Things were looking bad. Zoro was busy with Kaku, and Jabra had tricked Sniper King and landed a serious hit. Jabra had him held up by the collar, and just as he was about to land a killing blow, Sanji came in and made the save. He reiterated the importance of getting Robin, especially now that the Buster Call was on its way. He dropped all pretenses, referring to Sniper King directly as Usopp, and told him that he was going to do what Usopp can't, and so Usopp should go and do what he can't. "Read the situation," he said.
Itachi made his way through the tunnel at full speed, having been guided by Chimney and Kokoro. Eventually he began hearing faint sounds up ahead. Clashing blows, splintering wood, shattering concrete. That must be Luffy taking on Lucci.
Eventually, he made it, and it wasn't looking great. Luffy looked like he'd already taken many hits and was breathing heavily, while Lucci appeared to have barely been touched.
"Luffy! Are you alright?"
"Itachi! Yeah, I'm okay."
"I brought two keys with me. I'm guessing Robin is past that door Lucci is guarding?"
"Yeah. You need to go after her, now."
"Are you sure? I can help you take this guy down."
"No. I got this. I know you're stronger than me and you could probably beat him, but you're also faster, and we need to get Robin as soon as possible. Besides, if I let you fight all my battles for me, I'll never get any stronger, so let me handle this guy on my own!"
Itachi thought it over for a moment before coming to a realization. "You're right. I've told Robin more than once now to have faith in you. It wouldn't be right of me to go against that after it took this long for her to finally get it. So, fine. I'll leave this guy to you." He turned his attention to Lucci. "Stand aside, Lucci. You know I can take you, so if you stand in my way, I'll be forced to go against Luffy's wishes and beat you down anyways. I've already killed two of your agents today, so let me pass or I'll have to make you number three."
Lucci was about to say something, but noticed Itachi's eyes. There was a malice in them that even he couldn't match. His instincts kicked in, telling him that if he tried to go toe to toe with this man, he would unquestionably die.
"Very well, go on ahead," said Lucci, stepping aside to allow Itachi passage. "Not like it matters anyway, not with the Buster Call on its way. You're all going to die regardless."
"You let us worry about that," said Itachi as he passed by. Once he had shut the door behind him, he took off once again at full speed. "I hope you know what you're doing, captain."
Elsewhere, Sanji had just dealt with Jabra, taking him out and retrieving his key with the use of his new move, Diable Jambe. Zoro also managed to bring down Kaku with the Nine Sword Style: Asura. When Sanji came back up to check on him, Zoro tossed him Kaku's key. Now they had all of them.
Spandam was at the foot of the Bridge of Hesitation. He continued gloating to Robin about her inevitable fate, telling her that death awaited. When she broke free of his grip and tried to run, she was tackled to the ground, and resorted to using her teeth to grip the edge of the bridge.
"You bitch! Let go, you stupid woman!" shouted Spandam, delivering punch after punch to the back of Robin's head in an attempt to dislodge her. Eventually, he managed to pull her up and continue down the Bridge.
Just as he was moments away from passing through the Gates of Justice, something hit him in the back, exploding on impact. Then, the surrounding Marines who had been waiting for him at the Gates were bombarded with the same projectiles. Usopp was sniping them all the way at the top of the Tower of Law. Robin took the opportunity to make a break for it, but the Marines had recovered and were preparing to open fire. Robin felt something blow past her at an incredible speed.
The Marines all dropped dead before getting a shot off, their throats slit. Spandam looked around at the bodies now surrounding him, and lost all remaining patience. He drew his elephant-sword and swung it towards Robin.
Then, suddenly, he wasn't swinging his sword. Something had caught his arm. Spandam looked up and saw Itachi Uchiha, staring down at him, with a look of sheer rage unlike anything he'd ever seen.
"Itachi!" cried Robin, "You came for me!" The situation was too much. The certainty of death, then the relief from Usopp delaying them, then the Marines pointing their guns at her, and now Itachi swooping in to her final rescue. The turbulent emotions overwhelmed Robin, and she was no longer able to stand, sinking to her knees with tears streaming down her face.
