Disclaimer = I don't own Pirates of the Caribbean, none of it, simply borrowing. I however own my own original characters and made additions to the already existing script.

©lindam2254

Chapter Nineteen

Carmen groaned as she landed on top of something hard and lumpy, then instantly realizing it to be Jack as the man wriggled under her in annoyance of her weight pushing him down. At the end of their drop the gypsy girl to have landed sideways onto the other two, but now her swiftly rolling from on top of him and moved her feet off of Carina upon assuming a sitting position. As she turned around to behold the place they'd accidentally fallen in, finding herself captivated by the sight that filled her with nothing but amazement. Her eyes scaling upward to take in the massive walls of water that were somehow held up and kept from flooding the underwater passage that now laid in front of them, magnificent surges breaking their surface from time to time upon pushing over the faraway water's edge and billowing further below, licking the remains of ships that had apparently sunken there at some point in time. Carmen blinking her eyes against the drizzle of water that was like rain which had been quick to begin to drench them, the powerful swells naturally riddling the out of place dell with continuous droplets, which however she cared not much of upon eyeing at the downright magical scenery plagued with stark hues of blue, despite of the darkness the high walls of water created everything around them reflecting the rays of the sun that still shone down on them even from such distance. Managing to find an avenue to cast some light to the three, Carmen sighing in an astounded daze before she turned her gaze down from the sea that surrounded them to look at the evident proof of them to have ended up at the bottom of it. Carmen examining the countless amount of colourful corrals littering the ocean floor amongst the natural stone which dominated large sections of the space, pushing out of the ground as smaller cliffs or as group of larger boulders, but where the three of them were currently resting was but sand. Naturally wet from the seawater that just a moment before had still filled the space before withdrawing to create this gorge, Carmen to have never imagined the world below the sea to possess such simple beauty to it as she now stood in middle of this rather large coral reef that displayed a whole world of its own. After admiring their surroundings for a bit and giving the few unfortunate fishes that had been left onto the now dry land during the sudden retreat of the ocean a fleeting glance, with a marvelling breath Carmen beginning to rise. Only to find her hem to have gotten tangled into one of the corals and the grip it had on the fabric almost caused her to fall back down, when now also Carina and Jack had gotten over their fascination over the unorthodox scenery unlike neither of them had either laid witness before, Carina was the first to venture further into the gorge. Walking forward, ambling past the spiky clusters of coral and rock, closely followed by Jack whom Carmen spied to pick up Carina's fallen diary and store it into his pocket before leaving the gypsy girl behind.

With a frustrated breath Carmen pulled against the caught dress' hem, managing to free herself at the price of a large section of the hem ripping apart and remaining stuck to the coral, but she cared not. Immediately stumbling after Jack and Carina when she at first struggled to find a solid footing in the soft ground, until she also came to circle around a nearby boulder behind the two were currently standing, staring at that they now noticed to loom at the distance a little farther from them. Strange green radiance coming off of the place that instantly told them what they were seeking to lay there, there being no question about it as they now looked beyond the coral and refuse infested ocean floor, beholding their final destination that finally opened up right in front of them.

"Look!" Carina breathed, her eyes riveted to the spot behind the rocky knolls the radiance was coming from, Jack's lips spreading into a content smile.

"Poseidon's tomb."

"Let's go!" Carmen exclaimed, for the surprise of the other two starting to run towards the odd glow, which also she knew to be a signal of the Trident to be close. Her however not to have expected it to be right there waiting for them as after some time racing towards the mounds she along with caught up Carina and Jack reached them, a strange feeling in her chest causing the gypsy girl then to halt abruptly once her eyes fixated onto something she then realized to be sticking out of the rocks high above them. Tangled with seaweed that along the years had grown around it to anchor it to its place and to the proximate cliffs, equally covered by other sea life that made it close to blend in with the rest of the surroundings, but the unmistakeable shape of it immediately then made her realize she was looking at the very object they were looking for. Another bewildered breath escaping Carmen's lips as she stared at the Trident. Real Trident of Poseidon, which had a green stone imbedded at the base of the three tips that gave it its fork like shape, the green glow indeed coming from it, as the use of the missing ruby had opened up the passage to its location and hence seemed to have woken its power from who knew how long time of slumber. Carina smiling in disbelief as she also took in the Trident, although she hadn't exactly been a true believer of myths and legends and therefore not to have known what to expect upon discovering the truth behind the legend, her not helping but admitting right then and there Henry to have been right all along. What they had now stumbled upon proving that the Trident and all the stories about it were true.

"Look Jack, there it is", she said, exchanging a short glance with the pirate whose smile but widened at the sight of the object.

"The Trident."

"Jack!"

The sudden call of Jack's name caused all of them then to turn around, to face the direction they'd come from, and for their shared sense of dismay they now watched how someone joined them by Poseidon's Tomb. Running to sight from behind the large boulder and jumped right off of it, a sword in hand, charging at Jack with an angry battle cry, and once Jack shoved Carina out of the way and Carmen jumped to the side herself to dodge the unexpected attacker, they then realized it to be Henry. With widened eyes Carmen stumbling to the sidelines to follow how under some kind of enraged frenzy the lad swung his weapon down at Jack, who only escaped to the other side with a well timed twirl as Henry landed with a heavy thud. Not only his behaviour but Carmen knowing instantly something being wrong with him as she now stared at him, confused when without a second thought Henry came at Jack again, forcing him to defend himself against his but ferocious attacks that told of deep rooted rage. Kind Carmen knew Henry not to harbour towards the miscreant no matter what had happened in the past between either them or Jack and his parents, the lad having no reason to act this way towards Jack, and as was now evident, trying to kill him. Mere murderous intent in his eyes that were riveted to equally baffled Jack, despite of the lad's vigorous strikes that were fueled up by his anger Jack managing to hold his ground against him, after a brief moment of watching the two lash at one another Carmen approaching them. As Henry then pushed Jack back with a powerful shove upon having his previous attack deflected by the buccaneer, she vaulted forward before he could attack again, grabbing the lad's sword arm to keep it from delivering another strike as came to stand between them. With an incredulous frown locking gazes with him while eyed at him quizzically, not in fact recognizing him and that cruel, dark look in his eyes. Far more confounded by his out of place behaviour than his actual presence here after getting abducted by Salazar, the question of how he'd gotten here however getting all forgotten at the face of her trying to understand why he was acting like this.

