After Pica tried to crush Zoro—again—only to realize it was kind of futile to do so—again—the guy escaped into the castle plateau and started making trouble for other people.

Honestly, he's making Zoro look bad. His power is annoying though, and even though Zoro's got a handle on it now, he's not quite clear on how he's supposed to put it into use. It's not like he can cut the freaking mountain in half.

...well he could, but that carries a pretty big risk to their allies, and it's not guaranteed that Pica would retreat to the top half rather than the bottom. Not to mention Lucy and Torao, who are currently battling at the top of the castle. He can sense them, and Robin too. There's a coppery taste in his mouth that is not his own bloodlust, but Lucy's rising fury.

Because of Pica's tactics, Zoro's been reduced to making himself more annoying to Pica than Pica's being to their side. This mostly involves cutting his face off of the mountainside a lot.

Annoying as this is, it's giving him a chance to observe the people that followed them here. They're not half bad. They're not as strong as him or even, maybe, the love-cook, but they're not weak by any stretch of the imagination. And hell, no one's going to beat a giant in an arm-wrestling contest except, possibly, Lucy. Even that's a little doubtful though, because no matter how Lucy uses Gear Third, a giant's always going to have better leverage.

(He watches them for another reason too—they're allies now, but tomorrow the tides may change, and knowing about them in advance may save someone a limb. Or at least a trip to the infirmary.)

Honestly, even if these guys aren't quite on his or Lucy's tier for sheer firepower, they make up for it in frank, audacious will. Hell, if he's not mistaken, he's pretty sure the giant just broke every bone in his body to chuck the bowling ball guy into the birdcage.

"Take a rest," he assures the giant as the man fights his inevitable blackout. "That cage will be down when you wake."

Lucy'll take care of it. You'll see.

It's a good thing Lucy and Usopp managed to get these guys on their side though. This whole endeavor would have been...significantly more challenging if Zoro and Robin were left to deal with all these assholes by themselves. Not that they couldn't, in theory, just. It would be hard. Very hard. And while Zoro does love a challenge, there's a lot at stake this time around. Like a country. And his girlfriend. And the wrath of a Yonko, with another waiting in the wings because Lucy threw a temper tantrum at a greedy lady who takes candy too seriously.

If the whole crew was here, it would be different. But they're not, so Lucy's bizarre ability to make loyal friends out of random strangers is convenient.

She was the most formidable individual on the battlefield, he remembers. His mental version of Mihawk sips wine smugly, his point proven once again. Zoro mentally flips him the bird.

Thirty meters to his left, a spike of stone attempts to impale twenty men. Only one of them was an ally of Zoro's, and the guy managed to get away clean.

Pica's attacking at random, which can only mean…

...Pica's a piece of shit.

"Attacking your own people?" He demands, slicing Pica's face out of the rock. The guy appears just above his old position, undaunted. "That's low."

"Screw you!" Pica squeaks. The earth under Zoro's feet shakes and he leaps to the next piece of stable ground as it writhes into a spear behind him.

"Bring it on, Shit Brick."

Pica pushes the entire section of the plateau Zoro's standing on off the main mountain. People scream around and below him, and Zoro just jumps across the falling rock to solid ground. He stares at Pica, curious, not even bothering to drop into an offensive stance, despite Kitetsu's howls. Wado rings in haughty disdain.

Pica stares back, dark eyes roving in the stone.

That...wasn't even an attack. And Pica knows a fall isn't going to take Zoro out, that he'll just come back, so why…?

He's stalling. But what for?

Above him a white cape flutters across the edge of the plateau, the glint of steel visible to sharp and knowing eyes.

"The annoying one?" He wonders aloud. Except the guy seems different. His Voice is the same, but...it's not. Not at all. It's less human. More bloodthirsty.

Huh. Lucy might've been right about Cabbage after all. He'd probably be a pretty interesting opponent like this.

A large, round man in a cape, crown, and boxing gloves appears on Zoro's left. "Want some help?" He asks. Zoro vaguely recalls him from the frantic race across the island. "I've got a pretty strong punch. I can only use it once an hour, but…"

Well that's a…weirdly expositional thing to say. "Nah," he responds. "I'll take care of him. And save your trump card for later, we might need it."

The guy shrugs and turns away, moving on to the next group of people. Zoro glares up at Pica, and hopes he saves his punch. After all, whatever Pica's stalling for has to be big. Something unexpected.

Zoro takes out his frustrations on any sign of moving stone, and settles in to wait.

Fighting Doflamingo is hard. He's good, and she and Torao aren't used to fighting together. They're managing, but really, their styles are very different and they need too much communication to coordinate easily.

That isn't to say they're losing, exactly, just that it's a hard fight, and Doflamingo is the kind of guy who can take Red Hawk full force and get up two seconds later.

At the moment, though, Lucy will concede that they may not be exactly winning. She's lying on her bleeding stomach, hog-tied with razor-wire, and Torao was just stabbed through the chest with a bunch of Doflamingo's strings. They're both down—for the moment—and Doflamingo is twitching.

