The Legacy Of Captain Havoc

Act 1
They called him Captain Havoc, not that that was his real name. He was a ragged scarecrow of a man in a long black coat, a whole head taller than most of his crew by deed of his long limbs. He was a fearsome fighter with an intimidating presence, and an experienced sailor of the grand line.

But, right now, first and foremost, he was merely somewhat annoyed, and the captain of the defeated merchant ship Baigujing was not helping.

The timid man shrank back as Havoc approached, but still attempted a smile.

“We have surrendered…” he attempted.

He had. Twice. Havoc had got the message even before that, when the remainder of the crew had collectively thrown down their weapons. Havoc couldn’t decide whether that irritated him more or less than the faint tremble in the other captain’s voice.

“You say that a lot, for a guy that kept ordering your crew to fight back. You need to make your mind up.”

“I have. We are defeated. Please-”

The pirate grit his teeth, briefly exposing pointed fangs.

“Just tell us where the valuable stuff is.”

The merchant shook his head a few times to compose himself, and stepped to one side, gesturing a door leading below decks.

“Cargo’s through there. Take as many as you want.”

Havoc opened the door, and stepped through.

Five minutes later, he stepped back, nodded grimly, and walked back towards the main deck, the other captain following nervously. His first mate, Awl, was waiting nearer the front of the ship, leaning on his trademark double headed axe, Havoc walked up to him, and then gestured to the rest of the Baigujing’s crew.

“Give them back their weapons. We’re done here. No more need for mercy.”

The other captain blinked.

“What?”

“We’re not giving quarter.”

“But we already surrendered.”

“Excellent point.” Havoc said, and then turned back to Awl “Forget that. Kill them all.”

Awl nodded, hefted the axe onto his shoulder, and walked off towards the remainder of the two crews.

The other captain’s eyes widened “But-” he began to protest, before Havoc cut him off with a dismissive gesture.

“We’re pirates. You should expect this.”

“There’s no honor in that!”

The shocked cry might have had a lot more weight to it had it not been accompanied by an attempt at a surprise attack with a knife. It made no difference either way, since Havoc simply interrupted both with a punch that shattered his jaw and sent him hurtling to the deck. He was well and truly fed up of the captain’s voice anyway.

“Honor? You’re talking to me about honor now?”

Somewhere behind him, there was a yell and the sound of somebody being decapitated, followed by a rattle of weapons as the battle resumed. He ignored the noise, reaching over one shoulder for the worn blade sheathed there as he confronted the stricken captain. “In case you hadn't realized yet, I don’t have any honor. Unfortunately for you.” 13th madman (talk) 08:37, December 19, 2015 (UTC)

Shen gripped his notepad in a trembling fist as he approached the Dragon’s Paw tavern. He paused at the door and took several deep breaths in an attempt to steady his nerves, but it didn't help much. If anything, the trembling got worse.

His mark was sitting at a table of their own in the corner of the room, drinking from a sake dish in one hand. The hooded white coat they wore over their shoulders would have been distinctive enough to identify them, but even if it hadn’t been, the hood was down, and he easily recognised the face. Thorstein Weiss. Shen had heard many stories about the bounty hunter’s recent string of victories, and he wouldn’t be the first reporter to try and get a story about them. A man who reportedly took on entire pirate crews for the shear fun of it inevitably generated plenty of fuel for the press. But not one of his peers had managed to get an interview with the hunter himself. That was the real prize. It would make his article better than any other, and it would be a much needed boost to his career.

Except, it seemed he wasn’t the only one interested in talking to the hunter. A broad shouldered, scarred man was standing at the hunter’s table already, talking briskly. Shen deflated slightly at the sight, but stepped aside. Interrupting a conversation was poor form, after all. Besides, the other person was clearly angry, and they looked like the violent type. In a bar like the Dragon’s Paw, the last place you wanted to be was right next to the person who threw the first punch. Instead, Shen backed himself up against the wall and inched closer to the two unobtrusively.

“No, sorry, I still don’t remember you. I have got into rather a lot of fights lately-” Weiss was saying. The other cut him off with an abrupt snarl.

“Not me! I’m talking about Doulmacker Hogen!”

“That sounds like a stupid name. Who were they again?”

“You beat them up! Back on Gerian islan-”

“Ohhhh. Gerian. The slave trader guy. Right. I just did that for charity. Wasn’t expecting a serious fight. Didn’t really get one either-”

At which point the angry stranger pulled out a revolver.

Shen flinched back instinctively. Weiss blinked, and then raised his sake dish and took another sip. Most of the rest of the room didn’t even notice. The Dragon’s Paw was that kind of bar.

“So it was you who ran us out of business!” said the gunman

“I thought you knew that already? Wasn’t that why you came to see me?”

The man with the gun bared his teeth and pulled the hammer back.

And then Weiss moved.

Everything happened so quickly that Shen only caught snatches of it. The sake dish popped out of Weiss’ hand and flipped upwards in a shower of glittering droplets, turning end over end. The gun went off, but it was already pointing at the ceiling. The bounty hunter fell backwards in his chair, legs kicking out to send the table hurtling into his surprised attacker. All three crashed to the ground, but Weiss rolled back to his feet instantly, and the gunman rose just in time for Weiss’ chair to knock him back down.

The sake dish, reaching the top of its arc, dropped back down again. Weiss caught it, and somehow, impossibly, the loose sake dropped neatly back into it without so much as a splash. He hadn’t spilled a single drop. Weiss took another sip and looked down at his would-be foe.

“So.. uh.. who were you again?”

The gunman was in no position to answer. Shen tried to overcome his shock at the brief, sudden skirmish long enough to introduce himself, but he missed his chance yet again. Somebody else stepped in, applauding. They were wearing a cloak similar to that of the bounty hunter, but it was a much darker shade of grey. And unlike Weiss, they had their hood up to hide their face. A burnt out cigarette protruded from somewhere under the cowl. It was long since extinguished, but the person seemed to be chewing on it all the same.

“A most impressive performance, Thorstein Weiss.” Came a deep but muted voice.

The bounty hunter paused, then picked his chair back up and sat down on it hurriedly.

“Eh, he was just annoying. So who are you?”

“My name is not important.” The man said

“I just need your assistance in capturing someone.”

Shen found himself sneaking closer again. Neither of them had noticed him, and his instincts were telling him there was another story in the making here. It was technically eavesdropping, but they were in the middle of a public bar. What could they expect?

Weiss took another sip of sake.

“I’m a bounty hunter, not a mercenary. Taking contracts like that is not my job.”

“I know. But I suspect you will take this one anyway. Several days ago, one of the vessels in my trade fleet, the Baigujing, reported coming under attack by a pirate calling himself Captain Havoc. We subsequently lost contact with the ship, and it appears that the entire crew were murdered.”

Weiss’s casual smile had faded entirely, and now he was watching the other man critically.

“So, you want me to find Havoc?”

