Tama felt the wind messing her short hair and kept her eyes closed as they passed quickly from one tree to another. She could feel the jumps up and down, sometimes around the branches, that her big brother makes to run faster. Tama timidly opened her eyes, the sunlight occasionally blocked from the trees' shadow forming a beautiful sight on the forest. It was the first time she was so up in the air, but she didn't feel scared at all. A big smile made its way on her small face and a small laugh escaped her.
Luffy looked back at her and matched her smile, speeding up and doing extra jumps, as the child let out little happy screams. Tama couldn't help but thing about the swing that master build her, expect it was so much more intense but also funnier.
Suddenly her big brother grabbed a branch and it bended like rubber, using it to rest on a trunk and start their run again with a newfound speed, even faster than before, only to slow down after a few more trees and turning his head to look back at something.
"Ah, I've caught up!" Luffy exclaimed happily and Tama tried to pull herself up a little more on his shoulders to see to who he was talking to. To her joy, it was the bird guy that saved her big sister not long ago! At this point she was smiling so much her cheeks hurt a little.
"Was I going that slow?!" Marco commented shocked as he continued flying with his phoenix wings out. "I'm getting too old for this-yoi." He smiled at them and greeted Tama. "Glad to see you doing well little girl." She gave him a big smile and an affirmative sound.
"Any idea what we're getting into-yoi?" Marco asked still with a smile on his face.
"Watch out for seastone chains!"
"They came from behind the trees!" Tama added peeking her head ahead, watching out for more enemies.
"Got it-yoi!" As they went further into the forest, the phoenix calmly flying around while the other two energetically jumped around, the two pirates could faintly hear distinct Voices, some of them that weren't supposed to be there.
"Luffy." Marco called him out with a serious smile on his face.
"I know." He responded quickly, his smile matching his one and not wavering. Tama gulped but remained silent, forcing her smile to stay in, remembering her vow to protect his newfound big brother. One person's silhouette made its way on their minds.
Their friends need help. There's no turning back.
"Race you!" Luffy suddenly exclaimed and pick up speed again going down, Tama yelling in surprise before laughing without a care. Marco yelled at them surprised and sped up to try and keep up with them. 'Geez, he's too fast.' The phoenix thought, worrying about the injured boy as he watched him from behind. 'This white thing he has going on is really something.' He thought and smiled somewhat proudly.
The sunlight ahead of them became more and more intense as they got closer to the end of the forest and less trees blocked their view, many silhouette coming into the view.
'Ugh…! If only there was something to distract her for a while, I could defeat her in one go…!' Nami thought bitterly. 'I'm too busy dodging these stupid chains!'
She saw the younger Usopp dodging a chain with pure luck, young Sanji – who she even didn't count in, since their opponent is a woman right now – together with the older Chopper were busy protecting her younger self – that was struggling to use the first version of the clima tact and she mentally grimaced at that, remembering her poor excuse of a fight against Miss Doublefinger – Vivi, who had her peacock slashers out and the younger doctor. Zoro seemed to be the only one to manage to fight back, but was definitely struggling, keeping losing his words when they got caught in the metal, while Ace was desperately trying to free himself from the chain tightly tied around his ankle. The younger crew was clearly in disadvantages – it wasn't a surprise, there's no way they could've survived the New World back than in Alabasta, they barely made it alive defeating Crocodile.
"Look on the reverse side of the-" She shouted at her younger self, but as she was getting distracted by the others' current situation, the older navigator barely dodged a pointed chain that managed to cut her left cheek, but a second one successfully hit her on the head with enough strength to make the wound she got from Ulti open up again and bleed profusely as she fell on the ground grunting. 'Damn it! There's no way we're winning at this rate!' As she held her bleeding head, her eyes darted on all of her friends, each one struggling with their weapons stuck on some chains or being hit really bad. She had to do something, at least buy some time for her younger self to figure out her new weapon, or anyway give time for the others to take some breaths.
