][Malice][ =One Piece=

:: Chapter Forty Six ::

After another week to get Malice acclimated once again to life with the crew, it was time for The Kid Pirates to reunite with their allies. Malice was untrusting and had spent much of the morning before the meeting voicing her opinions on the alliance. Their bickering had the crew uneasy.

"If you allied with them to get me back, then what's the point?!" Malice raged over breakfast the morning of the meeting.

"The point," Kid hissed in annoyance, "Is to defeat Kaido."

Malice's single revealed eye blazed menacingly as she glared at her captain. "You aren't strong enough to do it alone."

"Hence the alliance." Kid retorted.

"I don't trust them!" She snapped back with fire.

"You don't trust anyone." Kid scoffed.

"I missed our hostile morning meals." Killer commented casually as he sat at the wooden table in the galley calmly as Heat fixed breakfast.

"Just like old times." Titan grinned as he lounged beside a dozing Spike.

"What's to stop them from stabbing you in the back if you even manage to defeat Kaido?" Malice glowered.

"Nothing." Scratchman Apoo noted as he appeared in the galley doorway.

"You'll have to leave that up to fate." Hawkins' mystical voice chimed in from behind Apoo.

Malice turned to glare at the new arrivals. The first, Scratchman Apoo was a tall bulky man wearing a flashy bright red oriental fashioned robe. He had a long brown braid sticking out behind him. Something about his flashy appearance and the smug look on his face instantly grated on Malice's nerves. She turned her gaze to the second man who had appeared, Basil Hawkins. Hawkins was said to be a magician of sorts he was a mysterious man with long blonde hair and a black cross tattooed at the base of his throat.

"Oy!" Kid was furious, "Don't just let yourselves on my ship as you please."

"See you got your little survivor back." Apoo noted motioning to the enraged girl.

Hawkins looked to the deck in his hands and noticed one of the cards glaring back at him face up on the top of the pile. They'd all been facedown a moment before and he hadn't been shuffling them. The card revealed a man hanging upside down by one leg with what looked like a halo of light around his head, The Hanged Man. The card represented unconditional devotion, sacrifice and rebirth. He couldn't turn it over as he stared at the scarred girl in awe. She was truly a vision. Though she looked weakened, defeated and on the brink of death, there was life stubbornly burning gloriously within her. Fire burned in her single revealed eye, lively eternal flames. She was The Hanged Man, she was unconditionally devoted to her captain and had sacrificed everything for his sake, and yet she had still yet to be reborn.

The captain of the Hawkins Pirates stared at the girl in wonder. She had yet to be reborn, but it was coming, and when it did and she was whole once again, the pair would be unstoppable. Hawkins smiled softly, it was in everyone's best interest to stay in their good graces; her rebirth was inevitable and could very well shake the world.

Kid noticed Hawkins gawking at Malice and clenched his fists at his sides, "Is there a problem?"

Hawkins shrugged and side stepped the enraged captain of the Kid Pirates and sat himself at the table with the rest of the crew. The girl shook him. Divination was never clear it didn't reveal every detail, just bits and pieces. He knew the girl would grow stronger than ever, but whether it was for better or worse he could not tell.

Malice glared at the strange blonde man. She didn't like how he had looked at her, like he was expecting something from her.

"Breakfast is ready." Heat announced and stared at the newcomers with wide eyes, he'd been too preoccupied with cooking to realize they'd got company.

"I'm not hungry." Malice noted dryly before turning on her heel and storming out of the galley.

Kid resisted the urge to run after her. She'd been sneaking out of bed in the middle of the night ever since he'd caught her trying to train with Killer. He'd followed her one night to find her in the training room. She'd gagged herself to muffle her cries of pain and forced herself to train. It was heart breaking to watch, but he couldn't stop her.

He knew that's where she was going. He couldn't fault her for wanting to get stronger to protect the ones she cared for. That's what he lived for in her absence. Growing stronger, for her sake. It would be hypocritical for him to intervene.

"You sure she isn't going to be dead weight?" Apoo pondered cautiously.

Kid shot him a glare, but Hawkins beat him to the retort.

"She may quite possibly be the strongest one among us."

Apoo held back a snort of derision, "Care to elaborate, because when I look at her I see a woman on the verge of death."

"Every day she grows stronger, her pain never wavers, but she endures. Her tormenter did not see the fatal flaw in his plan. Her pain is constant and it only grows more agonizing, but there is something she feels more strongly than pain." Hawkins glanced to the card now lying face up on the table; The Hanged Man stared back at him dauntingly.

"Wot's that?" Titan asked curiously.

"Devotion." Hawkins noted simply.