I go into surgery tomorrow. Recovery will take a week at the least and my meds may make me to out of it to write anything for at least another week or two. At the longest it may take me a month to update after this, but if I'm lucky like last time, I should be in my proper state of mind with in a week. Let's hope for that.
Also, this chapter is meant to explain and foreshadow a lot of things. Read carefully.
Chapter 12
Marcy was saddened to say the least. Nami was fine, making a rapid recovery though she was asleep when Doctor Kureha lead Marcy to the room. What made her sad, was the state of Sanji and Luffy. Both looked to have been through hell and Doctor Kureha had confirmed that it was in order to get Nami up here safely. Rather quickly Marcy's mood soured. She had been passed out on the Going Merry while her friends risked their lives to help Nami. She'd been proving herself to be rather useless as of late. Marcy wasn't sure when she had begun to doubt herself so much, but she had never truly cared before Luffy and his crew showed up. Even during Marishka's harsh training, Marcy had never really cared how much progress she made or how quickly. Now seemed to be an entirely differently story, she felt weak and inferior. With a slight facial tick, Marcy's smile widened and she began drowning her mind in happy thoughts, though on occasion a dark one seeped into the mix. The wise doctor sitting across from her didn't miss this and she grinned.
"Tell me, Doll, who built you?" Marcy threw Doctor Kureha a large, proud grin.
"Ryuuden!" The older woman let out a cackle.
"I should have figured that fool made you!" Marcy growled at the woman. "Calm down, Doll. I was only stating the truth. Ryuuden was a fool searching for something he didn't understand."
"What's not to understand? He wanted to make me human."
"That's not what I meant. That heart of yours, he didn't have the slightest clue about how it worked." Marcy's eyes narrowed.
"And you do?" The woman laughed again before taking a large gulp of whatever the hell she was drinking. Marcy assumed it was alcohol of some kind.
"Of course not." She slammed the bottle onto the table. "I'm a doctor, not an archeologist, but I did a little research on it after I heard Ryuuden and Raux raving about bringing inanimate objects to life."
"You heard them? Does that mean you met my father?" Doctor Kureha grinned, but it lacked mirth. It was almost tragic.
"Indeed I did. I met him and Raux on their quest for that heart of yours."
"Who's Raux?" Doctor Kureha took another long gulp from her bottle.
"Let me tell you a little story, Doll. You probably won't like it, but shut up and listen anyway." Doctor Kureha held the bottle loosely by it's neck as she leaned back in her chair, tilting it back on to two legs. "I was about twenty at the time when two idiots were pulled from the ocean. Luckiest bunch of dumb asses on the Grand line. Apparently their ship was swallowed by a giant sea king, not sure how they survived, but they did. Barely alive and incredibly delirious. For a while I thought they were just sharing the same delusion, but when they got better they continued on with their nonsense about some artifact and three stones that could give life to objects. It took them four months to fully recover and acquire a new ship and crew, but in that time I learned a good bit about their goal. Raux knew the exact location to the artifact and stones. All he wanted was to be the one to prove them to be real and not just legends. Ryuuden could care less about the fame, he wanted to use them to bring his daughter back." At that, Kureha gave Marcy a pointed look. "They left and my interest was peaked ever so slightly. Something that could give artificial life would interest any doctor." She tipped her head back and drank deeply from her bottle.
"Wh-what did you find out?" Marcy had never felt anxiety to the point that she felt, how did humans put it?, nauseous.
"Next to nothing." Kureha shook her head. "The only new information I found was that the artifact was a set of three. The one they were looking for is the one that can give life if all three stones are powering it. There wasn't much on the other two, but from what I could find they were required to make the object truly alive. The one you've got, the heart, when working to it's fullest makes the object as physically alive as possible."
"So then the other two pieces aren't necessary?" A scalpel was lodged in the table, puncturing clean through Marcy's hand.
"I told you to shut up and listen, didn't I?" Marcy nodded, wide eyed and shivering. Old women were scary. "Good. Now, to put it simply, the heart makes you alive, but not human."
"Bu-" Kureha held the scalpel up in a threatening manner. Marcy's mouth snapped shut.
