A/N: By the time you reach the end of this chapter, you will understand why it took me so long! (and may think that I am completely crazy :p) Thanks to all who have read and left reviews, especially murasakiana who has reviewed every part! I really appreciate it.

The caves stretched on intolerably, each passing second causing Nami to hit a new level of anxiety. As Dark Luffy led them farther into the tunnel system, the path branched sharply on numerous occasions, but he continued to stride through the tunnels with a confident, purposeful gait, seemingly unwavering in his belief that they were going the right way. Following closely behind him, Nami had to stretch her hand out every now and again to touch the tunnel wall, reassuring herself that it bore more than just the semblance of solidity; it was not going to collapse into a deep, unseen pit below them. Raftel's tricks and traps had started to make her doubt the evidence of her own senses.

As a result, when they did finally emerge from the tunnels, the exit took Nami completely by surprise. Dark Luffy strode into the cavern nonchalantly, glancing over his shoulder as she stumbled out in his wake. For a moment, Nami stopped on the threshold, shocked by the sight ahead.

"The Rio Poneglyph," said Dark Luffy quietly.

And there it was, just like that. Standing in the centre of the room, the black cube shone brazenly, its polished sheen glinting in the half-light cast by the fiery torches set into the cavern walls. For the most part it looked just like the others that they had encountered on their travels on the Grand Line, but there was one, very noticeable difference.

"Where's the writing?" she asked, nonplussed. "It's… blank?"

Dark Luffy looked about to respond, until: "Nami!"

The shout nearly made her jump out of her skin. Dark Luffy took a quick couple of steps to the side, and she saw that there were people gathered at the base of the Poneglyph.

"Robin!" she cried, feeling such a strong sense of relief that tears threatened to spring to her eyes once more. "Zoro, Sanji… you're all alright! Luffy?"

Their captain waved at her happily as she ran over to them, not a single scratch on him. "Hey Nami, you took longer than everyone else!"

"Took longer?" she repeated incredulously. "Do you have any idea-" She stopped herself, taking a deep breath. "It doesn't matter. Everyone's safe…"

"No thanks to him." Sanji sounded oddly wearied as he gazed past her, his eyes on Dark Luffy. "I keep thinking about what he showed me. What he showed us all."

"Everyone died," Zoro said abruptly. "I saw the same thing. Everyone died but me."

The mood was subdued, everyone looking down at the floor. Nami took a shaky breath. "But we're all alive. We didn't die. It was just a trick, and he said that that was the last one."

"I can't forgive it," Sanji said flatly.

"I know, but look where we are." Looking up at the Rio Poneglyph, Nami shivered. "This is it - this is what Robin has been looking for her entire life."

Robin - who was transfixed by the monolith - glanced over at the sound of her name, smiling distractedly. "True. I have to admit that it isn't exactly how I imagined it, though…"

For a brief moment, Nami had no idea what she was talking about, and then she remembered. "Oh! Of course, the writing…"

"Yes." Touching the surface of the Poneglyph lightly, Robin frowned. "I was certain that once we got here - once I was standing in front of it, knowing how to read it - I would be able to decipher the final part of the puzzle; what happened during the Void Century." She shook her head slowly. "For there to be no message… it simply doesn't make sense. The message should be completed by the Rio Poneglyph on Raftel, so how can it be blank?" She paused for a moment. Nobody knew what to say to fill the silence. "How can it be blank?" she repeated, more quietly, a slight tremor of emotion underlying her voice.

"Perhaps it's saying that you should put what you know already together," Zoro suggested eventually. "You've seen enough of these things to know the basic picture, surely? Maybe this just means you already have all you need?"

"That's not how it works," Robin returned. "It's like a map. I know every area of the map except one part of it; and there's no way of knowing from the rest of the map just what that last part should look like. There has to be a final message. It can't just end!" Her final few words were almost a shout of frustration, and sounded strange coming from her mouth. She wheeled on the spot, glaring past them. "You! You know something, don't you? Why is there no message?"

Following her gaze, Nami saw - with a jolt of surprise - that Dark Luffy had wandered closer, bearing a sombre expression. For a moment, he stared at the Poneglyph, looking almost weary, and then he looked directly at Robin.

"Why would there be a message on it?"

