Author's note: Ok so I know I've lost most of my readers due to my loooong
intervals between chapters, and I'll admit that this one was a lot harder
to write. Life I am afraid is beginning to demand a lot more time! But
thank you to everyone who has read this far, this is not the end!! I have I
think about five chapters left. Sadly the end is near, it is in sight, but
I'm not there yet! So yeah hope you enjoy!!!!
*****
Elizabeth's worst fears had come to pass at that moment it seemed, as the General pounded at the door and Will went instantly rigged in her arms. She almost panicked, but the experiences of the past week had strengthened her and she was able to formulate a plan, albeit a hasty and disorganized one.
"Hide in the bathroom," she whispered into Will's ear, as they stood still wrapped in one another's arms. "Don't make a sound, if I can't get him to leave, make your way out the window and try to get to the balcony across the way and go down the fire escape. Take my cell phone and call Hen once your safe." Elizabeth looked up at Will noticed defiance in his eyes and slowly took the phone out of her pocket and slipped it into his hand. He would not take it however and attempted to shove it back into Elizabeth's.
"I will not run and leave you in danger," He said sternly.
Elizabeth smiled slightly, despite the fear rising in her as the knocking at the door became more insistent. Will was a true hero, selfless and stubborn and stupid when it came to matters of his own safety. "I'll be fine, he's probably just here to check up on me," She said trying to reassure Will despite her heart rising and plummeting continually at the thought of the General discovering her secret and taking Will away to be studied like a lab rat.
"Elizabeth, open this door!" The General boomed, startling Elizabeth back into reality.
"Will, hurry!" Elizabeth whispered as they broke apart and she flung him toward the other end of the apartment. She stuffed his sheets and pillow under her bed, waited until he had disappeared safely into the bathroom and then pasted on a happy face and swung open the door just as the General raised his arm for another knock.
"General Grippa!" she called rather loudly. "What are you doing here at this hour of the night?" She tried to look tired and sleepy but looked more worried and paranoid.
"Well I just came for a little check up is all, didn't want you opening the door to just anyone, so I announced my presence." He said cheerfully as he strolled into her apartment entrance, eyeing the place as though he expected drug dealers and stockpiles of illegal substances to come pouring out of closets at any moment.
"So," he said turning back to her, as if deciding that the apartment was, for the moment, safe and sound. "How have you been holding up, after your no doubt trying experience last week," He said as he stared down at Elizabeth. She didn't like the look in his eyes, fierce and unmoving, almost as if he was boring into her subconscious by force.
"Umm I've been fine," she responded hastily, her voice cracking slightly from the pressure. "I've just been catching up on my reading," she said as she walked over to the bed and picked up the copy of Treasure Island Will had left on top of her covers.
"Treasure Island," the General said slowly as he snatched the book away perused over the cover intently. "Pirates, Miss Cartwright?" He said condescendingly. "I really had hoped you'd got all of that lawlessness out of your system," he added with an almost sinister smile.
"I'd hardly call it lawlessness General," Elizabeth said feigning laughter. She was getting really nervous now. "I mean Robert Louis Stevenson is classic literature."
The General started to make his way towards the bathroom, scaring Elizabeth further. He knew, Elizabeth knew, he knew. She had to somehow draw his attention away from the bathroom!
"You know it took you a while to answer the door Elizabeth, one would almost think you were trying to hide something," The tone in the General's voice was light and kidding, but Elizabeth knew that he meant what he said.
She glanced around frantically for some excuse, and spied the spilt glass on the kitchen floor with great relief. "You startled me when you knocked!" she yelled, causing the General to turn from his advance on the bathroom. "I dropped my glass on the floor and it spilled all over the place! I didn't want you to cut yourself on the glass so I tried to pick up, but when you kept knocking I decided just to let you in." Elizabeth's voice was shaky and she knew that she didn't sound very convincing, but the General must have bought it because he walked over to Elizabeth as if forgetting the previous notions entirely and put his arm on her shoulder in an almost fatherly way.
