I do apologize, loyal fans, for keeping you all waiting for the final chapter. But it took a long time for me to come up with an idea for Brook, and when I did, I couldn't find a way to make it work well...until I spoke to my fellow member of the Cross-Brain, CV12Hornet, who gave me an even better idea. Good thing, too, because otherwise I would have been sitting on this chapter for another few weeks so I could publish it around Christmas. But as it stands...here is the final intervention. Spoilers up the Zou arc.
A familiar red, stony horizon and salty air greeted the Straw Hats' senses as the light faded.
"The Twin Capes again?" Chopper asked curiously. "But isn't this Brook's turn? He's the only one left."
"I thought you said we'd be saving them at either Little Garden or the Florian Triangle?" Zoro concurred, turning to his fellow swordsman.
The skeleton sighed. "I thought as much at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that saving them at either of those points wouldn't be enough. The only way that they have any chance of reaching Raftel is if they are armed with both the strength and the knowledge they need at the beginning."
"So, we've come to the outset of the Rumbar Pirates' journey through the Grand Line," Robin concluded, turning to peer over the cliff.
And as the crew followed her example, they saw the vaguely familiar form of the Rumbar Pirates' ship, not pristine but exceptionally better than what they found in the Florian Triangle. Sunrise had passed only a short time ago, and most of the crew was lazing and playing music or training. None were close enough to the time travelers to have seen them.
"All right, so is this just going to be walking up and explaining things to them, like we did to our past selves on the second jump?" Sanji asked.
"I don't think so," Brook replied grimly. "I remember the mindset that we had before setting out. We were completely confident in our abilities...we were naïve. We had enough skill to survive almost to the end of Paradise, but even without that ambush, we would not have lasted a day in the New World." He shook his head as he drew Soul Solid. "We will need to demonstrate our abilities, and show how thoroughly outclassed they are, before we tell them the truth. I suppose that I should handle that myself."
"Hold on a second, Brook, I have another idea."
All eyes turned to the Straw Hats' sniper, who had a mischievous grin. "What if I showed them just how big the difference between us is? I mean, do you think that they could have any chance of beating me?"
The message sunk in, and Brook slowly shook his head. "What do you have in mind, Usopp?"
"Weeell...have we ever told you the story of what happened to an East Blue Pirate named Don Krieg when he entered the Grand Line?"
It had been a month since the Rumbar Pirates had come over Reverse Mountain and docked at the Twin Capes to repair their ship. With nothing to do to bring their extended shore leave to an end any faster, the crew was enjoying the welcome break from not having to worry about sea creatures or other ships crossing their paths at all hours of the day, and not needing to awaken at the crack of dawn in the name of fending off said threats. Many were taking advantage of the break before their adventures began in earnest to get a few extra hours of sleep.
Of course, in the event that they slept too long, there was always a foolproof way to get them awake.
"It's a whiiiiite handkerchieeeeef~, Careful now, knees on the ground, run awaaa—"
THWACK! THUD!
"That damned song got old the first time you sang it, Brook," Mawaritosuki growled.
"Yohohohoho! How harsh!" the violinist laughed as he got to his feet, discarding the pillow that had struck him. "But you did request a sparring session today, didn't you?"
"...five more minutes," the other swordsman grumbled.
"Oh, very well," the fencer chuckled as he turned and walked out of the makeshift lodgings by Crocus' house.
Naturally, the next place he went was the base of the cliffs of the capes. He descended carefully, despite knowing he had a rescuer waiting if he fell in...who he could see smiling and waiting for him already at the bottom of the cliff.
"Good morning, Laboon!" Brook greeted, perching himself on a rock nearby. The 'little' whale chirped happily in reply, and chirped more as Brook produced his violin and bow. "Shall we start the day with your favorite—?"
BOOM!
Brook cut himself off as an explosion sounded from the cliff. Glancing up, he saw a plume of smoke rising, and grit his teeth. "Laboon, stay out of sight. We'll be all right."
