[./One Piece: Tales of Regret and Fantasy

[./Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or any of the characters, Eiichira Oda is the original creator.

[./PAU: Partial Alternate Universe

Broken

Sometimes, its as though the world you wished to create, was the world from your nightmares, and all those goals and dreams you had committed your life to, well, they were your demons that would haunt you for the rest of your life. Tragedy is having it all, then losing it all because you were too blind to see everything was falling apart around you, and sad enough to say, that is what happened to me, everything broke down around me. Everyone left me, and now here I am, sitting in Raftel, surrounded by the riches of the world, which should make me happy right? But what good are riches when you have no one to share them with, I never did this on my own, I do not have rights to all the treasure, it belongs to all of us, and until the day we all reunite, this treasure is not moving anywhere.

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The wind whipped through the raven hair of the forlorn male sat stoically atop the edge of the cliff, were it not for the slight rise and fall of his chest, only noticeable to those who were brave enough to move close to him, one would have thought him dead to the world. His eyes would be forever watching the ocean, looking over the wreckages of the worlds greatest battle, the world navy against the crew of the king of the pirates. The world had turned their backs, the full force of the navy and all of the admirals had fallen on them, only the strongest pirates could battle here. Only the strongest pirates had lived here. Only one pirate remained, remained against the decimated world government. War takes away what is best in a man, but when the people around him are what make the man, then what happens to the man? He becomes lost, trapped in his own past, reliving the very same horrors every day.

The spray of the ocean washed over his face, the many specks of icy water dotting his passive face, yet they went unnoticed, physical feelings were lost to him, no matter how hard he tried to beat himself up, how many times he tried to destroy himself, he never managed to work past the numbness, and all he ever felt was the crushing emotional pain of loss and hatred, he wanted to kill everyone responsible for this. The rage he felt was insurmountable, the island itself was mostly destroyed, not by the war, as it had never taken place on land, but by the wrath of the animal that waged its own war inside the man. He was driven to kill the man responsible, and had set about his own destruction, for days with no rest, he tried to destroy his body with no success. He could not outright kill himself, otherwise the navy would have won, and the deaths of everyone would have been for naught, but surely, if he succumbed to his own foolishness, there would be no victors.

He had once been told by Basil Hawkins, a fellow captain, and a fellow enemy of the world, that his life would never end until his fate deigned it so. He could no more kill himself than any man would be able to kill him. He would die in the end, when his time would come, and until then, he was expected to suffer this harsh turmoil, had to suffer his own thoughts. A fate worse than death for any man who knew loss. For the first time in what seemed like years, the male felt the familiar sting of tears in his eyes, but he did nothing to stop them, he let the sadness flow, with each new salty tear that ran down his face and fell into the ocean, he was one step, if only a small step, closer to his companions. His right hand gripped his forehead, pulling some of the hair, but he did not feel the pain, he just let the anguish flow from him. One day. One day he would be allowed to reunite with his crew, and on that day, well, he could be happy again.

Dereshi Dereshi Dereshi

Robin… He remembered her, a strong, yet still beautifully feminine member of his crew, the archeologist, and probably the most intelligent member, who always offered advice when needed. She had been special to him. After his first, true, experience with loss, when the crew had been reunited, she had taken him aside, helped him cope. If he was a smarter man, perhaps he would have realized that he was in love with her from that moment onwards, but he did not understand it. The death of Ace had been harsh, it had nearly killed him, but it seemed Basil would never be wrong. After he had met up with everyone once more, she had told him she understood his pain, but he refused to believe her, he could not accept that she knew what it was like to have lost someone close, as she had never been close to anyone, from his understanding of her past. She said nothing to this, merely turned to face the waters around the Thousand Sunny.

Dereshi Dereshi Dereshi

He had thought she had been speaking some language that he was incapable of understanding, but when she turned around, a small smile on her beautiful face, which he would have never forgiven her for if he had not seen the tears in her eyes too. Laughing. Even when it hurt, it helped to keep you happy even while the pain was still there. She had kissed him on the cheek and left him to be. It was probably then that he fell in love, but he could not quite remember the specifics. That memory was important to him, not because of the love, but because of the words she had told him, that even when it hurt, never stop laughing, death was an inevitability that would not quit, that should not consume you. But the all consuming hate and pain from all the death around him felt like too much, on many occasions, he had tried to do this, he had tried to laugh, but he could not bring himself to it.

"Der..Dereshi"

He tried to smile, he tried to laugh, but the encumbering pain locked him down, he could not stop the tears and sadness that suffocated him. His hands curled into fists, and he felt the urge to destroy coming back, but he bit his bottom lip, biting so hard that he pierced the flesh, blood seeping from his wounds. There was nothing that could be accomplished by breaking more things, there was nothing that could be accomplished at all. He just wanted to be back with his crew, back in the days when it was fun to be a pirate, before the world government and everything came crashing down around him. It was fun, fun all the way until the end, when he finally realized that all of his actions had consequences, and that all he had done was reduce his own happiness to naught, and take on Nicos mantle as a demon child, the man with the highest bounty in the world, higher than Gol D. Rogers had been, the man with nothing left to lose.

"Back… Back to the beginning…"