Note from the author: This fic takes place between Alabasta and Skypeia, which is when I came up with the initial concept. Unfortunately as I continued into the series, I found that some of my ideas became obsolete. I have decided to press on anyway, despite the continuity errors.

I do not own the rights to any of the One Piece characters. There are also a number of my own original characters, of which I think General Hector is a personal favorite. Please note that (in this story) the name "Helena" is pronounced "He-lain-a"


Prologue

"Princess, there isn't much time."

Hector's voice felt very far away. Or perhaps it was her mind that was distant. For just one moment she had turned back to gaze over her kingdom from her perch on the outer walls. But though the moon was full, and the view perfect, she could not see it. A cloud of darkness covered her precious Ilium, leaving view of not one building, not even the high walls of the palace, to wish her god speed.

"Your highness," Hector said again. "Remember why it is we flee…"

"We do not flee, General," she replied quietly. "We go to seek help."

He was silent. Yes, she knew he had little faith in what help the World Government would be willing to offer. More than anything he aimed to take the royal heir out of harm's way. Truth be told, she didn't trust the World Government either, but she had run out of options. Unless…

"I could always consult the Sybil…" she started.

"No, your highness," he said. "You are young, and the God Powers would only ask for something you would not be able to give. Besides, it is they who are angry with us now…"

She sighed. Though she knew they needed to move on, her heart ached for her city. She felt as though she were abandoning her people.

"These walls once protected us," she said. "Now they cage us in."

Hector placed one of his large hands upon her shoulder, and she turned to give him a brave smile. He was a large man, strong, and not quite past his prime though approaching it quickly. A brilliant fighter and tactician, he had dedicated his life to the protection of Ilium and the royal family.

The armor he wore was well earned.—And also quite unusual. It glinted like polished bronze in the moonlight, but beneath the careful stain, polish, and carving, his armor was made entirely of wood, from breastplate to helmet to the pleats on his skirt. He also stood upon part of his oddly flexible wooden spear, which had flattened out to become a wooden platform, to keep from touching the wall.

"Your wife and child wait somewhere back there in the darkness," she said. "You got me to the walls. I can manage the rest on my own."

Hector stifled a laugh. "Don't be ridiculous," he said. "You can't steer a boat by yourself. And besides, Andromache can manage just fine without me. She was the one who taught you to handle a sword, remember?"

"Yes, but this darkness..."

"Come, Princess Helena," he said sharply. "We must be moving on." But she finished the sentence quietly under her breath as he turned away from the city and toward the distant harbor:

"…it can't be fought."

Without another word, he scooped her into his burly arms, and they dove from the battlement.

It was far too high up for the ordinary person to survive the fall. But Hector, like his armor and spear, was far from ordinary. Curling around the princess in a tight ball, his flesh also turned to wood, forming a protective, flexible cage for her. Scaffolding lined this part of the wall where a construction project, now abandoned, once made to clean and repair the crumbling stone. He reached out a wooden hand, grabbing the scaffolding and meshing with it. He rode the scaffolding like wooden circuitry, zig zagging through the frame like electricity through a wire.

He moved at break neck speed. Princess Helena braced herself for the landing, but Hector made it perfectly smooth for her, allowing himself to mesh with a number of trees below, skipping from branch to branch at just the right speed to allow the trees to absorb the impact. Finally the wooden cage opened, and the princess leapt nimbly to the ground.

He continued to launch himself from tree to tree, meshing fluidly with the wood of each as the Princess chased after him on the forest floor. They followed parallel to the wall until at last they reached where the wall turned sharply to avoid the ocean. Outside the walls stood an enormous harbor, and a small village that had as of yet escaped the dark cloud hovering over the inner city. But the village inhabitants were strangely quiet, hidden within their houses with all the electric lights on even though most of the people should have been asleep by then. Some had even set candles out in the window, for it was rumored that darkness feared the light.

Helena had seen enough to know that while there was truth to the assumption, light hardly kept the darkness back for long.

