The meeting went as well as Buggy had expected it to go. He told them and now they knew. It was a job well done. With the news that there was significant risk in finding a doctor, each of them had a different reaction.

Solomon, with all of his usual indifference, merely shrugged at the prospect of going into Flevance despite the possibility of being exposed to something. He honestly didn’t care what happened so long as he managed to give hell to the marines like Buggy had promised him.

Lilith said nothing and did nothing as their meeting went on. The guilt she felt for keeping her visions a secret from Devlin and Solomon was stifling. Almost to the point of downright suffocation.

She hated lying. Especially to two of the only three people she could to call her friends. It made her stomach twist into tight knots.

Devlin, on the other hand, was excited to visit Flevance regardless of the rumors Buggy had told them about. To her, it was just another island that she’d never been to before. If there really was a sickness going around, then it was one more danger to add to the pile she’d already needed to work around.

Buggy, seeing that no one had anything significant to say about Flevance at that point, finished off the meeting as quickly as he could; wanting nothing more than to just go back to sleep.

“Okay. No one has anything to say so I’ll just sum up with what the plan is for when we get there. Devlin, you stay here on the ship-” A disappointed groan escaped her. “That is so unfair! Why can’t Solomon stay behind!?”

“Because you’d be the most effective in getting the ship as far away from the island as possible should the need arise.” She stayed silent for a second before huffing. “Yeah, whatever…Next time, though, I’m going on the island and someone else is staying behind to guard the crummy ship!”

“Okay Devlin. If it really means that much to you, fine.” She leaned back in her chair, arms crossed in triumph. “So…Devlin will stay on the ship while Lilith and Solomon come with me to pick up the doctor.”

He looked over to Devlin; who was still in the middle of relishing in her victory. “While we’re gone you need to make sure no one takes the ship. Or you, for that matter. The North Blue is notorious for being home to a group of pirates who kidnap young children.”

“And why would they be after me, Captain? They kidnap children. Do I look like a child? Huh~?”

Why does she always call him by his title when she’s mad? He really wanted to say something about it. And he would have had he not been too tired and too reluctant to get her even angrier. Instead, he flat out ignored her, praying that she’d just drop it.

“Meanwhile, the three of us will travel through one of the bordering countries, enter Flevance, get in, and then get out. No time to sight see or shop or anything other than getting our doctor and leaving. Got it?”

He received a grunt, a shaky nod, and a scathing glare in return. “Good. Now, I’m going to get some sleep and hopefully we’ll be there by the time I wake up. If anyone even thinks about coming into my room to wake me up without at least one life-threatening wound or situation you can’t handle on your own…”

He inhaled through his nose and exhaled as heavily as he could, leaving the room as he did. Solomon broke the silence and finished the unspoken threat. “…we’ll sure be leaving with one.”

Unknown Country Bordering Flevance, Shipyard

“You know, I don’t think we look too bad in these clothes. Actually, I’m feeling pretty damn cool right now.” Buggy inspected his ‘quarantine clothes’ with a content smile on his face. He was really going for practicality over aestheticism when buying them, but it turned out all right in both departments.

They all wore roughly the same outfit, even Devlin who was staying behind on the ship. No guarantees meant that nowhere was safe for any of them in this particular island; possibly even that Blue.

Solomon disagreed. “I disagree. Words cannot begin to describe how uncomfortable all this clothing makes me feel. The already warm weather doesn’t help either.” Buggy rolled his eyes, gesturing to Lilith.

“Lilith doesn’t have a problem with it!” The woman in question stood on the deck of the ship, stuffing the inside of her clothing with several handfuls of ice from the ship’s freezer. She at least had the mind to try and turn away from them as she kept on stuffing.

Though, Buggy’s shoulders sagged nonetheless. “Whatever. I still say we look cool.” They each wore black boots that had the pants made out of tough material tucked into them which in turn had the undershirt, t-shirt, and long sleeve shirt tucked in it.

Following that was a jacket with a hoodie and a scarf that wrapped around their mouths and noses several times.

The only distinguishing differences between them were the fact that Solomon was so much larger than both Lilith and Buggy and that Lilith’s nose didn’t stick out as much as Buggy’s did.

