Spoilers: Definately! Takes place after the END end of At World's End. If you didn't stay until the end of the credits, GO SEE IT AGAIN!
This has been begging to be written for a week now, So I figured I would give into the vicious little fanged plot bunny. My take on Will and Elizabeth's final reunion...
I don't know what it is about sunsets, but I never fail to be struck by the individual beauty of each one. I have come to these cliffs everynight to watch the sunset since that first night without him, all those years ago.
That first night I was sure would be the worst, but the night after was just as hard. And the lonely nights stretched on. Until a couple of months passed and I realized that he had left me with and even more precious gift than the chest containing his heart. He had left me with another part of himself that would grow into a child. I wouldn't be alone while I waited for my love to return.
It was difficult, welcoming our son into this world, with no-one I loved to share that moment with. I imagined that if Will had been here, he would have been frantically pacing outside the door, but he wasn't. So I endured those hours alone and I lavished enough love on young William James Turner for both of us.
He was 3 when he first asked me about his father. The townspeople, they had always thought it a bit scandilous that I was alone and pregnant and lived in a small shack on the outskirts of town, near the cliffs. Now they were filling my boy's head with nonsense about me and his absent father. So I decided to tell him the truth, as much as his three year old mind could understand. As William grew, I gradually told him more of the tale. He might of thought his poor mother crazy, If not from the visits from "Uncle Jack" to backup my stories.
Yes, Jack has been a frequent visitor to my little island home. He and Barbosa spent years trying to get the Pearl back from the other, and truthfully, when I would see the black sails on the horizon, I would never know who was behind her wheel. But it is Jack who has the ship back under his command these days, though who knows for how long. I owe Jack a great deal, not just for helping me to teach young William about his father and why he had to leave, but for the barrels of water he has brought me at least once a year since William was 8.
I know, why would he bring me water, you are asking yourself. Well, it wasnt just any ordinary water. Jack found his fountain and continues to roam the seas to this very day, looking much as he did that first time I saw him in Port Royal, on the night my life's adventure began. He brings me the water as well, though why I have never really understood. I mean, I am gratful, otherwise I would be looking a right mess by now, but what motive for it, I will never know. I specualte he feels somewhat resposible for my seperation from Will, as he could not slay Davy Jones before the sword to my beloved's heart that forced him to take drastic measures and become captain of the Dutchman. But I have never held his responsible. Whatever his reasons, his yearly visits have been a welcome break in my life here. Not that motherhood hasn't kept me busy enough.
Will's first visit back to this town was unforgettable. He glanced up to the cliffs and saw me standing there with his son, his spitting image. We speant the night in the throws of passion, as ten years is a long time for anyone to wait. The day was spent with my beloved getting to know his son. I could see tears or joy and pain in Will's eyes, joy at knowing our love had created something so wonderful, and pain at knowing how much he had missed. It was with a very heavy heart that he boarded the Dutchman again, and as William headed back to our home, I remained until the last bit of sun sank in the sky, long after the green flash that signaled another 10 years away from my love.
This visit had again left me with child, and on the day before my son's 10th birthday, I gave him a sister. She I called Diana, after an ancient moon goddess who had been the apple of her father's eye. And trully, she became so much like her father, that it was almost like having him here with me again, though she does favor me in looks.
But I digress...
My daughter was wed a fortnight ago. Yes, I said wed. I have been on this island 30 years now, and though I do not look a day older, I feel the time in my heart and soul. My son is a grown man, much like the man his father was before his pirating days, a craftsman and a scholar. He has a wife of his own and a few children. How Will would love to see them, but he never will. No, the curse that has kept me from him all these years ends this day at sunset. For as long and I live, we are only to see each other once every 10 years when he can come onto dry land, but tonight, just before I see that green flash, it is I who will go to him.
