Slowly Birdie opened his eyes and came back to consciousness. Though he was waking, it wasn't really registering, at least not at first. The moment he realized it, he came out of his disoriented state and snapped up, his back and head no longer laying back on his bed. Gasping and breathing in a labored manner, he looked around to see he was in his own bed aboard the ship. Everything felt so surreal until he looked down at his hands. They were wrapped in bandages and that image made him come to reality. All that he thought happened, had happened. It was a tough pill to swallow and one that still sat in his throat forming a lump of pain. "Fuck . . ." It was all he could say as he looked at his arms and see nothing but bandages. Moving the comforter from off his legs, he saw the same thing and it disheartened him. There he sat alone in his room wrapped in bandages, the morning sun peeking through his curtained window and seagulls outside calling. Though his life had taken such a hit, things around him continued to go on. Nothing would stop for him, he wasn't a special case. It wasn't that he wanted to the world to stop and pity him, but now he just felt so defeated and shamed. His head drooping down pitifully as he confided in his thoughts, he looked up at his dresser mounted mirror. From where he was he couldn't see his reflection and the sun was casting an ugly glare on it. He was scared to get up and look at himself, but he knew he'd have to eventually, so he might as well get it out the way.

Trying to lift his legs, he found that it pained him greatly. The open wounds puss and other fluids sticking and pulling off the bandages with every slight shuffle. "Fuck . . ." He murmured again as he swiped his legs across his bed to face the open space of his cabin though it seemed a bit bigger than he remembered. He paid it no attention as he willed himself to his feet only to yell out in pain as the burns pressed against the floor. "AHHHHHH"! As he shouted he fought to stay on his feet that trembled and wanted to buckle under his weight. Whether it was because he wanted to prove that he wasn't weak, he was mule headed, or feared falling and causing even more pain to himself, Birdie refused to give in to the tremors. Caught in his peripheral vision was a flicker of light, someone was right outside has cabin and was now letting themselves in upon hearing Birdie shout out. "You can't be on your feet, you'll agitate your wounds!" The man, a vaguely familiar face rushed over to assist him, but knew better than to touch him and risk causing him more pain than he was in. "My face . . . I want to see my face." He fought through it all and lifted up his leg and took another step forward, though he didn't gain much ground from it. With his arms he wafted the man away carefully, but then found his hand subconsciously reaching out for his shoulder to brace himself. "Verde!" Birdie gritted his teeth as he heard the name be called out, not angry at the man, but angry at himself for how things played out that night and the name reminded him. "Don't call him, just help me to my mirror." The man looked from the open door to Birdie, he was obviously a bit uncomfortable with the situation he was in. "But uh-" "Damn, he's up already?" Verde shook his head and calmly walked over to Birdie and the man. Without a care in the world, he lifted his hand and pushed Birdie in his bandaged chest forcing him to fall back into his bed. "Doctor's orders, you're bed locked for at least another 2 weeks. Those wounds won't heal if you're trying to move around." Birdie yelled out in pain from his chest and from falling back onto his bed no matter how soft it was. "Pushing me in my chest won't help either!" He got a hold of himself and then looked at Verde and the man who stood idle. "I just wanted to see the damage done to my face, that's all. I know I won't recover if I'm moving about." "Wow so you do know what reasoning is?" Birdie already knew where Verde was getting at, but he wasn't interested in having the conversation.

"Just get me a mirror so I can see what the damage is. I'm not in the mood for this." Verde shook his head as he laughed a bit and gave the man a dismissive wave. Leaving as he was dispatched, he closed the door behind him. "More important than your physical appearance is what you're like-" Birdie scoffed violently cutting Verde off. "Cut the bullshit. I know I'm not the nicest guy and I can be an egomaniac. You know that too, so why are you acting like this?" Birdie laid back down and closed his eyes, focusing on tolerating the pain. "It's different when you know it and when you see actually how expendable you treat everyone." Birdie sighed. "Am I at least allowed to smoke, you're killing my nerves. Where the fuck did Cervantes go to anyway, did he die in the blast?" Verde decided to drop it and pulled a cigarette and lighter out of his pocket. "He's alive . . . or at least was. No telling if he was in a sustainable state though." Verde put the cigarette between Birdie's lips and sparked it. Taking a deep drag, he exhaled a plume of smoke to the ceiling. "Brief me on what else happened." His eyes were still closed as he spoke and Verde walked to a corner of the room where a chair was and took a seat. "Well Bato made a full recovery, Cervantes is maybe alive, but we seized the ship and a few guys came with us. Your whole body is ravaged with burns, but I'm sure you know that and we're still on Drum Island." Birdie lifted his hand to the cigarette and took it out his mouth for a moment. "Surprised to hear we got the ship and a few stragglers. How many?" He put the cigarette back in his mouth and took a puff. "Twenty or so . . . there's also this." Verde pulled a rolled up paper out his back pocket and walked over to Birdie. Before it was even in his hands he knew what it was. "This outta be good." He grinned underneath his bandages and reached for the News Coo with his free hand. Taking another drag from his cig, he unrolled the News Coo and began reading.

