The sword pierced through the mermaid's body with a sickening squish of metal on flesh. Blood mixed with sea salt, bitter and ripe filled Will's nostrils as he ripped his sword back and the dead mer-creature fell from the ship.
"Will!" Elizabeth yelled again as he started to turn, feeling something grab his wrist, the one clutching his cut-glass. He had barley enough time to turn before the weed was slashed in two, half falling over the side of the Pearl, the other remaining coiled along his arm like a snake.
"Are you alright?" Elizabeth asked, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him back.
"I'm fine," Will promised, looking down at his wife. "Will?"
"He'll be fine. He's on the beach, remember? He'll be safe." But Will Turner knew his wife too well and knew that the crease between her eyebrows said what she wouldn't. He may be safe, but for how long?"
"If you two would stop staring longingly into each other's eyes," They heard a gruff voice call behind them. "We could use those swords ye have and the pirates attached to them!"
"Aye," Will said to Gibbs, and pressed a hand to Elizabeth's cheek. "Be careful."
"I was about to say the same to you." Elizabeth replied and pressed her lips pressing to his. "We'll be fine, won't we?"
. . .
"What do we do now?"
Marina leaned her back against the cave wall, her tail laying half in and half out of the water, staring intently at her parents. The three knelt close together in the dimly lit cave, Phillips arm protectively around his daughter and one hand clutching onto her mother's.
"We'll wait," Phillip said, pushing back a strand of Marina's dark hair away from her face. "A few hours, when the fighting is at its thickest and then we'll escape. You can swim and your mother will help me survive under the water. We'll find somewhere to go, somewhere far away-"
"We're going to run away?" Marina exclaimed, her voice echoing off the walls sounding shrill even to herself. "Just leave everyone to die?"
"Marina," Her mother started her hazel eyes wide and filled with concern. "Your father is right. It is best for us to leave while we can."
"We can't just sit here," Marina said, her hands curling into fists at her sides. "We can't sit here while they fight and then run away like cowards while they kill each other out there!"
"Marina," Phillip said, tiredly. He looked exhausted, dark shadows had crept up under his eyes and he looked like he'd aged five years since they had entered White Capp Bay, but he was still her father. "You know that this is the safest place for us."
"I don't care if it's the safest place," Marina said, pulling out from her father's embrace. "People are going to die out there. Pirates and mermaids."
"That isn't our concern," Phillip said sternly. "My job is to keep you and your mother safe."
"What about Will?" Marina demanded. "And his parents? And Jack and Angelica? They're your friends!"
"They can take care of themselves. I saw Will off on the beach, far away from the boat. He'll be safe there."
"But-"
"We have no part in their war." Syrena said, her hazel eyes stern. "I will protect you and I will protect Phillip, anyone who may stand in the way is my enemy, pirate or mermaid."
"It's not fair!" Marina yelled. "There are innocent people-"
"Pirates who have kidnapped me and killed everyone aboard my ship?" Phillip asked. "And mermaids who have killed thousands. No one is truly innocent, Marina. This is for the best."
"You don't mean that." Marina whispered. "You…You always said to look past a man for his sins and see the soul beneath as he truly is and as God sees him. You said any soul can be saved."
Phillip dropped his head. "I'm sorry."
"Marina," Syrena said, reaching out for her child but she Marina slid away, putting more and more space between herself and her parents.
"You can't just give up." Marina snapped. "You can't hide here and pretend it is the right thing to do because that is the only way for us to be safe. That's not who you are. That's not who either of you are. I know it isn't."
"I will do what it takes to keep you safe. That is all that matters and to hell with the rest of them."
Marina gasped, tears, when had she started crying, rushing down her pale cheeks. "You…you're a coward. Both of you are. You want to keep me here because you think that it's the only way to keep me safe, but what then? Will you always trap me when something threatens us? Like you trapped me with the necklace so I wouldn't know what I really was? Because it would be safer?" She turned to her mother. "And will you abandon me because it will be better for me not to know you?" Then to her father. "And lie to me about it in the name of my safety?"
Phillip narrowed his eyes. "Marina-"
"I won't sit idly by as people, innocent people and people that I care about die." Marina said, sitting up straighter. "I'm sorry."
Before they could ask why, Marina had thrown off the jacket and dove into the water, swimming fast, blindingly fast from between the rocks. Without the jacket giving her resistance, she swam, dodging sharper edges and diving through smaller passage ways she'd never gone through, weaving a maze between herself and her family that they couldn't hope to follow.
She continued to swim, feeling her way by sight through some of the darker caves until, finally she found light and an escape to the caverns. She eased herself up from the water slowly, eyes barley skimming the surface, just enough to make sure she was alone before she burst through te waves.
Marina looked around. She'd appeared in one of the wider pools, one edge ending in the rocky face of the caverns, the other a sandy beach and eventually, jungle and weaving between the trees, a roaring channel leading toward the sea, perfect.
She'd started toward the mouth of the channel when she'd heard the snap, a branch cracking under a weight too heavy to be human and Marina ducked back under the water, moving soundlessly behind a rocky ledge that concealed her body when the figure appeared. Lean, slight, and in the moonlight, the unmistakable gleam of a cut-glass. Pirate.
Maybe, she could get away, but the figure was blocking the path between her and the water. She took a breath, peaking from the surface and decided she would have to be quick.
Marina ducked back down and went, pushing from behind the rock and attempting to rush past the figure. For a moment, she'd almost made it when the figure fell into her path and she doubled back in the shallow water.
Then, a sting, the deep prick from her tail that pinned her into place. Marina knew better than to trash and try to escape, the sword had pierced her through to the ground and she pressed her back against the rocky ledge, trapped.
She didn't want to, but Marina looked up at her attacker, who held the cut-glass still, his hand wrapped tightly around the handle pinning Marina in place and she felt all the air leave her lungs.
"Will."