"You always were so considerate Miss Cartwright, so willing to help those in need," It took every ounce of muscle control Elizabeth had in order to keep her face neutral after the General let loose with that comment.
"Thank you General," she managed to squeak out quietly.
Why was he taking so long? Why was he beating around the bush? If the General knew that Elizabeth was hiding Will and the computer why didn't he just arrest her, or restrain her or something. Was he trying to humiliate her as well?
"You know we still haven't found Augustine's computer," the General said as if it were nothing more than discussing the previous week's sports scores. "And there have been strange rumors going around lately, that Hollywood stars, specifically one, have been turning up in the most unusual of places."
"Really?" Elizabeth said haltingly, her mouth was becoming dry and clammy, she was cornered like a rat lost in a maze, she'd hoped Will had taken the hint by now and was making his way slowly out of the bathroom window.
"Yes, it's very strange," the General said in that strange, almost casual tone. "And there have also been rumors that a women of your description has been seen in these places, don't you find that odd?" The General was now turning back to the bathroom, a look of purpose and determination in his eye.
Elizabeth was on the brink of insanity waiting in the tension of the moment. She knew it was hopeless, knew there was no way she could protect herself and Will any longer, she decided to come out clean right there, to try and make it easy on herself. Maybe if she could talk to the General long enough she could get him to understand that Will was a person, not just a copy from a movie, but someone who thought and felt and had emotions and dreams and desires. Maybe if she put trust in the General he would put trust in her. It was killing her to lie to him anyway, he had always been nice to her after her parents had died.
The General was nearing the doors to the bathrooms, sizing them up trying to guess behind which one lay the prize. Elizabeth cleared her throat, trying to put a little moisture back in. She tried to call out to the General but it seemed as though her voice wouldn't allow it, she cleared her throat a little more and tried to call out again, but still she couldn't get any volume. The General was getting dangerously close to the doors now, and to Will's hiding place, but it seemed as though something in Elizabeth wouldn't let her speak. Couldn't bare the thought of giving up her secret hope of getting through all this in safety.
Just as she thought she could finally open her mouth and have actual sound come out, a lot of very detrimental things happened at once. First the General threw open the bathroom door with a flourish of triumph, expecting to see some sort of crazy conspiracy, but was disappointed when all he saw was a toilet and sink. He'd guessed wrong and opened the wrong door. Elizabeth was glad when she saw his disappointment, and decided that now would be a good time to inform him of her secret. She was halted before she could though because at that precise moment Will opened the other bathroom door and flung himself furiously on the General.
"Run Elizabeth!" Will called as he pinned the General down to the floor.
Elizabeth's expression was one mingled with horror and utter frustration, the one not-so-fun quality of torn Pirate/Blacksmiths, was there tendency to do incredibly rash and stupid things. Knowing now that any and all chances of winning over the General's trust were thrown out the window, she figured it was time to grab Will and get out of there.
She pulled Will off the General who was still wheezing from the blow he'd been dealt. "It's time we get out of here I think," she said sadly. "Goodbye General, I hope you understand that it's nothing personal, I just can't let you take Will away, he doesn't belong to you, he doesn't belong to anyone in this world."
She led Will towards the door when the puffing General called after her. "I hope you'll understand too, Elizabeth. That this really has nothing to do with you," Elizabeth's eyes widened as she saw the General pull a small radio out of his pocket and flip it on. "Corporeal Stam, I think it's time you came and cleaned up this mess," he said before flicking the switch and collapsing to the ground once more.
Faster than screaming Orlando fans pre-bought movie tickets to Return of the King, a hoard of military soldiers burst through the door. Elizabeth stood dumbfounded for what seemed like eons. Fierce looking soldiers were pouring in with large and menacing guns. At the head was a large and brutish looking female, if she could be called that. She wore an expression of frustration and annoyance, which did little to improve her pussy face. Elizabeth was instantly intimidated, but Will, who had fought festering moldy Pirates fearlessly, was only slightly scared. He pushed Elizabeth toward the balcony while drawing his own sword.
