Shandians

Sometimes, Rex wondered if stories of peaceful adventures were just propaganda created by the God of Chaos so he could have fun.

Boom!

As Rex and his crew munched happily on their food, a legion of soldiers seem to rise up from the ground.

"FOR SHANDORA!" A loud cry can be heard, echoing through Angel Island as dozens of soldiers seem to appear out of thin air.

Each of the soldiers carry immense burn bazookas as they rush from shop to shop looting them of their food. The soldiers are not kind in the slightest to the natives, thrusting them aside and beating them.

Rex sighs. Maybe they wouldn't notice him and he could eat here in peace?

"Alright, you!" A burly Shandian soldier twice the size of an average man roars out. The man then bursts into the restaurant, pointing at Rex. "Yeah, you with the blue-hair! Give me all the vearth you've got!"

"Seriously. You couldn't have bothered anyone else?" Rex mutters angrily. "Like why didn't you ask that harmless old lady or the wealthy merchant? Why me?"

"You were the one who was selling massive quantities of Vearth at the market!" The soldier roars. "Now turn over every last piece of it to me or I swear a painful and torturous experience will be awaiti-"

Whoosh!

Rex disappears from his seat, reappearing with his fist inside the Shandian's stomach. He has a tired, fed-up look on his face as he slaps the massive man across Angel Island lazily.

"Don't interrupt my meal next time." Rex says irately before skipping back inside to finish his food.

"GET HIM!" The rest of Shandians cry out, seeing Ungara, their strongest soldier, being bested by this boy. If he sided with the Skypieans… The consequences would be dire.

Seeing the Shandians all taking aim at the restaurant, Rex sighs.

"Why couldn't I have come tomorrow?" Rex asks into the sky, only to receive no answer. Oh well, now it was time to fight.

Without a word exchanged between them, Rex's crew mobilized at once.

Kid uses his devil fruit to twist the burn bazookas of the Shandians such that they were turned at each other, creating a cacophony of friendly fire.

"Why're you hitting yourself?" Kid said mockingly, having one Shandian constantly punch himself in the face with his brass knuckles.

Killer and Hawkins are much more direct, cutting down the Shandian's like a pair of grim reapers. Rex tells them not to kill all the Shandians, out of thought for Cricket, but he was sure a couple dead Shandians were no problem. After all, they could always make new ones.

Soon, the defense forces of Skypiea also react, joining Rex's crew in beating back the Shandians. Ungara curses, seeing that the Shandians were helplessly outmatched, but Rex's crew is blocking their escape.

"Stop!" A regal elderly voice calls out from the sky. "In the name of peace, the name of order and the name of the God of Skypiea, Gan Fall, I command you all to stop!"

Then, an aged man riding a pink, spotted Pegasus descends from the sky, carrying an immense lance. Compared to his old age in the manga, Gan Fall was only 57 now, and still hadn't completely lost the strength and ruggedness of his youth. Standing at roughly 2 and a half meters tall, he was a decently imposing figure.

The soldiers of Skypiea quickly stop upon hearing the words of their 'God', but Rex and his crew pay no heed to Gan Fall's words.

"Enough!" Gan Fall shouts, charging towards Kid, lance pointing straight out.

"Shut up, you old tin can!" Kid shouted, sending out a wave of magnetic energy that repels Gan Fall's metallic armor.

Gan Fall tumbles from his mighty steed, plummeting dozens of meters before landing on the ground with a thump. Meanwhile, Pierre keeps charging at Kid, unaware of his master's fate and is lashed down by Hawkins.

"Is that all you've got?" Hawkins asks with a sigh. "Disappointing. I predict that our chances of victory against both armies put together near 100%."

"That's enough you two." Rex finally says, not wanting to alienate the Skypieans completely. He still needed their help in finding Birka, as without it, he would have to sail on the white sea aimlessly, possibly for years.

Gan Fall quickly gets up from his fallen position, evidently wounded and rushes to Ungara.

"Good Shandian warrior, are you ok?" Gan Fall says, fearing that Ungara's injuries might threaten the peace. "I will arrange a medic to care for you."

"Do you mock me old man!?" Ungara growls, wanting to thrust his fist into Gan Fall's face but pausing as he looks back to Rex and his crew. The veteran warrior then sighs. "It is evident that you have already acquired the militant power to end my people once and for all. I will not beg you for mercy."

Gan Fall is confused at first, but realizes that Ungara must have thought that he hired Rex's crew to wipe out Shandia.

"My friend, these people are as much strangers to me as they are to you. I suspect that they came from the Blue Sea, seeking adventure." Gan Fall says, trying to placate Ungara.

