December 5, 780 WG
Lance pulled on the thick mooring rope with a small team as a second group did the same with across the channel that served as an impromptu berth. The ship was really too big for humans, even a team of strong humans, to move. The behemoth dwarfed any ship built by man. Only the ships of the giants of Elbaf could compare to it in size and still it was bigger. No, he and the others were merely guiding the ship forward. The power that moved it came from the wind Dragon had summoned. Maryanne worked the helm, but she was relying on them to let her know if any adjustments were needed. The helm of the ship was inside and several decks down, near the rudder.
Six masts with six yardarms each to hold the sails needed to move the ludicrous ship creaked and strained in Dragon's gale. Lance puffed as he tugged on the mooring rope, they only had a few more feet before her stern was safely in the canyon. If she ran aground now, they would be waiting hours for the tide to pull her back and then several more to push her forward for another attempt. Lance, uninterested in a do-over, concentrated on his task. The longer it took them to hide the giant ship the more likely they would be discovered.
Maryanne had been the one who had proposed hiding it and the two men had agreed. Dragon had actually made contact with his mother in order to secure trustworthy help in getting the thing moved. An event that accentuated the seriousness of all this. For reasons undisclosed, Dragon spent most of the time pretending he didn't have one.
Lance had to appreciate the family connections. However, from what he understood about Dragon's mother, he wondered why she would help them hide this thing from the World Government. Her status and the family history suggested she would more likely sell them out than help but Dragon trusted her for that very reason. There was more to this family history thing than Dragon had, reluctantly, let on.
One thing was certain. World Government must never get its hands on this ship. The ship was large, but it was what it was designed to carry that was the problem. Its huge girth was to support a cannon of incomprehensible size. It ran the full length of the behemoth along with its support mechanisms that allowed it to be loaded and aimed.
The Ancient Weapon… Pluton, the Harbinger of Death. The Destroyer of Islands and Nations.
The ship had to have been built around the outrageous weapon in order to transport it between targets. It served no other purpose. There was barely any room for crew and all necessities were given the minimum space needed to serve their purpose. It didn't even have a hold, severely limiting what it could carry. It had a large space near the loading area of the gun, the magazine for the ship, that took the majority of what space was left to the inner area. The rest were machines and access corridors.
Lance couldn't see the ship sailing without a support ship to carry supplies like food and water. He also could see it would need a fleet escort for protection. It had no room for any other weapons, and it was slow at sea, those six masts were what it needed just to move. Its bottom was almost flat, it was so wide, a much-needed design in order for it to displace enough water to keep it afloat despite the weight and near solid state.
Fortunately, Pluton used unique ammo, if the design was any judge, and that unique ammo wasn't stocked onboard. Or else Maryanne had thrown it overboard when she initially found it. So, at the moment, the thing was just a large hunk of metal and wood. However, the World Government had many brilliant minds in its science department. It they got ahold of the weapon they might figure out the kind of ammo it used and remake it.
Though, maybe it was unfortunate there was no ammo onboard. They could have used it to destroy the thing. It was so big, the wall of the hull so thick, that not even Dragon's wind scythes could do more than scratch it.
It would have to be made of Adam's Wood, thought Lance with annoyance as he gave another tug on the rope.
With no way to destroy it, their only option was to hide it somewhere else. And why did they have to move it and risk it being spotted in transit by who knows who?
Maryanne had been the one to find it, though, why she was running around in her condition was lost on Lance. She should have been safe at home in Marineford where the doctors could keep an eye as she progressed.
Instead of answering her, understandably distraught, husband on why she was running around the Grandline and finding lost weapons were better off remaining lost, she skipped to urgently insisting they needed to move Pluton to a new location, immediately. Both men could read between the lines. Maryanne had found more than the ship when she found Pluton. She had probably silenced a government agent or even a member of Cypher Pol to prevent word of the discovery from leaking out.
Lance probably should have felt weird about that since he was a Marine Vice Admiral and upholding the law and not whacking your comrades and allies was supposed to go with that. However, ever since the destruction of Ohara, he found he no longer saw government agents and especially Cypher Pol as allies. He wasn't even sure he should be representing the World Government as a Marine.
He was all for helping Dragon change the Marines into a true fighting force for Justice; purging the corrupted elements from the Marines so that the people would have someone they could rely on to actually uphold the law and punish those who would break it, no matter their status. Even if that justice meant eventually fighting the World Government itself one day. Dragon was hoping to avoid that. He wanted to minimize chaos and they both knew from bitter experience that ousting a corrupt government didn't necessarily mean things got better. The anarchy that followed regicide was more damning for the people and the nation than leaving the ruler in place.
Dragon wanted to change the system, to change the quality of the people running it while leaving the structure intact to prevent lawlessness from taking hold. It was slow, but if successful, would benefit the people they were trying to serve in the long run. After Ohara, though, they wondered how much evil they would have to turn a blind eye to before they would achieve the goals of this long run.
With a final grunt, Lance and the others drew the ship its last inches and tied it into place. Dragon flew over to them a minute later with Maryanne in his arms. It was still a shock to see her without the Marine uniform, especially the Marine hat that had become her trademark from wearing it for so many years with pride. Lance felt anger simmer in his chest again. Helgram had betrayed them all when he chose to sabotage Dragon in an effort to gain the title of admiral that much sooner. If not for Maryanne's "confession" and offer of retirement, Dragon could very well have been executed.
