Chapter 72

Cross-Brain AN: For all the hype and buildup, there's not much to cover in this arc; our plan is to have it done in three chapters. Rest assured that roughly half of that will be fight scenes.

-Dawn of the Third Day-

-168 Hours Until The War-

One of the first things Cross had written in his final message to Luffy was that he should expect things not to go as they'd planned. Luffy's life was already destined to be chaotic, and Cross dropping into his life had only intensified it. Things just happened around him that no sane, reasonable person could expect.

But still, Luffy had really hoped that things wouldn't go quite this bad the very first chance they got.

Under normal circumstances, Luffy would have already run or fled. But he knew that the woman before him would have been a friend under better circumstances and, more importantly, he had no freaking idea what they were talking about.

"Hey, wait, what are you talking about?!"

See?

"Listen to me!" the rubber-man waved his arms in what he really hoped was a calming gesture. "I just got here, I didn't do anything, you're the first people I've—!"

Unfortunately, something that came out of Luffy's mouth was precisely the wrong thing to say, as all the Amazons around him suddenly tensed even further, none more than Marguerite.

"Do you take us for fools?!" she snarled, eyes blazing with a very familiar fire.

"Er…" Luffy hesitated. He really wasn't used to talking before punching, but if it worked for Vivi and Cross…? "Nnno? I mean, I'm not taking you anywhere, you guys came here on your—"

"KILL THIS IMBECILE!"

Good news, this was something that Luffy was familiar with!

T-T-T-TWANG!

Bad news, this was not good for him in a great many ways.

A very sharp volley of arrows hurtled at Luffy, and he let his reflexes run wild and jerk him out of the arrows—

TCHK! "OW!"

—save for one that, even with his reflexes, nicked his arm.

"OWWW, THAT HURT!" Luffy snarled, twisting around and spinning up his fist. "GUM-GUM PISTO—oh crap!" Unfortunately for him, he only remembered that he was trying to make friends with his attackers halfway through firing off his fist, allowing the rubbery projectile to fly free.

Thinking fast—which wasn't unusual now that he was in a fight—Luffy set his feet, grabbed his outstretched arm, and hauled back as hard as he could, twisting his torso, doing the best he could to bleed off his attack's momentum. And luckily, he bled just enough off to stop his fist a foot away from an Amazon's face before it snapped back into place.

Luffy immediately started waving his arms again, because hey, at least it was better than keeping his hands in fists, right? "Sorry-sorry-sorry, I didn't mean that, I'm a nice guy, a friend! I don't wanna fight for on-CE!" A frantic duck under an arrow aimed at his head meant that the last syllable came out as a startled yelp.

"Zahaha! Like we would ever believe you!" laughed another Kuja with a large mane of curly hair. "You're a liar and a trickster! You lulled us into a false sense of security, and then you betrayed us all!"

Luffy actually paused for a few seconds at that remark—an action that earned him a slice across one of his legs before he started moving again—before incredulously boggling at them. "HUH!? A trickster? Me!? What are you, idiots? I'm an idiot, I can't lie at all, that's what Usopp's for! Haven't you heard the SBS?!"

Unfortunately, it was at that moment that the Amazons to all stopped firing; unfortunately, because apparently, the only reason they'd stopped was because of the sheer tide of unrestrained murder Luffy suddenly felt washing over him.

"Uhhh…" Luffy's head swiveled around, a cold sweat picking up on the back of his neck as he took in the murderous glares hammering into him as though he'd just eaten the last piece of meat. "Was it something I said?"

"You evil, awful, terrible man!"

The new voice drew Luffy's gaze up, and he paled dramatically. "Oh, crap—!"

SLAM!

That utterance was all the rubber-man could get out before a literally giant Amazon slammed a tree trunk down on where he'd been standing. Her insult gave Luffy just enough warning to jump over and onto the tree.

But while his new position saved him from the (relatively small) giantess trying to splatter him across the forest floor—which he knew would probably work in her case—it didn't protect him from her whipping the trunk back and forth to try shaking him loose.

"How dare you make fun of what you did, how dare you!?" she ranted. "We trusted you and your crew, thought you were teaching us so much of the world! But in the end, you just used that hope and awe to attack our beloved Empress!"

The towering Amazon capped off her tirade by trying to paste Luffy against the ground again, only this time the impact split her impromptu club in half.

Luffy, having leaped off the trunk before it hit, landed on one of the discarded halves and threw a pleading look around at the still-quivering-with-rage Amazons. "You keep saying something happened to Hancock, but it wasn't me! And what does the SBS have to do with it?! Please, tell me what's going on! Just talk to—!"

"The time for talk is OVER!" Marguerite interrupted, her already infuriated demeanor now downright incandescent. Case in point… "BACURA!" she howled, stamping her heel down on her feline mount's neck. "KILL HIM, NOW!"

The massive feline yowled in acknowledgment and lunged at the hat-less Straw Hat, claws out.

This being not even Luffy's hundredth time being assaulted by a feline giving the Square-Cube Law the middle finger as it zipped by at a hundred and twenty miles an hour, he'd already shot his arm into the branches. He zipped up, and Bacura's lunge ended well below him.

The bag on his shoulder, whose weight he wasn't yet used to, was slightly less lucky.

"OH, NO!" Luffy yelped, yanking his duffle bag up to safety, but not before the panther's claws raked across its side. Thankfully, a frenzied inspection of his baggage showed no lasting damage—he sent silent thanks to Merry for being tough as nails, even when she wasn't with him—but it still made him grit his teeth.

The entire incident, however brief, reminded him way too much of a certain clown he was due to meet, only this time, the stakes were even higher than before. And he couldn't let that happen, and talking just wasn't working and, and—!

"GRAAAAH!" Luffy roared in frustration, momentarily stunning the Amazons. Momentarily, but long enough for him to shoot an arm past them and into the depths of the forest. "FORGET THIS! IF YOU WON'T HELP ME, I'LL GET ANSWERS ON MY OWN! JERKS!"

And before any of the warrior-women could stop him, he let go of his other arm and didn't so much 'zip' off into the distance as blasted.

The moment of rushed acceleration bought Luffy the time that he needed to clear his head. He had half a mind to just head for the mountain range where he knew the village was, along with the palace where he knew Hancock would be and get help there. He'd handled having a whole island as his enemy before, he could do it again!

…except…

Luffy snapped an arm out and grabbed a passing tree, letting his limb stretch out to absorb the momentum. That thought reminded him that unlike all those other times before, these enemies actually stood a good chance of killing him if they caught up to him. Not even mentioning the fact that something had apparently happened to Hancock, so if he barged in and she was hurt or something, then he would probably make things worse.

And on top of all of that, one reason stood out to Luffy above all others: the fact that he wasn't going to lose a chance to make a new friend. Luffy frowned, scratching at his head to puzzle out the conundrum he was in: how was he supposed to get his new friend to help him if they were too busy trying to kill him to listen!?

