Chapter 134:
Titans and Memories
"Oh my Goda," Coby breathed as the battle roared, pirates and marines alike dying in showings of power Coby had never seen before. The only comparable force he could think of was Shiki the Golden Lion, but even he was well past his prime when the Straw Hats fought him. This what a whole different level. Diamonds, a phoenix, an attack from the World's Greatest Swordsman carving a trench in the ice, a miniature thrown glacier blown apart by the force of a volcanic eruption, and many other powers less flashy but no less deadly. The War raged, the icy battlefield dotted with bodies and red. Coby was no stranger to death and he suspected neither was Ace after his deadly show of power when they first met in Nanohana, but Coby had never seen so much on this scale.
So much death, and for what? Two lives, a statement, and friendship?
A drop hit the stage, causing Coby to realize tears were rolling down his cheeks. It felt good to be wanted, for people to be here risking their lives for him, even tangentially, but here were those same people dying by the dozens in nothing short of an all-out war.
The Admirals on the battlefield even had their hands full, Kizaru being matched blow for blow by Marco 'The Phoenix'. Aokiji, too, was busy maintaining the battlefield so it wouldn't crumble and sink as many of the Navy's powerhouses to the bottom of the ocean as it would pirates. Especially after Akainu's meteor threatened the stability of the glacier.
If Coby had his glasses or powers to make his eyesight clear, would that make the view worse? Was this situation something the roset wanted to fully understand? It was horrible and messy and bloody, a battle of passion and ideals.
"Why are you crying?" Sengoku grunted, never taking his eyes off the bloodbath below. "You know no one down there."
"Everyone's dying."
"So? Your crew caused a similar scene at Enies Lobby."
Coby's eyes widened as parallels clicked. Two prisoners of the Marines, held in what was hailed as an impregnable fortress. One crew attacking for the sake of one of their own with the help of many allies. And another prisoner that's there that they plan on taking anyway.
"Enies this and Enies that," Ace snarked. "Find something new to gripe about."
"I didn't think it was like this," Coby muttered. "I know people died, but not like this. Not this many."
"Coby!" Ace called. "Hey Coby! Get it together!"
"You two seem awfully chummy," Sengoku observed.
"Yeah?" Ace muttered. "Prison will do that to you."
"Firefist, what is Straw Hat to you?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
"I'M COMING FOR YOU, ACE!" a deep voice yelled, echoing over the battlefield. A shadow in the distance loomed, forming through the fog caused by the ice's cold condensing the surrounding water vapor.
"That voice," the pirate whispered. "No! Why is he here, too?!"
"ACE!" The figure stepped out of the fog, revealing itself to be a creature with green skin and large horns, furs and skulls making up most of his outfit. A conical straw hat covered the top of his red hair and a massive sword cleaved through cannons and mortars with reckless abandon, it's wielder caring not for any of the explosives going off against his thick hide.
"OARS!" Ace yelled to his longtime friend.
"I'M HERE FOR YOU, ACE! DON'T WORRY, POPS! I'LL GET HIM BACK FOR YOU!"
"He's twice as big as any giant," Sengoku snarled as Oars bent over, lifting an entire battleship before using it as a weapon to bash a way into the bay from the outside. "We didn't anticipate such a creature to come here for this."
"What is that?" Coby gaped. "It's like the zombie from Thriller Bark!"
"Zombie?" Sengoku wondered.
"I..." Ace began. "That's Oars the Third. One of my best friends and the captain of the Oars Pirates. He's the grandson of the original Oars."
"Holy shit, that thing had a kid," Coby blinked. "Oh Goda! Moria's gonna want his body since we broke the first one!"
"Giant unit, move out!" Sengoku ordered, the giants in the plaza swapping smirks before making their way to the bay. There were six of them in all, five men and one woman, each with matching smirks as they raised their weapons.