It didn't take him long to read and boy was he satisfied with what he read. He found it ironic that they didn't have a face to tie to Birdie's identity, even more now because his face was more than likely in an unrecognizable state. "Would you look at that, top story in the paper. Ha!" He carefully tore it out and extended the piece of paper out to Verde. "Put that on my dresser for me, the first of many." Verde grabbed it and did as Birdie asked. "That part about the Noble . . . Meiji was pretty interesting too. I wanna toss an idea by you, just tell me what you think." Birdie put the paper down and looked at Verde waiting for him to explain. "No one really knows who Birdie is and as you are now, no one knows who you are. Imagine if we capture this Meiji guy and try to become one of the Seven Warlords?" Birdie chuckled and looked at Verde in a different light having heard him say that. "You're starting to think like me. It's exactly what I was thinking when I read about it. The issue is I have no weight to my name and our crew is pretty much dismantled." Verde nodded and sat back down in the chair. "Then we work our ass off and recruit some new members." Birdie nodded and thought for a long moment in silence. "Baltigo . . ." Verde hummed in confusion, not quite hearing what Birdie said. "We need to go to Baltigo. I figure I can keep "Birdie" alive in the Black Market, just no more high profile actions, but we could also find some new recruits there." Verde made a face that didn't seem to be too excited about Birdie's plan. "First off, who will you be if you're not Birdie. Secondly, picking up randoms from Baltigo is asking for problems." Birdie nodded in agreement with Verde's logic, but there was a key bit of information he had left out. "I'd just go by Dante or some other epithet, but that's not important right now. I was thinking we buy our recruits from an auction." He grinned deviously and began to laugh when he saw Verde raise a brow. "I'm not interested in keeping them as our slaves, we'd free them, but only if they of course they'd have to be willing to scratch out backs in return."

"God damn I haven't needed one of these until you woke up. So basically blackmail them with their freedom? That means they're practically slaves." Verde pulled out a cigarette for himself and lit it before taking a drag. "I mean if we didn't buy them, they'd be bought by some Noble who'd treat a pile of their own shit with more respect." Verde couldn't argue with that logic, not many people who weren't Nobles or Celestial Dragons purchased slaves. "Alright then on to becoming a Shichibukai. We have no notoriety at all and I doubt the World Government would be interested in just swearing in some rag tag pirates who happened to get lucky enough to capture a run away." At this Birdie sat up and scooted back carefully to rest his back against the wall. His back was getting sore from lying down so long. "There's plenty of degenerates running around Baltigo. I'm sure we could rack up some Bounty by turning some of 'em in." Verde nodded subtly and stood up from his chair. "So we setting sail for Baltigo then?" Birdie nodded. "Sounds good, also mind leaving that pack of cigs in here with me." Verde scoffed jokingly. "And let you smoke yourself to death in boredom, no thanks. I'm going to tell Bato to map out a route for us." Birdie moaned in discontentment, but did figure it was for the best. "At least get me some of my blueprint papers, so I can draft for these two weeks." Verde had already slipped out and closed the door, so he was unsure if he was heard, but a few minutes later the same guy from earlier came in and delivered it for Birdie. "I'm supposed to be baby sitting for the next two weeks, so if you need anything let me know." Birdie took the papers and the drawing utensils and nodded. "Got a smoke?" The guy was halfway out the door when Birdie asked. "Never been a smoker sorry." With that he closed the door and left Birdie to himself.

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