"Alright, alright!" The older orange haired brought her hands up in the air, trying to catch the dark-haired marine woman's attention. "Stop these things already, time out!" Incredibly, all the chains stopped at once and the woman looked at her baffled.
"Nami…!" She could hear somewhere behind her the reindeer whispering surprised, but not objecting. The others surely were too shocked to intervene.
"Can't you see we're tired already? What is it, do you want to collect our bounties? First thing, I have questions, then we'll fight you for real!" Nami crossed her arms standing and demanded confidently. One chain was coming at her slowly from the ground, moving like a snake, but she promptly ignored it as she watched their enemy looking thrilled by her deal.
Suddenly she strongly pulled another chain from her arms and Ace made a few meters hitting his head on the ground, only to sit up pretty much uninjured but with messy and dirty hair, angrily yelling. "That hurt!"
"Hey, I told you to stop for a sec!" The navigator snapped as she stubbornly kept staring at her, not even trying to look at her clima tact on the ground. She can't lie as Usopp could, she can't beat her fast as anyone else would, but might as well try to buy some time while thinking of something.
"Who are you, and where are we?! What have you done to our friends!" She screamed at her, trying to sound desperate enough to make her pity her and at minimum listen.
"You really don't know anything. And you clearly look out of place." The woman finally spoke back to her, still holding her chains up in air, getting a good look at them for the first time. "This is God Valley. World government's island and the Celestial nobles' main house. Your mere presence here as pirates is a declaration of war against the world."
"Never heard of it." The navigator put one hand on her chin thoughtfully. "Are we in the New World?"
"Never head of…?" The marine repeated her words shocked. "Where do you live, under a rock?!" She snapped angrily and raised one chain to struck her. This is it, her patience worn off! Nami tried to get behind screaming out in surprise, dragging herself on the ground as she noticed in the corner of her eyes a couple of bubbles and two sticks of her old clima tact quickly spinning in the air towards, curving around her and going against the chain, creating small tornado making it turn its trajectory and struck to the ground. It was the cyclone tempo! Now, this is going to bring everyone's spirit up.
At the same time, Ace felt the chain on his ankle, which previously came out from the forest, weaken its grip and flat down on the ground, as if someone or something got it down directly from its source, even though it still had a good knot on him he tried to break free pulling the chain with both his hands grunting for the weakness that overcame him.
"Thanks for the tip!" The young Nami thanked her smiling somewhere between pure confidence and nervousness as she catches her divided clima tact and her older self smiled proudly, as she knew this was a important moment for her – she could finally fight back, and she was done being a burden! Quickly the others joined him, trying to hit her in vein – Sanji, poor thing, only making sure to take everyone who was closer to him out of danger and looking visibly livid at his impossibility to help fight, but that can't be helped.
The older navigator crawled quickly towards her own weapon, still a big smile on her face as she thought just how far they've got since they started this laughable adventure, back in the East Blue.
Just as she was about to reach her clima tact, Nami saw a blur of white getting out from the line tree up in the air, one arm and leg up like it was running. Looking up, she instantly recognized Tama's small body clanging to the white figure's neck, and at the same time she saw it, the straw hat on the little girl's head, the scar under the white figure's left eyes and his outfit even if it was now all white! She let her eyes water for a split of second, before pushing the tears back in.
She knew it! Take that, giant oversized snake. No one messes with the straw hat captain!
When they finally locked eyes, Tama smiled big at her as Luffy joyfully exclaimed. "There you are!" And Nami couldn't help herself but let out a relieved laugh, watching the absurdity that was her captain, at how weird he looked all white while almost floating in air and yet, whatever this thing was, it felt so Luffy-like.
Their small moment was immediately interrupted as the marine noticed him and with a smooth movement of her arm created more chains and sent them at their direction, and both of them managed to dodge all of them, the captain seemingly having fun and helping himself by putting his feet on the chains pushing them out of their course, while Tama kept holding tightly on him admiring how fast they were moving and how her big brother moved smoothly, predicting where the chains would hit and moving accordingly like it was some sort of a game.
