"Alright, you ancient astral bastards," Jeremiah 'Voice of Anarchy' Cross sneered around the world, his eye twitching and his voice straining with an undeniable overtone of raw murder. "You wanna play hardball? Let's play fucking hardball. Joining us here today on the Straw Hat Broadcast Station, which is starting right here, right now, we have the man renowned as the Dark King, and one of the strongest pirates alive today: Gol D. Roger's First Mate, Silvers Rayleigh. Mister Silvers, I believe you've got an exclusive tale you'd like to share with the world?"
And then the snail's expression shifted, ever so slightly. It still held madness and hellfire, but now, the burning hatred it bore was ice-cold. Ice-cold, and to so many, chillingly familiar.
"Ohohohoh... Cross, you better believe it," a wizened, experienced voice crooned out, promising nothing but pain. "Because this? This has been a long time coming. Finally, after all these years… time to bring things to a head."
Even safely hidden away from the world at the Twin Capes, Crocus couldn't help the instinctive shiver that shot down his spine. He had seen that smile and heard that tone enough times to know that this was going to be a lot of trouble and leave a lot more broken bodies in its wake.
He might have expected mischief with a hint of malice from Rayleigh when he eventually got on the SBS, sure, but nothing quite on this scale. This… This was pure malice, and there were only a couple of things that he could blab to the world that justified that. And for just a moment, Crocus felt doubt that his old superior would go that far.
"Caw!"
The caw of a News Coo drew his attention skyward, right as it fluttered down. Long-trained reflexes had him reach for a couple of coins to pay for the paper. He glanced at the front page, turned his attention back to the snail… and then slowly turned back to the front page with a darkening visage as the bird flew off and he properly registered what in the hell he was reading .
No, Crocus decided, his superior was going just far enough. If anything, the only reason to show any restraint in light of this news would be to conserve the real damage, the namesake of the final island, for if the Government actually succeeded. And even then… well, perhaps it was time for the kindly old lighthouse keeper to 'remember' some old memories, the next time a strapping crew of intrepid adventurers passed by. Just, you know, for old times' sake.
-o-
"Much as I'd like to give a full monologue, I'm afraid that time is short and not all of this story is mine to tell, so I'll need to keep it brief. So…" Rayleigh cleared his throat, then addressed the world with a sharp look and a vicious grin that kept everyone listening pinned to their seats with an overwhelming sensation of 'or else' echoing through their minds. "People of the world, I'm sure you're wondering how it is that I escaped from the Marines while my captain ended up captured and executed. Or, quite frankly, how it is that any of we Roger Pirates could possibly still be alive and free. Quite the mystery, isn't it? How there are so many questions surrounding Roger's final days, no records of any grand battles momentous enough to mark the end of his freedom. Isn't it just a bit convenient that shortly after Roger was named the 'King of Pirates', mere months after, he was caught without a whisper?"
The truth that would become public knowledge in a matter of moments had never circulated outside of the highest echelons of the Navy. As such, the likes of Base 153 gave the broadcast their rapt attention despite the pits of dread in their stomachs.
"The answer is simple: the Navy never captured Gol D. Roger."
With that, the dread crystallized into something tangible. The world seemed to freeze over, two decades of history upended like a top-heavy ship. Eyebrows rose, fists clenched, jaws dropped, and disbelief abounded, both at Base 153 and the world over.
"Yes, you heard me right," Rayleigh chuckled, sounding honest-to-god nostalgic at what he was saying. "It wasn't a 'capture'. Gol D. Roger, the 'King of the Pirates', turned himself in. And not because of a trick or a threat, nothing like that. No, Gol D. Roger, of… mostly sound mind, turned himself in to the World Government of his own volition."
"…what kind of 'sound mind' would have an unrepentant pirate commit suicide by Marine?" one grunt breathlessly demanded.
"If you're wondering why, well… that's quite simple: he did it so that he could end his life on his own terms."
The grunt that had spoken froze, and Ripper himself began sweating. "No… it can't have been…" he breathed, not even believing his own words.
"You see, well before he turned himself in, my former captain had a terminal disease," the Dark King blithely revealed without a hint of remorse. "Do you all understand? The man who shook the world, who conquered the Grand Line, who claimed everything that the world had to offer… was dying throughout it all. So, once his adventure was over, he turned himself in to the Navy, who held a public execution and ended his life before the eyes of the world. Which was exactly what he wanted. The Government intended to kill the spirits of pirates, and Roger turned the situation on them with his last breath. Stoked the final sparks of his life into a raging inferno that engulfed the world, the consequences of which we're still feeling today… heh, which we're even feeling right now!"
The gaze on the other end of the snail sharpened, a taste of Haki brushing against all who heard the conclusion of Rayleigh's revelation.
"Engrave this one truth in your minds, people of the world: The greatest victory of the World Government, the proudest, crowning achievement of the Navy… was nothing but a lie."
"…sooo, anyone wanna bet that we're the only base left in the East Blue who the locals actually like anymore?"
Ripper dropped his face into his hand with a groan of bone-deep weariness. "Start swabbing the halls, Seaman," he ordered morosely.
"No betting, Captain?"
"No… just no placing fools' bets."
"Aye, sir…"
-o-
"And, just to clarify while that's all still sinking in: in regards to one Monkey D. Garp. The stupid, reckless old man that stuck me with a ten-figure bounty," Cross droned on. "I want you all to consider this: the Navy said as much… but did, or has, he ever said that he captured Roger?"
It was a heavy silence in the six seconds before Rayleigh answered.
"Given what I know, allow me to confirm it for the world: I do not believe that he ever did or has. I'm not sure he's ever denied such claims, but I can't recall him ever making them himself."
Cross's eyes closed for a few moments and he nodded to himself. "It's becoming an increasingly short list of Marines that I thought were good men that turn out to be… lacking. I'm grateful that Garp remains on it…"
His eyes opened again and glared at the world once more.
"For now."
The Anarchist's gaze then immediately sharpened further into a flinty deadpan. "Oh, but everyone else in that generation lied through their teeth about the entire thing, carte blanche on them."
"Puru puru puru puru!"
The World Government's Military Commander jumped in his seat as his snail, which he'd been watching with dread for the past—he glanced at a clock and only narrowly missed having a heart attack; five minutes?! This hell had only been going on for five minutes?!—five minutes, apparently, suddenly started ringing. His mood dropped even further, as it was a very short list of people who had the number to this specific snail and an even shorter list of reasons they could be calling him, precisely none of them any good. The only question right now…
"Puru puru p—KALICK!"
…was how bad it was going to be.
"Yes?" Kong asked warily.
"You're listening to the final straw."
Kong's eyes shot wide as the last voice he'd wanted to hear said the last words he'd ever wanted them to speak. "W-What?!"
"You heard me: I. Am. Done," Sengoku snarled. "The exact instant that Fire-Fist's execution is over and done with, I resign. Find someone else stupid enough to put up with this PR death sentence, because I don't intend to. To put it as politely as possible, I quit, deal with it. KALICK!"
Kong stared blankly at his newly silent snail for another quick eternity, both trying to get his thoughts in order and to blink the spots out of his eyes. And once he succeeded… he had only one thing to say.
"Damn it."
-o-
"Anyway, that's all we wanted to say, but, ah… one more thing… before I close this off," Cross concluded, because of course he wasn't done talking yet, of course not.
"People of the world, I'm sure that most of you are wondering why I sound as angry as I did back in the Strong World and am being as actively antagonistic to the Government as I was back in Enies Lobby. The answer to both of those questions is something that I'm keeping to myself for now, because there's still a chance… however small of one, that my anger is all for nothing. Maybe… this will be enough. Maybe someone will grow a heart, or a conscience, or a brain… and this… will all be over soon."
For one second, the world was witness to a broken and exhausted man who couldn't even keep his eyes open. Then he reopened them and the cold fire returned.
"But. If that doesn't happen… If this isn't for nothing, and somebody decides to do the very not-smart thing and call my bluff… then you'll hear from me again in ten days, and I promise you this: before my next broadcast comes to an end, this world… will never be the same again. See you real soon… on the Day of Reckoning."
"Enjoy your FINAL DAYS OF PEACE," Soundbite hissed in agreement. "This is Jeremiah Cross and Soundbite… GONE BUT NEVER FORGOTTEN."
The broadcast ended, and atop the peak of the world, five old men sat in livid silence as the consequences of provoking someone who knew too much sunk in.
It was clear now that any victory that they sought could only be pyrrhic in nature. Either the enemy they had worked too hard to crush slipped through their fingers, or retaliation would surface that, at worst, could undo 800 years of hard work. It was proven now that driving a rat into a corner was hazardous. Succeeding in the execution would be less driving him into a corner and more putting him in a bucket, placing that bucket against their own stomachs, and putting a torch to the bucket's underside.
