A/N: Hello there, everyone! This entire story is dedicated to my older sister, Kelsey. I've got quite a bit planned out for the future chapters and truly hope that there are a lot of people interested in reading them. It's not a very popular pairing, I know, but I'm hoping to change that.
So, as always, reviews are more than appreciated!
Enjoy!
It was just a fluke. Something random. Unexpected - and so very, very unwelcome.
As far as Buggy could tell, the Marines weren't supposed to dock at Kishimaru Island. They were just planning on sailing straight past, continuing on their way to Impel Down. It was the storm that forced them to dock here, just like it had forced the Buggy Pirates to do the same.
So, in a way, it was the storm that started the fight. Just like, now, it was the storm making the battle that much more difficult.
The rain was coming down in a grey sheet, cold and harsh and blinding. Both sides were past the point of being soaked, and Buggy could only assume that the members of his crew were just as hindered by the harsh weather. More so, if he stopped to think, because they didn't have the advantage of a Devil Fruit.
Buggy didn't have the time to give his crew more than a cursory thought, though. Not now. He barely even had the time to think over his own actions, as he frantically scrambled away from a marine's blade or attempted to avoid a bullet. Every once in a while, he managed to catch sight of a panicked crew-mate.
Once, he tripped over someone. He thought it might have been Kaiji but he wasn't sure. There was too much blood to tell. Too much rain.
The sound of thunder, harsh and deafening, mixed with the roar of cannon fire, with the barrage of rifle fire. Buggy let his body seperate, a bullet soaring through the gap between his neck and torso. Behind him, someone screamed - and the clown-like captain's stomach lurched, shooting into his throat and choking him, because he knew that voice. Had heard it every day for the last eight years.
His crew wasn't just losing. They were dieing.
Buggy spun around. Stuck out at a nearby marine, sword slicing cleanly through flesh. There was no rush of satisfaction, though. Just the bitter tang of failure.
They couldn't win this fight and the realization was sickening.
"Retreat!" he bellowed, voice all but swallowed by the whipping wind. "Everyone! Back to the shi-"
The pain was sudden. Burning. Unexpected - because blades should have just gone through him. That was the unmistakeable feel of steel though, digging into the spot of skin below his shoulder blade. And it hurt like nothing he had felt in years.
A scream ripped from his throat and he stumbled foreward, his entire body trembling. He felt weak, like every ounce of energy he had was being sapped. Trembling legs buckled, unable to support his weight, and he fell foreward into the cold, thick mud that coated the battlefield.
Buggy's mind felt almost empty. It was like he no longer had the energy to think, let alone get up. To fight. To run - back to his ship and to safety and away from here. Far away. But he couldn't. He was stuck there.
From somewhere in the distance, he thought that he could hear someone call his name.
Then everything went black.