Her perfectly petite form stood among the two towering men in a green blouse with elbow length loose sleeves and dark grey leggings that vanished within her ankle boots. Her hair had grown out since her retirement and hung to her shoulders instead of in that boyish bob she had always sported from the time before they met her in Altear. Scarlet eyes turned to regard the ship, a frown tugging at the corners of her mouth.
Dragon's face was gaunt and grey with exhaustion. He had been using his Wind Wind Fruit to move the ship the entire way. It had been especially necessary once they hit the Calm Belt. The island they had chosen was in the middle of that windless zone. By bringing the giant ship to an uninhabited island in the Calm Belt, they hoped to avoid anyone else stumbling across its location.
Lance had hoped a Sea King would appear and solve the problem of destroying the ship by sinking it as they were wont to do when encountering ships in their nests, but none appeared. He assumed the beasts had gazed upon the ship's great shadow and assumed it was one of them swimming near the surface.
"Finally!" cried one of the young men from the other team as he joined Lance and the other two. "I hope this is enough to keep it from being found again." The young blood like the others asked were all distantly related to Dragon. Lance still found it fascinating the kind of family Dragon came from. A Marine thoroughbred, through and through.
"I wish it were," said Maryanne, still focused on the ship. "But once a thing is found it is only a matter of time before it is found again. We're only delaying the inevitable with this."
Lance grimaced. Maryanne was their hopeless optimist, if she made a pessimistic statement then it must be so.
"But isn't this place remote enough to prevent anyone from finding it?" the young man said in huff. Dragon's cousin didn't know what to think of his Admiral's wife. The young Marine had missed out on all the fun when Maryanne had been at headquarters. All he knew were the stories and they just couldn't do the woman justice.
Maryanne glanced at him. "We found it, didn't we?" The young man didn't answer. Lance sighed. She had a point. It wasn't just the ship but the island itself she had been referring to. Its remote nature would just make it difficult and undesirable for the majority, but all things lost were eventually found. Roger and Raftel were proof of that.
"Was there really no way to destroy it?" said Dragon in a strained voice. He didn't like the idea of anyone finding the ship again. "I mean, Maryanne, you once could…"
"Once, I could have, but not since that encounter, have I been able to muster even a quarter of my former ability. Honestly, that's why I'm not bitter about my retirement," replied Maryanne.
Lance knew Maryanne had the capacity to be serious. However, he was so used to her less than serious self that seeing her like this disturbed him more that standing next to one of the greatest weapons of mass destruction in history.
"I think we should find a way to destroy it that doesn't involve creating something far worse," said Lance as he glanced at the ship. "For the world's sake."
"It is tragic that it will never be used for its primary purpose, but too many evil men exist," said Maryanne, her voice tinged with regret.
"What was its purpose?" asked Dragon's cousin with a scowl.
"To unite the seas… by destroying that which divides them. The Redline."
Dragon gazed back up at the ship. "To destroy the Redline… A natural consequence would be the ability to erase islands. It is unfortunate."
Lance stared at the unfortunate ship. "Maybe once it had been found again, that will be what it is used for."
"No," said Maryanne, her voice distant and scarlet eyes now a pale blue. "But when it is found again, there will be those who can stop it."
"You sound so sure," said the young man, skeptical.
Lance smiled, though. Maryanne sometimes could see the future. She must have been focusing on the ship just for that purpose. To see its possible fate.
"Well, I'm not going to go off and forget about it," said Dragon. "I will find a way to destroy it before it can be used against anyone."
Maryanne wrapped her arms around her stomach. "You'll try, but Luffy will beat you to the punch."
Before Lance could absorb all the implications of that statement, Dragon face-palmed and growled, "We are not naming our son Luffy."
Lance snorted. That argument again. Maryanne had been dead set on naming their son Luffy before she and Dragon were even dating. Lance was certain that if they had a son, he would be called Luffy. Maryanne's stubbornness expressed itself not through argument but by her charging off in her own direction making the rest of them scramble to follow after. If she decided their son's name was going to be Luffy, it was going to be Luffy, and no amount of naysaying by Dragon was going to change that. Monkey D. stubbornness was infamous but Tenaris stubbornness had proven mightier.
Lance took in her posture then smirked. "So how long until the bouncing bundle of miniature chaos arrives?" She beamed him with her sunshine grin while Dragon looked as if he had caught a glimpse of hell. Lance just guffawed at his friend's distress.
"I'm going to remember this when it's your turn," stated Dragon with a snarl.
"And me still a bachelor," replied Lance with a laugh. He patted his friend and brother-in-arms on the shoulder. "Don't worry, I promise to help entertain the little terror so you can rest, Haku. I did promise to be the child's godparent after all."
"Somehow the thought of you and my child conspiring fills me with dread."
"Haku, really? I think I'll make an excellent uncle," said Lance with wide-eyes innocence. Dragon just narrowed his eyes and the man laughed.
"Until that distant time when its existence can be addressed," said Maryanne as she turned to regard the ship one last time, "Pluton will sleep here."
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Well here's the next story in the Dark Sea Chronicles.