Whatever Robin had expected as an answer, it was not that. She simply stared at Dark Luffy. "Because it's one of the Poneglyphs of the Ancient Kingdom. They left messages, describing what had happened in the-" She stopped, but not because she had been interrupted. Rather, Dark Luffy had held up a single finger. "What? What is it?"

"It's not one of the Poneglyphs," he said flatly.

There was a pause, Dark Luffy's casual remark hanging in the air.

"WHAT?" everyone exclaimed.

"Or if it is one of the Poneglyphs, it's the only Poneglyph of the Ancient Kingdom."

Nami's head began to hurt. "What does that mean?!" she asked exasperatedly.

"It means," Dark Luffy took a deep breath. "That what you have encountered up until now have not been Poneglyphs of the Ancient Kingdom."

He gave them a significant look. There was a second silence, but this time it was thoughtful. Robin was staring at Dark Luffy as if seeing him in an entirely new light, and - at that moment - Nami would have paid a bag or so of gold to know what she was thinking.

"Not Poneglyphs of the Ancient Kingdom?" the archaeologist repeated slowly. "Wait, so…"

Dark Luffy's face brightened a little. "Yes, you've got it."

"The Poneglyphs I've been seeing up to now… they were left by another civilisation?"

A thrill of shock passed through Nami. She looked again at Dark Luffy, expecting him to reject Robin's words, but instead he simply looked away and said: "Yep."

"But then…" Robin was beginning to sound desperate. "What does that mean? What civilisation could possibly have possessed the power and skill required to make those Poneglyphs? We would have heard about a civilisation like that. Some trace of them would-" She halted, all of a sudden. Even in the gloom, Nami saw her face pale. As Dark Luffy bowed his head, not saying a word, Robin seemed to try to compose herself. "Wait," Robin shook her head slowly, sounding faint. "You're not saying…"

"Yes."

Robin visibly recoiled, staggering back as if the syllable had struck her with a physical impact.

"The Poneglyphs were built by the civilisation you know as the World Government."

He had spoken the words softly, but they rang in Nami's ears as if he had shouted them.

"That's impossible!"

"There's no way…!"

"That's not true!"

A chorus of objections rang out across the cabin, because Dark Luffy's words had to be denied. Deciphering the Poneglyphs was Robin's dream, and she had spent her life trying to achieve it. For the Poneglyphs to have been created by the World Government - the very organisation that had been trying to murder her almost from birth…

Nami was not surprised to see that Robin herself looked physically ill.

"What is it then?" the archaeologist whispered eventually. "What is this one, here?"

Dark Luffy sighed.

"It's the central hub," he said softly, "of the ancient weapon Uranus."

It was difficult to describe that moment. Standing there, beside the Rio Poneglyph, Nami was for a little while speechless, the unbelievable words ringing in her ears but her body unable to fathom a response to them. Robin looked stunned - as lost as Nami had ever seen her - and the others seemed similarly rocked.

"That's impossible," Robin said eventually, but there was an air of desperation in her voice. "The writings found upon the Poneglyphs describe events from the Void Century. They told us nothing about that weapon..."

"He who controls Raftel controls the Rio Poneglyph," Dark Luffy intoned, "and he who controls the Rio Poneglyph controls the message."

"What do you mean 'controls the message'?" Nami asked, half-dreading the answer.

"What I mean is the Rio Poneglyph is the core of the Uranus Network." He had the grace to look a little sad as he added: "From here, it is possible to change what is written on the Poneglyphs. The writing upon the Poneglyphs has only one purpose." Here, he looked directly at Robin, whose expression was now of crushing despair. "To lead those who seek the truth about the Void Century to the island of Raftel."

From the midst of her misery, a spark of hope kindled at the back of Robin's eyes. "Wait, then… even if it could be changed from here, the message..."

"Was genuine," Dark Luffy confirmed, with a grin. Robin's shoulders visibly sagged with relief. "Don't worry, it was no fiction. What you have read so far was a collection of histories, designed to gauge how interested the viewer is in learning the truth. They were made purposely difficult to decipher, meaning that only those with a genuine desire to read them, would."

There was silence, and then Chopper asked, perplexed: "But why?"

"And how is it a weapon?" said Zoro sharply.

