Disclaimer: One Piece is the property of Eiichiro Oda. Many of the characters in this story are property of me. Do not use this story or its characters without my permission. Thank you.


The evening came all too quickly. The rioters went away with their fists shaking and their torches flashing in the darkness, vowing with curses and fanciful-dialects to return with an abundance of fury to rain down upon the pirate's heads. The guards, pirates, and all the castle staff unaffected by the mind-warping drugs the citizens regularly partook all had the same looks of worry and pity. They worried for their health in fighting against them and pitied their feeble bodies for the constant effort against totally impossible odds. The Buster Pirates, led now by Rez and Araly, gathered themselves around a bonfire built near the broken statue in the greatly cracked courtyard.

"Alright" Rez said, beginning the discussion, "we need to figure out a way to get off this island."

"I talked to Kurateka" Araly said. "Apparently it takes a whole season here for a regular log to set, so even if we leave we'd be at the mercy of the Grand Line without a proper log set."

"How long is a season then?" Zan asked. "Three or so months?"

"That's way too long to hold out here" Rez said. "We barely have any supplies at all, and if we're banned from hunting bears in the woods our only source of meat is going to be from the sea."

"Fishing will be dangerous" a pirate figures "with those villagers around to chase us away."

"Our main concern" Zan said "is to get the ship out of the marsh before it gets damaged. I've heard from the Ghost Killer Pirates that their ship fell apart in the marsh after about two weeks from the over-saturation of salt. It weakens the hull and keel of the boat, then the tide comes in and adds to it, washing away pulp from the wood until the boat's base just falls straight apart." The crew had fallen silent. They hadn't heard of this before now, and never assumed anything bad happening to their boat other than it being grounded in a salty marsh. Zan took his spent cigarette from his mouth and tossed it into the fire. "What? You didn't know?"

"This is bad" Rez said. "We need to get the ship out of there ASAP. The longer we wait the more damage we'll accumulate, and with a hull that big it'll take days, if not weeks, to repair anything well enough to stay afloat in the Grand Line."

"It can't be that bad" Araly said. "The hull is pretty durable, if you remember. Bard can't even crack it."

"It is pretty hard" Zan agreed. "Even for my abilities, density makes objects hard to pass through, and I usually have to press pretty damn hard to get through the hull."

"Well that's useless" Rez said. "It doesn't matter if the hull's dense or particularly hard or not, we still have to fix it if it gets past a certain point of disrepair to keep going."

"Well at least we've got some new help" Marco said. "Those guys who joined us were former Paladins with that Argent Fist sect. They've got plenty of strength, stamina, and most importantly loyalty."

"Where are they now?" Rez asked.

"Sleeping" Marco said. "They dug a trench around the entire length and width of the hull so we can get started on getting the ship out to sea tomorrow."

"We can't wait forever" Rez said. He stood up suddenly. "Listen. We have to stay proactive. If we're here for three months we're going to have to get used to plenty of intolerable crap. First off, Bard's still bedridden, so we can't very well depend on him to fight for us or help us until he's up and well again. It's great we have new crew members but they're still under the effects of those drugs that screw with their minds. Everyone is on this island. We can't trust that they'll be loyal to us when they come out of that perpetual stupor after they've been at sea for so long."

"Speaking of the drugs" Zan said, standing up as well, "that's really the only problem we've yet to resolve."

"Hey, sit down" Rez calmly demanded.

"All the villagers" Zan continued "are still unknowingly swaying to the hand of a dead puppeteer. They don't know, and haven't found out yet, just what they're doing to themselves by drinking the tainted water and eating their poisoned food."

"Are you serious?" Marco asked. The pirate crowd was abuzz with sincerity and concern. They had heard from the direct sources of both Reginald and Kurateka of the conspiracy testing that the unwilling, unknowing people had undergone for the last twenty years. Still, the fact that they hadn't yet stopped it after all their efforts of fighting gave them a tremendous shock.

'What do we do!?' 'How can we help?' 'Dammit! Fighting's all we're good at in the end...' 'Can't we sleep in the boat tonight?' 'We skipped dinner again today.' 'My feet are numb.' Such were the mixed, extremely varied reactions from the crew. Rez took them all in, ignoring some of them, and began to think and plan.

