Fated One, Settling, and Wedding

_________ POV Narration_________

The rest of the Emperor's journey was quite uneventful, ending in less than two weeks.

Unfortunately, Enel didn't return to the Sky Archipelago to receive good news, despite the upward trend that had been going on recently.

He came home to news of Kaido not only being alive, but stronger than ever before.

Shanks was the first to notice Kaido's return.

He had gone ahead and visited Wano in order to check on the situation there, and possibly collect the Road Poneglyph in said country.

To his surprise, while he was searching for said Poneglyph and sharing food with the locals, Kaido stumbled upon them.

The Emperor seemed to strike fear into the hearts of everyone present. He reportedly let off such an oppressive atmosphere that the birds in the sky fell to the ground, and those that were weak of heart fainted.

Shanks claimed that such a thing was happening despite Kaido not using Conquror's Haki.

The Red-Haired Pirates and Kaido didn't clash, as the King of Beasts still considered Shanks an ally, but his return and strength were both concerning...

For one, his survival despite Francisco and Whitebeard's account of him being sunken to the depths of the sea and severely injured was a clear sign that fate still had plans for him.

And those plans, at least for Enel, were predictable.

'Is it truly his fate to awaken Nika?! Is it truly unavoidable?'

On one hand, the Sky King was somewhat glad that he no longer had to plan out Nika's awakening by himself, a plan which would've involved a temporary falling out with Luffy and his crew.

But on the other, Enel didn't know if Luffy was truly equipped to handle a powered-up Kaido...

The true answer was no. Luffy hadn't even been equipped to fight Kaido originally, he had essentially lost three times and died once.

Sure, Luffy's awakening process was exactly the same as Enel's, but the Sky King didn't know if Luffy was even prepared to awaken without his first two failures against Kaido, coupled with his training throughout that arc...

He didn't even know if there were any special requirements for Luffy's awakening that were simply never mentioned in the original story.

He had no assurance of what would happen in the future, but that had been the case for a long time.

'It's better if I linger around Wano for a bit, at least try to track the Straw hats and their steps, make sure they're prepared to face off against Kaido...'

It was the most logical solution anyway. Enel had no way of knowing what fate actually had planned out for him, but he knew that he'd at least need Nika to win against IMU.

The 5 Elders, the God's Knights, Kong and Aramaki as well as any other powers they managed to mobilize were going to be dealt with by the Emperor's army, but IMU was far too strong.

Enel needed total assurance that they'd be able to win.

The fact that he was already told his fate was to 'die' was concerning enough, though he was trying to not put too much thought into it.

'Hah... At least I was planning to go to Wano at some point anyway...'

The Emperor ended up just shaking his head and continuing with his current task.

He handled the residence of the Automata over the next few days.

Surprisingly, no one was upset with him bringing in a whole new race of people this time around. This was mainly because they were essentially androids that didn't need any resources besides the occasional lightning strike.

Shiki didn't need a long time to find a spot among the islands for them either.

The Golden Lion and the Sky King worked together to quickly build a small replica of the Moon's Birka, at least mechanically.

The homes were going to be built by the automata themselves, and Shiki also came up with the idea of delegating a lot of the farming tasks to the Automata, which they happily accepted.

They were apparently not used to farming and were extremely happy to learn how to do new things.

The pirates under Shiki got to work teaching them and also brought along plenty of tools.

Enel also asked Gan Fall to look into some mechanics to help with the maintenance of the Automata, as well as helping with a few extra additions to their firepower.

The old God of Skypea still had plenty of capable people in his employ, so he just nodded and got to work, also requesting the help of the revolutionaries, and surprisingly, even Kuma.

Apparently, the former Warlord had been very attentive during Vega Punk's research and knew how to make quite a few weapons from the arsenal of the original Pacifistas.

Meanwhile, Larthy and her team were looking over Enel's discoveries regarding the Moon People and their connection with the Lunarians.

Enel had also finally gotten to see the Cube that acted as Xebec's vault. Brought over into the laboratory of the Revolutionaries by Shiki.

Larthy was currently overseeing the project personally, trying to understand more about what exactly the cube was made out of, and what it's original purpose was.

It wasn't that hard to link it to the Moon People, as the inscriptions within the cube were very much similar to some of the writings Enel had brought her.

In the end, it all seemed connected, which greatly pleased the Research Team Leader of the Revolutionaries.

So that was going well at least.

And when the Emperor finally settled in his bed and decided to get a good whole day of rest... *BOOM*

"Wake up you brat! Dragon's got news for you!"

Garp kicked down his door and proceeded to drag him to Dragon's office while half asleep.

"What the hell is it?" The Emperor yawned as he rubbed his eyelids with a wide yawn.

"Dunno, they never told me. I also don't care, I have people to train!" Garp laughed as he let go of Enel and the two of them started walking side by side.

"Train? What the hell do you mean 'train'? Didn't you just make them punch shit while bound in seastone?" Enel scowled as he still clearly remembered Garp's version of the training.

He wasn't dissing the method itself, but the notion of Garp actually being occupied because of it was simply mind-boggling to the Emperor.

"Bah! What do you know?! I am a busy man!" Garp didn't hit Enel like he usually did, he just scoffed and crossed his arms as they walked side by side.

At some point, Garp stopped hitting Enel.

Maybe it was his way of showing respect to the Emperor. Or maybe it was him finally acknowledging that Enel was essentially his Captain.

Regardless, Enel appreciated the lack of physical violence, although he was a bit confused at first.

To him, punching things was just the way Garp expressed himself.

