A body screamed as it fell from the crow's nest and his crewmate's roars of fury never came, for the wind wailed louder than the man. He passed into the ocean, unnoticed.

The fighting persisted through the heavy threat of a very real storm that hung over Marinford. Sengoku grimaced from the wide windows in the tower. The pane shook with blasts that were either felt or heard, differentiating between the two perceptions was impossible. He couldn't tear his eyes from the billowing smoke that melding into and added to the darkness of the sky. Fires waited to be reduced to smoldering ashes by the rain.

Sengoku surveyed the battlefield, noticing the Shichibukais present. He scowled when he saw that Hancock and Doflamingo were missing. Crocodile was fighting, to Sengoku's surprise.

"So they weren't together…" he muttered and shook his head, annoyed at his paranoid thoughts. "I don't see Boa Hancock ever collaborating with that man." He frowned. "Doflamingo…." His absence greatly bothered the Marine. What he could be doing….the mystery haunted Sengoku and lines of age appeared on his face.

Sengoku started with a gasp and he almost fell over the ledge of the loft as he rushed forward to gaze in horror out the windows, distanced from him by the level below his office. "What are….!" His face lost its color. From various directions, obvious Alabasta battleships moved towards the heart of the battle. Reluctant to believe in the worst, Sengoku worried that they were going to get caught up in the war, accidentally. When they began to fire on the confused Marine ships, he groaned and pinched the arch of his nose under his glasses, closing his eyes.

"No! Damn it!" he yelled to the empty room and pushed a stack of papers from the ledge. They scattered in all directions, coating the wood floor below. A figure walked out into the midst of them and looked up at Sengoku with curiosity.

"Well, Hello." A smile leered up at him. The pink mass could only be identified as the unpleasant man that haunted Sengoku.

"Doflamingo." Sengoku's eyes narrowed. "Why are you up here?"

"Why?" he spun on the pieces of paper, crumpling them, and turned back to Sengoku. "I just wanted to see my favorite Marine. Where's the harm in…"

"You should be out there!" he barked, pointing out the window. "I thought you liked war, that it was a game for you." Sengoku scowled at Doflamingo.

"But I'm just so busy at the moment." His eyes wandered the room.

The Marine felt sick. "What are you up to?"

Doflamingo froze at the familiarity of the words. Then he looked up at Sengoku with a renewed smile. "I'm busy tormenting you. How can I leave such fun?"

Sengoku ordered him to leave and the pirate's cackles drifted from the door. With a sigh of relief, Sengoku moved to his desk and sat in the chair, facing the window as if it were a screen instead of reality. He wished it were just a horrible figment of fantasy, but the sound or feeling of the explosions reassured him that it wasn't.

With tired eyes, he watched for the pink feathers to appear outside the window, but he wasn't surprised when they didn't. He wondered, numbly, what the Shichibukai could possibly enjoy more than joining in the battle, when he had seemed so absorbed in the last one.

"There it goes." He mumbled to himself and he let out an ironic laugh. "The last android…other than Kuma." He laughed again, but shivered as the insane laughter reminded him of Doflamingo. "I really hate that man." Sengoku whispered, and his attention returned to the war as they fought Alabasta, Red-Hair, and a small crew of an unknown origin. "Straw-Hat Luffy…look at what has become of your memory. This war has come to replace you, it seems. They fight for you, but destroy you at the same time, corrupting you…erasing what you were in their hearts. The pain from the aftermath…will become your underserved legacy, Straw-Hat." The old man sighed. "I pity you."

Sengoku never thought of the possible threat the roaming Shichibukai could pose to the unprotected youth, but then again, too many thoughts consumed the man. He was nearing his breaking point, or the breaking point of the Marines. The only question was, which would give in first?