Itachi looked at her with the most genuine smile he'd ever worn, maybe second only to the smile he gave Sasuke, just before dying.
"Of course I did," he said, with all the warmth and affection in the world. Then, he turned back to Spandam, and suddenly that rage once again dominated his facial features.
"You dare lay a finger on my comrade?" he seethed. "You filthy creature."
The sheer hatred and malice layered in his voice went beyond righteous anger. There was something… primal, about it. Something that absolutely terrified Spandam to his core, and made him lose all his composure and bravado, to be replaced with pure, impotent fear.
"W-wait," pleaded Spandam. "Please, don't hurt me! Please spare me! I'll do anything to make this all up to you, I promise! I promise you can have whatever you want!"
"What I want," breathed Itachi, each word spoken with progressively more anger behind it, "is for miserable, pathetic little cockroaches like you to disappear, and never bother Robin again."
Then, for the first time ever since arriving in this new world, Itachi activated his Mangekyo Sharingan, and stared deep into Spandam's eyes.
Spandam looked around, and suddenly no one was around. He was in a black void with nothing visible anywhere in sight.
"W-where am I? What's going on?"
Itachi's voice echoed from the aether. "You are in Tsukuyomi, the Nightmare Realm. Here, I control everything. I control your senses, your experiences, even time and space itself. There is no escape. In this realm, I am your god."
"What are you going to do to me?" asked Spandam fearfully.
Suddenly, he was tied to a large log, and in front of him sat two wolves, baring their fangs.
"These wolves will slowly consume you from the feet up, until you die from the pain, the blood loss, and the infections. Then, you will be revived, with all the memories of that death intact. You will then die nine hundred and ninety nine more times, and each one will be more painful than the last. And then, on the thousandth death, you will finally be allowed the sweet release of the real thing. This is your punishment, Spandam. This is what happens to those who would bring harm to the people I care about."
N-no, plea-aaaaaaahhhh!" The wolves began eating.
"What did you do to him?" asked Robin back in the real world. Itachi had seemingly just… stared him to death.
"It's an ability of mine," explained Itachi as he helped her to her feet and began trying one of the keys on the cuffs. "Tsukuyomi. With it I control every aspect of his senses, even how he perceives the passage of time. I made him experience a thousand excruciating deaths within a fraction of a second. The overwhelming pain overloaded his brain and body, and he died of shock."
Itachi's Transponder Snail rang. He picked up. "Yes? Who is this?"
"It's Sniper King. Itachi, look behind you on the ground. You should see a red bundle. It has two keys inside. Together with the ones you have, that should be all of them."
Itachi retrieved the bundle and unraveled it, trying each key until the fifth one unlocked Robin's cuffs. Finally, she was free. Itachi lifted the receiver to his face.
"Thank you. We couldn't have done this without you. You really are the Sniper King."
Then, the cannonballs hit. The Buster Call had arrived. The Tower of Law took a direct hit, sending the top half plummeting into the sea.
"No, Longnose!" cried Robin.
"It's okay," replied Itachi. "My Sharingan could see everything. He made it off the top of the building in time."
"That's a relief," breathed Robin. The sound of rapid footsteps could be heard from the other side of the Gates.
"Looks like more Marines are coming. How about it, Robin? Now that you're free, do you feel up for a fight?"
"Of course!"
"Let's get to their ship. With the Buster Call here, that's probably our best chance at escape."
"You read my mind. We're already wanted criminals, so what's stealing one little escort ship?"
"Let's do it, then. I finally get to try this out." He drew his new sword and charged forward, with Robin running in right behind him. While he slashed and cut a swath through the bulk of the Marine forces, she watched his back, using her Devil Fruit powers to either stop Marines from catching him in the back, or just break their necks outright. The pair left a trail of bodies in their wake.
Elsewhere, while Kokoro, Chimney, and Gonbe were leading the remaining Straw Hats down the secret tunnel to the Gates of Justice, Luffy's showdown with Lucci continued, with Lucci gaining the upper hand after Luffy's Gear Two wore off. As a precautionary measure, he kicked a hole into the wall to flood the tunnel with ocean water and drown anyone inside.
