He couldn't breathe. Smoker could feel his chest heaving, trying to take in air and failing. He wasn't a stranger to suffocation- as a devil fruit user he was more familiar than most with the sensation of drowning.

This wasn't anything like that.

This was agony, pure and simple.

Every attempt at a breath left his ribs feeling shattered. His heart tried to beat out of his chest. His bones held the hollow ache of rusted steel ready to collapse.

Even when Smoker's lungs finally caught air, he couldn't find relief. Cool air raked the insides of his lungs like glass splinters.

He wanted to die, just for it to stop.

Wouldn't it be ironic, then, if this was death, and Vegapunk's experiment had failed? It would be just, Smoker considered, to suffer in the afterlife considering all that fell because of him.

The world shifted, and Smoker was left trembling. His soul settled back into his body and color slowly faded back in from an abyss of white.

Smoker opened his eyes to a familiar office he hadn't seen for a lifetime.

Loguetown.

Smoker groaned as he tried to sit up, feeling a deep ache in his body that couldn't come from any type of training.

The last time he could remember feeling so uncomfortable in his own body was when he ate his devil fruit.

That time, it was a case of not quite feeling real. His body had been too light, too not there. He was smoke, and would blow away in the breeze if he didn't hold himself together.

This was the exact opposite. Smoker was all too aware of how his hands shook, how his skin pinched and pulled. How he flinched when he felt the breeze from an open window raise goosebumps on his arms.

His skin was too small around him.

Over the years Smoker had gotten stronger, and it had shown. Now all that progress was gone. The sudden change was disorienting to say the least.

But feeling like he didn't belong in his own body was a small price to pay to set things right, and was one Smoker was more than willing to accept.

Smoker leaned against his desk, and took stock of the room around him. He might as well try and figure out just when he ended up. Vegapunk said that if the experiment worked, he wouldn't have any control of how far back Smoker would go. He could only hope that he ended up far enough back to make a difference, and since he was back in his Loguetown office, that seemed promising.

Honestly, nothing in the room stood out to Smoker. His desk was immaculate as always, paperwork completed and filed, surface clear of clutter, and generally gave off a very professional air. The only personal touch was a pile of rocks meant for balancing.

He had forgotten he used to do that. It had been fun, from what Smoker could remember.

Carefully, minding his trembling hands, Smoker reached out for the first rock. The grey stone was wide and flat- it would make a good base.

Smoker's hand closed around the heavy stone to move it closer to him. He lifted it no more than a few scant centimeters before it slipped between his fingers.

Dammit. He was more disoriented than he had thought if he was being this careless.

Smoker paused, sucking in a deep breath in an effort to calm himself. He couldn't afford crap like this. He focused back on the rock, determined not to let this strange dysphoria get the better of him again. He would force himself to adapt.

He tried again for the stone.

Again it fell from limp and grasping fingers.

Smoker stared at it, then back at his outstretched hand. He curled his fingers to make a fist, but he could tell that it was much weaker than it should have been.

It seemed there were other side effects to worry about in addition to the disorientation Vegapunk warned him about.

Dammit. Like this, he would be next to useless for who knows how long. He couldn't afford that, not if he wanted to succeed in his goals.

Smoker grit his teeth, trying to remind himself he didn't need to be at full strength just yet, that he had recovered from wounds that had left him in much worse condition and that with training he could quickly reach where he once was.

That didn't make this any less frustrating.

No.

Even if he was weakened, he would not allow himself to be this weak.

Smoker let a new determination fill him, and with extreme focus picked up the stone. It was heavy in his hand, but Smoker barely noticed over his own satisfaction. No, this time around, nothing would stop-

Bang!Bang!Bang!

-him.

"What the hell do you want?" Smoker snarled at the marine cadet standing in the doorway, armed still raised where he had been knocking. The cadet paled; the stone Captain Smoker had been moving lay heavy between them.

"I...I..." The cadet stammered. He gulped and tried to compose himself, a difficult feat by anyone's standards, especially with a Marine Captain with Smoker's reputation giving him a look that was normally reserved for hardened criminals. Cadet Thompson flinched, and straightened his back, throwing Smoker a salute that was perhaps a few seconds too delayed. "S-sir, I have orders from Command, told to deliver them to you right away." He stammered, before thrusting the sealed folders in his hand towards Smoker for the Captain to take.

