Chapter 26: Checkmate! All the King's Horses and All the King's Men!
"Ah!"
Robin curled her spine, turning her back to shield herself behind the wall of hands that sprang from the ground just before the boulder in front of her exploded. The shower of rocks and broken ground was just as unnerving this time as it had been since meeting up with their antagonist. Occasionally stone could be white or black, but never as devoid of color as these. And the only place that checkerboard pattern belonged was on a checkerboard!
The cry of 'STRONG RIGHT' over her head brought a twist of warmth into her belly and a scowl to her face at the same time. The steel fist crash into that strange blue-black wall that was all around them, and the sound it made rang oddly in her ears. Almost like it was hollow and made of some flexible glass rather than any substance either archeologist or shipwright knew. The closest comparison Robin could make was the porthole windows of Law's submarine, but even that wasn't quite right.
The reverberation covered the rattle of footsteps, and when the dust cloud settled, Robin gave a growl of frustration. "Oh! I almost had him." She rounded on her… well, on the cyborg. "Why are you following me, Franky?! I am perfectly capable of defending myself."
"S'not the point, Bobby," the blue haired man calmly slipped his synthskin glove into the pocket of his shirt, and adjusted his shades, "I didn't let ya sacrifice yerself at Water Seven or Mariejois, I'm not gonna let ya sacrifice yerself here."
That box within her, so stuffed with her emotions from months of planning and fantasizing, was hammering at her willpower. It creaked and weighed heavily on her mind as though it was a real burden she had to carry around physically. She felt like she had the first time he'd reached into her head and told her what she needed to hear. And, just as then, surprisingly her resolve felt no weaker for it.
Still, she whipped back around. Not yet. It wasn't safe. Not yet. She couldn't let it go. Not until their quarry was caught and dealt with.
The slippery man was even oilier than Sanji had described him, and far more disgusting. After whatever punishment Blueno had extracted for failing to break the Strawhats' resolve back at the All Blue. Really, it was almost enough to pity him. Bellamy couldn't have know Luffy had touched the baby. So sending Fullbody to claim paternity would have been a good ploy, if not for that. And because it hadn't worked, not completely, the price had been in flesh.
Now, Fullbody was less than half his former self.
Robin hadn't gotten a very good look but it seemed like his jaw and legs had been replaced with someone else's. Especially his chin, which now sported a strange fungal growth instead of a beard. It was striped in red and black and caused Fullbody some significant distress, as he'd spent the whole fight running and hiding, using distractions like blowing up that boulder to put distance between himself and the Strawhats.
Even now, as they rounded the bend into a wide cul-de-sac, he was pawing at the wall in tears instead of facing them. Whatever had been left of the cook's nemesis was gone now.
Then he saw them and screamed, a wild and desperate look in his eye, "ALL YOUR FAULT!"
He launched himself foolishly at them and was caught mid-air by both. Franky peppered his front with a round of machine gun fire from this left wrist and Robin spawned hand on hands that grabbed him around the legs, arms, and neck.
He thrashed, coughing up blood from the gun wounds, "All your fault, STRAWHAT! Wouldn't've died. Would've survived. Could've been happy. Never got my second chance! STRAWHAT! DAMN YOU! Stole him from me. Should've lived. Should've been there. Should've listened." At some point he broke down sobbing again, pleading, "Kill me…"
By then Robin's fury had eased. Now she saw the man as the victim he was; joined on the wrong side because someone dear to him had died, presumably at one of the major battles of the Great War, as they had been the only ones that included the Strawhats themselves. The once mighty and proud Fullbody, an officer in the navy with a full life ahead of him, broken and hopped up on so many toxins it was hard to tell if he was up or down. The mood swings suggested psychotics. The rambling suggested hallucinogenics. His energy level meant stimulants. The tears and disconnected awareness meant depressants. It was like a Molotov cocktail in his system, and without either Law or Chopper on hand, neither Robin nor Franky could do anything to help him.
So the archeologist brought him to the ground, though she never let go, and asked gently, "Where did you lose him?"
