Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece; that belongs to Eiichiro Oda. I did not make Pokémon, that was done by Game Freak.

A/N: Laboon makes me think of Snorlax honestly. Considering he's an "opponent" who's a road block.

Hey, how many pirates do you think he may have accidentally killed just by being in the way and getting crashed into? It has to have happened at least once.

Terra (Turtwig) Darcy (Riolu) Nico (Starly) Niran (Ponyta) Zhaleh (Vaporeon) Gira (Giratina)

"Giratina?" Zhaleh's voice is very calm, unlike the roaring current swelling up inside.

Yes, Zhaleh? They ask as if the situation is perfectly normal.

"How big do you think that island whale is?" He asks, trying to delay the inevitable.

As is in the name, island sized. I would even state that the whale may be bigger than Canalave. Zhaleh nods as he considers the giant black mass that's crying his heartbreak and defiance wordlessly to the heavens. There's a small gap they may be able to fit through on either side of the whale.

Zhaleh immediately takes control of the currents and yells at the others. "Stop gapping like a cauldron of Golbats and get your asses into gear! There's a gap on either side of the giant whale!" Gravity is playing a much bigger role on them than the currents, however, and the ship barely moves to the right.

Nami instantly takes charge after she's verbally knocked out of her shock. Zoro runs back to turn the whip staff with Usopp's help. There's a distinct sound of cracking wood later and Usopp shouts out that the whip staff is broken. Zoro then says that it isn't broken, just cracked. Either way, it's not good. Forming a Surf under the ship won't help in this situation either. The level of concentration required would knock him out considering his current state. He's not even sure if it would work properly.

The weight of thousands of tons of water constantly falling is too much to manipulate. Never before has Zhaleh ever actually been regretful of not learning Waterfall. It would be very useful right now. The wall of living flesh looms in front of them. The crash is growing ever more imminent. There's only one thing left they could try.

He spins the ship instead, hoping that spreading out the area of contact may just save them, but honestly, he's ready for it to actually get damaged worse. His grasp of physics is very loose and more likely to be wrong than right. He's got more to this plan than just that though.

"Luffy! Use that balloon technique between us and the whale!" He adds a gesture towards the side of the ship.

There's a shout of "Gum-Gum Balloon!" and they're brought to a halt. It's working, but it's temporary. Air is already escaping Luffy's lungs and more water is pushing them into the wall of flesh. Zhaleh is very tempted to try eating whales if they get out of this. He jumps back on deck, there's no need to make anyone have to grab him if he falls off the ship.

He can raise a wall of water, but can he hold it? Never a time like the present to try.

Zhaleh pukes up his last meal, his stomach wrenching itself in knots and blinding lights stab his eyes from inside his skull. His legs give out from under him, but thankfully he apparently projectile vomits so he doesn't land in stomach acid and the half-digested food of his breakfast.

But there is a still wall of water, holding the ship up and out of the way of danger.

"Thirty seconds." He hisses. Five turns, he can hold it for five turns. He can't understand the yelling that then happens. People scurry around, trying something. Not that he can see it. His eyes are screwed shut, restricting the natural light from making his growing migraine even worse.

Thirty seconds go by. The water holding Merry up out of danger loses shape and collapses as Zhaleh faints. Overtaxed muscles still twitching.

Nico replaces Zhaleh to see a giant eye peering at them. The wall of a whale has sunk in the ocean and even without her superior eyesight, she'd be able to see the great scars crisscrossing its forehead. From sheer size alone they almost look like hills if you stretch them a little. The piece of her that remembers being a Staraptor is eager to challenge the Level 50 creature and leave her own scars on it.

And of course, after she sees its level, it tries to eat them.

Luffy isn't on the ship, he's off in the distance, over water. She's the only one who can reach him right now, as the waterfall down the mountain drags the Going Merry into the whale's gullet. Hopefully, its size means the others will be fine when they get eaten. Nico leaves them to their fate and goes off to rescue the one person she can.

After catching Luffy, the whale's face disappears below the surface of the water. A rapidly decreasing-in-size island is all that is left accessible to them.

'Okay, maybe I should have considered the fact it can go underwater.' She confesses, trying to think as quietly as she can. It's not easy, and quite honestly? She doesn't think it's actually working. She persists anyway.

