Bringing the War to a Close

Everyone always talks about what happens when you die; How you see the pearly gates or great big plumes of fire, you separate from your physical body as a spirit or you just…fade into the darkness. However Morgan D. Ford felt something that was different to everything that he was told.

When he felt his body getting pierced by Crocodile's hook and then thrown into the slowly descending quicksand. Morgan felt every memory that he could recall; things like Curly Dadan reprimanding him for drinking alcohol as a kid and the adults who thought it'd be hilarious to let him try, the first time that he saw Luffy stretch his body and the numerous fun times that the two had while they were still friends. He could recall Makino's warm smile as she taught him manners and helped him when Dadan was away…and the fake smiles when he asked her what happened to his real parents, the ones that stuck out to him the most were the visions of the Straw Hat Crew as they grew closer and closer with each other; though the images of Nami and Vivi burned the brightest in his mind, not being there for them anymore quickly became one of his biggest regrets.

With a sudden lurch, he woke up clinging to a wall; Giving him deja vu of handling Drum mountain though this particular wall was not freezing cold and he had a good grip on the handholds; "Where…Where am I?" He would say to himself and glanced around, where he was had no indication of up OR down, merely clouds…Though the clouds where he could descend two were a very unappealing storm along with dashes of red and black thunder; "The bad place…Got it…Never go down…" He thought to himself as he reached a hand up to dig into the next gripping point to pull himself up. "But this place…What is it?"

"Interesting, a soul who is still willing to climb up despite being separated from the Mortal Coil~ I'm almost impressed, young man." A separate voice could be heard though there was no one else there besides Morgan and the Wall.

"Who are you?! What is this place and what happened to me?" Morgan yelled out into the great expanse and listened to his voice echo.

"Who I am? I am nothing…But I am also everything….The better question is who are YOU? Someone who died yet still possesses the will to keep going, there are people who would sooner give up and accept their fate than fight the flow of Life and Death." The Voice called out again to Morgan, seemingly interested in watching the young Pirate claw his way up.

"I…I am Morgan D. Ford, I am the man who…Who'll become the King of the Pirates…And the World's Greatest Martial Artist…" Morgan reiterated not just to the voice but to himself as he grit his teeth and pulled himself up once more.

"Oho? I've never heard of a Dead Man trying to become King when he can barely escape his own fate…You are in the Great Beyond, my friend! Though it is called by many other names; Al-A'raf, Gehenna, my personal favourite would be Naraka…" The Voice remarked with a playful lilt as Morgan continued to climb upwards. "It's a nice finite name that seems to deter most people from trying to fight their way back up again…Or spur them to keep trying to climb."

"Dead Man, Yeah…But I'm not gonna sit on my hands just yet…So what is this wall?" Morgan asked in between breaths as he held on tight.

"The Wall is the great divider that separates the living world from the world of the dead, I can assume you can tell which one is which?" The Voice continued to explain to Morgan as each new climb filled him with determined will to get back up.

"Yeah, I'm gonna claw my way back up and I'm gonna return the favour to that scar faced son of a-" Morgan ranted as he kept focusing on trying to climb, however the voice that was insistent on talking to him cut his sentence short.

"But do you expect things to turn out any differently? You may be stubborn enough to climb out of the pit but can you keep going as you are? Having to place all your bets in being too tenacious and stubborn to die a second time in a row?"

"I…" Morgan asked and tried to see if he could spot where the voice was coming from; "I haven't thought that far yet…But I'll break out of this, find Crocodile and ensure that I'll make my dream come true before I let death take me!" He said with a resolute grunt before making more of an effort to climb and picked up speed as he ventured upwards, but something strange happened as he got higher and higher. He felt something spark inside him from the pit of his stomach, slowly spreading outward throughout his body. "Crocodile could get the drop on me before but I'm not gonna let his powers beat me twice!" Morgan mentally challenged himself though as he breached the clouds back into the world of the Living with that new burst of energy and a newfound sense of dedication.

