Patience

A poor assassin will chase after their target until they kill it. A good assassin will learn their target's habits and strike them down while they go about their daily business. A truly excellent assassin will find a place they know their target will be at some point in the future and wait patiently for their victim to come to them.

Fox was a truly excellent assassin and she had found a place Enel the so-called 'god' would be coming back to. She had explored the ruined city during the afternoon, made three Eternal Poses as the dusk fell and had found the big golden bell Montblanc Cricket had told her about late in the night. Now, on board the massive golden airship, she hid and waited, patient as a spider.

Patient as Death itself.

Zoro had no real idea of where Fox had vanished to but unlike the rest of the crew he knew she was more than capable of taking care of herself. He also had a feeling –call it a hunch– that she had something in mind for Enel that would prove fatal to the god's health. In the meantime, looking for the gold Nami was so keen for them to find would be a fine way to pass the time. Luffy wasn't worried about Fox either, but that was based on faith rather than knowledge of her capabilities. Sanji was worried, Usopp had panicked but was now pretending he'd never been worried at all and Chopper, Nami and Robin were all keen for her to be found.

The swordsman suspected Nami just didn't want the other woman to find any gold before she herself did; the navigator was horribly jealous of Fox no matter how much she denied it. It was obvious to anyone with eyes how Nami tried to pretend Fox wasn't there at all and it was something Luffy was going to have to deal with sooner rather than later. The Shichibukai's daughter had let the silent animosity slide so far, but the scolding Fox had dealt to the navigator at Mock Town had made it clear that the older woman was not blind to the situation in the slightest.

Zoro had realised back then that Fox' non-reaction to Nami was much like his own refusal to play along when faced with Bellamy's mockery: it wasn't that she didn't care, but that it wasn't worth it to make a fuss. Of course on some level Nami realised she was being shown up which just made the navigator angrier.

Of course, he mused as he dodged up a tree to escape the massive snake that was now chasing him, Luffy, Robin and Chopper, having Fox with them would probably have made exploring rather easier.

When a person is waiting to kill another person, they need to remain calm and focussed on their goal, so as not to miss the opportunity when it arises. On the other hand, when you have hours upon hours to wait it is only human to let your mind wander a bit.

In order not to let her mind wander too far, Fox had expanded her Colour of Perception to match the range of her Devil Fruit Ability, making her aware not just of what was living on the island below her and its relative health but giving her insight into their abilities, personalities and purpose. She was also keeping track of Enel, who was quite possibly the most arrogant, insensitive man-child she'd ever had the displeasure of observing. She was channelling what energy she could to Usopp and Sanji but they'd never been this seriously injured before now so she could only send a little at a time. Fortunately both were tough, as was Nami, so they would all survive as long as Enel didn't take them seriously and said 'god' did not seem inclined to.

Luffy was fine, if a bit muffled… ah, the cute snake she'd met earlier had eaten him. Zoro was fine, Chopper had just beaten one of the priests and Robin was getting thrown around but wasn't anywhere near dead yet. All in all, nobody needed rescuing badly enough for her to abandon her position.

Well, nobody she knew at least. A lot of locals were getting sliced, diced and bashed or char-grilled by one-another and Enel respectively.

Time meant nothing to her when she was like this, locked in an artificial tranquillity as she waited for the perfect moment. Beneath her several combatants gathered in a free-for-all at the centre of the ruins on the lowest of the elevated levels centred around the beanstalk and did battle. One by one the fighters fell until only the snake –with those alive within it– Zoro and the fiercest of the local fighters were still standing. Then Enel brought the cloud they were standing on crashing down into the lower level of the ruins, down where Robin was.

Fox did not move even as the battle below raged on in this new arena, even as her crewmates were defeated. If she intervened now, her victory would not be certain. Better to wait. Beneath the thick blanket of cold logic and a truly ferocious work ethic however, her heart wept for her friends' pain.

Wait. All things come to those who wait.

She was however now omnipresent enough in the so-called 'Upper Yard' to prevent those who had fallen from dying, for a little while at least. Hopefully most would recover enough in the next hour not to need to lean on her remain among the living, or else she would have to chose to either become more tied up here than she cared to be or to detach herself and let them die. Most of those leaning on her were the Shandians Enel had fried and she was getting attached. Then Zoro went down.

Soon.

Being in her true Logia form, Fox didn't feel the drain from the dozens of injured people she was sustaining as her energy was limitless. That didn't mean she couldn't feel the pain those she was connected to were experiencing.

Then, finally, Enel entered the airship. With Nami, but a person couldn't have everything. She'd have to wait until Nami was safe until going through with her mission as it was likely the ship would crash when she took out the so-called god. Then Luffy showed up. As a rubber-man, he just so happened to be lightning proof; Enel's expression was hilarious.

Unfortunately Enel was a capable warrior and not limited to his Devil Fruit Ability, not to mention his skills with the Colour of Observation, and he was able to beat Luffy down for long enough to get the airship started. As with all victories against Monkey D. Luffy however, it proved transient. After getting thrown around some more Enel decided discretion was the better part of valour and threw Luffy off the airship, attached to a massive ball of gold.

Not yet.

Waiting for a kill at the level Fox was working at involved the Colour of Observation with a precision most people never reached. As it was, to all intents and purposes she did not exist until the moment came to strike. Caught in the dizzyingly changeable world of what-might-be, she had no intent and no purpose until the time came for the kill.

Fox had killed a lot of people over the years and other than the debacle that earned her the record-breaking bounty, every last person she had assassinated had been taken completely by surprise. So she waited, even as Sanji and Usopp boarded the flying ship.

Robin's recovery and decision to move those injured away from the airship and the darkening clouds around it was noticed but not acted on. Zoro was fine, the Shandians would be and the moment was coming.

Usopp, Nami and Sanji were all gone now, the airship faltering after the chef's sabotage. Luffy was climbing the beanstalk after the bell and he and Enel would be meeting again.

Not. Yet.

The lightning almost made her consider attacking prematurely; so much wanton destruction! But no. She had trained for four long, arduous years in the Way of the Assassin and been declared a Master. She would do her teacher proud.

Not…

Nami arrived at the top just before Luffy returned after being launched off by Enel, then the mad 'god' exploded a massive thundercloud, laughing manically all the while. Angel Island was completely eradicated; thankfully all the natives had gotten off first. Then Zoro and the Shandian –was his name Wiper?– tried to cut the beanstalk and got zapped by Enel again. Fox had to pour quite a lot of herself into both, especially after what the idiot local had done to his arm.

Yet…

Luffy dived into the thundercloud after Enel had loaded the bell onto his airship and Fox could feel the perfect moment approaching. As Luffy knocked the bell off the roof of the barge and fell back down to earth, as the deep, clear peal echoed through her bones, the moment arrived.

Now.

Fox struck, Kairoseki blades and force of will driving her into the false god and over the edge of the teetering vessel. Beneath her feet braced against his spine Enel choked as the points of her knives pierced his heart and spleen; she twisted the blades first left, then right to widen the wounds, encouraging his body to bleed out. She didn't care that she was freefalling, didn't care that the ground was a long way away. She was a hawk on the stoop, an eagle on the wing. She was Death and she flew.

Down.

Down.

Down.

Into the ruins of the city Enel had despoiled.