The whale let out a worried chirp, but sunk into the waves. Brook cursed the fact that he had left his sword in the lodgings as he hastened to climb back up the cliff. In the distant future, he'd be able to move his legs fast enough to be able to run on the water. But for the speed that his technique required, he was no snail at the present time; he ascended the cliff within thirty seconds. And what he found there was nothing that he was expecting.
After all, what sane person would expect to see the barren ground suddenly blooming with a myriad of strange and hostile plants attacking his crew? None of the injuries were all that grievous, but there was no end to them; the plants were surrounding the pirates on all sides, and though the entire crew was present, they were making no progress.
"What in the world is going on here?" Brook demanded, dodging out of the way of an oversized Venus fly trap and ducking beneath a flight of green bananas that resembled shurikens.
"Ask later, fight now, Brook!" ordered a blonde-haired man with an F-shaped mark beneath his right eye and another on his chin, fending off a massive wolf-shaped structure of pure plant life, sparing a moment to toss Brook the purple cane he was holding.
The afro-clad musician grabbed the handle as it flew by, the lower section of purple sliding off from the momentum to reveal the sword beneath. The swordsman began dashing amidst the many plants, blade flashing through stem after giant stem, deflecting shurikens, and slicing through the oversized rafflesias that were disabling the men. With both Yorki and himself fighting, the number of plants steadily decreased, and the pirates began winning the fight.
Finally, with the entire crew beaten, bruised, bloody, and/or exhausted, all that remained were odd scraps of plant life that were withering as they watched. They were safe.
"Allow me...to reiterate: what...in the world...was that?" Brook huffed.
"Oh, just killing time," came another voice, prompting all present to look towards its source. Said source was standing at the edge of the cliff. He was a man of average height, but that was all they could tell, considering that the black outfit he wore covered his entire form, from head to toe. Even the slingshot he carried was black.
"Killing...time? You sicced an army of killer plants on us because you were bored?" one of the Rumbar Pirates demanded indignantly.
The man shrugged nonchalantly, fully undisturbed. "You haven't been in the Grand Line for very long, have you?" he drawled.
"Damn you...DAMN YOU!" Yorki yelled, charging forward with rage that disguised his tired state. The man didn't move.
"Special Attack, Green Star: Humandrake!" he called out. The instant he finished his sentence, what looked like half a dozen miniature men with flowers for their heads leapt up from the ground directly beneath Yorki, clinging onto his body. The sudden weight was too much for the pirate captain, and he slid to a painful halt far away from the stranger. The stranger then raised his slingshot and pulled it back.
"Special Attack, Green Star: Bamboo Javelin!"
He released the band, and the projectiles flew towards Yorki. The moment after they struck, a small grove of bamboo stalks sprang from the ground, instantly growing half as tall as the lighthouse. Yorki was nowhere to be seen.
The remaining pirates charged forward at the sight of this, Brook ahead of them all. The stranger still didn't move, even as Brook sliced away the bamboo with a swipe of his blade, revealing their captain within... untouched; the stalks merely surrounded him, none piercing his body.
"You...You missed," Brook said in what was meant to be a gloating tone, but came out as a sigh of relief.
"I meant to," the man stated calmly. "I'm a sniper first and foremost; if I wanted you guys dead, you would never have seen me."
At that moment, the man vanished. Brook blinked.
"Expect the unexpected."
The stranger's voice came from behind him. Behind his crew. They had barely begun to turn when he vanished again.
"Never lose track of the opponent."
Brook saw him far off to the side, then he was gone again.
"One slip-up, and you're dead."
The swordsman felt the whisper an inch from his ear, and throwing caution to the wind, swung his blade around. He struck only air, and the man reappeared in his original position, slingshot raised and ready to fire.
"That's the way of the Grand Line. And this?"
