I really like this song. I really do. So many songs, I just love to pieces! ^^ And I felt that this one kind of fit, too. If it doesn't seem like it to you guys, sorry. But I try.
'Failure' by Breaking Benjamin, people! Don't just stand there… Applaud!
Drive the cloud away
We will fall from last to none
The dark before the dawn
The war will carry on
Look for the light that leads me home
I honestly do think it fits. I don't own this awesome piece of music, by the way.
Disclaimer: Do not own anything One Piece or Harry Potter related.
Claimer: But I do own Atticus and Estrella.
Here the Chapter Starts
Paulie didn't let any of the other foremen in, nor did he tell them about the presence of the tall blonde teenager that was sitting in a chair by the window. The seed of doubt was planted in his head and he couldn't uproot it. He kept stealing glances to Lucci and Kaku, wondering if the teen was telling the truth and how he came to know such information. It sounded so far fetched, yet something about it did make him a bit suspicious.
A good portion of him, however, hoped the blonde was wrong. Or lying. Preferably wrong, since him lying indicates that he just left his boss that they are all trying to protect in the room with someone who is trying to kill him.
Kalifa stepped out of the room, not saying anything about the tall blonde Paulie knows is inside. Instead, she looked to him and said that Iceburg wanted to speak with him. Was something else said? Or is there more to be said?
The others moved from the doorway to allow him entry. Upon entering the room, he noticed a missing body, thankfully not Iceburg. "Where's the kid?" he asked lowly.
"I'm still here," a voice boredly informed before fingers snapped and the teenager materialized by the window. "I know enough magic to remain unnoticed, even by assassins."
"Paulie, there is something I need you to do," Iceburg told him calmly.
The foreman paid close attention to every instruction he was given, memorizing every word. Then came the warning, about how dangerous the task could be, especially if the teenager is right about his accusations, and with two of the accused sitting right outside the door. Paulie accepted without hesitation, reassuring Iceburg that he will take care of the matter right that minute.
When the door closed behind him, Atticus looked to the bedridden mayor. "If you sent him to get what I think you're being targeted for, you just made him the target," he informed. "They're going to launch any second now, and with you sending him away like that…"
"I know," Iceburg replied with a sad nod. "But I trust no one other than Paulie for the task."
"So you've said," Atticus sighed lowly, shaking his head. "What is it that they're after, anyway?"
"If I tell you, I cannot trust you to relay the information to the Shichibukai," the mayor pointed out calmly.
"Sesesesese, you act like it's something they want," he chuckled, smirking mischievously.
"It is something the government will want."
An explosion shook the building, causing the bedridden man to jump in surprise.
Atticus, however, felt his smirk fall into a frown as he leaned back against the wall by the window. "I see. Something they're willing to kill a beloved figure of this city for." His eyes narrowed as he heard Estrella hissing loudly outside. "Someone is out there, but… Oh. So that's how they're playing it."
"What?" Iceburg inquired before the door burst open for the loud, muscled man to bellow loudly about the condition of his boss.
The blonde ducked down, figuring the man would be more focused on Iceburg than on him. If he cast a Disillusionment charm on himself again, he may get caught. A Confundus Charm would work better if he is spotted. The newcomer left without spotting him, the man and another foremen charging away to handle the intruder with the whip.
"You realize he just left Lucci and Kaku right outside your door, right?" Atticus asked boredly.
"Then we can only see what happens from here," Iceburg replied with a nod.
"I have an idea for you," the blonde said with a grin. "It's a little something my Aunt Luna taught me. She said it's something I may need to learn eventually."
Iceburg rose an eyebrow in curiosity. "What is it?"
Here is a line!
It started with the opening of a door where no door should be. The large person wearing the bear masked closed the door and the seams disappeared back into solid wall. Robin was facing the bed, but she immediately spotted Atticus by the window.
Her breath hitched in surprise as her blue eyes widened. Why is Atticus here? Does he plan on stopping everything she's trying to do for their protection? She won't allow it.
"Hey, Robin," Atticus greeted cheerfully with a wave of his hand. "Nice mask. Though it reminds me too much of my big sister, so not really your style."
"Who are you?" the masked man demanded.
"Someone looking for answers," he returned as he got to his feet.
"That's amazing," Iceburg commented, his eyes wide. "Did you do something last night when you came here? There shouldn't be a door there."
"I have the Doa-Doa no Mi," the man replied, holding up a gun and pointing it to Iceburg first. "Any wall I touch, no matter how strong they are, will become doors to me."
The gun fired, but the bullet went straight through Iceburg. Atticus smirked as he waved his hand and the illusion fell away. "Nice try, but Iceburg isn't really here," he taunted, standing between them and the bed.