Luffy doesn't make it easy to carry him. He thrashes in her hold causing her talons to actually pierce his shoulder. His shouts at the whale do nothing and it continues to sink regardless of his protests. As the expanse of pitch-black skin decreases, she sees something quite strange. A hatch. Is the Island Whale mechanical in some manner?

She dives towards it. "Luffy! The hatch!" His rubber arm stretches out to open it before they even land on the whale. She stays clamped to his shoulder as he jumps in without looking. Her feathers fluff up without her input. 'Apparently, one can still be a victim to their base instincts and bodily reactions even after being given a dose of humanity. Good to know.'

Humans are also susceptible to their base instincts and natural bodily reactions. All existing creatures are. Giratina admonishes her. There's no harshness to their tone like she expects there would be in any other situation.

A hand repeatedly smooths down her feathers even as they fluff right back up. The distracted comfort is nice, although she still lightly pulls on his ear for drawing some attention to it. It's right next to her and it's kind of fun to see it stretch actually. He pouts at her and rubs his ear after she releases it. She lets out a little chuckle and his unique laugh, a "Shishishi", mingles with it.

It relaxes something in both of them and her feathers finally stop fluffing up so much.

The metal corridor they are in stretches out two ways. They both head in the same direction, Luffy not wanting to lose the only crewmate he has nearby, and Nico not wanting to find out if she'll instinctively start screeching at being alone. She may have risked it if any of her switchable teammates were conscious, but since all of them are out of it, she doesn't want to risk it.

She takes a glance at Luffy's face. It's… wrong. She may have only met him yesterday but the look of fear on his face looks so alien. When shackled to an execution stand and about to be executed, he was still smiling. Although she does understand that not fearing death doesn't mean one has no fears. It still just looks so weird on Luffy.

"They're alive. This whale is too large to be able to instantly kill something by eating it." The shoulder under and technically sort of around her talons loosen a little. She should probably release it, but not moving is probably keeping the blood loss low.

'Gira, please tell me we'll see a doctor soon. Even if we can sleep off a lot in two nights, I don't think humans can.' She asks.

There is one on an island inside the whale. Gira states. Do they have any idea how ridiculous that sounds? Considering the Distortion World is a place where common sense goes to die, probably not.

Still, that does add credibility to the rest of the Straw Hat's continued survival theory.

"Aahhh!" Luffy screams as the floor becomes vertical, her own squarks joining him. He contorts in a way only a person made of rubber could so as to curl around Nico. They bounce through the corridor, or corridors, blind. She barely restrains herself from digging her claws in further. No need to make it worse. Although she does accidentally hit him with her wings when she instinctively flaps them.

They slam into another wall and fall straight down. Finally coming to a stop. Luffy sits up and she is totally not clinging onto his shoulder like it's her lifeline. She also doesn't nuzzle into his hair; she's just preening it in thanks for protecting her just then. An experience such as that could have ruffled her feathers something fierce and she wouldn't have the time to fix them up before anyone else sees her.

"Eh? What is it this time?" he almost tilts his head but she's there so he can't. "A waterway?"

"What's a waterway doing inside a whale?" She asks. Luffy just announces it's a mystery with a grin. Good, he's smiling again. It's more of a relief than it should be.

The floor under them shifts and they start sliding again. Luffy manages to get his feet under him this time and they're speeding down the side of the waterway. A large door comes into sight, with two people near a smaller door, but Luffy can't stop. It's too steep and the people are too close.

Good thing he has her then. She picks him up, but the two mysterious people have already seen them. They're holding large guns. 'Oh, of course, they'd be holding guns. What's next? Are they going to shoot at us?'

Nico… Gira exasperates.

Miss Wednesday Lv 12 and Mr 9 Lv 9 ready their large guns at them, panic in their eyes from being snuck upon. She takes a moment to appreciate the double nines and the appropriateness of them.

"The old man must have gotten some help, Miss Wednesday." Mr 9 says as he readies his gun towards them.

Determination flashes in Miss Wednesday's eyes as she aims at them too, "I concur, Mr 9."

