Hi, so so so so so sorry this is super late. My house is having the floors re-done and we had to pack everything up into boxes (including my laptop) so we could move furniture. Here is the next chapter. On the bright side the wait for the next chapter will be less...

Sorry again.

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Chapter Twenty-one: Hoist the colors

Ella was standing at the helm accompanied by two guards. The crew were lined up on deck, waiting for Beckett to make his appearance. They all looked alike, Ella noted as they stood still, heads up and waiting.

Beckett came walking out, fixing his shirt sleeve. He looked bored, as if the war was just a little annoyance he had to bother with until he could move on to better things.

"The enemy," Beckett said as he walked, "has opted for oblivion." There was a pause and Ella wondered what his face was going to look like when he lost. "Ready the fleet," he said to a soldier at the end of the line.

"To stations!" the man called and the order was echoed. The crew scattered, ready for a fight.

Beckett walked up to the helm and stood by the rail. He turned to see Ella's blank face. "Oh come on," he said with a smile, "you've got a front row seat."

Tia stood with a wooden bowl in front of her with the pieces of eight inside. She looked at them, the tools that bound her. They were nothing but junk. She fumed at the simpleness of her torture.

"Be there some manner of incantation?" Gibbs asked as they all stood beside the goddess. He expected more to go into releasing a goddess. There was something to the situation that didn't feel right.

"Aye," Barbossa said. He looked around as everyone waited for the secret ritual to be revealed. "Items to be brought together, done" he said waving his hand over the bowl. "Items to be burned." A man handed him a torch. "Done." He paused, holding the torch high. "And someone must speak the words 'Calypso, I release you from your human bonds,'" he said far too seriously.

"Is that it?" Pintel asked, disappointed.

"It is said as if to be spoken by a lover," Barbossa said and the crew gave out an 'ooo' of approval. The ritual seeming much more official somehow.

Will and Elizabeth exchanged a look as the crew waited for Barbossa to say it. Elizabeth thought about what Ella would say if she knew Barbossa was going to try to do this. She could picture the girl laughing.

"Calypso," Barbossa yelled, the torch high up in his hands, "I release you from your human bonds," he said factually, too serious. He lowered the torch to the bowl, but nothing happened, no fire caught. Everyone stared at it, wondering what went wrong, or if that was how it was supposed to be. Tia looked at it with annoyance, the attempt failed.

"Is that it?" Pintel asked at the anticlimactic event. Barbossa frowned at the bowl.

"No-no," Ragetti said. "You didn't say it right," he stated, caught up in the moment. Barbossa looked amused and turned to him. Ragetti realized what he had done and looked around as everyone stared at him. "You, you have to say it right," he said to Barbossa.

He looked to Calypso. The goddess watched him carefully, wondering what he was doing. He got closer to her, and she studied him. She clearly over looked him. He looked at her with soft eyes, and she could see his heart. He was kinder than he let on.

"Calypso," he said, calling to her. She waited for him to continue. He leaned in, his mouth by her ear. "I release you from your human bonds," he said softly, setting her free.

There was a surge of power that crashed into her as the bowl lit suddenly. Feelings she hadn't felt for a long time invaded her. The power went deep, burying in her bones. They felt like they would split. She longed for the bonds to fall away, the feeling was painful. Her human form could not take it anymore. As the smoke swirled up into her nose, the sea flowed into her.

She could feel everything. Hear everything. See everything. Smell everything. The temperament of the sea, the waves lapping at ships far off, the detail of the knots in the wood of ships half way across the world, the smell of salt in the air, the taste of the salty sea. Everything was so vivid. Just the way she remembered.

"Calypso," a voice called out of the noises of the world she heard. She met the man's eyes. It was Will. "When the Brethren Court imprisoned you, who was it that taught them how," he asked. She kept her eyes on him, her powers bubbling at the surface, needing to know who their first victim was. "Who was it that betrayed you?" Will asked her and she had a burning fear in her.

"Name him," she demanded as her body shook.

"Davy Jones," Will stated.

Her face twisted in pain as the name sunk in. Her heart broke again and again, until all that was left were pieces to remind her of her foolishness to love a mortal man. Agony drowned out the drum of her power and she twisted in her bonds. Her body grew up to the sky, sorrow overwhelming her as her powers freed her.

The ropes strained against her, snapping like they were nothing. Some stayed on her, others ripped from the sides of the ship. Three or four were left intact. The wood below her feet cracked and bent at the weight of her new tall stature. The mast stopped at her mid-back, a joke.

