Chapter 153 - Sabaody Revolution 7: Mothball

The atmosphere in the Rip-Off Bar was uncomfortable. After two consecutive run-ins with overpowered enemies, the news of Ace's capture, and the obvious despair Cross had been in, the entire crew had crammed into the bar upon arrival, only for Chopper to kick out everybody that didn't need treatment—that is, Nami, Zoro, Boss, Sanji, Luffy, and Brook—apart from Robin, whose helping hands helped to speed the process along.

Even Shakky and Rayleigh felt the atmosphere, Rayleigh brooding over a mug of booze and Shakky idly cleaning a glass.

Idly, Nami's hand drifted to the bandaged burn on her side, and she glanced over at Luffy. Still slumped over the bar, the plate of meat Shakky had placed in front of him was still untouched. A toxic brew of guilt and anxiety churned in her stomach; to find out like this, of all ways, when she'd known, could have said someth—!

Zoro's hand clamped onto her shoulder, and he shook his head. Later. Grimacing, Nami slumped down even further, hoping for a distraction.

Thankfully, the swordsman was at least keen enough to pick up on that. Or maybe he just needed a distraction himself.

"So, how the hell did we even end up in that position?" Zoro groused, eyeing Boss. "And I mean at the very start. Weren't you and your students supposed to make sure that the Nobles didn't get a chance to try anything?"

"Hold on, let me finish this bandaging," Chopper muttered, yanking some gauze tight around Boss's right shoulder. "Right. Go wild with the signing, Boss."

"'The last thing any of us remember is getting our skull plates slammed together. And now that I think about it, I'm almost positive we weren't just slammed together; we were yanked together. Next thing we knew, we were waking up underwater on the brink of running out of breath, and Cross was already in the middle of it,'" Robin translated, her frown deepening as a thought struck her. "Boss, I'm assuming that this phenomenon repeated itself when you cornered the Nobles in the Auction House, yes?"

The dugong nodded, and Robin grimaced. "An invisible force applying the minimum amount of effort for maximum effect. Well, we can safely conclude that Cross literally stumbling into Charloss' path was no accident," she sighed in exhaustion, massaging the bridge of her nose. "For all the good it does us to know this after the fact…"

"Hn," Zoro grunted, leaning back against the wall.

"You get used to it," Shakky remarked, placing a glass back on the shelf.

The uncomfortable silence fell again; no one really wanted to get used to that sort of feeling. Thankfully, a fresh distraction arrived shortly afterward. A decidedly less welcome distraction, mind.

"HACHI!" Nami yelped, bolting from her chair as Chew and Kuroobi carried Hachi in between them. Duval trailed behind, a shivering Camie in his arms (Sanji, in his current condition, could only glare in annoyed envy) and Pappug on his shoulder. Shakky followed her, a concerned frown on her face.

"Do you have a couple of beds free? Both of our friends need to rest after this much trauma," Kuroobi said, directing his question to the couple behind the bar.

"Camie can use my bed, lay Hachi down over there," Shakky replied, pointing them to a large booth. She led Duval to the back while the fishmen shuffled over to the booth, draping Hachi carefully on the seat where the octo-man sagged in relief.

"Seriously, though, Hachi? I thought that reindeer's medicine was supposed to be freakishly effective," Chew muttered, spitting a blob of water into his hands in an effort to wipe off the layer of blood on them.

"It is," Chopper answered mildly as he walked over. "But it can lose some edge when A. the patient is still walking immediately after he's treated, and B. when he's dumb enough to not let me take the bullet out of him! Lay down, now!"

Hachi winced and complied, reclining in the booth's seat as the other two fishmen stepped out of the doctor's way.

"N-Nyuu… s-sorry for all the trouble…" Hachi moaned. "I j-just wanted you guys to get out before—NYUAAAOOW!" A needle jammed into his neck, all six of Hachi's hands clenching into agonized fists.

"Part of me appreciates the sentiment, the other part is grousing about how this is the last of the anesthetic I keep on hand because that head start turned out to be completely useless," Chopper muttered darkly as he removed the rough temporary bandaging.

With a wince, Hachi looked away. That just meant another wince when his gaze met Nami's. But the navigator's expression was gentle.

"Hachi… I'm sorry."

The octopus's pained expression fled in favour of naked, wide-eyed shock.

"I'm sorry I didn't give you a chance when you so obviously deserved it," Nami continued. "I'm sorry for refusing to see that you're really not the same person who helped Arlong terrorize my home… and I'm sorry that it took seeing you jump in front of a gun for one of ours for me to finally get it. I've been beyond unfair to you, and for that, I am so sorry."

She turned her gaze to the wound, her expression darkening with worry.

"Chopper… how bad is it?"

"Bad, especially since it's been untreated for this long…" With a grunt of effort, the reindeer pulled the bullet out of Hachi's chest, his expression lightening considerably as he started re-bandaging him. "But no, you didn't just give him a deathbed redemption. He'll live, he's just going to be in a lot of pain for… a few weeks? Yeah, let's go with weeks. But even so…"

Chopper closed his eyes, turning his memory back to the brawl in the auction house. He'd looked over the moment that he heard Cross get shot, and so he had seen the angles line up. He opened his eyes and gave both Hachi and Nami a grave look.

"I'll be honest, I don't know how good Charloss's aim would have been, but Hachi didn't do this for nothing. There was a chance that if he hadn't stepped in, Charloss could have hit Cross somewhere that I couldn't have fixed." He focused more on the octopus, and for the first time in what felt like a short eternity, Chopper allowed himself an honest smile. "Thank you, Hachi."

"…yeah. Thank you," Nami agreed, smiling again. Then, slowly, she held out a hand. "I… this won't be easy, and there are still some things… but. I'm… I'm willing to at least talk. Alright?"

Tears sprang in Hachi's eyes that had nothing to do with the pain. Reaching out, he took Nami's hand in his own. "Th-Thank you, Nami. Thank you."

The mood of the crew present lifted some at the sight. Notably, two people in the building didn't share in the new happiness, but they wished they did. Kuroobi and Chew exchanged looks of pain, regret, and perfect understanding, then turned for the door.

"And where are you two going?" Zoro asked, quietly but with an unmistakable intensity. All attention zeroed in on the two fishmen, who, to their credit, neither flinched nor turned back.

"…Fisher Tiger really would be ashamed of us if he saw us now," Kuroobi croaked. "Hatred killed him, and we almost lost the only friend we have left from his time because he took a bullet…for someone who's working to undermine that hatred…our hatred."

"We already lost everything once," Chew picked up, arms trembling. "If the only way to keep it from happening again is to get rid of this resentment… then there's no other choice. But if even Big Bro couldn't do it himself, we'll need more help. We're going back to Grove 77… see if we can help. If we can find help. And from there… We'll find out what we want to do with the rest of our lives."

Their heads shifted, as though to look at Hachi once more. But no, they stayed looking ahead.

"…we don't expect to ever earn a chance to be friends with you all like Hachi," Kuroobi got out. "But maybe… just maybe we can come close enough to be worth having the sun on our skin again."

They opened the door and took one step out.

"Is that so?"

Koala's cool voice froze them in place, the Revolutionary leaning on the doorframe that led to the back of the Bar. They felt her eyes boring into them, an almost palpable force.

"I didn't have any hope left for you two," she said bluntly. "And there's still not much, either; you've got a long road ahead of you if you really want to try making up for Arlong's crimes and Hody's."

Kuroobi and Chew's fists clenched, though it was hard to say what they were feeling. After a few seconds, the tension left them, and they stood as defeated as they had been moments before.

And it was that that switched Koala from stoic anger to head-shaking pity.

"But hey, what are pirates if not dreamers who chase the impossible? Get going, then. If you have any shred of the Sun Pirates left in your bodies, don't let this epiphany go to waste. There'll be no chance of forgiveness for you if you let this pass. Be it from me…" She graced them, ever so slightly, with a teary smile. "Or from our Big Bro."

With their backs to the bar, nobody could see the expressions the two fishmen wore. But their steps as they left the bar behind were steady. Whether it was from the harshness of their ex-friend's words or the hope that said words had inspired, no one could say.

Only one thing was clear: it was the last time the Straw Hats would ever meet the two Arlong Pirates.

…But of course, a moment like that couldn't last forever.

"Yohoho… I hate to break up the moment," Brook interjected, his tone and expression saying anything but. "But may I ask where you and your lovely companion were when everything went wrong? As I recall, you were supposed to be our failsafe for exactly that sort of situation."

Koala's stern demeanour almost instantly melted away, leaving a very sheepish Revolutionary poking her fingers together. "Yeah… that was the plan, wasn't it? But, ah… we ran into some… unforeseen hurdles before we could help."

"Hurdles such as…?" Robin prompted, cocking an eyebrow.

"Well…" Koala glanced away with a nervous chuckle. "Turns out that when you see the supposedly untouchable monsters of your nightmares getting touched damn hard, right before your eyes? Your brain tends to… skip a beat or a few, just a bit." She capped her 'explanation' off with a nervous shrug. "Who knew, huh?"

There was a long moment's pause…

{Are you saying your excuse is that you two fainted?!} Raphey barked indignantly, translating her words with some harsh signs. All eyes darted to her and the open door she was standing in, and she went red, her headband, and carefully closed it.

