Chapter 14: Twilight Isles, Part Five

"Well, this quite a predicament we are in."

"You would say that. Seriously, how did things go downhill so fast like this…"

"Zzz…"

*WHACK*

"OW! What was that for!?"

"For this! For ALL of this! Who do you think is responsible for this!?"

"You can't pin this on me–Zzz…"

*WHACK*

"OW! Damn it, stop doing that!"

"Stop falling asleep already!"

As you can tell from the dialogue above, we are in quite a debacle. As for we, I meant me, the son of the Pirate King and future commander of the whitebeard pirates, along with his first mate.

After we got caught by the pirates and rebellion group, including our two pirate friends, we are tossed into their ship's brig bounded in ropes with what I can assume is sea-stone cuffs on our only Logia user. They even took our weapons! Sen is going to kill me if I lose Nanashi! Luna, however, is separated from the rest of us and seems to be placed in a different location, escorted by our two head honchos personally.

Which leads to our little dialogue exchange in our cell and my righteous anger towards the freckled pirate captain.

On the plus side, thanks to the sea-stone, I can know hit Ace without risking him burning my feet on contact.

"What were you thinking!?" I screamed at him as I slams my foot into his head, "Burning down the base just give yourself away! Couldn't you think of something else!?"

"To be fair, we kind of panicked." Deuce stated, "And then one thing leads into another…"

"Seriously, think before you act!" I shouted at the pirate captain, "And how did you even get caught! You're made of fire!"

"I got captured and they threatened to blow my head off if Ace doesn't surrender." His first mate helpfully interjected.

"Damn it…" Ace groaned sluggishly with my foot placed firmly on his head, "Why can't I turn into fire…? and my body feels so heavy…"

"Because you have special handcuffs on." I tell him, removing my foot and making sure not to touch the obviously sea-stone handcuffs, "Those cuffs are made of sea-stone, a material that emits the same energy as the ocean would. It's the bane to all Devil Fruit users."

"Stone that feels like the sea?" The masked pirate questions in confusion, "That doesn't seem possible at all."

"Trust me, I'm still wrapping my head around the idea of it EXISTING."

"Wait, how come you're not wearing one?" Ace asked me, "You're a Devil Fruit user too."

"It must that they didn't see her change forms, or that they have only one pair available to them." Deuce explained, "We could use this to our advantage."

"Problem is how we can use that." I pointed out, "We have no idea where Luna is behind held. For all we know, she could be on the other ship. Not to mention the fact if we just bust out right now, we're just going to get rounded up and brought back here again."

"What do we do, then?"

"First, we need information, intel about this ship. The size of it, the number of troops on it, whether or not the ship is still docked, those kinds of things. After that, we need to find out where Luna is being held."

"How do you suggest we do that?"

"I'm… still working on that part…"

Thankfully, these people seem to believe that we can't possibly escape our cell, as such left no guards here to watch us. If there are guards here, our plans would have been leaked and who knows what their counter strategy would be. Although, this does make getting information pretty difficult.

"This is proving to be way more difficult that I envisioned…" I mused.

Luna jerks around in her bindings, her hands bound together by rope. 'Damn it! These knots are tight!'

After she was separated from her companions, she got dragged into a room that she thinks is that damn pirate captain's quarters. With the bed and side table, along with bookshelves that houses a few books, it doesn't seem like the usual crew quarters of a sailing vessel.

As for why she is brought here instead of being tossed into the brig with the rest of her companions, she can think of several reasons.

And none of them are pleasant at all.

She stops her struggles when she heard the door to the room opened, as the armed woman from before walked in. Her violet eyes burn holes into her as she slowly makes her way towards the bounded princess.

"So, you're the Britt Princess?" Desiree stated, "The one Reginold warn us about?"

"…"

"…The silent treatment, eh?" She paces about in front of her, staring daggers into her, "Well, I don't blame you. I wouldn't like to talk to my kidnappers, either."

"…"

"Although, I have to wonder: How did you find our base? We're on the most remote part of the island surrounded by dense forest filled with dangerous animals, and we're in a cave no less. Yet, here you are. Of course, getting to see Tok get all flustered and panicking is a treat for the eyes."

"…"

She then leans up to her face till their noses are almost touching. "Is it the supply group? Did you follow them to us? Or perhaps, you managed to eavesdrop on our men in town?"

