Marineford IV
The Sabaody Archipelago had always been characterized by a tense, superficial peace. Less than a coat of white paint over a black material and more like a silence capable of being broken by the first uncaring shout, those that lived there were either keeping their heads down hoping not to fall into a slaver's heist to add numbers to his cargo, under the attention of the occasional Celestial Dragon, or directly profited from the state of things. There was no in-between.
Of course, the only other kind of people that reached the final island of the first half of the Grand Line were those that often for the first time since they set sail, found themselves holding back on their impulses, swallowing the fierce will that brought them from the meanest of the Blues to this half-way point towards the One Piece.
Almost paradoxically, the worst criminals to set foot on the stage that was the race to Roger's treasure in the past year, those who had risen head and shoulders above the rabble that managed to sail on the Grand Line, were the first ones to wish for quiet and peace while on the island. The marines couldn't keep too close an eye on what went on, as officially, slavery had been banished 200 years before, and the criminals were incredibly aware that an Admiral could appear faster than they could disappear under the waves towards Fishman Island.
Listening to the News Coo, this year had seen the rise of what had been dubbed the 'worst generation': instead of the single, hot-headed pirate heading off to bite more than what he or she could chew with his crew along their meteoric rise, this year had seen no less than 9 of those captains appear on the stage that was the Grand Line.
Supernova was a term used to define those pirates whose bounty breached through the 100 million Beli within a year of sailing onto Paradise, and those sea-faring criminals merely used the bounties spread thanks to the News Coo to check out the competition, as it were.
First off came Capone "Gang" Bege, worth 138,000,000 Beli: equivalent to the 'godfather' of his crew, he had simply felt that his thirst for power and riches couldn't be satisfied while remaining on his home island, and so he had decided to brave the seas with his 'family'. With her mysterious past and powers, there was "Big Eater" Jewelry Bonney, worthy 140,000,000 Beli. "The Magician" Basil Hawkins had a bounty of 249 million Beli, while "Roar of the Sea" Scratchmen Apoo's head was valued as 198,000,000 Beli. "The Mad Monk" Urouge was worth 108,000,000 Beli, while "Red Flag" X Drake's head was valued as 222 million Beli. and Trafalgar Law, the "Surgeon of Death", had a bounty of exactly 200 million Beli.
On the archipelago, there was also Eustass "Captain" Kid, whose head would pay to the bringer 315,000,000 Beli, who was the only one among those presents to have another 'supernova' on the crew: a masked individual named "Massacre Soldier" Killer worthy 162,000,000.
All of them was more or less aware of the presence of the other Supernova on the archipelago, and each of those captains was quietly at war with themselves: on the seas, might made right, on the Grand Line, power was the ultimate measure of those too willful to stand the World Government's yoke. They sought power, because it was the only thing capable of granting them the freedom they so dearly wished for, and with power, came the undeniable instinct to fight those on their path: all of the Supernova on the archipelago were being dragged forward by Roger's challenge, and sooner or later, they'd fight for the crown in the New World.
All of them were chasing that shining dream, and the impulse to seek out a battle just before sailing to Fishman Island was there, the almost burning need to prove their mettle by fighting harder, shouting louder, had never rang louder in their hearts. Not unlike the hangman's hand on the lever that would remove the support under the feet of a man about to fall from a great height with a very short rope tied around their neck.
Some among those pirates had been waiting for the crew of the last Supernova captain. Some of those pirates expected the crew whose collective bounty was in the same ballpark as the sum of all the others: Eustass Kid's pirates had made waves when Killer's worth had breached the 100 million benchmark, and that piece of incredible, and maybe worrying, news had vanished under the veritable tsunami that Straw Hat's arrive into Paradise had caused.
With the highest bounty ever registered for a rookie pirate, the First Mate "Estranged Menace", Charlotte Coby, was worthy 330 million Beli, and in a maneuver that stank of political manipulation to high heaven, his bounty had been released through the News Coo one day before his capture had been announced.
Straw Hat, Monkey D. Luffy was worthy 295 million Beli, and commanded a crew of limited dimensions that nevertheless outshone the entirety of their contemporary criminals.