The man tilted his slingshot back, firing the projectile straight up, and then fired another projectile at it a moment later. It exploded high above the ground, with enough force that Brook and the rest of the crew fell down. The resulting cloud turned into a bright red skull, leering down at them as if about to strike. Then it dissolved, and all eyes turned back towards the stranger, who stowed his slingshot in his robes.
"This is your wake-up call."
Those words stunned the crew more than anything else. Yorki slowly got to his feet, dodging around the bamboo, his sword still at the ready. "Who are you?" he asked coldly.
The man raised his hands and lowered his hood. The face was that of a young man with a comically long nose, black hair in an afro-like form, orange ear protectors and goggles, and a white hat. His expression was unreadable.
"My name is Usopp. I'm part of a crew known as the Straw Hat Pirates, and I'm here to demonstrate for you exactly how little chance you have of surviving the Grand Line as you are now."
"We...We won't be discouraged. We knew that there would be challenges here. But we'll be ready when we meet someone else like you," Yorki vowed.
Usopp chuckled sardonically. "Someone else like me, you say? Please. I beat your entire crew without even trying, with a slingshot. You saw that I could have killed you right away, and I didn't. And like I said, I'm only part of the Straw Hat Pirates. I'm not the captain. In fact, I'm the weakest out of all of us."
The Rumbar Pirates paled in unison as he said that, and the pallor only intensified as nine more figures clad in black suddenly appeared beside him, one by one. They varied in shape and size, but none of their faces were visible. Brook swallowed, and spoke again. "And you're really here to show us all of this because of boredom?"
"No, but there are those who would."
Brook and all of the listeners froze as one of the figures stepped forward, and spoke with his voice.
"This, my friends, is in aid of a hope that you will not perish in the Grand Line, and subsequently leave Laboon alone. You seek something that nobody has found for centuries, and ultimately, you don't have what it takes to grasp it."
"Who are you to say that?" Brook demanded, getting past the oddness of his voice. The man turned towards him, and he felt his anger falter at the stare that came through the hood.
"Former acting captain of the Rumbar Pirates and current musician of the Straw Hat Pirates, 'Soul King' Brook...age 91."
Brook's jaw fell open again, and Yorki looked at the speaking stranger in haunted awe. "Brook?" he whispered.
"Captain Yorki. It has been a very long time," the man nodded.
"...If you're really me, then show your face," Brook requested.
"Yohohohoho!" the so-called Brook laughed, just as Brook did. "The resemblance isn't much. As I said, we're here to prevent you from perishing in the Grand Line...as you did in my time. It's only thanks to a strange old man with a very powerful Devil Fruit that I can stand before you now, as a crewmate of the second Pirate King, and potentially save you from your demise."
"Second—what are you—how did—" Yorki stuttered. After a moment, he got ahold of himself, and sighed, looking at the future Brook grimly. "Tell me everything."
"Two months from now, we set sail into the Grand Line with our ship fully finished, vowing to Laboon that we would return one day. We made significant progress before disaster struck. You and many others on the crew caught an incurable disease, and we had no choice but to send you off from the rest of us before it spread any further, leaving me to be captain from then on. We nearly made it to the end of the first half of the Grand Line before we met an extremely powerful crew. Those of us who did not die in the fighting died from their poisoned weapons. I died as well, of course...but came back by use of the Revive-Revive Fruit. But as the area where we died was thick with fog, it took me a year's worth of searching to find my body, by which time I had decayed until only my skeleton remained. I would suggest you brace yourselves."
The future Brook raised his hands to his hood. He waited for a few seconds, giving the Rumbar Pirates time to follow his advice...and lowered his hood.
Nobody screamed, but several gasped and recoiled. Forewarned wasn't prepared, really, to actually see that beneath the hood was just a skull with a black afro. Said skull then began talking again, still in Brook's voice.