Tis suicide you say? well, yes, that is true I suppose. But to be reuinited with my beloved after so long, it is a chance I will gladly take. My children are grown and while I will always love them, they need to move on with their lives, and I need to get back to mine. Strange that I should be talking about life and death so closely interwoven? Yes, it is an interesting paradox. But Will has always been my life, and if it takes death to bring me back to him, then so be it. Not that he is trully dead, nor that I will be, but no longer a part of this world.
The chest is safe with my daughter, on the Pearl. She has wed a sailor of Jack's crew and taken up pirating with him, as I had always suspected she may. Jack has sworn to keep it and her safe, for as long as he can. An eternity, if Jack has his way. I bid my farewells to both of my children and my 3 grandchildren this morning. The grandchildren believe I am returning to England, but William and Diana know the truth, and they understand why I have to do this. William has recently made a fine sword, and bid me bring it to his father for him. Diana sent a copy of a sea shanty which she herself penned, telling our story for all the generations to come. But it is up to Will and I to write the ending, or so she said as I left my son's home in town today.
The light is starting to grow faint, and I know that the time is near. I give one last look back to my island home and I shed a few tears of emotion for the life I have lived and the new one I will finally be able to begin. I clutch the sword in one hand and the rum bottle containing the song in the other. I close my eyes and think of Will as I let my feet slip from the edge. I feel the rush of the air, the freedom that I have been longing for. His bright smile and handsome face are the last sight my mind's eye sees before the waves touch my skin and the world begins to go black.
"Captain Will, I believe we have a lost soul at sea that we should tend to."
"I have told you, father, you don't need to call me captain. And it is nearly sunset. Surely they can wait one day? I long to see my Elizabeth and our children again."
A sad and knowing smile crept over Bootstraps face. "Son, trust me, this is one soul you don't want to leave. I believe you have an offer for her."
"Her? Father, I haven't recruited anyone to the crew in years, much less a woman. No, but I will offer her safe passage to the other side. Poor lass."
He ordered the men to haul the dead woman aboard, and he returned to the wheel, only to be called back to the deck by a shout from the crew. They had pulled her out of the little lifeboat that the dead souls oft traveled and she was asking for him. He can down from the wheel and got about halfway down the stairs when he saw her. She stood there, looking every bit as beautiful as she had they day he had first laid eyes on her. The angel who had been responsible for his rescue, and then had saved his life again by her love. The same woman he was traveling to meet this very day. But how...unless...By God, she was dead. And that is what his father had meant about the offer. He remembered his father's words of 30 years ago when he said there would be a time that Elizabeth could come with them on their task of ferrying souls, and now he understood.
Will closed the distance between them and caressed her cheek, warm considering she was technically dead. "Elizabeth, my love. How is it you have come to be here?"
She grinned. "I had an accident. I was walking the cliffs and I must have slipped."
A knowing look passed across his face. She had very cleary not had an "accident". It was then he noticed the items in her hands. "What is all this?"
"Parting gifts, from our family. The sword was forged by your son, the sea shanty written by your daughter. There is also a portrait of the whole family in the rum bottle from last Yuletide. You will see your grandchildren in it."
He had grandchildren? How he would have loved to have seen them. He knew there would come a time that he would, in some realm of existance, but for now, he had his Elizabeth back in his arms, and he would be damned if he would ever let her go. It was only the whispers of his father that reminded him that he had something he still needed to do.
"Would you go quietly to the otherside my lady, or do you wish to forestall that final journey?"
"While I do not fear death, I would not go anywhere that would have me seperated from you again."
"So then do you pledge to serve here on the Dutchman?"
"I do, but not for 100 years. I pledge myself to your service for all eternity, and to the Dutchman for as long as you are captain."
He smiled at her, knowing that with those words, he hand his beloved would never be parted again. He kissed her deeply there on the deck, and a cheer went up from his men. There would be time enough to catch up on everything that they hadnt been able to share these last 30 years, but for now, all seemed right in their world again.
And yes, they lived (sorta) happily ever after! Let me know if you liked it. Constructive critisism welcome. Flames will be used as a burnt offering to my gods.
DarkElf1313