Where Reaper is determined go to Lisbon while the doctor although finds it foolish, knows he can't change his mind and prepares him for the risks.

No one's POV:
-

Many hours ago

Reaper suddenly opened his eyesockets wide. All this time he was sitting on his bed. But once he found his consciousness he managed to fall down on the floor from the shock, inhaling and exhaling deeply.

"Διάολε!" He murmured looking down on the floor. The door of the room suddenly opened wide so fast you could fear for a moment it was going to break from its hinges.

"Señor?" Ramirez was heard asking fast. Reaper raised his hand still looking down, signing him to stay where he was. He slowly stood up by himself and stared at the dog with that shocked expression he was making all this time.

"Estava mort..." He said slowly.

"Who?" Ramirez asked. Reaper didn't say immediately. It took enough seconds to finally do so.

"... Geno." He whispered.

"Ok cool." Ramirez said indifferently and he was ready to turn his back and leave. But he suddenly stopped and turned sharply to look again at Reaper. "El pescado?!" He asked realising and remembering for who his Captain was talking about.

"I saw him Ramirez. He was in the afterlife! He... he was at state between life and death. He entered my memories. But... but as soon as we saw each other he revived in front of me!"

"Ah ok." Ramirez said casually chill and indifferent again. Then he growled pinching the base of his nose. "What were you expecting Señor? He and Alter are in Lisbon, among humans. Dying wouldn't be surprising. But if he was about to die and then came back to life, then you shouldn't worry. He's still up to finish the mission. As much as the priest has become good friends with him, he won't let him go. Everything is under control for now."

"But... But what if he's not fine?!" Reaper pressed his hand on his forehead looking away.

"¡¿Me estás tomando el pelo?!" Ramirez thought. Truly, he felt almost ready to cry from the sudden wave of frusfration that ran through him at that moment. "He's already at stage to worry for that fish!" He inhaled and exhaled quietly, not like Reaper would hear him this agitated he was still. "Keep it together. He is just worrying. It's not like he will go all the way to Lisbon and risk his life just to see if the fish is still standing-."

"That's it." Reaper suddenly said serious, taking the dog off his thoughts.

"What?"

"I'm going there." The skeleton declared.

Did Ramirez want at that moment to start hitting his head on the wall until he pass out? This frustrated he became hearing these words. But he sucked it up for now and kept staring at Captain, who had turn to look at him.

"Mi amigo, I want you to cover me. Once all lads go to rest, I'll sneak out."

"Esto es absolutamente estúpido." Ramirez said out loud still calmly, but his pinned back ears and his tail wagging fast and abruptly had started betraying his real emotions. However Reaper didn't seem to pay attention.

"I don't know how long it will take me, but if I'm not back in the morning and someone asks for me, tell them that I'm not well. Anything, whatever!"

"I don't tell lies Señor, even to the peasants." Ramirez kept going, now betraying spite, while a deep still very quiet snarl had started being heard. But impressively he was keeping it under control.

"It's not your lie Ramirez, it is my lie you will say. It ain't a big deal." Reaper stated. He was walking back and forth from all stress and excitement of the moment. "Alright. That is then. I'm going out. In a few hours we'll have to temporarily say goodbye to each other-."

"Your face is on the posters. Once they see you, you'll be hunted down by the government of Portugal."

"Not if you give me some of your 'magic tricks' though." Reaper said smiling wide. Ramirez had got the meaning, he had predicted the Captain would ask for his vials and other materials to disguise. Which had only make him even more angry. He closed his eyes and clenched his teeth as his ears were pinned back even more and a snarl clear as day escaped, getting Reaper's attention. "Doctor? What's wrong?"

~

He closed the door of the office causing a loud thud. Reaper jumped back surprised. Ramirez looked at him and his only good eye had something absolutely crazy in it. Anger and irony were dripping from there.

"You care for the absolutely wrong monster. You really think he cares and thinks about you? For your well being? You've gone completely mad if you think he does. He's with us against his will and stares at almost all of us as if he will strangle us in our sleep. You are sorely mistaken if you believe he cares to save you and if it was up to him he would have left long ago. You are cursed. CURSED! You foolish skeleton! He's scared of you, why would he end up caring for you?! Don't be a fool and just DON'T go risk your head just to see how he's doing. I am not giving you my help and I'm not wasting not even a vial for your lunatic plans. Señor Reaper Renrink, hijo de Hades, sit down right here and now and try think a little more carefully of your actions!"