Dark Luffy chuckled lightly. "To answer both those questions, I'll need to go back about 800 years." He looked up suddenly, his attention seemingly drawn elsewhere. "We have the time, I think. It will take those others a while to break through the surface, no matter what their powers may be." He glanced at Nami. "I told you, didn't I, that the Ancient Kingdom ruled over the kingdoms of the Grand Line, demanding only that those kingdoms did not search for means to achieve immortality?"

"You did."

"Well, 800 years ago there were some… disagreements." His eyes took on a faraway look, as if he were peering into the distant past. "It was… thought," he stated, diplomatically, "that the civilisation that you call the Ancient Kingdom was standing in the way of human progress. They were suppressing research, closing down laboratories, and imprisoning scientists." At Robin's ensuing expression, his expression turned wry. "Yes, you might think that it is a little ironic that those who try to decipher the Poneglyphs, hoping for information about the Kingdom, are nowadays imprisoned or executed. But the reality is that there were certain areas of research - namely, those dealing with the extension of human lifespans - that the Kingdom saw as extremely dangerous and worthy of suppression."

Robin - who, having learnt that the Poneglyphs had not lied to her, now looked much more at-ease - was fascinated. "The extension of human lifespans? There were people researching such things?"

"There were," Dark Luffy confirmed. "Of course, they were scientists from the other Kingdoms - those over whom the Ancient Kingdom ruled. The Ancient Kingdom's stance was seen as hard-headed and stubborn, overly resistant to the change that such scientific advances could bring, but for a time the other Kingdoms fell in line. There was disharmony, and reluctance, but no real conflict. At least, not until the event that changed everything."

A hushed silence had fallen over the Straw Hats. Zoro was leaning nonchalantly against the Rio Poneglyph, and the others were clustered nearby, rapt by Dark Luffy's words. Luffy himself seemed uninterested, but his eyes were on Robin. Nami was certain that he was aware how important all of this was for her, and for that reason also knew that he would not interrupt.

"What event?" Robin asked.

"The creation," Dark Luffy replied, "of a certain object."

Robin's eyebrows rose a little. She looked perplexed. "An object?"

"It wasn't a weapon." Dark Luffy had that faraway expression once again. "At least, it wasn't intended to be. Specifically, it was an item that - upon being consumed - would give life. Not," he added quickly, nodding in Brook's direction, "in the same way that yours works. No, it would literally make an object alive, no matter what that object happened to be."

"An immortality Devil Fruit," Robin stated, wonder in her eyes. "If its power was to make an object alive, then whoever ate it could not possibly die unless they found some way to remove the power entirely."

"It was too dangerous." He did not seem to have heard her. "The Ancient Kingdom seized it, destroying the laboratories of the scientist who created it. And that was when the rebellion began." Dark Luffy closed his eyes briefly. "The other Kingdoms were furious that it was stolen. Information had somehow been released revealing that the Ancient Kingdom had taken possession of an object capable of granting everlasting life. The other Kingdoms saw the theft as an act of aggression; an attempt by the Ancient Kingdom to keep the object for themselves, putting them in control of who may or may not benefit from it. They formed an alliance."

"The World Government," Robin breathed.

"As you know them today, yes. It transpired that they had been secretly building a weapon: a system of nodes, positioned at intervals around the world, that would act as focuses for a laser weapon of enormous power. This laser weapon - a means to gain leverage over the Ancient Kingdom - would be positioned in orbit, and would be capable of devastating the entire world at a single command. Put simply, it could use the system of invincible nodes," Here he looked at Robin, his eyes weary. "That you now call the Poneglyphs, to concentrate the beam upon the planet's core, detonating it in an explosion that would tear the planet apart. You may be able to guess what happened next."

There was silence. Nami - deep in thought - suddenly found herself saying: "Well, they wanted that Devil Fruit back, I guess? So…"

"They tried to blackmail the Ancient Kingdom." Luffy nodded, smiling a little. "The Poneglyphs did more than just focus the beam - they also extended its range. With just one Poneglyph, the weapon would only be able to strike a small area, but with a network of several, dotted around the globe…" He shook his head. "It could strike anywhere, at any time. They threatened to wipe the Kingdom off the map if they did not surrender the object."

Robin looked awed. "What happened?"

"The Kingdom refused, of course." He smiled again. "They had a plan."

"What plan?"

"The Uranus Network was invincible, but it had a weakness: access."

"Access?"