"Henry, stop! What are you doing?" she demanded, glancing over her shoulder at befuddled Jack, before her focus was on Henry again and she let go of him after a long, scrutinizing look-over. "It's Jack! What's wrong with you?"

Without responding Henry then caused Carmen to draw in but a shocked breath as he cast her a death glare back before out of the blue used his blade to cut her, lashing it at her so that the gypsy girl was forced to retreat away from him. Carmen hearing Carina to shout her name in equal dismay to hers as she pressed a bewildered hand onto the wound on her torso upon staggering back, but before she could even look up to the lad in even graver outrage after saying his name in stupefaction she was next shoved out of the way by another hazardous swing of the lad's weapon. Carmen dropping out of his way as immediately he lunged at awaiting Jack, the pirate's widened eyes zeroing in at the approaching lad again after witnessing the slain gypsy girl to collapse to her side. Carina taking in the befuddling sight in dismay of her own until her own focus shifted to the Trident, however sudden movement on their left claiming her attention before she could act on her discovery of the now unguarded Trident. For her further bafflement realizing Salazar's men to be approaching, making their way towards them from the other side of the wall of water, while all of them were drawn to the ongoing battle between Henry and Jack. As she turned her head around realizing rest of the Mary's crew to be lurking within the sea at the opposite side, surrounding them, the lacking presence of their Captain however then getting explained as after alarmed Carina had scrambled up to her feet again and raced over to the Trident to pry it loose from its place Jack successfully managed to ward off the lad by avoiding one of his attacks. Slipping past him once he failed to strike Jack down after managing to corner him between himself and Salazar's crew, as Henry next whipped around in order to give chase for the fright of Carmen Jack slashing at the lad mostly out of natural instinct, as he hadn't had any intention of hurting the boy any more than was necessary in this unexpected bout Henry had inexplicably challenged him in. As all of Carmen's attention was on Henry again after witnessing him to step back due to the power of the strike, fleeting hand rising to touch the gash that had formed on his face, she levered herself higher to watch in for her even greater horror how Henry then faced Jack, outcry of fright silencing on her lips before erupting due to mere shock. Despite of being injured but a sniding smirk forming on his lips as he simply tilted his head at Jack, Carmen blinking as she then saw the formed wound to begin to close, familiar black vein like cracks suddenly emerging from the boy's skin and paired with that clearly hateful glower he was giving to the buccaneer she then immediately knew what had happened. Those gloating, accented words she then finally heard slip from supposed Henry's lips not even needing to be said for her to now cast a terrified look at him, stunned as her fingers set upon her ulcer again, in understanding when she finally fathomed the real Henry to be never able to harm her in such way...For he wasn't Henry.

"Ten cuidado...You cut me, you cut the boy, Jack."

"Salazar", Carmen breathed, bemused as saw realization to replace that addled grimace that had taken possession of Jack's countenance as well for a bit, until he now gazed back at his proven nemesis in rivarling surprise to Carmen's, but who only had been revealed to have taken possession of the lad's body. Using him as a means to be now able to walk on dry land without vaporizing like he should've, to have been able to follow them down here in order to come and kill Jack once and for all, while his men made sure none of them to be able to escape by outflanking them. Salazar's apparent plan of possessing Henry being rather clever as well, as while in the lad's body his chances of winning against Jack were far superior since after the forced retreat from the Pearl he had taken the boy as a last resort, deciding upon this plan of action because he didn't believe the pirate to be able to fight back properly as long as he had Henry at his mercy. Him at first to have thought to simply use the lad against Jack in a form of coercion, to have him surrender himself to release the boy, but taking over the lad's body had turned out to be a way more fitting method to go about destroying Jack, as upon standing there now in front of him Salazar could see the pirate to indeed hesitate. That guilt and remorse that had riddled his face the moment Salazar had revealed himself from behind the guise of the boy proving that Jack cared too much for him to be able to weasel his way out of finally paying his dues...Because right here and now, the little Sparrow would at last have his wings clipped...for good.

