A/N: Hi everybody! Let me start by saying that I shouldn't be posting this... lol I should've finished HWMB? first... But since HWMB? is not likely to end soon, I decided not to wait any longer & just post this first chapter now:) And I'd be thrilled if you could read & review & tell me whether I should continue this story! Thank you:)

About the story:

1) Sparrabeth!

2) "Vulnerant Omnes, Ultima Necat" (Latin) "All hurt, the last kills" is the inscription that sometimes appeared on old clocks & it refers to hours.

3) The story is set in the middle (roughly;) of AWE, so it disregards the rest of AWE... as for now, at least;)

4) ...& please, don't get too alarmed by the summary...;)

Summary: Mid AWE. Elizabeth is distraught when Jack is found dead in the Locker. Given a chance to talk to him once again, she travels back in time to say a hurried good-bye... But is the fear of severe punishment strong enough to suppress the temptation to change destiny? Jack/Elizabeth

Disclaimer: Disney owns POTC.

Vulnerant Omnes, Ultima Necat

Chapter 1

Elizabeth opened her eyes, and looked around with apprehension. Where am I? She tucked her ruffled hair behind her ears only to realize that her hair was soaking wet... And so were her clothes... She blinked, and then a large wave hit her from behind, and she lost her balance struggling not to be swept back to the sea. She threw herself forward on the sand, and crawled away from the waves, until they were not able to reach her anymore. Short of breath, she looked around once again. There was the sea, and the shore, and behind her there were lights and the noise of people's voices swirling in the air, screaming, laughing, talking, singing; crying, maybe.

Maybe crying too...

She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Her eyes stung, but she was not sure whether it was only the sea water... Suddenly it all came back to her... That hollow feeling... That wave of cold creeping over her, enveloping her, tugging on her body and soul... Her soul... If there was anything left from her soul after that.

...If there was anything left from her, after she had slowly made her way across the oddly sandy deck of the Black Pearl... The ship was silent and empty... Empty. It had felt as if the ship was dead... It had never been so much of a ghost ship before... But now she was... The Black Pearl was dead. Her black sails of mourning were as still as the darkness itself. The day was bright, but it was the day good enough for a funeral. There was no wind. It was humid. And cold... So cold, she could not even feel her toes.

The Locker.

She could not feel anything. The sun rays were piercing through her heart with coldness and fierceness of steel blades.

Her heart... So perhaps she had still felt something...

She had felt... something, walking below deck, slowly, very slowly, her every step heavier than the one before, her every step more reluctant than the previous one, her every step...

She was not sure why she was there alone. Why hadn't they followed her? Or perhaps they had... But she was unable to notice... It had not crossed her mind to turn around... She had to... She had to...

She had reached for the doorknob, and pressed it, her dried lips parting involuntarily... She had walked in, and swallowed...

The Black Pearl's Captain's Quarters.

So dark...

So empty. Emp-

She had fallen to her knees, screaming. Why had she screamed? It was so quiet, and she would not have dared... She had been speaking in a whisper for weeks now... Now... And now... she had screamed. She had felt somebody's arms around her, but she struggled to break free, and she succeeded, tearing herself away from that embrace, throwing herself toward the motionless, pale figure on the floor.

"Jack!" Her own cracking voice had scared her. She had taken his hand, and cringed, and let go, but then grabbed it again with urgency, with impatience, with dismay... "Jack!" So cold, his hand was so cold... Why was it so cold? "Jack!" He had never looked that pale...

Somebody had tried to pull her away again, but she pushed whoever it was aside, and leaned down, cupping Jack's face in her hands.

"Jack." Not a voice, anymore... A screeching whisper, broken sound escaping her lips without her even knowing that it had... "Jack..." Tears had streamed down from her eyes straight onto his face. His face... that looked like a mask... So pale... So empty... His eyes... No eyes... His eyes hidden behind the kohl-covered eyelids... "Open your eyes, please!" She had shaken him by the shoulders, she had shaken him hard, but he still had not moved...

"Elizabeth..." Somebody had whispered gently, leaning over her. "Elizabeth... He can't..."

She had ignored whoever had said that. "Jack?", she had leaned down so close that her lips almost touched his... And then she had noticed... His lips...

"I always knew you're a good man."

...were stiff... and cold... and pale... almost blue... they were blue...

"Elizabeth... he is-"

And she had not heard that. Her mind had gone blank. She had lost consciousness.

...and there was only that word reverberating in her unconscious mind... that she could not have freed herself from... It had echoed... incessantly, endlessly, tearing her apart, sneering at her, screaming, beating, shouting...

Dead!... Dead, dead, dead, dead, de-

"No!" Elizabeth screamed shaking herself out of her reverie, covering her face with her hands, trying to suppress the memory.

Even though it was that memory that brought her here...

She slowly slid her hands down her face, and looked around...

The sea was calm, and the lights of the town made her feel even worse and more scared that she was already.

Where was she? It all looked familiar... The shore...

A wave washed over her, and then she noticed that she was still sitting on sand, so close to the sea that the waves had, again, no trouble reaching her.

She blinked. She was wearing a dress. A dress? She had been dressed differently in the Locker...