The Buster call was in full effect now. The sound of cannon fire filled the air, and the island and structures of Enies Lobby were being obliterated. An errant shot hit the Bridge close to where Itachi and Robin were, causing her to lose her balance and fall off the bridge. Itachi rushed to try and catch her, but was impeded by a wall of Marines. He cut them down as fast as he could.
Not fast enough. He reached his hand towards hers and it just barely missed. After all that they had done, how far they had come, Robin was going to just fall into the sea and die anyway.
Then, several things happened at once. A large fist on a chain managed to catch Robin before she hit the water, Kokoro emerged from the water as a mermaid and landed on the bridge, carrying her granddaughter and the rabbit, as well as the rest of the Straw Hats save Luffy, and a giant fist erupted from the docks over by the Tower of Law, causing Luffy's battle against Lucci to change location. Now they were fighting on one of the Marine battleships, and causing serious damage to it. Eventually, the surrounding ships turned their cannons on that ship and fired.
Franky (for of course it was he) reeled in his fist, lifting Robin back onto the bridge.
"Franky!" shouted Itachi. "Good to see you're okay!"
"Oh yeah, I told you I'd be fine! I found some more cola and now I'm feeling SUPER!"
"Thank you, Franky," said Robin. "When I fell off the bridge, I thought I was done for."
"No problem, Nico Robin! I'm not about to let you die after how far we've come to save ya!"
"Are you alright?" Itachi asked Robin.
"Yeah, I'm okay," she replied.
"Good, I'm glad." Itachi turned to Kokoro. "So, you're a mermaid? After everything that's happened today, I didn't think anything could surprise me."
"Bwahahahahaha! Yep! Good thing, too, or all these guys'd be dead! The tunnel under Enies Lobby got flooded and if I hadn't been there your friends woulda drowned!" The aforementioned friends were now starting to regain consciousness.
Itachi smiled. "Well, then, I appreciate your help." Now that everyone else is here, and we have an exit strategy, we're just waiting for Luffy."
"Oh, Straw Hat boy?" asked Kokoro. "Where is he?"
Itachi pointed to the battleship. "Over there, fighting the strongest member of CP9." Then, he noticed the whirlpools were gone. The Gates of Justice being opened corrected the flow of water and calmed the seas.
"Everyone, get on that escort ship! I'm gonna go get Luffy back!" He jumped down into the water, concentrating his chakra in his feet. As soon as his soles touched water, he was off, running across the ocean's surface towards the ship. He briefly wondered if he'd still be able to do this if he ever ate a Devil Fruit.
On the bridge, everyone was dumbstruck at what Itachi was doing. Sure, Aokiji rode his bike along the ice he made, but Itachi was walking on water!
Sanji was the only one who didn't pay it much mind. He'd seen it before back in Water 7. "Come on, we need to get to the ship so we can leave as soon as he gets back with the captain."
Then, several MORE things happened all at once. An announcement came from the battleships that everyone on Enies Lobby had apparently been killed, including the Franky Family and the shipwrights from Galley La, which obviously hit Franky hard.
The ship Lucci and Luffy were fighting on sank, forcing them to relocate to the Bridge of Hesitation, inside one of the support columns, making Itachi turn back.
In response to this, the battleships of the Buster Call began firing on Luffy's position, destroying the bridge and cutting him off from the crew. After that, they surrounded the escort ship the Straw Hats had commandeered, cutting off their escape and giving the Marines the opportunity to send their best men to engage them.
"Too much," muttered Itachi. "There's just too much for me to contend with unless I use this." He stopped in the middle of the water, closed his eyes, and mentally prepared himself for the pain that came with conjuring the Susano'o. He almost regretted wasting the Tsukuyomi on vermin like Spandam.
Almost. If anyone he'd encountered today deserved it, it was him.
