Norribeth: the KMC fic

i feel a little bit soap opera-y, but it cant be helped i guess. i'm having too much fun with the characters to mind the plot.

Back on the deck of the Pearl, later...

Elizabeth is on look out, almost dozing. It's just before dawn, and thick fog covers the sea. Elizabeth swings the mermaid necklace absently in one hand. Everything feels quiet and dreamy.

Suddenly, she sees James walking towards her. It can't be--- she jumps up, the necklace clutched in her hand, and springs towards him.

Elizabeth: James!

James: Don't wake the others.

Elizabeth: What are you... what happened?

James: (wearily) They've sent me to kill you. I won't be able to stop myself.

His arm shoots out, seizing her wrist without warning. She instinctively pulls away, but he's stronger than her.

Elizabeth: James, I am not afraid of you.

James: (still weary, dreamlike) I am afraid of you. Terrified. Just when I thought my heart was safe, you were back in my life, tantalizing me with a life I thought I could never have.

Elizabeth: You can have it. We'll get through this.

James: No... (smiles sadly) No, Elizabeth, lovely Elizabeth. This is where the road ends for you. And me.

Elizabeth: James, wait. (holds out the necklace) Whoever or whatever has you under its power-- I can summon it, I can fight them. At least I can try!

James: It's no use. They're too strong.

He pulls a knife out with a shaking hand. He is fighting himself, but the hand moves towards Elizabeth's neck. She shrinks back, then seems to change her mind. She places her hand on James' face, forcing him to meet her eyes. He is shaking all over. A long moment passes. The knife inches closer. Finally Elizabeth presses herself against him and kisses him passionately. The knife clatters to the ground as James gives himself up to it--- and then rushes over the side of the pearl, back towards the Dutchman.

Cut to Jack's Cabin. Jack and Barbossa are discussing strategy-- or it looks like it, anyways. Elizabeth bursts in.

Elizabeth: James was here--- he tried to kill me... he couldn't do it, and I'm afraid Beckett will kill him...

She pulls Jack outside his cabin, and the sun is rising. In the distance, they can see the first of the EITC ships, scores of them covering the horizon...

Jack: Bugger.

Barbossa: Where be the other ships?

Jack: Norrington's here?

Barbossa: That's not important! Where be the other ships?

Liz: I do.

Barbossa: Is nobody hearin' nothin'? Where are the others?

Jack: (shouting) I don't know! It may just be us. We've had worse.

Barbossa: I was your worst!

(Jack and Liz exit)

Jack: You tied him up down there. Say you did that.

Liz: He left as soon as he saw the ship approaching.

Jack: Lizzie! Summon him back here.

Liz: They'll find him expendable if they know he can be taken prisoner.

Jack: Do it!

(Liz rubs the necklace. It begins to grow a faint green)

Jack: He'll be back. (sees she has her sword on her belt. He hands her another) Take this down there and keep him there.

Liz: He won't hurt anyone now!

Jack: Are you sure?

Liz: Well, no. (stares at him) You just want me out of the battle.

Jack: I'd rather have you up here with us, but I have something in mind for you. You're going to guard him, keep everyone you can away from him. If things look desperate, use him. He's still a weapon. If things look so desperate they cease to be desperate and look downright hopeless, kill him.

Liz: Jack! He's not going to do anything while he's here!

(Jack pulls her into a tight hold and kisses her cheek)

Jack: (his voice trembles) If I don't come back....

Liz: Hey. You're Captain Jack Sparrow. Savvy?

(Jack is back to himself. He gives his typical Jack grin and sends her below deck)

Jack: Don't be usin' none of that friendly persuasion on him, love!

(Liz runs below deck to wait for James)

(it seems almost instant, but Norrington is already down there)

Liz: How did you get here so fast?

Norrington: I couldn't leave the ship. Tie me up. I can't go back and I can't stay here, so that's the only thing I can think of to do. (sits in a chair and waits for her to start)

(Liz grabs the rope and ties him up)

Liz: Do you have any weapons on you?

Norrington: Just you, it seems. (eyes her swords)

Liz: Just as well. I'll throw you one if things begin to look, well, desperate. (finishes tying him and throws her arms around him)

Norrington: You might still want to stay away.

Liz: I can't stay away. Not now. (kisses him) I love you, James. (she closes in on where he's sitting and straddles him so she is on his lap but facing him) I've thought about what you asked.

Norrington: Elizabeth...

Liz: Don't say it's hopeless. You won't get such a fine wife if you do.

I'm done for tonight. Peace out, co-workers!