"…wait a second," Luffy muttered to himself, his head tilting even further to a flat 90°. "Why does this feel familiar…" He remained lost in thought for a full minute before his mouth jerked into a D-shaped grin, and he pounded his fist into his palm. "Oh right, now I remember! All I've gotta do is—!"

-o-

"That man! Concealing guile behind such a convincing mask of idiocy! I'm going to enjoy using his intestines to restring my bow!" one of the Kuja swore as she and her sisters charged through the brush, far slower than Luffy's ballistic acceleration, in an attempt to pick up on his trail.

"Actually," another Amazon grunted as she vaulted over a fallen log. "I believe that his idiocy was not one of their falsehoods; he's just reckless and possessed of good instincts. The true mastermind is that dastardly Jeremiah Cross."

"An unnecessary distinction, seeing as all the Straw Hats shall pay for their sins against us. Their captain just happens to be the first," Marguerite intoned to the rest of the lynch mob following her and her mount. "He may have gotten away for now, but he cannot leave this island, and absolutely will not do so alive. If we do not find him on our way back to the village, then we will spread the word that he has infiltrated our kingdom and send out every warrior to find him!"

The Empress' protégé grit her teeth and punched her knuckles into Bacura's back. "We must avenge the attack on our Empress! On our beloved rules! We will avenge it! And we! WILL! FIND HIM! WE WILL FIND HIM, NO MATTER HOW LONG IT—!"

"HEY-CAN-I-BORROW-YOUR-FRIEND-REAL-QUICK-OKAY-THANKS-BYE!"

"—GWA—!? HELP MEEEEeeee—!"

The company came to a screeching halt, their brains trying to catch up. Their quarry had, apparently, swung by them on an extended arm and then disappeared back into the treetops. Oh, and he'd snatched Marguerite off of Bacura's back as he'd come and gone, so there was that to deal with too.

"…Saga of 'That did not take long'," Sweetpea dryly remarked.

"GRAAH, NOT AGAIN! SPLIT UP, FIND HIM, AND TURN HIM INTO A PINCUSHION!" Kikyo raged, before bolting off into the brush without even waiting for a reply.

-o-

"Shishishi, just like whenever I steal dinner: hold Sanji still until he stops trying to kill me! Easy!" Luffy chortled as he swung through the trees. His trajectory was a little uneven due to only having one arm free to do said swinging, but that just made him a harder target and kept his burden disoriented. "Man, I'm an idiot for forgetting something that simple!"

"YOU'RE AN IDIOT FOR A LOT MORE REASONS THAN THAT, YOU—!" Marguerite howled, struggling mightily.

SMASH!

"WAGH! PTOOIE! WATCH IT!"

Although a low-hanging branch briefly gave her mouth a more worthwhile occupation.

"Maaaan, you're supposed to do the yell when that happens," Luffy quietly grumbled. "But for now…"

Deciding that he'd put enough distance between himself and his pursuers, Luffy settled on a high branch and swung the arm holding Marguerite over a higher one, leaving her dangling, swaying, and glaring at him at about eye level. A large green snake coiled around her arm matched her mistress's glare, baring her fangs as well, but given the precarious height showed no more aggression towards their captor.

A captor who was, officially, out of patience.

"OK, now, what the heck is going on on this crazy island!?" Luffy demanded, matching Marguerite's glare with one of his own.

Unfortunately, while Marguerite's screwed up expression made it clear that she'd much rather tell Luffy precisely where he could stick his question at the top of her lungs, she'd chosen now of all times to bite down on her lip and just glare at him in silence.

Luffy's already spiked temper peaked at the inconvenience of her stubbornness. He slapped a hand to his face, accompanied by a frustrated growl, holding it there for a bit before glaring back up at the Kuja.

"Look, I chose to ask you—you—for help because Cross said we would have been friends, and talking to you and fighting you, I kind of get why." The pirate captain then bared his teeth in a snarl and jabbed a thumb at himself. "But I'm in a hurry and right now, we aren't friends, so if you won't help me, then I'll just have to drop you and be friends with someone else! And you won't catch me again if I let you go and leave. And you know it. So it's up to you."

Marguerite's face flushed with impotent fury. Her tribe was not the sort to bow their heads without a fight. But faced with the alternative of him getting away again…

"What do you want, man?" she spat.

"I want to know what the heck is going on!" Luffy repeated, flinging his arm out. "I don't know what happened to your Empress, but I've been flying to this island for the last three days, and you found me as soon as I landed and said I tried to kill her! What are you talking about!? Because I didn't do anything to her!"

"You just as good as admitted to your guilt because it happened three days ago!" Marguerite spat back, her serpent hissing in agreement. "We were so naïve, let ourselves be taken in by all of those innocent-seeming broadcasts for so long, even the Snake Princess and her honorable sisters grew close to your crew…"

The Amazon momentarily trailed off, her gaze taking on a wistful demeanor. For all of two seconds before her expression returned to murderous. "But the last broadcast you made saw our rulers struck down! They dropped, dead away, less than ten feet from me, and I couldn't do anything! Empress Hancock, Lady Marigold, even Elder Nyon, they haven't shown any sign of waking for three! Days! And Lady Sandersonia still hasn't returned from her voyages, so Naga only knows whether or not she's alright! But what I do know is that it had to have been your doing, don't pretend otherwise! There was nothing and nobody else, no other explanation, you betrayed our trust and laid them low!" Marguerite started thrashing furiously in Luffy's grip again. "I'LL KILL YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID TO HER, I SWEAR I'LL KILL YOU, YOU EVIL—!"

Tuning out the rant, Luffy frowned in bewilderment, running over what he'd just learned. Three days ago, the SBS, a sudden collapse without recovery… now, that sounded more than a little familiar to Luffy. Except…

"But, if that's why…" Luffy muttered to himself, the gears in his skull dutifully churning away. "Shouldn't she already be—?"

"—RIP YOUR SPINE OUT AND USE IT TO FLAY THE SKIN FROM YOUR BONES, AND—"

Luffy's train of thought was interrupted by Marguerite's tirade momentarily spiking in volume. And rather than derail the aforementioned train of thought, it was just vicious enough to help him focus and make up his mind about what to do next.

"Take me to Hancock."

"—STUFF EVERY INCH UP YOUR—wait, what?" Marguerite blinked, momentarily shocked out of her rant. It took her a moment to grasp what had just been asked of her, and then it was right back to righteous indignation. "What?! Excuse me, WHAT!? W-What kind of witless fool do you take me for, you unbelievable—!?"

"I think I can wake up Hancock."

Marguerite's first instinct was to throw a slew of enraged protests, to loudly inform this man that she would never risk the life of her sovereign, never let this lying assassin anywhere near her! On the other hand, that lying assassin was right in front of her and literally held her at his mercy. So instead, she swallowed her pride and said nothing other than a "…keep talking." through gritted teeth.

"Listen." Luffy held his free hand up… 'placatingly', he thought he'd heard Cross and Vivi call it. "I didn't do anything to Hancock, but I think I know what's wrong with her, and I think I can help. If you take me to her, I can wake her up, and then she can help me and tell you that you're wrong. If you do that, then you can try and kill me if you want. Alright?"

