"So… you say that the person you are searching for, the one that betrayed your crew, was captured by this Scorpion guy?" Sharrkan asked Ace. "Ja! Then he must not be very strong!"
"Indeed, Teach is more like a treacherous rat, but we don´t know the kind of power that he got from that devil fruit he stole from Tatch" he frowned, remembering his words when he left the crew. And Oyayi´s reaction to that statement. "He said that he waited for years to get it and that really gives me the creeps."
"Woow, that sounds like that Sharif guy Alibaba told me about…" the Second commander looked at him as if he was crazy. "Just a noble asshole that tried to bully a friend of mine because of the difference in social class."
"Which one of them?" they laughed while they walked. Jafar wasn´t as happy as them, knowing that they were still far away from their friend. He, who was near the king all the time, felt the worst about what happened. He was supposed to be the one taking care of Sinbad, not letting him nearly kill himself. But he went and centre in work.
"Don´t worry, it´s not your fault" he turned to the Fanalis, who rested a hand on his shoulder. He was about to shake it, as he didn´t want his ex-boyfriend so close, but apparently Masrur was still the only person who can make him feel better when he reached the bottom. "You did anything wrong, the fault is all in him" the albino was about to retort, but his eyes caught him in a trance… much like before. "Sometimes you can´t save someone, not if they don´t want to be saved."
"I…" the chief advisor of the High King of the Seven Seas was completely silent, his cheeks flustered, much like a teenager in love. A love that was supposed to be completely extinguished… no, it was already there. The same fire that he once felt for the former gladiator burned in his heart again.
"Guys" Yamuraiha suddenly interrupted the moment, allowing Jafar to regain composure. He remembered why he shouldn´t feel anything for the bastard that left him to go to Reim empire and abandoning him. "I think we have a way to communicate with the others."
"Eh?" he blinked, noticing that he was so concentrated in the conversation he was having with the redhead that he didn´t take a notice at what the others were doing.
"I´m talking about the magical implement I gave each of you to keep in touch before the mission started. Mine broke in the fall as well as Sharrkan, but you…" the Bararaq Kauza user pulled some shards of glass out of his pocket. The madoushi was about to cry in despair when the former assassin searched for his own and pulled it out. Fortunately, the sphere was intact. "The eye of rukh is untouched! Thank you, Jafar! You are the best!"
"Ehhhhh… yes, I… took some precautions I learned in my first job" he rubbed his hair, letting his blue haired companion manipulate the thing. She was grinning so hard that her face nearly split in two. "Calm down a bit"
"Yes, yes, I needed this to communicate with everyone in the group" she the sphere began to glow and was suspended in the air. Suddenly eight other spheres appeared, some of them showing images. "Oh… okay, Spartos and Pisti´s eyes are broken… but the spells I put on them to check on their locations and vitals are working. They seemed to be fine. Now… those four are us, with only one functional. And that one… I will give it a call."
"A call?"
"Yeah, hope Titus answers too" she touched that one, whose glow was almost blinding. A few minutes later, the image of the blond high priest of Reim appeared. For some strange reason, he was wearing a white wedding dress and looking very enraged. "Ehhhh, it´s a bad moment for a call?"
"Not if you are close to save me" the Alexius growled, trying to forcefully remove some white flowers from his hair, along with the veil. "I truly need rescue now, this is absolutely worse than with Nerva, at least that time I could avoid being dressed like… like… THIS!" there was movement in other part of the room and Scheherazade´s son finally managed to remove the offensive white hair ornament, only to feel to the ground in an impressive show of clumsiness. "Ow"
"Are you alright?" the mage asked. The eye of rukh rolled from where he was to show her Yunan. The older magi was looking interested at it, moving his head in a owlish way. He saw the woman and smiled reassuringly. She calmed down a bit, knowing full well that the man didn´t exactly approve of their king. "Yunan-san…"
"I know why you are here, I have come for a reason alike" the light blond sighed. "Don´t worry, I will not get in your way… it´s not like I could" he shuddered a bit. "You see, in my way to the place the dimension distortion was, I had a…"
"Hey, Yunan! What the fuck are you doing?!" a person screamed, making the generals take a step back. The wandering mage was rudely thrown to the side, been replaced by one of the last faces they expected to see there. It was proud, feminine and aggressive, with a long pink hair framing it. And it was braided.
