Zoro can feel his headache worsening every time he sees Luffia. No, it's not because of her presence that bothers him. It's what she says all the time.
"Zoro, let's mate!"
"No." He growls all the time, hoping that she will get the idea that he doesn't want to. His refusals only result in a pouting and a grumbling Luffia, throwing insults to the High Prince, calling him names that no one in Raftel will ever dare.
But she did.
He cannot understand why she suddenly told him that she wants to mate. Why? They are not like Marco and Ann or Kidd and Sab. They're different. Even if there's a sliver of connection both felt towards one another, it doesn't mean that they should adhere to it. Besides, Zoro marked someone years ago, albeit the memories are lost, gone.
His back feels warmer than ever. The High Prince of Vaelon takes this as a good sign that this year's Sacred Midnight will give him the answers he needs.
For the past couple of weeks, everything is going as well as they expected, eerily so. Raftel is preparing for the war that will come anytime soon. With the forces of Akainu and his men growing stronger every day that passes by, they fear that this war will be the bloodiest in history.
Most of the Warrior Commanders have been going back and forth from Raftel to Cresta to survey the area. Now that the existence of Raftel is exposed, with Cresta's Royal Family as an ally, everyone in Raftel agreed to cooperate with the Humans again.
History repeats itself, it seems.
While Luffia is busy chasing after Zoro, the twins busy themselves by helping out. They frequently visit their kingdom and had been helping their troops to prepare for war. Luffia joins them too amidst her grumbling when Zoro escaped from her grasp.
She's still staying in Vaelon and even if Zoro wants to tell her to go away, he could never win against her pleading eyes, no one can.
"Your Highness. Uh, are you alright?" Johnny fears that his question is irrelevant, but he asked out of curiosity after seeing Zoro's state. He's panting as if he'd run miles for days.
"Yes. I am." Zoro answers, straightening his back in an attempt to regain his sullied dignity of being seen by his Warrior Commander panting like that.
"ZORO!" A shout from a distance echoes in their ears. It's Luffia again. "I SWEAR YOU'RE GOING TO REGRET THIS!" Judging from her voice, she's not amused.
Johnny can only shake his head while looking at his High Prince, pitying him because of the youngest princess' schemes. Robin once tried to reason to Luffia that Zoro had marked someone a long time ago but she answered casually by saying: "I know, that is why we have to mate."
No one can tell what's going on in her mind. Not even her sisters.
"I'm going somewhere." Anywhere
"Okay. I understand." Johnny has the decency not to laugh at the panic state Zoro is in, thank goodness. With a nod, he's quick to fly as fast as he can before the little demon sees him. It's been like this for the past couple of weeks - a hide and seek game.
Not long after Zoro departed, Luffia arrived, spotting Johnny on the Palace grounds.
"Where's Zoro?" she tilts her head, asking with innocent eyes. They're dangerous for everyone here in Vaelon because looking into Luffia's eyes feels like they are looking at an endless abyss of innocence that rips all of their conscience apart.
"Somewhere."
"Where?"
"I do not know. He didn't tell me." And I didn't ask, Johnny wants to add. Holding a piece of information and keeping it from Luffia when she asks is dangerous.
Luffia stares at Johnny for a minute too long, trying to discern if he's lying and when she deems that he's not, it left her sighing in exasperation, pouting as she grumbles that Zoro is being unfair.
"I guess I will go bother Sab or Ann." She says, waving her hand to Johnny as she left the Palace.
The Warrior Commander sighs in defeat, shaking his head as he decided to resume his duties. There are a lot of things he must attend and that includes preparing their people for the war to come.
Luffia left the Palace Grounds of Vaelon with Beogia as her destination but in midair, she feels the cold air brushing against her skin while the voice resonates in her head. This time, it's different.
'Come. We've been waiting, Your Highness.'
'Centuries of waiting, and you're finally here.' Another voice says.
Luffia stops the Pegasus, its wings flap as it maintains its position midair. She turns from left to right, trying to find the voices whispering in her head. These are the same voices that she heard when they left Alabasta.
