A/N: Well lookie here! I managed to finish it. A little later than technically Sunday, but still sundayish.

Also, as of the end of this chapter I AM DONE WITH EXPOSITION! YEYAAAAH!

Ch. 32 – The Admiral

Several hours after the initial search had begun, and the grin had faded from Sakazuki's face. How could a tall, easily recognizable woman, and a green-haired toddler disappear like this? Particularly with so many people on the lookout?

He wasn't about to let her slip away so easily. She represented Ilium, and Ilium represented his first major defeat long ago. It was an affront to justice that the country had continued to stand for so long thereafter, and an affront to him personally that the likes of Helena de Zoro should continue to elude him.

A clue finally surfaced. Someone had found Coby's Captain's coat and a chef's uniform washed up on the dock. Clearly De Zoro had found another disguise. And her choice to throw it overboard implied that she likely had boarded the ship at sea before it had set out.

"We've checked and rechecked all female personnel," a man by the name of Huckleberry reported over the snail line. He captained the ship currently anchored not far from the shore. "She's not here!"

Akainu's brow furrowed dangerously. "That's not possible," he snarled, "She has to be…"

And then something struck him.

"Wait, you only checked female personnel?"

"You told us to only check the female personnel, sir," Captain Huckleberry replied.

Sakazuki let out an impatient growl. "She must be disguised as a man. Check them all, you idiot!"

Helena stood at attention on deck with her fellow marines, her hair hidden in her navy ball cap. The only uniform she could find that fit her properly had been a man's uniform, so she had decided to bind herself and go with it, not that she had much to bind. She and the other cadets had overheard Huckleberry's conversation with Akainu through the snail line, though. Her ruse would soon fall to pieces if she didn't think of something.

Honestly, her only hope now would be to hide in the cargo bay with Kuina and Lady. She'd separated herself from her daughter, worried that her strong, obvious aura would give her away, and thus lead anyone with any skill in Observation Haki straight to her. But though she'd jumped aboard the first ship leaving the harbor, she'd scanned it with her own haki first to be sure the Admiral that Coby had warned her about wasn't aboard. Apparently without him, no one in this crew had the ability to sense her, or they would have by now.

Helena took a deep breath and decided to take action. She had to take a risk. Lady had been given explicit instructions to carry out Code Black in case Helena didn't make it back to check on them.

"Sir!" she barked out, her military training making it easy to impersonate a soldier. "Permission to speak freely!"

"Permission granted, marine," the harried captain replied.

"Sir, I think it likely the perp is hiding, rather than impersonating a marine. Permission to lead a more thorough search of the ship."

"We've already searched the ship down to the vents. If she were hiding, we'd have found her by now. You'd think we'd at least have found the kid."

Helena knew this. She'd taken part in the "search" and made sure that she was the one to "thoroughly" inspect the hold where Kuina lay sleeping with Lady as her guard.

"We do nothing else until we've inspected all male personnel. We're looking for someone tall and thin with white hair and a scar by the right eye. No one leaves this deck until they've passed inspection."

"Sir yes sir!" Helena barked. "Permission to go first."

Huckleberry chuckled. "Fine. Remove your hat, marine."

Helena pulled off her hat, revealing a short do of slick, black hair, with a flop of bangs covering her right eye. A half empty can of shoe polish and a broken comb in the trash had been her saving grace here. She'd even combed some into her eyebrows, and carefully dabbed it onto the white peach fuzz above her lip. She prayed no one looked into her white cap, as it definitely showed signs of her impromptu dye job.

"Name and Rank?"

"Troy du Noir, private first class, sir!"

"Regiment?"

"I'm standing with them, sir!" Helena barked, and the men with her chuckled. She hadn't a clue what her regiment was called, but her confidence paid off.

"I'm having a hard time finding the name," the second in command said, flipping through a clipboard. An efficient, bespectacled man, he might have proven to be Helena's undoing if not for the captain's impatience:

"We don't have time for this," the captain barked. A short, bald man with a shorter fuse, he waved aside the man with the clipboard, "Akainu's ready to incinerate us just to get this lady. There has to be a faster way."

