Ace's Second Chance 11
Happy Wednesday, I hope you enjoy this chapter.
The Target is Vivi
Usopp confirmed that Akainu was on board of the battleship, he turned to Luffy for orders but realized it was a huge mistake, since the captain would want to fight. The pirates stared at Luffy as he cracked his knuckles, no one said anything until Vivi yelled at him. "Luffy, don't you dare to fight him. Show me you are a capable leader and take your crew to safety." She almost pleaded but the captain frowned and agreed after a stare competition.
The following events happened too fast, Usopp guessed that by that time Akainu would be able to see the beach. Ace turned Vivi around and pointed a dagger to her neck. "Robin, Zoro, get back to the ship." Luffy commanded. "Try something funny and you won't have a princess to protect." Ace threatened Kuzan, at this point the bodyguard didn't know what would happen next. Robin and Zoro reached the ship as it started to move deeper into the sea, Luffy stretched to grab his brother and the princess.
"What are you doing? Let me go." The girl struggled, losing her desert gown. "Kuzan, help me." She was desperate since boarding the Sunny wasn't part of the plan.
Flashback
The Straw Hats stared at Vivi as she explained them her plan to escape Alabasta. "First of all you must reach the Sunny and take it to the sea. Rainbase is surrounded by marines so the only way to enter the casino is by guiding them away from the city. To do so, you will wear identical desert gowns and chase Kohza and I to the city." She glanced at Franky. "You will be too difficult to hide…"
"I can make a doll to pretend it's one of us." The cyborg said. "I will swim all the way to Rainbase, because I'm super." He posed.
"Perfect, then Nami will leave the group at the city and enter the casino to help Franky." She glanced at the navigator who nodded in response. "It will take time to take the ship at the end of the river and I know the Vice-Admirals will come to my rescue, so the eight of you will stall the marines as long as you can, but stay by the river at all times. When Franky and Nami are close to you, they will give you a signal or distract you enemy so you can jump to the river and enter the Sunny's bubble." She paused, her face showed how focused she was. "There is no way to know who will fight who so don't get killed." She suppressed a sob and shook her head to continue. "All of you must be on the ship once it reaches the ocean, the marines won't know what happened to you and you'll be able to leave the kingdom before Akainu gets here."
"That's an excellent plan." Ace complimented. Nami and Robin giggled and Fire Fist stared at them a little confused. "What?" He asked and the girls giggled even more.
End of Flashback
"You'll be back soon, I promise." Ace whispered and Vivi relaxed at his words. The girl looked at Kuzan and Kohza, who had angry expressions and then she turned to the pirates who were also worried.
Akainu's ship and the Thousand Sunny crossed paths and Ace held Vivi with a firm grip and gave the fleet admiral a threatening glare. With the princess as a hostage the marines would never lay a finger on them, Fire Fist was positive of that, he even gave his enemy the smuggest smiled he had.
However Akainu had other plans. The marine saw his chance to take revenge from the humiliation he suffered at Marineford, where he almost killed Ace and Luffy but an unexpected ally appeared to take them away from him. It was time to make those D carries pay. The fleet admiral raised his hand to release lava on the pirates until he saw a blue haired girl being held tightly by Fire Fist, she was the Princess of Alabasta, but that did not matter since he would kill anyone who got in his way. As for an excuse he would tell that the Princess was dead when he attacked the pirates. Suddenly a great amount of lava was directed to the Straw Hats' ship.
Kuzan was enraged, he could not believe that Sakazuki would kill the princess in order to get the pirates. The former admiral approached the ships by freezing the water around him and moving forward. However, he felt relieved when the lava was dissipated and the ship was not damaged.
Ace and Luffy created a Haki shield to protect the Sunny and the rest of the crew. The captain gritted his teeth and tightened his fists, he hated the Fleet Admiral for hurting his brother and that hatred grew the moment he endangered his friends. "Did you think a 'hostage' would stop me?" Akainu said hinting that he was aware of the relationship they had with the royal family.
"Damn you! I won't allow you to hurt the Princess." Kuzan appeared in front of Akainu with ice spears ready to impale his former ally. Sakazuki jumped back while throwing lava at Kuzan's face, which was blocked by his armament Haki. "I see you've become a babysitter… I didn't spare your life to do this." Akainu threw more lava to melt Kuzan's ice. Both men recalled their time at Punkhazard and their current battle turned serious. "Attacking a marine won't look good for a worker of the Royal Family." Akainu created a huge sphere of lava and directed it to Kuzan. "Attacking a Princess won't look good for you either." Aokiji created a pillar of ice to jump away from the lava. Unfortunately Akainu's sphere destroyed a building at the beach, an important one since Vivi covered her mouth and Kohza cursed under his breath.