“Devlin, we’ll be back in a few hours. Do not get yourself caught by those child abductors!” Was the heat getting to him, or was her hair beginning float in the air…? ‘No~ Must be the heat. Hair can’t just rise on its own…right?’

“Anywayswegottagobye!!” With that, Buggy grabbed Solomon and Lilith by the arms and hauled ass with them towards the sky. Flevance was also known as White Town. So, obviously, Buggy should look for the place made out of white everything.

“That’s okay Captain,” a maniacal grin grew on her face. “You’ll have to come back sometime…and when you do~” The air around her stilled in response to her unconscious command.

…or perhaps it was simply afraid of her.

Flevance wasn’t all that far away of you were able to soar through the sky, avoiding just about anything that’d slow you down. And for a guy covering that distance in about ten minutes carrying nearly six hundred pounds of collective weight at full speed, Buggy made pretty good time.

While the ride was smooth, the landing was rough. The buildings and the landscape of Flevance were mostly white, the color that reflects light the most, and while they were probably lovely to look at from ground level, Buggy’s eyes hurt every time he looked directly at the town. Even from a distance.

Unfortunately, because of this, he wasn’t able to clearly make out where he was trying to land; his ability to see overwhelmed by the intense reflection of sunlight. It didn’t take long for the three of them to notice the branches narrowly missing them.

“Buggy, watch it! Watch it! We’re gonna hit the trees if you don’t-” Lilith’s words were cut off as a branch smashed against Buggy’s forehead. That alone wouldn’t have been a major issue, but the wooden splinters in his eyes said otherwise.

“AHH GODDAMMIT!!!” Reflexively putting his hands to his face, Buggy accidentally released his hold of his two companions.

Realizing that Lilith would be far more injured than he would be, Solomon was quick to action in grabbing hold of her leg, pulling her towards him, and tucking her securely into his chest; his back facing the rapidly approaching ground.

While his large and naturally tough physique could handle a fall from that height, Lilith was more likely to land with a splat given her fragile Human body. Well, as fragile as baseline humans are without any Devil Fruit powers or Armament Haki.

Buggy hit the ground before they did, as he was flying faster and at a steeper angle then they were falling. He bounced once, twice, three time, and then rolled until he made contact with one of the sturdier trees.

Solomon and Lilith’s landing was much less turbulent. Maneuvering himself mid-air, Solomon ensured that they hit as many branches as possible to slow them down even slightly. And it did, but only slightly.

Much like their captain, they hit the ground, bounced, but then rolled to a stop that, unlike their captain’s, ended before they hit anything. With that, Solomon relaxed himself in relief that it was all over.

This allowed for Lilith to move around again. She slid down off Solomon and her feet touched the ground. Though, her lovely reunion with the dirt and grass she oh so cherished was short lived with the arrival of the searing pain shooting up and down her left leg.

“Ah!” Leaning back on Solomon’s prone form, she summoned the courage to look down and see what the damage was. “What’s wrong?” His question went unanswered as she proceeded to lose consciousness.

“Hey. Hey!” He couldn’t move his arm in time to catch her as she fell. But he did get a clear look at her leg. It was…it was bad. The bone had managed to pierce the skin, revealing a jagged and bloody-

He got up and took deep breaths, trying his absolute damnedest to not think about other…similar wounds he’s had in the past beyond the basics of how to keep the leg from needing to be cut off. He’d seen what happened to those who didn’t reset the bone.

And the mental image of Lilith with only one leg didn’t sit too well with him. Not well at all.

After successfully calming himself down, he walked back over to Lilith. Solomon took off the jacket he wore, laying it on the ground beside her. Gingerly placing her on it, forcing himself to focus not on the whimpers of pain that escaped her still unconscious form, he prepared himself for what was to come.

“I hope you won’t hate me for this, Lilith. Because I’m not gonna lie…this is goin’ to fuckin’ hurt.”

-

Buggy woke up to the sound of screams. Awful, gut wrenching screams that reminded him of an awful dream he had once. It was also a sound that Buggy had experienced twice in his young life.