"Calypso," Barbossa called. She looked down to see him kneeling in front of her. The others quickly kneeled as well. Will and Elizabeth were the last to follow. They were all small and weak. It reminded her that she was a goddess.

"I come before you as servant, humble and contrite," Barbossa claimed. He looked up to the goddess, his eyes saying he expected something in return. "I have fulfilled me vow," he said. "I know ask ye for a favor."

The goddess waited for him to say what he thought he was entitled too.

"Spare meself, me ship, me crew," he rattled off in a quick succession. "But release your fury upon those that dare pretend to be your masters." He paused as he looked at her. "Or mine," he added.

The goddess smiled at him, the human that thought he mattered. Nobody was her master, with the powers she possessed the sea was hers, their lives were hers, everything was at her whim.

Barbossa looked up at her, confused at the calmness she had, and the smile on her lips. He waited for her to explode, to avenge. When nothing happened he frowned. She kept looking at him before leaning forward, her smile turned something that would haunt a sailors dreams.

"Malfaiteur en Tombeau Crochir l'Esplanade, Dans l'Fond d'l'eau!" she screamed at them. Her voice was booming, sounding like a million god's screaming down at them. Her anger unleashed, the heartbreak no longer burning her, now turned to stone.

There were few who spoke the odd dialect she used, a French Creole. Those on board that understood her trembled where they stood. They envied the ones around who were left to ignorance. To your graves wrongdoers, I bend your path, to the depths of the sea.

Shefell away into nothing but white crabs. They flooded the Pearl, pushing people to the deck as they tried to shield their eyes. The crabs made their way off the ship, falling into the sea where they belonged, where she belonged.

As the wave cleared, they got up, pulling crabs out of places crabs had no business being. Pintel delicately maneuvered one off of his nose as Ragetti hopped around trying to pull one from his breeches. Will and Elizabeth got up and looked around them.

"What?" Will asked at the stillness in the air. "Is that it?"

The crew went to the rail of the ship, peering down into the sea to search for the crabs. None were to be found, as if they'd melted into the sea, now a part of it. Pintel frowned at the water.

"Why, she's no help at all," he said. Ragetti turned to look at him as Barbossa came to stand by his uncle's side.

"Nothing," Barbossa said as the sea remained calm. "Our final hope has failed us," he spat in disgust.

A gust of wind picked one of the pirates hats up and pulled it towards the sky. The crew looked up as it disappeared into the clouds above. They sensed something was wrong. The wind picked up, the clouds grew dark, the ship creaked as a storm brewed. There was a fog building around them and the air was wrong. They looked up to the sky, it was churning.

"It's not over," Elizabeth said.

"There's still a fight to be had," Will reminded everyone.

"We have an armada against us," Gibbs said. "With the Dutchman there's no chance."

"There's only a fool's chance," Elizabeth said as she thought. Barbossa came up to her from behind, the fight gone from him.

"Revenge won't bring your father back," he told her. "And it's not something I'm intending to die for," he said. Elizabeth looked at him.

"You're right," she said and walked away. "So what shall we die for?" she asked over her shoulder. Everyone stared at her, unable to answer. She turned to face the crew. "You will listen to me," she told them, making her way through the crowd.

"Listen," she screamed. She climbed onto the side of the ship, holding onto the rope to steady herself. "The Brethren will still look here, to us, to the Black Pearl to lead," she announced. "And what will they see?" she asked them. They stared up at her. "Frightened bilge rats aboard derelict ship?" she asked. "No!" she yelled. "They will see free men, and freedom." She looked around at the crew. "And what the enemy will see is the flash of our cannons, they will hear the ring of our swords and they will know what we can do!" she said, not a shred of doubt in her voice. "By the sweat of our brows and the strength of our backs, and the courage in our hearts." She looked to Will. "Gentlemen... Hoist the colors."

"Hoist the colors," will repeated. Soon the entire crew was saying it, a fire relit in them. Gibbs looked out to sea.

"Aye, the wind is on our side," he said. "That's all we need."

Elizabeth looked over to Tai Huang. "Hoist the colors," she yelled to him over the cheering that had erupted on board the Pearl. The man Ella had put in charge nodded and yelled out to hoist the colors. His crew immediately acting on the order.

Captain after captain yelled out the order, until eventually every ship had the flag raised high. They whipped in the breeze, displaying the skull and cross bones proudly for the world to see. They cheered and screamed for the fight to come.