This is one of the more violent chapters, you have been warned.
Fire
Dadan watched as the Blue Jam pirates continued to walk all over the Grey Terminal with crates and boxes, consider a map, before placing them in what seemed random places and walking off. A small investigation of the contents of those boxes had her, and the rest of her gang, seeing red.
God Damn, those brats were right.
Ace and Sabo had approached her a few days ago with their suspicions, and Ace had mentioned casually that one of the people who was organising it was also after Sabo for some reason or another. She didn't care who was after the brat, didn't care if it was some noble that turned out to be the boy's father, he was hers and had been since those other two decided to drag him home without asking permission.
She was a bandit, steeling, looting and kidnapping were all part of everyday life, but even she had boundaries. She, for one, could not agree with burning hundreds of people alive just because some stuffed-up Noble wanted the place clean when some big shot decided to drop in. She also couldn't stand the idea of anyone taking what she had so rightfully claimed as hers.
though Dadan had to say, she was impressed with the boys, not that she would ever tell them. Their plan for this would kill two birds with one stone.
Now, how to just make sure it all went off as it was supposed to, and they might all make it home alive at the end of the night.
ASLASLASLASLASLASLALSALSALSALSASL
When the nobles finally gave the order to set the trash alight the sky filled with ash and the glow of the flames could be seen for kilometres around. The populace of Grey Terminal watched as their homes and the treasures they had built up over the years were burned to nothing from the safety of the edge of the sea of flames.
Over the last week, the bandits of the mountain had been over heard talking, discussing rumours they had heard from their victims and a few drunk pirates. All their conversations seemed to revolve around the same thing.
The trash heap was going to burn, the Pirates were going to help the Nobles do it.
At first there had been outrage, a need for justice at the idea that these monsters making pretend of being human were willing to burn them to their deaths. But then some of the more observant scavengers had noticed what the bandits were doing, they were shifting the creates. At night, after the pirates had left, the bandits were casually moving the boxes around so that, while the stuff towards the walls would burn and burn fast, there would a be a delay as it tried to burn back towards the edge of the pile, a delay that would probably save the lives of hundreds.
Those that were older and wiser realised that if the nobles were willing to burn them once, why wouldn't they keep going until nothing was left? If they stopped the fire what was to stop there from being a second.
And as they watched their lives burn before their eyes and wondered at the cruelty of the so-called nobility to throw them away with the rest of the trash, a ship pulled up beside them and offered them a chance to fight and get their revenge. What could they do but answer as the flames parted the rest of the way so that they could pull themselves and those they cared about to safety. When they burned grey terminal, the nobles had added fuel to a different fire, one that sought to burn the world, not that they would know it until it was too late.
When the fire finally died and the clean-up crew arrived very few remains could be found, including one body that would be recognisable when all others had long been burned to ash, a child one of the nobles had been interested in.
Outlook would be informed of the death of his son, he would not grieve, and instead pay the men to keep their mouths shut about where they had found the body, and dispose of it accordingly.
ASLASLASLASLASLASLALSALSALSALSASL
The end result was that of a plan well executed, but so long as the completed product is correct it is often hard to tell just how much of a ruined mess the intended actions had become by the end. The plan itself went off without a hitch, burn Grey Terminal in such a way that the others could escape and plant a dead body that looked like Sabo so that they could fake his death. There was just one hitch, that was less a hitch and more of a disastrous, completely unrelated, occurrence that happened to transpire at the same time.
Sabo grinned as he watched Dragon's ship sail up and collect all the displaced people of Grey Terminal, he knew from working with them last time that they would be alright. Ace might not have looked quite as happy at the idea of Luffy's father being this close to his son while he was in trouble and not helping, but he supposed it wasn't really something the man would have had any way of knowing.
And he'd saved Sabo's life so Ace guessed he had to give him some credit.
Now that they had seen the others off safely, and knew that they didn't have the deaths of a couple of hundred people on their conscious, they started to head back to the Bandits hut were Luffy was waiting for them. While the boy had wanted to go with them, there was no way in hell they were letting their little brother anywhere near that inferno, he may strong but strength had absolutely nothing to do with how fireproof you were.
It wasn't that they specifically thought he would be in danger next to them, it's just that Luffy was a trouble magnet. Absolutely everything that had resulted in Luffy being in trouble last time had found a way to happen again, they weren't taking any chances this close to something this deadly.
When they opened the door to the hut and found Dadan out cold with a bump on her head and no Luffy, well, they were kicking themselves for leaving their brother unattended and not suspecting something like this would happen.
'Sabo,' Ace growled out as they found themselves running back towards the fire, 'remind me that, no matter how much sense it makes at the time, I am not to let Luffy out of my sight ever again.'
'Ace,' Sabo puffed back, 'please do me the favour of making sure I remember as well.'
Even this far away the heat from the fire was oppressive, and it was now near impossible to hear anything above the roar of the flames. They had no idea who had taken their little brother, or even if anyone had taken him in the first place (they didn't think he could have knocked out Dadan, but you never know) and so they had no idea where to start looking, or even how they were going to look in those hellish flames to begin with.
It was moments like these they wished that their skill with Haki had come over with their memories, but like all their other skills it was something that needed training, and Haki was hard to learn at the best of times and near impossible as a child.
But just because they had so far been unable to train with Haki did not prevent them from following the strange feeling they got when it lead them into the fire, especially when they realised that it was leading both of them in the same direction.
Towards Blue Jams old hide out.
And then above the sounds of the fire they heard a sound they had hoped to never hear again, Luffy screaming.