At the midpoint of the tower; Something did seem to be watching Morgan disappearing into the upper canopy, it was a faint glimmer of gold but then vanished once more. "Morgan D. Ford…A tenacious soul and an even stronger sense of will…Perhaps he could be one of the few Souls strong enough to shake the world to it's very core…"

—On the Outside in Alabasta's Desert—

Miss All-Sunday was sat on the sand nearby Morgan's prone body and lightly running her fingers through his hair like she was waiting for him to wake up. "It's been a good few minutes…I think that it might be too late for the Fruit to take it's effects..." She sighed as she realised that Crocodile never took half measures when it came to ending someone's life, but on closer inspection; she noticed that the life threatening wound was now gone completely and the hand that she had resting on his chest to monitor his pulse was still slow. "Oh? Looks like there may be hope after a-"

There was a loud and hoarse gasp followed by a deep inhale of air as Morgan returned back to consciousness; his body lurching to the side as he coughed violently and spat up the sand that was still in his body.

"Hmhm~ It's nice to see you've woken up, my dear Straw Hat…Did you enjoy your nap~?" Miss All-Sunday cooed as she looked him up and down; "Aside from his chest wound, I definitely felt his pulse vanish…I'm no doctor but by all accounts, he should be dead."

"I….I feel….Different." Morgan would say to himself though loudly enough to be heard by the woman behind him.

"Different in a good way? You did come out of a very nasty shock…But I did have high hopes for you and a good way to ensure you can win, so I think that you owe me a thank you for that~" She said with a soft tone in his ear but she heard him mumble something that she didn't quite catch.

"-o me…."

"I'm sorry, if you have something to say then say i-"

Morgan then grabbed her by the collar of her coat with a look of indescribable rage and a face that could rival Crocodile's look of anger or perhaps even outdo it. "What. Did. You. Do. To. Me?!" Morgan yelled at her as he gripped onto her tightly; Despite the fact that he should have still been winded and recovering from his wounds, his body and his mind were both hyperfocused on her when he recalled a single revelation in the back of his mind; knowledge of something new that was now a part of him until the day he stops moving.

"Ocho Fleur: Clutch!" Miss All-Sunday called out as multiple arms grabbed his arms and legs before pulling him back down to the sand to restrain him and stop him from doing anything too rash in his anger. "You need to calm yourself down before someone gets hurt." She would remark as she squat down to peer at Morgan face to face; "You were in a very bad way and if I hadn't opted to save you, you would have still been in that sand trap to drown." She explained to him as she watched Morgan yell and struggle more in his handsy restraints; "To be honest, he's that little bit more handsome when he's angry~ But topic at hand first, then I can have my fun~"

"SAVE ME?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU JUST DID TO ME, YOU CRAZY BI-" Morgan screamed back at her but the Baroque Works Baroness quickly used another pair of hands to gag his mouth before he said something even worse.

"I thought I told you to calm down, Mister…But you must be more than aware of what happened during your scuffle with Crocodile." She began to elaborate further; "You died…Plain and simple, if I didn't do what I just did then your chances of living would be none rather than a slim chance…"

Morgan angrily muffled into her separated hands as he struggled harder but when he heard that comment again, it seemed to let some of the wind from his sails and he stopped struggling as much, allowing Miss All-Sunday to feel confident in him enough to ungag him.

"Good, now that you've settled down…You need to understand this. I may not agree with everything that Crocodile says but he is right on one thing; Without the power or the skill to back up your drive against someone who is more experienced and more capable than you…This is going to become more of a regular occurrence until your luck finally runs out." She said with a rather blunt approach.

"You…You don't know that…If I had more time…Than I would've gotten him out for good." Morgan said through grit teeth as he clenched his fists tight; "You didn't see our full fight but I could land some good hits on him, next time I'll lay him out for good!"

Nico Robin wasn't convinced; sure she DID see him through her Ojos Fleur ability but with all said and done, it would've turned out the same way each time. "I saw more than you think I did; I know you can land some decent hits on him but without water or more of an advantage in the desert, then every fight against him will be a war of attrition…He will tire you out, drain out all of the moisture and leave you to be buried as a mummified husk…Just the same as he did to you now." She pointed out and then let him go; "If you want to face him again, it is far from me to stop you from that choice…But you have powers now, whether they are good or bad is entirely your call. Use them to your advantage and remember that there is more at stake here than just your pride as a fighter."

