Author's note: FINALLY!!!!! I'm so sorry my devoted fans (and not-so-
devoted fans) I had a marvelous time on vacation in NEW ZEALAND!!!!!! Very
inspiring place, I almost gave up on this to start a LOTR fic! But don't
worry because I just couldn't leave Will and Lizzie! So yes I don't know
how frequently I'll be able to post from now on cause I'm desperately
trying to find a job! But I had a safe move (cept I can't find a lot of my
stuff!) thanks for all your well wishes and I hope you all still review!!
Anyway thanks again (a shout out to original-creativity who reviews ALL my
chapters!) YAY!!!! Chapter 17!!!!!!!!!!
*****
Hen had been pouring over the computer screen for the past forty-five minutes, and Elizabeth had been trying her best to keep focused. But with Will's arms wrapped around her and his head snuggled protectively against hers, it was proving to be quite the challenge. She couldn't quite recall how it happened, she just walked in after retrieving her laptop from the car, handed it off to Hen, who had immediately set off to work and then took up a standing position beside him. Before she could realize it there had been Will taking the position behind her as if it were the most natural in the world, showing her his constant support as it were, witnessing his position forever by her side.
She wouldn't have minded had it been a normal circumstance, but this was certainly not normal. One, Will was not a normal boy, he was a Pirate, a character from a movie who still had to go back and would leave her by the end of the week. Two, Elizabeth was trying to up keep the appearance of a normal girl, but that was hard since both of them had been caught in public together and tomorrow's newspaper would no doubt scream headlines of late night escapades of seemingly innocent Hollywood stars. Three, there was the fact that both needed to be concentrating and that was entirely impossible when Elizabeth could concentrate on nothing but Will's slow rhythmic breathing against the side of her neck!
Finally, Hen stirred and Elizabeth's worry increased as she saw his normal twitchiness and paranoia manifested two-fold in his constantly blinking eyes and gaping mouth. He was also openly miffed at the position of the seemingly attentive Ms. Cartwright wrapped comfortably in Will's arms.
"Dang it Lizzie! Are you taking this seriously or not!" The harshness in his voice startled Elizabeth who quickly disengaged herself from Will.
"You know I'm serious Hen," Elizabeth started defiantly. "I wouldn't be here if I wasn't."
Hen it seemed was not satisfied. "Then please try and distance yourself from this pretty boy long enough to focus on the fact that we are both in way over our heads."
Will was on the defensive at once. "Excuse me but you have no right to."
Elizabeth could tell that if she didn't smooth things over quickly, both would be at each other's throats.
"Both of you stop! Will I think it would be best if you left me and Hen to talk privately for a moment." Elizabeth thought it would be better for both of them if the distance between them increased.
Will's look was sad and dejected almost as if he would contest but the look in Elizabeth's eye silenced him and he walked slowly over to the adjacent room where some of Hen's cronies were typing away at computers with the utmost ferocity. Feeling that Will had apparently gone out of earshot, Elizabeth turned to and Hen continued. The look in Hen's eyes startled Elizabeth as she turned back to face him, it reminded her too much of their parting.
"What's so wrong Hen?" Elizabeth asked innocently.
"Are you out of your mind?" Came Hen's whispered response as he grabbed Elizabeth and pulled him next to her.
"Stop being cryptic and tell me what you've found!" Elizabeth said her patience wearing thin.
"Fine but your not going to like it," Hen opened the computer screen once more and a series of number pattern's flashed across the screen, almost in a programming code.
Elizabeth was puzzled, why should this have any importance?
"Are you comprehending this Lizzie?" Hen said condescendingly.
Will was still swarming in her thoughts and the flashing numbers on the screen were only proving to be a nuisance.
"It's a program big deal," Elizabeth said listlessly.
"Yes it is a big deal," Hen said abruptly. "Because this is what the computer was originally designed to do."
Hen's use of originally designed caught Elizabeth's attention.
"What do you mean originally?" Elizabeth asked dreading the answer.
"Finally your grasping the seriousness of the situation," Hen said as he brought up the main screen of the computer and started to go through it's files pausing at different points to explain what was found there.
