- New World: Filoxo Island -
(Two years in the past)
Crocodile smirked, "It's been awhile, Strawhat."
"Crocodile!" Usopp yelled, "What are you doing here?"
"Well, I've been waiting for you, or rather Luffy. We have some unfinished business from the War of the Best."
The wind picked up around them blowing down the deserted streets of the small town they were in. Filoxo island was a large island for the New World, but the town they were currently in, Grimsbourgh, was by far the smallest on the island.
"Why isn't there anyone other than you here?" Nami questioned him.
"Where are the civilians? I had Daz scare them out of town. One way or another Luffy and I will fight and that's not something any non-suicidal civilian wants to be in a one mile radius of."
"I know your weakness," Luffy reminded him.
"As do I," Crocodile countered. "Do you seriously believe that I haven't at least been working on compensating for it?"
"So your saying you found a way to remove your weakness to water?" Sanji asked in an unbelieving tone.
"No, my weakness to water is just as pronounced as ever. Rather, I have developed a method to make sure that water never has the chance to weaken me. So, why don't we start?"
Two seconds, that was all it took for every member of the Strawhats save Luffy to jump away from Crocodile.
"Fine by me," Luffy replied cracking his knuckles, "But if I win you have to join the We Are Alliance. Law and I are both looking for allies to take down Kaido and I don't think your all bad after what you did for Ace during the War of the Best."
"Join you? We'll see."
- Grimsbourgh: Outside the Town -
Luffy and Crocodile stood facing each other. The two were separated by about a hundred feet of grassland without so much as a single shrub in sight.
"You know, when I first fought you I though I had mastered by devil fruit as much as was possible," Crocodile mused, "But I hadn't. In the two year since we last met I discovered a power that is far above anything I possessed before. Allow me to show you," he said as he stretched his hand forward.
"Sables: Hagane no uta!"
Like before the attack began with a miniature sandstorm in his hand which then floated in front of him and grew is size. That was when the similarities between the normal sables and this new version ended. Instead of heading for Luffy the sandstorm simply remained where it was. After a moment it began to emit a low hissing sound.
'Huh?' Luffy wondered as he pushed his Observation Haki to it's limits. It was a good thing he did. Luffy's eyes widened as he began to sway to dodge the incoming attacks. There were hundreds of them, each moving at extreme speed. The assault continued for a full minute before the hail of attacks finally ceased. Despite this the sandstorm remained.
"What," Luffy panted, "Was that?"
"The true power of a logia," Corcodile replied. Luffy frowned as he looked more closely at the projectiles that he had been dodging. They were each thin needle like things made of some type of metal.
"Silicon," Crocodile said, guessing his thoughts.
"Silicon?" Luffy asked.
"Yes," Crocodile replied. "At it's base sand it made up of two elements, the first of which is oxygen. The second element is silicon. By using Observation Haki on my own sand I am able to sense the very atoms and then split them with other bits of sand infused with Armament Haki. This is the second level of devil fruit powers, taking the abilities given by a fruit to their very lowest level and then building back up."
"Sabaku no uta no ken," Crocodile muttered as he raised his hand and slashed down. Once again it was Luffy's Observation Haki that saved him. Crocodile's movements had been hidden by his sandstorm and without warning he would have been sliced clean in half.
"That was too close," Luffy smiled. "Gear Second!" Using the insane speed the technique granted him activated soru and appeared behind Crocodile before launched a single punch as a test. His attach was infused with Armament Haki but failed to connect because Crocodile dissolved before it could hit him. The punch continued on strait through the sandstorm. Luffy's eyes widened as he felt his hand being scorched. Pulling his hand back as quickly as he could he jumped back to gain distance from the apparently still deadly sandstorm. Crocodile was still nowhere to be seen.
'He's hiding,' Luffy surmised. 'No, he's waiting. The second my guard goes down he'll strike. In that case. . .'
"Gumo Gumo no Fusen!" Luffy yelled as he jumped into the air and started inflating himself as if he intended to try to blow away the sandstorm. The moment he did he felt Crocodile stirring behind him. Shifting positions he blew the air that he had taken in into his thumb and activated Gear Third before turning around and attacking Crocodile.
His Armament clad fist collided with the silicon wall that Crocodile had made and reinforced with his own haki. "It'll take more than that to beat me. I'm in a different league now."
"Whatever," Luffy said as he landed. "It doesn't matter what league your in, I'm still going to kick your ass."