Nice! 🙂 I'm loving all this James/Lizzie romance. i'm seeing self sacrifice, drama, and lots of end-of-the-story bliss on the horizon there. hehe.

as always, barbossa is just so great. 🙂 where are the other ships, btw? are they going to show up eventually? hehehe. maybe we should make our heroes fight the army by themselves for a while. snicker snicker.

uh, also, so much for the "we're just friends" thing we were going to try with Elizabeth and Jack when we started this fic. Is it just me, or have we completely made it seem like Jack still loves Lizzie? I cant seem to write it any other way. man.

Hmm, I thought we had nicely established that Jack and Liz do love each other, but as very dear friends. I'm trying to make it so he thinks of her more as a younger sister or something like that. The "if I don't come back" line was meant to confide in her that he was scared because she's the only one he can tell that kind of stuff to. The vibe/fear I've been having is that him turning down, Liz, Anamaria, and Calypso would make him seem gay. Three gorgeous women, all seem to have some degree of chemistry with him. Maybe we should find him a woman. I don't know.

Note: I meant to edit it, but it will only let you edit posts 15 minutes after you write it. Liz says "I do" and that doesn't make sense. She's supposed to answer Jack's question, "He at least was." So read it that way.

CUT TO BARBOSSA PREPARING FOR BATTLE

Will: What's happening?

Barbossa: Report Norrington was here and we're comin' up on the EITC ships.

(Jack comes back)

Barbossa: Finally decided to care we was walkin' into an ambush, eh, Jack?

Jack: For your information, we happen to have a secret weapon in the brig even as you speak....although certainly not very eloquently or pleasantly.

Will: Weapon?

Jack: (loads his gun) James Norrington.

Will: What? He'll kill us!

Jack: Not if said weapon is controlled by a little trinket that is in our possession.

(Anamaria, Gibbs, and Bootstrap, and Pintel and Ragetti and the rest come up)

Bootstrap: Where's your father gotten off to?

Jack: Who knows with him?

[note: Teague left to go get the other ships. He's like his son: has that honest streak]

Anamaria: I say we go offensive, Jack. If they sink the Pearl, we'll all be alive to fight on other ships.

Jack: Close to what I was thinking.

Will: And just how are you going to keep an armada-size company away from Norrington?

Gibbs: Norrington's here?

Anamaria: They don't all know about him, Will. Just one ship does.

Bootstrap: Who has the necklace.

Jack: We do (grins)

Gibbs: Now there's somethin' finally goin' our way.

Barbossa: Still goin' to negotiate, Jack?

Jack: You're not making any sense, Barbossa. To the cannons.

EXCELLENT. I love how this all turned out. I was just re-reading some of the stuff u guys did earlier and it's awesome how the plot works from the begining to the (near to) end. but most important you've managed to keep the feel and the mood of the writing the same and that's really good

Jeez, guys. I've copied and pasted everything so far onto Word and it's 145 pages unedited. Mostly my fault that a few things are awry, but here are some things we need to make sense of before this goes on fanfiction.

When did Teague go?

So is Norrington controlled by the coin, the necklace, or both? Also, Spoon gave Will a ring a while back and it seemed to be kind of supernatural. Any significance there? Is it just a ring to propose to Anamaria with?

Jack! Barbossa! We have two big problems with these guys we love. Kate's getting the feeling Jack is in love with Liz in this one, I get the feeling he's more gay, and I don't know what Surreal thinks. Are any of the readers reading this and feeling unsatisfied with Jack? And Barbossa. Is he going to be evil or just annoying to Jack and the rest?

Calypso loves Jack, but she's on the dutchman with Davy and it seems like they have a plan. Is she over Jack?

Davy, Beckett, and Barbossa should probably die, and I'm thinking Will, Liz, and Jack should each kill one of them.

How's that?

Yay Willo! 🙂

k, sorry maybe it's just me with the Jack thing. lol. I don't want to pull some chick out of nowhere though, to work things out for him... but i dont get the vibe he's gay. He's in the market... 😉

I thought Norri was controlled by the coin, and the necklace is just to summon the queen of the evil people who sort of have him under control, in the event our heroes would like to end his enchantment. I was thinking it would be fun to have Elizabeth save him by herself, sort of a 'Ballad of Tam Lin' experience, later on during the battle or whatever.

Barbossa is going to have to do something pretty sketch before he can die--- though i reckon its the best way to deal with him... and i think Tia needs to die too- just so we dont have the possibility of them all being brought back to life again. hahaha.

I;ll do some in a bit. 🙂

A bit of confusion for me....