"Now the first thing that I found strange about the computer was the fact that it seemed to have large chunks taken out of the programming and then pieced back together kind of like they were condensing or minimizing it. So I decided to hack into the history and see what had been removed," Elizabeth smacked herself on the head, why hadn't she thought of that!
"Why didn't I think of that?" She mumbled.
"I can think of one reason," Hen said slyly as he passed a glance back at the room Will had entered just moments before.
"Let's keep focused shall we?" Elizabeth said turning a slight shade of pink.
"So anyway, I hacked into the history and found that a large section the programming had been erased and re-written, that it had been changed and modified probably by Augustine," Hen paused and brought up a new screen.
"So Augustine didn't hire someone in the CIA to create the program," Elizabeth started.
"He stole the program from the CIA and changed it to suit his needs," Hen finished.
"So the question becomes, what was the CIA originally trying to do?" Elizabeth asked as she peered at the screen.
"That's what I was wondering, until I found this," he said as he pointed to the screen.
E-mail urgent!: Program delta: Doppelganger version 1.1 CAUTION: CONFIDENTIAL! For the Eyes of team leader alpha only! Program Doppelganger used in the recruitment process, only when deemed appropriate. The use of civilian creation is strictly prohibited. Copy process only to be utilized upon subject under complete authority of GG. To initiate copy process, refer to manual 24.7 p 3 para 16. NOTE! All matter is unstable if contact is made with subject. Process null and void if copy and subject ever meet. Precautions must be taken to ensure no cross- encounters ever occur! Test to be compiled 0730 a fortnight from now.
That was all it said.
"Man I thought I was vague, what are these guys on?" Elizabeth said as she read the last of the e-mail.
"What I've gathered is your Will coming out of the screen, may not have been such a freak accident as you thought," Hen said indignantly.
"He's not my Will," Elizabeth huffed, slightly louder than intended. Than the gravity of Hen's comment dawned on her. "What do you mean, not an accident?"
"You always were slow on the uptake Lizzie," Hen continued. "Yes, I have come to believe that Will coming out of that screen was no accident at all, at least the program behind it was no accident at all."
"Ok stop being cryptic and give me the facts!" Elizabeth's patience was waning, she knew that the information Hen had discovered would be key in unraveling the mystery, but she wished he would just come out and say it!
"The government is planning to make clones of movie stars." Hen said plainly.
Considering all that had happened to her, Elizabeth expected to be more open, but she just couldn't shake how very weird the words sounded, what would the United States government want with movie stars?
"Huh?" was about the only intelligent comment she could come up with.
"Sounds kinda like we're in some sorta B-rate sci-fi movie doesn't it," Hen said relishing Elizabeth's stupor of thought. "But all signs point to it, it seems that the digital imaging used the camera attachment is linked directly to the web,"
"I noticed that!" Elizabeth interrupted. "A bunch of internet sites about the chemical properties and atomic structure of gold, it was weird. I never made a connection."
"Again I realize why," Hen said sternly, casting a glance back at Will's room.
"Back to explaining how this machine works," Elizabeth said sternly.
"Ok so here's the basic run down," Hen continued. "The camera and computer work on a timed device which is set up to capture a certain moment in the film."
"Which was interrupted causing the camera to pick up Will instead of the gold." Elizabeth added.
"Yes, and when the lightning hit the transformer for the theatre, the overload in the circuit caused the computer to re-create the bridges which had been burned down by Augustine's programming and the computer hooked up to new websites," Hen said bringing up a new screen.
Elizabeth looked at it sadly, what she saw was a list of bookmarked websites that, had she not spent the past week with Will delving into the world of government conspiracy, would have made no sense to her. Sites and databases detailing Human anatomy and psychology were mingled with chemistry sites and sites detailing the storylines and characters of Hollywood's greatest films, among which was Pirates of the Caribbean.
"So what do the websites do?" Elizabeth asked.
"The digital imaging picks up the information on the sites and uses it to re-create the image on the screen." Hen stated plainly.
"But how can it just pull materials out of thin air?" Elizabeth didn't quite grasp the mechanics, though the finished result was standing little more than fifty feet away.
"Thin air is exactly right," Hen interjected. "The human body is made up of a mixture of elements, mainly carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. These three elements can be found in our atmosphere along with the other trace elements needed to make a completely functional human body."