Nami grabbed tightly her weapon, one hand on the ground as she was panting. "Luffy!" She called out to her captain, and another brief eye contact was enough for them to share a plan. They both smiled threateningly, and the action didn't went unnoticed by the marine, who angrily increased even more her attacks, not anymore paying attention to the other pirates.
The straw hat captain used the chains to move around their enemy, stopping to hang upside down – the little girl keeping her small legs around his waist as her eyes were swirling – from one particular thick chain and crossing his arms as he taunted her making a face. "So slow!"
"Is that…?" The young Sanji started to ask, shocked both by Luffy's older appearances and weird white form, the small and younger reindeer on his shoulder, piping up to take a better look on the fight.
"Luffy!?" The older reindeer burst out crying as he sort of answered the cook's unfinished question.
"Chopper!" His captain happily greeted him back and added upon noticing the young version of his crew. "Ah, this is so weird…" As he got briefly distracted a chain managed to hook around his right ankle and both Luffy and Tama went purple with fear as they quickly realized it. "Oh-oh."
"Got ya." The marine smiled victoriously as she immediately started to forcefully pull them around, making them scream out comically. Vivi was the one who stopped them, grabbing the chain with her weapons and struggling to stay on her feet and not getting dragged away with them, but thankfully Zoro quickly cut the metal making the marine woman scream out in pain and Luffy managed to fall with his stomach down to not let Tama get hurt, letting out a small grunt as the air got knocked out of him, and mumbling a small "Th-Thank youu". They both had swirling eyes and small stars circling around their heads.
"What are you, a cartoon?!" In a weird sync moment, both the swordsman, the princess and the marine yelled at them simultaneously.
Luffy shook his head sending the small stars away and as he opened his eyes again, they shone brightly reflecting the light of a thing he never thought he would be able to witness again – Ace using his fire. He couldn't help but picture Sabo too using that fire, standing next to their big brother, both on a fighting stand.
"You're so annoying with those seastone chains!" The whitebeard's commander spat out angrily, covered in flame and ready to finally go all out. "And that's my little brother you just flow around!" Luffy felt a knot on his throat at the sentence and almost, almost felt his whiteness slip away, but quickly regained himself, feeling Tama somewhat hugging him.
'…I think.' Ace thought confused by Luffy's current appearance, but mentally corrected himself immediately as he saw the straw hat hanging on Tama's shoulders, the ultimate proof. 'No, definitely!'
"Ace." Luffy called him out standing up, feeling weird by pronouncing his name to call him after such a long time. "No need, she's already taken care of." Without even waiting for a response, he quickly jumped up towards the enemy who immediately sent all of her chains against him in a pure moment of rage, screaming about how no brat like him could bring down a vice-admiral like her that easily.
Luffy now had a determined look on his face as he moved tactically and too fast for his enemy to realize what was he up to, making the chains curve on themselves and getting stuck on one another, ultimately landing successfully on a cartoonish knot made by the majority of the chains stuck on some rocks and roots, some of it sticking out and trying to get him. The young captain made another face before jumping again, grabbing the remaining chains that were up in the air and pulling them, and the rest of them could only watch.
During all this time, Nami had prepared some black bubbles and a weather egg with a thunder cloud inside. She smiles confidently as her clima tact trembled, letting the sentient cloud out. 'Let's try this!' At some point, her younger self joined in to help and – after she quickly regained herself from talking with a sentient cloud – made even more bubbles at her older self's request. They wasted no time and threw all of their weather hatchlings for Zeus to eat, who quickly gulped down, happy to finally help, and in the mean time everything happened, Zeus grew and grew, hiding behind the trees, becoming one massive cloud full with electricity.
The older navigator gripped her clima tact, ready to guide her powerful attack, and started running towards their enemy pulling Zeus with her while reminding herself that this was nothing compared to what she had to go through just moments prior with Ulti, Kaido's commander. 'It's our turn now!'