"How can we reach the harbor without being seen?" she whispered. Her people couldn't know she was leaving. Any news that she left to seek help would set the darkness after her. It had managed to keep her trapped within the palace for weeks now, and she couldn't risk it capturing her and tightening security. She only hoped her people would realize that she wasn't going to leave them alone to face this.

"Leave that to me," Hector replied from his tree perch at the border of the forest. He reached a hand down to her. She grasped it calmly and allowed him to pull her up again into the cage of wood. Using the tree branch for leverage, he sling-shotted himself into the nearest wooden building, meshing as soundlessly as he could manage.

As they slithered through the walls, they heard a muffled scream. Someone had clearly heard them, perhaps even seen a strange bulge in the architecture. Helena cursed inwardly. She didn't need to help perpetuate the rumors that her kingdom was haunted. But Hector made a split second decision that she thanked him for later. Dragging one of his fingers through the wall, he allowed it to drop the twig of a laurel tree before he sling-shotted himself and the princess from that house into the next.

He found it necessary to do the same in every house they passed through, a symbol to reassure her citizens. At last they reached the ocean. Hector launched himself onto the dock, passing straight through. He released the princess and returned to his human form so they could sit in the scaffolding underneath the dock for a moment and take a breather out of sight from prying eyes.

"I thought my leaving was meant to be a secret, General." Helena chided.

"Have faith in your people, Princess," Hector said. "They will not sound the alarm. At least, we can trust they will be too frightened of the darkness to spread the gossip until the sun rises, and by then we will be long gone from here."

"I suppose it is for the best," Helena replied, "They will know I was not captured. Let us hope they don't think I simply ran away. Where to now, General?"

"I had Agamemnon prepare a ship for us," he said, adjusting his greaves. "It's on the far dock. We can leave whenever you're ready."

She grinned. "What are we waiting for?"


"What does it mean, Mama?" a child asked. He stood cowering in her mother's arms, still terrified of the apparition they had seen in their walls. Something had crawled through, bulging the wallpaper.

The mother smoothed her son's hair. "Nothing to be afraid of Ajax," she said in as soothing a voice as she could manage. "Remember, the darkness fears the light."

"Then why don't they turn the lights on in the palace?"

"Look, honey," she cooed, pointing to something that had fallen into the corner. She stepped away from him to retrieve it, and held it up with sparkling eyes. "The royal laurel."

"The Princess was here?" he asked.

The mother smiled and nodded. "She must be with the great General Hector. Everything will be all right."

"Is she leaving?" he asked, eyes wide.

"Hmm, perhaps." She replied. "But I think she'll be back." She turned her gaze out the window, out to sea, and at the shadow of a boat departing in the distance. "May the Gods speed your journey, Princess," she murmured.


Ch. 1 –Straw Hats

Usopp had the watch just before dawn. It was the darkest time of the night, and it didn't help that clouds were forming overhead. Nami had warned them that a storm was coming, but they should be to port before then. She was exceptionally good at predicting the weather, even on the Grand Line. Still, Usopp hoped more than believed she was right this time.

To keep himself from growing too nervous, he launched into his favorite pass-time: telling lies. As there was no one there to listen to them atop the crow's nest of the Going Merry, he told them to himself.

"That's right, Captain Usopp,"he said. "You know you are the bravest of the bunch. That's why they gave you, no, you volunteered for the late watch. And of course, even in the dark, you are the best shot around. You skewered ten sea kings with one harpoon the other night. But of course, no one knew about it – you were too humble to tell them that they all owe you their lives. That's because you're the humblest pirate captain at sea. There was that other time…"

He continued like this for a while, enjoying the sound of his own voice, and drawing courage from stories of his own daring deeds. But he soon fell silent. Something big was coming toward them against the wind. He could hear it making waves.

