Early morning, deep in the Caribbean....
Odia hovered in the crystal room, keeping one eye on Big Whoop's 'guest,' now dozing with head and one shoulder against the crystal that contained his sister. It must have been a horribly uncomfortable position to sleep in for someone who actually had joints, she reflected--not that she cared how he felt, which she didn't. He deserved it. Even if he'd been someone else's father and not her own, anyone who ran away and left his wife and child in danger deserved what he got. This is justice, she reminded herself. Justice.
The truth was, he had her utterly confused. She had thoroughly enjoyed her revenge yesterday and most of the night, dragging him through the most painful caverns in the underground chambers of Monkey Island. She knew them all and had made a special effort to visit the ones with smouldering-hot floors, the ones coated in slime, the ones with sharp, rocky, and jagged projections, dragging him after. She was amazed he still had feet. Follow the trail of bloody footprints and you would find them here, their last stop. Might as well add emotional pain to physical pain.
Yes, she'd had her revenge and found it sweet. What bothered her was that, even after she'd put him through the worst, he refused to give up his statement that he was forced to leave without her. She found that a little unsettling. Screaming and cursing she could deal with--that would only confirm his guilt in her eyes. But the longer he remained silent, the more her conviction eroded away.
Weakness. That must be it. He doesn't admit it because he's afraid of Daddy and too guilty to admit it to me. Satisfied that she could once again judge the man who was her father as nothing but a villain and a coward, she relaxed, secure in her place as the one on the side of the right. Sides were very important in her world. Right and wrong were clearly defined, most of the time. Curse you for clouding the issue, she thought at Guybrush. Things were simple until you came along.
"Odia." The voice came from nowhere, or possibly the walls. It didn't matter. She knew who it was, and she knew no one else could hear it.
"Daddy?"
"Odia my love, bring the prisoner back to my throne room. It looks like enough people survived to put together a rescue party after all."
"Okay, Daddy." Hauling the sleep-deprived man around would surely be entertaining.
Big Whoop caught the gist of her thoughts. "Have fun last night?" The tone was warm and personal, as though this were a joke they shared.
"Oh, yes. But....he still doesn't admit that he's wrong."
"He probably never will. Don't worry about that, Odia. By tomorrow, everything will be put back to where it should be."
"And justice will be served."
"Guilt is guilt, acknowledged or not."
"That's what you always taught me, Daddy."
She sensed his approval. "I taught you well, dear one. Better hurry now...we've got company coming in less than an hour."
She signed off the conversation and hauled Guybrush to his feet. He woke up in mid-step, staggered, winced as his raw-edged and still-bleeding soles came into contact with the gravel. "Odia, why are you doing this to me?" he groaned, pressing a hand to his temple.
Odia just laughed, skipping along playfully ahead of him. "Your girlfriend's here to see you," she taunted.
"Elaine? Here?" He minced along, placing each foot as carefully as he could.
"Not yet. But she will be." She maliciously yanked on the invisible leash, choosing a moment when he was off-balance and nearly pitching him onto his nose. "Hurry up!"
She didn't turn around, and he was too busy trying to save himself from yet another bad fall to notice a tiny flash of light as something darted to the crystal he had just vacated. The new arrival looked at the traces of blood on the gravel, snarled silently, and vanished inside.
The spirits gaped at her or darted out of her way as she barreled through, flying faster than she'd ever dared when she first arrived. Behind her, the Gazing Pool had flooded its banks and water streamed in all directions from the heart of the forest, collecting in pockets wherever there was a low point. One small and roundish hollow was already filling at a fair rate, becoming a much larger version of the original. Chariset, diving for the main square at full speed, didn't spare any energy for a glance behind.
"Chari, la!" A hand arrested her flight with a gentle swat--at the end of that little maneuver, she wound up sitting dizzily on a large palm, looking up into the owner's giant face. He nearly crushed her flat against his chest in an Agnus-sized bear hug the next instant. "You're free!"
"We're all free." Chariset let the embrace linger a moment, then slipped out through his fingers. "Come with me, Agnus." She couldn't have kept the joy out of her tone if she'd tried, and she didn't. "I've got the most wonderful news for you."
