60 Chapter 39 - Enies Lobby Pt 1 3/3

Normal circumstances, however, did not entail Jabra's skull ringing like a church bell on Sunday morning on account of repeated blows to the head that a thoroughly infuriated ballistic rubber-man continued to inflict. His Iron Body Kenpo had offered him some relief, but Straw Hat's bottomless well of willpower had rendered that obsolete two minutes in. And to make matters even worse, the so-called 'Gear Second' technique that he was employing had not only amplified his speed to the point where he was Shaving like he'd been doing it all his life, but it had also amplified his strength tenfold, to the point where he was all but straight up ignoring the agent's Iron Body.

'Damn… Damn it all… I wanted a fight with Straw Hat Luffy, not a freaking massacre like this,' he thought, panting and sweating like a dog as he kept his head on a swivel, trying and failing to keep an accurate bead on the sonic pirate.

But indeed, a massacre was what the conflict boiled down to. For every bit that Jabra was fast, Luffy was faster. For every bit that he was tough, the pirate was tougher. And for every bit that he was strong, well…

A flash of movement to the side granted Jabra enough forewarning to spin on his heels and cross his arms defensively as he tensed every muscle of his body.

"JET RIFLE!"

"GAGH!"

Jabra coughed up a mouthful of blood as the grinding blow blasted him off his feet and slammed him into one of the few parapets that had not yet been demolished.

…no comment.

The wolf-Zoan peeled himself out of his dent in the stone with a pained groan, stumbling forward slightly in a desperate effort to regain his balance. "No…" he spat viciously. "I refuse… I refuse…"

Without warning, the wolf surged forward, charging at Luffy on all fours as he howled at the top of his lungs. "I REFUSE TO LOSE TO SOMEONE LIKE YOU!" He slashed both of his claws down at Luffy's exact position. "WOLF HUNT HIGH-SPEED SCRATCH!"

Luffy glared bloody murder at the wolf as the attack came down on him… up until the last moment, when he suddenly disappeared and the claws passed through the space he'd occupied moments before without resistance.

Jabra stumbled as he tried to regain his balance and glanced around in concussion-enhanced confusion. "W-Wha… where—?"

"GUM GUM—!"

Jabra's head snapped up just in time to catch sight of Luffy spinning on an axis in midair.

"JET HOMERUN!"

CRACK!

And then his vision was filled with nothing but pipe, followed up in short order by stone.

Jabra groaned into the stonework of the much-abused roof as he tried to kickstart his mind back into at least a semblance of working condition. When he finally got his mind back in something resembling order, he slowly worked his claws beneath his torso and pushed himself into a kneeling position, allowing him to cough up yet another mouthful of blood, along with more than a few fragments of broken teeth.

"Damn it…" Jabra wheezed painfully as he forced his head up. "You little… fucki—!" The wolf-man's words died in his muzzle as he managed to catch sight of Luffy.

It was the eyes that did it. Oh, sure, his concussion was influencing him a bit, but from that day forward Jabra would forevermore swear up and down that it was the eyes that did the trick. It was Straw Hat Luffy's eyes that hit him the hardest. It was his stance, his gaze, however real or imagined. It was how every inch of Jabra knew, in that instant, just knew, that there wasn't one person standing where Luffy was standing, but two.

One was Straw Hat Luffy, sure, but the other… the strength it emanated despite its unassuming form, the impassive expression, the eyes… the eyes that had stared at him every time, the only times he had ever been defeated. Eyes that made him feel tiny, no matter how loud he howled or how large he grew. Eyes filled with nothing but cold, bloody darkness where the soul was supposed to be…

"Don't look at me like that…" Jabra breathed, softly at first before baring his fangs as his rage started to cloud his mind. "Don't look at me like that. Don't look at me like I'm worthless, don't look at me like I'm nothing, don't look at me like you can beat me! Don't look at me like that!" Jabra clawed his way to his paws, foam dribbling from his hackles as he snarled at the pirate. "DON'T YOU DARE LOOK AT ME LIKE HIM!"

Luffy responded with a flat look before glancing to the side. "My crewmates are going to be here soon," he stated firmly. "And if they get here while you're still standing, then you'll hurt them." He pinned the wolf-man with a glare. "So, I'm going to finish you off now."

That statement was the final straw. That statement snapped what few vestiges of sanity Jabra had left in his mind. In an instant, his pupils shrank down to pinpricks, he threw his head back and he roared—not howled, roared—his defiance to the heavens.

Luffy knelt down in preparation, every fiber of his being taut and ready to move at the drop of a hat.

With what few vestiges of mind he had left, Jabra dug deep into his subconscious, the deepest, darkest pits of his mind, and called forth a technique that was years in the making. A technique that he'd painstakingly developed alone and in secret, all for the express purpose of defeating one person.

But if it meant that he wouldn't lose in this instance, then he was more than willing to use it right here, right now.

"FANG HOWLING OVER FANG!" Jabra roared out as he shot towards his opponent like a cannonball, spinning into a virtual tornado of fangs and claws that was guaranteed to shred anything and everything that it touched for even a moment.

He struck the parapet like a hurricane, grinding the stone into a fine powder and methodically eradicating it into less than absolutely nothing.

But for all the damage he managed to cause, he still didn't hit Luffy.

The technique soon spun itself out into nothing, leaving Jabra panting on his hands and knees as he fought to stay conscious in the face of his rapidly dwindling reserves of adrenaline. "But… I… that's… how…?" he wheezed breathlessly, snapping his head around in a vain effort to catch sight of Luffy, wherever he was…

Before ultimately freezing on the pipe.

The pipe that Straw Hat Luffy had been carrying when he'd arrived.

The pipe that Straw Hat Luffy had been using to beat him senseless with throughout their fight.

The pipe that was now planted in the very edge of the rooftop, with two hands firmly gripping it and arms stretching off to…

Jabra pushed himself onto his shaky legs and staggered over to the pipe, following the arms back to their source.

His gut dropped into the abyss below the island as he tried and failed to follow the arms down main street, where they disappeared beyond his field of vision… although that particular limit might have been yet another side effect of getting his skull dented by a sonic pipe.

"You've got to be kidding me…" the wolf whimpered.

The universe then proceeded to prove to him that what he was experiencing was all too real.

"GUUUUUM-GUUUUUM…!"

Another effect of his concussion was that Jabra's mind skipped a beat for a second.

As such, while he did manage to cross his arms defensively once again…

"JEEET BALLISTAAAAA!"

"IRON—GRK!"

He was just a second too slow to properly reinforce his person when a pair of rocket-fast sandals slammed into his solar plexus. For the longest two seconds of his life, Jabra felt as though he were being split in half, his body bending around the point of impact.

And then time resumed; physics, cruel mistress that she is, took hold; and all of Luffy's kinetic energy slammed into him at once. Thus, while Luffy came to a dead halt, Jabra was launched backward and at an angle at only a little under Luffy's own prior speed.

Given his arc and velocity, the Wolf-Man would have most likely left a rather impressive dent in the center of the Gates of Justice… were it not for an obstacle standing directly in his flight path.

