AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ok so I'm a big evil person, honest I am! I've made you wait so long! I didn't mean to honest!!!! BUT you wanted a last chapter... and boy did you get a doozy! Yes siree over 4000 words long this is!! It's intense, it's awesome! I love it! I hope you do to, and I hope you tell me! Ok so I'm done... and here I go... the final chapter of OUR FINE HERO!!!!
Bradford was baffled, his jaw was almost on the floor. Will was instantly defensive, stepping forward, drawing his sword and placing Elizabeth behind him he acted as a shield. Elizabeth however, was in shock, and hardly believed it until her eyes adjusted to the dark theatre and she could see for herself, hadn't the General taken the day off? Then her brain started working again; of course the General had taken the day off... to come here, to intercept the computer! And she had been too wrapped up in her worry over Will to think of it. She cursed herself for her stupidity, and cursed the General for his twenty men.
"I will not let you touch her, may my body be riddled with lead if you take her from me while I still have strength to draw my sword." Will said very heroically.
"Will, Will, You're no good to me full of bullet holes, it would throw off the diagnostic results." The General said coolly.
"Why did you do this General!?" Elizabeth said, finally recovering from her shock. "What gives you the right! Don't you realize that we HAVE to send him back?! If there is anything in you that loves the rights of this country, PLEASE do the right thing and help us send him back," she pleaded.
"The rights of this country! The rights of this country! Elizabeth that is what I am sacrificing so hard in order to protect!" The General declared vehemently.
"How does stealing someone's life and then using it as a lab experiment constitute as protecting it! How do you justify using and manipulating a living, feeling human being!" Elizabeth shouted.
"Elizabeth, I own him, he's not the REAL Will, he's just a copy, its not like anyone is going to notice that he's gone!" The General spat out the words like it was the best thing he'd ever said, and to Elizabeth it was the worst thing she'd ever heard.
Will turned to her with a look in his eyes that could only be called betrayal. The General seemed pleased.
"What's this?" the General smirked. "Haven't told him he's a fake, a copy, not real,"
"He is real General!" Elizabeth shouted above her doubt. "He's more real than you and I will do anything to protect him from you," she said, as she looked Will in the eye. "Even give him up."
"I won't let you get in the way of my dream Elizabeth, for the good of this country I'll do whatever it takes to get what I want," the General retorted.
"See this is where I get confused, how on earth do you think Will Turner is going to save the country?" Bradford piped up.
"Not Will Turner, he was a mere mishap, what I need are soldiers," the General said almost gleefully.
"Soldiers?" Bradford and Elizabeth stuttered.
"Yes you simpletons, haven't you noticed the pitiful state of defence in this country? Everywhere you look you have the children of rich hippies, nobody willing to stand and do what's right, no one willing to defend the freedom that thousands have died to protect, look at us! A country filled with protesters and objectors when it should be should with soldiers and patriots, well I'm not going to stand by and let the freedom of this country go down the drain! Which is why I was so willing to help Miss Mackin when she suggested an experimental machine that could be used to bring cinematic figures into our world, their strength and ideals retained."
Elizabeth could hardly take in the plot unfolded to her, this was insane, it was ludicrous! But still the general continued.
"Imagine it, an unlimited amount of ready and willing soldiers at our disposal, each more patriotic than the rest. Thousands willing to die for our cause, and the best part is they're so easily replaceable... no weeping families, no bad press. Where one goes down we can send in hundreds more. No one will dare oppose us."
There was a sickening feeling in the pit of Elizabeth's stomach that threatened to overwhelm her. "You're insane," she spat at the General.
"That may be debatable, but I also have twenty men here with me who are very warming to my cause, and you only have a pitiful agent and an out of place pirate, so I don't think you'll be standing in my way much longer." The General smirked as he raised his gun and prepared to fire.
"Good bye Elizabeth, it is a pain that it turned out this way, I did so enjoy working with you." The hammer clicked and a shot was heard.
And the gun went flying out of the General's hand.
"Hello General!" A loud and cheery voice came from somewhere above them.
In a flash no less than forty to fifty flashlights were shining down on them. "I would suggest you tell your men to lower their weapons, unless of course you find them as easily expendable as you plan your soldiers to be!" Another voice said from above and opposite the first.
The guns dropped instantly.
