And now, the third installment of the Black Glove Pirate saga. This story contains offensive language, intense graphic violence, alcohol and drug use, explicit sexual content, and other content unsuitable for minors. At this point, however, anybody not comfortable with such material either ignored the fourth word in that first sentence and is cordially invited to start reading the beginning of this saga - the work simply titled Black Glove Pirates - or somehow reached this point while skipping large portions of the previous works and is commended for their perseverance. I try to be canon-compliant, but I'm way behind on One Piece due to creative differences (I have very strong opinions on Luffy's Devil Fruit, for example), so please forgive any mistakes in that area.
Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece. As a relative fandom old, it doesn't feel right if I don't preface my story with that statement. I very much appreciate all reviews, even if I don't manage to respond to them (and I try to respond to as many as I can). I am so thankful for all artists who have provided art for this story, and I swear I'll get around to learning how to draw someday.
Cassandra tried to block out the screams by covering her ears and curling up, but to no avail. She wasn't evil, she told herself. She enjoyed inflicting pain, true, but not needlessly. She tormented people more than necessary, but only people that needed to be tormented in the first place. She didn't take pleasure in hurting people with no connection to her at all. She trembled as the screams grew louder and louder. She may be a villain, but she wasn't truly evil. She wasn't.
She opened her eyes and took a shuddering breath. "Happy?"
"Yeah, I'm thrilled that the only way to get you to sleep was to literally fucking poison you," Helen snapped, her words perfectly intelligible despite her chewing with her mouth shut. "Isn't that what every sister wants?"
"Now my only sister who hasn't poisoned me is Shi." Cassandra briefly put on her gloves to comfort herself. Regardless of how much time had passed, she had never gotten used to living barehanded. It wouldn't be long before she could actually wear them again.
After checking her fake facial tattoo in the mirror, she climbed out of bed, got dressed, used the bathroom, and silently ate the meal Helen had brought. She finished by putting on her belt that carried only one knife and pistol. She had at least mildly gotten used to being so lightly armed. Idly running her fingers through her short, black hair, she looked over her barren bedroom. She may have slept there for over three years, but it had never compared to the ships she had called home for almost nine months.
"Love you," Cassandra said after one last glance around. Knowing Helen needed no reminding of her role in the upcoming liberation, Cassandra gave her a parting kiss and left ahead of her so as not to rouse suspicion. Not that it particularly mattered. Unlike her previous stay at the Academy where she tuned out the derision she received for attempting to form personal connections, she had thoroughly enjoyed being the object of mockery as Owen, the pathetic loser who had repeatedly failed to woo any of the heiresses and had been publicly rejected in countless humiliating fashions. Snide comments meant they had no clue as to who she really was.
"Carna's Will," she muttered to herself, kicking her adrenaline into high gear. Nobody batted an eyelash as she tore past them, long since used to her randomly sprinting at full speed. Weakened slightly by the clouds filling the supposed sky, the light from the artificial sun halfway above the horizon illuminated the relatively inactive underground city. She freeran above the streets so as to avoid most obstacles, though there were other people moving between buildings she occasionally had to maneuver around.
She made a quick detour and was soon hanging from a rope outside of a bedroom window. Once she had determined its occupant was out, she landed a precise hit on the frame to nudge the lock out of place. Thankful that her security vulnerability hadn't been discovered, she let herself inside and inhaled deeply. She trailed her fingers along the bed, reminiscing about how much fun she had had in it, and left a note on the pillow. She hadn't made many friends over the years, but Jardani had been that and more. He deserved an explanation for her disappearance. Obviously not a complete one - he would need to ask Helen for that - but enough to know she had thought about him before she left.
She arrived at the dock to find Shinobu reading a book of poems. "Anything good?"
Shinobu hugged her to her side as they walked down the pier. "You are unbelievable. You know the power of words better than practically anyone. You understand nuance, subtext, how to get in someone's head, how to draw forth emotions, but you somehow still don't understand poetry? This isn't art or music, things you explicitly don't do. This is wordcraft."
"Words are tools. The most beautiful swords in the world are pointless if they aren't used to fight."
"How did you ever become friends with a musician if you thought his passions were worthless, much less date an artist?"
"They knew that while I didn't care about their art, I did care about how they felt about their art. That, and they never got discouraged."
"Then why are you giving me shit for continuing to try?"