Robin, tilting her head, eyed one of the windows and then crossed her arms. Outside, a barely visible tuft of blue hair vanished, accompanied by a startled yelp.

"In their defence, 'fainting' is putting it mildly," Shakky chuckled as she re-entered the room. "These two gave me quite the fright when it happened, up and dropped as though their stri—ahem!" She hastily coughed into her fist and glanced aside. "Er, you get the point. Anyway, they both went down, and they wouldn't wake up no matter what I did, so all I could do was let them sleep it off. And trust me, this one—" She jabbed her thumb at the ginger rebel. "—got it lighter than Sonia. Poor thing's still out cold from the shock of it all, and from the looks of things, I don't expect her to wake up for a good long while."

Everyone sweatdropped, aside from the veterans behind the bar… and the still-silent Luffy.

The captain's lasting and wholly uncharacteristic silence swiftly dragged the mood right back down, and Nami and Zoro exchanged nervous glances as subtly as they could manage.

Nervous glances that quickly got a lot less subtle as an entire non-verbal argument broke out over who'd be least at risk to prod the elephant in the room. A debate that was remarkably fast.

"Uh, Luffy?" Nami said, tentatively stepping towards her captain. "You've been really quiet for a while, and you haven't eaten your meat, and, well… to be blunt, it's scaring the hell out of everyone. What are you thinking about?"

The silence stretched on, Luffy's head still bowed. One minute… two…

{…Maybe he just fell asleep again,} Sanji signed, getting to his feet to administer a typical leather-clad wake-up call—

"Brook. Go get Vivi and Merry."

—and hurriedly sat down again, right as Brook shot to his feet and skittered right out the door. Chopper nervously glanced between Luffy, Nami, and the door, before asking, tentatively, "Uh, Luffy, should I go or—?"

{We're staying,} Boss and Sanji signed simultaneously, drawing a sign from the good doctor.

"Okay, guess I'm staying," he said, before matching the glare Sanji threw his way with one of his own. "Sanji, your face is detached from the rest of your skull. I'm staying so you don't tear it off entirely by accident."

Huffing, Sanji sat back down, idly batting Boss's outstretched flipper.

It was this that Vivi and Merry walked into. "Hey, so Brook wasn't very clear—" Merry began.

"He could have killed us."

The two newcomers froze like they were staring down an oncoming Sea Train, and Nami wasn't feeling much better. Even Zoro and Robin visibly tensed.

"His crew was here the whole time, and he was right there when we were fighting the guards," Luffy continued. "Probably when we were fighting Kizaru, too. But he didn't. He left all of us alive, but he made sure we knew that he could have killed all of us if he wanted to. And this isn't the first time this has happened to us." The rubber man's shadowed gaze turned to the side, toward his first mate. "Mihawk did the same thing."

With a sharp 'tsk', Zoro looked away, his hand falling to rest on his white blade. "Not even close to the same thing, Luffy."

"Less respect, yeah, but was it really that different?"

Zoro grit his teeth but couldn't come up with a good answer.

"And all the other times too," Luffy continued in his flat voice. "Crocodile messed around in our first fight, and he would have killed me if Robin hadn't been there. Moria would have done it too if Cross hadn't flipped the script, and Kuma almost killed everyone without even trying. Every time we've met one of the Warlords, the first thing that they've done is show off their power, how they're better than us. Even Jinbe did it. But that String guy… Doflamingo was just like Shiki. He wanted to watch us try to beat him so he could kill us when we didn't have any hope left. But he didn't. And it wasn't just so the Marines could take all the credit. So why? Why didn't he kill us?"

Luffy got to his feet, staring at the wall opposite the bar, still not showing his face to any of the crew. And while it surprised them that his focus wasn't on Ace, none of them were about to bring it up.

"…from what I can tell, I think he's similar to… Cross's 'benefactor,' among other… like-minded individuals," Vivi said after a moment of silence, her words hesitant and careful. "He has the power to do whatever he wants, but he doesn't do everything he could because it would be boring that way. With the SBS… we've become too entertaining for him to want to kill us." She rubbed at her neck with a self-conscious wince. "At least, for now…"

{But that doesn't tell us why he put on that whole show,} Boss signed with a grunt, Robin translating. {What was the point of showing off how easily he could have killed us if he wanted to leave us alive?}

The answer to that question slowly dawned on Cross's five confidants in a symphony of widened eyes and further muscle tension. A silent exchange passed between them, but none spoke up, each one hoping Luffy would come to the conclusion himself…

{…the only Warlords close to our level.}

But of course, they weren't the only ones to draw the conclusion.

{Cross said it back on Thriller Bark, and then he said it again earlier today,} Sanji signed, Robin translating. {This is showing off what a Warlord can do, just like Mihawk did at the Baratie. He's showing off and sparing us for the same reason that Mihawk left Zoro alive.}

"Wait, you're saying he was trying to show us just how outclassed we are… to make us want to get stronger?" Chopper asked, incredulous.

"'Don't leave me hanging.'"

And with that, all attention returned to Luffy.

"That's what it is," Luffy answered in a chilling voice. "We're keeping him entertained, and he doesn't want to lose that. So he showed us how weak we are compared to him… so that we wouldn't go into the New World right away as we planned. Like I planned."

He paused, then he removed his hat and stared down at it.

"…Shanks is waiting somewhere on the other side of the Red Line. I promised him that I would be strong enough to beat him when we met each other again… and this isn't enough. Lucky showed me on Skelter Bite, even if he didn't want to say it. So did Izo and those other guys from the other Emperors. And I still couldn't beat Ace in a fight, not if I had to." He looked up at the Revolutionary leaning against the wall. "And I wouldn't be able to beat Sabo either, would I?"

Koala didn't answer verbally, but the nervous tug at her collar and inability to look him in the eye was more answer than any words, and the room fell silent once more.

"You're correct, Straw Hat," said Rayleigh, the first he'd spoken since their arrival, his expression grim. "If you were to enter the New World as you all are now… You would die. That's all that there is to it."

The beating he'd laid on Kizaru was all that kept back any complaints about any condescension...for a few moments, anyway. Despite his discipline, it was Boss who couldn't hold back the knee-jerk reaction.

{And who the hell are you to talk down to us like that!?}

"He sailed with Roger."

And like that, the Straw Hats present froze again, this time in awe as they properly put a name and a reputation to the old man's face. Rayleigh, for his part, merely raised a questioning eyebrow at Luffy.

"I heard what you said to Kizaru," the rubber man elaborated. "You said Roger was your captain."

"…yeah. Yeah, he was," Rayleigh confirmed with a wry half-smile. "And I was his first mate. 'Dark King' Silvers Rayleigh, a name and face that I'm sure many of you still recognize. Impressive, Straw Hat. But it's more impressive that you can see reason like this. I've tried to warn off plenty of rookies like you before I coated their ships, but almost none of them listen."

He let out a wistful sigh, slipping his glasses off so he could polish them. "Make it this far on their first try, they think they can go all the way in one shot. But they only have to see five minutes of that place to know they're not ready yet. 'Paradise'…the name didn't come from nowhere, and neither is it an exaggeration."

Silence fell once more, and the five confidants felt dread stirring in their hearts from what Rayleigh had just said, so plainly that even Luffy would be able to connect the dots. They kept their expressions as neutral as they could, praying that he wouldn't make one further connection.

"Cross already knows, doesn't he?"

Their prayers were not answered. They all froze stiff. And all too soon, Merry, Vivi, Zoro, Nami, and Robin were made acutely aware that everyone else in the crew was now staring at them in askance, along with other, more… volatile emotions. Luffy was no different, finally turning around to stare at them, his gaze somehow worse for how unerringly, placidly neutral it was.

"And he already has a plan for it, doesn't he?" Luffy said, asking and answering his own question.

Slowly, the five of them nodded. "He… broke the news to us a few weeks ago," Merry started timidly. "We wanted to bring it up, b-but…"

"We didn't keep it a secret because we wanted to," Zoro cut in, his voice firm, the only one able to meet Luffy's eyes.

The rubber man stared at them before replacing his hat on his head, hiding his eyes once more. Another lengthy pause, made all the more unsettling by the lack of any apparent strain or the sound of grinding gears.

"…He wasn't going to tell the rest of us until it was too late to say no, was he?" the rubber-man concluded, disappointment clear in his voice.

The confidants' silence was deafening.

Surprisingly, it was actually Boss who broke the silence.

"Why, that silver-tongued—GERK!"

But he only spoke a few words before clapping his flippers over his mouth in surprise, realizing that he had, in fact, actually spoken them.

And with that, an unmistakable sense of dread fell over the crew. No one was quite sure how this confrontation would go, but it couldn't be good. There was a vague sense that someone should be doing something, especially with Shakky, Koala, and Rayleigh just watching the scene play out with stony expressions.

A feeling that intensified when Luffy wordlessly stood and walked up to the bar's entrance, his gaze locked on the door. Zoro tried to stand, tried to do something, but Luffy merely held up his hand. The swordsman could do nothing but sit down, his captain crossing his arms when he did so.

