"Switch," she said.
The screaming pain in her thigh was abruptly silenced.
Mr 5 found himself on the floor, with a roar of agony. His fingers tensed above the wound, shaking as the grappled with the pain. The blood was gushing from the slit on his thigh, while the only sign that Cedra had been cut was the rip in her dark pants, and the darker stain of blood around it. The red liquid now dripped from a slash in her hand.
"You…you…" Before he could finish his statement, a large object flew across, knocking him into a nearby building.
"ZOROOOOOO!" Luffy, one hand positioned atop his head to steady his signature straw hat, face contorted with fury, came charging into the scene. "I'll never forgive you!" The swordsman spun with a look of absolute astonishment.
"WHAT?" Seizing the opportunity, Ms Valentine ran to the rescue of her injured partner, as Luffy and Zoro became entangled in a scuffle.
"How dare you attack these kind people!?" Luffy yelled, raising both fists in the air. "Those people over there said you beat them up! And after the huge party they threw to welcome us? How could you?" Cedra dropped her head into her palm.
"How could you…be so dense…" she muttered under her breath as Zoro frantically tried to explain himself. Before he could finish, Luffy launched himself at the swordsman with a roar again. He barely managed to dodge the blow, and gaped in astonishment as Luffy's fist pulverized an entire section of wall.
"Are you trying to KILL me?"
"Yes, DIE!" The fight intensified, much to Cedra's and Vivi's dismay. Cedra skirted the two of them and tapped Vivi on the shoulder.
"Let's get out of here in the meantime. I can switch you up the blockage, so head over to the docks immediately." The two of them ran towards the mountain of rubble but stopped short as a parasol-wielding figure crashed down before them.
"Looks like I'll have to abandon my partner for a while huh." Cedra glanced over at the man lying on the side, unconscious, blood already soaking the crude bandage and tourniquet. "Whether he loses his leg or not, I'll have this mission completed by the time he awakes. He'll thank me for the payback." Ms Valentine ground her teeth, glaring at the two of them.
"So you can feel loyalty too, huh." Cedra mocked, while subtly motioning for Vivi to pass her a stone. She clenched the pebble in hand, then with a deep breath, tossed it over the wall. Just as it reached the top of its trajectory and threatened to fall out of sight, she flipped her fingers and flung herself at Ms Valentine. As the world tilted, her heart soared with triumph as she saw Vivi scramble to the top of the pile of rubble and slide down the other side.
"Get back here, you bitch!" Ms Valentine snarled, pretty face twisted in anger, jumping up with minimum weight. A hand grabbed her ankle and flung her to the ground, hard, before she could do so. Cold steel pressed against her neck.
"Your opponent is me." Cedra panted, pinning Ms Valentine's shoulders to the ground. She knew it was futile even as Ms Valentine increased to maximum weight and, with a heave, flipped Cedra over such that she was now pinning her to the ground. She gasped as the painful pressure of the knees on her chest increased, squeezing out the air. She could not breathe, could not think…The only thing she was aware of was the dirk in her hand. She brought it up, swiping blindly in an arc. The flashing metal caused Ms Valentine to jerk back instinctively, temporarily releasing Cedra. She seized the chance and bucked, throwing Ms Valentine off and scrambling to her feet, fighting to breathe normally, and grinned triumphantly as blood trickled in a thin line down the scratch she had managed to inflict on her opponent's skin. The officer agent touched a hand to her jaw warily, well aware of Cedra's ability.
"Someone with your ability should not have remained in the Millions…" she frowned. "I do not know why you have hidden your powers until now, but now that I know how your ability works, I will not let you touch me!" So-saying, she flung her lightweight self in an arcing leap above the ground. Grabbing a fistful of stones and pouring them into the pouch at her side, Cedra took twisted her body, bringing the hand holding a pebble as far back as she could, then took two skipping preparatory steps and flung the stone as high as it could go. When it had reached the top of its trajectory, she switched, another stone already in hand. The next pebble brought her right behind the enemy, who twisted, slapping away the hand already reaching for the cut on her jaw. The blonde girl drew her knees up and drove both feet with maximum weight into Cedra's stomach, winding her and sending both of them flying towards the buildings on opposite sides of the lane from the force. She cursed and flung a pebble up and over, sending it skittering onto the roof. The moment it touched the roof she flipped her fingers. The stone ricocheted off the spot where she had been heading for with immense force, while she rolled painfully across the roof, flopping on the concrete and gasping for breath, curling around the area where she had been kicked. She felt nothing but numbness now, but knew the bruises would spring up painfully later. Forcing herself to stand, she looked around for Ms Valentine. The crash site in the opposite building was empty. Instinct had her dropping and rolling as the heavyweight woman came crashing down through the roof of the building. She watched the hole, fighting to catch her breath, waiting with a stone in her palm. As the bedraggled and furious figure of the officer agent shot up again she threw the stone with deadly accuracy and appeared right in front of Ms Valentine, dirk raised. And stepped away as the blonde lady crumpled, unconscious from the hard blow to the back of her head with the heavy silver handle of the dirk.