The brutish looking female, which Elizabeth only guessed was Corporal Stam drew her gun on Will just as quickly.
"Don't hurt him!" The General called from the floor where he was slowly regaining composure and standing up. "We need him alive and unharmed." The General strode toward Will and Elizabeth confidently, sure of his triumph.
Elizabeth, on the other hand was not so sure, or at least her hope made her not so sure. She knew there was a way out of this, there always was right? She just had to find it. At a loss to anything else she could do, Elizabeth stole a gaze at the apartment, looking for anything that could be used to escape. What she saw were the fierce glances of twelve brutish secret agents and the smirking face of the largest and ugliest, Corporeal Stam. Her and Will were surrounded on three sides and the fourth side wasn't all that inviting, just a wall and a balcony that held a lovely view of the three-story, seventy foot drop below. Yep going that way would be no fun at all. Except, now that Elizabeth thought a little clearer, she remembered that in the darkness beyond the door there was also a clothesline... attached to the building on the opposite side of the alleyway... which had a fire escape that lead down to the street.
Elizabeth spread a small smile across her face. Very small, there was still the matter of getting to the balcony door, opening it, and getting across before being shot, stabbed, captured or something. That would prove difficult, but at the moment it seemed to be Elizabeth's only opition.
The look the General gave Elizabeth was enough to make her blood curdle, it was a mixture of grief and frustration, like he'd expected more of her. She opened her mouth to say something, to find any sort of comeback or explanation or diversion, but was surprised when Will beat her to the punch.
"You know it really has begun to bother me, the amount of people who just won't let me die," Will's sudden upheaval of speech startled everyone in the room, and the tone of it surprised Elizabeth because it sounded a lot like hers, annoyed and frustrated.
"Excuse me?" the general said, somewhat bewildered that his lab experiment could possibly be more than just a walking test subject.
"At first the woman I love is kidnapped by blood thirsty pirates, who raid, pillage and plunder my town, And then I find out that I am actually the key to their whole plot, so instead of being able to do something heroic to try and stop them, I am forced to lay rotting in a cell until they can do what they want with me, and then when I find a way to be useful, I am torn away from my reality only to have yet another band of brutal and unforgiving miscreants try to steal away yet another woman I love and then expect me just to sit ideally by while they take away everything I hold dear and again use me against my will!" Will was standing firm and tall and he took his unsheathed sword and held it firmly against his chest. "I really no longer see the point in standing around here any longer, I really have no need to fear death, if all I will ever have in life is one nasty group or another taking away what I want,"
He had passion and seriousness in his eyes that made his threats realistic and frightening. Elizabeth was for a moment worried that he was sincere and would, before her eyes take his own life. The General was absolutely panic stricken, harshly he commanded his officers that none were to move. He looked at Will pleadingly, as if talking to a small child holding a delicate antique in his hands.
"Now let's not be hasty, Mr. Tuner is it?" the General said smoothly, using his years of hostage and terrorist negotiations to try and give him an edge on the situation. It failed. "Haste and rash are words which I do not respect in my vocabulary, as they are used only by people who never do such things themselves," Will was like a rock, firm and strong against the General's hot air. He had seen too much of the Commodore in the General to take him seriously, he was nothing but a man who hid behind his rank to achieve whatever devilish designs he had in mind. "And it's Turner, my name is Will TURNER, you obviously are not a fan of the movie," Will added sternly.
"No, me and my men do not have time for such things," the General retorted weakly.
"Than you wouldn't have seen the efficiencies in threatening one-self, I find it works rather well," Will said with a smirk. Elizabeth was puzzled by Will's strange behavior, but as he stole a glance at her, and his eyes flashed momentarily she saw a plan in them and stepped into action.