What should we do in this kind of situation Rez thought. What would Bard want to do? He'd probably want to hold a tournament or some other stupid idea to decide on a course of action. Maybe he'd break a tree in half and see which way it fell or something. But in the end, what decision would he try to make? He'd obviously want to get out of here with the ship intact ASAP, but to do that he'd have to set the pose which would take at least.... Rez's mind began to process at a rate unsuitable to record. He used his Duelist mind to accelerate his active thinking process and came to a startling, albeit somewhat predictable, solution.

"I've got an idea" Rez said. Araly stood up. "Hey. Sit down" he calmly commanded.

"We need to make this right" Araly said in a charismatic voice. "Bard would want us to do something for the people, to help them out. We should try, at least just try, to get rid of the drugs supply in the water and in their food so they can start living healthy, independent lives apart from the influence that's been pushed on them for the last twenty years!"

"Araly's right!" a pirate shouted.

"I guess if Bard were in charge" Zan said "there'd be no helping it. That's what we've got to do..." Rez agreed. In fact, that was his idea exactly, but the fact that he was beaten to the point so suddenly in a quick-draw had left him static and agitated.

They're all against me! Rez thought. I'll kill 'em all! His eyebrow gave an angry twitch...


And so the new plan went quickly underway. Under the cover of a dark, misty night on the autumn island a small group of pirates moved through the trees with incredible speed and unprecedented stealth. They wore all black clothing, dry and silent against the cool wind, led by their acting captain who kept the most supplies on their back. All of them carried with them the fresh fruits and recently made breads of the grains recovered from far beneath the rubble of the castle. One held in his satchel two slender cylinders of bright blue liquid.

The squad of stealthy pirates stopped at the border of the town, ripped and torn apart by the rampage of the Ghost Killer Ramone and his lady first-mate. The broken houses where guards stayed mercifully quartered under thin cloth blankets, huddled together to share their warmth. They were victims just the same as the villagers they guarded. The pirates stocked the shelves where their scarce supplies were stored as well. The pirates effortlessly broke into each house, found the pantries and storage places for all the food of those housed together and traded it all out for the healthier, cleaner variations taken from their holdout in the castle ruins.

The leader of this tenacious squad made way to the end of town, the shabby little harbor at the shore, and looked out to the ocean. Pulling down her mask, Araly took in a gasping breath of the ocean air and sighed pleasantly, admiring the sparkling ambient ocean expanding off into the far, far distance. It amazed her and brought her down from the grueling tasks of piracy that were at hand, calming her and cooling her hot blood. In truth, her calmness still came from the alchemic reaction of her tattoo, but she was ignoring that for her own sake.

"Captain Araly" a pirate said, rushing to her side. She turned and saw him panting and heaving, bent down with his hands braced on his knees. "We've done it...all the food and water...has been replaced."

"Good job" Araly said. "What about the water supply?" The man with the tubes of bright blue very slowly opened one with a twist at its metal top and gently started pouring the contents down a well just out of the village's way. The liquid was a counter-act to the drugs already deep within the water table, a bio-chemical that eliminated the main components of the drug and rendered it neutral while propagating itself at an incredible rate through water. Designed as a counter measure by Kurateka herself and tested multiple times, against the knowledge of the King, on Reginald.

"It's being taken care of" the pirate said.

"Great" Araly said, turning with a whip of her pony-tailed hair to the sea once more. "Now our only problem will be in getting our ship out of the swamp."

"About that" the pirate said, standing up straight after recovering his breath fully. He pulled out a Den Den Mushi and handed it over to Araly. It was ready to both receive and transmit. Araly picked up the receiver and held it close, knowing it was running on a quiet mode. The pirate turned to the village and dashed onward to continue his work.

"Hello?" the Mushi said, finally registering the interception of someone on the other end. The way the bug had its eyelids half over its eyes told Araly that Marco, with his signature bandana hiding his forehead, had answered. "Can I get a report, Araly?"

"We're finishing up on this end" Araly replied. "We just need to finish purifying the rest of the water supply and making sure the villagers all have the same amount of food before we leave."