1. James was supposed to lead the EITC into battle, so why in the world would he be sent over to kill Elizabeth?

2. The necklace only summons the Queen who is controlling James. You need the coin to be secondary controller.

3. Jack can still love Elizabeth. It just means that he'll be a bit angsty because she loves Norrington. Will can still love Elizabeth somewhat too.

4. Tia loves Jack, but she still loves DJ. They are planning on going out together in death.

I think that covers it. I have to go for a bit again, but I'll try to be on later. 😄

i agree with all your numbers, and as far as number 1, that was my fault completely--- I just wanted to put them in a scene together since it had been a while since that had happened... lol. But if it doesnt work, we can edit it out.

I think I agree that Jack can still love Elizabeth to some degree, as well as Will--- though he's moved on to Anamaria. And Elizabeth surely still loves Jack and Will both a little too, romantically even. But I think the theme to play with here isn't Princess Bride 'only loved one man my whole life' but rather themes of adapting and all that. She's loved them all--- but which one can she imagine really spending the rest of her life with? James, as I think it makes sense in this story.

Well, I was thinking about how James could end up with Elizabeth on the Pearl...maybe Beckett said something off-handedly to James, but the spell made him go to the Pearl to kill Elizabeth?

That way we could explain why he was there in the first place. As far as the necklace goes, perhaps it can be used to control James, but it's not as powerful as say, the hold the Queen has on him, and it's not as strong as the coin.

Does that work? Then we can have James being pulled in three different directions as far as orders go. It could either turn out really funny or really angsty, depending on how we do it.

If you like, I can write out a Beckett scene that explains how James ended up on the Pearl, and have a brief explanation on how the necklace and coin works.

What do you think?

I forgot to mention some other stuff...

1. The ring Spoon gave to Will summons Spoon if he needs help.

2. Barbossa can just die in battle. Maybe he can die saving Jack or something. 😄

3. I like Kate's idea about Liz, although I was thinking that perhaps the Queen could maybe...test Elizabeth's love somehow.

I have a few ideas scratching around in my brain, but if we want Elizabeth to prove her love to James, maybe it doesn't have to be something completely physical --- it could be a test of wills and love. 😄 Badly worded, I know, but I'm on some sort of cough medicine and I'm kind of...high on medication. 😄 Bear with me, please. 😄

no it makes sense. like i said, ballad of tam lin. its a celtic myth where the girl wanted to save the prince from enchantment and so to do that, the sidhe queen tested her. the girl had to pull the prince out of the sidhe company and keep her arms around him all night while he shapeshifted into all sorts of fearsome things.

anyways, not the exact story of course, something similar perhaps as far as liz having to do something specific to release him from the enchantment (since i doubt she could kill the evil queen or whoever it is...). If we wanted to go super angsty and rip everyone's heart out, we could make it so that Jack and James or Will and James both need saving, and she chooses to save James. And then of course Tia intervenes and saves the other one.

Random funny thought- Liz has kissed pretty much everyone in this series except Jones and Beckett and Barbossa... and I think she should definately kiss one of them. Just for fun, before she kills them or something.

Something I forgot about but we definately need to play up, is Jack made a bargain with Tia in order to get her back aboard the dutchman as his leverage--- I didn't specify what the bargain was, but Jack owes Tia something nonetheless.

i'm really kind of in to the whole will/anamaria stuff. there's ton of stuff to play with there as well.

^^ Barbossa can kiss Liz before the battle starts. For good luck. 😛

I suspect that DJ and Beckett will be dead before Elizabeth can think of saving James. I suspect the whole 'save James' deal will have to wait for the battle to be ended.

I'll post something up here in a bit. I need another nap. 😄

"1. James was supposed to lead the EITC into battle, so why in the world would he be sent over to kill Elizabeth?"---Surreal

Yes, but I think that was Beckett's plan. Davy decided to use him too and sent him over to kill Jack (and the rest of the crew, which would mean Liz) Beckett is expecting him back but Liz has tied him up. Does that make sense? We can always have James get taken in the battle.

"2. The necklace only summons the Queen who is controlling James. You need the coin to be secondary controller."

oh, okay. This was a point of confusion for me. I thought both controlled him. Maybe Liz and Jack are just wrong and the necklace doesn't really mean anything. Or we can do what you suggested and have it be a secondary controller that just gets overruled by the coin.

"3. Jack can still love Elizabeth. It just means that he'll be a bit angsty because she loves Norrington. Will can still love Elizabeth somewhat too."

Yeah, I don't think we need to resolve any lingering feelings here. Jack seems perfectly supportive of Liz's love for Norrington and even put in effort to get them together in the first place. Will is also over her, so I think we're doing okay there.