In the face of this threat, one that compromised all that they were, the thought crossed their minds to cut their losses. Another blemish against their reputation, but one that would ensure more time to rebuild their resources, less hostility from the biggest pain in their necks since… ever.
For a brief moment… they considered calling off the war.
And then the thought was gone without vocalization. Because in the end, why should they wait? What had they to fear? They had endured for eight centuries already, they would endure for eight more if that was what it took. They would claim a victory from this, and that would be enough. They would not, could not fail. And when this farce had passed, it would be that much easier to bury in the annals of history and never speak of it again should worse come to worst.
This was their darkest era, but it would pass with time. As all things, eventually, did.
They knew that their Order would withstand whatever Anarchy could produce.
…And two weeks later, when the war was done, the New Order was taking hold, and the Voices of Anarchy fell silent, possibly forever, they would curse the knowledge that waiting just one more day would have reduced that to nothing.
-o-
The sight that awaited me as I returned from the cellar a second time was not one I expected, even forewarned by the telltale scent in the air from Sanji's cooking. The crew was back together, nobody missing, and all of the tables in the bar were set to serve.
Luffy smiled when he saw me again. "Alright, now that everyone's here, let's have some fun."
"Indeed," Brook declared, drawing his violin and bow. "In the face of the inevitable, there is no finer way to make use of your remaining time than to enjoy yourselves. All the more when we know that this goodbye is only fleeting. We shall look to the future with hope and promise, and enjoy the gift of the present."
And with that, he began to play, the cadenza of Binks' Brew filling the air with hope and sorrow.
It was… all a quiet thing, really. I just sat down and… and we talked.
I mean, there were some games and such, some antics, but overall… we just talked.
About recent events and old, about jokes half-remembered and adventures regarded fondly, ideas of possibilities, a handful of things that could have gone differently, and wonders of what would be to come.
Sometimes tempers flared, sometimes moods dropped, but generally, most everyone kept a smile on their face and an even keel.
And we just… enjoyed each other's company. Each other's presence. Whether anything was said or not didn't matter, whether anything was done… all immaterial. All that mattered was that in that one… final moment… we were all there. Together.
It wasn't a rambunctious party. But it was the best sendoff that we could ask for.
It was also, sadly, a sendoff on a clock. A clock that ran out way too soon, as the shadows lengthened and the light glared in from the window. A clock that finally ran out when everyone with Observation in the room stiffened all at once.
The good cheer, happy energy that had built up, fragile as it was, just… died. Straight-up died, replaced by an overwhelming aura of… of sheer dread that choked everything out. I became acutely aware of the weight still on my head. I hadn't wanted to ask this question, wanted to still pretend I could avoid this, but… it was time to stop procrastinating.
"Luffy… I need to ask, are you sure you want me taking care of this?" I nervously fingered The Hat's— The Hat's!— brim. "Because if you keep this, it will be safe for the next two years. After the war, it won't be in any danger. But I don't know where I'll end up, for all I know it could be in the middle of a battleground until—OW!"
I looked up at Luffy, trying to ignore the goose egg growing beneath the straw. He had no right to look that exasperated!
"You can be pretty stupid sometimes, Cross," he deadpanned, which, let me tell you, actually managed to spike my temper even through my lingering mood. "I trust you and you deserve it. And more importantly, when you give that back to me in two years, you won't doubt it anymore. My treasure is safe with one of my crew."
There was… a hell of a lot going unsaid there, and I couldn't even tell if he knew he was not-saying half of what he was not-saying. I did know there was one thing he wasn't saying intentionally, and I got that message loud and clear.
Then Luffy brought up his right arm in a motion I recognized, getting everyone's attention in the process, so apparently he had a lot more he wanted to say. I had brought that scene up, both during the party and a few times before, but I didn't expect this. Though in retrospect, I don't know why.
"No matter what happens," Luffy declared, in a tone that brooked no argument. "No matter how we change, we'll always be friends. We'll all get stronger. And then we'll all meet back here again. It's a promise."
Nobody said anything in reply, but then, nobody needed to. All they needed to do, all we needed to do… was stick our arms up. Holding them in the air, firm and proud. After all, Luffy was the one who'd said it. Who'd declared it. We would meet each other again, and that was that. No question, no doubt. Not even actually a promise. Just… a fact.
The fact hung in the air while we packed up, one final lock-and-load before we headed out to wherever we were headed out to. Weapons were prepped and checked, supplies secured, packs strapped on and ready to go, including Merry's duffel bag on Luffy's back, loaded with all of our hopes for him. None of us were really prepared to part; we never could have been, but at least no regrets remained in the air. At least there was that.
And then, at long last, it was time.
One by one, we marched out of the Rip-Off Bar. One by one, we reached the bottom of the staircase, and one and all, we stood ready as the orange rays of the evening set the archipelago aflame.
And then, between one breath and another, he was here. Just… here. Towering over us. Shadowing us, as one gloved hand slid the covering off the other. No emotion on his face, no antagonism. Just silent, dispassionate judgment.
"…go ahead of me, everyone."
Luffy's order was quiet, but with no more than a glance back at him, the crew nodded and moved forward.
Or specifically, I was moved forward, the first to go, by no attempt of my own. I turned questioningly, the answer coming to me as all of the crew's eyes met mine. This… This was the last time we'd see each other for two years. And like this, the last memory of them I'd have would be all of them together, facing the future.
So… I nodded and accepted it. Held my hands out and accepted Lassoo and Funkfreed as they placed themselves in my hands once more and secured them in place.
It… was time.
The straw hat fell to shadow my face as I turned back, lacking the strength to raise my head to the Tyrant's mercy. Not rising as Kuma finished removing his glove and reared back his hand. Not rising as Bartholomew Kuma brought down his hand to banish me to the end of the planet—
"If you have any regrets, now would be the time to share them."
—and a moment before his paw would have connected, I found my voice.
I only managed that one sentence, the only sentence that I would ever say to him...but it was enough that I managed to give him pause. He remained motionless for a few seconds, his face as unreadable as ever and his paw inches away from sending me flying. Then he withdrew his hand and his lips moved, conveying words quietly enough that I doubt even his cybernetic ears could detect them. And in response to his last request, with wide eyes at the revelation, I nodded. The whisper of gratitude in return was just audible enough for the crew to hear.
Then, in a final moment of doubt, I turned my attention to my shoulder. "No last words, Soundbite?" I asked.
"…Only five."
The cyborg pulled his hand back once more, and this time nothing aborted its motion. Barely enough time elapsed for the snail to voice his parting words:
"I don't want to go."
And like that… we were gone.
-o-
Luffy stood back enough that he could watch them all. Zoro and Nami, who had taken the full brunt of the Warlord's wrath to save them, were the next to go. Neither one showed any fear, the former standing straight as an arrow with his bandanna around his head and the latter atop her mount, gripping the reins tightly with her Clima-Tact disassembled and strapped to her thigh.
"…I must admit that I am surprised that you both survived," Kuma stated.
"Thanks to your mercy," Zoro replied, pumping the last word with enough venom to put down a Sea King.
"Don't expect it to come to that again," Nami quietly agreed, firmly winding her partner's reins around her fist. Billy, without his voice, could only nod.
"Do not expect that you will always have a say in the matter, even after this," Kuma responded after a moment. He then brought his hand down and swiped twice, and the three of them were gone, though not before everyone saw them reach for their weapons.
The departures that followed were less momentous than the officers, but held their own weight.
"I… I want to say I'll be alright, that this'll all be fine… that there's no problem… but for once in my life, I don't, I-I won't lie: I hate this and I wish it didn't have to happen… but once we're back, I won't ever have to lie again! Whatever I say I can do, I'll be able to get it done! And that's a promise, from the King of the Snipers! But… until then… goodbye."
[Tread through hell in order to reach heaven, huh…? Tch, I don't know what you knew, Cross, but once we're all back together, you're eating my boot leather for three weeks straight… and hey, shitty captain! You get in trouble or too hungry, you damn well call us, got it? We'll come running with bells on, and that's a promise!]
"I—! I want… I want to let myself lose control so bad right now. To lose myself in the madness, escape into my genius… Just let the fear be washed away… But! But I know that-that I can't do that right now! So I won't! I'll face this head-on, with my head held high with pride! And once I come back, I promise… I'll be good enough that everyone knows my name! The name of the doctor, who treated the next King of the Pirates!"
"This crew was my first family in… you are the first family I've ever had. Don't worry about me, I know how to take care of myself on my own. Whatever I might become in the process… but no matter what, know that I'll always look forward to the day we see each other again. When we all see each other again, both our immediate family… and extended alike. Do svidaniya, Captain."
"…c'mon, don't make me follow up with all of these… heartfelt goodbyes, you know that I… can't… just send me already you damn rustbucket, before I lose my SUPER coo—!"
"It has only been three months since you and yours rescued me from purgatory, but it has been the best three months of my second life. Now I have a reason to continue living beyond the promise that I made. Captain, I vow to you that I shall put my very soul into ensuring that our crew does not suffer the fate that my previous one did. Farewell until we meet again alive and well - even though I'm already dead."