They made their way to the center of the spirit world together, not much slower at his walking pace than she had been in full flight. The Threepwood spirits, driven by a vague, instinctual sense that something pivotal was approaching, trickled into in the central square in groups of two or three, waiting for news. Agnus seated himself cross-legged in front of them, and she stood on top of his head, looking out over the gathering crowd. She could feel their tenseness, their curiosity, and she deliberately teased them with her silence, stretching the moment out as long as she could. She would probably never get to do anything like this again.
Her parents finally pushed their way forward. "What do you think you're doing, Catherine?" Dad demanded at her from the ground.
"You're under house arrest until Big Whoop releases you," added her mother. "You're going to make it worse for the rest of us if you stay out!"
That inspired a rising chorus of angry voices. "Yeah, just like last time!" "Get back inside, lawbreaker!" "Haven't you done enough?"
Chariset stood where she was, neither answering them nor backing down, feeling for the right moment to begin. Agnus likewise held his ground, refusing to add his voice to the dissenters--his posture made it obvious that he clearly supported her. Together, they waited.
The tumult went on for some time, but her own parents, her main opponents, had nothing more to say--and without their encouragement the anger of the rest of her family eventually began to subside. Only then did Chariset speak.
"My fellow Threepwoods," she called out, some part of her dispassionately amazed at how quickly the huge group, not quite a mob, fell silent. "Today is the day we have all been waiting for, some of us for years, some for centuries. Today is the day of our freedom from the monster called Big Whoop!"
"Nonsense!" spat Dad, only to be hushed by several other members of the crowd.
Good, she had their attention. Chariset went on quickly before she could lose it.
"You all know the story. The monster kidnaped us and locked us here in the spirit world under the pretense of a contract, an agreement that he swore he would keep for all eternity. He insisted, he vowed that he would never break his word, no matter what we did, no matter what we tried. And he bound us to his rules with his own power as surety to make sure we'd never break them--and then he bound himself to his rules with only his honor to enforce them. And whenever it seemed that anyone else would try to hold him to his word, he made certain that they'd never be able to tell whether he kept it or not. Didn't he? Didn't he just take away our one link to the outside world? Didn't he lock Agnus in the darkness while he murdered his family? Didn't he try to do the same thing to me?"
She tried to lock eyes with the spirits in the crowd from where she stood, fueled by every ghostly head she saw nodding in slow agreement.
"And it worked. We couldn't catch him at it. Not until a priestess of voodoo intervened could we see what he was really up to. But she did--she took me out of the spirit world by force...and I learned what all of you are about to know. Something he would try to hide from you until the bitter end, because he decided you don't need to know all of the truth." Her tone was biting. "Well, I think you do. So here it is. The truth."
She paused again, enjoying the moment. "I have not one, not two, but nine witnesses that Big Whoop, the only one who ever honored the contract, has broken his word. He..has..reneged." She hammered each word home. "The contract is broken! The agreement is shattered! Brothers and sisters, it's finally over. We're free."
Tense silence fell over the square when she finished, but a near-palpable wave of relief, surprise, excitement, dread, and a million yet-unnamed alloy-emotions was sweeping the crowd below. Chariset bit the inside of her lip, forcing herself to remain quiet and wait for them. She'd said all she knew--now they had to decide. Would they believe her? If they don't, they may well tear me to pieces for getting their hopes up...
Even Agnus trembled a little. "Do ya mean that, la?" His tone was hope expecting a cruel disappointment.
"I mean that." She searched her mind for some kind of evidence that would damn Big Whoop once and for all. "Agnus, do we actually have a contract with the monster? Something physical?"
He reached into a pocket on his shirt and actually produced a large piece of paper, about the size of a postcard to him but too large for anyone else to handle.
She was amazed. "We actually do have one."
He brandished the thing and unexpectedly spoke up. "Do ye see this? I h've carried this aroun' for almost three-hundred years. This is tha agreemen' that traps us here. For centuries we treated it like it was someth'n holy...didn' we? But that was over yesterday. Today, it's just paper."