"…"

Seeing that she is getting no reaction from her, Desiree took a step back. "…No matter. The 'how' doesn't make a difference. You're here now, trapped, and with no way out. No one is saving you this time. Soon enough, your kingdom will fall, and Latian would take its rightful place as–"

"Why?"

"Hm?" She turns to the princess who just uttered that single word, "I thought you weren't talking?"

"Why are you doing this?" Luna asked with a scowl on her face, "The war ended several decades ago! There's no reason for you to attack us!"

"…No…reason…?" Desiree stomps up to her before lifting the princess by her shirt as she growls at her, "I have plenty of reasons for doing so! You Britts stole away the land that my people, my family has been living on for generations! Not only that, our people are hunted and slaughtered by your accursed army for years! All under the orders of that damn king of yours!"

"No! That's not true!" She argued, "Grandfather would have never given that order! He only executed those that would restart the war! Everyone else, he only has them banished! He would never agree to mindless slaughter!"

"Is that so!?" The armed woman shouted back before shoving her onto the wooden ground, "Then explain why ships donning your kingdom's flags destroyed my town!"

"Eh?"

I look out of our cell's window; the sky's turning orange and is slowly getting dark, signifying the end of the day. "That's one day gone… we only have two days left, now…"

"And we are still no way closer to getting out of here." Deuce sighed.

But the ship isn't moving, from what I can tell and hear, so we might still be docked. Not to mention that I can still make out parts of the cave, meaning that we haven't left the base yet.

*GROWL*

I glare at our freckled pirate captain who let out a moan in response to his stomach's complaints, "I'm starving…"

"Is food all you think about!?"

"I'm hungry too…" His first mate stated tiredly, "But I highly doubt that they would serve prisoners food."

"And if they do, it might be either rotten or poisoned." I pointed out, before letting out a sigh, "Damn it, is there no way to find out what's going on out there!?"

I then heard footsteps in the distance, I clamming up as I waited with baited breath. Deuce does the same, but his captain just let out another groan.

A few moments later, the cell's door swings open and a young man walks in. He is wearing the same outfit as Desiree, even has the same coloured eyes and hair as hers with the exception being that he has more of a wolf war tail going on compared to her braid hairband thing.

His weapon is the same as well, with some little changes like it is a short sword instead of a longsword and its cross guard resembles the one of a roman gladius with a four-leaf clover design.

I wonder if he is related to her?

"Hey." He greeted, a small bundle of cloth in his arms, "Thought you might be hungry, so I got some bread from the mess for you." He then tosses the bundle and its lands in front of us, unravelling itself to show its contents of brown bread.

"Um…" I looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

He then realised, "Ah, right. Handcuffs."

That is later followed by Ace crawling with his shoulders and then burying his face into the baked goods, loud chewing is heard later.

"That's… something…"

If I can move my hands, I would face-palm.

"You're pretty nice for a pirate." Deuce noted, "Or are you part of the rebel army?"

"Pirate, no." He stated as he leans against the wall in front of us with his arms crossed, "Rebel? Eh, a little on the nose there."

"You're attempting a coup d'état." I pointed out, "I think that means you are a rebel, so to speak."

"True, true." He nodded, "Although, it's less of a coup then a revenge plot."

"Revenge? What are you talking about?"

"Ah, right. You probably don't know." He then kneels in front of us, "My sister… Oh, you might know her. She's the leader of our little 'rebellion', the one that caught you people and tossed you in here."

"That girl's your sister?" Deuce blinked in surprise.

Ah, so he's Desiree's brother. "That might explain the whole hair, eyes, and clothes thing." I noted.

"Yeah, yeah, I know; we look nothing alike." He chuckles, "Anyway, my sister started this whole thing just to get back at the Britts for what they did to our town."

"Your town? What happened?"

Desiree let out a huff as she starts to explain, "Ten years ago, when I was just a little girl, my entire town got bombarded by cannon fire from several ships, all of them wearing the colours of your kingdom!"

"W-What…?" The princess couldn't believe what she just heard, "B-But…"

"We weren't fighters, or soldiers either! Heck, we weren't even near the Twilight Isles! We were just a small port town, far from your kingdom's territory. And yet…" Desiree's hands clenched into a fist, "…A lot of people died that night. INNOCENT people. None of them would bring harm to your kingdom, yet you still blew them all up! I found my own parents buried under our house!"

