"What?"
"What?"
George II and Becket cried out in unison.
George II wanted to ask how they could move so fast—how they'd defected before him.
Would his Fountain of Youth have to be shared?
Becket was even more dumbstruck.
"Impossible!" he shouted on the spot.
He'd always kept an eye on Norrington—an exemplary naval officer, the most pirate-hating man he'd ever known.
And now they said that man had surrendered?
What a joke!
Even if he did surrender, how could it happen so fast? He'd only just reached the palace; could Norrington have knelt the moment he left?
Had Norrington been faking it all along?
Becket simply couldn't believe Norrington would betray the Royal Navy.
Ignoring the king's orders, he sprinted back to the harbor.
He had to see the situation for himself; if it looked bad he'd grab Tia Dalma and flee—no way would he wait here to die.
Time rewound ten minutes. Tia Dalma, dagger in hand, slowly approached the Swanns bound to the Prow.
"Fang Yuan must trust you two a lot—maybe he even has a thing with you."
She traced the blade along Elizabeth's cheek.
"Yeah!" Elizabeth showed no fear. "And I know he'd never fancy you!"
Otherwise you wouldn't be running around everywhere!"
"Insolent!"
Tia Dalma shrieked as if someone had stepped on her tail.
"How dare you speak to me like that? I am the Sea Goddess!"
"Were," Elizabeth jabbed.
She kept twisting the knife: "If you looked even a little better Fang Yuan might have glanced your way, but luckily you're stuck like this—no threat to me!"
In this cat-fight Tia Dalma lost outright.
Though Calypso's human form didn't absolutely need Fang Yuan, her pride as a goddess was badly bruised by his total disinterest.
"So Fang Yuan cares about you, hm?" Tia Dalma snarled, yet she hadn't forgotten her goal.
If Elizabeth truly mattered to him, she might use that to break her seal.
"Not really." Elizabeth shook her head. "If he cared, you'd never have caught me."
Tia Dalma refused to believe it. "He treats you as expendable and you still pine for him?"
"I just like him!" Elizabeth lifted her chin. "It's my nature."
Governor Swann, tied beside her, could only sigh softly.
The words left Calypso's human form momentarily stunned.
She had once said something similar to Davy Jones.
What goes around comes around?
Before she could speak, Royal Navy Commander Norrington and Will Turner summoned every officer. Moments later Norrington issued the ultimate order—
"Royal Navy—cease resistance!"
"Impossible!"
Tia Dalma was thunderstruck; pirates making the navy surrender was unthinkable.
Even if the Commander defected, surely the other officers... Yet on every warship she spotted several undead from the Black Emperor Pirates, and every officer was subdued at once.
But Norrington and Will Turner had no undead guards.
Instead, they could order the undead about.
"So that's how it is!" Calypso's human form understood.
From the start Becket's trump card had been Fang Yuan's men!
Darkness had fallen.
The Sun had set.
Tia Dalma realized the Royal Navy was useless; if she didn't flee now she'd never get another chance.
But before escaping she had one thing left to do.
Since Elizabeth no longer served her purpose, the Sea Goddess would vent her rage.
"Let's hope your sweetheart truly doesn't care about you!"
With those words she drove her dagger straight at Elizabeth's chest!
Thud!
That was the sound Tia Dalma imagined.
Yet when the blade sank in, no blood spurted out.
Tia Dalma's face changed; guessing the truth, she spun and slashed Governor Swann for good measure.
"Ow!" Swann yelped. "How rude!"
Still no blood appeared.
"You two... are also undead!" Tia Dalma backed away hastily.
Cold moonlight fell; Elizabeth and Governor Swann turned into Skeletons, the governor curiously inspecting his own bone frame.
Elizabeth, using her slimmer skeletal form, slipped her ropes and lunged at Tia Dalma.
Flustered, Tia Dalma failed to dodge; Elizabeth's bony fist smashed her eye socket—on anyone else it would have blackened instantly.
And Calypso's human form?
Forget it—no difference could be seen.
Tia Dalma turned to flee, but Elizabeth—no delicate maid—caught up in a few strides, pulled a seal from her rags, and slammed it toward Tia Dalma's face.
Calypso's human form struggled frantically; the seal finally stamped her shoulder.