"Well said," Chariset applauded, sotto voce. Then, loud enough to be heard "Tear it, Agnus. Rip it in two. Show us that it's over."
"Stop!" Heads swivelled across the room to this new focus of attention--Mom and Dad, of course, rising up to bracket her. "You know the rules, Agnus! Tear that up and you'll kill us all."
"It's over, Agnus," she insisted, ignoring them. "You've got to believe me."
"I do, la." He raised both hands to the top corners of the card.
"Lawbreaker!" shrieked her mother. "She doesn't care about you! She doesn't care about any of you. All she's ever wanted from this place is to get out again. Who knows what she'd do to get it. Maybe she'd make a bargain with Big Whoop himself--her freedom for your life."
Chariset whirled on them furiously...then stopped. Her old, hazy intuition, the sense of 'wrongness,' crystalized suddenly into a solid truth. "Perhaps," she responded instead, slowly. "Or perhaps you did."
"How dare you accuse us, Catherine?" They hovered on both sides of her now. The crowd below was silent, watching them argue. Agnus held the card steady, still braced to tear it apart.
"Chariset! I see it all now. You've been acting strangely, calling me by the wrong name, preaching a gospel of 'stay here and die' when anyone else tries to preach freedom." She trumpeted the words to the crowd, feeling strangely light-head from the combination of stress and revelation. "You don't object to this because you're afraid for Agnus....or anyone else! You object because you've been working for Big Whoop this entire time."
They lunged at her from both sides, snarling. It was already too late; they'd established their guilt to the entire crowd. But perhaps they could still silence her.
"Tear it, Agnus!" Chariset insisted, darting away before they could close on her.
"You're coming with us," declared the man who looked like her dad (not Dad, not ever again) sharply. "Big Whoop, open the gate!"
Something 'opened' in the reality just above her head--all the warning she got before a vortex of energy seized her and catapulted her into a black cavern she didn't recognize. She flew into the ceiling with a resounding thud, staggered back, only to feel cold chains snapped onto her wrists. Spirit chains. And someone with a firm grip had hold of her arm.
Chariset whipped around angrily, only to meet her own eyes. Her captor was a black-haired but otherwise spectral woman. "Odia..."
"Shut up and get moving," the other snapped, pushing her forward. "Daddy wants to see you."
Oh, I don't think so. She raised her chin and gave her niece her second-best glare. "You can't threaten me. Or even keep me here." The chains were holding firm, which might belie that--but she still wanted to laugh at the sheer absurdity of it all. "What more could you possibly do to me? I'm a ghost."
The daughter of the island blinked, then smiled in a way which was truly sinister. She brought up her other hand and brandished a small glass container at Chariset's nose--a seltzer bottle of a brown-colored fluid. The nozzle was pointed directly at her throat.
Chariset recoiled instinctively. Root beer.
"Oh, I'm sure I can come up with something," remarked Odia casually, sloshing the liquid around. "Thirsty?"
Elaine paused at the edge of the clearing where the Monkey Head once stood, getting her bearings and waiting for the rest of the troop to close up. The Voodoo Priestess and the Necromancer were nowhere in evidence. Holly was back in camp on Dinky Island with Horace, Mort, and Madame Xima, but Nic, the Barbery Trio, Griswold Goodsoup, and the faithful company of soldiers now closed up around her position from all directions. Ahead of them, the gaping maw of Big Whoop's lair.
She could feel her forehead breaking out in a cold sweat at the sight of that dark mouth which had swallowed her family, her husband, and her daughter. She did not want to go down there.
Polly gave her a quizzical cheep, blinking one jet eye at her. "I know," she muttered to the green parrot. "I'm being a coward."
"I wouldn't say that, lass." Elaine jumped a little, startled, as the Scottish giant spoke softly into her other ear.
She must have been wired tighter than she'd thought. "Why do you say that, Haggis?" she asked, taking a few more slow, deep breaths.
"Ye're still going in ther, right?"