In one last-ditch effort, Vivi sent Rayleigh a pleading look. But he just shook his head, stood, and walked into the back, Shakky and Koala following, though the latter at least gave them an apologetic look. Internal crew matter, the look said. Sorry, can't help.

After all, the Captain's orders were absolute.

-o-

Soundbite mentioned that stampeding elephants could reach speeds of up to 25 miles per hour. I don't know whether Funkfreed exceeded that as he carried us the rest of the way to the bar. I was still out of it, trying to get my mind to show me a way out of this situation, to get my neck off the chopping block I was about to place it on.

To help me deny the reality that all the effort I had put into making this last day the best that it could possibly be had gone straight to hell, and then kept digging.

It wasn't working. It was all that I could do to keep breathing. And it was becoming an increasingly appealing idea to just save myself the trouble and stop doing that, too—

SMACK!

I slapped my cheeks, trying to exorcise the thoughts that had wormed into my head. Honestly, not much help. Because beyond all of the bad memories I was still trying to cope with, whether it was the recent past or the near future, my mind was helpfully and repeatedly reminding me of the living nightmare that I'd have to go through in the present, as soon as I met my crew once more.

My confidants had hated being kept in the middle and forced to choose between truth and life, and that was when it was 'just' splitting up for two years. Now, being forced to split up and train and unable to be of any help to Luffy beyond the fail-safes I'd managed to scrounge up? I knew that it was unchangeable, but I had changed too much to fully believe that. And even I got mad when I realized my reasoning boiled down to 'it's for your own good.'

CLANK!

I blinked, belatedly realizing we'd arrived as Funkfreed's trunk withdrew from dropping me on the stairs and Lassoo nudged me up them. Around me was a large chunk of the crew, trying way too hard to look innocent. Not that I particularly cared at the moment. Clenching my fists, as much to relieve stress as to keep the jointless gauntlets from falling off, I started climbing.

The absolute worst-case scenario was being kicked off the crew. I don't know what kind of mercy it was that I didn't consider that likely, because instead of worrying about it, I focused on the much more likely and still very, very bad outcomes, with the second-place worst Luffy giving me a one-on-one talk about how disappointed he was.

And distrust—legitimate, scornful distrust would result from this, that was all but inevitable. How many of them would hate me? How many of them would hate my confidants in my place? In trying to save the crew, had I instead torn them apart from the inside?

In spite of my miserable thoughts—and the fact that I legitimately couldn't feel much of my body—I soon found myself standing in front of the door to the bar. Just a few flimsy inches of wood, separating me from whatever the hell was coming next. Whatever hell I'd brought about…

I'd say I tried to will my arm to move, but that'd require me to, well, know where my arms were to begin with…

"Cross… " a voice I vaguely acknowledged as Soundbite's prodded me gently. "You know you need to do this. You need to go in there. You need to face this now, or you'll run from it forever."

I blinked blearily, the words rattling in my head for a second before they made sense. "Is… that still an option?" I wheezed, daring to hope—!

"CROSS!"

That… wasn't Soundbite. I looked to my left, where Usopp was giving me a worried expression.

"Look," he said. "I don't know what's going on, but unless it's worse than lying about your origins—"

"It is," I said, voice dead.

That threw Usopp for a loop. He staggered back and then turned to the rest of the crew members gathered outside with a pleading look.

"Sorry, I got nothing, bro," Franky said, everyone else nodding along with varying degrees of reluctance.

"Fat lot of help, Y'ALL ARE," Soundbite sighed. "Come on, partner. TIME TO FACE THE MUSIC."

I didn't want to do this. I really didn't. But the short conversation had knocked some rationality into me, and I knew I needed to do this. "Ggh, right, right…" And so, with dread I hadn't felt even when staring down Sea Kings, staring down two different Admirals, I raised my hand, grasped the door's handle, and pushed.

I pretty much stumbled forward, into the bar, and damn near ran into Luffy, who was standing directly in front of me, his arms crossed, expression blank, and eyes locked with mine. I didn't move a muscle while my brain caught up with my eyes, and I felt Soundbite shrinking on himself. I couldn't even glance away and look at the rest of the crew to find out how much trouble I was in.

"How long, Cross?"

And just like that, the rest of the world went white. Nothing really existed except the pounding in my ears, my captain, my Captain standing in front of me, and that question. No emotion at all in the words, no context given, striking me right at my core.

I was scared out of my mind. Still, I had to ask, had to be sure.

"How long…what, Luffy?" I responded as evenly as I could. Trying to keep the terror out of my voice, trying to keep out the misery, failing to keep them out—!

"How long do we need to train?"

I felt the bone-deep THROB! that rammed through my core, colder than anything Aokiji could ever dream. H-He was asking… but how—?

DON'T LEAVE ME HANGING.

…damn everything. Doflamingo. I had Doflamingo to thank for opening Luffy's eyes to the cruel truth. I'd focus a lot more on the cruel irony that would be Dressrosa if I weren't staring into the same eyes and dreading my answer. It took a second or two to unstick my tongue from the roof of my mouth, but…

"…two years," I managed. "Two years… or we all die." I heard murmuring around me, but I couldn't tell if it was real or just more of my mind breaking. Didn't matter. Nothing mattered. Nothing… except…

"And how are all of us going to get as strong as we need to?"

I was trembling. It took me a minute or so to get the words out, and the whole time, Luffy kept staring, unblinking, and the world kept THROBbing.

"…Kuma scatters everyone where they need to be," I heard… someone, say? It could have been me, hard to say. "No choice. Can't… won't be stopped."

Again, again with the murmuring, more fervent than before. Why couldn't it stop? Why couldn't everything just stop and end and leave me alone…

"Where is he now?"

No… no, of course not, nothing was going my way, nothing had ever gone my way, even up until now, why start now… A failure of a tactician, a failure of a pirate, a failure of a human… didn't even have the spine to look at my Captain… the only reason I was doing so was that his Stare wouldn't let me do anything else.

"…here at sunset," I heard my voice croak out. "Scatter us all… and if we resist… same difference…" With that, Luffy's eyes finally closed, and I felt myself fall to the floor. The murmuring didn't persist for long, and I just knelt there, revelling in the silence, the oblivion...

"Cross."

But no. I didn't deserve that. I didn't deserve that mercy. Didn't deserve anything. What I deserved was that one word, and the feeling of a hand on top of my head. Was this the end? Was this finally, finally going to end, and let me go—?

I was… more than a little stunned when, rather than feeling my skull cave in, I felt something come off. But… before I could understand, I felt something else go on instead. Something soft, slightly itchy, around my entire scalp—

One hand unwound the bandages from the other, allowing my raw flesh to move to my head and confirm what I was feeling: Straw.

This was… I was—I was wearing Luffy's hat. The Straw Hat. Luffy's Straw Hat, his treasure… the proof that I was one of his true companions. The… The proof of—

"Cross, I want you to keep this safe for me. Give it back to me when we meet again, alright?"

…That was it.

That was… pretty much it. As all of the fears that I had been harbouring for the last month dissolved, and as something finally interrupted the cavalcade of trauma and horror that had been my life for the past I don't even know anymore, I did the one thing I'd wanted to do more than anything else.

I let myself completely break down and cry.

Just… cry.

-o-

When Luffy passed his verdict, the crew outside had abandoned any subtlety in favour of watching through the door and windows. So they, along with everyone already in the bar, had their doubts silenced by that one action. Once that was done, Zoro was the first to rise to his feet and walk over to Luffy.

"…just like that? Why?" he asked, relief and disbelief warring in his voice. And indeed, while none of the crew would contest the decision—even the ones who hadn't been in the know were withdrawing with a minimum of grumbling—the confusion as to why he'd made it was palpable.

There was a moment's pause, the third mate oblivious in his sobbing and his partners just as delirious with relief, and then…

"He cried for Ace," was all Luffy gave as an answer.

And that was all that he needed to say.

-o-

Somewhere in the New World, a certain group of pirates was preparing to set sail. The party they'd had earlier in the day had subsided as things went increasingly south for the Straw Hats, and a few minutes after the broadcast suddenly cut off, their captain had hissed in pain, one hand coming to his left eye. The pain there had been a dull ache over the past few months, minor enough to ignore. The sudden spike of pain that rivalled the injury that left them forced him into action; something had gone very, very wrong, and he would soon find out what it was.

And yet, as they disembarked, the grim mood that had fallen over them subsided as Shanks found his hand brushing against his hair. Where the hat he'd relinquished so long ago once sat, and where he felt the oddest but most distinct sense of contentment.

Red-Haired Shanks allowed a smile to grace his face. "Guess you're still doing well, Luffy."

"Captain! You'll want to see this!" barked Rockstar as he skidded up to him, freshly delivered newspaper in hand. Shanks scanned the front page, and his smile faded into a dark grimace at the proclamation regarding his protégé's brother.

"…somehow," he quietly tacked on. "Rockstar, get me a snail. I need to call Lucky Roo."

-o-

Cross's breakdown lasted for a good several minutes before he could be considered even remotely coherent. And while the crew's inclination was to give him all of the time that he needed to recover, what little explanation he'd given demanded a bit more haste. A tonic that Shakky provided had Cross calm again in a matter of seconds; she confided afterward, while slamming the bottle back in the safe, that it was a relic of the slave trade used to pacify victims during relocation. A concept they were all thoroughly disgusted with, of course, but desperate times and all that.