It occurs to Lucy that he may be losing it.

"You kids. Even thinking you could beat me was a terrible insult. Beat me? Me? I am descended from the noblest bloodlines in the world! The Celestial Dragon! I am a god among you mortals, banned from heaven, and you thought you could beat me?"

"What?" Lucy breathes, her eyes locked on Doflamingo's writhing form.

For so much of her life that title has inspired horror and disgust within her. There was the one who killed Sabo—killed him in her childhood, even if he managed to live—and he remains nameless to her, a faceless, empty force of nature that took her brother away.

She tried to forget about it. Tried to move on. But it's like Ace said, they're something opposed to freedom and she can't—

There are many reasons to kill Doflamingo. The fact of his birth is not one of them. He's not that special.

"That's how you got around the trap," Torao pants, his breath coming in short supply. "You're a fucking Dragon."

"I was," Doflamingo corrects irritably. "Until my worthless bastard of a father took us down from heaven, cast us into this shit-stain of a world forever." A vein pops on his forehead, and his smile is manic and his aura violent. "I took his head to the gates of Mary Geoise! But the Celestial Dragons in heaven would never accept the blood of a family that rejected them! So I knew the only way out of this hell of a world would be to burn it down." Doflamingo cackles, his fingers twitching madly, "Live like a human being? What a joke! Only the weak want such a thing!"

"Cora-san was…" Torao seems almost pained, his face pale from more than blood loss.

"My younger brother was a weakling, just like my father." Doflamingo snarls. The reminder of Torao's precious person seems to get to him more than just about anything else they've done. "They didn't understand. They didn't get it. People are all cruel, no matter who they are or where they're born." He lunges for Lucy suddenly, and she tries to dodge but then his Voiceless double slams into her back, hard enough for her body to punch through the roof and into the floor below.

"Straw Hat-ya!" Torao calls. The fake flits down, and Bellamy is dragged by his hair, still weeping and crying.

"Just hold on, Torao! I'll be right there!" She replies. She can hear the faint whistle of Doflamingo's attacks, the metallic clink of Torao's sword as he parries.

The fake laughs darkly. "Will you?"

Lucy stands facing them, her hands still tied with unbreakable string behind her back. She has to get back up there—Torao isn't weak, but he's hurt and stands a better chance with a partner, especially since Doflamingo knows the ins and outs of his abilities. In a fight like this one, every second counts. "I will."

Fake-'Mingo rushes her, and Lucy dodges with care. Observation Haki works with him but it's harder to deal with than a person with a Voice. She can still hear the whistle of vibrating strings and the faint whir of the double's ever-spinning body, but it's difficult to pick out and there is no intention about it. He's just a doll, keeping her occupied while Doflamingo fights Torao.

Bellamy, pleading endlessly for his own death, is still chasing after her, blades swinging wildly. Fighting the two of them splits her attention too much, especially since she's keeping a distant awareness of the battle above their heads in mind.

Torao is angry, and there's something desolate about him too.

Lucy feints, ducks, and rolls her way to a corner, away from her attackers, and pulls against her restraints so hard blood slips down her wrists. It does nothing though, the glowing strings she's bound with are like steel and even using them to parry Bellamy's blades left no dent.

She crouches a little, jumps backward through the loop of her arms to bring her wrists before her and coats her arms in Armament Haki to break the ties. They're so tight it still burns through the metallic skin, but at least she has her arms back.

Bellamy gets the first run at her, calling out as he moves unwillingly. Lucy wishes she could free him, but she can't, she can only dodge or knock him out, and the idea of hurting someone she calls a friend is unpalatable.

Bellamy begs her to kill him anyway.

"You should just kill him, you know," Fake-'Mingo says conversationally. "He's too pathetic to live."

"He's not the one who's pathetic," Lucy snarls in return, backflipping over Bellamy to deliver a kick to Fake-'Mingo's head. "You just suck."

Bellamy sobs wrenchingly, and Lucy ducks under his blades to swing a Haki-laden fist at Doflamingo. He blocks it with his strings, and she rolls out of the move as Bellamy comes for her again and again. Lucy runs for Fake-'Mingo, pressing knees to her chest as she shoots both feet at him in a stamp. She twists aside, not letting Bellamy anywhere close, and blocks out his apologies as she tries to focus on Torao.

His Voice is fainter than she would expect. Like he's above the rooftop, somehow. Him and Doflamingo both.

"I am a force of nature, girl," Fake-'Mingo cackles. "Someone like you can't deter the likes of me from my goals."

She growls, low and determined. "I don't care what you want."

"Straw Hat DUCK!"

Lucy does.

A blade catches in her side and she screams.

Fake-'Mingo chuckles darkly, humored. "That wouldn't have happened if you just killed him."

Lucy's not going to kill him. She's gonna murder Doflamingo though.

She struggles up, limbs shaking and feels the wet squelch of her blood as Zoro's shirt clings to her belly. The wound aches and stings, but it is not debilitating. Not when her rage is so deep.

Then above her, there is Torao's fear. Torao's pain. Agony.

