{ Truth Spell } 

“Once is a long time past, old chum.” There was no denying that once, there had been a time in which Jack had held then-Sir Beckett in respectable esteem. They had their differences, to be sure, but so long as Beckett had respected the lines Jack would not cross they’d gotten on fair well. 

When push came to shove however, their world views made it impossible for them to get on – more’s the pity, when one took into account what a fabulous pirate a man like Cutler Beckett could make these days, and with Jack now so rooted in the life, there was no more running from it for him to find even if he wanted to. Beckett had seen sure to that, whether he knew it or not at the time. 

“What good is once, when what we’ve got ahead is now, mm?” The real question at hand, was just what to do about a certain, unexpected survivor of a war that never would have started without him in the first place. Seemed damn ironic that Cutler could escape the Locker, when he above all men deserved it most. Things were reaching a head with the crew – and Jack, admittedly, had yet to truly come to decide his own opinion of matters. 

It was time, then, to come to terms. “How about we talk a little less about what was then, and a little more on what we should be doing – because if you ask me, this little trial period’s gone on long enough. I think it’s time we came to some conclusions, you and I – what say you?”