"I love how cooperative your goons are General, Simon Says put your hands up!" A third voice came from the front of the theatre.
The hands were up instantly.
Elizabeth was baffled, confounded and confused, who were these people, how did they know about this, and why did they sound vaguely familiar.
"Chy, hit the lights won't you darling? It's awfully dark in here," said the voice in the front of the theatre.
"My pleasure Brooke, I'd love to illuminate the situation," a voice replied as the theatre was suddenly filled with light and all parties squinted to adjust to the sudden change.
"Chy, honestly you and your puns," The third voice rang as Elizabeth opened her eyes to see that all around the theatre figures in black were surrounding them all training their guns on the General and his men. Then Elizabeth noticed that three figures were converging in on them. One was tall, one looked a little jumpy and one had strawberry blond hair.
Will was the first to notice.
"THE GIRLS FROM THE MALL!!!" he shouted.
"He remembers us!" The Jumpy one, said in a revered tone.
"Becky, Brooke, Chy, I was wondering if you guys would show up today," Bradford said calmly.
Elizabeth and Will looked at him like he was more insane than the General.
"Allow me to introduce the leaders of the Venture Squad; Becky, Brooke, and Chy. They've been doing special ops since they were twelve." Bradford said with what could only be called a hint of pride.
"Think Agent Cody Banks, only cooler," Brooke said.
"They've been bugging me about this case since practically the beginning, is he really Will Turner? What's this got to do with Hen? Where are they going to meet? These three have been running my back about you two for ages." He said with his trademark sly grin,
"Yep and we figured this would be a good place to catch the action, so we took our goon..."
"Hey!" a dejected cry came up from the back.
"Sorry Jason," Brooke said insincerely. "We brought our team here in hopes that we could finally place the right blame on the people responsible for stealing over two hundred and fifty million of our tax payers dollars."
"And thanks to the General's marvellous confession," Beck broke in. "We've stopped an egregious theft from happening as well!"
"Honestly General, your lack of faith in this country hurts," Chy finished. "Everyday people sign up and devote their lives to protecting the freedoms and beliefs of this great nation. And you would exploit the recreation and entertainment of these people undermining the great rights and freedoms they are protecting. I honestly believe you insane General."
"I'll get you for this..." The General started, but Brooke knocked him unconscious with the butt of her gun before he could finish.
"I was getting so tired of that guy," she said nonchalantly.
"Ok boys," Beck said speaking to the General's goons. "We can do this the easy way, you put your hands out, my men cuff them and lead you back to headquarters and your prosecuted duly for your crimes... or we could start fighting and some of you if not all of you will end up dead." Her voice commanded a lot of confidence.
The goons chose the easy way.
"I knew we had an understanding," she said sweetly. "Jason if you would be so kind as to escort these men out of here, we have a bit more business to attend to."
"Sure thing Beck," he said as he started to lead the men out.
In a moment they were all gone, and Elizabeth, Will, Bradford, Hen and the leaders were standing in the theatre wondering what could possibly come next. Bradford and his eagerness reminded them.
"Well we should probably do what we came here for, Hen you ready?" Bradford said casually, as if the event taking place was of no more importance than switching over the laundry.
Hen was sullen in his response, not quite sure of what to make of all this. "Sure I just need to set up and I'll need someone to cue the movie for me."
"I'll take care of it," Chy said as she headed for the projecting room.
Hen started to set up and Elizabeth couldn't decide if things were going a mile a minute or if every second was an agonizing hour. What was going to happen? Was she just supposed to say goodbye to Will now that he knew the truth, now that he knew he could stay? Brooke broke her silence.
"You two ok?" she asked quizzically as she stared at them.
Elizabeth didn't realize that her and Will had hardly moved during the whole exchange, both were too stunned to care.
"Uh, yeah were fine," Elizabeth stuttered.
"You two weren't easy to stop you know?" Brooke said seriously.
"What?" Will asked.
"You two weren't easy to track, once Bradford told us about you we had to find out for ourselves, hence our lovely little scene in the mall. We knew you weren't Orlando as soon as we saw that you were missing the sun tattoo by the way."
Will coloured a little at that one, "Yes well you didn't have to be so intrusive about it."
"What?" Elizabeth said incredulously.
"They were not the only one who got their shirts lifted," he said colouring even more.