"Kou… Kouha?!" asked Yamuraiha, not adding any honorifics for the prince due to the shock. What the hell was one of the Ren siblings doing there? Could it be that the pink haired menace entered through the same portal as Yunan by accident. "What are you doing here?"
"Ah, it´s you. I was expecting someone else" the third prince seemed disappointed, showing his tongue. "And you still haven´t learned how to behave" now Jafar was fuming. They didn´t need to show any respect towards that idiot of a royal, not in any way. "You! If you were to contact someone you should have done En-nii or the others!"
"How could I? You didn´t bring any eye of rukh!" the prince stubbornly crossed his eyes. He was suddenly showed out of the way by a still enraged and now very dirty Titus, who looked about to strangle the prince. The Reim priest glared at the two of them for a moment, before returning to his chat with the generals.
"Long history short, when Yunan was coming, he felt asleep in a barrel and captured by the Rens. Kougyoku scared him to death, so he agreed to help them to find Judal and return him home."
"Judal?" Ace didn´t know what to say. He knew his nakamas probably had a history before joining the crew, families and all. But that one of those families actually went to search for their member… that was totally unheard of. Even his crazy grandfather practically shut down communications with him when he became a pirate. Not only that, Sinbad´s friends and probably former nakamas sailed completely alone to the Grand Line to search for him. That speaks buckets about their loyalty. But then… why did Sinbad and Judal became pirates in the first place? There was something weird there.
"Kougyoku?" Yamuraiha asked, finding it impossible that the tiny and gracious Empress of the Kou Empire could scare the shit out of a magi, especially one that lived as long as Yunan, seeing hundredths of things around the world. She was a fine warrior and a strong leader, but that was simply not possible. "Perhaps…"
"Apparently she curses like a drunken sailor" explained Sir Scheherazade, moving his head in disapprove. Inwardly he was glad that his own king candidates were at least well mannered… oh, well, all except Nerva. And Muu when he was mad. He shuddered at the last thought, that could be much scarier than an angry, shouting Myron. "Well, at least I´m not with her. The idiots weren´t able to stay together and now are spread all over the world. You are all together, no?"
"In fact… just the four of us are together" she signalled her companions. "Luffy-san and his crew are just some new friends we have that helped us to get here. Pisti, Spartos, Hinahoho and Drakon are still lost… much like you."
"And you aren´t able to contact them"
"No! All the clumsy lot managed to get their eyes of rukh broken and I…." the water magician suddenly noticed something. "Wait, I think that Drakon´s eye is intact too. I don´t know how he managed, but… I will give him a call now, wait there."
"Don´t you dare! You need to get me out of here! I don´t want to became an okama like those weirdoes outsi…" but she already hanged and try to reach the eye of Drakon. He was very far awar, as evidences because of the difficulty to reach his magical implement. Finally, she was able to stablish a safe line to reach him. "Drakon! Are you hearing me?! Drakon! Hinahoho! Are you…"
"Keep quiet" a hiss come back from the communication device. He and Hinahoho were trying to hide within the walls of the prison. The guards were near, they could hear their footsteps. "I don´t know where we landed, but it´s not the best place"
"Best place?" Yamuraiha then heard some men yelling that they located the fugitives, making the dragon look alike and the ice giant run away. "Drakon, Hinahoho, where the hell do land on?"
"I don´t know!" the blue haired one answered, praying that they could evade the persecutors after them. "We can just guess it´s a kind of prison, for the amount of guards and people behind bars. It think it´s called Impel Down, because our friends always repeat the name when telling us that no one could escape from here."
