Greater of Two Evils

The ships in the dock came into view. They were gently bobbing up and down on the waters, a couple of the ships seemed to be damaged. A few of them were pirate ships that the Marines must've brought in. Overall the ships on the waters and in the dock seemed to have suffered a little less damage than the rest of the island, but there was still some tell-tale signs of damage.

A couple of the sails seemed to have signs of being burnt. "Wow," muttered Elias as he looked up at the ships. "You guys really came in force to this island. I thought we Mafia members were a bit eccentric in coming out here. We still have no real idea why we are here. Just for the sake of some Devil Fruit."

"Apparently," Santo spoke softly, "The Devil Fruit is the infamous Gura-Gura no mi. I heard about it from some of the enemies. I think I may have also heard the big boss talk about it. So the Marines desperately want it."

"Hmm, not really too surprised that the old man is fine with helping them out then. Things like that are better left out of the Mafia's hands," muttered Elias. "The old man was smart enough to know that with power like that things just wouldn't go well. There's that old saying about absolute power. I wouldn't trust anyone with that kind of strength."

"If anyone can handle it its the Marines," Rina stated, as if trying to dissuade his fears, but it was obvious that he wasn't buying it. He just grimaced and looked away. Rina stomped her foot slightly, "I know the Marines are far from perfect, but they are the only ones who could be trusted on any level with power like that. Any normal two-bit pirate would immediately try and use it for evil. The Marines can at least be held responsible."

"Yer right about one thing," Elias muttered, adding onto that almost beneath his breath to make sure not many people could hear, but it was clear that Rina could still hear from there, "The Marines are FAR from perfect."

Growling slightly at him, but overall allowing him to get away with such a comment Rina turned around and charged into the docks. "Well, if you'll excuse me I have my crew to find. Maybe Alexander wound up coming back here."

"Well, we walked you back," muttered Elias, as he stuffed his hands into his pockets. "I was kind of surprised at how quiet the walk back was. I was kind of expecting more noise."

"In terms of numbers I think the Marines would win," Rina stated as she waved him off. "I'm not saying that because I'm a Marine. I'm saying that because the Marines have access to numerous islands and easily gets half a million recruits each year. In other words it makes little sense for Taka to throw their agents at us. It'll only force us into a war of attrition and its one I think the Marines would win."

That seemed to be well-thought out enough and ended Elias' question. It explained why Taka wasn't roaming around, but it still begged the question as to why the Marines' also seemed to be fairly quiet. It seemed like they would be pushing if they thought of it the same Rina did, which could only mean to Elias something else was going on.

"Its not worth stressing about," cut in Santo, interrupting Elias' thoughts. "The higher-ups have always acted in ways that didn't make sense to the people on the front line. Its how they manipulate the hearts of the common people. They say and act in a specific way to lead everyone along. Its their true strength. Sending people to die on the front lines while keeping the reasons secret."

The only Marine amongst them, just ignored them. Rina juts kept walking forward, heading towards the ship that she recognized as hers. It was fairly hard to pick it out of the mess as most Marine ships looked exactly alike. Thankfully once you've spent a couple of months aboard the same ship you start to notice the smallest of differences.

Hell, she could even swear that the sound of her shoes on the wooden floorboards was different from other ships. Even though pretty much all ships were exactly the same as the other. They were all made of the same wood as each other. It was probably just her own thoughts, but she had heard several other Marines had mentioned similar things.

But that was all she could think of. So she just shook her head and headed forward. Her attention was focused on the ship. Nothing was really going on for her. However, seeing as how Delgado somehow got through and to the ship dock earlier, she managed to keep her attention on everything. She couldn't allow herself to get too absorbed in how things were going. If another member of Taka snuck in then she needed to be ready to act.

She didn't know why, but there was something that just sat wrong with her. As if she knew that something was wrong, but she couldn't quite put together what was creating such a disturbing feeling in her gut. She didn't know why as she was only out of it for a while, but still things felt like they had gone wrong. It was like her very bones ached with worry and dread.

"Where is Alexander?" Rina questioned aloud.

Elias audibly grunted as he turned away and started to head out of town. Santo stood still, between the two of them, watching Elias walk away and Rina move towards the ship. His honor of a doctor had been fulfilled. The odds that Rina would be attacked here was incredibly slim so Santo was comfortable in saying that Rina was safe. So it seemed like he had no reason not to follow Elias.