“No, I want you to capture him. I already know, thanks to a… source, of mine, where he will be in four days time.”

“As I said, this isn’t really my job.”

“I’ll pay your expenses. And I understand he does have a sizable bounty as well. One which I would happily double if you are successful.”

Weiss frowned, then shrugged and drank the last of his sake.

“It’s not really a matter of money for me either. But fine. I never liked that kind of pirate anyway.” Shen listened to the rest of the conversation carefully, taking mental notes. His interview could wait, he decided. In four days time,he would be on hand to witness the showdown. But first, he needed to find out more about Captain Havoc.

13th madman (talk) 08:37, December 19, 2015 (UTC)

The Redeemer was not an old ship. Its dark timbers, despite their worn appearance, had been assembled barely more than a year ago. The outsize dragon-boat design had been out of fashion for years, but the construction methods were more modern, eliminating many of the flaws that had plagued that generation of ships. It reminded Havoc of his childhood, but was not obsolete. And it was ''fast. The sleek hull was designed to cut through water with little resistance, and on nights like this, when a strong wind filled the sails, it didn’t so much float as soar ''across the waves as though in flight. Havoc often stood up on the open decks on nights like these, watching as tiny distant clouds drifted past. Tonight, though, he barely paid them any attention. He needed to make a call.

The Den Den mushi rang for a long time before there was an answer, and when there was it was simply the click of the other end being picked up, then silence.

“Darstan?” Havoc asked.

Another second of silence. Then a deep but fairly muffled reply

“Havelock? It has been some time since you last called.”

“I’ve been busy. And I told you, it’s Havoc now.”

The tax officer had been a friend of the family for years, long before Havoc himself had raised a jolly roger. The irony of a member of the government’s tax office being connected to piracy was not lost on them, although his career was rarely relevant to them.

There was a faint hum from the other end of the line that was probably the audible equivalent of a shrug.

“Havoc then. But what have you been doing?”

Havoc sighed with a rueful grin “piracy as usual.”

“It wasn’t always usual”

“I don’t want to talk about that.”

There was a pause. Darstan had probably noticed the sharp edge that had come into his tone automatically.

“Very well. But then what was it you did want to talk about?”

“Have you heard of a merchant ship called the Baigujing?”

Another pause

“That’s oddly specific. Why do you ask?”

“I just wondered if the ship was owned by anybody besides its captain. I’ve probably made an enemy of them if so.”

“I’ll tell you if I find out. I don’t suppose I want to know the details, do I?”

“I didn’t leave survivors.”

There was a sigh

“Why do this? You had an honourable career”

“Piracy is the family’s only profession. I was a fool to try anything else.” Havoc’s voice started to get progressively louder as he spoke, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care.

“You were a captain.”

“I’m still a captain!”

“You know that’s not what I meant. What are you trying to achieve with this?”

Havoc found himself lost for words momentarily, and some of the momentum drained out of the conversation. When he answered, his voice was quieter again, but the hard edge lingered.

“I am not going to let the family’s legacy end in failure. I owe them that much.”

The silence this time was the longest yet. Havoc found he had no idea what Darstan would say next.

“I think I understand.” came the reply eventually.

“I probably should not tell you this, but I think I know what you could do, if you’re prepared to take a risk. A few days ago, I found a lead on the Argent Prince.”

Havoc blinked in surprise. He hadn’t expected sympathy, and he certainly hadn’t expected this.

“The prince?!”

This was it. A three hundred year old Asparan sculpture, worth more than twice its weight in diamonds. A theft like that would win Havoc all the infamy he wanted. And that was quite aside from the significance to him personally...

“Havelock?” He shook his head as Darstan’s voice brought him back to the present

“Havoc.” He said automatically. Then he bared his teeth in a fierce grin “I’m listening. Tell me about the Prince.” 13th madman (talk) 08:37, December 19, 2015 (UTC)

Act 2
Three days after the meeting at the Dragon’s paw, Shen paid a visit to Delphago Island. His efforts to find out about Havoc had had varying degrees of success. Checking the history of wanted posters had confirmed that his pirate crew was actually relatively new. Havoc’s first recorded crime, raiding and then sinking a marine battleship, had been only nine months ago. Cross referencing the dates with descriptions of his ship, the Redeemer, revealed that the longboat had been created on commission by Dock one of the Galley La Company only four months before that. Perplexingly, the commission in question had apparently been recorded in the company archives as a government vessel. Shen, unable to find a reason for this, had put in a call to an old friend of his, and had come to Delphago in the hopes of receiving her results.

His friend had taken up residence on the top floor of a three story building that overlooked Delphago’s busy trading port. It was hard to tell whether the floor had started out as an office or a flat, but with her moving in it had become a strange amalgamation of both. Papers, books, and documents littered almost every available surface bar the sofa in front of the fireplace. Even the rudimentary kitchen was dominated by a stack of ledgers, except for one corner where a kettle slowly boiled over. When he entered his friend was sitting at a desk in front of the window, reading through a thick black book that Shen couldn’t identify. She looked up as she heard the door open, and smiled warmly.

“Shen!”

He returned the smile as he walked in.

“Hello Misa.”

She pushed the book to one side, and picked up the stack of papers under it.

“This is quite an unusual thing you asked me.” She said

“But I can tell it’s important, isn’t it?”

Shen nodded as he walked up to the desk, carefully stepping over several stacks of papers in the way which wobbled as he passed.

“Mostly gut feeling. I’m just certain there’s a story here. Something big.”

“Then we shouldn’t waste any time.” Said Misa.

She stepped around the desk to stand next to Shen, and unrolled the papers.

“You’re not wrong about this case. I actually found something rather interesting of my own. You asked me about the Redeemer, right? Commissioned in Water Seven.”

“That’s the one. Used by Captain Havoc. It was marked as government commission though.”

She chuckled quietly and unfolded her papers.

“You make it sound like a conspiracy theory. But I managed to get the manifests from Gally La. It was marked as government because the commission supposedly came from a marine. It was requested by a captain Glen Havelock, who apparently resigned not long afterwards.”

“Havelock? A false identity?”

“I thought so at first, but it’s solid. The marines have nearly twenty years of service records, starting as a chore boy aboard a cruiser called the Odette, ending as support in a classified operation on Adries island. He even got interviewed by the papers when he made captain. If anything, Havoc is the sketchy one, given how recently he appeared. There wouldn’t be any background on him at all if you didn’t make the connection to Havelock. They are the same person though, by the way.”

Shen shrugged

“So an upstanding marine captain suddenly decided to go rogue, and commissioned a ship right beforehand? Why?”

“I didn’t know, at first. I wondered if this was all some kind of elaborate Cipher pol dark op, but then I stumbled across these.”

A stack of wanted posters were placed on the table. Shen looked closely as Misa pushed the top two towards him, one after the other

“Captain Wrath, and… Glenarbor Don?” he asked

Misa nodded, and put down another poster next to the first.

