Author's Note: This story is the third and final in my Straw Hats and the Iliad trilogy. I was initially going to try to write it with enough exposition to stand on its own, but it felt too bogged down. For a better understanding of the backstory on this, please see Straw Hats and the Iliad and Zoro's Odyssey.

Takes place sometime after Fishman Island and before Punk Hazard. We're going to pretend there could be another arch squeezed in there. Yup.


Ch. 1 – Scrap of Paper

Brook smiled to himself as he listened to the hum of the crew's conversation, barely audible to him over the thrum of his bow quietly running across the strings of the violin. It had been ages since he'd brought out the old instrument. Generally he preferred his electric guitar these days – stardom must have rubbed off on him a bit – but something about the evening called for a more nostalgic sound.

He and the crew had decided to take their dinner out onto the deck at the close of a remarkably peaceful day. Most of their plates and dishes stood empty now (or soon would be, if Luffy had a hand in anything), and the crewmates took advantage of the rare calm to swap stories about their adventures during the two year interim they'd been apart.

Brook had mentioned a bit about his tour, but he'd mostly been content to listen and provide background music. After all, that was why one had two ears and only one mouth, right? –To do twice as much listening. – not that he had either, yo ho!

He thoughtlessly played light variations of tunes that reflected the places he'd been. His managers had given him the opportunity to see a variety of interesting islands and people, though none he preferred as much as present company.

Without thinking too much about it, he started to softly sing one of the tunes. It was one of his favorite musical finds; a song about love and death and the blade, full of a sense of longing. He knew those feelings well:

"Into the dark, my dear, my love

Where bound by death you lay

I walked with Death to bring you life

Now by your side I'd stay

In starless night, you are my Sun

In shieldless fight, my sword, dear one

For by your light, demons undone

If by my side you'd stay

You are my Sun,

My sword, dear one

If by my side you'd stay.

Lost in the music, he hadn't realized that the conversation around the lawn table had ceased. Almost everyone had stopped to stare at him, but the skeleton sang on, oblivious:

But to the waves, my dear, my love,

The Captain calls, I must away

For honor bound, I leave your side,

Though in your heart I'll stay

'Gainst death's blight, you are my Life

'Gainst broken rite, my Heart, my wife

For in your sight, I conquer strife.

You are my mainstay

You are my Life

My Heart, my Wife

You are my mainstay

"Ah, I apologize," Brook said, noticing the stares at last. "I didn't mean to play so loudly and interrupt the conversation."

Usopp shook his head. "It's not that," he said, shooting a furtive glance at Zoro. Actually, it seemed like just about everyone kept shooting glances back at Zoro. The swordsman nonchalantly sipped his beer, expression calm and stoic as though he didn't notice their scrutiny.

"Brook, where…?" Nami started, brow furrowed. "Where did you learn that song?"

"Ah, I picked it up on tour," the old skeleton said. "On a small, strange island called Ilium. Perhaps you've heard of it? They're the chief manufacturers of sea prism stone and ruled by a woman called the Sun Queen. I think you'd like her, Zoro-San," Brook said this pointedly to try to draw the obviously disinterested swordsman into the tale. "She fights with four swords, one in each hand, and one clutched in the toes of each foot! I've never seen anything like it! Yo ho ho!"

"Sounds pretty precarious," Zoro remarked. "Footing is important." He stood and started toward the kitchens, his tankard now clearly empty.

Brook nodded. "She has incredible balance, and she's quite flexible. I've never seen a sword style quite like hers. Oh, and she was a big fan of my music! I was invited to play at the palace itself! A word from the wise: don't ever ask to see her panties." He said this last bit sagely.

Zoro paused beside the skeleton at this. Everyone tensed, though Brook couldn't say why. But then a crooked smile broke the swordsman's face:

"Oh, I've seen more than her panties," he said quietly, then went on his merry way.

The concupiscent skeleton fell to the deck with a nosebleed.


Zoro let the others explain as he strode into the kitchen to grab a refill, grinning to himself. Franky and Brook naturally had a lot of questions: they hadn't been there when Zoro had accidentally won himself a bride by defeating the Queen of Ilium in a duel. Twice.

He heard his crewmates giving the tail-end of the story to Franky and Brook when he came back out onto the deck, clutching a full mug.

He decided not to join them. They were telling it far better than he ever would, even if Usopp was embellishing it some. Instead, the swordsman turned his attention out to the calm waves, leaning against Sunny's railing as he sipped his beer.

