Onboard the Free Joker... [For Joe]

[curryjolokia]

For one and a half Galactic Standard months following Basco's visit to his bedroom, Joe was confined exclusively to his quarters.  Food was provided him once daily, though occasionally the meal would arrive late or not at all.  Sometimes the following day would bring two meals, or one extra-large one; sometimes, not.  He was not allowed even into the hallway to reach the lavatory; Sally had simply tossed a bucket at his head after bandaging him up from Basco's abuse, and the rest had been left to him to figure out for himself.

Sally was his jailer and only contact; for six weeks, Joe was kept in complete isolation, save for the interludes, every few days, in which Sally ventured into his room to remove the chamberpot-bucket and place a new one in.  Leaving the room for exercise was out of the question, and any attempt to communicate with Sally went exactly nowhere, slowly, accompanied by banana peels.

Six weeks after Basco nearly killed him on his bed, on an otherwise unexemplary day, things changed.  Joe woke to the sound of his door's deadbolt sliding back.  But the door didn't swing open, and after a few moments of silence, a sour smell began to emanate from the hallway outside.  A slight shift in the light under the door, around the edges of the locking flap through which his meals had been provided, drew Joe's attention.  The light was obstructed somewhat; something lay on the floor outside the room.  And the something was bleeding - a dark puddle was slowly increasing in dimension, creeping into the room through the scant space under its door.

Comments

[gibken]

Joe lost track of the time passing some time after the third week of the sudden shift in his imprisonment. No room, no freedom, no intelligent discussion, no discussion of any time.

He'd known, when Basco had left in his rage, that he'd crossed some nebulous line. He wasn't sure which part of his half-conscious monologuing had set Basco off, and there was certainly no way to find out. Not that he could speak monkey anyway, but Sally seemed about as angry and disinterested in him as Basco obviously was.

Food came, but made no real impact on Joe. He tried to keep track of the days on the wall as he had before, but it was no use with no way to tell when one day passed into the next, when sometimes his meals were forgotten or suddenly supplemented.

It was degrading, somewhat, having to use a simple uncovered bucket as a makeshift lavatory. He had no way to clean himself, no way to do anything but pace circles around his cramped quarters and, he's quite sure, go slowly insane.

The day the door unlocked and then didn't promptly open to reveal Sally with a fresh bucket might have gone by as any of the others, but after a moment of odd silence and an odder smell, Joe finally forced himself to crawl off his bed (the wounds on his leg hadn't healed as well as they might have had he had a chance to clean and care for them himself) and limp to the door.

He hesitated for a long moment before he finally got up the courage, such as it was, to grasp the handle and throw the door open.

He hadn't a clue what he might find on the other side, but he was worried, deep in his gut he was worried that something might have gone terribly wrong.

[Aww the leg. I didn't intend for that. :( Also, sorry for the bloody short tag. :/ ]

[curryjolokia]

Sally's corpse lay sprawled on the floor of the hallway outside Joe's door, slit across the belly. She wasn't wearing most of the armour which up to that point she had never been seen without; she was obviously caught in a moment of unguardedness when her death came. Her bowels had been slit - that explained the smell - and her blood, though still and beginning to congeal, was still warm.

[I dunno, he tells me things, I do them, I'm sorry :(]

[gibken]

It's only the nerves of steel the military instilled in Joe that keep him from retching, at the sight, the smell, the entire situation.

He'd never been in any way close to Sally. She had always been at least an inconvenience, and for a long while now, more a jailer than Basco ever was. But she was also just... another crew member. Not his crew, obviously, but she was all Basco had for a crew, and now she's dead.

Not dying. Very much dead. He managed to lean over her long enough to make sure there was nothing he could do before he's moving. He's not sure where he's going, at first, but he'll start with Basco's quarters, and if nothing comes up there, he'll move on. Without Sally to stop him, he can check the helm, the cells in the belly of the ship.

Who hurt her? That's the real question. Who killed Sally?

And why did she unlock his door with her dying breath?