"You're a doll. You'll always be a doll. You will never be a human, but you can come close. You need all of the parts, no exceptions." Marcy began to speak again, but suddenly the light decided to gleam off of the shiny silver scalpel and Marcy's words died in her throat. "The heart will make you as close to human as physically possible and I'm assuming the other two deal with your emotions and mental state."
"There is nothing wrong with my mental state or emotions. They're perfectly normal."
"Bullshit. You lack a full range of emotions as well as the capability to handle them."
"No. I have all the same emotions as everyone else and I can handle them just fine." Kureha leaned forward, something gleaming in her eyes.
"So tell me then, have you ever felt despair?"
"Yes. When I found out that Ryuuden died."
"And what happened when you found that out?"
"I. . .I relived the same day for over fifty years. . ." Kureha threw her a knowing smile.
"What happened the last time you were angered?"
"I. . ." Only one event came to mind. The red tinted image of Marcy's own satin hands breaking Marishka's arm. Marcy closed her eyes and willed the memory to go away, but it stayed and ached through her mind plaguing her with regret. A glance at Kureha's face told Marcy that the old doctor already had a vague idea of what was playing through Marcy's head.
"Emotions are powerful. As a doll, you were not made to feel such things. You were born emotionless as you were meant to be. You naturally lack the ability to process and cope with them. You feel sorrow and your body shuts down and tries to preserve it's happiness. You get pissed and you could kill an innocent bystander. Understand?" Marcy nodded.
"Yeah. I get it. Can you just finish telling me about Ryuuden and Raux now?" Kureha once again leaned her chair back on two legs, seemingly taking pity on the doll. She took a long swallow from her bottle, watching Marcy the entire time. The doll sat, eyes downcast and hands folded neatly in her lap.
"It was about ten years later when the ship those two fools left on came back. Raux was no where to be see and Ryuuden looked worn. He visited me one day and placed a sack on the table in front of me. In it was the heart and two of the stones, I figured he'd brag, but he just stared at them sadly. Later I found out from one of his crew members that Raux got greedy and in secret planned to murder Ryuuden and take the heart and stones to use for his own purposes."
"Ryuuden won, right? That's why he had the heart and stones."
"I wouldn't call it winning. Once he found out about Raux's plan, he devised one of his own. He got Raux to tell him the location of the final stone, then while exploring an uncharted island, Ryuuden shattered Raux's lower spine and left him there with enough supplies to survive." Marcy's eyes went wide. Horror and disgust filled her senses. She had never thought her father capable of doing anything even remotely cruel, but what Doctor Kureha just said was barbaric. "A desperate human is capable of many horrors. A desperate parent is capable of even more."
"How could he do that to his friend?"
"You forget that Raux planned to kill Ryuuden and they weren't friends. They were brothers. Raux was Ryuuden's older brother."
"How could. . . How could he just leave his brother to die like that?!" Tears rolled free from Marcy's eyes.
"Raux didn't die. When I was about seventy, Ryuuden and a man named Godric came by. They were going after the final stone as well as to check on Raux. Ryuuden didn't want him dead, but he wasn't going to let him get in the way. They left that night and several months later, I got a letter from Godric. He told me that Raux had been waiting for them. That he'd gained some bizarre power and created an army. Raux slaughtered their crew and mutilated Ryuuden. Godric planned to hunt him down and get revenge then grab the stone and head back to you. I was told to send word to his wife and child." Marcy's whole body quaked. She didn't know how to feel. Raux was the other person after the stones, after her heart. Was he still alive? Was he the one after her?
"Is he. . .Is Raux. . ."
"Last I heard he was at Fishman Island. That was nearly a year ago though." Marcy's body shook harder. She had three things to find in order to become human and now. . .now she knew who she had to kill, but the question was could she. Could she really kill the only family she had left? Was she capable of that?
"Marcy? Are you okay?" The doll's head turned so fast that her hair whipped threw the air and her marble spine made a slight grinding noise. Pastel eyes locked onto the tired and slightly ill looking form of Nami.
"Nami. . . How long. . ." Nami was taken back by the frightened, startled animal look in those pastel green eyes.