"Of course. I just can't seem to get--"
Commotion erupted behind them. She whirled--the bushes were alive with blades in the gray light of dawn--Big Whoop's undead soldiers. Somehow, he hadn't thought to send anything at them but the old standby--and they knew how to deal with those by now. "Nic, Lewis, Harding, and you too, Goodsoup," she snapped, training taking over. "They're all skeletons. Use attack plan alpha."
"Right." The men went to work with cold efficiency.
Attack plan alpha was simple--disarm the skeletons, remove their skulls, and bury them. The headless bodies were all but useless without a brain...or brain cavity..to direct them. She had never understood why a skull without a mind, or eyeballs, for that matter, could function as a head--but then, how could a skeleton without muscles move? Some things, no one can answer.
The last of the skeletons was finished off--none other than a grim Griswold decapitated him, manually turning the boney body around and sending it charging off to do wild battle with the trees. Elaine was still uneasy....and not the only one.
"That was too easy," remarked Cutthroat Bill for all of them.
"Why an attack from behind? Shouldn't he at least be trying to keep us out?" The logical Edward van Helgen looked elegantly puzzled in a way that Elaine slightly envied. She seldom felt as composed as this man always looked.
"Maybe he's got nothing tae fear." The entire Trio had put a word in now. "Or at least he'd like tae make us think he does."
Elaine finally found a way to join the conversation. Of all of them, she knew Big Whoop the best. "That's like him. He thinks he holds all the cards." She stroked Polly's back feathers. "We should be able to surprise him at least once, maybe twice.."
"With Horace to jump us out if things get bad," added Nic, who traded the shovel he'd been wielding for Polly's counterpart, the red parrot Elijah. "We're as prepared as anyone's ever been."
"Right.." This was it. "I'm glad that every one of you is here with me," she told them. "I'm going to do all I can to bring everyone who goes down there back out with me."
"So will we, lass," Haggis joked, straight-faced but with a twinkle in his eye. Some of the soldiers laughed.
Elaine didn't, but she felt slightly warmed nonetheless. "All right. Is everyone ready?"
The roll-call chorus of 'Yes's was rudely interrupted midway--more soldiers. This must have been Big Whoop's main force--both skeletons and tiny lava creatures swarmed towards her men in all directions but one. Several bushes burst into flame around them.
Not that Elaine was just standing there calmly watching--at the moment the attack began in earnest, all of them retreated in a tightly-packed bunch, forcing her to figure out what was attacking them from the confused images she could catch. They had no torches, and the gray light was unreliable--she could make out the dull-colored enemy soldiers only when they moved.
But her men, bold-hearted all, surged forward undaunted, cutting the skeletons down, kicking the skulls away like so many footballs, stomping on swords and breaking them. She caught glimpses of van Helgen, still cool as a sea cucumber, neatly picking weapons out of skeletal hands with pistol shots; Griswold fighting like a much younger man amid the fray; Haggis smashing the creatures apart with heavy fists; Bill proving himself well-named with a shorter but deadly-accurate weapon. For a moment, it looked like yet another easy victory.
Motion in the corner of her eye--one of the tiny lava-mites launched itself at her soldiers. A man was stricken in the chest--he shrieked only once as he went up in flames. The cinder that had been the Little Whoop hit the ground simultaneously with the unfortunate soldier's blackened skeleton as the scent of charred death filled the air. Elaine unconsciously put her hands to her face, almost wanting to cry.
Two more of her soldiers met the same grisly fate, but the rest resumed the fight as though they themselves were immortal--Nic actually sliced one lava creature in half with his sword as it flew towards him, melting the blade in his hands. He took a shovel and buried the halves in dirt, smothering them. "Run, Elaine!" he yelled, swatting at another creature. "We can hold them off for a while, but you've got to get inside before they block the exit."
He was right, of course. "Haggis, Bill, van Helgen, come with me. The rest of you, try to keep a path open to the mountain for as long as you can. If it gets impossible, just run...we'll meet up later."
For better, for worse, for Guybrush, she dove into the darkness, the three pirates on her heels.
