(Location: The Holy Land of Mary Geoise)
(General POV)
As soon as night fell, Jack made his way towards the Holy City, and thanks to his ability to move through the shadows, he arrived completely unnoticed. Getting through the checkpoints, he made his way inside one of the larger mansions near the outskirts of the city, and after quickly and quietly disposing of all of the Nobles inside of the place, he cast a wave of darkness and Radek appeared before his eyes.
"That still gives me the heebie-jeebies." Radek said with a shiver, not having appreciated the short time inside of Jack's dark space. "I'm afraid there's not really much I can do about that. Anyway, enough dawdling." Jack said, and at once Radek continued on with the plan by opening a gate back to Sabaody Archipelago near Grove-1 where the others were waiting.
In preparation for this moment, Haedrig and one-hundred of the strongest Sentinels had been brought to Sabaody and were waiting with Luke and the others, so when the gate opened, everyone entered the place in quick order. "Everyone's through." Smoker said, and at once the gate closed. "Kureha, Chopper, and a team of medics are on standby back at base. Free the slaves and bring them here, then Radek will send them through the gate to safety." Haedrig said, informing everyone of the main goal of this mission, regardless of how many times everyone had already been debriefed.
Spreading out a map on the table, Jack showed everyone where they were located, so if things started to get dicey, they were to all come here and retreat. After looking it over a bit more, and getting a good understanding of the patrol routes, Jack moved over to stand near the doorway where he began to set up the same equipment he had set up when he had dealt with the Buster Call when he had first taken over the East Blue, only he had added some extra pieces of equipment that would make so the broadcast wouldn't just go the Marineford.
Behind him, everyone was getting into their assigned teams, and discussing which zones they would take. A number of the soldiers would remain here in the building with Radek, making sure to protect him as he was their exit strategy, and probably most important team member at the moment.
Luke had made the point that like Jack, he didn't need to be on a team, mostly because his goal was to kill the dragons and the others could free the slaves. Given his speed and strength, it was decided that he could do what he wanted. Smoker chose to move with a team, as did Nami, Nojiko, Robin, and Tashigi. They weren't on the combat squads, but on one of the squads that was assigned to move the slaves. They were all strong, sure, but Jack didn't think any of them were at a level where they could move about here, mostly because he himself wasn't sure just what kind of threats awaited them, but he wasn't going to be taking any chances.
"Hey, why didn't these corpses disappear and get replaced with money?" Luke whispered to Jack after coming over to stand next to him. The corpses he was referring to just so happened to be the bodies of the Celestial Dragons Jack had killed upon entering the house. "I froze the bounties on the Celestial Dragons for the night. I figured with how many we're likely to kill, there's no point in having the bounties up when we're probably not going to be collecting the money." Jack answered simply, getting a nod of approval from Luke.
Once they were set, they moved out through the streets. Jack's first objective after leaving the building was to dispose of the guards patrolling the city. He figured there would be less of a chance of alarms going off if there was no one outside to see his people moving about, something he wanted to put off for as long as possible.
After clearing the nearby district of all guards, Jack moved to the monitoring station where Cipher Pol viewed the city, however upon entering the place it was obvious that someone else had already beaten him to it. Limbs were scattered everywhere, and the computers and screens had been completely fried, giving Jack a pretty good idea as to the one responsible. 'Never let it be said that Luke ever half-assed murdering people.' Jack thought darkly, then without stressing over the matter, he moved on to his next task.
Entering a large building, Jack moved through the shadows for a time until he got to a room where he saw an overweight young man, maybe fifteen or sixteen years old forcing a slave girl to kiss his feet. "You should feel honored to even be able to touch me." The little hippo said haughtily. Jack was about to give the little urchin lessons on how to treat a lady when he noticed a gust of wind enter through a crack in the window, then before the little urchin could utter another sound, blood was spilling from his open throat. He watched as Leah materialized a moment later and scooped up the girl in her arms before they were moving quickly out of the room.