Elizabeth still didn't want to believe it, it was too Star Trek. "But he's just like Will! He thinks and acts just like him! How can a copy do that?"
"That's the other interesting point that's proved with this little mishap, people have been debating for centuries what makes humanity different. What shapes our thoughts and actions, our beliefs and principles, but what society forgets is that when it's all boiled down, our thoughts and feelings are controlled by memories, physical and chemical connections made in the brain. When the computer sees Will, and looks him up on the sites, it sees his behaviors, his character and his actions in the movie and proceeds to create the memories stated there, it really is all very interesting.' Hen was thoroughly enjoying the conspiracy behind the computer now.
"So my Will." Elizabeth caught herself and hoped that Hen wouldn't notice her slip. "I mean this Will is a copy? He doesn't have to go back to the film, he's completely separate from it, he could stay if he wanted to." The possibility of keeping Will was worming its way into the back of Elizabeth's mind, her hopes momentarily soaring.
But Hen had heard her little slip, and realized the implications behind it.
"You can't be serious," He dropped what he was doing on the computer and turned to look condescendingly at Elizabeth.
Elizabeth tried to hide what she was feeling by looking at anything in the room besides Hen. "Yes I am, I mean he doesn't HAVE to go back, he's just a copy, he wouldn't be missed. He could quite easily live out the remainder of his life here; I mean what are we going to do? Re-scramble him into the little bits he was made out of?"
"That's exactly what we have to do!" Hen whispered. "Maybe the movie won't notice he's gone but there are plenty of people in this reality who will notice that he's here!"
"Like who! We just keep him concealed, we'll move him to a remote part of Kentucky or something," Elizabeth retorted.
"I don't know maybe the government officials who created this computer! This wasn't any minor experiment Lizzie, this was a plan, a plan that I'm guessing cost a lot of our taxpayer's dollars and is not going to be something that will be easily forgotten. On the off chance that they don't already realize that our Pirate friend exists, after your little lip- locking expedition tonight, they'll soon find out." Hen glared at Elizabeth and she glared right back.
"They wouldn't find him, I'd hide him," Elizabeth knew she was fighting a losing battle but she had to give it her best shot.
"They're the United States government, they will find him, and when they do they will ruin the lives of whoever was keeping them from him, this runs deeper than you thought Lizzie, fathoms deeper. You still don't realize what they're going to do to him once they catch him do you?" Hen looked more serious than Elizabeth had ever seen him.
"Remand him into custody?" Elizabeth said weakly, not grasping his implications.
"Will is a breakthrough in the technological advances in our society, when he is caught he will be taken to a lab and studied like a rat, he has no rights, he's not a person, he's a copy. The United States government owns the technology that created him therefore they own him. The only way to protect Will is to send him back into the movie," Hen's expression changed, it almost seemed as though he was sad.
"We don't know what that'll do to him, we don't know if it's even possible. It would be just like killing him Hen, I can't do it." Elizabeth wasn't going to loose Will now, not when it was proved that she might have the chance of a life with him.
"You can't or you won't? I know what's clouding your judgment Elizabeth, you're falling in love with the guy!" Hen looked at Elizabeth as though his computer had just crashed.
Elizabeth was tired of his butting in on her personal life.
"I am not!" Her statement wasn't entirely untrue; you can't fall in love with a guy you're already in love with.
"Yeah well before you go gallivanting away to your summer hideout, you might want to realize this, Will is a character, a hero in a story, he's not real. Are you willing to risk what little chance of a career and life you have left for a fairy tale?" Elizabeth couldn't believe what she was hearing and she was sure that if Hen had spent the last week with this 'fairy tale' as he called it, his sentiments would be different.
"Your wrong Hen, he may have been created in the image of a character from a movie, but he's just as real as you or I," Elizabeth was near tears, she couldn't believe that her one ally had suddenly turned against her.
"Yes well if he's so real, and you obviously care so much, here's another tidbit you may want to consider. He can never come in contact with Orlando Bloom." Hen added before Elizabeth could get up the courage to leave.
"Huh?" That news came a little unexpectedly to Elizabeth.
