Spoiler alert.

10 years after the end of AWE. I wrote this after reading the draft script and before seeing the movie. It takes a much grimmer view of things than the movie seems to.


Dusk. The beach.

Elizabeth stands alone in the sand. She has her back to the water; she has spent enough hopeless days and nights staring out at it and thinks she will go crazy if she sees just one more wave.

She waits.

"Elizabeth." His voice, behind her.

She finds she can't face him. All the years she's spent dreaming of how their reunion would be, all the things she's rehearsed to say, all the times she promised herself she would be strong for him... and now all she can do is cry. It's not tears of happiness either, it's racking sobs that bring her to her knees, covering her face, helpless.

"Elizabeth..." He says it again, voice cracking this time. He holds out his arms to her but can't bring himself to take a step forward, because he fears it would be the one way to hurt her more than he has already.

"Elizabeth, please." He swallows hard, drops his hands, draws back a step into the surf. "I won't come back again," he promises her, voice shaking so badly even he can't make out the words.

"W- W..." She can't even say his name. Finally she looks over her shoulder at him, sees what's in his eyes, turns away again. "I can't..."

He breathes Elizabeth one more time and that's it; she's on her feet, gathering up her skirts and running away. Running as fast as she can, away from the pain and the memories and the memories they should have but don't. Away from him.

Will doesn't chase her. He doesn't leave, either. He stands there, silent and unmoving, saltwater streaming down his face. He stays there through the night and then at dawn, just... fades.


Day. The Dutchman.

Will stands, same posture, still dripping what may be just seawater but is probably tears.

He has no idea what to do now. Last night was not what he's waited ten years for, and it is not going to sustain him. He has nothing left, not even enough to carry him through the day - much less the next thirty-six hundred of them. He whispers, "I can't do this."

"You must." Will starts, turns, and suddenly realizes his father's been standing beside him all morning.

"No." His throat jumps. "There must be a way."

"Jones tried twice - that I saw. God only knows how many times in total." Bootstrap says it without emotion, without pity, and just for a second WIll hates him for how he's made peace with their situation. "It's gruesome and miserable, Will, and it doesn't work," he goes on. "Afterwards, you're just as alive, just as hurt... and just as trapped." He cracks a smile that ordinarily would get Will all teary again, but today Will has nothing left to pity other people with. "Welcome to the Dutchman, son."


Night. A warm bedroom.

"...And so," Elizabeth finishes her story, "Still she waits, patient and faithful, waits forever for her husband even though she knows he's never coming home. And that is true love."

Her voice is a little choked suddenly. William is annoyed. "I don't like that story."

"Believe me, neither do I."

He is not paying attention to her. "It's silly! If the girl was really so unhappy, Mother, she would just go to sea herself and jump ship, and become a drowning sailor that he has to rescue. Then they'd be together. That's a much better ending."

She has tried very hard never to suggest this to herself. "Well, maybe the girl had people at home, a family, who would be very sad if she left them."

"Well if it was that important, she would go. She could take them with her. Obviously."

Elizabeth kisses him goodnight and puts out the light.


Rainy day. The Dutchman.

"Will! Will! Captain, come quick!" Bootstrap's voice is panicked.

Will strides across the deck, his steps heavier now, longer. He looks more and more like Davy Jones every day.

But when the crowd parts for him and he sees, he freezes up. He is suddenly lost and terrified and sixteen years old again.

The crew is gathered around a body, waterlogged, unmoving. It is Elizabeth.

Bootstrap kneels over her. "She's drowned, Captain. Give her the breath?"

Will is unable to act, so Bootstrap makes the decision for him - he tilts her head back, holds her nose closed, and breathes once into her lungs.

The change is immediate. As the fetid air of the Dutchman's creature works its way into her body, Elizabeth gags. Shudders. Finally she opens her eyes and looks around.

She shifts her hand a little to feel that the chain is still there - she's wearing a manacle that attaches her to a chest with which Will is all too familiar...

It hits him then: she's packed. She's done this on purpose.

And the cold, still body of her son lying beside her... she's done that, too.

Elizabeth looks at the child and somehow knows what to do. No one stops her as she breathes the poison into him, and they all just watch in silence as it starts to take hold.

Will falls to a knee beside Elizabeth but his eyes are on his son. "We'll burn in Hell for this," he rasps. "For all eternity, we will burn."

Elizabeth reaches out to him then, puts both shaking hands to his cheeks. It is the first time she has touched him since he assumed his mantle. "No, Will." She turns his face towards her and tries to smile. "We'll sail."


The End.

Review for me! I promise I'll try and envision them a happier future...