A/N: I'm going to try and give everyone something to do in this arc! Although all of the Straw Hats took part in fight the Defying Gravity bounty hunters, many did not get to be part of the action in terms of writing. So here's to hoping that everyone gets their fair share in an unrushed, not-drawn-out, believably paced action.

Oh, and great big thank yous go out to all have followed, faved, and reviewed - your support means a lot!

Warnings: language, violence.


Chapter 26: The Floating Islands Part Three: Secrets Revealed! The Escape and the 800,000,000 Belly Contract

**Countdown: Two Months, 11 days left**

Everyone on the Sunny looked over to where about sixty or more Marines were coming from; they were marching across the far island and were now crossing the bridge that connected the island that contained the now burning trading port. There was a Marine larger than Franky marching near the front and he held a large smoking modified cannon over his shoulder.

"What should we do?!" Sokka asked, looking at the others.

"Is that Eurynome?" Usopp pointed to the far side of the island where the burning trading post was located. She had been lying on the ground, and it was evident by how she groggily sat up that she had been caught in the blast. She struggled to her feet, and stared at the sight before her. "No, please no! Everyone!" She ran to the burning building yelling in a frenzied panic, tears streaming down her face. The family clamored out of the building coughing. They stopped dead in their tracks when the Marines ordered them to surrender.

"Not today!" Java yelled at them and he pulled out a small Den-Den Mushi from his pants pocket and pushed the button on its back. The bridges that connected their island to the others exploded, but instead of any sort of fiery explosion, it was more in the way of dismantling the bridge than actually an attempt at killing anyone. The Marines who had been halfway across the bridges were now in a terrible mix of having numerous lacerations, along with temporary blindness and deafness. The Marines that had been caught in the blast were now clamoring out of the water, many of them complained about their injuries while only a select few panicked. Those who panicked were quickly silenced by a swift kick from their commanding officer, who only kicked them because they couldn't hear his shouts telling them to calm down.

The trading port workers took the bridges' explosions as a chance to talk about something. Vidu had a look on his face as if he didn't like what he was hearing, and he started shouting orders to his family, meanwhile, Zuko took charge.

"We have to help them!" he shouted, and Luffy nodded in agreement.

"Yosh!" he punched his palm with a fist and looked very serious. Zuko looked to Katara. "Katara, make a bridge!"

"Right!" Katara acted quickly, and made a way for them to cross. Aang flew across on his glider to help quell the flames, and he quickly used waterbending to put out the fire and turned his attention towards the Marines who were yelling at each other to try and get the others to hear them, along with brushing themselves off and were now complaining about the bridges being gone.

Katara's forming the ice bridge was almost put to uselessness as Luffy had wrapped his arms around Zoro and Sanji (both shared similar expressions of "oh, great." While Law went wide-eyed, and shouted, "Oi, Straw Hat-ya, wait!" his protests went on deaf ears, of course) while both Sokka and Zuko stared at Luffy's arm curiously wondering what his plan was, while Toph questioned, "What's going on? Luffy…?" Those who were not used to traveling by Luffy's let's-slingshot-ourselves-over-there-and-hope-for-the-best way of traveling all screamed loudly in protest as they rocketed across the water and into the roof of the store.

They ended up falling through the burned and weakened roof and second floor and into the kitchen. A thick haze surrounded them, causing all of them to start bouts of coughing. Luffy chuckled and brushed himself off, and then in between coughs said, "Well, that went better than I expected shishishishi!"

"Are you guys alright?" Aang's voice called out from above.

"We're still alive!" Sokka choked out.

"Warn us next time you're going to do something like that!" Toph shouted angrily.

"Let's never do that again…" Zuko groaned.

Everyone else groaned in pain, and both Zoro and Sanji gave Luffy a swift kick and punch to his head respectively.

"We aren't made of rubber like you!"

"Idiot! How many times we gotta tell you?!"

"I thought I told you to never do that to me again!" Law shouted, not bothering to hide his irritation.

"Sorry…" Luffy chuckled and scratched the back of his head.

They had to make their way out of the house by climbing over debris that had fallen from when the bomb had struck the house, along with Luffy's kamikaze landing. Several smaller fires surrounded them, and so Zuko quickly put them out as they walked. Luffy ended up punching a hole in the wall as the swinging door separating the kitchen from the store was blocked.


Meanwhile, back on the Sunny…

"Sir! It's the Straw Hat Pirates!" one of the men pointed at the Sunny, and Usopp and Nami both panicked. "They've spotted us!"

