Annie knew at some point she had lost her way.

It wasn't even when Cinder managed to make the worst day of her life even worse by blackmailing her with a video of her sexual assault. It was some point after that. At some point in the years of hell that followed, she gave up. After the world ended, the blackmail didn't mean anything, yet she had still gone along with everything that Cinder demanded. Yet, it hadn't been then either.

No… no, Annie suspected that she gave up much later than that. Even then, there had been some part of her that was banging against the walls of her mind. A spark of heroism that hadn't quite been snuffed out. She took what action that she could without any risk to herself.

Annie had reached out to the Minutemen back in the world now called Fallout, informing them of Law's plans. All of which she heard through Cinder, as Cinder liked to complain or brag whenever she was 'training' Annie. Troop movements, reserves, plans of attack, gaps in defenses - Annie had tried to pass it all along to Nora.

And it meant nothing in the end. Fallout was still conquered. Cinder won.

That was probably around the time that she gave up. That she just… accepted that there was no God and no divine punishment coming Cinder's way. Or Law's. Justice wasn't real and people like them would only prosper. So, she gave up. She gave in. That last spark of hope in her chest was snuffed out and Cinder relished in it, even if she didn't fully understand why it happened. After that, Annie just mindlessly obeyed whatever order Cinder gave her.

It was just easier that way. If she was lucky then at some point Cinder would lose interest in Annie and forget about her. Maybe she would get a sliver of peace then.

But that day wasn't today.

"Tighten up, you slut," Cinder snarled, yanking Annie's hair with all of her strength so she was forced to look up at the ceiling. Behind her, Cinder speared her with a strap on dildo as she ruthlessly fucked her pussy. The tip of the dildo hammered away at her womb, and it was a sensation that Annie had forced herself to get used to. "It's a celebration! And I don't want to fuck a dead fish."

Reflexively, Annie did as ordered, forcing Cinder to reduce her pace to slower, more powerful thrusts. Cinder spanked Annie on the ass before she heard rummaging behind her. Annie closed her eyes for a moment, preparing herself a short second before she felt something press against her asshole. A dildo the size of a fist. Cinder took full advantage of her durability as a Supe - she had the same sensitivity as a human, but the threshold to cause damage was vastly higher.

She felt herself growing full once more but that was about it. There was a certain numbness that came with the action now that worried Annie just a bit. There wasn't ever any pleasure to be found when Cinder was in one of her moods, but there wasn't pain anymore either. Her lower body just kinda felt… numb, leaving Annie to make the noises that Cinder expected, else she would escalate.

"We're finally done with that useless bitch Asami," Cinder snarled, hammering away at Annie's pussy while she sawed the dildo in her ass back and forth. "I can't believe I ever saw her as competition - Law seemed to have such expectations for her, and she just wasted the opportunity. Now that we have the designs for the Dias, she's dead weight. Pretty face, though. Maybe Law will give her to me when he's done playing their game?"

Asami. Annie didn't know her well, but she knew she was one of the few that were still standing up to Cinder. To Law.

"Would you like that? A pole sister to join you?" Cinder asked, her tone nasty and mocking. "You were pretty imaginative when I gave you that idiot the Deep. Maybe I'll give her to you to play with a bit? Would you like that?"

The idea that Asami could join her felt like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over her. Cinder mistook the horror for something else and laughed, "An eager little thing, aren't you? That's good. I could use a little helper breaking these bitches - Asami, Caitlyn, Mel… soon enough, I'll have them all lined up face down ass up, ready to be good little cumdumps. Then when we get the Dias up and running? Entire worlds are going to answer to me!"

That was a nightmare, Annie thought to herself as Cinder's thrusts picked up their already punishing pace before Cinder came at the thought of the power she would hold. Annie felt one more spank before Cinder pulled out of her. "But you aren't there yet. Be a good girl and get me Mel's schedule for Progress Day. You've been slacking there."

"Of course, Madam," Annie replied automatically, getting up and getting dressed. She kept her gaze to the floor and didn't react when Cinder grabbed her to pull her into a kiss - her tongue invading Annie's mouth for a long few seconds before Cinder pulled back. She spat in Annie's mouth, and Annie swallowed it, still looking at the floor.

