Author's Note

I think I've got the writing bug, I can't seem to stop writing new chapters.

Send help.

Anyway, here's a little more backstory to our hero. Let me know what you think of his story.

That Night...

"Ah, 'Silas the Magician' of the Dreadnought Pirates."

"We've been looking for you for quite a while..."

"Silas, watch out!"

Screams.

Blood.

Crazed laughter.

The faces of his crew - his friends - as they fell, one by one, to Marine forces.

The last one to fall turned to look at him as she slowly bled out.

"Silas...!" She choked out, blood dripping everywhere. "Promise us... You'll live...!"

Silas nodded numbly.

A gunshot, and then she was gone.

His entire crew was gone.

He was all that was left as the Marines closed in.

Silas woke with a jolt, pursing his lips as he stared down at his hands. That day... that day was forever burned into his memory. The day his entire crew gave their lives in the name of keeping him safe... just so he could live on.

If he hadn't made that promise, he likely would have shot himself by now. That promise was the only thing left giving him a reason to exist.

He slowly reached into his fedora and pulled out the only thing that had survived the Dreadnought's destruction: a picture of him and his crew, before he'd been named Captain. He smiled sadly down at it as he inspected the faces of his friends in the moonlight.

Malik, the original captain and his childhood companion.

Isaac, the Devil-Fruit using doctor with control over chemicals.

Anne, the sniper with a temper and a dozen guns on her at all times.

Jacob, the narcoleptic chef who somehow never let the food burn while he slept.

Ari, the tiger-Zoan shipwright with an appetite to match.

Jesse, the navigator who doubled as their swordsman... or rather, their swordswoman.

They were the closest thing to a family Silas had ever had. Thinking about them all brought back memories he'd forced himself to forget.

Malik had been the first to die, victim of an infection from a Devil Fruit using bounty hunter almost a year before the ambush. The hunter's diseases proved too great for Isaac to defeat, and their captain was lost.

Jacob had been the next to go, having suffered a narcolepsy attack mid-fight during the ambush.

After him was Ari, the shipwright being flung into the ocean and sinking.

Anne fell victim to the curse known as 'no ammo' and was swiftly gunned down.

Jesse had been the last to fall, having taken roughly half the ambush force with her before a lucky shot put her down. It was her who'd forced him to promise as her killer lined up the final shot.

In the end, Silas had been the last man standing as the Dreadnought began to sink, roughly a hundred guns and swords pointed at him as rage slowly overtook him.

The next thing he knew, he'd been sailing away from the wreck of the dreadnought on a Marine ship, the bodies of all the ones he'd slain littering the Dreadnought's deck and bobbing in the water as he left, his hands and clothes caked with blood as he stared straight ahead, tears silently falling from his face as he sailed off towards the closest island.

A drop of water landing on the photo made him realize he was crying. Wiping it off, lest it damage the photo, he slid it back into his hat and lay back down. He stared at the ceiling, still crying until he finally fell asleep again.