[curryjolokia]

Nothing on the bridge, or in the other cabins. Nothing in the galley or the engine room. Nobody in the infirmary, either, which is both worrisome and not surprising, in some ways. Joe's walked the majority of the ship before he turns his path toward the brig at the bottom of the ship. The wounds in his thigh are twinging pretty badly by this point, and the fact that he hasn't run into anyone, Basco or Gokaigers, is only increasing the ominous feeling that's settled over the unnervingly quiet ship.

There's only one place else to look.

When Joe arrives at the brig, the sound of his footsteps alerts its occupants to his presence - but how many occupants there are is not as evident as it once was. The cell bars have been joined by an opaque sheeting, hiding their contents - or potential lack there of - from anyone walking the hallway.

At the far end of the hall, the bars to Marvelous's cell are withdrawn. After a moment, Basco peers out into the hallway, head and shoulders appearing near to the floor. He's crouching within the cell, outside Marvelous' reach, and when he sees Joe his expression brightens cheerfully.

"Yo, Joe-chan," he calls down the hall, tipping his head in a come-hither sort of motion. "I was just having a nice conversation with Marvey. Come join us."

[gibken]

Joe grows steadily more tense as his careful exploration of the ship raises more questions than it answers. He does take the time in the helm to make sure the brig hasn't been jettisoned, but that does little to put him at ease when his first trip to the infirmary where Gai was supposed to be being held finds it empty and devoid of any hint as to where the young pirate has been taken. He might have died in the long weeks since Basco's fit left his door locked.

He can't be dead, Joe tells himself as he finally, nervously turns his limping steps down into the brig.

It feels like a tomb with the bars covered in this way, and he takes a moment at each of the cells he remembers passing to press his hand to where the entrance must be, hoping that the seal isn't airtight, hoping against all hope that his crew hasn't simply been snuffed out like so many candles.

At the end of the hall, the last cell lies open, and Joe's heart makes a bid at freedom through his throat, catching and choking him as his unsteady and uneven steps draw him ever closer, his ears straining to hear anything over the rapid thrumming of his heart, anything that might tip him off to whatever has gone so wrong today.

Basco leans out of the doorway and Joe stops dead for a moment, the fingers of his right hand twitching and itching for a sword or even a gun, though his skills with ranged weaponry have always been at best lucky.

"Basco." He grates out finally, his voice dry and weak and... scared, yes, absolutely terrified. He strains to hear any hint that Marvelous is still alive, and he fears the worst. He fears that at some point in the more than a month Basco had kept him locked away, the privateer has gone entirely off the deep end.

He takes a few steps closer, cautious, like approaching a rabid beast. "What's happened?"

[curryjolokia]

"Aaa~aa! Mabe-chan was just telling me you'd be down to visit soon." Basco rocks forward, rising out of his awkward crouch to stand, and puts one foot out of Marvelous's cell, beckoning to Joe with a smile.

"Well, actually, he wasn't telling me that at all, since I still won't let him talk."

Marvelous is still chained to the back wall of the cell, much as Joe had seen him before, the only other time he visited the brig. By now, though, the long time in captivity has obviously affected his strength; he looks slack, weakened by long forced stillness.

Aside from that, however, he is in fairly good shape. Basco has obviously taken great pains to care for Marvelous personally, and the cell around him is clean as well. He's in as good of repair as can be expected for a man who's been bound hand and foot for two months.

The skin of Marvelous's face around his metal gag/muzzle is rough and chapped, showing signs that it had been rubbed raw with his struggling, and left to heal up under and around the metal every time it was replaced. Underneath it was probably even worse; he'd obviously been fed sufficiently, which in and of itself was good; but the damage to his face, surely caused by his stubbornness to struggle against Basco's dominance, had been worsened just by the daily removal and replacement of his muzzle.

"I was asking Marvey how to solve a problem I have," Basco told Joe, his tone conversational, and leaned back against the far wall of Marvelous's cell to allow Joe free approach toward his wilted captain.

"It's all about him, though, so I don't think he can give a fair opinion."