“Don was an infamous pirate who fell in battle fourteen years ago. His alleged son vanished about the same time, and all trace of his family with it. The fact that they were all defeated at the same time is pretty suspicious, I thought. But there’s more.”

She pointed out the next poster, a much older design.

“This one is Glen-Dio Arbor.” And then immediately the next, which was older still. “And here’s Glenrick Dio. Do you see?”

“Glen. They’re all Glen something.” Shen realized. Misa’s smile grew wider, to the point where it almost looked deranged to Shen.

“All different generations. It’s a lineage. Stretching back to before Roger’s execution. They’re each adding the name of their father to the family name, so it keeps changing, but if you compare the pictures they’re almost certainly all related. And Havelock’s picture from his interview is perfect likeness of the missing son. He either sold his family out, or played both sides of the field. Either way, he was rogue right from the start”

Shen looked down at the stack of wanted posters. A double agent. Raiding the seas as a pirate while still maintaining a front of being in the marines. It had a certain elegance to it, but…

“No. He wasn’t” He said, decisively. Something felt wrong about Misa’s explanation, and Shen often trusted his instincts.

“Thirteen years of just being a marine. It would make sense if he wanted to divert suspicion from himself, but then he just left anyway when he became Havoc. Something made him change his mind. And besides, could he really maintain two identities? There’s something more here, I’m certain of it.”

There was a rumble from outside that turned into a grating crash, and then a heavy thud. Misa and Shen glanced at each other, then at the window, and then they both tried to reach it at the same time. Shen almost made it first but then he stepped on a binder and ended up skidding into the wall, crashing to the ground in a shower of papers. Misa looked around from the window, eyes wide.

“Oh! Are you ok?”

Shen slowly propped himself up.

“I’m fine. What was that noise?”

Misa looked out the window.

“Someone just ran a ship aground in the harbour, by the look of it. Can’t be too experienced. Odd though. It’s a trading hauler. The Baigujing.”

Shen jumped “Baigujing?”

“That’s the ship’s name, yes. Why-”

But Shen was already jumping up and going for the door. Or at least, trying to. In his haste he managed to trip over a stack of books and fell yet again.

“That’s the one Havoc took out.” He explained as he picked himself up. “He supposedly killed the entire crew. So who’s sailing it now?”

13th madman (talk) 08:37, December 19, 2015 (UTC)

The Redeemer roared at full sail across the sea, kicking up huge waves as it went. In the Captain’s cabin, Havoc had been discussing the coming heist with his crew mates. Awl, his first crewmate, was the obvious choice to back him up on the job itself. He’d also chosen to bring along Nevison, a relative youngster who had previously been a thief and a highwayman before putting to sea. The rest of his crew, led by the half giant Argo, would stay with the Redeemer and keep it ready for a swift getaway.

The Argent Prince had changed hands during a game at the Lucky Seven a week previously. Its new owner, an art trader, had stored it in a private collection in the kingdom of Almaria, the floor plan of which Darstan had acquired at some expense. The collection was normally under heavy guard, but on the night their raid was planned the trader was holding an auction, and had re-assigned most of his guards, leaving it vulnerable at the time.

As expected, attacking a building rather than a ship had brought the otherwise relatively inexperienced Nevison’s skills to the fore. The thief had practically made up the plan himself, picking a window they could enter through, plotting a relatively safe path through the collection, and offering a handful of escape routes. All of this he had enthusiastically described while Awl and Argo simply watched thoughtfully. Eventually he left to, in his own words, celebrate the new job with some sake, leaving Havoc with his two oldest crew mates. Awl had been quietly frowning the whole time, Havoc noticed, and now he stepped forward into the space Nevison left vacant.

“Captain-” he began

“You’re going to tell me that we should stick to raiding ships, aren’t you?”

Awl hesitated briefly, then shook his head

“Not after that last one. I just wondered. This is about Captain Wrath, isn’t it?”

Havoc hesitated, then nodded

“My brother. And my father. Even my grandparents. The prince is the family nemesis. They all made countless attempts to steal it, but never succeeded. That’s why we have to do it. If I can succeed where they failed it would get back our lost honour. Make it clear the family didn’t die with them. That’s worth more than my life.”

Awl didn’t try to hide his doubts, but nor did he voice them.

“I thought so. There had to be a reason why you’d take a risk like this. Just remember that we’re not experienced in this kind of robbery.”

“Nevison is. He knows what he’s doing. And Darstan has never let us down before. It should be fine.”

“If you’re certain” Awl nodded and went for the door

“Just remember the plan.” Havoc said firmly.

“Aye Hav’ck” boomed Argo in response, thumping his chest as he also left. Havoc couldn’t resist a short smile. Argo’s attempt at his full name had been part of the inspiration for his current assumed one. That and his brother of course.

That last thought made his smile fade slightly. As the door fell shut he pulled the folded letter out of the case in his pocket again. He’d all but memorized the words by heart years ago, but he still read it again, slowly. It just seemed important.

Brother

''I’ll probably be dead by the time you read this. Somehow the marines got all my secrets. I’ve been wounded, my crew is decimated, and I’ve no options left. In short, I’m finished.''

''I’ve taken this family’s last and most valuable treasure to Algin island in East Blue. Nobody would ever think to look there. If you can go without alerting the marines in a few years, I’d appreciate it if you took care of everything. Tell nobody else though. You’re the last person left I trust.''

''Don’t feel obliged to avenge the family or carry on our name or anything stupid though. Our legacy should be safe whatever you do.''

''Guess that’s all to say. Just that I still don’t blame you for taking the honourable path, and I don’t think I ever will. Goodbye.''

Glendon Rathbone

He never had found that treasure. All that was on Algin island was a tiny village, where nobody could tell him anything useful. All he had left was the note and a burnt scrap of vivre card.

He’d just have to steal his own valuable treasure then.

“I’ll do it, brother.” He said quietly, closing the small case again and sliding it back into his pocket. “I’ll get our honour back, or die trying.”

13th madman (talk) 08:37, December 19, 2015 (UTC)

Misa had questioned the wisdom of walking up to a ship that could conceivably be crewed by murderous pirates, and Shen didn’t disagree with her point. But he went anyway. He was a journalist through and through, and he knew an important piece of his story when it crashed in front of him.

The ship wasn’t that badly damaged. It had simply come in too fast, and dropped anchor too late, and subsequently the base of the bow had ploughed through a jetty and clipped the edge of a wall. When Shen arrived, the crew and some bystanders had managed to push it back out to sea, and there was what seemed to be an argument ongoing between one of the crew and a dockhand.

“It’s not my problem if you need lessons-” Shen caught briefly as he walked past. He ignored the rest of the discussion, turning to the somewhat dishevelled looking figure standing alone by the bow. They seemed a much better person to ask for an explanation. The impact had left a sizable dent in the front of the ship, and the person was looking over it, perhaps checking for significant damage.

