Her father... her mother... James Norrington... Will... Willow....
As Elizabeth Swann prepared to sacrifice her own life for her daughter's, she thought briefly of all the people she had cared for in life, and saw their faces flash by in her memory. She whispered, under her breath, a silent 'I love you all', and tensed up her arms, cementing her grip of the dagger in her hands.
A single last breath stayed still in her lungs, as she shed one last tear.
//Now!// she thought to herself.
The next moment passed in a blur. From a distance, she heard her name being called, screamed almost. She swore that she recognised the voice, but the knife had already started its descent towards her heart.
Suddenly, when the knife was just a few inches from plunging into her, she was shoved roughly by what felt like an elephant. She felt the dagger fall from her hands, as her eyes opened and she fell onto the ground, landing on her right arm. A sickening cracking sound was heard, and she screamed when bone broke through skin, leaving her wriggling on the ground in pain.
A face bent over hers next, a face that was blurred from her tears of pain. As she blinked them away, the features cleared, and she gasped.
Long, brown, curly hair, pulled into a crooked ponytail at the back of his head; brown eyes as deep as the ocean; but, strangely, a soft, shaven face, one without lines or worry.
"Will?" she breathed through the pain, squinting to identify him.
The man's face lit up with the happiness of recognition, but his eyes glistened with the tears for his loved one's pain. "Elizabeth." he whispered, bringing his hand to her face and gently tracing the contours of features he knew so well.
She shivered involuntarily at his touch. Will... It had been so long, so long since she had seen his shining eyes and felt his soft touch. She felt an insatiable urge to leap up and kiss those warm lips, melt into his embrace and just be held in the arms of her Will again.
The moment was broken, though, when she shifted slightly, and her arm cracked horribly once more. She screamed, and Will's face took on a look of worry.
"Your arm... it's broken, isn't it?"
She nodded, afraid that if she opened her mouth once more, she would just keep on screaming.
"Jack, come here." beckoned Will, and for the first time, Elizabeth noticed the haggard and dishevelled pirate standing not two feet away.
"Jack..." she whispered, as he smiled at her, but she could still see worry in his eyes.
"Don't worry, 'Lizzie, we'll get you out of here."
Will looked over to Jack, and the pirate centred his attention onto him. "Jack, you and...him," Will stated, pointing over to Bill, "Go ahead and see if the way is clear. I'll follow with Elizabeth."
Jack nodded, and looked over to Bill, whom Jack had already recognised as his old friend, Bootstrap Bill. Will, on the other hand, was too preoccupied with Elizabeth's injury to notice that the man next to Jack looked eerily like himself.
The two pirates left the room, as Will removed his shirt and wrapped it gently around Elizabeth's arm. She lay unmoving on the ground, still crying softly to herself, and not entirely of pain either. She cried for her little girl, her darling that she hadn't been able to save.
Will asked her something then, but her head was spinning so much that she couldn't understand him. She felt next two arms wrap around her, and gently lift her up into the air. Will held her to his chest, and she rested her pounding head against his warm chest, hoping that that might stop the drums from beating so loudly.
"Tell them to stop." she slurred lightly, her tongue feeling heavy in her mouth.
Will looked down to the woman in his arms and was instantly hit by how vulnerable she looked. 'What?" he asked slightly.
"The drums are too loud. Tell them to stop." Elizabeth whispered, as her eyelids drifted closed and unconsciousness welcomed her with open arms.
He led them back through the cave slowly, careful not to jostle Elizabeth's broken limb. Will walked for several moments in complete silence and almost near dark, when he heard a strange rumbling from ahead of him, and the odd sensation that the ground was moving beneath his feet.
He looked down past Elizabeth and noticed that the ground was moving beneath his feet. Risking further injury to Elizabeth, but in fear of their lives, he tightened his grip of her and started to run through the tunnels, hoping to catch up to Jack and the other man.
Finally he spotted two figures ahead, both trying in vain to remove a landslide of rocks in from the entrance from which they had come. He gently placed Elizabeth down, and went over to the two men.
"What happened?!" he exclaimed.