[gibken]

If Joe was unsure before, he's fairly convinced now that Basco's self-imposed isolation had done a number on his psyche. He'd always known Basco to be clever. Brilliant, really, too smart maybe for his own good or for the profession he'd chosen for himself. Coupled with his incredible temper and obvious shaky control over his baser instincts, he had been an incredibly dangerous foe. But now, with no prey to chase, Joe thinks he might have made himself mad in chasing his own tail.

Joe stumbles, dragging his sore leg along after him, passing Basco without a thought and coming up alongside Marvelous. He takes a moment to examine his Captain, to meet his eyes and try to impart some small measure of strength and reassurance. His fingers tremble where they touch the raw marks around the gag holding Marvelous' tongue in check, and he raises his hand to push Marvelous' hair back from his face, leaning close to press his cheek against the Captain's. "I'm trying." He hisses into the Captain's ear, sure he'll understand the meaning, then turns to face Basco properly, giving him the same searching look as he'd given Marvelous.

"Basco." He says again, carefully, and then slips into an unsteady crouch at Marvelous' feet, his eyes on their captor. "What happened?" He asks again. He has to know. He wets his lips and swallows once. "What happened to Sally?"

[curryjolokia]

Basco's expression is warm, cheerfully patient while Joe embraces Marvelous, as though he's watching an interaction between pets of whom he's especially fond. His expression warms further when Joe turns the same reassuring look on him, but it freezes and falls when Joe shifts the topic onto his recently-deceased minion.

"She died." Head tipped to the side, Basco quirked one eyebrow and put on a mirthless smile, just for Joe. "Is that a problem?"

[gibken]

"She didn't just die, Basco." The privateer's madness is stifling in the small cell, Joe shifted to lean back against the wall beside Marvelous, to rest his bad leg, putting out one hand to rest on the Captain's calf. He's not sure who he's reassuring anymore, but he finds himself reaching for Basco with his free hand and a modicum of sincere concern. "Don't think me such a fool. She was killed. Who did it?"

[curryjolokia]

Marvelous is straining against his bonds, reacting to the conversation, or maybe to the scent of Sally's death on Basco, now that he knows enough to identify the smell. Basco smiles, approaching both his pets, and reaches up to caress Marvelous's jaw with one hand. Marvelous pulls his head as far away as he can manage from the touch, but the chains bind him, and at the end of his reach, Basco's hand catches up with him.

Holding Marvelous in place with the strong grip of his thumb and forefinger, Basco looks down to meet Joe's eye, taking in the extended hand with no small amount of befuddlement. His expression is a humorous one, if you ignore the dead coldness of his gaze.

"You're not a fool, Joe-chan," Basco says coolly. "Don't be so obvious." He turns his attention back to Marvelous, leaning in close to nibble at the once-captain's neck, with the delicacy of a lover's kiss. "She didn't serve a purpose any longer."

[gibken]

Joe's hand tightens on Marvelous' leg as Basco moves closer. He's tempted to stand up, to defend his Captain from Basco's greedy grasp, but he's not sure he has the strength to defy the privateer just yet. And he still needs to know more.

Until he starts to nip at Marvelous' neck, much to the Captains distress. Joe stands as quickly as he can, inserting himself between Basco and Marvelous. He's carrying all of his weight on his good leg, and if push comes to shove he'll surely be toppling over. But for now, he has to try and keep them both at arm's length and try to sort this. With the other cells closed off, or maybe even empty (Joe's stomach twists at the thought), Sally dead, Marvelous emaciated and Basco clearly insane, Joe has to try to fix this himself.

He takes a deep breath and puts both hands on Basco's chest to draw his attention away from Marvelous. "She let me out of my room. Must have been the last thing she did. Why?"

[curryjolokia]

"I told her to," Basco says, obviously bored with the discussion. He tips against Joe, pressing his balance, and as Joe's palms on his chest press back against Joe's own chest, Basco presses his mouth to Joe's, tongue thrusting deep. Joe's bad leg gives a bit, enough to tip Joe backward until he runs up against Marvelous, and gains support from that.

Basco, intending that to start with, growls into his pet's mouth, his glamour flickering somewhat as he enjoys the way he's trapped his prey so efficiently. He speaks against Joe's mouth, teeth scraping his lips; his gaze holds a pleasant grin as he looks past Joe's ear to smile for Marvelous.