"Ow!" Franky grinned. "Alright everyone, get off the Sunny with that ice path! I'll take care of Sunny and meet up with you on the island!"

Everyone did as they were told, while Franky sailed the Sunny a distance away from the island so that the Marines could not reach or fire at the precious ship easily.

Luffy and his companions made it out of the store and came upon the last bit of the conversation between the family members.

"Where's Ebony?" Eurynome asked, looking between everyone, and then her eyes widened as she continued. "What about Daria and Jed?"

Java shook his head and shrugged. "Ebony went out some time after you left…and Jed said something about a card game in town and Daria went with him."

Eurynome went wide-eyed as more tears started to form. "Rorrim is going to kill Ebony!"

"Why didn't you start with news like that?!" Java ranted. "We have to find Ebony! That idiot, how could he wander off at a time like this?!"

"Oh, we can find them!" Luffy joyously announced, and Java (who was standing the closest to the store entrance) literally jumped almost two feet into the air. "The hell?!"

Everyone else jumped as well, but all of them pulled out various weapons in order to defend themselves within seconds. Luffy and his allies found themselves staring down the barrels of guns and at the sharp ends of deadly blades. Upon seeing who had made an unexpected appearance, the family lowered their guard, and they were surprised to see the rest of the Straw Hats come running from the other side of the store.

There was a moment that all of them stared in wide-eyed shock as both Toph and Aang used earthbending to form a barrier around the island, and their shock grew even more when Aang and Katara formed an icy wall as well.

"Just what is he…" Java whispered.

"What are you all doing here?" Vidu asked somewhat harshly, but it was obvious his question was rooted from genuine concern, and not annoyance.

"We saw the Marines blow up your store!" Luffy said. "They have no right to do that. You gave us food, so now we have to kick their asses!"

He punched the palm of his hand for emphasis. Law shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance. He couldn't even begin to understand Luffy's You-fed-me-now I'll-risk-my-life-for-your-sake mentality.

"What? No! You shouldn't get involved with this! Leave right now while you still can!" Vera insisted in a scolding tone. "We'll handle this!"

"But you guys gave us supplies and meat! You're our friends!" Luffy insisted.

Nami created a series of black clouds which soaked and electrocuted the Marines, putting them at pretty much a standstill as they no longer had access to dry gun powder. They cursed her while she only smirked at their plight, and then Nami turned her attention to the trading post workers.

"Just what is going on?" she asked as she expertly spun her Climatact and rested the end on the ground.

"Rorrim knows about…our secret." Eurynome said, and the news obviously bothered the trading port workers, as all of them looked grim. Upon seeing her closer, Eurynome had numerous scrapes and bruises all over the exposed parts of her body, and her fingernails were torn. Java rapidly paced back and forth for a moment while he rubbed his face in frustration, and cursed silently to himself.

Dacho hugged herself and started shaking uncontrollably, tears streaming down her face, and she began hyperventilating. "…I-I can't go back…I don't want to go back!"

Orin knelt down next to her a placed his hands on her shoulders to calm her. "Hey, hey, it's going to be alright." He assured her, and he motioned to the others as he continued. "None of us here are going to be sent back to Mariejois, okay? And the Pirates are going to be fine, too."

She only nodded in response, and slowly calmed down.

Figuring that they should let the Pirates and their allies in on why the situation was so dire, Vidu sighed deeply. "All of us, except for Eurynome and Ebony, are former slaves of the Tenryubito. It was the twins' father, Saoirse Kiba, who rescued us…although he admittedly did it through some rather violent means..."

"Shot seven of them in the head over the course of two and a half years, and cut off the arm of the one that…" Dacho added, she looked down with an expression that was mixed with worry and fear, and she looked as if she would break down into tears again at any moment. "Saoirse-sama saved my – our lives. We owe him everything."

Aang and his friends looked at the people before them; they looked terrified, but Vidu, Vera, and Orin were trying to keep the others calm, in spite of their own fears. Just who or what were the Tenryubito which had the power to instill so much fear? They had met former slaves before, but there was something different about how the workers were acting; a sort fear and hatred unlike anything they had ever seen before. They understood that whoever these slave owners were, they had "Dragon" in their name. Of course, this caused Team Avatar to picture literal Dragons, and it was not something they exactly questioned as there were the likes of Chopper and Bepo walking around. Meanwhile, the Pirates all had various shocked reactions from gasping to simply staring.

"Your dad shot and killed Tenryubito?!" Usopp's voice cracked in his shock and fear.

"Saoirse Kiba? Oh, what have we gotten ourselves into this time?" Nami pondered aloud, and she shook her head.