-o-

For the second time that day, Spandam found himself face-to-face with certain death flying directly towards him, and too paralyzed with shock and horror to move enough to save his own life. Rolling his eyes, Lucci yanked the man out of the ballistic wolf-missile's flight path, saving him by a matter of inches.

SLAM!

Nothing, however, could save Jabra from impacting with the far wall of Spandam's office.

The CP9 agents winced and guarded their faces with their arms in response to the impact, and then proceeded to gape in horror as they lowered them.

Jabra was impressed into the far wall, cracks spreading out from beneath his spread-eagled body.

However, as awe-inspiring as the display was, what truly garnered the agents' attention was the exact state of Jabra's body. His very human body.

Franky broke the silence with a roaring cackle. "Haha, wow, you were right, Spanda! That was impressive! Seriously, I didn't know it was even possible to literally kick the bitch out of a Zoan like that! You learn something new every day! HAHA—hurk!"

He was promptly cut off by Kalifa absentmindedly elbowing him in the side. Any further punishment was held off as Jabra slowly peeled off the wall before falling onto his feet. He was swaying like a drunk sailor at two in the morning, and his still-open eyes were staring at nothing, but he was on his feet.

The wolf-man slowly staggered forward, only just barely managing to keep his feet beneath himself. Thankfully for him, his journey was made short by the aim of his voyage stepping up before him.

Jabra slowly looked up and blearily looked Lucci in the eye. He held his gaze for a moment before slowly raising his finger and jabbing it in his chest.

"Don't… you dare…" he rasped. "Look… at me… like…" And with that, his eyes rolled up in his head and he collapsed to the ground, a pained moan the only sign that he was even alive.

Lucci stared at Jabra's insensate form with total stoic impassivity, as though his ally were nothing more than an insect.

The rest of the agents were nowhere near as subdued.

"Fukuro…" Kaku whispered numbly. "Jabra's power ranking… you're certain—?"

The rotund man swallowed heavily. "Actually… I used week-old power rankings for him, me and Kumadori. W-We're all a little bit stronger than what I said earlier…"

Kalifa slowly raised a trembling hand to try and hold her glasses steady. "Just what the hell did we get ourselves into?" she asked no one in particular.

"Oi."

Cipher Pol No. 9 as a whole stiffened as an increasingly familiar voice filled the room.

"Just for the record," Cross drawled in an uncharacteristically grim tone. "If the mood were a little lighter, I'd probably make a Warriors reference. As it is, though? It would just be in bad taste. Present yourselves, CP9. It's time we finish what you started."

Hattori cocked an eyebrow at his owner. "Cocky little bastard, isn't he?"

Lucci tsked as he spun on his heel and marched to the balcony. "They've earned it."

The leopard man stalked past his dumbstruck comrades, but only made it a few feet before pausing. He then cast a scowl over his shoulder.

"Move."

The rest of Cipher Pol 9 promptly Shaved to his side, while Spandam unwillingly inched his way over to stare at the enemies below.

And indeed, far below CP9, upon the rooftop of the courthouse of the World Government's Judicial Island, every last parapet on the side of the building facing the Tower of Justice that remained intact now had a pair of pirates standing on it, staring up at them with grim-faced determination. By the SBS, their own observations and reports from every Marine who had previously encountered the crew, every one of them was as recognizable to those who stared down at them as if they had already met them in person.

Boss, the monstrous Kung Fu Dugong, flipper resting on the rope-dart coiled at his side and smoke chuffing like a sea train from his scowling maw, and Nefertari Vivi, twin scythes linked by chains in her hands and riding an armored Supersonic Duck, who still managed to look menacing despite his slightly comical form.

A yeti-like man that could only be Tony Tony Chopper in his full-human form, the pink hat and blue nose doing nothing to diminish the effect of his glower, and Sanji, sharp-dressed and blond-haired, his eyes lowered for the moment as he lit a cigarette.

Usopp, their long-nosed sniper, holding a slingshot that more resembled a polearm and staring at his crew's adversaries with only the slightest trace of fear in his eyes and the slightest shake in his knees, and the monstrous Monkey D. Luffy, whose form would be much less intimidating if they hadn't just seen him treat the third-strongest of their number like a punching bag, with he himself looking none the worse for wear.

Roronoa Zoro, green hair, three katanas at his waist and a scowl of determination on his face, and Nami, orange hair and with an odd-looking blue staff in one hand, clouds spouting from it and surrounding her like an aura, and what looked to be a folded scooter on her back.

Conis, the gunner, whose outfit made her look less like an angel and more like… well, like them, with more guns visible on her person than someone her size had any right to carry, and the cloud fox Su perched on her shoulder. And at the leftmost part of the rooftop from their perspective stood Jeremiah Cross, the bazooka-dog Lassoo snarling at his feet and the snail Soundbite on his shoulder. Of all the pirates on the roof, they were the only ones who were smiling in any way or form, but there was no humor in those looks.

The hostages, the chief, and the five assassins all looked down at them, Robin's eyes beginning to overflow with tears. For what felt like an eternity, they only stared, the emotions between them palpable. Then…

"Yoyoi…" Kumadori mused contemplatively. "Do you think if I asked, Cross would give me an autograph?"

There was a moment of silence as the assassins contemplated the statement.

"Chapa… Kumadori… mind leaning down a bit?"

"Eh? But of course. Why?"

"So that I can do this: Solid Beast."

POW!

"YOYOWIE!"

-o-

Six months.

It was kind of… hell, I don't even know what it was. Awe-inspiring? Funny? Humbling? Any of them or none? Doesn't matter.

Six months ago, I was a normal guy. Six months ago, I was your average everyday college student, just another face in the crowd whose only real claim to fame was being a mildly successful fanfiction writer on a few sites and forums.

Six months ago… I was nobody.

And then in an instant and in six months alike, all of that changed.

Over the course of the past six months, I'd sailed up the side of a mountain. Over the past six months, I'd ridden a Tyrannosaurus Rex, I'd charged headfirst into a warzone, I'd defied the world, I'd sailed into the sky, I'd spit in the face of God himself…

And now.

And now, I thought to myself as I glanced down into the roaring abyss below, now I was at the edge of Enies Lobby.

Now I was standing side-by-side with my friends in one of the most iconic moments in the history of anime and manga.

Now… I was ready to face the world head-on, to die facing the world, all for the sake of a friend.

"We've come a long way, huh, little buddy?" I whispered as I stared up at the Tower of Justice.

"Don't go getting all sappy on me yet," Soundbite chuckled. "AFTER ALL, we've still got so far to go."

"Damn straight…" I nodded in agreement.

"ROOOBIIIN!"

We both promptly snapped our jaws shut when Luffy shouted up at our wayward crewmate, relying on his own volume and entirely unaided by Soundbite.

"IF YOU REALLY WANT TO DIE FOR US!" our captain continued. "THEN SAY IT TO US HERE AND NOW!"

Even from this distance, it was a simple task to catch sight of Robin hesitating where she stood, to see just how tightly she was biting her lip in a desperate attempt to stay silent. It was easy to see just how furiously she was fighting against herself. It was hard to know which part of her would win the fight.