"The whole time. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to listen, but I didn't want to interrupt you." Marcy's eyes went wider and they filled with something Nami only remembered seeing in Marcy's eyes when they first meet. A hollow pain though this time it danced and mingled with rage and fear. "Marcy, I'm sorry. But don't worry. It doesn't matter how many things you need to find. We'll all help you. We-"
"Shut up!" Nami flinched back. Marcy had never yelled at her before. "Don't act like you understand! I don't. . . I don't want them to know any of this. . . Just keep your mouth shut! Just. . .just leave me alone!" In an instant Marcy thundered out of the room, racing blindly through the castle, away from Nami. Nami stared transfixed at the door Marcy left through. Kureha watched Nami.
"You act as if that's the first time she's behaved out of character." Nami looked down at her hands.
"It isn't, but that's the first time she's ever really looked so. . .so tormented."
"Then you haven't really been looking have you. That doll practically oozes misery."
"She's not miserable. She's always smiling and happy. Laughing and playing with Luffy and Ussop. She can't be that unhappy."
"She was made with a smile painted on her lips. She's had at least a hundred years of false happiness. She's bound to have a festering wound waiting to consume her."
"We won't let that happen. I won't. Sanji won't. Luffy won't. Zoro won't. Ussop won't. We won't lose a friend."
"She's a danger. The longer she runs around with emotions she can't control or understand, the worse she'll get."
"We're her friends. We don't care how dangerous she is. We'll help her. That's all that matters."
"And what happens when she gets angry? When she loses control and attacks you? With her body being powered by that heart, she could easily kill or maim you in seconds. What do you do then? Will being her friend be enough?"
"I don't care and neither does the rest of our crew. Now, let's discuss that reindeer of yours." Kureha grinned at Nami.
"Cheeky brat."
The little reindeer peered around the corner into the darkened hallway. His nose twitched twice. He stared intently at the doll sitting against the wall with her knees pulled to her chest. She looked sad. She looked frozen. The reindeer swallowed thickly and took two cautious steps forward before freezing. He waited and when she showed no signs of moving, he took another two steps forward. Again he waited and again she made no movements. Two more steps and the little reindeer found himself with in arms reach of the doll. She still didn't move. She didn't breath either.
"She's not breathing and I don't here a heart beat." He inched ever so slightly closer. "She's not even moving." Another inch forward and he lifted his little hoof to touch her. "Maybe she's ill or hurt." His hoof hovered an inch over her coat covered arm. "If she is, I won't be able to help her though. She looks human, but she's a doll. Doll's don't get the same medical treatment, do they?"
"I'm fine." The reindeer let out a loud shriek and scrambled back behind the wall, hiding backwards again. The doll turned her pastel eyes to him, her head turning slowly, robotically. The reindeer panicked just a bit more at that sight.
"I-I'm sorry. I saw you sitting there and you weren't breathing and I couldn't hear your heart so I thought maybe you were hurt, but I can see that you aren't so I can go if you want." The doll blinked at him. It took her a moment to sort through the jumble of words the reindeer had just spat out.
"I'm a doll. I don't breath." The reindeer blinked, moving from behind the wall and inching a little closer to Marcy again.
"Oh. So you don't have a heart beat either, then?" Marcy shook her head in the negative. The reindeer tilted his head confused. "You do? But I didn't hear anything." He looked up in a thoughtful manner.
"It's not something you can really hear." Marcy motioned him closer and inch by tiny inch, he came closer to the doll. She patted the ground next to her and carefully the reindeer dropped to a seated position, watching her intently. Marcy held out a smooth satin hand and with a moments hesitation he placed his tiny hoof into her hand.
At first, he felt nothing, but slowly a humming penetrated into his hoof and up his arm. It tingled and writhed through his body. A small tickling sensation danced across the roots of his fur, making some of it stand on end. It was pleasant and enjoyable. Chopper's eyes eased close while he focused on the hum. Like this, with his hoof in her hand, Chopper slowly began to hear a soft melody. It was peaceful and calm. No, wait, the melody was tragic and pained. No, it was changing again. Now it played something joyful and giddy. The melody was a twirling dance of emotions, each getting a chance in the spot light and occasionally sharing that light with another emotion or two. A big smile pulled across his face. Chopper had never heard or felt anything similar, not even in music.