Elizabeth gawked at Brooke who merely smiled at them mischievously and continued. "At any rate we knew we had to get that computer from you, to keep it safe of course. So we followed you to the club."
"I love Maria's they make great chicken wings," Beck interjected as she passed messages back and forth to Chy and Hen.
"Anyway, we knew we had to stop you from getting to the other side without drawing attention to you, that would have hurt us even more, the last thing we needed was Will all over the eleven o'clock news."
"Boy were we right about that one," Beck said in passing once more.
"So we set up the slow song," she smiled mischievously again.
"That was you?" Elizabeth said, stunned.
"You think you get that kind of selection at Maria's? They may have great chicken wings but they're taste in music sucks, and that song happens to be one of my personal favourites."
"It would have worked too," Beck said passing by and then thinking better of it and stopping to join in on the story.
"But you two had a few more tricks up your sleaves than we had counted on," Brooke said her smile growing.
"Waltzing across the dance floor, how romantic," Becky said dreamily. "And then you kissed!"
"Chill Becky!" Brooke said a little exasperated.
"Why are you telling us this?" Will said visibly hurt.
"I'm just saying," Brooke said seriously all traces of her smile leaving. "You two work really great together."
"But it doesn't matter because we have to send him back," Elizabeth broke in. "I have to go help Hen." And she broke contact with Will without looking back.
The preparations were made, the machine was ready, the movie was set.
"Will you stand in the aisle about twenty feet up, we'll have you back in a moment," Hen said.
Elizabeth just stood there, numb, because if she let any emotion she wouldn't be able to do what she was about to do, she wouldn't be able to say goodbye. She'd be selfish and force him to say.
"This isn't right," Brooke said.
"Huh? But I made sure the calculations were correct! Everything is perfect!" Hen said disbelievingly.
"Give them a moment to say goodbye," Beck said.
"Yeah," Chy said as she pushed Elizabeth forward.
Elizabeth didn't want to do this... she didn't want to face his face, his eyes. So she didn't she looked down at her toes and walked forward until she could see the tips of his boots in front of her.
"Bye," Elizabeth said in a whisper.
To Elizabeth's surprise Will chuckled.
"We've been thrown into each other's lives, beaten goons, faced mobs, snobs and conspiracies, almost died several times... and all you can manage is a little bye," Will said chuckling a little more.
Elizabeth chuckled a little too, now that she thought about it she must've looked rather pathetic. She looked at Will smiling but feeling sadder than she had ever had "Look! This is hard enough as it is, I mean what else does one say to a torn pirate/blacksmith? Send me a postcard?"
Will chuckled a little more, "I'd agree to that! If I knew what a postcard was..." he snickered. "So I suppose this is it Miss Cartwright, would you be ill toward a friendly hug goodbye?" Will asked that silly grin still plastered on his face.
Unable to deny him his final request Elizabeth nodded stupidly. "There's no harm in a friendly hug," she said as they embraced.
All of her composure rushed away as they made contact and she was glad he was pulling her so close if only for the fact that now he couldn't see the agony on her face and the tears that were almost running down her cheeks. He started to pull her away and she started to panic.
"Well than I guess there's nothing left to say," she said quickly, trying to hide her pain through a smile.
Will it seemed could see through it and said the one thing strong enough to break through the barrier.
"How about I love you," he said, any sign of a smile leaving his lips. (Beck swooned in the background)
Elizabeth gasped a little, taken completely off guard and at a loss of what to say, so she tried to keep things light like they had been only seconds before, even though her rapidly failing composure made her look fairly pitiful.
"Well isn't that nice," she said rather flatly pasting a grin (more of a grimace) on her face.
"I said I love you, Elizabeth, and I mean what I say," Will was throwing his cards on the table, laying his heart on the line, begging, pleading with Elizabeth. But Elizabeth didn't want to see, so she fought against it, she looked at the floor once more.
"I think we've said enough, time to go," she said quickly dashing back to Hen, who was minding his own business, and Bradford, who looked mildly amused, and the Venture Squad... who looked VERY disappointed.
"Ok let's get this show on the road," Elizabeth said stirring Hen from his guilt.
"Umm there's a timer on the device that I have to set so they'll be a thirty second countdown." He said sheepishly.
"Ok I don't care just as long as you get it done," Elizabeth said rather harshly.