Checking the rest of the building with his Haki, Jack saw four Sentinels entering through a door that definitely hadn't been there before, and he quickly realized that one of the men had clearly eaten the Door-Door Fruit he had passed on to Haedrig a few weeks ago after buying it from the [STORE].
Seeing as how the group had this building under control, Jack moved on, clearing out a few buildings as he moved towards a warehouse where he could feel a large number of people being kept. Upon entering the place, he saw slaves from all walks of life cooped up in cages, or in some cases they were suspended from the ground by either their wrists or ankles.
Moving like a shadow in the night, Jack devoured the guards in darkness, not allowing any of them the chance to squeak out a cry of fright, for he did not care to hear anything these people had to say. With that done, he moved about removing chains, collars, and doors from the cages to allow everyone to get out. Not bothering to tell the slaves what he was doing, Jack gathered them all up inside of his dark space, however knowing how uncomfortable it made people to be inside of it, he quickly made his way back to the rendezvous place and unloaded them.
When he got there he was quite surprised at how many slaves were already gathered, as the number was more than three-hundred, and they hadn't been here long enough to explore even a tenth of the houses in the district they were currently in. Add in all of the slaves he had brought from the warehouse, and they were well over a thousand.
Heading back out, Jack swept over the houses in the Holy City like a plague, taking the lives of the Dragons, taking the slaves, and anything that wasn't nailed down. Hell, there were even a number of cases where he straight up stole the doors off of the buildings. It was as he was moving between buildings that he happened to run into Nojiko's group, and aside from the dozens of slaves trailing them, a mass of gold, jewels, and money was floating in the air above them. Evidently Nami took her role of stealing stuff very seriously, and was doing her best to not leave anything of value behind.
Ignoring them for now, Jack continued on his way towards another district, doing just as he had before and cleared out the guards on patrol, or at least what was left of them. It was evident that Luke had already passed through this area, given the number of mutilated corpses strewn about the area.
Heading to a building that looked like a colosseum, Jack moved to the cells down below where he found a number of slaves, all of whom were glad to be free of their shackles and given a taste of freedom. 'Some of these people are strong.' Jack thought, realizing that there was a reason these people were in this place.
One thing that sickened him was when he was clearing out the last bit of the cells, he found one that had a sign that read "Animal Food" and inside the cell were more than thirty children who were no older than ten. Some of them even looked like they were still in diapers, and Jack had to bite down his anger so as not to give away their position.
*****
The hours passed with each of the districts being cleared and the slaves being transported back to the East Blue, however eventually Jack heard something he had dreaded to hear. Alarms began sounding all across the city, signaling to the fact that they had finally been discovered. Moving as quickly as he could, Jack rushed to the area where he could hear the most commotion, and there he saw more than a hundred slaves running in the direction of where the meeting place was located, and behind them, Luke was in a heated battle against the five remaining members of CP-0 as well as some people dressed all in black who were clearly a cut above what Jack had seen thus far.
Seeing that Luke was at such a disadvantage, Jack shot forward with a burst of speed unable to be tracked by any of the people there, and with a well-timed thrust, he pierced his sword right through a CP-0 member's eye, then pivoting to his left, he fired a round of bullets into one of the people dressed in black. Just as he moved to turn his attention towards another opponent, Luke shouted, "They can regenerate! I've killed that guy twice already and he keeps coming back!"
Just as Luke said, the man Jack had filled full of bullets seemed to be healing quickly enough that Jack could see the flesh knit back together before his eyes. "Fuck." Jack said under his breath, before he unleashed a wave of black fire that went all of the way from where he was standing to the edge of the Red Line, then he unleashed another wave of dark fire in the opposite direction, creating a wall of fire that would act as a shield for the retreating slaves.