"Eh? Who're you, weirdos?" Luffy asks, frowning in confusion at them. She tries to fly out of the way of the large bullet they send their way but flying while encumbered like this doesn't allow for much evasion. One sinks into Luffy, before repelling back towards the strange duo. The other blows up where her feet clench into Luffy. Smoke fills their faces. Her ability, Keen Eyes, thankfully prevents her accuracy from dropping.

She drops him, thankfully over the ground, and is pushed back into the ceiling. Everything hurt and her feathers are singed. Those arseholes will pay! Bloodily.

She flies into Mr 9, the one who shot her. He isn't prepared to deal with a face full of a furious flying bird that tries to scratch his eyes out. Miss Wednesday isn't prepared for a furious rubber fist to punch her straight through the door.

Nico doesn't pay attention to the experience gained from her defeat as she disengages from the pretender prince. He swings his gun like a long bat at her, it clips her wing but as they learned yesterday, getting clipped by an attack can still deal the full damage.

Giratina audibly grits their teeth. She screeches in pain as she feels the bones in her wing snap from the hit. She Quick Attacks him, bringing him to just before the red but still yellow, but is robbed of knocking him out herself as a foot smashes into his face. He flies through the open door as well, the guns knocked out of their grips are sitting on the ground.

She pecks one furiously.

Luffy picks her up and deposits her back on his shoulder, her talons clutch back into the holes they made earlier. Her broken wing sticks out awkwardly over his arm. He walks through the door and immediately brightens. With one arm, he waves down at the Going Merry.

"Oi, Usopp, Nami!" He grins, but it immediately dies down. A small furrow on his brow appears as he tries to peer at the deck. "Where's Zoro and Sanji?"

She looks around for them. Apparently, there is actually an island inside the whale. It's just floating in the stomach acid, but neither Sanji nor Zoro is on it. Aside from the stomach being painted to resemble the sky quite expertly, there isn't much else above acid. The acid, on the other hand, has some fading ripples from entry. Two near the ship, likely from their missing crewmates, and two from the annoying duet.

She's giving Zoro and Sanji a pass for saving their enemies. They don't know what they did yet. Besides, now she can pluck them bald. See how they like having their plumage damaged.

"They're getting those annoying arseholes." She keens, unable to keep the pain from her voice. Pokémon don't typically go for injuries like this, they enjoy the fight even more than the feast sometimes. Only the desperately hungry uses cheap tactics like that.

Even Dark types don't cause debilitating injuries like that in a fight. Underhanded bastards the lot of them.

"Hold on, Nico," Luffy says as runs back, arms outstretched to hold the railing. "Gum Gum Rocket!" He launches them up in the air, aiming at the Going Merry. She wacks him in the head with her good wing and squarks as annoyingly in his ear as she can. Which is very annoying, she can boast. Sinnoh's regional birds, the Starly-Staravia-Staraptor line, have cultivated themselves to have the most annoying cry of any bird. Both reasons apply to when they're alone: to make enemies back off when they are young and weak and to call out to the flock to find them.

Nico hasn't met enough birds from other regions to fact check if they are the most annoying though. The wince from Luffy is enough to pacify her. Though it could have been from the fact she tightened her hold and truly dug her claws into his shoulder.

His rubber body feels weird on the inside.

He expands and lands on the deck like a balloon. His arms reach out to wrap around things, so they don't bounce back up off the ship. The air practically explodes out of him until he sits on the deck, skinny as ever.

"Have you ever thought about using that air in your fights?" She asks, preening down ruffled and burnt feathers.

"No?" He looks at her confused.

"Shame, with your lung capacity, you could blow a lot of air. Surely there's a way to turn it into an attack." Nico replies while thinking of various Flying-type moves, before wincing when she pulls on a feather in her broken wing. "Or a defence. It could be useful for blowing away some types of projectiles or getting rid of dust and smoke at least."

Luffy brightens in realisation. She realises after she says it how that could be referring to Captain Smoker. She rolls with it. Only Gira will know it wasn't intentional. They huff in amusement in her mind.

Usopp comes over and winces in sympathy for her wing. "What happened? We saw two people fly out that door, Zoro and Sanji went to save them before you came out though."

Luffy frowns in annoyance. "They shot us and that guy in a crown broke Nico's wing. So, we punched them. We didn't even do anything to them."