'Come and call us.' The voice is getting louder. She turns her head towards the direction of where the ocean is. Her heart quickens at the voices calling out to her.
"To the sea." She told the Pegasus. With a quick flap of its wings, the winged creature turned around, disregarding the first destination Luffia told a few minutes ago.
The closer they get to the ocean, the more she hears the voices in her head. It's been like this for the past few weeks, telling her to be ready, that it is about time.
The beach is clean, the water is as blue as the sky above. Luffia directed the Pegasus to land near the water.
Her eyes are searching for something. She knows there's something out there waiting for her. While the Pegasus waits for her, she starts walking closer to the water, disregarding her footwear, letting it wet her bare feet. It's a little cold but nothing she can't handle.
The smell of the ocean is familiar, it touches a memory, like a lamp suddenly lighting in her mind.
'You've come, oh our Dear Queen.'
The ocean begins stirring, almost creating a whirlpool right in front of Luffia. The waves are rising and beyond the blue water are shadows of creatures big enough to swallow ships. Luffia sees it, numerous pairs of eyes staring at her. Unlike the monsters that attacked them in Purgatory, their eyes do not emit the aura of danger.
It's welcoming her.
"Queen?" she asks, confused.
'We've been waiting, but you have not recovered what must be recovered from that place'
"What do you mean?"
'Sacred Midnight...'
The stirrings in the water alarmed the Pegasus, it neighs several times, afraid of the unknown. Luffia looks back at the winged horse, puts her finger on her lips as a sign so it will not worry and to stay quiet. It did, but its eyes glow with worry for the princess.
Luffia pays no attention to the winged horse, opting to look at the ocean again, but the stirrings from the sea and the voices are gone. There's nothing but calm waves that reverberate in her ears.
"Sacred Midnight." She mutters to herself.
===XXX===XXX===XXX===
'Your Highness, we are waiting for you... It is almost time.' The voice is clear that it made Ann flinch. The same voice she's been hearing for the past couple of weeks now since she mated with Marco.
"Are you alright, yoi?" Marco asks, frowning at Ann with deep worry. Their connection made it possible for him to sense any changes in her mood or if she feels off.
"Yes. No, I mean..." she trails, eyebrows furrowed. "Didn't you hear it?" When Luffia told them that she's been hearing voices before, none of them dared to tell any soul about it. But now that they are mates, it is right for her to tell him about the oddity they've been experiencing.
"Hear what?"
"The voice," she answers.
"What voice, yoi?" The worry on Marco's face grows sturdier as he waits for Ann to answer.
"I've been hearing voices. Well, it wasn't clear before. It was Luffia who heard it first when we arrived here. We heard it back in the Cave of Darkness when we were in the Purgatory."
"What did this voice told you?"
"That we came here. The voice was telling us to seek them." Ann is still not sure about this mystery. She pushes the thoughts at the back of her mind as pondering over them will only raise questions she may never have an answer to.
"Is it possible that you heard the voice because we're mates, yoi?" Although Marco cannot recall who the voice belongs to, Raftel is full of mysteries that even the Royalties do not have answers to.
"It is possible, but we mated." She insisted. "I thought the voices will go away, but it whispers in my head every once in a while. It says it is almost time."
"Time..." Marco's hand is on his chin, in deep thoughts. "Sacred Midnight is near, yoi. It is a night where all of us visit the Sacred Ground where the Three Magical Kingdoms' temple is. It's a tradition since their disappearance. It is also a time when Magic is the strongest." He explains.
Ann nods, understanding that the voice could be connected to the Sacred Midnight.
Later that day, Ann spread the blue wings at her back and flew to Beogia to visit her twin sister. For the past weeks, Marco has been guiding her on how to use the powers she obtained when they mated. At first, it was uncontrollable, and oddly enough, it burns.
Marco's fire does not burn the creatures physically. It burns their lifespan away, but for Ann, hers is wild. They attributed such oddity to her inexperience in dealing with a power such as this but the more she uses it, the more she thinks that it is not as simple as they thought.