~

Honestly, he really wanted to say all these. He could have done so. He could have denied give his help.

But he didn't.

"Ramirez?" Reaper asked again with more concern. The doctor turned his head away as the snarling died down. He placed hands on his hips.

"F*ck. this. all..." He heard him murmuring. "2 vials and powder for fake bruises. I'm going." He said more clearly.

"Ramirez-."

"Just... when you go there, ask the priest how the mission is going so far. If it is done and the fish did whatever he have to. I'll bring your disguise tools." The dog cutted him off, turned his back quickly and exited the office, leaving a surprised and confused Reaper staring at him.

"What was there you truly wanted to say?"

"Estúpido! Idiota! You f*cking- You should have spoken!" Ramirez yelled in his mind as he was walking for the medical room with fast steps and lowered head, snarling like the antichrist. "No matter, I have him capable go to Lisbon even if I deny to help him. In my translation, he's THAT stupid to go without disguise. He will go as if he has a paper stuck on his back writting, «I am Captain Reaper one of the most dangerous pirates who has ever roamed all 7 Seas and at least 10 powerful governments have put a price for my head! Come and arrest me!». And for who he's going to Lisbon?! For the little fish of course!" He sighed. "Señor Hades por favor give me strength-."

He suddenly felt bumping on someone and the doctor almost fell down. But he kept his balance. The sound of a gasp, a tray falling on the floor, a loud thud and a cup breaking were heard all at once.

"MICHAEL YOU LITTLE-!" Ramirez yelled ready to shower in insults who he assumed he bumped into was the young human. God, how much he just couldn't feel at ease with this boy. He was so hateful towards poor Michael that even if someone else was bumping on him, out of habit he was still yelling his name.

Coffee had stained his coat and he could feel it's heat on his right hand, it had spilled there too. But he didn't care for the burn now. Because once he saw who he had bumped into, all the anger vanished in a finger snap.

"I'm fine." Aldo gestured, slowly standing up.

"Sometimes I truly have to stop being so angry. Everytime it's as if all my senses are shutting down and I'm not careful." Ramirez thought staring at the beaver thoughtful. Suddenly the smell of blood hitted him and he facepalmed. "F*ck Aldo, the cup slashed you!" He said.

Indeed a big fragment from the shattered cup on the floor was stained with blood. Aldo was clearly trying to hide his injured left hand behind his back, in vain, as said, since Ramirez smelled the blood. Without saying anything the doctor signed the cook to follow him, who didn't bring objections.

They both arrived and entered the medical room. But, well, with the way it was used, only medical room it couldn't be called. It was a little mentioned. But because the reader most likely can't keep up with all small details, necessary to say that this medical room was also called by all pirates as «Ramirez' laboratory».

In there, the dog wasn't just treating patients who needed his services. Many times he was locking himself in this room, making strange potions and experimenting on creating new stuff. In there he was making the filters that were changing the color of the magic. In there he had make many other disguise tools.

Useful for when his Captain was asking him to make them if there was a mission they had to accomplish on land in secret. Sometimes when he was deeply busy with one experiment, or it was required for him to supervise the process of making it to make sure nothing would go wrong, he could even stay all day and night locked.

He preffered to sleep in there, not on hammocks near the other pirates. That's why the medical room had also been simply called literally «Ramirez' room». He was even making explosives, which from the first day they were tested, were making the more difficult raids of other ships look like a child's game.

Recently he was discovered to be making potions that as he claimed would strengthen a monster's magic and make them last in battles for longer. But from the small explosions that were prevailing in the medical room if someone was passing by, there was still a lot of work to be done.

Despite all useful things Ramirez had done to make this crew the most fearsome and despite all his services, almost everyone was still despising him. And he wasn't trying hard to fix that. He was hated, but he was also feared, just some wouldn't admit it. He was evilly clever, sly and manipulative. He might seemed like he wasn't caring know about the others.

