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Here is Chapter 14! Hope you'll like it!
Enjoy!
Chapter 14 Come Hell or High Water...
As the Flying Dutchman was sailing towards the Black Pearl and the Empress, Jack saw Barbossa at the helm and cannons out.
"They're going to attack us!" He exclaimed
"What? Why?" Elizabeth screamed.
"I don't know but we have to hurry! Tell Willy to stay inside and your men to be ready for a fight!"
As Jack was back to the Pearl, Gibbs rushed to him.
"What are the orders, Captain?"
Jack spun around and saw the Dutchman already there, placed right between the Empress and the Pearl.
"Load the cannons!" He answered as he realized that Will was no longer Captain and Barbossa was.
Meanwhile, on the Empress, Elizabeth was running towards her son.
"Willy, go hiding in my cabin and stay there until I come back!" She ordered to him.
"No, I can fight, I'm not going to hide when you-" He replied but he stopped hearing a crewmember's comment:
"It's the Flying Dutchman! We're all dead!" A man screamed shivering.
Willy stared at the ship besides them.
"Mom, is that the Flying Dutchman?" He asked shocked.
As his mother was not answering, he continued: "Why is dad attacking us?"
She sighed and spoke again: "Please Willy, do what I say."
°°°
As the three ships were perfectly side by side, all pirates ready to shoot and the three captains at the helm, Barbossa's voice rang out in the blue sky: "Fire!!"
Jack did the same. Then Elizabeth breathed in and also yelled: "Full Fire!!"
Will, who was leaning on the guardrail on the Dutchman, heard her voice and their eyes met.
Will:
When I saw her, it was impossible for me to move, impossible to look down, impossible to do anything else but looking at her. Three years and three months. We hadn't seen each other for three long years and when we finally did after so much time, it was in a middle of a battle and we were on two feuding ships. We stood still in spite of the cannonade. She held the rudder, I held the guardrail.
The look on her face was full of different feelings: sadness, fear, guilt but mostly pain. I had already seen this look seven years ago just after the storm when Willy almost died because of Calypso, because of me… I knew that it hurt her to see me again like this. Besides, she had just ordered to shoot the ship where I was. But I was more worried about her. The Empress was not a strong ship compared to the Dutchman.
Our eyes met just for a few seconds but it was an eternity to me. I felt like everything around me moved in slow motion as I looked at her.
The cannonballs were destroying her ship little by little…
°°°
As The Empress was in a really bad shape, Barbossa ordered to his crew to stand ready for boarding the two ships. As half of the crew was throwing grapples to reach the Empress, Will climbed the guardrail.
"Don't! You are all free from Davy Jones thanks to me! But those two captains and their crew helped me to fight and kill him! They helped me to rescue you and now you want to kill them?"
"Shut up, impudent rat! I'm the Captain! » Barbossa yelled.
"You've not understood yet what the word 'piracy' means, it seems…" He added.
Then he giggled, gave the same orders and the crew obeyed.
Will spun around and screamed: "Elizabeth! You need to give up the ship!"
Elizabeth began to fight an assailant with her sword.
"No way! I'm not leaving my crew!" She screamed back.
As Will realized she wasn't going to change her mind, he caught a line and threw himself above the ocean to reach the Empress. When he did, he rushed to Elizabeth.
°°°
Meanwhile, on the Pearl, Jack had noticed that the Empress was sinking. He decided to make the ship turn around the Dutchman and the Empress in order to be next to Elizabeth's ship. With the Empress between the Dutchman and the Pearl, Jack could save people aboard the Empress.
When he gave the order to do so, Pintel complained:
"But Captain… Half of the Dutchman's crew is on deck and we're fighting against them!"
"No buts. Just do it! The Pearl can stand up to the Dutchman's cannonballs but the Empress can't!" He answered.
°°°
As Elizabeth was fighting a man of the Dutchman's crew with her sword, Will killed him by attacking him round the back.
"Will!" Elizabeth whispered when she saw him.
He put his arms around her. He wanted to tell her so many things but they had no time.
Still squeezing each other's hand, they fought against the Dutchman's men just like they did on their wedding day. Willy was killing his own crew but he couldn't let anything happen to Elizabeth. He was ready for anything to protect her.
"Traitor!" A man of his crew insulted him.
"No, pirate!" He replied and a weak smile appeared on Elizabeth's face when she heard him.
As the Empress was sinking more and more and the crew was really getting worried for their lives, the Pearl arrived next to them.