What he had failed to acknowledge in his monologue was that the real reason they chose him for the late watch was his unmatched ability to scream like a little girl when frightened. He did so now, waking just about everyone below deck in seconds. Sanji and Luffy were first to emerge. They had left Chopper behind to try to awaken Zoro. Robin and Nami appeared out of the cabin moment later, the latter looking bleary eyed and the former surveying the situation with as unruffled a look as ever.

"Oye, Usopp. What is it?" Nami called in bad humor, but he seemed to have lost his ability to communicate after the initial scream.

"This had better not be another false alarm," Sanji grumbled, lighting a cigarette and puffing it groggily.

"Wait, listen," Robin warned.

Sanji stopped mid puff in order to please her, but soon his attention was drawn out to the open water, and he let the smoke out in a coughing gasp.

"There's something coming toward us," Nami said nervously, voicing the common observation. "It sounds like a ship."

"But why are there no lights on it?" Robin asked. "None of their lanterns are lit. Maybe we should extinguish ours…"

"Of course, Robin-swan!" Sanji replied, but Nami stopped him before he could head anywhere.

"Too late. They've already spotted us by now," Nami said. She felt infinitely more awake now that the adrenaline was starting to kick in. "If this is the Marines again…"

"I'll protect you, Nami-Chan," Sanji insisted.

"I still think it couldn't hurt to turn the lanterns out," Robin suggested. "It would give us more of a chance to out maneuver them…"

"No…" their captain said quietly. His face had grown serious as he settled his straw hat on his head. But then he took on the playful, boyish tone that made them all wonder why he was in charge sometimes. "Running is no fun! Turn the lamps up brighter!"


"Make a wide berth, Hector. The last thing we need is to be noticed," Helena said, eyeing the ship blocking their path.

Hector, who had melded with the upper deck of their ship, briefly returned his head back to human form enough to say something in the affirmative. But at that moment, the boat before them blazed its lanterns brighter. They flashed out in the night, for a moment just bright enough to illuminate the ship's flagstaff, and Helena's eyes narrowed.

"Pirates…" she hissed.

"Your highness…" Hector started.

"My kingdom has enough to deal with without more of those coming to port," she spat. "Our best soldiers have disappeared, my citizens are defenseless. If those pirates have devil fruit powers…"

"They do," Hector said. "They fly the colors of Straw Hat Luffy."

"Hmph. A small fry," she said. "He's only got, what, a 30,000,000 berry bounty? We can handle them easily."

"Majesty, wait…"

"Set a course to board their starboard side. I'll handle those with devil fruits. You take care of the rest. Our usual strategy, I think."

"Princess, there's someone aboard that ship you should know about…"

"That's an order, General."


"Usopp! Fire the canon!" Luffy called, far too chipper for the time of day.

"Luffy, we don't even know whether they are friend or foe," Usopp pointed out. He had descended from the crow's nest to start readying the canons in case they were needed. He had also calmed down now that they had discerned that their foe was only another ship.—not a very big one, for that matter. It was about the size of the Merry. And, Usopp wasn't entirely sure he could trust his eyes, even through his sniper goggles it looked like there was only one person aboard. That person wore the classic epaulets and cape of a marine though, so they couldn't afford to let their guard down.

Luffy took in a deep breath, enough that he stretched out a bit like a balloon. And then he shouted: "Hey! Are you out to kill us?"

Nami knocked him over the side of the head, but the damage had already been done. The response to Luffy's call was a fast splashing that sounded like oars.

But how can they be rowing with only one person on board? Usopp wondered.

Faster than was generally possible, the other boat suddenly appeared beside them. By the light of Merry's lanterns, they saw that the other ship had in fact sprouted several sets of wooden arms, which held several sets of oars. Robin eyed the phenomenon with interest, but soon another worry drew her attention away.

The extra arms disappeared as the boat came to a dead stop beside them. And suddenly an enormous wooden plank shot from the deck and rammed into the Merry, connecting the two ships with a solid wooden platform. Onto the platform stepped what appeared to be that ship's only occupant.

"Straw hats," she said, her voice calm and diplomatic, but loud enough to be heard over the waves. "Turn back now, or I swear by this dagger I will end you."