"CP9!"

But the world would never know, on account of Spandam cutting in at that moment in what was clearly a desperate attempt to regain control of the situation.

"A-As director of this unit, you have my full permission to take those pirates down, eliminate them utterly, but do it from here! From the Tower of Justice! A-After all, it's not like they have any way to get over here," he continued, reassuring himself as much as he was gloating.

It must have worked, seeing as he grinned maniacally and stepped onto the balustrade a moment later. "WAHAHAHAHAHA! Stupid pirates! No matter how strong you are, you'll never be able to win! CP9 still stands strong to stop you! The Gates of Justice are beyond any human's power to move! And most of all…" He reached into his coat, and produced that thing, causing my hair to stand on end. "I have the authority to use this Golden Transponder Snail to unleash a Buster Call!"

"A Golden Transponder Snail?!" Soundbite yelped, shrinking back in terror.

"Soundbite?" I glanced at him in confusion. "What's wrong?"

The baby snail shivered as he half-hid in his shell. "I SERIOUSLY hope you weren't BANKING ON ME BLOCKING THAT THING, CROSS! GOLDEN TRANSPONDER SNAILS… they're practically boogeymen, creatures of selective breeding whose connections with their silver counterparts are renowned for being SACROSANCT! THEIR BROADCAST IS UTTERLY INVIOLABLE!"

"That's right," Spandam gloated menacingly. "Once I push this button, nothing you or anyone does will be able to stop the results! Just like it was 20 years ago, I will unleash the power that wiped out your homeland, Nico Robin!" He spun around to laugh in Robin's face. "Just like before, when Ohara was utterly wiped from the maps of the world!"

"One snail caused that much destruction?" Conis breathed in horror.

"I'd make a quip about package sizes, but this doesn't seem like the right time…" Su mused.

"That shitty leatherface, tormenting Robin-chwan like that," Sanji growled.

"You damn…" Robin bit out painfully, fighting even harder against herself.

"WAHAHA! Oh, look at that reaction!" Spandam cackled malevolently. I could feel my blood freeze as the bastard's finger hovered above the button of the snail. "Maybe I should do it now? Maybe I should call the full force of the World Government?"

"You—! Do you even know what will happen if you press that button?!" Robin demanded desperately.

"Of course I do," Spandam purred. "The chances of all of these pirates making it out of here alive will drop to zero! What… did you have something else in mind?"

"IT'S NOT THAT SIMPLE! STOP IT!" she screamed furiously.

"Oh?" Spandam asked with a leer. "You giving me orders? You're being rather cocky, aren't you."

Boss all but bit through his cigar as he glared up at the enemy. "Cross… when you talked about putting the hurt on this bastard? You were lowballing."

"What can I say?" I ground out. "Reality tends to exceed expectations."

"You said that Ohara disappeared from the map…" Robin stated desperately, sounding on the edge of tears. "But can you see humans on a map? No… No, the only way you could be so cruel is if you look at the world like that, like it was a statistic! You can't use it… not that…" She trailed off in a pleading whisper as she collapsed to her knees, the ghosts of her past obviously weighing her down.

One glance at Soundbite was all I needed to get my message across. "Robin," I muttered.

I heard her pained gasp, and slowly but surely she climbed to her feet and looked down at me. I winced miserably at seeing her so… so broken, but nevertheless, I hovered my hand over my bag, and I could tell from the way she jerked that she'd processed the implication.

"If you're so sure that you're going to die anyway…" I breathed desperately. "Then at least die like a Straw Hat. At least go down kicking and screaming the whole way, and give them nothing short of hell."

Robin's hesitation slowly faded even as she warred with herself until finally, she looked at Spandam with a heart-wrenching combination of despair and determination. "Let me tell you… of the Buster Call. Let me tell you what the World Government is capable of…"

And so, at long last, she told the story of Ohara.

Spandam made no attempt to stop her, apparently relishing in her agony as she recited the tale. CP9, meanwhile, stood by impassively. Though if I wasn't hallucinating, some of them seemed visibly uncomfortable with what they were hearing. As for Franky, he was clearly on the verge of bawling his eyes out, but the sheer horror of what he heard was keeping that decidedly moment-killing reaction at bay. That, or Soundbite had had the good sense to mute him.

And it was clear that CP9 either hadn't found out about my little trick with the SBS, or they simply chose not to remind Spandam of it. But I knew, and so did Robin, and so did the rest of the crew, that the entire world was now learning the truth that the World Government had tried so hard to cover up. It was only the look on her face that kept me from grinning maliciously; I could only imagine how everyone outside of Enies Lobby was reacting…

-o-

"Mayor Iceburg, the ship is ready—Ah…" The Galley-La employee stopped moments after entering his foreman's office, dumbstruck by the scene he was met with. Understandable, since it wasn't every day that you walked in on the strongest man in all of Water 7 leaning against his desk as he watched a small fire burn in his wastebasket, of all places. "Uh… sir? What's going on?"

Iceburg glanced at his employee with a vague amount of interest. "You're… ah… damn, I always forget your name."

"Everyone always does, sir, I'm practically invisible. But I'm fine with everyone always calling me 'that One Colts Guy.' Ya know, because of…" He gestured at the blue horseshoe emblazoned on his baseball cap.

"Ah, right, right…" Iceburg sighed as he looked back at the fire. "…Do you know why I allowed Galley-La and Water 7 as a whole to accept contracts from the World Government?"

"Ah…" The Colts Guy hesitated in confusion. "I… can't say that I do, sir."

Iceburg hung his head with a sigh. "Because back when I was still an apprentice, I experienced what could and would happen if Water 7 was an enemy of the World Government when I witnessed Tom's fate. I established myself as a reasonable authority figure, and aimed to endear our company and island to the World Government, to ensure that we were never hurt again."

His eyes and grip tightened grimly. "But in recent days, I've been forced to reconsider that course of action. If the World Government had no qualms about unleashing something like that on this island for the sake of their own agenda… If we're no safer as their allies… then I'm making a decision that I should have made upon the first SBS broadcast."

The Colts Guy took a second to process what he was hearing before sucking in a breath as he snapped his eyes to the wastebasket. More specifically, to the papers burning within. "Sir…" he started uneasily. "Are those documents… what I think they are?"

Iceburg smirked slightly in response before pushing off from his desk and walking past the shipwright. "I'm heading out. While I'm gone, spread the word to the rest of the companies on the island that as of this moment, all contracts between Galley-La and the World Government have been rendered null and void, and that henceforth we will refuse service to all those affiliated with them, without exceptions. Do I make myself clear?"

The shipwright stared numbly at his boss for a second before grinning ecstatically and snapping out a salute. "Sir, yes, sir."

"That's what I like to hear."

-o-

From the moment that Cross had announced who their mystery crewmate was, the royal throne room's inhabitants had had every aspect of their attention locked onto the SBS. King Cobra, Igaram, Chaka, Pell, Kohza, and the Supersonic Duck Squadron were all at a loss to why Luffy and his crew would have allowed Crocodile's right-hand woman on the same crew as Vivi and Carue. It was only the events in the royal tomb that made Cobra restrain his comrades from calling into the SBS and demanding to know what they were thinking.