Guybrush himself shifted on feet which had long since passed 'aching,' (actually, all adjectives failed. They just really, really hurt).
He was, of course, waiting for the bitter end in Big Whoop's throne room. Odia had dragged him here, then immediately vanished on some errand of her own, leaving him to stand next to the throne with 'Daddy.' He shifted his weight again and stifled a groan, wishing he could sit down. The monster ignored him.
He'd been in tight spots before, but even by his standards, this was bad. His brave Elaine was going to come charging down the tunnel any moment now, putting herself willingly back into the monster's clutches in an attempt to rescue him. And...what then? What was to prevent Big Whoop from destroying her, right then and there? He wasn't hopeless, not yet--he'd lost hope only once in his short but strange life--but he couldn't see any clear way out of this situation. He'll kill her party, he'll kill her, he'll kill me. He doesn't have any reason not to and he has a lot of reasons why he should. Amusement, for one.
The monster spoke up unexpectedly. "Ah yes, please come in." It took him a second to realize that Big Whoop was addressing his daughter, just now entering the cavern from a side passage.
Guybrush's heart sank further. Coming in, and not alone. She was shoving the spirit-image of his own sister ahead of her, a container of root beer poised threateningly at her head.
He rounded angrily on Big Whoop. "You really want to make a morning of this, don't you?"
The lava creature only laughed. "I've waited a long time for this, Threepwood. Forgive me a little evil enjoyment."
"I don't forgive you anything. You had no right to do this, monster, not now, not then."
"Awwww....and just what are you going to do about that?" crooned Big Whoop, as though addressing the figurative baby whose candy is stolen--while stealing the candy. Guybrush closed his hands into fists. "Try to kill me with your bare hands again. Come on, try it."
Guybrush fought for some semblance of calm, even though he wished he could do just that. "Listen to me. You're the one who's big on balances. How long do you think you can keep doing this before it comes back around? Do you think your day'll never come?"
"Ha. You seem to think I actually care abo--" Big Whoop started to answer--then saw that his daughter had come within hearing. "Odia, my dearest. You and your guest are just in time."
Chariset glowered at him, but it was helpless anger. "You are one twisted scumbag, you know that? You must think you're pretty clever, making my own niece love you and want to kill me." She fought the grip on her arm, but Odia sloshed the container threateningly and forced her to subside. "Well, I hope you're enjoying your little game, because it ends today. The spirits know what you've been up to, and they'll come after you."
"That's very thoughtful of you, Ms. Chariset. Here you are, one drop of root beer away from death, and you're worried about me." He smirked. "I'm flattered."
"No, you're are an idiot." She was truly angry now, but it was cold anger. "A homicidal, manipulative, dangerous, moronic.."
Odia jerked her arm. "Watch it," she hissed.
Chari ignored that. "Has it even crossed your mind that there's a price for everything, Big Whoop? Do you think consequences don't apply to you?"
"Ah. We've heard this before, haven't we, Guybrush?" he cut in smoothly. "Don't tell me...let me guess. You're about to say something like..oh... 'How long do you think you can keep doing this before it comes back around?' followed by a vague threat of Judgement Day?" Guybrush clenched his jaw, hearing his own words thrown back in his face. Chari's expression had gone rigid.
"You bore me." The creature actually yawned. "Go stand next to the throne until they come for you."
Chari tossed Guybrush a remarkable glance as Odia shoved her to the other side of the pool of lava, a look of open appeal mixed with desperate determination. He had seen that look only once before--as they ran for their lives across Plunder Island, trying to get to the Sea Cucumber before she was arrested and condemned for treason. It was her fight-to-the-death look. To see her wearing it unnerved him more than anything Big Whoop had done yet.
They waited in uncomfortable silence--Big Whoop on his throne, Guybrush on his painful feet, Chariset with a bottle of what might as well be acid at her throat, Odia holding the acid. Above, they could dimly hear the sounds of a huge fight, rising steadily, mixed with screams and clanging blades. The horrible music reached a crescendo, began to die away--and then Elaine entered the room.