"Sometimes I think I'm lucky that Law never wanted to keep you as a toy. It means you get to be all mine," Cinder purred with the closest thing she could feel to affection. "Go keep being a good girl, and you'll get a reward," Cinder said, sending Annie on her way with a smack on the butt that sent her through the door.

It was the treatment she was used to by this point. If anything, Annie was thankful that Cinder wasn't in a creative mood. She left the apartment that Annie had been summoned to on short notice, as she always was when Cinder was feeling sadistic with no one around that she could torment. She walked down the streets of Piltover as if nothing was wrong, putting on a mask that her mother had helped her create.

No matter how she felt on the inside to just smile.

Yet, as she walked, she looked around. Piltover wasn't a perfect city by any means, but it was a good one. One filled with good people. The festivities were in full swing with kids running down the street, showing off whatever cool thing they found to their friends. People were drinking and cheering, treating the inventions almost like a sports game where teams of innovators competed to see who had the most impressive invention.

Her gaze slid to a poster - Jayce Talis was someone she saw fairly frequently, though he never took any notice of her. He worked with Mel pretty closely while Annie was one of many underlings. An assistant to fetch coffee. Only it was another face that was in the background that worried her.

Law. Handsome, a slight charming grin tugging at his face while he seemed to gaze off to the future.

'The Men of Tomorrow.'

A memory flashed in her mind. A memory of that same damn smile on his face when Law gave the order to conquer the Commonwealth. Annie imagined he probably wore it when he fought Homelander at the end of her world.

The memories came fast and harsh - of bombs falling across the world, of the horror that came next. Hundreds of thousands of refugees poured into Manhattan to find salvation, even if it came at the hands of monsters. Memories of the depravity and evil that followed both in her home world, and in Fallout. Cinder had bragged about the wager being made between Law and Asami, that this world would become his to do what he wanted with if he won.

And how Law was winning. Now he had the designs for the Dias. Asami had outlived her usefulness. The whole bet was to buy time so he could steal the design from her, and now Law and Cinder could unleash themselves across the multiverse without restraint.

Unless someone stopped them.

"Well…" Annie said, tilting her head back to look at the sky above, seeing an airship fly by as it carried a long banner trailing behind it, detailing a sale for Vought products. "I suppose the worst thing she could do to me is… the stuff she's already doing." Kinda hard to get worse than constant torture, sexual assault, and humiliation.

Annie didn't feel particularly heroic as she found herself walking down a different road. She mostly felt nervous. Scared, really. And her ass was sore. But, she mostly just felt tired. Not even hopeful, as she crossed the city, heading to the public office of Vought. The little blonde girl that acted as the factory manager had her take a seat while she passed the message along that Annie was there to see Asami.

Predictably, she was given the clear to head up. A good thing too, because Annie was already getting cold feet as she ascended the stairs to Asami's office. A long wait time would have had her second guessing herself and imagining all the new ways that Cinder could make her suffer. So, before she could think better of it, Annie threw open the door to find Asami Sato and Rumi behind a desk - their gazes suspicious and their guards up.

"Law stole the Dias blueprints," Annie blurted as soon as the door was closed. Their expressions immediately tightened, then they blanched, and then Rumi's twisted into a snarl.

Asami kept her cool, "From Cate?" She questioned, and Annie realized they were already in crisis mode.

"I don't know," Annie admitted. "I just know that they have them, and they plan to build a second Dias. They might have already started." It wasn't like Cinder mentioned when they stole the blueprints.

"Asami- its time. No pussy footing around here. We need to pull the trigger on this and we need to do it now." Rumi pressed, rounding on Asami, who was keeping the panic off her face even if it shone in her eyes.

"We're not ready," Asami protested, her lips thinning when Rumi slammed her hands on the table.

"Yeah? Well Law fucking is!" Rumi snapped, anger glazing in her gaze. "We waited too long. Fuck- that idiot might have played us, do you get that? This whole damn bet was probably just a cover so he could get his hands on the blueprints, and now he can slip away whenever he wants."