Nico huffs in agreement, pulling a broken feather out. It isn't even burnt, just snapped in half. She sticks it in the band of Luffy's hat. The feather is still in luscious condition, it's a shame for it not to be displayed. It can be her thank you for having her back. But it's only half a feather because he K.O. stole. He'd gotten the higher-level opponent already.

There's a splash as four bodies come out of the acid and climb on deck. Zoro dumps Mr 9's body in an unceremonious heap like the arsehole deserves. She gives a point in his favour. Sanji delicately places the woman down and she gives him a pass. She didn't actually damage her feathers or break her wing. Also, Sanji is weird with women.

"My dove! Who did this to you?" He rages at the sight of her.

Luffy points at Mr 9 for her and the cook kicks his unconscious body. She trills in pleasure, remembering the force in those kicks when they fought yesterday.

Luffy explains what happened again as Nami ties the two up. Miss Wednesday wakes up first, presumably because she wasn't attacked while unconscious, and blanches at the situation she realises she's in. Alone. Nico almost wishes she could hop over to try intimidating her as a fluffy baby bird. She misses being intimidating as a Staraptor. But she does have a voice now…

"So, Miss Wednesday." The bluenette stiffens. Nico doesn't get to continue with the act as the woman exclaims in shock: "How can you talk with a beak?"

Because I said so. Gira replies, uncaring that no one but her can hear them.

The Straw Hats look at her in consideration. Usopp talks first. "You know, I've never considered that before. How can you talk with a beak?"

Luffy nods. "It's a mystery! You're a mystery bird, Nico." He grins, feeling accomplished for finding the answer.

She grins, with a beak, and nods. "Yes, I am a mystery bird."

"Don't encourage him!" Nami yells at her.

"Himimimim." She laughs, Luffy's distinct 'Shishsishi' laugh accompanying her.

Sanji lets out a puff from his cigarette. "Aliahra said it wasn't a Devil Fruit so that can't be why." His eye locks onto her wince at the name. "Zhaleh said it wasn't good. How is everyone, Nico?"

Her feathers fluff up and she can't hold his stare. "The lightning bolt still hit Aliahra. Terra couldn't make the switch in time."

They all stilled, seeing the omission for what it was. "Humans are physically weaker where you're from." Nami states, horror dawning in her tone.

"Darcy can feel other people's emotions." She states, looking up at the fake sky. "It's harder for him, feeling our feelings too. He's emotionally exhausted and has fallen asleep to escape them. Terra's trying to sleep off the paralysis the lightning bolt left him with."

She drags her eyes to the bloodstain still on Sanji's shirt. His hand comes up to feel it. It's mostly dry now, but his fingers come away with a bit of a reddish sheen. "We bandaged Niran up, luckily his inner temperature melted the bullet out. He's sleeping it off now. A full night can half heal us so…" She shrugs and immediately keens when she moves the broken wing too.

"And Zhaleh overtaxed himself moving that much water earlier." Nami finishes for her.

"He's actually unconscious, not just asleep. Hopefully, he'll wake up in the morning, but most of the healing will be going towards that. Not that he was injured at all, to begin with. He'll still be very tired though."

Luffy rests a hand on his hat and jolts when he feels the feather. He's so ginger when he feels the broken end.

"I'm sorry." Comes from their conscious prisoner. She doesn't look like she understands everything, but she understands enough. She holds her head high and doesn't look away or down when they look at her.

"Thanks." Nico says then continues honestly, "I won't pluck you bald."

There's some confusion from that statement but any chance for people to realise the concession she made or rectify the moment is gone as Mr 9 groans awake. Something seems to fall over Miss Wednesday as he does so, her gaze becoming colder as empathy left it. Mr 9 wakes to a different sight than his companion did. A significantly worse one at that.

A pissed off Straw Hat crew.

A black-clad foot slams into his chest pinning him to the ground, his ribs creak at the force. From his point of view, Sanji very calmly blows smoke. The uncovered eye slowly looks down on him, gazing at him as if he isn't even dirt on the bottom of his shoe. He's something even more insignificant. And unfortunately for him, he drew their ire.

He almost wets himself in terror. Up behind Sanji is a Jolly Roger, one with a Straw Hat. The owner of said esteemed hat walks into his sight, gaze furious. A half-burnt chubby looking bird with a broken wing sits on his shoulder.

