"I still want to know why you have an anchor, yoi" Marco asked deadpan, his eyes focused on Alex, it made her want to squirm. Well at least he wasn't being mean, that was something at least.

"Yeah what's up with that?" Haruta chimed in, they were sat crossed legged, a cheeky grin spread across their face. The grey thing they were lent on shifted a little, a small movement hardly even noticeable.

"I- I think I stole it..." Alex stammered out, she wasn't entirely comfortable talking, especially now Marco was here, but it was probably in her best interest to answer his question.

"What? Why?" Namur said with a frown and a tilt to his head, he still looked exhausted, the dark bags under his eyes were plain to see. Once again she felt guilty for keeping him up.

"The fisherman were mean..." Alex replied, she kept the response simple, her nerves were shot again causing her voice to come out a little higher than normal. It made the girl incredibly annoyed, why couldn't she sound normal! She couldn't show weakness, definitely not to a pirate like Marco.

"So you stole their anchor? What did they do to deserve to have something so important stolen, yoi?" The bird said in a sharp voice, it sounded sharp to Alex anyway. She was slowly getting irritated by his dumb beak face, why did he have to ask her stuff?

"They made me scrape barnacles off the underside of their ship in a storm. I can't swim! I almost drowned, but they threatened to throw me overboard if I didn't!" Alex snapped angrily, she did not need this stupid bird's judgement!

The girl stopped, wait when was the barnacle thing? That fisherman captain was the old geezer with the peg leg, she remembered that particular detail, because he had kept calling her one eye, so when she had called him one leg out of spite, he'd gone off the deep end. He had told her she was disrespectful, so as a form of 'Discipline' he'd tied a rope around her waist and dropped her off the edge of the ship and told her to scrape off all the barnacles by the end of the day or she'd be tossed in the ocean.

Talk about double standards...

"Oh.. wait. That was the steering wheel I took from them..."

"You took their steering wheel, that's almost as bad as taking their rudder, yoi" Marco said with a frown, he sat up a little, readjusting his wings into a more comfortable position. Licks of blue flames sparked at the movement, it was oddly fascinating to watch, the girl wondered how he could sit on a wooden ship and not set it alight.

It would be nice if that happened to the stupid ship once she was off of it. Along with stupid Whitebeard.

"I stole a rudder too. But that wasn't from those guys" Alex muttered, looking away in slight nervousness. The prickle of sweat on her back made her uncomfortable, why did he need to know this stuff? Why was she even telling the stupid bird? For all she knew he was thinking about chucking her out into the dark depths, just because she might be a threat to their ship.

"Wait. What did those guys do? The rudder guys?" Haruta asked suddenly very quiet, which seemed odd. From what Alex had seen of the red-head, they weren't the quiet sort.

"They made me gut lots of fish... for 6 days straight. And they only fed me bread once a day... I was hungry-" The blonde girl said with a slight edge to her voice, making it come out sort of crackly. She stiffened at the memory. Those stupid fishermen had it coming, she could still see the smug, ugly mug of the captain. She snarled in disgust.

"Shit... so you stole their rudder outta spite?" Namur paused looking up with a quirk to his upper lip, his sharp teeth showing. Alex shuffled uneasily at Namur's growling tone, the itchiness in her arm came back, making her claw at it roughly. She'd upset him, why was Alex such an idiot? The young girl looked away in shame.

"That's like a death sentence on the seas, yoi..." Marco added, Alex started to panic a little, her teeth lengthened as she grit them, she hunched over. Her eye disappearing from view as her blonde curly mop of hair hid her face.

That was it! She needed to go, she needed to escape somewhere. Marco was going to ditch her in the sea, he thought she was a- "They deserved it!" Haruta shouted rather defensively cutting off what the girl was thinking, they almost looked angry. This confused her, why was Haruta so upset? It's not like it had affected them in anyway.

"Yeah. Yeah they did. So do you just steal boat stuff off people who have wronged you?" Namur questioned, he had his arms crossed over his chest.

Just as the blonde girl was going to open her mouth to attempt an explanation, there was a grumble from the 'grey thing' that Haruta and Namur were leaning against. It shifted a bit, which drew Alex's attention, until she came to the sudden realisation that it wasn't a thing at all!

It was a person!

Said person on the other hand was suffering from exhaustion, which was currently trying to pull down his eyes. As he moved the 'grey' part dipped into the light from Marco's azure flames, revealing a white coat.

He could hear his kids talking, normally he would have joined in the conversation but he was tired, so tired in fact that he could barely register what they were going on about.

Newgate's tired golden eyes peered up through his messy blonde hair, he was watching the strange otherworldly fish swim over the ship. One in particular had caught his attention, it wasn't a fish at all, it was a Sea king.

That would do the job...

Yawning, he sat up quietly, ruffling Namur's damp black hair. His annoyance with his son for his little swim earlier already forgotten, as long as he was alive and he didn't do it again tonight, Newgate would be pleased. He didn't really have the normal energy to strangle a fish at the moment, he would if he really had to, but he would rather not. Maybe when he wasn't running on so few hours sleep, this week had not been a nice one.