Marguerite's serpent lashed out and hissed viciously at Luffy, seemingly in denial—Luffy was reminded strongly of Soundbite, which provoked a pang in his chest—before noticing that it was alone in its reaction. Tentatively, it withdrew, throwing a questioning look at Marguerite who, rather than hissing just as viciously, was chewing on her lip, her face set in an expression of intense thought.

It was an absurd thought for her to even entertain. But without direct combat to keep her adrenaline up, her rational mind had reasserted itself and reminded her of her most important task: rousing her Empress. That took precedence over avenging her as long as she was still alive. Still, to allow her would-be assassin into the same room as her because he claimed that he could help her? She would have to be the biggest idiot in the world to fall for that, and she knew that she wasn't. That distinction belonged to the man in front of her. And as such…

"Alright."

Luffy and her serpent both jerked in surprise at Marguerite's curt response, the pirate happily and the snake in gape-mouthed shock.

"Really?! So you believe me?" Luffy asked, the snake hissing out much the same question. Just, somehow, in a 'are you out of your mind!?' tone of… well, hiss.

"Not on my Empress's life," the Amazon bluntly replied, pinning the pirate with a stony glare that would have done her rulers' mythos proud. "I don't believe a single word that's come out of your rancid mouth, not anymore. But hell, if you want to be brought to our Empress? Then fine. I'll take you right to her."

Luffy grinned, eager for some progress, only for his recently stimulated brain to hit him with a clue-by-four. Something about this situation didn't smell right.

"Waaait…" he said, quizzically tilting his head. "If you still hate me, then why are you helping me?"

"Because I'm not helping you, you dunce, I'm leading you to your death!" Marguerite snapped. "You want to try and attack our princess in her sleep?! Go right ahead! Because I know Hancock, and I know that even while she's dead to the world, you won't be able to so much as scratch her! You'll be dead before you can even blink! And if you do manage to wake her up, all the better because then she'll kill you faster! Tch!"

She tossed her hair with a derisive scoff and raised her chin to look down on Luffy in a creditable imitation of her mistress. "Honestly, this is by far the most piss-poor assassination attempt I've ever heard of! After all, for all that you're a liar, I agree with my sisters, you're also an idiot. You fight your enemies head-on, even when there's no hope, even when it's the absolute—!…stupidest…"

Slowly, Marguerite trailed off, her anger finally properly fading in favor of rationality. Her gaze, up to know zeroed in on Luffy, went thousand-yard and looked through him. Both Luffy and her snake regarded her with oddly similar expressions of confusion. Finally, Marguerite refocused on Luffy, only this time looking for what was there instead of what she thought was there.

"…you fight head-on," she repeated, mostly to herself. "Your tactician cheats, but you don't, e-even if everything else on the SBS was fake, your fighting, y-y-your pride in a fight, that-that was real, that wasn't… but that means that you… wouldn't try and assassinate…"

Marguerite fell silent again, her eyes darting back and forth and her mind going a mile a minute without any loss in clarity. A sickly blue pallor slowly spread over her face, prompting her serpent to hiss in concern.

And then, in a whisper, Marguerite weakly croaked out a question whose answer she visibly dreaded: "You didn't do anything to our Empress, did you?"

"No! That's what I've… been…" Luffy spat in what started in frustration but ended in confusion. Marguerite wasn't listening to him or paying attention to her concerned reptilian partner. Her eyes darted from side to side, looking at something that only she could see. A steady stream of mumbling spilled from her mouth, inaudible even to Luffy's ears. This went along just long enough for even Luffy to feel a bit awkward before the mumbling halted, and Marguerite gave Luffy a look of pure desperation.

"Do… Do you know what happened to her?" she croaked out, almost hoping that he didn't have an answer.

"I…" Luffy grimaced, scratching the back of his head. "I think that I did do this, and the SBS, too…b-but she isn't hurt or anything, and I can wake her up!" he hastily added at Marguerite's darkening expression. "But I can't say anything else, it's really private."

Apparently, that was either exactly the right or wrong thing to say, because something in Marguerite broke upon hearing those words. Any defiant energy left in her drained out, and her expression fell into a look of what could only be described as 'Oh God, what have I done.'

Luffy, for his part, was more confused than ever, but he did his best to try and help by letting his captive—and likely new friend—go. One swing of his arm and a well-timed release later, and Marguerite was standing on the same branch as him.

Or, well, she should've been. The gesture of goodwill nearly ended in disaster, because Marguerite remained just as boneless upon her landing. Luffy only barely managed to catch her arm before she could tumble clean off. Marguerite's serpent hissed with a nod of thanks to the rubber-man, before slapping its tail in an—ineffectual—attempt to bring her back to her senses.

Luffy, deciding to do the same, focused on what he assumed Cross would have considered important. "So, uh… if you know about that, or something about it… then why did you…?"

Marguerite let out a weak and miserable whimper. "It… everything went insane after the Snake Princess collapsed, and I was right there and unable to make heads or tails of it, but I'm their apprentice, so all the stress of the situation fell on me and everyone wanted answers and I didn't know what to do and I don't think I've slept for the last two days and…"

A weak hiccup choked its way out of her throat as she planted her face in her palms. Luffy's gaze fell on her eyes, where he could see dark bags beneath the makeup she had just smeared. Hiding her own pain because she needed to be strong…

"And… and then I heard someone say that it could have been an assassination and I remembered it happened during the SBS and I just-just latched onto it and…" She hiccuped again, her eyes starting to brim over.

Luffy caught the Amazon's arm before she could collapse again, and he gently moved her so that she could lean back against the tree's trunk. And none too soon, as she started to cry immediately, burying her face in her hands.

"And now," she choked out through her tears. "I-I've managed to make one of the nicest people in all the seas, who was going to help our Empress, hate me! I'm such a—!"

"Uh…?" Luffy piped up, his voice breaking through her breakdown. "I actually didn't hate you before. I wanted to be your friend. And I still do? Um…" The rubber-man scratched at the back of his head again. What was the right move here… ah!

"Oh, hey, I know! Let's try something that Soundbite taught me—" Marguerite's head dropped even lower, and Luffy rushed to clarify. "—something nice, something nice!—and start over. So, uh…" He grinned innocently as he dropped his hand down in front of her dumbstruck face. "Hi, I'm Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm going to be King of the Pirates. Do you want to be my friend?"

Marguerite stared at him, in total disbelief of this turn of events, until her serpent poked her in the ribs with its tail. That prompted a weak smile, and she gave his hand a light shake. "…Hi, Luffy, I'm Marguerite, and this is my partner Kaa. And… yes, I would very much like to be your frien—WHA-HA!"

That was all Luffy needed to pull her into a hug. A genuine hug, not any sort of fighting technique. Slowly, she let herself relax in his grip, but she was still more confused than anything when he broke the embrace.

"Uh…?"

Luffy shrugged. "You looked like you needed it."