"No Will," Elizabeth said smoothly, taking the sword from his hand. The General looked relieved for a moment, before Elizabeth strode behind Will and pressed the blade against his throat. She looked around the room with a steely determination in her eyes. "A stab wound to the heart is easy to repair these days, a decapitation on the other hand," She looked again at the General with her fierce eyes and saw him flinch before he matched her gaze harshly.
"What do you plan to achieve with this Elizabeth?" he said focusing his condescension on her instead. "After Will is dead you will not only be tried for treason, but murder as well, are you willing to throw away your future for this copy from a movie?" The question burned Elizabeth because the answer to it was what had caused her to give Will up in the first place, to try and regain her normal life. But now it seemed as though she would never be safe, that the consequences of her actions would be felt for the rest of her life, however short that was.
"Yes General, Will is worth leaving every ounce of my normal life behind," Elizabeth realized as it came blurting out of her mouth, as natural as anything that the words were true, that she would give up every ounce of normalcy to be with Will, and that she would be happy if she did. But she knew now that Will would never be safe. The General had proved her need to send him back as quickly as possible.
Slowly she and Will started to move toward the balcony. The General and his cronies followed but kept their distance.
"But more than that," Elizabeth continued to try and distract them. "Making sure that you are never allowed to take away the rights of any man, no matter what his circumstance, is an ideal I'd die for," she was almost within reach of the door.
Elizabeth could see that her dig at his morals angered the General and now he was sputtering for something to say. Which worked well because it caused a bit of distraction. His face was red, and there was a vein that started to throb at his temple. His agents turned to look at him as he became angered and Elizabeth grasped her free hand on the handle of the sliding door leading out to the balcony. And unlocked it with a click, but no one seemed to notice as the General suddenly started to yell.
"How dare you judge me Elizabeth! After I took you in, treated you like a daughter, looked out for you and this is how you repay me! By saying that I am violating the rights of the very country I am trying to protect!" The General was fuming, and Elizabeth was unimpressed, how could using and abusing Will, possibly protect the country?
"Before you save the country General, you might want to save the ideals it stands for," Will added, increasing the General's fury.
Elizabeth decided that this would be a good time to implement her plan. Before the General could say anything further Elizabeth flung open the door and pulled Will through with her. The General instantly stopped fuming and started ordering his guards to take down the pair, but by the time they had refocused on the situation Elizabeth had flung the door closed and wedged a chair in the track, preventing it from opening. Through the glass, they saw Corporeal Stam raise her gun to fire, but the General smacked her hand away and they heard his muffled voice command her that shooting the glass could harm the Package, which Elizabeth assumed was Will.
Elizabeth dropped the sword from Will's neck and handed it back to him while the General's men furiously tried to get the door open.
"How long do you think it will hold them?" Will said as he turned back to Elizabeth.
"Not long, which is why we have to get across that gap in a hurry, now go." Elizabeth said as she pushed him toward the edge of the balcony and the clothesline.
"But," Will began to protest.
"You're the one they're after, therefore you're the one with the most need of getting out, so GO!" Elizabeth yelled.
Will stepped onto the railing of the balcony and took hold of the clothesline. Nimbly he jumped up and wrapped his legs around it in a firm hold. Elizabeth than pulled the rope through the pulley, slowly sending the line with Will attached, over to the other side. It wasn't easy, Will was a muscular man and with all that muscle there came a lot of weight, but spurred by the constant banging of agents on the other side of the glass Elizabeth, filled with adrenaline, was able to get him over to the other side. He fell nimbly off the rope and beckoned Elizabeth to climb on as he had. She stepped up onto the balcony railing and prepared to swing her legs onto the rope but now that she looked more closely the thin string and the massive fall made her hesitate. A sudden feeling of vertigo overtook her and she stood frozen in place teetering dangerously on the narrow railing.
