Ch 7 - A Common Goal
"Ahhh! What the hell are they doing out there?" Nami screeched, "Zoro knows full well that we're in here!"
Kaboom!
The adults landed hard against the rubble for the upteenth time while Aisa's fall was cushioned by Boo. They had been doing this bumpy dance for several minutes. The snake was thrashing around fiercely, sending it's passengers tumbling every which way. Because everyone had kept a watchful eye on the rubber boy, they knew the snake was reacting to whatever was happening outside of it's body.
Sid sat up and grabbed a rock that had hit her right in the small of her back. "This has Wyper written all over it," she groaned and crushed the rock in her hands. She tossed it over her shoulder and then rubbed out the ache in her back. "That maniac is probably trying to burn a hole through the snake."
"Is this what you mean by hurting instead of helping?" Aisa asked.
"No," Sid scoffed, "Because that would imply Wyper's doing it in order to help us. He's probably just trying to kill the snake because it's getting in the way of Wyper beating up that priest or even Enel, if he shows up."
"Demon...Wyper is a demon," Aisa whimpered.
The ground beneath them started to tremble again and Sid grimaced. "Brace yourselves. Here comes another one."
Aisa ducked further into Boo's cloud and Sid sucked in a breath. Soon, they found themselves high up in the air again but this time they kept rising higher and higher.
No!, Sid thought with a jolt and then looked towards Boo and Aisa for confirmation, We're not flying up...We're falling down! The entire snake is falling!
"What is going on?!" Nami shrieked and made a grab for her waver just as it was about to float past.
"I see an opening!" Gan Fall shouted and leapt onto Pierre's back. He pointed straight down with his javelin where there was a small circle of light, "The snake's mouth must be open! Let's get out of here."
"Ah! This could go on forever," Nami agreed, "Luffy! Grab onto the waver! I'm going to fire up the engine."
"Yosh!" Luffy shouted as Sid swam herself towards Boo. She climbed onto him but could only kneel right at the end since Aisa had taken up most of the space.
"Boo!"
"Okay. I'm ready, Nami!" Luffy cried out from behind.
"Let's go!'
Sid kept her eyes forward as Boo flew past Nami and they were hot on Gan Fall's tail. She heard the Blue Sea girl rev up the engine and then a bursting sound from the jet dial when she gunned it.
"AHHHHHH!"
A sudden scream caught Sid's attention but before she could even turn around she felt a hand grab hold of her her neck.
"GAK!" she gasped when the fingers dented into her skin and pulled her backwards off of her sky sheep.
"Sid!" Immediately, Aisa swiped her hand out but the child's reflexes were too slow and her reach was too small. She missed Sid's extended arm entirely. "NO!"
With the opening still in view, Sid made a split second decision. "Boo! Keep going! Don't turn away. Get Aisa out of here! Don't worry about me! Just protect Aisa!"
The ruckus caused Gan Fall to turn around and his eyes popped out when Sid and her assailant getting further and further away. "What are they doing?! Pierre, Go back! We have to save those two!"
"Pierre!" Pierre screeched and came to a full stop. Unfortunately, his rider did not expect his steed to be that obedient and Gan Fall flew over the bird and continued to fall downwards.
"PIERRE!" The bird-horse hybrid shrieked and went racing towards Gan Fall again but the old knight deterred him.
"Go back, Pierre! Help those two!"
"Pierre!"
Sid watched the bird-horse fly towards her just as the snake closed it's mouth behind Boo, Aisa, Gan Fall, and Nami. With the visual process of elimination, Sid scowled before she crash landed hard into the belly of the snake again. She closed her eyes but mostly to steel her nerves and less to avoid the dust cloud.
"Shishishi. Whoops! I guess we're back where we were before."
Still on her back and with her eyes firmly shut, she reached out towards the laughter and grabbed a fistful of tattered cloth. She sat up and pulled Luffy towards her so she could glare right into his eyes. "Explain yourself!"
"I didn't realize the waver was that strong and it just blew me off. Sorry," he said with a grin.
"It blew you off?" Sid said and one by one, her fingers relaxed from his hold as reality sunk in, "You...held...onto...the waver's...jet?!"
Luffy gave a firm nod. "Yep! And then I reached out to the first thing I could get to...which was you. Shishishishishi. I was actually aiming for Nami but I couldn't see because of all the clouds."
Sid folded her knees up and put her head in between them. "Wyper was right…" she moaned, "You are the enemy."
"I'm not an enemy. I'm a pirate!"
"I don't even know what that means," Sid sighed.
"Pierre!"