"I-I…"

"You ask why I'm doing this?" She walks up to the princess with poisonous glare, "I'll tell you why. It's because you Britts are nothing more than thieves and murderers! Your people has stolen Twilight Isles from us, and now I'm going to steal it back."

"Even if I'm going to burn it all down to do so."

As the leader of the rebellion group left the room, Luna is left speechless and filled with questions of her own family, her heroic grandfather actual deeds and what that meant for the position of her kingdom.

'Did grandfather… lied to everyone?'

I couldn't believe what I just heard. Ships flying the flags of the Britt Kingdom just bombarded and annihilated a port town just because they are descendants of the late Latian Kingdom. That's not something I was expecting to hear at all. To think that their reason is something this intense…

But still…

"After that…" He carries on, "Reginold shows up in our town. He is the one that told us about the whole being chased by the Britts, and that they would nothing to completely destroy anything that has anything to do with the old Latian Kingdom, lineage or otherwise. He then gave us an idea, to take the fight to them, to take back the Latian Kingdom."

"By infiltrating the Britt Kingdom, and then slowly switching out people from within with your own men." Deuce concluded, "So when the time comes, you already have an army inside."

"The whole thing was Reginold's idea." The man explains, "He planned to earn himself a spot within the kingdom's inner circle, which he uses relay important information to us to prepare for our attack. After that, we just bid our time."

"How long have you guys been waiting?" I asked, "And why attack now?"

"I believe it has been around… five years, or so?" He replies after thinking for a moment, "As for why we move now… I think you know why."

"Arthurious Peragon's passing…"

"Yup." He nodded, "Reginold is afraid of the old king; he didn't even attempt to assassinate him at all. Once he died, Reginold decided to start the countdown."

"Is he really that dangerous?" Deuce asked, "The founding king, I mean."

"Can't say for sure, I've never met the guy myself." The man stated with a shrug of his shoulder, "Well, it doesn't truly matter at this point. Once tomorrow comes, we would strike regardless."

"Tomorrow!?" I screamed in shock, "You guys are attacking tomorrow!?" That can't be right! We should still have at least two days till the attack!

"Pretty much." He nodded, just as the ship starts to shake and swerve a little, "And that's the sails unfurling. We should be on our way now."

"Why are you attacking now!?" Deuce asked, "You have planned to attack two days from now! Why the sudden change!?"

"Orders from Reginold." He explains, "The princess is the last part of our plan. With her as our captive, we can easily take over the capital with no bloodshed."

"You're going to use her as a hostage!" I concluded.

"Pretty much." He nodded with a sigh, "Not the most moral of options, but if it means lesser blood on our hands, then I say go for it."

"…You're weird."

"Huh?"

Our pirate captain slowly sat back up, crumbs still around his face, "You're weird. You came down here to give us food, which was delicious, and then proceeds to tell us all about your plans, your reasoning, and what is going on out there. Why would you do that, especially to captives like us? No matter how you look at it, it's weird."

"…I guess that's true." The man chuckles as he stands up straight away from the wall, "To be honest, I don't really like this whole rebellion and revenge thing. Sure, they might be after us, but it has been several decades since our kingdom lost the war. The people who gave that order to begin with might be dead, or retired at this point. There's no point to all of this."

"Then why go through with it?" I asked, "Why take part in all of this!?"

"It's Desiree."

"Desiree? Your sister?"

"She has it in her head that the Britt Kingdom is the cause for our parents' death, for the death of countless of our fellow townspeople." He explains, "And she'll stop at nothing to get revenge for it; she calls it rightful justice, but with each passing day, I saw what it is doing to her. How that hatred has took a hold on her, change her into something she's not. If we don't do this, I'm afraid she'll break, and I don't want that!"

"You're willing to sacrifice an entire kingdom just to save your sister's sanity?" Deuce pointed out.

"Yes!" He shouted, "She's all that I have left! And we're family. Family always take care of each other."

"Then you should have stop her!" I shouted at him, "Revenge isn't the right answer! It never is!"

"Then what is it!?" He shouted back, "What should I have done!? Tell me!"

"…"

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

"That doesn't explain why you are telling us all of this." Deuce noted, "Why are you telling us?"