Fullbody was weeping now, gentle rivers running down his cheeks. He spoke with a distant, wistful tone, "My Jango. Sweet precious dancer. To the Holy Land, where we could tango on their tombstones, and waltz among the wild flowers. Tee hee hee heeeee. Mimsy are the borogoves and the mome raths outgrabe~!" He grew tense in her grasp and surged forward towards her, fire in his eyes, "BEWARE THE JABBERWOCK MY SON! BEWARE! BEWARE! THEY STOLE HIM!"
Once again he fell lax, murmuring about his beloved dancer, and Robin felt more than heard Franky re-settle his weapons.
Mariejois then. The most loss of life had been there. The Tenryuubito had refused to give up without a fight and until Doflamingo had disrupted the slave collars, the world nobles had been winning. There wasn't a single pirate that flew the Strawhat flag that had escaped the Holy Hell without a tragedy of some kind.
And the memory proved to be one emotion too much for her box.
Robin released Fullbody, her face full of shared sorrow. Aokiji had been among the last to fall, and his death continued to resonate against the scars of her childhood. It was as though with the former admiral gone, she truly was the only survivor of Ohara.
"I'm so sorry for y—"
"Cruel woman." The ex-marine spat, forcing himself to shaky feet.
Franky shifted his weight, aiming his left wrist again. He missed the ones who'd fallen too, but they weren't out of the maze just yet…
"Cruel, cruel, woman, "Fullbody cursed. "You would walk away and leave me to live. Carry his memory like his body. KILL ME!"
Like the final burst of fury from a dying beast, he launched himself at them. Whatever fight his body had left, he poured into trying to cause some damage; all form lost, his hands curled into grabbing claws, he foamed at the mouth with bloody spittle, and his eyes were bright and bloodshot, wide in their sockets with pinpricks for pupils. Never before had murder been so plainly written.
Then he took a Machine Gun Left to the face, and went flying into a wall.
Sunshine streamed in where the Room-Door dissolved, revealing the beach beyond and a clamoring gaggle of Okama. Usopp shouted something, and Bepo and Killer were right behind him, rushing up the sand past Ivankov and the wounded. It seemed several groups of allies had made it out of the Devil Fruit Labyrinth, but Franky and Robin were first Strawhats.
"Franky!"
In shock, Robin turned on him, expecting some kind of… something. She didn't know what, but it certainly wasn't the quiet regret that hung on his face. She stood slowly, searching the dark lenses of his glasses for some explanation.
When she received none, she reached out carefully, "Franky?"
"Don't forget you aren't the only one to have grown up alone, Bobby." He settled his arm back into neutral position and pulled his sunglasses off so she could see his eyes. "We did things we wouldn't wish on our greatest enemies and faced things the others can't even imagine. I know something of life on the run. After Tom-san…" He had to clear his throat and wipe a stray tear from his cheek. "After he died, most of Water Seven was on the lookout for me. And then the train… but there's somethin' different here, Bobby."
She took her hat from her head, holding it before her and feeling very small. What he was about to say was obvious, but she knew he needed to say it as much as she needed to hear it. So she kept quiet, looking up at him.
Peripherally they were both aware of Ivankov and his Okama keeping Usopp and the others from swarming them, but neither paid it any attention, as Franky cleared his throat again.
"This time we aren't alone. And we haven't been alone since Luffy took out CP9… the first time, I mean. Cuz fuck! Blueno!? Seriously, I mean fuck! That guy used ta give me half off on my…" he trailed off, catching the beginnings of a smile on her face. "Right."
He pulled her to him and scooped her up, one arm around her waist, the other gently caressing her cheek. It took her all of a moment to toss the hat that belonged to Ms All-Sunday to the wind and sprout enough hands to pull him down for a commanding kiss. She hadn't lost him!
And she didn't need to be Ms. All Sunday anymore!
Maybe they should have paid more attention to their Nakama though. At that moment, right as their lips touched and everything seemed like something out of a movie script, the world short circuited. Or rather, Franky short circuited.
His arms spasmed, and only a flourish of flower petals allowed Robin to escape being crushed as all of the metal in the cyborg's body curled inward for several heartbeats. Just long enough for his panicked eyes to meet hers. She mouthed the word 'no' and shook her head. But reaching for him…
There was a flash of blue-ish black, and the augmentations embedded into his body exploded outward in a deadly rain of sparking servos and live ammunition.
