A/N: There is a famous scene in Virgil's Aeneid where the hero, Aeneas carries his father, Anchises on his back as they flee burning Troy. (If you happen to be looking at some roman pottery and see a dude carrying an older dude piggy back, that's Aeneas and Anchises). It is symbolic of the young carrying the history of their predecessors into the future. I was determined at the outset to have a moment of Helena carrying Cygnus on her back for a similar reason (maybe more like, carrying the guilt and mistakes of her predecessors), and boy did I have to fight and finagle to make it happen. I mean, Helena wasn't planning on leaving Ilium as you know, and Cygnus had plenty of other people to look after him. *shrug* I shoe horned it a bit, but I ain't turning back now!
I was able to whip this chapter out quickly because I have been sitting on this backstory for-freaking-ever. Some things did not come out as I anticipated. - Andromache kind of scared me, because she went totally rogue. Rogue characters take the story in different directions than intended, but I am ok with where she sent us so I let it stay. I also feel like we haven't gotten a terrible good feel for her character until now. She don't take crap from nobody, specially her little brother.
So you know, I anticipate this story being longer than The Straw Hats and the Iliad. It contains numerous arcs. We finish the Fall of Ilium Arc pretty much by the end of this chapter. We are about to embark on a sort of quest/growth arc that will basically explain what happened to Kuina and how Helena got to the Thousand Sunny. After that, we'll have some fun times with the Straw Hats, but I won't say much more than that.
Ch. 13 – Nefertari Leda
With Monster Hector destroyed and Akainu on the loose, it was only a matter of time before the city went up in flames again. Soon after Epiphany had launched Kuina away, Helena started to feel the searing heat from the inferno below her. In the distance, the last of her ships had left the western port. There hadn't been enough. Even as her civilians fled with their families aboard those ships, the marines and their schichibukai allies sank any that their attacks or artillery could reach.
There was nothing more Helena could do for any of them now. Any civilians remaining would have to flee past Olympus or into the forests and caves to the East. How long before the World Government hunted them down?
Spirits completely sunk, she turned back to Mihawk, fully expecting the fight to start in earnest. Her opponent contemplated her a moment over his raised blade, then shook his head and returned his sword to his sheath.
"I'm bored," he said flatly. "You are not the opponent I had hoped you would be. You have all of Leda's recklessness but none of her strength."
"We haven't even crossed blades!" Helena growled.
"Even my weakest strike would kill you in your current state," Mihawk observed casually. "Your daughter lit a fire in you, it's true, and perhaps in protecting her you might have shown me something new. But that fire has gone out of you now that you have given up."
Mihawk turned to leave.
"Wait!" Helena shouted at his back. He glanced over his shoulder at her, expression blank, unsympathetic. "Please. It's true, I have nothing left. Let me die a swordsman at least, I'm begging you."
He snorted. "Begging me to sully my blade? Shameful," he huffed. "You are not worthy of your husband's name. Or your mother's sword."
Helena gritted her teeth at the jab.
"I beg to differ, sir," a voice defended suddenly. "There is more to Helena than brute strength, something you swordsmen never seem to appreciate."
Helena's eyes popped open wide as her father appeared from one of the staircases leading to the top of the wall. Fearlessly he stepped into Mihawk's path, leaning on his sheathed sword.
"Papa! What are you doing here?"
"You put Hector in charge of protecting me," he reminded her. "A good thing too, or he might have stayed melded with that giant monstrosity long enough for Akainu to blast him."
He pointed over his shoulder to Hector, who sat resting in the staircase, which was one of the few portions of the wall not made of sea prism. Armorless, spearless, and covered in soot, he coughed, clearly at the end of his strength. Andromache leaned over him, her battle with Cipher Pol apparently over. She wept in both relief and fear as she tried to help her powerless husband drink from a canteen.
Cygnus left him in her care as he turned his attention back to Mihawk:
"You, sir, have caused my family enough grief without adding insult to injury. I'd appreciate it if you'd quit bullying my daughter."
"Cygnus," Mihawk said the name without affection. Then again, he mostly spoke without affection, so it was hard to tell, but he seemed to have a particular distaste for the ex-king. "I see you carry your sword now. Do you intend to challenge me too?"
Cygnus glared him in the eye. "Yes, though not with the blade," he retorted. He planted his sheathed sword point down in front of him instead of using it a crutch, lending himself a more regal air despite his currently bloodless face. "Even if I could match your strength, I am afraid without the gods approval, I can't draw this sword from its sheath. However, I would have a verbal riposte, sir."