"Black Kick", Vinsmoke Sanji: 195 million Beli, another family name that screamed 'danger' for its connections to the Germa 66, Ohara's Devil, Nico Robin, with a bounty of 200 million Beli. "Men Crusher" Mikita: 175 million Beli. "Pirate Hunter" Zoro, 150 million Beli, "Wheater Witch" Nami, with a bounty of 75 million, "Steel-Jaw" Usopp, worthy 85 million Beli. "Cyborg" Franky, worthy 44 million, and "Furry Hulk" Chopper, with a bounty of 15 million.
Many among the Supernova had been secretly waiting for a chance to peek at the Straw Hat Pirates. Some had only wished to brutally attack them, and to hell with the consequences, because they had stolen the spotlight, or because fighting them was the most immediate and instinctive way to reassure themselves of their own worth, of their own ability to stand tall on the Grand Line.
But the Straw Hat pirates never appeared on the archipelago, and while some of those awaiting for a confrontation of any kind had been quick to make snide comments about their absence, it was telling that such a self-serving and self-centered group of people would steep so low as to keep an eye out for those that undoubtedly should be deemed inferior, if only because, with the dream of the One Piece clear in their mind, the Supernova knew that they'd have to be the most powerful to succeed.
Yet in their minds, something faint, something easily dismissed, had deflated in relief at the absence of the crew that was composed for the most part of Supernova-calibre criminals. With a collective bounty of 1,369 billion Beli, there was just an intangible weight that surrounded their actions, and expectations to be met. Those that strived for the One Piece had little space for doubts: those had been useless and discarded as the pirates first set sail, and yet, when their own adventure in the Grand Line had apparently taken place in the long shadow cast by another crew... Unconsciously, some of those rookie pirates that managed to reach the half-way point in a single stretch, at least for a split second, for something too ephemeral to be truly considered, had doubted themselves.
Trafalgar D. Water Law knew all of that, and he knew that he wasn't among those feeble-minded individuals whose hearts were too small to crush their doubts. He had brought his crew to the side of Sabaody Archipelago that didn't point towards Marineford, their yellow submarine ready to go, and... he waited.
The apparent peace and quiet that described the jolly Sabaody Archipelago had survived the tense atmosphere that the Supernova-class pirates had caused by gravitating around each other, and Law had settled with his crew to observe one of the giant screens that had been set up so that the World Government could show the world the execution of one of Whitebeards' sons.
Of course, it had been a setup to match the might of the Marines against the Strongest man in the World, anyone con two brain cells to rub together could guess that much, to reestablish the World Government's power in the eyes of the civilians who had been floored by the last year's uprising in the pirates' numbers.
Of course, That the Straw Hat pirates would manage to find their way onto the bloodiest and most high-stakes battlefield of the past ten years, somewhat didn't truly catch Law by surprise. That the First Mate had apparently been freed, signaling a successful escape from Impel Down, somewhat did. That their ship sailed on a white cloud unrolling like a carpet, left him scrambling to keep up his impassible facade. Spotting a living skeleton forced the "Surgeon of Death" to rub his eyes in disbelief, even if it merely confirmed that for all the noise that the Straw Hat had made, they still had some tricks and crew members up their sleeves.
Of course, the World Government and the marines hadn't entertained the possibility that the moment they planned to use to reestablish their might in the eyes of everyone would crash and burn at the feet of the only man who had been said to be the King's equal. In their plans and calculations, they hadn't considered the most obvious fact. Even dismissing the dead rising against the Marines, the freeing of Portogas D. Ace, and the disappearance of the Moby Dick, there was a single, unstoppable snag.
Something that the Yonko was eager to remind the world: "I AM WHITEBEARD!"
The man holding the visual snail had clearly been instructed in what to do by someone on Whitebeard's side, because even when the archipelago shook lightly, the camera kept rolling. The naginata of the Emperor crashed against the Admirals indiscriminately, almost used as a fly-swatter, just to free Whitebeard to truly fight the golden form of Sengoku, who was witnessing the entirety of his plan shatter under the might of the Strangest Man in the world.