"…I did, thanks. Now…" Marguerite wiped away her tears and slowly worked her way back to her feet, clapping her hands to her cheeks. "Let's get you what you need. Follow me."

And away they went across treetops and rooftops. Unfortunately, despite Marguerite's turnaround, it could not be said that there was one fewer among the livid women on the island…

-o-

…for in the vicinity of the palace, a previously calm Boa Sandersonia was about to lose her temper.

"So you're telling me that they've been like this for three. Days," she ground out through gritted teeth—fangs, at this point—at the two quivering Amazons who had drawn the short straw to guard the room Nyon and Marigold had been sequestered in.

"Y-Yes, Lady Sandersonia!" one of them stammered. "We had n-no idea what malady had s-struck them low, and w-with Lady N-Nyon unconscious we…d-dared not try anything?" The last bit came out as more of a squeaked question than a statement because Sandersonia's furious hissing had intensified in volume with every word she spoke.

"Did you ever think to, I don't know, use the obvious solution?" Ignoring the squawks of protest that awakened, the green-haired Gorgon waved off the two guards. "Forget it, we'll talk about this later. For now, I happen to know what… malady afflicts them, and how to cure it. But I'm going to need some privacy for this. I might need to expose Mari's Gorgon mark."

"Yes, Lady Sandersonia!" the guards barked, scrambling to get out of the room.

Sandersonia waited a full minute to be sure they were gone and then loomed over the catatonic form of Elder Nyon, a crazed gleam in her eyes, slowly looming even further as she transitioned into her demi-human form.

"Apart from the obvious necessity of this, I just want you to know that this is payback for you always stealing my snake wine," Sandersonia intoned, raising her tail high…

"You HAG!"

Before coiling it around Nyon and lashing out, flinging her straight into Marigold's side with enough force to knock them both clean off the bed, onto the floor—

TH-THUNK! "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!"

—and into consciousness, as their indignant roars demonstrated. Nyon waved her IV stand like a cane around with a clear and present intent to club and Marigold snapped into her hybrid form, her serpentine bulk filling the room and venom glistening on her fangs.

And for all the fury raging in front of her, the middle Gorgon Sister weathered it all with a distinctly unimpressed glare.

"Welcome back to the land of the living. You've been comatose for the last three days," Sandersonia hissed. "In that time, our sisters have apparently sworn a vendetta against the Straw Hats and are currently enacting a witch hunt in search of Luffy, who is here on this island, the world in general's gone to pot and, oh yes, I am entirely too sober to deal with this on my own! SO DO ME A FAVOR AND PULL YOUR SHIT TOGETHER!" She then slammed her tail against the ground, shaking the floorboards. "GUARDS! I WANT THE HIGHEST RANKED KUJAS YOU CAN GET IN THIS ROOM IN THE NEXT TEN MINUTES! MOVE!"

"Y-YES, HONORED SISTER!" came the panicked cries through the doors, followed by the sound of the soldiers rapidly running off.

In the ensuing silence, the room remained frozen, Marigold and Nyon tense and wary while Sandersonia huffed and snarled. But after no sounds from outside for a good two minutes, the verdette collapsed back into her human form. Exhaling a massive sigh loaded with exhaustion, she sat down and knocked her head back against the nearest wall.

"I'm sorry…" she groaned. "But that rant's been building for the past three days, and hearing that Marguerite, of all people, is leading a lynch mob for Luffy's head was the last thing I needed to hear today, so it was either yell at you or literally bite someone's head off. Nothing personal and all that."

"…what in Set's rotten shedded skin did we miss?" Marigold asked at last.

Sandersonia chuckled weakly as she pointed back and forth between herself and her sister. "Heehee… yeah, you see, now you're starting to catch up with me…" Then that weak smile became a pained grimace. "Unfortunately, sister, there's only one answer I can give you. What followed after that punch…"

Sandersonia turned her gaze heavenward, in search of mercy that she knew she wouldn't find.

"Was hell. Nothing short of purest hell."

-o-

Ten minutes and several abbreviated explanations later, Rindo, Daisy, Ran, and Kikyo were standing before two conscious and very much furious snake Zoans and a similarly incensed Elder Nyon.

"T-Then we must reawaken the Snake Princess immediately—!" Daisy began.

"That. Is not happening any time soon," Marigold retorted.

"What?!" Ran squawked. "B-But why—?!"

"Because if we were to awaken-nyo her now," Nyon drawled out in a shallow and very dangerous tone of voice. "And she were to learn of what has transpired while she slept, then Amazon-nyo Lily would face a very sudden and unexpected population crisis. Do I make myself clear?"

The Amazons all paled very harshly at that summation. "…s-surely, you jest, Elder…" Rindo choked out… as well as around the cigarette she was choking on.

"Rindo," Sandersonia said for the first time, pinning the pirate with a dead-eyed stare. "Let me be frank. It is taking all of my willpower to keep my temper under control, and not wring a lifelong ache into your neck. If I feel this way… how do you think she will feel?"

The four Amazons would later swear that their collective gulp echoed in the room.

"O-Our Empress can stand to slumber for… for a bit longer." Kikyo agreed, one hand rubbing her neck.

"Just long enough to de-escalate the situation to the point where she merely has the entire crew scrubbing the Perfume Yuda's hull for barnacles by hand, daily, for the next year, yes," Marigold grunted.

There was another collective wince at the ultimatum, but the chastised Amazons nodded in resigned acceptance.

Once the uncomfortable moment passed, Sandersonia worked her way to her feet with a tortured groan. "Either way, it's probably safer for everyone involved that she stays under for now anyway, while we make a start on getting this madness under control. We can't afford any fallout at the moment, not now of all times… and besides…"

She cracked her neck slightly as she shuffled her way out of the room.

"With what's to come, she's going to need all the rest she can get."

"…you've developed quite the propensity for grim final statements, sister."

"I have had a hell of a week, excuse me if I'm feeling a tad melodramatic! Now hurry up, we have a lynch mob to quell!"

-o-

Hancock floated in a dark sea of… well, she wasn't entirely sure what it was. Her mind was submerged in a comforting blanket, and yet it also felt suffocated. Safe, and yet imprisoned. That her very thoughts had fled from something at once painful and yet joyous.

Then… sensation. Soft. Stinging. Hancock's mind roused itself, wondering what was interrupting and how best to punish them for doing so.

"Hey, hey there, hello? Anyone in there? Wakey wakey~"

It was at this point that she remembered the nonexistent list of people on Amazon Lily who would ever try to slap her awake, and yet the voice still sounded somehow familiar. Thoroughly alarmed, her consciousness reared up like a striking cobra.

Hancock's eyes, and only her eyes, shot open. Not six inches from her face was a mop of curly blonde hair and bright blue eyes and the wide smile of someone who had never smiled before and tried it on a whim. It was not a face that the Pirate Empress recognized, but it sent a coil of dread curling in her gut. Not due to the admittedly creepy not-smile, but recognition of something else about the intruder.

The aura she had. The presence she carried. A presence Hancock had felt only once in her life.