“Excuse me?” asked Shen quietly. The man spun, jumped briefly, and then stepped back.

“What do you want?” he asked quietly.

“I’m a journalist. I was wondering if you could answer a few questions for me?”

The man looked less than thrilled at the prospect, but eventually he answered.

“We only had a handful of people who knew how to sail, and none of them had worked on a ship this size. We weren’t in best health either. That’s why we crashed.”

Shen nodded

“Actually, I was hoping to ask about something else. This ship was attacked by a pirate a few days ago, wasn’t it?”

The man’s eyes narrowed sharply

“How do you know that? How could you possibly know that?”

Shen blinked, confused

“Didn’t you send a distress message?”

The man shook his head sharply

“There’s no Den Den Mushi on this ship. Or anything else of that kind. The crew couldn’t have sent a message.”

“There must have been.”

“There isn’t. We checked many times afterwards”

Shen nodded and made a note of it, acting calm outwardly. Inwardly his mind went into overdrive. What his interviewee was telling him directly contradicted what the grey cloaked man had said. One of them was either lying or misinformed. More immediately, the way the man had referred to the crew…

“You’re not the original crew? So you’re allied with Havoc.”

“No, we’re-” the main hesitated, took a step back.

“The pirate. He told us we could keep the ship and anything on it. We heard fighting up on the top deck. Then silence. He was gone before we went up. If that makes us allies then so be it.”

“You were below deck? Then..” the pieces dropped into place for Shen. A ship that didn’t have any communications was one that didn’t want to be detected. That meant it was trading in something underhand. And Havoc had taken nothing from it except the lives of its crew... His expression must have shown what he was thinking, because the man sighed and cut off his next question before he asked it.

“This vessel was-” “A slave hulk. Yes. And before the pirate attacked it we were all cargo.” 13th madman (talk) 08:37, December 19, 2015 (UTC)

Act 3
By the time Weiss arrived at Almaria, night had fallen, and the auction would be underway. That was bad. Weiss had planned on stopping Havoc before he got started, but he’d gotten distracted fighting another pirate on the way, and by now Havoc and anyone he’d taken with him would be breaking into the manor where the collection was. His options now were to either go in after them, or wait for them to come back out. Which, given what had happened to the crew of the Baigujing, wasn’t really a choice at all.

Havoc’s ship was moored close in to the coast. It seemed as good a starting place as any. Weiss’s own vessel, a dingy he’d borrowed from a merchant ship, was tiny and unnoticeable compared to the dragon boat. He pulled up in the blind spot behind the stern, and threw his anchor overboard. He didn’t waste too much time trying to be stealthy. That was missing the point. He heard the voices of pirates as he pulled himself up onto the deck. A group of about a dozen were sitting around an open stove closer to the front, ranging in size from unusually small to a towering, massive man more than three times as big as Weiss.

He walked into the group and sat down next to the biggest person.

“Good evening!”

Everyone else jumped back, at least one weapon was drawn. “Don’t let me interrupt anything”.

He rummaged through his pockets, produced a piece of meat on the bone, and started eating. He could have done with something to drink as well, but he hadn’t thought to bring anything.

None of the pirates moved for nearly a minute. Then the giant started to rumble.

“Who are you?” demanded another, smaller pirate. He was wearing dull grey armour with a vaguely medieval appearance to it, and had a large broadsword sheathed over one shoulder. Weiss ate the last of his meat then chucked the bone aside.

“Oh yeah.. Weiss. I’m a bounty hunter.”

Most of the rest of the weapons were drawn at that. The giant person climbed to his feet and picked up a hammer longer than Weiss was tall. The armoured pirate didn’t go for his sword. Instead he just looked at Weiss critically, closing one eye.

“You’re wasting your time here, you know. This isn’t a fight you can win, and the captain isn’t even here.”

That was probably the wrong thing to say, not that they knew that.

“Oh, I’m not really interested in bounties.” Weiss said, standing up with a smile “But tell me about the fight, that sounds fun.”

“He’s del’y” grumbled the half giant, sounding half asleep, before he shuck himself awake with a loud roar

“Get ’im!”

Several guns went off. Weiss jumped back as shots peppered the part of the deck he’d been standing on. He saw the armoured pirate drawing their sword, and then the half giant stepped in the way and the outsize hammer slashed at him impossibly fast. Even so it was a predictable weapon. Weiss sidestepped the head and slapped his hand against it as it thudded down. Then he pushed off, leaping to one side as more shots were fired. As before, they were aiming too close together, doing nothing to account for dodging. In short, little more than noise.

He rolled over the top of a stack of crates, dropped behind them, and then gave a sharp shove. The stack toppled, and Weiss used the moment to kick one into the group of pirates, throwing off their aim and removing the guns from the equation entirely. A second crate he hurled at the half giant, but he knocked it aside with barely a stagger. At least he seemed challenging to fight.

The hammer swung at him again. He ducked under it, kicked one of the giant’s feet from under him, and then flipped back to land an equally heavy kick to his foe’s face as he fell. It only stunned the pirate briefly, but he lost his grip on the hammer, which briefly spun through the air, twisted oddly, and dropped into Weiss’s waiting hands. The thing was more of a two handed polearm for him than anything, but he made the best of it, twirling it around himself to scatter the trio of amateur swordsmen that came rushing in with no form whatsoever to try and finish him off, before jumping to deal a heavy swinging strike to the recovering giant. The armoured pirate blinked in shock as the huge figure toppled head over heels backwards, scattering more of the crew. “So where’s the unwinnable one?” Weiss asked, and then raised the hammer again as the remaining pirates rushed towards him.

13th madman (talk) 08:37, December 19, 2015 (UTC)

The window frame cracked quietly as Nevison pried it open. A rope was lowered, and three pirates dropped into the private art collection. The room was dark and gloomy, lit only by what little light came in through the high windows. Which, given that it was the middle of the night, was very little indeed.

“Just like old times.” muttered Nevison cheerfully, adjusting the three cornered hat he had insisted on wearing for the job

“Not that old” retorted Awl, pointing out that Nevison was the youngest of the group.

“Let’s not waste time” growled Havoc in response, silencing both of them. In the dark, the captain’s figure vaguely resembled some bat-like gargoyle, mainly because of his battered leather coat. Both of the other pirates nodded, and followed him as he turned towards the doorway across the room. The Argent Prince was stored three rooms away from their current location. It wasn’t ideal, but if they had gotten the correct guard schedules, it should be quiet. They’d be in an out before anyone realized anything was wrong. That hadn’t stopped Awl from bringing his axe as insurance, and nor had Havoc abandoned his own blade.

The door was locked, and Havoc took some time to pry it open with a short dagger. Nevison was eager to try himself, but Havoc was adamant not to rely too much on the thief, even if it meant a longer time breaking in. Beyond the door was a long gallery, lined along one wall with statues and paintings. The other wall was entirely glass. Windows stretched the length of the hallway, overlooking a long drop down the side of the building to the street below. Awl glared at them.