They now had the answer to that question. All of those in the room knew Cross' secret, and so they knew that he had already known all of what Nico Robin was saying at the time she joined them. Cobra eventually broke the silence with a quiet statement.

"I believe that we have no reason to hold a grudge against Nico Robin, nor to protest her stay with the Straw Hat Pirates." The king cast a firm look around the room. "Do any of you disagree?"

Everyone to a man—and duck—shook their heads solemnly.

-o-

Half of the ships that half of MI5 were half-dead trying to clean were halfway done, while the other half were halfway back into the water. Half of the soldiers had stopped their work as the half-trembling voice of one of their half-allies—oh, forget it. The entirety of MI5 was spellbound by the macabre tale being spun.

Smoker and Hina were steadily burning down their cancer sticks in grim silence, while lingering doubts in any of the minds of their gathered men withered away to nothing.

For the longest time, none of the Marines dared even moved.

Then, a blue-haired swordswoman leaped down from the scaffolding she'd been standing on and started stalking towards the coastline, steadily stripping off her uniform as she went.

"And just where do you think you're going, Officer Tashigi?" Smoker asked as he noticed.

"I'm going to swim out, find the biggest Sea King I can possibly locate, and kill it dead, sir," she replied in a tone that was all but dead, save for the frigid fury it sported.

Smoker and Hina glanced at one another in surprise before Hina slowly shifted her sunglasses onto her forehead. "And… why are you looking to do that, Lieutenant?" she asked hesitantly.

"Because I'm pissed at what I'm hearing, ma'am," Tashigi responded without pause. However, she then stopped dead a few feet later. "I'm sorry ma'am, that was a lie. That's not why I'm pissed."

An uncomfortable silence hung in the air until Smoker cleared his throat. "Care to elaborate, Lieutenant?"

Tashigi's hand slowly started to strangle Shigure's hilt. "…If I'd heard what I'm hearing now four months ago, I would have been horrified. I would have vomited, or not believed it or… or something. I… I would have felt something. But now… after all I've learned, after all I've seen… hearing this… I'm not disgusted anymore. I don't have it in me to be disgusted anymore. I can't vomit in disgust, I can't reel in horror…"

Tashigi jerked her head to the side so that she could throw a scathing glare over her shoulder. "I am apoplectic because I can't feel anything else. The World Government has successfully jaded me. Not even pirates or criminals, but the World Government, who I swore to protect and serve with my life, and that…" Tashigi snapped her gaze forward again, but it was easy to see the spots of moisture starting to appear on the sand at her feet. "That enrages me to the point where I need to physically hurt something, or else I think that I am going to literally lose my mind."

Smoker was silent for a moment before nodding his head. "Do what you feel you need to, Lieutenant."

Tashigi bared her Shigure's blade in response. "Thank you, sir." And with that, she strode into the surf and was soon out of sight.

Hina blinked after her in dumbstruck awe for a moment before coughing heavily. She then glanced to the side, where Smoker was literally fuming as he burned his cigars down to ashes. "And just why are you so furious?" she asked, before pausing and jerking her head at the Transponder Snail between them. "Besides the obvious reason, I mean."

Smoker snarled viciously as he all but chewed clean through his cigars. "She just disobeyed my orders," he ground out.

"Ah… Hina is confused. Do you mean the boat cleaning, because Hina thinks that that can be—!"

"The day she became my subordinate," Smoker interrupted with a low growl. "She did something I'd never seen anyone do before. I'd had countless Marines join my division before her, but when she joined, she was the first to stand there, wearing her uniform and carrying everything she owned in the world on her back… and greet me with a smile." The Commodore took his cigars out of his mouth and huffed out more smoke than humanly possible. "When I saw that smile… I gave her an order. One I'd hoped she would follow unto her dying days."

Hina eyed her comrade warily. "And… that order was?"

Smoker growled furiously as he ground his cigars down in the sand.

"To never let herself become like me."

-o-

The thought that she had gotten more exercise in the last three months than she had for any considerable amount of time in the decade prior to then was whispering in the corner of the old woman's mind as she purposefully strode through the halls of Marineford.

However, the vast majority of her mind was focused on pure, incensed fury, aimed at one very specific person. And as she finally broke out of her Shaving, she found herself back in the devastated remains of the Fleet Admiral's office, nobody present aside from the Fleet Admiral himself. Even Gruffy had relocated for his own good; the only other living being present was the snoozing Transponder Snail. Sengoku had ceased listening to the SBS after his call to Spandam for the sake of his blood pressure, which was reaching dangerously high levels. Of course, the same could not be said for anyone else in Marineford, which brings us to the following interrogation:

"What. Is. The meaning. Of this?" Vice Admiral Tsuru demanded coldly.

"Rest assured, I'll be on the warships once they're ready to depart," Sengoku said dismissively, not looking up from the paperwork he was filling out. "I'm just taking the time to request that the materials for rebuilding the tower are stronger. Honestly, if today is any indication—"

CRACK!

The Fleet Admiral reeled back in shock when his desk was suddenly split by a cane ramming into its top.

"I couldn't be made to give a damn about your blasted paperwork at gunpoint, Sengoku," Tsuru spat acridly. "No… what I am asking—demanding—is that you tell me why."

"What are you—!?" Sengoku started in confusion.

"The SBS, Sengoku. You should have kept listening; Nico Robin is currently in the middle of blowing the whistle on what happened 20 years ago for the entire world to hear. And though I'm seriously wondering why that subhuman degenerate Spandam hasn't been fired yet, there's one much more glaring question that I expect you to answer: why the hell has that rabid mutt you call an 'Admiral' managed to get away with exterminating an entire island's worth of civilians, as well as several dozen innocent Marines, with absolutely no blowback for the last twenty years!?" Tsuru roared. "And don't!" She snapped a finger up when Sengoku started to open his mouth. "You dare give me that tripe about 'archaeologists' on board, because we both know that that is nothing short of a load of utter bilge."

Sengoku tensed furiously as he processed her words. "What did you just say?"

Tsuru scowled viciously as she withdrew a binder from her coat and waved it at him. "Sounds familiar, doesn't it? I must say, the entire report on Operation Tabula Rasa is quite the read."

"YOU RAIDED MY PERSONAL QUARTERS!?" Sengoku roared as he shot to his feet.

"I HAD TO KNOW THE TRUTH!" Tsuru bellowed back. "The whole truth, the honest truth, not that redaction-laden mockery you had the gall to call a report! Oh, sure, for years I've accepted Buster Call reports being redacted to the point of illegibility as a matter of fact, but now I am fully aware that that was a gross mistake!" She punctuated the point by slamming the binder on the desk. "What the hell were you thinking, Sengoku!? I've always known that Akainu has been a liability on the best of days, several of our best are, but genocide?! Before today I'd never have thought there to be a grain of truth to Cross' words, but now—!"

"ENOUGH!"

Tsuru choked fearfully, shrinking back as she was simultaneously assaulted by a wave of pure presence and blinded by a blast of golden light.