Between the massive footsteps of Oars and the giants, they met on the ice within a minute, the green-skinned pirate twice as tall as any of the non-human marines. Lacroix pushed forward with a smirk, the other giants calling his name as he approached their foe.
Unfortunately, reliance on size doesn't work when one's opponent is bigger than them. Lacroix's sword withstood five impacts before Oars' cleaved through it. The giant only had time to widen his eyes before Oars' sword came down again, slashing across his torso. A wave of red splashed across the ice as Vice-Admiral Lacroix was thrown backward into his fellow giants.
Coby could hear Sengoku's teeth grinding as the giants fell under Oars' overwhelming strength one by one. Tossing aside the female giant, her being the last to fall, Oars took one more step toward the plaza with a cry of "ACE!" Below, a couple Warlords readied attacks, though the most obvious was Kuma with a massive paw-shaped ball of air as he began an Ursa Shock.
"Stand down, PX-0," a voice commanded, Kuma freezing before releasing the air in a rush of wind. "I will take care of this oversized weakling. Now, Candyland."
Oars stopped as purple overtook the battlefield, trapping pirates and marines indiscriminately in its pursuit to contain the titan. Oars growled, ripping his feet free of the candy goop only for the action to be in vain when he stepped down again.
"WHAT IS THIS STUFF?" Oars demanded, trying to cut the semisolid with his sword to no avail.
"This is where you stop, monster," Helmeppo smirked, rising into the air on a pillar of candy to stare Oars in the oversized eye. "I, Vice-Admiral Helmeppo, shall stop you here."
"SMALL MAN!" Oars roared, swinging his sword at the reedy figure before him. "YOU WILL NOT STOP ME!"
"I am no mere marine," Helmeppo grinned, even as the sword sliced him in half. The upper torso of the marine fell into the candy swamp below, the lower half still standing with its legs fused into the pillar. The waist where the body parts had been separated bubbled as more purple goo grew upwards, forming into the previously-lost parts of the blond fighter.
"LOGIA," Oars rumbled.
"I am Vice-Admiral Helmeppo! Remember me well, should you survive, for I shall become the Fleet Admiral one day! To that end, I will take the mantle and moniker as the Purple Lion, a royal creature who refuses to be controlled. When I become an Admiral, I shall become Fujishishi!"
"YOU TALK TOO MUCH! DIE!" Rather than cut his foe, which had provided ineffective, Oars swung his blade so the flat struck the young Vice-Admiral. Helmeppo splattered across the giant sword, some of him being flung over the smaller combatants in the area. A good majority of the candy syrup stuck to the weapon, however, and it was from this that the upper part of the marine regrew.
"How droll," the blond complained, his syrup spreading over the sword toward the giant's hands. "But that is how pirates are, I suppose. You know how to do nothing outside of brute strength. Then that is the language I will speak." Fully reforming, Helmeppo formed a long maul with a large weight on one end (like a sucker) before twirling it to get a feel of the weapon while balanced on the oversized sword. "Let's go. Jaw Breaker."
Before Oars could react, his candy foe vanished with Shave, reappearing briefly in places along his arm. All too quickly, Helmeppo blurred into view beside Oars' face. Kicking off the air with Moonwalk, the blond brought his weapon across the giant's jaw with as much force as he could produce, which was a considerable amount.
That being said, the young Vice-Admiral had never fought someone of Oars' sheer size or caliber, so his attack, which had felled some of the Giant unit in the past, was woefully under expectations. It shattered against the titan's face, Oars turning his eyes to his surprised and now-falling foe. The pirate raised his hand, smacking the human as if he were an insect.
The force sent the marine shooting downward, again splattering but this time against the concrete wall at the edge of the plaza. The marines around the impact stared at the bubbling, undulating purple mass as it writhed, Helmeppo's snarling face forming on its side.
"And like that, you've soured my mood," the blond snarled, the purple goop being absorbed back into his body. "Now it's time for sweet revenge."