Jack, in a gesture that looked more like one of his monkey namesake's, scratched his head curiously. "Now, I don't 'member that happenin' the last time I was here..." he muttered.
"Well, isn't there another way out?" Will asked with impatience.
"Just the way we came in." replied the other man softly.
It was then that it finally registered with Will. This other man looked like him, to the point of even having the same hairstyle.
"Who are you?" Will asked suspiciously.
The man took off his hat, which had until then casted a shadow over most of his features. In a move quite like that of Elizabeth's reaction, Will gasped.
"Father...?" he whispered.
"Yes." said William Turner, smiling at his son. "It's me."
Unfortunately, it was then that the impromptu family reunion ended. The ground started to shake more and more violently, as rocks were shaken loose and started to tumble from the ceiling and the walls. Will hastily picked up Elizabeth, afraid that she might be hit with one of the falling stones.
"We've got to get out of here, Jack!" Will exclaimed, dodging one of the falling stalactites.
"Right, right." responded the pirate, still scratching his head. "This way!"
The nefarious sea captain pointed forwards, and the group ran off, Jack in front, Will in the middle with Elizabeth, and Bill in the back. The rocks became more and more dangerous, as the rumbling had escalated to full-scale shaking.
"Hurry!" yelled Jack to the others, "This cave is goin' to collapse."
Huge sections of the cavern's walls began to fall now, dust and rock rising up into the air. Will felt his lungs fill up the stuff, and he struggled to breathe. Violent coughs threatened to escape, so he just ran faster, hoping to the escape the cave alive.
It may have been the fact that Will was running as fast as he could, or that he was too preoccupied with Elizabeth's safety, but the fact was that Will was not paying very much attention to the environment around him. In fact, he was so focused on getting Elizabeth and himself out that he either did not see, or just not register in his mind the falling piece of debris just ahead of him. When he finally did realize that it was to hit him, it was too late. Panic ran through the normally calm and collected pirate and he froze.
Something hit him then, but not from above. The slamming force of one hundred and ninety pounds of human flesh and bone hit Will, knocking him and Elizabeth to the side, the debris falling to the ground not a foot behind them.
Jack turned around, and ran towards the fallen man and the woman still clutched tight in his arms.
"Will!" he called out, running forwards to the young man, even as the cave continued to fall around them.
"I'm alright." responded Will, who had received several bumps and bruises, and a deep gash across his forehead. "But... who pushed me?" asked the young man, his face taught with confusion.
Both men realized the answer at the same moment. Jack yelled out an anguished cry of "Bill!", and they looked over to the pile of rocks on the ground. With horror, they noticed Will's father trapped partially within, legs crushed beneath the heap of metamorphic stone.
Will rushed over to his father, who was white with the dust of the rocks and coughing to breathe. He grabbed his father's only free hand, and held it to him. The elder Turner looked up, and tried in vain to smile.
Will could feel the tears tugging at his eyes, and he wanted to stay, but he knew that Elizabeth had to get before the cave collapsed. His daughter, their daughter, needed her mother.
"Jack! Get Elizabeth out of here!" Will yelled over the noise of the collapsing cave. The other pirate nodded, and swept the young woman up into his arms, and ran off.
He felt his father's grip slipping, so he took his hand and held it between both of his. The tears started to fall swiftly, now, as he knew that there was no hope for his father.
"Will, m'boy." mumbled the dying man. "I- I wanted you to know that I love you, and will always love you. I'm sorry I wasn't there for you and your mum." The older man's eyes were wet as well, and Will stifled a sob.
"I love you too, father. And it's alright."
The rocks continued to fall around them, as William Turner the Ist took his last breath. His son stubbornly stayed by his side, determined to stay with his father as long as he lived.
Then the hand held in Will's own went slack, and Will knew that his father was gone.
*Alright. TWO more chapters left, everyone. (I changed my mind!)
I'm sorry that I got this chapter out so late; I wasn't anticipating the load of homework that I got on my first week back.
I personally don't like this chapter that much, but it demanded to be written, so written it was. Hope you liked it, anyways.
Well, that's about it for now! See you all in the next chapter!
~Aelan*
P.S: I have now officially seen PoTC seven times! Am I insane or what?
