Karmen sways inside the coffin that the mouse-spider zombies carry through Moriah's mansion. With a thud against the wall, her dark enclosure finally stops moving. She lets the footsteps recede before opening the lid. She checks her bag for ingredients before leaving the empty shadow room in search of the kitchen. Several zombies step in from adjacent rooms to block her path. She lowers her hood and stuffs her veil into her bag. "Salt, fire, or extreme trauma. Those are the weaknesses of a zombie. That's what he told me, years ago," she says, stepping to face them. She takes a handful of feather darts from her metal quills and drops their empty capsules into her bag. She traces the darts along the liquid dial at her wrist containing her super Plucharon. "I've been saving this one for creatures like you. Not being truly alive, it doesn't matter how badly your bodies are tarnished. I won't be leaving any antidote behind tonight."

After several zombies fall into decaying lumps on the stone floors, their reinforcements start to pause. Shadows rise around Karmen as she retrieves her darts and glares at them. "I've got a bit of a time window, judging by how much this place is shaking. If you desire your shadows, do what I tell you."

Not long after, several zombies carry a giant cup into Moriah's tower, followed by several steaming buckets of tea to fill it. They set it by the window and leave the refills along the wall. Another group of zombies carry in a small table and chair and set up a tea set stolen from Perona's collection nearby. The warlord in the room watches the processions leave as Karmen seats herself and sips her tea. "Impressive."

"If there's one thing I learned from my parents, it's how to use threats to twist the arm of the unwilling." Karmen throws a dart into the shadows behind her. A mouse spider collapses to the floor and decays until a shadow rises from the remaining puddle and flies out the open door to the balcony. "And how to control the flow of information." Her eyes pass over him carefully. "It's been a while, Kuma."

"Hello, Karmen." There are glass lenses where his eyes used to be. She wonders how many modifications he's had in the last two years. He stands stiffer than he did when she was a child. Valcour Island fell inside Kuma's territory. He would stop by every few months and she would convince him to take tea in the vineyard and he would speak to her in a gentle voice like no one she had ever known. He made her feel safe and cared for when so many were dying around her. She finds it hard to take her eyes away from the man who kept her human and sane growing up. She wonders what she would have become if it hadn't been for this man. Despite the subtle signs of change in him, she is relieved by his presence. "Mihawk said you'd be with them. I was told you tried to call me." He assesses her. "You're hurt."

"I got shot by a government agent, but my crew patched me up. He wasn't really trying to kill me, but I wouldn't play along. I'm fine, really. Killing zombies just aggravated it a little." She tries to change the subject so he doesn't go off to blow someone up. "I found a cup that suits you a little better than the ones I'd give you back in the vineyard. I had a hell of a time getting it. There's so much I want to tell you." She laughs softly. "It's a bit of a reversal of our usual conversations, huh? You'd always be the ones telling the stories." Her eyes focus on the steam coming from the cups as he stares at her patiently. "All those stories. I didn't know what they were until I got to Enies Lobby and realized I knew the layout of the Tower of Law and that I should avoid CP9 at all costs. You told me about the Navy being in Arlong's pocket, Impel Down and Warden Magellan, this place, and all the others. My crew's out there fighting Moriah and Hogback, right?" She takes a steady sip of her tea as the ground shakes from another impact. "You were preparing me to fight them, weren't you? Or at least, survive them."

"I thought it might become relevant." His voice is soft and there's a hint of pride in his statement. It only took getting shot for her to figure it all out.

"I haven't seen you in so long. I don't know where to start." She looks at the stiffness of his face. "I see you've gone back to Dr. Vegapunk. How have you been?"

"I've gotten by." He sets his bible on the table. "You look sad."

She looks at the ears on his hat, remembering how happy her younger self had been when he finally agreed to let her sew them on. Winston, Godwin's tailor uncle, had to secure them properly later. That was when Godwin had promised to teach her how to sew. Now Godwin was gone and it looked like Kuma might soon follow. "He's worked his way up to your face. I'm just scared that one day you'll be standing there and won't remember me." Kuma doesn't say anything. "I know your work is important, but I'm afraid you'll become the very thing you hate."

He finally picks up his cup and takes a drink. "I saw the apple trees."

Karmen forgives his change of subject and smiles at him. "I like them far more than grapes." Despite the cup's size, Kuma drains it in two drinks. She dumps five buckets into it as a refill.

"You're going back there."

"Yes. I have to."

"Are you prepared?"

"I will be." She looks deep into his mirrored lenses, searching for any remains of his real eyes, and asks the question she's been dreading, afraid of whatever answer he'd gave. "Is Pierce alive, Kuma?"

"Yes."

Relief pours through her like bloodroot. Like any poison, it leaves a hint of fear in its wake. Pierce had been alive and alone in her father's wrath for two years. "How bad is it?"

"I'm not sure."

Karmen takes a sip to clear her thoughts. "It's obvious now that you had some sort of plan for me. If I continue on as I am now, I may not turn out the way you expected. Is that alright? It may seem strange, but… I value your approval more than anyone else's."

The sounds of battle rage below them as the crew fights Oars. He watches her face as she leans forward to see what strategy was being tried. She notes a few missing shadows. "You seem calm, even though your friends are fighting."

"I have faith in them. And I'm injured, so they wouldn't let me fight anyways. Especially against that thing. Last time they tied me to a chair." Karmen sips her tea broodingly. "Our fights always seem to have a lot of running to them, and a bit of a pattern: The crew faces an enemy two or three times, always get bloodied and beaten, but grow immensely stronger with their resolve and come out with a spectacular victory. I'd be lying if I said they never made me worry, though." She puts a hand over her aching wound and sighs, knowing she's in no shape to run or fight at all. She could barely climb the stairs after taking out the low level zombies she had. "I'm really just the secretary, but I've been working hard to make myself combat ready."