"What are you doing?!" Luke shouted from the other side of the wall of fire. Jack had put him on the side with the slaves and two members of CP-0, leaving Jack alone with the final two members of CP-0 and the men in black. "Kill them quickly and go help the slaves. I'll keep them here for as long as I can." Jack said calmly, projecting an air of confidence that he didn't truly feel.
One of the men in black, the man with the pale blonde hair had a feel about him, one that gave even Jack the chills. Luke evidently understood that this was the best course of action, given how the men in black never stayed dead, thus he was quick to kill the two members of CP-0 on his side of the wall before he retreated after the slaves, shooting one last look at Jack before he fled.
For his part, Jack was also quick to dispatch the last two members of CP-0, leaving him alone with the nine individuals dressed in black. "So this is the famous Jack Sparrow we've heard so much about… I must say, he has a frightening aura about him. Very similar to you, Sir." A man in black said coolly to the man with the pale blonde hair.
"He also possesses the ability to nullify Devil Fruit powers, so you must not rely on them for this fight." A woman's voice came from among those in black. Rather than let these people come up with a strategy to beat him, Jack wrapped himself in a pillar of flames, coating the blade of his sword with the flames as well as his Haki, then he rushed the nearest enemy.
"Don't let the flames touch you!" The man with the pale blonde hair shouted, however it was too little, too late for the man who Jack had shot earlier, as the black flames had reached out on their own and crawled their way over the man's body. "AAHHH!" The man cried in agony as the flames began to spread all over him.
"These flames will burn for as long as there is something to burn, so your regeneration is just prolonging your suffering. I wonder if you will keep burning forever." Jack said aloud, though he honestly wasn't sure anyone heard him over the man's screaming. "Don't approach him!" The leader shouted even as he unleashed a burst of Conqueror's Haki that was more powerful than any Jack had felt before.
Undeterred, Jack met the man's Haki with a burst of his own, and for a minute they fought for dominance, however coupled with the black flames that were quickly approaching him, the leader of the men in black was forced to withdraw his Haki and call for a retreat. "This isn't over!" He called to Jack, but Jack didn't honestly care. He had more important things to do than to mess with these people, and now that he didn't feel the chill of death washing over him, he headed back to the rendezvous place.
It didn't take him long to get there, arriving seconds after Luke and the slaves he had brought with him. Almost immediately a team of Sentinels began moving about and removing the explosive collars from around the necks of each and every slave. They had already been supplied with the keys, however Jack felt it was taking too long so he began moving quickly to each and every person before touching the collars, and before everyone's eyes they disappeared from around their owners.
He was nearing the end of the line of slaves when suddenly one of the slaves grabbed a little cat girl who was clearly from the Mink Tribe, and held a knife to her throat. "Stop right there! If you come any closer, I'll-!" The man was interrupted by Luke, who appeared next to them so fast that no one had even registered him being there until the knife was pulled away from the little cat-girl, then ceremoniously plunged over and over into the man's face until he was completely unrecognizable.
Looking around to the slaves who had frozen with fear at the brutal scene, Luke growled, "If any of you want to stay here, then be my fucking guest! I won't stop you, but you sure as hell aren't going to hurt anyone else!" Needless to say, but no one wanted to actually stay here, and no one dared to move against anyone else.
Seeing as how the situation had resolved itself, Jack moved over to the Transponder Snail setup that he had prepared earlier, and after pressing a few buttons, he saw that the signal had been sent. Across the world, alarms were going off in kingdoms and countries affiliated with the World Government. This was supposed to be something that only the World Nobles should have been able to do, but after buying the right stuff, he was now able to do this too.
As soon as the green light came on, Jack knew that everything was set, thus it was time to act.
"Greetings to the people of this world. My name is Jack Sparrow, a man who the World Government has labeled a criminal because I have taken over the East Blue, however I want to set the record straight. I have not conquered the East Blue, I have liberated it from the hold of the World Government. No longer do the people need to live in fear of being taken as slaves or being killed for slighting someone of supposed higher authority than them. No longer do countries need to starve just to pay the heavenly tributes to the World Nobles just so they aren't targeted by the government. A new Order has been created, one that protects everyone in this world, no matter your race or status." Jack paused here as he moved to angle the Transponder Snail so it could get a good view of the city outside.
