangely calm now that the ritual had commenced. She lit the four candles to represent the four points of the compass, then took the rune stones and cast them within the circle as Tia had directed. She did not understand the language of the words she chanted but Tia had assured her it was unnecessary, and that the spirit would take over at the appropriate moment, and again Elizabeth found the witch to have been correct. Pressing her left hand directly onto her heart and the mark there, she began reciting the ancient spell which would open a portal between realities, and the words flowed from her tongue as if she had learnt them in the nursery.
Once the ritual had started, Elizabeth found herself unable to move from the kneeling position she had taken to cast the rune stones, but she was not unduly worried by this fact. An unnatural calm had taken over her body and she proceeded as if following a familiar path. She removed the vials from their wooden case and sprinkled their contents onto the deck within the painted circle as she recited the words.
As soon as the potion came in contact with the symbol, it began to hiss and spit, swirling around in a slivery-blue mist which eventually distended to form a wall that ran around the perimeter of the protective circle Elizabeth had marked on the deck, enclosing the mast, the magical artifacts and Elizabeth herself within an opaque cylindrical tower of light that rose straight upwards until the top of it became indistinguishable from the sky above.
Moving slowly but confidently, Elizabeth opened her shirt to the waist, leaving her bare but for the yards of binding that hid her breasts. She took the smallest vial of oil and dribbled it onto the mark which showed above the linen over her left breast.
At first there was little discernable reaction; her skin felt warm and tingly, much as it has the previous evening when she had laid in Jack�s bed, surrounded by his presence and dreaming of his touch. But shortly the heat began to increase and intensify until she felt that her skin was on fire.
A whimper of pain escaped her mouth as she curled over her bent knees trying to control the pain by deep heaving breaths. The flesh all around he black mark was reddening and she could feel her focus slipping away from the ritual and onto her own pain. She fought to stay attuned to her assignment, but her mind could not bring forth the task she was supposed to perform next, and a gut-wrenching sense of failure washed through her as she felt her consciousness slipping away in the wake of the intense pain.
In the last seconds before darkness descended, she called out to him with her remaining breath, hand pressed to her scorching chest, �Jack, forgive me!� Before she crumpled to the deck, unconscious.