Smoker was not impressed by Cadet Thompson. If the boy was scared so much of his own commanding officers, then he would be as good as dead if he ever had to face a criminal out on the streets or at sea. Though, Smoker mused as he relieved the cadet of the papers, he supposed it wasn't wholly unwise for the cadet to fear his commanders. A flick of his fingers broke the seal on the top folder, and a quick glance inside at the face of Captain Nezumi told Smoker all he needed to know.

Not wholly unwise indeed.

Smoker looked up from the folder in his hands to Thompson, who was still standing at attention, nerves causing a faint sheen of sweat to break out on the young man's forehead. Smoker felt a pang of sympathy for the boy and, in a much gentler tone of voice than he would normally use in this situation, dismissed the cadet with a gruff "Dismissed, Cadet." He tried not to pay too much attention to how quickly Thompson scurried out of his office.

Smoker refused to wonder what had become of the cadet in the original timeline. He told himself it didn't matter, that whatever happened was going to be changed, so the past- or future as it were- no longer had any hold over them. But still in his mind's eye there was a battlefield strewn with corpses bearing the face of the cadet.

Smoker winced, shaking the thought away. Was he gonna get like that with every marine he saw? He couldn't afford those kind of distractions!

Smoker picked up the folder containing the report on Nezumi's arrest and the subsequent internal investigation it prompted, focusing his attentions on that and allowing himself to be distracted from his morbid thoughts.

None of the information it contained was news to Smoker, though he doubted he could say the same for any of the other officers who received copies. Vaguely he could recall that the first time around he had been surprised himself- not that Nezumi was dirty, that wasn't much of a shock to anyone who had ever had the misfortune to meet the rat- but that Arlong had been defeated and Nezumi's involvement subsequently revealed by pirates of all people, that it had been pirates that were responsible for liberating Cocoyashi rather than the marines, as it should have been.

Of course, Smoker realized, it had been so shocking because this was the first major event involving Straw Hat to be brought to the marine's attention. True, there had been some mutterings about Captain Morgan's defeat being the work of pirates- pirates Smoker later learned were Straw Hat and Roronoa- but he knew the rest of the marines hadn't made that connection quite yet.

Smoker eyed the other folder Thompson had brought. No doubt it contained updated bounty posters, among them the first issue of Straw Hat's bounty. He opened the folder, and there, laying out for all to see, was Straw Hat's grinning face, unfazed at the 'Dead or Alive 30 Million' printed right below him.

Smoker couldn't hide the initial surprise he felt at such a low number; he had grown accustomed to Straw Hat's incredible increases in bounty over the years. Though, looking at the other bounties included with Straw Hat's, his was still far higher than any other in East Blue.

Smoker went back to the report on the Arlong incident. It had been years ago for him, and he needed the refresher. The benefit of knowing the future granted him a certain insight to events that he wouldn't have been privy to. For instance the notation in the report that the inhabitants of Cocoyashi had refused to give the names of the individuals responsible for Arlong's defeat. At the time, their silence had been put down to a fear of getting accused of harboring pirates, but Smoker knew that it was far more likely that Cocoyashi's silence was a vain attempt to protect their saviors.

Straw Hat had a bad habit of having that effect on people. Something about the boy made people want to protect him. The marines never had figured out just what it was about the boy that allowed him to make such steadfast allies so quickly.

Though Smoker couldn't really cast judgement. He had, reluctantly, relied on Straw Hat in the past back in Alabasta, and again in Punk Hazard. Despite being a pirate, Straw Hat, Smoker grudgingly admitted, was reliable and kept his word.

He went back to the report, which was detailing the extent of Nezumi's corruption. How Arlong paid off Nezumi, how in return Nezumi failed to report Arlong's activities to the marines. Even how Nezumi would inform Arlong when other marines were headed his way, allowing Arlong to... take care of them. The report didn't go into exact numbers, but it was suspected that in his time in the East Blue Arlong had been responsible for the deaths of over a hundred marines.

That is, until Straw Hat took care of him.