"Kick all of us in the bollocks, sir," Helena suggested with a straight face, and the other marines roared with laughter, including Captain Huckleberry.

"Alright, men, I know a less painful way," Huckleberry called, loudly enough for every regiment to hear. "At ease, and shirts off. All of you."

The female cadets had all already been dismissed to continue the search, having been verified in the Vice Captain's more appropriate, yet slow, clerical way. The marines on deck took to jostling one another, making lewd jokes as they untied their neck kerchiefs and worked off their sleeveless tops.

Helena started to untie her kerchief, but took advantage of the hubbub to slip to the back of the group, and then into a side door. Thankfully she made it out unspotted. She ducked into one of the men's bathrooms, knowing that all men should be on deck at the moment. Soap and hot water eventually got the shoe polish off of her face.

The men's uniforms were really only slightly different from the women's. She let out the binding across her chest, and allowed her darkened hair to fall across her eye, hiding scar. Stepping out into the hallway, she ran into a couple of female marines. For a moment, they seemed confused to see her stepping out of the men's loo.

"No one in there," she said, thinking fast. She spoke in her normal tone of voice, no longer trying to access a deeper register. "I've checked the rest of this hallway."

She saluted and the marines saluted back, completely taken in by her confidence. She went one way and the marines another. Walking with purpose, no one stopped to question her, and soon she had managed to sneak back to the cargo hold.

Just in time, too. Another group of marines were working through the hold, guns in hand. As they neared Kuina's hiding place, Helena popped around a corner, faked surprise, and insisted that she and her regiment had checked and rechecked this area. With another well-timed salute she sent them on their way.

When the coast was clear, Helena settled down behind some crates and placed a hand on Kuina's head. Exhausted and overwhelmed, the child lay asleep in Lady's coils. They'd managed to hide near the spare linens, which meant Kuina had a thin, white towel spread over her as a blanket.

"That was close," Helena murmured to Lady. Completely exhausted herself, she lay back against the crates that blocked them from view. Eyes closed, she reached into her pockets and produced a bottle of medicine. "They don't have pediatric stuff here, but I managed to steal some painkiller for Kuina. When things settle down, I'll head out again for some food."

Lady let out an approving hiss.

"I've scoped things out," Helena continued, yawning. "There's a bathroom across the hall. When Kuina needs to go, I can bundle her up in some towels and sneak her over there. Provided Akainu doesn't actually nuke us – wouldn't put it past him – we should have everything we need until they next make port. Then we can sneak ashore and plan our next move. I'll ask around. Someone has to know where the…Straw Hats…are…"

Her head nodded forward, and she gave a start, forcing her eyes open. She slapped at her cheeks, trying to wake herself.

Lady cocked her head, then grabbed a nearby towel and tossed it over Helena's legs.

"I can't sleep yet," Helena insisted, pushing the towel off. "They might perform another search. I have to be prepared to redirect…traffic…."

Lady nudged the towel over her legs again as she yawned. Helena looked at her, and her lips quirked in a half smile:

"Fine," she conceded, laying down beside the snake and placing an arm around Kuina. "But you wake me up at the first sign of trouble."

Lady nodded, and soon Helena drifted into an uneasy sleep.

"All personnel accounted for, sir, we do not have any extras on board," Huckleberry reported through the snail line. "If she was here, perhaps she jumped ship?"

"With a toddler in tow?" Akainu growled back. "Not likely."

"Would you like us to come back in to port?" Huckleberry asked somewhat gingerly.

"No, stay where you are. I'll soon deal with the problem."

"Uh…what do you mean by that?" Huckleberry dared to enquire. "You're not going to…I mean, there are over a thousand of our people aboard…it's, I mean...you wouldn't…"

"Wouldn't what?" Akainu snarled.

Huckleberry fell into a blithering silence.

"That woman is a danger to the world at large and a symbol of violence against justice," Akainu harangued. "We will keep her from escaping at any cost. So far as I see, a crew of incompetent morons are expendable in exchange for that woman's life."

"No, please!" Huckleberry begged. "Give us one more chance to look for her! She must not be impersonating an officer at all! We'll check all the cargo holds…open every single crate!"

"You have one hour," Akainu snarled, and then ended the call.

