Time Heals All Wounds

_________ POV Narration_________

Enel sighed as he stood at the very front of a small aluminium flying boat, by his side stood Bonney, and they were speeding towards the island flying towards the Archipelago on the horizon.

'Bonney got impatient, I guess she cares about her Kuma a lot... Family will remain family, I guess.'

Enel looked at the anxious Bonney with a sideways glance, as his earlobes and short golden hair were swept backwards due to the wind.

He was still wearing his training clothes, as Bonney had pulled him directly from there.

Wyper was a bit upset, but he shut up immediately when noticing just how anxious Bonney looked, she was basically trembling with anticipation... Or was it fear?

The entire time, she had been the only one still stressed out about the outcome of the mission. Especially since she didn't place much trust in Shiki's cognitive abilities.

Alas, Enel was a lot calmer, as he knew that Shiki, even half-senile, was still one of the strongest pirates alive, and one of the strongest swordsmen as well.

"C-can you sense them already?" Bonney asked as she looked at Enel with hopeful eyes.

Enel sighed and closed his eyes.

His observation haki spread out alongside electromagnetic waves, bending around everything within Enel's radius and ignoring every wall or structure.

Enel then opened his eyes and smiled.

"They are on the island... Along with a lot of slaves, and Kuma..." Enel choose not to comment on Kuma's state, as he watched Bonney clenching her fists and smiling brightly.

"Hurry up then! Can this thing go any faster?!?" Bonney immediately patted the emperor on the back, trying to urge him to speed up his vessel somehow.

"We are already going at max speed for this ship... I've yet to find a way to increase the speed without completely melting the engine and ship and falling from the sky." Enel said as he tapped his cane on the deck of the small ship.

He had built the engines in a hurry, but even then they were still powerful enough to fly the ship at speeds far greater than regular ships on the sea or blimps.

Maybe in the future, with enough experimentation, his engines would improve. But Enel had also allocated a lot more time to training his Haki lately.

"Tsk! Can you fly there faster with your Devil Fruit?!" Bonney was still dissatisfied, however, which made Enel scowl a bit.

"I can travel there instantly, but I can't bring you with me while I turn into lightning or electromagnetic waves."

Bonney simply rolled her eyes, hearing nothing but excuses.

Enel didn't blame her for her impatience, it was after all someone she had longed to meet for a rather long time.

Their conversation somewhat died down, as it took them a few minutes to reach the flying island, thanks to it also heading their way at a steady pace.

Shiki and Francisco came out to greet them. Surprisingly, both of them were bandaged up a bit and looked rather bored.

Bonney immediately jumped from Enel's ship and onto the island looking at the two old pirates with great hope in her eyes.

Enel appeared by her side the next instant, wearing a gauntlet made from the ship he had built in a hurry.

"Captain! Mission was a success!" Francisco waved at the two of them, and Enel immediately noticed that the blunt cutlass his first mate carried around had completely vanished.

"I guess not all without a hitch, huh?" Enel studied the injuries of the two old men. Francisco seemed to have been banged up quite a bit, while Shiki only had a few cuts here and there, covered in light bandages.

"Could've gone a lot worse, I think we got away from there in the nick of time honestly." Shiki shrugged a bit, and Bonney to the side finally made her presence known by coughing a few times.

"My nephew?! Is he safe?" She immediately inquired about the health of her family.

Francisco sweated a bit when seeing how eager the glutinous pirate was to learn about the rescue target.

"He's safe, per se. But he doesn't seem to be in a good state of mind." Francisco then gestured for Enel and Bonney to follow him and started walking into the large mansion on the island that Shiki was controlling.

Inside, about a hundred slaves looked at Francisco and Shiki with awe in their eyes. It was clear that the two old pirates had won the admiration of all of the slaves in their rescue efforts.

But the former slaves also seemed quite wary about the newcomers. Some of them seemed to recognize Enel as an emperor, while others seemed to recognize Bonney as a former slave as well.

Be it concern or relief, Enel could feel it all emanating from every person in that mansion.

But Kuma was not with the other slaves, no Francisco beckoned Bonney and Enel to follow him to the basement, where they now stared at a metal cage, where one tall figure was sitting down, bound in thick chains and wearing a seastone collar.

"Thank fuck he was wearing that collar when we found him. He was trying to fight us even with them on, but I was able to subdue him easily thanks to them." Shiki scoffed a bit as he spoke, staring at the former Warlord turned robotic slave.

Francisco simply sighed.

"Even with the chains, his physical strength is still nothing to joke about... Althogu-"

"Shut up!" Bonney immediately snapped, shutting up the two old men as she walked by them and looked at the cage bars.

Enel walked to her side and tapped the cage, the bars heating up and bending out of the way.

"Could've just used a key..." Shiki grumbled a bit as he looked at his formerly pristine, now ruined cage. He did shut up when Francisco glared at him though.

Bonney walked into the cell, giving Enel a thankful gaze as she stood in front of her nephew, her gaze turning a bit grave as she noticed some wires coming out of his face.

The Warlord now turned Pacifista and scanned Bonney who stood in front of him, before muttering something about a bounty, and target spotted.

The bound Pacifista immediately moved against the chains that bound it, making even Shiki look at the scene with quite a bit of pity.

'Of course, he won't recognize her...' Enel was about to walk a bit closer to Bonney, to protect her in case Kuma managed to break out of his chains.

However, he was immediately forced to step backwards and place his walking stick in front of him.

As soon as Kuma started struggling to attack her, something seemed to simply snap inside Bonney, she seemed to grit her teeth as tears started spilling out of her eyes.

A powerful wave of strange energy seemed to rush out of her, Francisco and Enel immediately covered their bodies in Armament, being alert as they already knew of her power.

