Return to Marineford

Two years passed since the formation of the revolutionary army. Dragon did not make any large moves, but ever since he was promoted to vice admiral, he started to visit countries in the Blues instead of the Grand line. He took a post that was focused on making sure no new pirates would enter into paradise. Dragon was effective, he arrested a lot of new pirates, but Percy knew that he converted some of them to join his new organization.

However, all of this was not seen by the marines. They were focused more on the growing influences of the emperors in the New world and less about small bounty pirates. This gave Dragon ample opportunity to spread his propaganda throughout the Blues. Both he and Percy knew that at some point, Dragon will have to declare his stance to the rest of the world and they were preparing for that day. Fortunately, it was not that time.

Percy and Orange resumed their training with Garp while Dragon was spreading his influence. The two of them grew closer ever since the incident in Mary Geoise. Though they haven't expressed their feelings, everyone knew it was only a matter of time before they became a couple.

He wanted to tell Orange about the revolutionary army, but he felt it was not time yet. There was still much to discuss with Dragon and they weren't prepared enough to let others know about their existence.

Percy's strength grew exponentially during the past 2 years. He was now able to observe one second into the future with his observation haki. One second may not seem all that much, but it was enough to determine the victor between two opponents. His armament haki was also upgraded. He could now use internal destruction, but only sparingly because of the amount of stamina it used. His conqueror's haki on the other hand, had improved greatly much to Garp's amazement.

"BWAHAHAHA it seems like you found your goal" Garp said as Percy was practicing.

"I did" Percy said as his eyes were closed. "To accomplish it, I need to dominate everyone around me, I need to be able to stand on top of the world."

"Hm..... your ambitions must be high for you say that" Garp said as he stroked his chin. "I look forward to the day you accomplish it."

"Yes sir" Percy said.

*********************************************************************************************************Not only did his haki grow, but his devil fruit abilities as well. He watched, re-watched, and re-watched again Xebec's recording and tried to duplicate it. He discovered that he did indeed was only using a portion of his abilities, there was a whole other side to his power that he hasn't tapped into yet.

He could now cause firestorms, cause lightning like Xebec, even create tornadoes. When Garp discovered this, he nodded his head in approval,

"Good, it seems like your on the right track, keep working at it."

Percy did just that, he developed many abilities including summoning true black holes out of his darkness, being able to seal objects or people, disaster creation, creating dark clones to either scout for him in the shadows or to attack for him, and many other uses.

The only real combat experience Percy got was fighting against low level pirates though. It was not because he was scared of fighting the new emperors of the sea, it was because there was no real reason to. He would not be credited for any fight should he win, and it was not worth trying to engage in combat against those monsters without backup. None of the admirals felt that it was necessary for Percy to prove his combat capability so he was left arresting new pirates in the New world.

*********************************************************************************************************

As Percy was sitting in his office chair in his battleship, there was a knock on the door. After a moment, Orange opened it and waltzed in.

"It's time Percy" the commodore said as she looked at the vice admiral.

"For what?"

"I just got off the den den mushi with headquarters, your punishment has officially ended today. You are being summoned back to Marineford."

"Why? Doesn't Kong want me fighting in the New world gaining more accomplishments so I can earn the admiral position?"

"I don't know" Orange said as she sat in the chair in front of Percy's desk. "They never told me anything, all I know is that they requested your presence back at headquarters."

"...I don't like it. Kong could have given me instructions over the transponder, but seeing me in person; I didn't leave there on the best of terms you know?"

"What? Unleashing your conqueror's haki throughout the base and knocking several hundred people out simultaneously? No...no one should remember that" Orange replied sarcastically.

Percy rolled his eyes, his relationship definitely improved over the past 3 years and now they were able to have conversations that weren't related to boss and subordinate.

"Fine, let's see what other trouble I can get into. Set course for Marineford."

"Already done" Orange said smiling.

"Cheeky" Percy remarked with a smile on his face as well.

*********************************************************************************************************They arrived in the morning 8 days later. The vice admiral and commodore docked their ship and was greeted by various shipwrights and logistical staff. They were not aware of who specifically arrived, but when they saw the rank on Percy's jacket, they all saluted.