"Oh, look! The bird is here," Luffy laughed but Sid couldn't even bring herself to sit up and take a look herself, "Come on! Get on the bird, guerilla lady!"
Finally, Sid's head popped up and she glared at the boy, who was sitting happily on the back of Pierre. "Don't call me that! My name is Sid."
"I'm Monkey D. Luffy. Nice to meetcha!" he replied automatically.
His grin was firmly stuck on his face and no matter how long and hard Sid glared at him, it did not move in the slightest. It took a moment for the healer to realize that she would be the one to break this staring contest, otherwise she might wind up looking at this simpleton's face for far too long.
"Monkey D. Luffy…" she grumbled and begrudgingly climbed onto the bird-horse hybrid, "So you're a captain and a pirate."
"Yep! I'm going to be the King of Pirates!" he shouted and then pointed forward towards the head of the snake, "Let's go, Horse!"
"I thought you called it a bird…" Sid said with a roll of her eyes and she held on tightly to Luffy's back. If there was a chance of her falling off, she was determined to take him down with her.
"What...what is this place?" Aisa breathed as she slowly crawled out of Boo's cloud. It looked similar to the ruins but the buildings were much more intact, barely touched, and there was definitely more of them. Aisa knew for sure this was a part of Upper Yard she had never been to before. The structures were much grander and for some reason, her heart felt warm just by being in their presence.
That sensation left, though, when she spotted the back of a Shandian warrior with a bazooka leaning against his shoulder. "Wyper!"
She took a deep breath and then ran to him. He was so transfixed at the sight in front of him that he didn't even look down at the girl when she tugged on his arm. "Wyper! Sid is...Sid is…"
"Aisa!" he shouted and the child flinched.
"I'm sorry!" she said and took several steps back, despite not knowing what she was apologizing for.
"Look! Aisa! This is the place we've been seeking. The proud city that our ancestor's protected!" he said and then the child realized that for the first time, she heard wonder and awe in the warrior's voice, "This is Shandora!"
"This...this is Shandora?" Aisa's hands went to her face and she took a new look at her surroundings, a much slower and more appreciative look.
"Shaaaaaa!"
The cries of the snake broke Aisa's concentration and she returned to Wyper's side. "Wyper! Sid is still in the snake! She's-"
"What is this, Lord of the Sky? What are you being so worked up for?"
Aisa let out a strangled cry just as Wyper pushed her hard away from him and back onto Boo. He gripped his bazooka and positioned himself between the child and the God of Skypiea, who had finally decided to show himself.
"Enel…" Wyper growled but the God paid him no mind.
"What an annoying snake," Enel mused. He clenched his fist, which became doused in a crackling blue light, "How foolish!"
He threw a punch into the air and the blue light streaked upwards before clustering into a ball of lightning right over the giant snake's head. "El Thor!"
Kaboom!
"Shaaaaa!"
A thick, blue lightning bolt engulfed the snake and struck hard into the ground.
"SID!" Aisa screamed.
The light disappeared and left nothing but a smoking snake stretched across the ground.
"Boo!" The sky sheep started to dart forward with the child still riding on top of him but they were blocked when Wyper stuck out his bazooka in their path.
"Don't. She'll be fine," he grunted, "Sid is strong. Worry about yourselves."
"You don't care about Sid at all!" Aisa cried, "You're a demon. A demon!"
"Shut up!" Wyper shouted and then to the child's surprise, he started talking to the sky sheep, "Boo! If you left Sid's side, it must be under her orders. You have something you need to do, don't you?"
"Boo…?"
"Don't you?!"
Just protect Aisa!
His master's most recent request rang in the sky sheep's mind and his cloud darkened but expanded at the same time. He enveloped the child and started to slowly float away. "Boo…"
"Good," Wyper growled with his eyes glued to his target.
"I really thought I was a goner that day. I think it was the closest I've ever come to death," Luffy laughed as he finished telling the story about how he wound up on an execution stand of a place called Loguetown. Apparently, that was where the former King of Pirates had left the physical world.
Sid scoffed. "You said that about your fight with that sand man…"
"Oh yeah. Man, that guy was a jerk! I really don't like him," Luffy huffed, "He put Vivi through hell and he tried to kill Robin too!"
"Yeah. You mentioned that already," Sid said.
Falling down the snake was proving to be a lot faster than running across it. Something had happened outside too that had left the snake motionless. Sid could only assume that Wyper had finally found a way to conquer the snake.