Oars could neither hear him nor find any reason to care. Ripping his feet free, the titan continued his trek toward the prisoners. Helmeppo down below took offence to this, forming his spear once more. Jumping into the air with Moonwalk, the young marine used a combination of Moonwalk and Shave to kick the harpoon with the same force as a cannon.
"Candy Cannon Harpoon!"
Imaginative the name was not, but the attack itself was more effective than any before. The candy harpoon stabbed into Oars' shoulder like a bee sting, if said bee was big enough for its stinger alone to rival a grown man in height. The attack made Oars pause, which was more than enough time for Helmeppo to deploy a barrage of similar attacks. They peppered Oars' front like bad acupuncture, getting on the titan's nerves both literally and figuratively.
"SMALL MAN, YOU WILL DIE NOW!" Oars yelled, bringing his massive sword down on the origin of the attacks. Helmeppo slithered away from what would become the impact site and thanked his training that he did. Oars turned his glare to follow the Logia, his sword having sliced through the ice and into the ocean below while the shockwave cracked the defensive wall behind, opening a small hole into the plaza.
If Helmeppo had stayed to take the hit, he would be sinking to the bottom of the sea.
As it was, however, the blond youth was still in the fight and had everything to prove. He wasn't going to let some overgrown troll stop his rise to power!
"Come and get me, you pea-brained lout!" Helmeppo roared. "Don't take your sweet time or else! Sugar Rush!"
Helmeppo blurred out of view, using a personal variant of Shave he called Sugar Rush. It was the same principle, but revolved around Logias' powers to shift their own mass and bodies, becoming almost twice as fast.
As he ran, the marine formed a giant kukri out of syrup, using it to leave long and painful, if shallow, gashes up Oars' leg.
"GET OFF!" the giant all but whined, trying to swat him like before. "THIS ISN'T FUNNY! I NEED TO SAVE ACE!"
"You need to face Justice for your crimes!" Helmeppo responded, the outburst causing his volcanic teacher to smirk. All eyes watched as the simisolid Vice-Admiral climbed the titan. "For the crimes of piracy, thievery, assault, and opposing the Navy, I hereby sentence you to death! Face your JUSTICE!"
Finally reaching the titan's face, the blond used Moonwalk to avoid Oars' hands before driving his giant kukri into the most vulnerable spot he could reach.
"MY EYE!" Oars screamed as he stumbled back, blood flowing from under his fingers which covered his left eye socket. "YOU STABBED MY EYE!"
"Now, Life Breaker: Warhead Thrust!" Forming a drill of the hardest candy he could, Helmeppo jumped off the air and spun. The drill met Oars just to the right of his sternum, the titan's skin resisting for only a moment before the attack pierced its way through. Oars coughed blood as the growing drill pierced his back.
"OOOOOOAAAARRRRRS!" the pirates cried as a sonic quake slammed into the blood-covered drill, destroying it and sending Helmeppo to the ice below. The titan fell to his knees, his eye forgotten as one hand clutched at the hole in his chest. The other reached for where Ace and Coby were chained to the platform.
"A-ACE..." Oars whispered. "I C-CAME FOR YOU, ACE. I WON'T... WON'T LET TH-THEM..." The light faded from Oars' remaining eye, the titan keeling over.
"OOOOOOOOAAAARRRRRRRSSSSSSSS!"
"CAAAAPPPPTTTAAAAIIINNNNNN!"
"Jolly Pillars!" Helmeppo snarled, uncaring for the atmosphere. The titan's body was on a path to crush part of the plaza and all the marines under him, and he wouldn't allow that while his superiors and teacher were watching. Pillars of hardened candy rose around him, quickly draining most of his ready supply, but they managed to catch the falling Oars before the area was crushed. Blood flowed down the pillars and into the gears below.
"Kiiiishishishi!" Moria laughed, eyeing what he hoped would be his newest toy, once he found another crackpot like Hogback. "Excellent work, Candyman!"
