Legends of the Treasure Child

Jack called out for his son again, the tears from his eyes mixing with the rain. Will looked from Jack to the rudder spinning wildly, thinking he should be getting back to it, and then looking back to Jack just in time to see him dive overboard. Will froze, not believing his eyes, then calling out for Jack, running over to where the pirate had been standing. He was caught by Bootstrap who came sliding along the watery deck. Bootstrap held him tight, pushing him away from the railing and towards the wheel.

“Ye can’t help them, now William. Remember who you are now!” he shouted through the wind, ushering William along. Will didn’t refuse, but was still in shock. It had all happened so fast, and the least he’d expected from Jack was that he’d jump over board also.

“Ye’ll be fine”, Bootstrap said, giving him a reassuring hug, “just think about Elisabeth and don’t do anything rash. Think about Elisabeth and how close you are to getting to her now!” Bootstrap shouted into his ear.

“Jack…!” Will whined, grasping the wheel, steadying the Flying Dutchman with all his might. Sadness overtook him, and he felt his wailing grow into a lump in his throat. His only relief through this monotonous tome, Jack and his boy was gone, gone to the sea. “Damn you, Calypso…!” he muttered to himself, guiding the Dutchman safely through the waves. All that was left was to pray and hope that Jack Sparrow had some luck left and survived. William Turner shifted his mind over to Elisabeth, thinking of her, trying to draw some comfort from the images he had of her in his head. But they seemed cold and distant, and Will once again felt like he was being punished for a crime he didn’t commit.

The blue water was freezing but Captain Jack Sparrow let himself drift further downwards. His mind circled around the dreamy images he had of his son with a fishtail, wanting with all his heart to be united with his child. And all though that child now was becoming a man by the minute, he still remembered the infant and how dependant he’d been, and how good it had felt to carry him inside, to have someone who loved him so completely and unconditionally. But that was hard to remember when being faced with the fact that one’s demon son turned into a hormonal teen-ager in a matter of months. Now that John was gone, and things were on a distance, he remembered. Oh yes he remembered.
Things became clearer under water. Like the matter with his father, Captain Teague. If Teague was thinking like a Sparrow, which he probably would, being Jack’s father and all, then the Sparrowy-like thing to do would be to get oneself dead so the Flying Dutchman would have to come by and pick him up. And Will would have no choice, being bound to his promise to Elisabeth to come back to her. The question was, how could Teague be stopped if he was already dead? It wasn’t like Jack could simply put a sword or anything through his belly. How to kill one who is already dead? Hm. And then there was the incantation.
All of the sudden came an image of a snow covered castle half in ruins, to Jack’s mind. Why, he didn’t know, only that it had some importance. It was the answer to a question, but not necessarily the question at hand. Fleeing from Teague was obviously the thing to do. Jack would either have to get a way to take the incantation from him once he was dead, or simply kill him before he had the chance to be dead. Errr, no…! That wasn’t right, Jack debated with himself, thinking that then he’d be doing Teague a favour by getting dead. Or maybe the dead didn’t have the power to set out incantations..?!
All of these thoughts flapped about in Jack’s head as he drifted further and further down, vanishing into the dark depths of the ocean. The need for air became obvious, and Jack was faced with the choice of either drowning or getting up to the surface. The question concerning impending death by drowning rather alarmed him, making him realize he didn’t really want to die. But his lungs were near empty, and the surface was far above. Again he called out for John, telling him that he was dying. He began to crawl towards the surface, feeling his strengths leaving him. And then, out from the shadowed depths of the eternal blue, came a sparkling golden creature at fast speed straight towards him. It was John. He caught hold of Jack, carrying him upwards towards the surface with one hand, dragging something behind him in the other hand. Just as they reached the surface, the clouds drifted away at mighty speed, giving way to the daylight. The sea calmed a bit yet the winds kept hurling themselves at them relentlessly. Jack noticed they were surrounded by debris, and wooden pieces were floating everywhere, along with the corpses of unfortunate sailors. Calypso was obviously finished with her raging fury.

“I’m so sorry! Please don’t ever leave me again for I love you, John!” Jack gasped the minute he sucked air into his lungs, clutching tightly at John with legs and arms, wrapping himself around the youth like a piece of cloth.

“Hey, you said ’you’ and not ‘ye’”, John laughed, grabbing hold of a wooden piece of a hull.

“I promise I’ll do better and stop being such a lowly pirate. I’ll be a better father and you’ll never have to go away again!” Jack sobbed, then immediately regretting it. Someone might have heard him and he realised his good reputation was at stake, he was after all Captain Jack Sparrow.