The truth was that the spell is double layered. A barrier with an illusion that would dissipate the image it was broadcasting at his command. He only cancelled the illusion because he wasn't expecting the mayor to be shot at first thing, meaning the image of Iceburg in bed was pointless. Now the barrier is in place, protecting the man under a secondary illusion showing an empty bed.
"I don't recognize your voice," Atticus pointed out. "What's your name?"
"Where is he?" the masked man asked him firmly, pointing the gun to the blonde.
Atticus shrugged. "Dunno. He must have been moved when no one was looking. They've been guarding an empty room from the start." He snickered, holding up his hand as he created an orb of red light in his palm. "Illusions are a powerful thing, after all. So convincing if done right." The orb vanished with a flash. "So… Cipher Pol Nine, am I correct?"
"You seem to act like you already know."
"It makes sense," Atticus huffed. "Cipher Pol would eventually become involved if the mayor of a major city refuses to abide by the government's commands. Those pushy bastards never seem to take 'no' for an answer, so instead of asking for the toy, they yank it right from the cold dead fingers of the former owner. The question would be, what manner of toy are you trying to murder Iceburg over?"
"It is no concern of yours."
"It became my concern when you stole my friend and framed my nakama for a crime we didn't commit," he growled, baring his teeth. He loudly slapped his hip twice, signaling to Estrella to come into the room. The person outside is merely a distraction, thus unimportant at the moment. With a nudge of her head to the window, the winged serpent slithered into the room, coiling by the bed where she knew Iceburg was hidden behind the barrier. "So tell me what you're after."
"As I said, it is nothing to concern yourself with," the man repeated.
"Atticus, you should not intrude upon matters that don't involve you," Robin advised.
"You may have been here last night, Robin, but that was only to point the finger at us," the blonde revealed, telling them that he had already caught on to what they were doing. "Iceburg pointing the finger at us gave them time to rehash their original plan, to make it move along even faster. With the city and the shipwrights focusing on us, they wouldn't think to look inside.
"Let me guess, Lucci's idea?"
Robin gasped, though the masked man did not reveal through any body language that he was just as shocked.
"I am the son of a Shichibukai, though my father has no hands in this operation," Atticus reassured. "Rob Lucci is a well known name in very tight circles. As it turns out, with enough moles in the system, proper information falls through. From the second I heard his name, I knew exactly who he was. That, and the fact that I sensed a devil fruit from him as well, the Neko-Neko no Mi, right? What model, though, I can't figure out. Guess I'll just have to wait and see."
"You know more than you should," the man told him.
The blonde snorted with a smirk. "I know a lot more than you think. For example, just from a couple days of observation, I can pinpoint three of the four agents. The way they act or interact with each other kind of gives them away. You, however, I did not take into account because I did not see a fourth person acting differently. I assume you actually have a lower doriki than the other three, so you got the job of playing some passive figure that can get information rather easily without raising suspicion. Like a bartender, perhaps? Or an inn manager? Both locations are ordinary yet full of information."
He looked to Robin and smiled gently. "And I figured you out, too, Robin. The government would give anything for your cooperation. You wouldn't just suddenly go to them and work for them when you spent your whole life running away. That doesn't make any sense. Not unless the government agents promised you something you would give yourself over for."
"That is enough," the bear-masked man interrupted, still holding his gun to Atticus. "You know far too much."
"Pull the trigger and not even the Gorosei would be able to save you from the fury of Donquixote Doflamingo," he warned sharply. "Harm a family member of the Donquixote family and you pay with your life. Hell, I've seen people get killed for laughing at my Uncle Pica's voice." He waved his hand dismissively. "You hold no threat over me."
They seemed to stare each other down for a moment, though it was hard to tell through the mask of one. Then slowly, the gun lowered and was tucked back under the cloak only for the hand to reemerge with a baby den-den mushi. "There has been a slight wrinkle in the plan," he informed over it. "Everyone needs to come to the bedroom."
The silence was tense. A slight shift in the air warned Estrella to the mayor under the barrier trying to move. "Atticus, he's trying something but I can't see what."
"Put the gun away," he ordered, knowing that the mayor still has the weapon and was probably aiming at Robin first.
"It is," the masked man pointed out.
"Not you," he informed, glancing to Robin.
"I think he understood that you were talking to him," the serpent commented.
"Robin, let me ask you something," he said. "Why do they need your cooperation for this mission of theirs?"
Robin was silent, her brows furrowed. Then she replied, "They are after the plans of a weapon. That is all I know."
"Plans for a weapon and you being involved means the plans are probably written in the ancient tongue that only you can understand," he deduced, though already knew the answer to his questions. "Otherwise it wouldn't be so well guarded and secreted away. I assume one of the great weapons from the Void Century." The door opened, allowing three more covered individuals to enter before Robin could say anything in response to his observation. The one wearing the skull mask looked to the bed.