"She was obedient, I'll give her that."

[gibken]

This is not going at all the way Joe was hoping. Admittedly, he hasn't a clue exactly what he was hoping for, but this is definitely not it. He doesn't have the strength, for as long as he was locked away he had no real room to exercise, to keep his strength up, to care for himself at all.

He struggles as best he can at first, but then Basco pulls back, just a bit, speaking against his mouth, and Joe relaxes against the familiar shape of his Captain, hating Marvelous' captivity more with every passing second, but glad at least that Basco's attentions have mostly turned away from Marvelous and onto him. It's the best he can do for now.

"Talk to me, Basco. Please."

[curryjolokia]

"I did tell you I needed advice, didn't I?" Basco nuzzles against Joe, then reaches past Joe's shoulder with one hand, claws extending from his humanlike fingers, to grip a fistful of Marvelous's hair, yanking hard enough to rip.

"I think I messed up, Joe-chan. I caught Marvey-chan, but it didn't turn out how I wanted. He's not Marvey-chan anymore. I broke his wings.

"Now I don't know what to do with him anymore. He's not my Marvey anymore...he's just a shell." Basco nips at Joe's ear, fierce at first. Then something falls out of him, some measure of tension, and Basco lays his head on Joe's shoulder, draping his full body's weight against his wobbling pet.

"Like Sally. Like you. Like me."

[gibken]

Mostly Joe's surprised his guesswork was so spot on. Basco had accomplished what he thought he meant to do. He'd caught them, he'd claimed the Galleon and all that went with it as his own, and then he was left with no goal, no drive. He spent time, Joe can see now, trying to coax some manner of fight out of Marvelous, but he'd made another fatal mistake in using Joe to do it.

Marvelous' wings weren't broken at all, merely clipped. And what held him in place was sincere belief that Joe, his best friend, beloved first mate, would get them out of this, no more than another tight spot and impending execution.

Joe. He'd picked Joe to try and spark another chase, but Joe had found, as time stretched on, that he couldn't bring himself to hate Basco in this setting, in this situation.

Basco had driven himself slowly insane, with no prey to hunt, no outlet for the base instincts of the monster inside of him.

"You stupid bastard." Joe laughs weakly, his leg buckles when Basco goes limp against him. He can't hold up forever, and his primary loyalty is still to his Captain, regardless of what kind of strange duty he's beginning to feel towards his captor. He thrusts forward with all of his weight, catching Basco around the waist and dragging him down. He lands on his back on the floor of the cell with a slight gasp at the shock, with Basco on top of him.

"Would you really underestimate us till the very end? Shells, you say, all of us? You believe that?"

[curryjolokia]

Slowly, Basco pushes himself to hands and knees, then rocks back to sit on his heels, drawing careful breath, looking down at Joe with a nakedly baffled expression. Joe has finally completely confused him, and Basco blinks heavily, obviously needing a few moments to catch up with either their position, Joe's logic, or both.

He looks up and over his shoulder, up to Marvelous's face, thinking to ask his opinion on the whole thing. And even though Joe's beneath him, Basco is still suddenly struck dumb, paralyzed, by the realization that he's kneeling in front of Marvelous. Marvelous regards him with furious anger; Basco can see disgust, dismissal, and even amusement in his former friend's gaze.

Marvelous doesn't need words to tell Basco how disgusted he is with him, how small he looks in Marvelous's eyes. And Basco suddenly realizes Marvelous has just been lying to him this whole time, patiently playing the broken bird, coiled in readiness and waiting unwaveringly for his First Mate to come for him.

Never once doubting him.

Basco rolls off Joe as fast as he can, staggering up and toward the door of Marvelous's cell. The once-captain's gaze follows him, unrelenting, as Basco sags against the doorway and tries to gather himself.

"No," he answers Joe finally, holding Marvelous's gaze. "Yes." His pistol's in his hand, and he looks down at it blankly, visibly struggling to assess how it might have gotten there. That's the problem with summonable weapons...sometimes they respond to your heart, not your head.