In truth, he hadn't been planning to incinerate the vessel. Ships on this side of the Red Line were difficult to transport safely, as they had to go through Fishman Island. Anyway, he hadn't lied when he'd told Helena that he wanted the child to be the one to survive of the three living royals. A child was far easier to manipulate.

But he'd lit a fire under them. Would it be enough?

A weary, graveled voice cut into his thoughts:

"You're so sure she's aboard that ship, Fleet Admiral?" a man wearing a violet yukata beneath his Admiral's coat stood beside him. He faced the sea as Akainu did, and seemed to gaze out toward the ship in question, but a pair of haphazard old gashes across his milky eyes proclaimed him blind. "Seems to me we could check the ships in the dock more thoroughly before making such a tasteless threat toward our own."

"Don't make me question your appointment, Fujitora," Akainu fumed.

"Before you do anything rash, perhaps you should send me aboard?" Fujitora suggested. "I see things that others might miss."

Sakazuki eyed his colleague. He made a good point. Fujitora's self-imposed disability gave him other heightened senses, particularly with Observation Haki. But then, he had opposed the Schichibukai attack on Ilium, and had a nasty habit of disagreeing with the Fleet Admiral's ideas of Absolute Justice. Could Akainu trust him to bring Helena in?

"Fine," Akainu conceded. After all, though Fujitora said questionable things, he had never actually acted in a way unbefitting of his title. Anyway, with Captain Coby unconscious, Fujitora was probably the best Observer available. "I gave them an hour. You have the same."

Kuina's two sentinels had fallen asleep on watch. After all, child, woman, and reptile had all had an exhausting day.

Helena didn't need Lady to wake her, however. She sensed the dangerous presence, even in her sleep. Startling to her feet, she had her Gloom Island swords in hand before she could consciously process what was happening.

Someone had entered the cargo hold alone. Someone stronger than a fleet of marines. Helena gritted her teeth, and tried to still her breathing. Perhaps whoever it was hadn't noticed her yet. She peaked around her hiding place, trying to catch a glimpse of the intruder. Poor lightning and distance meant she couldn't make out more than a tall, broad shouldered figure.

Remembering her disguise, she took a deep breath, sheathed her swords, and stepped out of hiding. Just then, the intruder stepped through the maze of boxes and into one of the round pools of light cast from the ceiling. Helena stiffened in a rigid salute as she saw his uniform.

An admiral.

"Sir!" she barked out, voice a confident mask to her fear.

He furrowed his brow and drew his sword. Immediately an unseen power threw Helena back into the side of one of the many surrounding crates, away from Kuina's hiding place. The stream of gravity continued to press on her until the wood buckled and broke behind her.

The Admiral lowered his blade, and for a moment the heaviness lifted from her. Fighting only the gravity of her own illness and injury, she tried to jump to her feet amid the wreckage, but that same power made a reappearance the moment she sat upright, pushing her back into the ground.

"You think to trick me for my lack of eyesight, Sun Queen?" he asked over his now raised sword, "You may sound like a soldier, but your aura was like a beacon, even to my blind eyes."

Helena bared her teeth but couldn't find the breath to speak. She had only just noticed his blank gaze, and realized that her marine uniform had been useless on him.

"I am going to retrieve the hostage now. If you know what's good for you, you'll stay put," he rumbled, lowering his blade once more and turning toward Kuina's hiding place.

The pressure disappeared. His mistake.

"Little girl," he called, his graveled voice kind and grandfatherly despite the ruthless power he'd just demonstrated, "It's alright. You're safe now…"

Helena let out a primal scream and jumped at him with two blades back in hand. Her swords made contact with his as he spun to meet her. He may have intended to use his sword's power on her again, but a certain white snake had just launched at him from apparently nowhere, biting him in the calf and ungrounding his stance.

For a moment, the pain seemed to distract him as he sought to both shake Lady off his leg and fend of Helena's quick blows. It didn't take long for him to regain his focus, though. A gravity stream shot downward from the ceiling, bending Helena's blades at the hilts, making them useless.