"He wouldn't. He's invested so much time and effort into this… empire of his," Asami tried to reason, and Annie couldn't quite stop the bitter laugh that escaped her. It turned their attention back to her.

"Law doesn't care about what he's built. He'd set it on fire for a laugh," Annie said. That had been an endless source of griping from Cinder, who complained that she was the one doing all of the work to maintain the empire. That it was all built on her sacrifices and labor.

Asami clenched her jaw, but Rumi took the lead and ran with it. "You heard her- nothing is keeping him here now. The moment the Dias is done, he's gone. Off to do whatever evil bullshit he can think of in another world."

"How do you know this?" Asami asked, ignoring Rumi. "Why are you telling us this? You work for Cinder."

Annie wanted to laugh, buy all that escaped her was a sigh. "Cinder has a big mouth… and… this is the last chance to stop them. I hoped I could back in Fallout. Or back in my home world." Annie admitted and Asami seemed to realize something, but she let her finish. "But I couldn't. This time, though… I feel like if we don't stop them now, then we just… won't."

"That's what I'm talking about!" Rumi said, roaring with approval. "She gets it, Asami. This is it. This is our shot. I know you have back up plans for failure, but think how many lives he's going to ruin until we get another shot like this?"

Asami's jaw clenched but she closed her eyes in defeat. "We're not ready." It sounded more like a complaint than a protest.

"We're close enough," Rumi replied.

"Three more months and it would be perfect. A month, I could work with. But doing this now…?" She said, wincing before a sigh left her as she stood up. When she opened her eyes, Asami's gaze landed squarely on Annie. "Thank you for telling us this. I thought he only built a generator and kidnapped Cate to provoke me. I wouldn't have known about the Dias unless you told me. How can I repay you?"

The answer to that question came pretty easily to Annie.

"I want to kill Cinder Fall."

[center]…/center]

Progress Day. Humans did enjoy their little festivals - Sukuna never really understood them. Not really. He tried to, on occasion, back when he roamed the world during the Heian Era. He would find some harvest festival or something and crash it, just to see what the fuss was about. Other times he was invited, the peasants mistaking him for a god or something. Compared to them, he might as well have been one.

However, he found that he didn't particularly mind this holiday. The noise he could do without, but this one felt… fitting, in a way. The humans celebrating those of them that weren't worthless while he himself… had a breakthrough of sorts.

"Finally done, huh?" Sukuna remarked to the evil bath that was before him. A hole that was filled with gore and negativity. It wasn't quite as effective without cursed spirits, but he made up for the lack of quality negativity with quantity. A few months fermenting and stewing later, it was finally done. It had been centuries since a year felt so long.

Reaching over, he grabbed the vacuum sealed container of 'Soul Threads' as Law was now calling them. This version was far superior to the initial product. Strong enough that he figured they'd survive the process he was about to inflict upon them. With a hiss of air, he took off the top before he walked forward, wading through the blood and bile. The silverish white strands of a soul shone brightly until Sukuna plunged them into the bath of evil, letting the container fill up.

Normally, one had to bathe in the evil for hours. Sometimes days, depending on the quality of cursed energy and your aims. The cursed energy would soak into the object, turning whatever it was into a Cursed Tool. However, given that the threads were slivers of the soul, it shouldn't take anywhere near that long.

Only a few minutes, as it turned out. Sukuna attuned his senses, gauging the cursed energy that was being absorbed - then, before the threads began to degrade while they were at their peak of absorption, he pulled them out. The silverish white hue was gone from the threads, replaced with a malevolent black tinged with red.

Despite himself, Sukuna found that he was grinning. "How irritating. That idiot actually made something interesting." The Soul Threads now had the ability to convert mana into cursed energy, and cursed energy into mana. Meaning, in function, once he transplanted the threads into something, the two energies would act interchangeably. Useful by itself, especially in this world of magic, but what made it so fascinating was that Law had inadvertently stumbled onto a fascinating idea.