“It’s all right, Father, I heard you call for me. I was just a bit busy getting this—“John said, hauling a treasure chest up on the wood. “Phew that was heavy”, he exclaimed. Jack opened the lid with frozen fingers, and gold doubloons, jewelled crowns and pearl necklaces sparkled towards him invitingly. Jack laughed. He laughed so hard he almost slipped off his floorboard, and the laugh warmed him into his very bone. “It’s ours, Father. And you can use some of it to make us a home, so I can get myself an education and learn how to become like you” John said, embracing him.

“Dear boy”, Jack replied, “how am I going to do that? I don’t know what education means, unless it’s about teaching you how to become a pirate. That’s all I know. But perhaps I know someone who can.” He stopped to have a closer look at John.

“I know. I grew again. Teague is approaching, and the forces of good and evil will have it so that no one interferes with their game.”

“Good and evil? I don’t get it.”

“Good and evil co-exists. They’re actually quite good friends. From time to time. There is no battle. But from time to time creatures from both sides, on different levels of the hierarchies will show themselves, thinking they can outnumber those higher above, winning an internal power struggle. And Man gets caught in the middle, you see?”

“It’s called ‘savvy’!”

“Right. Savvy.”

“Power struggle, eyh?”

“I am a result of that power struggle. A death Angel long ago that declared war on his colleagues and lost, banned from Hell and cast up to Earth.”

“The Thyrion?”

“No, a Thyrion, but not my demon Father no. A Thyrion long ago, some four thousand years or so. I’ll tell you more when we get back onto the Dutchman.”

“I can’t see her.”

“Can’t you feel her? She’s near.”

Only moments later did she in fact appear, bursting out of the sea with all her might, her bough in a triumphant glide, cutting through the waves. Jack shouted for Will, and William didn’t spend two seconds thinking things through before he grabbed a rope and dived straight out into the open. He quickly helped Jack up onto deck, before he turned to help John. But John had leapt, and was shooting through mid-air, landing on deck with a squashy noise, raising his long golden tail up from the ocean and onto deck. The body itself, elegantly slimming into the huge tail of a gold-fish in elaborate rainbow colours, glittered in the sunlight, the fresh droplets of seawater twinkling as if his fish body was tailored with diamonds all over. John was still John though, his upper body that of a man, but with the tail and body of a fish. A breathtaking sight for everyone to see, truly not of this earth, and John’s clear cut face resembling a younger, beardless version of Jack, only added to the immense beauty.
Father Irons felt his knees go weak, and literarily sank to the deck all the while he crossed his chest in awe, muttering something quite incomprehensible.

“Hello grandpa Bootstrap”, John said smilingly as his eye caught Bootstrap who’d stopped dead in his tracks on his way up a small stair. He frowned as he saw the chest next to John. John simply opened it, grinning from ear to ear while he replied: “Aye, see wha’ I got?! Treasure Child gets Treasure Chest, savvy?!” John kept on smiling, baring his fangs in a manner which told Bootstrap the boy was up to no good. Then he noticed that the boy was no longer a boy, in fact, but a man, a few years younger than Will perhaps. There was something more mature, something more contemplative about John. And his brown hair had grown long, reaching to the small of his back. His hands were webbed, and John looked like he wasn’t quite sure what to do next.
Will had jumped onto Jack, hugging him to the best of his ability, squeezing the air out of Jack’s lungs in the process. Still hurting from his temporary stay in freezing ocean water with no air in his lungs, Jack coughed and begged him to stop, his knees buckling under him from the strain of supporting them both. Besides, it wouldn’t look good to be hugged by another man either, Jack decided. And at the moment, his greatest concern was John, lying there with a fishtail and not a pair of legs. But as he turned to look at John, he saw that John was already in the process of shape-shifting back. It obviously hurt him, but John gritted his teeth, reshaping his flesh by the force of sheer will. The rainbow fin disappeared, splitting in two, and the separate parts then shifted back into his legs. There were scales here and there on his body though; tell-tale signs of what he’d just gone through. John seemed tired afterwards, and rested his head on his arms. Weak as he was, Jack got Bootstrap to help him, and while Will carried John into the warm safety of the captain’s quarters, Jack and Bootstrap dragged the heavy chest inside. Feeling the weight of the chest got Jack to wonder just how strong exactly John was, since he’d single-handedly managed to swim with it and Jack upwards from the bottom of the ocean.
John’s clothes were gone in the ocean somewhere, and Bootstrap wrapped the young man into his bedspread while he muttered and complained, telling John about how worried they’d all been. John obviously appreciated the attention as Bootstrap fussed about him, getting him food, pointing a finger at him sternly and telling John to eat everything. Bootstrap was immensely enjoying the moment as a substitute grandparent, and he even gave Jack the pointy finger, telling him to think twice next time. “We can’t afford to lose ye, Jack Sparrow” Bootstrap said in a stern voice before leaving. There were passengers to attend to, because the world didn’t evolve around the so-called Jack Sparrow. There were in fact others, too. Bootstrap closed the door behind him with a bang, leaving Jack and John alone.