Chapter 45:  Death of a Goddess

 

“Care to inform me of the plan?” Jack asked as soon as the rest of the Brethren Court had left the latest meeting.

Robin looked up at him.  “Excuse me?”

“The plan.  The one that you and Norrington have.”

Robin grinned as she stood.  “You’ll know if the plan works.”

Jack raised his eyebrows.  “’If’ it works?”  Robin said nothing.  “You sent your lover on a mission that could fail?”

Robin’s eyes narrowed.  “He is not my lover!”  She sank back into her chair, putting a hand to her head.  “Not in that manner, anyway.”

Jack’s brow furrowed as he watched his daughter.  Robin seemed to almost regret what she had done…whatever exactly it was that she did.  “Is the plan that dangerous?”

Robin swallowed hard before answering.  “It will be a miracle if he succeeds,” Robin admitted quietly.

“Then why did you send him?  I was under the impression, though perhaps I was mistaken, that...well, that…you loved him.”  The words felt so strange coming out of Jack’s mouth.  Robin looked up, her eyes glistening with unshed tears as she shook her head.

“I don’t know.  It had to either be him or Gillette.”

Did she not know why she had sent Norrington, or did she not know whether or not she loved him?  “Then you should have sent Gillette,” Jack said.  “If you really care about Norrington…”  I cannot believe I am having this conversation.

“I care about them both,” Robin muttered under her breath.  Jack gazed at his daughter in surprise.  “But James is the only one I was certain would not betray us…betray me.”  She took a deep breath.  “And I’m using him.  I’m using his devotion to me to my advantage.”

Jack shifted his weight as Norrington’s screams, his cries for Jacqueline, echoed in his mind.  Norrington was certainly more than devoted to Robin.  The man adored her; he almost seemed to idolize her in his love for her, an obsessive love that drove him to such extremes as torturing Jack and risking his life on what appeared to be a suicidal mission.  “It’s in your nature to work the world to your advantage, Robin,” Jack said.  “That’s why you’re still alive.  You get that from me,” he added with a slight grin.

“I know.  I use people to my advantage, then throw them aside when I can no longer gain anything from them.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Jack said quietly, although he knew that what Robin said was not exactly false.

“I just hope James is all right,” Robin whispered.  She looked back up at Jack.  “Jack…there’s something you should know.”  Jack nodded slowly, wondering what his daughter was about to reveal to him, or to admit.  “Lord Beckett is not our enemy.”  Jack’s brow furrowed disbelievingly.  “He, and through him the East India Company, he being controlled by Calypso.”

Jack’s heart stopped.

* * *

James Norrington looked around the brig.  He sighed heavily as he tried to figure out the happenings of the last hour.  The plan had been going quite well.  Lord Beckett had figured out that Norrington was working for Jacqueline very quickly, which seemed to be a problem at first, but Beckett seemed to want to work with them.  Yet, even though they had planned a way to keep either side from losing many men, Norrington was now in the brig.

Norrington turned to look at the man he shared the cell with.  Lord Beckett was sitting silently and staring absentmindedly at the door of the cell.  “What the hell happened?” Norrington asked suddenly.

Beckett did not bother turning to him as he spoke.  “We plotted to keep a fight from occurring.  That was plotting against the goddess Calypso.  She did not like that.  Now we are here.”  Beckett sighed.  “You really do not remember my death?”

Norrington shook his head. “No, I don’t.  But you look alive.”

“So you don’t believe me,” Beckett guessed.  Norrington said nothing.  “Damn!  You were there, Admiral!”

“I don’t remember anything about you dying or about a goddess,” Norrington said quietly.  He was not certain what to believe.  He remembered Jacqueline telling him that he had mentioned that Lord Beckett was dead, yet Beckett was right here.  Of course, Jack and Jacqueline had also both died, and they were now alive, not to mention Norrington himself.  Also, they were now in the brig, curtsey of Calypso.

“Robin knows now…but I don’t know if she understands…”  Norrington wondered if Beckett was talking to Norrington or to himself.  “I as such a fool.  I told her about the vines.”  Norrington had no idea what Beckett was talking about, but he continued listening anyway.  “And now Calypso plans…”  He trailed off.

“What?”

Beckett swallowed hard and opened his mouth to explain when the Flying Dutchman suddenly rocked violently.  “The battle has begun,” Beckett said quietly.

“Then Jacqueline knows our plan failed—and I will be presumed dead,” Norrington said sadly.  “I hope she knows I’m alive…somehow…”

“She will,” Beckett said quietly, sounding strangely confident of that fact.  “She will.”

The battle raged on for what seemed like days to the men in the brig.  Norrington and Beckett were unable to do anything, something that was driving Norrington mad.  He wanted to help; he needed to protect Jacqueline.  But he could do nothing while he was locked in the brig.

The door to the brig suddenly opened, and Norrington’ eyes widened as a woman rushed into the room, holding a key in one hand and a sword covered in blood in the other.  “Jacqueline!” Norrington gasped, standing and going to the door of the cell as she approached.  She sheathed her sword as she approached, and Norrington saw that her hands and clothing were covered in blood.  He desperately hoped that none of it was her own.  “Jacqueline,” he repeated, reaching through the door and stroking her cheek.

“James,” Jacqueline breathed with a small smile, leaning into his touch and closing her eyes for a moment.  “I’m so glad that you’re—.”  Jacqueline’s bright blue eyes suddenly focused on Lord Beckett.  “But—.”  She blinked.  “But how did…?”

Lord Beckett appeared behind Jacqueline at the entrance to the brig, his face emotionless.  Norrington stared at the other Beckett in shock.  If that was Lord Beckett, who was in the cell with him?

