Chapter Ten: The Plans That Were Never Made

They've got us surrounded again, the poor bastards. ~Creighton W. Abrams

"Now remember, change that bandage every four to six hours. If it gets infected, go to a doctor. My cream isn't exactly a hundred percent noninfectious." My blinked at the big word, slowly processing it in my brain as I tried to push the pain in my upper back and buzz from the medicine as it tried to knock out the pain that began to cloud my mind. Ooh, sparkly necklace.

"And don't forget that if it isn't healed by three weeks from now, come back – don't, and I repeat, don't go to a doctor."

I nodded, pushing the information to the back of my head – it was much easier to get rid of than the pain or the buzz – and pulled my bag's strap over my right shoulder. Ow, pain. Pain. Pain. Pain- and lots of it.

"Thanks for coming! Tell your friends about us – and don't forget that you're always welcomed here as a friend! Oh wait; I never caught your name. Who are you? Where'd you come from? Do you like music? What's your favorite color? Can we be friends? Oh! I have this really nice cake recipe that I want you to try and – "

"AL!"

The young man quickly shut his mouth, and gave me a sheepish look. I couldn't help but laugh at them. They were too comical for their own good.

"I'll try to come back. Yes, I do like music. My favorite colors are purple and green, any shades. Yes, we can be friends. And I would be delighted to try out that recipe, but I must be on my way."

Alastair grinned widely, not noticing that his first two questions had gone unanswered. At least he had made a new friend. I was starting to grow onto his bits of rambling and random questions.

Syra let a ghost of a smile tug at her lips – one that I caught out of the corner of my eye – before holding out her hand. A small bit of pride welled up in me. A handshake at the end of a meeting – to me – meant that they thought of you as their equal. Respect was important to me, seeing as most of my family was nothing but a bunch of liars and criminals.

Although my mother was none of that. She was too innocent, too kind, too motherly to ever be thought of something like that. She just let some really bad decisions be made in her life without her consent.

And then again, there was that one uncle of mine. I looked up to him greatly, seeing as he was very loyal to those he loved and trusted. Plus he got me out of trouble whenever we went messing around. Of course, I hadn't seen him in about seven or eight years – let alone heard from him – but I knew he was alright. Call it "niece's intuition".

"It was nice to meet you. Maybe next time we'll have more time to chat."

And then I made my leave.

I had been about a block away when I heard someone yell. After stopping and looking around for the cause, I saw the young Alastair running after me, something being held in his arms.

It was the swords.

I could I even dare to forget about those things!

After I mentally, and literally, smacked myself in the head for forgetting them at the tattoo parlor, Alastair slid to a stop in front of me and started to catch his breath.

"You… forgot," he began to pant, his sentences not really sentences. "Ran… to give… back." Alastair was just too innocent for his own good. I couldn't help but feel like he was one of those younger brothers that just didn't know how bad the world really was.

"Thank you so much, Al. I owe ya one."

He grinned, and waved off my declaration of debt. "Don't think anything of it. My mum taught me manners and drilled them into my mind."

But I couldn't just leave it at a "thank you". After I had tied the two sheaths to my sash, and said another thank you, a thought hit me.

"Hey, Al. I was jus' about to go and get something for lunch. Why don't you join me? I really do owe you after the whole 'I-forget-you-bring-back' thing with the swords. I don't know how I coulda forgotten them." I offered him lunch; how could any man refuse free food?

Alastair gave me another sheepish look and shook his head. "Thanks, but no thank you. I should really get back to Syra. She makes me cook everything we eat, so I don't want her to starve." I could see a silent plot of Syra's demise being formed in the gears of his mind, but I knew he wouldn't dare hurt his cousin – let alone hurt a fly.

"Well, maybe next time you could join me?"

Al nodded, and soon we were saying short goodbyes and going our separated ways.

I would definitely have to go back to The S.C.S. of Ink.

---

Faye let her old limbs move with much grace as she twirled to the music that echoed across the halls of her dark, empty home. It was a new day; why couldn't she just move on?

"I shall go into town," she said to herself, much confidence laced in her voice. "I shall do what I want, get what I want, speak what I want."

You only live once…

And so, Faye set out for the town that was just downhill from her home. She had bag with her, and her notebook clutched faithfully in her left hand.

…but you die many times.

---

The port was a busy one, especially around lunch time it seemed. It kind of reminded me of Loguetown… keywords here are "kind of". It was too different to be anything like Loguetown. I didn't know anyone, bars were opened during the day time, the smells and sounds were much too louder – or that's what it seemed like to me.

People pushed past me as if I were nothing, continuing on their way to wherever they were headed to. I felt like a butterfly in a horde of moths. I knew no one, nothing was familiar, and yet, I felt like something was pulling me toward the center of town.

I could smell the sea over the wisps of scents from restaurants that surrounded me. People were going in and out. I was a boulder in the middle of a river. People would just move around me, going their respected ways. But I wouldn't move, only a bit if someone bumped into me hard. I stayed there in the middle of the street, staring off at the harbor.

I knew one of those ships.

I knew two of those flags.

I knew all of those faces.

What were they both doing here?!

And suddenly, I was no longer a boulder, or a rock, or any type of stone anymore. I was a weak and fragile leaf that was being push and pulled by the current of the river. I had to get away; I had to blend in with the water.

I had to drown in it.

I pushed through the crowd now, crouching down to make sure no one saw me.

"Hey, watch it!"

"Oof!"

"Ouch!! That was my foot you wench!"

"Move it!"

"Oh! Excuse me, I am very sorry…"

I ignored the many voices that surrounded me – some apologetic and some not so pretty.

"Jorge, is that…?"

One voice caught my attention though. I stopped in the middle of the crowd, not to the liking of many people, and turned in the direction that I had just heard those words.