She never voiced it out, but she can feel a stirring inside her, something groundbreaking that she cannot explain at all.
It's not that she doesn't trust Marco or anyone here, but she feels like she must tell her sisters first to know if they are still experiencing the same thing as she does.
When she arrived at the Palace, the guards immediately let her in. She makes her way to the garden where Sab is usually sitting while reading books about the history of Raftel.
It's a relieving sight to see Luffia with her, just the two of them. Kidd probably excused himself to avoid being annoyed by the youngest of the three human princesses. Such entertaining sight when the stoic and brash High Prince of Beogia is flustered because of Luffia's nonstop annoyance.
"Ann, you're here. It's a good thing you came." Sab's voice is stern as if she has news she is eager to share.
"Yes." she takes the empty seat while answering, eyes are on her sisters. "Something happened?" They knew each other for a long time to sense an atmosphere surrounding the other.
"Yes." Sab answers. "I mean. It's just... Odd." The last word had been forced out of her mouth, saying it for the lack of a better term.
"What's odd?"
"The voices," Luffia answers Ann this time. "I heard them. They're in the ocean. Different than the ones we heard in Purgatory. It's super weird because they just disappeared!"
The twins exchanged glances.
"I did not hear the voices you were referring to, Luffia, but I heard the voice of the man when we were in Purgatory," Sab says. "And the dreams. They're getting more frequent."
"What did you dream this time?" Ann inquires.
"A creature. A fox. It's just staring at me."
"I had a dream too, last night. But it's a... a firebird." Ann has no better explanation than what she said.
"Isn't it a phoenix?" Luffia asks.
"Lu, Phoenixes' colors are blue. This one is blood red." Ann argues, recalling her dream from last night.
At first, none of them paid attention to it but when it became frequent, they told each other about the strange dreams and the voice that whispers in their ears.
"I've been looking for ancient books and asked Robin for help as well to translate most of them for me." Sab took it as her task to read the history of Raftel, hoping she will get answers. "It's strange because there's none that entails about these strange dreams."
"Nothing at all?"
"None. Even when I checked the history of the three Magical Kingdoms, there's none. Although..." Sab carefully looks at Ann. "Your dream can be related to Verid's."
"Their insignia," Ann remembers it.
"Yes. Wings of Fire is the symbol of Verid."
"But why would she dream about it?" Luffia cannot fathom the reason why.
"Maybe Verid is somehow connected to Ipraecia?" Ann offers a possible reason but even with this, she cannot find it in herself convinced that it is. "Either way, maybe we will know when the time comes whatever the voice meant."
Spending more time pondering on what it meant will do them nothing. They won't have answers.
"We can ask the Peacekeeper. I mean, I told Kidd about it one time. He said if I want, we can ask Whitebeard to give us insights."
The three of them exchanged glances, silence followed after Sab's statement.
"Maybe we should just wait for the Sacred Midnight. I don't know, but I feel like we should." Ann lets her instincts guide her. It's been screaming at her since the first time they arrived here. She made the mistake of not following it, but this time, she will not be doing the mistake twice.
All of them agreed. For now, they will have to wait until Sacred Midnight to unravel the mystery of the voice and their dreams.
===XXX===XXX===XXX===
Hooves of the horses are stomping on the ground, accompanied by shouts of the soldiers that made the ground shake. It echoes in the training ground, startling the birds from the nearby forest.
"Sacred Midnight is almost upon us." The familiar voice rings in Akainu's ears.
"I know." He answers. "We will attack when they are at their weakest. 3 Days after the Sacred Midnight."
"3 Days? I thought we will attack during the Sacred Midnight?" Teach cannot fathom why the plans changed again. Akainu told him before that they will attack at Sacred Midnight. What prompts this change?
"Two of the High Princes have mated. Had they not been, we would have continued with the plans to attack Raftel during Sacred Midnight, but we cannot. That is the night when the powers of the beast are at their strongest. They have mates now." He repeats his last words with a growl and a menacing stare directed at Teach. It speaks volumes how much he is irritated at this situation.
It spells trouble for them.