As she expected, the woman still was dealing with her troublesome captain that had incapacitated her chains. Nami smiled proudly as she got closer at the marine from her side, who turned around after her current opponent smiling big told her something about being careful about some massive cloud, shocked by the sight. The marine just opened her mouth, not even getting to let out a surprised scream as Nami launched forward her clima tact to strike her.
"Zeus breeze tempo!"
Lighting struck down and at the same time Luffy jumped away to avoid being caught in the crossfire, as even the ground directly under the marine's got a hole cracked in it by the force of the attack.
As soon as the light came it disappeared, leaving the marine burn to a crisp, letting out one big cough before falling down on the ground, her chains dissolving into thin air as she fainted for good. Luffy landed and stumbled ahead but managing to stand upright, while the navigator was on the floor behind him, keeping herself up with her hands and panting heavily.
"Eheh… I might have overdone it this time." Luffy laughed softly resting his hands on his knees while allowing Tama to jump down from where she was hanging on his neck and went to hug his leg happily. Soon the boy turned to address the others, panting, and the first he made eye contact with was Ace, as he was standing directly in front of him since he previously came forward ready to fight, his deity-alike form slowly dripping off of him, regaining his black messy hair and colors on his outfit. Tama noticed him too and froze up in expectation. Despite vowing to protect Luffy from painful memories now she couldn't help but stay still as she watched the two brothers finally reunited – even if it really wasn't like that.
Ace looked somewhat distraught at the sight, but thinking about it, his younger brother couldn't really blame him – he himself still felt weird using his new and free form. Luffy too seemed surprisingly at loss of words and panting from exhaustion, taking in the small details of his brother's figure that without noticing he already started to forget, and the brothers stared at each other for a few couple of seconds, before the older reindeer and navigator came running in and called out for their captain.
"Luffy!" The captain found his smile again as he watched his crewmates run at him, letting out a yell of surprise and begging them to wait a moment as he saw them launch themselves at him to hug him fiercely – Tama getting out of the way just in time – sending them all on the ground and down the small hole the attack just made, not having in him at the moment the strength to stay upright – figures if he had two grown adults to hold in his arms!
Luffy sighed heavily as he pushed himself up on his elbows, Nami and Chopper hiding their faces on his chest and stomach in the while tightly holding onto him.
"You're not allowed out of my sight for six months!" The navigator talked first, voice cracking as she threatened him, and Luffy only looked down at them questioningly.
"Make it years!" Chopper cried out, looking up at him with snot and tears coming out on an exaggerated pace.
Luffy's face softened as he smiled sweetly and sadly. "Sure thing." He looked up at the sky before speaking again.
"Why are you crying, anyway?"
"Ace! Have you seen how brave I am now?!" Tama went to him as soon as the crew from the future fell down.
Ace sighed contently and smiled proudly. "Of course I saw! You're surely getting closer to be a kunoichi."
Tama let out a happy sound, but promptly stopped as more rustling sounds came from the forest and immediately froze up and screamed in panic, running to hide under Luffy's cloak, who had detached itself at some point during the fight.
A small laugh came from the figure who just came out in the light, amusing at the sight.
"Sorry, sorry, I had to take care of the ones holding seastone – so annoying-yoi!"
"Marco?" Ace called out instantly recognizing him.
"Yo, Ace." The phoenix only smiled, a serious and hidden look into his eyes.
"Glasses?! Wow, you must be old."
"Hey!" Marco said defeatedly, landing on the ground and retracting his wings.
"I'm just here make sure you and your little brother don't do anything stupid-yoi." The phoenix stated amused.
"Geez, you even sound just like Oyaji." Ace didn't even try to not humor him.
Marco just gave him a joking threating look, before turning his attention to the young crew staring.
"Oh, my mistake-yoi. This is going to be weird because I've already met you. Name's Marco, nice to meet ya all-yoi." He offered them a kind smile, seeing as a couple of them looked agitated from the fight.
