Chapter 7

She hears her heart give a final beat and then there is nothing but darkness. She opens her eyes and finds herself sitting in the rain. She's wearing her wedding gown yet there are no guests present and no groom waiting to whisk her away. Elizabeth Swann is dead and now she sits in a purgatory of her own, awaiting a trial for the wrongdoings in her life. She may not have known that stabbing the heart would separate Will from his father forever, but she did know that giving the heart to Beckett would all but eliminate any possibility of Will saving him. He hated her now and she supposed that attempting to kill him was enough to push her fate over the edge so that she sat here, awaiting a decision about her soul. But then again, she knew that Will would never forgive her, she knew what the outcome of her trial would be and she knew that soon she would be joining Barbossa's lost crew. All that was horrible enough, but what hurt her most was realizing that she was wrong in what she believed was Will's feelings toward her. It was now painfully obvious that Will no longer loved her and she would have to live with that for an eternity.

The rain continued to fall, it seemed to come down harder with each passing minute and the cups that were placed on a table for guests who she knew would never arrive, began to overflow. Sheet music for a musical selection that she knew would never be played scattered in the strengthening wind and the only thing heavier than her now soaked wedding dress, was her shattered spirit and condemned soul. It would be easy to blame Jack Sparrow but what would be the point? She made these decisions herself knowing full well the implications of what she was doing so there was nobody to blame but herself.

Lightning flashes and thunder rolls, heavy dark clouds are in her horizon and she lifts her face towards the stormy sea. In front of her the alter sits, like bars preventing her from ever being free or happy again. Perhaps she's already in hell.

Her eyes continue to scan the horizon, keeping a weather eye as Will had told her to do so long ago when she sat behind a different set of bars, but that was indeed, a long time ago.

"Will" she cried softly and hopelessly as lightning illuminated her face, her eyes dark with pain her voice full of desperation.

She didn't know if she was mourning for herself and her wretched soul, or for the love that she had so carelessly let slip away.

Suddenly, from behind her she heard a noise, the sound of a door being forced open and chains rattling. They had come for her and she knew where she was going to be taken.

"Miss Swann!" she heard someone call.

She turned and saw a figure standing in the archway, she felt her stomach flutter with nerves. She threw down her bouquet and a small white rose broke off and rolled away, but Elizabeth didn't notice. She quickly ran up to the man who was wearing a dark cape and a large hat and looked up into his face.

"Will?" she questioned in a whisper of a voice.

"Aye, tis me." he said with a slight smile.

"I'm so sorry!" she sobbed as she reached up and wrapped her arms around him. "I shouldn't have done it, I know that now. I'm so sorry! I won't ask you to forgive me for I know that's impossible, but I just need you to know that I'm so very sorry."

Will reached up and gently removed her arms from around his neck and pushed her away.

"Elizabeth, listen. I came here for only one reason. To save you. I told Jack when I first met him that I would die to save you, and I'm a man of my word so here I stand. However, I'd also hope that you'd be a woman of your word as well and do me the honour of becoming my wife as we had planned?"

Elizabeth was taken aback.

"Does this mean..?"

But before she could finish, Will completed the sentence, "You asked me this once before and I failed to give you an answer, I hope I can make up for it now. I forgive you, Elizabeth."

Behind the couple the soldiers had been standing, waiting with shackles ready to take her to her fate, but now they wouldn't be needed anymore. All that was required was for Will to say those three words and once they were said, there was no taking them back. They slowly filed out of the churchyard and Elizabeth was finally free.

"Oh, Will" she whispered, but Will continued.

"I forgive you for everything. I forgive you for keeping my medallion, I realize now that you did it to protect me and for that I'll always be grateful. I love you, Elizabeth! Can you ever forgive me?"

Will gathered her up in his arms and gazed at her beautiful face.

"I already have" she said with a smile, "And now I look forward to taking you as my husband. We shall be married as soon as we're back in Port Royal!" Elizabeth said excitedly.

Will's face dropped.

"No, you don't understand. I can't come back with you. I gave my soul to Jack in order to save you, it no longer belongs to me."

Tears sparkled in Elizabeth's eyes as the words hit home, she fully understood the implications of what Will was saying.

"So I'll never see you again?" she choked

"You'll always be here" he says and places her hand over his heart, giving her a small smile. "Now, we must head back to the Pearl at once, it's waiting offshore for us. Jack shall marry us and then you will return with him to the world of the living."

Elizabeth nodded and tears began streaming down her cheeks. Will guided her out to a waiting white stallion and placed her on it, then mounted the animal himself and returned them both to the beach. Once on the shore they dismounted and climbed into a longboat and began rowing it towards the waiting ship.