"Prepare yourself, pirate...To die!" Salazar spat, Carmen being able to imagine to separate even a slight angered growl to leave Henry's possessed lips as in total control of his body he again attacked Jack. The gypsy girl not knowing whether or not the lad was conscious somewhere within there as Salazar used him as he pleased, leading him into a sharp lunge at Jack, which he dodged by hopping backwards. Slamming his own sword against Salazar's raised one, before provided him with an attack of his own. His strike this time more resolute once he now knew not to be facing the son of the whelp but Salazar in disguise, with a wince of pain slowly Carmen rising to her feet as her eyes remained glued to the two battling men, feeling the blood to drip through her fingers and slowly soak her dress. Watching how they kept on delivering strikes at one another in a furious struggle, twirling and jumping while completely immersed into the ongoing fray between them, the gypsy girl casting helpless glances at Henry as like so many times before she didn't know what to do. Everything that was happening being so out of her control that all she could do was simply stare, her eyes shortly visiting Carina who was still trying to pull out the Trident, without succeeding. As she then followed Salazar to bring Henry's body around upon managing to grab Jack's wrist after his previous deflect, prying the blade from the pirate's hand by landing his hard against Jack's cutlass again and now rendering him weaponless, her curtly coming to realize that perhaps the power of the Trident would drive Salazar out of Henry's body. It then however proving that there was no time to execute such a plan as now defenceless against his adversary Jack was only left the flee once Salazar's sword swiftly made an attempt of slaying him. Driving the pirate to retreat and climb over another boulder that cut his escape route, with a rattled frown Carmen realizing she couldn't just stand there and watch Salazar use Henry to kill him when a new strike of the Spaniard's sword came close to finishing Jack off. As Carmen's eyes wandered in her fervent thought she then came to glance down at her pendant, it sticking out of the formed tear in her gown, and with a tiny spark of an idea she pulled it out. Placing the Sacred Eye onto her palm to gaze at it with dithering eyes as then came to think back to a certain moment in her life when against all of her beliefs concerning the supernatural she'd perhaps laid witness to something that now could be of use in saving Henry. Carmen knowing what she'd all those years ago seen her grandmother do possibly being just as she'd always thought it to be, mere superstition and made belief. A long shot of the most obscure nature, and even if it was at least partially true it would only be a temporary solution...A way to restrain the murderous essence currently within the lad...But did she have a choice?

Upon considering this, in grave hesitation trying to make her mind and decide between her disbelief and wish to believe, Jack tumbled down from the boulder. Carmen now shifting her gaze onto the dagger that was still tucked under the waistband of her dress, releasing a frightened, unsure breath, while slowly inching her fingers towards it as Salazar jumped onto the rock. To point his sword down at the momentarily vulnerable pirate laying prone on the ocean floor with a content, malicious smile before prepared to leap to him blade first, to impale him. Sudden taken aback outcry of Carina's however catching their attention, and Carmen turned her focus from the knife hovering over her palm to the young woman, who had after all managed to release the Trident from its rocky pedestal with a tumultuous rumbling sound. Resulting it getting drawn within the powerful spray of water that sprung out from the crack of the stone where the Trident had previously laid in, the Trident swirling rapidly as it darted through the air, ending up stuck to the corals of the nearby cliffs, as the abrupt surge of water had catapulted Carina far away from the mound after she'd kicked the base of the Trident to set it free. The strong spray also taking the best of surprised Salazar as it hit directly at him, causing him to also tumble down from his standing position and saved Jack from getting slain by him in a nick of time, realizing this was her chance Carmen biting her lip as with a frown she dug the blade into her skin. Starting to slice her palm, to create the needed symbol as Carina staggered to a sitting position, her eyes flying to the Trident and immediately she crawled towards it. Salazar recovering as swiftly, and also he then abandoned all thoughts of killing Jack to dash over to it.

Seeing this Carmen finished carving the symbol. With a determined breath her then removing her amulet and without giving herself time to back out of her debatable plan running over to Salazar who was kneeling down to take the Trident from Carina. After squeezing her bloodied hand around the Sacred Eye for a moment her throwing her arms out, wrapping the necklace around Henry's neck before pressed her cut palm against his forehead. Both Salazar and Carina giving her a nonplussed look, before the Spaniard this time forgot all about the Trident while proceeded to shake the gypsy girl off of his possessed body. Not any more than Carina or Jack knowing what she was doing as foreign words begun to stream her lips, Carmen securing herself to the lad as tightly as was able despite of Salazar's tries to wrangle himself free. Carina taking a pace back as utterly befuddled she watched how Salazar tried to wrap a palm around the strange pendant she'd seen Carmen wear, one which was know glowing strange red light at the ominous behest of whatever it was that the gypsy girl was saying, to jerk it off from his neck, but failed. With the face of Henry Salazar making an angry grimace as his fingers seemed to be repelled from touching the symbol, as if burnt, angered by this Salazar whipping around and accidentally slamming an arm against the Trident. Causing Carina to be thrown down onto the ground again where Carmen squeezed her knees against Henry's torso, putting all her might into the mantra she was chanting. Hoping to get the words right, as now moved her hand to grip to Henry's shirt, keeping the locket tightly against the lad's neck.

Please, Henry. Fight him. You have to drive him out, now! Carmen pleaded in her mind, continuing to repeat the words she'd once overheard regardless of knowing what she was actually saying or doing, simply mimicking what she'd once spied her grandmother to do during a ritual of invoking spirits. The gypsy girl praying Henry to be conscious now as Salazar begun to weaken under the effect of the gypsy locket to take back the control of his body, Salazar's struggling against Carmen's hold intensifying until the scorching feel of the Sacred Eye against his borrowed skin started to take a toll on him, with furious grunts him refusing to give in. Although not either knowing what witchery was it that caused him then begin to slip out of the boy's body, bit by bit starting to drive him out of him, him fighting back with every still existing fibre of his own essence. However the actual pain the amulet and the spoken Romani words amplifying its power brought to him the more he resisted then growing too great, and with an irated cry Salazar felt himself to be finally sucked straight out of the lad's body. Carmen releasing a sigh of most importantly relief but also surprised dread while Carina and Jack watched in dismay as in that following instant Salazar fully lost the toil between himself and the supernatural force influencing him, his spirit getting forcefully driven out of Henry...and sucked right within Carmen.