As the former Admirals fought, the Sunny was at a safe distance so they could let go of Vivi. The girl wanted to hug them all and thanked them for the amazing time she had with them, but that was out of the question. Instead she took her left hand to her heart and showed the X mark. Ace fought the urge to kiss her, he extended his arm and showed her the symbol, then all the Straw Hats did the same. Robin noticed that they were moving fast so she ran to Vivi and pushed her off the ship with her left hand. They exchanged a few words and smiled.
Kuzan kept attacking the Fleet Admiral with all of his strength when he saw Vivi falling to the ocean, he ignored Akainu and rushed to the princess' aid, that action enraged the marine even more. Kuzan froze the sea until he reached Vivi, the girl was shaking and stuttered some words so the bodyguard took her to the coast as fast as he could. "Are you ok?" He asked and the girl calmed down to nod.
When they arrive at the beach Kohza helped her to stand up while Kuzan glared at Akainu, the marine was staring at them and a slight smile escaped him. "Capture the Princess." His underlings looked at each other in a confused manner but followed the order to avoid getting killed.
"What am I being accused of?" Vivi was in shock. "You are suspected of Piracy." He simply said, but there was no way Akainu could know about her being a Straw Hat… The only time she was careless was at the bay when she gave her speech and asked if they would still be friends. After that realization Vivi almost slapped her forehead. "Of course, that wouldn't go unnoticed." She thought. "But they don't have proof of that and if they do, why did they wait two years to arrest me."
"You expect us to believe that the Princess of Alabasta is a pirate?" Kuzan laughed. "You better have a good reason for doing this, messing with the Royalty is a serious business." He narrowed his eyes.
The marines started to approach Vivi while she was picking up her desert gown. Kohza used his whip to keep them away, he grabbed the hand of a man and threw him against the others but when the enemies surrounded them he had to be more aggressive. His whip moved like a snake and hit the chest of the marines, making them fall. Vivi started to spin her peacock slashers, Kohza kneeled next to her so she could throw them like chains, the girl made a twist and pushed the marines away, she took back her weapons and Kohza stood up. The man hit the sand with his whip and raised the sand to create a cover, then he hit the marines' with enough strength to make them pass out. Vivi noticed other men approaching and used her slasher as a yo-yo to hit them in the head. She just loved her weapon, it was beautiful.
"Move Kuzan, let me do my job." Akainu growled after seeing his men being defeated by the princess and his friend.
"I'm doing my job too." The former admiral was prepared to fight at any second.
"I defeated you two years ago, I can do it now." The lava user sentenced.
"Maybe we should call Blackbeard and have him defeat me so you can take the credit. Just like you did with Jewelry Bonney, but wait a second, didn't she escape?" Kuzan was having fun, reminding the fleet admiral of his mistakes was priceless.
"I spared your life, that's how you repay me?" He questioned with rage.
"You did not kill me so I would live with that humiliation and follow your orders, but I chose to quit and serve the Kingdom of Alabasta." He explained and their fight went on. The lava and Ice destroyed everything around them, the buildings became ashes and people were caught in the battlefield. Some had severe burns and other had their limbs frozen.
Vivi saw Kuzan's expression and realized that he was not her bodyguard anymore; Akainu transformed him into the marine who fought for the position of Fleet Admiral and he was blinded by hate. Both men thought that they were back at Punkhazard. "Kuzan, stop this." She yelled, the battle had to end to avoid the destruction of Nanohana and the loss of more lives.
"Akainu will declare you guilty even if you are innocent." Kohza whispered after kicking a marine and punching other that got too close. "Captain Tashigi and Vice-Admiral Smoker know about you and the Straw Hats, but they kept it to themselves at Kuzan's request." No one else was able to hear them. "Vice-Admiral Hina is suspicious but that's all and the Fleet Admiral only needs one chance to make you confess that you are involved with them."
"But I can't let people get hurt... Tell my father what's going on." She whispered and dropped her weapons. "Fleet Admiral, stop this battle." She raised her hands in rendition. "I am willing to go with you and prove my innocence." The Princess yelled. Kohza took her desert gown and picked up her weapons as Akainu walked towards her.