The first time was when his home had been hit by a large storm. A storm that lasted for days on end, killing so many of the people he grew up around with such ease.

One man, someone he’d seen managing the docks from time to time, had been crushed by a boat that hadn’t been set to drift in time; as doing so would allow the wooden ships to drift out to sea so as to not put people in danger should the storm picked them up and throw it somewhere on the island.

The shriek he let loose as the boat crushed the lower half of his body momentarily froze those of them nearby in their spots. As it died, so too did the man. That was also Buggy’s first introduction to the concept of death.

Something he’d unconsciously connected to the man’s gruesome end for years afterwards.

The second time was during the first few months of his intensive survival and combat training. A pirate from an enemy ship had managed to find her way on the wrong end of his sword. He remembered everything about that moment.

The four minutes and fifty-eight seconds, and he had counted every last one, it took for her to die was agonizing for the both of them. He hadn’t regretted their initial confrontation with one another. Their respective captains had gotten hostile with one another so it was only natural for them to fight it out.

What Buggy did regret was the fact that he’d lost his knives in their intense fight and ended up with a sword. Had he had any kind of knives or a weapon with a comparably smaller blade, he could have controlled the situation much more than he was able to.

But the only thing he could find nearby and within his reach was a sword. A sword that he wielded with less skill than he should have had by that point. A lack of skill that caused him to deal a fatal blow to the woman when he only intended to incapacitate her.

Even when she had done nothing more than savagely go after him throughout the entirety of the confrontation between crews.

On top of that, it’d been pulled from a small oil fire from a nearby shattered oil lamp. The moment the, quite literally, red-hot blade touched her skin and continued to make its way deep inside her before finally coming back out the other side, she screamed in unimaginable pain.

Enough to draw the attention of most of the people fighting towards the two wide eyed pirates. One doing so in recognition of what kind of blow had been dealt to her and the other in shock at the unexpected outcome of the fight.

So, during her final moments, he held her in his lap; even as the fighting continued around them. Buggy was vaguely aware of people, probably people from the other crew, coming up to him in an attempt to get him while his guard was down.

But out of the corner of his eye he could see them being taken out by…he didn’t actually know who was keeping them away from him. He’d always assumed it was Shanks or Rayleigh. But it could have easily been any number of people on the crew.

It didn’t matter then, and it mattered even less now……

But still, he would never forget how she stared him down the entire time they sat there on the deck of that slowly burning ship, not without anger or regret towards his actions, but also with a sort of peace.

How tears fell, though he couldn’t tell if they were his or hers, as he gently combed her matted hair with his fingers. And how when she finally died, she did so with a faint smile. As if she’d thought of something funny just before she went.

Looking back on it, maybe it was his reaction to her dying that she found funny. Maybe she’d been amused that the person who’d taken her life had done so without meaning to. He wasn’t sure.

But it did make him feel the tiniest bit better about the whole thing…

The screams rang out once more. ‘Oh, right…the screaming. I should probably get up and check it out.’

Having been momentarily distracted by the scream that had brought him back to some less than happier moments in his life, Buggy took a second before snapping out of it. He could wallow and remember later.

He would have to. Because he just realized the one yelling sounded vaguely like Lilith, once his mind was cleared of any distracting thoughts. Buggy wondered where Solomon was that he’d let Lilith get into that kind of situation. For that matter, he had yet find out exactly where he himself was.

Picking his battered but surprisingly intact body up off the ground, Buggy tried opening his eyes. Not the best idea.

His eyes burned as he tried to see where his two friends were. While the splinters had done nothing to hurt him, at least the sharper ones hadn’t, his vision was severely limited as they pressed against his eye.

And while it didn’t hurt, it was incredibly uncomfortable. An unwanted pressure on a very sensitive part of the body.

Worse still, he couldn’t get it all out. Some of the wooden pieces had broken down small enough and been lodged deep enough that he couldn’t get it all out on his own. While he could separate parts of himself at will, the skill needed to do so required some visual focus.

Seeing as though he was blind, that pretty much prevented him from fixing himself. Besides, picking out the damn things by hand wasn’t exactly sanitary nor was it painless or even easy to do.