In astonishment both Jack and Carina followed how Carmen's eyes closed, not knowing what was happening as Henry's now freed body collapsed, starting to roll down the low hill that the massive rocks created. Carina hurrying to catch him once he keeled over to the ground, where the gypsy girl was thrown backwards, her stumbling a few paces on the brink of fainting until she finally fell to her knees, after checking Henry for any possible injuries Carina shifting her gaze back to Carmen whom she then saw to stir. Writhing oddly as she then released a series of bemoaning utterances, running a fleeting hand across her head before she dug her fingers into the grooves of the rock upon rising. Her amulet to have been finally released from her grip and now laying a little bit farther away, its red glow tardily beginning to fade while detached from the object it had a moment before influenced on. Carmen raising her head and her gaze fixated straight onto the Sacred Eye, until Carina and Jack watched her stand stiffly, addled expression on her face before she raised her hands to gaze at them in confusion. After a brief look of realization pure anger distorting her features into a scornful grimace as she examined herself, upon understanding to have somehow switched bodies to this frail gypsy girl Salazar making an immediate attempt of leaving hers, despite of what his First Mate had said about possessing a living human...That once you did, you most likely would remain in their body for all eternity...Painful twinge than then ran through the body he was currently residing in indeed proving Lesaro to have been right, but for a whole different reason. Gritting his teeth together Salazar staring at the cut open palm of the gypsy girl, taking in the carved replica of the Sacred Eye that he now realized to have previously compelled him to leave the boy's body under the effect of that wicked gypsy curse that had shook his very essence to obtrude him to obey, and which now brought all his intentions of changing a host again to naught...By trapping him into this current mortal he by no means had expected to end up imprisoned in, bringing him more pain the more he then tried to force himself out of the gypsy wench by fighting back the wicked enchantment. For no avail.

"Bruja!" Salazar roared, the understanding of not being able to conquer the whatever magic keeping him fully constrained in this girl's body causing Carmen's voice to distort for his rage so that the real voice of the ghost in possession of her became briefly translucent to the bemused spectators, as he quickly came to surmise what had transpired...That this gypsy jezebel had actually used some type of sorcery to transfer him into her body before sealing him in, that accursed symbol cut into her skin making sure he wouldn't be able to leave it despite of his efforts, too powerful for him to surmount. Now with Carmen's eyes Salazar scowling at the lean feminine figure he wore, once more trying to exit her body, but only found to be completely bound into her flesh, and not only because of the symbol that initially kept him captive. Fathoming it to be the gypsy girl who actually was conscious enough to restrain him, although the Sacred Eye had power enough to make her body his prison, her still attempting to suppress him further while still having some command over her being. The Spaniard smacking an irked tongue at her tries. So, she still tries to oppose me even after successfully hexing me into her body? Well, it hardly matters as long as I am in possession of one to use...

"What you did hardly saves anyone, señorita. You have simply made yourself the means to my end", Salazar mocked, flashing a curt spiteful smile despite of his rage which was yet to subside, until his flaming gaze now moved over to Carina who was still knelt beside Henry. Trying to wake him while still holding the Trident in her grasp, despite of Carmen's attempts to hamper the ghost instead trying to force her body to move, but like the power of the symbol against the ghost, Salazar's determinate hatred proving too strong for her to curb and after some more struggling the Spaniard broke free of Carmen's hindrance and vaulted over to the other young woman. Carina jumping to her feet in alarm as noticed Salazar to come at her again with this new host body, equally ferocious and she could but rise in an attempt to flee when the gypsy girl's forth flung arms had already reached her and her hands were gripping to the Trident. Carina frowning for effort as she tried to keep Salazar from claiming the Trident from her, Salazar's unnatural force as he pulled back the object taking Carina aback as they tugged it back and forth for a while before a sudden burst of the Trident's energy caused her to unexpectedly lose her own grip. With a startled yelp Carina ending up helplessly thrown back again, the hard landing she made causing all air to escape her lungs and she drew in a pained breath upon discovering herself propped up by a cluster of sharp rocks. Salazar instead raising the Trident in momentary wonder until this time around a satisfied smile spread on his lips, him beholding how the green stone in centre of the Trident started to pulsate and he could feel its power seep into him, suddenly intoxicated by it him closing his eyes. Convinced that like he'd figured earlier after possessing the lad regardless of the warnings of his men the Trident would now free him from this wretched girl's body, gypsy magic or not. However despite of a moment of waiting and nothing happening, the Trident simply continuing to radiate its omnipotent power in his hold without releasing him, Salazar giving it an annoyed, disillusioned frown. Looking down at Carmen's body in chagrin before raised his eyebrows at the bloody symbol still keeping him tied to her without healing like the gash he'd gained from Jack while fighting him in the lad's body. The enchantment the gypsy had cast upon him apparently proving too effective to be broken so easily.

I suppose you'll just have to continue lend me a hand, señorita, he told her, with a frustrated sigh accepting that as long as he would still remain a victim of the curse put upon him he would have to remain in this body. The unsettled flutter he then could feel tingle in his borrowed chest signaling him of Carmen's objections, but not caring about the gypsy's sentiments he then straightened the mighty weapon in his grip. Making him now the most powerful being, no...man in all across the seven seas, and upon realizing this he then shifted the Trident slightly. To gaze beyond it at the man who was cowering behind the same boulder a few steps away from him, petrified to his spot at the sight of him standing there in the gypsy girl's body, wielding the very thing he'd raced all the way here to collect in hopes of it saving him...And which now would be his downfall. Salazar's voice that then once more seeped through Carmen's own but sinister as he called out to him, content grin raising the corners of the gypsy girl's lips as those same black marks appeared again, spooking the pirate as Jack watched them slither around the gypsy girl's mien to prove she was no longer completely human.

"Hola, Sparrow."

With a unnerved frown Jack retreated from the rock behind he'd been standing as now followed Salazar to turn his focus to the wall of water, pointing the Trident towards it, and the moment he next moved it to the side the sea followed. The water obeying his command as he moved the Trident around experimentally, discovering the key to wielding it by now forcing the ocean to adhere to his will with a few more gestures made with the weapon, before Salazar next cast the Trident to Jack's direction. Feeling to have become one with the object upon now standing there facing his long time enemy, on the brink of gaining his revenge. At the alluring thought of this him releasing a ghastly laugh until his anger took the better of him again, him glowering down at agitated Jack.