"I NEVER EXPECTED SUCH INSOLENCE FROM YOU, OF ALL PEOPLE. BUT AS IT'S COME TO THIS, ALLOW ME TO MAKE OUR POSITIONS CLEAR," Sengoku steamed murderously. "OVER THE YEARS, I HAVE HAD TO MAKE COUNTLESS DECISIONS OF QUESTIONABLE MORALITY BECAUSE AS YOU HAVE SO CLEARLY FAILED TO NOTICE, I AM SINGLE-HANDEDLY LEADING THE WAR AGAINST THIS ERA OF PIRACY. NOBODY ASIDE FROM COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF KONG HAS ANY IDEA OF THE BURDEN OF THIS POSITION. NOT YOU, NOT THE REST OF THE NAVY, AND CERTAINLY NOT THAT LOWLIFE, RECKLESS, LOUD-MOUTHED PIRATE!" Sengoku stabbed his finger at the snoozing Snail on his desk.

The Fleet Admiral then leaned forward and loomed menacingly over his subordinate. "I MIGHT DESPISE HIM AND HIS METHODS, BUT THE FACT REMAINS THAT WE NEED SOLDIERS LIKE SAKAZUKI TO MAINTAIN ANY HOPE OF KEEPING THE WORLD IN BALANCE AND KEEPING THE NAVY STRONGER THAN THE EVER-INCREASING POPULATION OF PIRATES. JUSTICE CANNOT ALWAYS BE AS SIMPLE AS WE WISH IT WOULD BE; IF ONE HUNDRED MUST DIE IN ORDER TO SAVE ONE THOUSAND, THEN I WILL KILL THOSE HUNDRED MYSELF, AND I EXPECT YOU TO DO THE SAME WITHOUT HESITATION! AS YOUR SUPERIOR OFFICER, I EXPECT NOTHING LESS THAN COMPLETE COMPLIANCE AND ACCEPTANCE OF WHAT I DEEM BEST, AND YOU WILL REFRAIN FROM SHARING YOUR OPINION UNLESS I EXPRESSLY REQUEST IT! DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR, VICE ADMIRAL TSURU?"

Tsuru cowered slightly beneath her superior's wrath for another moment. Then, slowly and with defiance beginning to emanate from her entire form, she straightened, and Aokiji himself could not have had a more frigid expression or tone than she did as she replied. "Crystal, Fleet Admiral Sengoku."

With that, the Fleet Admiral reverted to his normal state, an expression more of frustration than anything else on his face as he resumed his paperwork. "Is there anything further?" he snapped dismissively.

Tsuru twitched visibly for a moment before snapping her head to the side with a snort. "Oh, simply that I'm far from the only Marine on base that's agitated from recent revelations."

Sengoku interrupted his writing by smashing his fist into his desk with a snarl. "I could not be made to care about that at the moment, Vice Admiral," he bit out with a glare.

Not one second later, the tower was shaken by a tremor.

Sengoku twitched viciously… again. "I swear that I am going to rip Garp's—!"

"Oh, that wasn't Garp," Tsuru corrected as she casually inspected her fingernails. "Unless I miss my guess? Those were the other dissenters."

That drew a look of honest surprise from the Enlightened Human. "Wha—?"

"HONORLESS BASTARD!"

"GWAH!"

CRASH!

Sengoku spun around in his seat and stared out of where the wall to his office had been in confusion as a titanic roar of outrage shook the whole of Marineford. This confusion was only compounded when he caught sight of Vice Admiral John Giant being tackled onto one of the readied warships in Marineford's bay by Vice Admiral Ronse of all people, followed by the helmeted giant proceeding to beat the daylights out of his fellow titan. And as if that weren't bad enough, the two were then followed by fifteen other Giant Marines following them, all brawling either with themselves or with a number of Vice Admirals who were trying to subdue them and all throwing the lovingly assembled warships into nothing short of utter disarray.

"What the hell is going on!?" Sengoku demanded in shock.

"In case you were unaware," Tsuru drawled as she continued to inspect her nails. "Ex-Vice Admiral Jaguar D. Saul was particularly popular with his fellow giants, and those that were once pirates were already agitated from learning what we told their old allies Oimo and Kashi. They might have managed to hold their tongues… had John Giant not decided to share his opinion on how Saul earned his fate due to being a traitor. That got him placed on a rather short list."

She gave Sengoku a chilling look. "Put simply, they've formed a lynch mob. They want John Giant dead for his disrespect, they want Aokiji dead for freezing Saul, they want Akainu dead for bombarding him, they want you dead for being in charge… basically, they want blood."

"You have got to be kidding me…" Sengoku moaned as dragged a hand down his face.

"Hardly. And for the record, this—" She jerked her head at the brawl in the bay. "Is only the tip of the iceberg. All of the giants stationed on Marineford are either in the throes of mutiny or trying to suppress it, though the latter are, quite frankly, in the vast minority. Honestly, it's hard to say what has them more infuriated, that we killed Saul or that we've been hunting his ward, Nico Robin, for the past twenty years. In case you've forgotten, even those giants who weren't born and raised on Elbaf are rather big on honor." Her tone could not have been drier if Crocodile was holding her vocal cords.

Sengoku was twitching enough that he may as well have been having a seizure. Tsuru waited for a moment more before speaking again, albeit grudgingly. "Your orders, sir?"

The Fleet Admiral glanced at her for a moment before turning a murderous glare on the brawl below. "Inform Admiral Aokiji that he will not be joining us at Enies. Rather, he will be occupied with suppressing this mutiny, effective immediately."

Tsuru cocked an eyebrow in a decidedly unimpressed manner. "So, basically, your solution to solving a problem that began with a frozen giant… is with more frozen giants. Yes, because that will go over splendidly."

Sengoku shot an unreadable look at his subordinate. "You have your orders, Vice Admiral."

Tsuru scowled as she snapped him a supremely stiff salute. "At once, Fleet Admiral."

And with that, Tsuru spun on her heel and marched out of the office, slamming what little of the door was left behind her.

Unnoticed by either of the Marines, one of the last surviving pictures on the office's wall was jarred loose by the impact and smashed to the ground.

The picture held within depicted a trio of young Marines—actually, not even proper Marines, but graduates—celebrating and smiling joyously as they toasted their mugs with one another.

A crack ran through the glass of the frame, cleanly separating the female of the trio from the afro-touting friend whose shoulders she'd slung her arm around.

-o-

"…Do you understand now?" Robin pleaded desperately as she finished. "If you use a Buster Call, everything on this island will be destroyed…" She stared down at us tearfully. "Including all of you."

Her words were addressed as much to Spandam and CP9 as they were to us. Going by the despair in her voice, it was clear that she was pleading for us to run. She was begging for us to leave her to the wolves and save ourselves so that we wouldn't die in vain trying to save it. So that she wouldn't have to see us die.

I ground my teeth furiously in an effort to keep silent, an entirely new kind of fire raging within my gut.

We, however, officially did not give a damn.

