Luffy's too absorbed in his own thoughts to pay attention to the startled fishmen and merfolk who stop to stare, exchange perplexed glances or even point webbed fingers when they recognize the pirates marching through their midst, and he's equally oblivious to the low-pitched argument occurring directly behind him.

"Where the hell's he going?" Usopp demands. "I thought we were headed straight to Impel Down!"

"I don't know, but I really doubt he's fooling around sightseeing- not after last night," Nami hisses back at the sniper. "We'll just have to trust he knows what he's doing."

"I sure hope so. I mean, he was in such a hurry this morning and then oh, nope, never mind- FIELD TRIP."

The entire crew's exhausted and more than slightly ill-tempered because after waking panic-stricken and teary-eyed for the third night in a row, Luffy spent the hours until sunrise pacing the small room and inadvertently making enough noise to keep everyone else awake as well. Then, as soon as the first rays of light broke the horizon, he'd insisted on leaving immediately for their destination, even as the coating mechanic applied the finishing touches to their ship. He's been anxious and unusually terse all morning, not to mention brimming with nervous energy. He's also given orders involving a brief detour immediately following their arrival on Fishman Island. Apparently there's somebody he's looking for who'll be able to get him something he needs- which isn't very specific, but it's all the information anyone can get out of him.

As a result, he, Nami and Usopp have been wandering around Coral Hill for nearly an hour now while Franky and the others assist Tom's brother Den with making some badly-needed repairs and applying a fresh coating to the Sunny, but the younger pirate's repeatedly ignored their repeated questions about who or what he's trying to find, and the navigator - sympathetic to his moodiness but starting to lose her patience regardless - is seconds away from grabbing the collar of the rubber man's shirt, intending to SHAKE some answers out of him if necessary, when he finally spots a familiar face gaping at him and bolts towards it.

"Luffy-chin? What are you doing here?"

"Keimi! We've been looking all over for you!"

Nami blinks, wondering what in the world Luffy could possibly want with the mermaid. She's certainly sweet-tempered although not exactly the brightest fish in the sea and probably one of the last people the redhead would call on to accompany the crew into battle, and honestly, she's a little surprised the captain hasn't marched straight to the palace to demand assistance from Princess Shirahoshi or her father. If anything, he seems inclined to AVOID the royal family, and thus far he's made a point of dodging for cover whenever he's spied a member of the Neptune Army headed in their direction.

But regardless of what he's thinking, Luffy's surely got SOMETHING in mind that requires Keimi's help, because he's pulled her aside for what looks like an entirely serious conversation, his face shadowed by his straw hat as he gestures hurriedly in the direction they've docked their ship.

She and Usopp watch as their friend reacts to what she's just been told, her large expressive eyes glistening as she throws both arms around their captain's shoulders and hugs him tightly- and then stiffens when he murmurs something in her ear. She pulls back to hold him at arm's length, her face filled with wonder and her eyes now impossibly wide.

Luffy nods, not quite grinning but obviously pleased with the news he's just shared, and the mermaid utters a little shriek and hugs him again. He squeezes back briefly before launching into an impassioned discussion that Keimi joins without reservation, looking simultaneously delighted and concerned.

Waving towards the location of the Sunny once again, the captain rattles off a series of quick questions, his excitement visibly growing when she responds with enthusiastic nodding.

"What's he up to?" Usopp muses. "He's got that look..."

"You mean the one that means he's about to drag us into something really crazy?"

"Yep, that loo-" Beyond them, Luffy's beckoning frantically for his crew mates to follow as he grabs Keimi's hand before whirling and charging back the way they've come, pulling the mermaid with him. "O-Oi- NOW where's he going?"

"I don't know, but maybe we're about to find out what's going on. Come on, before he leaves us behind!"

xxx

Zoro's confused and disoriented when he regains consciousness, good eye fluttering open only to quickly snap shut. He groans as the throbbing in his head's instantly multiplied a thousand-fold by the light shining directly in his face; it seems exceptionally bright after the darkness of his cell. Squinting painfully, he can barely make out a landscape of blurry shapes around him, but he still has no idea where the hell he's found himself.

