O.N.E. P.I.E.C.E.
Nami had once told Luffy that the Marines should never find out about how much he loved Zoro.
"Think about Ace's mom," she had said, "No one knew who she was. Roger made sure their relationship was kept a secret to protect her and Ace; the Marines will target Zoro specifically if they find out that you're together."
Luffy had protested hotly that Zoro could take care of himself. In response, Nami had clobbered him with her Climatact and forced him to promise to keep his love for Zoro a secret.
"I'm serious, Luffy," she had reprimanded him, "It's not just that Zoro's dating the captain, either. A lot of people in the world don't accept two men being in love, and a lot of Marines don't accept it either. You're putting Zoro in danger without his permission!"
This made Luffy's heart hurt and his head spin. He wanted to let everyone know just how much he loved Zoro because Zoro was awesome. Luffy loved all of his nakama, of course he did; Zoro was just special. How could anyone get mad over that?
"Oh, Luffy," Nami had brought Luffy into her arms, "The people in your life that really matter love you and Zoro just the way you are. If you want the whole world to know that you're with him, I can't stop you, but that's a conversation you have to have with Zoro, ok?"
"Ok, Nami," Luffy had reassured her, "I'll talk to Zoro about it."
Nami had soothed his emotions well enough for Luffy to see the merit in her advice. Luffy knew that Zoro could take care of himself, but what was the harm in keeping him a little extra safe?
Because Luffy barely survived losing Ace; if he lost Zoro, Luffy wasn't sure he'd ever be able to recover.
Yet when Zoro busted through that iron door, bringing the rest of Luffy's crew back safe from the poison, Luffy couldn't help but throw himself into his swordsman's waiting arms.
"You're back!" he cried in delight, "And you brought back the others! Everyone's here now!"
The others met his enthusiasm with eager cries of his own name. Zoro gave the back of Luffy's neck a small squeeze, assuring him that he was alright and reassuring himself that Luffy was ok.
"You ready?" he asked Luffy with a small, giddy grin.
Luffy beamed.
"Yeah! Let's go wild!"
"YOU IDIOTS!"
Zoro stood aside sheepishly as Leo led a team of marines in the fastest door repair that the occupants of the lab could hope for.
A horrible rumbling quieted the room. The door groaned ominously, but Leo's craftsmanship held well enough to keep the poison out.
"We should scout around outside," said Annabeth, "See what's happened."
"LADY ARE YOU INSANE?" the marines saw fit to holler.
"Even on this side of the world, men see fit to talk over me," Annabeth huffed in annoyance, "Percy?"
Percy tapped the door cautiously, "The only reason the poison isn't inside is because this door is airtight. I can't get a water clone through it."
"I believe I may have a solution to that, Annabeth-san," said Brook, and before Annabeth had a chance to ask any questions, Brook crumpled into Usopp's arms as his soul floated through the door.
"I don't wanna know," said Leo.
"Seconded," said Annabeth.
The others didn't have to wait long before Brook was back.
"It's a wasteland out there," he informed the room, "Were anyone to step outside right now, they would surely succumb to a painful demise."
"Now what?" asked Nami, "We can't leave until the gas dissipates."
"What about Robin-chwan and Franky?" asked Sanji, "Did you see them?"
"They'll be ok," Percy said confidently, "If they stay inside the Sunny, the gas shouldn't hurt them."
Percy's eyes narrowed at the row of guns pointed at him and his friends, "We have our own problems to deal with now."
"Problems!" shrieked a stout, brown-haired marine, "We almost died thanks to Roronoa Zoro!"
"We knew you were careless!" agreed a plump, bespectacled marine, "But this is ridiculous!"
"Prepare to die, Strawhat Pirates!" declared a bald marine, "You too, Brownbeard!"
"Blondie and Scrawny," said another marine, causing Annabeth to roll her eyes and Leo to huff in outrage, "You're Strawhats too, aint'cha?"