Shaking his head, palm pressed to his temples, Basco stumbles back from the doorway into the hall, then away, out of sight of the two left in the cell, away from the hateful, crushing expression on Marvelous's face.

A gunshot booms out, echoing through the narrow space. Muffled screams of confusion and the rattle of the other prisoners' chains being yanked to their full extents can be heard from the cells down the line, accompanied by the single, heavy thud of one body hitting the floor.

Marvelous and Joe are left in near-silence.

Epilogue

[curryjolokia]

Joe only manages command of his body because of the way Marvelous is looking at him. He's sure on his own he'd be frozen in place, wondering what specific thing he'd said wrong, what he could have said to have a better effect than this. But Marvelous's expression is insistent, and Joe drags himself upright by force of will. He's tired, and leans on Marvelous while he figures out the latches on his muzzle; as he slowly lifts it free, the spikes on its inside surface reluctantly detatching from the wounds and dried blood that covers the lower half of Marvelous's face, his captain is already speaking, unconcerned with the way his lips crack and bleed as he shapes the words.

"The crew," Marvelous rasps. "My crew."

"I'll find out," Joe says, hating that he can't make any stronger promise than that. He limps to the cell door, steels himself, and steps into the hall.

Thankfully, he supposes, he was right about the gunshot. The screams from inside the blindered cells would be the crew, fearing one of their own had just perished; but Joe had come to know Basco better than that by now.

It wasn't going to be easy for Marvelous, Joe knew, but even harder for Doc and Gai, both of whom still believed, on some level, in the possibility of marginally happy endings. By the same token, Joe doubted Ahim or Luka would have as much of a problem stomaching the sight of Basco's corpse, his skull...opened, and spilled. Joe tugged the feathery boa Basco always wore free of the crook of his elbow, laying two loops of it across the dead privateer's face. The feathers quickly soaked in the liquids surrounding Basco's head, drooping as they grew heavy with blood and other things. At the very least, the feathers covered his face, and the ruin that was the back of his head, a makeshift shroud. Marvelous would appreciate that much respect paid to him, once he could see what had occurred.

Joe called down the line to his captain. "Marvelous, it's Basco. He--"

"The crew," Marvelous rasped, his voice hoarse and raw from disuse. Joe understood: focus on the living, not the too-late.

Joe summoned the best volume he could manage, hoping his voice wouldn't crack. "Crew, sound off!" For a single terrifying second, a moment that lasted for hours, the silence that sounded after his words sank in Joe's paranoid heart like a stone. Then...

"Gokai Yellow."
"Gokai Green."
"Gokai Pink."
"MARVELOUS-SANNNN!"

Joe breathed. The muffled, painful groans from each of the four blinkered cells were the best that the crew could manage, as they were all certainly still gagged and bound as Basco had left them. The roll call had sounded less like distinct words and more like a conversation during dinner with full mouths. But Joe knew by heart the callsigns the crew were trying to say around the metal gags. One for each familiar voice.

They were all alive.

Joe found the wall switches for the cell grates, raising the blind and pulling back the bars for each of their four teammates. Feeling stronger and more whole than he had since their ordeal began, Joe gently removed each crew member's gag, doing what he could to soothe the wounds and abrasions on their faces. None of them had been so warmly treated as Marvelous. Doc, whom Joe suspected had attempted an ill-advised but nobly intended hunger strike, was even worse off than the other three, all emaciated and weak.

Joe knew it was only adrenaline driving him by this point, as he reassured each member of their crew, then returned to Marvelous's cell to begin working on the locks that bound him. Gai said he'd seen where Basco replaced the keys each time after locking them up. Luka said she'd seen them stashed in a different place. Joe checked both, trying to walk faster than his bad leg wanted him to, and found a fat keyring in each location. From there it was a slow, tedious process of trial and error to find the right key for each of the locks binding his crewmates' hands, legs, and bodies. As each was released, Joe gently lowered them to the floor, propping them up in the corner of their cells because they were all very nearly too weak to move.

Joe took his time. There was a lot to report to Marvelous, and a lot of care that would be needed on all their parts before any of them were seaworthy again.