And indeed, in these desperate times, desperate measures seemed to be the theme for the Straw Hats, as Cross detailed exactly what would be happening to them and exactly why it was necessary, despite the crew's disdain. As he finished, he reached up and tipped the brim of Luffy's hat down a tad, refusing to look anyone in the eye.

"I… didn't want to hide this. But I…if I told you… What proof would I have when we've won everything so far? When you've done so great, we've done so great, I—!… if we could win against the world before, why believe me when I said that this time was the impossible one…" Even through the chemical haze, a shudder racked him. "I'm sorry that I didn't trust you—"

"Cross," Luffy interrupted, his voice firm. "I trust you. I might have listened to you if you said that we needed to stop our adventure and train for two years…" He let out a heavy snort, scratching uncomfortably at his head. "But I don't know if I would have. I wouldn't have liked it, so I might've—I probably would've said no. I still don't like it, but after what happened…" He grit his teeth in a momentary flash of anger before forcing himself back to calm. "I get that we're not ready yet. I don't like it, but I get it. So don't worry about it."

Luffy paused; he wanted to give Cross the time he needed to pull himself together, but he had to ask that one burning question.

"But what about Ace?"

His attempt at a gentle tone didn't stop Cross's entire form from visibly sagging.

"They captured him four months ago and kept him asleep. He was still healthy… so the Vivre Cards didn't give anything away," he croaked out. "I-I thought I'd cut this off, I thought I did enough—!"

"Cross," Luffy cut in again, forcing his voice to stay something like calm. "Forget about the past. Tell me about the future. How do we save him?"

Cross's fists clenched and unclenched sporadically as he spoke on, seemingly unable to stop. "He's in Level 6 of Impel Down, the Eternal Hell. It's the only place they'd even think of keeping him until the execution. If you can save him before they take him, The War will never happen. The Whitebeards won't clash with the Navy, Newgate won't die—for a while, at least—and Teach won't come to power. That's the best-case scenario at this point."

Luffy let himself relax slightly, letting himself feel a glimmer of relief.

"But…"

Only for Cross to do what he did best, and dash it with one word.

"That's… really not likely," he said matter-of-factly. "The floors of Impel Down aren't called hells because they're pleasant vacation spots. And trying to catch him in transit wouldn't be any good either, because at best that means Vice Admirals, and at worst an Admiral or three. You likely won't make it in time, and if you don't, you'll have to charge Marineford instead. And once you're there…" Cross's head sank down even further. "Ace's chances of survival… decrease exponentially."

"Then why can't we help!?"

This time, it was Su who jumped into the conversation. Her fur stood on end; the cloud fox was never one to accept harsh realities without protest.

"So we have to train for two years before we move on? Fine! I'm going to love and loathe being away from you idiots, but fine!" she snarled. "But can we save the goodbyes for after we help—"

"Wouldn't work. Even Impel Down alone is way beyond our current weight class. Hell, probably beyond even what we'll be capable of. It's just…" A shudder ran through him. "It's hell. Well and truly hell on earth. The guards, the warden, the prison itself… and that's just Impel Down. That's all… not even close to what's coming at Marineford."

Cross shook his head.

"Luffy's survival alone was the fluke to end all flukes. And maybe some of us could claw our way out, maybe… but not unscathed. And not all. Anyone who goes in there with him, anyone at all… would be merely fodder."

The words 'And a distraction' rang loud and clear.

Then, almost as an afterthought, Cross shrugged dismissively. "Plus, that'd all be contingent on convincing Kuma to change his plans. Which, to reiterate, is impossible. He told me so himself…well." Even through his tonic-induced haze, Cross's eye started twitching erratically. "'Told'. He… spoke at me, wouldn't let me get a word in edgewise. Just… talked over me…Flattened my every excuse… every word… before I could even get anything out…"

Koala hastily cleared her throat, both because she had something to say and to put an end to his panicked devolution. "Cross… I don't know if you know this, but—"

"Kuma might have been a Revolutionary once, but I don't know how they're holding him over the barrel now," Cross answered, shaking his head. "Either way, it doesn't matter; he isn't the man you once knew, and I mean that literally. He's more machine now than man, twisted and... you can't stop him. Nothing can stop him." Cross lapsed into silence for a moment before shrugging slightly. "Well." He glanced at Rayleigh. "Almost nothing. But you won't. You shouldn't. And you can't."

That got the gray-haired veteran to sit up straighter and give Cross a look of mild surprise. "The first two, you're right on the money, but I'm surprised to hear the third."

Cross shrugged again. "Simple logic. You're retired. Not fake-retired, actually retired. Sabaody's your home, but only so long as the 'Dark King' stays off his throne. If you actually operated in an official capacity, all this would be gone, and you couldn't come back to it. You wouldn't give that up for anything. Shouldn't. Not even for us." Cross blinked slowly before tilting his head. "This stuff is actually quite effective, any chance—?"

"NO."

"Worth a shot."

Silence fell over the room, the silence of people who wanted to protest but had deep down realized they really had no choice.

It was Usopp who broke. "Then what can we do?" he demanded, handing off a repaired staff to Nami as he got to his feet. "We still have a little time left, don't we? Are we just going to… to accept that we can't do anything and move on?!"

Cross twitched again, but then… then he looked up, expression hard and at least a little determined. "Of course not," he answered. "Merry?"

The ship-girl shot to her feet and reached into her coat, withdrawing the bags she'd made from her raincoat and setting them out on the table.

{I knew something was going on,} Sanji signed aggressively at one of the bags.

"Thanks mostly to you," Cross added. "You were the one who told me to have fail-safes ready in case my plans didn't work out. And as much as I didn't want to believe that there was any chance of my plans regarding Ace failing, Thriller Bark made me doubt enough that I did it."

He looked over the rest of the crew. "If any of you haven't contributed to Merry's Emergency Care Package yet, now would be the time. And Chopper? Put in as many antidotes as you have; unless we're stupidly lucky, Luffy will be fighting Magellan and his Venom-Venom Fruit."

Fast as thought, Chopper had unfolded his chemistry set and begun frantically mixing.

"As for me… I've written letters for you all, and I know what I'm talking about. Or, well, as far as my best guess goes, for anyone who wasn't with the crew before, to give you some help with your training. Luffy has a fail-safe letter telling everything I know about what he'll be going through. Beyond that, I've already mustered the Masons; I'll fill them in on this and put all the resources that they've got towards helping Luffy," Cross said, getting to his feet.

A grunt from Sanji interrupted him, prompting Robin to translate again as he signed: {I can appreciate how much it'll help having people on both sides of the law working on this. But this is going to be the biggest event for the Navy since Roger's execution. Forget their abilities, forget their resources, and tell me how you expect to convince a bunch of high-ranking Marines to try sabotaging their entire organization just because we want to stop it.}

"Here's the twenty-five words or less summary," Cross snapped, his temper apparently spiking through his depression. "Either we win this, or it's Enies Lobby times fifty, with the world on the receiving end instead of the World Government."

A chill swept through the room at the implications.

"Yeah. Either that gets everyone moving, or I have grossly misjudged these people."

{...So, your argument is basically 'control the chaos as much as possible?'} Sanji summarized after a pause.

"...yeah, pretty much," Cross admitted as he deflated, sounding utterly defeated. "The avalanche has begun, and it's too late for the pebbles to vote. So… now we do what my world's people did whenever they saw an oncoming natural disaster. Batten down the hatches, stockpile as many supplies as possible… And pray that once the worst is past… you're still around to worry about surviving until tomorrow."

Nobody responded. Cross sighed and looked around. Around… not at despair, but at worry. For him. For Luffy. It didn't lift his spirits. But it at least kept them from sliding down further.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a meeting to start. Anyone wants to eavesdrop, feel free, but think about the best usage of your time; our crew parts at sunset, and whatever we can give Luffy before then is all the help he'll have from us against the world's best efforts. And on that note… where's Sonia?"

Everyone blinked and then facefaulted.

"Ah… she and I both fainted back when your captain punched the Noble's lights out," Koala sheepishly admitted. "I woke up, she… hasn't, yet."

Cross facepalmed, the most energy he'd shown since getting back. "Of course…" He then shook his head, which seemed to clear out some of the lethargy he'd been under. "Alright, take me to her. I've got one idea to snap her out of it."

More than a few of the recovering crew exchanged cheeky grins and berries as Cross followed Shakky into the back of the bar, shadowed by Koala.

With Camie resting in bed, the much taller and longer Sandersonia was draped across a table instead, with all the grace you'd expect in this kind of situation. At least she wasn't holding a bouquet or bathed in angelic light. Though the angelic harps strumming through the air certainly weren't helping the situation.

Cross gave his shoulder-borne parasite a glare. "Now? Really?"

Soundbite's response was a shameless, matter-of-fact shrug. "HEY, I CAN CHOOSE TO BE DEPRESSED, OR I CAN CHOOSE TO BE AN ASS.Which would you prefer?"

"Ass…" Cross sighed, rolling his eyes. He then gave Shakky a look of total disbelief. "And just to be sure, you didn't think to try the obvious solution?"