But he was a silent info catcher and once he knew the most important things about you he also knew what buttons to push in arguments. Despite all its other uses, the medical roon indeed had all necessary stuff a doctor would need to treat illnesses or injures, small and heavy.

A big table was in the middle where he was mixing stuff whether for his experiments, whether to prepare stuff to treat a patient. 2 beds were on the corner more further away from the door. The one bed was normal. The other had leashes to tie a patient's arms and ankles when they had to stay as motionless as possible.

Or when they had seizures so they wouldn't accidentally hurt themselves as Ramirez claimed. However rumors had spread about that specific bed. And the most believable one was somehow that Ramirez was sleeping on that bed and tying himself because he had some sleeping disorder that was making him scratch himself at night.

Despite it couldn't be explained how he was tying and then untying himself when he woke up, it was still the most believable rumor. They could remember Doctor's first months in the ship. When they were seeing him around, he seemed extremely tired.

His fingers and wrists were bitten. His face was full of scratches. The snout and lips had wounds. But the worst ones were on his shoulders and arms. One of the pirates had jokingly managed to take his coat one day. And only then everyone saw his arms bandaged, at some parts stained in grey spots.

Yes Ramirez didn't have red blood. It was silver colored. He didn't care when everyone saw his exposed arms, despite he was wearing the coat even on warm days, clearly hiding..No one was exactly sure of why Ramirez was harming himself. But they had hear something about past sh*tty family drama.

But anyways, the day that bed with leashes was added in the medical room, Ramirez had 0 fresh injures after. It might had indeed been useful for patients with seizures. But it might was most likely also true that the doctor was sleeping on it to avoid being self-harmed and rest properly.

There was a bookshelf and 2 showcase cabinets on the wall opposite the door next to each other. The bookshelf, more aligned to the door had on its 4 shelves medical books in alphabetic order. The cabinets had each 4 drawers below with who knew what in there.

Above they had doors made out of glass surrounded by wodden frame. Behind their glass doors there were 3 shelves. The showcase cabinet between the bookshelf and the other cabinet had on its shelves vials, small and big bowls, weird herbs and bottles with labels saying complicated names, funnels and tubes. The second cabinet had worse.

It had on the shelves tools such as pinchers, syringes, suction cups and many more sharp things that could make you shiver. But the one thing that was catching the attention of the eye that stared at this cabinet the most, was a big square glass jar which had stuck on its walls little dark red almost black balls.

Sometimes they were unfolding and crawling. You reader, you might have guessed right if you did try to do so and you have sharp eye. Leeches. Any pirate who had to enter the room and get medical treatment, seeing them wiggling and crawling in their 'home' were shivering.

These leeches had become almost some short of horror story around the ship. Ramirez had gather them from swamps for the purpose to suck bad blood and with their saliva make effective medicines and potions. And he still was gathering them when some of them were dying and they weren't enough.

He even did experiments with them too. These exactly were giving a very good reason for most of the crew to not get sick or injured stupidly, fearing to even think these creatures on them sucking their blood. Aldo so far was the only one who had been sucked by the leeches and when everyone thought it was the most horrific experience, they got shocked when Aldo had let them know,

"It was absolutely nothing. Just like fat syringes penetrating you."

Later on it wasn't much of a surprise. With Aldo who had been through so much worse, torture, whipping and getting his tongue cut, he had no reason really to fear some leeches. It hurted only a little bit but again, nothing like his tortures years ago.

But even the pirates who had go through pain and tortures too, were still keeping their distances from the leeches' jar when they were in the medical room. There had even be rumors that the blood Ramirez was taking from the crewmates for examinations and tests, some of it he was feeding it to the leeches.

And rumors that were taking it further were saying that he was feeding them with his own blood. And so, these leeches had become such a scary sight and story for almost all pirates, that sometimes it was competing the creepiest ones they would say many nights before sleeping.

The only explanation of why Aldo wasn't scared of these creatures or why he wasn't caring, must not was simply because of the past experiences and tortures he had been through. It was also that he simply trusted Ramirez in whatever he did. Heck, 3 times the dog had saved his life. And without him he wouldn't be here today.

