In Order To Live

"Nice to see you are still in one piece," offered Kian with a curt nod as they went up to great the returning woman, "Kelda's in the infirmary." Kian stated deciding to cut through the bullshit that would ordinarily follow, "follow me if you want to see her."

However, Bellona rushed ahead more than aware of the trip to the bottom of the infirmary, ignoring Kian's words as she settled into a seat next to Kelda. Kian may have been nice, but Bellona's thoughts were understandably elsewhere. She was much more concerned with her friend who had taken several bullets into her body.

"Are you holding yourself together well?" asked Bellona as she examined Kelda's body. She was still in a bad shape, but she was holding herself together. Pushing herself off of the bed Kelda managed to swing her katana outwards and then immediately put all of her weight forward, directly pushing all of weight onto it. It was still uneasy for her even cleaned and on probably more than one kind of pain suppresent.

"I'm doing good," Kelda sighed as she looked towards Nova, "you..." Kelda paused for a second as she took a deep breath, uneasy to say such a thing, but she had already accepted the idea. The next thing she would say may ruffle a few feathers on board this ship, "you said the ship was ready to sail, right?"

The crew fell silent as they instantly grasped what she meant by that only Bellona seemed to be a bit lost. But the crew wasn't about to spell it out for her, "It is. Just give us the order and we'll go."

"Go? Go, but-" stuttered Bellona, looking back around to Kelda and a small panicked look was painted all over her face.

"Consider this the order," Kelda stated sternly as she walked forward, pausing slightly at James' bed and sighed as she realized this probably wasn't the order he would love to give, it killed her as well. James was out of it, she was out of it, Olivia was gone. "Move out quickly."

"You-" Bellona's face fell, "you can't be serious. We still have a whole week left. We can still do something here, find the Revolutionaries, escape, save the people of this island."

"I'm injured," Kelda stated as she grabbed onto the bed post of James' cot, "my captain's half-dead. Kian's got to stay here to take care of him, Weyland's not stealthy enough, Nova can't handle it by herself. We're not heroes. We're pirates. Our goals have nothing to do with this."

"They've discovered our ship," explained Nova. "We can't stay here anyways. And there's no Log Pose, we have nothing keeping us here. We'll leave as quickly as possible," Nova's chest heaved lowly, "I'll get started on the engines."

"We may lure the Marines away," offered up Kian. He was a bit hopeful, but really that was the best he could do. "The Marines are after you two, right now," Kian explained himself, "if they really want you, they may just leave the people who live here along and instead just chase after you guys if they get wind that you're leaving."

"Does that sound like Benz?" asked Kelda turning to Bellona, she knew him the best out of the people in the room.

"I don't know," Bellona surrendered, "I've never seen him NOT get what he wanted. He always comes out ahead in anything he does, even if he has to lie and cheat to do it. None of the Marines have the guts to stand up to him."

"They do know we are here," Kian continued, "and they are going to know that we know that they know cause those Marines out there that we so just kicked off of our ship are going to tell him. If our ship disappears they'll probably piece it together that we left. We're pirates, we owe nothing to these people. The Marines might see it that way as well. See us as the scared pirates that are just trying to save our hides."

"That's what we are," Kelda muttered quietly to herself, not really wanting to interrupt Kian, but she was just so disgusted with how things were turning out for them. "Dogs running with our tails between our legs."

"Its dangerous," Nova reaffirmed her beliefs, "we stay here and we may die and get nothing out of it. We're not running away, its a..." she couldn't think of anything other than the most cliched example of how to continue here, "its a tactical retreat." Everybody had the same exasperated look on their face...that cliché didn't make it go over better for any of them.

"Let's leave," Kelda admitted running her hands through her hair as she sat down on James' bed posts, "there's nothing more we can do for these people. Our actions so far have only screwed us up, not helped anyone. So let's just...cut our losses." Turning to Bellona Kelda sighed and muttered something quietly, "if you want to come along and get off this island, we'll be more than willing to take you along with us. Let you escape this bastard."

Bellona's mouth dropped it seemed so irresponsible she was the one that got these people into this mess with her Devil Fruit power. It surely only made sense that she stuck this one out. Bellona took a deep breath before quietly muttering the words, it would probably mean certain death to her, but she had learned in the past not to listen to the consequences and follow your heart, "no. I'm staying."

The crew grew a bit silent after that. They could hear the determination in her voice, mixing with her own uneasiness. She wasn't certain about this kind of stuff. There was no real benefit to this for her and running away would certainly make the most sense, but she just couldn't do it.

"I hope we meet again on the high seas," scoffed Bellona as she began to leave. Although people like them the ones who ran away from danger didn't tend to last long. Bellona understood their worry, but she did highly doubt she would see them again. They were too close to the New World now they won't be crossing paths again.

She really wished she felt sorry about that.

Bellona had barely set foot on the beach before the ship turned around and lurched out of the water a bit as the engines turned on, leaving this island behind to be swallowed by its own impeding destruction. But there was no look of surprise on Bellona's face. She was used to this kind of sick disappointment.

With that the papers rustled around her, allowing her to vanish right back into the forest, disappearing before the crew's eyes as she went to return to the town and her small ship. Leaving the crew to their own devices. Kelda looked backwards, glancing over the waves before sighing and motioning to the seas with her sheathed katana, "Nova, you mind steering for the first shift?"

More than likely her shifts were going to be the longest ones, so Nova simply nodded and agreed. She couldn't really be selfish right now. The pits had formed in all of their stomachs, these last two islands they have been just seemed to be have been cursed. Nova went up to the wheel and took charge of it. The ship departed out and over the rolling white waves.