"That's so cool!" He beamed, a shudder rippling through him as the hum continued to tickle his skin.
"Thank you." She retracted her hand and stuffed it back into her pocket. He stared at his hoof for a moment as the tingle evaporated from his body. A small part of the reindeer urged him to grasp her hand with his hoof again. "I'm Marcy." She smiled down at the reindeer.
"I'm Tony Tony Chopper!"
"Are you Kureha's pet?"
"No! I'm a doctor just like her!"
"You're a doctor named Chopper?" Chopper nodded his head. "How unfortunate."
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
"I'd be horrified to have a doctor named Chopper working on me."
"There's nothing wrong with my name!"
"If you're a carpenter or a chief or a mortician, but it's a scary name for a doctor."
"Oh yeah! Well. . . Well what kind of name is Marcy?"
"Don't make fun of my name!"
"Then don't make fun of mine!" Both turned away with a huff.
"Don't you have patients to work on." Chopper froze before he began fidgeting and running in circles.
"THOSE TWO GUYS! I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THEM!"
"Then go help them and stop running in circles?" Chopper looked at her, nodded, and sprinted off.
Marcy made it a point to remain by herself for the next several hours. She wandered aimlessly through halls and rooms, carefully avoiding Chopper and Kureha along with the now awake and rowdy members of her crew. Twice she'd nearly walked off of a balcony because she had been so absorbed in her own thoughts. Four times she'd been shocked back to reality by walking straight into a freezing cold wall. This particular time though, Marcy had come back to reality mid free fall from a balcony on one of the higher floors. Marcy turned herself in the air, allowing her to face the sky. She stuck her tongue out at the balcony. A shock wave rippled through the snow covered ground, tossing white flakes high into the air. Marcy laid in her indent, arms and legs splayed out. With a bored sigh Marcy stood and meandered back into the castle. She was vaguely aware of the group in front of the castle, but the one thing that fully registered was a fat man screaming. Marcy blinked and stared at his back as he gazed around the inside of the castle, shouting.
"WHO DID THIS TO MY CASTLE?!" She flinched at the volume of his voice. From behind, he looked like a hippo. Marcy moved closer and closer until she was standing parallel to him, gazing at him from the side. "They will be sorry for this. I'll kill them all." Fatty then looked up at the first level, an open door where a tuff of orange hair was peeking out and gazing around. "Huh?" He began to laugh.
"Who are you?" Marcy looked up at Nami and gave her a two fingered salute and a grin. Nami blinked, amazed that Marcy had gone unnoticed thus far by the large man.
"You must be a friend of that Straw-hat boy."
"No. No. Not at all. I don't even know him. What are you talking about? I don't understand at all." Marcy tilted her head, confused. What had she missed while she was wandering around?
"Oh. Really?"
"Yes. I'm just a regular navigator who's passing by this town." Nami then turned to leave and Marcy blinked a few more times. "Then, Goodbye." Fatty then began to climb one of the beams. Suddenly, Marcy remembered the man from their ship and she still owed him for chewing on Merry. Marcy lunged forward and grasped the man's coat thing in an attempt to throw him, but she found herself being pulled up right along after the man. Her feet kicked in the air as she growled.
"NAMI RUN! THIS FATTY WEIGHS MORE THEN ME!"
"WHAT DOES HIS WEIGHT MATTER!?" Nami shrieked at Marcy as the doll launched herself into a run beside the navigator.
"In my case it does! Since I don't technically have muscles, I have to use my weight as an anchor while using the stretchy material in my body to create a kind of slingshot effect. Since he weighs a lot more then me, I can't really toss him and I'm not sure a blow would do much from me." The pair rushed down stairs and Marcy let out a long laugh as the fat man got stuck.
"This isn't a time for laughing! Why don't you think your punches will work?"
"He's got a lot of metal on him. . ."
"SO?!"
"I'm no good against metal. . .no good at all." Marcy dead panned.
"W-well, is there anything you can try?" Nami questioned as they witnessed the fat man eat himself. Marcy cringed back as she watched his chin? hop down the stairs before he vomited himself back up.
"Slim up, Wapul!" Marcy gagged. He looked even uglier now.