What's the difference, she thought warily, staggering to her feet. The dress was light blue, almost white... She smoothed the dress absently, and looked up at the town and it's welcoming lights. She began to walk slowly toward those lights, toward the people and their lives...

Lives. They lived. They were alive.

He is alive too.

Elizabeth stopped, her heart raced in her chest. So it was really happening. She had done that. Tia Dalma... She really had done that...

Elizabeth squinted, and then it dawned at her, where she was... And she would smile if she could...

Suddenly remembering something, she reached to her neck, and took a small, silver medallion in her hand... She looked at it... Nine numbers... Nine hours...

The goodbye clock.

And one hour was already gone. A thin strip of silver had already blackened... She had already lost one hour, sitting on that beach...

Elizabeth gasped, and looked at the town lights with determination, starting to walk again. Her step quickened, and soon she started to run, reaching the streets of Tortuga when she was almost out of breath.

She looked around, hugging herself.

Where are you?

Nobody paid too much attention to her, and soon she found herself enveloped in the night, voices of strangers, distant laughter, and...

...how much more?...

... rum, as she walked straight ahead, looking around, and scrutinizing her surroundings.

He must be somewhere. He must be somewhere. She chanted stubbornly in her head, as if the words could make the reality adjust to her wishes.

And perhaps they could.

After all, it was what Tia Dalma had said...

"But you must promise that you won't do anything to change yours or him fate. You may only be there for those nine hours, enough time to say good-bye. But nothing more."

"I understand."

"Here, take this. It will measure the time, the nine hours. And before the time is up, you have to drop this medallion into the sea."

"And if I wo- wouldn't?"

"You better make sure you will. The 9th stroke of the 9th hour, and if you won't be back by that time, you'll die."

"Just like... that?"

"Chronos is a powerful and merciless god. You don't want to anger him."

Elizabeth walked inside one of the taverns, without even glancing at its name. She cringed, suddenly finding herself in the middle of a noisy, brightly lit room, full of smoke, full of people, and full of rum.

She felt out of place, and out of time... She felt as if she had no right to be there, to be a part of that reality, as if by sending one man to Davy Jones' Locker, she had killed more than one person...

She looked around feeling like a ghost among the living, even though she could not be sure how many ghosts were around her, while she was certainly real, and alive.

Alive. He was alive. Somewhere here, he was alive.

The past... She was in the past. Although it was difficult to notice. Tortuga was clearly one of those towns which did not change much over the years. She wondered how far back she had gone? How many years? Will he know her? Will he recognize her? Or perhaps she travelled so far back that he will not even know who she was...

"To what point of the past will you send me?"

"I don't know. I can't determine that. It's not that important, what point exactly it will be, is it? Surely it will be a point at which he was still alive."

"Fair enough."

"Yes. But you must not tell him anything about the future."

"I know, you said that already..."

"Good. Are you ready?"

"I am."

She wasn't.

The more she thought about it, the more she was beginning to realize that she wasn't. She was not ready to see him. To see him... alive after seeing him-

Elizabeth stopped abruptly in her tracks, frozen to the spot.

At the end of the room there was a very long table at which sat a large group of people. Men and women talking in loud voices, bursting with laughter every other minute, drinking, singing even. Well, at least attempting to sing.

But she could hardly hear anything. She leaned against a wooden pillar that was supporting the roof, and looked straight ahead, transfixed.

"One word, luv: curiosity. You long for freedom. You long to do what you want to do because you want it. To act on selfish impulse. You want to see what it's like. One day... you won't be able to resist."

She heard his voice in her head... His voice, his face...

His face.

He sat there, as if... As if. No. He really sat there. He looked the same... He looked as his usual self, maybe slightly... She was not sure. There was something different in his appearance, but she could not quite place it.

He was talking. Of course, she smiled, and only then, when her lips twisted into a timid, sad smile, she felt hot tears streaming down her cheeks. She hurriedly wiped the tears away from her face with the back of her hand, and looked back at Jack.

She glanced over at people around him. Pirates, no doubt, his crew, most likely, but she could not recognize anyone. What moment of the past it was, then?

Elizabeth blinked, when all of a sudden, a women's hand began caressing his cheek. And only then she noticed that there was a women sitting next to Jack on his left side... and another one on his right side. And for some reason it irritated her. And the fact that it irritated her, irritated her even more...

Why should I care? It has nothing to do with anything. With me... With... Doesn't matter. I have only nine hours to be here... to look at him... to say good-bye to him, to say... I'm sorry, even if he will have no idea why am I saying all those things to him...

She stood silently, staring at him greedily, staring greedily at him alive, he was alive, and she had killed him. No. She will kill him, and he sat here, not even knowing that one day she will chain him to the mast of his beloved ship, and leave him to die...

Elizabeth blinked back the tears, and bit her lip. Why was she here? Why had she agreed when Tia Dalma had told her that she could give her a chance to see him once again... She was devastated, she was broken, and she... had missed him. She had missed him from the moment she had sat down in that longboat after- And she had known, from that very moment that the pain, that pain will never go away. And then, she had been given hope... When they had gone to the Locker, she believed, she had really believed that they would have him rescued... That it was possible to bring him back...

But it was not possible.

Not probable. She tried to smile, but couldn't.

She shook herself off her thoughts, and concentrated again on looking at him, and then she suddenly noticed that... he was looking at her too.