Shakky raised her shoulders in a shrug. "Didn't think of it during the panic, didn't think it was my place after." Her lips twisted up in an amused smile. "But if you'd rather give it a go?"

Cross smiled too, but his expression was far more sardonic. "Sure!"

And lo, Cross raised his armoured leg and slammed it into Sonia's side, shoving her clean off the table and crashing to the ground with an indignant squawk.

"...you are not that clueless," Koala uttered, staring at him in disbelief.

Cross dropped his smile for a grim frown. "No, but I am that impatient."

Apparently, Sandersonia didn't have much patience for explanations, either. She immediately filled over half the room with her bulk, a feral snarl erupting from her bared fangs. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR, YOU SKINNY LITTLE—!" it, handbag. The world's gone and going to hell in a hamper, and your sister is days away from being at Ground Zero, so unless you want her to be at the clusterfuck of the century— counting Roger's Execution—without our help, stow your fangs and move."

It was a testament to both how much Sandersonia respected Cross and the sheer levels of 'do not fuck with me right now' he was exuding that the Kuja's only response to the diatribe was to snap back to her human form, wearing a thoroughly cowed expression.

The blond Straw Hat nodded sharply. "Better. Now, let's find a private place so we can do this properly. Shakky?"

While the bartender led him out, Sonia hung back long enough to whisper to Koala. "Would this be a bad time to mention that that take-charge attitude of his just now really got my blood flowing?"

Koala grimaced. "Any other time and I'd probably be right there with you, but here, now? Yes, extremely." And with that, she jogged ahead to catch up to Cross, leaving Sonia blinking in total confusion, a single thought running through the snake-woman's mind.

"…what in Set's rotten shedded skin did I miss?!"

-o-

The wine cellar beneath the bar wasn't the most comfortable place to be, but it was the most isolated area available without access to Sunny's secret planning room. Soundbite rested on a small table while four others and I sat on chairs around it.

Most of my usual confidants were helping coordinate preparations for… for what was to come. Nami and Merry were earmarking and divvying up supplies as appropriate for everyone's locations, and Zoro was hashing out rough training regimens for the members of the crew, such things as would apply to, or who would actually listen to him. And Vivi? Well… she'd shown a stroke of brilliance by hopping on Carue and getting directions to the nearest Transponder Snail store on the archipelago. Said that even if we couldn't all be together, that was no reason for any of us to be alone.

It really was just an incredible bit of both common sense and pure genius. Only natural that I'd missed it, I suppose…

But still, while that was them… There was another reason there was one less person in the room than there could have been. Though I had detailed the brief, necessary facts of the oncoming ordeal in my letter to him, I had outright asked Luffy if he wanted to sit in on the meeting this time. He'd decided against it, in typical, wise Luffy fashion:

"You're the tactician. You're the one who knows everything. Tell me what I need to do, and I'll do it. I'll listen if you think I need to. But I can't help you plan, and I don't need to know how it works as long as it works."

He was putting way more faith in me than I was due. But, Captain's orders. As such, I was going all in this time. If only one more plan in my life were going to work, I just had to hope, to pray, that it would be this one.

…and unfortunately, in this instance, 'praying' was less a calculated risk and more a blind leap of faith. Merry's death, as tragic as it was, had only ever been a side effect of rescuing Robin. I had nowhere near enough bargaining chips to buy a deus ex machina for a front-and-center victim, least of all this one. So, there really was no choice. I'd just have to make use of the tools it had already given me.

"The others are standing by upstairs," Robin murmured, her eyes closed and her arms crossed. "If any resources come to mind that we can utilize, I will pass them on to them."

"Thanks, sis," I said, then turned my gaze to Koala.

The revolutionary gave me a sad nod. "I've already called Karasu; we'll leave for Baltigo as soon as he arrives, and Dragon and Sabo will be the first to hear about all of this."

"Orchid and I will go with her, it'll be the fastest way back to Amazon Lily," Sonia agreed, her expression more solemn than I'd ever seen on her, in this world or the one before.

Finally, I turned to our newest recruit. "I've seen your faithfulness with my own eyes in the years to come," I said quietly. "I've brought you in this fast because of that faith and because matters are that desperate."

"I owe you and yours everything, young master; whatever help I can give is yours. I'll swear it in blood if you ask," Duval said firmly.

I nodded and returned my gaze to the snail before me.

"Are you ready, partner?"

He nodded. "With you ALL THE WAY, partner."

"Then start the call. Let's…" I grunted and pinched the bridge of my nose, as I was once again reminded that right now, I was just so,so tired. "Let's… see what we can salvage."

"Puru—KALICK!"

"Ophiuchus. Anaconda and Koala are with me, as is a new associate: Bison, recruited earlier than expected out of necessity," I bluntly started off. "Is everyone else already here?"

"All six of the Divine and all eight of the Damned," Aquarius confirmed before her expression became a tad more… concerned. "Are you… stable now, Ophiuchus?"

"…close enough for this," I sighed morosely. "Under the circumstances, I don't have time for anything better. I'm still mad about the reason I called everyone together, but something else that I was worrying myself insane about just turned out better than I ever could have hoped for. For now, I'm functional, and I'll settle for it."

"Then can you get to it?" Smoker huffed. "What exactly had you worried to the point that Aquarius was wary about talking to you?"

"Especially if it's as world-shaking as I'm guessing it is!" Perona frantically jumped; any previous reticence about the other members of the group was drowned out by panic. "Because I just got an express message from the World Government demanding that I present myself! I was supposed to have another month so that I could get myself at least halfway situated! What in Thanatos's name is going on!?"

"…I would like to state, for the record, that while I think that caution and wariness are the more appropriate reaction to the 'what' we are all dancing around… Dog's reaction is not entirely unwarranted either," Tsuru said. "Sometimes fear is the appropriate response. And this, regrettably, is one of those situations."

"She's right," I agreed. "Let me give you guys a bit of backstory so that you all can appreciate just how truly up shit creek things are."

I clasped my hands together and let my eyes slide shut as I bowed my head in solemn remembrance. "When I first came to this world, I didn't have any plans of becoming the Voice of Anarchy. I was a normal teenager with a body frailer than Spandam's, so my first and only priority was joining the Straw Hats and then surviving until Luffy became the Pirate King. My knowledge was my only advantage, and before I royally screwed up and got Vivi her bounty, I was planning on keeping things as close to what I saw as possible to make sure that I could preserve that advantage…but there was one exception."

I let my eyes open, brows drawn in a determined scowl. "One major catastrophe that I made up my mind to stop long before I got my transceiver: at the time that the Straw Hats assaulted Enies Lobby, a former member of the Whitebeard Pirates named Marshall D. Teach defeated Portgas D. Ace, Whitebeard's Second Division Commander and Luffy's older brother, and turned him over to the World Government to become a Warlord. The Government promptly elected to hold a public execution." I let the choked exclamations of shock from those who hadn't yet known wash over me before continuing. "To rephrase that, the Government challenged the Whitebeard Pirates, challenged Whitebeard himself and all of his allies to an all-out war. A war that shook the world to its core in the worst possible way."

I ground my teeth in a display of the gut-churning mix of frustration and despair I was experiencing. "And not only did I fail to stop it, but the Government hid the warning signs so well that I only just now found out that I failed to stop it."

A pause fell. "Is this why we're being mustered for Marineford?" Jonathan asked with rising dread.

"Cross," Smoker cut in. "With everything you've done on the SBS, the World Government doesn't have the resources or PR to do something like that, and they know it. Even if you know it's true, that still doesn't explain why the World Government would even consider challenging one of the Emperors, either before you got involved or now, when the entire thing is at the lowest point it's ever been."

I grimaced, hesitating, but they'd find out one way or another. Might even be told at their next briefing. So…

"To finish what they started all those years ago, and what they failed to do then. To accomplish what they set out to do… on Baterilla."

That sunk in, and there was a deep intake of breath from the better number of the listeners, along with a growing visage of horror.

"…Uh, what's Baterilla?" Dorry asked.

"It's a beautiful island in the South Blue. Tropical climate, lovely place for a vacation," Foxy explained airily. "Little-known paradise, I visited it once or twice—"

"And it was the site of a Government-ordered inquisition and massacre twenty-two years ago."

While Foxy gaped openly at Hina, Jonathan picked up the explanation.

"Baterilla was the last known location of Gold Roger before he was captured. After his execution, the World Government scoured the island and slaughtered every infant younger than two years, along with their mothers. The massacre was enacted with the singular intent of ensuring that if the Pirate King bore a child before his death, he or she would be executed in the sweep. Put an end to his bloodline before he could form a legacy."

"And they failed," I snapped. "They underestimated the tenacity of one Portgas D. Rouge. She carried her unborn son for twenty months to save him from being executed. When she finally gave birth, she stayed alive just long enough to hand him off to the only person that Roger trusted with her location: Vice Admiral Monkey D. Garp."

You could have bounced a berry off the air; it was so still and tense. Koala and Sandersonia were openly gaping at me, and I think Duval had gone catatonic.

"Fuck me…" Foxy breathed weakly.

"You said it…" Barto agreed.

"Should've known," Law snarled.

