Garp led Luffy up the steps to the execution platform, continuing the slow pace he'd set previously. At their appearance, the crowd's talking and murmuring had quieted to near silence. When the two reached the wooden stairs leading up, the only sound was their steps echoing across the harbor. At the top, Luffy could see three admirals sitting in tall chairs—Kizaru, Fujitora, and Ryokugyu.

The walk to the execution platform was the longest in Luffy's life. Not because he feared his death. Rather, after his stint in the dark quiet cells of New Marine Headquarters, everything just felt like too much. Too much light, too much space, too many people, too much noise. That annoyed him. Luffy loved all those things. They were things that meant he was free. A part of him cursed the Marines for taking that from him, no matter how temporarily.

No matter. He'd have it back before he reached the platform. He slowed his walk even more from the somber steady pace Garp had set.

"Luffy?" Garp turned slightly.

"One moment," Luffy said. He looked up at the clear blue sky, felt the warm sun on his skin, and listened to the quiet susurrus of the crowd ahead. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. No rush. He had time to do this.

"Luffy, we need to…" Garp started.

"Wait a moment, Grandpa," Luffy insisted. He took another breath, looking out at the big wide world, full of adventures just for him. He sent out a wave of Observation Haki. Not a strong one, given his sea stone shackles, but enough that he could sense some familiar and friendly "voices" in the crowd.

Luffy grinned. It was enough.

"Okay, we can keep going," Luffy said, continuing to walk forward. "Everything's going to be alright now."

Sanji slowly woke up feeling sweaty, groggy, and stiff. His throat was sore, his head hurt, and somehow-even though he was certain he had slept much longer than he should have—more tired than when he had fallen asleep in the first place. He stretched until he felt a pleasant pull in his muscles and heard various pops in his joints. Then he threw off the blanket that had been coving him, and sat up, wiping his face with his hand.

Sitting at the end of the dining room table-a pitcher of water and an empty cup in front of him and a bottle of beer in his hand-was Zoro. Sanji briefly wondered if the man had even moved from the spot. The little sunlight shining through the portholes convinced the cook it was late afternoon, close to evening. He must not have slept as long as he thought.

"About time you woke up, Sleepy Cook," Zoro said, taking another chug of beer. "And you complain about me being lazy."

"What are you talking about, stupid moss?" Sanji groused, rubbing at his face, still trying to rub the sleep from his eyes. "I only slept a couple of hours. That's a light nap for you."

"A couple? Try sixteen, Crap Cook," Zoro replied. That got Sanji's attention.

"Sixteen hours?!"

"Yeah, Chopper said that was expected," Zoro said nonchalantly, like he hadn't just told Sanji he'd had a light coma.

"Expected?!"

"Yeah. Something about morons not getting enough sleep for several days straight are bound to sleep for a really long time after." Zoro explained, shrugging as he did so. Sanji ran his hands through his hair in irritation. No wonder he felt like crap; he was probably dehydrated to shit. Zoro continued on, oblivious to his crewmate's mood, "Sleeping for half the day just sounds like heaven, if you ask me."

"No one's asking you, asshole!" Sanji shouted, and then blanched. "Wait! Who's been cooking meals? How did I not hear any of you?"

"The girls did the cooking," Zoro said. Sanji nearly fainted upon hearing that his beloved Nami-san and Robin-chan had been forced to do his work. "And everyone else helped bring the food out on deck. Even had a little barbeque last night. You should have seen how proud Franky was of the grill he made from scrap."

"What time is it?"

"I dunno, about breakfast time? The sun just started rising."

So not late evening like he'd been assuming. It was early morning. The sun was coming up, not going down. That explained the sky.

Sanji groaned. "I'm going to go shower and change."

"Wait." Zoro said. Sanji realized for the first time the man didn't sound raspy at all. The swordsman poured some of the water from the pitcher sitting in front of him into the glass and slid it across the table. Sanji caught it before it hit the floor. "Chopper said you should drink that before doing anything else."

Sanji eyed the water suspiciously. "What's in it?"

"Just water. He said you'd be thirsty," Zoro replied. Then, to Sanji's horror, Zoro tilted the pitcher towards his mouth and drank straight from it. Zoro lowered it and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "See? Just water. No drugs this time. You've slept enough."

"Barbarian," Sanji muttered, before downing his own glass. God, it was good. So good. Like the best glass of water he'd ever had in his life. He finished the glass and nearly reached for the pitcher for more when he remembered that the moss had just contaminated the entire thing. Zoro smirked.

"More?" he asked, holding out the pitcher.

"Screw you," Sanji replied, taking his glass to the kitchen faucet.