She held her head high, nothing in her posture to suggest that going alone into the den of a monster troubled her. Polly rode her shoulder in true pirate fashion, looking like an extension of her green bandana--but what caught attention about this proud lady was her stance. She had an impressive poise, even with a stomach that clearly broadcast her pregnant condition, even in the dark and gloom of the lair. Guybrush felt his heart swell just looking at her. Sometimes he could hardly believe that she loved him.
Elaine stood motionless for about a minute, staring Big Whoop down (and perhaps waiting for traps), then marched deliberately across the room, coming to a halt scant feet from the edge of the pool. Behind her, the Barbery Coast pirates made an unlikely honor guard, staring wide-eyed at the lava monster. Guybrush found that morbidly amusing--how could they have known that the gangly kid who stole their scissors one lazy afternoon would eventually lead them down here? Down into the pits of Hell..
His red-haired angel smiled professionally, which is to say that the expression never reached her eyes. " Mr. Whoop, if you please. I'd like to have a word with you."
"Ms. Marley-Threepwood, the pleasure is mine," he replied, oily polite. "What can I do for you?"
If she suspected this was a cat-and-mouse act, she concealed it well. "Mr. Whoop, I have come to negotiate your surrender."
"My surrender, Ms. Elaine (may I call you that)? I hope you'll understand if I consider this to be something of a surprise--you see, I had rather naturally assumed that you were here to negotiate your own surrender." He snapped his fingers, and a small squad of skeletons stepped in between Elaine's party and the exit. "Which as a commodity might be...shall we say, non-negotiable?"
"Big Whoop, you pride yourself on planning for everything, but this time, you may have jumped too quickly to a conclusion. We have not been idle during these last few months." She abruptly dropped her pretense of disinterested professionalism. "We're here to destroy you if we can, monster. I don't want to have to do that, but I will." Every iron word could have struck sparks from the walls. "We would do better to come to terms without bloodshed."
He relaxed in his throne, enjoying this. "Very well. These are my terms. Remove that spirit-collar you wear, and I will remove the collar from your husband. Surrender to me and I will release him. Surrender your entire party to me, and I will release the Threepwood spirits." He turned and cast Chari a significant look. "Turn Murray over to me, and I will release her."
"You wretched creature," spat Chariset.
"Silence." Big Whoop transferred his attention back to Elaine. "Do you accept these terms?"
"What happens if I refuse your...generous offer?"
"If you refuse, I will give you a few more chances to accept--I am, after all, a fair and decent person." Guybrush choked down his initial reaction to that. "But I will be putting on a little...pressure for a rapid decision."
"'Pressure.' Yes, of course." Elaine hadn't missed that slight emphasis. "I can only imagine exactly how you'll start sweetening the deal, but that doesn't matter. My answer is still the same."
She raised her voice. "Big Whoop, you know and I know that negotiations will never go beyond removing this necklace. Because as soon as I can be affected by your Song, you'll use it. You'll just take me over and use me to surrender my men to you. Nothing doing." She crossed her arms. "Your contract isn't worth the spit-encrusted paper you write it on."
"So you refuse my offer?"
"Are you trying to be diplomatic, or are you just exceptionally dense? Yes, I refuse your worthless offer. But I have another you may find just as interesting."
"Oh, really? Say on."
Elaine transferred Polly to her right wrist. "Here are my terms. Hand over my family, my husband, and the soul of my daughter, and I won't kill you."
"That's rather weak, Governor, even for a joke."
"It's no joke, monster. This is the only chance I'll allow. Accept or die."
"Fine. I choose death. Go ahead and kill me." He reclined in the chair insolently.
Her face was a lowering storm. "So be it." She tossed Polly into the air with a falconer's motion--behind her, van Helgen copied the gesture neatly with Elijah. "Fly, birds. You know where to go."
The parrots screamed, swooped directly at Big Whoop (who ducked)--
--and vanished.
Guybrush released the breath he'd been holding for the last two minutes in a sigh of something close to disappointment. Elaine remained as composed as ever, hands loosely linked over her abdomen.
"Ms. Elaine, I really expected more from you." The monster sounded mock-gently-reproving. "But I made you a promise, and so I shall keep it."