"Where is Iceburg?" he asked, already irritated because he had to handle Tilestone outside when it was supposed to be Blueno handling him. "He should still be in here."
The one wearing the bull mask looked to Atticus. "You had something to do with this, did you not?" he asked in annoyance.
"I may have," Atticus teased upon seeing the man empty-handed, smirking when the pigeon landed on the other's shoulder. "What's the matter? I thought you would have followed Paulie all the way to the room Iceburg sent him. Or did you have a wrinkle in the plan, too?"
"Where is he?" the agent demanded as he removed his mask and cloak then placed his top hat on his curly dark hair. "Do not take me for a fool, Donquixote. I know he is not far. Iceburg was not in proper condition to be moved. Where did you hide him?"
"In Estrella's stomach," he joked with a snicker.
"I do not have time for your games," Lucci warned him, his brows furrowing.
"And I don't give a rat's ass," he shot back, holding a hand out and gathering a ball of pure magic. "Now what shall happen should I let this do as it will?" Lucci's eyes narrowed at him, though the blonde could tell it was more out of irritation. He already knows what Lucci is after. He just finds it more entertaining to annoy the man.
"We have a limited time before Aqua Laguna will prevent us from returning to our superiors," he informed. "We can simply return with Nico Robin in our custody, but then our mission is still a failure because we do not have our original target. Now, tell me where Iceburg is and we may go on."
"Iceburg doesn't have Pluton," Atticus pointed out.
"What?" the skull-masked man scoffed.
"He doesn't," the teen repeated. "What he sent Paulie for is a fake, isn't it? That's why you're still here. I was sitting in this room when he was told where to go. And I guess I can't keep making you think he was never here. One of your own saw him, and two of you were out in the hallway when Paulie was called in."
"You moved him," the slimmer figure remarked, holding up a thorny whip.
"Trust me when I say that he doesn't have the plans for Pluton," Atticus repeated. "The government and all of you have been wasting your time looking for something from one person when that person doesn't have it. He did, at one point. But not any longer."
"Damn, he already passed it on," the skull remarked.
"No, he handed it to someone else," Lucci corrected with narrow eyes. "Someone that no one would suspect." He stepped towards the blonde, unaffected by the taller teen that bent over a little to lock gazes with the man, a grin dancing on his lips. "If you know who, then it would be wise to inform us."
"Why should I?" the teen mocked.
"The time limit we are allowed on this case has reached its limit," Lucci explained. "In the name of justice, we are allowed to kill anyone who does not cooperate with us. We must find the plans for the weapon Pluton in order for the government to put a stop to this age of pirates."
"There shouldn't be any killing in the name of justice!"
"Now that sounded like Iceburg," the skull-masked one commented as Atticus slapped his forehead.
"Oh, for crying out loud!" he groaned. "You were supposed to stay quiet!"
"I've heard enough of this and you expect me to keep my mouth shut?!" Iceberg exclaimed as the illusion wavered away. "And you… I didn't want to believe this kid when he told me about you and the others. But there you are."
"How could this child have known who we are?" the woman inquired as she removed her masked, flipping her blonde hair.
Kaku removed his skull-mask next, holding it over his shoulder. "We never saw him before the other day, so it doesn't really make any sense."
Blueno was the last to remove his mask, though his face was stoic. "He knows a lot more than he lets on."
"He is a Donquixote," Lucci pointed out. "With a man like Doflamingo as his father, I would be more surprised if he was clueless." He looked to Iceburg. "I am curious about something, Iceburg. You don't trust the government, do you?"
"I don't trust the nature of humans, brat," he spat with a sneer.
"He doesn't have it," Atticus repeated firmly, stepping between Lucci and Iceburg. "He gave it to some guy with huge arms and blue hair, roughly four years ago." Might as well tell them what he saw when he dug through Iceburg's memories. It may be enough to leave him alive. Cipher Pol can be vicious when rooting up information, and he knows Lucci will push as far as he can.
"What are you doing?!" Iceberg shouted in disbelief.
"Huge arms and blue hair?" Kaku repeated, looking to Lucci. "Sounds like Franky, which confirms your theory concerning him and Cutty Flam."
Iceburg flinched at the comment, his eyes wide.
"He has early memories of the guy, when they were under the fishman that taught them everything they know," the blonde teen continued on.
"Stop! Don't you understand what you're saying?!"
"Cutty Flam, or Franky now, I guess," Atticus summed up with a shrug. "I hold no love for the guy. He attacked my captain earlier, and our sniper before then. Stole our money meant to go to the Going Merry, before you told us she couldn't be fixed."
"And we are to believe you, why?" Blueno demanded firmly.
"Why would I have to lie to you?" Atticus returned with his grin growing. "As your superior pointed out, I am a Donquixote. I don't like hiding behind my name, but it helps me get information I would not get otherwise. Yet there is one thing you don't seem to know about the Donquixote Family, a very well known fact."