Morgan got to his feet as he felt some of the stamina coming back to him along his focus; "You're right…There is more at stake and that is WHY I'm going after Crocodile…" He mentioned as he got into a running position; "Thank you for pulling me out of the pit." He said with a low voice.

"You're very much welcome, my dear little Straw Hat…And with my help; you were able to understand something that could've made your life here easier, so I think you should be thanking me for giving you th-"

"Thank you?" Morgan said with an unusually calm yet equally dangerous voice; "You don't even know what this means to me…So as far as you should be concerned, This conversation is far from over…" He remarked in a rather dark tone before sprinting across the desert with much faster speed than he could manage with his Haki alone.

As Robin watched the dust settle and Morgan vanish into the distance towards the capital; She knew that logically it was the right thing to do but in tandem with what he said and the fact that she understood that being given a Devil Fruit was not always a blessing, hearing him talk to her with no hint of goodwill or the cordiality that he shared before had made her feel a knot of guilt in her stomach before climbing on to her turtle carriage to speed on to the palace.

Morgan ran and ran through the desert sands as he struggled to maintain his focus due to his still budding anger at the last few minutes and Miss All-Sunday's rather casual remarks of the whole thing; "My body…It feels so light, it's like I'm walking on air but…at the same time, it feels…Off." He thought to himself as he rushed into the fray of the artificially made civil war between the Rebels and the Royal Guard, somehow being able to sprint several miles from Rain Dinners all the way to Alubarna in the same amount of time that Crocodile was able to arrive.

Said Warlord had already grabbed Nefertari Cobra and was dragging him towards his own objective instead of the palace's throne itself; "Now then…You're going to tell me what I want to know and if you can't…I might just go two for two and spill your blood in front of your whole kingdom like I did with your daughter's friend." Crocodile sneered as he let his cards be shown while he was so close to the secret beneath Alubarna.

"You can threaten whatever you wish but the kingdom and my daughter will still stand even if I were to pass." Cobra growled as he walked alongside Crocodile while he had his hook poised at his throat.

"Maybe….But I have no qualms when it comes to ending the entire royal line to get what I want…Truthfully, I never desired to control this kingdom but what I DO want is the secrets that the kingdom hides…Like your hidden vault that houses the Poneglyph for Pluton." Crocodile mentioned as he let Cobra guide him into the castle's main hall and activated a hidden passage leading downward. "But you don't need to fret in any case about involving yourself…Miss All-Sunday here can read the ancient language and decipher it for me."

—In the Palace's Town Square—

Vivi had managed to reunite with the Straw Hat Crew with their varying degrees of injuries after defeating the main Officers of Baroque Works. It then became apparent that Crocodile still had his backup plan if the Agents or the Civil War were to fail: a Bomb that was capable of reducing Alubarna into a glass floor of bones and sand.

It was a frantic search throughout the whole square to interrogate any officer or agent that they could find and with some help from the Marines who heard them out enough to understand. There was only one place was suitable enough to hide it both in plain sight and in a broad enough area to cause the most problems.

"The Clock Tower! That's the only place where they could've hidden the bomb!" Vivi yelled out as she along with Nami tried to find the hidden staircase but as luck would have it, there were two more Agents that were standing guard before the snipers that watched the bomb.

One was a tall man with a buzz cut and wearing a white leisure suit; though it looked like he was wielding two flintlock pistols, the lapel on his breast showed that this was another high ranking officer.

The woman standing by him had pink hair tied in a bun and was wearing glasses with a bright white cocktail dress and heels, in each hand was what looked like a bouquet of roses. "It looks like we have some unwelcome guests, Mr 6…And right before the party starts too." The woman remarked in a rather slow deliberate tone and then eyed up both girls as Nami gripped her Clima-Tact and Vivi started twirling her Slashers; "Oh~? I heard you turned coat Miss Wednesday, but I didn't think you'd side with such common gutter trash."

"Considering the disgusting pig of a man you call a partner; you shouldn't be talking to anyone about taste, Miss Mother's Day!" Vivi snapped back at her as she redirected her glare at the taller man.