He signaled with a magma hand, hauling Guybrush forward by the neck for the thousandth time. "Come join me, Mr. Threepwood." A section of rock formed between Guybrush and the monster's island, enabling him to cross to the center of the lake in two coerced leaps. There he stood, Big Whoop at his back, Elaine to his face, and a pool of molten rock at his feet.
"Do you see this, Governor? You still have a chance to accept my terms."
"How generous of you, monster." Her eyes were anxious, but she carefully modulated her tone to unconcern. "Sorry, but no."
"But what about your husband? You do understand--with this collar, I can make him do anything I want to. Watch."
Guybrush attempted to lock eyes with his wife, but the monster's invisible leash pulled him sharply up, so high that his feet barely touched the ground. He was hanging by his neck, air almost completely cut off, choking. He clawed at the thing, fought to take it off, fought to get some of the pressure off his windpipe, nothing would work. Helplessly he dangled, feeling his face turning red and blue as he fought blindly for oxygen.
"Ironic, isn't it Governor?" said Big Whoop calmly. "The same man who can hold his breath for ten minutes will choke to death in less than half that time. That is, if nothing intervenes."
"Drop him!" Chari was a blur in the corner of his eye--she struggled unsuccessfully to get past Odia and her root beer. "Demon!"
"Guybrush!"
"Elaine," Guybrush wheezed. "Just....let him...do it.."
"No," she protested, too softly for Big Whoop to overhear. "Guybrush, I can't... I can't let him kill you."
The world was turning black and gray, and spinning around him. He squeezed his useless eyes shut. "Two..must die. Don't give..in."
With a voice that trembled, his wife addressed the lava creature.
Please let her understand, he thought muzzily, starting to black out. He's got to die today, even if I'm....even if....I'm...
"No. Even if you kill him, I still won't surrender myself or my men to you."
The pressure ceased without a warning, dropping Guybrush to the hard ground like a fisherman discarding his gasping catch. Elaine stifled what sounded like a sob--he wished, primitively, with the fraction of him that wasn't concentrating on breathing, that he were in her arms again, and safe.
"Two more chances, woman."
"I don't accept, and I don't accept." Her tone was shaking but still iron. Guybrush pushed himself unsteadily to hands and knees just in time to see Odia prodding Chariset forward.
"What about your sister-in-law? Will she feel the same way?"
"You know the answer to that," the dark-haired woman snarled. "I'd rather die than be another pawn in your little game."
"But will you make Elaine watch you die? Isn't that a bit cruel of you?"
Chari struggled with the spirit-cuffs, still defiant. "If you kill me, that's your decision. Don't ever try to make it look like it's mine."
Elaine bit her lip, her first sign of uncertainty. "I....I don't know, Big Whoop. I don't think I could bear to watch this."
"What, you can't bear to watch it here? Then what would it be like to watch it over there?" Odia caught the hint and marched her prisoner forward until Chari and Elaine were face to face. "How will it be for you now, Governor?"
"You held firm once," Chari whispered. "You've got to do it again."
A snicker. "Bah. Are you hoping I won't actually go through with it?"
Elaine clearly wavered, but once again, she held true. "I still can't..."
"She's not valuable to me, you know. I have no reason to spare her."
"I don't accept your terms!"
"Then watch her die."
Chariset closed her eyes. Odia raised the bottle of root beer.
The instant Odia depressed the plunger, Elaine moved. She darted right through Chari's substance, seized the bottle, and redirected it at the crucial second, sending the deadly stuff harmlessly into mid-air. With root beer still dripping off her hands, she seized the spirit-cuffs and melted them to nothing.
Odia still gaped at her, shocked, as Chari broke free. She snapped the control latch on Guybrush's collar, dropping it to the ground--he, thinking quickly, shoved it into the magma, where it vanished.
He jumped to his feet and spun around, confronting the monster. "It's our turn now, Big Whoop."
"Bwaaaaaaack!"
"That's right, you! You're finally going to get what's coming to you," Largo yelled triumphantly.