"4. Tia loves Jack, but she still loves DJ. They are planning on going out together in death."

Oh. I like that. That's really cool. It also gives me an idea of what Jack can owe her, as Kate mentioned that. If no one minds, I think I'll post something.

ABOARD THE DUTCHMAN

Beckett (looking through spyglass): They're all rushing below deck. I think they're actually going to try to attack!

(No one is really listening to him)

Beckett: Jones!

Jones: (enters with Tia) Still here? One would think you'd want to join the crew.

Beckett: I've decided to stay on this ship while the rest of the company mans theirs. It looks like the Black Pearl is going to try to attack.

Jones: All right.

Beckett: Well?

Jones: Well what?

Beckett: Give me back Norrington. You sent him to go kill Sparrow. He must have done it by now to make the rest of them so desperate. I want him back to use him.

Jones: He isn't back.

Beckett: What? He's still on the Pearl?

Jones: He won't leave until he kills all them. Learn some patience.

Beckett: Something's wrong then.

Jones: Nothing is wrong.

Beckett (losing his temper): Jack Sparrow is a staggering drunk who is so clumsy I've seen him trip over his own two feet! He's the easiest man in the world to kill and we sent over a killing machine that can't do it!

Tia: If he's so easy to kill, why didn't you kill him years ago?

Beckett: I cannot believe none of you find this as exasperating as I do.

(a cannonball flies by through the bulkhead [wall of ship] and almost takes off Beckett's head)

Beckett: You see? They're attacking us!

Davy: It's the Flying Dutchman! It can't be destroyed.

Beckett: No but it can sink, and the other ships can be destroyed. (sees through a pothole another EITC ship taking on water from being hit with a cannonball) Damn them.

Tia: I think it's time I paid a visit to the Black Pearl.

Beckett: Bring back James Norrington.

Davy: You're forgettin' I have the coin.

Tia: The coin can control him, but so can the necklace. Who has that?

(Beckett and Davy stay silent)

Tia: Don't worry. The coin overrules the necklace. As Beckett would say, 'currency overrules sentiment.' (disappears)

CUT TO THE PEARL

(crew is firing cannons like crazy)

Gibbs: We can't hold 'em off forever!

(Anamaria brings up some bottles of rum to load)

Gibbs: What the hell are you doing?

Anamaria: This. (she tears Gibbs' vest off and douses it in the rum. She loads the cannon with it and lights a match. A fireball shoots past the horizon and onto another ship) [note: not sure if this would work or not. It's a frickin' movie]

Bootstrap: We're closing in on them. (goes over to where Will is) This is if I don't make it. (places something in Will's hand)

Will: You're still a member of Davy Jones' crew. You can't die.

Bootstrap: I can now. I've been off for so long. (it's true. He looks much better than he did in DMC) It was your mother's.

(Will sees a plain gold ring in his hand. He attaches it to his chain)

Bootstrap: Where'd you get that? (points to the ring Spoon gave him)

Will: A mermaid. I wonder if it could be used for anything.

Willo, Davy isn't trying to kill Jack anymore. I've tried to indicate this numerous times, but Davy is ready to 'move on'. He and Tia are planning on dying together. I know I didn't go right out and say it, but I've been hinting at it. You know, the whole, "It's time" and all that jazz.

And Davy can't control James anymore; he doesn't have the coin. Beckett does.

I posted that up last night, remember? It's right here:

Beckett: Touching, Jones. Very touching. I order you to give me the coin back. I need to have a little conversation with James before the battle begins.

*Jones hesitates for a split second, but Tia pokes him in the back and he reluctantly hands over the coin to Beckett.*

Also, Spoon specifically tells Will that he can drop the ring into the water to call on her.

And er...the other pirate ships are in fact following Jack, and they should be fairly close. I assume Beckett's army is on the way.

I'm...not sure what to do now, since the posts aren't matching up with stuff that's already been posted.

Oh, I think it's fine. I think it matches up better than you'd think. The villians being confused about who's after who actually makes sense--- they aren't fully united, Beckett's underlings are all held to him by threats and bribes and little else--- certainly not loyalty to him. So if they are all screwing up his orders, well, that's probably pretty accurate.

Plus, Jones may have sent James just to kill Elizabeth because he still thinks she's a goddess.

Necklaces, coins, etc---- they don't have to be perfectly clear, because what prop in these films ever is? The compass, the medallions, the heart, the key--- they are never fully explained and come out with extra powers now and then. so i think we're allright there.