But while he may not know his location, he most certainly does know he aches all over- especially somewhere he'd rather not think about right now.

It takes a few minutes for his vision to adjust, but eventually he's able to see his surroundings: a large room filled with gurneys, monitors, other more unidentifiable equipment, and white-coated doctors bustling back and forth carrying clipboards, some of them accompanied by bored-looking guards.

Either everyone's too preoccupied to notice he's awake or they simply don't see him as a potential threat given his condition, because no one's paying him any attention.

Sure don't feel like a threat. I FEEL like somebody fuckin' beat me half to death. Which isn't far from the truth, he reflects bitterly. Guess they figured I wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. He shifts slightly and winces. Guess they're right.

The swordsman's lying on his right side surrounded by beeping, flashing contraptions similar to what he saw in that clinic back before everything went to shit, and when his left hand moves automatically to touch his belly - he's a little surprised to find his wrists free, which tells him that his captors DEFINITELY don't view him as a threat - he discovers a broad belt-like band strapped around his midsection and connected with wires to one of the chirping boxes. There's a small screen on one side, and for several moments he stares transfixed at the green line bouncing across it, not quite sure what he's seeing because Chopper sure doesn't have anything like THIS in the Sunny's infirmary.

Summoning his courage, he eases a leg off the cot and slowly sits up- only to feel crippling pain flare through his rear and lower back. Dark spots swim around the edges of his vision, and he bites the inside of his cheek to muffle a gasp and then again, even harder, to prevent himself crying out as he hunches over, groping for the iv pole beside him. His sudden movement pulls free a few of the cables tethering him to nearby machines, which start emitting high-pitched shrills of alarm, but he doesn't notice because he's too busy fighting to keep his balance.

Who knew a couple of missing fingers would make it so goddamn hard to hold onto something?

He's reached for the pole automatically, body and brain alike expecting a firm grasp capable of supporting his weight. Instead, he's gotten an awkward grip with thumb and forefinger- the only unscathed digits remaining on his right hand. Because the Chief Guard wanted to cause as much pain and mental anguish as possible, she'd opted to sever them one joint at a time, and as a result had only taken his pinky, ring finger and the very tip of his middle finger before losing her temper.

He should probably consider himself lucky, he thinks glumly as he's grabbed by unfamiliar gloved hands and pushed back onto the thin mattress before he can fall to the floor, because she'd intended to remove ALL of them.

If he survives long enough to get out of here, and if Sadi-chan doesn't decide to come back and finish the job, maybe- just maybe- he'll eventually learn to hold a sword in his right hand again.

xxx

"Let's go, let's go, let's go," Luffy chants impatiently from the Sunny's figurehead where he planted himself with much ceremony after herding the crew back onto the ship and chasing Franky into the energy room to replace their spent barrels of cola. To his nakama's relief, he's been a lot more like himself since his meeting with Keimi, hounding Sanji for food like he hadn't done in weeks - for once, the cook hadn't argued, because they're all going to need their strength for what's ahead - and begging a surprised Usopp to repaint the Jolly Roger they'd previously been too dispirited to hoist.

The sniper was initially confused by the request, because it seemed a trivial matter compared to their other preparations, but when the steely-eyed captain insisted he wanted the Marines to know exactly whose nakama they'd made the mistake of messing with, Usopp had merely nodded and headed straight for the men's quarters to retrieve his paint and brushes.

When they ran the finished flag up the mast, however, he'd sheepishly declared it wasn't his best work; along with the rest of the ship, his art supplies hadn't fared too well, and he'd been forced to use a darker shade of yellow than he'd liked because the contents of several paint tubes had exploded all over the inside of his locker from the fire's heat. Luffy, on the other hand, had taken one look and proclaimed it perfect, explaining, "I want Zoro to see it when he walks out the front gate."

Now, with the most essential repairs complete and his own mysterious plans in motion, the captain's so eager to set sail that he's overlooking one crucial detail.

"Oi, get down here unless you wanna get smothered by the damn bubble!" Sanji shouts up to him.

The younger pirate reluctantly returns to the deck where his crew's gathered. "Keimi said we gotta bring the baby to visit after he's born." He utters a short laugh. "She wanted to know if Zoro's part seahorse!"