Between Morgan and Arlong, Straw Hat almost seemed better at doing the marine's job than the marines themselves, and certainly more effective in the eyes of Cocoyashi Village. There the marines had failed those people, only bringing them more pain when they should have brought hope and justice. Instead, innocent civilians had been forced to rely on pirates for their aid, and worse, it had worked.

...Now there was a thought.

Smoker turned to the other file, gingerly pulling out Straw Hat's poster and considering it.

Despite his rashness, Smoker wasn't an idiot. He knew he had no hope of changing the future alone. He couldn't trust the marines, not anymore. But Straw Hat... well, to Straw Hat's credit he had never been anything but completely transparent in his goals.

Smoker couldn't believe he was seriously considering this.

But as far as pirates went, Straw Hat wasn't the worst, and the more he thought about it, the more Smoker realized how limited his options really were. Because of the corruption of the ranks in the marines, Smoker couldn't trust but a handful of marines; not nearly enough to be truly effective no matter how much they trained, and there was always the risk that the brass would find out about Smoker's plan to revolt and bring them down. If they found out, all Smoker would do was get even more innocent people killed and ruin any hope he had of making a better future for everyone.

But a pirate... a pirate wouldn't have that problem. The government wouldn't care if pirates tried to take them down. Hell, in the original timeline, Straw Hat had declared war against the government himself for Nico Robin. Once the boy's lineage was revealed, no one would even be surprised at Straw Hat trying to dismantle the marines.

And Smoker couldn't deny that the Straw Hats were an exceptionally strong crew, even now as green as they were..

A quote rose unbidden from his mind. Something Trafalgar Law had once said, when questioned about his unexpected alliance with the Straw Hats. He had said the Straw Hats had left nothing but sheer miracle in their wake, and Smoker couldn't find it in him to deny

Damn. He was really considering this wasn't he?

To hell with it all. Smoker had planned to quit the marines from the start, and with these papers in his possession, he knew there was less than a week before Straw Hat stopped at Loguetown on his way to the Grand Line. It was the best opportunity Smoker was going to get.

But join pirates? Could he really bring himself to that?

Outside his window, children shrieked in play. The bustling noise of a town full of life filled his ears, and yes, Smoker could bring himself to join pirates for their sake.

And there wasn't any doubt that Straw Hat would help him. The young captain had lent him a hand unasked before, and now that Smoker was coming to Straw Hat himself, the boy had no reason to deny him. And if he managed to get the boy to promise him his aid, Smoker was confident Straw Hat would do everything in his power to keep that promise.

Straw Hat was honorable that way. It was annoying.

Decision made, Smoker shoved the files aside. They no longer held anything he needed.

No, what he needed was to get back at full strength- or at least to where he had been at this point in the original timeline. All his plans to get Straw Hat's aid would fall to pieces if he couldn't convince Straw Hat to bring him along. And to do that, he needed to get strong enough to get Straw Hat's attention.

Smoker once again reached for the stone he dropped when Cadet Thompson had burst into his office. His hand closed around it and he set it in front of himself with relative ease. He did the same for the second stone- slightly smaller, but flatter than the base. Gently, he set the second on top of the first stone, and managed to balance a third stone before his tentative tower collapsed in a heap.

Well, it was an improvement at least.

He had a long way to go, and less than a week to get there.

Smoker let out a frustrated huff and once again attempted to stack the stones. He would achieve his goals, and he wasn't going to let anyone or anything get in his way.

He wouldn't fail.

Not this time.

Okay, so this is shorter than I would have liked, but I felt that you guys have waited long enough for a new chapter, and I thought it was a good place to end the chapter.

For those following Dressrosa: Yes, I am still working on TMODETD. When I started TMODETD it was after I hadn't written fiction in years. I was rusty, and it showed. Now that I've gotten back into the swing of things, I became dissatisfied with my work on Dressrosa, and that made it difficult to move on. So I've been rewriting the prologue and chapter 1. The prologue has been rewritten and replaced, and I'm almost done with chapter 1. Once that has been finished I'll finish chapter 2 and get that posted. It's been a long time coming, but it WILL come.

As always I love comments AND questions, so feel free to drop me a line and I'll be sure to respond!