| Chapter 3 |

Chapter summary:

Buggy talks about his Grand Line trips
Marco is a great friend
Raoul is helpful


Marco sat at the bar till he finished his drink. He left the empty beer mug at the counter not giving Raoul any answer and went upstairs. Buggy was still asleep when he entered the room. It was very simple. Narrow with one window on the opposite side to the door. Two beds were put symmetrically. There was a small desk on the right from the entrance and the wardrobe on the left. The window was tilted and the sounds coming from the street were reaching his ears.

He took the chair from the desk and sat on it in front of Buggy's bed looking at teenagers turned back. He wanted to be here when he woke up and had a talk. At the end of the day, he knew he couldn't take Buggy with him if the Clownboy said 'no'. Freedom was the pirates greatest treasure, after all.

He just hoped he would be successful.

'You can leave us whenever you like, just let us help you.' he thought.

The shouts outside took him out from his reverie.

"Let's go, boys! To the Grand Line where the dreams are made!"

"If someone like Roger could do it, so can we!"

"I ain't no pirate, Matthew!"

"Who says we need to be pirates to get to Raftel, Alexei? I will never lower myself to the level of that trashy 'Pirate King'!" the owner of the voice laughed, making Marco's blood boil and only fueling his anger with his next sentence. "I even pissed on his grave to mark my words!"

How dare those bastards call Roger 'trash'?! Marco, like many other Whitebeard Pirates, was displeased with Oden's decision to return to Wano instead of returning on Moby and fault Pirate King for that choice to some extent. The man was also their rival. That being said Roger was a great man with a big heart, second only to their Pops. He was their friend.

"Don't get angry, Marco." the voice from the bed said. Buggy was still turned away to him lying as he was before. "It doesn't change anything. Captain's dead."

Marco felt his chest tightened when he heard how much pain the last sentence carried.

"LET'S HAVE A DRINK!" The voice from the outside was loud and the sound of wine bottles could be heard.

"And at the end of the day no matter if they are pirates, marines or adventurers they will never reach Laugh Tale with such attitude." he laughed bitterly. "They don't even pronounce the name of that place correctly." he turned his head slightly to look at the Zoan user. "Not necessarily their fault." he added after a second. "When Roger claimed he got there the government bastards tried to twist the tale and now it backfired at them spectacularly. If people just keep calling Laugh Tale by its name everyone would get discouraged. What grand treasure can be on an island named like that, right?" he laughed again, this time with more enthusiasm. "Raftel sounds more mysterious after all."

"TO THE ONE PIECE! TO RAFTEL!"

"See?" The hand separated itself from Buggy's body and gestured towards the outside where the group started singing. "People already say it's a 'Pirate Age'. How can it be if they only go after gold? What happened to freedom, Birdbrain? What happened to live your life to your last breath? Experiencing happiness and pain to the fullest so you'll never regret your existence?"

"I don't know, Clownboy," he said solemnly.

"There are days when I hate them but nowadays I start to only pity them. Half of them will die the moment they try to enter the Grand Line, not even reaching Twin Picks and Laboon."

"Oh, right," Marco remembered. "Can you tell me why you try to go to the Grand Line on your own?" he asked. "One would have thought you knew the dangers enough." He hoped to get the boy to talk. Marco was no psychologist, just a trained medic, but he believed Buggy was in a good enough mood to reconnect with him. The first step to recovery.

Buggy turned around and looked at Marco angrily.

"Stop motherhenning me, Birdbrain. You're a phoenix, act like it!"

Marco narrowed his eyes. Buggy was clearly trying to turn the conversation on him.

"Don't try to change the topic." he ordered firmly.

Buggy made a sound of displeasure. Finally, he sighed. He lay on his back, hands behind his head.

"The first time… I couldn't find Shanks anywhere. I- I knew we had a fight but… he wasn't anywhere in the town. I looked all around Polestar but… h-he really… lef-ft me." with each word his voice was getting shakier and shakier.

Marco touched his shoulder gently. He didn't want the boy to go to another fit like before.

"Breath, Clownboy." he said softly and made him sit up in front of him. "Take a breath, one-two-three-four, hold, one-two-three-four-five-six-seven, exhale, one-two-three-four-five-six-seven-eight, take a breath-" they did the exercise for a minute or two and finally Marco asked. "You okay?"

Buggy nodded his head slowly.

"Do you want to talk about what we did or not?" he asked gently, stroking Buggy's shoulder.

The teenager bit his lip but nodded his head.

"Okay. What happened then?"