"W-Wait…" Tashigi said, obviously still struggling to grasp the implications. "So, doesn't this mean that Ace and Luffy—?"

"They're brothers in the only way that matters," Koala interrupted.

"And that's the last thing we're going to worry about," I concurred. "The only thing that could make the Government do something as stupid as challenging Whitebeard to a war, especially at a time like this, is their determination to put an end to the bloodline of the worst blight in their history."

A wave of exhaustion suddenly surged through me, and I instinctively rubbed my face to try to get rid of it. There was no time to collapse, especially when a terrifying thought occurred to me. "And to be clear: the main reason I wanted to stop this was I saw Luffy, his spirit completely broken after Ace died in his arms to save him. But now, that's the least of our concerns. They've changed their plans, because if it hadn't been for the Dark King himself saving us earlier, they would have had me up there beside Ace."

"…OK, I'll be the one to ask," Bartolomeo sighed out after a pause. "What's your logic here, Cross? Of course, they want to execute you, too."

"Any other time, yes, absolutely," I agreed, replaying what the Yellow bastard had said so I could be sure. "But not like this, not here. Ace is supposed to be center stage, ending Roger's bloodline. Having anyone else up there, even me, dilutes the message they're sending, and that should be the last thing they'd want. And yet, you heard what Kizaru said."

While Barto and the other Damned who'd been a part of that ass-whooping mulled over those words, Robin cleared her throat. "For the benefit of you who weren't present… once Admiral Kizaru lost his temper and decided that he was actually going to bring his full might to bear, he said that he would kill Cross too. And he also said…" She paused and swallowed uneasily. "He said that he would do it… in spite of such an action potentially enraging the Elder Stars."

And there it was. Dead silence, as everyone processed just what they'd heard and, more importantly, the dire implications

"…That does paint a different picture as to what the Government is planning," Jonathan said with a ferocious scowl. "But ultimately, it's the same purpose that they had before, just on a larger scale. They intend to showcase the 'evils' of freedom, and how the 'security' of the World Government is the only true peace in life."

"But it's not the motivation that's important here, but the methodology," I groaned out. "And that… that seems to have shifted drastically. If extinguishing Roger's Bloodline isn't the main point here… then I dread to imagine whatever it is they could be planning."

Bartolomeo was the first to break the grim silence, his face set and his beartrap of a jaw grit with steely determination. "Then what are we going to do about it, Cross?"

"I… I don't know," I admitted, my face a mask of misery. "If we'd had more time, if we'd had this information even a week sooner… but we don't have that. There are only ten days until the war, and there's something that I can't stop coming up in a couple of hours that's going to tie up every Straw Hat except Luffy. Myself included. We… We've been railroaded. I can't—I don't have time to plan this out…And… And even if I could, I still wouldn't… nothing I could…"

I lapsed into mumbled ramblings, only for a sharp pinch to send a lance of pain down my shoulder. I hissed and spun around to the one responsible: Sandersonia, a sympathetic look on her face, but also one that brooked no argument.

"Focus," she said. "Not on what you can't do, but what you can do."

A primal urge to tell her exactly where she could shove that idea welled up, but I slammed it and the roiling mass of everything else I was feeling down. I could break down later. And I'd soon have three days and nights with nothing better to do.

"I… I can't help Luffy," I said, the admission like swallowing broken glass. "None of us Straw Hats can, not really… but you can."

I gripped the edge of the table in an attempt to stop the jitters in my limbs. "Thanks to Popora, the war is now as fresh in my mind as the day I first read it. And now that it can't be stopped, there's only one thing I can do to change how it goes down. All of you, get out Tone Dials if you have them or pen and paper if you don't. I'm about to tell you everything I saw of the war. And no interruptions; I don't have time to say this more than once."

A mass of rustling sounded out from Soundbite. Seconds later, it stopped, and—after silently cursing the fact that I had any reason whatsoever to call up these memories again—I began.

"It began when Bartholomew Kuma used his powers to scatter the Straw Hat Pirates across the world…"

-o-

"…and after ten days, Akainu stood victorious, but he had enough sympathy to spare Aokiji's life. When he recovered, Aokiji resigned, unwilling to work under Akainu, and for reasons that I cannot begin to fathom, he joined Blackbeard, who had in the meantime usurped Whitebeard's title and territories and built a reputation for stealing Devil Fruit powers. As for the remaining Whitebeard Pirates, I can't say; that's the extent of my knowledge."

I huffed, rubbing my throat after a good half hour of talking their ears off. It was several minutes before the sound of scratching pens stopped as well, and Tashigi spoke.

"So… what do you expect us to do, Cross?"

I shook my head. "As long as Luffy and Ace survive the war, whatever you decide to do with my knowledge is fine by me. It would be best if Whitebeard didn't die, but given his age and the situation, I know how unlikely that is."

"…And what exactly are you planning on doing, Cross? Are the Straw Hats just going to accept leaving their captain alone for this?" Dorry asked sternly.

I shook my head. "I'm arming Luffy with all of the information and resources I can muster to max out his chances of raiding Impel Down and Marineford successfully. But beyond that… Kuma confronted me before I came here. The crew parts at sunset; nothing I do can stop that, nor should I, as much as I hate—"

"You're just giving up?!" Broggy said angrily.

"…And what would have happened if I chose to send him away, even if it was physically possible to stop him?" I responded, letting my exhaustion seep into my voice. "Can I guarantee that we'll make it to Impel Down or Marineford in time? No. Can I guarantee that we'll all survive if we do make it? No. Can I guarantee that, if by some miracle we all make it out of there alive and well, we'll still be able to train for the New World the way we need to? Hell no." I jabbed an accusatory finger in Soundbite's face, letting him broadcast my spiteful glower. "And neither can any of you. And you all know it."

"You can have all of the resources that you could wish for, stack up the odds in your favour, but sometimes, the enemy before you is someone that you just can't defeat as you are," Foxy stated. "I literally had that lesson beaten into my skull. As did you, Sagittarius."

Jonathan grimaced in acknowledgment. "I don't deny it. Planning a winning strategy is simple. But planning to win without any sacrifices along the way is tricky against even a half-decent opponent, let alone an equal one."

"And this fight… isn't equal. At all," I droned in agreement. "Impel Down cheats, the Marines assembled at Marineford will cheat, Blackbeard is bullshit incarnate, nothing about this fight will be fair. No advantages. No openings. Nothing. All I've managed to do is plug a few holes, but other than that… I've done all I can to keep just Luffy afloat. He clawed his way out of two straight hells by the skin of his teeth, and that's my best-case scenario. Anyone else in that mess, if I let anyone even try… I can't, I just can't."

"Honour can come from facing a foe beyond your stature…" Broggy said after a moment of silence. "But having the strength to acknowledge that you lack the might to prevail is wisdom seldom found in young warriors… and we both commend and rue the fact that you have shown that wisdom here today. We concede that you have chosen… if not the better path, then the least horrible one available to you."

"You can rely on us, Ophiuchus, Capricorn swears it," Hina said. "You've shown us all the angles. We'll handle the rest."

"Besides, we succeed, and this should put an end to whatever reputation the World Government has left," Lola added, smirking.

My spirits, downtrodden as they were, got a bit of a boost from the rest of the Divine and Damned chiming in with their own words of encouragement. I still felt like shit, but… it helped, it helped. I wiped away a few stray tears as the assurances petered off, and I looked back at Soundbite, almost smiling.

"This means the world to me, all of you," I acknowledged. "But with that out of the way… There are still some immediate problems to address. Namely, I have no idea where on this blue madhouse of a planet Kuma's going to send me, so for all I know, this may be the last time I can contact you all before the two years are up. Assuming I even survive that long. So, I have a few more things to say before I go. First things first: Bison, proper introduction."

"A-Ah, yes, sir," Duval stammered, addressing the snail. "I am Duval, formerly 'Iron Mask' Duval, leader of the Rosy Life Riders, formerly the Flying Fish Riders. I entered the kidnapping business due to a faulty bounty poster and am free again thanks to the Straw Hat Pirates. In light of the slave trade's demise, my knowledge of it won't be of much help, but my boys and I are at your service for whatever we can provide."

"We have deliberated upon your skills and resources since Ophiuchus mentioned you in our meeting last week," T-Bone replied. "At this point, I believe we have determined the best place for you and yours. One of my associates will arrive at the Archipelago within the next three days to lead you to your first assignment."

Duval nodded. With that handled… "Next, Ox."

"Yeah?/What?"

"Reorganize your priorities for the new ship, focus on its defensive capabilities. Odds are that Akainu is still going to become the new Fleet Admiral, so if you're not fortified enough, Water 7 is going to burn."

"Broggy, pass on the news. I'll stay here until the call is finished," Dorry said.

"Fine, Dorry," Broggy grunted, and there was the sound of a giant quickly leaving. I glanced aside for my next directive.

"Anaconda, if Vice Admiral Momonga is still the one heading for Amazon Lily as Boa Hancock's escort to Marineford, sow the seeds of doubt with him. He's strict but not necessarily cruel, and with any luck, we'll have a new member of the Divine sooner rather than later."

Sandersonia nodded, determination blazing in her eyes. "Understood."

