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CHAPTER THREE

Tia Dalma looked at Elizabeth solemnly. "Dis task is not one to be takin' lightly. If anyting would be goin' wrong, you would be trapped forever in Davy Jones' locker wit dear Jack."

Maybe that's what she wants. Will couldn't help but think. Eternity with him… He shook his head, clearing the hateful thoughts from his mind.

Elizabeth nodded, looking slightly paler than usual, but with a hardened glint in her eyes. "I understand."

Tia Dalma grinned, looking almost demonic in the moonlight. "Very well den, Miss Swann." She turned to Barbossa. "Captain Barbossa, you have someting I be needin'."

Without a word, Barbossa reached into his pocket, placing a bottle of some sort into Tia Dalma's outstretched palm.

"Now den, Miss Swann, you will be drinkin' dis."

Elizabeth nodded wordlessly, taking the bottle and holding it gingerly.

Will watched the entire exchange without a word, his mind racing. They were still relatively in the dark as to what the task would entail, yet Elizabeth asked no questions, merely nodding with acceptance. Whatever it takes…

"What is it?" Will asked somewhat desperately. All eyes turned to stare at him, Barbossa scowling slightly.

"It be poison, Mr. Turner." Barbossa said matter-of-factly.

Elizabeth looked startled, thrusting the bottle away from her body as if it were a snake about to strike. "Poison?" she and Will asked in unison. They glanced at each other briefly in surprise. That was the closest they had come to speaking to each other in several days.

"Did I stutter?" Barbossa sneered. He crossed his arms and watched expectantly.

"Tia Dalma," Elizabeth asked pleadingly, "Please, you must know by now that whatever it is, I'll do it. Can't you just tell me?"

"Tell us," Will spoke up, directing his comment not at Tia Dalma but Elizabeth. They both proceeded to ignore him.

Tia Dalma smiled. "Very well den." She took the bottle carefully from Elizabeth's fingers and delicately removed the stopper. "First, you drink dis. Tis true dat it be poison, but it won't be killin' you. At least not all da way." She scanned the crowd to view her words effects. Apparently satisfied, she continued, briefly directing her gaze to Will. "In order to enter da world of da undead, her must be mostly dead too."

Tia Dalma looked back to Elizabeth whose face was rapt with apprehension. "After drinkin' of da poison, we lower your body to dose dark depths below. It is dere you will find Jack Sparrow and him precious ship."

Stunned silence withheld any comments for several seconds. Finally Elizabeth spoke. "Is that all?"

"Is that all?" Will repeated incredulously. "Elizabeth, she's telling you that you must die to save Jack! Isn't that the very reason he died, to save us? You can't go through with this. It's insane!"

For a moment it seemed that she wasn't going to respond. Then suddenly she rounded on Will, fury in her eyes though her voice was low and deceivingly calm. "I'm no longer some damsel in distress for you to rescue and protect. You chose to come, as did I, and you knew what I was willing to do."

Will reached out a hand to her but she backed away. "Fiancé or not, you cannot control me, Will. I am not yours to control!"

"Whose are you then?" he asked softly, searching her eyes. At these words however something changed in them. She no longer seemed angry or even annoyed. Instead she seemed almost…sad.

"You don't know?" she whispered, taking another step away, for the moment completely impervious to everything around them.

"Elizabeth…"

"Time runs short ye two," Barbossa cut in, obviously bemused by the young couple's argument. "May I suggest a discontinuance of this conversation until a later point and time."

Abruptly Elizabeth snatched the small bottle from Tia Dalma's palm. Will rushed forward to stop her but his movements were too slow to match hers. Elizabeth downed the bottle in one gulp, quenching her face in distaste. She turned to Tia Dalma whose grin had widened.

"I suggest you do whatever you need to do quickly," Elizabeth said, already seeming somewhat woozy. She swayed suddenly and Will and Gibbs steadied her on either side, both looking equally terrified. "I promise I'll return," she murmured to Will. Her brown eyes glazed and rolled back, her eyelids drooped shut, and she sagged between them. As they gently lowered her down Will heard one last thing pass her lips. "With Jack…"

"Hurry," Tia Dalma ordered. "We must put her in da water or her soul will get lost and wander dis ship forever."

Will watched in a daze as several crew members gingerly lifted Elizabeth's limp form away from him and took her to the side of the ship. Tia Dalma pressed a hand to Elizabeth's forehead briefly, uttering a few words that he could not understand. She then looked out to the sea for a moment.

"Do it," Tia Dalma ordered.

For several seconds Will didn't understand why someone was screaming. Why hands were forcibly holding him back, pinning him to the ice-crusted deck. Only as a boot connected squarely with his jaw, in the last moment before he lost consciousness, did he realize it was him screaming. Screaming for them to stop. But to no avail. Elizabeth's body disappeared over the side and was engulfed in the crushing depths below.

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