Moving as one, Annabeth and Leo looked hesitantly at Luffy.
"Of course they are!" Luffy bellowed without missing a beat, "Now let's go kick Caesar's ass!"
O.N.E. P.I.E.C.E.
Annabeth decided that of everyone in their ragtag band of pirates, marines, ninjas, demigods, samurais, whatever (seriously, what even was her life?), she trusted all but three of them.
The first was Kin'emon, for obvious reasons. The misogynistic samurai had tried to kill her the first time they'd met. Annabeth supposed it may be noble to quest for your missing son, but she'd been through too much in her life to trust a man that had yet to earn it. Kin'emon had given Annabeth no impression that he wouldn't attack her again in the future so no, Annabeth didn't trust him.
The second was Sanji. Annabeth knew that Sanji was one of Percy's closest friends in the crew, but her boyfriend tended to trust people a little too much for the daughter of Athena's liking. Sanji may have played the role of a hopeless, slightly pervy romantic quite well, but Annabeth knew that the cook was hiding something. Percy trusted Sanji, so Annabeth would have to play along as well. Still, Annabeth planned on sleeping with one eye open for a while.
Finally, there was her half-brother, Trafalgar Law. Annabeth begrudgingly had to admit that Law was indeed her brother. She may not like his lazy, borderline rude attitude, but his intelligence and stormy grey eyes mirrored her own in a way that reminded her of her brother, Malcolm. Yet brother or not, none of the Strawhats seemed to know anything about Law beyond the fact that he'd saved Annabeth's new captain's life during the war at Marineford.
But Law claimed to know the safest way off the island and away from the gas. Annabeth had little choice but to listen to him. Still, Annabeth would rather not fight alone with him, if possible.
"Hey, Traffy!" Nami hollered. Law looked at her with an annoyed scowl as Nami slung an arm around Sanji's shoulder, "Switch us back!"
Annabeth had to suppress a giggle as, despite Sanji's protests, Law returned him and Nami to their own bodies.
"Welcome back," she greeted the daughter of Aphrodite, "How did it feel, being mortal?"
"Scary," Nami admitted, "It was scary having all of Sanji's power and not being able to use it."
"If it makes you feel any better, Sanji totally lost control with your charmspeak," Leo grinned.
"Hey!" Sanji complained hotly.
"Luffy lost to Caesar?" Zoro demanded.
"Yeah, he suffocated us," Usopp admitted, circling around to cover Zoro's back amidst a sea of marines, "He sucked the oxygen out of the air. You know how hard it is to fight gas?"
Annabeth disarmed a big, burly marine with a twist of her wrist and brought the man to his knees with a slash from her sword, "And the yetis knocked you out, right?"
"Not good," Zoro grit his teeth, ignoring Annabeth completely, "Really not good. What were those two years even for?"
"Oi, Zoro…"
Zoro ignored Usopp in favor of walking in the direction of Luffy, running along the catwalk above their heads, "Luffy!"
Sanji kicked aside a trio of brave marines that tried getting close, "What's that idiot doing?"
A sweep of Percy's seastone sword made sure that the marines wouldn't try again, "Who knows, just make sure he doesn't get himself skewered."
"Luffy!" Zoro really didn't seem to hear anyone else; he was too focused on getting Luffy's attention, "LUFFY!"
Finally, Luffy glanced over the railing, "Zoro?"
"GET A GRIP!" Zoro bellowed, "THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING OF THE NEW WORLD! I'M NOT LOSING YOU AGAIN!"
Annabeth couldn't help the uncontrollable grin splitting her chapped lips open, "Aww, that's cute."
"Honestly," Sanji tutted, "He's being so hard on himself."
"Yeah, sorry!" Luffy said with a blindingly confident grin, "It won't happen again!"
Annabeth watched in fascination as Luffy threw himself at the guards at the end of the catwalk, his legs spinning like a top, and sent the guards spilling off the catwalk. With one last salute to his crew, Luffy disappeared out of view, Law and the smoke-using marine following behind him.