"Pffffft! Wow I wouldn't wanna piss you off, you might steal my kidney, yoi" Marco laughed, Alex hardly registered what the bird had said, she was too busy internally screaming about Whitebeard being the 'grey thing'!

She shrank in fear, her fingers were trembling, suddenly the cold was so much worse, even with the hoodie she had borrowed from Haruta.

"So what did the anchor people do?" Someone asked, though Alex wasn't sure who. She didn't care, all she wanted to do was escape from him! She staggered to her feet, her single eye was fixated on the Yonko, as she stepped backwards she refused to even blink, the girl was not letting him out of her sight even for a second.

She forced the fear down, or tried to anyway, swallowing, she put on her best angry face and bared her teeth.

"Al? What's wrong?" Haruta's voice drifted somewhere to her right, she could not see them as they were in her blind spot, but the ginger wasn't the threat. He was!

She watched as the old geezer got up, he seemed slow and sort of sluggish. He was looking up, then his gaze fell to side, his eyes were following something outside of the bubble. Great, maybe he'd go for a swim, a nice deadly swim and drown.

"Did you find one, yoi?" Marco asked, he had gotten off his dumb bird butt, then flown up onto the older blond man's shoulder, perching there like some kind of stupid glowing parrot.

"Mhm..." Was all the phoenix got in response, Alex had been half expecting something loud and scary to come out of his mouth. Not a quiet hum, the girl couldn't help but notice how hunched over he was, or how his head was bowed almost as if his whole body was too heavy to be standing up.

"After you get the sea king, can you please go to bed, yoi"

"I'm fine!" Whitebeard snapped, it was sharp and defensive. She expected the Yonko to crush the bird, or even for Marco to fly off out of some kind of act of self preservation, but instead he just shook his head unimpressed.

"Come on, you're barely functioning, yoi" The phoenix continued press, no fear of the angry old man at all.

"Don't cha have anythin' better to fuckin' do?" Whitebeard said, jabbing Marco in the side, though he didn't do it hard enough to dislodge him from his shoulder.

"Marco's right Pops, you look like shit." Namur joined in, making Alex extremely worried for his health.

"Shouldn't a little snot nosed punk like you be in bed along with your siblings, instead of givin' a grown-up man a bloody lecture?" Whitebeard retorted, giving the boy an irritated sneer, who only shrugged as an answer.

Alex shook a little, scared that the man would go for her friends, what could she do to protect them? The girl could barely stand up straight, maybe she could use enough strength to push him out into the ocean? It's not like he could swim, it was possible... Her fist clenched painfully, her claws sticking into her sweaty palms, she implored her body to move, to run at the man with everything she had, to get revenge and save her new friends, but her feet wouldn't budge.

Once again Alex was too much of a coward! She hated herself with a passion, she was so pathetic that she couldn't even protect her friends from this man!

"Oi! Grumpy?" The stupid geezers voice broke through her fearful thoughts, she looked up at the man shaking, no will of her own. What did he want? Had he figured out her plan? If you could even call it that! The plan she was to pathetic and weak to do! Was he was going to kill her and friends! What coul- "Do ya want that anchor?"

Huh?

Her brain shorted out, Alex's face twisted in utter lost and confusion. Why?

"What?"

"The anchor, do ya wanna it?" The Yonko asked his voice sounded quiet and dreary. The blonde girl was staring, her eye wide and unblinking, she was completely lost. Almost without any thought she answered with deep frown, her head hurt from the utter lose at the situation.

"Uh. No..."

"Great..." Whitebeard mumbled, then proceeded to grab the anchor as if it weighted nothing at all, hefting it up on to his shoulder. The thing almost looked small compared to him, it overshadowed Alex easily too.

"Uh...What's he doing?" Alex said with a large amount of concern on her face, beads of sweat rolled down her forehead. She didn't like where this was going. Haruta snorted, giving the girl a big wide grin, they shrugged. "Donno looks like it'll be fun to watch."

The Yonko moved over to the barrier again, lifting the anchor up into one hand, pointing it in the direction of a passing- was that a porcupine? Alex gaped at the strange animal, that was most definitely a porcupine! But with fish fins?

She was completely dumbfounded by the creature, almost in a daze she walked over to the barrier, Whitebeard forgotten about for a moment. Which was probably due to her brain still not functioning at full capacity.

Then to Alex's utter horror the Yonko lobbed the anchor straight at the porcupine fish, smacking it in the face. It was sent flying back through the water a good distance. Whitebeard let out a angry yell, shouting at the animal. "OI! PULL MY SHIP!"

IS HE CRAZY! STUPID OLD GEEZER'S LOST HIS MIND! Alex mentally shrieked clutching the wooden side of the ship, she looked wildly at Namur and Haruta but they didn't react much, the Fishman was munching away on a chocolate bar, his gaze drowsy and bored. Haruta was looking most pleased with themselves, excitable even, leaning over the barrier with a enthusiastic laugh, before throwing their arms in the air in triumph. "I'm naming him Astro!"