"Got it" Marco said. "Progress on this end is going well. The tide came in and flooded the trenches we dug, but those guys did such a damn good job that we ended up creating a sort of harbor for the boat. All we need to do is either push or pull it out. It's already all ready for departure."

"I guess we can wait for Bard to help us there, right?" Araly asked. "I mean, he's strong enough to at least get us started, and then we could get the crew to help out too. It's not like we have any other options at this point, either."

"True" Marco said. "I'll let you go. We'll regroup at the camp inside the courtyard."

"Understood" Araly said. "Over and out." She hung up the bug with its verbal click and turned back to the misty village with a sigh. "I hope what we're doing is enough. All these years, all these people...I just hope we're giving them enough of a chance..." The Buster Pirates fled just as suddenly and silently as they came, leaving behind the benevolence of their sleeping leader's ideas as acted and interpreted through his most trusted vice-captain. Araly had helped, though, in leading that charge. Rez took no credit and sat at the top of the bleachers, far and away from the rest of the crew that he held himself back from hurting.

"Need a cigarette?" Zan asked, sitting close to him but out of range of his blades. Rez just growled. Zan took a stick from his pack and tossed it his way. It hit just beneath his eye which didn't twitch at all until after it fell from the air. The jarring impact had shaken him up like a bottle of volatile champagne, and he was ready to explode. Too keep himself cool, he simply breathed deeply in and out. "Hungry?" Zan asked. Rez darted his eyes his way and scowled. He leaned back and relaxed himself into a simple hot glare with a sigh.

"You ever regret coming out here?" Rez asked. Zan prepared to answer. "I don't, but I do wonder if the reason for coming out here was a mistake sometimes."

"What was your reason?" Zan asked, abandoning his answer entirely.

".....Revenge" Rez said. Zan's gaze fell flat. He stared Rez down, even though he saw the man was looking up and away to the sky. "I'm hunting someone down. I don't even know if they're still here or not, but whether I find them or not I'm glad that I decided to look, you know? It feels right to be here. I feel like I belong on this ocean..." Rez finally looked down and saw that Zan was still staring ahead, lounging and resting his injured leg on the bleachers under him. What he didn't see was the dark look he had. "What about you? Any mistakes or regrets?"

"Nope" Zan said, taking a drag from his cigarette to calm down. "I'm here for a reason and I know what it is. It's to get stronger for the coming storms."

"Storms?" Rez asked. He looked skyward just to be certain but leaned forward to try and evaluate the significance of the metaphor. "Wait......you would know, wouldn't you?" Rez said. "What's Dragon planning?" Zan stayed silent and smoking. He had drifted off to sleep with his cigarette in his mouth and a grin across his face. "Hey. Wake up. I'm serious" Rez said, calmly and bluntly. He sighed and leaned back, preparing to sleep once more.


Morning came. The pirates were long gone from the village, leaving not a single trace of their presence behind but the invisible fruits of their labor and their work. The villagers got up with creaks and groans, ready to start another unusual day of rebelling and rioting against their invading guests up in the ruined castle courtyard. They clothed themselves quickly and moved up and around on their tired legs to eat breakfast before departing for good. All their bread and cheese tasted the same, the same texture and bland taste and heavy weight in their feeble, weak hands and arms, but something seemed odd and different about the substance they all ate.

The water was clearer and crisper than ever before. Many people drank it until their mouths moistened for more food, and half the day had gone by. Suddenly, the people were without food. All their supplies, regularly stored and process for long periods of time, were gone. The men and women and children even stood up from their tables and stomped to their doors, bursting through the weak wooden frames with tenacious, rage-blasted faces. The village was alive and resonant with the powerful roars of an awakened people!

"HUAAAAHHH!!!" A man with a beard that stood rough and frazzled on the edge of his jaws. "We're out of food!!!"

"So are we!" a woman called from across the street. "Dammit, what do we do!?"

"We should make more BREEEEAD!!!" a man shouted, holding his shaking, lively fist to the sky.

"We should get more WATER!!!" a young woman called violently.