"I tried to find him… and got desperate I guess…" he admitted. "But then I realized Shanks wouldn't go to the Grand Line alone… probably?" he wasn't sure. Was Shanks as desperate as he was? Surely not! Not after what he asked Buggy for...

"The second time I wanted to meet with Crocus. I hoped to see him and stay with him but he wasn't there at the Twin Peaks."

"You got over the Reverse Mountain?" Marco asked, impressed. Not many would try to do something as crazy. Then again, Clownboy was a Roger Pirate, the one with the most sense but still as crazy as all of them.

Buggy nodded.

"It wasn't so hard that day. I was monitoring weather patterns, you know."

Marco tried really hard not to roll his eyes. Of course Buggy would try to distance himself from his grief that way and of course, he would choose something this hard. Logue Town, being so close to Calm Belt and Reverse Mountain tended to have irregular weather patterns. It was probably still easier than understanding what was going on the Grand Line, but still…

"So Crocus wasn't at the Lighthouse?"

"Yhm."

"I thought he said he wants to return to Laboon?"

Buggy grimaced and shrugged.

"The third time... " he stopped and looked the Whitebeard Pirate deep into his eyes. "Marco what would you do if I told you Captain Roger had a kid?"

The Zoan user blinked.

"Em… of course, he had… I'm looking at one?" he answered with uncertainty.

Buggy blushed and facepalmed with a hand that just detached from his body. Marco wasn't sure if the teenager was doing it on purpose or automatically.

"Dumbass… I mean like by blood!"

Marco choked.

"Wait, really?"

"Really!" Buggy nodded then stopped. "Probably… maybe… dunno."

Marco was lost. Surely such a thing would be everywhere in the news.

"Wouldn't it be like a massive scandal? The Pirate King having a kid, 'demon blood' and all?"

Buggy sighed.

"Not really. If there was no child to begin with then the operation would be deemed a failure by the public. If there was a child and they didn't catch them, failure again. They needed to find the mother or they wouldn't be able to spin it as a success"

Marco nodded. He was never interested in politics. Well, most pirates weren't really, but understanding the logic of politics was useful. Vista was always good at it.

Buggy continued his tale.

"One day I overheard a group of marines. They talked in code but it wasn't very hard to understand. They were deployed to South Blue for a mission to find Captain's child. Guess where we left Roger after our crew was disbanded?"

Marco's eyes winded.

"No way!"

"Exactly." he agreed. "I don't know if there was a child, to begin with, but I'm quite sure there was a woman," he said and looked outside the window. The buildings were high but between them, you could still see the ocean, somewhere in that direction was Calm Belt, Grand Line and then South Blue. "As you can probably tell they didn't find anyone or it would be all over the news… that or they decided to turn the supposed kid into their poster child and in a few years we'll hear how our dear and of so merciful World Government can turn 'demon blood' into a Navy lapdog." he shrugged. "I wanted to go there and find her and her maybe child myself but…" he bit his lip again. "I'm not wanted but I'm definitely known for being Captain's appearance. Even if I got there, they would follow me and I'm… not strong enough. I would be a burden instead of help so I went back here. I couldn't risk Captain's child being in danger because of my behaviour…" he sighed. Then all of my next trips were just to… to stay sane I guess."

Outside the rowdy group started singing another song.

"All I hear is either how Roger was a demon who ate children for breakfast or how some no names are going to find 'Raftel'." he curled his hand into a fist. "It's annoying!" he hissed.

"You have much more patience than me then." Marco sighed. "I can already barely stand them."

Buggy grimaced.

"I cannot put them in their place. If the marines found me I would be led straight to the chopping block."

'And that's the root of the problem, isn't it?' Marco thought. Buggy being alone is one thing but worse, he has no one to help him if he was discovered. He's in a toxic environment with no mental support or safety. He cannot properly grieve because it would be suspicious.

"What if we blow the town?" he asked and Buggy looked at him as if he was crazy.

"Didn't you hear what I just said?"

"Then come with me!" He stood up so fast the chair behind him almost fell to the ground. "Pops and others will grant you protection!"

Buggy's face changed into an angry scrowl.

"I already told you I'm not joining!"

"But you don't have to!" he almost yelled. Marco knew he shouldn't get frustrated with a person that had grief-related mental breakdowns but he couldn't help it. "You can leave whenever you like! I just want to help you, you fucking idiot!"

"Fuck off Marco!" Buggy jumped at him. While the Clownboy was extremely thin and light the momentum was enough to push Marco to another bed behind him. The teenager's fist blackened and slammed into his face but the Phoenix could barely feel it. The ex-Roger was never the greatest in Atrament Haki and the state he was in probably help neither his Haki manifestation nor his physical strength.