"Well, I guess you can ask Marimo when we find him. It'd certainly explain a few things."

xxx

No one will answer Zoro's questions when he eventually gets irritated and concerned enough to ask; they're far more interested in talking ABOUT him than TO him, but the swordsman finally learns through eavesdropping on numerous conversations between doctors that the bitch succeeded in giving him a concussion in addition to making it damn near impossible for him to sit upright for more than a few minutes at a time.

Apparently he's also been unconscious for nearly seventy-two hours, which doesn't particularly surprise him. His body's always had a tendency to heal faster when he's sleeping, hence his habit of crashing for multiple days following severe injuries.

Beyond that he's not entirely sure what's going on, because they're all using a lot of advanced technical and medical jargon that he doesn't understand, and it's not like he can ask them to repeat it in layman's terms. He's pretty sure they're discussing the baby with some frequency though; he recognizes a few of the phrases from Chopper and Robin's coaching, although the doctors continually refer to his and Luffy's unborn offspring as a fetus, which is kind of ridiculous at this point. "Fetus" makes him think of something the size of a peanut or possibly a mikan, but the kid's a hell of a lot bigger now.

Usopp might've unwittingly hit the nail on the head with that stupid cannon ball joke, because Zoro swears he's actually gotten rounder in the few days since the last time he got a good look at himself. The dark vertical line running from just below his navel to his pubic bone's intensified, making his abdomen bear a strong resemblance to an extremely large ripened apricot. Frickin' fuzzy like one too...

Given Sadi's conspicuous absence, he's been trying to catch up on sleep, but he can't seem to get comfortable enough to doze more than an hour or two; his cramped lungs already make it hard enough to breathe these days without also being sprawled on his side with his hands now securely re-cuffed behind him, and there always seems to be someone disturbing his rest to palpate his belly or take another blood sample. But the padded table in the medical bay's still a million times better than the hard cement of his Level Six cell.

A thorough bathing at some point during his somnolence's also left him cleaner than he's been in weeks. Unfortunately, his coat's gone, replaced by an open-fronted cotton hospital gown worn so thin it serves little purpose other than making him uncomfortably aware he's naked beneath it.

He doesn't like the doctors touching him and abrades them with verbal abuse whenever their gloved fingers poke his abdomen too hard or stray too close to places where he most definitely doesn't want them, but at least they go about their tasks in a cold, clinical fashion that's nothing like the bitch's crude advances, so the medical procedures are mostly tolerable too- although he could certainly do without so many needles. In reality, it's no worse than anything his own doctor was already doing- although their intense interest in "the fetus" bothers him for reasons he can't explain.

Maybe he's imagining things because he's tired and- okay, fine, he'll admit it- frightened of what might happen if the crew doesn't appear soon, but the interest of his callous custodians seems like more than just curiosity for a highly unusual case. Because despite all the constant monitoring - sometimes he feels like one of those squiggly bacterium-things he knows Chopper likes to peer at through his microscope while he's researching the effectiveness of new medicines - they're obviously far more interested in the baby he's carrying than the swordsman himself.

Why's the kid so damn important? Why do they suddenly care so much NOW, when they could've just let that bitch kill me and saved themselves the trouble of an execution?

It feels almost like he's missing the most important piece of some strange puzzle.

xxx

Luffy initially wants to go through the G-1 Gate because it's closer and therefore in his mind faster, but after much arguing, an unexpected fist fight and a black eye or two, the crew finally manages to convince him it's a bad idea. Ever since the former Marine Headquarters was rebuilt, there's been an excess of ships docked in its harbors, and before the Straw Hats' departure, Keimi and Den warned them that the base's residents have gained a dubious reputation for firing first and asking questions later, probably because they're determined to prevent their new establishment from ever suffering the same destruction and humiliation as Marineford.

The captain, impatient and still spoiling for a fight, declares he'll gladly kick all their opponents' asses, no matter how many ships the G-1 Marines want to send after them, but he eventually agrees to using the Enies Lobby Gate because Robin promises him that, by using Nami's navigation skills to ride the edge of the Tarai Current, they'll reach their target faster without being drawn into pointless exchanges of cannon fire or having overeager recruits attempting to board the Sunny in hopes of making names for themselves.

