117 Number 7

A short while prior, on a cliff along Whole Cake Island's coast.

Agent Silver Rat just hung up his call with Jaygarcia and turned towards his 5 man squad to immediately relay their orders.

Every member wore a white suit and a bizarre mask, according to their code names. Silver Rat and Night Eagle were the only average sized ones. Crazy Cat and Lazy Bear towered above them at around 3 metres of height, where as Black Cloud looked like a dwarf with her 1 meter height.

Three of them spread out into a defensive formation around a 2.5 metres tall capsule. Silver Rat and Night eagle entered the defensive formation and approached mentioned capsule carefully.

'From here on, nothing is allowed to go wrong.'

Silver Rat chanted to himself as he pressed a button on the capsule's site, causing it to open. As the front part slit up, letting a gush of steam escape, two figures fell to the ground. As soon as the steam cleared, they were revealed to be two old men. For reasons unknown both were naked and looked exactly identical.

Had they not been informed beforehand, the whole squad would watch them in confusion but since they knew who these two old men were, Silver Rat and Night eagle fell on their knees, while saying what they were told to say.

"We greet the sacred number seven. On behest of the oldest 5, I am to convey that his supreme majesty needs your powers, services and sacrifices."

Truth to be told, they didn't know who the supreme majesty was or why the 5 elders were called the 5 oldest but, in the past, elder Saint Marcus Mars made it clear to them that they were not to ask about any of that.

"Who is the target?"

The two strange men spoke, moved and sounded just like one another but at this point only an idiot wouldn't know how real the saying that curiosity killed a cat actually was. Instead of thinking useless stuff, Silver Rat gave Night Eagle a signal, which prompted him to start.

He pulled one of his long reddish brown hair and chanted Jackson's name repeatedly. The hair he held, lit up and projected a hologram of Jackson running through a forest. The hologram Jackson suddenly stopped, seemingly alarmed and began looking around him.

What Night Eagle was showing them was akin to a live recording of the person whose name he chanted. Though there were numerous restrictions like distance, duration and some more, it was enough for this job.

The elder on the left walked towards Jackson's projection, seemingly already aware of what he has to do. He stood in front of his projection and just looked for a whole minute before speaking his name.

"Portgas D. Jackson? No. That is Gol D. Jackson."

!!!

All 5 Agents reacted strongly to what they just heard. Gol D. Jackson? What was he saying and how could he know? But they had no time to ask cause once he spoke Jackson's true name his whole body caught fire and the mysterious elder was turned into a pile of ash in barely 2 seconds.

Once again, had the agents not been informed of this procedure beforehand, they would have started panicking by now.

The elder who stood on the right, started to move now. He approached the pile of ashes that had formed on the ground and began searching for something in it. What number 7 pulled out, was a piece of paper. On it Jackson's name and an image of his, were drawn.

"Gol D. Jackson."

Number 7 called his name as well and he too caught fire but this time it was black. It robbed all colours and left the world in just various tones of grey. The elder carefully placed whatever that strange piece of paper was in front of his heart.

Suddenly Jackson got the creeps. All his neck hair stood up as his instincts and haki practically screamed that he is about to die. Future sight didn't show him anything but complete darkness and observation haki couldn't pinpoint any attackers anywhere near him.

'What the fuck is going on?!'

Out of desperation he protected himself with both, armour and conqueror's haki and even used the cheat he got for mistakenly make young Rebecca develop feelings for him, Rho Aias. Still, even after using all that the feeling of immanent, unavoidable death lingered.

Right after number 7 lit up in black flames and robbed the world of it's colours, a gigantic, bony hand appeared high above him.

It pushed the air like curtains and fully revealed itself. A gigantic, humanoid figure clad in a black hooded cloak. It held an equally gigantic scythe which it positioned to strike at number 7 from behind.

The Agents could barely breath, much less move. Silver Rat had a vague thought. He guessed that this monster will swing its scythe and pierce number 7 together with the mysterious paper with Jackson's name. He couldn't guarantee it but he firmly believed that once it took its sacrifice and destroyed that paper, Portgas D. Jackson will ultimately die.

It swung it's scythe, a blade pierced number 7's throat and with a quick twist and swipe cut it off. The elder's body fell to the ground and death's herald snorted, apparently unhappy that someone else took his sacrifice.

For the blade that cut of number 7's head was not that of it's scythe, but a man's cutlass. Death's Herald faded out of existence allowing the colours to return to the world and the agents to snap out of their trance.

Everything happened so suddenly and quickly that Silver Rat noticed the man's figure towering over the elders beheaded corpse only after everything was over. Even he needed a second to sort out what he just witnessed. All those preparations and carefulness to be destroyed by one unforeseen, unaccounted variable.

"You…"

He called out with a shaky voice.

"Do you even know what you just did… Do you have the least idea of what will follow? This is enough reason for an all-out war!"

Silver Rat nearly lost it again as soon as he regained his wits. He wanted nothing more than to rush at this man and tear him to pieces or die while trying but-

*click*

The feeling of a barrel at the back of his head and the sound of a rifle, ready to shoot made him instinctively stop. A quick sweep with his eyes showed him that his squad members were also held either at gun point or on a blade's edge. They had lost. Ambushed and done in in one quick swoop, unaware of how they got here and most importantly so close, without being noticed till the end. All he could do now is speak his last words.

"Curse you. You will not get away with this. They will come for you and make you pay dearly, Red Hair."

*BANG!*