"Hahahahaha!" Doflamingo agreed. "This is truly the turn of the era! Justice will prevail one way or another, because the winners write the history books! Hahahaha!"
"Oars," Ace whimpered, his position giving him an unobstructed view of his friend, Oars hanging limp over the pillars. His hair hung down like a crimson waterfall, giving way as his conical straw hat slid off, falling into the plaza with a definitive thud. "Why? Why would you do that for me? I wanted you to live."
"Do not let his sacrifice be in vain!" Whitebeard's voice yelled, breaking the silence that had fallen with the titan. "Climb Oars' body and infiltrate the plaza!"
The attacking pirates gave a battlecry, charging against the defending Marines with renewed strength fueled by rage. They were, however, met by the battle-hungry Warlords of Gecko Moria and Doflamingo. And those who tried to attack Boa Hancock were met with resistance as well, though she didn't care for any friendly fire she caused, while Mihawk showed no interest in fighting and Kuma made no motion to move at all.
"All marines," Sengoku said, causing Ace and Coby to realize he'd pulled out a transponder snail. "Regroup and refortify in the plaza. We are initiating plan Beta 25-24-1. I repeat, get in formation 25-24-1. Once everyone is in position, we will move up the executions."
"I don't like the sound of that," Coby muttered. Speaking of sounds, it was that moment that heralded the rhythmic thump, thump, thump of boots on wood, the prisoners and Sengoku turning their heads to see that Garp had made his way onto the platform.
"What do you want, Garp?" Sengoku demanded.
"Ah, shut up," the old man sighed, dropping to the wooden floor and hanging his feet over the edge. Though the cameras set up were still rolling, they were far too busy watching the battle below to focus on the small gathering. "I just want to sit down."
"You better not be having second thoughts."
"Nah." Coby could hear a weariness in Garp's voice that hadn't been there last he'd heard. Garp's face twisted into a pained grimace. "These are thoughts I've had for a long time. Most of the year, actually. I have no sympathy for pirates, but..." He glanced at Ace. "But family is a different matter."
"Garp," the Fleet Admiral warned.
"Senny, you know I didn't bring the kid in for this," Garp muttered. "I was hoping we could make a connection between us and the Straw Hats. Make him a SWORD or something. If we could've forced Luffy to take a Warlord Position, that could've stopped all of this. We could've-"
"Then you should have said something instead of moping around in your ship. That makes this war your fault if you could have stopped it."
Garp fell short, realizing all this could have been his avoided if he hadn't holed himself up after hearing his grandson say "I hate you!" Luffy's voice echoed through Garp's head, getting louder and louder until it brought his spirit to the brink of collapse.
"Where did I go wrong, Ace?" the Vice-Admiral bit out, tears beginning to roll down his face. "I wanted nothing but the best for all of you. I raised my son to be a strong marine and that failed. It failed terribly..." The old marine pulled his legs back, hugging his knees like a child might. The meaning was the same, though. He was trying to defend against his own emotions. "After Dragon, I thought..."
"Luffy's dad is Dragon?!" Ace interrupted.
"Oh, yeah," Garp muttered, chuckling mirthlessly. "I never told you that. He didn't know until recently either."
"Gaaarp," Sengoku warned again.
"But that failed, so I interacted with you two less. I left you with someone who wouldn't coddle you. Somewhere where you'd grow strong even without me. I thought you'd want to spend some time with your dear old grandpa when you were old enough. I just wanted you to become good, strong marines... But that didn't work either. Last I saw him, Luffy said he hated me."
That brought Ace up short. He didn't think it was possible for his cute baby brother to genuinely hate anybody, much less family.
"Why?" Coby asked.
"Gaaaaarp."
"I... Because they're gone," Garp admitted. "I took Kuma and we broke the Straw Hats at Sabaody. They're gone. When he knocked me out, Luffy was the only one left."