"You don't have to yell at Hen!" Chy said.
"I'm not yelling at anyone!" Elizabeth yelled.
"Thirty seconds," Hen said.
"Good," Elizabeth said a little harshly.
"You don't have to do this Elizabeth," Brooke said.
"We would protect you and Will," Becky started.
"Look I don't have the... just why don't you..." Elizabeth couldn't keep her thoughts straight. So she glanced about the room and as though drawn magnetically, her eyes rested on Will.
"Twenty seconds," Hen said.
Will's eyes held no anger, no betrayal. He wasn't making excuses or asking for second chances, he was respecting Elizabeth's decision; he was doing what she had told him to.
And she was making the right decision... right? She was sending Will back, she was keeping him safe, protecting him from the evils of her world. It wasn't like this was easy for her! It wasn't like she WANTED him to go back I mean she loved him too!
At that Elizabeth paused... she loved him too?
"Ten seconds," Hen said.
SHE DID LOVE HIM TOO!!
So that's why everyone was so... right. Her sending Will back was a stupid, stupid decision. She loved him, and he loved her! How often does that happen!
"Five... Four..."
"STOP!!!!!" Elizabeth screamed.
"Two... One," Hen said smiling.
Nothing happened.
"What?" Elizabeth said bewildered.
"I was wondering when you would finally come to your senses... nothing like a good old fashioned count down to lay on the pressure," he said smirking.
"So if I hadn't yelled out nothing would have happened?" Elizabeth asked.
"No I would have hit the enter button and sent him back to the movie. The program's ready to fire, I just made up the whole count down thing to give you time to change your mind... it's a good thing I did too, you needed the whole thirty seconds to realize that a love like that is hard to find in this kind of reality."
"But I mean... you told me I had to send him back! You're the one who convinced me to give him up in the first place!" Elizabeth stuttered.
"That was before I was given a little push in the right direction by Chy over there... movie timing wasn't the only thing Beck was passing messages about..." at this both Becky and Chy blushed slightly.
"So... I mean... what does this mean?" Elizabeth's confusion overwhelmed her for a moment... surely this wouldn't mean... could she keep Will? Could she live happily ever after? Was that even possible?
It seemed Will held the answer to her questions both spoken and unheard.
"It means that I'm here to stay," Will said as he walked up to Elizabeth slowly. "That is, if you still want me to," he finished shyly.
Elizabeth felt like yelling at the top of her lungs, felt like telling the whole world how happy she was. Will was hers to cherish and love forever and ever. She was so happy she didn't know how to express the joy she felt. So she made a lame joke instead
"That's you know if you can stand sleeping in my bathtub for a couple of nights while I search for a bigger apartment for us," she said with a smirk.
Will didn't really know how to respond to that, so he didn't and just left his mouth agape at her foolishness... which gave her the perfect opportunity to plant a massive and almost heart-stopping kiss.
All of the Venture Squad sighed and swooned.
When Will and Elizabeth finally untangled their lips from one another both were breathless. They just stood there with their foreheads pressed together giving each other silly grins.
"I love you Will Turner," Elizabeth whispered when enough breath had returned.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ok... that's nice isn't it??? Makes you feel all warm inside doesn't it... sighWell if that's the kind of feeling you want then fine... leave it here... scroll down and review and leave it at that...BUT... if you're curious, if you're cynical, or if you plain just haven't had enough of my torture yet... than by all means, continue and find out what REALLY happened after that lovely little kiss. Trust me... it's worth it.
"I love y..." Will started but was interrupted as the doors crashed open and a familiar voice and face came into view.
"What is going on here?! This is the third time this theatre has been disturbed and the second time it has happened during MY movie!!! Who are you people! I demand an answer," Orlando Bloom shouted to everyone present. Keira Knightly and what looked like a hoard of lawyers flanked him.
The just recovered Venture Squad almost swooned again at the sight of him. Hen however was sent into sheer panic.
"Elizabeth get Will out of here!!" He yelled.
But both her and Will were stunned... Orlando Bloom? Here? What kind of sci-fi horror filled irony twist was this?!
And then Orlando saw Will... or rather to him he saw himself, and Will saw himself, or rather Orlando Bloom... both were very confused.
"What?" they said simultaneously.