When the tale was through, Brook let out a low chuckle.

"Yo ho ho! I had no idea Zoro-San had such an incredible love story in his past," he said. "I'm sad to report that the Queen doesn't seem to be doing so well now, though. When I left she had…"

"SHH!" Nami shushed him loudly. Zoro could practically feel her cast her eyes in his direction.

"But surely he's seen the papers…?" Brook started.

"We aren't supposed to talk about any of that around Zoro," Nami informed him. "See, Zoro and Helena were honor bound to marry because he defeated her in a duel, but she actually fell in love with him, so she insisted that we follow certain rules. One of them was that he would go to sea with us soon after they were married. The other was that he receive no news of her or Ilium, because it could distract him from his dream."

"I was wondering why Zoro-bro would be here if he had a superrr sword-babe somewhere he could be with," Franky put in. "She sounds almost too super to be true."

Zoro chuckled to himself; Franky couldn't be more right. He'd really lucked out as far as Helena was concerned. Nami had left out one proviso, even – namely that his wife didn't want to see his face in Ilium until he'd become the world's greatest swordsman. Helena had been trying, almost too hard in fact, to keep him from feeling any sense of responsibility toward her or her kingdom, but it had gotten her into a bit of trouble recently.

"But shouldn't someone tell him…?" Brook tried to insist, but Nami shushed him again.

Zoro smiled. He already knew. He knew that Helena had been set upon by suitors who claimed he was dead. He also knew that Ilium had been embroiled in a small war about three months ago. He knew because he'd been there. He'd bypassed Helena's little proviso about him not showing his face in Ilium by wearing a mask. And he'd helped her put the suitors, and their World Government backers, in their place.

In the crew's most recent bout of swapping tales about their adventures, Zoro hadn't really said much by way of where he'd been the past two years, just to mention he'd been training. He hadn't felt the need to mention Mihawk yet. And he had also failed to mention that he'd seen Helena again. It just hadn't come up.

One thing had started to bother him though. Helena had promised to write to him after their last encounter. It was the one revision to the provisos she'd allowed. However, in the three months since they'd parted ways he'd received nothing.

Well, she was a busy woman after all. Perhaps she simply hadn't had time.

"He's bound to hear something sooner or later, even if we keep censoring the papers for him," Usopp put in pensively. Though the rest had started to talk in furtive whispers, he'd forgotten to keep his voice down. "I think we should tell him."

Zoro felt his stomach twinge. Tell him what? Surely the battle at Ilium was old news. Had something more recent happened?

He quickly pulled his attention away. It was on him as much as them to keep to Helena's provisos. He had the self-control to stop listening. Helena can take care of herself, he reminded himself.

Searching for further reassurance, he reached into his haramaki to find the letter she had given to him when they'd first parted. He wanted to see the words; her confident send-off. Yes, Helena was fine. She was a powerful queen and a strong swordsman. Nothing could possibly have…

Where had the letter gone?

He rummaged for it with an increasing sense of dread. Had he dropped it? When at last his fingers found the waxy parchment, he yanked it free with mounting relief only to feel his stomach plummet down into his boots yet again.

Only a small corner of the card remained; not even a word of her note. Had he torn it? No, it had holes in it like tiny lace carved away by sadistic fairy swordsmen. Even as he stared at it, a miniscule part of it shred before his eyes, a small particle flecking off like white sand from an hourglass.

"No…" the word escaped him as his grip slipped on the half-empty tankard he'd forgotten he was holding.

Beer splashed across the deck. Ever vigilant about wasted food, Sanji shot up from the table:

"Oy! Marimo! You know the rule about…"

The cook's belligerent tone lost its bite as Zoro turned to face them, eye wide. He held out the scrap of paper, unable to form a coherent thought much less sentence.

Sanji shot to his feet. "Is that what I think it is?" the Cook asked. Trust him to recognize it. He'd been the one to deliver it, after all.

"Her vivre card," Zoro managed quietly at last.

He blinked, and the crew surrounded him. Their voices still seemed distant though:

"Does this mean she's dying?" someone asked.

"It's like Ace's," another pointed out.

"Zoro, what do you want us to do?"

He couldn't place who was saying what, but at mention of Ace, he found himself. His fist closed over the tiny scrap signifying Helena's life force, and he looked up at the crew.