Even though it was still night out, everyone knew exactly which city this was, as it was the place all nobles dreamed of living, and the place where all civilians feared to go because it meant only one thing for them. Servitude.
"The Celestial Dragons are finished, as is the slavery they have allowed in this world. For too long the Marines have let the Nobles run roughshod over the people of this world, well I say no more. If you feel the same as I do, then now is the time to rise up against your oppressors. For too long we have remained in the darkness, and now it is the time that we strike out against those who would hold us down. The North Blue, South Blue, West Blue, and even the Grand Line, we are already in the process of expanding to each and every island nation. Those of you who wish for freedom, now is the time to rise up!" Jack said, finishing the last bit with a shout that was echoed by the Sentinels around him.
The cheering died out rather quickly when someone shouted out in warning, drawing all eyes to the thirteen individuals standing atop a building off in the distance. They were the eight remaining individuals dressed all in black, as well as five old geezers who looked like they were going to die of old age any moment, however Jack knew more than anyone that looks could be quite deceiving.
Realizing that he could capitalize on this, Jack once more angled the Transponder Snail so it was showing the thirteen people, then he spoke, "The five senior citizens are the five elders who sit at the top of this world, or so they would have you believe. In actuality they answer to someone else, someone who sits on the empty throne." Jack could see the expressions of all thirteen individuals harden at his words, and rather than let him reveal anything more to the world, they all advanced towards him.
"You idiots attacked Whitebeard's territory in the hopes that he would deal with me, well guess what? You failed, and you're going to keep failing! The world knows how vile and crooked you all are, and no matter what, we of The Order will always stand up for what is right!" Jack shouted to the elders as he moved to engage them. The Sentinels and Adventurers were quick to move to his side, and for nearly twenty minutes destruction was heard all across the world, it only coming to an end after someone destroyed the recording equipment and shut down the video feed.
By then, all of the slaves had been taken through the gate back to the East Blue, and slowly the Sentinels had been working their way backward as well until only Jack remained. The Holy City of Mary Geoise was in shambles, and what's more, the whole world saw it. He had accomplished what he had set out to do tonight, and there was no way the Marines or World Government could cover it up.
*****
(Location: Windmill Village)
Jack was tired. After the raid on Mary Geoise, he and The Order had worked tirelessly for almost two days to help the freed slaves. Doing the best he could, Jack gave them all food, clothes, and created some temporary housing for all of them, however there were a lot of injured to deal with, and that was just the beginning. A number of World Government spies had wormed their way in through the gate, and a few of them had caused some problems before they had been discovered, and that had been a nightmare to deal with.
Of all of The Order members to go to Mary Geoise, nine Sentinels and two Adventurers had been killed. Jack should have been glad that so few had died, but this had been the first time he had actually lost any of his people, and the loss struck him hard. The only good side to the whole thing was that Haedrig had managed to recover their bodies so as to bury them properly, but that wasn't the only thing they had recovered.
One of the men in black, The Holy Knights as they were called, had been wrapped in chains and dragged through the gate. Luke had taken it upon himself to figure out how to kill the fucker, but after only a short interrogation, the man let out a cry of agony before his body began to burn away. Luke had claimed to see a mark on the man's left arm begin to glow before he died, but he wasn't certain if it had anything to do with what happened to him, but they wouldn't know until they managed to capture another one.
All of that had transpired over the last two days, and now Jack wanted nothing more than to sleep. Both he and Nojiko had gone back to his room on the Pearl, and after a quick shower, the two had fallen asleep in each other's arms. Hours later, Jack opened his eyes and saw Nojiko staring at him with a faint smile on her face.