"The attacking pirates destroyed the rudder, leaving me stranded there alone for the next five decades; it was only our promise to Laboon that kept me sane and prevented me from killing myself. After fifty years, however, I came across this crew as they sailed through the Grand Line. The captain, Monkey D. Luffy, eagerly invited me to join his crew, finding my new appearance 'awesome' rather than repulsive, desiring my musical capabilities, and having met Laboon at the Twin Capes, where he was still waiting after all of those years, despite Crocus having confirmed our death."
The skeleton seemed to smile. "I accepted, and traveled with the crew that had given me new life until Luffy became the Pirate King. And a year later, we found a man who let each of us return to the past for a single hour to save something that we lost. I am here now, my friends, in hopes that I can prevent your demise in this ocean."
Silence fell among the Rumbar Pirates, stretching on for a full minute. Yorki finally broke it.
"That's not everything, Brook. You said that your captain was the second Pirate King. Who's the first?"
"A rookie in this time by the name of Gol D. Roger," interjected another of the cloaked figures. All eyes turned to her as she removed her hood, revealing long black hair and cool blue eyes.
"Nico Robin, archaeologist of the Straw Hat Pirates and last survivor of Ohara," she explained, and then continued. "The reason that nobody has been able to conquer the Grand Line to this date is that they have all lacked the proper knowledge. The only way to reach Raftel is with the map that leads to it, and that map is inscribed on four separate Poneglyphs. Without the ability to decipher those stones, it is utterly impossible to reach the end of the Grand Line. And there are only two ways to decipher the language. Either study the text so that you can read it, or interpret the meaning using a special power known as the Voice of All Things, a power that incredibly few people possess."
"Roger was one of them," the old Brook continued. "Twenty-seven years from now, he reached Raftel and became King of the Pirates. But he had been suffering a terminal illness for the duration of the journey; nobody could cure it, and the only doctor in the world capable of stabilizing it was Crocus, who traveled with him to learn what became of our crew. One year after obtaining his title, Roger turned himself in to the Marines and was publicly executed in Loguetown, the very place where he was born. But the last words he spoke in his life promised all of his treasure to whomever could find it. It was another twenty-two years before his successor, my captain, set sail, and another two after that before he succeeded him."
Amidst the awe of the tale was a decided air of dread among the Rumbar Pirates. "So, we're already doomed to failure?" one of them asked.
"Keep up, man, that's what Brook is here to change!" said another, looking hopefully at the skeleton. "You've got a way to help us, right?"
The skeleton's expression did not visibly change, but more and more of the crew began looking at him with hope.
"...If you do not want history to repeat itself, you have two choices," the old Brook said at last. "Either spend the next several years training so that you can reach the end of the Grand Line, or spend the next several years training so that you can sail with the Roger Pirates when they arrive. If you seek the end of the Grand Line, those are your only options."
Some of the crew wilted. Others, including Brook and Yorki, straightened more, their faces set in determined lines.
"If we must set aside another decade of training so that we can make this journey, then so be it," Yorki nodded firmly.
"And if it comes to the point where we must reform ourselves beneath a greater captain...then for Laboon's sake, so be it," Brook agreed with frigid determination.
All of those who had faltered snapped into equal firmness with their captain and Brook.
"Very good," Nico Robin said with a smirk, withdrawing a pair of tomes from her robe. She approached the heads of the Rumbar Pirates, giving one to each of them.
"One of those is a guide on how to discern the meaning of Poneglyphs. If you deem yourselves strong enough to have a fighting chance of reaching the end of the Grand Line, then that will be the final key. The other is a record of future events. With how far we are in the past, all of you have a significant chance to change things. Countless atrocities and disasters can be averted. But the choice is ultimately yours."
"And now," growled an eager voice from another cloaked figure, who removed his hood to show a green-haired man with one eye scarred shut. "How about some more thorough training instructions while we have the time?"
The remainder of the hour was the second hardest and longest of the Rumbar Pirates' lives, after the one where they had to force themselves to ignore Laboon before they headed to Reverse Mountain. So many techniques, so many abilities, so many options, so much pain...so much pain.