A black fall of over seventy feet was in front of Elizabeth, while behind her a dozen blood thirsty special ops agents were getting closer and closer to breaking through the door.
*****
Elizabeth's worst fears had come to pass at that moment it seemed, as the General pounded at the door and Will went instantly rigged in her arms. She almost panicked, but the experiences of the past week had strengthened her and she was able to formulate a plan, albeit a hasty and disorganized one.
"Hide in the bathroom," she whispered into Will's ear, as they stood still wrapped in one another's arms. "Don't make a sound, if I can't get him to leave, make your way out the window and try to get to the balcony across the way and go down the fire escape. Take my cell phone and call Hen once your safe." Elizabeth looked up at Will noticed defiance in his eyes and slowly took the phone out of her pocket and slipped it into his hand. He would not take it however and attempted to shove it back into Elizabeth's.
"I will not run and leave you in danger," He said sternly.
Elizabeth smiled slightly, despite the fear rising in her as the knocking at the door became more insistent. Will was a true hero, selfless and stubborn and stupid when it came to matters of his own safety. "I'll be fine, he's probably just here to check up on me," She said trying to reassure Will despite her heart rising and plummeting continually at the thought of the General discovering her secret and taking Will away to be studied like a lab rat.
"Elizabeth, open this door!" The General boomed, startling Elizabeth back into reality.
"Will, hurry!" Elizabeth whispered as they broke apart and she flung him toward the other end of the apartment. She stuffed his sheets and pillow under her bed, waited until he had disappeared safely into the bathroom and then pasted on a happy face and swung open the door just as the General raised his arm for another knock.
"General Grippa!" she called rather loudly. "What are you doing here at this hour of the night?" She tried to look tired and sleepy but looked more worried and paranoid.
"Well I just came for a little check up is all, didn't want you opening the door to just anyone, so I announced my presence." He said cheerfully as he strolled into her apartment entrance, eyeing the place as though he expected drug dealers and stockpiles of illegal substances to come pouring out of closets at any moment.
"So," he said turning back to her, as if deciding that the apartment was, for the moment, safe and sound. "How have you been holding up, after your no doubt trying experience last week," He said as he stared down at Elizabeth. She didn't like the look in his eyes, fierce and unmoving, almost as if he was boring into her subconscious by force.
"Umm I've been fine," she responded hastily, her voice cracking slightly from the pressure. "I've just been catching up on my reading," she said as she walked over to the bed and picked up the copy of Treasure Island Will had left on top of her covers.
"Treasure Island," the General said slowly as he snatched the book away perused over the cover intently. "Pirates, Miss Cartwright?" He said condescendingly. "I really had hoped you'd got all of that lawlessness out of your system," he added with an almost sinister smile.
"I'd hardly call it lawlessness General," Elizabeth said feigning laughter. She was getting really nervous now. "I mean Robert Louis Stevenson is classic literature."
The General started to make his way towards the bathroom, scaring Elizabeth further. He knew, Elizabeth knew, he knew. She had to somehow draw his attention away from the bathroom!
"You know it took you a while to answer the door Elizabeth, one would almost think you were trying to hide something," The tone in the General's voice was light and kidding, but Elizabeth knew that he meant what he said.
She glanced around frantically for some excuse, and spied the spilt glass on the kitchen floor with great relief. "You startled me when you knocked!" she yelled, causing the General to turn from his advance on the bathroom. "I dropped my glass on the floor and it spilled all over the place! I didn't want you to cut yourself on the glass so I tried to pick up, but when you kept knocking I decided just to let you in." Elizabeth's voice was shaky and she knew that she didn't sound very convincing, but the General must have bought it because he walked over to Elizabeth as if forgetting the previous notions entirely and put his arm on her shoulder in an almost fatherly way.