"I am not interested in talking about the past," Mihawk countered.
"I believe you owe me as much," Cygnus snapped, "Considering Leda's actions have led us to where we are now."
Helena stared at him, leaning on her own sword now, exhausted from the night's endless battles. "What are you talking about?"
"Do you want to tell her, or shall I?" Cygnus asked, completely unintimidated by Mihawk's return glare. When Mihawk didn't respond, Cygnus went on, "So you don't want to own up to the fact that until the moment Helena was born, I was left to question the paternity of my child?"
"What?" Helena cried, turning her gaze on Mihawk. "You and Mother were lovers?"
Hawk-Eyes glanced her way, but didn't respond, his expression archaic as always.
"But I thought…" Helena turned back to her father, "You always spoke of mother so highly, I assumed you and she were…"
"In love? It was a bit one sided, I'm afraid," Cygnus confessed, voice shaking a bit with emotion now. "Oh, she was the whole package. Brains, beauty, spirit, strength. How could I not love her? But then, how could a woman of the sword love a pacifist like me? Particularly when she carried a torch for someone else?"
"Mihawk?" Helena spluttered.
The World's Greatest Swordsman didn't meet her gaze this time. He kept his eyes transfixed on her father.
"Her parents agreed to an arranged marriage when they found out she was in love with a pirate," Cygnus laughed at the irony. Mihawk didn't twitch. "At the time, there weren't many known advantages to marrying in to the line of Prometheus. Our wealth wasn't enough of an incentive what with our shaky footing with the World Government. But despite her beauty, Leda drove off most of her suitors with her wild, untamable nature. I was quite literally the Nefertari family's last resort, and my father had wanted to more firmly establish ties with outside kingdoms, particularly one as long standing as Alabasta.
"Back then, everyone believed that only blood heirs could use the God Powers. The royal family encouraged that belief, realizing the repercussions should one try to marry in solely to gain access. – Leda didn't care about that, though, did she? She was too lovesick and miserable not to take advantage of them."
"Mother used a god power too?" Helena gasped.
"We had been married about a year," he went on, "When she decided she just couldn't stand it any longer. She used the Mask of Dionysus to temporarily transform herself so she could sneak out of the kingdom undetected. And then she went in search of you, sir.
"She refused to tell me what had happened, but when she returned several months later, she was obviously with child. She insisted the child was mine, but how could I be sure? Anyway, the damage had already been done. Word got out that she had managed to use a god power; the World Government assumed the child to be mine, and betrothal requests started pouring in. We brushed them off until Saint Rothbart paid us a visit.
"When he demanded that we betroth our unborn daughter to him, Leda literally, and quite bodily, threw him out on his ear. Broke his helmet, as I recall…"
Mihawk's lip twitched at this pronouncement. Cygnus too seemed amused by the memory, but neither man cracked a true smile.
"I don't need to tell you what her rough treatment of a Celestial Dragon led to."
In the pause to follow, Mihawk finally spoke. "Why are you telling me this? And in front of your daughter, no less."
"If I could avoid Helena's presence at this point I would, but I'm afraid I have to take the opportunity as it stands," Cygnus replied, glancing her way apologetically, before leveling his keen gaze back on Mihawk. "I tell you this so you will admit your culpability in all this, and to demand you make reparations."
"Reparations?" Mihawk scoffed.
"Yes," Cygnus asserted. "Helena's entire life has been one long battle for her own hand. She has done nothing but fight for her existence and the existence of her kingdom because of Leda's actions toward you. Now that her kingdom lays burning, I demand that you take her to a place of safety so that she can recover, and then that you bring her to her husband aboard the Thousand Sunny."
Mihawk burst into laughter at this. Annoyed laughter. "Cygnus, you always were a manipulative prat," he retorted with an unpleasant scowl, "I'm not taking your failure of a daughter anywhere. I am not responsible for Leda's choices!"
"But…!" Cygnus started.
"Nothing happened between Leda and myself," Mihawk went on coldly. "When she came to seek me out, I told her that I had never been in love with her."
