Chapter 11
Captured!
Hawke made her way down the mountain in a daze.
What was she going to tell the crew? Would they even believe her? Did she believe herself? Why was there a dragon hidden away on this island and why did he seem to be going crazy?
She retraced her steps across the beach.
"Well I think he's losing his mind… the way he was talking to me," she muttered, "I have no idea what he was saying."
She stumbled her way back onto the Merry.
"Where is everyone?" she mumbled.
Darkness had already fallen and the ship was still and silent.
Hawke checked the boys' room. The hammocks were empty.
"Nami?" she called quietly, knocking on the door to Nami's room.
There was no answer.
Hawke stood there, bewildered, for a moment.
Where did everybody go?
"Surely they can't still be in the village?" she wondered aloud.
Just then she heard footsteps on the deck behind her.
"There you are," she exclaimed as she turned.
But she was not greeted by her crewmates.
Hawke stood facing the swords of three marine soldiers.
She let out a little gasp and stepped back.
"Where do you think you're going?" she heard a sudden voice from behind her.
Someone grabbed her hands and forced them behind her back. She felt them being tied together.
"Oh no!" she whispered frantically, "Let me go!"
"Not a chance, pirate," retorted one of the marines, "You are under arrest for terrorizing this village."
"What?" exclaimed Hawke, "But I haven't done anything!"
"That's what they all say," laughed a second marine, "Now come with us."
Hawke was given a little shove and made to exit the ship.
"I can't climb down the ladder like this," she said, trying to raise her tied hands.
"Just get down there," snapped the marine behind her, grabbing the collar of her jacket and dangling her over the side of the ship
"W- Wait a second!" she exclaimed.
"Geez, you're as light as a feather," commented the marine holding her.
Two other marines descended the rope ladder. When they reached the ground, they turned and held out their arms.
Hawke was dropped unceremoniously to the waiting marines.
"Watch yourself!" said one of the marines as he caught her.
Hawke grunted and stood up.
"Thank you," she said tersely.
She had to get a grip on herself. This wasn't the time to be spaced out.
Hawke stood and looked at the marines that surrounded her.
There were four of them. The last one was coming down the ladder now.
Did Luffy and the others get captured too? She thought.
No, she decided, there would have been quite the scene if that had been the case. She would have heard it even if she had been up the mountain.
"Alright, move it," the guard behind her said.
Hawke set off, a marine on every side, and was escorted back up the beach and around the point.
There were four Marine ships anchored in the next bay.
Hawke was led onto one of them and brought before the navy captain.
"We've captured one of the Strawhats, Commander, sir!" stated the marine in front of Hawke.
He stepped aside so Hawke could be seen.
The marine captain stared down at her.
"Are you sure she's with the Strawhats?" he barked to an officer.
"We have no record of there being two women on the crew, sir," said the officer, "But we know that she was travelling with the Strawhats and is friendly with them."
"Hmph," the captain grunted, "Well, put her in the holding cell for now. We'll go into the village and capture the rest of the crew in the morning."
"Now just hold on a moment," said a man behind the captain.
Hawke saw the captain's expression darken.
"What do you want Erik?" he snapped.
The man, with thin dark glasses and slick grey hair that was standing up in a squiggle, approached Hawke.
"What were you doing on this island?" he asked, "You didn't go into the village, so where did you go that made you so upset?"
Hawke blinked.
How do they know so much already? She thought, and do I look upset?
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said to Erik.
The man pursed his lips and took a step closer to her.
"You know something. Where are the dragons?!" he scowled at her.
Hawke took a step back.
"I wouldn't tell you even if I knew!" she exclaimed, "What do you want with myths?"
Erik raised his hand and slapped her across the face.
"Insolent girl," he hissed, "There are no myths, not when it concerns the elixir of immortality!"
Hawke stumbled back and fell against the wall, gasping for air.
"Now hang on, Erik!" interceded the commander, "There's no need for violence. The girl doesn't know anything."