"…Where have I heard that name before?" Sanji questioned thoughtfully.

Robin gasped, as she finally remembered where she had seen the likes of the twins and Frida before. Two years prior, at Tequila Wolf, when the Revolutionaries came and liberated the country…one man had been extremely kind to her. His face had been hidden by the brim of an alligator hat, but when he removed it so she could look at him as he talked to her, revealing a mess of dark blue hair, and his eyes…his striking blue eyes were what stood out to her so much because whenever he looked at her, he seemed to be filled with so much sadness and guilt, but she could never understand why.

He always made sure she had everything she needed, no matter what it was. He answered any and all of her questions that he could. They became good enough friends over time that they began talking about themselves and their personal lives. Robin told Saoirse about her life with the Straw Hats, and he laughed (which was such a strange thing, because the sound did not seem to fit him) as she told him of Luffy's antics, along with the rest of the crews'.

"They sound like wonderful people," he replied with a smile. "Dragon's son certainly takes after him in many ways."

He pulled out a photograph one day, and showed it to her. It had been faded and wrinkled from years of handling and being in the breast pocket of a jacket of a man who traveled through various harsh elements.

In the photograph, he stood with a fair-haired woman, and two fair-haired children. They all were smiling, forever frozen in a state of bliss.

"Our pasts finally caught up to us. No matter how much you may try to avoid it, eventually, the unspeakable actions that you thought you could leave behind catches up to you."

Saoirse obviously did not like speaking of how Frida had died, but he had said that Marines had hunted them down. Frida had sacrificed herself so that her children and adopted family could escape. There was bitterness and anger along with sadness as he spoke. "I had to leave my two kids, Eurynome and Ebony behind. If only life was just a bit simpler…"

He had only mentioned their names to her once, and after that, he rarely ever mentioned them. Robin had felt that there was a sense of guilt Kiba had in that area of his life as well.


"You shouldn't have gotten involved with this…" Vera shook her head.

"But you're in trouble," Zuko insisted. "We can't just leave you behind. What are you going to do?"

Vidu had a stern, yet concerned expression on his face as he answered. "We intended to flat-out run, but…not knowing where the others are, knowing that Rorrim is on a man-hunt for us, and knowing that you Pirates are risking yourselves…that…complicates things. We'll do what we can to help take out the Marines and draw their attention away from you, but we can't risk staying here for too long. I suggest that you do whatever it is you need to do and then you run as well.

"We're going to find Ebony, Daria, and Jed as quickly as we can." Vidu continued. He handed Java, Orin, Eurynome, Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, Nami, and Law Den-Den Mushis saying, "contact us as soon as you find them. I promised Saoirse I would protect everyone, and I'll be damned if I don't keep that promise."

"Alright then," Vera nodded, and she hugged Eurynome tightly, assuring her that everything would be alright, and then smiled at Luffy and the others.

"Be safe, all of you," she said, and the others nodded and gave her a thumbs-up. They ran back into the store for a few minutes, and quickly reemerged with bags thrown over their shoulders.

"I'll get your things ready; once we know that everyone is alright, and we are able to escape safely, come to the far west side of the island, and escape from there." Orin said to Eurynome, and she nodded, and he turned to Dacho. "Dacho, you're with me."

"Right!" Dacho gave an affirmative nod whilst still fighting back tears, and followed Orin back into the store to get the necessary supplies together.

Eurynome then turned to the Pirates and their allies, with desperation evident both her voice and features. "If you help us, I'll pay you back, no matter what your price."

She looked at them, tears threatening to flow once more, but she wouldn't let them. Her voice was slowly growing more desperate. "Pirates like treasure, right? I'll pay whatever you want!"

"800,000,000 belly," Nami said.

"You witch, charging her that much, especially now…" Zoro grumbled.

"Well, she offered." Nami stated with a shrug.

"Done! I-it's a deal; I'll give you 800,000,000 worth of treasure once you are done helping us!" Eurynome nodded, as some relief washed over her. Nami almost fell over as she had never had anyone agree to one of her deals so quickly and without argument.

"Eury-chan…" Saya looked as if she wanted to cry as well, and Java frowned, looking concerned.

"We don't have time for this," Law said with a frown. He was almost subject to a few of the Straw Hats and Team Avatar's angry objections, but he continued with a defeated sigh. "So let's hurry and get it over with."

"Thank you! Thank you!" Eurynome bowed to them.

"We'll head to the base and I'll kick that Rorrim guy's ass!" Luffy shouted.