Law watched with eyes widening imperceptibly as he put together the giant wolf's appearance with the Moby Dick's disappearance, coupled with the first resemblance to the second's figurehead. He, as countless others, looked with his jaw threatening to drop to the floor as he truly witnessed the scale of the power of those sitting atop the world. Undoubtedly the other pirates were already planning ways to grow mightier, because if that was the standard of one Emperor, those that truly aimed to Roger's throne were meant to rise above.
Almost as an afterthought, the camera moved to the side, showing the world Marco "The Phoenix" burning through the pink-clad form of one of the Shichibukai. And Law's hands clenched painfully on his sword as Doflamingo unraveled into a mess of strings, clearly not dead.
The total sum of the bounties of the Supernova-class pirates, without counting any member of the Straw Hats, amounted to 1,732 billion Beli. And in Law's mind, there was no doubt that even if they didn't all manage to survive, after this display, the collective bounty of the Straw Hat Pirates would break through the metaphorical roof.
Law remained outwardly relaxed as he witnessed the visual snail responsible for sharing the events taking place getting stolen from a 'flashy' pirate, who seemed happy to expound on his virtues and frightening skills while showing the world what was happening despite the clear wish of the Marines to stop the broadcast.
He watched as the world changed forever.
It was almost too easy for Coby to retreat along the masses of escapees from Impel down and pirates, while his more or less improvised army of undead buried its hooks into the human psyche for centuries to come. Crippled, with missing limbs, with jaws town away revealing the bloody mess underneath, with holes in their bodies, the unnaturally pale zombies fought without feeling pain, without resting until the heads were removed from their shoulders, only for the bodies to keep moving without direction... until Coby fully committed with all the shadows he had collected up to that point, letting his coat fall to the ground, only to throw his own shadow ahead.
Moria had eaten the Shadow Shadow Fruit, but instead of making him a 'shadow-human', it had made him a 'ruler of shadows'. And when it came to creativity, ingenuity, and bringing a simple principle beyond its logical extreme, Coby was much more capable than the dead Shichibukai could ever hope to be.
The First Mate of the Straw Hat Pirates stood with his back towards the ships ready to sail away, Nami's mist falling over Coby's form while his shadow ran across the bay, still connected to his body. He was aware of what happened in his immediate surroundings thanks to his exceptional body, but all of his focus was spread through his own shadow acting as a network to coordinate the cover for the pirates' retreat. Shadows brought with them a reflectin of the intentions of the wielders, and while it required all of the pink-haired pirate's focus, it was a trivial matter to have those bodies with working senses share, using himself as middle ground, what they could perceive.
Coby's ears were assaulted by endless, cacophonic screams and gunshots, while he saw without eyes from countless perspectives in colors that were variations of a spectrum defined by the absence of direct light over different surfaces. His Devil Fruit strained only the pirate's mind: he kept his focus, his will, steady through the storm of contrasting wishes, the leftover of lives now gone. Attack the marines.
Moan their names. Scratchy voices rose from torn throats, dry vocal cords ripping as unholy screams traveled through them: "I can't control my body, help me! Brother, is that you? The pirates cursed me, help! Why aren't you saving me!?"
The world witnessed a faint shadow cover the entirety of Marineford, as if something cast by a translucid material, while the impossible kept happening and the dead refused to let the marines follow their orders. Coby perceived with otherworldy senses as the marines, beaten and oppressed by Ace's freedom and Whitebeard's fresh rampage, flailed uselessly under the commands of officers unable to work through the tide of confusion and hopelessness that his plan had so easily unfolded: marine against dead-marine, thinking that their colleagues, and in many cases friends, were still alive thanks to the way that Coby had used Shiryu's assassination skills to not leave obvious traces of fatal wounds, and asking for help. Marine against dead-pirate or escapee, thinking that an unholy will recalled them from the dead, only to allow them to push through from the hereafter, unable to feel pain, or tiredness, or remorse. Marine against shredded corpse that flailed aimlessly, occupying the focus of the World Government's soldiers until a more efficient Zombie took over.
The Moby-Dick wolf arrived in great bounds across the mist, and in a manner of seconds, he spewed forth the contents of his mouth before morphing under everyone's eyes in a manner that Coby was used to after witnessing both Chopper and Merry doing the same.
