A little follow up one-shot to Sons of Beasts Part 2. Will mostly make sense if you've read the other ones. If you haven't, just know that Ace and Luffy killed all of the world nobles to avenge Sabo and were never caught before joining the Whitebeard pirates. Enjoy~
FISHMAN SLAVES
"Looks like something is going on outside," a fishman slave said from his tiny cell, stuffed with some other fishmen. They could hear screaming. They couldn't bring themselves to care, really. None of the slaves in the large room could. If there was a fire, no one would let them out. Some murderer probably wouldn't come for them. They were convinced no one but Fisher Tiger would come to save the slaves.
Everyone was going to be there for the rest of their lives. The room was silent again, though they could hear more and more screaming, from inside the building and out. Something big was happening. Then they heard loud thudding before the wall blew out and a beast looked at all of them.
The slaves screamed, while the fishman just looked at it with interest. Was this what was causing the screaming? And now, it had come for them. They were all so vulnerable, unable to escape. Only the younger slaves hoped to escape. The others, the ones who had been there longer, hoped the beast would just kill them quickly. Smoke started to fill the room, but suddenly a white block blocked the door the smoke was coming through.
But, then, the dragon ripped out each cell door and stared at each slave before yanking some closer, to which they screamed, but the bomb collar suddenly froze, and snapped when the dragon cut it. It didn't explode.
Each slave started hurrying forward, getting their confines off without any pain. The slaves were trapped in the room though, while the dragon froze and broke each collar. The fishmen stared at it in wonder. They'd never seen anything like this. The dragon looked determined in what it was doing, its head constantly perking up to some sort of sound.
When each and every slave was free of their chains and restraints, the dragon blew out a wall, exposing some smoke and screaming from outside. One man briefly saw a world noble screaming, running as far as she could from the palace that was on fire. A fishman got a glimpse of the thick wall and roof that blocked out the stars but kept in the smoke.
The dragon didn't hesitate to freeze her from a distance, and then created a hallway of ice as it ran, leading them all away safely. The fishman and humans were either too shocked to make noise, or crying out in relief.
The tunnel went on, and they could see the pebble stones beneath the hallways being created. They finally reached a block of ice, the same that surrounded the whole of Mary Geoise, and then it dissolved away.
The humans sprinted out, bare feet hurting against the rocky ground that was the red line outside of the city limits. It stood guard as the slaves ran, fleeing their hell. The fishmen continued to ask to help it, but the dragon shook its head and reformed the barrier after he pushed the former slaves out.
The fishman looked up and saw the wall of ice reach to staggering heights. No smoke came out, which meant that the city was entirely encased, and the world nobles had no way to escape. Not long after that, more doorways in different parts of the wall opened, with more and more slaves being released, running off into the night.
Once all of the slaves were free, no doorway opened again, and the fishmen finally jumped down into the sea, successfully escaping their hell. This had been a planned massacre, and there had to be other parties involved besides their saviour dragon.
They'd probably hear about it in the paper, and by that time, the fishmen would be back home. They hoped the other human slaves would get away, as well. They may hate humans, but those slaves were in the same boat, and many of them had not looked twice at the fishmen.
The fifty former fishman slaves laughed and cried as they swam back down to the depths to get back to their home.
-x-
When the paper came the next day, the fishmen who had been slaves laughed and cheered at the text saying "No survivors". The dragon and whoever else had helped them had escaped without being spotted, and there was nothing left of Mary Geoise.
They would always be indebted to that dragon, who evacuated the slaves before bringing the world justice by massacring all the world nobles. Fishman Island celebrated the former-slaves' returns and how their "masters" would never find them again, now turned to dust.
If the dragon and his companion or companions ever got caught, the fishmen would go to help. They hoped they never heard of them again, meaning they wouldnt be found.
SHANKS
"Captain! Look at this!" Lucky Roo screamed, running across the deck and to where Shanks was, drinking some sake while playing poker with his crew. "They did it! They did it!"
Shanks took the paper, and began to laugh uncontrollably. "Ace and Luffy pulled it off!" he cheered. The picture under the bolded headline showed a desolate stretch of land, which had once been the Celestial Dragon's city. It was gone! No survivors, and they didn't get caught!
The crew squished together to try and see the paper while Shanks guzzled some more sake, giving a toast to the brothers who had done what they promised. And Shanks had helped them! He felt so honored. Take that, stupid government. He wondered what would happen next. He hoped to see those two again, on lighter terms and have a good party. But he hoped to never hear of them again, for they would never have gotten caught.