Besides, although the World Government's been quick to establish a new stronghold and rebuild their maximum security prison, they've been less concerned with the remaining point on their triangle of power. The structure's always been little more than a pretense anyway, considering they've never had much use for fair trials, so Enies Lobby is still under heavy construction thanks to the Straw Hat pirates' last visit, even though it's now more than two years later.

Fewer opponents, a faster route, and although he's continued being aggravatingly tight-lipped about his plans, Luffy's assured them repeatedly they'll have absolutely no trouble getting through the Gate itself, so what could possibly go wrong?

Unfortunately that old adage of "too good to be true" is alive and well. The smaller currents sweeping off the Tarai are far stronger than either the historian or the navigator anticipated, and when the gyres start pushing the Sunny far enough away that Nami's afraid she'll lose her bearings entirely, Franky's forced to pull some drastic stunts that leave everyone clinging to the ship and each other as the cyborg fights to hold the ship's wheel steady.

Alternating between half-powered Coup de Burst and Chicken Voyage blasts to weave back and forth through the powerful currents makes for a very bumpy and nauseating ride.

"Franky, if you ever do that again-" Nami moans from where she's bent over the railing and struggling valiantly not to vomit down the port side after they've finally bounced around the last turn and found themselves skirting the Judicial Island. "-I swear I'm going to stuff you in one of your own cola bottles and toss you out to sea."

Usopp slowly releases the staircase railing he's clutching over by the foremast, takes one wobbling step back and promptly falls on his rear, nearly sitting on the reindeer who's sprawled spread-eagle on the grass, whimpering for the sky to stop spinning. "He got us here, didn't he? Oh god, I think I'm gonna be sick..."

Moving unsteadily, the crew gathers along the railing to stare at the tall fence between them and the hazy outline of the gigantic door they'll need to breach once they get inside Enies Lobby.

"Gaon Cannon?" Franky inquires, glancing over at the captain, who's peering down into the shadowy depths below them, squinting and shielding his eyes from the sun's glare reflecting off the water. "Or we could use the Coup de Burst again too, but we're prolly gonna need to fire it twice to get over that thing. Ship's not in great shape and we'll probably lose some more paneling, but she'll hold together." He pats the railing affectionately. "This babe's built to last."

"Nah, you can save the cola 'cause we got company," Luffy replies, grinning suddenly, and when he looks up his eyes are dancing with excitement and amusement. "Shishishi- check this out!"

"We've got- company?"

"Yeah, like I said- just watch!"

To the crew's amazement, the nearest section of fence quivers, twists and crumples inward on itself and then abruptly vanishes from sight as it's yanked beneath water that's suddenly churning and bubbling, leaving an empty gap far wider than the Sunny actually needs to pass through unhindered.

The rubber man smirks at the stunned expressions on his nakama's faces, spins on his heel and heads for the Sunny's bow to gleefully reclaim his customary seat on the lion's head, gesturing towards the giant doors awaiting them. "Okay, NOW shoot us over there!"

"What the-? What just happened?"

"Luffy, what the hell's going on here?" Sanji calls up from the lawn deck. "You still haven't told us-"

"Come on, come on!" The captain urges impatiently, flailing both arms in agitation. "I guess it took Keimi a lot longer to find him than she thought it would, but he's here now, so we can go!"

Robin closes her eyes briefly, concentrating, and utters a bewildered chuckle as she finally comprehends why Luffy's waved away their questions about exactly how they're going to open both gigantic sets of doors and why he's been so unconcerned about pitting a meager eight people and one battered ship against whatever's waiting for them on the other side of the Impel Down Gate. Ah, good thinking, Captain.

"Wha-? HE? He who? Who's down there?" Nami demands, tightening her grip on the railing as Franky reaches for the controls, but Luffy just grins over his shoulder at her and erupts into wild laughter, grabbing a tight hold on the figurehead and clapping a hand to his hat to prevent it from flying off his head when the ship lunges forward.