"I hate Sparrow, I hate sparrow...Die, Sparrow."

Salazar swung the Trident vigorously, causing another spray of water to emerge but this time from the surrounding sea, and sent it straight towards Jack who was naturally caught by it. Him getting struck by the spiralling spout of water and ended up flung far away from the youth like Carina before, landing against the cliffs with a strained huff, but he wasn't given time to take a breather when another water spray was currently soaring towards at him. Him barely missing it by rolling to the side as Carina pushed the wet strands off of her face and ran to out cold Henry, shaking his shoulders before captured his cheeks, once more trying to wake him.

"Henry, he's walking on land!" she exclaimed, briefly glancing over to Salazar possessing Carmen and seeing her to approach Jack with slow, menacing steps while swinging the Trident again. To deliver a third attack against the once again cornered pirate who had no place to escape the incoming reckoning Salazar was bringing upon him, where once again ignoring them Carina stared down at the unconscious lad. When he didn't respond gently smacking his cheek, trying to arouse him. "Please. Salazar's got Carmen! Henry wake up! You have to wake up, now! He's killing Jack!"

Once again clueless of what to do Carina then frowned at the lad in frustration. No matter what she seemed to do not snapping him out of his blacked out state, and so she then stretched to the side to push a hand into the sea to splash Henry's face with water, despite of it not having much effect since they were constantly rained on by continuous drizzle of the ever living surges towering above them. Her directing a hateful leer at Salazar's crewmen who were still lurking at the other side of the water wall, ogling back menacingly.

"Oh, piss off!"

Before Carina could splatter the lad with the handful of water, another outcry of Jack's suddenly did wake him, Henry's eyes snapping open and him jolting to a half sitting position. Momentarily confused about where he was and what he was doing until he remembered, how Salazar had taken over his body back in the Silent Mary in order to follow Jack over to the island and brought him here to Poseidon's Tomb, until Carmen had interfered and...He didn't know what had happened after she had wrapped that amulet around his neck just as Salazar had been close to obtaining the Trident. However without giving it much thought how he'd exactly been released from the possession, the lad now turning his eyes to Carina who smiled at him faintly in delight. Again baffled by not finding Carmen there beside her the lad's eyes then immediately darting about his vicinity to find her, only to have him straighten in puzzlement as he behold the gypsy girl stand a few meters away from them. The actual Trident in her hands, for the further shock of Henry using it to create a large column of water that spun around in accordance to the swirling motion of the Trident, to trap Jack, who apparently was caught within the waves, and whom she was seemingly trying to drown. Malicious smile on her lips as she rotated the Trident, the column getting bigger and bigger, occasional shouts of distress escaping the pirate's lips when he managed to get a breath of air during the ceaseless tossing and turning within the supernatural swells. In bewilderment of both the power of the Trident now presented right in front of his eyes and the unheard-of behaviour of the gypsy girl currently channeling it Henry scrambling to his briefly a bit unsteady feet, still a bit shaken due to the previous experience of having a ghost within his body. Blinking at the sight of Carmen clearly trying to kill Jack, until with an addled shake of his own head he ran towards her, not hearing a word about Carina's warnings as was too busy being astounded by Carmen just like she had been before. Her acting like a whole different person by spitefully laughing at Jack's torment, and perhaps the answer to that should've been obvious to him.

"Carmen, stop it!" he bellowed, taking hold of the Trident to cease its motion, and indeed due to the distraction his arrival created the falter in Salazar's concentration in controlling the Trident caused the column of water to disperse. Jack once again falling painfully amongst the nearby corals as Salazar snapped the gypsy girl's head towards Henry, to stare back at him while he eyed at her quizzically. Henry shaking his head again upon having those hard eyes rivet to him which definitely weren't Carmen's, his hand now moving downward to land on her wrist to give it a retardant squeeze. "What are you doing? Stop, you're killing him!"

"Henry", she said sweetly, or as he was then to discover Salazar stated as flashed the lad a slight smile, shivers running across the lad's skin as he now instantly recognized whom he was staring at. It also now becoming crystal clear how Carmen had managed to chase Salazar out of him before, upon noticing the blood covered hand that grasped around the Trident's hilt Henry releasing a stunned breath, Salazar tilting a regrettable head at him. "I'm afraid that señorita Carmen is unable to comply to your request, varón."

Out of the blue Salazar turned his focus from Jack to Henry fully, trying to pry the lad loose by shoving him backwards with the Trident, but he didn't let go. Grabbing to it as instead tried the same as Carina before, to claim it back from the ghost currently residing within the gypsy girl. Causing her features now to be consumed by rancor due to his resistance and they made a turn during their mutual attempt of shaking off the other. Salazar's grown power also surprising Henry, the lad feeling himself even more inferior against his supernatural brawn from before due to the effect of the Trident while he tried his best to pry it loose from the Spaniard's hands. As a response to his attempts Salazar's wrath only increasing, and after a moment of brief struggle with the lad he begun to wrench him. Around and back and forth with such strength and ferocity that Henry was taken aback it to reside in those delicate arms of the gypsy girl that rended against his, until the lad was eventually bested by the heated Spaniard whose hatred proved greater in comparison to his simple desire to defeat him.