The dagger of which she spoke appeared suddenly in her hand. It glinted in the lantern light, but looked far from menacing. Usopp barely stifled a chuckle.

"And who are you to threaten us?" Nami asked, stepping forward. She thought she saw in the other woman someone willing to negotiate. If this had been a marine, there would be no offer to turn back.

The woman smirked, but didn't respond. The wind picked up with the approaching storm, catching her long blond hair and white cape. As it flapped in the wind they could see that it didn't have the kanji for justice on the back. Her style was similar to but not the same as the marines'. Epaulets and cape aside, she wore a simple violet vest and white pants. The only thing really extraordinary about her ensemble was the pair of bright red sandals she wore, which criss-crossed up to just below her knees and looked far from combat worthy.

"My identity is none of your concern," she said. "Only know this: I will protect the people of Ilium from scum like you if it's the last thing I do."

"Ilium," Nami said, looking down at the compass on her arm. "Is that the island that lies ahead? Trust me, we only need to charge our log pose, and we'll be on our way."

"You must think I was born yesterday," the woman replied caustically. She took a few steps forward, lowering her dagger as though she meant to continue negotiations, but then she made a sudden mad dash, dagger at the ready.

Nami quickly armed herself, retrieving her quarter staff, but she needn't have bothered. The woman side-stepped her then planted a good sharp kick in the small of Nami's back. The wind knocked completely out of her, and Nami struggled to get upright. By the time she did, Usopp had already been knocked away from the canons, which he had been attempting to light for a close rang shot at the enemy ship.

Sanji attempted to confront the attacker, but though he took his kicking stance, he was unable to engage the female in combat. He went a bit googly eyed when he caught sight of her fair skin and delicate facial features, and swooned aside without much resistance.

She did not make to swipe at any of them with her dagger. Her real target became clear however when she set her sights on Luffy.

"It won't take much to take you down," she said through gritted teeth.

"Oye, we don't want to fight you," he said, but had to side step a sudden swipe of her dagger. Though she wore a rapier at her side, she made no move to draw it, and instead continued to attack him with the smaller blade.

When it became clear that she would continue the insanely inadequate barrage with her dagger, he drew back his arm for a punch.—Or more particularly, for his signature gum-gum pistol. He launched it at her, catching her in the stomach and knocking the wind clean out of her. She flew backward toward the platform connecting their ships, flipping once to regain her footing, though she ended up with her cape over her head.

The straw hats started to chuckle.

"I commend your bravery," Robin said, then went on to voice everyone's thoughts, "But I think you are a bit outmatched."

The woman pursed her lips.—got to her feet.—dusted herself off. Without a word she made another mad dash toward Luffy, side stepping and knocking down the other straw hats until she reached their captain. This time he chuckled and invented a new move. He named it gum-gum dance, and it consisted of him stretching his arm so that he hooked his attacker about the middle and then spun her around him, launching her into the mast. The effect was not quite as drastic as his pistol, but it did make her look ridiculous, which was probably the point.

Undaunted by the ensuing laughter, the woman recovered and turned quickly. When he made to hit her again with his pistol, she side stepped the blow and brought her dagger swiftly upward, nicking his arm. The wound was hardly large enough to bleed, but Luffy collapsed suddenly, and all laughter ceased.

Certain now that there was more to their attacker than appearances suggested, Robin put her powers into action. With a simple "seis fluer" she knew she should be able to hold the woman down, but when the attacker became entangled in Robin's grip, she brought the dagger down to knick one of the many arms pinning her to the deck. Robin immediately retracted her arms and collapsed as Luffy had done.

"Hector, now!" the woman called.

Too late, the straw hats realized that their attacker wasn't alone. A man suddenly appeared on the deck of the enemy ship. Large and imposing, his face mostly hidden in a horsehair helmet, he jumped heavily onto the plank connecting their ships. It seemed to buckle like rubber beneath him before launching him skyward. He carried a long wooden spear, which grew sharper as he descended.