"Forget that!" another man shouted as he stormed into the street. "Someone needs to fix all these houses!" The men of the village stormed out and looked upon the shattered remains of the outer-lying village houses with a burning desire to work building up within them. A tenacious, powerful drive was awakened in them suddenly, and they rushed back to their homes at startling speed to retrieve their tools, their hammers and nails and pieces of lumber. They grit their teeth and glared at the pile of broken debris, ready to explode with a spontaneous blast of energy and work themselves hungry again!

"RAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!" With a thunderous call the men went to work, young and old, skinny and skinnier, all working with ten times the normal strength, at the pace of men who would otherwise be only about twice as fast as average. Still, coming from where they were, it was a tremendous feat. The women and girls worked just as fast and with just as much vigor, baking bread with their brand-new sacks of grain and flour, guzzling water greedily from their sparkling collections from the well, stitching and sewing clothes for the men to wear.

One woman sat with many others outside, enjoying the bright, sunny afternoon sunshine while working on their sewing together in a circle of log benches near the harbor. She eyed her line of stitches with medical precision and extreme care, and at a single slip up she stuttered and shot to her feet, eyebrow twitching rapidly.

"DAAAAAAAMN!!!!" she shouted, holding her needle to the sky in a super-tight grip between her fingers. "I messed uuuuuuup! Damn it! This needle sucks!" She brought the offending instrument down to her face level, holding it to her shaking, rage-filled eyes. "I'm gonna bend you into hell!"

"Don't get so angry over nothing!" an older, bulb-nosed woman said. The raging woman was brought down by a three-fold tackle and the needle was taken away to be bent by strong, articulate fingers. "Now it's even better than before!"

"What!?" the women shouted.

"Ah! You bent it yourself!" the raging woman said. The old woman went to work sewing with the U-bent needle at twice the pace as the woman, who was equally fast, worked before. The women were in utter shock over her unprecedented skill and precision with a seemingly broken tool. The woman finished the line of stitching around the hem of the tunic she made and stood up with an arrogant grin on her face.

"HAHAHA!!!" she laughed. "This way is much better for us to work!"

"That's amazing!" the women all said, eyes shining and ablaze with wonderment. The veteran handed the needle off to the woman who incited the pause in work, and she took to sewing once more, twice as fast as before. The other women joined her by bending their needles and working with incredible speed. All around the village things were the same. The hunters brought back actual game, fresh fish full of fat and nutritious bounty from the harbor at sea, and one huge group that ventured into the forest found and fought and killed a bear, a once oppressive monster that held the villagers tight under the protective whim of the guards, soldiers and even the monarchy.

"Why do I feel so good!?" a young man wondered. "Can this be....could it possibly be, the will of our Great King, flowing through me!?"

"What do you mean!?" a nearby girl asked. The man looked to the sky with his hands held out mercifully.

"That has to be it!" the young man announced. "King Rupert has taken himself to the land and enriched our food and our water. He has given us an endless bounty born from within himself, he has returned himself to us to give us strength and power to fight the men who killed him and destroyed his castle!!!"

"Are you serious!?" the woman said. She stood up and looked at her arms, and suddenly she could see and feel all the hot power coursing through her veins. The health she had never experienced before, that none but a few of them ever knew, it was a power beyond their knowledge. Suddenly, though, they seemed to know and understand. This was the will of their king, the power of Rupert Lioncrest born back into the earth of his people to give them renewed life force! That had to be it! The spirit of their king lived with them, within them, granting them strength they had never felt before!!!

regardless of the reason, the people were happy for once. In a day they did what would have taken them weeks before, and they went to sleep that night without even a single thought of anger towards the invaders that occupied their heavenly former castle courtyard. They had forgotten about vengeance and rage and rioting just long enough to do themselves well, and the next morning looked to be even better than the day, for they knew that upon waking the same fluffy bread and sparkling, clear water would be waiting for them as well...


In that night when the villagers slept the most peaceful night of their tainted lives, the company of grave men in deep-dark black moved through the woods silently, stealthily, all converging like moths drawn to a distant, warm flame at a single point in the pitch-black swamps. Leading them was the bright-haired beauty Colleen, and ahead of her was the escaped, rejuvenated Ramone Cervantes, heading off on his own initially to meet with his ship long lost to the weather and corrosion of the swamp.

