Author's Notes: This was a non-angsty attempt to write a ficlet for the prompt "Broken" at onepiece_300. It's at 300 words and centres on Robin, who knows about walls and chains. If you've read an older Robin ficlet of mine (in the collection "Small Offerings To the God of Adventure"), you may recognise some themes.
Spoilers for the glimpses of Robin's whereabouts from chapter 524 and the cover pages to chapter 544 and 545. Contains speculation which has probably since been disproved by recent events shown in the anime.
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And The Walls Came Tumbling Down
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She watched and waited and kept her guard down until the right moment came; then, she moved swiftly, taking down scores of guards before they could even sense what was happening. Soon, the uprising spread all over the construction, helped by the diversionary raid the revolutionaries provided, as promised.
As soon as she has time, she blooms enough hands that their combined power break through the iron chain links around her real wrists. The chains fall, heavy and broken at her feet.
She looks up to see the faces of her fellow prisoners, gaunt and grim, anxious and sad, wild with a desperate hope... Most of them are free already, by now, though a fair number had first used their very chains to fight with.
She smiles towards them. Don't worry, she'd like to say. I know a man who can break through anything. The walls of the greatest of strongholds, the most imposing fighters, the darkest of storm clouds, the most cunning plans… And who had kept ramming at the shields around her heart until even those formidable structures lay in pieces. She's seen him reach out and break through pride and fear and even ambition without even knowing he did so, just being who he was.
Compared to those things, what's a few hundred armed guards, an assortment of cannons, and a few thousand chains? Nothing. Oh, she's nowhere near as good at this stuff as her captain is, but he's taught her the importance of daring to break what should be broken, to let the light and the wind of freedom in. She only has to follow his lead.
She nods towards the nearest watchtower, currently abandoned. "I believe it's time for us to start tearing this place down," she tells the others, smiling. " Shall we?"