"She's having her own adventure now," he informed them, remembering what Luffy had once said about his brother. "She went through a lot of trouble to keep me out of it. She'd be mad if we interfered now."

The crew fell silent at this pronouncement, exchanging worried glances that said they knew something he didn't.

The captain stood with his hat shadowing his face, momentarily hiding his feelings. Then his hand closed vicelike over Zoro's wrist. "Zoro," he said sternly, then looked up to meet Zoro's gaze. "She's my friend too. And I'm not about to make the same mistake twice."

Zoro's grip loosened around the vivre card, and Luffy snatched it from his hand, handing it deftly to Nami. The Navigator was already halfway toward the helm before Zoro found a response:

"Wait, but she's on the other side of the Red Line!" he called, "How are we supposed to…?"

"We might not have to worry about that," Nami said, not turning back.

"What? Why not…?" Zoro started, but trailed off as the rest of the crew sprang into action, pointedly ignoring him.

They couldn't tell him anything, but that wasn't going to keep them from acting. He'd just have to trust them for now.


Three days later and Helena's vivre card had been reduced to the size of a thumbnail, but still no sign of her. Despite his initial bravado, Zoro faced the dawn of day three with increasing anxiety. No one said anything to him. What could they say?

"What are we looking for?" he dared to ask Nami at the helm. "Is she on an island somewhere here in the New World or…?"

"Could be," she replied non-commitally, eyeing the shrinking scrap of paper sitting on the large compass face before her. A glass dome kept the sea breeze from blowing the vivre card every which way; it was pointing straight ahead. "There's still a possibility she's not in the New World after all, but there's a chance. Last we heard…"

She bit her lip and turned away. Zoro understood that she couldn't say anymore. It tried his patience, but he didn't pressure her.

Just then Usopp's voice rang over the loudspeaker from the Observation Room:

"There's something in the water, dead ahead!"

Nami and Zoro squinted from their position on the prow. They couldn't see anything yet.

"Is it dangerous?" Nami called into a transponder snail that hooked up to the crow.

"Hard to say," Usopp replied. "Doesn't seem very big. Lots of birds around it. Maybe it's a dead fish or something?"

Luffy, who sat in his usual spot on Sunny's figurehead, jumped to his feet at this pronouncement: "Food?"

As the Sunny plowed forward, whatever it was became a dark blotch in the near distance. Curiosity drove the rest of the crew members toward the prow.

"I don't think it's a fish," Franky said, narrowing his enhanced gaze, "That looks like a…"

"It's a boat!" Usopp called from above, and Franky nodded.

"Not just a boat, a lifeboat, half sunk," the shipwright said. "Looks like the kind the Navy use."

"Whoever it is will probably need medical attention," Chopper cried, fixing his pack firmly to his back. He hadn't misheard Franky's comment about it being Navy; he'd obviously chosen to ignore it.

"By the look of those birds, whoever escaped in that is already dead," Franky pointed out with a grimace. "But we can get the Mini-Merry out and check to be sure, Chopper-bro. Might be a chance." He started down the steps with the small doctor close at his heels.

Zoro turned from the distant wreck to the disintegrating paper scrap on the compass. "We don't have time for this," he rumbled under his breath. Thankfully who or whatever it was was right in their path, so it shouldn't sidetrack them for long. Still, he found his altruism waning in light of Helena's predicament.

"There's someone standing up in there," Sanji noticed as the dark blotch drew closer. "They aren't waving us down or anything though. That's weir…" His signature cigarette dropped from his mouth as his jaw went slack. "Do…do you guys see what I'm seeing?"

Robin nodded. "That person isn't standing on the boat. He's floating above it." She crossed her arms over her body, preparing to use her lotus powers. "I'll get a closer look."

"I see it too," Brook added softly. "He's floating. Strange. He seems familiar somehow."

Usopp's panicked voice rang out over the intercom. "Zoro," he called. "I think I know who it is! That's…"

"…Hades!" Robin said in tandem with the sniper, stumbling out of her stance with eyes wide.

Luffy's brow furrowed beneath his straw hat. "That guy?!"

"Zoro, if he's there, that can only mean one thing!" Robin cried. "He's come for a member of the royal family!"

Zoro dashed to the prow again, a hand on his swords for the good it would do him. "Helena!" he shouted to no response.