"Are you one of Ace's crewmates?"
"Bingo! But, from the future-yoi."
"S-sorry for asking, but since you do know us, can you tell what we're like in the future?" Usopp timidly asked actually voicing his friends' thoughts.
"Usopp! I don't think it would be a good idea, sorry for the rudeness…" Vivi piped in worryingly.
"Marco, could you do that but like, only giving away your impressions on them…? I am curious about what you think of my little brother and his crew". Ace placed a reassuring hand on Vivi's and Usopp's shoulders as he intervened.
Marco adjusted his glasses considering the question with a smile. "Well, I guess I can do that." He touched his chin in thought looking at them before talking again.
"At first, when I met your captain, I thought he was totally crazy…"
'So that's Whitebeard! Don't attack him, Ace really likes him!'
"…reckless…"
'Shut up! That's not for you to say!'
"…stubborn…"
'I'm gonna save you even if it kills me!'
"… and selfless kid. And I immediately understood why Ace was always so worried all the time-yoi!" He made a gesture with his hands and took a moment to turn to watch Ace as he laughed out loud at that.
"Yeah, the description matches well." The big brother smiled as he facepalmed, as the others too agreed and smiled nervously.
"Then I met the rest of you. And…" Marco let his memories flow freely as he studied carefully each member of the crew, taking in their curious and thrilled look and adjusting his glasses again to gather some time, resting his cheek on one hand and leaning on his elbow resting it on one knee. His kind smile only grew as memories came back at him.
'I'm counting on you!'
'Robin-chaan! Save me!'
'I'm not a tanuki!'
'Don't cry you idiot. We've seen this happen countless times before, remember?'
'Hey curly brows, if we win this…'
'I know, it'll finally be in sight… Luffy becoming king of the pirates!'
'We can't let that oversized snake get away with lying like that!'
Haha… What a lively bunch-yoi.
"…I actually found out, you're way worse than him!" He admitted pointing at them, and of course they all had an exaggerated reaction and Marco laughed amused, some of them laughing briefly with him.
"That's not a bad thing! Your crew kind of reminds me of my own. That made me root for you from the start-yoi". Before any of them could properly respond, their captain's voice distracted them as he got closer.
"I can't believe you, Nami, Chopper! You really thought I was dead?!" The captain angrily confronted the navigator and the doctor like he was scowling at a couple of children as he helped them get out from the hole where the marine still was in, one hand for each.
"But-! But…!" The poor crying reindeer tried to spoke up but just ended up crying more comical crocodile tears.
"That ugly lizard…!" Nami tried to back him up, pumping up her fist up but also failed.
"Everybody was saying that your voice disappeared…! But I didn't believe it!"
"Duh, his heart did stop for a minute, it gave me a good scare-yoi." Marco piped in, having so much fun at the sight.
"Your heart did what!?"
"Marco, you said you wouldn't tell!" Luffy snapped at him angrily.
"My bad." Yeah, Marco didn't feel bad at all.
"You…!" The young captain started with his punch up, but Chopper immediately stopped him by taking his bigger form and hugging him, lifting him up. "Don't strain yourself, idiot!" He begged his captain still crying.
"Chop, you're hurting me!" The captain cried out annoyingly and the doctor let him down, quickly questioning him about the pain. "Where does it hurt? Is it bad?"
"Nah, I just think my ribs are broken!" Luffy happily answered him, keeping one hand over his abdomen where it hurt.
"Oh! Yeah, that would make sense!" The little doctor clapped his paws together satisfied..
"Of course it would hurt to- your ribs are what?! Luffy!" The reindeer cried desperately and the navigator joined him, making their captain laugh and wince at the pain a little more.
"Big brother…" Tama sadly said.
"Just, what the hell is going on…" Sanji scratched his head in thought, as the rest of the others who didn't come from the future sympathized with him.
Zoro kept snoring as the remaining four men stared at each other, the sniper wearing a face of absolute dismay and surprise as he took in the younger version of his best friend and captain, and the genius scientist only playing with his mustache amused by them.