When the dust settled and the screaming stopped, Robin dared to let her hand-shield drop just in time for his faceplate to slide down a mound of sand to her feet. She screamed in both rage and terror.
"Oh dear me, looks like Humpty Dumpty's fallen off the wall again." The voice came from everywhere and nowhere, "What will you do, Alice? EEYAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall! Humpty Dumpty had a great fall! All the King's Horses and all the King's Men… tra la-la la-la la-la~"
"JABBERWOCKY!"
The shout came out of nowhere, and Haki swept the island. All across Jaya Devil Fruit users found their abilities paused, most of them fell unconscious. The wounded and the Cards and a good percentage of the non-Fruit users joined them barely a moment later. Cries of fear and shouts of pain went up, echoed by cheers of victory and prayers of joy, as the maze disintegrated. In its wake it exposed Blueno, Hogback, Sarkies, and an unconscious Law standing in the center of a large hill that had once been the main town. Somewhere to the right a sandstorm covered a portion of trees and rocks. To the left a commotion of bodies swarmed the beach where a cotton candy colored ship had just arrived.
But just beyond where Robin knelt in the sandy grass cradling her husband's skull stood the leaders of the world, and the source of the power.
Luffy had point, Coby on one side, Dragon on the other. Behind them gathered a collection of innocents, who all scrabbled for freedom as soon as they saw it was possible. At some point Sabo had arrived through the ground with a wave of Revolutionary soldiers, and had the remaining Cards in chains. Along with him were the remaining members of the council that had met in Coby's office, returned from their mission to Skypiea, though Robin couldn't tell if they'd been successful. However, it was with their help that the center of the conflict was cleared so that the three world leaders could approach the self-named Jabberwocky and his lackeys.
"Well, well, well. Isn't this an amusing surprise~!" Blueno jeered, "Go on then. Show little Alice what good it is trying to put her man back together again."
Coby tried to put a hand on the Pirate King's steaming shoulder, "Luffy, he has point. We're at partial power without—"
"JABBERJAW I'M GONNA KICK YOUR ASS!"
"Luffy…" Dragon growled. "Going in cocksure is exactly what he wants. Wait a moment!"
The rubber man wasn't listening, as usual, and started forward in spite of the continued disagreement between his father and brother.
"Hee hee hee. How quaint, the Lion and the Unicorn fighting over the White King. It's almost a pity none will live to see the young prince born."
Those words signed Blueno's death certificate.
Luffy launched himself with a Jet Pistol right into the big man's face without further warning, and Coby and Dragon were right behind him.
Sarkies took Dragon clotheslining Hogback out cold to turn tail, but found himself tripping over his own feet as the thoughts in his head muddled to the point of disorientation. Coby inverted his Observation Haki to overwhelm the man's mind, making short work of him. The Fleet Admiral turned his attention to Law, and in a split second decision, gathered the older man up into his arms as best he could to make a break for the beach.
"IVA! Blueno's done something to him, he shouldn't have dropped unconscious like that!" He fretted, using the Okama Queen's tea table as a gurney.
"He's in good hands now, Coby-boy. Go help our king! We'll take care of him." Ivankov snapped his fingers as Coby gave a nod and ran off. He eyes drifted to the coast beyond the sandstorm. "Best hurry yourself, Birdy-boy, things are getting out of hand…"
Back at the battle, Luffy found himself flying face first into his father's Dragon Talons. The older man tried to pull back but it did little to stop the force of his Haki-reinforced blow. The Pirate King cried out in pain, but thanks to his Devil Fruit was able to warp around the claw-like grip so that nothing internally was damaged.
Coby took the distraction to fire off three seastone shots from his pistol, aimed perfectly for Blueno's head, only to find Dragon stumbling to the side, his shoulder torn open in three places. The Fleet Admiral snarled and fired again and only Luffy's Observational Haki kept him from getting a bullet to the gut.
"WATCH IT!"
"Put that thing away, boy! You'll do more harm than good while he's got that blasted power up and running!"
"Sorry! I'm not as much of a physical fi—URK!" Coby froze, blood spurting from his mouth as a sword appeared in his stomach.
"COBY!" Both Monkeys shouted in different tones.
He fell to his knees, hands on the sword as the blood stained his uniform. He looked up, shocked and scared at the other two. But just as he was about to fall over the man behind the blade stepped out of one of Blueno's doors to wrap him in a steel spring, holding him upright.