"Monkey, how much can you speed up the preparation of the Free Feather Report?"

Apoo glanced aside, muttering rapidly under his breath before clacking his teeth with a discordant CLANG!

"With the extra manpower we've got now—lotsa journalists and other freethinkers locked away on this hellhole, three guesses how they got there—I should be able to pick up the pace. If you want it ready before the war starts…" Soundbite jerked his head to the side in an approximation of a shrug. "It'll be tight, but I think we can pull that off."

"Good. Then plan on making the war your first cover story." I grimaced and clutched my knuckles, pages of black and white flipping through my head. "No matter what happens at Marineford, it cannot go down in history as the War of the Best; the world must know the truth."

"Got it."

"Tiger, can I rely on you and Monkey to save Luffy and Ace?"

"Of course," Law responded with cold certainty.

"Good. Rooster."

"All ears."

"Join him. Lend him your powers, do whatever it takes to make sure he gets in and out in one piece." I twitched as a certain… irksome thought rammed into my head. "And don't flip out about Luffy until they're in the clear."

"…I'll control myself," he agreed.

I chose to take him at his word and moved on. "Alright. Rabbit, find Izo before he leaves, and tell him to tell Whitebeard about us. Don't share any more details than you have to, obviously, but make sure that the old man knows that there's going to be another group working behind the scenes to help him…" I grimaced as that image in particular struck me, but finished the thought. "And make sure that he knows what Teach has planned."

"Leaving now. Oswald, take notes for me."

"Aye, Captain."

"Puppy, two things. First, you had better spend the next two years training and building your power. You need to be able to stand as a true Warlord when the real show begins. And second… support Luffy. I…I'm not asking you to blow your cover, but… just… do whatever you can."

The Ghost Princess had shrunk slightly at the attention, but with something she could actually grasp, she put on a mask of confidence. "I'm good at reading openings, Ophiuchus. Whatever I can do, it'll get done."

"Thank you," I said, breathless. "Now… Goat, stockpile your resources, then return to the start of the Grand Line and build a proper base on Cactus Island. If Whitebeard still dies, there's going to be a new influx of pirates sailing into the Grand Line. You'll be tasked with recruiting as many as possible. Start with the bounty hunters that live there, old friends of Copperhead's."

"Excellent," Foxy drawled.

Another thought occurred to me, and my immediate instinct was to throw it out, if only out of spite, but pragmatism forced me to speak. Even if I had to drag out each word like it was a length of barbed wire. "Aquarius, I want to edit that request that I made earlier. The message I want you to pass on to Kuzan is this…"

I spoke fourteen words that only Kuzan would understand the full magnitude of.

"Hmm…" Tsuru chewed her lip thoughtfully. "If he knows that this is from you, I will need to exercise discretion in passing it on."

"Cram it down his throat if you have to, I don't give a damn," I barely restrained myself from snarling back. "All that matters is that I want those words branded into the back of his skull for the rest of his worthless life."

Tsuru grimaced, undoubtedly at the sheer vitriol I was showing, but she nodded nonetheless. "I will do the best that I can."

"Thank you." I let some measure of tension flow out of me in a sigh before continuing. "And to all of the Divine: when the war is over, faith in the Marines for those on the battlefield is going to be at its all-time low. Especially if things proceed as I remember, and someone starts a conscription campaign. I don't think it'll be enough to completely sway Sengoku, but it will probably be enough to sway Garp and Helmeppo, and it will definitely be enough to sway Coby. Capitalize on the opportunity. If you can't recruit them, shake them enough that you'll be able to recruit them later, and cull the ranks of the newly recruited before any sort of true indoctrination can set in."

A chorus of agreements sounded out.

"The last advice I can offer now is a few suggestions for whom you should try to recruit over the next two years. For the Divine, I have only one, but I'm certain that he'll join. His name is Issho, a blind swordsman with a love of gambling and a gravity-based Devil Fruit. He'll be an Admiral by the time our hiatus ends. For the Damned, I have two, both hazy. The more certain is Cavendish; no better way to describe the guy than 'attention whore', so he probably holds a grudge against…" I heaved out a tired sigh, because I did not have the patience for this… "Well, I in particular for stealing the spotlight, so you may have to wait on him. The other, however, is more immediate: Jewelry Bonney. I don't know her story, but from what I saw? She hates the hell out of Akainu and is on either the World Government's shit list or grab list for whatever reason, so she's at least worth looking into."

I paused, letting it sink in that this was really the end of what I could do before the war. Then I frowned as I considered what was to come after it.

"And one last—no, actually, two last things. Scorpio."

"Yes?"

"Take this down. Way back on Skypiea, I suggested establishing Punk Hazard as a base. Caesar Clown—sponsored by Doflamingo—already has a base set up on the island, so you'll need to move fast once the Admirals' duel is over to avoid detection. And I was remembering something else wrong: there's one scout you'll need to watch out for even in the fiery region." I scowled as the memory of the last few hours burned through my mind. "Monet, the Snow Logia of Doflamingo's crew. She probably won't be a big deal on the fiery side unless Tiger still modifies her so that she's a harpy on the outside as well, but either way, that's for you to handle. I should also add that Vergo is the one who monitors the base; if all goes well, it'll be his ignoble grave."

"Noted, Cross," Hina and T-Bone said, venom staining their tones.

"And second, Pisces and Cancer. Make sure that Popora is on Fishman Island when the Straw Hats reform, and make sure that he trains his projection technique over the next two years."

"…So, I guess it's more than just refreshing your memory?" Smoker divined.

"If all goes well?" I allowed myself a faint smile. "It'll be the beginning of the end of hatred between humans and fishmen." And just as swiftly, the smile collapsed. "But that's a worry for the future."

I grimaced and closed my eyes.

"New World Masons… no matter how Marineford turns out, our efforts for rebuilding the world will begin in earnest when the war ends. Good luck to all of you, and whatever else may come… know that it has been an honour and a pleasure to work alongside each and every one of you. This is Ophiuchus—"

"And Knucker—"

"Signing off."

-o-

It was a minute or so after Cross disconnected that the callers spoke again instead of hanging up.

"…So, this is what it's like to know the future," Jonathan mused. "I don't much care for the feeling."

"I knew it. From the very first day, I knew that I was out of my mind to join him," Smoker groused, though without any real hit.

"This is the proof," Law intoned in agreement. "And yet, he passed us the baton. We listened and agreed to give him some peace of mind after all of this, but is that what we're planning to do?"

"Like we've got much other choice, jagoff?" Bartolomeo growled, sounding disturbingly lucid beneath his usual zealotry. "In case you missed it, the world's been up shitcreek but good for the past few centuries, and Cross has made the most impact since Roger himself. Luffy's without equal, ain't nobody can deny that, but it's Cross who's changing the world. If he fucks off for good, which after a day like today I sure as shit wouldn't blame him for doing, then we'll all be screwed. So you'd better damn well hope he comes back, you hear!"

"Leaping to conclusions again, Rooster…" Law muttered. "I'm just playing devil's advocate here: he's just gone and left the job of salvaging something of the world from the flaming wreckage it's about to become, while he bows out. That doesn't seem a little mismatched to anyone here?"

"Not particularly," Tashigi, Tashigi of all people, said. "As Rooster said, today's been the hell of a day to end all hellish days, and while a lot of us got caught in the periphery, Cross was the primary target of it all. Right now, he's scrambling and is going to be scrambling for his life and sanity alike while this all goes down. He… literally can't handle handling all this right now. Which is where we come in."

"Do what you can with your life on the line… and once you're done, turn to your friend and say 'If you don't finish it, I'll kill you myself'."

"Ox?" Jonathan queried in surprise.

"Something I remember hearing Roronoa Zoro say on the SBS," the Blue Ogre replied. "Cross has done all that he could, he's worked himself to the bone, and taken on more than even a Giant's shoulders could bear. And now, it's our duty to pick up the slack. And if we can't find it in ourselves to grit our teeth and bear that burden, that same burden that Cross has been bearing all this time, without complaint? Then why are any of us even here?"

There was a long pause before Law tsked dismissively. "Hey, like I said: didn't mean anything by it, was just saying it to say it. No way I'd ever let that loudmouth show me up like that, so what the hell: let's see what we can drag out of the ashes."

"Well then, with that settled, there is one matter that I must address before we consider what to do with this knowledge," Tsuru spoke grimly, her mere tone drawing grimaces from her co-conspirators. "I had considered warning Ophiuchus, but in light of everything… the Straw Hat Pirates have been framed for an attack on the World Nobles."

"…Framed for attacking them?" Law said in disbelief. "I'm sorry, but assuming you haven't gone senile, what the hell happened to them that was worse than the puppet show from… the… no. No, you've got to be kidding me. He didn't."

"He did," Tsuru confirmed with a tired sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose in an effort to avoid looking at the hellish report she was holding. "When Saints Charloss and Shalria arrived at Mariejois, not one bone in their bodies was unbroken, and their father was scarcely better off. Saint Roswald did, of course, testify to who was truly responsible, but as all of us now know, he is the one person that not even the World Nobles can order to be punished, leaving no choice but to issue the cover story he left us."