It's a stereotype that Pirate Captains have Parrots, one that's quite commonly known. He passes out in terror as he realises his mistake.

"Wimp," Nico says to the unconscious body before she starts preening at the hair in her reach. A little hard with an old Straw Hat in the way but she's determined.

The tension that is in Luffy's body is almost unbearable. Aliahra called her a Mother Hen. The instincts only came in originally after she became a Staravia and the other three of her team were still babies, regardless of their strength. That doesn't mean she can't try to tap into them now. The Straw Hats barely knew Aliahra, she'd spent more time talking to her Pokémon than hanging out with the Pirates. Although they did have that fun session where Luffy showed off his Devil Fruit. Any time they could have spent together, getting to know each other properly, has been cut short.

But they cared. Nico can care for them back in her place.

A weird man that looks like a Cradily climbs out of the acid sea and climbs on deck.

This is Crocus, the Doctor from the Pirate King's crew. Gira says.

'The Pirate King would have had a pretty good doctor.' Nico realises.

The doctor seems to catch on to the atmosphere and sees her and glances at Luffy's hat for a split second. As Miss Wednesday is being left unhurt something clicks in his eyes. "My name is Crocus, the lighthouse keeper of the Twin Capes. I'm also a doctor." The atmosphere and the animosity, from Zoro specifically, die a little. "This whale, Laboon, has been in my care for fifty years. These two have been hanging around, trying to hunt him so they can feed their town for the next two to three years."

"That's stupid," Luffy announces, finally getting the hint and taking off his hat so she can preen more of his hair. "It'd only feed them for six months, tops."

She laughs at that while the others yell that isn't the point and how that's only for his stomach. Crocus huffs in nostalgia during the distraction. "I can help your bird. Although I've never seen one like it."

"And the others?" Nami asks with hope. She looks at Nico. "Your siblings can get help too."

Crocus looks bewildered. "You've got more birds on board? Did you steal a nest or something?"

"Technically we adopted them first, Cradily-man." Nico huffs. His eyes bug out of his head.

"You can speak?! How can you talk with a beak?" He shouts before calming down. "No, wait, it's a Devil Fruit, isn't it?"

Luffy starts laughing as she answers. "It's not a Devil Fruit." His eyes bug out again and she joins Luffy's laughter. "But anyway, can you help my siblings and me? As well as Luffy, I've been keeping my talons in to reduce blood loss." People turn to study her grip on his shoulder and see that she has indeed buried her talons into his shoulder. The red vest hides blood pretty well but no one can deny there is a dark stain.

"I'll see what I can do." He sighs. "Let's get your ship and those two out of Laboon for now. No one's in critical condition, right?"

She hates to ruin the small bit of desperate hope in everyone's eyes, but she shakes her head. "No. No one is in critical condition at the moment."

They threw Miss Wednesday and her partner off the ship as soon as they left Laboon's insides. They untied them - no need to waste rope - and let her pluck some of Mr 9's hair out of his scalp. Crocus explained the story of Laboon while they were exiting the whale.

She could feel some sympathy for the whale, although it's no doubt different being separated due to death and distance. Gira is certain that one of Laboon's old pod members is still alive, just unable to return for now.

Luffy picks up a strange-looking compass and lets her hold it while Crocus cleans and bandages his shoulder.

"That's a log pose," Crocus says, bewildered by the fact they are apparently stupid enough to come to the Grand Line without one. "It's your only way of navigation here, the magnetic fields of the islands render normal compasses unusable."

"Well, in that case, I should be the one to keep a hold of it." Their navigator comes over to claim it. "It looks fragile." She mutters. "If anyone else were to hold it, they'd probably break it."

Luffy cheers as soon as Crocus finishes up with him, running off to be free. Probably to investigate what their late lunch is going to be.

'Is it really only lunchtime already?' She asks Giratina.

Yes. It does not feel like it, does it? They reply, feeling just as off-balance as her.

Crocus sets her wing easily and deals with the annoying squark when it messes up her feathers. "Now, where are your siblings?"

She takes pleasure in astonishing him a third time by changing into Terra. The sparks coming off him have lessened, but he's still battered and bruised.

"How-?" He asks.

"It's a mystery." Usopp shrugs off, already used to the phenomenon.