Shiki was a bit slower, and that energy immediately started altering his age.

'Shit! So her powers can also work at a long range?! Well, it doesn't look like she can control it all that well...' Enel's eyes widened as he realized just how powerful Bonney's devil fruit was.

The wave of energy came and went quickly, not even lasting two seconds, as Bonney calmed down and hugged her Nephew with tears in her eyes.

"I-I'm sorry for taking so long! Please... Please return to me!"

Boney now used her power on purpose, her palms shining a bit as she touched the back of her nephew. Francisco and Enel were still on guard, and they watched as Kuma's body started shifting.

Enel could feel it, the way Kuma was becoming more and more human by the second.

In the end, the warlord seemed to pass out, just when the Emperor felt him finally return to being a human.

"K-Kuma? Can you hear me? Are you there...?" Bonney did her best to hold up her nephew, trying her best to not let him fall on the ground.

Francisco was the first to walk up to her, sighing as he did so.

His hand turned red, and formed a claw, in an instant, all of the chains were destroyed, and Kuma's seastone collar was ripped off.

The unarmed swordsman then helped Bonney hold her nephew up before Enel tapped his cane on the ground and formed a large aluminium bed for the sleeping warlord.

They lay Kuma on it, before finally hearing a cough from the other end of the room.

"That's nice... Would you mind turning me back to normal now?" Shiki's voice sounded a lot more aged than before, Francisco immediately started laughing when he turned around.

Enel and Bonney couldn't help but sweat a bit when seeing him.

The Golden Lion was now looking at the very least 30 years older, almost on the brink of death even. His formerly golden hair was now completely white, and he was supporting himself on one of his blades.

"S-sorry!" Bonney walked forwards and tapped the man on the shoulder, her palm shining as she did so.

Enel and Francisco then watched Shiki's body strangely morphing, and he was becoming younger and younger until he eventually reached the age of 40 when Bonney stopped.

She noticed she had overdone it a bit, probably due to still being emotional and/or drained from meeting Kuma in such a state.

Shiki, now 20 years younger, laughed out loud as he jumped on his bladed legs. He had returned to the time when Roger had been executed, where he had just found out about it in fact.

"It's been a while since my mind has been this clear!" The old man laughed as he stretched his muscles and bones for a bit.

"You'll get used to it... I think you were entering the early stages of dementia before." Bonney said as she walked back to sit at the side of her nephew.

Enel looked at her for a bit, wondering why she had just up and decided to arguably bring Shiki back to his prime. It wasn't as if the Golden Lion was that weakened by his old age anyway...

Well, only his thinking was affected the most because of ageing. Bonney's dementia hypothesis was actually quite close to the truth.

So at least now his mind was clearer, which would hopefully also help out with his observation haki, as he had been the last to react to Bonney's stray wave of ageing energy...

"Still without legs, huh?" Francisco was quick to poke fun at the Golden Lion though.

"Shut it! I've already gotten used to this anyway. I developed my 4 swords style for a reason." Shiki smiled as he spoke, not quite as mad at the swordman's jab as he would've been as a senile old man.

"Well, I'm glad the two of you are having fun..." The two old men turned their heads to the side when they heard Enel speak. The emperor tilted his head and continued.

"I think we should give the two here some time to rest, Shiki, would you be so kind as to float Kuma to a proper bed? Bonney also looks like she could use some sleep..."

When the two old men looked at her, Bonney seemed to already be resting, leaning on Kuma's giant body.

The Golden Lion nodded at the emperor's words silently walking to the aluminium bed and touching it, causing it to hover above the ground.

Shiki then brought the two sleeping pirates upstairs, with Enel and Francisco following close by.

They were still an hour away from the Sky Archipelago, so they decided to just give Kuma the largest bed they could find.

Bonney remained with him, and the three old men(Enel included) all left the room to speak in the hallway.

"With this, our mission is truly over, huh?" Francisco muttered as he stretched his injured body.

"Indeed..." Shiki casually responded as he ripped off some of the bandaids on his body.

"I would still like to learn how it went..." Enel smiled as he tapped the two of them on the shoulder. One with an arm, and one with his earlobe

"Of course..." Francisco looked up at him and smiled.

The three continued speaking the rest of the way, with the Golden Lion and Francisco recounting their tale and face-off against Kong.

Shiki also made sure to mention that the World Government had a way to turn off a Devil Fruit's powers and that it had a lot to do with someone keeping eye contact with the user.

Enel was fascinated by that, as he rubbed his chin a bit.

'So IM is basically the born enemy of all devil fruit users, huh?...'

It was an interesting thing to find out, and it solidified Enel's desire to grow his body and haki alongside his devil fruit.

'I still have a long way to go if I want to face him...'

In the end, Enel was very glad about what the two of them had found. Including the gold that they had collected from Captain John's secret stash.

As for the mission of finding John's body... Enel decided to help out Francisco with that.

"I heard some tales about a Warlord having the power to raise dead bodies by imbuing them with shadows...

I'm pretty sure he robbed the graves of just about everyone, feel free to seek him out in your free time."

Francisco appreciated Enel's help. Even if he wasn't sure he was going to find John's body with that warlord, he at least now had a lead to track.

Shiki also resigned to helping him, which made the Legendary Swordsman happier.

By the time they reached the Sky Archipelago, Enel had also learned that Kizaru had departed.

His Devil Fruit didn't allow him to fly as quickly over such long distances, as it required him to reflect off of surfaces so he was also using a Waver to thread on the clouds.

His journey was bound to take a few weeks, maybe even a month depending on how quickly he got in contact with the Neo Marines.

It at least gave Enel enough time to go and visit the Red-Haired pirates...

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Hope you liked the chapter!

Btw, I had forgotten to mention this last chap, I named the Saints after their Voice actors :))

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