He was the boss's son after all. Leaving him to be would probably be a big mistake in the family to just ignore that. He would have to treat Elias well in order to make sure that the big man wouldn't hate him after he made a mistake like this. If Elias got hurt, the family would be annoyed with him. Even though Santo was in no way Elias' babysitter.

"I would've thought that her worrying about her captain would be the one thing that you could understand and relate to," muttered Santo as he caught up with Elias, although he did keep his eye back on Rina as she walked away and deeper into the ship.

But Elias didn't seem to slow. "I'm beginning to wonder if we can trust these Marines. Going for the Devil Fruit like the Gura-Gura no mi could only result in dangers. I've met some of the Marines before that Rina would call her boss. I don't like them."

Indeed, the boss man had, of course, taken Elias with him to a couple of the meetings with Marines. The Mafia were essentially a group of Shichibukais. Elias' great grand father started it off, with essentially being a Shichibukai. A small time pirate who managed to get a great amount of power, he joined up as a Shichibukai and then continued to expand his power right under the World Government's nose.

When the Marines eventually found out about it the man decided to drop out of the Shichibukai, but offered the Marines his continued services. Basically handing them a price list and the Mafia shifted from being more of an underground network of pirates to being an underground network of bounty hunters. They captured wanted pirates and would hand them over for a large cash grab or for 'immunity' for the previous crimes they've committed.

A couple of times the Marines even passed off one of the pirates the Mafia handed over to them as the criminal who committed the crimes of the Mafia. It was an intelligent movement that allowed for the Marines to make very strong allies.

However, as a result the Mafia had ultimately recognized the problem. The Mafia weren't to be trusted. While the Marines bent the laws for them, that was just ultimately showing that the Marines were more than willing to bend and break rules. Not really the ideal partner.

But with this bit of information stored, and knowing full well that Mafia wasn't a group of heroes either, they decided to keep up the charades of being friends with the Marines rather than betraying them because they didn't trust them. It was better to know you are being lead along by the wolf, then be eaten by the wolf.

Although Elias would never dare to say that they would lose to the Marines, he knew that they had far greater power and control on the end of the Marine's leash than they would have if they went against it. Butting heads against the Marines constantly wouldn't work out well for them in the long run. They need to keep their heads on properly and not fight with the biggest super power in the world right now.

As a result Elias and the rest of the Marines ultimately kind of accepted it. That they were to bend knee to the Marines for a little while, buy the Marines' good favor and suddenly get along a lot better. If they expected betrayal they would betray the Marines first.

Or at least that was the plan that the Mafia had put into place. Whether or not they followed through with it in the long run was a huge question. Betraying the Marines because of suspicions would be a rough call to make and one Elias definitely didn't know how he would handle such a thing.

But that was a thought for a never time. Hopefully such a huge decision would never fall on his shoulders. The way these things worked, the Mafia and the Marines may be good business partners for the rest of their lives. This meant that a lot of the benefits would go straight to the two of them. Elias couldn't complain about how the Marines ran things, but he'd be damned if he trusted them.

Even after meeting both Alexander and Rina his overall opinion of the Marines hadn't changed. He didn't trust the dealer in a game of cards. The Marines definitely had the same kind of control as far as he was concerned.

Santo quickly caught up with him, doing a half jog to be at his side. "Are you okay, young boss?" Santo smiled widely as he was soon next to Elias. The young Mafia boss seemed hardly worried at the fact that one of his most trusted allies had caught up to him. Elias was just more interest in leaving.

"The Marines still give me the creeps," Elias muttered with a twisted frown, "Which means it is a huge deal that these Taka affiliates are rubbing me even worse."

There was a moment of concern that crossed over Santo's face. The words definitely buried itself in his head. He didn't disagree that Taka was more 'evil' than the Marines, but he also knew Elias' personality. Hearing him say such a thing made Santo worry what Elias would be doing when he got idle hands. Santo had gotten to know both Elias' father and Elias over many years and this was just another example of why he was afraid for him. Elias may make a rash decision soon.

Of course, Santo was there, both willing to support him when he made that decision and save him if that decision turns sour.