Before he could, though, something broke his focus. The Straw Hats and Franky were fighting back, and they seemed to be winning. Even in their weakened and exhausted states, they had the strength and the will to keep fighting. Zoro, Usopp, and Franky were on the bridge maintaining the front line, while Nami stayed on the ship and used her Clima-Tact to pick off anyone who managed to get past them. Sanji was strangely missing, but he could worry about that later.
Across the bridge, Luffy's fight took a turn for the worse. His Gear Two was quite literally running out of steam, and he collapsed to the ground.
Itachi decided the rest of the crew could handle their situation, and he should prioritize retrieving Luffy. He ran as fast as he could, occasionally looking back to keep tabs on the battle with the Marines. At one point, Usopp stopped fighting, having taken notice of Luffy's plight.
He tore off the mask he'd been wearing, dropping the Sniper King facade entirely, and screamed for Luffy to get up so they could all go back together. When that seemed ineffective, he challenged Lucci directly in an attempt to divert his attention from Luffy.
Finally, spurred on by Usopp's words, Luffy found the strength to get up one last time, to end his confrontation with Lucci.
"Luffy! Kick his ass so we can all leave together!"
"Of course!"
Luffy and Lucci launched into battle again, trading blow after explosive blow. Both were getting close to their absolute limit, with Lucci landing a Six Kings Gun, but Luffy was able to power through it and counter with the most recklessly explosive Jet Gatling yet, battering Lucci until his Iron Body was overwhelmed and he finally went down. Luffy was completely spent, though, and collapsed to the ground as well, with no more strength left to move.
Back on the bridge, Zoro was dealing with a Marine with the power to rust metals, losing his sword Yubashiri in the process. The man had managed to grab him and start rusting his body, when Usopp made the save with a Firebird Star.
The battleships announced the defeat of Rob Lucci, to the great relief of Itachi. Now all that was left was to grab Luffy and get out of this place.
The celebration of Lucci's defeat inadvertently revealed an additional nugget of information. The Franky Family and the shipwrights had faked their deaths and secured a means of escape. They had heard the news about Lucci and celebrated a bit too hard, and their cheers could be heard through the Transponder Snail.
The Marines decided to prioritize Luffy, moving in to capture him now that he was too weak to move. The Straw Hats rushed to get on board the ship, but the Marines wizened to their plan and opened fire, destroying their only means of escape. Thankfully Sanji managed to grab Kokoro, Chimney, Gonbe, and Chopper before it sank entirely.
Itachi ran up the wall of the column, arriving at Luffy's location. He pulled out his Transponder Snail and spoke into the receiver. "Don't worry about Luffy, I've got him! Just focus on an exit strategy!"
Usopp seemingly lost focus in the middle of all the action, walking to the edge of the bridge and staring down into the sea. He heard a voice, and at first, everyone thought he was crazy. One by one, though, each of the Straw Hats heard it too. It even managed to reach Itachi's ears.
Usopp looked up at Itachi. "Jump into the sea! Everyone, to the sea! We'll be okay; she came to rescue us! We still have one more friend here!"
Itachi didn't even hesitate. He grabbed Luffy, carrying him in the crook of his arm, and leapt into the sea. The Straw Hats, Franky, Kokoro, Chimney, and Gonbe followed suit.
Itachi couldn't help but laugh as he caught sight of the Merry sailing across the water. The ship had come to their rescue, one final time.
His feet hit the water, and he tore off across its surface towards the Merry at top speed, running up the hull the ship and dropping Luffy on the deck. Strangely, the net seemed to toss itself over the side on its own. Not long after, Sanji clambered onto the ship, thanking Itachi for lowering the net.
Itachi shrugged. "Wasn't me."
Before long, everyone else had made it on deck, with Kokoro grabbing Robin and Chopper. Luffy opened his mouth to thank Itachi for saving him, but Itachi pressed a finger to his lips. "It was no trouble at all, Luffy. I was happy to help."
He walked over to Robin, who was kneeling down shivering slightly from the sea water not only weakening her, but also being so damn cold. He removed his cloak and draped it over her shoulders. "I'm just glad we got Robin back, and everyone made it out safely." Robin looked up at him, tears in her eyes. He simply flashed her the same kind smile.