"Yeah. I think I got something. Never used it before, so you'll need to distract him for me." Marcy locked eyes with Nami. Nami nodded. She trusted the doll with her life. She trusted all of her friends with her life. Marcy moved off to the side and Nami turned to run, only to be tackled by Wapul.
Uncontrolled power rippled from Marcy as a chime in the rhythm of a heart beat filled the air.
"50% out put!" Marcy's body looked nearly human, stitches and patches fading to look like off colored scars. Marcy charged forward with a speed previously unknown to her body. Her fist caught Wapul with a resounding impact, as he went flying. Nami watched, amazed and frightened as muscles flexed underneath Marcy's no longer satin skin. She stared transfixed at the bead of sweat that rolled down Marcy's cheek. Clouds of steaming breath left Marcy's mouth in pants. Nami had the sudden urge to touch Marcy, just to see if this was real. If Marcy really was as human as she appeared right in this moment. A needle blade slide free from Marcy's wrist like usual. Nami briefly wondered when Marcy had stripped off her coat. she then noted with panic that Marcy's eyes were squinting and her body was swaying. The doll appeared to be rapidly running out of energy.
Wapul stood and Marcy rushed him again before was fully up right. Her fist slammed into his stomach again as she brought the needle blade down to slam into his shoulder. In the instant her needle came close to his body, Marcy's body shut down for a second, vision going black and newly created artificial muscles slackened. It lasted only a second, but a second was a long enough gap.
"MARCY!" Nami screamed, frightened, seconds before a wet tearing sound and a loud snapping crunch filled the air. Marcy's arm severed midway to her elbow, the severed part was then chewed and swallowed by Wapul. Marcy fell backwards, landing on her back before she began shuffling away. Gel oozed from her stub of a limb.
"You taste pretty good for a human!" His voice cut through the fog that had begun to gather in Marcy's head. She wasn't sure what was happening. She'd never used this particular ability before. She'd only ever done this for mere milliseconds and even then she didn't understand it fully. She assumed this agonizing numbness that was curling up her body from her arm was what pain truly felt like. The twitchy energy that coursed through her had to be adrenaline. Marcy couldn't focus, she didn't understand. She didn't like this. She was afraid. "Since you seem so eager to die, you get to be the first!" He lunged for her. Tears rolled free from Marcy's eyes and her body shook violently.
"I FOUND YOU!" Luffy's foot slammed into Wapul's face and sent him flying before he could get any closer to Marcy. Nami rushed forward and curled her arms around Marcy, pulling the quaking, panic stricken doll to her chest. Luffy came to a stop next to them. His eyes hard as he looked down at Marcy. "What happened?" Nami looked up at him, her eyes echoing her fear for Marcy.
"She-she was trying a new technique or something, I don't know, but she looked so weak after the first few seconds."
"Her arm. What happened to it?" Nami brought her eyes down to the oozing stump. The gel was flowing out like blood. Marcy was bleeding. In a flurry of thoughts, Nami wondered if it was possible for Marcy to bleed out like this. Could Marcy die, the way a human does, like this?
"That bastard bit it off." Luffy nodded turning back to look at Wapul.
"Hey, how come he's so skinny now?"
"Why does it matter if you're just going to kick his ass anyway!? Oh and Luffy." Luffy swallowed thickly as a dark look crossed Nami's face. "You owe me three times that jackets original price for ruining it." Marcy's body quaked harder. Nami gazed down at her, ignoring Wapul and Luffy when they ran off. Taking note that the key she had stolen was for a weapons room. Sanji came crawling towards her a moment later.
"Nami-swan, are you okay!?" He came to a full halt as he caught sight of the doll in Nami's arms. "What's wrong with Marcy?"
"I don't know." Tears began to bubble from Nami's eyes. "I- I think she's panicking."
The entire world around Marcy was swirling and writhing. She ached. She felt like she was on fire. She was sleepy, but she had never felt that before. She was dizzy. That was new. She wanted to cry, not out of sadness, but out of confusion and frustration and fright. She didn't understand. Her eyes burned. Tears leaked free of once glass eyes. Marcy was scared and pained. She'd never craved a companion as much as she did now. Marcy could vaguely see the people around her, whispering and shouting their worry. Some gazed at her with panic glistening in their eyes. Some had well concealed worry, but all the same, worry rippled through the room. Marcy fell deeper into her strange state. Her stupidity had reduced everyone to worrying about her and yet again she'd proven herself to more of a burden then anything else during a time of need.