MARINES
"Fleet admiral! There's trouble up at Mary Geoise! The city is under attack!" a marine screamed as he busted open the door. Sengoku looked bewildered. Someone got up to the Red Line and was ballsy enough to attack the world nobles? Idiots!
"Get the admirals up there now!" Sengoku ordered, calling in the most powerful marines and vice admirals to go up and get rid of the culprits, and save Mary Geoise, or the world nobles would have all of their heads.
-x-
"What the hell is this?" Akainu growled, touching the thick block of ice. It was encasing the whole city, and they couldn't hear anything coming from inside. He could tell from his haki that there were still people inside, running around. But he could tell the number was dwindling quickly.
The other admirals could as well, and they tried breaking the ice, to get in and save those left before everyone was gone. But none of them could get through the thick wall. Not even magma melted it. They were absolutely helpless, and couldn't do anything to get inside. If magma didn't melt it, nothing could.
With the number of citizens dwindling at an alarming pace came to single digits, the foot marines, admirals, vice admirals and fleet admiral were ready to attack whoever was left. There were maybe two or three figures now, but they were already disappearing according to the stronger marines' observation haki.
There was no one left in the boxed in city. When the indestructible ice finally melted, they all stared at what was left in horror and shock. Nothing was there. The ground wasn't even smoking. Some smoke had plumed out of the top of the cube, but that was it. No more flames were left, and the ice had dissipated, making it unable to get any sort of sample to see what it was.
It must have been some kind of devil fruit. They had no visuals on what had happened, or who had been in there, or how many culprits there were to take place in the massacre. Not just the world nobles and Celestial Dragons were gone. The highest authority of the world government was lost.
What would they do now?!
CROCUS
"Eh. The brats really did it," the old man said, though not in a surprised voice. He sat on his lawn chair as he read the short article and looked at the accompanying photo. "Laboon, come see this! Your friend pulled off his heist!"
Laboon swam to Crocus, and when the man read the article to the whale, Laboon wailed loudly in happiness for his friend. He got to do what he'd wanted to. Crocus laughed. He wondered what Roger would have thought about the crazy brothers who did what no one had ever been able to, or even thought to, do.
2 YEARS LATER AT FISHMAN ISLAND
Luffy, Ace and Marco walked around the beautiful island, sightseeing while others had tasks to do. Everyone had already seen the island multiple times, but Luffy and Ace had crossed over the Red Line, so they never had the chance to visit here.
The trip under the sea had made the hours miserable for Luffy, who felt utterly trapped and helpless. If something bad happened, he would drown. No one knew whether Ace would drown, but thankfully nothing happened and the journey down was uneventful.
It was when the three were passing through one of the not so nice districts did people start shouting around them, from all sides. Luffy trembled a bit as fishmen surrounded them. Ace put his hand on the dragon's back, making sure he knew Ace would protect him. MArco looked uneasy, as well.
But then, to almost everyone's surprise, multiple fishmen ran up to the brothers and bowed. It shocked all of the fishmen and merfolk around, and they grew angry with the fishman who were bowing their heads to humans. Well humans and a dragon. The shock over their fellow citizens behavior was more than the sight of a living, breathing dragon.
Marco was baffled, while Ace and Luffy just looked confused. Finally, they were told why the men were bowing to them.
"Thank you!" one shouted. Ace blinked twice.
"Uh, for what?" he asked.
"The dragon saved us. He evacuated the slaves from Mary Geois. Thank you so much!" a fishman that wasn't the first cried out. Ace and Luffy understood now why they were bowing. "You got rid of the masters so they could never find us again. The dragon didn't even want help from us. We can never repay you, but you have our sincere thanks."
"We werent going to let innocent people die in our massacre. I'm just glad Luffy was able to take the bomb collars off. You don't need to thank us," Ace said with an easy going smile.
"Is there any way we can repay you?" another fishman asked. They were all still bowing, and more and more were coming to see what the commotion was about. Marco watched all of this from a distance, smiling a bit. The fishmen bowed their heads to what looked like a human. It was shocking.
"Someone get the princes! Take them to the palace!" a merman shouted, floating on one of the bubbles. Ace and Luffy blanched, thinking they were finally caught and would now be detained. The island had nowhere to escape from. The brothers backed away. "They deserve a banquet and celebration!"
That was not what Ace and Luffy were expecting, but were glad they hadn't been caught, finally. A merman looked at their worried and concerned expressions.
"Don't worry, we fishman don't owe the human government anything, and no one would turn you in for saving the former slaves and eradicating the world nobles' home. You did what Fisher Tiger did so long ago. We thank you from the bottom of ours hearts."