"Do not deceive me!" Ungara growls. "I know you are kin with the Blue Sea goers. You were kin with the last pirates who came to this land and now you are kin with them!"

"My frien-" Gan Fall starts, but Rex interjects, bored with the politics.

"I don't give a rat's ass about either of you." Rex said with a sigh. "I just wanted to eat my meal in peace and you messed with it. Now, you both have to pay a fee for pissing me off."

The two men look at Rex with a puzzled expression.

"Kid, Bonney, Thatch and Monet, go down the village hidden in the clouds and retrieve all their combat dials." Rex said, throwing them a cloud cutter. "I'll go with the rest of the crew to confiscate the Skypieans' supply. This war is officially over."

"Ehhh!?" Gan Fall and Ungara say incredulously. Were they being robbed? Right in front of their armies?

However, Rex and his crew didn't even bat an eye at this reaction going to confiscate the goods. Rex couldn't believe his luck, a credible excuse to confiscate weapons-grade dial technology had just fallen in his lap. This was for peace of course.

The two army commanders hastily chase after the robbers, but a brief display of strength wards them off from trying anything. As such, the two seasoned warriors stand by and watch as all of their weaponry is stolen from right under their noses.

Rex had been kind and had left the Skypieans a few combat dials for self-defense. However, other than those few, every Jet, Impact, Reject and all the other kinds of dials owned by the Shandians and the Skypieans was in his possession.

Now, it was time to raid Shandora.

"A city of GOLD!!!!?" The crew cries out, jaws dropping in excitement. While there were no Nami-esque moneygrubbers on Rex's crew, barring Rex himself, everyone loved wealth.

"Well, well, I had been eying some new fixtures for the King Gucci." Kid says, with a grin. "I feel that some of that gold would be well served for constructing my Super Omega DEATH RAY!"

"Super, shmooper, let's use it all to buy candy!" Sugar cries out.

"I feel that we could also use some improvements to the scientific facilities of the King Gucci." Rose added.

And soon, there was a wild battle over who got how much of the gold. Rex grins, this was indeed his main goal for coming to Skypiea. Taking the gold would be a great act of robbe-mercy towards the Skypieans.

After all, having too much gold was dangerous. Because of Skypiea's immense wealth, Bellamy had robbed them over the timeskip, likely killing countless Skypieans. Yes, this was for their protection.

If the gold was in Rex's hands, it would be well protected, and he would pay for in exchange for the 'precious vearth' that he had 'arduously collected over years'.

"There is one teeny, tiny problem with the gold." Rex says, recalling the giant snake 'god', Nola. Even Rex was unsure if he could best it, fortunately, he had Sugar.

"So, you just want me to run around as fast as I can and make the big snake get tired?" Sugar asks curiously, to which Rex nods. "And in exchange, I get a lifetime supply of grapes and candy?"

Rex grinned, before nodding eagerly. This was his plan. Sugar was one of the fastest crewmen of the King Pirates by far. What was more, her small body would make it much easier to weave through the ruins of Shandora.

While the snake chased her, Rex planned on excavating all the gold in Shandora secretly. Then, he would bring Cricket up to ring the bell and pacify the snake.

With a plan in mind, it didn't take long for Rex to be underway. He quickly trades all his 'precious vearth' for almost all of the Skypiean gold. It takes about a week to excavate it all, but eventually, Rex manages it, taking care not to injure Nola for Cricket's sake.

Rex also leaves the old bell behind for his adventurer friend, and decides that everything else should be appropriated.

Rex grinned like a madman as he stared down at all the gold he had acquired. As opposed to the impure gold he had stolen that was used by nobles, the stuff on Skypiea was the real deal.

The straw hats proved that even a few sacks of this stuff were worth 300 million berries. As for the amount he stole, Rex could only wager it would be in the tens of billions.

Rex had never really had money problems, with his first robbery being in the hundreds of millions of berries, but now, money was like nothing to him. Rex wagered he could outbid a celestial dragon at a slave auction with his current wealth.

But, as valuable as the gold was, Rex treasured what came next even more.

"It's real!" Cricket says, rolling around in the gold like a madman. As pure-hearted adventurer, Cricket didn't care much for gold, so Rex only gave him a few choice pieces for memorabilia and watched the look on his face.

Rex had brought cricket up by bird, bringing him to see his ancestor's discovered land.

"I knew it! They all said he was lying but I knew it was real!" Cricket says, tears coming to his eyes as he looks at the many pictures Rex took of Shandora.