Akainu's regret is immeasurable. The gold slipped past his palms. Had he realized what Roger's words meant that time, he would have the High Princes grasped by their necks.
It's regrettable. He can think of many ways how he can use the princesses against Raftel. What's a kingdom without their High Prince? Loyalty runs deep in their bones that no matter what happens, they will follow their High Prince to the ends of the entire realm.
No matter how many times he contemplates the golden opportunity that slipped past him, he cannot change the outcome.
What he can change now are their strategies, their plans. The unexpected mating of the High Princes to the two Princesses of Cresta may have altered the plans Akainu had, but never his determination to destroy Raftel down to its roots.
No one will walk out of that damnable place alive. That place served memories, tragic ones that he cannot forget. It barred him from achieving his dreams, of a united world under one true ruler - him.
"The red vortex will be ready by then." Akainu said, calming his rage.
"Ah, I see. Zehahaha." Teach answers, understanding what Akainu meant. "Then, I will leave you for now." He takes a step toward the door, leaving Akainu in his room.
Once outside, his sinister smile didn't fade, it stays on his face, his eyes turned darker than ever with a glint of schemes carefully hidden underneath. As to what schemes it could be, no one knows.
===XXX===XXX===XXX===
All the creatures in Raftel are bustling with chores to do. Tonight is the Sacred Midnight. Even though this tradition honors the Three Magical Creatures that left Raftel, most of the beasts here do not want to participate as it reminds them of the disappearance of the Kingdoms, their allies.
With the return of an old enemy along with the old wounds they kept hidden, it brought back the nasty memories, the deaths, the bloodshed.
Luffia's been fidgeting nonstop. If it's because of nervousness or excitement, no one can tell. Zoro immediately went into seclusion after the pestering he received from the said princess. He came out of seclusion hours before the Sacred Midnight which means he has no choice but to face Luffia again. He expected to be greeted by her rambunctious attitude, but she didn't. She's silent, in deep thoughts that are rare to see from the lively human princess.
Everyone is now gathered in the Sacred Temple. It has the 6 altar stones from each of the 6 Kingdoms in Raftel.
Ipraecia on the far left followed by Beogia. Next to Beogia is Vaelon. On the other side is Verid on the far right, then Huidel, and lastly, Daerene.
The High Princes are in the center of the altar stones formed in a half-circle. Zoro is standing alone because no one is allowed in the encirclement aside from the mates of the Royalties.
Luffia's behind them, standing beside the Peacekeeper while her ears are buzzing. The voice is here again.
'It is time, Your Highness.' Luffia blinks a few times while looking at the ground. 'All of you are here' the voice is clearer now as if he's standing right beside the youngest princess. She looks up only to see her sisters looking at her, no wonder they heard the same thing.
"You okay, yoi?" Marco whispers to Ann.
"Yes. I am."
"Alright." He lets her be in favor of nodding to the other High Princes. As a custom, when midnight strikes when the moon is high and it's in brightest glory, the three of them will slice their palms open and drip their blood to their respective Kingdom's altar stone.
The sound of the bell signals the beginning of the ceremony. As soon as it rings in the sisters' ears, the voice grew louder, whispering to their heads.
As soon as the blood of the High Princes touched the stone, it is magically absorbed before it lits up brightly, mirroring the full moon above. All of their wings are now visible with flickers of power coming from their body.
It's a blessing from their ancestors that surge in their blood.
While the three High Princes are dripping their blood on the altar stones, the Human Princesses' eyes changed.
It's as if they are in a trance-like state, guided by instincts and the voice that never stopped.
'Go... We've been waiting for you, our Dear Rulers.' Memories flashed in their minds, not theirs, but someone else's.
A fragment of memory when they were born, when they were brought to a place they do not know where then it shifts to memories of their childhoods, the strange things that happened before that they cannot remember.
Whitebeard can feel that something is off. He shifts his eyes to look at the woman next to her, Luffia.
"Luffia?" He calls out, but there's no answer. His voice alarmed the Warrior Commanders standing beside Luffia who is now walking towards the half-circle, still in a trance-like state. "Luffia!" It fell to deaf ears because she's already in front of the altar stone of Daerene.