This was a bad idea. A very bad idea. She should have practiced more before even considering using it. She should have tried to understand it. She wondered if this is what humans felt like when they went into battle. A twitchy electric energy coursed through her. It made everything sharper and slower. It was all bizarre and frightening. Marcy wasn't sure what she should do. This wasn't the same as when she did the few second trials. It was different. There were thousands of things going wrong. In the few seconds she had practiced, she'd remained the same. Sure, she had felt the wild and raging power coursing through her, but it was easy to manipulate then. What had changed? Why had she suddenly become unable to work her body or mind properly?
Marcy knew how to reverse this state. She just had to close the valves in her heart that she had opened. She just needed to seal away all of the energy that her body didn't need. Her body only needed ten percent to function like normal. The diamond could only last long term at that much out put, anymore and it would disintegrate rapidly. Marcy felt her panic rise more. With every passing second she could feel more of that power slipping out, the valves opening further. Right now, she estimated her heart was pumping out nearing seventy percent. She needed to calm down. She needed to close the valves quickly. From the bit she knew about this state, she could easily assume that the closer to one hundred percent out put meant the closer to being physically alive she was. At that point, she could only pray that it didn't mean she could die. That would be the ultimate failure. To be utterly useless to her friends and then die because she so stupidly decided she kill herself by using a technique that she so obviously wasn't ready to use. She was so stupid.
Cutting through the fog, were voices. Breaking and shattering tiny amounts of the icy feeling that coursed through her. There was a tiny one, barking out orders and commands. There was a man's voice fawning and shouting. An older woman's voice snapping at the others. There was a man's voice sobbing. Two women's voices whispering and talking softly. She focused on the voices. Marcy focused with all her might. Every ounce of her that was still working began to grasp at the voices, using them to pull herself back to the surface. Her insides grasped and tugged at the valves, urging them to close and slowly, ever so painfully slowly they eased close. Once that was done, Marcy released her hold on consciousness and allowed the dark abyss to take her away.
The dark abyss never took claim on Marcy's consciousness. Instead something far worse then the dark abyss wrapped around her and swallowed her whole. It writhed and swirled inside her until it burst open from it's dark cocoon and flooded her with a crackling scene.
"Hello." The body Marcy felt herself now residing in stated without emotion. There was no one in the room. The body looked around in a slow vacant and unsure motion. "Hello." It repeated. The voice wasn't Marcy's, just like the body. The body felt small, child like. It was too tiny to be Marcy's body. It was cramped. The voice was tiny and childish, though it was devoid of all things human. "Hello. My name is Marcela." There was a long pause. "No. You're wrong. Try again." Another pause. "Hello. My name is Macy." Silence yet again. "No. You're wrong. Try one more time." A smile curved on the mouth of this body. "Hello. My name is Marcy." The body's smile grew. "Very good. You're doing quiet well. Soon, you'll be acting just like a regular person."
"Captain Raux, it's doing it again." A young man with several patches of metal fused to his skin stated as he and another man entered the room. The man who hadn't spoken curled his hand around the other's throat. Black writhing veins began to ripple through the metal man's flesh.
"Get out, you pathetic cretin." He released the man's throat, black veins retracting as the man huffed.
"Captain, you have to consider that your powers only work on things that are already alive." The body's eyes were wide as they watched the scene. Marcy couldn't tell if a single coherent thought was going through this body's mind as it witnessed the man being called Captain throw a dark menacing glare at the other man. She felt the body repeat the facial expression as the other man fled the room. The 'Captain' turned to the body Marcy found herself trapped in and his expression softened to a gentle smile. The body repeated the action.
"Hello, Darling." The man pulled a seat up in front of the body. Marcy felt a spark of recognition course through the body and it smiled at him. "Do you remember my name?" Marcy gazed at the man. He had short cropped golden brown hair and eyes made of glowing blue that danced with a dangerous fire. His body was long and sickeningly thin. He looked starved and half crazy. Marcy burned with fear towards the man, but the body she was in twanged with happiness.