"I did manage to talk to some of the islanders," Kelda stated honestly, "there's an island slightly to the South that we can go to. They have balloon rides down to the Blue Seas. It'll drop us off into the New World, we have enough money in our stores to afford it. We'll just shore up there and relax for a few days first."

(-Back on the Blue Seas-)

"Is that him?" questioned one of the Marines as he shuffled to the side of the wrecked city. The city was not in good shape after the recent pirate attacks and since Marjerois used to be a big name as an entrance to the New World as well as the home to many World Nobles. Or at least it had been.

A fellow Marine standing next to him, picked his jaw up and slowly nodded, "yes. That's the Fleet Admiral."

The New World was growing more and more civilized and many of the World Nobles had taken over islands out there. Practically just claiming them as their own as the Marines and World Government found more and more to take over. As a result Marjerois was more of a monument town rather than anything special, but it was a still a monument to greatness.

But this man was no such a thing. This man was just as great as the old town was. He wasn't a World Noble, but he was someone even more fear, even more loved, and just as respected. This was the Fleet Admiral of the Marines. Whenever such horrible news hit any island he would, of course, have to show up. He was a man, a monster, and this would be his first appearance on this island in awhile. The Marines were strong and he was in charge of them.

The Fleet Admiral was a tall man about 6 foot 7, allowing him to tower over all of the men and women around him, but his strength surpassed even what a normal man with that frame would have. Legends were passed down that he had arm wrestled giants and won, beat Fishmen in swimming races, and still had enough stamina left to defeat a Yonkou. And that was just one tale.

He had his hair shaved back into a very military-like haircut and his normal white Marine coat had camouflage on the inside, hinting that it was reversible. Covering each hand was a dark glove with the symbol for World Government etched on one hand while the symbol for the Marines was on the other. He stomped forward, his heavy steel-toed boots echoing on the pavement. The pirates he was going after weren't going to live long.

Of course, he wasn't here for pirates. He stomped forward, pausing right in front of the Marine stationed here. A man who was chosen from the bottom of the ranks and picked up specifically for this job as he practically begged them. He had shown promise, but that was before today. He easily could've been promoted to Vice Admiral and maybe Admiral one day, but this...this was a black mark on his record.

There were too many Marines to give one who had failed a second chance. One black mark nowadays was the same as a thousand in the old days. Too few Marines ever managed to bounce back from a failure, especially one as big as this. It was a massive failure.

Which was why the Fleet Admiral was called out here. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette, tossing it to the Marine, Aoki. "Smoking is a sin," The Fleet Admiral stated simply, "mistreating the temple of one's body. However, when you are already on the way to hell what's one more sin to compile to your mountain."

"It wasn't my fault!" Aoki grumbled beneath his breath, "I should've won its just that-"

"Smoking is a forgivable sin," the Fleet Admiral interrupted, "making excuses is not. I know what happened and I know what the newspapers are going to say. A pirate hell-bent on vengance against Marines for the death of his old crew and past misfortunes came here accompanied by a young up-and-comer. You were outmatched."

"I wasn't. I could've stopped them."

"No, you couldn't. If you could've then I would have to execute you here and now cause in that case you let them escape and that's the worst sin a Marine could commit, helping pirates," explained the Fleet Admiral, "a better man could've stopped them. And you're not him." The Fleet Admiral cleared his throat.

"The papers are going to read tomorrow that the Shichibukai stationed here decided to go rogue and attack this town. Since it was an inside job we were caught a little off-guard, but we still managed to kill him. The Shichibukai himself is sadly mauled beyond recognition, but we have one of his crew to offer to the public."

"He's dead," the Marine stated, "the Shichibukai tried to stop him, but him and his crew were killed by 'Red Blade'." Aoki motioned to one of the nearby body bags, "the crewmate of his we have is over there."

The Fleet Admiral nodded and walked over to it, unzipping it and revealing the dead body of Calum. "Life is never fair," the Fleet Admiral spoke softly as he slowly tore one of his gloves off of his hand, the right hand, which bore the insignia of the Marines to be exact. "Pirates cause so much grief for us Marines. They kill thousands of individuals and yet in correcting this balance what can we do?

"We execute them, but only once," The Fleet Admiral continued as he lifted his right hand into the air, where it seemed to pulse a red light started to emerge from it. "They kill thousands and their only punishment is one death. One death can never atone for a thousand, which is why the Lord blessed me with this Devil Fruit. Resurrect!"

The Fleet Admiral pressed his right hand against Calum's chest and immediately the red light pulsed out of his hand and covered Calum's body causing it to grow brightly and Calum's body jerked up into the air before gasping for breath. The fear that overcame Calum's eyes was instant. He knew what had happened. He had met this Fleet Admiral before.

"Arrest him and have him prepped for an execution. I think 1000 Deaths should be an appropriate total to atone for his sins," the Fleet Admiral stated calmly. Six or seven Marines immediately gathered around Calum and lifted him to his feet, hauling him off to the ships and gallows. He would die and then the Fleet Admiral would resurrect him time and time again. It would continue for a thousand times now and the entire world could watch.

It was a true testimony to the Marine's strength. The ultimate power over life and death was in the hands of the man who also controlled all of the Marines. The ultimate power in the ultimate organization. No matter how many Marines died in a war, he could just bring them back. Over and over again. This was the true power of the Marines.

"Now for your sins," stated the Fleet Admiral pulling a gun out of his coat and aimed it at Aoki. "Failure is a grave sin and the atonment is death." The bullet ripped through Aoki's skull and he fell to the ground like a lifeless sack of potatoes, no energy coming back from him. But the Fleet Admiral wasn't bother by it at all.

Walking over to his fallen comrade another red pulse began to beat within the Fleet Admiral's hand as he pushed it against Aoki's chest. "Resurrection!"