1
"Fucker," Usopp swore under his breath as he ducked against a large rock, protecting himself from bullets coming his way.
Mammon was going to kill him the moment he stepped foot in Namimori. Slowly and painfully. Actually, the pirate never saw the arcobaleno truly angry, but he had heard stories. He couldn't believe that he fell in a trap — until his arrival in some unknown village of Quebec, he had been sure of everything. A little lie never hurts anyone. Usopp cringed at the thought. He was, however, content that for once, something went wrong, just like things had been back on the Thousand Sunny. He gave enough substance to the people he cared for, but if he were gone too long, they would start looking for him. And Mammon was going to be pissed at him. For some reason, the young man started laughing. It revealed his position to his enemies, but Usopp couldn't care less as he began to run through the forest. The mist user made sure to disrupt his adversaries' vision as he went towards the car he had parked five kilometers away. His phone was off.
"Well, shit," he mumbled, looking at the multiple messages.
The officers were going to kill him. The pirate took a deep breath while he let his haki scan the area. Seven hidden in the woods, ready to shoot him the moment he was noticed. He put his phone away in his left pocket.
"What will Luffy do in this situation?" he wondered aloud.
"Probably do some shit," a voice replied, making Usopp jump.
Pulling out a gun, he faced the newcomer and aimed the weapon at them. He stepped back, staring in shock at someone he never thought he would see again.
"You are not real."
"The fuck are ya saying?"
He chuckled, "I'm starting to lose it."
Usopp loaded his gun while staring at the woman.
"I'm hallucinating," he muttered to himself as he loaded his gun, "completely."
"Yeah, it totally sucks to be stuck in a fuckin' world that aren't ours," the woman said, pulling the trigger of her gun, killing a few people running towards them, "and like you, I was fooled by them."
Skodde still blinked, in denial.
"You are not real."
And then, the woman punched him in the face. The pirate fell on his ass and looked in shock at the woman, the realization finally settling in his mind.
"Lù, the fuck? It hurts!"
"Fuck ya, mate. You were saying bullshit again! Like the shitty captain"
Usopp rubbed his face while grimacing. The pirate suddenly felt not alone, he grinned at his childhood friend. He carefully watched Lù noticing the Varia uniform that was mixed with her original clothes.
"Shitty captain?" Usopp asked curiously.
"Xanxus."
"What?!"
He truly didn't expect the answer.
"We fuckin' harmonized. I'm his fuckin' cloud, mate. I want to go back to mama and my siblings, not stay here!" Lù said, rage building in her voice, as she stood and paced back and forth.
"Not your crew?"
Lù froze. Her anger disappeared, quickly replaced with sadness. Usopp went still when he saw the expression on her face.
"Something happened… I can't tell ya what.. Maybe later… Still can't believe that…"
"Alright, later then," Skodde easily agreed, smiling as he saw his friend relaxing.
"Oh, and Mammon is mad at ya."
"Of course," the other pirate muttered, becoming pale a bit.
They stared at each other in silence, both of them lost in their thoughts. Lù could feel the sky's irritated feelings, the other guardians' rage, and somehow she decided on sending comfort through the link they all shared. A few seconds passed, and confusion went through the bond. If only she was more acquainted with technology, she would make a call. Wait, seriously? I'm already attached to them? Fuck.
"Usopp, what's your Varia name?"
"It's Skodde, and I'm also known as Anton."
"Alright.."
"Oï! Don't judge!" he said, glaring playfully at her, as he rolled on his bed.
"I'm not. The shitty captain of the fuckin' crew asked for a name. My Varia name."
"Unfair, you get to choose," Usopp grumbled when he thought back on the day he learned of his nickname.
"I'm the Varia Cloud Officer," she said with a smirk.
"Still unfair."
"And I'm the captain of Burning Wolves, so which name should I choose?"
"Why are you asking me?"
"You're creative," the pirate replied as she laid down on the couch.
"So are you!"
And then, he started laughing. It felt like home. Usopp remembered meeting Lù when he was a child. He was visiting his uncle, Vista, on an island in the New World which was protected by Whitebeard. That particular day, he met Lù, fleeing from her own home to become a pirate captain.
"So, Varia?"