“Couldn’t we have come through those? It would be a quicker escape route.”

“Ah.. No, actually it wouldn’t” replied Nevison, still gleeful.

“See, the way we went we just had to scramble along an accessible roof and then force a skylight. Those windows are right in the middle of a sheer wall with long drops either way. Good luck climbing up or down from them without falling to your doom”

Awl’s glare moved to point at the former thief, but the rookie was quite oblivious, looking around at all the valuable art

“He has quite a collection here.” he said, peering closely at the nearest sculpture, and giving it an experimental prod

“Leave it.” Said Havoc, without looking around. Half way along the corridor, just visible in the gloom, was another door, this one going to the room where the Prince was.

“I’m only looking. I know our priorities.” came the reply. And then “Wait. This one’s fake.”

Havoc knelt in front of the door, beginning to pick the lock again. He had to admit, despite his outward subdued disposition, he was starting to feel some excitement of his own. It was an unfamiliar feeling.

Awl walked up next to him, glancing around nervously.

“I don’t like this, captain.” He said quietly “The rookie might know what he’s doing, but he’s acting like a liability. And we’re potentially out of our depth. This is a lot to go through even for the sake of family business.”

“This painting’s fake too.” Came the voice from down the corridor, then some footsteps.

“We can’t back down now” muttered Havoc. “Stay on guard, but we should be almost done here.” The lock clicked and rattled, and Havoc withdrew a nail he’d lodged into the keyhole.

“Are we in?” Awl asked. Havoc shook his head in response, frowning

“Lock’s released, but there’s something off about the door. I’m not sure I trust it.”

“Another fake? Not even a convincing one this time. Just plaster… Captain, I think there’s-” Nevison’s voice cut off with a series of thuds and a crack of disintegrating plaster. Havoc looked round just in time to see the thief turned pirate hurtle the length of the corridor and crash to the ground, skidding to a halt just next to them. Where he had been standing, at the entrance to the corridor, was a figure in a hooded white cloak, still clutching the base of a shattered sculpture.

“I followed you in. Hope you don’t mind?” they said, a vaguely mocking tone to the voice.

“Thorstein Weiss” growled Havoc, recognising the bounty hunter from his marine days. Awl, on his part, merely let out a low roar and charged down the hall towards the white cloaked figure, pulling the double headed axe from his back as he did so. A dozen paces away he hopped once, mid-step, and then suddenly leapt, turning his charge unexpectedly into a twisting somersault. Weiss should have been taken entirely by surprise, but he wasn’t. Instead he sidestepped, parrying the swinging axe with one hand. His other hand, blackened with the tell-tale sign of haki, snapped up into Awl’s stomach, doubling the pirate over mid-flight. Weiss ducked as he tumbled overhead, losing his grip on the weapon, and crashed through the doorway. The axe bounced off the doorframe, somehow deflected back into the air, spun once, and then Weiss nonchalantly grabbed it by its handle, seemingly anticipating the improbable flightpath. Awl slowly rose to his feet in the room beyond the hunter, and Weiss spun and threw what was left of the sculpture at the back of his head, knocking him back down. He paused for a few seconds to check the pirate wasn’t getting back up, and then turned back to Havoc.

“Damnit, Awl.” The pirate muttered under his breath, frustration masking anxiety. Nevison had never been much of a fighter, but his first mate definitely shouldn’t have gone down so easily. And there was something completely off about the way the axe had flown that he couldn’t make sense of.

“He’s alive.” remarked Weiss casually, twirling the axe.

“So are all the others on your ship. Got to make a good example, right?”

His ship. Assuming the hunter wasn’t bluffing his entire crew had been taken out. Another troubling development. This was rapidly turning into a bad dream. Weiss suddenly spun on one foot, and the axe left his hand. Havoc dropped to the ground as it whirled past and crashed into the door and the doorframe behind him, splintering both. Havoc heard an incongruous clank of metal from the doorway, but he didn’t have time to pay attention to it, rising to his feet to confront Weiss, and drawing his sword. The weapon he readied was deceptively worn looking. A dull blade of blackened metal, slightly curved on one side, that lacked even a proper hilt or handguard; instead the long tang of the blade was bare, wrapped only in a bandage like tassel that trailed from a hole at its very tip. It was hardly glamorous, but Havoc had never cared about appearances. He held it ready in front of him, diagonally across his body, and turned slightly sidewise into a stance.

Weiss walked towards him, lowered his hood calmly almost though the thrown weapon had merely been an introduction.

“Well, good to know you’re serious. I’d hate to have an easy time.”

He spread both arms, and long thin shapes popped out of either sleeve. With a flick of his wrists they hinged open and unfolded, exposing silver bladed edges. Havoc’s first thought was that he was holding some kind of kukri or unusually curved switchblade. Then Weiss spun and threw one of them end over end, and Havoc identified the shape with an abrupt curse. Boomerangs. Bladed boomerangs.

He twitched to one side as the weapon sliced past his shoulder, whistling slightly, and then started to run. Behind him he heard another whooshing noise, and jerked aside again as the weapon returned. It was a near miss. Weiss was already throwing the second one as he caught the first, and he almost immediately threw it again, sending both blades spinning towards Havoc. This time the pirate was ready, and knocked the blades aside with the flat of his sword. They should have clattered to the ground, but didn’t. They should have been knocked to the ground, but weren’t. Instead they slowed in mid-air, hovered, spun backwards, and suddenly snapped back towards the bounty hunter’s hands. Havoc grimaced. There was definitely something unusual going on. There was simply no way anything could naturally follow that trajectory. He didn’t have time to guess though. Weiss was already preparing to throw again. Havoc raised his blade, point first, and then suddenly lunged into a smooth javelin throw. Weiss, well clear of normal sword reach, was forced to leap back as the blade kept going an extra metre. Instead, Havoc grabbed the tassel trailing from the hilt, and tugged. The blade curved around in a slashing attacked that Weiss parried, and then swung back into Havoc’s hands.

“Nice shot.” The hunter complimented, twirling one of his boomerangs as he regained his footing. Havoc simply assumed another stance, the blade in his left hand, the tassel pulled taught by his right. A sharp tug sent the blade lashing out and around him again, tracing lethal circles as he advanced. With the tassel coiled around his hand it became less a sword and more akin to a bizarre cross of sickle and flail. It was a highly unorthodox form, but one that lent itself well to his build. Add a touch of pragmatism and the element of surprise, and it had made him more than a match for most opponents. Battles were won by trickery as easily as technique, and Havoc was equally prepared to use both.