To the world, however, that transformation meant something entirely different. Something outrageously dangerous: in place of the giant wolf that had acted as a steed for Whitebeard stood a six meters tall man clad in a raincoat, with a hood thrown back over ample shoulders, a tricorn hat with the infamous Jolly Roger of the Strongest Man of the world sitting proudly over a wide face that combined the cheerful nature of the Moby Dick's figurehead with the fierce power exuding from a hunting wolf.
Those he had freed didn't have the time to fully come to terms with the fact that they had just been spit out by a ship-wolf-spirit hybrid that Moby Dick jumped on the frontline, punches that carried all the weight of his massive original form crushing the giants' skulls with the same ease Coby could split a coconut using Raiu, a wolf's tail that seemed made of the same metal that composed the anchor cutting easily through those marines that dared impede the retreat of the being's family.
Coby's hand closed over Ace's left shoulder just as he crouched to jump forward, stopping him mid-motion: "This was all meant to avoid you being killed, if you move from here, everyone will stop retreating: if you must do something, call your family, and use long range attacks to facilitate their retreat... it comes to mind that everyone is standing on ice. Maybe melt it?"
Luffy's breath was heavy because of the energy spent in his dash to rescue Ace, but he limited himself to adjusting his straw hat while letting out an amused peal of laughter: "Shishishi! Coby's right!"
Firefist Ace frowned in distaste at what he had been told, but there was just no denying the truth of the matter, and so he began shouting orders over the chaos of the battlefield.
Off to the side, Mr.3 was cradling his head in his hands while tilting back and forth, repeating as if a mantra: "Never again, never again, never again..."
"Bon-chan!" Luffy's hand clasped Bentham's shoulders before the latter could resume crying in awe and appreciation of the brotherly love that he had just witnessed survive against the might of the marines, "Join my crew!"
"Straw-chan!" Coby rolled his eyes as the two friends hugged each other, the okama's tears positively making it look like it was raining as he accepted to join the Straw Hat Pirates, only to return his attention to the battlefield.
Above Marineford, Marco let out a flare of blue flames that kept everyone focused on the retreat, even as the world shook because of Whitebeard's strike against one of Garp's extended punches: "Garp!" the voice of the Strongest thundered with the impact of flesh on flesh that sounded like a boulder striking marble, and for the first time, a genuine silver of rage could be distinguished as the old pirate spoke, "What kind of man doesn't protect his family!?"
It was then that Coby understood what was going on and thanked his lucky stars: for all of his might, Whitebeard shouldn't be able to fight off Sengoku and Garp at the same time. Not with three Admirals bouncing back and forth with distracting attempts to take potshots at the old man. And just as it was obvious to the First Mate of the Straw Hat Pirates, it was clear to Sengoku, who snarled under the golden, holy light that surrounded him.
Monkey D. Garp couldn't bring himself to actually fight Luffy, which had allowed him to reach Firefist Ace. And now that his older grandson had been freed, he couldn't bring himself to truly bring to bear his full might against the man who had made it possible. Against the man who had made the reckless brat one of his 'sons', protecting him when the Vice Admiral couldn't.
Most of the Whitebeard Pirates had by then regrouped behind the lines of undead still fighting, the Division Commanders standing between their brothers and the carnage going on in a line that was growing smaller and smaller. Even then, the pirates retreated while throwing worried glances at their father, only for their eyes to stop on the Whitebeard Jolly Roger that fluttered proudly on the black raincoat covering the Moby Dick in his hybrid form.
His punches had stopped raining onto the enemy once those strong enough to prevent the retreat of the more isolated groups of pirates had been taken care of, and while his eyes never left the main battle going on behind enemy lines, he kept walking backward, his steps pacing the unhappy retreat of Whitbeard's family.
Off to the side of the bay, one of the five marine warships that had delivered the immense number of Impel Down escapees onto Marineford's battlefield had been repaired and rightnened, and the survivors were quick to scramble onto it. Hovering high above the ship was Boggy the Clown, with the visual transponder never stopping his feed to the rest of the world as one of the Emperors reminded to everyone why the World Government had needed to accept the Shichibukai as part of their forces in order to stop the plague of pirates from spreading too wide.