To read about it and even see the cataclysm Robin had depicted was one thing, but to hear it… to hear the suffering and sorrow in the voice of one of my closest friends, of one of the strongest women I knew… to hear her tell of the death of an island, of a way of life…

We officially could not walk away from this fight even if we'd wanted to with every fiber of our bodies, hearts, and souls.

And I sure as hell wasn't the only one feeling this way either.

"That son of a bitch…" Soundbite breathed numbly.

"There is no hell deep enough or vile enough in existence…" Lassoo growled through raised hackles.

"An entire… island…" Conis whispered to herself, her expression positively thunderous. "In an instant…"

"I was sorely mistaken," Boss grimaced ferociously as he ashed his cigar. "She doesn't owe me a damn thing. She hasn't owed anyone anything for a long time."

Vivi's face was emotionless as she stared up at the Tower, but the blood dripping from where she was gripping the chains of her weapons said all that needed to be said. "So… this is the legacy my ancestors created…" she whispered to herself before scowling in disgust. "This is the legacy of the world…"

"That's nonsense!" Spandam proclaimed. "There's no way that the Marines would kill their own men, we wouldn't take casualties from our allies!"

"Uh…" Su cocked her head to the side uneasily. "Wasn't he about to—?"

"His father," I growled venomously. "Was the one who called down that damn attack in the first place. Suffice to say that his perspective is somewhat compromised."

Su shivered heavily as she realized that, for the second time in her life, she was in the presence of a madman with the ability and desire to kill us all at the drop of a hat. "Noted."

Meanwhile, Robin continued on, obviously not caring about or even hearing what Spandam was saying. "Do you understand my fear now?" she pleaded desperately. "Do you understand why I'm still trying to save you? The World Government is an absolute force of authority and destruction. No matter how strong you all may be, you can't fight against the world and all of its darkness. If it goes on like this, someday…" She shook her head miserably. "Someday… Someday they will overwhelm you! Someday, they'll crush you, and you'll all die for my sake! And the idea of that happening, of the ones I've been searching for all of my life wasting their lives for my sake, nothing terrifies me more! So if I am destined to die anyway, then at least let me die here of my own volition, so that you all may live!"

Robin's words hit us like an iron rod, briefly managing to quell our rage.

"Robin…" Nami softly breathed.

Vivi shook her head with a grimace. "Damn it, she's making it so hard to stay mad at her…"

"She's been cawwying this fow how wong?" Carue whispered.

"Too long, my friend…" Boss grimly answered. "Too long by half."

Of course, just as soon as our rage was dampened down…

"WAHAHAHAHA! YES, YES THAT MAKES PERFECT SENSE!"

It was just as suddenly restoked to unparalleled levels.

"I'm going to eat him," Lassoo stated in an unnaturally steady voice. "I have never once in my existence eaten human flesh, but thankfully I'm certain that he doesn't even remotely count."

"GET IN LINE," Soundbite rumbled with honest-to-goodness murder in his voice.

"What a sorry case," Spandam gloated in Robin's face, even though she didn't so much as acknowledge him. "Even if you make friends, all you can do is drag them through the muck with you. WAHAHAHAHAHAHA! IT'S SO PERFECT!"

"Permission to shoot him?" Usopp and Conis snarled in unison as they grabbed their weapons.

"Give him a second…" I warned them as I raised my hand placatingly, only barely managing to suppress the murder in my own voice.

"But—!" Conis began to protest before Luffy silenced any objections.

"Do what Cross says, you guys," our captain stated in probably the calmest voice I'd ever heard from him. It was actually kind of scary.

"BEHOLD, YOU SCUM OF THE SEAS!" Spandam cackled as he jabbed his finger upwards, drawing our attention to an object whose form was very well known in both this world and mine, though for extremely different reasons. "THAT FLAG BEARS THE EMBLEM OF THE WORLD GOVERNMENT! IT SIGNIFIES THE UNITED STRENGTH OF OVER 170 NATIONS ACROSS THE WORLD! ACROSS THE FOUR SEAS AND THE GRAND LINE, THAT SYMBOL REPRESENTS THE WORLD ITSELF!"

Spandam flung his arm out. "DO YOU REALIZE NOW THE SCALE YOU'RE FIGHTING ON! DO YOU REALIZE HOW PATHETIC YOUR EXISTENCE IS!? THE POWER OF THIS WOMAN'S ENEMY!?"

Silence reigned supreme as every last one of us observed the flag, as we took in its form and everything that it implied.

Until finally…

"Yeah," Luffy nodded solemnly. "I understand exactly who Robin's enemy is."

Luffy then lowered his head and glanced to his left… and then to his right.

"Everyone."

I felt an unparalleled thrill run through me as I snapped an ecstatic grin to Luffy. "Yes, Captain?" I whispered reverently. Was he going to do it? Did he actually mean what I think he meant!?

Luffy looked back up at the flag without a trace of emotion.

"Shoot down that flag."

HALLELUJAH.

"HELL YES!" I cackled ecstatically as I grabbed Lassoo and took a knee, aiming him straight at the symbol of our enemy. "CANI-BLAST!"

"YES, SIR!" Lassoo barked with a salute before going full-gun and clicking loudly.

"This is gonna be E~PI~C!" Soundbite sang rapturously.

"Burn Bazooka," Conis announced frigidly, swinging her own cannon off her back and aiming it upwards.

"Give 'em hell, girlfriend!" Su yelped as she glared up at the tower from Conis' shoulders.

"I've stood on the sidelines until now. Never again!" Nami snarled as she spun her Clima-Tact at her side, coalescing her clouds into a writhing, lightning-drowned tail. "Lightning Bolt Tempo!"

"Three Sword Style," Zoro intoned around Wado Ichimonji as he tied his bandanna around his head before drawing his secondary and tertiary blades and drawing them back into position. "108 Caliber Phoenix!"

"Behold the awesome power of the giant slingshot Kabuto!" Usopp bellowed confidently as he drew said slingshot's pouch back. "Special Attack: Firebird Star!"

"My first use of this technique, and it couldn't be a more momentous occasion," Sanji snarled as he hefted his leg up and drew it back. "You'll pay a thousand years of hell for every hair you hurt on dear Robin-chwan's head! The first course in your punishment, a rehash of your Tempest Kick! APÉRITIF!"

"A moment such as this," Chopper rumbled as he withdrew a single vial of very mobile and highly volatile-looking liquid from his backpack. "Deserves something special for it! TREMBLE BEFORE THE MIGHT OF MY LATEST CREATION! CHERRY BLOSSOM BLAST BLIZZARD!"

"Uh…?" Vivi glanced at her Cutters hesitantly for a moment before shooting a hopeful look at Carue. "Any ideas?"

"Ah… 'Go team'?" Carue answered, half-heartedly pumping a wing.

"Damn. Well, at least you know how I feel, right, Boss?"

"Half-Shell Style," Boss intoned as he slammed his rope-dart into the roof and withdrew it with a goodly chunk of stone attached to the end, which he then began spinning into a blur. "Flying Fish Fastball Special!"

"OH, COME ON!"

Spandam blinked incoherently for a moment before his jaw dropped and every drop of blood escaped his face. "Wait… what are you—! No… nonononononoNO, DON'T EVEN—!"