"The last bit of the e-mail 'All matter is unstable if contact is made with subject. Process null and void if copy and subject ever meet. Precautions must be taken to ensure no cross- encounters ever occur!' Will Turner must never come in contact with the real Orlando Bloom," Hen stated gravely.
"What will happen if he does?" Elizabeth asked curiosity getting the better of her.
"Newton's third law, every action has an equal and opposite reaction, but if both 'Will's' or 'Orlando's' or whatever meet, the reaction that occurs will be the same for them both, at the same time, skewing the law, because only one reaction may take place at a time, at least that's the way it works in this reality. So if they ever meet, one of three things will happen. One, nothing happens. Both parties will be shocked and confused, you know they may faint a la Back to the Future, but they're both strong men so I doubt that. Second, the whole universe collapses because of the anomaly and the earth becomes a giant black hole. Highly unlikely and a bit melodramatic but still possible. And third, the world doesn't know how to cope with both of them, so it eliminates them both." Hen finished gravely.
Elizabeth wasn't keen on the world being sucked into a giant black hole but the last one sounded rather unpleasant as well. "What do you mean eliminate?" she asked cautiously.
"The world would not be able to handle the idea of two identical beings with identical thoughts so it would dispose of the problem in its entirety. It would probably be rather unpleasant, think Time Cop, you know the Jean- Claude film," Hen said with a sad smirk on his face.
"I never liked that movie," Elizabeth said cringing at the thought of Will turning into a giant puddle of ooze.
"Exactly, so before you get all love sick and decide to take Will to some romantic hideaway for a bit of lovin', think about the consequences of your actions Elizabeth, you were never meant to love him, and he was never meant to love you." Hen turned back to the computer and shut it down.
Elizabeth felt his concern for her and it hurt her to be so brash with him, he was looking out for her, like he used to and she was pushing him away for some girlish fantasy. Is that what she wanted? To live out the rest of her days constantly looking over her shoulder, worrying whether or not she would be discovered and Will was taken away? To cling to the false hope that she could make a life for them both when neither could afford to have their face shown in pubic again? Was that fair to Will, was it fair to herself? What about the world? Or the real Orlando, what if she caused harm to him and Will? Was what she felt for Will enough to justify the possibility of putting all that she cared for at risk?
It wasn't and deep down Elizabeth knew that it wasn't. The only chance that her and Will had to make the kind of life that they both deserved was if she sent him back. The only way she could go on knowing that she had done the right thing was if Will forgot all about this place and this future. If he forgot about Elizabeth and the time they shared together.
She had made up her mind, though it killed her to do so.
"How do I send him back?" Elizabeth said, keeping as firm a resolve as she could under the circumstances.
Hen looked up at her as a proud father would look at a daughter who had just passed the hardest test either could imagine.
"Pirates is to be replayed this Friday at the new Imax cinema, leave the computer with me and I'll have everything ready by then, we'll be able to send him back and destroy the computer and the whole thing will have blown over before you realize it," Hen's voice was an attempt at soothing, but Elizabeth wasn't in the mood for it.
"I'll see you on Friday," said Elizabeth listlessly.
"I'm sorry Lizzie, really I wish there was another way," Hen was being sincere but it wasn't an emotion he pulled off convincingly.
"Cut it our Hen, you sound like a daytime soap," Elizabeth tried to chuckle, but it came out as more of a sob.
"Yeah well at least my storylines more believable," he said with a smile.
"Oh sure, all we need now is to have Will fall suddenly pregnant with Marlena's love child," She said embracing her cynicism to help her through the pain of realizing she was giving away the single greatest guy she'd ever met.
"Excuse me!" Will picked probably the weirdest time to enter the conversation, causing Elizabeth to laugh briefly before lapsing into depression again. "Nothing, me and Hen were just discussing the finer points of day time TV, something I'm glad I haven't let you be exposed too," Elizabeth replied.
She turned and nodded a final good-bye to Hen. "Come on Will we'd better get back, we don't want to arouse any suspicion. Why'd you come in here anyway?" She asked as she moved over to him
"Umm, there's a message for Hen actually, there's a man in the next room who's calling you, something on the late edition of the news, anyway he wants you to come and give your opinion," Will said as he took Elizabeth's arm and together they left through the back door of the club.