"Carmen, you have to resist him! You have to cast him out!" Henry exclaimed, trying to find a trace of the gypsy girl from those otherwise so familiar eyes but which now were burning for such hostility unlike to Carmen, as he'd come face to face with her ire to differentiate it from Salazar's utter obsessive thrive to murder Jack. Same that now led Carmen's hands to keep a steady hold of the Trident, the lad in the end not being able to conjure up enough of the gypsy girl's control to slow the Spaniard down, and Salazar succeeded in separating Henry from himself by now pulling him against him before striking him unexpectedly to his ribs with the Trident's hilt. With an agonized grimace Henry releasing his hold as a new surge of the Trident's power shot out of it, to hurl him backwards and evoking some odd flashes within his mind when he'd come into contact with the raw power that lied within the object, as Salazar then swung the Trident at him sharply. It barely missing him and the lad continued to stumble away from Salazar. Him eventually losing his footing upon avoiding yet another blow of the weapon, but just as Salazar twirled it around to sink the pointy ends of the Trident into him, he rolled out of the way and took hold of it again. Locking the Trident once more between his hands and Carmen's, and he saw Salazar to squint at him in aggravation, the smile that now twitched at the corners of Carmen's lips but grim.

"You're starting to become a pest yourself, boy", Salazar mused, causing the lad to remember someone else whom he'd heard say something similar, in utter vexation as he then tried to pull the Trident from Henry's fingers instead of simply killing him. Failing, the lad simply leering back at him.

"You let Carmen go."

"Sadly varón, it cannot be done...As it is she who has refused to release me."

Henry frowned, noticing how Salazar now also glanced down at the bloody palm that had now clasped around Henry's hand in turn to unfasten his fingers before peering at Carmen's amulet that now also Henry noticed to have fallen during the earlier scuffle, half buried in the sand. After a moment of thought him coming to realize it to have not perhaps been the rosary that had protected her from Salazar and his men back at the Triangle, but that pendant alone...While mulling over this and finding it likely the lad refused to give in, with another jaded grunt Salazar then surprising him by actually kicking him. The strike leaving the lad momentarily dazed and he could feel blood to trickle down his nose due to the sharp contact Carmen's knee had made with his face as he fell onto his back, closing his eyes for unexpected ache shooting across his skull as he was on the brink of fainting, noticing how Salazar then immediately ignored him upon starting to approach Jack again. Carina hurrying over to him to lift him up as Henry cleared his head, realizing that he couldn't alone do anything to drive Salazar out of Carmen, as it seemed the Spaniard himself was unable of doing that as well, even while having the Trident and its unlimited power at his very disposal. Henry sitting up again hastily to watch how Salazar resumed his equally brutal battering of Jack, like before with a single raise of the Trident creating a wave that captured the disoriented pirate who had no chance of running and trashed him around, flinging Jack across the air and causing him to crash against several hard surfaces before eventually catapulting him straight into the proximate ocean. His men taking this as a chance to maul him in their own bottled up anger towards the pirate, while Henry stood up again, thinking feverishly as one of the Mary's crewmen who'd grabbed Jack met his end after refusing to let go when the buccaneer was hauled back within the gorge. Henry knowing that should he attack Salazar again he would simply throw him back with a mere wave of the Trident, potentially killing him before he could do a thing to help either Jack or Carmen. Upon thinking this the lad then simply staring at the possessed gypsy girl as she rammed Jack against another boulder, abruptly something he then recollected Carina to have said once after embarking from St. Martin then popping into his head out of the blue. Was it thanks to whatever he'd been dreaming about earlier or what was it that he'd just seen visions of after getting flung back by the Trident, after also reviewing everything he had come to know about the legend that had led them to this point him suddenly thinking of a possible solution.

"Power of the Sea", he stated, to himself and at first bemusing the young woman by his side who stared back at him in wonder, nonplussed, her gaze traveling between the pensive young man and the brutal beating unfolding right in front of them.

"What?"

"The Power of the Sea..."

"To release the Power of the Sea, all must divide..." Carina murmured then, in slow realization as then met Henry's eyes and was subjected to that remarkable look he was giving her to lead her to the right direction, them soon reaching an understanding after a moment of thought on Carina's part. Both of their attention then getting drawn to the Trident in Carmen's hands while under the same assumption, Carina's eyes widening slightly as she figured to have finally seen through the clue she'd found from the cover of her journal. "If the Trident holds all the power, then..."

"...every curse is held inside it", Henry finished, after gaining a confirmation from Carina's concurring reaction his focus returning back to Jack, who this time around was thrown back to the ocean floor after being flipped in the air recklessly. Salazar simply standing there watching in triumph as Jack tried to catch his breath, coughing out the water he'd come to swallow during the past minutes of ending up completely toyed with by the Trident wielding dead man. As Jack begun to propel himself to his feet after lifting himself to his knees from the hunched position he'd landed in, Salazar putting away the Trident briefly to approach him. With purposefully dawdling footsteps coming closer, to prolong the inevitable he knew Jack to be half praying for by now as he cowered there, utterly defeated and miserable while in his enemy's unquestionable hold he couldn't anymore wriggle himself out of. But despite of Salazar's beliefs Jack proved to still hold some dignity, the pirate gazing up to the nearing spectre defiantly while a playful smile was stuck to his lips, for Salazar's grave disappointment and intended exasperation the pirate not conducting himself in any way defeated, but completely the opposite...Just like all those years ago when they'd found themselves practically in the same situation, Salazar marveling over his certain victory until this scum of a pirate jeered at him for it...Like now.

"As I've told you before...Surrender to me now, and I'll let ye...live", Jack spoke, wiping off the trickle of blood he'd coughed out due to the previous, relentless battering he'd gained upon flashing a roguish smile at Salazar. However his words almost running out at the downright seething look on the gypsy girl's face, her every feature mirroring the deep rooted enmity that those words made the Spaniard feel due to their familiarity and how they made him painfully once again remember the way he'd died. How he'd been bested by this pirata vermin that even now, at the moment of his ultimate demise, had the gall to talk down on him. Him, the terror of all pirates of the world even in his death.