Too late.

There was no signal, no words, nothing. None were needed. As one we moved.

"ROCK BOTTOM BLAZE OF GLORY!"

And as one, we unloaded our attacks on the symbol of Robin's enemy. The symbol of our enemy.

On that day, we the Straw Hat Pirates did not burn the flag of the World Government.

Rather… we disintegrated it, completely and utterly.

-o-

Never before had the sum volume in the Revolutionaries' Central Command in Baltigo risen above a few scarce decibels at a time.

Then again… never before had someone stuck it to the World Government in such an utterly glorious manner that had Dragon out and out cackling.

"SHISHISHISHISHI!" Monkey D. Dragon led his comrades in revolution in cheering. "EXCELLENT, LUFFY! SHOW THE WORLD YOUR WILL! SHOW THE WORLD YOUR DETERMINATION! PROVE YOUR AUTONOMY! SHISHISHISHI!"

"THAT'S MY BROTHER, DAMN IT!" Chief of Staff Sabo whooped from atop the table he was perched on as he jabbed his finger at the only active Snail in the room. "THAT'S MY CRAZIER-THAN-HELL BABY BROTHER! GIVE 'EM HELL, LUFFY! GIVE 'EM HELL!"

"CHEERS FOR THE MOST EARTHSHAKING CREW SINCE ROGER!" Koala laughed as she toasted a bottle of liquor she'd pulled from somewhere. "TO MONKEY D. LUFFY! TO JEREMIAH CROSS, BASTARD THAT HE IS! TO NICO ROBIN! TO THE STRAW HAT PIRATES!"

"KANPAI!" the facility bellowed as one.

-o-

In complete and utter contrast, the throne room of Amazon Lily was silent as the grave, the jaws of almost every last person in the room touching the floor.

"Did… Did that just happen?" Marigold whispered in complete and utter disbelief.

"He… but they… how… wha…?" Sandersonia stammered, her brain misfiring furiously.

Through it all, Boa Hancock's newly acquired apprentice looked around in confusion. "Ah… Elder Nyon?" Marguerite leaned down to whisper to the old woman. "I take it that what we just heard was… significant?"

Elder Nyon swallowed heavily before shooting a wide-eyed look at the young woman. "Try…" she croaked. "Utterly… unprecedented. Nobody in recorded history has dared commit the act that these pirates just did. Only one thing's for certain now—!"

"Snrkt!"

The elder was cut off by a loud snort rippling through the throne room, causing everyone to look around in confusion for the source.

"Snrkght!"

At least, until a second snort rang out, confirming the source to be the world-renowned Pirate Empress herself, who was doubled over and shaking in the coils of her very confused partner.

The room's occupants exchanged uneasy glances until Nyon jerked her head at the Empress, prompting the other two Gorgons in the room to speak up.

"Ah… sister?" Marigold started warily.

"Are…" Sandersonia slowly inched forward. "Are you… alright?"

"SNAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The room froze once anew, only this time it was on account of Boa Hancock flinging her head back and shrieking with laughter, laughing and laughing harder and louder than any on Amazon Lily had ever heard her laugh before.

Hell, it was the first time half the room's occupants had ever heard her laugh, full stop.

After about a minute of the laughing, Nyon managed to gather the wits she needed to swallow heavily. "Only one thing's for certain now," she repeated in a numb whisper. "Nothing will ever be the same…"

If anything, those words only made Hancock howl louder.

-o-

In twin flashes of underdeveloped-but-still-passable Shave, Master Chief Petty Officer Coby and Chief Petty Officer Helmeppo appeared in the ruins of Fleet Admiral Sengoku's office, standing at attention.

"Fleet Admiral Sengoku, sir!" Coby led Helmeppo in snapping up salutes. "We are here to inform you that the vanguard is ready to move out! They only await… your… presence…" Coby wound down uncomfortably, the steam leaving him as he processed the scene before him.

Specifically, Fleet Admiral Sengoku staring at the Transponder Snail on his desk with rapidly mounting fury.

"Oh, what the hell did those idiots do now!?" Helmeppo whimpered miserably.

"I don't know, but we need to—!" Coby started to order.

He was too late, however, as Sengoku erupted in a blaze of golden fury a second later.

"I'M GOING TO CRUSH THEM LIKE—grk!"

Without warning, the blaze ended as abruptly as it started, leaving Sengoku standing in his normal form with a pained expression on his face, and a hand clamped over his chest.

A second later, he collapsed to the floor without so much as a sound.

The two low-rank rookies gaped at his prone body in shock.

"Did… Did that just happen?" Coby whispered incredulously.

His words snapped sense back into Helmeppo, prompting him to dash out of the office, bellowing at the top of his lungs. "MEDIC!"

-o-

"That…" I breathed euphorically as I stood back up and settled Lassoo in his harness so that he could rest. "Was even better… than I could have ever. Possibly. Imagined."

"Daaaamn skippy…" Soundbite breathed in awe.

"You… You… YOU'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!" Spandam roared incredulously. "YOU CAN'T SERIOUSLY CHALLENGE THE ENTIRE WORLD AND EXPECT TO WIN!"

"YEAH?! BRING IT OOOOOOON!" Luffy bellowed back, causing Spandam to recoil with a scream of fear. He then went on to glare at Robin herself, looking her dead in the eye. "ROOOBIIIN! I STILL HAVEN'T HEARD YOU SAY IT YET!" He clenched his eyes shut as he roared. "TELL ME THAT YOU WANT TO LIVE!"

That snapped me back to the present, and I promptly snapped in Soundbite's face before pointing at our shellshocked crewmate. "Come on, Robin, come on!" I whispered desperately into her ears, pumping as much emotion into my voice as I could. "You just saw it, didn't you? You just saw the beast bleed! I know it's huge and I know that it's scary…" I shook my head desperately as I flung my arm out. "But damn it, if it bleeds, then we can kill it! Together!"

"JUST DON'T BE AN IDIOT, DAMN IT!"

I snapped my eyes to my shoulder in shock. "Soundbite?"

The baby snail was panting heavily as it grit its teeth. "That is not dead which can eternal lie," he recited fervently. "And with strange aeons even death may die! Lovecraft, Robin! YOU KNOW THIS! IT TAKES TIME, longer than any of our lifetimes, BUT THE FACT IS THAT THE WHEEL WILL ALWAYS TURN! NOTHING IS FOREVER! They are not forever! You know this to be a fact, more so than anyone! You have to fight, damn it! FIGHT!"

Slowly but surely, Robin's tears fell. She bit her lip as she sobbed, as her emotions raged within her…

And then suddenly, out of the blue, a staticky sound filled the air. I snapped a look at Soundbite, and only the glazed, unfocused look in his eyes and vacant expression made me refrain from glaring at him. Still, I opened my mouth to ask what was going on—

"The sea's a vast place."

When my blood suddenly froze in my veins. I didn't even have to strain my ears to hear Robin's gasp, to hear everyone start in shock, and the voice that suddenly filled the air.