"Umm, thanks Will I'll get right on it," Hen said, the sadness in his voice almost recognizable.
Elizabeth looked at Will as they left the club and made the way to her car and sighed. She contemplated breaking the contact between them, trying to ease the inevitable separation but then decided against it. She wanted to savor every minute of Will she could before she sent him back.
*****
Hen had been pouring over the computer screen for the past forty-five minutes, and Elizabeth had been trying her best to keep focused. But with Will's arms wrapped around her and his head snuggled protectively against hers, it was proving to be quite the challenge. She couldn't quite recall how it happened, she just walked in after retrieving her laptop from the car, handed it off to Hen, who had immediately set off to work and then took up a standing position beside him. Before she could realize it there had been Will taking the position behind her as if it were the most natural in the world, showing her his constant support as it were, witnessing his position forever by her side.
She wouldn't have minded had it been a normal circumstance, but this was certainly not normal. One, Will was not a normal boy, he was a Pirate, a character from a movie who still had to go back and would leave her by the end of the week. Two, Elizabeth was trying to up keep the appearance of a normal girl, but that was hard since both of them had been caught in public together and tomorrow's newspaper would no doubt scream headlines of late night escapades of seemingly innocent Hollywood stars. Three, there was the fact that both needed to be concentrating and that was entirely impossible when Elizabeth could concentrate on nothing but Will's slow rhythmic breathing against the side of her neck!
Finally, Hen stirred and Elizabeth's worry increased as she saw his normal twitchiness and paranoia manifested two-fold in his constantly blinking eyes and gaping mouth. He was also openly miffed at the position of the seemingly attentive Ms. Cartwright wrapped comfortably in Will's arms.
"Dang it Lizzie! Are you taking this seriously or not!" The harshness in his voice startled Elizabeth who quickly disengaged herself from Will.
"You know I'm serious Hen," Elizabeth started defiantly. "I wouldn't be here if I wasn't."
Hen it seemed was not satisfied. "Then please try and distance yourself from this pretty boy long enough to focus on the fact that we are both in way over our heads."
Will was on the defensive at once. "Excuse me but you have no right to."
Elizabeth could tell that if she didn't smooth things over quickly, both would be at each other's throats.
"Both of you stop! Will I think it would be best if you left me and Hen to talk privately for a moment." Elizabeth thought it would be better for both of them if the distance between them increased.
Will's look was sad and dejected almost as if he would contest but the look in Elizabeth's eye silenced him and he walked slowly over to the adjacent room where some of Hen's cronies were typing away at computers with the utmost ferocity. Feeling that Will had apparently gone out of earshot, Elizabeth turned to and Hen continued. The look in Hen's eyes startled Elizabeth as she turned back to face him, it reminded her too much of their parting.
"What's so wrong Hen?" Elizabeth asked innocently.
"Are you out of your mind?" Came Hen's whispered response as he grabbed Elizabeth and pulled him next to her.
"Stop being cryptic and tell me what you've found!" Elizabeth said her patience wearing thin.
"Fine but your not going to like it," Hen opened the computer screen once more and a series of number pattern's flashed across the screen, almost in a programming code.
Elizabeth was puzzled, why should this have any importance?
"Are you comprehending this Lizzie?" Hen said condescendingly.
Will was still swarming in her thoughts and the flashing numbers on the screen were only proving to be a nuisance.
"It's a program big deal," Elizabeth said listlessly.
"Yes it is a big deal," Hen said abruptly. "Because this is what the computer was originally designed to do."
Hen's use of originally designed caught Elizabeth's attention.
"What do you mean originally?" Elizabeth asked dreading the answer.
"Finally your grasping the seriousness of the situation," Hen said as he brought up the main screen of the computer and started to go through it's files pausing at different points to explain what was found there.
"Now the first thing that I found strange about the computer was the fact that it seemed to have large chunks taken out of the programming and then pieced back together kind of like they were condensing or minimizing it. So I decided to hack into the history and see what had been removed," Elizabeth smacked herself on the head, why hadn't she thought of that!
"Why didn't I think of that?" She mumbled.
"I can think of one reason," Hen said slyly as he passed a glance back at the room Will had entered just moments before.