Silence fell over the platform, unbroken by even the ever-broiling chaos below. Garp gulped a few breaths around his tears while Coby came to grips with the information. Gone? All of them?
Where they dead? Knowing how powerful Kuma was on Thriller Bark, there was a good chance that Coby didn't want to think about, but that his mind brought up anyway. He pictured his crew, his Nakama, his family, scattered on a battlefield. Broken, bleeding, motionless. They were all there, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Gin, Amy, Chopper, Robin, Franky, Merry, Brook, Billy...
Grace...
"Why does everything I do fail?" Garp asked, surprising even Sengoku. The Vice-Admiral's hands fisted, his knuckles turning white. "My son hates me. My grandson hates me. You're going to die and probably hate me too, Ace. And your other brother..."
"It's because you're a moron," Ace answered, his eyes shadowed. Garp didn't move, with the exception of his fists tightening until blood flowed from his palms, as Ace began to lay his heart bare. "You left us with mountain bandits, Gramps. Bandits! What did you expect us to learn in a place where the only rule was 'provide for yourself'? You stopped by maybe once a month and what did you do then? You beat us black and blue or threw us into the woods or tied us to balloons and let us float away! For what?! Training?! We hated when you showed up!"
"I thought you three could value structure if-"
"Structure?" Ace demanded, his voice rising. "Structure?! Sabo was a fucking runaway noble!" Sengoku's eyebrows rose. "He wanted to get away from structure! Did you think he or us would ever want to defend his shitshow of a family by joining the Marines? They burned the Gray Terminal to kill us and 'purify Goa Kingdom' in preparation for one of your precious Celestial Dragons! It fucked us up, Gramps!"
"I'm sor-"
"But that's not it! When Sabo tried to leave, to get away from his own personal hellhole of a dysfunctional family, that same Celestial Dragon shot his raft with a cannon! He was ten, Gramps! TEN! THAT SHITSTAIN MURDERED OUR BROTHER WHILE LUFFY AND I WATCHED, GRAMPS! AND YOU WANT US TO DEFEND THEM!"
Ace was panting, his own tears leaking out as he relived the day in his memories.
"We told you what happened," Ace whispered. "We told you who did it, but you did nothing. You! Did! Nothing! That was when you lost all chances of us becoming marines."
"I'm sorry," Garp gasped, well and truly crying by this point as the true weight of all his past failures appeared at once. "I'm so sorry."
"You could make up for it," Ace snarled. "Find that Celestial Dragon and kill him for his crimes like you would any pirate."
"You know I can't do tha-"
"THEN ROT IN HELL AND LIVE WITH IT, OLD MAN!" Ace roared. "WE BECAME PIRATES BECAUSE OF YOU! YOU'RE NO GRANDFATHER TO ME OR LUFFY AS LONG AS SABO'S KILLER IS STILL OUT THERE!"
Garp had no answer for that, and no one else was willing to break the tension that had formed, so Garp did the one thing he could. He retreated, rising to his feet and leaving the platform without another word.
Ace still fumed at what he believed to be the cowardice of the so-called Hero of the Marines.
"That's what I thought," he hissed.
The next minute passed in silence, their emotions cooling into despair as the prisoners surveyed the carnage the war below wrought, namely the unmoving forms of Oars and the countless red-stained pirates and marines that were scattered over the icy battlefield.
"I'm not worth this," Ace whispered. "I'm not even worth his job."
"AAAAAAACCCCCCCEEEEEE! CCOOOOOOOOOBBBYYYYYYYYY!"
"That voice," Ace muttered, his eyes widening.
"Captain?" Coby gasped. Their eyes and the eyes of many fighters below turned upward at the sound of shouting. There, in the air above the battlefield, fell an entire Marine battleship and a squadron of people.
And at the lead of that falling group was one Monkey D. Luffy.
End of Chapter 134
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-SwordOfTheGods