"Because pulling the same trick twice in one battle would just be so boring," Cedra finished with a grin, before running across the roof to catch up with her friend, completely forgetting about the two bull-headed boys still battling it out on the street. Unbeknownst to her, the two defeated officer agents had found each other again.
"We can't let it go like this." Mr 5 gasped, grimacing against the pain in his leg
"Yeah, let's at least take out those two pirates." Ms Valentine helped her partner up, struggling to ignore the pounding in her temples from the hard knock. Her brain felt loosely anchored, sloshing around painfully in her skull. "Our pride must not be tainted!"
The two pathetic figures staggered towards the brawling idiots.
"Let's go!" They nodded at each other, and prepared to charge. Suddenly the clamour settled. The fight seemed to have stopped. They paused mid-step, searching the dust cloud for a victor. Two silhouettes seemed to be standing though.
"God, you two are annoying." Their voices chilled the two agents to the bone. They immediately began back-tracking, but it was already too late. Ms Valentine let loose a wild scream as she was unceremoniously flung back into the air, despite weighing herself down for all she was worth. "Getting in the way of our fight!" Mr 5 was similarly knocked out of the way with the back of Zoro's sword.
"So damn annoying," Zoro growled, thoroughly exasperated by the day's events.
"Who the hell were they, anyway? That lady needs to lose some weight. She's so heavy…" Luffy complained, swinging his arm around to loosen the muscles. "Well then." He eyed Zoro, pulling back said arm in preparation. "Shall we continue?" The clean snick of unsheathing swords was his only reply. Except the fight never continued, as fortunately for the blissfully unaware undercover princess nearing the dock, a certain cat-thief interceded in a no less violent—but successful, nonetheless—manner.
Somehow, the whole group had caught up with each other at the docks sometime later. As anticipated, a certain materialistic navigator was attempting to squeeze her money's worth from the princess of Alabasta. Vivi gave a weary sigh, then looked up at them, earning a rare silence from the rowdy crew of pirates.
"Have you ever heard of the kingdom of Alabasta?"
As the princess shared her story, Cedra's heart sank. It would seem her superior and friend was in deeper trouble than she had expected. She had no reason to doubt her tale; whatever she had said tied in with the scant information she had managed to glean as the Lioness over the past few years. After a while, she took to staring at Luffy, who, though listening to the story, was as easily distracted as she remembered. He perched on the barrel, the slightly bored expression only leaving his face at the mention of a powerful boss. I wonder if Luffy would know where he is…she mused. Suddenly she realised that everyone had fallen uncharacteristically silent, and bore a look of horror on their faces. With a start, Cedra leapt to her feet, drawing her dirks, glancing from side to side.
"What, what's happening?" She looked around wildly in confusion.
"Didn't you just say his name…" the dry and contrastingly calm drawl came from Zoro, who bore a look of long-suffering.
"What, whose name?" But everyone was too busy staring in dismay at the otter and vulture flying off into the distance, presumably bringing the bad tidings to said boss. The Unluckies? She thought. Finally Zoro thought to enlighten her.
"We've just been told that the boss of Baroque Works is Crocodile, the Shichibukai, and he's probably on his way to hunt us down now because of those two." He jerked his head in the vague direction of the far off silhouettes.
"What? Are you kidding?" She yelled, eyes bugging out. She was nowhere near ready to face an enemy with logia fruit powers. Terror and anxiety seized her chest, tightening its hold over her lungs. But when her eyes met Zoro's, she recognised the exact same expression as that which Luffy bore—not one of fear, but excitement and anticipation. "You guys are all nuts…" she muttered under her breath, sinking to her haunches and resting her head on her folded arms. Meanwhile there was general chaos as Nami, the navigator, attempted in vain to escape and Vivi attempted to console her.
"Fear not!" An all too familiar voice boomed out. Cedra glanced up to see a sight that would scar her eyes forever.
"Igaram, what the hell are you doing in a dress?" She stared at him incredulously.
"I have a plan, Lioness. I need the assistance of these pirates. I'm assuming you're on our side too, and therefore I'd like to request your assistance as well." Briefly he outlined the improvised plan, illustrating with the crude dummies he had made. Cedra frowned. If they were to carry out his plan, the man would be in the greatest danger. In her heart, she sighed, coming to a resolution. It would seem her personal plans would have to be postponed for a while.
"I'll come with you, Igaram." She spoke up, glancing at the huge man she had come to grudgingly respect because of his kindly manner towards the younger members of the Millions, including her. "I have some extra tricks up my sleeve that could help." Igaram studied the unreadable planes of her black mask, trying to find the answer to the question that had been bugging him.