"Impel Down?" Ace got in the conversation, recognizing the name. "Your friends are in the Great Prison?" Yamuraiha nodded, trying to keep her eyes on the escaping pair. "You landed in that place?" Drakon nodded, without stopping his running. "Dude, that´s serious. Only one person could escape from that place. It´s the greatest prison of the world Government, one of the most secure and well-guarded places of the whole World."
"Tell me something I didn´t know" the former Parthevia officer said, while wishing he could use his household to blast some lightning at those parasites. "You said someone escaped here, do you know how he managed?"
"No" Ace said in a tense voice. "No one knows"
"Ace…" Luffy said, a little bit worried. His brother almost never used that tone, but when he did, it meant that he is trying very hard to hide his anger. Which, in turn, meant that the thing at hand had something to do with his father. The young captain knew this was a no-no in front of the older D. His brother just clenched his fists even more, trying to keep his composure. He didn´t want to blow up anymore, not about someone with such a faint relation to that asshole. Not like he did with Oyayi the first time.
"Okay… try to keep yourselves safe, we will go as fast as we can" the madoushi promised, tense as well. Apparently, before meeting Sinbad in that ship called Moby Dick, they will need to organize a rescue mission. The Imuchakk was about to say something else, when steps resounded in the halls.
"Everybody masks on! Warden Magellan is coming to help!" the ice man cursed under his breath. He and his companion had enough of run ins with the poisonous man to learnt to fear his entrance in battle.
"Yes, they are definitely in Impel Down" Jafar bit his lip when the fire man gave them the confirmation. He needed to aid his friends quickly, before the dangerous warden can harm them, let alone finding Pisti and Spartos… but Vivi seemed to be someone important for Sharrkan and Yamuraiha. She needed the help. Besides, they didn´t really have a map to the place.
"Jafar-san?" the princess approached him, immediately recognizing him as the one who carries the most authority between the generals. "Can I suggest something?" he nodded without taking his eyes out of her. It was sign of respect he learned from experience in different courts. "You help Alabasta to regain their freedom and I will give you a map to Impel Down we keep in our palace. That way we all win."
"There was no need to offer us anything, we would have gladly given you our help without any in return, your Highness."
"Thank you, but I would have felt horrible not to help you or your friends when you help my entire country" she nodded. "If you need to grab anything from the palace, you are free to do so"
"Then, your Highness, we have a deal"
-Later-
"You know, when we ran into the smoke man back in the tavern I thought we were going to be caught. For Solomon, that was some chase" commented the albino after getting out of the bathroom. Masrur´s eyes never left his body the whole time he was in it, something that was starting to make him feel uncomfortable. "That Luffy… he reminds me a lot of Sinbad. Only him would have saved an enemy and turned him into some kind of ally."
"They are much alike, I can tell you" Yamuraiha, who also got out of the bath, was talking to the albino. The two of them were in the library, searching for the map Vivi promised them. "But somehow I thought that the one he resembles the most is Aladdin. Even with his clueless attitude towards women."
"Aladdin, eh? Well, somehow you are right" he rolled his eyes. "And he also had that gift to turn some of his enemies into allies."
"Yes, my star student is something else" she continued searching. "Now, where is that damn map…"
"I guess you are talking about this" Cobra appeared in that moment, with the aforementioned map in his hands. "I was about to give you this thing in person when I heard you talking about someone called Sinbad. Besides… we need to talk" he was now serious. "First I need to thank you for what you did for my country, I heard you defeated a whole sub officer army outside the city" he bowed his head, which they answered with the same movement. "Then… I heard that you were searching for someone called Sinbad" he showed them a wanted poster. "I guess it´s him."
"Yes" Jafar grabbed it, looking at his friend´s face for the first time in what seemed like a thousand years. "He is the one we are looking for"
"I always keep in track with new threats, specially those that might come from the New World or the Yonko" the king sighed. "I also caught some sort of… you don´t exactly act as common people or pirates. And that leaves me the question… are you nobility?"