"Let's keep focused shall we?" Elizabeth said turning a slight shade of pink.
"So anyway, I hacked into the history and found that a large section the programming had been erased and re-written, that it had been changed and modified probably by Augustine," Hen paused and brought up a new screen.
"So Augustine didn't hire someone in the CIA to create the program," Elizabeth started.
"He stole the program from the CIA and changed it to suit his needs," Hen finished.
"So the question becomes, what was the CIA originally trying to do?" Elizabeth asked as she peered at the screen.
"That's what I was wondering, until I found this," he said as he pointed to the screen.
E-mail urgent!: Program delta: Doppelganger version 1.1 CAUTION: CONFIDENTIAL! For the Eyes of team leader alpha only! Program Doppelganger used in the recruitment process, only when deemed appropriate. The use of civilian creation is strictly prohibited. Copy process only to be utilized upon subject under complete authority of GG. To initiate copy process, refer to manual 24.7 p 3 para 16. NOTE! All matter is unstable if contact is made with subject. Process null and void if copy and subject ever meet. Precautions must be taken to ensure no cross- encounters ever occur! Test to be compiled 0730 a fortnight from now.
That was all it said.
"Man I thought I was vague, what are these guys on?" Elizabeth said as she read the last of the e-mail.
"What I've gathered is your Will coming out of the screen, may not have been such a freak accident as you thought," Hen said indignantly.
"He's not my Will," Elizabeth huffed, slightly louder than intended. Than the gravity of Hen's comment dawned on her. "What do you mean, not an accident?"
"You always were slow on the uptake Lizzie," Hen continued. "Yes, I have come to believe that Will coming out of that screen was no accident at all, at least the program behind it was no accident at all."
"Ok stop being cryptic and give me the facts!" Elizabeth's patience was waning, she knew that the information Hen had discovered would be key in unraveling the mystery, but she wished he would just come out and say it!
"The government is planning to make clones of movie stars." Hen said plainly.
Considering all that had happened to her, Elizabeth expected to be more open, but she just couldn't shake how very weird the words sounded, what would the United States government want with movie stars?
"Huh?" was about the only intelligent comment she could come up with.
"Sounds kinda like we're in some sorta B-rate sci-fi movie doesn't it," Hen said relishing Elizabeth's stupor of thought. "But all signs point to it, it seems that the digital imaging used the camera attachment is linked directly to the web,"
"I noticed that!" Elizabeth interrupted. "A bunch of internet sites about the chemical properties and atomic structure of gold, it was weird. I never made a connection."
"Again I realize why," Hen said sternly, casting a glance back at Will's room.
"Back to explaining how this machine works," Elizabeth said sternly.
"Ok so here's the basic run down," Hen continued. "The camera and computer work on a timed device which is set up to capture a certain moment in the film."
"Which was interrupted causing the camera to pick up Will instead of the gold." Elizabeth added.
"Yes, and when the lightning hit the transformer for the theatre, the overload in the circuit caused the computer to re-create the bridges which had been burned down by Augustine's programming and the computer hooked up to new websites," Hen said bringing up a new screen.
Elizabeth looked at it sadly, what she saw was a list of bookmarked websites that, had she not spent the past week with Will delving into the world of government conspiracy, would have made no sense to her. Sites and databases detailing Human anatomy and psychology were mingled with chemistry sites and sites detailing the storylines and characters of Hollywood's greatest films, among which was Pirates of the Caribbean.
"So what do the websites do?" Elizabeth asked.
"The digital imaging picks up the information on the sites and uses it to re-create the image on the screen." Hen stated plainly.
"But how can it just pull materials out of thin air?" Elizabeth didn't quite grasp the mechanics, though the finished result was standing little more than fifty feet away.
"Thin air is exactly right," Hen interjected. "The human body is made up of a mixture of elements, mainly carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. These three elements can be found in our atmosphere along with the other trace elements needed to make a completely functional human body."
Elizabeth still didn't want to believe it, it was too Star Trek. "But he's just like Will! He thinks and acts just like him! How can a copy do that?"