"It could be extended," Dark Luffy elaborated. "The other Kingdoms had created the Poneglyphs, but the Ancient Kingdom created one of their own." Nami stared at Luffy's mirror image as the pieces began to fall into place. "They created the Rio Poneglyph, inserting it into the Uranus Network, and took control of the Ancient Weapon. They also created an island - Raftel - that would hold the Poneglyph itself. That should have been it, but of course it wasn't."

"Why not?" Nami asked, puzzled. "If they really did control that weapon, wouldn't the other Kingdoms just… fall back in line?"

"The Rio Poneglyph could not completely control the Uranus Network. It could stop the weapon from firing, but in time it could be circumvented. To control it completely, the Poneglyph would need to be connected to something with extraordinary processing power - something like a brain. That was when the decision was made to use the Life-Life fruit. It was a desperate decision, and it would not prove to be the correct one."

Robin's brow furrowed. "What do you mean 'use' the Life-Life fruit - I take it that was the name of the Devil Fruit that granted immortality? How could they use it as something like that?"

Dark Luffy smiled again. "Remember - I said it had the ability to make an object alive. The Rio Poneglyph was already on Raftel; all they needed to do was change some of the landscape. They engineered the Devil Fruit, altering it to fit their own agenda, and then brought it here."

It took Robin a couple of moments, and then her eyes went wide. "Wait, you dropped us into that pit…"

"That's right." Dark Luffy's grin became wider. "Raftel is the island that ate the Life-Life fruit. It is a living island, its consciousness stored within the Uranus Network, and through that Network it controls the currents and tides of the Grand Line as well as the Ancient Weapon itself. As a living being, it acts to protect itself, sealing itself away between two airless seas-"

The Calm Belts, Nami realised, in a shock of revelation.

"- and it dealt the final blow to the Ancient Kingdom, unleashing the full and devastating power of the Uranus Network upon the only civilisation which it knew had possessed the Life-Life fruit, an object which it saw as an affront to life itself. You have to understand," he added, choosing his words carefully, "that Raftel has only ever known one way of existence; an existence in which it has the power to eradicate anything and everything within its domain. It has come to believe that it is its duty to protect itself and the world from the threats that immortality would bring. As such, it hides itself - and the Life-Life fruit - away, keeping that most-powerful Devil Fruit out of the hands of those who would possess it. The Life-Life fruit is the Keystone; the heart of Raftel. It is also its eternal shame."

"Its… shame? Why?" Robin's brow furrowed.

"It has the ideals of the Ancient Kingdom." Dark Luffy looked away, looking weary. "It believes that it is itself an abomination; a monster, born of the Life-Life fruit."

As the revelations bounced around Nami's head, they were met by questions. Robin had some of her own, and the archaeologist was first to the mark.

"Wait, I understand what you've said so far but… I'm struggling to see how it could control the ocean and the tides? You're saying that Raftel, through the Life-Life fruit, can control the seas within the scope of the Uranus Network?" She looked puzzled. "I thought the Poneglyphs were just focuses for the laser which made it possible to extend the weapon's range? How does that fit in with controlling the motions of the water?" She paused, adding hesitantly: "Also… I wonder… where do you come into all this?"

The questions seemed to subdue Dark Luffy a little. For a while he did not answer, his shadowy eyes fixed upon the Rio Poneglyph.

And then, suddenly, he glanced away from it, his gaze settling upon - of all people - Brook.

"If you truly want to know," he murmured heavily, "it is because the Life-Life fruit does not have just the one power."

He moved suddenly, slipping through the shadows in such a way that for a moment, Nami's eyes were unable to discern him. Before she could even register what had happened, he was standing in front of Brook, who looked extremely shocked to abruptly be the centre of attention.

"Hold on, now," the skeletal musician began querulously. "What's happening here…?"

"It also has the ability," Dark Luffy continued, unhearing. "To give life." With that, he raised a single finger, lightly touching Brook's exposed skull. "Within the Network, it controls what is and is not alive."

At first, nothing.

And then: muscles; ligaments; tendons.

"That's impossible," Nami gasped.

Skin; hair.

"The Calm Belts are living water; water given a life of its own," Dark Luffy continued, as human features took the place of bone. "Everything within the scope of the Uranus Network…" Here he stepped back, away from Brook, whose new eyes - wide with shock - stared down at him. "Is within Raftel's command."