"S-s-s-SANJI! STOP HIM!" Usopp cried frantically. "He's going to destroy the ship!"

Already standing at the ready, Sanji launched himself upward. Meeting the attacker head on, he snapped the spear in half with a well-placed kick. Much to his surprise, however, the broken spear grew back together almost instantly. Because his leg was still in the way, the spear grew around it and he found himself trapped in the attacker's grip.

When the larger man saw his advantage, he brought Sanji down the rest of the way, pile driving him into the deck with a crash. The man and his wooden spear seemed to melt into the wood, while the broken planks surrounding a dazed and slightly bloodied Sanji wrapped around him suddenly, melding him to the deck.

The Going Merry groaned and the straw hat pirates eyed each other nervously. The planks beneath their feet began to move slowly apart. Like taffy on a taffy pulling machine, the wood of the deck stretched, bit by fibrous bit.

And then the ship began to sink.


Helena eyed Hector's handiwork with satisfaction. This had been one of the easier ships they'd taken down together, but that was to be expected. They'd sunk entire fleets in the past. Turning back toward her ship with a flourish of her cape, she stepped onto the connecting platform only to discover someone blocking her path.

Lightning crashed, illuminating his less than amused expression. She smirked in reply, flipping her dagger once around her hand. Another flash of light revealed something that gave her pause, however: strapped to his waist were three katana.

"Roronoa Zoro," she said quietly, a slight raise in pitch belaying her surprise. "For my father's sake, I won't fight you."

Despite her words, she launched herself at him, dagger at the ready.


Zoro managed to judge a few things very quickly in the seconds it took for her to close the distance between them. One was that his attacker was extremely confident, and probably not without reason. She moved as a person well trained in swordsmanship, but approached him with nothing but a small dagger. This brought to mind another swordsman he had once faced, one who managed to defeat him with nothing but a knife. He doubted she was as good as Dracule Mihawk, but it couldn't hurt to be careful. This was the Grand Line, after all.

Just when she was close enough to knife him, he drew one of his swords, parrying the blow with a loud clang. Before he had time to react, she had laced one of her legs around his and tripped him backwards with the momentum of their crossed blades.

Though he wasn't defeated, it appeared that she intended to retreat to her ship. "Too eas-," she started, taking a running step past him.

Zoro jumped to his feet before she could escape and they exchanged blows. She was a good deal quicker than he had expected, and stronger than she appeared. With three quick dashes, something she called Triumvirate of the Gods, she managed to move in a swift triangle around him. The movement should have allowed her to land a blow across each of his arms, and his back, but when she landed the first blow, he quickly turned with her to parry the other two.

He had seen the aftermath of what her dagger had done to Luffy and Robin, who still lay unmoving on the deck, despite Chopper's efforts to revive them. When he didn't collapse as they had done, he knew instinctively that it had something to do with devil fruit powers. As she made to side step him and again retreat to her ship, he aimed a careful blow at her dagger instead of her.


The blade spun from her hand and flew through the air toward the straw hats' ship. Hector frantically tried to change back into human form, but before he could transform completely, the dagger embedded itself point down in the Merry's hull, and he found himself stuck partially melded with the wood. Destruction on the Merry ceased as Hector collapsed in a half wooden heap on the deck.

Helena's stomach churned. She knew as Zoro did not, that her dagger was made of sea prism stone. She turned slowly back to her attacker, eyes wide. It had been a long time since anyone had managed to disarm her.

"Princess, no!" Hector gasped.

She didn't take her eyes off of the man blocking her path, however. Not her path to her own ship, her path to the Merry. She knew she needed to retrieve her dagger if she was going to be able to save Hector before the enemy ship sunk.

"You can't cross swords with him, Princess!" Hector tried again.

It was clear that Zoro didn't intend to let her through. "I don't really have much choice, General," she said under her breath. Despite her apology, a smile started to tease her lips. "Is it true that you seek to become the world's greatest swordsman?" she asked, directing her question to Zoro.