The blond's expression was deranged, and only the shock of Coby's assault kept Luffy from tackling him, as he bounced on coiled legs around his prey. "Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe. All mimsy were the borogoves, and the mome raths outgrabe~!"
Like some child's toy, Bellamy sprung back and forth between Dragon, who had a hold of Luffy, and the injured Coby. His grin was too wide; his eyes were vacant of coherent thought. He seemed to lost in some kind of daze, taken in by the nonsense poem he continued to sing at the top of his lungs.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun the frumious Bandersnatch!" He seemed to focus on Luffy, stretching a coil in his neck so he could peer at the Pirate King upside down, "Hast though slain the Jabberwock? I. Think. Not. Rubber boys don't have vorpal swords, and Swordsman's gone to rot~! EEYAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
At that point, there was nothing Dragon could do to keep his son from assaulting the man who'd kidnapped his wife. So the President of the Red Line took the smart road… letting him go.
"Gomu… Gomu…" His fist pulled back nearly across the island. "No…" The skin was black as pitch and reflective with Haki. "Red… HAWK!"
Flames ignited along the Pirate King's arm from the bicep down to his fist from the friction of the air passing over it as he brought it forward again. It built up speed and momentum, the fireball growing hotter and hotter the closer it got to his target.
And never once did Bellamy move. The same unhinged smile spread from ear to ear, just like his idol's jolly roger.
Mere moments from the infamous attack landing on the batty blond, a Door opened and the fire was engulfed by the not-world between places. All over the island people screamed, as bursts of flame were ejected out of thin air. It took the cry of his father beside him to break Luffy's concentration enough to pull his hand back. Dragon was on the ground clutching his face and rolling in the torn up grass with flickers of the unnatural fire clinging to his jacket and shoulder.
"TOUSAN!" Luffy tried to run to him, but was stopped.
Bellamy had both hands arched over the fallen Revolutionary's form, wrapping him in springs the same way he had Coby, and malicious laughter came from behind the Pirate King.
"Don't take your eyes off your opponent, Mugiwara. I thought you'd learned that lesson long ago when we first crossed paths." Blueno sneered, looming over the shorter man.
Pushed to the point of fury without words, Luffy again launched himself at his enemy, fists flying close and tight in the hopes that at least one of them would land. But over and over again and again Blueno evaded, his Doors opening and closing so fast only their combined Haki could tell where each was going next. To the outside world they were nothing but a blur.
This part Blueno remembered from the last time they fought, and he made no issue of redirecting the Pirate King over the whole island. From the ruins of Mock Town to where Montblanc Cricket had once lived, and back again. The misdirected blows seemed to only further anger the wronged man, as each person that fell victim to his own power was another slight against the Jabberwocky.
From where he guarded Dragon and Coby, Bellamy sang, "No vorpal blade! Tee hee tee hoh! No warpy, vorpal, worpal blade~!"
In return, Luffy let himself be tossed around the island, keeping Blueno's attention. Somewhere at the edges of his senses, something was coming. He just needed to hold out. No matter how the Haki-reinforced strikes sliced his skin, or the blood he spit to the ground before retaliating. He just needed to keep the bastard busy. Hold his attention. Draw it out. Make it last longer. Gear Second was enough. No need to bring out the big guns just yet.
Back and forth. Shave. Shigan. Jet Pistol. Geppo. Kami-e. Gatling. Stamp. Until finally both stood where they began, clothes in a tattered mess, blood stains and bruises blossoming where each had gotten lucky on the other. One half of Blueno's hair was gone, sliced off from the heat of another Red Hawk, and Luffy had long since lost his shirt and sandals. They were somewhere among the rubble he was pretty sure, but at the moment he just didn't have the ability to concentrate on it. Nor was it important.
His scowl was hard, his hat low. One fist was drawn up near his jaw and the other hand faced his enemy, palm out. The pink glow of his Gear Second was faded, the steam more like wisps from the points of his body, and though his breath wasn't short, all who knew him could tell he was running low.