Oh God, her arm—

Not her arm. Torao. Torao just lost his—

"JET GATLING!" She bellows, and Fake-'Mingo does not have time to stop her, does not have time to respond as she wails on him, blasts him up to the ceiling and higher, higher, higher.

He lands in a pile up above, smoke billows from the heat she generated, and she glares up at the hole, her fists clenched and instinctively black with Haki.

"'MINGO!" She screams. "GET AWAY FROM TORAO."

Silence. The Voices above wait in shock. Torao's seems dazed, confused, numb in a way that's worrying after an injury like that.

"DID YOU HEAR ME FUCKER?" She screams again. "I SAID—"

Soft steps from above. Heavy, but quiet.

Lucy waits, and though blood roars in her ears as her rage smolders, she stands steady and firm.

Pink feathers peek out over the rim. A shock of platinum hair and horned glasses.

"'MINGO—"

"Would you look at that," Doflamingo muses, whistling in awe. "Bellamy, you're still alive then? I didn't expect it."

Behind her, Bellamy whimpers.

"Let him go," Lucy demands darkly. "Let him go now."

"Hmm. Well, since you're not being merciful and executing him yourself…" He snaps his fingers. Bellamy drops to the ground, and she turns to see him lying on his stomach, horror in his face and his body nothing more than a mottled bruise. "...there. You're free, Bellamy. Just as you always were."

For some reason this causes the man's expression to contort in agony and shame. Lucy doesn't have time to dwell on it though, because above her, Doflamingo has turned away, and Torao's Voice spikes with attention and wariness.

"HEY!" She bellows, gearing up to launch herself to the top again. "'MINGO! GET BACK HERE!"

She's ignored. Behind her, Bellamy struggles up, and she turns to him bewildered. "Hey, sit down, you're gonna die if you move too much."

"Straw Hat…" he coughs, and blood comes up. She leans down, wiping his face with the corner of Zoro's shirt.

"Look, just stay here, I gotta go help Torao. He's alone with Doflamingo and Snot." She looks up at the hole in the ceiling, and shifts to the balls of her feet to prepare for launch.

Lucy's not prepared for it, when it happens. She's not watching Bellamy, isn't paying much attention to him at all. So when he tackles her—more by sheer force of his weight than any sort of skill or speed—she grunts in surprise as he lands on her heavily.

"Bellamy, what the hell?" She yells, and she pushes him off instinctively, her knees working with her hands to shake him loose.

He falls to the ground beside her in a heap and moans in pain. There are tears streaming out of his eyes.

"Straw Hat…" he croaks, and Lucy moves to her knees and watches in disbelief as he tries to stand again. "I'm comin' for ya."

"What?" She breathes in disbelief, and she stands as he does, her hands reaching out to catch him if needed.

"I...I made a vow. To follow Doflamingo." He gasps. "He's been my hero since I was a kid. Surely you got one too?"

Shanks, she realizes. Doflamingo is Bellamy's Shanks.

He forces himself upright, and Lucy can hear a whistling that can only mean a rib is ruptured.

"You're going to die if you move around like that," she pleads.

"I admired the wrong person," He weeps, "I know that. But honor...my pride...I have to see it through to the end. To the very end." He raises his fists, and takes a lurching swipe at Lucy. She sways out of it easily.

"I won't help you kill yourself," she warns.

"Then just stand there and take it!" He shouts, and he steps forward, quicker than she's expecting, and just misses her head when she ducks.

The worst part is, she understands. She does, she really, really does. Bellamy is loyal above all else. And whatever he might have said on Jaya, his dream was clearly standing at Doflamingo's side.

It says a lot about him, that he should have such a dream—that he would want to serve under someone so cruel.

It says a lot more that he's grown past that. That he wants more, but doesn't yet know how to find it.

She thinks of Gramps, torn between Ace and his own dream.

She thinks of herself, deciding for him as she scraped her way to her brother.

Above her, Torao's Voice is waning fast, and she can feel his energy draining. Above her there's a monster she needs to lay to rest.

Lucy makes another decision.

If it was just her life and just Bellamy's at stake, she wouldn't do it. She would let him go until he exhausted himself, until he could no longer stand, and then take him down as gently as possible, to keep his pride intact and maybe save his life. She knows what pride is, what honor is, she knows those things are more important than one's own life. She knows what it is to have a dream, a treasure in the heart. She understands why Bellamy is rushing her even now.

It's not just his life though. It's Torao's and Rebecca's and flower lady and everyone else who's suffered under Doflamingo's thumb. It's Lucy's nakama and the cage far above their heads.

Choices, choices. There are always choices.

"Bellamy…" she whispers, and she ducks under another blow. "I'm sorry."

And she punches him in the face as the sharp report of a gun echoes in her ears.

As it turns out, "something unexpected" is a big and fuck you too, from the giant stone face in the mountainside.

"Oi! Get back here, dumbass, we're not finished!" He shouts, but Pica's already smoothing into the rockface, away from Zoro's reach.