The 2 from the first day they met, if you could see them from a corner, you would think they would be enemies. Well, Captain Reaper, who had witnessed their first encounter thought so too. Ramirez classically was looking lowly at anyone who was lower class, at any 'peasant'.

He himself was from a noble enough class, having relationships and meeting high classes. And Aldo, becoming part of Reaper's crew after coming straight from the dungeons where he had been tortured and having his tongue cut by soldiers commanded by the aristocratic class, he wasn't seeing the high classes with sympathy.

From the first day Ramirez entered the crew, he really didn't want any connections with the pirates. He was looking at them hostile. Well, the others were looking at him with hostility too. But he was dedicated to Reaper and previously his father's family. And so, he only joined the piracy to follow his master.

After the first interactions, Reaper leaded him to the medical room, which was not the same at all years back. It was much more simple and 'naked'. Thing Ramirez didn't like at all, he hated it not seeing the necessary stuff in the room. There was only one bed and not 2 then. And on the one bed, Aldo was sitting with crossed arms.

I sense more aristocracy walking in.

He had write on paper after seeing Ramirez for a few seconds with his eyes like daggers. At that moment Ramirez assumed Aldo was simply mute. He hadn't even bother to ask anyways.

After Reaper asked nicely the doctor to examine Aldo, for, the last days the cook seemed sick and was showing signs of weakness, the beaver's first response hearing that, was something like a hiss, showing that he clearly didn't want Ramirez near him. But either way the dog approached.

Even if his expression was clearly saying he didn't even want to examine Aldo. Still because Reaper said so, he had to. And so, the first thing he did was walk and stop in front of Aldo, asking him to show his tongue. The beaver looked away like a spoiled child and the doctor already felt that he wanted to slap the patient.

"Cat got your tongue?" He simply asked trying to keep it together. Aldo faced him again with more hostility but didn't open his mouth. There Reaper interfered and asked Aldo to open his mouth and let Ramirez help (even if he clearly showed he didn't want to as said). Eventually Aldo opened his mouth annoyed and let Ramirez see.

But the first reaction was surprising.

Seeing that Aldo didn't have a tongue the doctor became incredibly shocked. It was rare. But it wasn't for the reason of simply seeing no tongue. One of the things that were capable of shocking Ramirez was in the section of his job. When seeing a critical case or injure, it was always intriguing or concerning him a lot.

"Ai kaka, hau txarra da!" With a single glance Ramirez immediately turned to look at Reaper and asked for paper.

He immediately started writting down fast. When he was done he suddenly became calm again. But what he said next made both Reaper and Aldo turn pale. What was the 'diagnosis' after staring in Aldo's mouth for only a second? That was the answer:

"He's dying in less than 3 months. This medical room is awfully empty. I'll need these herbs I wrote down, maybe if you decide to stop on tropical islands and mountains. Some of the other non-herbal stuff can be found in civilizations. In the next town you decide to raid. Better decide soon if you so need your beaver alive. With every thing I need and get we delay the infection from becoming deadly. And once I have them all, the infection will vanish." He said in one go.

And then he looked around the room as if he wanted to check what else was missing from it. Ramirez had seen that the cut was badly infected. When he asked how long was the tongue cut and Aldo wrote 3 years, you feared that his neck would snap when he looked at the cook again. He wrote down something else on the paper after that.

"Fascinating how you lived for so long with that infection." It was absolutely crazy how he knew exactly what he needed to treat Aldo's infection in his mouth. It shocked the beaver. But as Reaper told him, he knew him for enough years. The best doctor he ever met in his life.

After all he had studied on the University of Padua and had excelled in medicine, doing surgeries and in general had learned all well how to be a doctor. That kinda impressed Aldo. Padua? But that was in Italy! That was changing some stuff all of a sudden for him, now looking at Ramirez less hostile and with more wonder.

In the next 2 months he observed how dedicated the new crew member was being on transforming the medical room. At first Ramirez started with a long LONG list of stuff he wanted to see in the room and have if he was to be the doctor of the crew. Next Aldo saw him sketching on 2 large pieces of papers.

The one had a representation of a human organism. The other had 3 differently shaped monster bodies with a soul to their left. Animalistic, Phenomenal and Elemental monsters' typical body structure. The sketches had such accuracy, they were incredible. As Ramirez stated later he had sketched similar representations years ago.