"I… I know this hurts. I know it hurts to say goodbye, I know that better than… than anyone on the planet! You know that! So… so you know that I know what I'm talking about… when I say that it'll be alright. This is goodbye, but it's not farewell. I'll be back before you know it, we all will, I promise! Because this crew… is our home. And if you know me even a little… then you know that I never abandon my home."
{Thanks to this glorious stunt of yours, I can't even say goodbye to my captain beyond an Oceanus-damned salute. You've taken enough from us. No more. Whatever you have planned, you're not breaking us up. Not me, and not my boys. Either we go together…or we don't go at all… hmph, smart choi—}
"It's been amazing so far, everything that I could have dreamed of and more. I'll do my best to get even more firepower for us when we come back. And I know that whatever sights I'll see, they'll pale in comparison to what I see when I'm all back together with you. You do your best in return, Captain… you know, I haven't said this until now, because it means both hello and goodbye… but I'll say it now. I'm sorry to say heso, Luffy, but I can't tell you how much I look forward to when I say it again."
…until at last, only one remained. And in the face of the inevitable, she couldn't stop herself from running. Running back to her captain, and hugging him with enough force to snap a skeleton.
"Come back to me," she whispered viciously, burying her face in his leg. "Because you promised, remember? Back then, when you said we'd go all the way, and that I could stay with you, and right now. That always, every time, you'd come back… so no matter what, you have to keep your promise. You have to come back."
A comforting hand on her head and a nod of reassurance later, Merry grudgingly turned away from him, closing her eyes as Kuma sent her away.
And at last… there was one.
A faint part of Luffy's mind felt gratitude for the forewarning. It hurt, watching his precious crew vanish one by one to who-knows-where. But he knew what it was for, and that was the difference between a sobbing wreck and a pirate captain standing strong as he was meant to do.
But that gratitude was buried under the knowledge he wouldn't have known in another future, held in the responsible part of his brain that had woken up a few hours prior. And each time the Warlord brought his hand down, whether the next one was trembling, stiff, steadfast, or visibly fighting the urge to run, his resolve to remain reasonable weakened.
As the last of his crew vanished, he raised his head to look Bartholomew Kuma in the eyes and allowed his buried anger to surface as he spoke."If Cross hadn't talked to you… you'd have attacked us, wouldn't you? You'd have forced us to go, no matter what, without giving us any chance to say goodbye."
"Correct," the Warlord calmly answered.
Luffy grit his teeth. "And even now, if Cross had asked for just one more minute, even if he hadn't had a chance to say goodbye, you'd still have forced him."
"Correct."
Luffy grit his teeth further . "Why."
"Because according to all calculations, this was the most logical course of action to ensure the survival of the Straw Hat Pirates. Emotionally, this course of action was best defined as…" The Tyrant paused, before tilting his head as an answer presented itself. "A kindness."
And it was at that precise moment that something in the air just… snapped.
Either ignorant of or ignoring the shift, Kuma lifted his foot —
—And blinked in honest confusion as his systems all spontaneously rebooted.
The cyborg took stock of the data his mind was now processing: his body had been displaced by 18.56 meters, his cranial case was registering severe damage to his facial muscles, three of the spinal servos in his neck were reporting significant damage, his aft hull was buried nearly 1.78 meters into a Sabaody Mangrove, and the ocular camera had identified a fist occupying the exact position his face had held before the surprise reboot.
All told, it took 0.3 milliseconds for Bartholomew Kuma to reach a conclusion: Monkey D. 'Straw Hat' Luffy had just punched him into a tree.
-o-
Standing a few feet behind the last Straw Hat standing, watching as the smoke wafted off his outstretched fist, Rayleigh let out a polite cough into his own fist. "Just for the sake of an old man's peace of mind…" he stated slowly. "You do know that you can't win, correct?"
Luffy let out a grim snort as he waved his fist out, clenching and unclenching his knuckles. "I know," he growled. "And I don't care."
-o-
'The Tyrant' Bartholomew Kuma gripped the edges of the crater he was in and easily shoved his way out, towering over the rubbery pirate that was glaring hellfire at him. He noted absently that said pirate's fist was bleeding as well as smoking. At Luffy's level of strength, the force needed to send Kuma flying like that would have shattered half the bones in his body if they hadn't all been made of rubber.
And in response to this blatant wrath, Kuma was impassive. An impassiveness that stood, even as he grasped his own dislodged jaw and wrenched it back into place. "This is… illogical. You accepted all this less than a minute ago. Explain."
'Straw Hat' Luffy snorted out a cloud of steam as his grip on the pipe slung across his back tightened and flexed violently. "You're an idiot. Do you really think I was happy to see my crew go away? No… I was angry. I've been angry for hours, and I barely even fought that Light-Monkey, so I'm still at my strongest. And then, on top of all that…" 'Straw Hat's face darkened visibly, and trembling overtook his body. "You not only hurt my crewmates— broke my Commie— but you sent them away, meaning I don't need to worry about hurting them anymore. I don't need to hold back anymore."
The air slowly grew heavier and heavier, and for the first time in decades, for the first time since he'd grown so strong, for the very first time since they'd started putting metal into his brain and soul… Kuma felt something. The slightest, barest, most animal twinge of emotion. Machine logic overrode it, but the moment had come to pass.
For the first time in years and years, Kuma felt a twitch of fear.
"That was the last mistake…" Luffy rammed his fist down, and steam blazed off of his body as reality rippled around him. "You'll ever make!"
Silence stretched on while that statement was fully processed. And the Tyrant's eyes glinted as he squared his shoulders and planted his feet, every artificial muscle in his body tensing with anticipation. "You are more correct than you realize, Monkey D. Luffy," he muttered, if only to himself.
And that was that.
In a blur, a blast of movement, began the beginning of the end.
-o-
SHA-BOOM!
"Argh!" Trafalgar Law howled as he went tumbling, his clothes singed and smoking. Overall, the fight was not going well. Everyone was still worn out and banged up from fighting Kizaru, and all three of their opponents were tough sons of bitches with hitting power to match. Levering himself up into a sitting position, ignoring the pull of the laser burns on his skin, Law eyed the spot where Kid was fighting.
SKRANG! "ARGH!"
Correction. Where Kid was getting his ass handed to him on an aluminum platter.
Law recognized what this Sentomaru was doing: Haki. Mostly Armament, but very strong Armament. Everything Kid could throw at him was being deflected, and only the raw mass of metal covering his body had saved from being knocked out already. And his opponent was smart enough to not let Kid build up enough metal to try and punch through.
Ideally, the other Supernovas would've helped him. Sentomaru hadn't shown any signs of Observation yet and there were several abilities in their group that could've done something even through the Armament. But the two Pacifistas were almost as bad. Law himself had gotten zapped by lasers any time he'd tried to set up a decent Room once his first one had ended after dropping a building on one of them, and they were absurdly tough.
They were winning, though. Slowly, but they were winning. The one on the right was being triple-teamed by Black Bart, Urouge, and Drake, and it was bleeding and sparking ominously. Still functional, though, Law dryly noted, as it punched Urouge square in the gut and folded him like an accordion.
Meanwhile, the one the Surgeon was fighting had been ganged up on by the remaining Supernovas, and it was aggravatingly functional despite himself, Apoo, Hawkins, Bonney, and Bege unloading into it. And they were all spent.
Slowly, Law tensed to throw up a Room as the Kuma look-alike started to slowly advance on them. "I hope someone has an idea, because for once in my life I'm fresh out of them," he drawled. "And I gotta be honest? Don't really care much for the experience."
"I've got no ammunition left and way too many casualties," Bege growled, eyeing the sprawled and twitching forms of Bonney and Apoo as he gripped his own gut. "And those two aren't doing anything anytime soon."
"I am looking," Hawkins snapped, voice tense. His tarot deck was arrayed on several stalks of straw, the cards blurring as he rearranged them over and over to find something to get them out of this mess. "Keep that machine off of me for—"
Abruptly, all tension in Hawkins' body fled him, leaving only his usual placid deadpan. "Do not despair," he proclaimed, sweeping the deck away. "Our voyages shall not end this day. Salvation is at hand."
Bege and Law both nodded. "So, what's the plan?" the mafioso asked. "What do we need to do?"
"Absolutely nothing."
The other two Supernovas both whirled on Hawkins, their expressions ones of poleaxed incredulity. But before they could ask Hawkins what in Davy Jones' Locker he was thinking, the Kuma look-alike opened its mouth—
"Aye-aye-aye-AYE!"
—and right on cue, Bepo came crashing down feet-first on its head, slamming the mouth shut right as the laser fired.
SHA-BOOM!
The cyborg staggered back, its mouth a shambles of machinery and the tortured wail of mangled electronics screeching out from its… well, everything . For a brief moment, Law actually dared let himself hope it was nonfunctional.