Jacqueline’s eyes widened.  She quickly drew her pistol, whirling around to aim the gun at the Beckett behind her.  But the Beckett drew a weapon even faster, and Norrington jumped in shock as a shot echoed in the brig.  The gun flew from Jacqueline’s hand, and she cradled her arm, dropping the key.

“Jacqueline!” Norrington exclaimed, reaching out to her.  Norrington glared at the Beckett who had injured his love.  The Beckett smirked, suddenly morphing into a dark-skinned woman.  Memories came flooding back to Norrington.

This was the woman who had killed Lord Beckett, who was in control of him.

This was goddess of the sea, Calypso.

Jacqueline backed against the metal bars of the cell, her breath quick with fear as Calypso continued following her with the pistol.  “What do you want, Calypso?” she asked, her voice surprisingly steady.

Calypso stepped forward.  “So blinded by your desire to help him, you did not recognize me,” she said, almost in disappointment.  “Let me see your arm,” she ordered.

Jacqueline held her left arm behind her back.  “Why?”

“You have something to hide?” Calypso asked knowingly.

Norrington’s heart pounded as Calypso stepped forward again.  He felt so powerless in the cell.  He was so close to being able to protect his love, yet so far.  Norrington took Jacqueline’s hand.  She jerked in surprise, but grasped his hand and squeezed it gratefully.  “What do you want?” Jacqueline repeated, her voice strong, but her hand was trembling.

“To fix a mistake.”

“You already did,” Jacqueline responded, her voice slightly pained.

Calypso shook her head.  “The gods know of the growing threat to our power.”

“Me?  A threat?”  Jacqueline laughed nervously.  “Surely not.”  Calypso raised the weapon in her hand a little higher, indicating her intentions.  “Surely you don’t plan to…you don’t want to…” Jacqueline stuttered, fear now revealed in her voice.

“I have no choice.  I created the problem—it is up to me to solve it.”

“Killing her won’t solve anything,” Beckett interjected, getting to his feet.

“Yes, it will,” Calypso countered, her eyes still focused on Jacqueline.  “You should never have been born, Libertas.”

Libertas?

“Well, that’s your fault, isn’t it?” Jacqueline exclaimed angrily.  “But you cannot kill me.  You cannot kill your daughter.”

Your daughter…

The words rang in Norrington’s ears.  Jacqueline was the daughter of Jack Sparrow and…the goddess Calypso?  But did that mean that she was mortal, or…  Norrington’s eyes widened.

I’ve been sharing a bed with a goddess.  I’m in love with a goddess.

“I can and I will,” Calypso answered coldly.  “You cannot be free.  You threaten us all with your existence.”

“You made certain that I would never be free, Calypso.  You have said it before—I cannot love.”

“Apparently you can.  Beckett told us of your chains—how four were no longer a burden to you.”  Beckett winced.  “A half-breed is often little more than a mortal.  But you were much more.”

Blood dripped onto the floor from the wound on Jacqueline’s arm.  “Isn’t a gun a little ‘mortal’ for you?”  Jacqueline tightened her grip on Norrington’s hand.

“True,” Calypso admitted.  “But, at the moment, you are mortal.”

Calypso pulled the trigger.

Jacqueline’s nails dug into Norrington’s hand for a brief moment before her hand slipped from his.  Calypso took a deep breath before she seemed to melt before them, turning into a collection of crabs that scuttled from the brig, leaving the gun behind.

At first, Norrington thought that the weapon had misfired, or that Jacqueline was somehow uninjured.  But then his love stumbled back and fell against the bars of the cell, her breaths suddenly little more than short gasps.  Fresh blood stained her chest as she slid to the ground.

“No!” Norrington gasped in horror.

Beckett picked up the key from the ground just outside the cell and unlocked the door, his eyes watching Jacqueline as Norrington stroked her hair through the bars.  Norrington roughly shoved Beckett aside as soon as the door was open.

“Jacqueline,” he said as he knelt before her.  “Jacqueline…”  Jacqueline gasped for breath, a hand over her heart and bright red blood covering it.  Norrington moved beside her and wrapped his arms around her.  “You’ll be fine.”  Beckett picked up the pistol, looking back at Norrington and Jacqueline before heading above deck.  A tear escaped Jacqueline’s eye.

“We’re going to lose,” she said quietly.

Norrington held her closer to him, shaking his head.  “No.  We are going to win.”  He brushed some hair from her face.  “I promise.”

“James…”  She blinked, forcing out another tear as she lifted a shaking hand and ran it through Norrington’s wavy hair.  Norrington lowered his face to hers and kissed her gently.

“You’ll be fine,” he repeated quietly.

Jacqueline’s eyes widened and she gasped fearfully.  “I can’t see you…James, I…”

Norrington shook his head slightly.  No, Jacqueline could not die.  She was the daughter of a goddess; Libertas could not die.  Jacqueline’s breaths were pained, her once bright eyes dim.  “James Norrington…” she whispered.  Norrington leaned closer to her.  “My heart is yours.”

Norrington smiled softly as he stroked her cheek.  “Jacqueline…I—.”  Jacqueline’s eyes fluttered closed.  “Jacqueline?” Norrington breathed, his heart racing fearfully.  “Jacqueline!”  He felt for a pulse, for breath.  His heart stopped—he could find none.  “No…no!”  He held Jacqueline closer to his chest.  “Jacqueline?” he whispered, running a hand through her hair as tears began falling down his face.  “Jacqueline, please…”

But Jacqueline remained silent and unmoving.

“No, Jacqueline…please, don’t leave me.”  Norrington closed his eyes and hugged Jacqueline’s body to his.  “Jacqueline, my love…”  Tears flowed down his cheeks.  “Jacqueline…”