35 The Beginning

By the time we were done with Sphinx, we had transformed the island into a fortress, we had left them muskets, but Marco was able to convince Whitebeard that we should leave their hometown and get back on the sea.

Back on the open sea, I was looking over Gibby, he had grown a foot in length, and I was combing through his cells for mutations. He had a surprising amount of poisonous substances in him, but his body was breaking them down slowly.

As I finished my inspection, I gave him a piece of meat dripping with blood, and when I looked up, I saw a ship on the horizon flying our flag. Squinting, I made out a familiar face, "It looks like Thatch is back."

In a few minutes, an entire reception awaited Thatch as he climbed on deck, holding a small treasure chest underneath his arm. "It's good to be back. Now I hope you guys didn't mess up my kitchen."

I smiled and hugged Thatch, "Sorry I wasn't here to see you off. Where did you go?" Thatch shook his head, "Don't worry about it. But someone challenged me to a cook-off, and as a prize, I got this beauty."

Thatch opened the chest, revealing a purple pinnable with swirls and green leaves sprouting from the top. My heart froze as I saw the fruit, I subtly scanned the crowd, and I found him.

Marshall D. Teach was staring intently at the fruit, and his hands twitch as if he would lunge to grab it out of Thatch's hands. My mind was racing. Right now, Blackbeard was in my division, meaning if he killed Thatch, Ace might not pursue him, but someone else might.

"Hey, Soren, you okay?" I blinked before smiling at Thatch, "Yeah, sorry about that. I just remembered what your devil fruits powers are."

"That's good because I have no idea what type I got, and I have no intentions of eating a worthless Devil Fruit. So what is it?" Thatch asked eagerly, "The Yami Yami no mi, a special logia type that turns those who eat it into a Darkness Person. But I would describe it more as a blackhole fruit. You can create a gravitational pull and nullify other people's devil fruit powers on touch."

Thatch grinned, "That's more than worth it. The Whitebeard Pirates are about to gain a new powerhouse." As Thatch went to eat the fruit, the ship exploded, throwing all of us off our feet.

I looked around, and I could see smoke rising from the stairway leading below the deck. Everyone else saw it too and rushed to help. I then heard Thatch scream. Turning around, I saw Blackbeard standing behind Thatch. A dagger plunged into his heart.

I wasn't the only one to notice, and at once, Blackbeard was attacked by Marco, me, and Ace, all of us with murder in our eyes. Blackbeard reached into his pocket and pulled out a small pellet.

I closed my eyes as the flash bomb went off. I heard Ace and Marco groan from the bright light. Recovering, I opened my eyes to see Blackbeard running for the lifeboat the Yami Yami no mi under his arm.

I wasn't going to reach him in time. Unsheathing Sanguinem, I sent out an air blade that severed Marshall's foot. Yelping in pain, the backstabber jumped into the lifeboat before cutting the ropes holding the boat to the ship.

I was going to purse when I looked back and saw Thatch bleeding out. Running over, I placed my hand over his heart. It had stopped beating, but he was still alive. As long as his brain was still alive, I could save him.

"Marco!!" The doctor paled when he saw Thatch's condition, "We need your phoenix tears. I'm going to try everything I can to keep him alive." Marco nodded and ran for the stairs, turning back to Thatch. I forced his blood back into his body and started to repair his heart.

The longer his heart didn't supply his brain with blood, the higher the chance of him having permanent brain damage. And I don't know if I could repair that. The brain was a complicated thing; I could regenerate my own but replicate someone else's.

I didn't know how much time had passed, but Marco kneeled next to me and handed me a vial and pill, "This is all I managed to save. The rest of the lab had burnt to the ground."

"It's going to have to do, go help with the other injured I can take it from here." Marco was reluctant to leave, but his training kicked in, forcing him to move.

Tearing off his shirt, I looked at the wound on Marco's chest. Uncorking the vial, I poured some of the clear liquid onto the wound. As soon as the liquid touched flesh, it ignited into blue flames. I poured the rest in his mouth and massaged his throat to make him swallow.

I waited with bated breath as I listened, then I heard it. I sighed as Thatch's heart started beating on its own. My job wasn't done, however. I started to repair the other various injuries by force-feeding him the pills.

Several of his capillaries were damaged from internal bleeding, and his lungs were almost drowning in blood. After making sure Thatch was stable, I ran over to help Marco and the nurses with the other injured.

No one was dead, but more than a few people were close to it, and since our medical supplies were toasted, Marco and I had to work around the clock bandaging and cleaning wounds. We even resorted to using moonshine to sterilize our tools.

Everyone was furious, and that night, all the captains had an earnest discussion regarding Teach. Most of them wanted to hunt him down, but Whitebeard refused. While the other division leaders didn't understand his decision, I did.

No doubt Whitebeard was thinking about his last talk with Roger, 'To have three of your sons with the will of D must be quite the burden.'