-Ace POV-

"Didn't even hit the itchy spot," Jinbe said, making a feeble attempt at a joke after having been clubbed over the head yet again. I would have laughed just to humor him if he didn't sound like he was in so much pain.

"You got beat up pretty badly, huh, boss?" I asked him.

"It's not my body that's in pain, Ace-san," Jinbe protested, "The pain lies in my heart, for being unable to do what's right!"

"Jinbe," I would have comforted him, but there was nothing I could say. Nothing I could think of that would make this seem even a little bit better than it was. Jinbe was a man driven by his duty. I imagined he would be blaming himself right about now.

"As thing are, I cannot accept death. So what if they take my position as a Warlord of the Sea away? I don't need it. If only I could prevent this battle, I don't even need my own life."

And perhaps that made me selfish for desperately wanting to live. I didn't want to escape, or to be rescued. I just wanted to live. Actually, I just didn't want to die. It wasn't that I was scared, not really, but I still didn't want to die. Pretty stubborn, huh? It didn't matter what I wanted though. Silently, I hoped that Pops and the others wouldn't come, that they would stay away and just let me be executed, not because I wanted to die, but because I didn't want any of them to die for me. My death might just be what's best for everyone. The world didn't need the son of Gold Roger. 'The son of Gold Roger should just die!' Usually in some horribly graphic way. I'd certainly heard that often enough anyway.

I was losing circulation in my arms. It was an unpleasant sensation, but the effort of lifting my head and straightening my back to relieve some of the pressure on my wrists didn't seem worth it. I had lost the energy to do that a while ago anyway. I intentionally searched for something to distract me from the discomfort. There was nothing in my cell except Jinbe and he seemed to have fallen asleep after that last grand proclamation. I had nothing but my memories. And so I chose then to remember Lilith. Lilith and her strange morals.

"Are we allowed to cheat?" she asked, taking a seat across the table from me.

"No," I said flatly. "No cheating."

Lilith looked up from dealing the cards, apparently surprised and asked, "Do you actually mean no cheating or do you just mean 'don't get caught' while you cheat?"

"I mean no cheating," I said. "Just an honest game."

"Do you not know how to cheat?" she asked, apparently not quite understanding how such a thing could be possible.

"I never bothered to learn how," I admitted. "It didn't seem important."

"Everyone should know how to cheat at cards," she decreed, apparently this was a longstanding opinion. "I can teach you if you want me to," she offered as an afterthought.

"Where did you learn?" I asked, curious.

"Oh, I taught myself and watched the pros," Lilith dismissed, "That's always the best way really, but not everyone can afford the consequences they get from their mistakes. Got my finger bitten off and eaten by some freak once by some psycho when he caught me cheating, had to grow it back. Hurt like a mother fucker. But I promise I won't bite when you cheat against me." It think it was meant as encouragement, but I wasn't so sure that it actually made me feel any better.

"I'm not so sure this is the best idea…" I trailed off, suspicious. Unlike some people, I couldn't grow my fingers back.

"It will be fine. You've got good hands for cards," Lilith said.

"Good hands?" I'd never heard of such a phrase. Before I knew it she took my hand in hers, lining up the palms. Hers was smaller than mine. Each of my fingers extended an extra knuckle-length farther than hers. I was surprised at how rough her palms were, but they were also gentle and warm. It was nice.

"See?" she asked, breaking me out of my thoughts. "Your hands are better."

"What makes you say that?" I asked.

"It gets easier to hide cards the bigger your hand is," Lilith explained. "That's what made it so hard for me to start out."

"Why'd you get into cheating at cards?" I asked.

"I was flat broke after I ran away. I figured it was as good a way as any to make money," Lilith shrugged as if to say it had been no big deal. "I'm pretty good now. I used to be a hardcore sleight-of-hand girl but I had to adjust to the times and use a hidden deck as more card sharks showed up to compete. It takes all the fun out of it, but I can still suck it up and make enough money to get by when I need to so I don't really mind."

"Do you gamble often?"

"No, Ace I do not gamble often." Lilith grinned, looking up from the cards on the table. "I win often. It's not really a gamble when you're the best cheater around."

"Why? If it's not fun anymore, why do it?"

"Because I hate stealing," she said. Seeing my expression she explained. "I know cheating people of their money is practically the same thing," she shrugged, "but I don't mind and I don't cheat people who look like they really need it." Lilith paused and stared out the window mildly, "I have a skewed moral compass, but at least it's strong."

Yeah. In all the time I'd known Lilith she'd never once thought twice about something. If she thought somebody deserved a beating then they were beaten, sometimes to within an inch of their life. If Lilith saw someone was hungry then she gave them her food. It was just how she was. She lived by her own morals and expected the people around her to obey them too. Somehow though, despite her teasings and her cheating and her violence, Lilith was an insanely good person and she had a tendency to bring out the best in people. Of course, sometimes she was threatening or beating the best out of them, but anyone with common sense did good things when she was around. I'd learnt that lesson fast one time when she assaulted a Warlord for trying to cheat at chess, stabbing him with a black bishop, and then gave him a pink and feathery coat to make up for the over reaction. Yeah, Lilith did some weird stuff.

What is she be doing now? She was probably off on her own somewhere, muttering about how she'd warned me this would happen. Or did she even know I'd been imprisoned? Lilith didn't exactly get a newspaper or keep of with current events at all when she was off by herself, and she was usually by herself. No, she had my vivre card. She'll know something's up. Would she be upset? Yeah. Lilith would be furious with me. There was that one time she'd been visiting the ship when one of the vivre cards in her book started to burn. She's stormed off, had a furious conversation with someone on the den den mushi in which she'd threatened to kick his ass 'for negligence' and raced off the ship so fast that she actually ran over the surface of the water. The moment Lilith found out one of her friends was in trouble she went chasing after him. Oh crap. If Lilith manages to hear about my execution there's going to be hell to pay. As it was with that less than comforting thought that I finally managed to take a nap, even without any circulation in my arms.