He nodded to a marine standing off to the side. He came over and helped Hawke to her feet.
"She will be put in the holding cells until we capture the Strawhats," the captain continued, "If she is confirmed as one of their crew she will be arrested along with them. If not, then I see no law that she has broken, she will be released."
Hawke looked at the marine captain. She could tell that he didn't like that Erik man at all. He seemed to be pretty fair in his sense of justice.
As Hawke was led out of the room she passed Erik, who was standing dejectedly near the door.
"I'll find what you found on that island," he whispered threateningly, "You can't keep the key to the elixir all to yourself."
Hawke glared at him.
She was led to a lower level of the ship that contained many barred cells.
The marine put her in one in the far corner.
"Can't I be in one of the ones closer to light?" she asked, shivering.
"This is protocol Miss Pirate," stated the marine as he untied her hands from behind her back and retied them in front of her body.
"Oh, well," Hawke sighed, "Thank you, my arms were getting sore. And my name is Hawke; please don't call me Miss Pirate."
"I'm sorry, Miss Hawke," stuttered the marine.
Hawke smiled and sat down on the only stool in her cell.
The marine stood with his back to the cell.
"Are you guarding me?" she asked the marine's back.
She saw him stiffen.
"Uh- we aren't supposed to engage the prisoners," the marine said without turning.
"So I am a prisoner," said Hawke.
She got up and looked around.
Other than the stool, there was a small cot along one side of her cell and a bucket in the opposite corner.
Gross, thought Hawke as she looked at the bucket.
Two sides of her cell were made of wooden planks; they were part of the ship's hull. In one of the walls, there was a small porthole, just above the water line.
Hawke went over and looked out the window.
The sky outside was still dark. It must be really late, Hawke thought, yawning, I wonder where everyone is…
She could see her reflection in the dark glass. The spot where Erik had hit her was already bruising. She traced the outline of the bruise with her finger, wincing when she passed over a tender spot.
She turned and addressed the marine's back again.
"So why exactly have I been imprisoned?" she asked.
"You were arrested under suspicions of being a pirate or associating with pirates," said the marine.
"Oh," said Hawke.
She shuffled her feet, wondering how she could escape and get back to Luffy. Suddenly a thought struck her.
"Why are there four navy ships on this tiny little island? That seems like an awful lot. Is something bad happening?"
The marine's back stiffened again.
"I can't give out information on the navy's actions to non-navy persons," the marine stuttered.
"You really like your protocol don't you," Hawke sighed, lying back on her bed, "Can you at least tell me why that Erik guy hit me? What does he want with this island? He doesn't seem to be one of you…"
There was a pause.
Hawke glanced over at the marine. He seemed to be debating with himself.
She decided to try and influence his decision. Maybe he would tell her something useful.
"Ouch," she groaned, holding her cheek, "Do you have anything I could numb my cheek with?"
The marine turned to look into the cell.
Hawke pinched her bruise to bring on some tears and gave him her puppy eyes.
Hawke saw a look of concern pass over the marine's face.
"I'll see if I can get some ice," he said and left the door of her cell.
Hawke waited until she couldn't hear his footsteps anymore, and then she jumped up and went over to the door of her cell.
"The lock isn't very sturdy," she muttered to herself, analyzing the thin metal casing.
She took a knife out of her jacket and started fiddling with the back of the lock.
"I wonder why they didn't even search me?" she said aloud, "The security in the Navy isn't that great."
The tip of her knife caught at the seam of the metal sheet covering the back of the lock. She began peeling it back to reveal its inner workings.
"That was easy," she smiled.
Just then, she heard footsteps returning down the hall.
Hawke quickly pushed the metal back into place and sat back down on the bed.
The marine who'd been guarding her returned, carrying a cloth bundle in his hand.
"Here," he said, holding the bundle between the bars, "This should numb the pain and stop the swelling."
Hawke got up and took the bundle from him. It turned out to be an ice pack.