"I see you are a reasonable girl after all. Anyway, this document gives me the power to take you under my custody and question you on the Straw Hat Pirates." Akainu showed her a piece of paper, Vivi read and the blood left her face but she remained strong, she would not let him know she was scared. "Failing to honor this document will be considered treason and you don't want to be a problem for your father, do you?" Akainu smirked as the princess nodded.
"Why didn't you show it to me since the beginning? You could have avoided all the destruction you caused." She looked at him with disgust and started to walk towards the Marine ship, where the interrogation would take place, according to the document.
"It was my mistake, your majesty." Akainu said with sarcasm and followed her. Kohza gritted his teeth and Kuzan called the King to give him the bad news.
The Straw Hats were stressed out, even though they were at a safe distance from the marines something was bothering them. Ace was walking in circles and complaining that Akainu was not supposed to attack them as long as they had Vivi as a hostage and he cursed himself for putting her in danger.
"Miss Wednesday will be fine, the marines do not know about her involvement with us and even if they are suspicious she has immunity for being Royalty. The only way Akainu has to lay a finger on her, without losing his position, is with a document signed by the Gorosei. Such a thing is really hard to obtain and I doubt that the elders will allow Akainu to hurt the princess of a Kingdom that has the Celestial Dragons in such a good mood with their tributes." She smiled and everyone stared at her. "In the last two years I obtained very useful information on the World Government and the Marines… and Vivi told me about the gifts for the Celestial Dragons."
"Now we know that Vivi is ok." Luffy sighed with sadness. "We can head to the New World." He said without enthusiasm.
The rest of the crew got depressed too. Nami, Usopp and Chopper were sitting on the grass with teary eyes. Brook and Sanji were looking in direction to Alabasta with nostalgic looks. Franky was crying and Robin tried to console him by patting his back. Ace sat on the stairs with a frown and Zoro looked at them, both men were sad too but they would not show it. "If you wanted her to come with us you shouldn't have threw her overboard." The swordsman said, earning a glare and insults from everyone. "That was cruel." Robin told him with her arms crossed.
Gedatsu, Eneru's former priest, opened a door of the Sunny. "The Straw Hats?" He gasped. "This is not good, every time they show up a ruler is overthrown or a place is destroyed. The Princess asked me to help the people of this ship but I cannot honor her wish, they are dangerous for her." He said it instead of thinking it, as he intended to.
"He is from Skypiea." Luffy pointed at his wings after hearing him. "How did you get here and what's wrong?" He frowned as the former priest turned purple.
"Gedatsu forgets several things… like breathing and speaking." The reindeer dropped a sweat when he realized how stupid that sounded.
"How careless." He gasped for air. "The Princess asked me to take you to a nearby island and help you, but you are dangerous people so I can't do that, yet I don't want to disappoint her." Gedatsu was in a huge dilemma.
"You can trust us." Ace stood up and put on his mask, making Gedatsu change his attitude to a cooperative one, he would never doubt the hero of Alabasta.
"Wow, who are you?" Luffy asked amazed. "Ace look at this guy." The captain tried to find his brother but he could not see him anywhere. Everyone but Chopper stared at him and called him an idiot. The reindeer volunteer to look for the Whitebeard pirate. "I wish Sogeking was here too." Luffy sighed.
The group decided to ignore the simple minded captain, Nami turned to Gedatsu and both set the course of the Sunny to the Spa. The former priest told them how he got to Alabasta and that he was grateful with the Princess and Kohza's uncle because they gave him a chance to become a different person. Ace listened to the story with a smile and removed his mask.
"Ace, I finally found you." Chopper smiled and Ace patted his head.
King Cobra was finishing some paperwork when his snail phone rang. He did not feel like answering but he was not the type man who would avoid work, so eventually he took the call.
"Your majesty, we have a problem that requires your immediate attention. Please come to Nanohana as soon as possible." Kuzan said and Cobra rushed to the city, Kuzan would never call him if it wasn't a matter of life and death.
To Be Continued
Excuses so you won't kill me:
I just love the episode when Luffy was looking for Sogeking and he had Usopp right in front of him and I love how innocent and cute Chopper is.
Finally Gedatsu appears, I like him now that he is a good guy… I liked him before too but now it's different.
I hate Akainu and Kuzan rocks.
Sadly, the Kuzan, Vivi and Kohza must follow the rules imposed by the world government, that's how it works for people under the law. T_T
saveme57: I know, I hate Akainu XD and about Vivi… I can't say anything of what she'll do. Sorry, I just hope everyone likes the end.
Mikila94: Yea, Kuzan is as perceptive as always :D