Unfortunately, so was Weiss. His next throw barely qualified as such. The boomerang hurtled up clear of the blade, bounced off the ceiling, and dropped somewhere behind Havoc. Or rather, it should have. By now the captain knew better than to expect that, and off course it didn’t. Somehow the blade started spinning on its own as it fell, and arced back to Weiss. Already inside his guard, it was far too late to block. Havoc did his best to twist out of the way, but it wasn’t enough. The weapon skimmed his side, cutting through his coat and belts and drawing blood. He lost control of his sword momentarily and it lodged in the floor, and in that instant Weiss leapt in, brandishing the boomerangs like the daggers Havoc had initially thought they were. Both blades sliced at his chest.

In desperation Havoc let himself fall back, just avoiding the strike, which clipped one of the belts crossing his chest. His right hand snapped up, as he took the opportunity to deploy another piece of trickery. A set of metal plates covered his knuckles, concealed by bandages wound tightly around his hand and arm. With his greater than normal strength behind them, the punch was more like a hammer blow than anything, winding Weiss even as he mitigated the blow with a partial block. He hit the ground and rolled. As he did the crossbelt came loose and dropped to the floor but he ignored it, instead pulling a knife from its concealed sheath and throwing it. The bounty hunter evaded the blade, which twanged as it hit the ceiling. He prepared to throw his boomerangs again. Then, with a sharp yank, Havoc pulled his sword back up.

Weiss twisted aside as the blade suddenly wrenched out of the ground and spun up next to him, tossed one of his boomerangs into the air, and slapped the dull edge of the blade to parry the attack. It hurtled back toward Havoc, and he caught it with his left hand, reversed his grip, and sent it lashing out again viciously. Weiss retaliated, and somehow his sword started misbehaving as well, jerking in the air and twisting wrongly to allow the bounty hunter to deflect it. That settled it. The hunter had to be using a devil fruit power of some kind. There was no other explanation Havoc could think of. Ordinarily, this wouldn’t be a problem. Being a former marine, Havoc had kept a supply of weapon grade seastone, and he usually carried a dagger prepared for dealing with such powers. Unfortunately, the weapon in question was attached to the belt he’d lost in the tumble. The belt was now behind Weiss, and he realized with a lurch that the case with his mementos was also attached to it.

“You’re quite the challenge. Too bad I can’t let you go.” Said Weiss. Apart from a slight tension in his tone and a shortness of breath, he showed few signs of exertion.

“What problem do you have with me?” demanded Havoc, pulling his blade to himself and holding it ready. It seemed to become docile when he gripped it again. “You’ve broken into this building the same way I did. Most bounty hunters wouldn’t go that far.”

He swung the blade in a series of quick, sharp swings that forced Weiss to take a step back.

“All my expenses are paid. Besides, I’m not like most hunters. I’m not looking for a valuable head. I’m looking for a fighter who can keep up. A battle that I could actually lose. They’re so hard to come by these days.” He threw a boomerang again, a simple throw this time, easily evaded.

“A fight? And you claim to be better than me?!” Havoc could almost have laughed. Instead he swung again. The blade danced madly back and forth in the air between them. Weiss simply ducked and deflected, holding his ground.

“Actually yes I do. Remember the Baigujing?”

Before Havoc could even think to retort both boomerangs came hurtling towards him. Weiss ran with them, overtaking them, and drew a short blade. All three strikes came in almost at the same time, and Havoc lost more ground as he tried to block, coming up level with the door to the sculpture room again. Weiss made some kind of complicated juggling motion to catch and throw the boomerangs without dropping his blade, and in the same second, Havoc countered. He used kicks and punches, since they were quicker at close range, knocking Weiss off balance and giving him room to pull his sword forwards again.

“Don’t you dare pretend to understand that!” Havoc roared in fury, giving voice to the words without thinking about them. Weiss’s short blade was knocked from his hand with such force it embedded itself in the door. Havoc saw something metallic break and heard a sharp ticking, but he didn’t have time to pay attention to it as he pressed his advantage. The boomerangs were both returning to Weiss, and his unprotected back was in the way. He kicked again to buy another second, and then spun to deflect them as best he could. By then they were almost on top of him, and he had to weave at the last second, evading them by inches. Weiss caught them both, flipping to get clear of Havoc’s attack, and readied to throw again.

Behind him, a trembling man clutching a notepad suddenly shouted.

“Stop it! There’s something very wrong with all of this!”

There was a second’s silence as everyone froze.

And then, right behind Havoc, something stopped ticking and went clank.

There was no way he could have predicted the explosion, but between adrenaline, fury, and exhaustion Havoc was running on instinct, and simply wasn’t capable of being consciously surprised. He rolled forwards as the door, surrounding wall, and everything behind it burst in a sudden roar of heat and noise. The windows shattered as the debris crashed through them, and glass and rubble fell into the night outside. Both the ceiling and floor started to sag and give way. Havoc, already on his feet, automatically glanced round to take in what had happened. The room he’d been trying to break into was gone, little more than blackened debris. He’d just gotten clear in time. Had he still been standing in the doorway, the blast would have hurled him through the windows and into open space. Then he saw Nevison’s body. The still unconscious pirate had miraculously been just clear of the blast, but now he was right on the edge of the destroyed window, on a section of floor that looked unsteady. As he watched, it gave way, and the thief started to slide. He woke up just too late to stop himself, and yelled out as he toppled off the edge.

His warning about the sheer wall and falling to their deaths flashed through Havoc’s mind again briefly, but he ignored all of that because the other half of him was already reacting, diving forwards even as Nevison dropped out of view. He drove his sword into a firm stretch of floor and let go of it, twisting the tassel around his ankle as he swooped through the window. He reached out with both hands, and managed to snag Nevison’s ankle, bringing the fall up short. “Uh.. Wow. Thank you captain!” came a shout from below, as Nevison got his bearings back. Havoc didn’t feel that cheerful though. They were upside down, a metre below the safe ledge, and hanging by his ankle. He couldn’t see how to pull himself back up without dropping the thief, and aside from that he’d thrown the fight. Assuming the floor didn’t crumble under his blade, and the knot around his ankle didn’t come loose, all Weiss needed to do to send them to their deaths was give the sword a good sharp kick.

13th madman (talk) 08:37, December 19, 2015 (UTC)

Shen wondered how much trouble he was going to get into for this. Having seen the Redeemer, its crew bound and unconscious, off the coast, he’d run to the collection just in time to see Weiss disappearing onto the roof. He’d nearly backed down there and then, but the unanswered questions he’d stumbled across, and the realizations he had come to, wouldn’t allow him to leave. Eventually, he’d ignored his misgivings and started scrambling after them.

The explosion had caught him entirely by surprise, and he’d been knocked over by the blast. By the time he found his feet again, Weiss was peering curiously at the sword stabbed into the floor. Whatever he meant to do, Shen doubted it would be good.

“Wait! Weiss, you’ve been lied to!” he managed to stammer

The bounty hunter stopped and turned.

“This guy’s a killer. He slaughtered an entire crew-”

“The Baigujing was a slave hulk. I saw what was aboard it.” Shen shuddered at the memory.