"Why are you helping us, Cedra? You didn't need to place yourself in danger; there were no suspicions about you." The shiny black plastic that formed the lines of her mouth curved into a slight smile.
"Because it was time to leave, anyway. And can't I help my friend of three years?" She walked away without waiting for a reply, and picked up one of the three dummies. She breathed deeply through her nose as she boarded the boat used by Mr 5 and Ms Valentine, imagining the tension draining away from her shoulders, flowing out through her arms and ebbing with the waves. Setting down the dummy, she closed her eyes, allowing herself to enjoy for a moment the thrumming adrenaline the thought of embarking on a new journey again triggered in her. She heard heavy footsteps behind her and turned as Igaram laid a hand on her shoulder. The look of gratitude and relief in his weary eyes told her all he wanted to say. With an equally heartfelt smile, she patted the hand still on her shoulder before pulling away to run the last few checks on the boat before the journey. They had an eternal pose to Alabasta, but her own personal log pose, hung on a chain around her neck with a protective casing, was already logged onto the next island just in case.
They waved goodbye as their ship drifted away, leaving the four figures semi-obscured by smoke and mist behind on the pier. Just as they hit the deeper waters, Cedra tensed.
"Mines," she hissed, and grabbed Igaram around the neck, pulling the heavier man into the ocean just as the ship behind them exploded in a shower of burning timber and ash. She hit the water surface and went under moments before the shockwave thrust them a good distance away from the wreckage, riding on a wave. Turning to check on Igaram, she found the man treading water steadily but with an expression of complete shock on his face.
"How are you…" He shook his head wildly. "Do your powers come from a devil fruit?" Cedra grinned with mischief. The sea water caused a faint tingling sensation on her skin, but aside from that no other reactions.
"Yes they do. However, the next question you're going to ask can wait till we're out of this situation." She struck out for the nearest piece of wreckage, clinging on to the splintered wood and catching her breath. Scanning the smoke and flames for the culprit for the attack, she found none. The agents, if any, had probably already left assuming the both of them had perished in the violent explosion. Paddling over to Igaram, she shifted to make way for him to cling onto the long piece as well.
"We'd best start making our way to shore. It's a long swim." The daunting prospect of having to swim all the way back to the pier drove all suspicions about her immunity to the devil fruit curse out of his mind, replacing it with dismay. Little by little, the two bedraggled ex-agents propelled themselves back towards the shores of Whiskey Peak.
"They've already left," Cedra called, having checked the waterway where the Going Merry had been docked earlier.
"Good. I've found two boats here, too!" Igaram yelled back, motioning to the two wooden fishing boats tied loosely to the supporting posts of the rarely-used rickety back jetty. She jogged back, then plonked wearily down on the floor. Shouts were already drifting over from the city as dawn spilled its golden life over the island. The bounty hunters were waking and would soon find them both, already labelled as traitors.
"So what's the plan?" They laid out all they had with them—Cedra's log pose, the eternal pose to Alabasta, their individual weapons, as well as several days' worth of supplies for the both of them that Igaram had managed to glean from the nearby houses.
"Plan? We split." Before she could protest, he held up a hand for silence and continued. "You go after the Straw Hat Pirates with your own log pose. They need to be warned about potential attackers, now that our diversion has already failed. We have no idea of knowing if they are aware of that fact. I, on the other hand, will continue full speed ahead to Alabasta, where I will attempt to warn and mobilise the troops in accordance to the information we have gathered." Cedra mused over the plans for a moment, then shrugged.
"Sounds good." She swung her lightweight backpack onto the floor before her, and began rummaging for a deep pocket she had not opened for 3 years. Finding what she was looking for, she studied it for a while. "It's changed, a little, with time. I guess time still affects it the same way it would if it were on me." She murmured to herself, while Igaram looked on, mystified. Raising a hand to her smooth plastic cheek, she ran her fingertips over the familiar features of her black mask. "I won't be needing this anymore." Smiling, she raised two fingers and flipped. When she shook back her dark hair, Igaram beheld the true features of Cedra.
"I'm no longer the Lioness, just as you're no longer Mr 8." Tossing the black mask into the sea, she watched it sink before turning to face him with a grin. "Nice to meet you, Igaram. My name is Cedra. I look forward to working with you."
A/N: Okay so I shall leave you wondering how, precisely, did she get rid of her curse? Haha but that's something that won't be revealed until pretty much later in the story :)
Thank you for all the reviews! When I see reviews I sorta clutch them to my heaving (but pathetically underdeveloped) bosom and cry out in gratitude ((: mega love to the two of you who reviewed! I did try to follow your suggestions but not too used to the style of describing emotions working on it, haha I'm an author still under construction (:
Okay I hope you'll continue to read and follow and REVIEW! 3 all of you I promise I'll keep making things more exciting!