Sid was perfectly fine just riding in silence but her companion felt quite the opposite. He had jabbered on and on about his journey with his nakama. Even though his stories were not told in correct order and he often glazed over a lot of the details, Sid was able to somewhat piece together everything and she even found the stories enjoyable.
"So that's what pirates do?" she asked, "They just go from island to island and have adventures?"
"Yep!" Luffy said. His back was turned to her but she could hear the grin in his voice.
"And...you and your nakama are trying to find this one thing?"
"One Piece," Luffy corrected.
"Right…" Sid said with a nod, "And whoever gets it, gets to be the King of Pirates."
"Yep!"
"Why do you want to be the King of Pirates? Because you want to be the strongest?"
Luffy shrugged. "I don't want to be the strongest. I just want freedom."
Sid chuckled. "Don't we all…?"
"You want the One Piece too? Shishishishi. That's going to make you my rival!"
"Ha. No. I have no intention of becoming a pirate, let alone become the king or whatever. I just meant that everyone wants to do whatever they please with nothing holding them back," Sid replied, "No war. No obligations. No fighting."
"Eh?" Luffy's head tilted to the side, "If you don't like fighting then why are you doing it?"
"Why indeed…" Sid mused, "I wish I could say it's because I want to do it for my ancestors. To bring honor to them and to light the fires of Shandora but...at this point I'm just doing it to settle things once in for all. Go in, reclaim the homeland, and not have to deal with it any more. It's like I'm waging my own personal duel against my ancestors."
"Shishishishi. You're kinda like old diamond-head, then."
"Who?"
"The old guy that helped us get up to the sky. He's been looking for the city of gold for a long time because he's related to that liar guy."
Sid sat up a little straighter. Maybe during this brief journey together Sid had learned how to understand Luffy or maybe an ancestor was watching over them and gave her a spark of understanding to what this Blue Sea person was saying. "That liar you are speaking of! What was his name?"
"Eh...I...don't remember...It was like...No...Noman. Norman?"
"You mean...Noland?"
"Oh! Yeah! Noland the liar!"
Sid's eyes widened and she almost fell off the horse. Montblanc Noland...his descendants...They are still looking for us! I need to tell Wyper!
"Ohhh, hang on!" Luffy cried, jolting Sid from her thoughts. He stuck a hand over his hat and held it firmly in place as the road started to angle upwards into a steep slope. Pierre's wings extended when it was getting closer to a vertical angle and they flew to the top.
In the dim light, Sid could see the road below become less stone and more muscle and tissue. They were getting closer to the end of the snake's throat and towards the mouth. She dug her heels into Pierre's sides when she saw the backs of it's sharp teeth. "There! Pierre! Fly forward! That's the mouth!"
"Pierre!"
"Yosh...Gum-Gum-" Luffy said as he pulled back his fist and began to wind up his arm.
Sid grabbed his fist and held it still. "Wait! Don't touch it's teeth or tongue! It's coated in it's venom!"
"EH?! How are we supposed to open it's mouth if we can't touch it?" Luffy protested.
Sid pointed upwards. "The roof of its mouth. Punch that. The venom is only in the bottom of the mouth."
"How do you know that? Are you some sort of snake specialist?"
Sid shrugged. "No. It's in some old healer books about the use of snake venom. You extract it from the-"
"Here I go!"
"Are you even listening to me?!"
Bonk!
Luffy's fist sailed up into the darkness and clocked the snake smartly at the top of his mouth. The entire head moved upwards and then when it landed, the jaw fell open and a burst of light flooded over the group.
"An opening! Go! Go! Go!" Sid shouted as she lightly kicked Pierre in the sides. Her eyes were squinted almost to a complete close from being in the dark for too long but she did not want to waste another second in captivity.
They swooped out of the snake's mouth and Sid's sight adjusted just as Pierre's hooves hit the stone ground. She blinked a couple times and then looked around her. The snake's head was resting on top of a stone building. It had scorch marks all over it. Did Wyper finally burn it with his bazooka?, she wondered.
"WAHHHHHH!"
Luffy screamed victoriously as he sprinted up the stairs of another building. Sid's eyes followed the rubber boy to the very top. With every step he took, realization sank further and further into Sid's heart. Seeing how tall and complete not just that building was but all the other buildings standing beside and behind it, there was no denying it. Her heart rose to her throat while her feet felt heavy and weighted down onto the cobble stoned street. Shan...Shandora!
"So, what is this place? This isn't the ruins, right?" Luffy yelled from the top, "Sid! Come look! Do you think the bell is here?"