Lady had it worse. Apparently able to control more than one gravity stream at once, the Admiral hit Lady with one so hard and powerful that it knocked her diagonally upward through the ceiling. Helena sensed the poor creature fly through several ceilings in fact, until she ultimately flew through the deck several floors up. The admiral didn't let up, and launched Lady off of the ship and out of Helena's range.

"Hmph," he grumbled, "That should teach you, stupid creature."

"Lady!" Kuina screamed, running from hiding with her fox in tow. She reached toward the hole in the ceiling, tears streaming down her face.

"Beast," Helena snarled, whipping out her sea stone dagger. She'd grown to trust, depend on, even love Lady throughout their adventures together. Even if the snake hadn't been blasted into orbit, a fall from that height would inevitably kill her.

Helena realized by now that the devil fruit power lay in the man's sword, not in him. She didn't bother trying to attack his person. When her blade met his, she felt his surprise that he couldn't blast her back with another gravity well.

"You didn't expect the ex-Queen of Ilium to use sea stone?" she mocked, "I thought Admirals were supposed to be the best and brightest."

She yanked one of her belt swords free and went to stab him in the side. He dodged her easily, but his injured leg made him falter in his stance, distracting him. She pressed forward, keeping herself close so that her dagger wouldn't disengage his sword.

She dropped her sword and grabbed it in her toes, drawing another belt blade with her now free hand. "Nine Muses!" she cried.

The attack made a quick triangle around him, trapping him in a cage of blades moving so fast they became nine. Her dagger remained in contact with his blade the entire time, but though she cut the sleeves on either side of his coat, she didn't draw blood.

"You're stronger than I thought," he growled, "But it won't be enough."

Ignoring the pain in his leg, he widened his stance and pushed against her.

"I won't let you have Kuina, pig," Helena snarled, grounding her own stance and pushing back.

Haki crackled between them. A powerful shockwave surged around the two interlocked combatants, blasting the surrounding cargo and tearing some of it to shreds. The Admiral's power surpassed Hancock's by far...

…but Helena's had grown stronger.

Everything her child had gone through in the past few days flashed through her thoughts; the pain in Kuina's aura, still lingering even now, glared red through the queen's eyes. She would not, could not, allow the government to take her daughter, to hurt her more than they had already done. She was already scarred for life.

For a split second, Helena thought she would push the Admiral over as he faltered on his injured leg again. A curse slipped between his teeth. She pushed him back a few feet, and then…

Her body just…gave out.

One moment she actually thought she could defeat one of the Navy's elite, the next she collapsed onto the floor. Though her spirit was stronger than ever, her body simply couldn't take any more.

How? Helena asked. Her dagger had disconnected from the Admiral's gravity blade, and didn't hesitate to use its power to crush her into the ground. This doesn't make sense. I'm stronger than this. I'm not hurt enough to be like this. Why won't my body do what I say?

Stars popped in front of her vision as her ribs audibly cracked. She groaned, echoed by the groaning of the metal flooring beneath her. The Admiral let out a grunt, and lowered his blade, granting her a small reprieve.

"Hm, if I kill you this way, I could potentially sink the ship," he said. "But you're too dangerous to try to take in alive."

Helena coughed blood, but couldn't say anything more. Couldn't even push herself upright. He lifted his blade, only this time he didn't use its powers. He raised it high, ready to execute her with a clean strike.

"MAMA!" Kuina shrieked.

During the haki clash she had flown into a half-destroyed crate full of towels; the same ones they had been using before. She'd struggled her way free of the linens, only to see her mother in peril.

"Mama…?" the Admiral echoed, his blade faltering.

Suddenly the child stood at his feet, pounding on his yukata with her fists. She could barely reach his knees. "No hurt Mama, you meanie!"

He ignored her ineffective pounding, gazing over the child at Helena. "This is your child?" he asked.

Helena furrowed her brow. Blood continued to trickled out of her mouth, but she finally found a voice. "Let me guess," she rasped, "Akainu kept back that tidbit of information."

The Admiral's lip twitched into an unpleasant snarl. He grunted in annoyance and sheathed his blade. "We were told you had taken a child hostage," he replied noncommittally. "Do not worry, child. I'm not about to hurt your mother in front of you."