"Good morning, beautiful." Jack said, feeling a little groggy from just waking up. "Good morning, handsome. Bath and breakfast?" Nojiko said, giving him a small peck on the lips before she pushed herself up and raised her arms high above her head, giving him a little show in the process. Not needing to be asked twice, Jack climbed out of bed and headed for the bathroom.
When they finally got around to going out into the dining room, only Smoker and Robin were there drinking tea, and what was surprising about this was that Smoker was actually laughing. The man might have mellowed out quite a bit after leaving the Marines and joining Jack, and though he smiled quite often, he rarely if ever laughed.
"Do you think they're…?" Nojiko whispered to Jack while gesturing towards the two. Shrugging his shoulders, Jack made the two aware of their presences as both he and Nojiko moved to sit down next to them. Without being prompted, Jack made an assortment of different foods appear before they all began to eat.
"I swear, if Nojiko hadn't already claimed you, I'd have done it." Smoker said jokingly as he shovelled half of a pancake into his mouth. "Are you trying to make Robin jealous?" Nojiko asked, and almost immediately Smoker began to choke on his food, which only seemed to make Nojiko smile even more than she already was. For her part, Robin merely blushed while avoiding eye contact with anyone.
Things were a little awkward for a few minutes, at least until Luke and Nami showed up. Kureha and Chopper arrived not long after, though they were only there for a few minutes to eat something before heading back out. They still had a lot of patients, and right now they didn't have the luxury to sit around and do nothing.
"So, what's the plan for today?" Jack asked everyone. "I'm heading to Dismal Island. I might stop at a few other islands along the way." Luke answered simply. Jack knew the only reason Luke was going there because that was where Luke had taken Perona before they raided Mary Geoise. It was a dark depressing island with nothing of interest on it, save for an old abandoned town that was located in a swamp, and now apparently a pink-haired ghost girl.
"Nami and I are going to go back to Cocoyasi for the day. We promised Genzo we would after Nami let slip that we were going to Mary Geoise. I've already called him and told him that we're alright, but until he sees us, I don't think he's going to calm down. Plus I do need to check up on my tangerines." Nojiko answered.
"What about you two?" Jack asked while looking between Robin and Smoker. ""The Library."" They both answered in unison, which earned them a look from both Luke and Nami, who weren't there to see the two acting so close earlier.
Realizing that everyone was doing something else, Jack decided to go and wander around the town, and maybe check up on the former slaves. After breakfast, he headed towards the edge of town where the former slaves had been placed, however upon arriving there, Jack had nearly frozen in place.
There was a long line of people in front of a tent, and standing outside the tent was Tsuru. Given that she was supposed to be somewhere else with Soran and Makino, Jack was about to freak out when he sensed Soran and Makino inside the tent with his Haki. Heading over to the old woman, Jack asked what was going on, and it was then that Tsuru told him that they had arrived early this morning, and upon finding out about all of the injured slaves, Soran had asked if she could help them.
At first she had used her healing power to treat the most injured people, but after a while she decided to do something else. She had learned very quickly how the marks that were branded on the slaves were a sore subject for each and every slave, however using her power she was able to make the marks disappear as if they had never been there in the first place, so now she was letting people come into the tent, and after showing her their mark, she would sprinkle her fairy dust on the marks and they would simply vanish.
The people cried out in thanks to her, and Soran merely smiled at them. Jack was truly touched at the kindness she showed these people, as he himself hadn't quite considered what to do about the branded marks, nor how they would affect the people who had them.
(A.N. I completely skipped over the whole Warship Island Arc with the dragons, mostly because I don't care about that, but also because it had no relevance to the story. I know it happened at a later date, but for the sake of this story, it already happened.)