Big Whoop suddenly threw himself backward and howled in purest agony, twisting and writhing like an oak tree toppling back to earth. "You little cretin, LaGrande! You were worthless then and you're worthless now."
"You made my life a living Hell for months, Big Whoop! You think I'd miss it when you finally get it? Ha." Largo spat into the pool. "Shut up and die."
They must have taken away his powers, Guybrush realized belatedly. I've got to get out of here before he takes me down with him.
Big Whoop heaved convulsively, shock waves shattering the ground for yards in all directions. Elaine staggered back, the Barbery trio on her heels. Guybrush fled to the edge of the island, but found nowhere else to go. The pool just wasn't narrow enough for him to jump between the edge of the island and the opposite shore.
Largo, caught on the unstable outer bank, slipped on the uneven ground, staggered for balance on a piece of rock which was bobbing in a molten sea. "Damn you!" he shrieked, as the tile he occupied tilted madly and threw him into the lava below. He vanished in a puff of flame and black smoke, Big Whoop's final victim, defiant to the end.
Thus, perhaps appropriately, ended the life of Largo LaGrande.
The island was rooted to the bedrock of Monkey Island itself, but even that seemed to twist and writhe on its foundation, as though its center was turning soft and liquid. Big Whoop, thrashing around on a throne that was actually melting, seemed oblivious to Guybrush, but the cornered pirate was still hyper-alert. One wrong move, one moment of carelessness, and those flying limbs would send him right into the magma to join Largo.
"Guybrush!" Chari wrapped her arms around him, fighting with all her strength to lift him up. In her physical form she might have had a chance, but not as a spirit, and reluctantly she gave up, panting.
"Guybrush," she said instead, "do you trust me?"
He ducked as Big Whoop struck at them. "Yes, of course I trust you!"
"Then jump into the lava."
"What??"
"I won't let you get killed. I promise you--I can--"
As she was speaking, she looked up, gasped, and vanished. An instant later, a jet of root beer splashed the stone where she had been. Odia.
Chariset reappeared near Elaine. "Odia, stop!"
The girl was wildly angry, almost out of her head with desperate rage. "You hurt Daddy, all of you!" she shrieked. "You deserve to die!" She fired off another round of the liquid with near-perfect accuracy, forcing her target to dodge once more. Chari was too fast for her to kill, but there was no way she'd be able to get back to help him.
Guybrush himself nearly lost his balance as the center of the island began to melt, dragging Big Whoop down into it. The creature gargled in something like pain, "Odia....help me..."
"Daddy?" She darted to his side, her anxiety and pain clear to see. "Oh, Daddy, what have they done to you?"
"Odia, my little girl...take my hand..."
Without a word, without an instant's hesitation, she did so-
-and Big Whoop launched his soul from his twisted, dying wreck of a body into her fresh, young spirit.
She screamed once, horribly, a sound that made Guybrush leap up on pure instinct and run to her rescue, cold sweat trickling down his neck. "Big Whoop, stop!" he yelled desperately, but the cry was lost, swallowed up by the air.
Just as he reached them, the unholy thing twisted--the scream mutated into a gleeful cackle as all the power of the Threepwood spirits came coursing through her spirit-form. A gigantic human-shape, larger than Big Whoop and Odia combined, burst out of the remains of the throne with a rush of power like a hurricane gust, shoving him back. Fingers blazing lightning, the...Thing..loomed over Guybrush, poised to strike him down, blazing with a power that made his hair stand on end. It was Big Whoop. It was Odia. They were unmitigated Hatred. Monkey Island's daughter might well have been raised for this very moment--this final moment.
And now there would be no mercy or hesitation.
Big Whoop's Hatred struck, sending a blinding stab of unbearable burning--electricity--through every part of his body. He screamed, or thought he did, and collapsed bonelessly on the ground, every muscle helplessly slack. Elaine ran to the edge of the pool, but the Hatred swatted at her, knocking her down. Chariset shrieked some kind of warning. Guybrush looked up and saw Death.
The Hatred laughed,
and drew back her/his arm with agonizing slowness for the killing blow...