As he drank another glass, his mind began to wander to the events of the meeting the previous day. Had everything been taken care of? Was Robin still mad at him? Speaking of which, he turned to Zoro.

"Hey, Marimo," Sanji said, placing his empty glass in the sink. His hand reached for his pants pocket; he could use a cigarette for this conversation. However, upon finding his pocket empty (they must have been in his jacket, damn) he decided to continue on without them. "About yesterday… thanks for backing me up about the whole Crocodile thing."

Zoro was quiet for several heartbeats. "Well, you weren't wrong. We need Cross Guild to save Luffy. It was worth the risk."

"Thanks…"

"Hold on. I'm not done," Zoro interrupted, standing up. Gone was the weakness Zoro had been showing the previous evening. Did the man seriously improve this much in only sixteen hours? Was being back on the Sunny, a nap, and some alcohol really all the swordsman had needed to recover? Absolute madman.

Zoro walked into the kitchen, not breaking eye contact with Sanji as he deposited the now-empty pitcher into the kitchen sink. "It was the right move, Cook. But it was a cold one. Ruthless. Heartless. The kind of choice I would make. And everyone in here saw it."

"So…?"

"It's not the choice you would make, Cook. Not normally. Not by a long shot," Zoro continued. He crossed his arms. "As much as I hate to admit it, we're two sides of the same coin. I'm the one who makes the cold calculating decisions. The hard calls. But not you. You're the humanity, the soul. But if you lost that, Cook, that's going to be a problem. Especially for Luffy."

"But, this was all to save Luffy. And it's not just me. Vinsmoke…"

"I know, I get it. Sometimes a little bit of ruthlessness is needed. And the other guy is in your head now, too, which complicates things." Zoro said. "But here's the thing, Cook. Luffy is the damn coin. And you can't help him, you're no good to him, if you're not the side you're supposed to be." Zoro poked Sanji in the chest. "You're his damn heart, Cook. And we need that heart to be full of compassion, like it always is. Looking out for the little guys who can't defend themselves. Full of fire. Not ice. Or we'll turn out no better than one of those monstrous pirate groups that just terrorize people. And I don't know about you, but that's not the kind of crew I joined. Understand?"

Sanji looked away, unable to meet Zoro's eye. Damn, he hated it when the Marimo was right. "Got it."

"Good." Zoro raised an eyebrow. "And the other guy? He get it too?"

"Uh…one sec," Sanji said out loud. Mentally, he asked, "Did you get that, Vinsmoke?"

Yes. I believe so. Vinsmoke replied. Although it was necessary, we overstepped our role yesterday. It would be like if we were forced to use poison on an assassination mission even though that's Poison Pink's job.

"Uh, yeah. Close enough," Sanji continued mentally. To Zoro, he said, "Yeah, he more or less gets it. In his own way."

"Good. Now, go get ready. We're rescuing Luffy in a couple of days and you have a big part to play."

Luffy stood at the top of the scaffold, looking out at the crowd below. And just beyond them, the sea he so loved. He wondered if this is what Ace saw back then in Marineford. How had his brother felt looking out towards the ocean, knowing he'd likely never sail it again?

He felt a heavy hand land on his shoulder and looked up to see his grandfather staring down at him, sadly, but with a bit of hope in his eyes.

"This is where we say goodbye, Luffy."

Luffy nodded. "Goodbye, Grandpa."

There didn't seem to be a need to say anything more. Garp turned and walked away and then a much harsher face walked up on the scaffold. The new fleet admiral. Sakazuki. Luffy felt his heart flare in his chest and his blood boil in his veins. This was the man who had killed Ace.

"Well, well, Straw Hat. Looks like we meet again." Sakazuki said with a cruel grin. Luffy looked away from the man and stared straight ahead. "Not much for words today? That's fine. I get the delightful honor of announcing your crimes and connections to the world before your execution."

Without another word, Sakazuki grabbed Luffy by the back of the neck and forced him forward, towards the front of the platform. A hush came over the crowd. An announcing snail was brought forth and two Marines in plain greenish brown uniforms came forward, carrying spears, waiting patiently for the order to execute the criminal before them.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Citizens of the world! Before you stands one of the most notorious criminals of the age of pirates! Monkey D. Luffy!" Sakazuki announced. A speech came afterwards, listing Luffy's many crimes against society, most of them twisted to make Luffy seem as nefarious as possible.

Luffy zoned out through most of it. Instead, his eyes scanned the crowd down below. Vivi was there, looking angry, even as her eyes filled with tears. Rebecca was clutching Viola. Ice-ossan sat with his arms crossed, a stern expression on his face, various members of Galley-la sitting around him. A crowd of fishmen and mermaids sat together in a group, Prince Fukaboshi at their head. A surprising number of Marines sat in the crowd; to Luffy's surprise he recognized a few of them from Shells Town and the G-5 group.

