The Puppet Master [One Piece]

Questions

~Ace’s POV~

                The guards brought the girl back after what seemed like days. I’d worried they’d killed her for what she had done. She was covered in lacerations, deep sick lacerations that oozed blood others that had been horrifically cauterized. They threw her limp body back into her cell, deeming her unable to provide them with any information, though she had passed that point long ago. The interrogators of Impel Down were true monsters.

                Despite having seen her gory display, I couldn’t see any fault in her. She’d brutally slaughtered several men without a blink of hesitation, yet I felt she was a good person. Perhaps my time in this cell had begun to addle my brain. I’d seen her before when I’d fought Teach. At the time I thought she was just an apparition, a godsend, an angel to ease my passing.

                Everyone considered her a demon, it was fitting really. The son of the devil should be escorted out of this life by a demon. I looked to the cell across from me, to her lifeless blood covered form and watched in awe as Crocodile got up from his bench and knelt beside her. I clenched my teeth together thinking he was going to do something vile, but before I could snarl something at him, he surprised me.

                He shifted the girl into as comfortable a position as he could manage and covered her with a flimsy blanket. It wasn’t much, but the fact that he had done it shocked me.

                “Ace.” Her soft voice whimpered softly.

                I stared in awe at her unconscious form. She wasn’t awake. Her body began to shift, tossing and turning frantically as if trying to subconsciously shake her from whatever she was currently witnessing in her unconscious.

                “Do you know her?” Crocodile inquired.

                I shook my head as I continued to watch her writhe on the ground as if in agony. “Wake her up.”

                Crocodile shot me a quick glare and for a moment I worried he was going to continue letting the poor girl suffer. He knelt once more beside the girl and shook her in a surprisingly gentle fashion. “Wake up, little demon.”

                “Don’t call her that.” I hissed angrily.

                Crocodile threw me a scowl before looking down at the girl in concern as she began to whimper once more, “Echo.” He shook her a second time.

                Was that her name?

                “Echo.” He tried once more and this time she woke with a gasp.

                Her entire body shook violently as she struggled to sit upright.

                Crocodile surprised me once more by resting a hand on her shoulder, holding her down. “Don’t move.”

                Her murky green eyes blinked a few times as if she were trying to orient herself. “You called my name.”

                “So I did.” Crocodile feigned indifference, “You’re incessant whining was grating on my nerves.”

                “Sorry.”  She murmured softly and closed her murky sea green eyes.

                “What did they ask you?” Crocodile pondered.

                Why the hell was he so talkative? Since I’d arrived he hadn’t said more than a few words. He seemed almost familiar with the girl, but how was that possible?

                Her stormy oceanic eyes wildly searched the cell before resting on me. She looked somewhat relieved after realizing I was still here before falling back into unconsciousness. What did it mean? Why did she know my name and why did I see her before, appearing as an apparition?

                Crocodile threw me a curious look before moving away from the girl. He resumed his usual position sitting on the bench lost deep in thought. Millions of questions streamed through my mind, questions I feared I’d never get answered.