But Elizabeth locked an arm around her neck, and no matter how Tia Dalma struggled she couldn't pry it loose.
"What are you doing? Killing me?" the Sea-Goddess asked, bewildered.
"No," Elizabeth whispered in her ear. "Fang Yuan said he's sending you back to the sea!"
"What?"
Tia Dalma laughed.
"I'm the goddess of the ocean—sending me back to—glug-glug!"
Before she could finish, Elizabeth hurled her off the Effort; caught off-guard, she swallowed a mouthful of water.
Yet after the first panic, Tia Dalma felt boundless joy.
A Sea Goddess returned to the sea—even in human form she could still reach shore alive.
Tia Dalma bit her finger hard, sketched runes in the air, then melted into a puddle of black water and sped into the distance.
She fled for a long while, well beyond London, and was just rejoicing when she was forcibly yanked back into human shape; no matter what witchcraft she tried, nothing answered.
Tia Dalma was horrified.
The Sea Goddess's mortal vessel had become utterly, utterly normal.
Without doubt it was Fang Yuan's gift—she would never break the seal in this lifetime.
She could only surface at once; luckily she spotted a large ship overhead from the seabed.
Sailors who meet a castaway usually haul them aboard.
But when Tia Dalma saw who was on the vessel, her face changed instantly.
It was a small, bearded old man whose soft whiskers moved like tentacles—unknown to most, but not to Tia Dalma.
"Davy Jones…" the Calypso avatar breathed his name.
"We meet again, Calypso," said Jones, now restored to human appearance, greeting her gently.
"You betrayed me!" Calypso raged; it was Jones's defection that had let Fang Yuan seize the trident of poseidon.
Davy Jones's expression didn't flicker: "One for one—we're even."
On that score Calypso had no leg to stand on.
"So why are you here?" she demanded.
"As I once promised." Davy Jones stepped into the skiff, reached for her hand. "My heart belongs to you—always."
Calypso clenched her teeth, then sighed and took his hand.
"Lovers reunited—what a romantic ending!"
Through his spyglass Jack Sparrow wagged his head theatrically as he watched Davy Jones win Calypso over.
"I doubt your heart's that kind," Barbossa sneered. "Speak plain!"
"Bitch meets bastard—two fewer plagues on the sea!" Jack blurted.
Barbossa roared with laughter. "Har! Knew it!"
So when Becket hurried back to port, he never saw Tia Dalma again.
He assumed the Calypso avatar had simply fled alone on hearing of the navy's mutiny.
Tia Dalma could run; he could not.
Mightiest villain of pirates of the caribbean he might be, but Becket was still only a man.
His strength lay in the Royal Navy's might—yet now the Navy, and the Crown itself, had surrendered.
At this bleakest moment Becket grew calm instead.
His face regained composure; unhurried elegance returned to him.
"A splendid… defeat," he murmured.
Becket rested a hand on his flagship and cast one last look toward London.
The empire was beyond hope.
He knew.
There was no escaping Fang Yuan's grip.
He drew a breath, sighed it out, shifted a foot—and toppled into the waters of London Port.
Self-destruction: a gentleman's final dignity.
Not long after, King George II of England, crown on head and in full regalia, processed from Buckingham Palace to the docks.
In both hands he bore a golden sceptre—the famed royal rod of later ages.
He laid the sceptre in the Water Giant's palm and proclaimed: "To the supreme Sea God, His exalted Majesty Black King Fang Yuan, I yield the power of the realm!"
The water walls ringing London became a vast screen, broadcasting George II's act of abdication across the city.
All London burst into uproar.
The people could scarcely believe it—their monarch had surrendered?
Had not the Sun only just risen? How could it already set?
George II knew the mood of the crowd, yet bowing low he felt no regret, for in his mind rang Lowry's words when persuading him.
Those same words now boomed from the Water Giant—
"I accept your fealty. As token of favor, I grant you the Fountain of Youth; for two centuries you shall remain King of England!"
Boom!
The crowd's clamor redoubled—no one doubted any longer.
The sky had changed: over Britain the sea, not the heavens, would now hold sway.
With this grand spectacle, Fang Yuan's purpose was achieved at last.
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