Nautilus

Author's Note: Seeing AWE sort of put my story on hold. I had to work around the plot, but seeing the final result I'm happy about it :) Enjoy!

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Davy half laughed and half choked. Here was a woman, an angel pleading for him to use her and all he could do in return was to act as a gentleman however far from the truth that be. For a moment the pain in his chest dulled and the detached heart slowed its rapid pace, long enough for the man to feel some emotion.

He removed the finger with one slim tentacle. “I cannot show you. Nay, I would not want you to have to feel the pain.” His last sentence came out as a ghostly whisper as his mind wandered back to the heart.

His explanation satisfied Selene but not in the way Jones had thought. She comforted he had not gone through with what had raced through his mind, not taken advantage of his own ravaged state. Selene followed Jones’s actions and was too focused on the single object responsible for it all. “What do you intend to do with your heart now that it is in your own hands once more?”

There was not much he could do with the sorry piece of flesh other than to keep it safe. The hard part was what to do with it. He could not return to Isla Cruces and rebury it there; that left it too open and vulnerable. By keeping it with him on the ship it left him exposed to emotion which interfered in his soul collecting. Another part was Selene had fulfilled her bargain and here he sat and had not even tried to help her. There was nothing he could do himself to guarantee its safety and he was not putting it back into his chest, not ever.

“You could return it-“

“No, I will not have that abomination back inside me. It had a use before what good did it gave me!” Jones let out an undignified snort. He tried to show built up and tough skin, but was afraid Selene had found out the truth: it scared him witless.


Selene reached over Jones and picked up the heart, holding it delicately in her small hands. Jones had shivered unconsciously as she traced her thumb on the thumping mass as if she could calm it. It worked though in an opposite way.

“I could look after it then, in exchange that you uphold your part of the remaining bargain.” She tilted her head and gave him a small smile. “Consider it a way of me forgiving you. It is not like there is anyone else as qualified as I am nor as trusting. I have nothing to gain or lose by destroying your heart, even if I were able to do so.”

What else could he do? She spoke the truth; there was no one else more her to do the job. And he gained much more with her around and protecting the heart and more than that even.

“Why should I trust you?”

This time she did not smile at him. “You have no choice.” She turned from him, heart in one hand and clothes in the other. And within a blink of an eye she had disappeared.

Davy felt the swarm of emotions scatter as the angel left. What surprised him though was the lack of heartbreak he had thought would overwhelm him with the return of his heart. Why hadn’t he felt so grieved? In fact, he felt renewed even if he lacked the trusting side of all. The angel had another use it seemed. She healed the heartbroken emotion in his heart leaving him able to rest at ease and to act freely.


Selene had returned to the brig where Bill waited and Davy had long stared at the organ and eventually plucked out a few melodies though nothing with as much vigor as the song he normally played. Eventually he succumbed to the dark abyss of sleep and slumped against the organ.

The entire ship slept for the first time in decades peacefully. Every occupant had found a crevice or object to sleep on save for one. Selene rested against the bars as Bill slept soundly next to her. For once her normally calm mind was a blatant mixture of thoughts and feelings, strangely foreign to the new visitor. Emotion was something she had not experienced, but being through it all needed some time to adjust to the sensations of it all.

The only article of clothing she had that Jones had not destroyed was her overcoat and so she had thrown it over herself as she sat down below. The heart beat steadily in her hand as she stroked one long finger over its surface smiling as it made a light jump in her hand.

For once since the time she had arrived perhaps could finally start to make sense. And far as her own memories came, what had happened before she hit the water had become a blur; she felt the presence of memories, but not the large amount of knowledge. What worried her most was the other smaller heart that beat in tune with her Captain’s. Why give an angel a heart? Why put her in this realm? Someone created her to watch over and protect those in need by watching and helping those in need, selflessly. There was only one reason to why He placed her here, but to even think that caused her a great grievance. That reason explained it all though; she no longer felt the warm presence around her and she was alone.

Selene leaned her head back and the heart in her hand shivered. Maybe she had cared for these people, these mortals too much; enough to have her punished and out her. She had meddled in affairs before and too stubborn to believe in another’s way. But that wasn’t her fault! He should not have given her so much rein, a free will. She was different enough from other angels, she remembered. Her pale features and dark hair contrasted from the sun-kissed and blonde features of her kind. Even her name, meaning serenity, calm did not always fit her thirst for just and fairness for everyone. The only tie to her name was the moon, the same color as her eyes.

And do this was the start of it all. She cared so much for these mortals that she was turning into one of their own.


Dreams had never come easy to Davy Jones. And when they did it consisted of the same things; past deeds, past sins; family left behind, dead or macabre: his victims, his old duties. He had not slept in his own bed out of fear of those haunted thoughts.


He was on his ship, writing his usual set of letters he wished to send to his love, but never could. One letter he had kept hidden. He feared what awaited him should it ever surface.


Rare as it was this time was different. He was on his island, on that day he had waited for over 10 years to come. And he waited and waited and she never came.

And there it started the end of it all. In a fit of rage he tore out his heart and locked it away from the world inside the box he had stored all the letters and items that reminded him of her. What he had not remembered as memories flew by of the years that had passed was the image of a woman, not of his love Calypso, watching him. When he looked at her he felt different from he had with his traitorous love. No matter how much he believed the “goddess”, there was always a part in his mind which doubted how much the woman cared for him. How could the sea favor one man and only one man? Not likely, and she was as fickle and unpredictable as he had marked. How heartbroken he had been. It was as if she had set it up since the beginning, dragging him behind like a dingy in a storm; at her mercy.

Why was it then that this woman had come? He could not see her face clearly, but had a curious feeling she knew him even if he did not. White feathers flew around him as she showed herself to him, face hidden behind an ocean of black blue hair.
And he noticed he was on land. The curse prevented him from stepping on land and to make port, so the mystery it became. She disappeared in a burst of wind and as it swirled around him, the gust whispered a message to him. “I will be there when all your hope has faded and the pain of loss engulfs you black to the core. Know I tried to save you from you, but your will alone consumed you, heart and mind.”

“Calypso?”

Another warm breeze caressed his normal face and it engulfed him. Blackness surrounded his vision as consciousness pulled at his mind.


His eyelids fluttered lightly and finally opened as the sleep’s effects drifted from his normally active mind. He awoke to discover the ship quiet and the atmosphere on board serene. For a ship that dealt with death and its cruelties it was a pleasant change. It was not the mood that had his mind wandering though. The dreams mystified him. The being’s words, the ability to step on land once more. Had it been ‘just’ a dream?

Davy removed his hat and caressed his temples his right hand. His eyes shot up when he realized he might be having hallucinations from the angel holding onto his heart.

A small, warm hand caressed the back of his head. She did not speak and simply continued to rub his neck, and shoulders. A few careless tentacles made their way to the pale arm, eager for the attention they had scornfully lacked. He cast half-lidded eyes to her and a pale, warm blue met molten silver.


When her hand reached his cheek, he slightly leaned into her warmth, the sea slick skin enjoying the silky smoothness of her own.


Selene focused on the intricate carvings on the organ, the angel statue and paintings covering it. As she paid attention to the instrument, Davy took the chance to study her face and eyes as they moved with the design of the organ. Her eyes swirled and shifted, mixed between a silver and pale blue. “I did not think you thought so of me. All your life you proclaimed to be a man of the sea, yet here I find angels.”


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End of Chapter 10