A Black Heart Does Not Always Stay Black

Losing Control For the First Time

When Marco came out of the brig and went to Whitebeard's room, his expression must have been angry. The captain had sat up immediately, seeing Marco in the doorway with his arms crossed. Marco was rarely angry or irate. Well, at least when he wasn't hiding it away.

"What is it?" Whitebeard asked, pulling the blanket aside and standing up, sensing something was deeply bothering his son. The captain knew he hadn't slept well at all, and assumed Marco hadn't either. Marco entered the room, and closed the door behind him. It was still quite early and most of the other commanders were asleep.

"Teach is dead. I think infection got him. It's not pretty down there, and it reeks," Marco said in a toneless voice, his face a blank mask that the captain hates to see.

"I see." There wasn't really anything to say. Marco sighed, looking out the windows at the rising sun, which was peeking over the horizon and changed the color of the sky rapidly.

"I'm gonna clean it up before most of the crew wakes. No one needs to see it. We may all collectively hate Teach now, but no one wants to see him in that state. Well, see anybody in that state," Marco explained. He took a deep breath, and went to exit the room and close the door behind him.

Whitebeard was there too fast, keeping the large door open. "I'm coming, too. What kind of father would I be to let my son dispose of his former brother alone. And as much as I detest him now, Teach was a son of mine for decades. I need to at least see him go." Marco nodded and the two left the commanders' hall and headed downstairs to the brig, passing by the sectioned off crime-scene. The blood on the floor had been scrubbed away, luckily not soaking into the wood.

The evidence of Luffy's attemped murder was something nobody wanted to be reminded of, so having the blood not staying was a good thing. The three were still in the infirmary sleeping, the two assumed. They didn't know how Luffy had slept, but imagined it hadn't been a very peaceful one.

Both were familiar with trauma and associated nightmares, especially Marco. When they reached the brig, Marco told Pops to plug his nose as he opened the door, and the smell of rotting human flesh was festering inside the small space. Whitebeard covered his nose, as it was too much for even he. He'd been around dead bodies many times before, but not rotting ones that had been enclosed to fester.

Marco pulled out a huge trashbag from the cupboard outside of the brig which held cleaning supplies and weapons. "Oh, jeez," Whitebeard muttered when they got a look at Teach's body. It was horrendous, and Whitebeard had trouble looking.

"Funny how we care more about what happens to him when he's a rotting corpse and not a rotten human being," Marco said humorlessly. "Please help me get him inside, Pops." There were no gloves big enough for the captain's hands, so he had two trashbags over them.

Lifting Teach's body was easy for the large man, but far from pleasant. Being up closer to him was even worse, and Marco immediately closed the bag the second Teach was inside. He then went and got another bag to double bag it. They'd have to bring it through the ship, and hopefully it wouldn't make the entire place smell.

The two had kept the door of the brig shut so the smell didn't move to other parts of the ship, but they had no way to air out the space. Hopefully, they wouldn't use the brig again anytime soon. They still had to clean up the left over flesh and blood in Teach's cell. They couldn't leave it there or the smell would get worse.

Whitebeard had the bag over his shoulder, both men silent and in their own thoughts. They were still angry and hateful towards Teach and his deceit, but it was still hard to carry his dead body out on deck and toss it over the side of the ship. A sea king appeared and ate the body, plastic bag and all.