The young Luffy, who matched his crewmates' expression, suddenly burst out laughing at him. Sanji only puffed out smoke in amusement as Usopp screamed at him indignantly.
"What?! That's your reaction?" As the two friends always would, they got in a small friendly banter as the blonde one took in into himself to understand what was going on.
"Hey, mosshead." The cook lightly kicked the sleeping swordsman, who immediately grumbled and sit up in response, rubbing his good eye before speaking in a sleeping voice.
"What do you want." He grunted out and Usopp, once again, screamed as he hit him in the head. "Was that easy to wake you up?!"
"Old Zoro! You're so cool!" Luffy commented with stars in his eyes.
"What about me…" The sniper faking cried.
"Hey, who you're calling old, Luffy?!"
'This is…' The green-haired woman looked at her finally free hands, closing and opening them, stretching her fingers, as she stood in front of what was her prison with the chains that were holding her unmoving against the wall.
She felt like her head was going to explode, taking in too much information in all at once.
A cough brought her at the present moment, and she turned around to look at the man who hold her captive for who knows how long. He was standing weakly, supporting himself with one arm over some sort of control panel that looked completely unusable.
Watching at him, Toki saw everything of his short life. Laboratory, marine bases, so many compliments for its mind able to act and talk like a real human being, and then, a special order, this island scattered in time and space. He… No, 'it' was given a purpose, an elaborated yet imperfect plan, and it tried again and again but always failed, because she and the other pirates teleported into this island forgotten by Gods made the impossible come true.
But now Toki knows everything and remembers every moment. It was never able to pinpoint the exact moments in time and space that would allow it – and the world government hiding behind it – to ride off one single pirate crew who was going to rose so many problems for the world's equilibrium. She smiled knowingly, as she recognized them as the bringers of the dawn.
She couldn't help but feel pity for this thing who hold her captive. An impossible mission and infinite time to try again. No, it wasn't right to consider him an object. Toki slowly got closer and crouched down, hugging her knees.
"Who… are you?" She knew the answer but wanted to hear it from the man that now sit down on the floor, looking defeated and tired.
"Vegapunk's Seraphin." The 'doctor' persona was completely gone, as he failed to reset this small world he knew he had no chance in escaping. No, Toki thought as she brought one hand forward to touch him, but her hand passed right through it, he's finally thinking on his own without being ordered to be that way. She tried again, this time her hand gently touching his shoulder.
Toki blinked a couple of times as once again his history went through her mind all at once, feeling his emotions through it all and helpless at acting on its own accord.
"You want to be free." It wasn't a question.
A pause, as he hesitantly responded. "Don't we all?" Toki smiled and went to talk again, but a small beep started from somewhere in the other's body, who explained in a small voice.
"Emergency protocol, 140. Subject desires… a free will." His head moved spasmodically to the right, and he went still.
One machine behind her started to sprout light and run again, she turned around, her eyes sparkling from the electricity on the air as she pictured something happening, somewhere on the ruined port of the island.
Lighting erupted from the base, at the same time Nami's attack stroke down the marine, as the echo of the past returned. Now that the island didn't have any more who controlled it and the flow of time in it, there was going to be a clash between realities more than there was already: a forgotten past's voice was going to be heard again.
A laughter boomed, as a young and promising marine stand proudly against the most infamous pirate, surrounded by other looming figures.
"Alright, Roger! But don't let this get to your head, once we finish this, I'll be back to pursue you!"
*From small research I made the number 140 in Japanese seems to be an expression of a personal sense of freedom and self-reliance, thought, I'm not so sure about it, neither of the fonts I read that in, so if anyone knows better please do correct me!
Hello, everyone! Thank you for always sticking around. This chapter is a little longer, and it might also be messier, so please do tell if you find any errors, or if you feel like something is missing! I'll probably edit it anyway, as I will with the other chapters too.
Geurtg: thank you as always for reading!