Cygnus blinked at him in surprise. "But before we were married, you tried to convince her to flee our engagement. I thought…"
"You thought wrong," Mihawk retorted. "I saw immense potential in her, and thought it a shame to see her talent wasted. Had she been allowed her freedom, she would have the title of World's Greatest Swordsman, not me. And she'd have been the first woman to do so. – She was wasted on your kingdom, Cygnus, and wasted on you. Both of you," he glanced at Helena this time, before glaring again at Cygnus. "Leda was already pregnant by the time that she finally came to me; I told her to return to you, and that's that. Her sins are her own, and you will not force me to answer for them."
Helena stared at Mihawk's retreating back as he turned again to go, her mind awhirl with these new revelations. In particular, that her mother had revealed to the world that even those who married into the Line of Prometheus could use the god powers. Helena had never stopped to contemplate why the World Government had never attempted to force a marriage until her.
Defeated in their repartee, Cygnus watched Mihawk's retreat without saying a word. But the battle wasn't quite over.
"Cut the crap, Mihawk."
Andromache angrily tossed aside the empty canteen, leaving her unconscious husband in the stairwell. Obviously more temperamental than her brother, her emotions had clearly gone to their breaking point. She fearlessly placed herself in her brother's path.
"You're a coward and a liar, Mihawk, and I'm not going to let you just walk away like this, by Zeus."
"Oh, so you're even talking like them, now?" Mihawk observed scornfully. "Fully immersed, I see."
Andromache let out a chuff. "After twenty plus years of giving me the silent treatment, I would have thought you had something more intelligent to say."
"Out of my way, Andy," Mihawk countered, his hackles finally rising in a way Helena never would have believed possible before now. "We aren't dwelling on this anymore. What I told Cygnus was the truth."
"Oh, I don't doubt that nothing untoward happened between you and Leda," Andromache admitted. "But you were in love with her, I know that for a fact."
Mihawk glowered at her. "So sure of that now, are you?"
Andromache's face softened. "Yes," she said. "And if I had realized it back then I never would have encouraged her to marry Cygnus in the first place. I was her best friend, Mick, and she was so torn. Cygnus loved and respected her, that much was clear, but you always kept your feelings so close to the vest, how was I supposed to know? When she asked my advice, I had to tell her what I honestly believed."
Mihawk's lip twitched, but he bit back whatever retort he had in mind. Andromache went on:
"Of course, I didn't realize my mistake until you found out she had left to marry Cygnus. When you realized I had been the one to sway her opinion you…" Andromache's anger faltered a moment, but then reignited in full force: "Well, it was hard not to sense your disappointment. You turned your sword on me!"
Mihawk's gaze faltered. Though he naturally towered over her, he seemed to shrink a bit before his elder sister's ire. "I'm not proud of that…" he muttered, "But I won't apologize either. You're as much to blame for Leda's death as the rest of them!"
His eyes widened and he clamped his mouth closed as he realized he'd let his tongue slip.
"Me?" Andromache countered, her brow raised. "How am I to blame exactly?"
Her brother kept his mouth tightly shut.
"I was there on the battlefield with her, Mick! And where were you?" she snapped. "How dare you accuse me? - I was there when Akainu hit her with the fatal blow. She asked me to cut her child from her womb before Hades could take them both. Then I fought to protect her daughter from that monster, Regent while still covered in her blood, you bloody, blooming COWARD!"
Tears flowed freely down her face now.
"You have spent these years brooding and hating all of us, haven't you?" she realized suddenly. "You blame me for sending her to Ilium instead of sending her off with you! – and I bet you blame Cygnus for marrying her. For not being a fighter. For not using the God Powers quickly enough. – He crippled himself, and sacrificed a thousand of his most loyal soldiers to try and save her! And what of you! You couldn't even confess your feelings to her, and yet blame me, you…!
She paused in her tirade only because another revelation had just hit her:
"You blame Helena for being born, don't you? – for being born and for not being her!"
Mihawk didn't say a word to defend himself, though his emotionless mask was starting to crack more and more with each accusation.
"Did it ever occur to you that Leda put Helena in danger, not the other way around!" Andromache went on. "I've got news for you, brother. Helena didn't kill Leda. Cygnus and I didn't either. It was her own hubris, and the World bloody Government. The same government you work for, you spineless…!"
"Enough!" Mihawk snapped. "You're putting words in my mouth…!"
"Just try to deny them!" Andromache snapped back.
"What do you want from me?" he snarled. "If you're asking me to save her…!"
"Oh, I'm asking more than that," Andromache interrupted. "I'm asking you to train her. Train Helena like you trained her husband."
Mihawk's gaze widened.