"And now of course we shall allow the condemned to speak on his own behalf," Sakazuki said. Luffy's focus came back as he realized the Fleet Admiral had turned to him. "Well, Straw Hat? Any final words?"

"Yes."

"Well, let's hear it," Sakazuki said, holding the snail towards Luffy. The Straw Hat captain took a deep breath.

"I'M GONNA BE KING OF THE PIRATES!" Luffy shouted.

"You idiot," Sanji murmured to himself as the crowd went wild at Luffy's words.

He stood on the roof of one of the buildings, a bit behind the crowd, but with a splendid view of the execution platform. Behind him was the harbor. Somewhere below the surface of the calm blue water sat the Polar Tang.

One of Law's "improvements" to the original plan had been the idea to give Sanji a head start before the commotion began. He'd done this by the expedient method of getting the submarine just a few yards below the surface, having Sanji get into a small room with his raid suit on and ready to go, and then had opened a hatch in the floor. Sanji had groaned, but activated the suit's invisibility none the less, jumped in to the chilly water, and quickly swam for the surface.

Now he was on the warm roof, carefully and quietly squeezing the last of the water out of his cape and waiting as the sun dried out the rest. Every once in a while a very confused Marine turned around at the sound of water dripping and splashing and glanced at the unusual wet spot on the roof. Every time the man had a quizzical look on his face, but he didn't raise an alarm.

Sanji got into a runner's crouch, one leg bent before him and the other stretched out behind. His fingertips rested on the roof on either side of his front leg, but he kept his eyes focused squarely on the execution platform. The show would be starting any minute.

BOOM! As predicted, a huge explosion went off on the far side of the harbor somewhere off to his right. Sanji took off running across the rooftop, racing for the platform. He could hear Buggy's voice, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I am one of the Four Emperors of the Sea! Buggy the Clown! What you just witnessed was just a taste of my powerful Buggy Ball, which terrorized the East Blue-!"

Ignoring Buggy, Sanji leapt from the rooftop, using his much quieter Sky Walk over the raid suit's noisy boots. It wouldn't be quite as fast, but he needed the stealth for now more than the speed. He kept his eye on his captain, even as the commotion where Cross Guild was attacking turned into an all-out battle.

Cross Guild was proving to be a distraction, just as Sanji had hoped. But just as he feared, far too many Marines remained in position below him, and only Kizaru had left to engage Cross Guild. Even worse, Sakazuki remained in position next to Luffy.

Just focus on our captain. Trust the plan. Vinsmoke told him, sensing Sanji's anxiety.

Sanji took a deep breath as he reached the next rooftop and continued his sprint across it. It was too soon for Luffy's "enemies" in the crowd to respond and provide a distraction of their own. Who else had the crew managed to call while he was out? Who else could provide the firepower needed…?

"Haha! Straw Hat, looks like you got caught! How pathetic!" A familiar voice called out. Suddenly, weapons began flying out of Marine's hands towards the source of the voice, along with various metal fittings from the buildings. Sanji risked a quick glance to his left.

Eustace "Captain" Kid stood at the prow of his ship, pulled in just beyond the harbor. His arm was raised and the various pieces of metal and weaponry were flying towards it, making a giant mass. Several of the Marines headed for the newcomers. Kid's crew raced to meet them, being led by a man in a mask, laughing like an absolute madman as his blades swung. Blood flew as Killer got his first couple of targets. His crew laughed with him in comradery.

Sanji leapt in the air, kicking against the wind itself as he raced the last few yards to the platform. Unfortunately, the admirals hadn't moved, but if he could just slip past them…

Garp suddenly moved to block his path and Sanji froze, standing on the very edge of the platform. He tried to quiet his breathing, certain the towering vice admiral had spotted him. He actually felt it when Vinsmoke took over his lungs.

Easy there, Cook. Don't give us away.

Then Garp looked down, directly at Sanji. And winked.

"Something over there, Garp?" Sakazuki asked, irritated.

"Oooh! Is that Captain Kid off yonder?" Garp said, suddenly shading his eyes and looking past Sanji towards the horizon. Sanji walked around him, his invisibility still activated, making use of the misdirection Garp was providing the Fleet Admiral. He just needed one more good distraction and he'd be able to get to Luffy.

"Of course it's Captain Kid, the nuisance and…is that Trafalgar Law?!" Sakazuki suddenly shouted. Sanji snapped his eyes towards the harbor. A familiar submarine was rising out of the water.

