The Marine

Wearily taking a seat at his desk, Bill sat a large black treasure chest down and was glad to finally be alone.

Leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed, he rubbed his face before sitting up and looking inside the box for what seemed like the hundredth time before closing it again.

Bill never regretted leaving his brain untouched when he reconstructed his body, but now that he got some time to be alone, he sat in his office trying to mentally analyze himself before he continued to tackle the more physical problems he was currently facing.

Organizing his thoughts on the previous day, he firstly recognized that he had gotten caught up in the full swing of emotions that war could produce on the human mind.

Within a few hours he went from being anxious while trying to find the pirate cove, to being apathetic in battle against the hordes of pirates, to the tense negotiations with the Broker, and then fear of losing someone he loved.

Finally, to end it all, he felt grim determination turn into helpless despair, only to be answered by salvation in the final moments.

Putting his elbows on his desk, Bill rubbed his temples and again pushed away the thoughts on the number casualties they had suffered and the number of people he had killed. Telling himself that he first had to handle his own self before going out again to deal with the myriad of things that needed his attention.

Shaking his head, Bill recognized that he was repeating thoughts. he was in perfect physical health, having long expelled the glass candy shards from his body and mended his wounds, but was mentally tired.

Sitting at his desk in relative silence, Bill thought that he hadn’t been so tired since the time he awoken as a baby and, thinking this, he thought about meditation.

It had been several years since the last time he meditated. His time after Clockwork Island had been one of constant and fulfilling manual labor interposed with incredibly interesting learning and engineering concepts.

The steady rhythm of his breathing was his catalyst and Bill slumped into nothingness.

Unbeknownst to him, meditation for those who were spiritually gifted was not simply a mechanism to clear the mind.

For psychics, and all those who could use Haki was a psychic to some degree, as Haki was the physical manifestation of the soul brought to bear on the outside world, meditation was a connective avenue between the place of souls and the conscious logos.

If Bill had been reborn in another place, in one of the few spiritual pockets of civilization in this strange world, he may have been taught the benefits and dangers of meditation for those with powerful souls.

In this world, where reality was not as strong as it had been on Earth, Bill sank deeper and deeper inside himself.

The bottom of his journey was not the place of dreams; this was not the place of conscious thought. As he had fallen down into the void, his mental fatigue was replaced by simple urges.

In that place of Chaos, various thoughts, feelings, and emotions formed like bubbles and were lost in an unimaginable river that never ended. Through it all Bill was urged to both open his eyes and to keep them tightly shut.

The desire to know the other side was strong. However, the fear of losing a sense of order and purpose held him back. Though he did not know it, this fear is known as the fear of losing the "logos" or the divine spark within the soul that brings order and meaning to the world.

Bill could have never been accused of having a very adventurous spirit, however like all men he had the natural urge to discover the unknown. As his soul grew stronger in the chaos of the other side, it slightly tilted the scales away from the divine power of the logos and, in one quick motion, he opened his eyes to the darkness.

Standing on a stone, Bill gazed over a bottomless river that lay above a fiery gulf and suddenly the world of notions and thoughts came back to him. The sight ahead of him was overwhelming but fueled by the desire of knowledge of the unknown he walked towards the rivers shore with echoing footsteps.

Looking at the unimaginable sight  before his eyes, Bill felt a sense of familiarity and a momentary realization before he sensed movement from behind him.

Turning around quickly, Bill was confronted by two great beings.

With the emotions of both meeting a long-lost friend and the loss of something important, he stared up at the duo in front of him.

One of the beings had the body shape of a man but with three heads, draconic wings, and bovine legs. The heads were those of a Man, a Bull, and a Dragon.

The other being took the shape of interlocking white wheels studded with eyes that didn’t seem to blink. In the center of the wheels was a single huge eye that flickered in and out of perception.

Bill was confounded when he noticed that he was not only staring at them through his own eyes, but he was also staring at himself through their eyes.

Looking up, Bill didn’t see when it happened, but the bottomless river and fiery gulf was replaced by white clouds, and just as he was about to speak the three headed being landed on the stoney ground not far from him.

Bill wasn’t scared by this, but did recognize that as the being walked closer to him it seemed to greatly shrink, until by the time it was upon him it was no larger than a few feet tall.

Looking down at the being, Bill watched it flap its leathery draconian wings once then twice as it began to levitate and move upward.

Once it reached eye level, he looked into the eyes of the human face and noticed that it had the familiar face of a baby.

The being copied Bill’s actions. When he looked curiously and held out his hand to touch it, it did the same.

*SUUUUH!*

Flying back off his chair, Bill was suddenly laid on the floor back in his office and had started sweating all over. Standing up on shaking legs he felt confused for several moments before recalling what had happened.

Before their hands connected, he was seized by some force and ripped away.

‘Ripped away from what?’ Bill thought still shaken by his experience.

Like a vivid dream that could only be remembered moments after waking up, Bill already began to forget and, in a panic, he fumbled forward, grabbed a pencil, and wrote it down before he lost it all.

Looking at the incoherent ramblings that he had written down, Bill was outright dumbfounded.