"That's the other interesting point that's proved with this little mishap, people have been debating for centuries what makes humanity different. What shapes our thoughts and actions, our beliefs and principles, but what society forgets is that when it's all boiled down, our thoughts and feelings are controlled by memories, physical and chemical connections made in the brain. When the computer sees Will, and looks him up on the sites, it sees his behaviors, his character and his actions in the movie and proceeds to create the memories stated there, it really is all very interesting.' Hen was thoroughly enjoying the conspiracy behind the computer now.
"So my Will." Elizabeth caught herself and hoped that Hen wouldn't notice her slip. "I mean this Will is a copy? He doesn't have to go back to the film, he's completely separate from it, he could stay if he wanted to." The possibility of keeping Will was worming its way into the back of Elizabeth's mind, her hopes momentarily soaring.
But Hen had heard her little slip, and realized the implications behind it.
"You can't be serious," He dropped what he was doing on the computer and turned to look condescendingly at Elizabeth.
Elizabeth tried to hide what she was feeling by looking at anything in the room besides Hen. "Yes I am, I mean he doesn't HAVE to go back, he's just a copy, he wouldn't be missed. He could quite easily live out the remainder of his life here; I mean what are we going to do? Re-scramble him into the little bits he was made out of?"
"That's exactly what we have to do!" Hen whispered. "Maybe the movie won't notice he's gone but there are plenty of people in this reality who will notice that he's here!"
"Like who! We just keep him concealed, we'll move him to a remote part of Kentucky or something," Elizabeth retorted.
"I don't know maybe the government officials who created this computer! This wasn't any minor experiment Lizzie, this was a plan, a plan that I'm guessing cost a lot of our taxpayer's dollars and is not going to be something that will be easily forgotten. On the off chance that they don't already realize that our Pirate friend exists, after your little lip- locking expedition tonight, they'll soon find out." Hen glared at Elizabeth and she glared right back.
"They wouldn't find him, I'd hide him," Elizabeth knew she was fighting a losing battle but she had to give it her best shot.
"They're the United States government, they will find him, and when they do they will ruin the lives of whoever was keeping them from him, this runs deeper than you thought Lizzie, fathoms deeper. You still don't realize what they're going to do to him once they catch him do you?" Hen looked more serious than Elizabeth had ever seen him.
"Remand him into custody?" Elizabeth said weakly, not grasping his implications.
"Will is a breakthrough in the technological advances in our society, when he is caught he will be taken to a lab and studied like a rat, he has no rights, he's not a person, he's a copy. The United States government owns the technology that created him therefore they own him. The only way to protect Will is to send him back into the movie," Hen's expression changed, it almost seemed as though he was sad.
"We don't know what that'll do to him, we don't know if it's even possible. It would be just like killing him Hen, I can't do it." Elizabeth wasn't going to loose Will now, not when it was proved that she might have the chance of a life with him.
"You can't or you won't? I know what's clouding your judgment Elizabeth, you're falling in love with the guy!" Hen looked at Elizabeth as though his computer had just crashed.
Elizabeth was tired of his butting in on her personal life.
"I am not!" Her statement wasn't entirely untrue; you can't fall in love with a guy you're already in love with.
"Yeah well before you go gallivanting away to your summer hideout, you might want to realize this, Will is a character, a hero in a story, he's not real. Are you willing to risk what little chance of a career and life you have left for a fairy tale?" Elizabeth couldn't believe what she was hearing and she was sure that if Hen had spent the last week with this 'fairy tale' as he called it, his sentiments would be different.
"Your wrong Hen, he may have been created in the image of a character from a movie, but he's just as real as you or I," Elizabeth was near tears, she couldn't believe that her one ally had suddenly turned against her.
"Yes well if he's so real, and you obviously care so much, here's another tidbit you may want to consider. He can never come in contact with Orlando Bloom." Hen added before Elizabeth could get up the courage to leave.
"Huh?" That news came a little unexpectedly to Elizabeth.
"The last bit of the e-mail 'All matter is unstable if contact is made with subject. Process null and void if copy and subject ever meet. Precautions must be taken to ensure no cross- encounters ever occur!' Will Turner must never come in contact with the real Orlando Bloom," Hen stated gravely.
"What will happen if he does?" Elizabeth asked curiosity getting the better of her.