Fuck was the only word that came to kind.

"Oh shit. Guys, it's her! She's still alive!"

'Still alive'… what the hell did that mean? Oh well, I was too busy trying to run for my life to really care what exactly it meant.

Hm… the closest place to lose them in would be a restaurant. So, why not just dive in, hide behind the counter or under a table and wait for them to just give up? Then again, they were of my brother's unit, so I really didn't even have a chance of getting out of here without a fight if they told him I was alive.

I dove into the door of the nearest restaurant that I saw – that wasn't really a bar or already full of Marines looking for something to eat.

Then again, I just so happened to dive into the restaurant that held another person that was on my "Top Ten People Who I Really Don't Want To See Right Now".

"Faye?"

Once again, double Fuck.

"Faye, what the hell are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you the same question, Ace."

I glanced over the table edge and looked out the uncovered window not too far away to see a group of Marines running in some random direction while orders were being shouted around.

Okay, this time, triple Fuck.

"Uh… the ship was in worse damage than we thought, so we've been in port while it's being fixed."

Oh, well, that was a good enough explanation. Too bad it wasn't exactly part of my plan of getting off this stupid island.

"What are you still doing in Hastion City anyways?"

Eh… I just so happened to have traveled the whole island these two months and found out that I now have to babysit two swords that I know about and I just got a tattoo on my left shoulder blade – Damn my shoulder really hurts- and now I'm being chased after Marines that just so happen to work for my brother. (I'm pretty sure that covers everything.)

"It's a long story."

"I've got time."

And right as he said those words, three Marines came bustling in the front doors of the restaurant.

"No you don't," I stated with a smug look, and lifted myself over the counter to plan out my farther technique of how the hell I was going to get out of here.

"Get her!"

There was a pause.

"And Portgas!"

Portgas? Did they mean Ace? Heh, small world. He was a wanted criminal pirate and I was wanted because my father still wanted to brain wash me with his Marine-Justice-crap.

"Whoa there!"

Something – more like someone landed beside me behind the counter. I could see his wide, white grin through the shadows. Oh I knew what he was thinking.

"They've got us surrounded, again," Ace said.

"The poor bastards," I added with an eye roll and listened to the gunshots that were beginning to fade – the ringing in my ears was still there – and the hushed orders that they were giving.

"We have to stop meeting like this, Faye."

"Meeting like how?" I asked, slightly confused at what he meant.

"You always seem to show up when Marines are chasing after you."

"We'll ex-cuse me. I'm sorry that you have to take care of me, Sir Smug-a-lot."

Ace's grin only widened. "That was a pitiful comeback."

"Oh shut it!" I hissed at him, and glanced around the edge of the counter. There had to be at least a dozen Marines waiting for us on the other side. Then I turned back to Ace. "Why are they after you anyways? I thought you were just a small-fry pirate."

Ace scoffed, his ego had been damaged it seemed. "Do you know what the Shichibukai is?"

I nodded. "Yeah. It's a group of really powerful pirate captains that turned over to the Marines as their allies. Basically, they're traitors to all pirates. Why?"

"I was asked to join them about a month ago." After my eyes had widened, and a bit of fear welled in my stomach, Ace seemed to notice the tension between us, now. "But I refused the offer and now the Marines are after me to just get me out of the battlefield now that I'm not on their side."

Still, the fact that him, Ace (whose last name I expected to be Portgas) - a little small-fry pirate captain who was too cocky for his own good and had a "sleeping problem" , had been asked to join The Shichibukai was very intimidating.

Poor bastards indeed.

"Well… this makes this situation a bit more… interesting."

"I'm glad you see things my way." Ace just kept on grinning. "Now, you might want to close your eyes for a minute. Things are gonna get a little… 'bright'."

Next thing I knew, I was having to cover my eyes (no matter what I thought of his sentence) because of the intensity of the fire that suddenly shot out off his skin. No wonder he was so warm. I really hadn't been dreaming that night on the ship. I wasn't crazy!

"Come on. We gotta get out of here before more of 'em come."

I was yanked from the floor by a very hot hand and I couldn't help but yelp when it touched my skin. Ace muttered an apology and began to pull me though the back of the restaurant. Hot hand, hot hand, hot hand- ouch much?

We were on the streets again, but this time we were just ghosted through alleyway after alleyway trying to get out of here.

"Uh, Ace. Right now I shouldn't really be questioning your motives right now seeing as you are sorta saving my life, but I must ask. Where the hell are we going?"

Ace looked over his shoulder and at me. I could see the whites of his teeth again. "We're headed to The Fixed Deck, of course."

I blinked. "The what?" I was pulled and jerked again. The smell of the sea was becoming more dominant now.

"My ship."

Oh… OH! 'The Fixed Deck'; the Spade Pirates – I get it all now! How could I be so stupid? Maybe the smoke was getting to my head…

"There they are! GET 'EM!"

Well damn. And here I was planning to get away easily on the ship, be dropped off again and continue my travels so I could find more things to put in my book.

Life happens when you're busy making other plans.

I hate life.

---

A/N: So… Happy Superbowl Day my fellow Americans! :D (I was actually born on Superbowl Sunday, which I find ironic since I'm not really a football fan, but I do like the Colts better than the Saints.) Anyways, enough about men running around a field on live television being watched by millions of people while they try not to get caught touching other men's asses… :D (I should be shot, I know.)

I updated! Aren't you happy? And there's ACE! YAY ACE! :D

Well… I have nothing more to say. It's time to get started on the next chapter though! I shall definitely get this next chapter out soon since I'm about to start on it. (But I'm not making promises since I can't seem to keep them.)

Review please?

Oh, and if you noticed, I toned it down a notch on Faye's accent. It should be back to normal. :D