"Yeah, like ya. Heard about ya from Mammon. Couldn't believe it at first. And then, I thought I'd meet ya there. I was fooled by those fuckers too."
"Damn."
"Fuck, 'sop. Shit happened to me. When we will be alone, I'll tell ya. First, we need to get the fuck out of here. Xanxus is going to kill me if I don't go back. Shitty captain."
"Were you not a captain?" Usopp curiously asked his friend.
"I was. Like I said, shit happened. Will tell ya, no worries."
Usopp almost pitied their enemies. Almost. Lù was another level for anyone that came across her. Compared to her siblings, the woman had decided to start a crew on her own. The man was looking forward to catching up with his childhood friend. The pair ran out of their hidden place and immediately found a new spot. With his haki, he located his enemies and shot them. Right leg and then heart. Head for the last one. He rolled on the ground as storm flames came into his view, he rose his mist flames constructing a solid wall in an instant. The sniper aimed and shot. The bullet struck between the eyes of a bald man. The pirate looked around for his friend. The woman was butchering the few people without guns as if they were pieces of meat.
"Fuckin' captain," Lù said, slashing a woman's throat.
"What?"
"Ain't ya harmonized?"
Understanding, he shook his head.
"Eh, it's weird as fuck."
Mammon wondered how Skodde would react when he learned that the other Officers and Xanxus know everything about him. The mist Officer hadn't been able to hide the information from his fellow guardians.
"Nothing on Lù. As if she never existed…" Mammon sighed.
"She just turned on her phone," Levi suddenly said, having gone quiet for the past few hours of waiting, "I'm calling her."
It rang the first time. Silence. Another time. Silence. And then…
"Yeah?"
"The fuck Lù? What—" Skodde's voice was cut off by a sudden explosion.
"Shitty Cloud. Where the fuck are you?" Xanxus calmly demanded, his wrath flames roaring under his skin.
"Somewhere.. Oi, 'sop! Where are we?"
"I don't know! I lost the car? Where is it?"
"Grey Mercedes?"
"How do you know?"
"I saw people burning the car."
"Fuck," the man swore under his breath, "assholes."
"Skodde. You're dead," Mammon flatly announced, "why did you leave?"
"For information. As if I wanted to stay in this fuckin' world. I'm a fuckin' pirate for the fuck sake."
Mammon blinked. The pirate had never been that honest with him.
"Let's capture one to get to the bottom of this," Lù suddenly proposed to the other assassin.
"Yeah, great idea."
"Shitty captain, no worries. We're going to be back alive."
The cloud, despite being not born in their world, fit their group. Thanks to his own digging on Mammon's secrets — the Arcobaleno had never been able to hide things from him — Xanxus could understand what kind of person Lù was. He also looked forward to meeting the other pirate, the one that had 'fixed' Vongola's mistakes. The woman was powerful — he could sense even strongly through their shared bond — and would no doubt be a terrifying Cloud Officer if she accepted the responsibility.
"They'll be fine," he assured his guardians, deciding to trust Lù, "let's move on to another matter. Shall we, Squalo?"
"Voi, yes. We need to level up our divisions. With Sawada's spawn as the newest heir, and Skodde involvement in Yamada's life, we will align ourselves with the kid."
"Align?" Levi frowned as he was nervously checking his phone every five minutes, but fortunately for him, no one called him on it.
"It's a risk," Lussuria mumbled, not looking at ease with the notion, "but do we have a choice?"
"Yamada is our best option," Mammon intervened to reassure his fellow guardians, "and Skodde is an inspiring figure for Yamada."
Belphegor humorlessly chucked. "Can we trust him?"
"Do you trust Lù? It's the same. Both of them are not from our world. If they find a way back, they'd do it without a care."
Silence fell over the room as they pondered Levi's words.
"They're here!" someone was heard screaming from the woods, "shoot them!"
"Can't they just die?" Usopp complained as he worked on a vehicle.
"Let's just burn them," his childhood friend commented, "and we'll burn marshmallows."
"Weird."
"Eh."
Their enemies seemed determined to kill them. Finding a village had been truly a blessing for the two pirates. They found an intact house in which they barricaded themselves in.
"You've been working on being stronger," Lù complimented her friend, a grin appearing on her face.