"You're name. . .is Raux?" The head tilted curiously.
"Good girl. Now what's your name?" He leaned closer, elbows on his knees.
"Marcela. . .Macy. . . Mar. . ." The body went still. The man, Raux, tightened his jaw for a moment, a flicker of violent annoyance danced across his face.
"Let's just shorten your name for the time being, alright? We'll just call you Mar, for now." He nodded and the body repeated that action. A silence fell and Marcy felt oddly panicked. Raux moved forward and carefully pressed a kiss to the forehead of the body Marcy found herself trapped in. His hand came up to ruffle violent red hair. "Ryuuden was a stupid fool. Wanting to make something perfect into a filthy imperfect creature. That child of his is nothing compared to you. She will never be able to compare to you." The body formed it's own coherent thought, it was a struggle, but the body spoke.
"I am a toy. . . . I can not move or talk well. . . I am broken."
"No. I just need time to perfect you and you need time to adjust." A scarred and bone thin hand reached into the body's lap and grasped a doll with the deep black silk hair and cream satin skin. He smiled as black veins rippled across the doll's entire body. The body Marcy was sealed inside shuddered and tensed. "A few more sessions with my powers and like everyone else on this ship, you'll have a life entirely of your own. That along with the devil fruit I fed you, you'll be ultimate, unsurpassable." From the black veins flowed a vile feeling into the body and by default into Marcy. It was anger, hatred, jealousy, loneliness, pain, sorrow, desire, and desperate need all wrapped and coiled together. These feeling flooded Marcy and sickened her. She wanted to get away, she fought against them, but they were consuming her. It was agony for her, but the body she was in responded positively to it. The body's heart beat stronger, it's eyes focused, and thoughts began to form properly. "I have to credit Ryuuden for your beginning. He built you with so much pain and agony. That was what breathed life into you. That was the small spark I needed to ignite the fire of life in you. This sorrow and loneliness is what drives you. What gives you life. Embrace it. Accept it. Let it consume you and use it to live." A thought began to echo, dancing through the body's mind and into Marcy's own.
Raux loves me. He's the only one. I'll make him proud. I'll be perfect, just like he wants me to be.
Marcy screamed out. And she kept screaming until the dark abyss stole her away.
Marcy came to in a bed in a foreign room. She guessed it was one of the rooms in the castle. She didn't bother looking around. She didn't bother to look at her arm to see if anything had been done to fix it. She did nothing, but the person in the room knew she was awake.
"You're awake." It was dark, allowing the gruff voice that spoke to be hidden in the shadows. Marcy didn't respond. She continued to stare up, even as the one who had spoken came to sit on the foot of the bed. He said nothing more, just sat there and stared at her. For a long time, Marcy guessed nearly an hour, he sat there and stared at her. He was waiting for her to break down. He knew she would. It was only a matter of time. She didn't want to. She couldn't prove herself to be any more weak then she already had.
"I'm weak."
"Then get stronger."
"I don't know how."
"Then ask for help."
"From who? Who exactly can help me?"
"One of your friends. That's what we're here for, isn't it?" Marcy let her eyes meet Zoro's for the first time that night. His expression was an interesting mixture of a calm determination. He looked away and out the window at the night sky. "From what I saw, you lost control."
"Control?" Zoro nodded and turned his eyes back to her. Marcy struggled with her words. She truly wanted to ask for help. She did. The words burned at the back of her throat, but she couldn't say them. She couldn't ask and she didn't know why. Was it her simply not wanting to be a burden on her friends or was it that
she was embarrassed? "Doctor Kureha met my father." Zoro stared hard at her for a moment, considering her and her obvious dislike for asking for help. He wasn't going to push her. She'd ask eventually, he just hoped it would be soon. He looked back out the window. "She knew about my heart too. She knew a good amount." Zoro 'hmm'ed at her. "She told me who killed my father." Zoro looked down at her from the corner of his eye. Silence took over as Zoro studied her.
"She tell you were he is?" Marcy shrugged her shoulders.
"She said she'd heard he was on Fishman Island about a year ago."
"We'll find him."