Nico falls asleep on Giratina's head almost as soon as she returns. It is almost as strange to them as finding a human who came into their dimension, looked them in the eyes and announced she was going to love them, and that they were going to be friends whether they wanted it or not.

Giratina looks at Aliahra's corpse. Of course, she is dead now. They expected to spend at least several decades together first before this inevitable separation. They were going to use that time trying to figure out how to keep the first person to love them with them forever too. They thought they would have time.

Just another reason to hate Dialga, even if a part of them can still recognise it is not the Temporal Pokémon's fault.

Giratina had stolen the real her from her own dimension and brought her to this world, to this crew, that she loved so much. So that even when she realised what they had done, she would not be too mad. They have even brought along the team she has them in.

At first, they thought they were only bringing them since Aliahra would need protection that loved her from the onset. It… did not occur to them that they may have also liked their teammates too.

They thought they feared them as everyone besides Arceus did. But they do not. None of them does. Not anymore.

Giratina curls their body around their remaining treasure more protectively. One of their six tendrils carefully moved Nico into their coils. They are half a team of glass cannons, with Terra and Zhaleh as painfully slow powerhouses. At least when Darcy evolves, he can tap into his species' inborn Haki prowess. From there, then their other protectors can become stronger sooner.

Zhaleh is already realising they can do so much more than simply use their moves, preventing the first of the Going Merry's injuries. Terra has managed to scratch the surface too and Darcy is thinking strategically like a human. It will be a while coming, but soon they will all learn to fight like humans of this world. They have already given them intelligence copied from Aliahra's brain.

Which, in a way, makes them the last vestiges of Aliahra herself.

Terra, now free of sparks and covered in ointment and bandages, is returned for Niran. Crocus does not seem quite enthused that no one warned him that Niran's mane would burn him and instead had even said it would not.

"But Niran didn't burn me or Zoro when we patted him," Luffy complains, stuffing his face full of the elephant fish. Sanji has hidden the portions for the rest of the Pokémon, they will be quite thankful if they decide to wake up in time for dinner. Although even that is quite unlikely.

Niran tiredly opens an eye, somehow sensing the thought and wanting to prove Giratina wrong. "Course I burned 'im. I'd only let those I'd trust touch my mane and tail. I don't know this Cradily man." He yawns, "What's happenin' now, Cap'n?"

"Oh, we're going to stay the night so you guys can heal, then we're going to take these weirdos back to their town. We only wanted to take the lady 'cause she's nice, but the guy promised Nami money for taking him back too." He shrugs. "Zoro said something about keeping enemies close, but I can't remember. It seemed dumb but I guess Nico can pluck more of his hair out if she wants to."

Niran lets out a laugh, "Nehehehe, she'd like that," another yawn. "Nigh nigh, Luffy." He falls back asleep.

"Can all of them talk?" Crocus asks. Luffy cheerful confirms. "How many are there?"

The captain swallows his food first. "Well, there's Nico, she's the mystery bird, then there's Terra, the plant turtle, Niran, the cool fire horse, Zhaleh, the fish thing – don't let him know I called him that, he threatened to mutiny if I did it again – and there's Darcy, he's a blue dog that managed to hit that Smokey guy, even when the rest of us couldn't!" He grins. "They're all really cool."

Crocus finishes up with Niran and they switch him with the still faintly twitching Zhaleh.

"I'm guessing this is Zhaleh?" There's agreement. "I'd probably call it a mer-cat myself, it looks feline enough in the face, though I can see a lot of other similarly sized mammal influences too. Just where did you find these creatures? When I joined the crew to look for Laboon's pod, I never saw anything like this, and I travelled a lot of the Grand Line."

"They're Pokémon, they're the animals of Ali-Alira's? Island." During his struggles to pronounce Aliahra's name, his excitement dies a quick death. "I don't know how to say her name, it's weird."

There is silence while Zhaleh's check over is finished, unconsciousness seamlessly transitioning into a deep sleep, and Giratina replaces him with Darcy. Crocus raises an eye at the blue dog, noting that he is bipedal. The similarity to Minks is not lost on Giratina, but the fact that Darcy is blue should be enough of a difference to the electro wielding species to not get too much attention from Crocus.

"What happened, kid?" Crocus asks stiffly, checking over his latest patient.