The sensation of pure, unmitigated death that pervaded a room whenever a person in white robes and a mask was present.

Aegis. Zero.

The paralyzing shock lasted barely a second—one did not survive long as either a pirate or slave by being slow to wake up. Hancock lashed out with her leg, coated in Armament Haki, to take this woman's head off her shoulders.

Or, well. She tried.

Tried, but nothing actually moved.

The dread in her stomach ballooning, Hancock tried to move another part of her body. Any part of her body. She could consciously blink, and speed or slow down her breathing.

And that was it.

The not-smile ratcheted wider by another half-molar. "Oh, I'll have to thank the boys down at the chemical department for this," Stussy crooned, reaching down and plucking something off of Hancock's shoulder. It waved in front of her eyes, a red flag in the form of what she could only assume was an—

"Anesthetic patch. Normally used for painkillers, but as you've noticed, works just as well with narcotics. No marks, no trace, no fuss. So many investigators left tearing their hair out. Well, when I don't make it look like an accident or pin it on someone else, anyway."

Hancock could feel her breathing picking up. She couldn't blink. Only stare at the woman above her. She was trapped. Trapped. In a prison of her own body, rather than bars and chains and a searing brand between her shoulders. She could hear the laughter, the jeers, the crooning that pretended at caring…

"I'm sure you're wondering why you're awake, instead of never waking up at all," Stussy continued, either oblivious or—more likely—entirely uncaring of Hancock's growing panic. "See, I have this thing about killing my victims when they're awake. I figure if you're going to kill someone, you should at least have the courtesy to look them in the eye when you do it. Plus…" Stussy, somehow, leaned in even closer, trailing a finger down the side of her captive's neck. "It's more… intimate this way. You get to know a person, watching them die. And I? Am nothing if not a people person."

Stussy pulled back to what others would consider a more comfortable distance. "Now, Lulu—well, I call him Lulu, you know him as Lucci—always derided me as unprofessional." She waved her hand dismissively. "But really, I've been doing this for as long as I can remember, literally, and look at me. A flawless record. Why doubt perfection, hm? And look at him." An ugly sneer twisted her lips. "The famed 'Soldier of Dark Justice', once so proud, so infamous, beaten down and on the run. Laughable, just laughable!"

Were Hancock to have control over her vocal cords, she would have whimpered, and damn her pride and reputation! The worst ones were the talkers. Always. They took things slow.

"And I even have the one who did it, that Straw Hat brat, here on this island! Oh, I'm so lucky!" Stussy all but squealed in delight. "He's being fingered for your own demise, you know! Or, well—" She cocked her head to the side and put a finger to her chin. "Right now he's being fingered for that three-day powder you took, once I'm done it'll be your demise… but either way, semantics~!"

She clapped her hands together, grinning joyously. "I didn't even have to do too much, you know. I just dropped a hint to one of your fanatic subjects, messed with your darling apprentice's sleep schedule a tad—and dropped a little something-something in your pet's lunch, so it wouldn't get in my way, obviously—and they gleefully ran with it the rest of the way! Honestly, perfect patsies just don't fall into my lap every day, so this was quite the stroke of luck. Though admittedly…" Stussy's demeanor deflated slightly as she propped her chin in her hand. "This does present something of a complication, too. Now that there's a specific Straw Hat here, it means I need to make your death fit him just right, and that rules out my preferred methods. Too bad it wasn't the other prime suspect who came here, poisons are so much cleaner than any other metho—!"

Blinking, Stussy froze, and then slapped her forehead with a loud 'crack.' "Oh, wait, I'm an idiot!"

The agent pulled back, and for a desperate moment, Hancock felt hope. It died sobbing when Stussy proceeded to kneel right on top of her.

"He's a monkey," Stussy purred, cracking her knuckles. Knuckles which were starting to shine black oh hell. "I just need to beat you to death with my bare hands! Messy, but what can you do. Well, this has been a lovely chat, but I am afraid that our time—and more specifically, yours—has come to an end." The smiling assassin drew her fist back, grin never slipping an inch. "Toodles!"

Hancock was straining every ounce of her willpower to make her body move, and though she felt the chemicals slowly yielding, it would take seconds that she didn't have for her Armament to surface. Her breathing picked up speed again as her brain finally parsed the fact that she was about to die, her heart rate reaching a fever pitch—!

"Uh… hello?"

Both women looked to one of the room's open windows where three new figures were standing, one innocently confused, the other two dumbstruck and horrified.

For a long moment, all parties involved just stared at one another. Then, never one to be unhappy with more people to kill, Stussy smiled innocently and raised her hands placatingly. "Now, I know that this looks bad, so let me assure you: I'm only trying to kill this woman on orders from the World Government," she said. "This is a legal assassination. Please, feel free to go about your business."

That statement alone had Luffy and Marguerite both tensing in rage. But the breaking point came a moment later from something completely unprecedented.

Boa Hancock, desperate, terrified, and with tears in her eyes, locked her eyes with Luffy and managed to get enough life into her jaw to mouth two words that few people—and absolutely no one with a Y-chromosome—had ever heard from her lips:

"Help me."

Those two small words flipped a switch in Luffy's brain, switching him from 'merely outraged' to outright murderous. A fact he clearly demonstrated when he launched his fist at Stussy with an infuriated roar of "GET OFF HER!"

Luffy's Pistol flew true, as did Marguerite's hastily nocked arrow, but Stussy was already gone—

THWACK!

"GAH!"/"YEAAAAAARRGHHHH!"

—and the next thing Luffy knew, he was flashing back to training with his grandfather from a hit more brutal than any Fist of Love, a hit that stuck his head into the floor and left his skull pounding with a sensation he dimly recognized as a concussion. Growling, he slammed a fist against the stone to free his head and, at the same time, trigger Gear Second.

He stood ready again a moment later, for all the good it did him. In that short time, the situation had already plummeted to abysmal.

Marguerite lay on the ground, barely coherent as she clutched at her head, blood flowing out from a hole that had moments before contained her right eye. Her serpent-partner was coiled on her back, hissing viciously, protectively, at the monster that had injured her wielder. Stussy, meanwhile, was back standing at Hancock's bedside, shaking her head at Luffy with a condescending expression while she shook off the bloody remains of Marguerite's eye from her finger.

"Now, I know you're stupid, but that's no excuse for trying to stand up against me. Or for being rude like this," Stussy added, ever so casually as she swayed out of the way of Luffy's Jet Gatling with small, elegant motions. "I'll murder you after I've finished with her, so please."

She snapped up her hands and caught Luffy's fists in a disturbingly familiar fashion that had him flashing back to a certain lightning bastard. Then she squeezed, and Luffy winced as he felt his would-be rubber bones start to crack beneath her grip—!

"Just do what you should have done in Enies Lobby," the assassin continued, still polite and smiling. "Bow to the World Government, and wait quietly for your death. I'll just be a moment."