“Havoc let them all go when he killed the crew. I don’t like killing, but I can understand why he did it. And I don’t think he deserves to die for it either.” He couldn’t stop his voice trembling, but he hoped he was clear enough.

Weiss tilted his head slightly.

“How do you know what’s going on?”

“I overheard your employer, I tried to find out more. To write an article.” Some hysterical part of Shen wanted to laugh at just how out of hand this had got, but he was starting to regain his composure.

“He lied to you. The former slaves showed me the ship. There was no Den Den mushi. They had no way of making a distress call. I don’t know what’s happened, but that should tell you there’s something wrong here.” Weiss hesitated. Then he bent down, grabbed the tassel trailing from the embedded sword, and started to haul the hanging pirates back up. Shen let out a long breath as he took in his surroundings. The room was a mess. Then he saw a case lying on the ground in front of him, next to a severed belt. He picked it up curiously, and opened it.

13th madman (talk) 08:37, December 19, 2015 (UTC)

Havoc hadn’t expected to be pulled up. The newcomer who’d tried to stop the fight didn’t look up to the job, and he didn’t even know for sure they’d want to. He certainly hadn’t expected Weiss, who moments ago had been fighting him, to do the pulling. It was relatively welcome surprise though.

“I don’t know why either.” The bounty hunter said when he saw Havoc’s questioning expression. “But if you try not to kill anyone, perhaps we could make sense of it.”

Nevison was openly relieved to be pulled to safety, and obligingly sat still. Havoc was more reserved. At least till he saw the stranger reading his brother’s letter. That had him almost going for his sword again, before Weiss calmly stepped on the blade to stop him.

“At least try, ok?” And then to the newcomer “So who are you, anyway? A reporter?”

He nodded, trembling slightly in a way that Havoc was sure he should be irritated by

“Shen. My name’s Shen. I was hoping to write an article out of this, but… It’s far more complicated than I thought.” He looked at Havoc directly

“Captain Wrath was your brother?”

“It’s rude to read other people’s mail, you know!” Havoc fumed. Part of him wanted to react violently, but he did his best to rein it in for the time being.

“Sorry. I didn’t realize what this was.” The reporter said, sheepishly, and closing the case and passing it over to the pirate. Havoc took it.

“I sort of knew that anyway. I dug up all the records I could find trying to figure out who you were. I’m missing a few pieces though.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Havoc grumbled.

“Why not?”

“I just don’t.”

At this point Nevison piped up

“You know, Captain, if you did talk about it sometime you might avoid more trouble in the long run. Or at least it might make it easier. Even I can tell you’re bothered by it, whatever it is.”

Weiss nodded

“Shen seems to think you’re alright, and I’d kinda like to know why.”

Shen nodded

“I know most of it anyway.” He began

“You were a captain of the marines, and your real name is Glen Havelock”

“That’s not how you pronounce-” Havoc began immediately, then caught everyone’s gaze

“The hell with it. Yeah, Glen Havelock. Captain, honourable ally of justice and all. And yes, my brother was a pirate. Father as well. And grandparents.”

“I knew that much. I saw all their bounty posters”

“Well, I had this stupid notion about being one of the good guys instead. And, would you know it, my family actually helped me get there, once they realized I wouldn’t change my mind. There was this tradition of taking our parent’s names, father’s or mothers, in the family name. I dropped that to try and throw the connection off. And my brother shortened his name and started calling himself Wrath instead of Glendon Rathbone to make it even harder to spot. I joined up, and I was doing fine for a few years. Then the family got cornered”

“I wondered about that” said Shen “A friend of mine thought you’d betrayed them, but that’s not right, is it? What actually happened to them?”

“Hell if I know. Somehow the marines got insider knowledge. I nearly ditched the uniform there and then and ran to help, but father told me I couldn’t do much, by then that upholding its honour was more important. So I did.” Havoc practically spat the last word out.

“I couldn’t even let myself morn when I heard of my brothers’ death. Because if I did it would be admitting we were connected. So I just kept on being a good captain for the marines, honouring the uniform and doing justice and all the nonsense I believed in. Up until a year and a half ago.”

“Adries island.”

Havoc looked down.

“Yeah.”

“That’s why you left? What happened there?”

Havoc noted distantly that part of him admired the reporter for being so blunt. He also wondered if the reporter already knew the next answer. Certainly he could find out.

“A complete utter mockery of justice is what. I can’t believe the nerve of-” he cut the rant off before it even began.

“Adries was a site for the black market at the time. Slave trafficking specifically. It was part of a supply chain for an auction house somewhere. Anyway, some spook or other took out one of the dealers, threw the place into chaos. There was a massacre. I got sent in to ferry the slaves out of there afterwards. At the time, I thought I was getting them home. But instead they were simply carried on to the next auction ring and sold right back to the underworld as soon as I turned my back. Some corrupt office, possibly, but everyone turned a blind eye to it.” His voice had a rough edge to it. Shen looked horrified. A hand on his shoulder, perhaps a comforting gesture, turned out to be from Weiss

“I get it.” Said the bounty hunter “I can’t blame you for doing what you for quitting then.”

Havoc nodded slowly

“I abandoned my family to uphold their honour. Twenty years just working for that. And then they just drag it through the muck anyway, and make me part of it. What does the uniform mean if the people who are wearing it are worth less than those who aren’t? So yeah, I quit. At least my family meant something. Their name deserves to last more than the marines do, but they’d nearly been forgotten since they were wiped out. That’s why I came here. I thought, if I could steal something big, do something dramatic, I’d be worthy of the name again.”

He looked at the destroyed remains of the room.

“Figures even that would get messed up.”

There was silence while everyone processed this.

“You know what I think?” Shen said quietly, looking at Havoc directly “I think you’ve just ignored your real problem and not faced it. Or not realized it, or something.”

“What?”

“Think about it. Neither your father or your brother asked you to try to uphold their name. Quite the opposite in fact.”

Don’t feel obliged to avenge the family or carry on our name or anything stupid though

Havoc grimaced

“So? What are you saying?”

“That’s it’s not their legacy that needs to be rebuilt. It’s the justice you lost faith in back on Adries island.”

“Like I just said! It’s meaningless-”

“No it isn’t. Somebody who should have upheld it betrayed it instead. That doesn’t make it worthless. If the evil is in power instead of running wild, they still need to be stopped. That’s the honourable path, isn’t it?”

Havoc simply stared, speechless. Part of him wanted to lash out in anger at the reporter picking apart his whole life, but that was almost entirely drowned out by a torrent of emotions he couldn’t quite identify. What Shen was saying made perfect sense, or so it seemed. Had he really been doing the wrong thing all this time?

Thorstein Weiss stood up slowly

“If you don’t mind me saying, I’d quite like to start with whoever did this. That bomb was clearly meant to go off after we were in the room. If that had happened, neither of us would have lived. All the things we chucked at the door set it off early. Some kind of trigger device maybe. Anyway, who and why?”

Shen nodded and turned his attention to the bounty hunter instead.