Thanks to the danger posed by the enormous waterfall ring, there are no vessels patrolling inside the now defunct fence, but the Sunny's performed a full-strength, three-barrel-powered maneuver this time, and the resulting noise of the blast- as well as the sight of a brig sloop sailing unexpectedly through the air- immediately catches the attention of the few ships stationed near the scaffold-laden entrance gates of the island.

"Oi, you there, what do you think you're-? OOOI, IT'S MUGIWARA!"

There's a frenzy of activity as the startled Marines race to turn their ships after the invading pirates, but no one onboard the Sunny pays them much mind because, despite their shipwright's best efforts, the Coup de Burst's set them down mere feet from the waterfall, and they're being swept along by the water cascading down the sides of the precipice.

"Franky, we're too close to the edge!" Nami shrieks, ducking as several empty cola barrels bounce past her to disappear into the seemingly bottomless chasm. She throws out an arm to make a desperate grab for Chopper's scrabbling, wailing form before he can follow, seizing the reindeer by the collar and praying his shirt doesn't rip as he dangles from her hand with both hooves covering his eyes. "We need to-!"

"NO! NO, HOLD IT STEADY!" Luffy screams at the cyborg, flinging his arms in tight coils around the figurehead to avoid being thrown overboard as the Sunny lists more violently, tilting nearly sideways over the sink hole, and for a moment the navigator's absolutely convinced they're going over. But then there's a hard bump against the hull and the ship rights itself, timbers groaning, and the centrifugal force produced by the current just outside the fall's edge shoots the vessel into the calmer waters beyond it.

"Damn, that was close," Sanji groans, extricating himself from Usopp and Brook where they've landed in a tangle of limbs at the base of the slide. Intent on reaching Nami, the cook doesn't notice when he accidentally treads on the sniper's nose, producing a string of curses. "Nami-san, are you-?"

"You should be more worried about yourself," the navigator scolds, waving away the hand he's offering as she struggles to her feet, giving the trembling reindeer in her arms a tight squeeze before she sets him on his feet. "I know those ribs aren't completely healed yet, not with the way you've been running around instead of resting like Chopper told you."

"Ahhh, Nami-swan's so sweet being concerned about my health-!"

Usopp, sitting cross-legged beside Brook - who's just declared rather cheerfully that he's sufficiently rattled, seeing as how he's nothing but bones - and clutching his face, interrupts both skeleton and cook as he glances up and immediately forgets all about his injured proboscis. "Uh, g-guys-?"

Several yards away but closing fast, the occupants of the first Marine vessel to pass the damaged fence stare dumbfounded as the Straw Hats abruptly realize their predicament and most of the pirates promptly panic- except for the tall, dark-haired woman standing on the starboard stern and peering back at them, one arm raised to shade her eyes from the sun, and the captain who's-

"KEEP GOING!" Luffy's shouting at his crew, stabbing a finger repeatedly towards the obstacle before them. "IT'S OKAY, SO QUIT FREAKING OUT AND KEEP GOING!"

The volume of his voice carries across the water to the pursuing ship, loud enough to make him heard over the waterfall's roar and the uniformed men shoot confused, disbelieving glances at each other and their superior officers.

"What the hell is he thinking? That Gate's not going to open on its own!"

"I don't know, but I don't like this. Get on that den den mushi and call-"

"-clutch," Robin murmurs, the corner of her lips turning up in a grim smile as she watches disembodied limbs sprout to snap the necks and backs of the unsuspecting Marine captain and his men. A drastic measure, perhaps, but there's a nakama's life at stake. Two lives, really, given the baby he's carrying, and does the historian deem those two lives worth the lives of all the people she's just permanently incapacitated? Some might question her judgement, but yes, she does. During her years as a trained assassin, she'd never been afraid to dirty her hands during the completion of an assignment- and Zoro and his unborn child are no assignment. They're family.

With no one left to man the helm, the Marine vessel slips from the current, caught in the powerful tug of the waterfall, and hovers momentarily on the edge before plummeting out of sight.

The metallic tang of fear flooding her mouth, oblivious to what's just occurred behind her, Nami stares up at the barrier they're approaching far more quickly than she expected, knowing that they're going to plow headlong into the Gate unless they execute some kind of evasive maneuver in the next few seconds. "LUFFY!"