Yin glanced at them when they entered the ship's hold, but still caught the tossed belladonna berry in her mouth. The three men by her side stared at them with interest. "What're you giving shit about?" she asked. "Oh, poetry? Give up and focus on the Seventh, Second. At least she just doesn't understand instead of refusing to change her opinion. Anyway, Raj, Sipho, Celal, in case you haven't figured it out by now, this is the First. She wanted to say hi before she leaves. Do not tell anyone about her until I say you can."
"Pleased to meet you," Raj said cautiously, extending his hand for her to shake. Sipho followed suit, and Celal bowed with his hands pressed together.
Cassandra smiled warmly at them. "Likewise. It's good to meet you as myself."
Sipho was caught completely flat-footed when her uppercut sent him into the ceiling. She kicked him into the wall as he fell, darted over to knee his head back into the dented surface, and elbowed the base of his skull. He fell to his hands and knees, coughing and sputtering as he held his bloody nose. She crouched beside him and pulled him up by his hair. "Anything to say?"
He glanced around for support, only to see Raj and Celal held at swordpoint by Shinobu and Yin standing impassively with her arms crossed. "Aren't you going to stop her?" he appealed to his girlfriend.
"No. Anything to say?"
"I don't know-"
Cassandra slammed his face into the ground. "You don't need to talk it out now. I don't like interfering with my sisters' lives for non-essential things so I waited to see if you would say anything. I just wanted to make my feelings clear before I left. Don't whine; I'm letting you off easy."
He tried to stop the blood coming from his nose. "Easy?"
"You remember Stig?" Yin asked. "I really liked him and was really upset when he broke up with me? Yeah, he only cared about stealing from me and Yang along with a few other nasty secrets. The First found out. She literally ripped him in half."
"Yin was on a job," Cassandra explained. "I would have let her handle it when she got back, but since Yang was involved, I felt waiting was inappropriate."
"I can't count how many of my girlfriends she's threatened or killed."
Cassandra glared good-humoredly at Shinobu. "I don't only interact with my Sisters' datemates by threatening, maiming, or killing them."
"Has anyone told you recently that you lie as easily as you breathe?"
"My primary counterargument is nearly here, but I've spent time with some of your girlfriends without any fighting."
The deep wrinkles in Shinobu's simian face grew even more prominent as her brow furrowed. "Name just one girlfriend of mine you've gotten along with."
Yin stepped in when Cassandra failed to come up with a tactful response. "Name just one of your girlfriends who wasn't a cunt. Besides, the First isn't great in that area either. Think of her boytoys over the past few years."
"What are you talking about?" Cassandra asked. "I only had to kill two of them."
"You killed five of them," Shinobu reminded her.
"Anyway," Cassandra said brightly, kicking Sipho one more time, "why don't we table this while our guests are here? Raj, Celal, don't think you can get away with things just because I'm leaving. Hiding information from Helen is just as hard as hiding information from me, and she is more than willing to help my Sisters out. That's honestly the main reason I wanted you here. I rather like you two. Don't. Fuck. Up. Yin needs a lot of attention-"
"Damn right I do!"
"-and I'm sure you appreciate how hard it is for her to find boyfriends that last more than a few weeks. Don't think I'm threatening you to stay with her; if you want to break up with her, just do so maturely."
"Her being sad and upset because you're breaking up with her won't get you in trouble either," Shinobu added. "That's unavoidable. I just wish some people would remember that."
"We've never done anything to your girlfriends who straightforwardly broke up with you," Yin stated. "It just so happens that those cases are few and far between because your taste in chicks is and has always been the fucking worst."
"Do you ever think about how hard it is to find women who not only like other women, but are fine with those women being super hairy? Oh, and don't forget the teeny tiny unimportant almost insignificant little detail that my blood is an actual bioweapon with a 100% fatality rate, so they have to endure painful vaccination shots so they can be intimate with me. Just how choosy do you think I can be? And don't talk to me about just staying single and being happy with who I am. I deserve companionship as much as anyone else."
Cassandra clapped her hands together to forestall the same loud argument she had heard a thousand times before. "Let's move on to lighter topics. Have either of you met Linnaeus?"
The stonefish fishman ducked through the doorway. "Good dawnings-"
"I'm gonna punch you right back off this boat if you don't try to speak plainly," Yin warned.
He laughed as the Sisters hugged him, his snake companion Dwi winding around their bodies and necks. "Far be it for me to unduly risk ecchymosis. Call me Linnaeus, helpmeet of Yin's Sister Pythia. You are Raj and Celal, I presume? Well met. Is Facundo the picaroon reddening the floor or Sipho?"