They could all see the lifeboat clearly now – half sunk, its nose sticking up in the air, it plodded toward them through the calm waters. The upraised prow hid any passengers from view. Above it, and darker than any shadow, hovered a black cloaked figure with a bone white face.

"I couldn't see inside the boat," Robin said in a rush, then shivered. "Hades looked right at me. He wanted me gone."

"It's her," Sanji affirmed suddenly, and the others didn't doubt how he could tell. "And…someone else…?" A few moments later and Zoro could sense it too – Helena's amber aura, quickly fading. And another aura; young, verdant. Zoro's panicked doubled over.

From the helm, Nami called into her transponder to Chopper and Franky, who had just set out in the Mini-Merry. "Guys, we think it's Helena! Hurry!"

As they watched from their distant vantage, Hades lifted an elegant, black gloved hand, and a golden light flared up from within the boat.

"YOU CAN'T HAVE THEM!" Zoro shouted, jumping onto the figurehead, but Luffy was way ahead of him. The rubber man had grabbed onto two of the lion figurehead's mane spikes, dashing back as far as he could go. Without thinking, Zoro had placed himself right in the Captain's path.

"Them?" Sanji asked, but his question disappeared as Luffy shouted:

"Gomu gomu no ROCKET!"

"Wait, Luffy…!" Zoro started, but it was too late. The captain had launched himself straight at Death, taking the swordsman with him.


Helena lay inside her floating tomb, her gaze half focused on the Death God floating above her. She clutched a small, sleeping figure to her chest, wrapped in a tarp against the morning chill.

"Please," Helena begged weakly, arms contracting with conviction but little strength around her bundle, "If you take me, what will happen to her?"

"Helena de Zoro, daughter of Prometheus," Hades replied, but the voice coming from the slit of his white mask didn't belong to him. It was a woman's voice, alto, calm, soothing. "Come and rest."

"Mother?" Helena had heard that voice once before, but it had been Hades using it then too. Even if she had never met her mother in life, it felt familiar and reassuring. Perhaps she remembered it from the womb.

"Come and rest."

She blinked, reminding herself that the person addressing her wasn't her mother. Anyway, the voice was lying to her. There would be no rest for her on the other side, and well had she earned her punishment.

"No," she rasped with as much defiance as she could muster. "Not…yet…"

It was no use. She had been a fool to take on an admiral. Compound her injuries from that and other battles with weeks adrift without food or water, and her body wouldn't allow her to remain in the mortal plane. Her eyelids fluttered, straining to stay open against their own, impossible weight.

An exuberant, unmistakable voice pierced the fog clouding her dying senses.

"SWOOOOOORD PRINCEEEEEEESSS!"

Was that who she thought it was?

The energy in the cry gave her just the spark she needed to open her eyes again, at least for a moment. In that moment she saw Hades step back in the air, both arms waving in front of him in alarm as though to ward off some unstoppable force. Was it her imagination, or did the God of Death look…scared?

A moment later, a blur of red and blue and green came barreling straight through Hades' incorporeal form, and Death fled in a puff of smoke.

"Luffy, you idioooooo-!" shouted a voice she'd thought she'd never hear again, followed by a loud splash.

Zoro…? She thought, blinking again and again, but she lacked the strength to push herself upright for a better look. A moment later, a shadow fell over her as a sheep figurehead filled her view. The Merry…?

Now she knew she must be dreaming. After all, the Straw Hats now sailed on a different ship. Still, as her consciousness started to fade, she thought she heard the voice of Dr. Tony Tony Chopper:

"It is her, Franky! Hurry! We have to get her back to the Sunny!"


Zoro watched the Mini-Merry speed away with his wife in tow. He might have been angry with Franky and Chopper for leaving himself and Luffy behind in the water, but it was obvious by their urgency that Helena needed help. Fast.

He didn't go straight to the ship when he saw them shoot away. Instead he dragged Luffy through the water as far as Helena's abandoned lifeboat. Throwing his reckless captain aboard, he quickly inspected the half sunk vessel for something he had a feeling that the others would have forgotten in their rush.

He swallowed when he noticed the things the little boat lacked – food and water for one. A rudder, sail, or oars for another. Perhaps it had been stocked at first, but it had clearly seen some kind of crazy, New World storm. Helena had survived out here with practically nothing for who knew how long.

He quickly found something that Chopper and Franky had overlooked; the queen's swords. She'd wrapped them in what must have been a tattered piece of the sail and some frayed rope. When he picked them up, something felt wrong.

