Erstwhile | One Piece - ABANDONED

7 - was it worth it?

[When I first published this chapter I wasn't satisfied because it wasn't angst enough, it was fluffy, wholesome and dull. So I just kinda spiced it up but not too spicy since I kinda want fluff but also no?]

For the second time of the day, Marie blacked out, it was a tired one and not another fit.

As Marie was out cold, the crew found a decimated throne room with Shiki's eyes rolled back, throat badly stitched and blood wished out through wounds. Marie was next to him, just a few metres away. Dry blood located under her nails and eyes dropped of dark blood, blood seeped and stirred in her devil fruit. She was curled in a soft and harmless position, as if she was just taking a soft and innocent nap in the middle of war.

Smoker picked his captain up and carried her back to the ship.

On the walk back, pirates gaped at the loss of their captain being dragged back to the marine ship and locked away. Their faces grimaced and some gave up the chance to escape due to their despair. It was a win for the marines and a loss for the pirates.

Smoker made sure to place Marie on the medical bed in a clinic to be cleaned and checked up on.

Jason and Trisha ordered the rest of the crew to escape.

In the distance, a black flame came to life, second by second it grew in size seeming to suck and eat up anything that touched it. Pirates ran to escape this time, out of their trance, and marines abandoned capturing the pirates and saved themselves by boarding the ship.

In due time, through screaming and panicking, everyone managed to escape. Some who still grieved for the losses stayed and would rather be by the dead person's side. Kile stayed back, regretting for letting such woman win in a battle against his captain.

The black flames grew and absorbed the island whole, creating a sphere the same as the day they first found the fruit.

The ocean shook sending waves to the ships and pushing them back. The sphere of black shot a beam right through the heavens and darkness took all the visions for a few seconds.

When everyone blinked and regained their senses. The island was gone, no traces left but a whirlpool sucking all those near it into it's eye of storm.

—•—•—•—

This time it was on her own accord to be bedridden in her room. The medical staff have already granted her permission to leave and be free to walk around but she refused, well, more like she was unresponsive of their noises. Her eyes dazed as she stared to where her face is pointing at (which is the roof), her breathing was steady and normal but she wouldn't function, like a machine out of battery or a doll with no strings to bring to life. If no one knew better, they would have deemed her dead and labelled her as a "hero", the daily news planting the words "A LIFE FOR A LIFE. A MARINE ADMIRAL SACRIFICING HER LIFE FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE SHIKI CREW," It would have been pathetic.

Her state of misery was understandable. With marine ships sailing to Shiki's island from the SOS signals they have been receiving left the marines in shock. The island now in ruins and on the verge of sinking with survivors escaping through makeshift boats or anything that floats. The marines have their designated mini boats to board to the main ship. What had happened there was not spoken of from any participants, they would not say a word and in their defence, they didn't really know what happened.

Marie's room was decorated in pictures of her family throughout the years along with her crew, bounties of pirates hung up on walls with plans of how to capture each and everyone of them, even the bounties of the warlords that they're supposed to be allied with. A simple queen sized bed at the centre back and a table that stretched across the length of the room, opposite of that was a tiny bookshelf with bean bags and her snail sleeping on it's customisable bed.