"Thank you so much," Hawke smiled as she held the bundle up to her cheek, "It feels better already."
The marine smiled, then checked himself and turned his back to the cell again.
"You're welcome," he said.
Hawke eyed his back.
"Could I at least know the name of this nice marine?" she asked politely.
"My name is Meeko, Miss Hawk," said the marine, still facing away.
But Hawke could hear his voice getting softer.
"Well then, Meeko," she said moving closer to the bars, "Do you know why that mean man hit me? I don't know what I did."
Meeko's shoulders fell and he turned to face her.
Hawke smiled.
"Well I guess you have a right to know why you were assaulted," he said, "Erik isn't a member of our unit, he works for Commodore Nelson Royale, the leader of the 8th division. I hear that he was in charge of kidnapping a small girl from this island."
"Apis?" gasped Hawke, "We just returned her to this village."
Meeko glanced at her.
"Well, Erik was just hired to do Royale's dirty work," he continued, smirking, "He's after the elixir of immortality, which he thinks he can make from the bones of a dragon."
So he kidnapped Apis to force her to show him where Ryu is hiding, Hawke realized.
She looked at the floor.
"So I must have made him quite upset," she mumbled, "He probably thinks I know something about that."
"He's a lowlife who shouldn't be employed by the marines," snapped Meeko.
Hawke gave him another smile.
"Thanks for explaining it to me," she said, backing away.
"No problem Miss Hawke," said Meeko, turning around again.
"You don't need to call me "Miss"," laughed Hawke as she sat down on the cot.
She used the silence that followed to finally digest all the information that had been thrust upon her in the past few hours.
It sounded like Apis knew about the dragon, Ryu had said she hadn't been visiting him. And she probably hadn't been visiting because she had been kidnapped by the marines. It sounded like this Royale guy wanted the elixir of immortality and found out about Apis and the Millennium Dragon.
That's probably why there are so many marine ships here, she thought. They probably want to raid the island and try to capture Ryu.
And then her thoughts turned to the dragon himself. He had said a lot of things that made no sense to Hawke. He had called her his child. She didn't know if he meant it literally or if it was just something he called everybody younger than himself. He had said she was the key to peace and that he wanted her to bring him back to a place called the Dragon's Nest. Although Hawke was pretty sure that by that point in the conversation he had gone a bit senile. He had tried to eat her after that, after all.
Then something about the confrontation with Erik came back to her. He had said "there are no myths", the exact same thing that Ryu had said back up the mountain. Could that be more than just a coincidence? She thought.
Hawke gave up trying to make sense of what Ryu had told her and focused on a more pressing matter. Where was the rest of the crew?! Hawke hadn't heard anything about them from the marines. Which is good I guess, she thought, that means they haven't been found. She wondered if they had found out about Apis' secret.
"I hope they're okay," she whispered.
"Did you say something?" asked Meeko, tilting his head towards the cage.
"No," said Hawke apologetically, "I was just hoping my friends are okay."
"Oh, okay," Meeko shrugged.
Then he turned to face the cage again.
"Are you really a pirate?" he asked.
Hawke blinked.
"I think it would be best if you didn't know anything about me," she said quietly.
Even if he was nice to her, he was still a marine.
"You just really don't look the part, if you are," added Meeko.
"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Hawke, a little offended.
The marine let out a little chuckle.
"You're just too cute to be a pirate," he said.
Hawke, who had been standing, flustered, in the middle of her cell, lowered her eyes and shuffled her feet.
"Oh," she mumbled, then she put her hands on her hips, "Well I can be pretty fierce in a pinch."
"Well then I don't want to be on your bad side," laughed Meeko.
Hawke smiled.
"Well, there's not much I can do in here," she said and walked over to the bed, "I'm going to try to get some sleep."
"Okay," said Meeko, returning to his post, "Sleep well."
"Thanks," Hawke mumbled as she lay down.
Despite her predicament, Hawke was asleep moments after her head hit the pillow.