"Shit," he growls, frustrated. This fight is taking longer than it needs to. Pica's only advantages are his sheer size, the strength that offers him, and his ability to escape pretty much any attack. He's slow though, agonizingly so, even with his smaller, more precise movements. And he doesn't have a shred of pride or he wouldn't have hidden in a fucking mountain for the last twenty minutes.

"Come on out, Shit Brick!" Zoro hollers. "Don'tchya want to fight?"

"Who the hell would want to fight you?" One of Doflamingo's nameless underlings moans not too far away. Zoro glares briefly, and ignores Kitetsu when the katana makes his hand itch to slit the man's throat. His problem child is even more erratic than usual due to the long, unsatisfying fight.

There is a brief, but heavy moment of silence. Zoro closes his eye, focuses entirely on his Haki, and senses Pica as a terrible mass of stone before him.

Great. He's still in the plateau. And he still can't cut that in half because there are people that actually matter on the top—like Lucy and Robin—not to mention the people in the city below who probably don't deserve to die under a zillion tons of rubble.

The mass of energy moves slightly downward. Which is annoying, because Zoro's gonna have to move to get Pica in his range again if the guy's moving back to the lower levels—

The lower levels.

Shit, that's where they've been sending the wounded—

Zoro takes off running, slicing lone pillars of stone out of his way as he goes.

"You bastard," he growls, "Going after the wounded? I knew you were a coward but that's fucking low."

A level down—too far away—stone closes around one of the Happosui men, and Zoro does the only thing he can to get him to stop.

"HEY!" He shouts, and uses Shusui to carve a gash in the mountainside six meters deep, spanning the width of the plateau, a warning of what he could do but hasn't yet. "HAVE SOME FUCKING HONOR YOU SOPRANO-VOICED, COWARDLY, TWO-BIT, SQUEAKY—"

The wall shakes behind him, pressing outward to form a face.

"There you are," Zoro growls, stalking forward. "We're having a fight, aren't we? So leave other people—"

"Don't you think it's unfair?" Pica squeaks, and to Zoro's surprise, he seems to be interested in a conversation of all things, not a fight, which is frankly unacceptable. "Doffy took over this kingdom ten years ago, and yet the people still refuse to recognize him!"

Zoro cocks a brow at him, resting Kitetsu on his shoulder. "Well, yeah. He enslaved half of them and the other half didn't even know it." And below them right now Zoro can still hear the screams of the civilians Doflamingo's conscripted to incite chaos.

"Doffy was a good King! He is the only King!"

Zoro stares at the stone face disbelievingly, then shakes his head. "Look, this ain't gonna be an issue much longer," he tells the stone man, and almost lackadaisically he cuts Pica's serpentine head in two, knowing it won't actually kill the guy. "My captain's about to kick Doflamingo's ass."

"Doffy will never lose!" Pica declares loyally. It's unfortunate for the guy that nothing he says in that voice carries any sort of weight, and also that the prospect of Lucy actually losing is nil.

Zoro just snorts instead. "Yeah, we'll see about that. If Doflamingo beats Lucy I'll shove a sword up my—"

Pica disappears into the ground.

"Fuck, where did you—"

The statue behind him groans.

Zoro whirls around in horror, staring away from the plateau, and at the giant, creaking statue of a man hellbent on destroying something.

It can't be the castle. Doflamingo's up there and Pica's too loyal to interfere. Slapping people off the plateau would bother Doflamingo and Lucy's fight, too. So where—

The statue groans and inches forward. Zoro's gaze slides to the plateau—the old one, where the castle originally was.

Shit. Shit, Usopp's over there. And the king, and Viola, and probably loads of other people, and—

Zoro starts running.

Pica's terrible form rises, bigger than he ever was, and then the mountain of a man is on his feet, and he starts to walk.

Shit.

The island shakes every time Pica moves, and Zoro wonders if it's possible to crack the damn thing in two.

This is why Pica drew the fight out so long, isn't it? Why he went into the plateau in the first place? It wasn't just to escape Zoro, it was to clear a path to somewhere else. Create an opening to kill the king.

"Fuck this bastard," Zoro growls. "I'm gonna cut him."

How, though?

Long-distance slash?

Nah, too far away already, won't do enough damage.

He could…take a running leap and get closer?

…still too far away, dammit.

He could just scream really loudly to try and warn Usopp and the others.

…distance is really a recurring issue here.

Oh wait, fuck, he has a Den Den Mushi, he can just call them.

…except he lost it somewhere. Shit.

…well it's not like they really have time to run anyway, so it's not like losing the stupid snail is really going to make that much difference in the long run.

There's a flash of color up ahead—two swatches of bright red, a purple dress and green. A misshapen head.

…Perfect.

Shit, this is gonna be fun.

"What're you smiling about, Pirate Hunter?" The caped king of somewhere-or-other asks, boxing gloves glowing faintly. "My friend's about to be killed!"

"No he ain't," Zoro retorts. He nods to the gloves, remembering the man's attack is a one-hit wonder. "Put those away, I've got it covered."

The big blonde guy with the missing navy looks down at him, eyebrows raised in skepticism. "…you do?"