"I need to find the others," Eurynome said, "I'm not sure where any of them are…thanks again, all of you. Straw Hat Luffy-san, when you go up against Rorrim, stay away from mirrors, but that will be difficult as he has them all over. I don't fully understand what he can do, but it's almost like some kind of weird… multiplying ability or something. His reflections move around, and don't match up with him…and it's like something invisible grabs you, and you can't move, and it's …He's dangerous." her thoughts traced back to the memory of obviously having experienced the technique firsthand. "Look…if…if we don't survive this, then I just want to let you know, thank you...for everything. Once you take care of Rorrim, go to the west island, the far one. I'll try and get there as soon as I can, but…if I'm not there when you arrive...just run."

She then dove into the water before any of them could respond, and swam with a speed that almost could have rivaled that of a Fishman, and climbed out onto one of the far islands, as far away from the Marines as she could get. Eurynome then broke into a run, heading for one of Ebony's favorite spots on the Floating Islands.

"That idiot, making it sound like we won't come out of this…" Java sighed.


Luffy grinned and was about to wrap his arms around those who would be helping him fight Rorrim, when Usopp stopped him.

"Luffy, how about we try something that's…a little safer?"

Usopp used Pop Green: Boaty Banana, and Luffy, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, and the swordsmen of their group all climbed in, and it was admittedly a rather tight fit for all of them. They could not climb in without at least some pushing, shoving, and name calling from Zoro and Sanji. Luffy stretched his arms across and grabbed a light post, and used it to rocket the boat and its occupants across the water. After brushing themselves off, they made their way towards the south end of the island (although both Zoro and Luffy had to be reminded on which way they needed to go.)


"Saya, let's get the bike - let's go! Be safe, you guys!" Java shouted, and he and Saya ran to the barn. A loud noise erupted from the barn moments later, and Java and Saya emerged from the barn, riding what looked to be a sort of modified Waver from Sky Island, but it had wheels. The contraption was strong enough that it shot over from the disk island they were currently standing on to the one that was at least five or more yards away. Marines who were still able to move ran after the pair who was sure to leave curse words and insults to the Marines who were chasing after them. Other Marines stayed behind, waiting to confront the others who were still standing in front of the store.

As they drove away, Saya threw two large cannonball-like objects into the crowd of Marines, who understandably panicked. They looked at the cannonball-like objects, and saw that the character for "sake" had been written on both of them. When nothing happened right away, they began to laugh and showed signs of relief. One even cautiously poked at the strange looking cannonball with the tip of his rifle. Still, nothing happened.

"What…is this?" asked one of the Marines, and another laughed.

"It's nothing more than a stupid distraction to-"

He was cut off as there was a hiss and a loud, ear-ringing BOOM!

The stench of alcohol was heavy in the air, causing those who were nearest the "bombs" to start gagging and some even passed out right away. Those who caught the whiff of the alcoholic stench began to have dazed looks and they slurred in their speech.

"Ish washn't a dud! (hic)" one of the Marines complained, as he stumbled in a feeble attempt to stay on his feet.

"What're you doing?!" their commander demanded, although he was stumbling a bit too.

One of the men stood on wobbly legs and gave a sloppy left-handed salute. "S'hello, C'ptain!" he greeted "people hab eshcaped shir!"

The reporting Marine then passed out; a foolish grin was on his face.

"We appreciate your help, dears…and thank you." Vera looked at those who had remained behind to fight the Marines, and once again emphasized that everyone stay safe and make their escape, along with her wish that they hadn't gotten involved in their troubles. "But please be careful; Vidu and I will take care of any Marines we can, and try to draw them away from you. Goodbye then."

Vidu smiled at them, "All of you be safe. I really don't want to tell either Saoirse-san or Dragon-san that their loved ones have been carted off by the Marines."

With that, Vidu lifted a large wooden pool, and Vera stood on the end of it. He then swung with an incredible force, and Vera leaped off, expertly wielding her saber against the Marines.

"Wow…she's fast…" Aang marveled.

Vidu then crossed to the other island by using his weapon as a makeshift vaulting pole, and once he was on the other side, he began swinging the pole side-to-side, easily clearing a number of the Marines.

"For some reason I get the feeling that Vidu, Vera, and King Bumi would get along very well…" Katara said.

"This way, you Government dogs," Vidu called out. "Come at me and take me if you can!"

A few larger Marines headed his way, and being encouraged by the abnormally large soldiers, a number of the normal-sized Marines followed close behind them.

The husband-and-wife duo shouted and mocked the Marines, leading a large number of them on a chase across the islands.