He simply raised a brow in her direction, one hand resting on his katana.

"Let's see if you are as good as they say," she said.


She quickly unsheathed two rapiers hidden on her back beneath the cape. Why she went for them when there was a perfectly good blade at her side, Zoro only had to wonder at for a moment. She threw both blades into the air, then stood on her hands and…

…caught them in between her toes?

He stared. Luffy aside, she had the most flexible toes he had ever seen. They were strong too. She held the blades against the insoles of her sturdy sandals, between her big and pointer toes so that they pointed straight forward.

He smirked at her. It was hard to imagine a swordsman getting anywhere with such compromised footing. Still, he had seen her skill with a simple dagger.

Next she drew the rapier at her side, which looked somehow more flexible than her foot blades. It had a more elaborate hilt and handguard, most likely because it was meant to be used by her hands. The other blades lacked handguards.

Crossing the air in front of her heart with the fancier rapier, she threw it into the air above her head, caught it with her left hand, then slashed a line between him and herself in the wood. She pronounced this motion, "Crossing the Rubicon." Flipping the blade behind her shoulders, it returned to her right hand, and she took a step over the line, taking a fencer's stance without any trouble with her bladed footwear.

He drew his other swords, placing one in his mouth.

"So you finally see me as a threat?" she asked with a wry grin. "Let's see how your three sword style holds up to mine."

They launched at each other. All the while the Merry rumbled behind them and started to go down, tilting the playing field. This gave his attacker the higher ground, and she wasn't shy about using her advantage. She pressed forward, trying to beat him down, lashing out with all three blades. Like her rapier, she was flexible and bendy, and on several occasions her weapons seemed to snake past his so that he had to invent creative ways to block her.

Her style was light on her toes to work around the blades in her feet- fluid, ungrounded. When he figured this out, he immediately saw his advantage. What she had in flexibility he could counter with strength. While she had managed a few touchés, she couldn't do more than lightly graze him. If he could land one good hit she would be down for the count.

Unfortunately her style kept him moving too lightly on his own feet for him to really ground a powerful attack as yet. But he had a feeling once their blades got moving at full speed, he'd find his advantage.

In fact, she seemed to have a hole in her fighting style, something keeping her from going in for a more fatal attack. The dagger! As a traditional fencer, she most likely used a dagger in her left hand, which he had already disarmed.

"Nine Muses," she said suddenly. The movement was similar to the Third Triumvirate, only this time, she seemed to be catching him in a cage made from her three swords, a nine way slash. He managed to predict her movements only just in time to block them, and she flipped away for a breather. This was the advantage he was looking for.

"Oni Giri!"

He launched his demon attack at her. She blocked it, standing on her one hand to use all three of her swords.

"Not bad," he conceded.

"I won't lose to you," she informed him calmly, still balanced on one hand. "Dance of the Fates! Spin!" She rotated, cycloning her swords outward. "Measure!" She flipped over his head, taken measured slashes at him as she went. "Cut!" She continued the momentum of the movement to bring her back again on one hand. Her legs became a large pair of scissors, with her feet turned so that the blades encompassed Zoro and could very well have cut him in half.

Though he had parried the first two hits, he found himself corralled by her movements into a compromised position within her scissor blades. He blocked her quickly, bringing one of his swords forward to keep the blades from finishing the snipping movement. Her legs thus immobilized, she was wide open for a strike, especially because she had balanced her weight on the hand bearing her rapier. He brought his two remaining blades down hard.

What he hadn't realized was that her "Dance of the Fates" had brought her close to the Merry. Though her sword arm was trapped with her sword beneath her, with her left hand she retrieved her dagger, and brought it up to stop both his blades in one swift movement.

"I failed to inform you," she said. "I actually prefer four sword-style."

"I assumed as much," he replied.