“I think the answer to that lies with the owner of the Baigujing. One of the former slaves saw him and gave me a description. Grey cloak, deep voice. Chewed on a cigarette long after it burnt out. Sound familiar?”

“Yeah, I know that guy” Weiss said. “He definitely sounds like the one that put me onto this case in the first place. Thinking about it, he said the Baigujing was part of his fleet. It’s obvious, thinking about it.”

Captain Havoc’s eyes were wide with shock. The bottom had just dropped out of his stomach yet again. All of a sudden everything made a horrible kind of sense

“I know that guy too.” He said quietly. “His name’s Liege Darstan. He worked with my family for years.” 13th madman (talk) 08:37, December 19, 2015 (UTC) Epilogue Liege Darstan’s office was dark when he entered, lit only by light from the curtained windows. It was gloomy, with shadows everywhere. He went to turn on the lights, then hesitated. His swivel chair was facing the wall, twisting slightly

“Whos there”

“I know the truth, Darstan” said a voice edged with anger and bitterness

His gaze snapped to the window to his right. There was a ragged scarecrow silhouetted against it

“Havelock?”

“Or Havoc. Whichever you like.”

The desk chair turned around slowly. The bounty hunter was sitting in it.

“And me as well” he said quietly.

Darstan’s eyes moved from the white cloaked figure to the black silhouette, then back again.

“You’re here. Why?”

“I’m not a mercenary” said Weiss.

“I don’t like being pointed at enemies. And I certainly don’t like being manipulated. We found out about the Baigujing. I took down your biggest customer. Doulmacker Hogen, right? That’s why you wanted me gone. Using me to take out Havoc was just bouncing two enemies off each other. And you arranged with that art collector to have the bomb as insurance. And I’m pretty sure that’s not even the worst thing you did.”

Havoc stepped down from the window with a faint clunk, and Darstan swung to look at him again

“You were a traitor right from the start. You’re the one who sold out my family. My father, my brother. Both their crews. Quite a lot to turn in, wasn’t it? Must have got you a very nice bonus. This office, maybe?”

“Actually.. yes.” Said Darstan slowly. He spat out his cigarette.

“My connections to them threatened to ruin me. I couldn’t let it be revealed. And this way, it actually worked to my advantage I was rewarded for it. I was going to let you go at first. You were part of the marines, in the same boat as me. But then you went rogue. And worse, you started meddling with my business.”

“Ah yes. That. You got involved with the black market on the side. Slaves, weapons, stolen goods… And what else?”

“Does it matter? You’ve found it all out. So what? You have no proof. And I could have guards in here in seconds-”

“Actually” Havoc said “the guards are unconscious. I know a guy who’s handy with an axe. And you just gave us proof.”

Shen stepped out of the shadows in another corner of the room, and held up a tone dial.

“I got all that.” he said, nodding to the other two.

Darstan’s eyes widened as he identified it. Then his face turned red with fury

“Who the hell-”

“Umm. I’m not really anyone important. Just a reporter.”

Darstan’s eyes leapt between the three wildly. Then both his hands disappeared into his cloak suddenly, and came out occupied. In one, he held an odd purple coloured apple. In the other, a pistol which he levelled at Havoc

“Don’t move! I’ll eat this if I have to! you’ll be no match for a devil fruit user-”

At which point a thrown paperweight crashed into him. He staggered. The gun swung wildly and discharged, breaking a window, and the fruit bounced out of his hand. Weiss neatly caught it out of the air.

“Perhaps not. But we don't need to let you eat it.”

Havoc stepped forwards, drawing his blade.

“I should kill you for what you did to my family. Or for all the slaves you were trafficking quietly. Or some other crime. Any number of reasons really.”

Darstan started retreating slowly. He sighed as he did, and almost smiled.

“You know, the last thing Rathbone told me, right after Don was captured, was that he felt reassured. He said he knew that even if he died, there would be somebody to carry on the family legacy and keep it safe. It seemed an odd thing to say to me. I should have known all along he meant you.”

Havoc stopped advancing. He lowered his blade.

“That’s what he said? Those exact words? The family legacy would be kept safe? By someone?”

Our legacy should be safe whatever you do.

Because he knew already he wasn’t that someone. Rathbone had told him as much in his letter.

I’ve taken this family’s last and most valuable treasure to Algin island in East Blue.

Glen Havelock suddenly knew, with certainty, exactly what that treasure was. He’d not found it before, because he had been looking for the wrong thing all along.

“Yes.” said Darstan. “Those exact words.” And with that, the tax officer lost his nerve. He turned and ran, not for the door, but the broken window. He dived through it before anyone could react. Shortly afterwards there was a muffled splash.

There was a shocked pause. Then Havoc glanced out the window.

“Sea cliff. Probably survived, since he can still swim.”

Weiss looked at the pirate

“You’re not going after him?”

Havoc shrugged. There was an unusual expression on his face, that slowly resolved itself into the beginnings of a smile.

“I’ve got bigger fish to fry. Taking down his other slave ships, for instance. Probably dismantling part of the black market while I’m at it. Besides, Shen’s article will utterly ruin him, won’t it?”

“Yes indeed.” Said the reporter, surprising himself with his own malice “A corrupt tax officer who betrayed his own pirate allies for profit and played both sides for years. The press will love this.”

“Well, if you’re happy.” Weiss shrugged, then held out the apple “You’ll be wanting this then?”

Havelock shook his head

“Consider it payment. Darstan just told me about something more valuable to me anyway. So long as I can find it.”

Weiss didn’t understand, but Shen, who had read Rathbone’s letter, did. The greatest treasure of any family was the family itself. Or in this case, its successor.

He smiled knowingly at Havelock, who nodded back.

“You know, I can’t eat this. I already ate one” said the bounty hunter

Havelock let out a short laugh

“I knew there was something odd about all those things you were throwing around. What was it anyway? Telekinesis, magnetism?”

“Wouldn’t be much fun if I just told you, would it? Though this is annoying. No bounty, and since I don’t really have any wish to fight you anymore no worthy opponent either. Just a fruit I can’t eat. Unlucky me.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure out how to find a new fight.” Havelock said. “But I should get going. Justice won’t do itself”

He made an unlikely ally of Justice. Shen reflected. He didn’t look particularly heroic even when he wasn’t being scary. And his coat was worn black leather instead of polished white and gold. But in many ways, appearances didn’t matter.

“Oh, and, reporter?” the pirate said.

“Yes?” Shen asked

“Thanks.” And then he was gone.

After a few seconds Weiss turned to Shen “You know, he’s right. I do have a good idea for this fruit after all. I’m going to need to spread the word about something though. Think you can lend a hand?” 13th madman (talk) 08:37, December 19, 2015 (UTC)

And out on the Grand Line, aboard the long boat Arondight, captain Havoc’s lost nephew, Glen Caspian, smiled as the wind filled his sails and carried him onwards towards the horizon.