To carve an innate technique onto the Soul Threads. That could be accomplished in one of two ways - through painstaking tedious work to recreate a technique, or by transplanting the Threads into someone with an innate technique and having them use it. The former was more irritating and time consuming, but it offered more creative freedom. The latter was faster and more convenient, but left you dependent on finding an interesting innate technique.

Or, as he intended, he could use both methods in conjunction. He could use the Threads to create a mold of a technique, which he could then adjust to his desires. That mold would then be filled with Soul Threads harvested from synths of his body, and then he would transplant the Threads into himself. Adding them to his Shrine.

"Damn. I'm gonna have to thank him for this," Sukuna muttered, a little annoyed by the idea as he closed the canister. Wading out of the cursed bath, he grabbed a towel from one of his believers. Pain in the ass as it was, after Oden, he decided he had to take the whole cult thing seriously. With a series of binding vows and more directed action, Sukuna found that he was rapidly regaining his former strength.

As he was, he was closing in on about fifteen fingers of strength. Which really did speak to how effective the new method of gaining power was - it took him nearly four hundred years to reach his pinnacle of strength. Now? Provided that things didn't increase and only maintained their current rate… every year, he would gain about five fingers worth of strength.

He hadn't exactly been hunting towards the end of his time in the Heian Era. There wasn't a point as he was already the strongest several times over. Yet, now that he looked back on those times, it almost felt like a wasted opportunity.

Walking up the stone carved steps, the path illuminated by candles placed upon bleached skulls, he soon arrived at the Pit. His Divine Flame had killed a lot of his cultists by accident when he fought Oden, not to mention torching everything that they had built. There were still traces of the original construction, but in the time since, rebuilding had been a low priority.

Part of that was because of him - he had to intensify the religious indoctrination, so every time one of his cultits saw him, they immediately dropped down to their hands and knees to bow to him. It was actually kinda irritating since they did so even when they were in doorways. Or at the top of the stairs. So, he just stepped on them and moved on, ignoring them entirely and he was a little irritated that he couldn't just kill them since they were feeding him cursed energy.

No wonder the gods remained in the heavens. Humans were irritating to start with, and the zealots' belief made them even more insufferable.

Sukuna paid them no mind, carrying the cylinder over to his workshop, only to pause halfway when he sensed something. It had been a year since he sensed it, which was why it stood out to him so sharply even when whoever he sensed was doing an alright job of masking it.

Cursed Energy.

It was coming from directly behind him, its arrival sudden. Meaning some form of teleportation. Useful.

"Hm…" Sukuna hummed, looking around at his cultists and debating if he cared enough to give them a warning. He didn't. However, he did see an opportunity here. Harvesting the fear of Piltover, a city that contained more than a million souls, was pretty efficient for his Tithe. "All of you, get out of here and stir things up a bit," Sukuna decided and his cultists, every single one of them high out of their minds on Joy, immediately jumped to their feet and started running.

He gave them a head start before he tilted his head back, looking down into the depths of his own shadow. "You have some balls - I'll acknowledge that much," Sukuna remarked, sending a Dismantle into his shadow that sank into it before emerging from another, so his own attack was racing towards his neck. Motionless, he deflected it before crossing his upper arms. "It's been a while since a sorcerer was brave enough to try to hunt me. But, if you know who I am, then you should know a gimmick like that won't be enough."

He was admittedly curious - what was a Jujutsu Sorcerer doing here? Had Law visited his world and brought some over? A gift to keep him entertained? Sukuna could see him doing something like that.

There was a pregnant silence in the wake of Sukuna's remark until one of the shadows began to ripple like water, letting a young man emerge from it. Dark hair and eyes, angular face - his expression was tense but resolute. Sukuna hummed, tilting his head to the side. The child was either confident, or an idiot. "You got a name?"

"Megumi Zenin," Megumi replied, clasping his hands together. Sukuna felt his cursed energy spike, but he allowed it - this was a perfect opportunity to see if the brat had an innate technique worth the hassle of copying. "And you're right. I know who you are. So, don't hold it against me for taking you seriously right out of the gate."

"By all means," Sukuna said with a laugh.