It disproved that notion a few seconds later when by mostly regaining its balance and firing its palm-lasers indiscriminately. Bepo yelped and scrambled away, while Law hastily called up a Room and swapped everyone out of… well, immediate danger.
"Great," he breathed, staggering to his feet as the cyborg drunkenly waddled about, lasers still flying. "Now it's even more dangerous. Any other bright ideas, witch doctor?"
"That was not the salvation to which I was referring."
"Excuse me?"
The Straw-Man ignored the question, and instead ticked down on his fingers. "Three… two… one…"
No sooner had Hawkins said "one" when a black and tan blur slammed into the cyborg in front of them, crushing it under its weight. That blur soon resolved itself into yet another Kuma cyborg—no, wait, Law could see the paw pads, this was the real Tyrant Kuma. Kuma stood in the wreckage of his doppleganger, and Luffy came careening in, steaming in Gear Second and punching as fast as he could.
Right. Luffy could fight Tyrant fucking Kuma if he wanted. Time to go disengage the rest of the Supernovas and get the fuck out.
In the midst of the chaos of the hasty retreat everyone started beating, Hawkins took a moment to nod with complete certainty.
"Exactly as predicted."
Well. Bugging out could wait a moment, because no, Law was not going to let that slide. "Oh, bull-shit!"
-o-
Sentomaru batted away another scrap-metal arm of Kid's, shattering it to pieces, and sighed as he saw Monkey D. Luffy offhandedly smash the other Pacifista he'd brought out of the corner of his eye. It wasn't even intentional by the looks of it, the rubber pirate just backhanded it hard enough to cave its chest in when it tried to approach him! Either way, with that on top of the damage the other pirates had already done, the cyborg toppled over. And given the other Supernovas immediately laid into it, it wouldn't be getting back up anytime soon either.
"Vulnerable to blunt force trauma…" the sumo muttered as a mental note, before cocking his head to the side in a concession. "Well, that or the moron's just that strong. Either way, still good intel." And indeed it was, for though the fight had cost two Pacifistas, it had gotten them a wealth of information on the machines' current parameters. And it wasn't like anyone particularly cared about two Pacifistas. Not anymore, at least.
Overall they were effective peace-keeping weapons, but were thus far proving to be a little too reliant on their stout frames. They had little ability to dodge, and a strong enough blow seemed to have a tendency to smash delicate internal components by sheer force transfer. And the mouth lasers… yeah, those were a straight-up weakness. Unacceptably so, frankly.
Honestly, it was infuriating to see a weapon-series as sophisticated as the Pacifistas be deemed outmoded before they were even properly put into manufacturing, especially when their replacements had been conceived by that pack of degenerates. But, at least there was (professional) comfort in the fact that the series hadn't been totally scrapped and would still see usage, as well as the fact that the series that would be replacing them most certainly deserved the title of 'bleeding edge'.
SKRANG!
"PAY ATTENTION TO ME YOU FATASS—!" CRUNCH! "ARGH!"
But, ultimately, these musings would probably be better had elsewhere. For now…
Palm-slapping away another pseudo-arm, Sentomaru finally pressed in and slammed his other palm into the center of the pirate's defenses. Spewing blood from his mouth, Kid went flying, shedding his metallic exoskeleton as he skidded and bounced along the ground. And where he came to a halt, he did not get up again.
Sentomaru turned towards the remaining pirates. To a man, they were exhausted, injured, and in no fit state to fight him. If he wanted to, he could've captured them all right there.
But instead, he simply bent down to pick up his ax and then turned to rummage through the remains of the unlucky prototypes that had been caught in the crossfire of the fight between Monkey D. Luffy and PX-0, looking for their black boxes. His job was to test the Pacifistas, not capture pirates, after all.
-o-
"GUM-GUM JET GATLING!"
Luffy's fists crashed against Kuma's body like water and with about as much effect. That had been the pattern for this fight: Luffy hitting Kuma and Kuma just… standing there, taking it like it was no trouble at all. Which, in fairness, it wasn't. The bruise from the first punch aside, Kuma still lacked any sort of sign that he'd been at all hurt. Were he less pissed off, the rubber man would've thought it eerie. Instead, it just kept him pissed off.
The exchange done, Luffy skidded back, panting as Gear Second passed. And Kuma just… stood there. Not saying anything. Not doing anything.
Scowling even harder, Luffy racked his brains for something that might work. Gear Third might get through that mystery metal, but Kuma could decide to dodge at any point. Cross had said to remember the feeling when he'd knocked out those animals back on Strong World, but Cross also said that that power was all about the willpower to win and conquer, and he couldn't see that working when he knew, in his heart, that he was going to lose this fight. So that just left…
…Oh, Chopper was going to be so mad at him if he ever found out about this.
Leaning over again, he pumped his legs.
And then, he brought his thumb up to his mouth and bit.
In his mind's eye, Luffy could hear his crew shouting at him and calling him seven different shades of stupid for pulling a stunt like this. But they were nothing to the sensation of his body trying to tear itself apart. Air in his bones, blood rushing beyond its capacity, heart straining to keep up… Luffy closed his eyes and pushed the air away from his torso and into his arms.
"GUM-GUM—!" he shouted, wrenching his giant arms back. "GIANT JET BAZOOKA!"
Both arms surged forward, all the speed of Gear Second and all the power of Gear Third—and Kuma split the attack with his hands and casually batted them aside with his palms. Eyes wide, Luffy tried to punch again, to the same result. The air rushed back into his torso then, unable to be contained, and Luffy tensed his legs and sprang off.
"GUM-GUM JET SHE—!"
"No."
SLAM!
"—GRAH!"
Paw palm met Luffy's back and slammed him into the ground, all the air rushing out. In the end, Luffy could only lay on the ground, shrunken, quivering, gasping for breath, and tasting the dirt.
"A valiant effort, Straw Hat Luffy," Kuma intoned. "But ultimately… futile."
Luffy snarled and wheezed as he started to—as he so often did—bounce back, twisting his head to glare up at Kuma with a snarl and a vicious, downright piercing glare. "I'm going…" he swore vindictively. "I'm going to go to Impel Down. I'll go to Marineford if I have to... I'll save Ace, I'll get stronger... and then, in two years…" He rammed his fist into the ground with a bone-rattling growl. "I'll beat you!"
And in response to this inhuman conviction, this declaration of purest intent, Kuma did as he always did, and stared. "Incorrect. While you will indeed become strong enough to endure the trials ahead, what you will fight will only be my body. This... is the last time we will ever meet."
'The Tyrant' Bartholomew Kuma raised his hand, brought it down—
—and for the second time that day… paused.
"Goodbye… Luffy."
And then, before anyone watching could even blink, it was over. The cyborg's paw met the captain's form, and he was gone.
And with that, the last of the Straw Hat Pirates disappeared from Sabaody Archipelago. With that… the Straw Hat Pirates were utterly defeated, whether by Kuma, by fate, or by the world.
Kuma straightened, his work complete, and slowly turned to regard his audience. Sentomaru and the Supernovas stared back at him with a kaleidoscope of expressions, but there was only one person that his eyes truly met. And she met his.
For an endless moment, Bartholomew Kuma and Jewelry Bonney stared at each other. For the last time, his eyes met hers, and there was life behind them.
…And then he was gone.
And that, as they say, was that.
-o-
Or at least, very nearly that.
As the sun sank below the horizon, a small craft dropped anchor a short distance away from the archipelago, directly beside a larger ship. A blue-haired swordswoman and mallet-toting hybrid came aboard the larger ship and saw their (or at least her) commander on the deck a short distance away, his back turned to them as usual.
"So, Lieutenant," he rumbled without turning around, causing the swordswoman to instinctively snap to attention. "Welcome back. And now that you are back, care to give me a sitrep?"
"The short of it? A full garrison's worth of corrupt Marines brought to task, the slave trade crippled in a way it will never recover from, the local populace have been liberated from a regime of fear and corruption, and what had to be several thousand enslaved men, women and children of all sorts going free." Her report delivered, the Marine allowed herself to all but collapse against the ship's mast, what little energy she had left drained out of her. "And yet… none of what should be literally historical accomplishments stands out. Not compared to the fact that the world is about to tear itself apart and we're about to draw lines in the sand while standing at ground zero. Did I miss anything, Commodore?"
"Oh, no, I got all that," the Commodore dismissed with a wave of his hand. "No, what I'm unclear on is why, exactly, I needed to rush a gag order on this?"
The Commodore turned around with a scowl of annoyance and brandished a poster at the Lieutenant. Said Lieutenant stiffened at the picture, and especially at the name emblazoned below it.
"The bounty of one Cabin Girl T. A. Shigi?" Smoker grunted, sounding like he was stuck between enraged and entertained. "Who it would seem is very lucky Attachan didn't recognize her?"