"Again, you don't have to thank us," Ace said with a smile, while Luffy let out a chuffing laugh.
Not long after someone had called the palace did a large eel carrying a room of some sort, floating in the air, came. Three very different looking fishmen and a merman came, floating down from the eel on their bubbles.
The three, who MArco told the brothers were the princes, came closer to them. The one in the middle had a large mane of blue hair, and a rather hard looking face, until he gave Ace and Luffy a smile. The three briefly bowed their heads, though not to the extent of the former slaves, who had finally gotten off their knees, and were standing up. Some had tears coming down their faces.
"You two are those that caused the Mary Geious Massacre?" Ace and Luffy both nodded quietly, assuming that, since these merfolk and fishmen were royalty, they would have to be granted permission to speak.
"Then, come to the palace with us. We shall have a banquet," the middle prince, Fukaboshi, said with a grin. Luffy and Ace grinned, happy that they'd get new types of food. They wondered what kinds of food fishmen ate. What kinds of meat and produce.
Marco hadn't been invited, and he didn't ask to accompany. He just told Luffy and Ace to come back whenever they wanted. The brothers nodded and Luffy flew them up onto the eel, his wings healed after years of painful and slow regeneration. He couldn't fit inside the room, so Ace sat next to him as they watched everything on the surface get smaller and smaller as they rose up to the top of the bubble.
The princes sat near them. "Though our late mother would not approve of the way you did it, the rest of us thank you for it. Since then, we've had one incident with a Celestial Dragon, and that was it. We are safe from pirates as long as Whitebeard is protecting our island. Times have not been this peaceful for a while."
Ace and Luffy didn't know if they were just scolded or praised.
Were we complimented? Luffy asked, his tone amused. Ace shrugged slightly.
"What are your names?" Fukaboshi asked.
"We're not comfortable giving our names. Just a precaution, nothing against you or your people," Ace answered. They rarely gave their names out to strangers. Only the whole crew knew their first names. Not Gol, or Portgas. Only Whitebeard and Marco knew their last names, while most of the other commanders knew about their "species".
"We understand. You'll need the bubbles, since more of the palace is under water." Ace wavered for a moment. He wouldn't be able to use his powers under the water. But they didn't want to be rude, and Luffy could easily freeze those around them if need be.
The guards looked at the princes and their company strangely, but didn't ask about it. Not only was there a human, clearly not dressed for being in the royal palace as he did not have any shirt, but some sort of creature next to him.
They were led right to the throne room, where a merman even bigger than Whitebeard was in his throne. He had a bushy beard, and was quite hairy, also wearing a crown. Ace and Luffy bowed their heads slightly in respect.
"Who are these two, jamon?"
Jamon?
No idea.
"These are the two that saved the former slaves and got rid of the nobles two year ago, father," Fukaboshi explained. Ace and Luffy wondered what the king's reaction would be. They did burn alive or stab hundreds of people, be them evil or not.
The guards in the room reacted in different ways. The ones closest to the king narrowed their eyes, while some others looked shocked, while even more looked thankful. Even after two years, the brothers weren't sure which reaction was best. They didn't feel guilt about what they did, but they were never proud of it, or gave themselves pats on the backs. Even having these people thank them felt undeserved.
"This is the dragon that the former slaves talked about freeing them. He got them all to safety and then made it so it was impossible for them to help or get injured again." Luffy looked down. He didn't force those who wanted to help out because he didn't want them to get hurt. He wanted it to be only him and Ace who avenged Sabo.
But they wouldn't correct the fishmen. And though they really didn't want the gratitude, they would accept it, albeit reluctantly. The king looked at them, and was about to say "Thank you", but Ace cut him off, him being a ruler or not.
"Your majesty, we don't want thanks. We've never been proud of what we did. We don't regret it, or feel guilt, but we aren't happy we did it. We had a reason, and we fulfilled a promise. That was all," Ace said. "From the start, we planned for any slaves to be freed. We're happy we did that, because it was the right thing to do, and having innocent blood on our hands would have haunted us for the rest of our lives. We accept the thanks we have been given, but please, don't give us anymore."
Luffy shook his head in agreement. For some reason, Ace's words made those in the room relax more, even those that had been suspicious of them. It was good that these pirates were not proud of their dark deed.
A bit later, Whitebeard and some commanders trickled in and joined the feast that Ace and Luffy had already started devouring, not waiting for them. Sea king meat was delicious. They party lasted a long time, and Ace and Luffy were content to be quiet and watch the ocean through the window.