The mention of the bell was like a wake up call for Sid and she scrambled up the stairs. She made it in less time than the rubber boy with the help of her wavers. She grabbed him by the shoulders and turned him around so he was looking only at her and not their surroundings. "Luffy. That bell...That bell has been a closely guarded secret that no one knows beyond the Chief, myself, and Wyper...How do you know about the bell?" she demanded.
"It was in that book old diamond-head gave us. The liar's diary or something," Luffy said with a grin, "It said it was a really big bell...So if I ring it, the old diamond-head would be able to hear it from below, right?"
"You...You want to...ring the bell for Noland's descendant to hear?"
"Yep. So where is it?" Luffy asked, "Do you know?"
Sid's hands dropped to her sides and she looked thoughtfully at the boy. This Blue Sea person had no business being here. No reason to take part in any of this and yet somehow it seemed both of them were after similar things.
"I don't know where it is," she admitted, "But...I will help you look for it. Part of the reason Wyper and I are fighting so hard to take back Shandora is for that bell."
"Shishishishi, okay but I call ringing it!" he said and shot up a hand for emphasis, "Dibs! You can't ring it when we find it! I called it!"
Sid snorted. "I don't know what you mean by 'dibs' but you can ring it if you want. I don't care as long as it's rung."
"Yahoo!" Luffy cheered and drew back his hand only to punch it into the air again. He turned to face the city again and he planted his hands on his hips. "Yosh! Let's go find the…"
His voice trailed off along with his grin and enthusiasm. He had spotted a huge burnt hole in the center of the street in front of them. Despite the amount of vines and plants that grew over the lost city, he still managed to spot a distinctly green head of hair lying near it. Without another thought he jumped off the building, not even bothering to take the stairs. As soon as his sandaled feet hit the street, he went into a dead sprint. When he got closer to the hole, he noticed the bodies of two more of his nakama but he did not change his target one bit.
"Oy! Zoro!" he shouted when he approached the fallen swordsman. Luffy grabbed Zoro by the shoulders and shook him, hoping to bring him into consciousness. His whole body looked burnt and there was crusting blood down one side of his head, "What're you doing?! How could this happen when you were here?"
He looked around frantically to see if there was anyone else nearby. Anyone that was familiar.
"Pierre!" The bird-horse's shriek grabbed the boy's attention and he saw the steed running in frantic circles around the fallen knight, who looked in similar shape as everyone else.
"Wait...Where's Nami?" he asked, "Where's-"
"AISA?! BOO?!" The panicked scream of the Shandian warrior interrupted the rubber boy and he saw the just the top of Sid's brown hair in the center of the hole. She let out a shrill whistle over and over again until she was practically breathless but nothing came out of the woodwork. No cloud. No sheep. No child. "No...No...No…"
Luffy went over to the edge of the hole just in time to see Sid sink to her knees. Her hands went to her fellow warrior, who looked the worst out of everyone here. Blood coated his mouth and chin. His burns were the most severe and seemed to encase all of his body. Sid shakily moved her hands to the side of Wyper's face. "Even you...Wyper? Even you?"
"S-S-Sid? L...Luffy? Is that you?"
Sid shot to her feet and turned towards the familiar timid voice while Luffy watched Aisa slowly peek out from behind a nearby building. The ends of her hair were frizzled and there were small patches of burns on her cheeks and neck but compared to the others, she was practically in mint condition. When her eyes fell on the rubber boy, they started to water and she raced forward. In her hand, she clutched a blackened cloud that was sparking every now and then with blue light. "SID! LUFFY!"
"Aisa?!" Sid jumped out of the hole to meet the girl halfway and Aisa ran straight into the healer. The child buried the top of her head in Sid's torso and cried into her blouse.
"I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! Boo...Boo tried to protect me but...but Enel...he...he…"
"Enel…" Sid drew in a shaky breath, "Aisa. Why didn't you come out when I called for you? Don't scare me like that, Aisa!"
"I...can't really hear from a distance," Aisa whimpered, "I hid inside Boo and when Enel attacked...It...it made my ears ring really loudly and it's affecting my Mantra."
"Is it still ringing now?" Sid asked as she knelt down to be eye level of the child.
When Aisa nodded, Sid reached out and cupped Aisa's ears with her palms. Her fingers wrapped around the back of the child's head. The healer flicked her index fingers off of the side of her middle fingers to lightly thump against Aisa's skull. After a few hard taps, Sid moved her hands away.
"Better?" Sid asked.
Aisa's eyes widened. "All gone! How did you-"
"Old healer's trick," Sid said and then her hands moved down to take the blackened skysheep from Aisa's care, "Now use your Mantra and tell me...where's Enel?"