Finally the pirates came to a streaking clearing where the moon light shone down on them in thick bands and ribbons. Their ship, long since deteriorated and caved in upon itself, sat waiting for them in the clearing that it had plowed down so long ago. The fallen trees gave way to the fungal mosses and eating vines that wrapped around the ship's broken hull. Already nature was seizing the hard wood of the ship, but most of it still stood apart from the surroundings. The deck was dusty and mossy and littered with little sleeping critters, all furry and mean looking like tiny bears, but it was still the deck of a ship and still stood at a perfectly flat angle on the tops of the broken trees around it.

".....Ggggggg" Ramone growled. "It's been too long in coming" he said. "Way too long. That bastard and all his servants, all his cronies and soldiers, I shouldn't have let that little punk get away with protecting them. I still have so many people to kill, so much to destroy! So many things to deconstruct! God damn! I'm still MAAAAAD!!! RAAAAAGH!!!!" Ramone's jaw burst open and a black living cloud started buzzing loudly around his head. He wrung his fingers and clenched his hands so hard the leather of his gloves nearly cracked as it creaked. Colleen caught up to him but stayed out of sight behind him. Once the rest of the crew caught up she kept them away with a stern stopping hand held out. Ramone writhed with hollow shouts to the sky and the sea as his insect horde flew around him. But all died down. The animals on the deck of the ship's remains all scattered and flew away into the swamp once more.

"Captain?" Colleen asked, popping her head out suddenly. Ramone's insect cloud went back into his body and his jaw returned to his face by the instantaneous repair of his worker drone bugs. He fell to his knees and nearly fell on his face but caught himself and clutched his forehead in pain while Colleen held him up and braced his chest from falling any further. He groaned as she stood him up, softly calling in his ear "Are you okay? Captain?"

"I'm fine" Ramone argued, pushing her away. Colleen stepped back and let Ramone carry on alone. He walked down the slope of ground and hopped across the salty puddles of water around him that continued to warp and pulp the boards of wood stuck between the rocks that peeled off the ship on its initial docking. He edged his way toward the ship and scaled the rotted debris like a ladder up to the deck where he stood tall and stoic, staring at the distant ocean. Colleen followed soon after, pulling herself up effortlessly while the crew lagged behind her. They were having more trouble, not gifted with the natural athleticism or livid drive of either Colleen or their captain.

"Captain Cervantes" Colleen softly spoke, "what will we do? We don't have to stay in the forest anymore. I'm sure, if you wished, we could move ourselves to the castle ruins and set up a base there instead of waiting in the forest and getting sick constantly. They have plenty of herbs and there's even an elevator built along the cliff that leads down into the forest below, near where the Buster Pirates have their ship, so we could fish without scaring the villagers away. We can make this work now. We don't need to hide or live in exile or fear anymore, Captain."

"Gggggg" Ramone growled. "That's the way I like it. I'm a frightening man, Colleen. I became a pirate to spread my fear and power through the whole Grand Line, to become a tyrant, an infamous being whose mere name inspired fear and hopelessness wherever people knew of me. To not be feared is my greatest fear." He turned to her, eyes wild and his face stretching a mad grin. "I'll have none of that!!!" Colleen gasped upon seeing him. On the outside she was terrified, but inside she swooned with relief. Her old captain was back. He stomped across the deck and planted his foot through the rotted rails of the bow, standing with one leg propped up on a short pile of wood.

"It's gonna take us some time" Ramone growled, "but once we're back out on'tha waves we'll regain our lost glory!" Ramone's gloves gripped so hard that they tore and he ripped them off and looked at his raw hand. A small centipede slithered out from under his fingernail and crawled up his arm and back into his body through an unseen hole. He grinned wider than he had in well over a year. "I'm ready to hit the seas whenever this old piece a' crap is!!!" Colleen clutched her hands together in admiration. The crew continued to board the ship behind her, weak and breathless from their life in sickness, heaving and panting as they hugged the wet planks of wood.