AN: Hey guys. Sorry that this one is so short and that it ends on a low note. I wasn't able to finish writing this chapter due to work deadlines and a few other things that came up. There will be more next time.
Karmen sits in the mess hall, hands folded in front of her mouth as the patients trickle in. By her foot is The Heralder's nameplate. The children sit close to her and the adults pull up chairs or stand. None of them had seen Karmen looking so somber, though barely any emotion registers on her face. When Pierce, Camilla, Winston, and Saaresto enter, bringing up the rear, she begins.
"All of you want to know what happened last night. It will be easier to explain if I first tell you of an experience I had that started on a sky island called Skypia. If you didn't know already, I'm a member of the Strawhat Pirates. In Skypia, our captain, Luffy, fought and defeated a lightning logia who was calling himself a Kami. During this time, our ship, The Going Merry, was stalled on a stone altar and badly damaged. We were camping on a nearby shore when we heard our ship speaking, saying she'd hold together for us. Well, Usopp and I did. When we went back to her, we found that she'd been crudely repaired by a spirit."
"I'm sorry," Iona cuts in. "Does this sound like a load of hogwash to anyone else?"
In any other conversation, Karmen would have let the comment pass, but with Merry involved, a cold fire rages behind Karmen's eyes and she bores her gaze into the rock to avoid directing it at any one person. The visible shift of her mood is so great that Winston steps forward to intervene. Before he can get there, however, a small voice cuts through the tension.
"Shhh, Iona! I want to hear the story," Anayah grumbles.
Karmen's mouth presses into a thin line, then she breaks into a snort of laughter. "It does sound like something Usopp would make up," she says, all anger draining away. "If I hadn't heard it myself, I probably wouldn't have believed him either."
She goes on to briefly tell them about going to Water 7, CP9, about Robin turning herself in to save them, and about storming Enies Lobby to save her.
"We were stuck at the bridge, holding our own, but with nowhere to go," she continues, "I was losing blood and feeling in my extremities fast, and wasn't sure how long we could hold off. That's when we heard a voice. It was distant at first, but we could all recognize it as it grew closer. There was Merry, who had held herself together through waves that should have torn her fragile frame apart, sailing herself to our sides just to carry us to safety one last time. When we were safe, she was completely spent. She had given everything for us. We gave her a ship's funeral and burned her at sea."
At this point, most of the children and half the adults are quietly and reverently weeping, including Iona. Pierce's ear twitches with recognition.
"That's a nice story and all," Julimes says, trying to hide the moisture in his eyes, "but what does that have to do with last night or a confession?"
Karmen exhales a slow breath. "For the past two years, up unto the point when I was declared dead, I had been writing Gallowcomb Edward Herbert Ikaika letters regularly."
Julimes' eyes narrow accusingly. "And why would you do that?"
Pierce steps in front of Karmen, interjecting against the Fishman's suspicious and accusing glare, hair bristling from the edges of his tightly wrapped wings. "To keep me alive," Pierce states flatly, daring him to make a formal challenge.
"Pierce, you don't have to do this," Karmen says, an empty quality to her tone.
"Yes I do," he responds firmly. He takes a deep breath and slowly begins withdrawing his wings.
The surprise snaps Karmen to attention. "Don't push yourself to defend me, Pierce." This time there is almost an order in her voice.
He silences her with a simple and unrelenting, "Mistress."
His wings shrink into his back until they're gone and he peels off his visor and hat with one smooth motion, tossing them to the ground with a hard snap of his wrist. Patients gasp and children whimper at his scarred and torn body, getting more of a view now than they had during the training incident weeks before. Still, some look at him with recognition and empathy, having been through similar experiences themselves, if not to that extent. Winston and Saaresto stare at the pawprint tattoo on his back. Pierce's hollow sockets glare menacingly in Julimes' direction, body rippling with barely controlled transformations until he hears the Fishman sit down.
Karmen gives a relenting sigh. "How much would you like to be shared?" she asks gently. She stands and places a hand on his shoulder, finding him trembling beneath her touch. She knows it's not from anger.