"Ay, you want me to surrender?" Salazar asked, menacingly as this time allowed his voice to cloak Carmen's once again while came to stand in front of Jack, raising the Trident so that it hovered between them. Jack placing his hat back on his head as found himself briefly speechless by that loathing squint he received from the possessed gypsy girl, whom he could've easily believed to act this way if he didn't know for a fact it to be Salazar pulling all the strings now, glancing down at the Trident warily as replied.

"Maybe."

"No, no, hombre. This is where your legend is going to end, Jack...This is where the Sparrow shall fly over his final sunrise...This, is where the trail finally, ends!" Salazar said. His voice rising into a baleful bellow and he acted fast, turning the Trident around to sink it straight into Jack's flesh once the man had gotten back on his feet, and as Henry and Carina took a startled step forward they followed how it truly made contact with the miscreant's chest. Jack making a fearful, chagrined grimace himself as his hands gripped around the tips of the Trident in an instinctive way to protect himself. Salazar simply pushing him back during Jack's efforts to shove him away, victorious, and his applied pressure against the Trident only intensified once Jack found himself backed against a cliff. On the verge of dying. "Die now, Sparrow."

"No!" Carina screamed, sharing Henry's panic, as by the look on Jack's face it was obvious his life to be hanging by a thread. The pirate being close to powerless against Salazar but stubbornly hanged on, not allowing himself to be completely skewered, and to make this his not so glorious end unlike he'd ever imagined to be his demise after everything he'd gone through and most importantly survived in his life, he persisted. Looking Salazar square in the eye not to show any sort of weakness against him, his gaze but sombre when he replied. Finally that same ol' Jack Sparrow all those spread rumors told about standing there, facing the danger with unwavering resolve and courage that had always been the base of those stories, one way or another.

"Death has eluded me for years, mate. It can still wait for me a few more...For I'm not ready to die."

"Oh, no, no, you're wrong, Jack. Because only I will be leaving here, once again, alive!" Salazar spat, to emphasize that him charging forth to drive the Trident through Jack, the pirate bending backwards due to the thrust. Feeling his hands to shake due to the act of pushing back the death fate was currently bestowing upon him with each millimetre that the Spaniard was able to inch the Trident further into his chest. His wrists in fact feeling like breaking, but with a laborious frown Jack proved himself the dogged, tenacious scoundrel he had always known to be by enduring. Not for the life of him agreeing to admit defeat to Salazar, even if the price of it would be coming to pass in the following seconds they remained interlocked to one another...The scale of their battle of wills continuing to tilt, but as was beginning to be clear, on favour of the ghost fuelled up by Poseidon's power...During that instant of plain disadvantage Jack was battling for his life his thoughts stirring, coming up with any possible way to escape the snag he was in, to put an end to Salazar's plans. His mind ending up swarming with thoughts about the Trident as his eyes darted about the gorge and his vicinity for any sign of salvation, his gaze in the end fixating onto the object in question once he realized something to block the Trident's contact with his chest. Remembering then the journal he'd picked up and stuffed within his breast pocket. With a small smile like the lad and Carina a little away from him coming to consider the legend and all the unrevealed clues he also had learned from the youth, coupled with the information he already had of the current situation and its stakes him then miraculously making a decisive face as came up with a plan. After hearing Henry and Carina's exchange mulling over their words briefly before reached a similar conclusion but much more insightful one, where the lad and the lass were still unaware of what to do with the knowledge they had the pirate now shifting his tell-taling gaze to Henry. With one more push propelling Salazar backwards just an ounce for him to gain an opening to convey his train of thought to the nonplussed lad that might've just come to save them all...including the gypsy he was so enamored with.

"Henry!" he exclaimed, noticing Salazar to make a passing quizzical frown at his abrupt resolve and the fact that despite of the fatal blow he'd delivered he was still standing there breathing, while Jack locked gazes with Henry. Making sure the boy saw him glance down at the Trident remarkably before all his focus was on the Spaniard again. This time instead of trying to push him away keeping him but anchored to him with steady hands as long as it took Henry to figure out his plan, luckily the lad demonstrating a rather quick wit for a son of that not at times so bright blacksmith and realized what he was after.

"Divide", Henry mused, suddenly understanding everything as the pieces begun to lock in place after he thought over the diary's clue and watched Jack to look down at the Trident when Salazar bettered his hold of it. To run the man finally through, the pirate's mien however divulging everything Henry needed to now to act as Carina once again turned to him for answers. As Jack called out to his name again more urgently the lad delivering by meeting her eyes before pointing to the Trident contemplatively once he managed to see through the shroud of figurative speech. "Divide...Break."

"Break the Trident and it'll break every curse at sea!" Carina deduced until they finished her interpretation of his remark together, in a mutual revelation, Henry's hand immediately flying to the handle of his sword as he and Carina followed Salazar to summon the last bit of his superior strength to slay his enemy. Jack's earnest features getting smoothed by alarm as both he and the Spaniard wielding the scythe that was about to cut him down knew him to be finished, but just like the buccaneer had intended Henry had understood him to have been simply buying him time to make the one conclusion that would save his neck. Those seconds he'd endowed him being enough, as Henry darted forth. While Salazar was occupied with finally ramming that Trident into Jack using that as his chance to sneak upon the unsuspecting Spaniard, the dead man getting alerted of his presence only by the outcry that left Henry's lips as he then raised his blade. Salazar loosening his grip of the Trident upon turning around in bemusement to see how the lad was currently leaping towards them, this unexpected assault made not at him or Jack occurring so fast that Salazar didn't have time to move the Trident out of the lad's reach before he along with the others behold Henry's cutlass to strike down at the Trident's hilt. Salazar drawing in but a brisk breath of shock as he watched the almighty weapon of the Greek Sea God to be broken, cut in half by a mere rusted steel of a pirate sword, something so powerful shattering like a piece of mere dried wood...Falling apart.