The majority of the Marines started to follow, when a woman shouted at them, ordering the men to halt in an icy tone. There was a brief disagreement with the woman and another one of the Marines, who seemed to be equal to her in rank. After they seemingly settled their disagreement, fifteen Marines, including the woman stayed behind, while the rest gave chase to Vidu and Vera.


Katara formed another ice bridge for them to cross, and they quickly did so in order to confront the rest of their opponents.

"Thunder Tempo!" Nami's voice rang clear as black clouds formed above the Marines and shocked them once more, but these particular Marines had a much higher endurance than their fallen comrades, and her actions only served to aggravate them.

The Benders worked together in fluid motions, with Aang combining a mix of firebending and airbending, and Katara following close behind effectively fighting off any Marines that got past Aang's attacks. Understandably, the Marines questioned just who the Benders were and what kind of Devil Fruits they may have had. Aang was an anomaly, because he had all of the powers that the other two did, along with a fire element which did not make sense. Perhaps he had some rare Devil Fruit that allowed him these abilities. Aang skidded to a halt and went wide-eyed when a Marine who was the size of that crazy King Bumi's oversized rabbit charged at him. Aang quickly resorted to full-on firebending when he realized the man was trying to grab him with hands that seemed much too big for his body. But it was to no avail as the man reached for him, his hands and body were encased in a shiny, black substance.

"It's that armor Haki!" Aang said aloud, and he moved to the side as a fist tried to crush him. The man made a move once again, but when Aang dodged, he miscalculated the speed and distance the oversized Marine was capable of achieving. "Augh!" Aang struggled as the man gripped him in his steel-like fist.

"Aang!" Katara didn't have time to focus on helping Aang, as she had a number of opponents descending on her.

"Stop struggling, brat," the Marine put a pair of stone handcuffs on one of Aang's wrists, but he dropped him as multiple hands appeared on Aang's shoulders and chest, slapping the man and shoving Aang away from him.

"Thanks, Robin!" Her ability was still creepy, no matter how nice she was.

"Of course, Monk-kun,"

"Robin, behind you!" Aang warned, and there was another oversized Marine brandishing a large club that would have made even someone as large as Franky seem small standing next to it. Robin crossed her arms and disappeared in a flurry of pink petals, and she reappeared behind the large man. She then sprouted hands on both of the large Marines' shoulders and back. "Clutch!"

The Marines screamed as sickening cracks came from both of them.

Toph would have felt frustrated as she did not have much natural earth to work with, and she was unable to put even a dent into Sea Stone with her earthbending; but this was a chance for her to fully test her new weapon that Franky had designed for her. She had been limited in her movement on the ship, but here things were different; and she could more than easily go all-out in a mix of earthbending a metalbending.

Marines screamed objections and insults as she knocked them away.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" the smooth voice of a man spoke up. Toph could sense his casual demeanor in the way he spoke and the way he moved. She could tell that he was tall and thin, yet he was carrying a weapon that was rather heavy, yet it did not throw him off-balance.

"So, who are you supposed to be then?" he asked, and he easily spun his oversized hammer in his hand before letting it fall to the ground so that he could lean on its handle. "I wasn't aware that the Straw Hats had so many new members, this is quite interesting."

His tone was not belittling, but rather expressed genuine interest in the current events that were playing out before him.

"Be careful sir!" one of the men shouted. "She has some kind of Devil Fruit ability where she can manipulate the earth, and she can also manipulate metal!"

"Can you now?" the man seemed to laugh as he spoke. "I know better than to assume that simply because you are a child who lacks sight you don't pose any real threat." He addressed the other Marines, in a berating and complaining manner. "You fools are underestimating her and that's why she's beating you. You give us Marines such a bad name when you do such things, it's shameful." He addressed Toph again. "Let's have some fun, little girl. But before we start, may I ask your name?"

"Toph Beifong," Toph took on a defensive earthbending stance. There was something about this man that made all of her instincts go on high-alert.

"Nice to meet you, Toph Beifong." The man shifted his weight. "My name is Alverei Travis."

Toph gasped in shock as both Travis and his hammer left her senses in a matter of seconds.

"Please treat our relationship well."

Travis's voice was a mere two feet away, and Toph quickly turned to face him just as he swung his hammer to strike the Earthbender.


Next Time: The Marines aren't letting up, and while things are fairly easy for the Pirates, the Benders find themselves facing opponents who push them beyond their limits.

More A/N:

**[ROBIN Y U NO TELL LUFFY U KNOW SABO?]**

I had to rewrite and rewrite quite a few chapters as I kept getting ideas and saw needed improvements as I did read-throughs. This arc is taking me longer to write than I expected, but please enjoy it!