"To be honest… I don't know why I told you guys myself." He stated, "Maybe it's because I needed to de-stress myself from all of this, or maybe I just wanted to someone to talk to that isn't a pirate outlaw or rebel soldier, or maybe…"

Then all of a sudden, echoing footsteps can be heard as a young man in the same attire as the two people standing next to Desiree back in the base walks up to him and gave him a salute, "Sir, Madam Desiree requires your presence."

"She's probably wants to go over the attack strategy…" He mutters, "Well, it has been a good talk, but I got to go-"

"Wait!" I call out to him, he stopping in his tracks, "What's your name?"

"Why are you asking?"

"I just want to know the person who is willing to tell us his entire plan."

"…It's Vi."

And without another word, he walks off, closing and locking the cell's door behind him.

"…Well, that was a fun time." Ace commented.

"I didn't imagine that they would have such a reason for doing this…" Deuce stated as he slumps down against the wall, "To think that the Britt Kingdom bombarded a town for having refugees… guess every nation has its dark side."

"Yeah… can't say that I blame them for doing such a thing." I stated, "But still… something feels off…"

"Off?" The two pirates look at me, "What is?"

"The whole thing with the town." I explained, "It has been few decades since the war ended, and somehow a town that so happens to be home to several descendants of the war's refugees gets bombarded by the war's victors? Don't you think that's a little too coincidental?"

"Sounds just fine to me." Deuce nodded.

"Yeah, some kingdoms are just that much of an asshole." Ace stated with a scowl. He must be thinking about what happen with Sabo, and the Goa Kingdom in general… but even so…

"Even so, ships just so happen to be flying the Britt Kingdom's flags?" I pointed out, "There's not a single vessel bearing the kingdom's colours in Port Royalise, not even a trade ship! And Luna has told me that it was only recently that they started focusing attention on their naval forces!"

"But then, what about the ships Vi told us?"

"That, I do not know for certain…"

All of this just feels like a setup, a move within the most cliché of motives ever conceived in a such a scenario as this one. If that's the case, who is the one truly responsible? The 'puppet master' of this entire plan, the one that will be the only one benefitting from this whole thing?

I only have two people in mind, and cliché as it might be, either one is possible.

The sun has just set a few moments ago, leaving the night sky shimmering with countless stars. Most of the crew are in bed, minus the one manning the rudder and night guard on duty.

Vi let out a small yawn as he walks onto the empty deck, a small table already prepared with the diagram of their objective's location spread across it with the important points indicated by pins along with a Den Den Mushi on call with Reginold, if the frown on the mollusc is any indication. Due to it being in the dead of night, there's a small gas lamp being lit next to it.

Around the table is his sister Desiree, the leader of this little rebellion, as well as the pirate captain of the two sailing vessels they are currently using, Gear Head Tok.

Gear Head Tok… he remembered the first time he met the pirate captain himself. Reginold has stated that they need the manpower for his plans to succeed, and that while unsavoury, they are the best option they have at the moment. And to be fair, they don't have many options to begin with, so he reluctantly agrees to work with him.

From the start, no one likes the pirates. They are loud, brash, and straight up unruly for their taste. There are times in which they all proudly proclaim their victorious plunder and even their loot and… well, let's just say there's a reason why Desiree isn't willing tolerate the pirates who wishes to 'conquer' her. One of them is missing several fingers as a painful reminder of that.

But despite all that, he had to admit that they deliver what they are ordered to do. Smuggled weapons of all kind come in droves once they recruited his aid, and their forces is further bolstered with the addition of his pirate crews.

What was once a squadron of about a few dozen troops now became a small army of at least a hundred men strong.

Though, there were set backs with Tok going full off-course and decided to plunder a few trading ships which draw the attention of the Britt's military and cutting off any possible ideas of a naval assault.

"You're late." His sister tells him.

"Sorry, sorry." He apologizes as he walks up to three of them, two if you exclude the snail on the table, "Have to deal with something first."

"Down in the brig, you mean?" Tok asked with a devilish grin, getting a flinch from second-in-command, "Did that little lass down there piqued your interest? Did you have your way with her, while her friends watch–"

His sentence is cut off when Desiree has drawn and placed her sword's blade dangerously close to the pirate captain's neck, he raising his hands in surrender and freezes in place.

"Enough of your foul words, Tok." She warns him as she pushes the blade onto his skin, "Do I need to remove your fingers too?"

"Tsk, tsk; temper, temper…" He mutters before he relaxes once the sword is off of him. He clears his throat while rubbing it, "Anyways… you call us here, Reggy. What is it?"