The ensued destruction of the green stone imbedded into the Trident caused a new, but this time much more powerful surge of raw, now unrestrained energy to break free from within it as before. All four feeling the blast to tear through them savagely, agitating their very souls and almost bringing them all down as the massive shockwave of energy spread all around them in the speed of light and carried across the nearby body of water. In green pulses piercing everything from simple sea life to the surrounding sea with devastative force and stretching to the very ends of the earth undoubtedly as from the grandeur of the blast could've been deduced. The release of Poseidon's power seeming like upsetting the very balance of their universe, as the minute the vessel of that grand might had been broken the ocean shook extensively and all that resided within it was either simply stirred from stagnant existence or like those corals at the bottom of it were ripped aweight into the formed whirpools of water the blast had left at its wake. To disrupt the previously calm surging of the waves towering upon them until the walls of water then swayed dangerously for a moment, the distant creaking of wood telling them even the wreckages of the ships far behind them to have been budged from the pointy rocks that they'd been stuck to for years due to the fleeting turmoil of the sea. All attention however then drawing back to the destroyed Trident and the flabbergasted Spaniard still clasping to the remains of it.

Henry, Jack and Carina watched perplexed as Salazar let go of the pieces of the Trident's hilt, abruptly staggering drastically after gaining a direct dose of the object's power. It finally overpowering him and causing him to stumble forward, still inside the gypsy girl's body, but unlike earlier the three could see the Spaniard to struggle within her more than before. Really fighting his way out of her, or at least the previous eruption of power made him to, like the gypsy symbol now the breaking of the Trident starting to dispel his ghost out of Carmen. With distinct wails of both pain and confusion Salazar writhing against the pulsating feel of the Trident's energy ravaging inside the possessed body of the gypsy girl, the Sacred Eye still holding a grip of him faintly, but finally he was able to break free from it once he suddenly could feel his essence to begin to change. Turning from that vacillating and ethereal to something more earthly, feeling a life to spark within his soul once again that decades had been but empty nonexistent memory, which now was regenerated by this unnatural power coursing in the gypsy's veins. Henry actually dropping his sword for awe as he behold the clear spirit of Salazar to emerge from within Carmen on several occasion, her bemoaning voice still dictated by his when he once again was about to leave her body, but this time all thanks to the disposing of the Trident and all the curses of the seas which had also broken the hex Carmen had put him under he was freed. With a brief instant of more struggling the three finally watching how Salazar practically fell out of Carmen. Drained of his previous strength but finally released from the constrains of her flesh, now with his own two feet him continuing to teeter forward until his arms found a boulder to secure to. Carmen's eyes snapping closed again once the dominance of her body had once more been returned back to her, as Salazar drew in another shocked breath upon discovering the emptiness inside him to be replaced with warmth and actual feel of life, his sense of touch returning, Henry vaulting forth to snatch the falling gypsy girl into his arms as she naturally went out like a candle. Just like he had after his own possession, but still upon ignoring the Spaniard for a moment to settle Carmen onto his knees to take a look at her he didn't recall this fact. Casting a concerned look down at her pale face until took hold of her injured palm. Frowning at the still bleeding gash in disbelief, until squeezed it into his, to perhaps use the pain to awaken the girl...But for no avail, her looking to be barely even breathing as naturally she didn't respond to his calls. Like Salazar her being too weary due to the forceful separation of her and her momentary inner demon for his voice to reach her.

"Carmen?...Carmen!"

With no result Henry only sighed, taking a better hold of the girl's limp form before scooped her up and lifted her from the ground, to turn back around to follow how bit by bit the signs of the curse that had plagued Salazar were disappearing. The ghostly appearance getting replaced by human characteristics, the black veins and cracks on his complexion vanishing to eventually leave but once again living and breathing man to be sprawled against that rock, Salazar's head hanging downward during the final course of his change from a dead man to alive one until he soon brought up a tentative, incredulous hand. To feel his face, his once again intact, warm skin before the breaths that brushed against his fingers and the distinct hammering of a heart buried into his chest caused him to draw in a stunned, but mostly delighted breath this time. With tardy realization him coming to understand to feel actual life inside him again, one by one his crewmen also bursting through the walls of water to gain a breath of air, while under the same comprehension of to have started to turn into their living selves again dragging in more breaths they hadn't even fathomed to miss taking that much.

Henry backed away from Salazar and his men, ending up standing in a line with Carina and Jack who were doing the same as him, all of them ogling at the Spaniards when they regained their senses and begun to understand them to have been freed from the Triangle's curse. The lad's eyes peering for possible exists for the four of them to flee through until they would come to remember their presence, until the scene unfolding in front of them then caused him to be reassured of the one thing that then popped into his mind...That after years of planning he'd actually managed to find the Trident and just like he'd seven years ago promised his father, freed him. With a surprised, incredulous blink him seeing these men to recover their humanity, voicing out the thought that was circling in all three of their heads.

"All curses are broken."

Boisterous, overjoyed laughter now erupted from several of the Spaniards' lips as they took in the changes in their previously lifeless forms, exchanging delighted glances with their comrades at the sight of returned tangible limbs, as once more embraced the miracle that was life, exhuming it from all around them in their shared sense of elation. Salazar's boisterous voice as well to have joined his crewmen's laughter, but after a moment of him simply eyeing at his solid body of once again living, mortal flesh, he spread his arms. Facing his crewmen.

"Finally, muchachos. We are flesh and blood! We are free!"

Translations

"Ten cuidado"= Careful.

"Bruja!" = Witch!

"Muchachos" = Boys/Men...