"I know. I'm not concerned about that." Marcy sat herself up and joined Zoro in staring out the window. "The thing that bothers me is who he is. His name is Raux, he was my father's older brother. My uncle by default. The only family I have left and I don't know if I can kill him."
"You're goal is to live life without regret." Marcy looked at Zoro, but he was looking out the window again. "You'll just have to decide when the time comes which you'll regret less."
"You're pretty wise." Zoro met her eyes and a grin tore across her face. "For someone with such a terrible sense of direction."
"Shut up!" Zoro growled. He would have attacked her if she hadn't just woken up from a panic induced sleep. He grumbled a small bit before slouching against the wall beside the bed. "So tell me what you learned about your heart thing." Marcy stifled her laugh with her hand.
"There are two more pieces I need."
"The last stone and something else?" Marcy shook her head.
"In addition to the last stone. That means there are three things I need." Marcy shifted herself sideways on the bed to allow her head to rest against Zoro's shoulder. He glanced down at her, a little unhappy with the position, but he let it slide just this once. She did, after all just recently get her arm bitten off. "The heart with the stones makes me physically alive. The other two parts deal with emotions and my mentality or something like that."
"Is that what happened earlier." It wasn't really a question.
"What do you mean?"
"Nami said you looked almost completely human earlier." Marcy curled tighter to him. Zoro could feel the hum of her heart with her this close. It was slow and sad, tragic with a hint of fright. Unconsciously, he shifted so that she could curl against him better.
"I've known that I could do that for a long time, but only recently have I ever really tried to access it fully. I thought it would be easy to use once I'd gotten an understanding of it like my other abilities. But I never understood how it works. There are valves on my heart that control the out put of power. The more power I let be used, the more human my body becomes. In some way all of the training I've done my entire life becomes evident in that body then. I just didn't think about how hard it could be to control the power when I used it earlier."
"That was stupid of you." Marcy glared at him.
"You're no genius either." He glared back before relaxing again.
"I'm just being honest. You had no reason to believe you could handle that ability and the situation wasn't dire enough for you to risk it."
"I just wanted to prove that I wasn't weak."
"Shut up with that being weak crap." He crossed his arms behind his head and closed his eyes. "All you need is more training."
"I already said that I don't how to train myself. Nothing I do has been working lately."
"Then ask for help or stop complaining."
"You're so mean, Zo. . .ro. . ." Marcy had raised her hand to bash Zoro upside his head, but she stared transfixed with horror at where her arm had once been. Bolted to her bone just below her elbow was a strange metal contraption. It was thick and cylindrical. Marcy noted several slots and hinges where the thing could shift and open. It was brightly polished, obviously made in a hurry and it looked nothing like an arm. Her senses examined the thing from the inside. Sure enough, she found hinges and panels and dividers. This thing was a weapon of some sort, curtsey of Ussop, obviously. The poor sniper had better have done this only as a temporary thing, otherwise, Marcy may consider breaking his nose off. Zoro had been looking at her arm as well and decided to speak up.
"Looks kinda like a club." A loud cracking sound filled the room. Blood ran down the side of Zoro's head as a massive lump formed.
"Works just as good too." Marcy swung it through the air a few times. "May not be too bad. Good thing I'm right handed." Zoro recovered from his near concussion.
"If you're right handed, then why did you hit me with your left hand thing, whatever that piece of shit is!?" Marcy looked at him like he was dumb.
"I try not to use my right hand since that's the hand I sew best with."
"That's stupid."
"Brain damage!" Marcy's new limb bashed Zoro over the head again. He fell to the floor, foot twitching lightly, but he didn't move. "Zoro?" No response. "Oops. . . Oh well. Good thing there are doctors near by!" With that Marcy flopped back on the bed and gazed at her arm thing. It was a painful sight to behold. She hated it to be honest. It wasn't beautiful or finely crafted or cute. Marcy decided that she could ignore it's atrocious appearance so long as it had very cool and useful functions. If they were useless or stupid, Marcy was going to use her new limb to bash Ussop's brains out.
Ussop shot up from where he was sleeping. Suddenly, he was afraid. Very afraid. Ussop swallowed thickly and laid back down. It was nothing, right?