******

Barbossa watched as the young woman began her preparations. She was a fascinating contradiction, this pirate lass. In her every word, gesture and movement the privilege of her upbringing shone like a beacon, yet her will was as resolute and determined as that of any man Barbossa had ever met.
She had been still young and inexperienced when he took her hostage to break the curse, but even then her courage and intelligence had been apparent. That girl had matured into a glorious and feisty young woman whilst he had been deceased, and before him today he saw a magnificent and capable warrior, and he rather admired her, although her single minded determination to reverse her ruthless sentencing of Jack Sparrow somewhat disappointed him.
He thought she had the potential to be a fearsome pirate, if only she could be diverted from taking Sparrow as her mentor. Barbossa sensed that the little Swann had a uncompromising and defiant streak in her that was largely absent in Jack Sparrow, who would far rather progress in slyness and trickery than with force or bloodshed, and would no doubt redirect her bloodthirsty tendencies to align with his own wily brand of piracy once they retrieved the aggravating man from his consigned hell.
He was still lost in his contemplation of Elizabeth�s future when the crew began to straggle up from their hammocks, with Will in the lead.
It didn�t take very long for Elizabeth�s column of light to be noticed by the remaining crew members, dominating the main deck as it did. Typically, Ragetti crossed himself; these days everything was a sign to him that his soul was in mortal peril. The others regarded the phenomenon with resignation; they had encountered enough strange things thus far that this was merely another in a long list of peculiarities, and Barbossa seemed unconcerned so they took their lead from him.
Until Gibbs turned and spied the wavering granite cliff face ahead of them. Although he was unaware of the fact, the apparition was far more solid now than it had been at the commencement of Elizabeth�s rituals. �Barbossa, what is that?� he asked.
�Ah, that would be World�s End,� Barbossa replied. �We have arrived.�
�Holy Mother and all the Saints,� Gibbs replied, joining Ragetti in his devotions.
Will suddenly noticed that the Captain�s cabin door was open and strode over to check inside. �Where�s Elizabeth?� He demanded of Barbossa. �Jack�s cabin is empty.�
�Miss Turner has commenced her part in the resurrection,� Barbossa replied calmly.
�What?� Will cried frantically. �Where is she? Why is no one helping her?�
�Miss Turner has to act alone,� Barbossa replied. �Just as I had to raise this ship alone, so must she retrieve Sparrow. She is well protected where she is.� He nodded his head towards the column of light which had been relegated to the back of the crew�s minds by the sight of the bleak façade that was World�s End.
At Barbossa�s pronouncement they all turned back to the centre of the deck. Will�s eyes widened as he fully took in the strange pillar, and recognised the fact that it ascended far above the tallest mast on the ship until it appeared to penetrate the Heavens.
�Elizabeth is inside that?� He yelled, horrified, and sprang towards the light, only to find himself unable to pass through the shimmery phosphorescent field which almost totally hid Elizabeth from his eyes. �Barbossa, what has she done?� He cried, trying again to push through the barrier, only to be repelled firmly by some kind of force.
Refusing to give up, Will pressed forward again, this time pushing his face as close to the wall as he could get it, to make out a vaguely distorted shape which looked like a person collapsed on the ground. �Barbossa, Gibbs,� Will shouted, frantic now. �She�s passed out! We have to get to her!� He drew his sword and prepared to try and hack his way into the enclosure.
�Mr Gibbs!� Barbossa thundered from the helm. �Restrain that man! Do not allow him to interfere with Miss Turner�s ritual in any way. Mr Cotton, get up here and take the wheel.�
As soon as the pirate had laid his hands on the wheel, Barbossa leapt down the steps to the main deck and joined Gibbs in wrestling with Will. Gibbs had instantly obeyed the command; there had been no room for debate in the older man�s tone, and his success raising this ship had led most of them to believe he knew what he was talking about, in this respect at least.
Will fought against his captors, but he was smaller and lighter than either of them, and ultimately unable to throw them off. Tired of the struggle, Barbossa finally ordered Pintel to find something to tie Will up with.
�And I�ll have ye gagged, too, if ye don�t stop your caterwauling,� he snapped at Will as Pintel struggled to rope his hands together. �Now we wait, Mr Turner,� Barbossa said when Will finally stopped fighting them and settled for seething broodily.
Gibbs removed Will�s sword and took it below to lay on his hammock out of the way, and the crew resumed their uneasy alternating study of the hazy granite cliff and the opaque column of white light surrounding Elizabeth.
Will finally broke the silence, unable to bear the tortuous imaginings swirling around in his head. His and Elizabeth�s relationship may have faltered and changed since they parted in the Port Royal jail, but he had always loved her and even knowing everything he now did, he always would. He couldn�t bear the fear which consumed him at the sight of her laying alone and unconscious, trapped within a prison of mystical origins, which none of them other than Elizabeth herself had received any information upon.
�Barbossa,� he pleaded, �we can�t just do nothing. Look closely - you can see she�s passed out. Did Tia Dalma or Elizabeth say anything to you - how do we know that this is what�s supposed to happen? It could have gone horribly wrong - she could be in terrible danger, surrounded by all that magic and unable to defend herself, and how would we know?�
Barbossa grunted, and decided to throw the boy a bone. �I do believe a meditative state is required,� he conceded. �It is necessary to achieve communication with the Guardians, for they do not exist on this plane of reality. I�m sure everything is as it should be.�
�Is this what Tia Dalma had to do to bring you back from the dead?� Will demanded, broaching the subject which none of the men had yet summoned the nerve to mention. �Did she come here to World�s End to pull you back from death? Help me here, Barbossa, give me something to reassure me, please -�
Barbossa studied Will, and apparently deciding that the hotheaded young man had calmed sufficiently to speak to, he admitted, �no. This is not the same ritual used on myself. Believe it or not as you may, Mr Turner, this process should be far easier than bringing my own dear self back from the afterlife. Look at you all - here freely and willingly to rescue Jack Sparrow. None of you coerced, volunteers each one to sail into unknown dangers for the return of one man. That�s a powerful weapon right there.
Jack was taken before his time, and he could continue his journey into the next life and be finished, if everyone who cared for him was content to let it be so. But if there is enough sorrow, enough love to call him back, then the Guardians must listen. They are bound by their calling to hear any request for a soul�s return to the mortal world. Love is a powerful force and cannot be ignored. Did you learn nothing from your dealings with Captain Jones? Did you not see where love lead him? How it destroyed him - Tia Dalma obviously believes that for Jack Sparrow it will have the opposite effect - it will be the saving of us all. And I personally feel in sufficient need of saving that I am prepared to try anything. Tell me, Mr Turner - who amongst you all do you think could be a better champion for Jack Sparrow than the young miss, given what she -�
�Right, yes,� Will interrupted, unsure of how Barbossa had been intending to finish his speech, and not at all convinced that he wanted to admit either of the options which sprang immediately to mind; that she was the only choice because she loved him more than any of them, or that she had killed him more than any of them. �So you think she�s just - negotiating with them, then?�
�Aye, that I do,� Barbossa agreed firmly, although he knew nothing of the sort. But he had always been a clever and charismatic orator - how else could he have swayed a whole crew against their Captain otherwise - as he had done to take the Black Pearl in the first place? He smirked into his beard as some of the stiffness relaxed from Turner�s body, although he was not willing to untie the boy quite just yet.
Suddenly, the parrot which had been perched upon Cotton�s shoulder as he kept the ship on course, let out a loud and startled squawk, and began repeating Rock and a hard place, rock and a hard place! The men turned momentarily from Will and Elizabeth�s prison to look at the cliffs of World�s End, which had apparently completely solidified whilst they were arguing, and were beginning to loom dangerously close to the ship with their jagged edges and potential reefs.
Barbossa growled and charged back up to the quarterdeck; Will chanced another look at the pillar of light, which was now shimmering bluer than before. Ragetti, seemingly drawn against his will towards the glowing tower which seemed to have become more translucent as the cliffs solidified, suddenly gasped and turned back towards the others.
�Miss �Lizbeth!� He croaked out worriedly. �She ain�t there no more. She�s gone!�

******

Ooh, things are heating up�Do I sense a meeting between our favourite couple in the next chapter?
Survey says�..that would be telling! I am just so mean.. (cackles evilly).
Many thanks to those of you who took the time to leave a comment; I do appreciate your efforts, and hope that you enjoy this chapter.
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Deliverance