"Sipho. Facundo's working. This fuck has some explaining to do when I get back. Don't let him ruin the mood, though." Yin grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and threw him overboard, wiping her hands off as he hit the water. Raj pulled her against him when she returned and kissed her hair while Celal wrapped his arm around her back, causing her to grin widely. "Yeah, that's right. You know I got it good with these two."
Cassandra rolled her eyes and Shinobu pressed her lips together, but Linnaeus just laughed. "Appetent, say you? Could you deny my beloved as the most wondrous partner of those gathered?"
Yin glowered at him. "That's cheating."
\\'/.\\'/.\\'/.\\'/.\\
Pythia idly listened to the reports given by the stream of bugs entering her chamber. Cassandra's senses were extraordinary, but a network of millions of eyes and ears was more than a match. She had animals for every environment. No matter how hot, no matter how cold, regardless of aridity and humidity, even in environments far above the clouds or deep on the ocean floor, at least some of her companions could survive. Those extremes really were being put to the test at the moment, but that didn't matter. She wanted to help her oldest Sister, and she would.
An alarm went off, and the enormous portcullis that functioned as her door began to raise. Her midnight mamba woke up from his slumber around her shoulders and yawned in preparation for a meal, his face becoming adorably ghastly for a moment. "Did they bring more food?"
"You've seen how they treat me, Oloxoco. They wanted a big scary boss monster, and they got one. Of course they're gonna keep us fed."
The more restless members of her hive that couldn't get through the gaps in the rising portcullis stampeded underneath it, and panicked shouts and screams filled the air. Knowing she had a role to play, she rose to all fours, made sure the hive members on her were secure beneath her robe, and forced the gate the rest of the way open.
All of the animals in the enormous room froze when she roared. She leisurely moved out of her chamber, pleased to see almost every single person was still terrified of her. After surveying the room, she started barking out orders to optimally terrorize the prisoners. The guards, well clear of the chaos, were ecstatic about how much more entertaining the Good Old Days had become since she had arrived. The animals had never been so coordinated. She crawled around the room, giving commands and only occasionally crushing a cell or structure that couldn't bear her weight.
Once everything was going smoothly, she turned to the paddle of pelican-billed platypus mobbing one particular prisoner. The animals retreated slightly when she leaned in, revealing the person most resented by the majority of the Moon Sisters. Considering Pythia's inability to understand human speech, it was unfair how she still found herself liking Lyn. Her infectious cheer transcended every language barrier, and she was uncannily good at guessing what Pythia was saying.
It also helped that Lyn had figured out who Pythia was before she was even shown the birthmark on Pythia's tongue. It was no surprise that Cassandra talked about her Sisters so much that Lyn could identify them by description alone, but reminders about how important they were to her despite their distance apart were always nice. All of the animals the prisoners interacted with outside of GOD had expressed nothing but happiness when Lyn was around, especially when she ignored the guards' orders so she could play with them some more.
Lyn waved her arms and chattered excitedly away, eyes once more filling with amazement when Oloxoco slithered up to her. "I could eat her," he offered as she stroked his dark blue scales. "Cassandra would never know."
"Since I prefer you as a snake rather than clothing and accessories, I'll pass." Pythia staggered slightly when someone punched her, but remained focused on Lyn. Countless venom moths descending upon her attacker was much funnier than physically retaliating anyway. "Thank you, though."
"What about us?" chorused her nearby artillery ants.
"Or us?" asked the poison arrow frogs on the side of her arm.
"Or us!" Her cucullate pitohuis.
"Us?" Her long-tailed shrews.
"We could do it."
"So could we!"
"Let us!"
"No, us."
"Us!"
Her casket jellies bobbed around her head, bells pulsing to indicate their willingness, while more and more animals volunteered. Pythia roared with laughter as Lyn shouted excitedly at everyone congregating around her, completely oblivious to how they were clamoring to sacrifice themselves to cheer Pythia up. "Okay, okay, that's enough. I don't want any of you to die for some cheap revenge that won't change anything anyway. Don't forget that Cassandra's taken the time to know as many of you as she can. She's always treated you well."
"She's not coming until later this week, right?"
"Yeah, what if we give Lyn a rash?"
"Something that'll clear up fast."
"Barely painful at all."
"Just irritating."
"Would she punish us for that?"
Pythia giggled as she brought her face closer to Lyn. Now, that was a tempting offer.
\\'/.\\'/.\\'/.\\'/.\\
"Wait, you were the one she had to try the hardest to convince?"
"Of course," Jen said, studying Alexander's expression. "We bet you thought Krees was, but she started out thinking everything was pointless. Associating with plebeians was anathema to us."
"I suppose that makes sense. I almost forgot what you are."