It was then that Megumi's shadow began to shift, bubbling up as a shikigami rose from its depths. The flesh of it was stark white, utterly devoid of color, while the shikigami was tall. Taller than Sukuna as he found himself forced to look up at it - four wings jutted out of its eyes while the back of its head tapered off into a lizard-like tail. Above it was a dharma wheel while a blade adorned its arm. Cursed tools, by the look of things.

"Eight-Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General… Mahoraga!" Megumi introduced his opponent and a slow grin began to spread across Sukuna's face.

Right up until he felt a shift inside of himself a split second before spikes erupted from his flesh - an attack that targeted his soul? No, his body. The base of it. He had incarnated fully after ingesting enough of his fingers, but he was still an incarnate. The body of the synth he had taken control of still acted as the bones of his incarnation.

Meaning that this was an attack on him and Law.

"Interesting!" Sukuna roared, blood flying from his lips even as he restored the damage with RCT. Mahoraga met his roar with one of its own…

And the world around them came undone.

[center]…/center]

Asami was smart enough to double tap, I knew, so I stumbled forward and tilted over the edge of the railing. My Haki was proven right as a bullet passed through where my head would have been a second prior, saving my life. Temporarily at least, as I now found myself falling an odd fifty feet with the ground racing up to greet me.

A Room sputtered to life as I managed to catch my fall, landing heavily on my knees. Blood poured down on the stone streets beneath me like a river. It wasn't an instant kill, but it was pretty close. I kinda needed my heart. My lungs too, now that I thought about it. My ruptured stomach pouring its contents all over my other organs didn't exactly feel great, but that wasn't going to kill me instantly.

I was running out of blood and I had no way to oxygenate the blood that I did have.

Asami had come damn close to killing me there. So damn close. If my lungs weren't already full of blood, I'd be laughing at how close she came.

But she didn't know about RCT. Or, if she did, she didn't know that I could use it. A Room spread around me, and whatever the hell was going on had people spooked. Spooked enough that I could harvest that fear and panic to turn it into positive energy. I couldn't exactly heal myself considering I had what felt like a metallic sea urchin in my chest, but I could channel the positive energy to my brain - keeping it functioning while I replenished the blood I was losing rapidly.

Everything else was secondary. But the solution was temporary. The clock was ticking and if I didn't get this thing out of me before it hit zero, then Asami's first strike really would have killed me.

I couldn't laugh, and blood just sputtered up when I tried, but I was still smiling as I Shambled myself as far as I could go. I had a destination in mind - Singed. He could take this thing out of me, and I could get my hands on that serum. I had the feeling I was going to need its regenerative properties. RCT was way less efficient when you weren't fighting a Jujutsu Sorcerer.

Teleporting to the top of a building, I saw smoke rising up from several points in Piltover. I stumbled a step forward before deciding that walking wasn't the way to go. I couldn't really move my upper body because of the spikes. They didn't really hurt, though. But that might be the shock and adrenaline. Forming another Room, I started to Shamble myself before my Haki warned me of an incoming strike. Two of them.

I swapped with one assailant, shambling her to my position - a girl. Long dark green hair wielding a katana, which she then used to block the bullet that had been trying to take me out. "Tsk," The girl started, narrowing her eyes at me. "Quit being a pain and die already."

"Make me," I said. Or tried to. It was kinda lost when blood just flowed from my mouth and I didn't have any air in my lungs. To add insult to injury, I Shambled myself again.

Only for a second metal sea urchin to erupt where my kidney was - that was a real pain. My leg immediately gave out from underneath me and I found myself leaning heavily against a wall. Ugh, I could feel the metal spikes grinding inside of me. Gross. And what a serious pain in the ass - that attack had bypassed my Room entirely. I couldn't dodge it. My Haki warned me that it was coming, but I couldn't actually do anything to stop it.

Asami had managed to find a silver bullet to use against me. I'm not sure when or how, but I couldn't deny that it was effective. The only thing that I could hope to do was find where they were attacking from and beat the shit out of them before they got lucky and the next spikes were in my brain.

That being said, Asami really wasn't leaving things to chance. I felt movement in my Room - that green haired girl was following me, along with drones that were flying in the air. They weren't the only ones, though.