The ball of magic he held expanded, blending into the air and causing the walls to groan and crack at the pressure his magic was applying to them.
"You don't fuck with the nakama of a Donquixote!"
Robin stared at him with wide eyes, her form shivering at the sheer power filling the room, making it difficult to breathe. Every breath was sharp in her lung, her skin tingling as his magic brushed over her. A warning, she realized.
A large X sliced over the door as the wall behind Robin and Blueno broke apart with a loud crack. Other Strawhats finally burst into the room, Luffy loudly demanding to know where Robin is.
Atticus pointed right at her with an innocent look on his face. "She's right there!"
Luffy looked at her. "Robin! I finally found you!"
"I found her first!" Atticus argued.
"This is where you've been all afternoon?" Zoro asked with his head tilted.
The blonde nodded boredly. "Yeah. I got a lot of info, too."
Another stepped into the room from where Luffy broke through, his eyes staring into the room in shock. "What… what the hell is all this?!" he exclaimed.
"I told you," Atticus said in a singsong tone to Paulie. "Not my fault you don't listen."
"Told them what?" Nami asked.
"That a few of their own are government agents," he clarified with a shrug of his shoulders. "They've been working from the inside, like I told you." Glaring at Paulie, he warned, "Don't even think about it. I can see the way you're holding yourself right now. Attack them now and you will be killed before any one of us can do anything about it."
Paulie seethed, this fists clenched and his form trembling. "We didn't want to believe it. How can the people we've worked with for so long be agents of the government? The same people we trusted, drank with, fought beside!" He glared to Lucci, sending a rope with knives tied to it out to Lucci. "Pipe Hitch Knives!"
"Moron," Atticus sighed as Lucci disappeared in a blink of an eye, reappearing in front of Paulie with his finger embedded into the man's sternum.
"Shigan," was all the agent labeled the attack as.
"Rope Guy!" Luffy cried out.
"Don't," Atticus warned. "Remember when I told you guys about these agents before? They have a skill set that they have been trained in since they were kids."
"Rokushiki," Lucci confirmed. "The strength of one who has mastered these skills is equal to that of a hundred men."
"Why would you…?!" Paulie snarled before Lucci gripped his shoulder and held up a hand.
"No matter, though your life will expire either way," he pointed out, only to catch the foot that was being aimed for him.
"Stop it!" Luffy roared. "Gomu-Gomu no Gattling!"
"Tekkai."
Atticus sighed, looking to the other agents, but not moving from his spot in front of Iceburg. "So, letting your superior do all the fighting, huh?"
"Hey, Atticus," Nami called lowly. "These guys are acting like you already knew who the agents are. You told us that you didn't."
"It was too risky, considering Luffy's reactions," he pointed out. "If I told you that Lucci is one of them, Luffy could have gone after him. Especially after I told you guys about Robin being taken. Him launching an attack while the entire city is hating us will do nothing more than make things worse for us." He glanced to his cousin apologetically. "Yes, I knew exactly how many are here and who the ringleader is. But I kept quiet about it because I was trying not to make a delicate situation a shitstorm in the middle of a hurricane."
"Shigan." A finger dug into Luffy's throat, throwing the rubber captain back into a wall. Thankfully, because he is rubber, the attack did nothing more than cause Luffy to cough. "If you had a normal neck, you would have a hole in it and have died."
Luffy stretched out his arm, grabbing Paulie and bringing the foreman to his side. "You're planning to kill him! Weren't you all shipwrights together?!"
"Look, Luffy, the situation is rather easy to explain, so I'll break it down easy," Atticus interrupted. "Two were only shipwrights as a cover. One the secretary to Iceburg, because everyone knows the secretary gets most of the information from the boss. The last was a bartender because they get a multitude of information every day. They were never true shipwrights, though they did learn the skills and learn how to read the blueprints properly."
"Then they are traitors!" Luffy declared.
"No, they are agents of the World Government first and foremost," the blonde corrected. "They were never true shipwrights like Paulie. The only ones they are traitors to are their former comrades. Which they can no doubt live with because their true loyalty lies with the government."
"I don't care!" the captain shouted. "They betrayed their friends! Besides that, I promised Rope Guy that I would beat the crap out of the guys who tried to kill Ice-ossan! So I'm going to do just that, and I'm going to get Robin back!"
A smirk lifted the corners of the tall teen's lips, quickly noticed by Lucci. "Draco dormiens nunuam titillandus. Never tickle a sleeping dragon."
Here the Chapter Ends
Since Atticus already told them why Robin is leaving, because he got the info from Lucci, and he told Robin that they are aware of why she is doing this, we don't have to worry about that dramatic scene. I tried changing some things up here, and I actually had some fun here.
Let me know what you all think! ^^ Ja ne, minna-san!