"Shit, this wasn't part of the plan!" he thought to Vinsmoke. "Law was only supposed to arrive once we had Luffy!"

No choice then. Vinsmoke replied. We have to make do with the situation at hand. Let's take advantage of the admirals' distraction and grab our captain.

"And he has the Straw Hats?!" Sakazuki shouted. Sanji's heart plummeted. That was even worse. The others weren't supposed to pop out of the submarine until it was time to secure their getaway. "I heard the Straw Hats and Heart Pirates were at odds!"

"Looks like they patched things up," Garp commented.

"It would appear so," Fujitora said from the back of the platform.

"Hey, Zoro!" Luffy called out happily.

"Hey, Luffy! Hey, asshole!" Sanji heard Zoro call from a distance. "That's our captain you have there! We've come to get him back!"

Sakazuki stood in silence for a moment. Then he turned to one of the others admirals, his hand never leaving Luffy's neck. "Ryokugyu. Keep an eye on Straw Hat."

"Aye aye, Fleet Admiral!" the man said, coming forwards. A vine suddenly sprouted from the man's hand and wrapped itself around Luffy's neck, replacing Sakazuki's hand. Luffy let out a choked "Urgh!" but was helpless to do much else.

"Garp. Fujitora. You two are with me," Sakazuki continued. His implied Where I can keep an eye on you two went unsaid. He smiled down cruelly at Luffy. "Might as well make Straw Hat watch as his crew gets annihilated before we kill him."

If Sakazuki was expecting Luffy to respond with despair, he was sorely disappointed. Luffy looked him directly in the eye and said, "They won't be the ones getting annihilated."

"We'll see about that." Frowning, Sakazuki turned to the other two, "Let's go!"

And it was down to Luffy, Sanji, and one admiral. One with a plant Logia and a weakness to fire.

Hmm, this could be problematic, Vinsmoke commented. We need fire to counter this admiral's Devil Fruit and the raid suit is fire resistant.

"Yeah, I think I have an idea about that," Sanji replied. He was crouched directly in front of Luffy, out of sight of Ryokugyu. Carefully, he removed the boot from the raid suit. "Here goes!"

Activating Infrit Jambe, he aimed a high arching kick at the vines connecting Luffy's neck to the admiral, the blue flames quickly burning through the plant matter. It must have been quite the sight; blue flames appeared from a disembodied leg and must have seemed to come from absolutely nowhere. Ryokugyu shrieked and withdrew his vines. Before the man could regain his bearings, Sanji came at him with a flying kick that sent him completely off the platform. Before anyone else arrived, Sanji quickly put his boot back on, then turned and rushed for his captain.

Just before he could reach Luffy though, Sakazuki returned to the platform. Shit.

"Ryokugyu! Straw Hat, what the hell did you-?!" Before the Fleet Admiral could finish his thought, Sanji grabbed Luffy and shoved him under his cloak, rending his captain invisible as well.

"Sanji!" Luffy cried out happily. "I knew it was you!"

"Good to see you too, captain," Sanji said, a wide grin on his own face."

"And…" Luffy paused, a frown on his face momentarily, as he stared into his cook's eyes, "…the other guy's here too."

"Yeah. Don't worry. Vinsmoke and I, we worked it out," Sanji assured him.

"Ah. Okay then," Luffy said, already appeased.

Suddenly a weight landed on Sanji's cloak, nearly toppling him over. He peaked over the top, an already cooling pile of lava dripping down his cape, to see Sakazuki aiming another round of lava at him. Other similar piles of lava to Sanji's left and right suggested that the admiral had hit him with blind luck.

"Ah, there you are, Black Leg. I should have known," the Fleet Admiral said, lugging the new blob of lava. It hit Sanji's cape right on his shoulder. Fortunately the suit was able to take the heat fairly well, but something Sanji hadn't realized until this moment was that lava was apparently heavy. It was becoming nearly impossible to move under the weight of it.

It's essentially melted rock. Of course it's heavy, Vinsmoke provided unhelpfully. Also, while I am sure you're enjoying your reunion with our captain, perhaps this situation is better suited to my skills?

"Yeah, yeah," Sanji answered, working to shove the rapidly cooling and hardening lava from his cloak. Sakazuki was getting ready to lug another ball of it and this one looked like it would actually trap him.

"Listen, Luffy. I'm going to go away for a while and Vinsmoke's going to take over. But you can trust him, okay? He'll get us out of this," Sanji said, looking down at Luffy. His captain's face was blank at first. Then he grinned.

"If Sanji trusts him, then I trust him," his captain said. Sanji smiled back at him and then felt himself take a backseat as Vinsmoke took over.