Allowing Luffy a moment to catch his breath, the swordsman quickly unwrapped the bundle to be sure he had them all; three rapier and a long, sea prism dagger. They were all there. The weight felt off, though.

He pulled each sword from its sheath in turn. Her sea stone dagger looked as wicked and sharp as ever. Her two foot blades had been replaced by some newer, more decorative ones with snake filigree along the hilt. He didn't recognize the make at all, but as they didn't account for the change in weight he didn't dwell on them. His jaw clenched when reached Peleus, her most prized sword, however.

He could tell the moment his hand closed over the hilt; here was the problem he was searching for. From a glance it seemed fine; a little grimy within its sheath perhaps. The sapphires in the inlay of the crossbar, the emerald of her wedding band welded to hilt, seemed dead without their usual gleam. But that was nothing to what he knew he'd find if he drew the blade.

"Zoro?" Luffy asked, still coughing a bit. He sat cross-legged in the boat, holding a big tarp bundle in his lap. The Captain was probably scrounging for a snack as always. Zoro was too distracted to notice or care.

"This blade was forged by one of Helena's gods," Zoro explained softly. "I…thought it was invincible."

Taking a deep breath, he slowly pulled Peleus from its sheath. Sure enough, he only found a couple inches of blade attached to the grimy hilt.

"It broke?" Luffy asked, and even he seemed a bit taken aback.

"Melted," Zoro observed, inspecting the tip of the once proud blade. It still had a point on it, like the hollow curve of a candle. Out of curiosity he tested its sharpness, then gave a start.

The Queen's Blade had been crafted to always protect, and never harm a member of the royal family. Zoro had discovered first hand that that included the Queen's husband.

Then why had it drawn blood from his hand?

"Uh, Zoro," Luffy exclaimed suddenly, gazing into the folds of the tarp in his lap. "Why is there a mini you in here?"

"A mini…?" Zoro gave a start as the response caught in his throat, realizing he'd given too much attention to Helena's blades when there was far more precious cargo aboard. He scrambled toward Luffy, scooping the bundle from the Captain's arms just as a little head covered in dirty, mint-green curls popped out of the canvas folds.

"Papa…?" the little toddler managed, gazing at him blearily.

"PAPA?!" Luffy exclaimed, his flexible jaw dropping all the way to his knees in his shock. "Zoro, you're a daddy?!"


"PAPA?!" the crew exclaimed minutes later in the kitchen of the Sunny.

Chopper wasn't there with the others. He had a patient to attend to after all. Zoro had rushed his daughter to the infirmary, but after the toddler had tackled their fluffy doctor and screamed about how cute he was, Chopper had declared she was obviously fine and sent Zoro away with instructions to get her hydrated and fed. He'd been too worried about Helena to even respond to the idea that Zoro had a kid in the first place.

Sitting with her now as she sat boosted up by cushions on one of the dining chairs and gulped water from a cup, he couldn't help a mild smirk at everyone else's not wholly unexpected, bug-eyed expressions. If they'd had Luffy's devil fruit powers, their jaws would presumably be on the ground, just like his still was. In fact, it hadn't recovered since Luffy had first met the kid out on the now completely submerged lifeboat.

Robin was the only one who didn't seem wholly surprised. She gazed at the child with a contemplative look, but as usual she wasn't exactly the easiest to read. Sanji spoke before she could voice her thoughts:

"But…but…how did this happen?!" he exclaimed as the little girl noisily slurped her water.

Nami raised an eyebrow at him, but it was Brook who decided to play smart.

"Ah, well, you see Sanji-San: when a Mommy loves a Daddy very much…" he intoned with a gravitas that made it unclear whether he were yanking the cook's chain or genuinely explaining the obvious.

"Shut up, Brook!" Sanji snapped before rounding on Zoro. "That's not what I meant. I meant how did the dumb Marimo end up having a kid before me?!"

"It helps that I've actually gotten laid, Idiot Cook," Zoro couldn't help but retort.

Sanji looked like he might start a Diable Jamble in his own hair, but Zoro had set himself up to have the last word in this particular battle:

"Now can you get my kid something to eat already?" he went on. "I thought you had a thing against letting people starve in your galley."

The fire in Sanji's eyes diminished, though he grumbled to himself about life not being fair as he marched swiftly to the fridge and started rummaging.