"You hate her because she didn't carry on Leda's ambition like you hoped she would," Ann observed, then went on to defend her, "Helena never wanted to be the strongest, just strong enough. But she's a queen; she figured she could delegate. And she did delegate - to her husband. Until now, that is. She no longer has a kingdom. She no longer has the responsibilities Leda always avoided. Make Helena into what she was meant to become."
For a moment, the roar of flames and the sounds of battle filled the silence that settled between them. Mihawk stared at his sister, completely at a loss for words. Cygnus smirked behind them, well aware that Andromache had likely succeeded where he had not.
"No," Helena put in calmly, and the quarreling siblings blinked at her in surprise as though they had forgotten she was there. "Ann, I had my chance at being a swordmaster, but that time has passed. I am going down with my kingdom, one way or another. It would be dishonorable for me to leave this island alive after I have caused its downfall."
Mihawk stared at her intently. –despite all the accusations flung at him, and at her mother, perhaps he was surprised that she would still take responsibility for her own actions rather than use him as a scape goat like the others had tried to.
Cygnus sighed and opened his mouth to lecture her, but faltered on his sword with the strain of blood loss. He'd been standing upright too long on his injured leg. Helena reached out to steady him.
A powerful voice interrupted them before they could speak further:
"What a noble sentiment," Akainu stepped onto the wall from a different stairwell. His heavy boots protected him from the sea prism, but it was a bold move, climbing the sea prism wall. "And one with which I fully agree. So it appears you have a sense of justice after all, Queen Helena de Zoro."
He simpered her married name with an amused lilt to his voice, just like he had at her near execution. Helena whipped around to face him, her mouth a grim line.
"Your Majesty!" Andromache put herself between them and Akainu, drawing her enormous sword, sans childproofing this time. "Take your father and run."
"Ann, no…!" Helena started.
"He can't walk right now," Andromache insisted. "You need to help him escape!"
"But, you could…!" Helena attempted.
"I'M NOT LEAVING HECTOR," Andromache countered. "JUST GO."
Helena gritted her teeth, but finally did as she was bid. With her back sheaths now gone, she easily shouldered her father's weight. Carrying him piggyback, she turned to run, passing Mihawk as she went.
Arms crossed, the swordsman glanced at her sidelong while she passed him, his expressionless mask now firmly back in place. Before she'd run out of earshot, Helena heard him lecture his sister:
"Andy, don't be an idiot. You're no match for him…"
"Shut up, Mick!"
Helena blinked back tears, forcing her pounding feet to plow forward despite heartbreak upon heartbreak. "She'll be alright with Mihawk to back her up," she gasped to her father as she ran, trying to convince herself by saying it aloud.
Cygnus didn't respond except to hold her more tightly about the shoulders.
Helena tried again, more vulnerably. "He will back her up…right?"
Andromache swallowed her fear. With her sharp features and sharper golden eyes, she did resemble Mihawk somewhat, especially when she drew her enormous sword. She possessed none of his sangfroid, however, and held her pixyish face in an angry scowl.
"I suppose such loyalty is to be expected," Sakasuki said, contemplating the short-tempered woman standing between him and the fleeing royals. "You're the one who tried to free the royal family from the balcony, aren't you? A warrior nursemaid. Andromache de Hector, friend to Leda, and surrogate mother to Queen Helena."
"Yes," Ann replied, "I am prepared to die for the crown; for my family. I know I can't beat you, but I can delay you, you monster."
With calm, even steps, Mihawk put himself between Andromache and Sakasuki. Ann's eyes widened, half daring to hope he'd come to her rescue. But when he drew his sword, he turned it toward her, not Akainu.
"Don't waste your time with this one, Fleet Admiral," he said calmly. "The royal family is getting away. Let me deal with her."
Akainu chuckled. "Big sword or not, this one doesn't really seem like she's worth your time, Hawk-Eyes," he said. "But you so rarely offer your help willingly, I'm not about to turn it down. Have fun."
He strode around her and took off. Andromache tried to swing at him as he went, but Mihawk protected him, blocking her.
"So you're really the government's dog through and through," she growled, tears stinging her eyes. Akainu had moved out of earshot by now, launching himself quickly toward his prize.
"When I answered the summons to attack Ilium, I anticipated an unpleasant reunion with my sister," Mihawk said calmly, then lowered his sword. "But I did not anticipate watching her die. You wouldn't last long enough against him to be useful, Andy."