"I was on the execution platform in Logue town, I wanted to see what Roger saw before he died. Buggy, this big-nosed clown pirate, trapped me on the platform and was going to execute me. Niran jumped out of the crowd and knocked him away before he could, then they turned back to Alira, and she got hit by a lightning bolt. It destroyed the platform and I found Terra in the wreckage instead of her. I thought they switched, and that she was fine. People are really fragile where she's from."

Crocus's hands stutter at the mention of the execution platform and at Buggy, they stop completely when Luffy mentions the lightning bolt.

"If I wasn't so weak. If I was more aware." Luffy's voice is tight with pain. The tears fall down his cheeks, while his hat adorned with Nico's feather shadows his eyes from view.

Crocus finishes up with Darcy and puts a hand on his Captain's successor's shoulder. "You can't always save everyone, kid." He says, voice heavy with emotion. Regret being the heaviest of all. Giratina knows just who he is thinking of as he comforts the young captain. Crocus had only found the cure to Roger's illness after he died after all. "What was her last expression? Up there, you'd have been the last to see it."

Luffy gasps out a breath. "She- she was smiling. She saved me and she was smiling."

"Then you better not waste her sacrifice." Luffy's head shoots up and he tries to suck in his tears. They stop, but the ones that have already escaped keep falling. "Those Pokémon don't seem very old. I'd say the eldest would be Zhaleh, he's the only one that looks like he's finished growing."

"Nami said Alira was either eleven or twelve." Crocus sucks in a breath at that. "She couldn't go home because they banished her for befriending the Devil or something. She asked to stay with us, she thought she'd be safe with us."

Determined eyes stare at Darcy's sleeping body. "I won't fail her again. Nico's dream is to have a safe home and be strong enough to protect it. I can make sure she has one."

It is cruel of them to do this, but Giratina switches Darcy for Aliahra's corpse. They both flinch at the glassy eyes and red and black electrical burns. The eyes begin to glow red, a ghostly crown made of a golden material forms around her head, and black shadowy wings with six red spikes form out of her back, ignoring the obstruction her clothes should be.

Giratina sits up in Aliahra's body. Her voice overlays with theirs as they speak. So, her vocal cords still work. "I will be trusting you, Monkey D. Luffy." They speak. "Fail to protect my treasure again and I will tear yours to shreds." And they would. Not even the atoms would remain after they were finished with them.

Luffy nods in acceptance, Crocus stares in awe and a small bit of fear. Connecting the fact that Aliahra was allegedly banished for befriending the Devil with Giratina's presence.

They stand and start testing out her body, he can do Moria's part of Hogback's revival method, strengthen and protect the body when it is in use as well. But they cannot heal it.

Hearing in the left ear is a little damaged, the eye is operational for now, and there is flexibility still in the neck. The brain may be an issue but converting Aliahra from a Normal-type into a Ghost-type will render that problem mute.

It will function, but there is a doctor at hand. "Fix her up as best you can, Crocus." They tell him. He nods, recognising they are planning something. "I will give you one more chance to protect Aliahra. Do not fail this time." The body lifelessly drops to the ground, and Luffy leaps forward to catch her. Just as they expect of him.

Crocus blinks as the situation dawns on him. "So, your friend befriended the actual Devil, huh? There's a lot of pressure to keep that promise."

"I won't fail," Luffy states, "and it won't be because the Devil told me I had to. I would have done it regardless."

Giratina hears that declaration from where they gaze at the Real World from the Distortion World. They smile at him.

'Good. So do it, future Pirate King.'

Coming up Next: Fixing it

I was tempted to put in the chapter summary: "Giratina plays god at the end" but they technically are a god. So, you know.

... uhh, have I written a situation where Luffy used his Balloon technique in front of Zhaleh? If I haven't, assume it happens during that first day. Aliahra would have definitely been curious to see his Devil Fruit in action, and so would have the Pokemon on her team.

The Secret to why Darcy and Zhaleh fight so much has been revealed! Bipedal land dog vs quadruped sea cat. Cat vs dog + Team Aqua vs Team Magma. (Though, I hadn't realised the connections myself at first when I made them argue and I see Vaporeon/Eevee as a Fox/Cat/Dog hybrid)