Marco caught his wrists and held them tightly making it hard for Buggy to move them even for millimetres. In retaliation Buggy tried to bite him, headbutt him and kick him but Marco made sure not to budge until the tears started falling and the body loosened up. His arms went around a sobbing teen and hugged.

Buggy cried himself to sleep. When he woke up he asked Marco one question:

"When do we leave?"


"Are you sure you have everything, boys?" asked Raoul as Marco loaded the next supplies on the ship.

"3 chests of dried food, 4 dozen eggs, 5 barrels of drinking water, 2 pillows and blankets, compass, log pose, eternal pose to Batory Island…" he started listing. They stole a fisherman boat (from an asshole who once tried to steal from Raoul and start a brawl in his bar) and moved it to the southern part of the island. The vessel had a small kitchen with a pot, pan and kettle. Some fishing nets were stored in the back along with ropes and extra sail. "We'll be fine." he reassured him finally. He was getting a little bit annoyed with the Eastbluer. They were just going to swim through East Blue along the Calm Belt until they were close to Bathory Island and then fly above the Sea King territory. Not that complicated. From there White Bay on Moby II were going to take them to New World.

Then again, the man had good reason to worry, especially since Marco was taking the teenager who was still in pretty bad shape.

'Well, we'll just have to work on that.'

If he was to fly back to Moby it would take him approximately 4 weeks but sailing through East Blue alone could last even up to 2 months if winds were on their side. They would have a lot of time to work on Buggy's mental state.

...despite the fact that Marco had no clue how to do it because he was never trained in psychology.

'Oh, it will be a long 2 months, won't it?'

Marco slapped his face.

'Think, positive thoughts!"

Oh, and Marco was trash at navigating on the Four Blues.

The man decided to sit in the corner depressed.

Raoul sweatdropped. "Sure, you will, Devilboy."

Buggy walked out on the 'main deck' if the space on the tiny boat could even be called that and smiled widely as he showed what he held in his hands. It was a glass bottle turned into a molotov cocktail full of weirdly coloured liquid.

"Did you just create a bomb?!" asked an alarmed Raoul.

"Yup!" the teenager made a 'pop' sound at the end. "It's my own formula!"

"Why in the sweet blue waves are you making explosives?" asked Marco massaging his forehead. Yep, a long 2 months.

"Well, you said we're going to blow the town up…?"

Marco choked on his own spit. Raoul next to him was white.

"No no no no no, I said we're going to blow the town!"

Buggy stared at him blankly.

"What's the difference?"

Right, Marco forgot again that Buggy was a Roger Pirate (read: insane and danger-happy, no matter how much the clown tried to pretend otherwise).

"One would have thought that someone as literate as you would know! It means 'to leave the town'.

Buggy blinked.

"Doesn't make much sense if you ask me," he said and pouted. He looked at Marco with big hopeful eyes. "Can we blow it up anyway?"

Raoul suddenly fell on the ground passed out. Marco laughed. He knew everything was going to be alright. Buggy was already better.


A/N: Hi! This is the last chapter of this story not the end of this AU. I like writing canon-compliant stories and the 'Stories from the Old World' series on my AO3 that this story belongs to, is just that. Till the middle of this chapter, it is and then it becomes canon-divergent. Because of that, the story will be continued in "Empty the water from my lungs" where the pair travels through East Blue and go through Buggy's issues.

Then the main body of the story will appear with Buggy's life on Moby Dick in the story "How the tides have turned".

I would like to publish as soon as possible but I just so happens to go to university and am in the middle of a session, so you know...

Btw, when I was listing some of the things boys took for the journey I was conflicted about whenever to put their drinking water. If 80-90% of your world is salt water it would be logical for the inhabitants to evolve in a way that allows them to drink it. That being said Marco and Buggy are devil fruit users. Basically, my headcanon says normal people in OP can drink ocean water unless they are DF users. Because of that they don't use salt in their dishes and think nothing of it. If I ever write some crossover where the character travel to another dimension I'm so going to put it there lol. Imagine people telling Sanji to use salt for a dish and he looks at them like they're insane.

Also, I don't know if I need to say it (please tell me I don't) but don't make Molotov cocktails and throw them at people. Those things can kill. I'm very much against violence of any kind. I don't care for a reason. Really, unless you live in a Zombie apocalypse or other of those I will never condone it.

Thank you for reading "Waters that drowned the spirits"!