"You always were so considerate Miss Cartwright, so willing to help those in need," It took every ounce of muscle control Elizabeth had in order to keep her face neutral after the General let loose with that comment.
"Thank you General," she managed to squeak out quietly.
Why was he taking so long? Why was he beating around the bush? If the General knew that Elizabeth was hiding Will and the computer why didn't he just arrest her, or restrain her or something. Was he trying to humiliate her as well?
"You know we still haven't found Augustine's computer," the General said as if it were nothing more than discussing the previous week's sports scores. "And there have been strange rumors going around lately, that Hollywood stars, specifically one, have been turning up in the most unusual of places."
"Really?" Elizabeth said haltingly, her mouth was becoming dry and clammy, she was cornered like a rat lost in a maze, she'd hoped Will had taken the hint by now and was making his way slowly out of the bathroom window.
"Yes, it's very strange," the General said in that strange, almost casual tone. "And there have also been rumors that a women of your description has been seen in these places, don't you find that odd?" The General was now turning back to the bathroom, a look of purpose and determination in his eye.
Elizabeth was on the brink of insanity waiting in the tension of the moment. She knew it was hopeless, knew there was no way she could protect herself and Will any longer, she decided to come out clean right there, to try and make it easy on herself. Maybe if she could talk to the General long enough she could get him to understand that Will was a person, not just a copy from a movie, but someone who thought and felt and had emotions and dreams and desires. Maybe if she put trust in the General he would put trust in her. It was killing her to lie to him anyway, he had always been nice to her after her parents had died.
The General was nearing the doors to the bathrooms, sizing them up trying to guess behind which one lay the prize. Elizabeth cleared her throat, trying to put a little moisture back in. She tried to call out to the General but it seemed as though her voice wouldn't allow it, she cleared her throat a little more and tried to call out again, but still she couldn't get any volume. The General was getting dangerously close to the doors now, and to Will's hiding place, but it seemed as though something in Elizabeth wouldn't let her speak. Couldn't bare the thought of giving up her secret hope of getting through all this in safety.
Just as she thought she could finally open her mouth and have actual sound come out, a lot of very detrimental things happened at once. First the General threw open the bathroom door with a flourish of triumph, expecting to see some sort of crazy conspiracy, but was disappointed when all he saw was a toilet and sink. He'd guessed wrong and opened the wrong door. Elizabeth was glad when she saw his disappointment, and decided that now would be a good time to inform him of her secret. She was halted before she could though because at that precise moment Will opened the other bathroom door and flung himself furiously on the General.
"Run Elizabeth!" Will called as he pinned the General down to the floor.
Elizabeth's expression was one mingled with horror and utter frustration, the one not-so-fun quality of torn Pirate/Blacksmiths, was there tendency to do incredibly rash and stupid things. Knowing now that any and all chances of winning over the General's trust were thrown out the window, she figured it was time to grab Will and get out of there.
She pulled Will off the General who was still wheezing from the blow he'd been dealt. "It's time we get out of here I think," she said sadly. "Goodbye General, I hope you understand that it's nothing personal, I just can't let you take Will away, he doesn't belong to you, he doesn't belong to anyone in this world."
She led Will towards the door when the puffing General called after her. "I hope you'll understand too, Elizabeth. That this really has nothing to do with you," Elizabeth's eyes widened as she saw the General pull a small radio out of his pocket and flip it on. "Corporeal Stam, I think it's time you came and cleaned up this mess," he said before flicking the switch and collapsing to the ground once more.
Faster than screaming Orlando fans pre-bought movie tickets to Return of the King, a hoard of military soldiers burst through the door. Elizabeth stood dumbfounded for what seemed like eons. Fierce looking soldiers were pouring in with large and menacing guns. At the head was a large and brutish looking female, if she could be called that. She wore an expression of frustration and annoyance, which did little to improve her pussy face. Elizabeth was instantly intimidated, but Will, who had fought festering moldy Pirates fearlessly, was only slightly scared. He pushed Elizabeth toward the balcony while drawing his own sword.