Deciding to leave Soran to what she had been doing, Jack continued on, knowing full well that he would see her later. As he moved about, Jack couldn't help but notice something. The former slaves had divided themselves into groups. Fishmen and Mer-people were gathered together in a district of the houses he had given to them, members of the Mink Tribe were gathered in a district, as were members of the Long-arm and Long-leg tribes. The half a dozen giants they had freed were also clustered together on the outskirts of town, looking as though they weren't sure they belonged with everyone else, and the humans, which were the largest portion of slaves, were keeping their distance from all of the other races.
At least some of them were. Jack couldn't help it when his attention was drawn towards the section of buildings where the Mink Tribe had holed themselves up, and there he noticed what looked to be a confrontation between a group of humans and two members of the Mink Tribe. Deciding to investigate, Jack approached without either group noticing him and listened.
"-killed hundreds of us! He needs to pay for it!" A human shouted at a Mink who was a white-wolf humanoid, while at the same time pointing towards a brown-bear humanoid who was doing his best to try and ignore the humans gathered around them.
"And what was the alternative, huh?! Let himself be killed?! We were all forced to fight for our lives, only he was stronger than you humans! How many of your own kind have you all killed?!" The wolf Mink shouted angrily, making some very valid points while at the same time revealing what this whole thing was about. "It's alright, Lucian. Let them yell all they want." The bear Mink said, sounding tired as he added, "It doesn't bother me, really."
"But it bothers me." Jack said, entering himself into the conversation and drawing all eyes onto himself. Stepping between both groups, Jack looked pointedly at the human who had been shouting when he had first arrived.
"Humans have killed more humans than all of the other races combined. Hell, I've killed thousands. Need I also remind you that it was humans who enslaved you all? Should all humans have to pay for the crimes of a few?" Jack said, looking around to those who were gathered. Seeing people begin to look away in shame, Jack decided to give them a little hope.
"What you were forced to do while you were slaves is not your fault, and none of you should feel guilty about it. You survived, and you're free. Free to live your lives how you see fit. Don't spend this time blaming others to try and erase your pain, but live life to the fullest."
The area was silent for a time, then the human who had been shouting at the two Minks looked at the bear-Mink before saying, "I'm sorry." With that, he and the other humans dispersed. With the situation resolved for now, Jack moved over to the two Minks before holding out his hand to the wolf-mink, "Hello, my name is Jack."
"My name is Lucian, and this is my friend Tedi." The wolf-Mink said while shaking the proffered hand. 'Tedi? As in a teddy bear? Seriously?' Jack thought to himself, finding the bear-Mink's name to be a little funny, though he made sure not to show it.
"You're both strong, I can tell. Why didn't you just force those people to leave you alone?" Jack asked the two of them. "The same reason you didn't. They were just scared and angry. We all feel guilt about what we were forced to do, but some of us feel so much guilt that they feel they need to blame it on others to lessen the weight they feel on themselves." Tedi answered honestly. "Besides, its not like they attacked us. We're not going to hurt anyone for just saying a few words." Lucian said with a shrug.
Jack very much liked their answers, and given the strength he sensed from them, he knew they were by no means weak, thus he came to a decision. "How would the two of you like to join my guild?" He asked with a grin. It took a bit of explaining about what Guilds were and how The Order functioned, but the two Minks at least didn't seem opposed to the idea of joining him.
On the contrary, they seemed as though they liked the idea of exploring the world with him, only they had one request. "Can we take our people back to Zou first? Those who want to go, at least." Tedi asked, to which Jack agreed. He and Radek could probably get to Zou in just a few days if they wanted to, so that would be no problem at all.
Saying his good-byes to the two Minks, Jack moved to keep making his rounds, however he had only walked a few feet away from Tedi and Lucian when someone called out to him, "What about me?!" Turning to look at where the voice had come from, Jack saw a familiar figure of the little cat-Mink that Luke had saved the other day in Mary Geoise.