Tashigi stared, eyes twitching, for a few moments. Then, ignoring Popora's polite show of amusement (read: the rodent, rolling on the deck, howling ) beside her, she drew her sword and, heedless of her commander's fingers, shredded the poster into ribbons.
"When I see Cross again…" she swore vehemently, a fire raging in her eyes. "I am going to teach him an entirely new meaning of the words pain and—!… and…"
And just like that, the energy spike was gone. She sagged, Shigure almost falling out of her limp fingers as she collapsed back against the mast again.
"...ugh…" she ground out, thunk! ing her head back and clamping her hand over her eyes, her voice gradually breaking as she spoke. "And now… I can't even properly smile at the idea of that …"
Tashigi's breathing hitched, and a few stray lines of moisture slipped past her fingers. "We… We worked so hard , did so much and now…" she choked out. "Damn it. Damn it and damn them all to hell…"
Smoker allowed Tashigi a moment.
Two.
And then he stomped his boot hard enough to shake the deck, and the Lieutenant flinched. Looked up at her superior with a tear-stained expression.
"Steady on, soldier," he both reassured and ordered at once, his jaw hard-set. "Steady on. There'll be time for tears later. But for now…"
"Ergh…" Tashigi hastily swiped her sleeve across her eyes and mustered her composure. "Apologies, Commodore. I… tch. Damn that Cross, he always manages to find new ways to get under my skin, doesn't he…" Wiping her eyes, she steeled her expression, sheathed her blade, and saluted. "Lieutenant Tashigi, reporting for duty, sir!"
It said volumes that Popora mimicked the action without comment.
"At ease, Lieutenant," Smoker waved her off, turning to stare out over the ocean. "And enjoy it while you can. We both know that this will be the last ease we enjoy…"
The Smoke-Man's jaw clenched, digging deep into his cigars.
"For a long time to come."
-Three Days Later-
The forces of the Marine Base G-8 had left their island under the guard of the former admiral stationed there as they departed for Marineford. With the acres of sail Marine battleships had, plus more efficient navigation by Eternal Pose, they were expected to arrive the day of the war, even with the detour that they had to take under orders from headquarters.
A detour that, despite the dread of what the war would bring, had them downright eager to set sail again considering the hostility and labor that they were faced with. Because while Hellbeast —
"PRINCESS!"
—Perona had agreed to come with them to Marineford, it was only with a flood of complaints and a lot of heavy lifting. Because in addition to some of the best and strongest of her 'pets' that necessitated five large cages—for the Marines' protection, of course—there was also the matter of Perona's… personal protection.
'Protection' in this instance referring to a very large box of what looked to be pure metal whose sheer weight was causing the vessel it was on to list, and that had been flown onto the battleship by a dozen oversized birds, supervised by her specter.
"…Is this really necessary?" Jonathan asked with genuine wariness as he watched his men rush around, trying their damndest to rearrange the cargo on the ship to rebalance the ship.
That question turned out to be a mistake . For his troubles, Jonathan was rewarded with an irate ghost up in his face. "My contract with the Navy guaranteed me three months to myself on my island before I would be required to exercise my abilities elsewhere, explicitly due to the fact that I am nowhere near as strong as my colleagues yet," Perona hissed, the sheer malice in her voice actually causing Jonathan to jerk back in shock. "You're reneging on your side of the bargain by calling me out one month early, meaning that you and yours are beyond lucky that I didn't have my pets turn the surrounding waters into a Thanatos-damned thresher."
She slammed her fist against the bunker, a Mini Hollow detonating in tandem with the motion to provide the noise. The metal was unscathed.
"You're lucky I had this prepared a few weeks ago for just this situation: a mobile bunker, a few days' worth of food and water and a wonderful bedroom locked behind two solid feet of metal, capable of weathering a stampede from my pets. If I couldn't stash my body in here and let my spirit or my darling pets coming along—who will be prioritizing my protection above all else—do all the hard work for me, I'd be taking my chances with whatever retaliation the Government could potentially scrounge up after Whitebeard finishes cleaning his naginata with your entrails. An option which, mind you, I have yet to dismiss. In short?"
The specter suddenly grew to proportions that utterly overshadowed the battleship's deck, and her volume spiked to match.
"DEAL WITH IT OR BITE ME!"
Jonathan blinked in mute shock, digging his finger in his ear before nodding solemnly. "I'll… do my best to accommodate, then."
Just as fast as she'd grown, Perona snapped back to normal size with a haughty sniff. "Good. Now then! If you don't mind, I'd like to discuss the guard detail you will be setting up for the protection of both myself and my pets during this voyage." She cast a withering glare over the sailors that were still on the deck. "In private. Please join me in your quarters forthwith." And that was the last she said before drifting off, heedless of who or what she passed through on her beeline to the aftcastle.
For a moment or two, Jonathan blankly stared after her before massaging his face with a bone-tired groan. "What is it with me and strong-willed women…" he despaired to himself.
He then took a few minutes to relay a few final orders to his men before marching after. A few Marines he passed on his way were visibly spooked from the ghost that had just flown through the walls, but none moved to stop him or question him. He found Drake waiting outside of his door with his usual frown.
"It will most likely not be a regular occurrence, Drake," he said.
"That's not what I'm frowning about, sir. They stowed away."
Jonathan's face immediately pinched up, but he nodded in confirmation. "I suspected as much. We are sailing into hell, so why, pray tell, were you expecting a reprieve from our eternal torment?"
Drake loosed a miserable groan, adjusting his cap as he walked off. "Let a man dream, sir. Even if we have to abandon all hope, just let me dream."
Jonathan spared a moment to chuckle at the suffering of his subordinate, before sighing and entering his office to face his own demon.
Upon opening the door, Perona, lounging on her back in thin air, cracked an eye open. "Took you long enough."
"Was the tinnitus really necessary?" Jonathan groused, thwacking the side of his skull. "Most of the men on this ship are Masons that are aware of our plans and allegiances for Marineford—the broad strokes, at least—and those who aren't I would still trust with my life."
Perona shrugged, not a hint of remorse on her face, even though it was lacking her earlier venom as well. "Hey, I've got a persona to uphold and there's no telling who's listening where. Trust me, I have experience with these things and I could have done a lot worse. Also…" Her mood visibly soured. "I wasn't entirely blowing smoke out there. I would have told the Government to sit on their orders and spin in any other circumstances, I'd have even told you all as much, because this is war against an Emperor and I know for a fact that when it comes to them or their crews, two feet of metal is nothing and—!"
"But you're still coming," Jonathan noted.
Perona choked on her words and spun away, popping and hiding in her umbrella. She was silent for a minute until…
"Luffy is going to be there, and Luffy is important to Nami," she solemnly intoned. "I couldn't live with myself if I didn't try and help. And you know it."
"And it is admirable that you would risk your life for something that so many would consider to be so little, and I thank you for it," Jonathan replied.
The two were silent before Perona sighed explosively. "Keep your thanks and just focus on keeping me alive. I'll let you know if I need to replenish my pantry."
"Very well, but I seriously recommend you stop by the mess hall at some point," Jonathan said. "Jessica's cooking is phenomenal, as anyone aboard this ship will tell you."
A half-smirk from the specter conveyed a 'maybe' before she floated towards the wall.
"Ah, and just so you know!" Jonathan added as the thought occurred to him. "I have a man on Momonga's ship who I'm waiting to hear from. He'll need to allow himself to be petrified to avoid blowing his cover, but if all goes well, he should be able to keep us apprised of when things start to get underway. I'll keep you informed."
Perona paused long enough to nod in acknowledgment before phasing through the nearest wall, and out of his sight. She moved carelessly through the ship, spiraling aimlessly through floors, walls, and ceilings on her way back to her bunker.
Before abruptly stopping and doubling back for the pair of familiar faces she spotted in a cargo hold: a young girl in a refitted Marine uniform and a massive and massively armored beetle whose horn she was sitting on. Both of them barely looked up as she approached them, their expressions somber.
"Wait, I remember you…" Perona mused, brightening up when she did, in fact, remember. "Marine junior and her runaway beetle, right?" She winced as soon as the words left her mouth. "Oh, sorry, forgot about… Let me guess, being back isn't doing him any good, huh?"
"Boss K isn't happy about it, no," Yoko mumbled, neither herself nor Boss deigning to look up. If anything, her mood grew more dour with the addition of an audience. "But it… it's something else. We… Boss K and I, we have a choice coming up soon… and we still don't know what side of the line we're going to be on."
Perona frowned and nodded in understanding. "Well, I'll keep my pets away from your friend, no matter what happens. And…" She grimaced, trying to find the right words. "And this really isn't my thing, but… follow your heart? If you pick the wrong side, it'll drive you crazy until you choose the right one. Thanatos knows it did to me…"
"But which one is right?" Yoko moaned, sinking to her knees.
Perona winced again. She didn't want to just leave the girl like this, but she had no idea what else to do or say to try making things easier.