"What? I can't help it if the ladies like me." Mr. 6 sneered as he pointed his guns at the two; "Although I think you understand that Mr. 0 isn't all that fond of you anymore, so if you want to walk out of here alive….I can think of one or two things that you could do to convince us."

"Is he…Is he serious right now?" Nami asked with a look of both disgust and surprise that someone had such audacity in the current circumstances.

"Unfortunately he is, Mr. 6 is after a quick rush of money ever since he lost his family's riches." Vivi explained as she had frequently listened to Mr. 6's rants and ravings back when she was Miss Wednesday.

"Oh, for a second there; I thought he was asking us to do something gross." Nami breathed a sigh of relief; "So much for robbing him blind."

"It's not my fault that bitch Baccarat jinxed my roll at Gran Tesoro!" Mr. 6 yelled as he gripped his gun tighter; "I was on such a hot streak too…But once Mr. 0 gets his thing, I can probably swipe a few things out of the Palace and pawn it."

"Now now, Mr. 6-dear~ You have to remember that we have something more important to focus on~" Miss Mother's Day smirked as a face that looked more sadistic took over and licked her lips; "Like turning these two beauties into something a little less appreciative~" She then swung one of the bouquets in her hands and smashed a chair with it.

"Why must every person I fight, have to be a weirdo or a complete psycho?!" Nami mentally complained as the two rushed in to attack.

"THUNDER TEMPO!"

"PEACOCK SLASHER!"

—In Alubarna's Hidden Treasure Room—

Crocodile watched with anticipation as Miss All-Sunday read the giant stone tablet; "Finally, all this time I spent getting here and I can have one of the most powerful tools at my disposal…Shame on you for hiding such a thing in a wasteful way." He remarked as he kept an eye on Cobra.

"Unfortunately, this isn't it." Miss All-Sunday mentioned bluntly when she finished reading the Poneglyph. "There's nothing on here that mentions a Weapon or Pluton…It shows all of Arabasta's history though, if that's something you want."

Crocodile's face was blank yet it radiated a growing sense of frustration at all his work being undone. "That is a shame really." He growled as he harshly threw Cobra to the side and then walked over to the tablet with Miss All-Sunday next to him. "If this isn't what I've asked for then I'm afraid that our deal is done."

The woman next to him then turned suddenly and threw a bottle of water at him, using one of her bloomed hands to grab it on his shoulder and smash it. "I'm the only one who knows about your secret, Mr. 0, now all that trust I built is going to pay off." She said as she pulled out a knife and was ready to stab him but was stopped when he caught her in the side with his hook and threw her into a pillar with a heavy CRACK.

"Trust? I've severely overestimated you, Nico Robin…I've never trusted anyone since I took to the seas, what makes you think you'll be any different?" Crocodile snidely mentioned as he watched Robin bleed on the ground and then summoned up some sand to finish her off.

"CROCODILE!"

The Warlord turned around and thought he saw a ghost when he recognised who it was. "You? I thought I pierced your heart back in the desert?" Crocodile had a faint amount of shock in his tone when he noticed that the man he impaled with full intent to kill was still standing there.

"I may not end you Crocodile, but I am certain HE can…" Miss All-Sunday smirked but grimaced in pain from the floor as she saw the man she had "helped" standing in the doorway.

"I told you before, being stubborn is my specialty…And it's gonna take a lot more than some blinged out coat hanger to put me down!" Morgan snarked though his anger was still present when he saw both the two leading faces of Baroque Works.

"And once again, I am subjected to disappointment…Between Nico Robin and her cold hearted play, this rock being worthless and now you showing up again? I am going to take SO much pleasure in dragging all of this into the sands to perish." Crocodile growled as he stepped forward to approach Morgan. "Only this time, I'll make sure you STAY dead and relish in watching your friends executed one by one!"

"Really, no time limit this time? No grandiose talk about how a lowly pirate like me can't win?" Morgan glared as he cracked his knuckles; "But I'll agree on one thing, I'm not taking chances on you this time!" Morgan yelled out as he rushed forward and used a Haki infused high kick towards Crocodile's head, only to be blocked by his hook hand.