Zoro smirks, sticks Kitetsu and Shusui in the earth, and pulls out his bandana, tying it around his head. "Gimmie two minutes."

Pica is closer to the other plateau than he is to Zoro. He's pretty sure he can hear Usopp screaming from here.

That's good. It means he's still alive.

"I don't think you got that much time, son," The big guy with the crooked head replies.

"Don't worry, it's plan five."

The king of somewhere-unimportant looks on curiously. "Plan five?"

Zoro's grin becomes just a bit vicious and even Kitetsu's thrilled enough to harmonize its wailing to Zoro's aura. "Fly in the sky and chop him up."

The girl who attacked Franky on Punk Hazard—apparently she's a defector?—is the first to speak. "Er. That's plan five?"

"That's plan five," he agrees, and he's too keyed up to care much about their opinions. Well. Except the ones he needs, which do not include the possibly-traitorous girl. "Oi. Director. You can throw people really far, right?"

The big blonde guy's jaw drops. Then snaps shut. "I'm a Commodore."

Zoro does not care. "But you can throw people really far, right?"

There's a collective moment of silent disbelief, and Zoro, way too thrilled with this decision, just grins in their faces, his teeth like knives.

"You're not serious, Pirate Hunter?" King number two asks. Zoro just raises an expectant eyebrow at Blondie.

The guy sighs. "Yes, I 'can throw people really far.' But people generally aren't meant to survive it."

Zoro tightens the knot on his bandana. "I will."

He's not trying to be arrogant. He's just stating a fact. If he wasn't so keyed up and pressed for time, he might be a bit more tactful about it, but that's just not happening this time around.

Luckily, the others seem to realize this is the case. Blondie looks at king-dude. King-dude shrugs. Blondie sighs.

"Fine. Hold still while I grab you."

Zoro collects his katana, crossing them over his chest. Blondie grabs the back of his jacket.

"You're gonna die," traitor-girl mutters, deadpan.

"Let 'er rip," Zoro orders. Blondie draws his arm back, and Zoro hunches into position.

"Remember you asked for this," the guy mutters. His shoulder tenses. There's a rush of energy. Blondie grunts. And then—

—Holy shit.

Zoro can feel himself breaking the sound barrier, can feel it as shockwaves smash off of him and he's met with resistance as the air parts reluctantly around his body, a veritable bullet over Dressrosa. Wind wails mercilessly in his ears, pulls at his skin, and exposes his gums to the world as his eyes water.

He's grinning too hard for it to matter, anyway.

He rolls out of a compact ball in a ripple of air and looks up to see Pica fast approaching. With difficulty, he removes Wado from the pearly leather sheath, and the g-forces threaten to crush his lungs as he grasps the hilt between his teeth.

Zoro concentrates and pulls his Haki to the fore as it spreads and solidifies over the blades, each of them black with the solid, metallic evidence of his will, a dark ribbon of energy twisting in a double helix around all three katana. It's easy as breathing, but breath is scarce with the wind ripping out of his lungs.

He can do it without air, underwater, beneath an avalanche if he has to. He made sure.

The nine mountains and the eight seas constitute one world, he recites mentally, because he has no chance to speak with Wado in his mouth and the wind in his lungs. A thousand of them form a small chiliocosm.

He drags Shusui and Kitetsu into position, and like this, with his Haki streaming through and around the blades, echoing and resonating with them, they are indistinguishable to the eye, and even their voices meld together in his mind, a tense, anticipatory harmony rising as his will bolsters them higher.

And when I gather and cube that chiliocosm, there's nothing I can't cut!

Zoro's flying at the speed of sound and his mind is blank and calm. There is the vicious, clean edge of blades, the song of blood and victory whistling between his spinning katana, but Zoro himself is a vessel of perfect form. He is the arc of a truly-aimed arrow, the mirrored reflection of placid water, and he is also the roaring tide, the cresting wave, the tectonic shift of earth and magma, the rise and fall of the sun and moon, the deliberate breath of all of nature's harmonies.

The resonance of the world around him fills his senses, echoes against his own Voice. There is the sharp whistle of air against his body, the terrible screams of those below and those before him. There is the creaking, groaning body of Pica, aloft on moving stone, and the infinite imperfections of his golem form.

"Santoryu, Secret Technique: The Billion-Fold World Trichiliocosm!"

His three blades descend a thousand times at once, and Pica is severed in half. The force is so great that Pica's top half ascends a hundred meters, and Zoro himself sails easily through the gap he's carved, bloodlust singing in his veins.

He looks up to check, and finds Pica's roving eyes in the statue's face.

Nowhere to run now, fucker.

He hits the plateau easily, Blondie's throw having just begun its downward descent, softening the landing. He kicks off the wall immediately, refusing gravity's hold, and leaps up toward the grotesquely large face.

Pica catches sight of him, and squeaks his name. Two thrustss—one with Kitetsu and the other with Shusui, and Pica is halved once more.

Behind him Usopp wails in relief but Zoro pays him no mind. He just waits for the dust to clear and watches his opponent closely.