A minute or so of indecision later, however, a distraction arrived in the form of Jonathan. Though his frown was not a comfort.
"We have a problem, you three," the Vice-Admiral declared. "Remember that source I mentioned?"
"The one on Momonga's ship, yeah," Yoko confirmed, sitting up and plastering on at least a veneer of professionalism. "Bad news?"
"Yes," the Chessmaster nodded, his expression grim. "In that there is any news to be had right now."
-o-
Since the de facto declaration of war against Whitebeard, Marineford had been locked down tightly enough that it could and would have impressed Magellan. Nothing and no-one was getting out, and anything or one that came in was inspected thoroughly, and that was if it wasn't already scheduled to be there. Moving nearly 100,000 troops, dozens of ships, and just about every elite officer this side of the Red Line to Headquarters, on top of preparing a few special surprises Sengoku had planned, was a herculean logistical endeavor. It was a credit to the Marines that, despite the losses post-Enies, they were still on track to pull it off.
And as such, the absolute last thing they needed on their plates was the alert that came screaming over the Transponder Snails about unscheduled—and unfamiliar—ships. Ships that were somehow flying ad-hoc Marine flags. Marine officers promptly boiled out of the central pagoda, ready to meet these intruders at the waterfront if they proved hostile.
Tsuru and Kuzan, who had been about in the middle of the pack, arrived on a balcony in time to overlook Sengoku marching down to the waterfront, Garp flanking him as the ships rowed themselves in and an honor guard of Marines behind with rifles at ready.
There were roughly thirty-five vessels in all, each making use of single square-sail masts, overlapping planking, and bearing ornately carved dragon-head bows and more carvings along their hulls. The wizened Vice-Admiral counted sixty crew in the first ship alone. Bearded men and stout women, all clad in armor and horned helmets, and thoroughly unperturbed by being confronted by the Fleet Admiral while under the guns of three battleships that had cut off their retreat.
Vague memories of where she'd last seen these cultural markings prickled in the back of Tsuru's mind. Then they came to her, and a horrible suspicion bloomed in her chest.
It was a suspicion that was confirmed when a veritable mountain of a man, all red beard, and dark furs and a massive hammer slung over his back, stepped off the lead ship when it bumped up against the pier, immediately going to shake Sengoku's hand. And Sengoku, who started off coldly polite, slowly switched to all but sucking on a lemon in reaction to whatever the man was saying, while Garp's already perpetually grim demeanor seemed to somehow worsen with every word.
Despite that, the man was still allowed to bellow to his ships, and the fleet started to dock.
"So, that's what he was doing," Tsuru noted in a bone-dry tone. "That damn rabid mutt… He wasn't just sent to the New World as punishment."
With a cheer audible from the battlements she and Kuzan were standing behind, the ships all nosed towards the piers, to disgorge the better part of what Tsuru calculated to be, at the least, two thousand soldiers.
"He was there to recruit," Kuzan concurred, watching the stream of very, very powerful muscle that was marching towards them, marching to join and bolster their side, with icy dread in his heart.
Tsuru glanced searchingly at him, considered his tone, then hummed in discontent as she came to a decision. "Watching this," she mused, speaking more to herself than her nominal superior. "I find myself thinking of something a friend of mine once said. A phrase that seems to have made quite the resurgence of late."
Kuzan turned to look at her, but her eyes remained locked dead ahead at the column of soldiers, of warriors joining them, as she spoke fourteen words:
"Is this what you call justice? Can you take pride in something like this?"
Tsuru waited, her eyes still not wavering from the sheer 'might' that was reinforcing the ranks of those supposedly in the 'right'.
But if she had deigned to look up, then the sight of Kuzan's motionless form, frozen more completely than any amount of ice could ever have managed, would not have surprised her in the least.
-o-
As the third night of her aerial pilgrimage came to an end, Conis ran a final check on her weapons. Not that there was anything wrong with them, she'd done it dozens of times over the last three days for something to do other than sleep, but this time, the preparation felt like it had weight. Meaning. Because this… this was it. Landing day. The day she would meet whatever fate was lined up for her.
Conis had decidedly mixed feelings about that. She had left her father and her old life behind on Upper Yard and embraced the Straw Hats as her new family, and now they were all gone to different places. At the same time, however, she had wanted to see more of what the Blue Sea had to offer in contrast to the White, and if the place that she was going to land was going to train her hard enough to prepare her for the next ocean, it would be absolutely perfect for that.
And now, she determined as she slotted a final shell into her shotgun, she would be ready for it.
Still, speaking of what she was looking for, her destination should have been coming into view sooner or later, so where—?
FWOOF!
"GAH!"/"SU!" Conis and Su both yelped in shock and confusion as they were suddenly engulfed in darkness. They flailed in terror as their senses were y assaulted by an olfactory onslaught. Their Paw-Paw projectile had passed through clouds before, but none had smelled like rotting eggs!
And then, just as swiftly, the reeking darkness disappeared and Conis saw a brief flash of off-color light—
THOOM!
Before there was a heavy impact, and for the first time in days, the Angel of Destruction touched down on solid earth.
Once her head stopped spinning, Conis groaned and moved, hauling herself out of the crater her landing had created—right to the site of a gleaming bayonet six inches from her face. Yelping, Conis leaped back, then had to twist out of the way of a salvo of musket balls. The air was thick with the stench of gunpowder, blood, and feces, and only the occasional roar of cannons drowned out the droning drums. Much to her horror, the gunner found herself between two thin lines of men—one in red, one in blue—with fixed bayonets and obvious intent to stab each other until one side broke - and perhaps more alarmingly, no care for anyone who so happened to get in their way.
Her head on a swivel, Conis pulled her bazooka off her back and aimed at one army—then another—and with a snarling growl, stowed the bazooka and pulled out a pistol. She hastily toggled one of her Flash Dials and fired it at the advancing line. Men yelped in pain, stumbling about with their hands clutching her eyes, and she took the opportunity to run between them, shoving aside whatever men didn't get out of the way in time.
A light thwack to the side of her head both confirmed Su's presence, as well as pointed out an available refuge, much to her relief. She could see now that they were in a wide square, equally wide streets radiating out from it. And more importantly, both were lined with battered four-story stone and brick buildings. Su had pointed out one of them, one that looked more structurally sound than the others despite the cannonball holes in it, and she jogged towards. She quickly switched to running at the sound of hoofbeats behind her. Lots and lots of hoofbeats.
Her next few minutes were a blur of running and dodging a dozen different projectiles. Musket balls, rocks, cannonballs, arrows, javelins, was that a potted plant? But she reached the building, burst inside, scrambled up the stairs, and then collapsed into a panting heap.
Finally, after several minutes, Conis felt energetic enough to haul herself upright and get a look at the situation. The building she was in seemed to be situated on a hill, which gave her a good look at the surrounding urbanization and the countryside just beyond it.. In most situations, it would've given her clarity.
Instead, it was simply more confusing.
There, a thousand men on horseback and wearing furs were shooting arrows at a pursuing army of three-man chariots. And were promptly set upon by another thousand men in gleaming plate and wings of eagle feathers on their backs.
There, a squat, low-set building bristling with cannon was being besieged by a battery of trebuchets defended by a pack of spear-and-shield soldiers in bronze. One of the cannons landed a shot against the trebuchets, blowing it to splinters.
And then there, in one of the streets another group of those blue-coated soldiers frantically backpedaling from a mob of nude madmen painted blue and brandishing swords and axes.
Also, the island was on fire. No, there wasn't a fire on the island. The island was on fire. Walls of flames rose from the horizon and the air was choked with smoke and— yes, the earth just ripped open and swallowed a column of soldiers with a belch of flames, what the hell.
Everywhere Conis laid her eyes, she found carnage, madness, and death. Armies upon armies ramming full-tilt into one another, without rhyme reason, or even the barest hint of mercy. And if the way the air sang—roared, raged, HOWLED— with the sounds of death and devastation, even from across the horizon? This, all of this, every bit of it, was nothing but the tip of the iceberg.
There was only one word for it: Bedlam.
"Okay, I'm sorry, but what the hell?!" Conis blurted out, sweeping her shocked and confused gaze across the maddened hellstorm raging as far as her eyes could see. "I know we weren't expecting anything easy for the next two years, but this is ridiculous! I-I'm counting one, two—oh you have to be kidding me, eight different colors out there! What kind of nightmare island is this, Su!?" The angel waited for an answer—provided she could hear it over the din of gunfire, cannonfire and just plain fire all around her—and blinked in confusion when one wasn't forthcoming. "Su? Su, where are you?"
"S-Su…"
The feeble response drew Conis' attention to the other side of the room she was in, and she turned to see what was the issue. The answer was, in a word, confusing. Her companion seemed to be unharmed, apart from her silvery fur stained a dirty grey from the smoke and ash choking the air, but that begged the question of why her usually vain fox wasn't more concerned with her appearance.