Marco had changed back into a human palm tree, he yawned blocking it with a hand, under his arm he held a large thick chain, it was in two length's, he handed it over to Whitebeard, who took it in both hands, he got into a strange stance holding it out in front of him.

"Move, Astro's coming back." The old geezer warned, just then the porcupine shook its head back and forth, as it turned its beady eyes on the ship, letting out a fearsome roar.

Alex was grabbed by someone pulling her away, her view was cut off by a body being shoved in her face, she had a feeling Marco had picked her up, because the strong smell of cooked chicken filled her nose. The next thing she heard was a loud thump, then a screech, the signal that the sea monster had hit the ship, there was the sounds of clawing and flailing about, along with sharp snaps of jaws opening and closing, which abruptly stopped a moment later, as the rattle of chains filled the air and final another shuddering blow. A splash told the girl that the sea king had been chucked out into the sea again, the feeling of the ship suddenly changing direction could be felt.

"Pops got him! Man that's a nasty bump on the head, I feel that." Haru's cheerful voice announced.

Alex tried to get out of Marco's grip but her strength was failing her once again, her body was weak and trembled from the honest to god panic she had felt through the whole time that situation was happening.

"I wanna go to bed now..." Namur grumbled helpfully from somewhere, the ginger groaned."Nam's where's your sense of adventure?"

"In bed where I should be..."

"Loser"

"Go eat a carrot!"

Haruta gasped, Alex could then hear them fighting with each other, slapping and yelling rang out into the ocean depths, Marco sighed letting the girl out of his hold, her feet hit the deck, making her stagger and fall on her butt. Her legs felt like jelly, she couldn't even stand up this time, she didn't have the strength.

"Oh... sorry, yoi" The blond man said as he stood over her, he crouched down, Alex shuffled away nervously. "Your body is still in that badder condition, yoi?"

"What do ya fuckin' expect, Grumpy almost died three times... She ain't suddenly gonna be better now is she? Thought ya were some fancy doctor now?" Came a deep voice from right behind her, Alex froze as she robotically turned, finding the old geezer knelt down a foot away from her face. When did he get there!? How didn't she hear him approach, it was huge and heavy, he should have made a lot of noise!

"I'm a doctor in training... and I'm exhausted, yoi" Marco snapped defensively, Newgate snorted slightly amused, though he lacked the mocking and the energy to pull off one of his signature grins.

"Still should know that shit." He answered, grabbing the little brat off the floor, she flipped out a little but it was nowhere near the amount of angry gremlin energy she'd had the first time they had met, that was when she was awake that was. Honestly he would have preferred that over the awful way she looked right now... she was even paler and skinner than before, the dark bag under her eye made the child look half dead, Newgate was very careful with her, she was in no state to be handled roughly, which admittedly wasn't a strong point of his. He wasn't good at being gentle, nor was he good at looking at his children in such a sorry condition without feeling damn right shit himself.

He stood up making his muscles pull and his bones make a nasty crunchy sound, earning him a concerned glare off Marco which he decided to ignore. He held Grumpy against his chest she was still struggling, rather weakly he might add. It seemed her body was actually still far too sick for any major movements, her breathing was shallow again, which caused Newgate a little bit of panic, though that was mostly because of this past week's events.

Newgate while he was not a doctor by any means, he had still spent every night since Grumpy had been ill, awake, sat next to her bed, making sure she didn't die in her sleep. Of course he wasn't much use for anything else medical related, but at least he gave the only two doctors on the ship time to sleep and rest at night, they needed a functional brain, which he did not need nearly as much. He was useful for punching things and protecting his family in a fight, not thinking about smart fancy doctor things.

And well honestly Newgate wouldn't have been able to sleep know his youngest was dying somewhere on his ship, he would much rather sit up with her, making sure she was breathing, than anything else. Because of that though he'd had several scares during those nights, he had to go wake up Tam and she'd stabilise the girl, all the while the man was having a silent heart attack. But it made Newgate feel somewhat useful, while he trusted that they would have been fine without his help, it still helped his kids regardless. He didn't mind being tired, as long as everyone else was fine, he didn't really about anything else.

Also he was the captain, so they needed him during the day too, so Newgate had probably had about three hours sleep maximum this week. His head was barely with it at all, but he still had a job to do, he had a ship to run and kids look after. Well except for a couple of naps he'd have during the day in his chair, but those never lasted long, the sounds of everyone else working made him feel somewhat guilty for not doing anything and he'd have to get up. Which was stupid considering that he normally had no issues slacking off drinking or taking a doze.

He put it down to lack of sleep...

"Pops you got the sea king now, please go to bed, yoi" Marco's voice broke him out of his thoughts, the Yonko shook his head, they still needed to get down to Fishman island and he couldn't just leave before they arrived safely.

"We still need to reach Fishman island and we haven't even reached the volcano plateau yet."

"Pops we'll be fine, we've done this so many times, we all know what to do, yoi" His son said frustrated, he had broken up the fight between Haru and Namur and was holding them away from each other.

"Nah. You brats need my help keeping the sea king under control"

Marco threw his arms in the air, letting out a angry bird yell.