He's quiet for a moment, trying to find an answer to her question. "I had been sent with a small team to protect Karmen who was being held prisoner by the Gallowcombs. Two years ago, I failed my mission. There was some-…" His skin ripples sharply with a spike of emotion. "Somehow our plan to escape was discovered. I was able to get Karmen to safety, but I didn't make it out myself. Gallowcomb tortured me, turned me into this," he waves a hand at his horns, "and in the end, her letters were the only thing keeping me alive. He knew she would come back for me and would sometimes read them to see if I could make any sense of them. Knowing she was out of his reach gave me the strength to keep fighting."
Julimes looks stricken and ashamed, but forces himself to keep his eyes on Pierce.
"Karmen spent the last two years turning herself into a weapon to save my life. If there was a problem with anything she did, you can take it up with me."
"There was, Pierce," Karmen says, voice toneless and empty. "Those letters… that ship…"
Pierce turns to her, concern replacing his anger. He holds her shoulders, stroking her arms and hair. "What did Shakky tell you?"
"The Heralder. She wasn't always a slave ship," Karmen explains. "She used to be a mail courier."
Realization settles over Pierce. He pulls her to him, holding her tightly and speaking in soothing tones. "You couldn't have known, Karmen. You had no control over any actions he took. It's not your fault. None of it is your fault."
She returns his embrace, but there is no strength in her actions. "Then whose fault is it?" she asks, eyes slightly glazed and empty. "I sent them to their deaths, Pierce."
"What haven't you told us?" Ulah asks. He waves to the people around him. "How are your letters the reason we were on that ship? How is that connected to the ship that spoke to you in the past?"
Karmen pushes gently until she's out of Pierce's grasp. He hovers nearby, unsure of how to help but unwilling to leave her side. "Ships become sentient when they're loved by their crew. Year after year, The Heralder and her crew of brave sailors delivered mail to courier birds and islands where the birds wouldn't fly. Galival Island, where Pierce was being kept by Ikaika, was one of those places," she says. "They sailed to deliver my last letter to Ikaika after I had been declared dead, the one filled with the evidence and my signet ring, and he became angry. He enslaved the whole crew and added the ship to his fleet. Only three of them are left alive," she tells them.
"Yesterday, when we were planning our attack, The Heralder spoke to me. Ever since she was repurposed, every step of the way, she had been fighting the slavers. She would change their course and do other things to stall them. She told me that she didn't want to be used to cause people pain." Karmen's emotionless mask slips some and her eyes begin to brim. "She saved me from the captain's devil fruit powers and wrecked herself on a rocky sandbar to prevent anyone else in her care from falling into Gallowcomb hands. She carried my mail for years. I could hear her because we had a connection and my mind had been opened to that form of communication by Merry."
She turns to Winston and hands him the ship's name planks. "Can you hang this for me please?" she asks.
He nods, seeming to have a thousand things to say, but only asking, "Where would you like it?"
She points to a patch of wall to the right of the tunnel leading to the lower levels. "Over there, please."
He takes iron nails that had been pried out of the chains earlier and uses his haki to drive them into the stone around the boards, fixing it into place. Karmen unhooks her impaled gas mask from her belt and hangs it on the corner of the plaque where it isn't blocking the letters.
"Are you alright?" Winston asks softly.
She takes a shaky breath. "No, I'm really not," she replies. "I'm going down to level thirteen for a while. Yell if you need me or… something." With that, she fades from view and everyone present knows that she is no longer in the room with them.
Pierce waits a few seconds then begins pacing, scrubbing his hands back and forth over his horns. Winston steps forward to still him and it seems to take all Pierce's self-control not to lash out at the hand on his shoulder. "I need to leave for a while," he says in a low voice. "Not for long, but I need… I have to go get… I can't just sit here."
Winston exhales heavily, but nods. "I'll maintain your post until you return," he says. "Take care of yourself, and Godspeed."
Pierce sprouts wings and in a flurry of air, rockets over the heads of the patients, out of the tunnels and away from the island.