Instead, Su was just… sitting there, staring into the air and not twitching a whisker.
Concern filled her mind. Even in the middle of the neverending devastation surrounding her, Conis gently approached her lifelong friend. "Su? Is everything alright? What's wrong?"
That roused the Cloud Fox, and slowly, ever so slowly, Su's head turned to Conis, all while her paw twitched up and nervously jabbed out. "S-Su… Su, suuu!"
Conis spared a moment to weather the renewed pang of loss she felt without her friends and crewmates, and then followed her instincts and looked at where Su was pointing.
Looked, and froze. Froze as the sheer weight of the implications washed over her like a blast from Eneru himself.
"…Su?" the angel whispered, desperation lacing her every word. "Th-There isn't any chance we're back on Upper Yard, is there?"
"Suuuu," the fox meekly replied, shaking her head.
"Then… That means this is…" Conis audibly gulped, trying and failing to dislodge the heavy lump that she felt lodged in her throat as she stared up. And up. And up.
Up at the sheer pillar that defined the horizon. Up at the ancient entity that stood undaunted and unbowed amongst the flames of war, and pierced the smoke-choked heavens.
Conis stared up at the immortal, invincible tree that defied the carnage waging around it, resisted even the brace of what she knew was mortar fire that detonated against its trunk without leaving so much as a scratch…
And in that moment, she truly, utterly comprehended the sheer scale of what she'd been thrown into.
"Oh, no…"
Located in an oft-forgotten corner of Paradise, there is an island. It is said that on this island, a war was once waged… but that is inaccurate, for it implies that the war ever ended. Upon this once-beautiful island, war and wrath have been the sole culture for untold centuries, and for untold centuries the singular goal of these wars has remained unchanged: The Jewel Tree Adam.
On this land, all except for that blessed tree has been burned away, so thoroughly that even of its name, only a charred husk remains.
DESTINATION REACHED
THE ISLE OF PARADISES LOST
EDEN'S CINDERS
-o-
SPLASH!
"ACKPHBT! WHAT THE HELL—!"
THOOM!
"WAGH!"
It was a rather disturbing parallel, Merry would later consider, that her new life for the next two years began in much the same way that her newfound lease on life had: with an unexpected dunk in the suddenly unforgiving water, followed by a maddening burst of disorientating movement.
But that would be a musing for later, as for the moment, Merry was left sprawled-out and groaning in her paw-shaped crater as she tried to wrap her brain around what the hell had happened.
"Dumbass bear-cyborg," Merry wheezed, if only to voice her frustrations and hear the sound of her own voice. "'Send you to where you'll grow stronger', then the fucking bubble chooses to smack me down in the middle of the fricking ocean and right into… into…"
Her brain finished rebooting, Merry's face screwed up. If she was in the ocean, how was she breathing? And talking? And living? The ship-girl gripped some of the surface she was laying on and held it up to her face, identifying it as—
"Sand?" Merry blinked, confusion intensifying. " After I blasted into water? Where the hell am I?"
In search of answers, she climbed out of her landing crater and was immediately struck by yet another incredible impossibility: the fact that she was nestled at the foot of a titanic tree of… well, if she didn't know any better, she'd say it was coral of some sort. And not just one tree, but well over a dozen of the aquatic titans, stretching off and around in such a way that Merry could only assume they formed a circle of some sort.
And a good thing too, because when she looked up, she saw that the branches were curved to form a dome overhead. A dome that, unless she was gravely mistaken, looked to be holding back water. A lot of water. A lot of pitch-black, empty water—
Merry gulped audibly as the glow of a passing creature the size of a Sea King briefly lit up the ocean in a flare of bioluminescence. Mostly empty pitch-black then. Located at what she could only assume was…
"Okay…" she nodded weakly, fighting to shove down the rising sense of primal dread she was feeling. "Bottom of the ocean. I am at the bottom. Of the ocean. Bottom of an ocean trench, no less, if the lack of light is anything to go by. Wonderful. Wonderful. With nothing but cold and dark and… and…"
Merry trailed off in confusion as a new incongruity hit her. If she was at the bottom of a trench, then where was the light she was seeing with coming from? Granted, it was an off-color greenish light, but it was light nonetheless. And if her shadow was anything to go by, it was coming from… behind her?
The ship-girl turned around—
And it was at that point that the world stopped making sense and Merry was all but struck down by an overwhelming wave of shock and terror and oh-God-please-no.
Once she was done dry-heaving in naked panic, Merry looked down again, and confirmed what she was terrified she'd seen. Looked down into the basin upon whose lip she was standing at. Down into the graveyard that was laid out before her, stretching as far as she could see.
A graveyard littered with the bones and corpses… of ships.
Hundreds of them, from all walks of life, be they Marine, pirate or civilian, in varying states of disrepair—some ancient and barnacle-crusted, some new and only just starting to decay—but all plainly unable to sail again. There, a toppled sail, there, a breached hull, there—Merry dry heaved again—a… a snapped keel…
The air reeked with the smell of wood crumbling and rotting in the moist, salt-choked air, and was filled with whisper of hundreds of ragged sails barely fluttering in what little breeze there was. And it wasn't just smell wafting through the air, but things too. Particulates, the smallest specks of rotten wood and rust drifting along and infecting the taste of every breath Merry took.
And underneath it all, underlying everything and on the very edge of her notice now that she was paying attention, Merry could hear a… creaking. An almost subliminal groaning and scraping. It scrubbed at her skull, rattled her ribs, and set her fingers a-twitching in a dire, primal urge to rip her own ears off and make it stop.
And at the very center, at the very core of the macabre nautical hellscape laid out before her was an eerily silent maelstrom of water. A massive pillar of revolving water, fit in size to rival the Knock-Up Stream she'd once sailed upon, that pierced down through the ceiling of the coral dome and glowed with the light that had first caught Merry's attention—sunlight from the surface, a part of her deduced.
The reason why the maelstrom hadn't long-since filled up the bubble was that it was already being drained away. In fact, the entire graveyard seemed to be centered around the black, yawning void that encompassed half the total area of the 'floor' of the coral basin that the maelstrom was emptying into. A floor Merry could only now numbly realized was pitched ever so slightly down.
It was only then that it hit her. The sound she was hearing, the one rattling in her very bones, was the steady settling of the hundreds of wrecks. Their slow, droning creaking was their march, inch by inch, inexorably downwards and into that pit. Destination: the void.
And that was the final confirmation she needed to know that she was in the absolute last place on the face of the planet that she'd ever wanted to be.
"…no…" Merry whimpered, tears of terror slowly rolling down her face. She shook her head in denial, weakly at first but then faster and faster. "No… No, I didn't want to come here, I-I never wanted to come here, not here, anywhere but here! This can't be happening, THIS CAN'T BE HAPPE—!"
And it was right in the middle of her terrified wail that Going Merry's blood pressure spiked, and she keeled over, dead to the world and, for the moment, insulated from the horrific truth laid out before her.
"All roads lead to Mariejois." This saying is one oft-stated, but ultimately false. No roads lead to Mariejois, as none truly ever lead anywhere that isn't on their own island. Some might amend this saying to account for this fallacy, claiming that 'all currents lead to Mariejois', but they would be erroneous as well.
For you see, it is only the deepest of currents, at the very depths of the ocean, deeper than any fish dares to swim, that all lead to one place. And the place they lead to is most definitely not Mariejois. The culmination of the deep is a place of darkness, a place of departure…
And ultimately, a place of Death.
DESTINATION REACHED:
THE LAST GRAVE OF ALL VESSELS
DAVY JONES'S LOCKER
-o-
A peaceful day in the capital city—blessedly peaceful, after the events of several months prior—had taken a turn for the violent when an impact that shook the palace attracted the attention of several guards in the palace courtyard. When they arrived, all that they discovered was a conspicuous pattern of craters shaped like a paw print. One large enough that a fully grown human could have fit inside.
"The Paw-Paw Fruit," muttered a commander, straightening from where he'd kneeled down. "The World Government has sent an intruder. Put the palace into lockdown and send the Kicking Claw Force to guard King Cobra. And send word to Accino's forces, I want them to redouble their watch on the coast!"
"Yes, Lord Chaka," the guards bowed, rushing off to obey their orders.
Not too far away from this scene—barely a few meters, even!—yet unseen to any of them, a conspicuously unguarded wall hid a blue-haired woman and her companion, a duck whose wing was slung comfortingly around her shoulders. She stared down at the letter she had unfolded, paralyzed as her mind made a desperate attempt to try to reconcile it with her current situation.
Nefertari D. Vivi, Princess of the Desert Kingdom of Alabasta and bearer of the Gust-Gust Fruit, a wind-woman who was the essence of freedom incarnate, had returned home.
And yet, she had never felt more trapped or isolated in her entire life.
A land so defined by what once was, even though what is and what can be seen is ever-shifting, ever-changing, ever-adapting.
A land whose fate has veered radically from what should have been, and whose immediate future is radically steeped in the unknown.