Having said her piece, Stussy cracked Luffy's arms like a pair of reins, the resulting recoil slamming him into the ceiling and floor in quick succession, stunning him. Not for long, but long enough for her purposes. Nodding in satisfaction, she turned back to her quarry—

"GRKH!"

—and snapped a hand up to her throat as a tiny heart shot into her neck like a bullet. Whether due to the element of surprise or Hancock having superior Haki, the assassin didn't counter it completely; the front half of her throat was petrified in an instant.

Stussy gurgled out a vicious growl, her composure cracking as she carefully cradled her new point of vulnerability. "Alright, enough foreplay, you all die now," she growled in a literally gravelly voice, offhandedly lashing her leg out behind her and kicking Marguerite in the chest. The Amazon, caught attempting to grab Stussy by the leg, crumpled into a pained heap. The assassin then brought the same leg forward to slam it down on the fingers Hancock had managed to get working just enough to shoot her with.

Stussy ground her teeth at the slowly devolving situation. The stomp only succeeded in pinning Hancock's hand rather than breaking it, her Haki and reflexes were being forced to expend precious energy deflecting and dodging Luffy's persistent attacks, and she was twitching as she stopped her usual neck-cracking tic lest she actually crack her neck. All of which was bad enough, but focusing on the main target and the main source of ire…

"…well. I knew tranquilizers wouldn't work forever, but you still shouldn't be moving. That batch was designed to keep Sea Kings docile."

Twitches racked her still-paralyzed body, but Hancock's jaw was defiantly clenched tight as the assassin jabbed her finger into the Pirate Empress's neck with what should have been lethal force. The nail instead barely broke the skin; Hancock bled, but the wound was far less grave than the blow on the other woman's neck.

"You… underestimate the Kujas… at your own peril…" the Empress hissed.

Stussy scoffed, cocking her brow in disbelief. Disbelief that was justified as her nail slowly broke through Hancock's yet-weak Armament, digging closer and closer to an artery, while more offhand Haki-induced strikes continued foiling Luffy's aggressive attempts to stop her. "I highly doubt I'm underestimating you. Do you really think you can do much more to me in the state you're in?"

"Perhaps not," Hancock admitted. And then, in defiance of all logic and sanity, her lips quirked up into a wry smirk. "But then, I'm not alone."

And before Stussy could react beyond pressing deeper, Hancock's other arm wrenched to life, snapping up and around so that she could lodge her fingers in her lips and blow out a very sharp, very loud whistle.

Stussy stiffened again, and this time, it was out of outright panic. "Oh, hell—!"

KA-CRASH!

"GET AWAY FROM HER!"/ "HISSSSS!"

In seconds, three massive snakes came to Hancock's aid, one plunging down from the rafters above to coil protectively around her, while the other two larger specimens came crashing up through the floorboards, as well as all the floors below that. The palace would need repairs for a month to fix the damage, but a post-battle examination determined that forcing Stussy back from their Empress was worth it.

"GET BACK HERE!"

It wasn't only the Amazons on the warpath, either: Luffy also made a lunge at Stussy in the chaos, swinging for her head.

"I think not."

"GWAH!"

Not that it did much good, however, as she instead used Luffy's face as a stepping stone to propel herself out the window and alight on the lip of the rooftop, from where she delivered the assembled Amazons an… honestly pitying stare.

"Tsk tsk, now, look what you've gone and done," she croaked out. "You had to be all uppity. Now, this entire avenue is no longer profitable. And as such… well, as such, I'm left with no other choice but to cause a mess."

Stussy moved one of her arms, casually backhanding an arrow from Marguerite while she withdrew a Baby Transponder Snail from her pocket and perched it on her palm.

"Ratchet, little buddy?" she ground out, somehow managing to still sound condescending even with her ruined voice. "I'm afraid the locals have made a hash of things. Be a dear and activate Project Snake-Eater, we're going to have to take drastic measures."

There was enough time for the snail to grin menacingly before she re-pocketed it, shaking her head and looking back at the infuriated pirates.

"Well, I would say it was nice meeting you all, but…" She shrugged in a 'what can you do' manner, though her face was sporting a truly innocent, truly demonic grin. "Well, it's always a nice day when an island full of criminals dies. Toodles~"

"Like we'll let you—!" Luffy snarled, spinning his fist up for a Rifle-grade punch—

"SHKREEEEAAAAAARGH!"

But all that preparation, his and that of the rest of the Amazons in the room went clean out the window when their collective worlds suddenly went a vicious shade of pain.

Living with Soundbite, Luffy had experienced all sorts of sounds over the past year of his journey, from the hilarious to the inflammatory, and everything in between. None of what the noise-snail had conjured, though, even came close to the racket that suddenly assaulted his ears. But then, it's not like even the self-proclaimed 'God of Noise' could have helped prepare for the sudden din of fifty blackboards being fed through a woodchipper.

Once the ear-based assault finally abated after a few very long seconds, Luffy looked back at the roof to find Stussy gone. He growled, but without the immediate threat, his rage quickly gave way to concern for his friend.

"Marguerite!" he yelped, moving to kneel by her side. He needed something to stop the—

"Oh wait, I've got something for this," Luffy said, swinging his duffel bag around and reaching inside. In a second, he had produced something that was… far too large for it to have been able to fit inside.

~o~

Merry was the first to step forward, putting the duffle bag at Luffy's feet and looking him in the eyes, her own shimmering with tears but burning with determination.

"Captain… I made this bag from my coat. It'll hold as much as my ship form could, no matter how big it is. I'll still be able to carry you as long as you've got this, and everyone else's gifts can fit inside. I…" The ship-girl bit her lip, wringing her hands and unable to look him in the eye. "I know it's not much, a-and it might even weigh you down and put you in danger and—!"

Luffy pulled Merry into a tight hug, letting her sob quietly for a couple of minutes.

"Thank you, Merry."

And that was all he had to say on the matter.

~o~

Marguerite blinked dumbfoundedly, the part of her mind that wasn't focused on the pain groaning about how her remaining eye was apparently dysfunctional. Because a first-aid kit about as big as Luffy himself should not have been able to fit inside of that duffel bag. The Boa Sisters had paused as well, eyeing the large white box.

"Chopper said he planned for everything, there's gotta be something in here for a missing eye. But let me stop the bleeding first… here we go!"

Luffy grinned widely as he produced a roll of bandages. But as he began to unroll it, a firm hand on his wrist stopped him. He turned to see a short old woman carrying a snake shaped into a staff, one gracing him with a grateful but undeniably firm look.

"I'll handle the first aid, nyon. I don't want you mummifying her, as I don't doubt that's what you were going for," she said dryly, then added, "And do you have anything for poison?"

"Oh, yeah, I've got plenty of that," Luffy answered.

~o~

Chopper, standing in Heavy Point, set down a first aid kit half his size. His eyes were utterly devoid of madness, only cultivated stoicism and sadness.