C'mon, c'mon, where'd you go.

The eye on Zoro's right blinks open, and Zoro reacts immediately, slashing off the arm.

And shit, he's too far away.

He uses falling rock and debris to launch himself higher, closer to his target. Zoro hopes the people below have the good sense to run away, because there's not much he can do for them at the moment.

The hand of the severed arm twitches. Zoro cuts off the fingers at the knuckles.

"Come on out, Pica!" He demands around Wado's Haki-black hilt. "You've only been going after those who don't want to fight, it's time to pay the price!"

Nothing. The fingers don't move and neither does the arm.

They're still falling, but he's played this waiting game before, and Zoro is fucking done with this cowardly bullshit.

He carves the arm in five pieces, leaping up on a closer stone. "How long you gonna hide, Shit Brick?"

"You think you've won because you cornered me?"

The squeaking voice comes from the stone second on the right, and Zoro grins around Wado's hilt as Pica emerges from it, human.

"You won't look so smug when I'm clad in Haki!" Pica declares. Zoro goes huh, because he thought Pica would have pulled that trick out earlier if he had it all along. "I don't need stone to win!"

"You've needed it up to now," he retorts, unimpressed even as purple-black Haki spreads over Pica's form—his entire form, which Zoro admits is an accomplishment.

"I'm going to knock you down!" Pica squeaks, taking up a ready stance.

Zoro smirks, crouching with Shusui forward, ebony light still whirling around his blades. "Only if your will is stronger than mine."

"It is!" Pica's shrill voice carries a certainty it should not.

Zoro's lips curl in anticipation and he raises his swords, the triangle of their hilts forming before him.

Of the nine mountains and eight seas, he intones. His mind clears easily, that blank space inside him already close to the surface, and even Pica's childishly high-pitched voice cannot pierce the calm within. His katana hum in transcendent harmony beneath the resounding echo of his will, their blades a perfect ring of black lightning before and around him.

Pica leaps forward, sword drawn, and Zoro pours his will into the blades, the terrible weight of the promises on his shoulders, the inevitable bloody trap of his destiny. He will be the Greatest, his katana will serve the Pirate King, he will not lose—

There is nothing I can't cut.

The arc of black lightning burns brighter and Zoro leaps forth to meet his opponent mid-air. "Three-Thousand Worlds!"

He slashes through Pica, navel to scalp, the man's Haki practically paper beneath the deafening clangor of his own.

There is nothing to your will, he thinks. How could you not know?

Pica gasps, blood spewing from his wounds and Zoro growls at him around Wado. "Now stop bugging people walking on the straight and narrow!"

Pica says nothing—Pica's possibly dead, if Zoro misjudged the amount of blood Pica had to lose, but honestly he can't say he's too bothered by the prospect—and Zoro leaps back to the platform's outer wall using falling debris.

Falling debris. Right.

Above him a quarter of Pica's massive form descends upon the platform and while Zoro could survive its fall, cut his way out, the people on the platform…

C'mon, king whatsyername. Your turn.

There is a terrible boom of light and fire, so great Zoro squints against its radiance as energy burns through the air, burns through stone and oxygen and matter itself.

Then it's over. Zoro looks out to the far plateau and grins. "Good work, King number two."

Plan five, accomplished.

He snorts to himself and grins as he carves the words into the bulging outcrop of the plateau with Shusui's long blade. He said it would work. Take that, traitor-girl.

He releases the Haki on his blades, the black metal film receding back into his palms. With a smirk he gives Wado a quick once-over, checking the edge for imperfections, and is relieved to find none. The blade rings high and clear, Shusui a void several octaves lower, and even Kitetsu hums in satiation in the back of Zoro's mind, Pica's blood still on the blue-white metal.

He looks up, and half an island away, a storm brews atop the castle, and if Zoro concentrates, he can faintly sense the echoing bell of Lucy's Voice.

He smirks. I got mine, he challenges. Your turn.

Lucy enters battle with Doflamingo with wrath in her fists.

She's angry. She's angry over Bellamy, over Doflamingo's unworthy hold on him. She's angry over Torao, and all the pain this man has caused him. She's angry over Rebecca, who lost everything to him, and she's angry for all the people wailing below as Doflamingo bids them to his will.

She's not gonna put up with this fucker anymore.

But just as she readies herself for another bought, Lucy takes a step back, and her sandal slips in something wet and red.

She almost knows what she's going to see before she turns around.

"Torao," she breathes in horror. "Torao, no."

She knew Torao was up here somewhere. She knew he was hurt bad, his presence faint and weak. But looking down at him, bullet holes in his back and a pool of blood too much blood beneath him, Lucy can't help but think he's dead, he's dead, I'm too late—

For a moment it is not Torao before her but Ace. There is ice and snow around them as cold seeps into her bones and she is bathed in blood, and no, I can't have failed again—

She hasn't. It's not Ace, it's Torao, and this is not Marineford. Torao's alive and he's going to stay that way because she is not today who she was then.

Ignoring Doflamingo, Lucy kneels beside her friend, heedless of the blood that stains her knees.