Considering that all the proper cover was burning, it was surprisingly easy to sneak up on the pirates as they stood, arguing with someone they vaguely recognised as being one of the lower ranked bandits, amongst the flames. Luffy lay at their feet; cut up, bound, screaming as the flames kept leaping at him to lick as his cloths and flesh, and completely ignored by those around him. Well, almost, every now and then when his screams got too loud Blue Jam would stamp down on him mercilessly, given that those stomps were actually doing damage, Sabo suspected that he had spikes on the bottom of his shoes, though why Sabo had no idea.
Over the sounds of the flames and Luffy's cries they just managed to catch what the bandit was yelling.
'I'm telling you, this is Dragon's kid! Those puffed up nobles will give you a killing for him. If you ring them up now they'll let us in and we can split the money!' The bandit was yelling and Ace's heart almost stopped.
'Why would I give something as valuable as Dragon's kid over to those bastards who left us out here to burn? No, I'll just get the kid to take me to where they keep their treasure, use it and him to start again once all this is over, and find a way to kill that God Damn King when I get the chance.'
'You can't do that, it'll take too long and we'll all burn to death!'
Blue Jam just smirked. 'No, we won't,' and with that he lifted his gun and shot the bandit in the head.
And Sabo and Ace were running, sacrificing their cover to try and get to their little brother, their little brother who didn't deserve to be used as a bargaining chip, or to be made an example of, or any other horror the government could come up with. Their little brother who had stopped struggling and could only groan in pain as the heat and the fire got to him on top of his already obvious wounds.
They had actually managed to grab Luffy and attempt to start running again by the time the pirates had realised what was going on. The chaos of the flames and smoke worked to their advantage as with all the other sounds and flickering light it was hard to keep track of just two more shadows.
Unfortunately, it was not to last as Blue Jam re-aimed his gun and fired at them, clipping Sabo's shoulder and forcing him to drop Luffy.
'And what the hell do you brats think you're doing? That's my precious captive you're trying to take there,' Blue Jam snorted. 'Well, it doesn't matter. You two would probably be a lot more useful showing us to where you keep the money. Do it or I'll put a bullet in the blond's brain, just like I did him.'
Ace started to panic as the gun didn't waver from Sabo's head and another bastard began reaching for Luffy's still body. He needs them to stop, stop, stop.
'Stop it!' he wasn't aware of what he was doing until all the pirates except for Blue Jam were lying in heaps on the Rubbish, waiting for the fire to claim them.
He barely had a second to absorb that he had just awoken his Conquerors Haki for the first time since he was born in this life when the stock of the gun connected painfully with the back of his head. He's lucky he's a D and a thick headed one at that or he would be suffering from a concussion, as it is his ears were ringing and his eyes spun.
'You bastard, what the hell did you do? Answer me you fucking –'
A loud bang cut the pirate off and Ace could only stare up at Sabo as he held a smoking gun he had taken from one of the fallen pirates in his good hand. In slow motion the pirate Blue Jam tilted over before falling to the ground, completely lifeless with a single bullet hole in his skull.
'Don't touch my brothers,' the words barely reached Ace over the crackling of the flames. And after all the shouting and screaming and cursing the silence was almost loud even though the Flames were skill sizzling and random bits of Trash gave off small explosions as they combusted. None of them moved for what felt like so long, too long with the fire coming for them and Luffy unable to move.
'Let's go, Sabo,' Ace eventually said, breaking the unnatural stillness that had fallen over them.
'Oh god, Ace, I just –'
'Let's go, Sabo,' Ace repeated, more forcefully this time. He could understand that this was freaking Sabo out, he didn't know if Sabo remembered killing before, but even if he had there is something final in a single bullet and the sudden destruction of a life that never really stops getting to you. But they didn't have time for that now because escape routes were being cut off and if they weren't quick then it would be Sabo's real body in the fire for his family to find rather than a fake.
With shaking hands Sabo helped Ace get Luffy onto his back and the two were running back the way they came. They didn't stop running when they hit the trees and left the fire behind, they kept going right up until they reached the bandits' hut where a newly woken up Dadan was racing out the door and nearly collided with them in her hurry to try and find them and Luffy, rightly fearing that they were in the fire.
The bandits had had to physically restrain Ace and Sabo so that they could work on Luffy and get the two of them bandaged up as well. Just because they were not as bad didn't mean they weren't hurt. While they were being treated Dadan asked what happened and they had to explain about the traitor but managed to just skim over how they got Luffy back. Later Ace would once again mention that just because they hadn't didn't mean they wouldn't when they remembered that that particular bandit had originally died during a raid that would have occurred while the bandits were moving boxes this time round.
And finally, all three were curled up in their room in the Bandits hut, Dadan unwilling to let the three out of her sight after she had nearly lost them all. They're covered in bandages and Luffy looked something like a mummy and really weird with his hair so short after parts of it had been burnt off, but they're together and they're alive and they're safe and that's more than they could have said at that time in their previous life. Maybe they were screwing up big time, but listening to Luffy cry that he's happy their alive made them think that they couldn't be doing too badly.
The two oldest brothers were keeping a close eye on Luffy in the dark room when Sabo finally broke the silence.
'Forget getting stronger,' Sabo muttered, 'the three of us could be the strongest people in the world and Luffy would still find potentially life-threatening trouble to get mixed up in. We need more eyes to watch over him, not just more strength to protect him.'
'Is there anyone we could actually trust to keep an eye on him though? I mean it's not like we can drop him off with some random person and expect them both to come out unscathed.'
Sabo put some actual consideration into the question. 'There are several people we could trust sometime in the future, mostly from various allied pirate crews that haven't actually been formed yet, but those won't do us any good for a long time, probably not until were actually ready to set sail.'
It was amazing just how wrong that statement turned out to be.