"You could say so" Yamuraiha answered. Only Pisti, Spartos, Hinahoho, Sharrkan and Drakon had titles since birth, but she, Jafar and Masrur gained them after the foundation of Sindria, despite their initial statuses. And it was well known in their world.
"And who is this Sinbad for you?"
"He… he is our king… the king of Sindria" the albino answered, trying to keep in his emotions. Cobra opened his eyes widen. Of all the things, he would have never guessed that the purple haired pirate used to be the ruler of a nation. "A vassal always needs to be at his lord´s side, no? The case is that we failed in completing that vow. We weren´t there when he needed us the most and he was forced to flee to a place where no one can recognize him."
"Was your country conquered?" a shook signalled his mistake. "Then… you must realise something. Perhaps that he disappeared is the best. A king whose reputation is tarnished by a crime such as piracy wouldn´t be accepted in…"
"The people of Sindria are claiming for their true king, he was very beloved there" he continued, remembering the last time he was in the island nation. "And we need to find him, we have to apologize for abandoning him to his luck when he needed us to guide him to the light, as good friends should do."
"I understand… but that´s not going to make it easier" he got up, looking for another document. "Find him and forcing him to return to the golden cage that is the king´s throne after tasting a little bit of freedom" he pulled out a scroll. "Getting to Impel Down, on the other side, is easier" he handed the scroll. "This is a map of the prison… by the inside."
"What?"
"Tomorrow the marines are going to be here, and no precisely the friendly ones you met with captain Smoker" the two frowned, Smoker was anything but friendly. "Just let yourselves get caught, they will take you to Impel Down after Smoker tells whoever is going to come that you are related to a member of the Whitebeard Crew. This map will help you to survive enough to find a way out."
"Cobra-sama…"
"I wish you luck at finding your friends" he got out of the room. "As king it´s the least I can do for the heroes that helped us to get rid of Crocodile."
"Thank you, your majesty" said Jafar before getting out of the room with Yamuraiha, talking to her about the problems they would have if they entered the Great Prison in that way. The Tarai current and the doors of justice system they read about in the first map was indeed ruling any other option out. They will have to enter like prisoners. The madoushi thought about it for a moment before smiling like the Cheshire cat.
"I have a spell that will serve just right…"
-The next day-
"Stay there! Raise your hands!" commanded Captain Smoker, who fought along with captain Hina against them. Jafar did as he was told, happy with the outcome. The generals were caught, they were going to be able to infiltrate Impel Down… hell, they even managed to give the Mugiwaras a head start to escape the marines, a little goodbye gift they wanted to give them. It was indeed a good day. By his side, Masrur did the same… dressed in Alabasta fashion. "Now you can´t escape. Strip them of their weapons!"
"Hai!" the marine that searched for weapons noticed the tattoos on all of them with the shapes of weapons and armours, but didn´t think they were dangerous. He stripped them of the weapons they had, given by Alabasta army officers, and left. "Complete, sir!"
"Great" Smoker got to his former academy companion. "Don´t underestimate them, they are related to the Whitebeard Crew. I have reasons to believe that they came to Alabasta to meet one of their commanders, Portgas D. Ace."
"Hina promise" the pink haired captain nodded and started the way to the prison, not wanting her very dangerous prisoners to get out. Inside of the ship, the generals were smiling, very unlike the others in their condition. The tattoos in Jafar´s arms started to glow a bit, floating away from his skin. It was his household vessel.
"Didn´t I tell you it will come in handy?"
"Yes, you did" the albino smiled. Impel Down, here they come.
And the generals are heading to Impel Down. Do you want them to rejoin Luffy there? Or would you like them to escape on their own? The next chapter is the turn of the Ren siblings to appear again. Kouen and Koumei... how will that go? Review!