The Warlord then tried to recreate his last technique by extending his hooked arm like a tendril to swing and whip at Morgan, "One thing I still don't understand is how you got back up, you were stuck like a pig and bleeding out in that quicksand…No amount of stubbornness can make you recover from that." Crocodile quizzed Morgan as he used another hand to shoot a series of Desert Spada at him again.

Morgan kept his Observation Haki as high as he could as he sidestepped and pivoted around the sand blades before jumping up and springing off of the pillar; utilising his Armament Haki to strengthen his legs and bounce back and forth between hitting Crocodile like a pinball of kicks.

"He's faster now…and his strikes are starting to hurt more because of that splash of water from Nico Robin…Annoying little bastard!" Crocodile growled in frustration as he made sandblades on his fingers and swung them outwards to try slashing him; "Desert La Spada!"

The lucky part was that Morgan was able to pull himself back after the last kick to try something else, however the blades still nicked him and drew blood. "What's wrong, Cocky Croccy? You don't seem as on top of things as before." Morgan taunted him and then readied himself again as he tried to recreate what he did with Arlong.

"You seem pretty conceited yourself, you're forgetting that I have had years to practice with my powers…But you are just another dime a dozen pirate with no powers, weapons OR crew behind you to help you!" Crocodile smirked as he started to slam his palm down and dried out the stone to turn it into sand.

Morgan kept a light foot out as he kept swiftly darting around and began to use some heavy palm strikes to try whittling Crocodile down; "Water…No wonder that my hits are driving him nuts."

Crocodile grit his teeth through the pain and then created a powerful blast of sand from his chest to knock into Morgan. "Since you know my secret…I'm done with trying to play around…I'm gonna put you down like the worthless, mangy dog you are!" He yelled at Morgan as he removed the gold cover of his hook; revealing what looked like a perforated metal hook; "Anything goes for a pirate! Guns, swords, Poison…Thankfully I have one of those right here!"

Morgan tilted his head in confusion; "A Gun-Hook? How would that even work exactly, do you just aim and sho-"

Crocodile snarled as he got more and more annoyed by Morgan's consistent bouts of ignorance and swung his hook at him, constantly trying to swipe or jab him. With each new move he made with it; small globules of purple ooze dripped out and sprayed out of the hook, hitting the ground with an audible hiss as it ate away at the stony sand.

"Well, that answers that…But you still forget that I'm not gonna stop until you're beaten into the sand!" Morgan remarked as he ducked under the Warlord's poisonous hook and headbutt him in the chin, following it up with a powerful double handed punch into his chest; sending Crocodile backwards but in the process, the Warlord ended up digging his hook into Morgan's shoulder with a pretty nasty cut and getting poisoned in the process.

"Heh…AAAAHAHAHAHAHA! As expected of a muscleheaded idiot; This fight was destined to repeat itself eventually, only this time…It'll be Poison to kill you and not the Quicksand, the venom that I soaked in this hook is enough to kill even the Desert scorpions in Alabasta…It'll be a matter of time before you di-GAH!" Crocodile gloated as he felt Morgan punching him hard in the head with a bloody fist.

Morgan looked like the blood drained from his body as he panted and held on as best he could; "I…Told you…I ain't stopping until you're beaten into the dirt!" Morgan yelled and without even a warning or thinking about it; the Straw Hat ended up having two extra arms on his shoulders, rushing forward with a loud roar of anger as he pushed past the poison and delivered a volley of quartet fists into the Warlord at a faster speed than he had ever moved before.

Crocodile was too thrown off by the shock of seeing the extra arms, the fact that Morgan was still standing with the poison in his system and the fact that the whole room started to rumble along with it as sand and rocks started to fall from the ceiling; "The hell?! Where di…YOU!" Crocodile's eyes glanced to Nico Robin who was barely conscious yet still somehow managed to flash him a knowing smirk as he got his beatdown.

"This will trap you in the underground for good!" Cobra yelled at Crocodile as he was getting beaten on; "You may be a Sand-Man but now you will be buried by your own power!"

Morgan then slammed a set of four palms into Crocodile's chest to send him back before utilising a downwards Axe Kick to slam his hook into the stone floor and smash the poisoned appendage; "How does it feel…knowing that you'll be beaten down by the lowly pirate you scoffed at." Morgan remarked as he was getting more tired from his Haki use, the blood loss from his jagged cut and the cumulated damage he took both in the desert and here.