Kicking the ground in frustration, he shoved aside his blindness and looked for Solomon and Lilith using Haki; three minds working on a problem was better than one. He sensed that while they were together, one of them was hurt beyond the minor cuts and bruises they sustained from the fall.

‘Ohh~ don’t let me find out you did this to her Solomon. She better have gotten that from the fall.’ It felt bad to think of Solomon in that light, but considering that the Fishman had a predisposition of hating Humans and the fact that Lilith was probably an easy target…

He sighed, taking a closer look at their situation. ‘He’s trying to help set the bone. Good.’ He let go of the breath he’d unknowingly been holding in. The whole point of taking Solomon with him was because he had yet to give the Fishman his complete trust. Any of them, really. But Solomon the least out of them all.

In fact, leaving the boat in the hands of someone who he was sure wouldn’t have any real issues with just taking off without them left Buggy with Devlin as the only other alternative. He had even played up the part about the kidnappers just to have a reason to leave her behind to watch the ship.

He wanted to trust them as much as he trusted his friends and mentors on the Oro Jackson. But it took time and shared experiences both good and tragic to forge such unbreakable bonds. And until then, he’d keep them all under scrutiny.

It still didn’t stop his own guilt from rearing its ugly head, however. The guilty feelings that came with his reluctance to absolutely trust those who had thought to or had already placed their own trust in him…it ate away at him.

Of course he knew that Devlin had eagerly agreed to be his first mate. Of course he knew Lilith would be eternally grateful to him for taking her in and rescuing her from a life of slavery. For giving both women the power and know-how to even somewhat defend themselves. And of course he knew that Solomon was equally grateful; even if he didn’t show it as often as Lilith tried to.

But until the time came where he could honestly say that he would die for them just as they would die for him, none of them would ever have his complete confidence. There would always be a small hint of doubt in the back of his mind that maybe, just maybe, they would try and cross him in a moment of vulnerability.

He ran towards them, only needing to run for about a minute before reaching the clearing they had landed in. “Solomon! What’s wrong with Lilith?” He asked, though he already knew. Solomon hurriedly waved him over.

As he approached, Solomon spoke with a rarely seen sense of urgency. “Hold her down. I can’t set the bone back properly with just one hand. Every time I try, she thrashes about wildly.” Buggy placed his hands on her arms, forcing them to her sides.

“I’m going to set the bone on the count of three. Ready?” Buggy nodded. “On three. One, two, three!” Lilith convulsed as the bone was forced back into her leg and reconnected with its other half.

As Solomon began constructing a makeshift splint, he looked up at Buggy. “Nice landing, Buggy. I don’t suppose you- Oh fuck! What the hell happened to your eyes?” Buggy had wondered how long it would take for him to notice.

“I don’t know. What does it look like happened?” He was genuinely curious. His Observation Haki only allowed him to see auras and shapes. Like the shape of a completely broken leg bone; the specific name of the bone escaped him as he never learned it in the first place.

“Looks like you need more than just my nonexistent medical skills. I mean woah! It’s almost like you have these spikes coming out of your damn eyes sockets! How are you not on the floor in unbearable pain right now?”

Buggy lightly shrugged his shoulders, leaving Solomon speechless. “What do you mean,” he mimics the shrug. “Doesn’t that shit hurt!?”

He lightly shrugged again. The vibrations from speaking making the whole ‘eye situation’ more uncomfortable than it already was. Had he not been a Devil Fruit user…he didn’t much want to think about it.

“I- You-…Let’s just get to a damn doctor already. And no flying.” Buggy had just barely left the ground before Solomon’s words grounded him. “The way things just ended up, I’m likely to lose my head if we risk that shit again. We’re walking.”

Solomon finished up the splint, tightly wrapped Lilith’s whole body in his jacket, carefully picked her up, and began to walk towards where his sensitive hearing picked up the most city noise.

“Okay. That’s fine.” Buggy held his hands up, making the pressure on his eyes become much more noticeable. “Walking it is.” He just hoped they made it there soon. Both Rouge’s life and the life of her baby were still in danger.

And come hell or high water, he would save their lives.

…he had to.