Chapter 17
Andrew and Patrick rose to their feet, wide-eyed and with their mouths slightly agape.
"Leave," Will repeated in a firmer and much louder voice.
Everyone could spot the complete seriousness in Will's eyes, so they silently acquiesced to his request. Elizabeth lingered momentarily after everyone had gone and looked deep into Will's eyes.
"Be careful," she said quietly before planting a soft but firm kiss on Will's lips and retrieving a ring of keys from Cheng Lo. After giving Will one last loving glance, Elizabeth exited the room to join the others.
This left Will and Calypso engaged in a staring match, each of them radiating a steely resolve. Will already had his sword drawn, but Calypso had to pick hers up from the floor, but when she brought it back up, she held it in a way that suggested she was more than ready for the forthcoming battle.
She and Will momentarily circled around one another, never breaking their gaze. At that very same moment, the sky outside was gradually becoming inundated with dark gray clouds the sun was powerless to penetrate. This sudden appearance of clouds was accompanied by a strong roll of thunder and a few quick bursts of lightning.
The instant the last burst of lightning lit the sky, Will and Calypso locked swords.
The time was now 2:36.
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Jack's crew raced along the corridors of the prison, using the butts of the guns to smash the locks chained to each iron cell door. Once they had done that, the prisoners inside each cell hastily pushed open the cell doors and dashed to their freedom. Each inmate was now running as fast as their legs could take them toward the exit.
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In addition to pouring relentlessly outside, rain was violently pounding down inside as well. But this did not seem to deter either Will or Calypso in the slightest, as they were focused on their duel. The battle had already yielded a few cuts and bruises, which said something about the level of brutality involved.
Their feet sloshed in the puddles of water quickly forming beneath them, and pretty soon, the pair had taken their fight out into the corridor.
Will easily blocked every slash sent his way, despite a trail of blood leaking from beneath his hairline and down over his nose. His latest swipe was able to tear a hole in Calypso's left sleeve, but that did not faze her in the slightest. Calypso continued on, the clashing of steel barely audible over the torrential rain and the deafening thunder.
Pretty soon, they came to a portion of the corridor that had a circular opening in the roof which, from the looks of it, led up onto the roof of the prison. Dangling from this opening was a thick rope, secured to some sort of rigging device. Will dodged Calypso's latest lunge by leaning backwards at almost a ninety-degree angle and coming back u[p to punch her in the face.
Will used the opportunity to smash the rigging device and he held onto the rope as it began to rocket upward. However, Calypso had managed to grab hold of Will's legs, and she hung on tight as they both were pulled up onto the roof. There, they were thrown roughly down onto the stone footing, where they each had to rest a bit before persisting.
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Meanwhile, Jack led the immeasurable amount of pirates out of the prison and into the hellish rainstorm that had appeared out of nowhere. Everyone came to a halt and surveyed the expanse of sea that lay before them. Jack knew that it would be suicide to try and sail away from the island in the midst of a rainstorm this violent.
Jack and Elizabeth, whose soaked hair now seemed to cling to her face, shared a knowing expression. Jack was about to say something when a faint sound caught his ears. It seemed to attract the attention of Elizabeth as well, since she accompanied Jack in turning his head in the direction of where they deduced the sound to be coming from.
Indeed, at the top of the prison, they saw Will and Calypso fighting to the death.
Elizabeth gasped when she saw Calypso kick Will hard behind his kneecap, causing him to slump down onto his knees in pain.
"I've got to help him!" Elizabeth yelled over the rain.
"What?" Jack fired back, partially incredulous.
"He's my husband, Jack! I'm not about to lose him again!"
And with that, Elizabeth dashed back into the prison and began climbing all the stairs she came across in her hurried and desperate attempt to reach the roof in time.
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After Calypso's foot had collided hard against his knee joint, Will crashed down hard onto the roof as he let out a short cry of pain. However, he continued to swing his sword in near impossible arcs; he would keep fighting Calypso as long as he had to.
Will got in a slash that he knew cut very deep into the skin of Calypso's right leg. Calypso screamed I agony, and as she did, she closed her eyes. She shouldn't have made that mistake. Will propelled himself forward and onto Calypso, the end result being the two of them rolling in a confused heap; both their swords skidded away.
Once they had stopped rolling around, Calypso ended up on top of Will and she sadistically pounded down on Will's chest hard, which made the air evacuate Will's lungs for a few moments. But the second he had recovered from that, Will slammed the side of his hand into Calypso's throat, causing her to fall onto her back, gasping for air.
Will sat up, then dived for his sword. But when his fingers were mere inches away from the handle, Will felt a strong force knock against the back of his head. This caused him to sprawl over the stone as he desperately tried to clear away the sudden waves of pain rocketing against his brain.
What Calypso didn't see as she picked up her own sword and purposefully approached Will was Will finding his knife and secretly gripping it underneath his chest. Now, Calypso was standing directly over Will, her blade poised to strike Will for the second time.
Calypso then began to thrust her sword down, but Will darted out of the way at the last moment so that the blade partially penetrated the stone. In the same movement, Will turned over and used all the strength he could muster to pierce Calypso's chest. He thrust the blade even deeper a few seconds later to ensure that it would kill her.
As Calypso staggered away in utter shock, Will got to his feet and watched. A few seconds later, he delivered a powerful uppercut that sent the sea goddess flying through the air and crashing down upon the roof. The instant Calypso's body made contact with solid footing, it evaporated in an explosion of water.
At the same time, Elizabeth came up from another hole in the roof to see Will get thrown back with surprising force by the explosion of water. Will's body was propelled backwards as if a giant was blowing against him. Will flew back all the way out over the island…and into the sea.
"WILL!" Elizabeth screamed.
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Jack saw Will's body fly through the air, and he immediately gave chase. The moment Will crashed into the ocean, Jack dived in after him.
Jack was able to spot Will's unconscious form within seconds. Jack swam toward him and wrapped his arms around Will's waist. Once that was done, Jack began to swim both of them to the surface…then the shoreline.
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When Will opened his eyes again, sunshine invaded his vision. He had to shield them with his hand before sitting up. He soon discovered that he was surrounded by Jack, Elizabeth and four people he didn't know. But before he could dwell any further on that, Elizabeth enveloped him in a tight hug as she began to lightly sob into his shoulder. Will buried his own head in Elizabeth's shoulder as he cupped her head with his hand.
When Will came back up for air, he noticed something sparkling in the corner of his eye. It was the shattered remnants of the Hurricane's Eye.
Calypso was finally dead. For good.
Suddenly remembering something, Will reached into his pocket and pulled out his watch. The time read 3:24. He had made it in time, but he still owed a debt to Hades.
But Will shifted that thought aside for the moment as his lips locked firmly with Elizabeth's.
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Roughly a week later, Will, Elizabeth, Bootstrap and Michael had arrived back in Port Royal and were home. Jacquelyn had chosen to stay with her father aboard The Black Pearl, which Michael had some trouble accepting, but Jacquelyn had promised to visit as often as she could.
For the Turners, everything went well for the rest of the day. But the night was a completely different story.
Bootstrap chose to work late at the Blacksmith's Shop and around 1:30 in the morning, he had drifted off to sleep. The sudden banging of the door awoke him with a jolt, but when Bootstrap went to investigate it, he found no one there.
He closed the door and turned around, but was immediately shoved against the door by a young man with rugged good looks and a dagger aimed between Bootstrap's eyes.
"Make one sound and you're dead," snarled the man. "Now, tell me everything you know about William and Elizabeth Turner."