"Vice admiral! Welcome back!" they all said as they stood at attention.

Percy smiled, waved his hand and headed into the main building.

It took him 5 minutes to get to Kong's office and when he got there, he paused for a second, took a deep breadth and stepped inside.

Fleet admiral Kong was sitting in his office with Zed also sitting on one of the couches.

"Fleet admiral" Percy saluted and looked at Kong, he turned to Zed and said "teacher."

"ZAZAZAZAZA, only been away for 3 years and now look at you, all grown up huh?" Zed said as he was laughed with a wide grin on his face.

"At least your in a good mood" Kong said as he stared at his admiral. "Why are you here anyways?"

"To give my position to Percy of course" Zed said nonchalantly. "My wife is expecting our second kid and I want to be there to see them grow up. The seas are for the young'uns, not us old monsters."

"Zed..." Kong said as he rubbed his eyebrows together, "Your only in your mid 40s. That is far too early for you to consider retirement. Think about your position for once. Your an admiral, not some commodore, an admiral. You can't just quit without a valid reason."

"I decided to be an instructor" Zed said as he waved his hand in the air, "I'll still be here in case of emergencies, but I'll train the next generation of marines instead. I heard there is another monster who joined recently, what was his name again?"

"Aokiji" Kong replied, [I'm getting too tired for this s*it] he thought as he needed to think of a way to convince Zed to keep his position.

"!" Percy was surprised, [Kuzan joined the marines. Then that means all future admirals are now part of the navy. Interesting.]

"That's right" Zed said still smiling. "None of the instructors are capable of handling him because of his lazy attitude, but I can. Just give me a little time with the boy and I can turn him into another Percy."

Kong was silent, he knew that Zed could step down any time, it was his right; however, the situation in the New world is fragile. The emperors were starting to solidify their territories and conflicts are becoming more frequent between them.

"I need you to stay on for a little longer" Kong tried to persuade Zed, "you know the situation better than anyone else, we need your combat ability for just a little longer. Then you can step down."

"And what about Percy?" Zed asked as he looked at his protégé. "He should be strong enough to content with most people in the New world, hell, on a good day he should be able to fight against an emperor. His devil fruit is unique after all."

Kong looked into Percy's eyes directly and said to Zed, "now's not a good time to promote Percy. He just came back from his punishment tour, so the politics-"

"F*ck the politics!" Zed yelled as he stared at his boss. "If your strong, then your strong. If you can become an admiral, then become an admiral. The other admirals-in-waiting aren't at Percy's level and we all know it."

Kong was silent for a moment before he found a solution,

"Fine. I can only vouch for him if he passes a test. Should he pass, then we can seriously discuss his promotion to admiral."

"And what test is that" Percy butted in. He did not like being treated as invisible by the two speakers in the room.

"Capture one of the new emperors. Or if not, then someone comparable to them. There are a lot of pirates vying for territories; just the main 5 are the biggest names."

"Taking on Whitebeard, Bigmom, Kaidou, Shiki, or Attun might be a bit too difficult now. Even Kaidou will be a challenge, though he is young, his body plus his devil fruit makes him difficult to capture. Beating him is already a daunting task, but capturing him... almost impossible" Zed said as he was in contemplating his student's options.

"Whitebeard...forget it. I'm not stupid enough to attempt that. Bigmom has an army backing her plus her children are getting stronger. Shiki is unpredictable, even Sengoku has trouble seeing through his schemes. Attun is just like Kaidou, except that he can navigate through the waters making him practically untouchable by my powers. And Roger, no way. Garp will kick my ass if I try to even attempt to capture his target."

"I'll give you some time to think about it. Take a few days to decide who you want to capture, when your ready, report back to me" Kong said with a stern look on his face.

"Yes sir" Percy said as he turned and left the fleet admiral's office.

[Options upon options. I need to find someone strong enough to prove my power without my opponent being able to kill me at the same time. Hopefully I can discuss with Zed later.]

Percy looked back at the office he came from, sighed and headed towards his office; he needed to consider everything carefully because he had a feeling he had only one shot to get this right.