Where Geno starts getting some answers and learns for what reason everything started.

No one's POV:
-

If Geno thought again to attack him, if he had that desire for a moment, from the time he thought about it, it dissappeared. How? Whatever the reason was, he crawled slowly and with some difficulty because of the chains, towards Alter with no intentions to harm him. The priest smiled and stretched out his arms for Geno. However his chill didn't relax any less the pirates. Dave was ready to pull his pistol in case Geno was doing anything, who turned his look at him and hissed.

"No no! Geno! Don't pay attention to Dave. Come to me." Alter said calmly trying to relax him. After some seconds of staring suspiciously and with hostility at Dave, Geno turned his look slowly to Alter and started relaxing. He approached again.

"This is it Geno." Alter said still with his arms stretched. Now they were very close. Geno looked at his hands. He saw more clearly the slash to priest's right palm. Even though it reminded him how he ruined his plan to escape, the hate couldn't take place in his soul. Not anymore.

Alter turned his arms, with a way like he wanted to hug the smaller skeleton. Very waveringly Geno closed the gap between him and the priest, who very gently sat him at his lap. He didn't resist. Alter turned to look at the pirates. But he was specifically staring at the Captain.

"The keys for the handcuffs please." He said calmly. Still with worry at his face, the Captain slowly crammed his hand in the one of the pockets of his coat and pulled a link with keys. He threw them and Alter caught them in the air successfully. He unlocked the handcuffs from Geno's wrists, who started rubbing them relieved.

"Finally! These handcuffs were killing me! Thanks Alter." These were the first words he said from his transformation and after. Alter sighed and looked again at the pirates.

"Alright. What are we doing now with the fishstick?" Dave asked and everyone's heads turned to look at the Captain. Without wanting and understanding it, Geno wrapped his arms around Alter's waist like he could protect him. Alter flinched but didn't move.

"... Alter!" Captain said suddenly.

"What's your order Sir?" Alter replied calmly.

"... Carry him to your room." Captain said. Alter nodded and to Geno's surprise, the priest got up with ease, holding him bridal style. Ignoring pirates hostile but surprised expressions, he walked and passed them.

Geno wrapped his one arm around Alter's neck from worry and nervousness seeing getting closer to the pirates. But at the time they had almost pass them all, Captain smiled again sarcastically, winked his eye to Geno and whispered without anyone else hearing:

"Told ya." Geno showed his teeth, hissing lightly.

"Don't test his patience now Captain." Alter whispered, he had hear Captain's words too.

"Heh heh heh, fine... And Alter." The priest turned again to look at him.

"After ya leave him, come back to me. There are some things ya need to keep in mind." That time, his expression was serious. Geno shivered, thinking again that somehow he was preferring Captain smiling, even with sarcasm and irony. Alter nodded and turned his back.

"Here we are." Alter said after a minute of walking and once they stopped in front of the door of his room. He managed to open wide the door with his elbow and get in. Geno looked around him. The furniture of the room were only a table, a chair and priest's bed, a rectangle horizontal plank.

But if the room seemed so empty, the table wasn't. It had at it a candle, a jug, many vials with herbs and liquids, but what was taking most space at the table were the books. Neat piles of books with different colors and sizes. He saw also a Bible.

"Where did he find all these books?" He thought. Alter placed carefully Geno at his 'bed' and stepped back.

"I'm sorry if ya don't feel comfortable to the bed. I'm not sleeping with a layer or I don't sleep at all."

"I don't really mind now." Geno said.

"Wait here for a while. Captain said he has something to tell me." Alter said, walked with fast steps towards the door and closed it behind him. Silence fell in the room. Geno was only looking around since he couldn't walk and if he was crawling he wouldn't be able to reach the handle of the door.

At least that didn't last for long. 5 minutes later, he heard footsteps, the door opening and saw Alter, who walked towards the chair and sat at it, turning to look at Geno and crossed his arms. He stayed silent for a moment.

"... As I promised, I own ya answers. I'm waiting to hear questions." Geno lowered his head trying to think from where to start. He had questions but couldn't use words to express them. Finally he lifted his head finding how to start.

"You and the Captain said something about... a prophecy. How that thing is related to me, how it all started?" Alter closed his eyesockets gathering his thoughts.

"... You've heard about the 'Tearful Cave' as I remember. You see, some weeks ago we went there."

Alter described that terrible night like it was yesterday. That night was the last time Captain Reaper and Captain Nightmare were cooperating. After the failure to find the treasure, sirens attacked them. Trap. He described with details the moments of terror and agony they all had.

How the Captains argued after, and their crews separated, determined to never cooperate with each other again. Shortly after saying the event in the 'Tearful Cave', he started talking about the prophecy

"... After a very long trip, we arrived at your village. Captain left me in the ship to guard it and in case whatever the prophecy said was true, which it actually was. I saw ya from the mast getting in. The prophecy was correct about the way you appeared. And ya had the necklace. The night when you fell from the mast, we took it from ya. The prophecy says it's one of the keys. No idea how exactly it'll work as a key. Also we're missing more details..." At that point Alter lowered the tone of his voice and nailed with a serious look Geno.

"... which I think, you, are the one who can give them." Geno raised his eyebrows surprised and a little worried probably for Alter's expression.

"What do you mean by that?"

"The prophecy says for ya, he's guided by his own dreams but wakes up by many screams."

"Sheesh, who's making these prophecies?"

"Geno. When ya were locked in the cells and I was coming to check on ya, many times I was seeing ya, while sleeping, squirming worried or even singing. Other times in the middle of the night, I could hear ya actually screaming. You're seeing something that might tries to tell ya things. Is there any dream ya saw and brought you questions?"