"I put in instructions that you should be able to understand, but it would still be better if someone else used this to treat you. I put in everything that I could, including 20 different antivenoms in case…" Chopper trailed off for a moment before groaning and tipping the brim of his hat down. "When you end up fighting Magellan. Everything from an appendectomy up, this box has all you'll need twice over. I…" The human-reindeer shrank down to his demi-form, shuffling miserably in place. "I can't treat you myself this time… but I hope that this makes up for it."

"Aw, don't worry, Chopper!" Luffy grinned easily as he accepted the heavy briefcase. "I'll be fine, I always am!"

The furry Zoan's fidgeting stopped dead, and he looked up to give Luffy a dead-eyed stare. "You have no idea how little comfort that gives me."

The response drew a wince out of Luffy, and his inane smile waned to a more comforting expression. "Ah… what I meant was, I'm always fine because you always help make sure I'm fine. And you're doing it again now. Even if you're not with me, all your stuff is. I'm sure it'll be enough. I'll make sure it is."

Chopper stiffened as he listened to the words, took in the meaning, especially coming from Luffy… and then, did what would always come naturally to him.

"LIKE THAT WOULD EVER MAKE ME HAPPY, YOU JERK~!"

~o~

"But, uh," Luffy tilted his head at the elder in confusion. "Why do you need it?"

Nyon's expression fell flat as she finished wrapping a final roll around the left side of Marguerite's head, before jabbing a thumb over her shoulder at the yet-bedridden Hancock. "Because I have a feeling I'm going to be nyon-eeding more than a little help to keep that one's organs from systematically shutting down."

"What!?" Hancock yelped, jerking—or at least, twitching—upright. "What are you talking about, you old ba—hurk!" the nascent tirade was cut off by Hancock jerking again, only this time it was as she was wracked by a cough that forced a mouthful of blood out of her mouth.

"Sister!" her, well, sisters cried, fussing around her even more protectively than they already had been.

"Yes, as I thought," Nyon grumbled to herself as she dug through Luffy's portable trauma center. "A time-released poiso-nyon designed to kill you as you metabolize it. If you weren't dead before the paralytic ra-nyon its course. Because of course, things couldn't be simple. Have to give that shrew points for being thorough, if nyon-thing else!" The elder's demeanor darkened even further as she glanced up and away from the materials she was sorting through. "A fact we are about to become very well-acquainted with, I'm afraid nyon."

The assembled pirates all looked at her in confusion, before the Observation Haki of everyone in the room with it began screaming (impending) bloody murder at them.

"Wh-wh-what in the name of—what is that?! It feels like—" Sonia stammered, her face a ghostly pallor.

"Death. It feels like death," Nyon spat. "Mari, Sonia, get going. I'll fix up the Princess as fast as I ca-nyon."

"You expect us to leave right after she almost got assassinated?!" Marigold demanded.

"When the alternative is you two staying here until what I can only assume is an amphibious Sea King with a chip on its shoulder arrives to slaughter us nyon-all!? YES, I do!" Nyon spat right back.

Sandersonia let out a snarling hiss as she slowly started to grow, Marigold mirroring her expansion. "Over my dead body, you heartless little—!"

"Oh, for the love of me, listen to the crone and go already!"

A wave of conceptual force slammed down on everyone, dousing the arguing parties' tempers and drawing their attention to the source.

"Honestly," Hancock groaned around another rivulet of blood, rubbing her throat with a half-dead arm. "If you won't listen to the old bat, then listen to me when I tell you to go and kill that thing!"

"But, sister—!" Marigold started to protest.

"But nothing! Right now, whatever that assassin has set loose on our island is the priority, and you two are our first lines of defense. We've proclaimed for years to be our island's defenders. Defend it!"

"B-But—!" Sandersonia flinched when Hancock's ire turned onto her but finished her thought. "But… what about you, sister?"

To that, the Kuja Captain merely snorted and jerked her head at the hole in her room's floor. "In case you've forgotten, we have an army of soldiers in the village, all well-trained and ready to fight. I would bet that the only reason they aren't already flocking to my side is that they're waiting for the all-clear so that they won't risk…" Hancock trailed off under a wave of sheer fatigue. She let herself collapse back against her pillow with a groan of frustration, hand draped over her eyes. "Won't risk seeing a curse we don't even have. Damn it, we've screwed up by the numbers, haven't we…"

"Well, at least you're finally admitting it," Nyon snorted, tapping out the last of the bubbles from a syringe as she hobbled over to Hancock's bedside. "We can discuss this breakthrough further during your session next week. Well, assuming we live that long."

Hancock rolled her eyes. "Alright, I get your POINT, ARGH, DAMN IT HAG!" she snapped viciously as Nyon jabbed the needle into her arm without any warning. "Anyway… the point being, I'm as safe as I'm going to be until the hag is done cleansing my blood of these toxins. Until then, however, we have an immediate threat to our home that needs an immediate response. So please…"

Hancock angled her head up, and Sandersonia and Marigold both gasped in shock at something in her eyes that they hadn't seen in years: vulnerability.

"Go. Now. For me?"

The two of them gaped for a moment longer, then shook off their shock and nodded. Snapping into their hybrid forms, they shot out of the room's window, barreling off toward the source of their Observation's distress.

Nyon nodded in relief and turned back to her patient, before snapping around in shock. This confirmed that, oh yes, the room was twice as empty as it was supposed to be! And even more shocking…

"You're nyon-t going to stop them?!" Nyon demanded of her uncharacteristically serene charge. "Those two are likely to get themselves killed!"

Hancock rolled—or at least jerked—her shoulders dismissively. "They are competent enough to not slow them down. More to the point, ask yourself this: do you believe Marguerite would have obeyed my orders in this instance, let alone one such as Monkey D. Luffy?"

Nyon blinked in honest shock at the statement, before slowly allowing a kindly smile to come across her face. "…my my, snake princess. You have become wiser."

The Warlord sniffed and tilted her head back with a proud smirk. "Why, thank—!" Expression flat, Nyon jabbed another syringe into her arm. "AGH, SUFFERING SOW!"

"Your mouth, however, is not any cleaner," Nyon noted with a wry grin.

"THAT ONE WAS ON PURPOSE!"

"Could have been."

-o-

"—get yourselves killed! This thing is strong, stronger than a Yuda, stronger than some Vice Admirals I've met, there's no guarantee—!"

"—pretend that you three haven't been training me to rely on my Haki and senses other than sight for months now! Losing an eye won't slow—!"

"—took one of my friend's eyes, almost killed another, and tried to hurt someone else like they hurt Robin! I'm not staying back for—!"

"ENOUGH!" Sandersonia hollered, silencing the other three bickering members of her party plus everything else within twenty feet. "I have a bad enough migraine already, and you three aren't helping."

Marigold hissed mutinously. She and her sister had just cleared the cliffs surrounding the village when they noticed the stowaways on their tails, literally. The cobra-woman had tried to send them back to wait at the village, but they were both proving themselves to be exceptionally difficult on the subject. And Sonia wasn't helping. As in, she wasn't trying to help.

"Sister, will you—?!"