And all held their breaths... Hen waited for the world to end, and Elizabeth prayed that nothing of note would happen. Both were wrong and before either man was finished both had started to feel the consequences of their being there.
"ARGHHH" Both Will and Orlando yelled as an utterly excruciating pain began to rack through their bodies.
As if now they couldn't separate themselves, both men began shaking and fell to the floor, convulsing with the pain. Elizabeth watched in horror, her heart racing and her mind jumping. How could this be happening? How could she finally be resolved to keep Will and then be forced to lose him now! She froze unable to do anything but watch in horror.
He fell and his screams continued, all around the theatre there was panic, Bradford was yelling questions at Hen who seemed paralysed and then rushing to break Will's fall, the Venture Squad was fully assembled and attempting to clear the lawyers and Keira away from Orlando who was in similar convulsions. Both were yelling in the agony and the pain seemed to be getting worse by the second.
"Elizabeth," Will whispered in between fits of agony.
That broke Elizabeth's trance as she too filled with agony, although hers ran far deeper than physical pain. She knelt down beside Will the tears freely flowing before her knees hit the floor.
"I'm sorry Will." she sobbed. "I'm so sorry."
Will tried to smile, to tell her it was not her fault, that she could never do anything to hurt him now that she had agreed to be his, but he was hit by another torrent of agony halfway through.
Elizabeth was becoming increasingly hysteric as each wave hit him. To see his strong eyes roll back in the pain, to hear his steady voice cry out in agony, shattered her strength.
"Hen!" She screamed. "Make it stop! Make it stop! Save him! Save him Hen!" She screamed grabbing his shirt and sobbing into it.
Hen snapped back into reality, "Bradford get Elizabeth out of the way! I'm sending him back, if one leaves I may be able to save both!"
That brought another burst from Elizabeth who was terrified at the sight of Will in pain, but did not want to imagine the possibility of losing him. She held him tighter and the onlookers could scarcely tell if it was her or Will who was more distraught.
Bradford came over and started to pull Elizabeth off, initiating more protests. 'He needs me! Let go! I need to be with him!' rang through the theatre which seemed empty as the two parted.
As Bradford finally parted them Will took his hand, as almost a parting of ways, a surrender.
"Take care of her for me," he said through clinched teeth.
Elizabeth's wails were growing louder and Hen barked at her for quiet. Bradford managed to clear the path between Will and the machine as Hen prepared to fire it. To Elizabeth the world slowed to almost a halt, and for a moment it seemed as though Will's pain had stopped, as he looked at her with his calm, bottomless eyes. He smiled then, and it was the last image she had of him, his soft smile and those dear eyes. It hushed her crying and carried with them tremendous peace. And then he was gone.
The next moments were a blur to Elizabeth. She vaguely heard the Venture Squad demand that the machine be destroyed and the lawyers and Keira rush to Orlando's side as he recovered from his agony, or at least what he thought had been agony, for the pain had vanished as suddenly as Will had. Elizabeth's gaze met his for a brief second, as Bradford led her out. Those same fathomless eyes, the same soft lips were filled with questions she didn't have the power to answer. And then she was gone, out of the theatre, to leave behind the baffled agents and Hen and the leaders of the Venture Squad to explain what had happened.
Bradford helped her to his car, she barely even noticed him. Consumed by the last image of Will in her mind. She closed her eyes, and imagined his in front of her, his playful smile, his soft touch and warm embrace. She wished so hard for him to be there, thought surely that if she believed hard enough he would hear her request and come back to her.
But when she opened her eyes he wasn't there, and her sobs started again. "He's gone," she wept over and over. "He's gone."
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I told you I was evil... and I'm going to prove it further now... I couldn't decide how to end it! I have three possible epilogues for you to read (or if you're heartless you could just stop now and have her end up alone and sobbing in the back of Bradford's car) and I don't know which one to post!! So here's the thing... every two days of next week I'll post another ending! And you can review and tell me if you want that one or want to see another one and then so on and so on and at the end I'll add the ending everyone wanted (which will also decide how I handle the sequel Our Fine Hero II: Caribbean Chaos (it's a working title))
So yeah and don't worry I've written all three endings so you won't be waiting weeks (unless of course my computer crashes and I lose everything) knocks on wood it will be posted on Mon, Wed and Fri of next week.