They weren't out of the woods yet, though. The battleships were firing on them. One cannonball hit the water right next to where Itachi and Robin were, and his eye twitched slightly. He'd had enough of the World Government's nonsense for one day.
"One moment, Robin. I'll be right back." He turned towards the stern of the ship, and as soon as his face was out of Robin's view, his smile faded into a scowl.
"Nami," he said firmly, with a hint of venom slipping into his tone. "Focus on plotting an escape route. Everyone else, stay put unless she asks for your help. I'm putting an end to this, right now."
Itachi stared down the battleships to their rear, who were firing. He closed his eyes, thinking back to his previous life. All the anger, all the suffering, all the hardship that he'd kept bottled up throughout that life. Then, images of Spandam, CP9, and the World Government flag filled his head. No matter where he went, or what life he lived, it seemed that there would always be an enemy to contend with. In the past, it was his own clan, Danzo, and the Akatsuki. Now, it was the world itself. But it didn't matter. Itachi Uchiha would fight anyone who dared raise a hand against the friends he'd come to cherish.
And Itachi Uchiha would win.
He allowed the entirety of his negative emotions consume his being and coat his chakra, concentrating the darkest, heaviest chakra possible into his eyes.
When he opened them, the three tomoe in each eye swirled together to form the Mangekyo Sharingan.
"Amaterasu!" he exclaimed, and one by one, black flames engulfed the battleships, causing absolute pandemonium aboard them. The cannon fire stopped very quickly after that.
Behind him, he heard Nami giving out orders. They were circling around a ship that was too close for him to risk lighting up with Amaterasu, and riding the current of the whirlpools to escape. Wait, the whirlpools? They were back? Who closed the Gates of Justice?
Then he remembered. Sanji had disappeared during the battle on the bridge. He must have found the lever and closed the Gates with the intention of using the whirlpools to force the battleships off course. That cook was a clever one.
Itachi stumbled slightly. It had been a very long day. Between all the running around, the amount of chakra he had spent on Fireballs to sabotage the enemy, and keeping up with the sheer chaos of it all, he was physically and mentally taxed. Using Amaterasu on such a large scale had taken its toll as well.
As he stumbled backwards, he lost his footing and nearly fell, but Robin caught him by the arm, letting him balance himself.
"Easy there, hero," she teased, returning his cloak to him. "That looks like it took a lot out of you."
"It did," confirmed Itachi. "But it was worth it to stop those cannons from firing. More importantly, look at those ships." He pointed out at the battleships being engulfed in the black flames. "That's what will happen to anyone who tries to hurt you from now on."
Robin was on the verge of tears again, and her voice cracked a bit. "Thank you, Itachi."
As they made their escape, a massive ship from the Galley La Company arrived to meet them. At the bow was Mayor Iceberg, surrounded by hundreds of shipwrights and townsfolk. They congratulated the Straw Hats for rescuing Robin and defeating the World Government on their own turf.
Then, the Merry's damaged keel finally snapped, nearly splitting the ship in two. Luffy begged Iceberg to help her, to fix her, but Iceberg reaffirmed the assessment Kaku had made. It was time to let her rest. It was strangely comforting for Itachi to know that even though he had been their enemy and an undercover government agent, Kaku had still been honest with them about her condition.
Merry was just barely able to carry them back to Water 7, but she was done for. It was impossible for her to ever sail again. Nothing could be done.
The Franky Family and the rest of Galley La had commandeered the Sea Train and rode it back to Water 7 alongside the giants Oimo and Kashi, and after meeting up with the Straw Hats, everyone gathered at the coastline for the funeral of the Merry. No one could hold back their emotions. Even Itachi felt a few tears stream down his face. He felt the need to say a few words along with the Straw Hats.
"Back at Enies Lobby, even though I'm not part of the crew, she still chose to speak to me, to let me hear her voice. She had trusted me, and I responded in kind by leaping into the sea. Goodbye, Merry. Even though I didn't know you for very long, you still believed in me at the end. Thank you."