She was tiny, that was for sure, and since he couldn't tell the ages of Minks all that well, he guessed she was anywhere between eight and ten years old. She was incredibly underfed, and as she walked towards him, Jack noticed how she walked with a bit of a limp. Still, the look in her eyes, it was scary how much it reminded him of Luke back before they had first started The Order. She wanted to get stronger, he could see that clear in her eyes, but he also saw no love or anything that was keeping her alive other than hate. 'She probably doesn't care if she dies.' Jack thought darkly as he sized up the little girl.
"What about you?" Jack asked her. "I want to join you too. I want to get stronger." She said seriously with a resolve that matched Luke to a T. Realizing that he couldn't just turn his back on her, and that it probably wasn't the best idea to bring a kid along with him to do the things he planned on doing, he decided to give her something to strive for.
"I don't accept just anyone into my guild, but… I'll give you a chance." He told her, watching as her eyes lit up with determination. "What do I have to do?" She asked. "You have to be able to lay your hand on me." Jack told her, which only earned a confused look from the little girl.
Regardless of how confused she was, she hobbled on over to him, then reached out to touch him. She thought maybe he would jump away or try to avoid her, however upon reaching out at him, her hand passed right through his body, which had surprised her to no end.
"Until you are capable of touching me, I'm afraid you won't be strong enough to join me." Jack said, then continued on his way, though not before he handed her a plate of food and directed her to go stand in the line so she could get her leg healed, not to mention get the mark that was burned onto her back removed. He could see the top of the mark sticking out of the back of her shirt, and knew that removing it would probably help her with the pain she was feeling.
Jack continued to make the rounds, which involved talking with each of the tribes, finding out if they needed anything, to which everyone had a few off little requests here and there. The request that was shared by all tribes was if Jack could take them home, and he had promised them that he would help them all home in due time, however it would take awhile. Thankfully everyone of them were glad to wait, and there were even a few outliers among each tribe who wished to stay in the East Blue, as it was completely out of the reach of the World Government.
Meeting up with the giants had been fun, as all they asked for was booze and for maybe a party, something which Jack was all for giving them, especially after seeing how respectful they all were. He was just saying goodbye to the giants when he noticed Soran rocketing towards him through the air with her glittering, golden wings. Catching her in his arms, Jack hugged the little girl tight, feeling a wave of emotions that seemed to come out of nowhere.
"I'm so glad you're safe." Soran whispered in his ear. "I'm glad you're safe too." Jack said, then slowly he pulled her away from him so he could get a proper look at her. She had grown some since they had last seen each other, and she had her hair in a braid now. "I like your hair." He told her. "Thanks. Apis did it for me." Soran said simply.
"Apis?" Jack asked, momentarily forgetting the young girl Soran had met on Warship Island, however it came back to him soon enough. Soran had called to tell him all about the young girl who had eaten the Whisper-Whisper Fruit, and had told him how they were best friends. Jack had never met her before, but he suspected that was going to change soon enough.
"It's good to see you, Jack." Makino said, having arrived much slower than Soran, and beside her was a little girl with dirty-blonde hair. "It's good to see you too, Makino. And I take it this is Apis. You're a little shorter than I thought." Jack said, getting a look of annoyance from the little girl in question. "Don't be rude." Soran reprimanded him. "It's okay, Soran. He's not as cool as I thought he'd be either." Apis said smartly while giving Jack a look.
"Anyway!" Soran said quickly before Jack could make a retaliatory comment. "We have completed our mission. Everything went off without a hitch." Soran said proudly, then as an afterthought, she added, "Well, there was this one guy who showed up and tried to cause problems, but Granny turned him into laundry and hung him out to dry. I'm not sure what happened to him after that, but he never tried to bother us again."
Jack was glad things had worked out for Soran, and he was especially glad now that he had hired Tsuru to go and look after her and Makino, otherwise things might have been a little different. "That's good to hear. I was also glad to hear that you were using your powers to help these people. They've been through so much, and I'm glad you were able to help." Jack said, getting a smile from Makino, who agreed wholeheartedly with his words.