The brutish looking female, which Elizabeth only guessed was Corporal Stam drew her gun on Will just as quickly.
"Don't hurt him!" The General called from the floor where he was slowly regaining composure and standing up. "We need him alive and unharmed." The General strode toward Will and Elizabeth confidently, sure of his triumph.
Elizabeth, on the other hand was not so sure, or at least her hope made her not so sure. She knew there was a way out of this, there always was right? She just had to find it. At a loss to anything else she could do, Elizabeth stole a gaze at the apartment, looking for anything that could be used to escape. What she saw were the fierce glances of twelve brutish secret agents and the smirking face of the largest and ugliest, Corporeal Stam. Her and Will were surrounded on three sides and the fourth side wasn't all that inviting, just a wall and a balcony that held a lovely view of the three-story, seventy foot drop below. Yep going that way would be no fun at all. Except, now that Elizabeth thought a little clearer, she remembered that in the darkness beyond the door there was also a clothesline... attached to the building on the opposite side of the alleyway... which had a fire escape that lead down to the street.
Elizabeth spread a small smile across her face. Very small, there was still the matter of getting to the balcony door, opening it, and getting across before being shot, stabbed, captured or something. That would prove difficult, but at the moment it seemed to be Elizabeth's only opition.
The look the General gave Elizabeth was enough to make her blood curdle, it was a mixture of grief and frustration, like he'd expected more of her. She opened her mouth to say something, to find any sort of comeback or explanation or diversion, but was surprised when Will beat her to the punch.
"You know it really has begun to bother me, the amount of people who just won't let me die," Will's sudden upheaval of speech startled everyone in the room, and the tone of it surprised Elizabeth because it sounded a lot like hers, annoyed and frustrated.
"Excuse me?" the general said, somewhat bewildered that his lab experiment could possibly be more than just a walking test subject.
"At first the woman I love is kidnapped by blood thirsty pirates, who raid, pillage and plunder my town, And then I find out that I am actually the key to their whole plot, so instead of being able to do something heroic to try and stop them, I am forced to lay rotting in a cell until they can do what they want with me, and then when I find a way to be useful, I am torn away from my reality only to have yet another band of brutal and unforgiving miscreants try to steal away yet another woman I love and then expect me just to sit ideally by while they take away everything I hold dear and again use me against my will!" Will was standing firm and tall and he took his unsheathed sword and held it firmly against his chest. "I really no longer see the point in standing around here any longer, I really have no need to fear death, if all I will ever have in life is one nasty group or another taking away what I want,"
He had passion and seriousness in his eyes that made his threats realistic and frightening. Elizabeth was for a moment worried that he was sincere and would, before her eyes take his own life. The General was absolutely panic stricken, harshly he commanded his officers that none were to move. He looked at Will pleadingly, as if talking to a small child holding a delicate antique in his hands.
"Now let's not be hasty, Mr. Tuner is it?" the General said smoothly, using his years of hostage and terrorist negotiations to try and give him an edge on the situation. It failed. "Haste and rash are words which I do not respect in my vocabulary, as they are used only by people who never do such things themselves," Will was like a rock, firm and strong against the General's hot air. He had seen too much of the Commodore in the General to take him seriously, he was nothing but a man who hid behind his rank to achieve whatever devilish designs he had in mind. "And it's Turner, my name is Will TURNER, you obviously are not a fan of the movie," Will added sternly.
"No, me and my men do not have time for such things," the General retorted weakly.
"Than you wouldn't have seen the efficiencies in threatening one-self, I find it works rather well," Will said with a smirk. Elizabeth was puzzled by Will's strange behavior, but as he stole a glance at her, and his eyes flashed momentarily she saw a plan in them and stepped into action.