"You have to go, now!" Will told Elizabeth.
As she didn't want to let go his hand, he kissed it and insisted: "Elizabeth, Go!"
She squeezed his hand one last time and without a word turned around.
°°°
Will came back to the Dutchman with other survivors and watched Elizabeth running towards her cabin. When she went out, a little boy was in her arms. Will couldn't see his face but he felt his body melting as he recognized his son. Elizabeth threw a grapple on the Black Pearl and came aboard the ship.
"What do we do now, Captain?" Gibbs asked Jack.
"What I do best, Master Gibbs, we run away!" He answered.
From the deck of the Pearl, Elizabeth watched her ship sinking slowly in the ocean, desperation in her eyes. Then her eyes met Will's again as the Pearl was sailing away.
Elizabeth:
Everything had happened so fast! We saw each other again after three years and three months and we hardly pronounced around ten words… I was just in shock. In only a few minutes, I saw the Dutchman and Will again, I understood that he was no longer Captain of the ship but Barbossa was, I had to fight against his ship, I stayed in his arms just one second and held his hand as we fought his crew, the Empress sank… And now I'm on deck aboard the Pearl, trying to catch my breath and get over all this.
As the Pearl was running away and I watched Will on the Dutchman's deck looking at me, I could swear he had mouthed me something, but I didn't understand what it was.
"Is everything all right?" Jack asked me, concerned.
"No." I answered sincerely. "I have so many questions. Too many questions… Seeing him after all this time and not being able to ask them..."
"Right now you must wonder why Barbossa is Captain of the ship and Will isn't anymore." He said with a weird tone.
"Yes!" I exclaimed. "Why ? And how? If Will is not Captain anymore, he's free. So, why do I have still his heart? And why can't he just come with us?" I asked desperately.
"I'm afraid you'll have to wait two more years if you want to know the entire truth and get answers to your questions." He concluded.
"Waiting is just killing me!" I exclaimed again getting angrier.
"Eight years is enough! I just want this nightmare to end and wake up with him besides me! After all we've been through, I think we deserve to be happy!"
"You know, a young lady once told me: 'life doesn't work like fairytales'. Unfortunately, she was right." He said sadly.
Jack confessing that someone else but him was right... It was such an odd day!
Anyway, I smirked remembering the day I had told him this and continued as a thought came through my mind:
"It's not just this... I don't know how to explain but I have a feeling that there is something more, something very important he didn't tell me."
Maybe it's what he tried to mouth me when he was on deck after the battle... I realized.
°°°
Elizabeth was turning around when Jack stopped her:
"About this men-talk thing with Willy, I could go see him now, if you want." He suggested.
"Of course, but I want to make sure he's fine before." She answered.
Elizabeth searched him on deck, went to Jack's cabin and then to the steers but didn't find him.
°°°
A few minutes later, on the Flying Dutchman:
"William Turner, you betrayed our crew and helped our enemy!" Barbossa yelled as some other men were pushing poor Will down.
"Is it not what you call 'piracy', dear Captain?" He replied with a fake smile.
°°°
Back to the Pearl: Elizabeth rushed to Jack.
"Jack, I've searched everywhere on the ship, Willy's missing!"
"Last time I saw him we were on the Empress' deck and he borrowed my compass.
Then you brought him with you on the Pearl and" He suddenly stopped talking.
°°°
On the Flying Dutchman again:
"Oh, if you want to play at this game with me, I can assure you, I'm going to win." Barbossa smirked.
"You had no right to attack them. You should focus on your duty if you don't want to finish like Davy Jones! For your information, carrying dead people's souls to the other world does not involve killing them!" Will squealed.
"Besides, you can do nothing to me!" He added but soon regretted it.
°°°
Back on the Pearl again:
"What does it me? What is he up to? He's only seven years old!!" Elizabeth exclaimed.
Jack suddenly opened his eyes widely. He seemed to realize something and said to himself:
"My compass...Willy...Bloody pirate!"
°°°
Finally back on the Dutchman:
"Are you sure of that?" Barbossa asked smiling. Then he looked at other crewmembers:
"Go get her daughter!"
°°°
Goldfeather: I know: another cliffie!
Some of you may be disappointed because Will and Elizabeth's meeting was very short...
Sorry about that but it was necessary for the rest of the story!
Besides this story is almost over... However, I promise there will be a happy ending.
PLEASE REVIEW! Thank you for reading, you're all so great!
Will&Elizabeth FOrever