"Do not call me Reggy, pirate." The 'advisor' tells him before continuing on, "I wish to go over the plan with you people one last time."

"That's it!?" The pirate groaned at that, "You woke me up from the best wet dream I ever have since the start of my career just for a briefing!?"

"There's no harm in going over the plans one more time." Desiree points out.

"No objections here." Vi nodded.

"Urgh, fine… let's just get this over with…"

"Right." Reginold nodded and went on explaining the plan.

Once they made it to the place allocated on the map by daybreak, they are to arm up and report in to him before making their way into the tunnel with their hostage at hand. It's just one straight path through the mountain so there shouldn't be any major problems, but the size of tunnel isn't that big, so they would need to split the army into small platoons so to head through faster.

A few meters in, they would come across a blockade of boulders. Once reached, they are not to do anything until Reginold gave the green to go ahead. Once the signal is received, they are to blow up the blockade using the explosives they acquired. If things went as planned, the troops they sent to infiltrate and replace the guards in the castle would be waiting for them.

Regardless, once the explosives went off, they only have a little amount of time for all their troops to move into the inner castle before the actual guards come for them. Once that is settled, the true action begins.

Tok and his pirates would rampage throughout the castle as a distraction to draw all the guards to them, while Vi and Desiree with a platoon of Latian soldiers sneak through the castle into the main throne room where Reginold is waiting with the current ruler of the Britt Kingdom.

There, using his dearest daughter as leverage, they would seize control over the capital, and force him to surrender all rights of Twilight Isles to them. After that… that's up to Desiree.

"Are you all clear of your roles in this?"

"Crystal!" Tok smirks while cracking his knuckles, "Head into the castle and go wild, right? That's easy!"

"Do we really have to bring the princess?" Desiree asked with a scowl, "Can't we just leave her here? We have a visual Den Den Mushi, don't we?"

"The king wouldn't believe us unless we give him solid and undeniable proof." Reginold explains, "We need her to be there in person."

"Grr…"

"While we're on the topic of hostages, what about the three we have in the brig?" Vi brings up, "What purpose do they serve?"

"The ones accompanying the princess, yes?" Reginold thought for a moment, before deciding, "Kill them. They are a waste of space, anyways."

"Kill them?" The young man wasn't expecting an answer so cold from him, "Are you sure? Surely, they could be of some use?"

"What's the matter, Vi?" Tok chuckles with a wangle of his eyebrows, "Took a fancy to them, or perhaps that young girl is your type? Then it's simple! Kill the guys and enslave her! She could be your new pet to fulfil your every desire!"

"WHAT!? How could even suggest such a thing!" He shouted at the pirate captain.

"Oh, then can I keep her? It's been a while since I tasted such an unripe fruit–"

"Shut it!" Without a second thought, he drew his sword and slashes at the pirate captain. Tok then simply raises his hand up and the blade is stopped in its tracks. Vi himself is stopped mid-swing; his entire body frozen in mid-air. His eyes darted about as he struggles to move even an inch to no avail.

"Ah, ah, ah~" The gear-themed pirate chuckles as he walks up next to the rebellion's second-in-command, "You really shouldn't have done that, boy. I'm an important ally, you know? And let's be real here, you couldn't lay a finger on me even if you wanted to."

"Ur-Urgh…!"

"Now, what are you going to do about this?" He added, patting the young man's cheek, "How are you going to make it to me, hm?"

"Tok. Release him at once."

"Tch. Party pooper."

The pirate snaps his finger, Vi starts moving again and completes his swing before stepping back a few steps away from him.

"…Vi."

"Y-Yes, sir?"

"I want you to kill those three yourself." Vi's spine tingles at that command, cold sweat sliding down his forehead, "Make it like they fall off the cliff. I expect no failures from you, understand?"

"…Yes, I understand." He nodded.

"Good. Then that concludes this briefing. Godspeed to you all."

…

To be continued…

Yes, yes! Finally done with this part! Man, I can't believe I took this long to finish this!

So, yeah! Another new character! Vi, a simple name, yes? To be honest, I was just lazy with coming up with a name for him…

This arc is heading towards its climax! The reason for the coup is revealed, intrigues all around! Goddamn, this chapter is hard, but heck of a lot of fun to play around!

With that, I thank you all for reading this!