Five minutes after that declaration of training, during which time both Laboon (to his joy) and the freshly awakened Crocus (to his bemusement) had been briefed on the situation and their extended hiatus, they had plunged into the most memorable training session that any of them could imagine.
Monkey D. Luffy was a young-looking man with a harmless-looking face, and being made of rubber made him look more funny than threatening at first. He also had the ability to knock them out with a single thought, and claimed that he could punch through the Red Line if he had more time. They believed him after they watched him inflate his fist and hardened it into what looked like obsidian. Suffice to say that the group following him learned the basics of Haki training...the hard way.
Roronoa Zoro made up for his youthful appearance with his missing eye and the sheer aura of power and intimidation that he exuded. Aside from Brook, every swordsman among the Rumbar Pirates—and several who had been considering using swords—learned what he had to teach them, the words of the world's greatest swordsman engraving themselves within their hearts, never to fade.
Jinbe the fishman and Sanji the chef spent most of their time instructing on melee and martial arts techniques. But in Sanji's case, he along with Nami the navigator, Chopper the human-reindeer doctor, and Franky the cyborg shipwright spent a significant portion of time lecturing the Rumbar Pirate or pirates who held that crucial position on the crew. The guidance was enough to double each of their respective skills, and set them on the path to grow more in the coming years.
Nico Robin spoke privately with Yorki concerning the knowledge she had given him and how he could use it. Assassinations, Celestial Dragons, framings, revolutions...there was enough to make the captain's head spin. Robin was adamant about ensuring that the book found its way to Ohara when he had changed all that he could, but he promised that he would do everything in his power to reshape the future for the better.
And Brook, naturally, spent the time talking to his older self, learning more about his Devil Fruit powers and more about the crew that he could and would sail with in his next life. Fifty years seemed like a long time to wait, but with all of the changes he knew that the time travelers' arrival would bring, it would be a welcome challenge and distraction to locate each member who would be his comrade in the future, however things turned out.
As the final minutes of the time travel arrived, however, and the two crews faced each other fully, the Straw Hat Pirates as a whole seemed a bit melancholy. The one of their number in the past was the one who noticed first.
"What's the matter? You've reshaped the entire future with what you've done here," Brook said curiously.
"Yeah...but it really sucks that it only works here," Sanji replied.
"This is an alternate reality from the one that we live in," Robin said. "We can change all that we want here, but it won't change anything for us. And this is our final jump to the past; after this, we'll be returning to our own time."
"Even so...I consider it well worth it to have been able to correct so much that could have gone wrong. Laboon can avoid his many, many scars this time," the skeletal Brook said, his smile visible. "And I would have returned a thousand times just to be able to see all of the Rumbar Pirates once more. This...I have no regrets."
The rest of the crew smiled in agreement. And in the next moment, the time travelers began to shine.
"And that would be our cue," the skeleton continued. He swept his arm down in an elaborate bow. "Farewell, my comrades. I will always cherish this encounter in my heart."
The Rumbar Pirates smiled.
"Or I would, if I had a heart. YOHOHOHOHOHO! SKULL JOKE!"
The Rumbar Pirates face-faulted.
"Eurgh. Be glad that you only had to put up with one of those while we were here," Sanji muttered.
"What do you mean, that was genius! Yohohoho!" past Brook chortled, earning several exasperated looks from his comrades. Yorki, however, had a wide grin as he faced the skeleton.
"Don't ever change, Brook. Captain's orders."
Tears leaked from the skeleton's sockets as he raised his arm in a salute. And then the light vanished, and the pirates disappeared along with it.
And there we have it. Now, mind you, this isn't the end, I do have an epilogue in mind, and I rather like the idea I've come up with for it. Hopefully you will as well. However, finals week is coming up; I'd like to promise that I'll have it published within a week, but I do promise that I'll have it out before the month's end. Until then, one last time: Patience is a virtue.