They were for his thesis, his final project to get his 2nd degree in surgery. But he didn't have them with him when he entered the crew. And there was no way anymore to get them back. And so he was redrawing them. Meanwhile, with every stop on islands and with the raids on lands, Ramirez was claiming all useful stuff he needed, tools, medicines, herbs etc.

And luckily these were found quickly, because he could treat Aldo's infection fast and successfully, saving him. 10 weeks after the diagnosis he finally announced Reaper that the beaver was not in danger anymore. But, he had made it from the beginning loud and clear to Aldo, that he was helping him only because Reaper commanded.

But the cook at the end either way thanked him. Ramirez didn't comment about it then and just turned his back at him. But the next 2 times he saved Aldo's life, these times he did them willingly. Almost. Months after Ramirez entered the crew, the pirates had stop at a tropical island to hide, get a few supplies and rest after a raid.

As Reaper adviced the doctor, he shouldn't try go alone if he went exploring the jungle and should be with someone else. Even though Ramirez didn't like much hearing that he had to be with a partner, he ended up picking Aldo for the exploration if he wanted to study the flora of the jungle.

For the next 10 minutes of walking in the jungle, he hadn't say a single word to Aldo and didn't refer to him at all. He was only focused on studying the exotic plants of the jungle, taking a few specific samples from some and putting them in the big backpack he was carrying along. But then Aldo couldn't take it anymore.

That whole situation was awkward. And so, while Ramirez had his back turned at him, he took out paper and pencil he was always carrying and started writting. He held the paper in front of him and waited for Ramirez to finish examining the plant. But once he turned he got his attention by seeing the message written on the paper.

Ti sto irritando solo stando con te qui?

Remembering what Captain had said about Ramirez going to Padua for studies, Aldo wanted to see not only if the doctor was just trying with all of his might to ignore him but also if he knew Italian. Ramirez looked at him from top to bottom all serious and unreadable for a few seconds before start walking ahead.

"Even if it wasn't you who I had to go with in this jungle, either way they would be annoying. At least you're not talking..." He said bluntly.

"Ah..." Aldo just did. But a few seconds later Ramirez kept talking.

"And I like silent people anyways." The beaver looked at him surprised.

It was the first time he was being honest but in a somehow positive way. He was always honest but mostly to point out negative stuff. He had observe it about Ramirez, if he was going to give an opinion, he was going all the way, no matter how bad it sounded or if it offended someone.

But before he could even think about it, Ramirez suddenly stopped walking and stood on guard. His ears were rotating, his nose had started sniffing quietly and fast the air. Eventually a snarl started being heard and Aldo looked at him worried. He was about to tap his shoulder, trying to understand what was going on.

But before he could move a muscle towards Ramirez, then, something long and very big attacked the beaver from behind with the result fall ahead. Even worse, both Ramirez and Aldo were standing near a downhill and started rolling down with the thing that attacked him.

"CAZZO, PITONE!" The dog yelled. And indeed, what had attacked poor Aldo thinking he was a tasty snack was a big python snake. When they stopped rolling down, Aldo and the serpent had separated.

But only temporarily, as the python had turned its attention at the beaver again and started crawling slowly towards him. Aldo tried to stand up only to fall down again yelling in pain. He had twisted his leg from the fall on the downhill. He crawled back terrified, staring at the snake.

The serpent suddenly dashed. Aldo closed his eyes. But the very next moment loud whistles from the snake, snarling and barking were heard all together. He opened again his eyes and with shock saw Ramirez and the serpent wrestling to death. A battle that lasted only for 10 seconds however.

The python had managed to only wrap around the doctor's leg, while Ramirez had shoved his hands in its mouth, then pulled apart the jaws with such strength a crack was heard. The python fell lifeless on the ground with loosened jaws and slowly the doctor unwrapped his leg from its grip. He stood up and dusted off himself.

"Jawohl. Überleben der Stärksten." He said calmly as if he hadn't fight and kill a snake double his weight. Aldo, who was still shocked from what played in front of him and with his leg killing him was looking down fighting to stop crying.