"I said be serious!" Zoro called half-heartedly after Luffy, Usopp howling with laughter in the background.
Chopper jumped up and tugged on Percy's coat, "Let's go! I've isolated the drug the master gave the kids. We need to go find them and treat them."
"Go," Leo assured Percy and Annabeth, "We'll hold down the fort here."
No sooner had Percy, Annabeth and Chopper left, an obnoxiously loud alarm blared through everyone's eardrums.
"What the hell?" Usopp shouted, his hands over his ears, "What is that?"
"Whatever it is," Sanji shouted back, "We shouldn't stick around to find out."
"You wanna give me a hand?" Leo shouted at the green dragon that Zoro, Brook and Kin'emon had brought back with them. The dragon nuzzled Leo's hand as if to say, 'you are warm, I will follow you.'
So, with Zoro leading the charge and Leo bringing up the rear on his new dragon friend, the Strawhats began cutting a path through the marines.
"Out of our way!" Zoro demanded, only for a new, more experienced sword, to block his own.
"Oh, so the little copycat has made it to captain," Zoro smirked, "But you're not really looking for a fight."
Zoro ran past Tashigi, leaving his crewmates, who were still trying to understand what he meant, in his wake.
"No, please go on ahead!" said Tashigi.
"Thank you! Yohohohoho!" Brook wasted no time in scampering past the Marine Captain, the others, following his lead, jogged ahead.
"I know I've only been a fugitive for, like, five seconds," Leo muttered to himself, "But are all marines that nice?"
"Wait!" shouted a hoard of marines, trying desperately to prove Leo wrong.
"G-5, now's not the time!" shouted Tashigi, "We have to get out of here! This chamber is about to be destroyed by gas! We have to get to the next chamber right now!"
"WHAT?"
P.E.R.C.Y. J.A.C.K.S.O.N.
Tashigi didn't have time to mourn her men.
She didn't have time to mourn her men because she was too busy saving the men she had left from a dragon, of all things.
"Down, boy!"
Tashigi watched in amazement as one of the newer Strawhats, the scrawny, elf-like one, hopped off the dragon's back, landing lightly in front of Tashigi herself, and took a deep breath, sucking all the fire into his belly with a small burp.
"Excuse me," he grinned at Tashigi, "Don't mind Scratch. He's a little rough around the edges, but I'll sort him out eventually."
"Scratch…?" she said faintly.
"The dragon," the kid explained, "We just met, but once I get a chance, I'll make sure he stops torching people."
"D-Did you eat the Flame Flame Fruit?" Tashigi saw fit to ask.
"Flame Flame Fruit?" the boy looked puzzled before snapping his sooty fingers, "Oh! Is that one of those Devil Fruit thingies? Nah, lady, my power is au naturel."
He jabbed a thumb behind him at a crowd of cheering marines with their backs to Tashigi, "Wanna tell me what all the fuss is about?"
Once Tashigi got a good look at what her men were cheering about, her blood ran cold.
"Captin-chan! Vice Admiral Virgo is here to rescue us!"
"Vice Admiral Virgo won't let any more of us die here!"
"EVERYONE RUN AWAY!" Tashigi screamed.
She was too late. The men closest to Virgo fell in a halo of blood.
"I take it stupid sideburns man is the bad guy," the kid guessed. He reached into his tool belt and pulled out a hammer that definitely had no right fitting into such a small space, "Hey ugly! What's with all the food on your face?"
Virgo studied the boy with interest, "I see the goddess failed to get rid of you."
"Stand back, kid," Tashigi planted herself between the boy and Virgo, "This man is dangerous."
"Oh yeah?" the kid slipped out to stand beside her, "Well, so am I."
The boy burst into flames, "The name's Leo, by the way, not kid."