While it had taken a few hours, Rex had cleaned up the ruins to take a few pictures before he had excavated any gold. Now, he felt bad that he hadn't taken a picture of every square inch of the place.

"Thank you so much my friend!" Cricket shouted, enveloping Rex in a bear hug. "This is all I ever wanted and more! Now, I know that my ancestor was not a liar, he was a glorious adventurer! I'll follow all of his other adventures down to a tee! I'll believe all the myths until proven wrong!"

"That's good." Rex said with a smile. "I'm sure Noland would have been extremely proud of you."

"Not now. I still haven't earned it." Cricket tears up at this thought, never imagining that he could feel so emotional. "Once I have my own adventures, I will come back here and show my ancestor that there is another Mont Blanc adventurer to take up his legacy!"

"There's one more thing I want from you." Rex said with a wide grin, taking Cricket up to the bell.

Waiting for him there were dozens of Skypieans and Shandians crowding around the bell. The Shandians all looked at Cricket with awe, knowing that he was Noland's descendant.

Rex notices in that crowd, a young Wyper and Raki, both having tears streaming down their cheeks upon seeing Cricket. He also sees an oddly observant baby that he learns is Aisa, shaking his head at her already awakened Haki. Truly unfair.

Cricket then walks up to the bell, with a heavy heart, Rex having explained its meaning to him. Each step seems to be made under immense difficulty, as Cricket stares up at the bell, feeling that his ancestors dying thoughts were of this bell and his friend, Kalgara.

"FOR MY ANCESTORS!" Cricket cried out, swinging back an immense golden hammer. "MONT BLANC CRICKET, HAS ARRIVED!"

DONG!

The sound of the bell ringing emanates through Shandora. Rex had already arranged for Monet to create a snow covering around the island, preventing the sound from alerting pirates on the surface. Everyone who needed to hear the bell was right here, right now.

As the ringing of bell echoes through Shandora, dozens of Shandians are brought to tears.

The war was over.

(Several Hours Later)

"Eh, why are you taking me over to the snake?" Cricket asks, with Rex leading him and Faust over to Nola's head. The festivities had all died down with only the trio left in Shandora.

"I've just got something to show you. Think of it as a parting gift." Rex says, urging Faust towards the immense head. "Now, I need you to promise that you'll never tell anyone about this ability. Not even your closest friends."

Rex was very careful about news of Faust's ability, with it only being known to Rex's most trusted officers. As a testament of the lengths that he took to hid it, it was notable that even Robin didn't know about the ability. Since she had failed Rex's loyalty test, it was going to stay that way, with Faust removing her memory of the test after she had failed.

To be honest, Rex didn't know what to do with Robin now. It was obvious she didn't trust him and he wasn't sure if he could trust her. Both of them had always been in a relationship of mutual exploitation, but Rex wasn't sure if he could keep up with that. In the New World, Rex needed a crew he could trust.

Of course, it was only a test, and Rex didn't know how he would feel if Robin just gave up the information. Rex was no Luffy, Robin was probably afraid of what Rex would do with an island busting weapon. Hell, Rex was afraid of what he might do with that much power.

Still, while Rex could have doubts about himself, his crew couldn't. Was it hypocritical? Sure. But Rex demanded complete loyalty. Since Robin couldn't make good on that, there would be secrets kept from her.

After all, Faust's ability was extremely potent. He could use it to turn enemy assets to his side, learn confidential information, even master new skills with ease by implanting memories. Showing it to Cricket was a sign that Rex trusted him deeply.

Cricket frowns at the secrecy, but nods, genuinely curious of what could be so valuable.

Then a spool of film exits Nola's head as the full adventures of Kalgara and Noland play before Cricket.

Cricket had thought that he had cried out enough tears for a dozen lifetimes, but Rex had proven him wrong with this piece of film. Watching his ancestor and Kalgara almost brought the large man to his knees.

When the film is over, Cricket pauses for a moment, unsure if he should do something but eventually nods.

"Here." Cricket says, passing Rex a dusty journal. "This is a copy of my ancestor's travel journal. The king thought he had burned them all, but my family has always kept one in secret."

"Cricket… I can't accept this." Rex said, pushing down all of his greed and rejecting the gift. While Rex had wanted the journal at first, Cricket had grown on him, making Rex question the morality of his intentions.

"Don't worry, it's all up here." Cricket says, tapping his skull, before placing the book in Rex's hands. "I've read it a million times and committed it to memory. Now, I leave it to you."

Rex feels the book in his hands. The light journal feels like an anchor as it weighs down his arms.

Then, the two friends look up at the sky, sitting together in silence.