Shaking with exertion, Helena slowly pushed herself up on her elbows.

"I won't let you take us quietly," she said, going for her dagger. The Admiral's foot came down hard on the blade. It wasn't hard for him to step around Kuina to do so.

"Don't make this more difficult," he growled. "I'm granting you a moment of leniency, Majesty. Don't waste it."

"Leniency?" Helena scoffed, obliged to drop her sword and listen.

"I was misinformed about the nature of your situation with regard to this child at least. It makes me question what else I have wrong about you," he informed her.

He pulled his sheathed sword from his sash, hunched his enormous form, and seated himself cross-legged across from her. Even sitting down, he towered over Kuina, who stared at him with wide, wet eyes.

"I am Admiral Issho, also known as Fujitora," he said. "The nature of the fall of your country has never sat well with me. I am not keen on the Schichibukai, nor do I fully trust the Fleet Admiral's temperament. I've been told you are a dangerous, deranged zealot, wife to a pirate, out to topple the world order, but what I've found is a mother protecting her child."

Helena pushed herself upright again. Coughing up a bit more blood, she managed to get herself into a cross-legged position across from Fujitora. She leaned on the sheath of her mother's sword, breathing hard as she listened to his proposition.

"All the same, I will not act in a way that does not befit my station. It is my job to enforce the law."

Helena gritted her teeth. She took in a sharp breath to speak, something the blind Admiral heard. He held up a hand to silence her.

"There is one thing I answer to above law, and that is fate," he said, pulling a small wooden cup from his jacket. It clinked as he set it down between them. Inside sat a pair of dice.

"I don't understand," Helena rasped.

"If you roll a snake eyes, I will personally escort you to wherever you are going," he rumbled. "If you roll a seven, I will set you and your daughter adrift in a fully stocked life boat, and give you time to escape. Anything else, and you both come in quietly."

"I have one condition," Helena wheezed.

"I make no promises outside what I have stated," Fujitora insisted.

"A request then," Helena implored. "If I roll something other than a seven or snake eyes, make sure my daughter does not go anywhere with Akainu. He's done enough damage to her."

"Hmm…" Admiral Issho pondered this a moment, scarred brow furrowed deeply. For a moment he seemed like he wanted to ask her to clarify what exactly she was accusing Akainu of, but thought better of it. "I will see that the child is kept in safe custody."

"Not Impel Down."

"You're making a lot of demands," Fujitora observed. "Anyway, why would I send a child to Impel Down?"

"That's one of the fates that have been threatened for her," Helena informed him. "Another is forcing her into matrimony. With Akainu even. Please, you can't let that happen."

"I don't know if I believe you," Fujitora growled. "You're making some heavy accusations against the Fleet Admiral."

"You yourself said you don't trust him," Helena pointed out.

"I said I don't always trust his temperament," the Admiral clarified. "But I believe it is time you show whether or not you trust your own luck."

Helena lifted the cup. "Luck is something I haven't had much of these days," she rasped without humor.

"The child will tell us the numbers on the die," Fujitora said. "I trust children more than adults to tell the truth. She can count, yes?"

Helena nodded, then realized he couldn't see it. "Yes. She should be able to read the die correctly. If not, wouldn't you be able to tell with the tips of your fingers?"

"Too calloused," he said, lifting a hand to show her. "Anyway, whether she answers correctly or not, I will go by the words that come out of her mouth."

"Alright," Helena agreed. Kuina had come around to sit on her mother's lap. "Will you tell the nice man what the dice say, Kuina Bee?"

She nodded, clutching her fox plush to her.

Helena took in a deep, if rattling breath. She covered the top of the cup with her hand, gave it a shake, and placed it upside down on the floor between them.

"Akainu."

Fujitora held the snail before him, a receiver at his ear.

"Report, Admiral. Tell me you've found our escapee."

The snail perfectly imitated the smoldering impatience in Akainu's face.

"She was aboard this vessel, but is no longer." Fujitora's blind gaze stared off toward the nighttime horizon, where he sensed, rather than saw, the young ex-Queen and her daughter disappearing into the distance. "It would seem that the Sun Queen has taken the child and escaped aboard a Lifeboat…"