"C'mon, Torao, I know you're alive, wake up, wake up—"

"You really are like a dog, aren't you?" Doflamingo says behind her. "A loyal beast unable to accept her master's death. I was joking before but were you two fucking? That might explain a few things."

Torao's face is slack and pale. His right arm is missing—just gone—and he has a messily tied tourniquet around the stump.

She knew that happened. Felt an echo of it.

It's worse to see it in person.

"He was so confident about your arrival, too. Kept babbling about miracles, like those exist in this world. But he shut up quick when I emptied my clip in his—"

"You're not a pirate."

There's a pause from behind her, and she carefully arranges Torao with shaking hands onto his left side. She doesn't want to put pressure on his most grievous wounds, but she's afraid he'll bleed out if left alone.

She wishes Chopper were here. He'd know what to do. He'd make it so Torao could save himself.

"Who the hell cares?" Snot warbles. Lucy stands, fists clenched on both sides as Torao's blood dribbles down her legs.

"Bellamy was your nakama. Torao too, once." She turns to face Doflamingo, fire in her heart and burning in her soul and Lucy can feel her Haki whipping against the confines of her skin, desperate to test itself against this monster, because she can tell he has will, and Lucy is ready to break it. "I hate people like you."

Doflamingo stares for a moment more, and then a low chuckle starts in his belly until he's nearly bent over with his laughter.

"You're right! They're mine!" Doflamingo crows. "And once they became mine, they should have known this day would come! The day they'd die for me! That was their agreement, after all!" 'Mingo snaps upright, fingers twisting as he goes. "They should have known the cost of being the protected, that one day I'd collect on their lives!"

Something rings in Lucy's memory. "Snow Harpy spoke like that…"

"Are you talking about Monet?" He chuckles. "She was lucky, all things considered. It could have gone much worse for her." His smile widens. "She's dead now. Succumbed to injuries as I asked her to blow Punk Hazard sky high. She would have done it with a smile, too." The grin grows vicious as blood vessels bulge in his forehead. "Serves her right for losing."

The beast inside Lucy twists and she lunges forward, arms black with Haki and the sky rages above as wailing souls beg below. She claws at him in a flurry of fists and metal, her anger on a precipice on something greater, more—

Doflamingo grabs her foot as she kicks for his head, and she's flying forward with the fury of a relentless will on her shoulders.

"That's not what nakama are for!" She howls, and her fist would have taken his head from his shoulders had Snot not deterred her. "You die for them, you dumbass!"

"As if I would ever shed my heavenly blood for mere mortals," Doflamingo scoffs. "You Ds have no sense of place, no reverence."

The beast inside her howls and claws its way to the fore as her fists descend in unforgiving judgment. "What is your flag for?" She snarls. He blocks her blows and Snot throws bombs her way, so she kicks him instead, her leg wrapping around the web of string at force. It is not a debilitating blow but it is a little satisfying at least. "If you're a pirate, what does it mean?"

Doflamingo holds her off with infuriating ease as she rains blow after blow on his head, his spiderweb shield glowing with blade-sharp strings.

He laughs, and Lucy wants to shove her fist through his jaw.

"My flag?" He asks, smiling even as Lucy sprays her own blood against his lips. "Why, it's a herald to the rest of the world of course! I am God, and you humans are all slaves of mine!"

Lucy pushes away from him, her body still between Doflamingo and Torao's prone form. She wipes blood from her face with her wrist, her eyes locked on her opponent. She feels the corner of her mouth turn up in a vicious facsimile of her usual grin, the fight rising and breaking inside her as she aches to tear Doflamingo's tongue out through his throat.

"God, you say?" She repeats, and fury makes her voice soft. Something inside her burns and aches for blood. "You're not a pirate, then," she declares, and there is a rumbling and shifting in the earth or maybe just in her.

Snot sneers, unimpressed. "It's not like that matters!"

But Doflamingo looks passively curious. "And who are you to say?"

Funny you should ask, she thinks, and she places her hat atop her head, stares down Doflamingo from under the brim. "Monkey D Lucy. I'll be King of Pirates soon."

Doflamingo just stares for a moment before chuckling. "What a delusional brat." His smile shows teeth and blood. "You're never getting out of here alive."

But Lucy pays him no heed, is unbothered by his skepticism. All that matters is that she beats him into the earth, that she buries him so deep he can never crawl out, that he goes to bed weeping every night hereafter thinking of her fists and wrath, if he lives at all. Lucy does not care either way, and she will not feel a shred of guilt for ending him if that's what today brings. He is something opposed to freedom, and Lucy is going to tear him down.

Inside she rages with all the feral rabidity of the beast she might be, the vicious rip and moan of her will a force all its own.

Lucy's never had much patience for men who believe themselves God.

When he makes it to the top of the plateau, Usopp practically hauls him over the edge by his wrist, weeping.

"I thought I was gonna diiiieeee Zoro!" He moans, and then wraps himself around the swordsman in his best impression of a barnacle. "You're alright, aren't you? Aren't you?"