"I'm not fighting ya."
"Eh, shame."
Mist flames surrounded the property efficiently keeping their enemies away. Lù sighed in relief when counting a dozen of people, which meant that the group was slowly decreasing in numbers as time passed and as assaults were coming to a stop. The woman pulled her long sword out, felt her cloud flames stir in excitement at the potentially amusing fight. She left the safety of the two-story houses to face the men and women. Her flames imploded. Inside, Usopp shivered and found the flames comforting. The woman laughed as she launched towards them. Her haki and her senses were on top, her born ability was activated at full capacity. Bullets flew however, the pirate dodged every single one of them. The entire village was covered by her powers, completely isolated from the rest of the world.
"What's that?" a short-haired woman worryingly asked her partners in crime.
"Your worst nightmare, shit heads."
And blackness fell. Using only her ability to sense everything, the Charlotte ran through the ranks of her adversaries, butchering them in an instant. Outside, the sphere became completely invisible. On the inside, every person with ill-intention was instantly killed.
"The car is ok, we just need— the fuck is this shit?"
Usopp could hear nothing.
"Something I can do. No worries, they're dead."
Usopp's only reaction was, "Oh."
Skodde inhaled and slowly exhaled. His flames touched Lù's flames. And somehow, it felt like when they were kids.
"You said that the car was ready."
"Oh yeah, we just need fuel."
"Great."
"Yeah."
"Us teaming up feels so good. It's been a while since Water Seven."
Indeed, it had been a while.
Their crews had teamed up to save Robin from being executed. It had been a pure hazard for the Burning Wolves and the Straw Hats to meet in Water Seven. However, they had become instantly friends due to Usopp's and Lù's longtime friendship.
"I'll get fuel," Skodde mumbled as he moved away.
Canada, near Montreal.
"Fuck," Usopp swore as his friend drove faster on the road to Montreal, "those fuckers won't let us go."
"Those fuckers are organized, too well organized for my taste. We can't use flames because of the civilians except if…"
"If what?"
"If we make the car disappear from thin air and replace it with another."
"What?"
"You use your mist flames to make a fake car that looks like ours. I use mine to teleport us and the car to another country."
Usopp scoffed at the proposition, "That's impossible!"
"Normal, you never did it before."
"That's a shitty idea! A Luffy's shitty idea!"
"No offense but he would never have such an idea."
Usopp made a face at those words. She was.. right. He finally accepted doing what she wanted to do. The moment her mist flames wrapped them in a tight hug, he replaced their car with another. The world shifted, and he closed his eyes, and then, there was a loud noise. Lù suddenly laughed and went even faster. He opened his eyes and looked around him. The landscape had completely changed to his own surprise. And Lù knew clearly where they were, therefore he asked her.
"Autobahn."
Fucking Germany. His eyes widened in shock.
"And you didn't believe me!" Lù chuckled.
"You're insane," he then informed her, "how did you do it?"
"So are you. I've been doing it for a few years now. It's nothing, but it's a bit taxing, it depends on the distance," the woman answered, keeping her eyes on the road, "wish I did it back there."
Usopp fell silent.
2
Brook stood once more awake in his own dream, wandering aimlessly through a landscape of weirdness.
"Have you decided, son?" the familiar voice of his father echoed his dream.
"I beg your pardon, sir?"
"Have you decided if you wanted to meet me or not?"
"How do you…?" Brook trailed off, searching for the owner of the voice.
"I'm always there, watching you. I'm glad you found people to take care of. Your worries are mine too, son. It's sad to see you and your friends torn apart."
"Who are you?"
"It would be too easy if I tell you, son. Why don't you watch your dreams closely?"
The musician shivered as his own dream changed. The river Styx was shown. Across the river was a large group of people, wearing clothes that didn't seem to fit their time. Brook approached the river, he looked closely at what seemed to be remains of memories, items, and emotions. In the distance stood a large gothic castle. Brook could hear the growls of dogs.
"Death?"
Brook had already seen that place. He had seen it when he had first died with his old crew.
"Hm… Close enough, son. I'm Hades, God of the Underworld."
The landscape changed once more. The pirate took a few steps back the moment he found himself in front of a figure.
"Now, let's begin your training, Brook. No child of mine is weak."