"I'm more surprised that your kid is so…so…" Usopp started.

"So what, Long-Nose?" Zoro asked, just as the girl set down her cup and hiccupped.

"Uh…cute?" Usopp dared to answer.

"Why's that such a surprise?" Zoro demanded.

"Well, I mean, she does look just like you," Usopp dared to retort, shrugging.

"No she doesn't!" Nami cried, apparently taken aback by such an insinuation. She turned to pat the child on the hand. "She's actually pretty. Like her Mama."

"I pwetty like Papa," the little girl insisted, grinning at her with baby teeth.

This made Zoro's brow furrow while the others laughed at his expense. Their laughter ceased when the little girl's stomach growled loud enough to be heard over them.

"Hurry it up, Cook!" Zoro barked at Sanji, but with his usual precision and speed, the cook was already there with a plate of sandwiches.

He placed them in front of their little charge, who stared at them. She looked up at Sanji, then at her father. A moment later she grabbed the whole plate, hopped out of her chair, and started across the room.

"What's up, kid?" Zoro asked, following her. She looked up at him with a determined look on her face.

"Mama eat," she stated firmly, and Zoro realized she had been walking toward the infirmary. He and the others exchanged glances.

"Mama say she no need to eat," she went on. "But Mama lying. She really, really hungy."

Zoro ruffled her dirty hair as emotion swelled in his throat. "Your Mama took really good care of you," he said.

And had obviously done so at her own expense. Zoro had gotten a good look at her when he'd stopped by the infirmary.

He was surprised anyone in the crew had recognized her. He almost didn't. Her usually fair skin now showed her Alabastan roots as it had darkened and reddened by long exposure to the harsh sun. Her hair, once fashionably cropped and styled, had grown out an inch or so in a wild, matted mess. It had turned from blond to perfectly white like her father's. A small burn scar splashed across the side of her face now, just beside her eye. The Marine uniform she wore hung from her emaciated frame in tatters. Bits of it had been torn off to make inadequate bandages for several festering wounds.

And yet, to all appearances their daughter suffered little more than a mild sunburn and some signs of fatigue. Based on what she had just said, Helena had given her most of their food and supplies as well.

This seemed to strike a chord within Nami especially, who turned away to hide the emotion in her face. Sanji too seemed upset.

"Chopper said not to feed Helena anything yet," he informed the room self-consciously. "He said he's not sure what her stomach can take yet. He's got her hooked up to an IV and said he'd keep me posted."

Robin walked over and knelt down beside the child, looked her in the face, and responded to her distress with reassuring calm:

"Your mother will be all right, Kuina-san," she said with conviction. "Our doctor is the very best in the world. He is taking good care of her."

Kuina nodded and allowed Robin to lead her back to the table. She took one of the sandwiches in her tiny hand, pulled it apart and started eating it piece by piece with toddler-like concentration.

Zoro turned his attention to Robin. "How," he asked. "Did you know her name?"

Robin blinked at him, taken aback, then looked at the others. "You all didn't know about her?" she asked them. They shrugged back at her.

"Ow! I didn't even know Zoro had a wife until a few days ago!" Franky pointed out. "You guys never said anything about a kid!"

"She wasn't mentioned in the news," Nami defended. "Not that I saw. How did you know, Robin?"

"Without her majesty's permission, I don't know that I can tell you much," she said calmly to Zoro.

Zoro returned her stubborn gaze with equal resolve. During his brief time in the infirmary, Helena had woken briefly. Her rasped words to him still rang through his ears as though she had stated them with all the regal, unquestionable authority she normally possessed:

"Zoro…?" she had croaked, as Chopper tried to escape Kuina's fond grip.

Zoro had taken her dry, sunburnt hand as her crusted eyes flickered open to meet his.

"What happened to you?" he asked softly.

The pain in her eyes went beyond whatever had transpired on that little lifeboat. She closed them as though trying to keep it all inside of her, and his hand tightened around hers.

"Provisos be damned, Helena!" Zoro said vehemently. "What do they matter at a time like this?

Before losing hold on consciousness, she'd murmured a response that made his heart stop.

Sitting around the dining table now with his crewmates, his half-starved infant daughter shoveling food into her mouth beside him, Zoro met Robin's stoic gaze with a burning one of his own, and repeated Helena's heavy words:

"Ilium has fallen," he said, then went on with conviction. "The provisos are no more because Ilium is no more. Tell me everything."