But he was one day able to notice the respect within Garp's gaze, and he realized the reason for the lack of punching.

Well, the Old Marine Hero was still punching... A lot.

But he was directing his punches towards Koby and Helmeppo mostly.

Enel was pleased to hear that he was now back to teaching his pupils, it was very clear that Garp cared about the both of them quite a bit.

The old Marine even started telling Enel stories about his pupils during their walk, he spoke about how their training was progressing, how Koby especially was shaping up to become a future pillar of the Marines.

It was great to see Garp so passionate about something. Maybe he was compensating with Koby, treating him like he would a grandson, as both of his had chosen to go in completely different paths in life.

'Well... Maybe the Monkey family will be fully reunited after the war, and maybe even before it... I'll make sure to have a proper distinction between Pirates and Adventurers.'

The two of them talked and talked all the way down to Dragon's office. The doors swung open to reveal... A tired and frustrated leader of the revolutionaries.

Enel blinked a few times as he felt the tiredness radiating off of Dragon.

"Man, you should really get some sleep..." The Emperor rubbed the bridge of his nose as he realised he had it quite good.

At the very least he wasn't dealing with administrative issues and paperwork like Dragon was.

"Sleep... Oh yeah." Dragon was almost drooling at that point. But he seemed to regain his wits for a few seconds, shaking his head like a dog coming out of a pool of water.

"Enel! I figured I should inform you of this, but apparently, Big Mom is making a move. Likely looking for allies.

She's gone ahead and sought out an arranged marriage with the Vinsmoke Family. More specifically, Vinsmoke Sanji, one of Luffy's crewmates..."

Enel blinked a few times again before his eyes turned to the ceiling and he just sighed.

'Of course... I guess Sanji is somehow also still fated to get married into Linlin's family... Well, unsuccessfully married anyway...'

"Any chance we know who her actual aim is with his political marriage? The Vinsmokes aren't that significant of a force for her to go out of her way like this..."

"Well, besides allying with the Vinsmoke family... We also have reasons to believe she's trying to recruit Luffy..." Dragon scratched his chin as his tired eyes landed on one of the reports on his table.

"Recruit him? I guess she was looking to increase her forces, most likely for the war..." Enel crossed his arms, the situation finally becoming clearer in his mind.

In the original story, Big Mom had planned to screw over both the Vinsmokes and Sanji. She hated the Strawhat Cook because Luffy was disrespectful to her.

But in this case, it was sounding more and more like Big Mom was playing the matchmaker to increase her forces. She did have a lot of children to marry off after all...

"That's the most believable theory, yes. From what my men have reported, the Straw Hats are already on their way to EggHead Island."

Dragon slowly handed over one of the reports to Enel, and the Emperor looked over it as well before nodding.

It stated that the Straw Hats had already departed from Dressrosa, and were headed for Whole Cake Island as the next stop on their journey.

"Ok, it's good that you're keeping an eye on them... When exactly is the Wedding Reception and the Tea Party?"

Enel handed back the report as he spoke out.

In the background, Garp was seemingly extremely bored, a bubble of snot coming out of his nose as he pretended to sleep and not care about news regarding his grandson.

But Enel knew that he cared. He cared a lot actually.

"The Tea Part and wedding are in three days... She already sent invitations to quite a lot of people in the underworld... You didn't receive one yet." Dragon narrowed his eyes as he spoke that last part.

It was already suspicious that Big Mom had allied herself with Kaido and Shanks(tho Shanks was a spy).

At this point, it was safe to assume that Linlin didn't see Enel as an outright ally.

"I'll go anyway, I need to have a talk with her. I'll also have good reason to visit Oven, and see how that guy's doing..."

"Good. I doubt you'll have much problems getting in. It's also safe to assume Kaido isn't interested in attending, so you won't be clashing with him there at least..."

Dragon slowly rearranged the files on his desk before stacking them into a nice tower and pushing them to the side.

"So, what's the plan for now, Enel?" Dragon asked as he rested his head on his palms.

"Well, for now, I'm going back to sleep... But I'll leave for Big Mom's Tea Party as soon as it starts." Enel nodded and turned to Garp, whose snoot bubble had already popped.

He looked in between Enel and Dragon before yawning and opening his mouth.

"Damn, that was a boring conversation... Enel wanna spar?!"

Enel blinked a few times before narrowing his eyes.

"I would love to... But I don't think I can spar with someone properly anymore. I don't want to accidentally hurt you. Awakening has made me a lot stronger."

The Emperor did like the idea of sparring with Garp, but at the same time, he knew that he'd have to go all out if he wanted to actually stand a chance.

And if he went all out, it would immediately turn into a fight to the death, as his devil fruit powers were now more overwhelming and deadly than ever.

That was the case even if he didn't use his awakened state.

Garp scoffed at the Emperor's refusal, but he didn't refute it.

He knew how destructive Enel's devil fruit was even before awakening, so he could assume that it was not much stronger, especially since it was a God Fruit.

"Fine then, I'll just blow off some steam by fighting Dragon instead!" Garp cracked his knuckles as his son's spine trembled.

Immediately, all of the tiredness in Dragon's eyes disappeared, replaced by fear.

Enel simply left the office, nodding towards the two of them and internally wishing Dragon good luck and a healthy recovery...

'Better get some rest now... I've never crashed a wedding in the past, I hope I'm at least well received in this one...'

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Hope you liked the chapter! Guess who's sick now?!? Yepp, that's right, ya boy's got a bad case of cold.

I always catch a cold around this time of the year, I hoped to avoid it this year though... Anyway, I'll go to sleep now, need the rest

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