"No, you didn't." Nobody in the world, least of all her family, would expect the guard sitting on the grimy brick floor outside a prison cell to be a World Noble. Despite her suppressed aura, however, she was loath to fully inhibit the effects of her eyes. She had consequently never received an order or been approached to handle a situation, and everybody avoided her as best they could, especially when she got bored. Being able to terrorize prisoners with the full endorsement of everyone around her felt similar enough to being home. "Three."
He dealt her her replacement cards. "I may be able to tell what you are, but forgive me for not being wowed. I have the Immortals for nakama, after all. Three out." Discarding three cards, he burned another and refilled his hand.
That was an impossible statement to completely refute. "Call. We don't like to go all the way dark unless we're on a job, unlike how most of our sibs regularly hide themselves."
"Let's see what you've got." Alexander smiled as she showed her cards and threw his down in defeat. "You and Queen must have found each other unbearable."
"Obviously. She never stopped trying to bring us around and shrugged off most of our hostility, but there were definitely a few times when she had had enough."
"Can't have been too bad." He scrutinized his new hand, then rapped his knuckles on the floor. "No scars that I can see."
She tapped the ground as well. "She never broke the skin."
"Two. So what brought you over?"
"Not wanting to be one heiress against five, the things we all could teach and learn from each other, that our Family wasn't considered better than hers despite its lack of political status." She exchanged three cards. "How lonely we'd be all our life despite never being alone. All of us thought that to some degree before she reached her hand out, but we had it the worst. Tails was the only one who could really understand our feelings of solitude. Her prison was her own tongue and ears, but at least she has her other friends."
He stared at his cards in thought. "I get what you mean. I got lucky early on with Hothead, but you…"
"We were never going to be truly loved," she acknowledged, "not by our family, spouse, or supposed friends. She showed how we could have six sibs who will love us forever. That meant a lot, especially to a frustrated teenager. Well, five sibs at the time, but six eventually."
He chuckled. "Yeah, that's still a process. Call. How's she doing?"
"She'll tell you herself. We'll all always be a little mad at her for taking advantage of that technicality."
"She definitely learned at least a little from the Queen before everything went down." He laughed when she showed her hand. "Were you told what you did for me?"
She swept up the four aces. "We knew we would lead others to a path of self-discovery, but you weren't exactly who we had in mind. Thank the gods we did, though. Nobody but our sibs ever wants to talk about asexuality with us except when trying to convince us to squirt out a continuation of the Family line."
"That's not great." He leaned in as he dealt the cards. "Does it ever feel like sex is… I dunno, somehow fictional?"
He didn't flinch when she slammed her hand on the ground, and any curious onlookers decided they desperately needed to be doing something else when she turned her glare upon them. "Exactly! Like the whole world's playing a joke on all of us! It's weirdly hard to believe people actually have sex, especially the way our sibs go on about it. Loves and Kungs act like they would die without it. Call."
"Same with her," he said, jabbing his thumb upwards. "Fold. It sounds exhausting, having that build up all the time."
"Exactly. You know what we really don't get?" she asked, dealing another hand. "The concept of hotness. What do you mean, you have an actual physiological reaction to seeing an attractive person that feels like you're getting warmer? There's just no way that's true."
"Is that what it means? I thought it was just another term, like how hot also means spicy." They knocked the ground in succession. "One."
"Four. We know, right? Just sounds like more allo bullshit to us."
"Can't argue with that. Two pair, fives and eights." He laughed when she showed her hand. "Okay, now I get why she called you Royal Flush."
She leaned back. "Ace of diamonds above royalty and commoners alike."
\\'/.\\'/.\\'/.\\'/.\\
"Leave this to me."
"Yes, warden." The guards saluted and hurried away.
Jordan adjusted his infrared goggles as he entered Eternal Hell's common area. The blinded rioters thrashed wildly as they searched for guards to fight, though some were feeling around carefully before they lashed out. Ducking under an errant swipe, Jordan slapped his hand on the prisoner's back and flung them against the wall, sticking them fast. A deflected kick resulted in the prisoner's foot being stuck to the floor when they tried to take another step. Pressing a finger to another's forehead, she effortlessly pulled them face-first into the floor, leaving them fruitlessly trying to push themselves up.
"Okay, round up," he called when he was done. Once the dim lights came back on, he led the guards around, unsticking each prisoner after they were secured again. "What did you hope to achieve? You're lucky I'm in a good mood, or I'd cut your group privileges."
"Wait, you won't?" a guard asked in surprise, only to yelp when he tripped them and they couldn't get up.