"But Helena…!" Andromache started. She tried to follow after Akainu again, but Mihawk blocked both her path and her sword as she tried to force her way through. "DAMN YOU!" she screamed.
She pulled back and swung at him directly now, her sword style an obvious echo of his own, though she had to use both hands to move her blade. Single-handed, he blocked her, watching her through that judgey gaze of his. She knew he didn't think well of her swordsmanship now, or of how her emotions always got in her way, but he didn't say anything about it, and didn't attack her at his full strength.
"What would you understand of family, Mick? You're always doing everything alone!" she cried, pleaded really, frustrated tears falling freely down her face now. "Helena is the last any of us have of Leda now, don't you get it? And she is a daughter to me! I can't let her die!"
"Before you were a mother to her, or to your own son, you were a mother to me," Mihawk reminded her calmly. "Don't think I've forgotten."
Andromache took a step back, blinking back the tears. She did remember, of course. She had taken care of him after their parents had died. For many years, they'd only had each other. She hadn't forgotten, but for some reason she thought he had.
"I won't allow you to needlessly throw your life away," he went on, "Anyway, even if you could save her, you'd be doing her a disservice."
"The hell is that supposed to mean?" she growled, leveling her sword at him again.
"She has lost the will to live," Mihawk informed her calmly. Completely unintimidated by her ready blade, he sheathed his sword, looking off in the direction Helena had fled. "I pity the Queen should she survive tonight."
"Shut up!" Andromache cried, lunging at him.
He side stepped the attack. Grabbing her by the wrist, he easily guided her blade away from his person. She tried to pull her arm free, but suddenly realized just how physically powerful he was when she couldn't break away. Her body and grip slackened at last, she bowed her head and let her sword clatter to the ground in defeat.
He released her, then blinked down at her in surprise. She had folded into his chest, weeping into him. He placed an arm around her and let her cry. "I'm sorry, Andy," he murmured.
"Helena, I'm sorry," Cygnus murmured, half a kilometer away.
"None of that now, Papa…" Helena started, keeping her concentrated gaze on the path ahead. She could see Polydorus not too far off, helping a group of civilians fight their way toward Olympus. If she could just get her father to him…!
"I won't get another chance," he retorted feebly. "You and your mother deserved so much better from me."
"No, Papa," Helena replied. "There's something I understand, now that I've heard Mother's story, and I think you need to understand it too."
She tightened her grip on him, her bare feet pounding along one of the few stretches of wall that still remained.
"I remember you used to tell me," she went on breathlessly, "That she went to fight because she thought no one else could defend the kingdom like she could. And maybe that was true in part. But if she was as much like me as everyone says she was, it was more than that. She didn't go to fight because you were weak, Papa. And she didn't go just because of pride."
The battle raged on to their left, the fires in the city raged on to their right. Ahead of her, a great storm seethed over Mount Olympus, shrouding all but the foot of it in dark cloud. Violent, violet thunder crackled within; the thunderstorm promised no rain, no relief from the flames. –just the wrath of Zeus.
Helena took it all in, feeling the repercussions of the thunder the closer she drew to Olympus; feeling the repercussions of her sins and shortcomings with the same clear, exquisite intensity of Apollo's Arrow:
"She went because she knew she was to blame, Papa. She was taking responsibility for her selfish actions," Helena said with feeling, "Everyone always said I'd meet an end like hers one day. I inherited her pride, just as I inherited her sword, and I will answer for it, atone, even, if I can. But you are not to blame, understand? You have tried to teach not just me, but all of Ilium peace and prosperity, patience and refinement, piety, selflessness, and word over sword. The kingdom never would have fallen if I had not taken the crown from you."
"Helena…" he murmured, and she could feel his tears watering her shoulder. "Please don't take this burden all on yourself."
Just what else did he think her chains of office represented?
A great meteor of fire and lava flew overhead, landing directly in front of them, melting several feet of the path. Half molten, Akainu soon landed on top of it, protected by the barrier of lava between himself and the wall.
Helena quickly lay her father against a nearby battlement, placing his useless sword within his grasp. He took it feebly, his face ashen and covered in tears. Though she had trained him in swordsmanship, he'd never been a physically powerful man. The wound Calypso had given him, the blood loss, the near execution and resuscitation, his age and the emotional overload had all caught up with him now, and he lay against the wall, completely spent.
The Queen of Ilium whipped around to face her foe, adrenaline giving her a second wind. – or perhaps a third or fourth, or hundredth, after the night she'd had. She drew Peleus and tried to force her spirit into it the way Zoro had tried teach her.