- Thriller Bark: Mast Mansion -
(About one Month after the events above)
Moria stood panting in his training room. The room had fallen out of use in the recent years but he had begun training there daily after Law's proposal. He was pushing himself father than he ever had and yet he still wasn't pushing far enough. As he thought shadows began to ripple across his skin and his eyes grew slightly red.
'I'll kill him,' he thought. 'Kaido. . . when we take you down you're mine. They've already said that if I could beat him I could have him, and have him I will. His shadow will be mine. I'll kill him and use the Tamashi Kumiawase to keep his shadow even after death. But. . . I'm not strong enough yet. I need to get stronger.'
"Please," Moria asked. "Train me in two sword style."
"Funny, never pictured you as they type to ask nicely for things," Zoro said.
"If I don't my comrades might never be avenged. For them, even for their memory, I am more than willing to bow my head."
"Hah, you're kind of like Luffy," Zoro said. "I wonder if he would have turned out like you if all of us had died?" Zoro stopped laughing at that mental image. Luffy had already lost Ace, if he were to lose them as well he would make Moria look downright sane. Luffy was strong, but even he wouldn't be able to take that kind of emotional torture.
"Well, in that case I'll teach you Hakairyoku. You'd better be serious, you're strong but don't think this'll be easy. For an untrained body like yours this'll be hell."
(One Month later)
Zoro's eyes widened. 'Nightmare Mode? That was the technique from last time, but he has complete control over it now. It's actually scary. That plus his shadow blades and he's a deadly opponent.'
"Not bad," he commented aloud. "I'd take it easy if we were you. Everyone is. We'll be attacking Kaido in just two weeks, you don't want to go in tired, you'd just get yourself killed."
"Kishishishi, no, I won't be the one getting killed," Moria chuckled.
"Hn, don't overestimate yourself. Those comrades of yours probably would want to be avenged, but they probably wouldn't want you to kill yourself over it," Zoro commented as he walked out of the training hall. As he left Moria's eyes widened.
'They wouldn't have, but I already knew that. I'm doing this to avenge them, not to bring back the past. I shouldn't have collected a crew in the first place, I should have simply used my power to make an unbeatable army. Zombies can always be replaced, friends. . . cannot be,' Moria's eyes widened even further. 'But that's exactly what I've been trying to do. I was trying to replace my friends, my crew, with simple zombies. Is that how much I cared for them, that I could toss them aside so easily?'
'No, they were more than that. Kaido will pay by becoming a zombie himself, he won't fill the void but I will avenge them. No to fill the void I need people to fill it. But who, and where could I find them?'
'Perhaps. . . perhaps I've already found them. . .'
- Thriller Bark: Shore -
(At the same time)
Shuriarya dragged the little ship ashore on Thriller Bark. The ship in question wasn't very large, it was a simple ship that couldn't hold more than five people, perfect considering it was just himself and his sister. Of course, such a poor vessel wouldn't have brought him that far. Rather, he had been hopping from ship to ship until the last island where he and his sister grabbed the little boat and set out for Thriller Bark.
Adelle jumped off the boat only to collapse in the sand. They were tired, it hadn't been an easy journey.
"Hey!" a voice called, "I thought you said you never wanted to see us ever again?"
"Yes, Luffy, I did," Shuriaya said turning to address the pirate captain approaching him from behind, "But I had no choice."
"What's that mean?" Luffy asked.
"You know I was a bounty hunter. You see, some of the bounties I collected had allies. They came for me. It wasn't so bad at first but day by day it got worse until Adelle wasn't safe anymore. That was the final straw. I refuse to let anything bad happen to my little sister." Adelle was blushing slightly by the end of his little speech.
"And so you came to us," Law said as he walked out of the forest.
"Yes," Shuriaya replied. "So, can I join and will you help me protect Adelle?"
At this a giant grin spread across Luffy's face. "Of course!" he exclaimed.
Law was about to remind him that both of them needed to agree for the decision to be official but considering he had no problem with Shuriaya and he didn't feel like getting in an argument with Luffy of all people he let it slide. 'We have enough to worry about with Kaido,' he thought. 'Now that'll be a challenge.'
(A/N: So like I said someone noted that I had never really gone onto detail about the history of the We Are Alliance so here it is. You'll be getting one or two more chapters focusing on this and then we're going back to the present. I'm also curious to see what you think about Crocodile's power. In the cannon he has more control over his devil fruit than just about anyone else so it makes sense he'd be the first to take it to the next level. Anyway, any comments on that are welcome. Oh, and Happy Thanksgivika!)