DESTINATION REACHED:
THE KINGDOM OF SAND AND HISTORY
ALABASTA
-o-
The largest group to be sent together had one of the tamest awakenings among them. They awoke lying on green grass, no unfamiliar entities around to attack them, the pleasant sound of waves lapping on the shoreline soothing their nonexistent ears.
One after the other, each one of them opened their eyes but remained motionless for several seconds more. Finally…
[I had the worst nightmare last night,] Mikey said, smiling wryly at the sky. [I dreamed that all of us had to break up for two years so that we could survive the New World.]
[It wouldn't be the first time that all of us had the same wacky dream,] Raphey murmured as she scratched beneath her snout. [And I mean, it was really realistic… but it had to have just been some kind of wild party, right?]
[I do kind of feel a headache, must've been some strong stuff,] Leo chuckled as he rubbed the back of his skullplate.
[I want to say that all of this denial is unhealthy, but this has to be real,] Donny reasoned, crossing his flippers beneath his head. [I mean, we're not dreaming right now, right?]
Without missing a beat, all four of them sprung up to their tails and slugged each other in a cross-counter.
[…ooowwwww…] they groaned, but slowly broke into matching grins.
[It WAS just a dream! We're all still together!]
[Cross must just be off somewhere and he took Soundbite with him!]
[And Zoro must be sleeping!]
[And Nami is working on her maps!]
[And Luffy is being completely—!…and utterly… quiet…]
[…and neither Franky, Merry, nor Usopp are ripping our heads off for the crater in the deck…which looks a lot like a paw…]
The dugongs slowly trailed off into silence as that observation slowly sank in.
Boss remained where he was, not having yet risen to celebrate and deny with the rest of them, but staring upward at a sight that he would have recognized with his eyes gouged out.
But when his students moved to a nearby railing, Boss rose to waddle behind them and take in the sight that lent credence to their denial.
There were two undeniable facts about the current situation.
First, the five of them had been sent flying by Kuma, along with the rest of the crew, three days ago.
And second, despite this fact, they were in the middle of a pawprint-shaped crater in the grassy deck of the Thousand Sunny. The Thousand Sunny, which was still moored exactly where it should have been, without moving even an inch.
A fact which was further confirmed by the sight of Silvers Rayleigh blinking up at them in honest surprise.
"Well," the wizened veteran stated bluntly. "You Straw Hats certainly never fail to disappoint. I, for one, did not see this coming. And coming from me, that's saying something.
The guard force took a moment to process all this. And then…
[So… this is where we're going to be spending the next two years, Boss?]
[Yes, Donny. Yes, it is.]
[One question then, Boss.]
[I've got the same one in mind.]
[Well, then, allow me to vocalize it. Ahem…]
A moment's pause and then every bubble for a good quarter-mile was blasted away through sheer wind force.
[WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT BUCKET OF BOLTS THINKING?!]
A final destination, a final end, a final escape before a final voyage down, down, down towards the mouth to Hell itself.
And yet, in the same breath, these groves will come to be home to a new beginning.
In due time. All in due time…
DESTINATION REACHED:
THE CROSSROADS OF THE WORLD
SABAODY ARCHIPELAGO
-o-
DESTINATION REACHED
■■■—■■■■—■■—■■■■■■■■
-o-
It had taxed every fiber of Luffy's being to preserve his consciousness as he flew, but his injuries were not grave enough that his will couldn't compensate for his body's state.
It had taken even more strain on his mind to perform the task that Cross had set him: memorizing the letter that he'd written.
A broken and defeated Luffy with too much confusion and not enough drive would never have awakened before he landed. A Luffy that was well aware that his best effort was the difference between Ace living and dying, however, spent the first day of his flight going over every resource he had in the duffel bag he carried until he could pick each one by touch and the second day reading and rereading Cross's letter to memorize it.
Only when he was satisfied did he allow himself to sleep, his body resting and recovering for the next 24 hours. And when the paw-shaped air bubble impacted and released him onto terra firma, his eyes snapped open as though the sound, smell, and feel of the jungle around him was an alarm.
Slowly, he rose to his feet and stepped out of the hole he had landed in. His hands verified the presence of his pipe and his bag on his back, before he turned to glare down at the paw-shaped imprint.
For a moment and an eternity, he stood there, glaring at that hole. At what it represented, both in specific, and in a far, far grander sense.
"If you think I'm weak because I lost, then you're an idiot," he spoke.
Not a growl, not a yell. He just spoke.
"If you think I'm going to give up because of the challenge ahead of me, then you don't know anything about me at all. Because I am not weak. And I am not finished. What I am…"
Luffy slowly closed his eyes and bowed his head, hands curling into shaking fists at his sides.
"What I am… is scared."
And with that, his fists relaxed.
"I. Am. Scared. I'm scared I'm going to lose. Scared I won't be strong enough. Scared that right when everything's going right, something's going to go wrong. I'm scared that I'm going to let my crew down, let my brothers down, let the world down…"
Luffy swallowed.
"Let myself down…"
Another eternity, and then Luffy looked up, eyes blazing.
"But I'm going to do it anyway. I'm scared, but I'm going to fight anyway. Because they're all counting on me. More than that, they're all with me. No matter how scared I am, I'll fight. No matter how much I hurt, I'll fight! Even if it kills me, I'll fight! No matter what, until I can't fight anymore, I will fight! Because that's what I do! That's my part! Everyone else, they've all done what they can, they're all looking to me, and I won't let them down, no matter what!"
Luffy snarled as he pounded his fists together, the sheer impact blasting back the foliage around him.
"So bring it on! Send everything you have at me, every bit of it! Make it as hard as you want, make it impossible, make it impossible a hundred times, a thousand, it doesn't matter! Because I'll take it all on, every bit of it, and I'll win too! And no matter what happens, I know what's going to happen!"
Luffy threw his head back and bared his teeth, snarling at the heavens.
"I'M GOING TO GO, AND I'M GOING TO FIGHT! I'LL GO TO IMPEL DOWN, AND I'LL GO TO MARINEFORD IF I HAVE TO! BECAUSE NO MATTER WHERE THIS FIGHT TAKES ME, I SWEAR: I'M GOING TO SAVE MY BROTHER! AND WHEN I DO, I'M GOING TO SAVE CROSS TOO! WE'RE ALL COMING BACK FROM THIS, YOU HEAR ME?!"
Monkey D. 'Straw Hat' Luffy shot his fists into the air and roared.
"I'M GOING TO WIIIIIN!"
DESTINATION REACHED:
THE ISLE OF WOMEN
AMAZON LILY
SABAODY REVOLUTION
-o-END-o-
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No sooner had the last echoes of Luffy's declaration faded away, a crashing sound came from beside him, heralding the arrival of a sizable party of women in immodest clothing carrying large serpents and quivers full of arrows tearing through the brush to reach his location.
And leading them was a panther so big that it would have looked at home on Mt. Corvo… and upon whose head was perched a blonde woman wearing a cape and holding a green snake.
Luffy's expression brightened considerably as his memorization paid off, and he recognized the giant cat's rider. "Hey!" he yelled with honest joy, overjoyed that at least something was going right, and started waving his arms in excited greeting. "Hey, you! Are you Marguerite!? Man, am I happy to see—!"
TWANG!
"—GAH!" Luffy cut off his joyful shout into a panicked yelp, narrowly ducking an arrow that almost went clean through his head, but most definitely went through the trunk of the tree behind him in a less than clean fashion.
Luffy snapped his head back up in an effort to identify where the attack had come from… and saw, with no small amount of alarm, that it had originated from the snake-bow of Marguerite herself, who was glaring at him with a look of incredible hatred.
"Hey, why are you—?!" the rubber-man started to protest, before stiffening as a thought struck him. He hastily clapped his heads down on his head in panic. "Ah! Oh, no, I know why you don't recognize me!" he started to wave his arms frantically, backing up from the advancing Amazons. "Look, I know I don't have my hat anymore, but it's for a really good reason, you gotta believe me! I'm—!"
"Monkey D. 'Straw Hat' Luffy, Captain of the Straw Hat Pirates, worth ฿475,000,000," A dark-haired woman wearing an open jacket and what looked to be a salvaged Marine cape growled around a cigarette. "We know who you are, man."
"Oh! That's great!" Luffy sighed in oblivious relief, grinning as he started to allow himself to relax. "Then, can you take me to see—?"
Luffy was cut off by all the Amazons nocking and drawing arrows, glaring at him with sheer hate. And not just the ones in front of him, but ones behind him and in the trees too and… yep, he was surrounded.
The good news was that he had definitely landed in the right place.
The bad news? Oh, nothing that he wasn't used to.
"Monkey D. Luffy, you are guilty of trying to assassinate our empress, the Snake Princess Boa Hancock!" Marguerite spat viciously, hissing out as much poison as her serpent with every word. "Prepare to die!"