Usopp and Nami disappeared below deck to attempt to plug up the several leaks that had sprung up in the hull. Luffy and Robin were just starting to revive, but could only just pull themselves upright. Luffy gave up after a few seconds and collapsed again, falling asleep with a loud snore. Robin turned to Chopper, who had as of then focused his attentions on trying to free Sanji.

"Chopper…! We'll never be able to fix this damage in time."

"I know!" Chopper exclaimed, "I think Sanji's leg is broken!" The leg in question was stuck at an extremely awkward angle within the wood.

"Not that," Robin replied. "This ship is going down, no matter what we do."

Taking on his animal form, and with Sanji grabbing onto his horns, the blue-nosed reindeer finally managed to pull the cook free from the now crumbling wood of the deck. The leg in question wasn't broken, of course, but Sanji was looking extremely put out.

He walked casually to the collapsed pile of human and wood that was the semi-conscious form of the man called Hector. Meanwhile, Chopper disappeared below deck in response to Robin's prodding. A moment later they heard him put a rumble ball into action. He said something about defense point, and summarily the ship ceased its sinking. His furry puffiness must have done something to plug up a major hole or two, at least for a few minutes.

"We've got maybe two options," Robin said quietly. "Either we commandeer their ship or…"

"Or we get this one to help us repair ours," Sanji finished for her, nudging the large, recumbent man with his toe.

"Exactly," Robin said.

Sanji grinned. "Robin-swan! We're even finishing each other's sentences…!"

"You'll have to retrieve that dagger if we're to revive him," Robin pointed out, patiently ignoring his last comment. "I can't touch it. It looks like it is forged from a sea prism stone."

"Yes, Robin-swan!" Sanji made to get the dagger, but found himself suddenly face to face with the woman combating Zoro. With a flick of her wrist, she retrieved the dagger from the ship's hull.

Thus released from the grip of the prism stone, the wooden man returned completely into human form, collapsing weakly on the deck. Sanji rested one dangerous foot on the big man's armored shoulder, preventing him from pushing himself upright.

"Listen," Sanji said, puffing on his cigarette. "You've put us in a pretty tight spot here, but I'm willing to bet you can get us out of it. Now, I'd rather not use this," he cocked his foot, "What's it gonna be?"

Sanji had been expecting the man to take at least as long as Robin and Luffy had to recover, but quite suddenly the man disappeared into the wooden deck.


The straw hats had not taken into account that the sea prism dagger, while it had been embedded into the hull to which Hector had melded, had not done any injury to his physical person the way it had with Robin and Luffy. The two injured pirates still lay prone while the general returned to his work.

With a satisfied smirk, Helena heard the Going Merry groan loudly. The rain started coming down hard now. Lightning crashed. She had to keep her attention focused entirely on the fight; footing had become treacherous with the wind and the waves and the ever tilting playing field.

Time to end this quickly. She knew it gave his strength an advantage, but she turned several back handsprings away from him to give them both room. She could barely see his smirk in the strobe-like flash of lightning to follow. Yes, he too realized this would be the final blow.

Holding rapier and dagger together, shorter in front of the longer, she closed her eyes as if in prayer. As he dashed toward her, all three katana at the ready, her eyes snapped open.

"Wrath of Zeus!" she cried, lightning crashing behind her. She charged forward with more speed than she had hitherto demonstrated.

Blades, four and three, clashed loudly above wind and rain and sinking ship. Both swordsmen stumbled back, then stared at one another in surprise. They had each managed to disarm the other – Helena's hand rapier had buried itself in the side of the pirate ship, and one of Zoro's katana had done likewise in her own ship's hull. Both blades wobbled with the impact.

The plank below them suddenly snapped, throwing Roronoa Zoro toward the raging sea. Helena might have followed him downward, but Hector, who had undoubtedly been the one to snap the plank, suddenly appeared beside her and snatched her up, leaping back aboard their own ship.

A giant wave drove the two battling ships apart. As the pirate ship disappeared in the haze of the storm, Helena gripped the empty rapier sheath at her side and prayed that that was the last anyone would see of the straw hat pirates.