"The sea's a vast place," the voice repeated, rumbling with utterly impossible emotions. "So I guarantee… someday you'll find friends who won't ever leave you. No matter who you are, ain't no one born into this world to be alone!"

"Impossible…" I breathed in awe. "Even by the standards of this world… that's…"

"Your friends are right here waiting for you, Robin. All you gotta do is get back to them! Share your life with them… and never let them go!"

The very second the last word shook the world, Soundbite slumped forwards, wheezing in exhaustion. "SO LOUD… SO STRONG… What kind… of voice… was that?" he groaned.

Robin was frozen in shock, tears flowing freely from her eyes, still locked onto Soundbite. And credit to my captain, he knew an opportunity when it smacked him in the face.

"ROBIN!" Luffy roared again. "SAY YOU WANT TO LIVE!"

And just like that, at long last, the dam broke and Robin broke down with it into full-on joyful sobbing. It was messy, loud, and ugly…

…and it was also absolutely beautiful in its complete and undeniable sincerity.

"YES!" she screamed back. "I WANT TO LIVE!"

I shot my fists into the air and roared joyously in response, a sentiment that every last one of my crewmates echoed in some way or another.

"TAKE ME WITH YOU!" Robin jerked forwards, her voice hoarse as she screamed at the top of her lungs. "TAKE ME AWAY FROM HERE!"

"YOU MORONS JUST LOST!" I cackled triumphantly as I jabbed my finger at the Cipher Pol, and the World Government as a whole.

As if in response to it all, the massive drawbridge below us suddenly roared to life and started lowering, spanning the last possible barrier between her and us.

"THAT'S MY BOYS!" Boss cackled as he pumped his fists in the air.

"BWAAAAAH!" Franky sobbed messily, his expression way less appealing than Robin's. "YOU CRAZY GUYS! I LOVE YOU ALL SO DAMN MU-U-UCH!"

"Finally!" Nami nodded firmly with an impatient grin.

"Hang tight, Robin," Vivi whispered. "We're coming,"

"We're coming for her and for you, you son of a bitch!" Su called up as she jabbed her paw at Spandam.

Spandam, of course, shrieked and reeled back in response. "DON'T COME OVER HEEERE!"

Unfortunately, the universe chose that exact moment to actually listen to the bastard, as at that moment, twin explosions struck the sides of the drawbridge and caused it to freeze at an elevated angle halfway down.

Boss froze in his pose, twitching incredulously for a moment before proceeding to shake his fists at the Courthouse's towers. "YOU INCOMPETENT BRATS! YOU HAD ONE JOB TO DO, DAMN IT! ONE! YOU BETTER PRAY THE MARINES KILL YOU FIRST, OR ELSE I'LL DAMN WELL MAKE YOU WISH THEY DID!"

I winced sympathetically at my crewmates' plight before chuckling grimly as I crossed my arms behind my head. "Well, that route's blown. Guess we're doing this the hard way!"

That got everyone leaning forwards for a chance to stare at me in confusion. "The hard way!?" they chorused incredulously.

My grin was Luffy-worthy as I raised my voice. "Ooooh, yeah."

WOOOOOOT!

"The hard way."

Soundbite became snow-white as he slowly rotated his eyestalks downward. "Oh… hell no." Going by how Lassoo was suddenly scrambling on my back, he'd gotten the idea too.

"Puru puru puru—GAGAGA!" Pinkie cackled in Kokoro's voice as I dug him out of my jacket. "HOPE YOU KIDS ARE READY FOR THE RIDE OF YOUR LIVES! THIS IS THE FINAL VOYAGE OF THE ROCKET MAN, ELDEST CHILD OF TOM'S WORKERS, AND I INTEND TO MAKE IT A GOOD ONE! NAGAGAGA!"

"Ooooh, no…" the smarter members of our crew all whispered in horrified realization.

"He's not serious…" Su shrank back in naked terror. "Someone tell me that he's not serious!"

"Even by my standards, this is totally insane!" Boss shook his head in frantic denial.

"HAHAHAHA!" Franky bellowed as he stamped his feet ecstatically. "HERE THEY COME, SPANDA! THEY'RE COMING, AND YOU CAN'T STOP THEM!"

Spandam froze mid-panic, and snapped a look filled with a whole cornucopia of emotions at the cyborg.

Franky, of course, noticed said look and leered malevolently in his tormentor's face. "What're you gonna do, huh? Hit me?" He jutted his chin out temptingly. "Please, do it, I'm begging you. Give me another reason to laugh in your ugly panda face."

That might have been a bit too far.

You know those stories about adrenaline letting people lift cars?

Well, in this case, it let a Spandam lift a cyborg and fling him into the void.

"He's got the right idea!" I crowed as I pointed at Franky's falling form before sticking my arm out towards Luffy. "Come on, Captain! Let's do it!"

"RIGHT!" Luffy yelled as he snapped his arms out, catching the rest of our very unwilling crewmates in his grasp. His left tangled itself around Boss, who wasn't able to free himself no matter how hard he struggled, while I caught his right and firmly wound it around my own arm.

"Alright…" I grinned as I stared into the void. "In the words of the great Will Turner! 'Over the edge'!"

"NonononoNO!" Soundbite shrieked desperately.

"LET'S GO!" Luffy laughed as he jumped into the abyss.

"'OVER AGAIN'!" I roared back as I jumped along with him, helping him drag our crewmates with us.

"AAAAAAAGH!" Soundbite shrieked around the mouthful of my jacket he'd bitten into.

"YOU TWO ARE DEAD IF WE LIVE THROUGH THIS, YOU HEAR ME!?" Su screamed as she clutched Conis' jacket. "DEAD!"

"GET IN WINE!" Carue squawked, hanging onto Luffy's arm for dear life.

The fall lasted for an eternity...

WOOOOOOOT!

And ended in an instant as the Rocket Man met us halfway, whiplashing us into its body and carrying us over the void.

As we flew towards the gates of the Tower of Justice, I could think of only one appropriate response.

"PFFFHAHAHAHAAAAA!" I laughed at the top of my lungs. "READY OR NOT! HERE! WE! COME!"

An instant later, I received a slight damper to my joy in the form of us hitting a yard-thick wall of stone head-on at what felt like a million miles an hour.

Still… in the long-run?

Totally worth it.

Xomniac AN: …a year. Not exact, no, but… twelve months is twelve months. A full. Damn. Year.

One year since CV and I started this story. One year since Cross woke up on his little island in the middle of nowhere. One year since we started a story that should, by all rights, have died in its cradle…

And look where we are now. Just… look.

There are just… no words.

It's been a long road… it's been worth it…

And you better damn well believe that it's nowhere near finished.

Patient AN: And half a year since I was invited to take part in this masterpiece. It's an honor to be a part of something like this.

Hornet AN: Sadly, since these assholes already took all the good news, I have to deliver the bad. Namely, that while we will strive to maintain our once-every-two-weeks update schedule, do not expect a consistent time/day of updates, and don't be surprised if a chapter takes longer. TPO and Xom are back in school, and I'm now working a full-time job. As much as we'd like otherwise, real-life shit takes precedence.

Oh, and another reason: five days until the NFL season starts! Woo