"Yeah, me too. I would have kept going, but the more I use my healing power the hungrier I get, and right now I'm starving. I don't suppose you have anything I could have?" Soran asked hopefully with her big watery eyes. In response to this, Jack made a number of foods appear before them, and at once Soran and Apis tore into everything.
It was as they were eating that Jack noticed a number of people nearby watching them, and not feeling as if they should be left out, he waved his hands and tables appeared completely covered with cakes, pies, ice-cream, chocolates, and every other form of dessert he could buy. At first the people were a little hesitant to help themselves, but after Soran and Apis began taking the sweets around to the people, they started to move closer to the tables.
"It's alright. Please, help yourself." Makino said towards a little mermaid with purple hair that was hiding behind a fishman that looked like an octopus or a squid. "Can-can we take another one for our friend? He can't walk very well." Another little fish-man, this one a boy who looked to be part shark asked after appearing beside the little mermaid. "He's hurt? Where is he?" Soran asked after hearing the boy that looked to be a year or two younger than herself.
In response to her question, the little boy led the way towards a building near the center of the area that the fishmen had claimed. Following along behind Soran, just to keep her safe, Jack entered the building, and right away he noticed a fishman who looked to be half human who was anywhere between fifteen and twenty years old, but what really jumped out at him were the man's injuries. His arms and legs were broken, and most of the man's body was covered in scars. There was also the fact that he had more than a dozen branded marks all over his body.
"What happened to him?" Soran whispered sadly as she slowly approached the man. "He's been suffering for most of his life." A voice came from the doorway leading into a different part of the house. Looking over, Jack saw another fishman, only this one was old, and he looked more human than most of the fishmen Jack had seen before.
"My name is Kinpo, and the boy you see there is Nemo. For almost twelve years now he's been tortured day in and day out. He's had his arms broken eighty-nine times, and his legs broken one-hundred and two times. He's been branded twenty-three times, and he's had his fins cut off and sewn back on six times. And all because of a parent that he's never even met before." Kinpo said sadly. "What do you mean?" Jack asked, feeling a little sick at what he had heard.
"He is the son of Fisher Tiger, the fishman who, twelve years ago, climbed the Red Line and freed the slaves. The only problem was, Tiger never freed all of the slaves, nor did he know about Nemo. You see, it's not well known, but Tiger was once a slave. The World Nobles forced him to do things, and Nemo is the product of one of the things he was forced to do with another slave. Tiger escaped before the kid was born, and the boy's mother died giving birth to him. Ever since Tiger's attack, the boy has been getting punished in lieu of his father for what Tiger did." Kinpo explained solemnly.
Soran was in tears upon hearing the story, and did her best to heal what she could of the fishman. "I still haven't recovered enough energy to heal him all the way." Soran said sadly as tears fell from her eyes. "It's alright. We'll help him." Jack told her, then took his leave from the house, silently telling himself that he would be back again later.
*****
Soran returned to the house where Nemo was recovering twice more that day, and first thing in the morning the following day, she was able to heal the man back to full health. "Thank you, Soran. You are a kind human." Nemo had told her. He didn't particularly like humans, but he had come to respect Soran, for unlike most other humans, she didn't look at him as if he were inferior to him, but rather that they were the same, and that was with her power and strong standing.
Already he had been told about Soran's past, and the fact that she could still be so kind, gave him hope for his future. Jack, upon seeing that the man hadn't gone insane from all of the torture he had endured, decided that the man needed a little freedom in his life, and what better way than at his side.
"Join my guild. I won't promise you anything extravagant, but I can promise that come hell or high waters, you'll never be caged again." Jack said as he extended his hand to the fishman who had every right to hate the world. Nemo looked at Jack, then at his hand before he reached out and shook it.
He didn't know what his future held, but he knew that so long as he was with Jack Sparrow, even the Government wouldn't dare to come after him again. 'Actually, I think it'll be the other way around now.' Nemo thought, allowing himself to take joy in the dark thought for a little while longer.