"You….You think you've won here? I don't care about anything like this anymore, if I am going to perish here…." Crocodile would then snap his broken hook off and then when he thrust the bulbous stub forward; a separate knife blade popped out and then stabbed Morgan in the shoulder, though his opponent didn't seem to move or flinch from this.

"Then you'll take me with you? Too bad because when you started making threats about my friends…I settled on kicking your head in!" Morgan growled as he then reared his head back and delivered a head butt to stagger Crocodile, followed by a second and a third to knock him loose and to the ground. With the knife now out of his body, Morgan grimaced and clutched his shoulder. "I...If I don't settle this now…I really will keel over again. Time to settle this with everything I got!"

"I won't let you get the chance…I'll fill you with so many holes that no one will recognise you!" Crocodile roared as his composure along with his patience had fully ran out and pulled back his hand to gather sand; "DESERT!"

Morgan grit his teeth hard before he made a dogged sprint as fast as he could to close the gap and then drove his fist into Crocodile's stomach before he could finish his move; "SHIN!"

Crocodile's eyes whited out as he felt the wind get knocked out of him but continued his focused attempt on Morgan; "SPA-" He was then cut off as the Straw Hat made for another powerful hook straight into the side of Crocodile's ribcage, knocking him off kilter and making him stagger.

With a yell that echoed through the room over the sound of crashing rocks; Morgan swung his arm up as hard as he could into Crocodile's chin and drove it upwards with as much power and force as he could manage; "SHORYUKEN!" He screamed out as he thrust his fist upward and sent the now unconscious Crocodile flying upwards into the air and breaking through the ceiling to let the sunlight shine through.

Every Marine, Rebel Army Member and Royal Guard who were around that area stopped fighting when they saw the man responsible for all of this crash through the ground and land on the ground in a blacked out heap.

"C-Crocodile?"

"Where did he come from?!"

"Who beat him up this badly?"

"Forget that! The Princess was telling the truth about him and about this whole war!"

Everyone scrambled to get Crocodile locked up in Seastone Cuffs for the Marines to take away, thanks to Vivi's intervention; both sides of the conflict were able to recognise the falsities that came about through Baroque Works and stop themselves before any further damage could be done.

—Meanwhile in the Clock Tower—

Vivi was able to use her Peacock Slashers to take out Mr.6 after he emptied out his guns trying to shoot her. Though the problem was with Miss Mother's Day and her "Bouquets of Affection" being used as weapons.

Nami having beaten Miss Doublefinger and her Spike-Spike Fruit was one thing but that took a lot out of her, this woman standing there was a whole different level for the two.

"What's wrong, you two? Starting to tucker out? Then let Mama put you two to bed…For good~" She sneered as she held up her bouquet; After the pretty looking wrapping came undone, it became clear what kind of strength she had; though it looked like both Nami and Vivi had whittled her down considerably.

"She can swing around those heavy looking clubs with one hand? If we get caught once, we're dead…" Vivi thought as she saw the red tops of the spiked clubs were just made to look like a bouquet of roses.

Nami was on top of things as she readjusted her Tact into a Wind form; "CYCLONE TEMPO!" She yelled out as she used the winds to redirect the two clubs into the walls, trapping them both.

"Y-You little…." Miss Mother's Day growled as she pulled the clubs out and then rushed for Nami; "I'll smash that pretty face of your's int-"

"PEACOCK STRING SLASHER!" Vivi yelled out as she then kicked out Miss MD's legs out from under her and then used her threaded blades to swing at her head.

Miss MD brought her clubs up to catch them on the strings but it looked like the two missed regardless; "I think your running around messed with your head…So how about you be a good little girl and hold sti-GYAHK!" She was cut off as Vivi brought her leg up to kick her in the face as she fell, breaking her glasses in the process.

"RUN BACK!" Vivi smirked as she then got up and headed over to Nami; "Let's move upwards, that bomb doesn't have long left!" She yelled to her as the two ladies ran up and left both Baroque Works agents collapsed on the ground in unconsciousness.