"I SAID HOLD!" The captain bellows, releasing his grip so he can rise to his feet, swaying dangerously as he glares up at the closed doors, straw hat flopping wildly behind him on the cord secured around his neck. There's no turning back now, no time for doubt- just blind trust that their friend lurking below the surface won't let them down. "NOW, SURUME!"

At his command, massive tentacles erupt from the depths surrounding the ship to slap against the Gate with a thunderous boom, hurling seawater high into the air, and Robin laughs aloud in delight, taking cover under the overhang of interlocking hands she's just sprouted from the outer dining hall wall, while the rest of the crew backs nervously towards the center of the lawn deck, gasping in shock as they're soaked by the water cascading from the sky.

Luffy stands his ground as a monstrous eye emerges beside the Sunny, grinning hugely as the colossal orbit rolls towards him. "Shishishi- been a while, huh, Surume? You're gonna help us get Zoro 'n our baby back, right?"

Now safely cradling the brig sloop with the few arms not wriggling bonelessly against the Gate, Surume responds by firing a brief jet of water past the captain.

"Wasn't sure we'd find you, 'cause I thought you might be with your brothers but Keimi said you came back to visit 'hoshi." He points up at the sealed doors. "Think you can bust that thing open?"

The socket surrounding the huge eye constricts, giving the impression their aquatic ally's squinting in concentration as he gives a cautious tug, testing his grip.

"Luffy! Luffy, we've got company!"

As though to punctuate this announcement, a series of loud bangs go off behind them. One cannon ball whizzes past to rebound off a sliver of Gate visible between Surume's tentacles. Another crashes through one of the observation room's rear windows, and a third takes out a large section of railing near where Robin's standing.

"Luffy, we're goddamn sitting ducks!" Sanji shouts from below. "If he's opening that shitty door, he better do it now!"

"Ship can't take direct bombardment!" Franky roars. "Structure's been weakened by the fire- we gotta get her outta here!"

"Okay, Surume, c'mon- PULL!" Luffy orders, but Surume's already moving, and the rubber man staggers as the elastic mass beneath them actually lifts the ship clear of the water, only the slender hands blossoming from the lion's head to grab his ankles keep him from tumbling overboard. He barely notices, too absorbed by the sight above him, but Usopp, clinging to the staircase rail with both arms, looks back to mouth a silent thank-you to Robin.

There's a few deafening reports as several suction cups pop loose from the Gate's slick surface, but then the kraken surges forward, carrying the Sunny with it, and plasters the foremost portion of its body against the doors, tentacle tips groping determinedly along the crack down the center.

The Gate creaks ominously under the assault and Luffy utters a shout of approval, immediately echoed by Usopp, Chopper and Franky- who rounds out his own holler with a joyous "YOW!" that draws an incredulous smile from Nami.

"Oi," the shipwright grins, nudging her. "Calamari-bro's lendin' us some tentacles, right? Figure it doesn't hurt to give 'im a cheering squad."

"We need all the help we can get," the navigator agrees. "-but Luffy could've at least given us some warning! And you-! How long have you known?"

Robin, having just joined them on the lawn deck, raises her hands in silent appeal, laughing softly. "Not much longer than the rest of you, I promise."

"Look!" Chopper squeals suddenly, pointing to where Surume's efforts have finally paid off and a thin line of light's become visible down the center of the Gate. The doctor flings his arms around Nami's leg and hugs it happily, once again adding his voice to Luffy's exuberant yelling and his crew mates' sudden excited exchanges, because there's no longer any doubt in his mind that they're doing it, they're really going to-

"Yohohohohoho!"

"Alright!" Franky whoops, punching a fist into the air. "Next stop, Impel Down!"

"Oi oi, let's go! Let's go get Zoro and our baby!" Luffy barks down at them, looking back over his shoulder as the doors groan open before them, and Chopper falls momentarily silent amidst his cheering, embracing nakama at the sight of their captain's austere eyes gleaming brightly above his muted but confident grin, awe stopping the reindeer's breath in his throat because he's distantly but instinctively aware that he's being granted a glimpse of the future Pirate King, the great man Luffy intends to become.