Vista was the only one of the Division Commanders that wasn't part of the retreating line, but bloodied and sweating, he was pulling all the stops to hold back Mihawk himself, the Greatest Swordsman in the world. The great black blade Yoru swept through the air with the grace of a feather carried by a summer breeze and the intrinsic power of a strike of lightning, while the two swords held by the Whitebeard pirate kept up in a dangerously hypnotic flurry of blows.
The Pacifistas had long been taken care of, while Ace had taken to heart Coby's suggestion and kept blasting fireballs onto the marines, corralling them off on platforms of ice which forced the soldiers to stand their ground against the countless shadow-empowered dead bodies that kept fighting. Above the battlefield, Marco occasionally kicked Doflamingo out of the air, keeping the Shichibukai from enjoying himself, while he kept an eye on the retreating forces.
As Nami's mist faded, the numbers simply too vast for her to hide, Usopp aligned his brand new rifle and tried to read the fight so that he could help Whitebeard: from the advantage of his higher position, he too could read that the only thing everyone was waiting for was for the Emperor to disengage in order to retreat.
It was just as Coby began to relax that the unexpected cut the wind from his sails.
A wave of pitch black darkness rushed as if the head of a striking snake from a pile of rubble, and one of Whitebeard's swings didn't cause the earthquake capable of slingshotting Akainu away from him, instead, the blow simply blew apart one side of the Admiral, who simply turned into lava while he managed to strike the side of the Strongest Man in the world.
As Whitebeard grunted in pain, a lifetime of experience allowed him to avoid the ligh-fast kick that Kizaru tried to nail his head with, while slamming the end of his naginata into the golden palm of Sengoku. But it wasn't enough to stop four spikes of ice from nailing his left leg, courtesy of Aokiji.
A split second had been all that was needed to turn the fight from an evenly matched brawl into a suddenly deadly game. At least for Whitebeard. His breath, which had been heavy but even, hitched, and the perfect flow of a battle among titans was disrupted as a new player made his way onto the field.
"Sorry I was late, Sengoku!" Blackbeard walked out of the darkness beneath the boulders ahead of the small group of pirates that composed his crew, "But Impel Down sinking and the tsunami of the old man kept me busy! Zehahahahah!"
A variety of reactions spread across the battlefield then, from the Whitebeard Pirates that suddenly felt almost compelled to charge forward, Ace first among them, to Coby feeling equal amounts of dread and eagerness pooling into his gut, to Garp and the Amidrals' distaste, to the Emperor's actual stirrings of true rage, to the most dangerous development thus far.
Sengoku, still clad in his golden light, nodded curtly at the Shichibukai, keeping his focus on Whitebeard, who was now striding despite the wounds towards the newcomer: "We'll have a talk about your obligations after we're done here, Teach, but at least you showed up: you risked your spot on the Seven with your lateness."
Worryingly unconcerned by the circumstances, Marshall D. Teach let out another peal of his chilling laughter, darkness rising as an unforgiving pillar that stretched across the sky as he joined his allies against Whitebeard: "Zeahahahah!"
To the other end of Marineford Coby's hand closed around Raiu's hilt. And for the first time since he had joined the 'War of the Best', a stirring of true uncertainty marred his dedication.
AN
In this chapter, I toyed with the idea of Blackbeard either not jumping in because of the reduced size of his crew or openly tearing through everyone in a mad rush towards Whitebeard, but I'm satisfied with the result, rushed as it is. Blackbeard is kind of a mastermind, and even if he didn't get to complete his plan for Impel Down, I can't imagine him not playing the game to his advantage in this situation. The prize is simply too great for him to not swallow his rage and try to pull another stretch of his long con.
And I do enjoy the unintended consequences: Coby forced Impel Down into full silence, did he not? Why would anyone know of Teach's betrayal of the marines? It's just like him to turn the situation to his advantage, waiting before revealing his cards.
Another chapter to go to end Marineford, and one planned Epilogue with the new bounties and plans for the future.
As always, let me know what you think!