Zoro shifts uncomfortably, unaccustomed to anyone but Lucy and Chopper randomly hugging him. He doesn't brush Usopp off though. Usopp's nakama. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine."

"Oh my God is that him?"

"Hey, it's the guy who just saved us all!"

Zoro looks up from Usopp's curly head—the guy's still clinging to his shirt—just in time to see a mob of extremely grateful Dressrosi start clapping and hollering.

It takes Zoro a moment to realize it's him they're cheering for.

"Well done, Zoro-dono!" Kin'emon cheers, and he walks over to clap Zoro on the back.

Zoro raises an eyebrow. Apparently saving his life means Zoro gets to escape the "thief" title now.

…thank goodness, because that shit was getting annoying. It's unfortunate that zombie asked Zoro not to tell anyone of his fate, but it's not like Zoro's about to break his promise to a dead guy over something as stupid as reputation.

But the attention is…highly uncomfortable. Usually when he's faced with a crowd like this it's because they're full of wary awe, rather than admiration and gratitude. He much prefers it when Lucy's in the spotlight. All he did was cut up a statue.

Also, Usopp is now wiping his snot on Zoro's jacket, and the guy may be nakama but Zoro has boundaries, okay? "Usopp, gerroff, I'm fine."

"I'm just soooo relieeeeeeevvved!"

"Yeah, yeah, I can see that. Be relieved when this stupid cage goes away."

And that, my dears, is how the Bellamy fight SHOULD have ended. It's not like there wasn't precedent.

So there's a bit of a plot hole with Torao's "play dead" strategy. Luffy should have been able to sense him with Observation Haki (I keep telling you guys it's an OP ability, and this is one example). Like, we know he can sense Torao because when Torao got kidnapped in front of them back at the colosseum, Luffy specifically tells Zoro that he can't hear Doflamingo's, Fujitora's, or Torao's Voices anymore. So Luffy should have been able to hear Law, and know he wasn't dead. I guess it's possible that he did hear it, and was just reacting to Doflamingo's hurting him in the first place, but yeah. It's a plot hole. Lucy's slightly calmer for that part of the confrontation than Luffy because she knows he's alive.

You gotta laugh a little at some of the conversations Zoro had with the straw hat allies while fighting Pica. They were just so clearly expository, like Oda was going "yeah, I know, you don't remember these guys because you didn't care about them at all back when I first introduced them, and I introduced, like, thirty of them in three chapters, so here you go, short introduction part two, I'm including motivation, name, and ability in one go." Elizabello is probably the worst example of this. I'm not even exaggerating when I say he just comes up behind Zoro and without Zoro even saying anything he's like "HEY I'M ELIZABELLO, KING OF PRODENCE, LONG-TIME FRIEND OF KING RIKU WHICH IS WHY I'M FIGHTING HERE TODAY. I HAVE A TRUMP CARD THAT I CAN USE ONCE AN HOUR AND I CAN PRETTY MUCH KILL ANYTHING WITH IT, WANT SOME HELP?"

Honestly, I think one of the funniest things Oda's done with Zoro in a while is the part where he's listing off all the plans to defeat Pica. I just. Had to include it. Oh my gawd.

Zoro's…I don't know what to call it. Recitation, maybe? Anyway, the "nine mountains and the eight seas" bit is built off of Bhuddist cosmology. I am not an expert by ANY MEANS but from what I understand, the belief is that there are infinite worlds across all of time and space (as seen from a divine perspective, not the actual physical one in front of us). In the spatial organizational pattern I think Oda is getting at with Zoro, singular worlds (each world being the nine mountains and the eight seas, with one mountain in the center—Mount Sumeru—ringed by eight concentric mountain ranges, and each of the mountains are separated from each other by a sea) are bundled into groups of thousands. This is the small chiliocosm. A collection of a thousand times a thousand worlds (so, chiliocosm squared) results in the middle grouping, which is the medium dichiliocosm. A chiliocosm cubed is the largest grouping, and it results in the Great Trichiliocosm, with a billion worlds. I'm told Oda probably picked this because it comes in groups of three, which is kind of Zoro's ~thing~.

"Stop bugging people walking on the straight and narrow" is apparently a phrase indicating a sort of honor among thieves type of code. It basically means "don't involve people who aren't involved, like an honorable gangster would." Like, if it's a fight between two people in the life, don't involve the neighborhood grocer. It's not cool man. Zoro is saying this because Pica did exactly that repeatedly throughout their fight. I think they changed it in later translations to make it more understandable for a wider English-speaking audience, but if you look at the initial versions, that's what it says. It's a very badass thing to say in Japanese, apparently. I don't know, I'm not a translator, and I literally have no knowledge of Japanese as a language at all. I just like the phrase.

As cool as the Zoro vs. Pica fight ended up being, I gotta say, I think if it had been Robin vs. Pica it would have been fucking amazing. Just stick with me here. Giant clone of Robin beats the shit out of Pica as a giant stone golem. You see where I'm going with this right? Yeah, the property damage would have been unfortunate but can you imagine?