"Marigold, while I was on Skelter Bite, I had plenty of time to talk with Cross, and one of the subjects that came up was how Luffy's trip to our humble island originally went," the green-haired Amazon stated, pinning her younger sister with a flat stare. "Spoiler alert, we got our tails handed to us, and that was when he was weaker than he is now. So, if you want to argue with the headstrong rookie who took down Shiki?" She swept her hand out in Luffy's direction. "Please, be my guest."

Marigold worked her jaw as she tried to come up with a counterargument, but the facts were the facts and combined with the shameless grin Luffy was sporting, she had no recourse but to heave out a sigh of defeat. Luffy's laugh of triumph didn't do anything to help with her newly nascent headache, either.

"And, uh, me?"

The Boa sisters turned their attention over to the other interloper hanging off of them. Marguerite flinched at the gimlet glare and appraising meat-market looks scrutinizing her, but she still met their eyes and didn't back down.

After a minute of the stand-off, Sandersonia hissed out a tired sigh herself. "You truly regret your actions? You want to atone?"

Marguerite winced at the reminder of the mob she'd organized, but she still nodded. "Considering how I brought shame to my position, dishonored our Princess by almost killing the person who helped to save her? More than anything."

The demi-anaconda was silent for a few seconds more before nodding wearily and turning back to continue. "Then welcome to the suicide squad, we'll all get matching t-shirts if we survive. Now let's go!"

And like that, with all arguments tied up, they went.

-o-

Well-tempered flesh could easily withstand the blinding speeds of the Shave technique. Stone, on the other hand, was much more fragile when moving that fast, meaning that the assassin's trek through the island was much, much slower than she was used to. A pace she would need to endure until she got her throat fixed. If it weren't for the utter carnage of stone and flora that she passed as she finally re-emerged at the beach where they were docked, Stussy would have been in a foul enough mood to kick Ratchet's head from his shoulders, just so that she would have something to smile about again.

The mad scientist, for his part, was engrossed enough in his work that he didn't read Stussy's irritation or the new adornment to her skin. Stussy took another look at the beach, seeing the overturned crate with its door wide open lying half-submerged in the water near their landing craft, and the beginning of the destructive path leading from it into the jungle. So the weapon was indeed loose, and Ratchet was setting up the device—a metal box whose lid he was currently unlocking—to control it.

"It's on its way, I take it?" she grumbled out, massaging her throat as hard as she dared.

Ratchet jumped slightly at her voice, but by this point, he was inured enough to her tactics to ignore it in favor of his work.

"Indeed it is. Its autopilot is directing it away from here so that I'll have plenty of time to set up the control module on my own. And then, I'll be able to finish what you weren't able to, and get us off this bug-infested hellhole." The engineer allowed himself a wry smirk as he pushed his glasses up his nose. "How did that come to pass, mind you? I thought you were so perfect."

Stussy choked down a grumble—literally choked it down, trying to keep her throat from moving too much—as she stalked up to the scrawny nerd. "That not-so-little hiccup, you can chalk up to Monkey D. Luffy being an annoying monkey."

That broke Ratchet's concentration, causing him to wheel around with an incredulous and furious bellow. "WHAT!? That neanderthal is here?! You're sure, you're positive it's—!" Finally, he spotted Stussy's new… accessory, and went silent for a blessed moment. "…huh. Well, I'll take that as proof-positive."

He then redonned his grin, even more manic and smug than before, and turned back to finally finish unlocking his device. With a flourish, he flipped it open to reveal a screen on the inner lid, while the bottom sported a pair of joysticks and an abundance of toggles, switches, and levers. "In that case, that'll just make turning this island into a smoking wasteland all the sweeter! Beeheeheehee!"

Stussy regarded the control apparatus with a raised brow and… mild interest. "You're controlling Snake-Eater remotely?"

Ratchet snorted dismissively—a feat Stussy only let him get away with because she currently needed him alive—as he set about calibrating the device. "You can only fortify a cockpit so much, and going against these kinds of monsters? Noooo, not leaving that big of a weak spot open. And besides…" Ratchet paused in his ministrations, a look of distant horror sweeping across his face. "…Inventor's pride or no, not even you could threaten me enough to be within a mile of this thing when it's going all out." And then the moment passed, and he coughed awkwardly. "S-So, anyway… too bad about your perfect record now, hm? Looks like you're as fallible as the rest of us."

Stussy waved her hand dismissively. "Hardly. This mission doesn't count. Act of Straw Hat and all that."

"…wait, what?!" Ratchet actually paused in his work to openly stare at her. "Act of—you really think I'll buy that?!"

"I don't expect you to buy anything, it's a real thing," Stussy grumbled with a roll of her eyes. "Ever since they took down CP9, it's been a known fact in assassin circles that any involvement of the Straw Hat Pirates in an op invalidates the results from your records."

"…you have to be kidding."

Stussy actually scowled at the engineer, pointing at her neck. "My throat. Is stone. I'm likely going to need to have Pig-boy give me a tracheostomy! Ugh!" She slapped her hand to her face with a morose groan. "I'm going to look so stereotypical when I smoke…"

Ratchet raised his finger, mouth open, before snapping it shut. "I would comment, but then he did cut my castle in half, so I see where you're coming from."

Stussy peeked through her fingers to glare down at the frail little man before her. "Are you done yet, or am I just letting you live for no good reason?"

The engineer paled and rapidly went back to work, flipping a dozen toggles in as many seconds. One last button press and he grinned in a combination of relief and sadistic glee. "Yes… Yes, we're good to go! The weapon is ready, and before the day is done, this island will be dead!"

Stussy's temper cooled at those words, and in its place, her bloodlust curled her lips into a suitably vicious grin. A sentiment she communicated by curling her fingers around Ratchet's shoulder and squeezing firmly. "Then stop just talking about doing it… and do it."

Ratchet grinned savagely in response, gripping the joysticks in his hands and clutching them tightly. "Doing it… now."

A flick of his thumbs and the control apparatus' screen lit up.

"BioMEGA Prototype 'Snake-Eater', DEPLOYED!"

"…nerd."

"Will you stop ruining this for—!" CRACK! "MY LEG!"

-o-

The jungles of Amazon Lily were a true monument to nature's power. Mighty trees soared dozens of feet high, sheltering foliage meters thick that could have stopped an army in its tracks and bestial inhabitants that could give most senior pirates a run for their money on even the best of days.

And yet, not one of these natural bastions stood even a chance against the thing that now stalked through the undergrowth.

Trees were smashed, foliage shredded, and the animals? 'Eviscerated' was woefully inadequate as a descriptor.

Nothing could stop the entity. Nothing could even come close to scratching it. And all this? All this, it accomplished simply by walking, by aimlessly charging ahead with no goal or purpose.

"Shrr… shrrr…"

Until something changed. Until Ratchet's command reached it, and every fiber of its being cried out. In pain, in need, in rage, in power…

"SHKREEEEAAAAAARGH!"

And at that moment, as its scream shook the island, it cried out with the sole, singular urge that overtook the entirety of its existence:

The urge to destroy.