"So go back to your cells, and we'll call it even." He stopped beneath the bearded prisoner attached to the ceiling. "And what really was the point? I'm sure you're aware your sentence isn't fixed, even though you're royalty. Why are you putting it at risk?"
Morgan's dangling limbs looked hilarious. "We were just horsing around, getting some exercise. You didn't even break a sweat. Or is it because you were woken up for this?"
"No, I've been awake for a while."
"How disappointing. I've been waiting for the right opportunity for a long time."
Jordan shook his head. "How long is a long time? A week?"
"Ha! I've been here for three years! Seven days go by in an instant."
"Okay, then I'll unstick you in seven days. Or would you rather be stuck there permanently?"
"No, thank you." Jordan jumped up and poked him, and he grunted when he hit the floor. "Don't let me keep you from your duties. You still need to sleep sometime."
"Your concern is noted." Jordan watched the prisoners file back to their cells, then nudged the guard on the floor with his foot. "You heard him, fun time's over. Get back to work."
\\'/.\\'/.\\'/.\\'/.\\
A complicated knock came from the doorway. Raven continued to hold down a computer key, gazing at the images flashing by almost too fast for her to discern. The door opened and shut with a pneumatic hiss, and the bed squeaked behind her. "If these are the finalized designs, I will make the necessary updates before we leave."
"They are." There was a pause before Theodora screamed into her pillow and flailed her limbs. "I can't believe we're getting together soon!"
"You are indicating your excitement for the upcoming reunion of the Black Glove Pirates."
"Duh! Aren't you excited?"
Raven lifted her finger from the key as she thought about it. "Yes. I am also looking forward to seeing our nakama again."
"And if you're looking forward to it, you have at least something of an idea of how I'm feeling! Did you ever go to Impel Down?"
"No. The difficulty and time investment necessary outweighed all benefits in doing so. I do not see your DAIDALOS changes."
Theodora made a sound akin to flatulence with her mouth. "They're at the bottom because they're not that important. I'll be fine until you can really work on me. What about the histrelin implant? Isn't it supposed to be changed every year?"
"I will replace it after we escape. Here is the newest list of questions I have regarding the battlesuit assembly."
She jumped off the bed and grabbed the flash memory drive with DAIDALOS, fingers bending completely backwards to plug it into the back of her artificial hand. Three minutes and seventeen seconds later, she handed the drive back. "That should do for now. I thought you'd be able to figure some of those out."
Raven lifted her finger again and glanced at Theodora. "Your safety is imperative. I am not going to make assumptions on how to assemble battlesuits that will keep you alive during combat. Your hair has been cut."
Theodora rubbed the nearly-shaved right side of her head as she sat against Raven in the chair. "I figured it would be better in NYMPHE if I did."
"Was the person cutting it interrupted before they finished?"
"Well, I still wanted some longer hair."
"Does hair ending a few centimeters above your shoulders qualify as long?"
Theodora lightly pushed her. "It's long enough to cover half my face because I wanted to be able to hide my eyepatch and scars sometimes. Nobody's hair's as long as yours."
"Pythia's is significantly longer than mine."
"Comparing your hair to a giant's is unfair."
"Pythia is a genetically modified human, not a giant."
"Whatever. Yours is proportionally the longest relative to the bodies of people we both know about, how about that?"
Raven considered that small cross-section of people. "That is true as far as we are aware."
Theodora's shaking was accompanied by giggles, indicating she likely did not need medical attention. She put her arm around Raven and leaned in. "Those are new."
"If you are referring to the tattoos on my hand, they indicate I have achieved satisfactory mastery of aran shaati, the technique designed to penetrate armor by creating a shock wave that severely damages internal organs. I performed it incompletely against Jeppe Lauritsen, who piloted a battlesuit. We will test my hypothesis regarding how many layers of your suit can be penetrated at a more convenient time. I believe you would be safe if you were inside all three layers of battlesuits, but you would not be inside them while conducting the test in case I am incorrect."
Theodora clapped her hands as she squirmed in her seat. "All three? I don't only have three."
"You also have HEBE-"
"I'm not counting HEBE since it's only used as a last resort or against EMPs. I've designed another suit. I can't wait to show you!"
"I did not see any blueprints provided for us to preassemble."
"That's because it's mostly theoretical since I could only make so much of it at a time before they started getting interested. The components themselves work, but I'll need to constantly test everything while putting them together."
Raven considered this. "So you are currently only able to construct three functioning battlesuits, not four."
Theodora lightly brought her fist down on Raven's head. "Since when do you make snarky remarks?"