"One last parting shot, and it cuts the Government itself along with the Straw Hats," Tashigi grumbled mutinously. "This statement is blatantly false, and all the world will know it, so they'll also know that the World Government either has no clue who actually attacked those monsters or, for whatever reason, is protecting them…" She trailed off, face twisting in uncomfortable ways. "Or… will they… I mean, with where the SBS cut off, couldn't there be some reasonable doubt—?"

"There could be," Tsuru bluntly agreed, before allowing herself the slightest of rueful smirks. "Were it not for the fact that someone just so happened to leak an official report, detailing how the 'venerable' Saint Roswald and his family acquired their injuries after being taken into the World Government's history, to certain… interested outside parties."

Tsuru kept up her smirk for a bit before glowering pointedly at her snail and its lack of reaction. That made it blink and grow a set of piano-like teeth. "Oh, you mean me, right, right! Ah, yeah, sure, I can do that! Can't actually print it in the Report yet… Ah, but if you can really get me that report, then I can run it through our presses and spread it as far and wide as we can manage, use it as a dry run of our network! That should punch a hole clean through their propaganda, no problem!"

"Good. With that sorted… we do not have much time to act on our new knowledge. I ask that all of you use the rest of the day to compile an accounting of your assets so that we know what we have to work with. We will reconvene and plan tomorrow morning properly."

"Agreed."

"Fine by me."

"That works."

"Then this meeting is adjourned," Tsuru said. With that, she hung up, and then she sank back into her chair with a tired, tired, bone-deep tired groan.

"Why, in all the nine circles of hell, couldn't this all have happened forty years earlier, when I didn't have arthritis, and I could actually trust my best friends…" she groaned, if only for the sake of it.

-o-

The Damned, who were on Sabaody when the call ended, were prepared to give the appearance of going their separate ways. Apoo had news to blow wide open, Law had maneuvers to practice, Bartolomeo had a crew to rile up, and Foxy had a juvenile Sea King or two to borrow.

There was just the slight issue that came when they returned to where they'd left the rest of their less… well-connected co-conspirators. Co-conspirators who'd taken notice of their absence and were waiting for their return, and were headed up by one of their less… amenable number.

"And where in the hell did you all fuck off to!?"

Faced with someone all too capable of killing him in ten seconds flat, Foxy wisely held his tongue in the face of Kid's fuming. The other three had wisecracks or lies ready to divert Kid's attention via another flare-up of his volcanic temper prepared on their tongues.

But before any of them could present said distractions—

"LOOK OUT—!"

PING! KRA-KOOM!

"—AAGH!"

—a new distraction arose, in the form of Law's newest recruit, Jean Bart, flying past the assembled Supernovas and crashing into the nearby mangrove, flash-fried by what the Supernovas all recognized as one of Kizaru's lasers. This was enough to get them ready to run for the hills. Seeing their mystery assailant merely reinforced that decision.

The good news was that Kizaru wasn't back. But that was cold comfort to the pirates when in his place was an androgynous sumo wrestler armed with a massive battle-axe and flanked by Bartholomew Kuma… on both sides.

"If ever we needed proof that we're only halfway through the Grand Line…" Bege muttered grimly as he warily eyed the twin behemoths.

"Uurgh, just unbelievable…" the sumo wrestler ground out, his free hand pinching the bridge of his nose in clear annoyance. "Not only was someone actually able to beat Uncle Kizaru, even by surprise, but now I need to mop up these weaklings, too? Such a pain…"

Snorting, Sentomaru unslung his axe from his shoulders and brought it slamming into the ground. "But don't think just because I'm annoyed means you're getting another miracle save you this time. Do me a favour and try to last ten seconds so that I can get some decent data, alright?"

"Like we'll need even one against a Government flunky and a pair of your knock-off robots," Law drawled, though his lax tone of voice was belied by how tightly he was gripping Kikoku, and how quickly his Room snapped out to its full size.

Kid glanced at the suddenly tense Surgeon of Death, but then donned a bloodthirsty grin at the Pacifistas. "Robots, huh? This'll be fun."

Sentomaru's glare snapped to Law. "How the hell did you—?!" Biting his tongue, he shook his head. "Tch, doesn't matter, not my department… but as for the rest of you…" His scowl deepened as he turned his full attention to Kid. "Don't underestimate me, you punk."

"Or what?" the ferrokinetic captain scoffed, leering viciously at the wrestler as he swung up a half-assembled arm of mismatched metal for an ironclad haymaker. "What're ya gonna do, fatass, sit on m—!?"

CRUNCH!

And despite the situation, pretty much everyone else watching felt at least a little catharsis from seeing the metal manipulator getting sent flying by way of the outstretched palm that occupied the very space he once had.

"PX-1, PX-2, take out the others. Kill them all."

The eyes of the twin giants glimmered. Their jaws dropped open, and glares of light flared in their open maws.

That killed the catharsis in favour of a mad scramble to survive.

-o-

I huffed as I settled back in the main room of the bar, part of my mind noting that it was a lot emptier than it had been half an hour ago. I answered the questioning looks of the crew that were present with a shake of my head.

"I gave them all the knowledge I have; whatever plan they make with it is out of my control." I slowly raised my gaze to Luffy. "I've done everything that I can do to help you save Ace, Captain."

"I know," Luffy replied. He went to the three allies. "Are you guys staying?"

"Not for long. We'll be heading back to the Revolutionaries' headquarters as soon as our ride gets here," Koala answered.

"I'm on my way out now, need to brief my boys about the upcoming trouble," Duval said, giving a cringey wink as he headed for the door. "We'll make sure to put 100% toward saving your brother, Captain!"

Luffy managed a small smile and a nod of gratitude as Duval left the bar. The bar went silent again as I furiously racked my brains for anything else that might help Luffy that I had forgotten. Only one thing came to mind, and I slowly turned toward the senior pirate in the room.

"Before you say anything, Cross," Rayleigh pre-empted him. "The World Government just broke whatever unspoken agreement we had. My patience is officially at an end. So…" The old man grinned, and it was definitely only by way of his immense restraint that I didn't see him as someone or… something else. "So tell me: how can we make them really hurt?"

I blinked, confusion striking me as I got my heart rate back under control. "…real quick first, a question: despite the reasons I gave you earlier, you were still… rather composed about Ace's execution, the way I saw it. Any reason you're…?"

"Fit to pull a Fisher Tiger with a lot more bodies?" Rayleigh chuckled grimly, his glasses glinting in the light. "Easy: in the circumstances you're describing, I knew I couldn't truly act without ruining my life, so my only choice was to let go of my anger, or be consumed by it. Here? I have you, and thus an alternative. So, I can let loose and… express myself a bit. And as I'm sure I implied, I take it you have an idea for that?"

I swallowed heavily, as I tamped down my 'run you blithering idiot!' survival instincts again. "By telling the truth," I all but spat. "We hurt them by telling the truth they've hidden for so long, and that will hurt them the most."

Rayleigh cocked his brow. "Which would be…?"

"The truth about that day in Loguetown. About his last days."

That rocked Rayleigh back on his heels. He stared at me in unabashed shock for a few seconds before snapping his jaw shut. "…yeah. Yeah, that'd do it…" Thankfully for me, after some thought, he just shrugged. "Eh, screw it, that was always their lie anyway, not ours. At this point, he'd probably just point and laugh at us pulling it off like this. Alright, let's do this. You want to do it in here, or…?"

I was sorely tempted to agree with him, to jump right into it, as I had with so many other days before… but… "Go… Go on ahead back to the cellar for a bit," I said with a weak smile. "I'll… I'll catch up with you."

Rayleigh's doubtful frown informed me that I hadn't fooled him even an iota… but, thankfully, he had the good graces to concede, and leave me alone for what little time I needed.

And need it I damn well did, because the second Rayleigh was out of sight, I collapsed into the nearest chair I could find, my face buried in my hands as once more, I felt the sheer weight of… of everything crushing down on me so hard my name might as well have been Atlas.

"Soundbite," I croaked out, not even looking up at my partner. "I've never asked you this before because it's never been in question… but right now, I need it bad: what's my motivation?"

It took Soundbite a second to process my question, but when he responded?

"…The past six-to-twelve hours of your life have been an utter shitshow and everything you know and hold dear is spiraling down in flames, so you might as well drag a few of the worthier bastards responsible down with you so that you can share the misery with some bastards who really deserve it, and in so doing make any victory they might be trying to get out of your downfall as hollow as you can. THAT HELP?"

With those words, I felt a new fire raging in my skull. Standing, I marched to the cellar door with a new spring in my step. It wouldn't last, the pressure would see it extinguished within the hour, but for what I had planned, it would be enough.

"Perfect."

-o-

"Well, at least after all of this, the worst of this nightmare has finally—!"

"Don don don don!"

"SOMEONE EITHER KILL HIM OR SHUT HIM UP!"

"HUP!" Coby promptly side-tackled his friend to the floor, one hand clamped over his mouth while his other arm snaked around his neck to lock into a sleeper hold. For his own good, of course.

Though if only in his mind, he had to admit that it was hard to imagine exactly how much worse things could get at this point.

And then someone picked up the snail. Coby took one look at the infuriated madness raging in that snail's eyes, and all his skepticism evaporated into nothingness.