‘It couldn’t have been just a dream.’ he didn’t know why he held this position, but he was as sure of it as he was that the sky was blue.

Standing up and pacing back and forth, Bill’s shaky legs solidified, and it struck him that he felt great, and more than that, he felt like he was seeing colors and recognizing patterns like he had never done.

At this moment, Bill could not have understood that the force that had pulled him back from Chaos was the “logos” and now the reason he saw reality so clearly and so ordered was that same force had reasserted itself back into balance.

He also could not have understood that the drive he was feeling was the “logos” and in a euphoric rush, he sat at his desk and threw himself into his work.

Pulling out a stack of papers, Bill began to write a report about the battle.

In his writing he returned to the moment he finally subdued the traitor Marine, Gasparde. He had seen the looks on the faces of his people and in a moment of passion had claimed “Victory”.

But there had still been much to do and despite their efforts to make him return to the ship, he had refused to rest.

Instead, he ordered Fia to lead eighty Marines to start transporting the wounded back to the ship and ordered Ranse and five Beetleborgs to take Gasparde and lock him up in the Frontier Run’s seastone cell.

He had then found Yoko crouching beside Boss and crying because the big beetle had started to turn brown.

Bill had only seen this once before, and after seeing the stab wound had been healed, he quickly understood that the insect was molting and ordered Yoko with five additional Beetleborgs to stay there and guard him. This time, the girl was sincere and listened without protest.

He still hadn’t realized the staggering number of casualties but all the same he realized that, after sending those away, he only had just over a hundred men and women following him back to the pirate cove.

There he was somewhat surprised that all of the 150 or so surrendered pirates hadn’t all ran off, and roughly 130 remained both guarding and helping those who he had defeated.

Nodding his approval, Bill led the hundred plus Marines down to the pirate cove’s harbor and began the process of seizing ships.

His first target had been the most obvious one, and when Bill walked on the deck of the Salamander, he saw signs of battle everywhere and wondered about the Bounty Hunter as he began to search through the ship.

Walking into the hold of the Salamander, Bill had never seen any ship quite like it in this world. Putting aside the gaudy golden phoenix design, he instantly realized that this was a steam-powered ship!

At this point he couldn’t know if it had a seastone hull, but undoubtedly this ship was the most refined he’d ever seen outside the models in Vegapunks lab.

Checking the cabins one at a time, Bill took his time but hurried up, by now the candy glass had worked its way out of his system and though his cloths were still ragged, he felt better.

After checking the cabins he made his way into a huge boiler room and stared wide eyed until he heard a ‘click’.

Without thinking twice, Bill moved at his fullest speed and only barely caught himself as he snatched up a boy who was dropping a matchlock pistol.

The boy grit his teeth and Bill didn’t pay attention while he wheeled around to another noise, finding it to be an old man covered in black soot.

Seeing Bill staring at him, the old man’s eyes widened and looking at the girl he cried out: “Badger!” before turning back to Bill and saying quickly: “Sir! Forgive the child, please!”

Saying this, the old man had knelled down and pressed his head to the floor. And the boy started crying out “Grandpa!”

Seeing this, Bill shook his head and sat the kid down. Using a large hand, he helped the old man stand and there told him his name and rank, and to the old man’s great disbelief, that Gasparde had been arrested.

When he had finished, the old man was crying tears of joy and thanked Bill over and over.

This single scene made Bill feel better, and would have been perfect had it not been interrupted by a coughing fit.

“Grandpa!” said the boy as he put a hand on the old mans back and rubbed. Then looking back at Bill he grit his teeth and said: “If you’re a Marine then help him! Grandpa’s been taking care of me and getting sick for a long time now it’s getting worse!!”

The old man tried to refuse, but Bill cut him off saying that he would absolutely see the old man to the doctors he had on the ship.

His Department lacked an experienced medical staff, but they had gotten several doctors from the former Clockwork Island residents and Bill hoped it would be enough for the old man.

After that was settled, Bill asked about Bascud and was told to follow them, finding the bounty hunter covered in padding and laid down in a makeshift bed breathing lightly.

He was alive but Bill didn’t know how long it would be before the man recovered, if he ever did. According to the old man named Biera, he hadn’t even flinched as the two moved him off the ships deck.

Deciding to leave Bascud there until they could bring a stretcher, Bill brought the two up to the deck and watched as his people were securing the other ships.

There were 38 pirate ships and from Bill’s perspective twelve were frigates.

That was going to be good money, he though for a split second before his mind went to the Brokers office.

Calling over one of the Beetleborgs, Bill gave the woman orders about Badger and his grandpa, as well as Bascud, and then he jumped straight up to the cove’s top level.

Landing down lightly, Bill walked into the office and saw the pleasure girls still there with Borodo going over documents at a side table facing the wall, at his feet sat a large black chest.

The Broker’s body was nowhere to be seen and after clearing his throat Borodo looked up.

“Captain!” He said startled and then smiling he continued: “I think I got that information you asked for.” Then adjusting his chair, Borodo opened up the black chest at his feet and continued to say:

“And more.”

Looking at a chest full of paper Beli and four strange fruit, Bill just nodded.