Geno remembered the dream with the 2 Captains and the Siren Queen or whatever she was. He wanted to talk about it with Alter but then they took him out of the cell by violence, yeeted him in the sea and he transformed into a siren.

"Actually there is." He said and described the dream (ya all have read in the chapter «Getting out after 2 weeks»). He could remember all the details.

"In some things that dream told me things that were right. Ya said when ya were in the 'Tearful Cave', the sirens tricked ya and attacked, the Captains said it. Then, they also told me about a... countdown."

"It's also written in the prophecy, yes continue, what else ya saw?" Alter asked, paying more attention.

"The one Captain then started getting covered with... goo. I guess that was Captain Nightmare. The other was just still surrounded by the aura and spoke to me... it was your Captain."

"Really? What did he say?" Alter asked raising his eyebrows. Geno said what he heard from Captain Reaper.

"Again, things I heard from the dream, happened today... but I don't get it. Why see the most dangerous pirates in history, in this dream? I've never seen them before, I've only hear descriptions and after the dream I saw your Captain!"

"... Maybe just because you're the chosen, ya have the ability to sometimes, see things or people before actually meeting them and take answers that if you're not understanding their meaning immediately, they're coming in real life... I'm afraid I can't give any other satisfying, logical to you explanations Geno, I'm sorry... Anyways, did the dream end like that?"

"No." Geno said and described how it ended with the green-haired siren.

"She was wearing crown and holding a trident. But then... what about the other siren... she gave me the symbol she was royalty..." There, Alter lowered his head, crossed his arms and started thinking intensively. As for Geno, only when he heard these words understood why he didn't want to attack Alter before.

"Of course! His symbol, I'm a siren, why didn't I understand it before?!" He thought and stared at Alter, waiting for him to say something. After a while, Alter raised his head, still thoughtful though.

"Years passed from the last time I saw the pink-haired siren. She was hiding from someone with other allies from what she said and I understood... Maybe... with your dreams, more answers will appear... anything else?"

Geno was ready to say that there was nothing else. But then, another question popped in his mind. He didn't know how it came but now he was curious a lot to know.

"The 2 Captains are cursed from the sirens. But if Captain Nightmare got covered with that goo as a result of the curse... Then how the curse affected your Captain?" Geno asked nailing his look at Alter. Who at the very last moment managed to keep his expression unreadable.

"Why that question?" He asked keeping the tone of his voice calm, raising an eyebrow and pretending to look curious.

"What? You don't know? How you don't know?! What happened to Captain Nightmare is obvious. But is it possible to not know about your own Captain?!!!" Although Alter was looking calm on the outside, inside he was slightly anxious.

"He's smart and observant to make that question. That's from his siren's side. How should I answer him that? Captain told me, to say nothing about it."

FLASHBACK:

"You remember what you must do with him, right?" Captain asked Alter after telling him all the things he had to do for Geno.

"Yes Captain." Alter said nodding.

"Good. Now go back to him." The priest turned his back and opened the door of Captain's room, ready to get out.

"And Alter!... One last thing."

"What is it?" Alter asked turning only his head a little behind him.

"... Whatever Geno asks it's ok to tell him. But if he asks anything about the curses, don't say a word. I think it will be better if he's oblivious about what it did to me and how much it affects me the few time I have it." Alter turned to look at the Captain.

He had take off his gloves. It was horrific how his hands and wrists had become in only some weeks. Marks like Hansen's disease hitted them first, together with scars like a wild animal scratched them. In Captain's opinion, he would have prefer an actual leprosy instead of these scars and marks.

The crew obviously knew about his curse, but never saw how it was affecting him. Only Alter knew about it. Him and another pirate in the crew were the only ones who had doctor knowledge but the Captain was trusting only Alter to take care of his hands.

Because, when sometimes the pain was torturing Captain Reaper, another problem the curse was bringing him except from killing anything alive by just touching it, he needed help to handle it. Alter didn't freak out from his scars the first time he saw them and wasn't afraid to be close to Captain.

But for safety, everytime he had to take care of his hands, he was wearing gloves. Sadly, the marks and scars weren't leaving or getting better, after all, we're talking about a curse. The only thing Alter could do was to take the pain, if not forever, for some time.

"Yes, Captain." Alter only said and left.

END OF FLASHBACK:

Because he wasn't answering quickly, Geno started getting suspicious, his eyesocket half-closed.

"Alter? I swear you're hiding again something from m-?"

"Well well well! I can't help but smile, seeing how nicely ya 2 are getting along!" They heard a sarcastic voice. Geno turned surprised to look at the opening of the door, only to hiss. Captain was pressing his back at the one side of the door. He had his arms crossed, smiling again with that sarcastic way of his.

"What on earth?! For how long he was standing there?!" Geno thought.

"Hi Captain." Alter replied calmly and got up, he didn't seem so surprised.

"*sigh* Crazy priest. All this time and we didn't bandage your hand yet. Ya can let him again for a while. He won't go anywhere." Captain said, turned his back and left. Alter stared for a little while at Geno's angry, hostile expression. He sighed.

"I know, ya don't have the best opinion for him or any pirate here. Captain Reaper can be sometimes sadistic and sarcastic. But..." He got up slowly and walked towards the door. He stopped there and turned his look at Geno smiling. "... he's very fair and kind-hearted."

"Yeah, wow, now I believed it." Geno murmured ironically. Alter huffed.

"Don't judge a book by it's cover so fast. You'll see it by yourself." He said, get out and closed the door.

the chapter ends here. see ya next time readers stay determined and safe and perfect. we have 2362 words.