"I saw the wanted poster."

"It's nothing compared to the bounty you had, but I like it." Karmen smiles happily. "The Scarlet Secretary. I think it has a nice ring to it. If he knew it was me, daddy would be so disappointed." She thinks she sees a hint of a smile on Kuma's face.

"Tell me about your crew and what's happened since I saw you last."

Karmen refills both their cups and smiles as the memories come flooding back to her. "I ended up in Syrup Village on Gekko Island. Ironic, right? It was a quiet town, but every morning around seven, a boy would come running through town yelling that pirates were coming. He and I became good friends." Karmen tells him everything. She talks while watching the fight. He notes that her face becomes emotionless when the crew is losing and how she grins when they gain the advantage. When she's finished the sky threatens dawn. The last of the tea long since abandoned, Karmen presses her forehead against the window, watching the last of the battle. When Moriah absorbs the shadows they move back to the balcony where Kuma had been standing. She grips the iron rails as the sunlight warms her cheek.

When Luffy knocks down the building, Kuma picks her up and carries her to a safe vantage point on a rooftop, holding her tight as everyone in the square burst into flames. Her shoulders relax as shadows pour out of the defeated warlord and the flames subside. He releases her and she sinks to her knees. "Everyone's back to normal. What a relief," she sighs and stands, smiling at her companion. "Moriah's down. I suppose you've got to go back to work now." Kuma nods. "I don't suppose you'd want to meet my crew? They may be a little terrified of you at the moment, but I'd love to tell them about how you've taken care of me."

He removes his government issued transponder snail from his pocket. "Try not to interfere."

"What do you-" Kuma is suddenly gone from her side. She soon finds him sitting on the ruined tower below. Knowing she'd never get down fast enough, she pushes her observation Haki to its limits to read their facial movements to recreate Kuma's conversation with his transponder snail and the government agent on the other side telling him to kill the crew. She grips the roof and yells his name, but she's too far away and the wind is carrying her voice away from the courtyard. She watches as Zoro steps to face him and the crew begins to fall one by one.

Karmen remembers Mihawk's words on Skypia. "They're full of potential, but I don't think that will satisfy him." Wasn't the fight with Moriah enough to assess the crew? Or was that the exact reason he was following orders now? Was he mad at Luffy for knocking over the tower she was in? Was there a reason he couldn't overlook a direct order even after he knew her attachment to them?

"Kuma," she whispers. "What do they have on you?" She calms herself and watches as Kuma mostly lets the crew wipe themselves out with their own attacks. Warlords love to test people. Warlords love to test people. The words ring over and over in her mind. "Please don't kill them," she whispers. She's nearly blown off the roof as Kuma releases his bomb, but he had placed her in a position that negated most of the shock wave from the square. Still, she is barely able to stay conscious. She forces her Haki back up to hear make sure everyone's still alive. It takes her a moment to focus it, so she sees Zoro strike Kuma before she can do a count on heartbeats.

Her own heart drops as she sees the metal in his shoulder and the laser beam pour out of his mouth. "What have they done to you, Kuma?" He glances in her direction and pulls his sleeve to cover his shoulder. Did they give him supersonic hearing too? She "listens" to their conversation, unable to move as Zoro and Sanji offer their lives in place of Luffy's and the crew. In his defiance of Zoro's offered trade, all reservations towards Sanji fade from Karmen's mind. She silently thanks Zoro for knocking him out. Upon seeing the red paw print form from Luffy, she becomes nauseous. "Not that one," she whispers.

There had been several times growing up when she had asked Kuma to take the suffering from a servant. There was always a compromise to it. The pain has to be felt by someone, he had told her. Her response would always be the same. "They were hurt because I'm powerless to help them. I'll willingly take it if it means they don't have to suffer."

It hurt. Sometimes it was as bad as the concentrated sunblade without an antidote. He would take her to an isolated location and hold her while she cried in agony. As she got older, she cried less and became more emotionless. In these times, he would use the power on her and absorb her mental anguish into himself. He never flinched once. He never cried out or said a word. He would just hold her until it passed. She would cry for him. Telling him it was her pain to feel. Her burden. His eyes were always kind towards her as he said he couldn't bear to watch her suffer all alone. It was after one such conversation that he brought Pierce with him as a present for her. The grape she threw bounced off his forehead and landed somewhere in his hair. She yelled at him for the first time then, saying she didn't want a slave. Not from him. His answer had been simple: "Then make him your friend."

How much suffering had Luffy accumulated? The captain is a monstrous man who can take a worse beating than anyone she had ever seen. She wonders if the swordsman could handle that kind of abuse even in a healthy state. She had never seen or experienced a bubble that big and blanched at the thought of it, watching the red color swirl menacingly. Horrified, and extremely awed, Karmen watches Zoro shove his hands into the giant paw of Luffy's suffering. She watches him take a few steps and lets herself collapse against the roof, rolling onto her back and feeling the relief of sunlight. He'd live. They'd all live. A shadow passes over her and she opens her eyes to see Kuma. "Don't scare me like that, you jerk." Even with seeing her crew nearly annihilated at his hand, with all of them still alive she can't bring herself to call him anything else. She stands and faces him. "First you leave Pierce behind and now this? If they hadn't been willing to sacrifice everything…" Tears well up in her eyes. "Don't become someone I don't know. I can't bear it."

"That night two years ago, Gallowcomb had several snipers on the grounds. Even I cannot repel several bullets at once. It was between you or Pierce and I made my choice." He places a pawed hand on her head. Despite everything, she still finds comfort in this familiar gesture. "As for the rest… I approve." His hand leaves her head and with a soft pop she is left alone on the roof.