Not that Blueno was much better. His jacket barely held on by a single sleeve. His pants had tears across both thighs. He actually had a line of drying blood from his temple that made it look like he'd painted his face in rusty brown stripes. His eyes were hard though. He didn't blink, and he didn't look away. His forces were in ruins. It was obvious enough in the set of his jaw that he knew if he couldn't wear down the Pirate King, his life would end there.
Which was just how he wanted it.
Finally, after hours of dancing around the island mostly on the defensive, Blueno charged Luffy, his fists drawn back with balls of the not-world stuff swallowing his hands to his wrists. He gave a mighty shout and dove in swinging, which Luffy blocked. But where the rubber met the not-world, it warped and twisted like someone pulled on it. Not having Luffy's permission meant that it hurt, and the Pirate King grit his teeth against it, swinging impossibly stretched punches and kicks around the spots of pain. Where it was warped though didn't stretch as well, and the younger man quickly found himself on the defensive for once.
Had the Jabberwocky been holding back!?
It certainly seemed like it as round two brought Luffy down under the larger man, pinned at the wrists, though his legs were coiled around Blueno's waist.
"Not such a hotshot now, are you, Monkey D. Luffy?! Pirate King? HA! You're still nothing but an upstart rookie brat with no business taking on the world! It doesn't matter how many governments you bring down, you're never going to be anything more than a self-absorbed nothing with delusions of grandeur."
Luffy scrunched up his mouth, "So?"
"What do you mean, so?!" The Jabberwocky scoffed, "Too stupid to even know what half of those words mean!? Pure dumb luck! That's all you have! Take away your friends and your ridiculous Devil Fruit and what are you? A nobody! A nothing! Not even worth the air you breathe!"
"Of course!" The Pirate King was even more confused.
"My life was perfect until you and your stupid band of nobodies refused to die! It wasn't much, but it was my life! A good home, a solid place in the world, prospects for when I retired! And you took it all away! You and that dumb bitch you couldn't just let die like she was SUPPOSED TO!"
He slammed the other's head into the ground. Not that it did anything but break the rocks around them, but the frustration of it was catching attention.
That sandstorm to the East had stopped swirling, Smoker and the others with him revealed to the public's eye. Though there was still a group near Sanji milling about, most of the Okama and Marines had recovered enough to take up their weapons again in the South. Sabo held the North shore with the Revolutionaries and Brook. And to the West…
Bellamy whimpered, shrinking down to the ground like a whipped dog.
The sound drew Blueno's attention, "Hatter!"
But the blond made no answer. It was never certain whether the reaction was an older training that erased the conditioning he'd received at the hands of the Jabberwocky, or an effect of the forced magnetism from his clash with the Neverland pirates months ago, or even something deeper, more personal and inherent to the Hyena. But whatever it was, it held Bellamy frozen in place, staring at the setting sun.
The brunet growled, "HATTER!"
Again he received no response. Not even a twitch of recognition.
Due to the position with which he held Luffy, Blueno had to sacrifice his grip on the Pirate King's wrists to turn towards his ally. It was strange in that Bellamy made no acknowledgement of him after having been so perfectly broken, but it was even stranger that his quarry didn't move either. All the younger brunet did was grin as though nothing bad could ever go wrong in the world.
Blueno hated it.
He gave another sound of anger, and followed Bellamy's line of sight. Both antagonists and the Pirate King were greeted by a long sinewy silhouette, framed in gold light like the coming of a messiah. His shoes were soft and flexible. His pants ended just below the knee, too high to be pants, but too long to be shorts. He was bent over slightly, giving his back a rounded appearance. And that coat… there had only ever been one duplicate, and he had possession of them both.
Strictly speaking it was impossible! The world over swore he was dead! That he'd fallen, literally, at the Battle of Mariejois against the cousins who had rejected him as a child for being so large. He simply could not have been standing there! Let alone striding up the broken main road like he owned the place, and certainly not calm as a sea cucumber with that dazzlingly wide smile, and those perfectly straight, piano-like teeth. He was a walking ghost; he couldn't be real!
Blueno refused to accept it. He was under some kind of hallucination. The dead hypnotist's mushroom. One of Hogback's potions. A trick from the bowels of Thriller Bark. SOMETHING! ANYTHING to explain how a dead man was marching up on their battlefield without a care in the world and those DAMNABLE SUNGLASSES on his smug-ass face!