"Newton's third law, every action has an equal and opposite reaction, but if both 'Will's' or 'Orlando's' or whatever meet, the reaction that occurs will be the same for them both, at the same time, skewing the law, because only one reaction may take place at a time, at least that's the way it works in this reality. So if they ever meet, one of three things will happen. One, nothing happens. Both parties will be shocked and confused, you know they may faint a la Back to the Future, but they're both strong men so I doubt that. Second, the whole universe collapses because of the anomaly and the earth becomes a giant black hole. Highly unlikely and a bit melodramatic but still possible. And third, the world doesn't know how to cope with both of them, so it eliminates them both." Hen finished gravely.
Elizabeth wasn't keen on the world being sucked into a giant black hole but the last one sounded rather unpleasant as well. "What do you mean eliminate?" she asked cautiously.
"The world would not be able to handle the idea of two identical beings with identical thoughts so it would dispose of the problem in its entirety. It would probably be rather unpleasant, think Time Cop, you know the Jean- Claude film," Hen said with a sad smirk on his face.
"I never liked that movie," Elizabeth said cringing at the thought of Will turning into a giant puddle of ooze.
"Exactly, so before you get all love sick and decide to take Will to some romantic hideaway for a bit of lovin', think about the consequences of your actions Elizabeth, you were never meant to love him, and he was never meant to love you." Hen turned back to the computer and shut it down.
Elizabeth felt his concern for her and it hurt her to be so brash with him, he was looking out for her, like he used to and she was pushing him away for some girlish fantasy. Is that what she wanted? To live out the rest of her days constantly looking over her shoulder, worrying whether or not she would be discovered and Will was taken away? To cling to the false hope that she could make a life for them both when neither could afford to have their face shown in pubic again? Was that fair to Will, was it fair to herself? What about the world? Or the real Orlando, what if she caused harm to him and Will? Was what she felt for Will enough to justify the possibility of putting all that she cared for at risk?
It wasn't and deep down Elizabeth knew that it wasn't. The only chance that her and Will had to make the kind of life that they both deserved was if she sent him back. The only way she could go on knowing that she had done the right thing was if Will forgot all about this place and this future. If he forgot about Elizabeth and the time they shared together.
She had made up her mind, though it killed her to do so.
"How do I send him back?" Elizabeth said, keeping as firm a resolve as she could under the circumstances.
Hen looked up at her as a proud father would look at a daughter who had just passed the hardest test either could imagine.
"Pirates is to be replayed this Friday at the new Imax cinema, leave the computer with me and I'll have everything ready by then, we'll be able to send him back and destroy the computer and the whole thing will have blown over before you realize it," Hen's voice was an attempt at soothing, but Elizabeth wasn't in the mood for it.
"I'll see you on Friday," said Elizabeth listlessly.
"I'm sorry Lizzie, really I wish there was another way," Hen was being sincere but it wasn't an emotion he pulled off convincingly.
"Cut it our Hen, you sound like a daytime soap," Elizabeth tried to chuckle, but it came out as more of a sob.
"Yeah well at least my storylines more believable," he said with a smile.
"Oh sure, all we need now is to have Will fall suddenly pregnant with Marlena's love child," She said embracing her cynicism to help her through the pain of realizing she was giving away the single greatest guy she'd ever met.
"Excuse me!" Will picked probably the weirdest time to enter the conversation, causing Elizabeth to laugh briefly before lapsing into depression again. "Nothing, me and Hen were just discussing the finer points of day time TV, something I'm glad I haven't let you be exposed too," Elizabeth replied.
She turned and nodded a final good-bye to Hen. "Come on Will we'd better get back, we don't want to arouse any suspicion. Why'd you come in here anyway?" She asked as she moved over to him
"Umm, there's a message for Hen actually, there's a man in the next room who's calling you, something on the late edition of the news, anyway he wants you to come and give your opinion," Will said as he took Elizabeth's arm and together they left through the back door of the club.
"Umm, thanks Will I'll get right on it," Hen said, the sadness in his voice almost recognizable.
Elizabeth looked at Will as they left the club and made the way to her car and sighed. She contemplated breaking the contact between them, trying to ease the inevitable separation but then decided against it. She wanted to savor every minute of Will she could before she sent him back.