A black sheen teased its way over the sword's finish, but blinked away. All the same she lunged at Akainu, shoving Peleus into him with one arm, swiping at him with her sea stone dagger with the other.
His lava flesh dodged easily around the dagger, though he allowed Peleus to pierce him through. Her no longer god-favored blade melted instantly, and when she drew back, she had nothing left but a few inches of steel.
He backhanded her degradingly, his hand mostly human, but just hot enough to burn. She gripped at the burn on her face, blinking back hot tears of pain.
"It's a pity," he simpered. "Even at the point of giving birth, she was so much stronger than you."
Straightening up, Helena spat at his feet, letting it sizzle. He grinned at her pluck, and grabbed her about the throat with his cooled off hand, raising her to his eye level.
"No…" her father croaked.
"Don't worry, Cygnus. I'll get to you soon enough," Akainu replied, though he didn't turn his smoldering gaze from his prey.
His hand warmed around her throat. She could see Hades on the edges of her blackening vision as she gasped for air. In moments it would be over.
A comet of white-hot light streaked through Akainu's arm, freeing Helena before he incinerated her. Gasping for breath, she stared as the ex-Cipher Pol agent, Gloriadne crashed into one of the battlements lining the top of the wall. She lay weakly among the sea prism rubble she had created, covered in wounds from her past battle with Bags.
She had dropped her husband onto the wall before her crash landing. With his thin-soled dancing shoes as the only protection against the sea prism of the wall, he staggered toward Helena, holding a hand out in front of him. His palm had a paw print on it.
"Your Majesty," he heaved, all the color gone from his face as he faltered on weakened limbs. "If you could go anywhere…where would you go?"
"What are you talking about?" she gasped, rubbing her throat, "Robertus…?"
"I have instructions…to get you to safety," he managed, "I'm not…completely sure…how this power works. Just…alpha'd it. But I know enough…to know…it'll send you…where you need to be…"
"Don't…!" Helena started. Her mind a whirl. If she could go anywhere, she'd go where she could have prevented any of this from happening. Where she could have been stronger.
She didn't say as much aloud, but her old dance master seemed to know. He staggered the last few feet into her, smacking her with his paw.
"NO!" Akainu shouted. But his voice disappeared in the sudden distance between them. The last thing Helena remembered before she flew out of sight was Robertus turning his paw on an angry Akainu. He burned his hand, but the Admiral vanished.
Robertus would have immediately lost the Paw Paw power then, and turned into a magma man, so perhaps the burn wouldn't affect him too badly. Helena couldn't know for sure.
Helplessly, angrily, she flew away from her ruined home, and toward the unknown.
The following evening, Dracule Mihawk entered his empty castle with slow, weary steps. Hanging up his sword in its usual place, he soon found himself at his dining table with a good bottle of wine and a clean glass. Setting the glass down, he uncorked the wine, contemplated it, then leaned back in his chair and sighed, putting his feet up.
He took a swig straight from the bottle.
If his old protégé had seen it, he'd surely have said something snarky. Mihawk had often given Roronoa a hard time about his lack of refinement. But at the moment, he didn't really care. With Perona off in search of Moria, and Roronoa reunited with his crew, Mihawk was just glad to have the island back to himself at the moment.
A few swigs later, he'd just started to get comfortable when he noticed a loud ruckus coming from the garden. The humandrills were going crazy! After a moment of listening to them screech, he decided that if he wanted any peace that evening, he'd have to go shut them up.
With the bottle of wine in one hand, his sword in the other, he staggered to the back door and shoved it open. What he saw made his mouth drop open:
"Darn it, Andy!" he cursed as though it were his sister's fault.
For there in his garden, a crater like an enormous paw print had wreaked havoc on his geraniums. In its center and surrounded by screeching humandrills lay the unconscious Helena du Leda, fallen Queen of Ilium.
.
.
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A/N: Guys. Helena wasn't supposed to go to Gloom Island. She was supposed to go learn more about Haki at Amazon Lily. After Andromache's dramatic speech, it just felt wrong NOT to send her to Mihawk though, and we can probably gain a bit more insight into Leda with him. I just want to know if you think this feels too contrived/mirrors Zoro's journey too closely. I can easily change the last scene here.
Your thoughts and reviews are much appreciated on this crucial chapter. Information we learned here is going to become important throughout the story. I want to be sure it all makes sense.