As if it's not enough, the twins are also in front of the other altar stones, startling everyone.
"Sab?" No answer from Sab.
Just as they are about to approach the three of them, the princesses dripped their blood on the altar stones and, it happened. The altar stones lit up, shocking everyone.
The buzzing sound reverberates in everyone's ears while the light coming from the stones are blinding them. It lasted for a minute before the light dies down, and what's left is the figure of a woman hovering in the middle of the half-circle, a spirit.
Everyone gasped when their eyes landed on the woman in midair, floating like the spirit of the dead.
Not all of them can recognize this woman, but the Royalties do.
"Rauscher..." Marco is the first one to call her out. As the eldest of the three High Princes, he spent quite a lot of time with the Rareborn Princess, establishing a friendship that lasted for centuries.
"Hello, Marco." She greets, smiling at him. Her eyes speak volumes that anyone cannot comprehend.
It is as this time that the princesses woke up from their previous state. Their eyes landed on their palms soaked by droplets of blood. They felt the warmth behind them, and as their instincts shouted, they turned around only to meet a very beautiful sight they never expected. Their mouths are gaping, no words left, voices are gone. They just stared at the beauty of the familiar yet foreign woman floating midair.
"Rauscher... You're..." Zoro cannot finish his sentence. The words are at the tip of his tongue but he does not have the heart to say them out loud.
"I know all of you must have a lot of questions." Her voice is warm, friendly. Her eyes survey the creatures surrounding them, staring at her. The smile on her face turns sadder. She longs to see Raftel once again in its full glory, back to the days when all the kingdoms are here and they are coexisting with humans.
How sad for her to be in Raftel after centuries only to see it in this form - a spirit.
"Your Highness. You're back." It is Izou's voice, slightly bowing at the Rareborn Princess.
"Only for now." She answers. "The war is upon Raftel. No, not just Raftel, but it's the war of the entire world. I know you have questions. Your hatred to me is unfathomable and I assure all of you none of your feelings are forgotten. I carry your hatred on my shoulders even in this state." She addresses the creatures of Raftel before her eyes landed on the three High Princes.
"This is not the time to let your hatred cloud your hearts." Her voice is solemn, so peaceful that even the farthest creatures from the encirclement can feel it. They shiver from the warmth and power she radiates. Even in a spirit form, the Rareborn Princess's power is nothing like they've ever felt before. "Your questions will have answers." The High Princes held their gazes against hers.
Her head slowly turns to the side where the human princesses are.
"So as yours."
The sisters' eyes are moist, tears falling from their eyes while staring at the figure in front of them. She's different from what they remembered. Her ears are pointy, her skin is pale, and at her back are humungous wings that flicker with fire.
Everyone is wondering why the sisters are crying but the next words that they heard answered their question.
"The three of you finally came here. It must be hard for you. We are sorry for letting the three of you experience such hardships. Forgive me, my dear daughters." Rauscher's tear fell, happy to see her daughters again after learning what they went through. No mother will ever wish harm for their children, certainly not her.
"Mom... Are you... Are you d-dead?" Luffia chokes on her sobs, words almost unintelligible, forced out of her mouth as she asks the question she never thought she will ask from her mother. To her eyes, none matters, not the expressions written on everyone's faces, not the questions they have. What matters is that their mother is in front of them.
Rauscher only smiles. She does not have the heart to answer the question from her youngest. The twins are shaking their heads. They know why their mother refused to answer Luffia.
And it hurts.
It's like a knife cutting through their hearts while looking at the form their mother is in. Her smile is genuine, full of love and compassion for her children.
She stands in front of the princesses, not as Rauscher Veronica D. Verid but as Rouge, their mother.
"It is time for you to know the truth." She finally manages to gather the courage to utter these words. "Everything."
===XXX===XXX===XXX===
AN: I cried at the last scenes. Ugh. :(
Sorry for the delay of the chapter. But hope you all enjoyed it. Happy New Year!