"No Will," Elizabeth said smoothly, taking the sword from his hand. The General looked relieved for a moment, before Elizabeth strode behind Will and pressed the blade against his throat. She looked around the room with a steely determination in her eyes. "A stab wound to the heart is easy to repair these days, a decapitation on the other hand," She looked again at the General with her fierce eyes and saw him flinch before he matched her gaze harshly.
"What do you plan to achieve with this Elizabeth?" he said focusing his condescension on her instead. "After Will is dead you will not only be tried for treason, but murder as well, are you willing to throw away your future for this copy from a movie?" The question burned Elizabeth because the answer to it was what had caused her to give Will up in the first place, to try and regain her normal life. But now it seemed as though she would never be safe, that the consequences of her actions would be felt for the rest of her life, however short that was.
"Yes General, Will is worth leaving every ounce of my normal life behind," Elizabeth realized as it came blurting out of her mouth, as natural as anything that the words were true, that she would give up every ounce of normalcy to be with Will, and that she would be happy if she did. But she knew now that Will would never be safe. The General had proved her need to send him back as quickly as possible.
Slowly she and Will started to move toward the balcony. The General and his cronies followed but kept their distance.
"But more than that," Elizabeth continued to try and distract them. "Making sure that you are never allowed to take away the rights of any man, no matter what his circumstance, is an ideal I'd die for," she was almost within reach of the door.
Elizabeth could see that her dig at his morals angered the General and now he was sputtering for something to say. Which worked well because it caused a bit of distraction. His face was red, and there was a vein that started to throb at his temple. His agents turned to look at him as he became angered and Elizabeth grasped her free hand on the handle of the sliding door leading out to the balcony. And unlocked it with a click, but no one seemed to notice as the General suddenly started to yell.
"How dare you judge me Elizabeth! After I took you in, treated you like a daughter, looked out for you and this is how you repay me! By saying that I am violating the rights of the very country I am trying to protect!" The General was fuming, and Elizabeth was unimpressed, how could using and abusing Will, possibly protect the country?
"Before you save the country General, you might want to save the ideals it stands for," Will added, increasing the General's fury.
Elizabeth decided that this would be a good time to implement her plan. Before the General could say anything further Elizabeth flung open the door and pulled Will through with her. The General instantly stopped fuming and started ordering his guards to take down the pair, but by the time they had refocused on the situation Elizabeth had flung the door closed and wedged a chair in the track, preventing it from opening. Through the glass, they saw Corporeal Stam raise her gun to fire, but the General smacked her hand away and they heard his muffled voice command her that shooting the glass could harm the Package, which Elizabeth assumed was Will.
Elizabeth dropped the sword from Will's neck and handed it back to him while the General's men furiously tried to get the door open.
"How long do you think it will hold them?" Will said as he turned back to Elizabeth.
"Not long, which is why we have to get across that gap in a hurry, now go." Elizabeth said as she pushed him toward the edge of the balcony and the clothesline.
"But," Will began to protest.
"You're the one they're after, therefore you're the one with the most need of getting out, so GO!" Elizabeth yelled.
Will stepped onto the railing of the balcony and took hold of the clothesline. Nimbly he jumped up and wrapped his legs around it in a firm hold. Elizabeth than pulled the rope through the pulley, slowly sending the line with Will attached, over to the other side. It wasn't easy, Will was a muscular man and with all that muscle there came a lot of weight, but spurred by the constant banging of agents on the other side of the glass Elizabeth, filled with adrenaline, was able to get him over to the other side. He fell nimbly off the rope and beckoned Elizabeth to climb on as he had. She stepped up onto the balcony railing and prepared to swing her legs onto the rope but now that she looked more closely the thin string and the massive fall made her hesitate. A sudden feeling of vertigo overtook her and she stood frozen in place teetering dangerously on the narrow railing.
A black fall of over seventy feet was in front of Elizabeth, while behind her a dozen blood thirsty special ops agents were getting closer and closer to breaking through the door.