Tashigi bit her lip. Leo was an interesting mystery, she'd give him that. Pirate or not, Tashigi knew what she needed to do. She unsheathed her sword and pointed it at Virgo, "Alright, Leo. Can you help me save my men?"
"A LADY IS CALLING MY NAME?"
Tashigi threw herself to the side just in time for a flaming figure to crash into Virgo. Black Leg Sanji landed gracefully on the ground, straightening his tie before shooting Tashigi a suave grin.
"Your knight in shining armor has arrived!"
Leo sighed and extinguished himself, "You know, I think I liked you better when you were a girl."
"And you're already an annoyance!" Sanji snapped back, "Go make yourself useful and protect Nami-swan!"
Leo rolled his eyes, "Whatever, man. More work for you."
Without giving him so much as a backward glance, Leo jogged off after the rest of the Strawhats.
O.N.E. P.I.E.C.E.
If it weren't for the synthetic, giant strength of Mocha and the half-godlike strength of Annabeth and Percy, Chopper wouldn't have been able to close the door in time.
Now, the four of them together held the door closed, unsure of what to do next.
"You're so brave, Mocha," Percy reassured the frightened child, "You're doing such a good job."
"Thanks, mister," Mocha said shyly. Chopper wasn't sure how Mocha had resisted the withdrawal effects long enough for Chopper and two of the demigods to find her and administer the sedative, but he was grateful nonetheless.
"Hey, why can't we eat the candy?" asked Mocha.
"The candy is what's making you sick," Annabeth said bluntly before either Percy or Chopper could come up with a tactful way of explaining the situation to the child.
"Annabeth!"
"What? It's the truth!"
…meanwhile…
"Why are you doing this?"
"Because someone needs to teach you how to treat a lady," Sanji growled. Tashigi and the remnants of the G-5 had already escaped through the tunnel; Sanji's stint at biding for time was over. Sanji and Virgo clashed in a blinding display of speed and strength, their legs smashing together like clanging swords. After a particularly strong clash, Sanji backed off.
Virgo's eyebrows flew up towards his hairline as a disturbing smile split his tanned face, "I knew you looked familiar. You're supposed to be dead."
Hell Memories!
Sanji hurried off, leaving Virgo's unconscious body stuck in the wall, "That's none of your business, asshole."
…meanwhile…
Zoro would be disappointed in him if he learned that Luffy was surrounded by a wall of fire, once again unable to get to Caesar without being robbed of his oxygen.
"Whatch'a gonna do about it, Strawhat?" Caesar chuckled.
"I'M STILL GONNA KICK YOUR ASS!" Luffy roared, charging back at Caesar, only for his fists to meet a shield of snow.
"Tisk, tisk," the snow harpy said in a condescending voice as Caesar rushed off to continue his plans, "Kidnapping the master and destroying SAD? That's a plan worthy of Law, perhaps, but are you ready to carry it out?"
"Shut up, lady!" Luffy snapped, "Let me through!"
Monet embraced Luffy in a hug, "Slowly, your heart will freeze."
Luffy gasped as the cold seeped through his very being. He was paralyzed, unable to do anything as frost crept across his skin.
"That's it," Monet said gently, "Just let it be. Close your eyes slowly."
But just as Luffy was lulled off into an eternal sleep, Zoro's voice warmed his mind, calling out to him like a lighthouse in a sea of fog.
"GET A GRIP! THIS IS ONLY THE START OF THE NEW WORLD! I'M NOT LOSING YOU AGAIN!"
Jet Spear!
Monet didn't expect Luffy to be able to resist the cold and was therefore too startled to react when Luffy's attack sent her hurtling into the wall. When she regained her wits, Strawhat Luffy was gone. In his place was a hole in the floor.
Monet shrugged and glided off to find new targets. Strawhat Luffy likely fell to his death.
Somewhere in her mind, Monet realized the many flaws in this logic, but she didn't care.
Surely, she could find someone weaker to kill to appease Joker; Strawhat Luffy wasn't worth the effort.