The first thing Vinsmoke did was deactivate the invisibility; with the lava rock currently attached to the suit's cloak and making it visible there was no point. Then he dropped into a crouch, grabbing Luffy with one arm and with the other flung the cape wide, shattering the lava rock. Just before Sakazuki's next lava missile could hit them, Vinsmoke shot into the air, the boots launching him skyward faster than Sky Walk ever could.

"Whoa! So cool!" Luffy shouted with glee as they rocketed into the air.

A shower of molten rock began falling around them, Vinsmoke dodging this way and that, at a speed that was almost blinding to even Sanji's perception. At Sakazuki's shouts and orders from below, various Marines attempted to get between Vinsmoke and his obvious intended goal—the Polar Tang. Vinsmoke nimbly dodged past all of them or used a smooth, barely noticeable attack that took them out of commission. Sanji couldn't help but be in awe of the man's skill; he truly was "Stealth Black."

But for all Vinsmoke's ability, the Marines were simply too numerous. They poured in from the alleys and streets, using Moon Walk and Devil Fruit abilities and sometimes just plain old ammunition. And all they had to do was get in between them and the Polar Tang, blocking their path. The submarine was just too far from the execution platform for them to make it.

And then, off to their left, in an opening towards the harbor with no Marines blocking it, a miracle happened—the Thousand Sunny rose out of the water!

"Sanji-kun! This way! Hurry!" Nami shouted from the deck.

Vinsmoke veered course, aiming for the new target. The only crew members onboard were Nami, Franky, and Jinbei, from what Sanji could tell, but they were the perfect group to operate the Sunny to its maximum potential. Meanwhile, Zoro and his group kept up their attack from the Polar Tang. Sanji could hear the tell-tale signs of Zoro's slashes and Robin's snaps and breaks.

"I don't understand," Vinsmoke said, landing on the deck. "The plan was to…"

"Escape on the Polar Tang. Yes, yes," Nami said. "This was another one of Law's improvements to the plan. A back up in case things went south. Which of course they did."

"She's loaded with cola!" Franky shouted from the hatch leading to the lower decks.

"Thanks, Franky!" Nami said. She took out a transponder snail from her belt. "Law, we've got them! Get out of here! Jinbei, get us turned around! Franky, use a Coup De Burst!"

Setting Luffy down on the deck, Vinsmoke turned around. Pandemonium reigned throughout New Marine Headquarters. Kid and Cross Guild were doing an amazing job causing mayhem and destruction. And the crowd full of Luffy's allies was raising a fuss, distracting and holding back several Marines. But Sakazuki was still heading for them, a tidal wave of lava following in his wake. Just above him was a thoroughly pissed Ryokugyu, coming in on some kind of flying flower. By Vinsmoke's estimate, they weren't going to make it before the two admirals reached the ship.

"Coup…!"

Sakazuki aimed another lava missile at them, as grass on the main deck began to sizzle and smoke from the heat radiating off the wave of lava behind him. Ryokugyu was almost in position to drop and land on the Sunny.

"…de…"

They weren't going to make it. Sakazuki's lava wave was starting to spatter, setting fire to small patches of the Sunny. Ryokugyu already had a vine wrapped around the mast, getting ready to drop down on the main deck. It didn't matter if Sanji or Vinsmoke or any of the others could take them on in a fight. Without a major distraction both admirals were going to destroy the ship with their Devil Fruit powers and there would go their means of escape.

"Fleet Admiral! It's Hawkeyes Mihawk!" A Marine suddenly shouted, causing both admirals to pause. It was just for a moment, a small moment, but it was enough. "And he's brought Red Haired Shanks!"

"…Burst!"

That was the last thing Sanji heard as the Sunny went sailing through the sky, the sight of the Red Force at the far end of the harbor flying past his eyes.

Author's Notes: It finally happened! Luffy got saved! Also for the purposes of this story uh, guess the most recent One Piece chapters (1079-1081) didn't happen (the ships! The ships! ;_;)

Action chapters are always the most difficult to write, so hopefully this one makes sense and flows smoothly.

There seems to be some question in the fandom as to whether Observation Haki can detect invisibility or not. I'm going with no, seeing as how no one was able to sense Sanji saving Momo during the raid, along with a few other instances of invisible people going undetected by Observation Haki users. But also going with Garp was able to sense Sanji because he was actively expecting Luffy's crew to come up with some bizarre hijinks to save their captain, while the other admirals weren't expecting anyone to actually make it to the execution platform.

This should also more or less be the last full chapter of the story, but expect an epilogue to wrap it all up.