Oden was chasing me down, and she was joined by Rumi. They moved swiftly, Oden sniffing me out like a bloodhound. Probably with Haki. They were a kill squad and they were coming in hot, so I gave myself some breathing room. Metaphorically speaking, of course. I took myself to the edge of my Room, heading to the bridge and then into the fissures, only to find that Asami had yet another card up her sleeve.

Drones activated by some command, flying up into the air. I was content to ignore them, thinking that they wouldn't amount to much so long as I kept my lead.

That was until the drones circled from high above and my Room started feeling… weird. Weird in a way that I wasn't even sure how to describe - weaker, for one. Like someone was taking control of my Room away from me.

Then with a pop that only I could hear, my Room popped like a bubble. The sensation was more startling than the spikes that skewered me. My Room had been destroyed. That was a first, and I couldn't say that I liked it.

A voice echoed out from the drones, "This is the Pro-Hero Eraserhead. Surrender immediately and you will be given medical attention," Eraserhead promised. Pro-Hero? Oh shit, had Asami found Rumi's world? That sly bitch. Not bad.

Put me in a real pickle, though. I couldn't walk, and Eraserhead was doing something to my Room. I tried to form another one, but it popped as soon as I started it. Meaning that I was immobile, impaled in several places, with a kill team breathing down my neck.

Damn. Damn.

Asami really got me, huh?

Blood dripped down my chin as I smiled, leaning heavily against the wall. Without my Room I couldn't collect cursed energy, which in turn meant no RCT. Already, my vision was beginning to darken and my head felt light. I sensed rather than saw Oden and Rumi arrive, Oden raising her weapon overhead with no mercy.

Yet, I also sensed someone else arriving at that same moment.

[center]…/center]

Yoruichi kicked the kanabo that would have crushed Law to the side before she pivoted sharply to deliver a lightning fast kick to Oden's cheek that sent the woman flying through buildings. At the same moment, Rumi launched herself at Yoruichi with a high axe-kick, only for Yoruichi to catch it and fling Rumi at the third girl that was dropping down into the alley. They slammed through the wall, then the ceiling, and flew across the block.

A small breath escaped her as she turned around, looking down at Law. He was in a real state, absolutely drenched in his own blood with large spikes skewering him several times over. "Took longer than I thought, but I finally had to save you," Yoruichi remarked, dropping down to see that Law had written something in his own blood.

'Singe', with the d half done.

Yoruichi understood immediately and she could tell that Law's time was running out, and fast. She grabbed him by his blood soaked shirt before using Flash Step.

In a fourth of a second, she was across the bridge. At half a second, she was at the fissure with Singed's lab. At two thirds of a second, she was on the fringes of it. At a full second, she was kicking Singed's door down and dropping Law on an operating table. "You! He needs help!"

Singed was startled, but he recovered well, his eyes barely widening at the state Law was in. "Hold him," Singed instructed without wasting a moment, grabbing a syringe that was filled with something Yoruichi didn't recognize. She held Law down as Singed slammed the syringe into him, pushing down the plunger.

Law's eyes snapped open, only now they were colored by a pinkish hue. His gaze darted around, every vein in his body starting to bulge while his muscles spasmed. He coughed, blood lunching up and falling down his cheek, while his eyes darted around. "Re…ove…" Law tried to rasp out, reaching for the spikes.

"We must if you are to heal, and we must hurry before the transformation completes. Brace yourself," Singed said, grabbing a bonesaw. His eyes widened a fraction when there was no blood, Law using his power to prevent any damage being done to him. But he didn't hesitate, simply swung away until he removed Law's arm along with a lot of his ribcage.

Whoever got Law got him pretty good. His organs were torn to shreds. Yet, when Singed unceremoniously yanked the spiked ball out, the ruined flesh immediately began to regrow and mend. Singed placed the arm and ribs back where they should be before moving to the second spiked ball, which he simply cut out a chunk of Law's side, which was already on the way regrowing.

Law turned on his side before he started coughing and gagging, getting all of the blood that was in his lungs and throat out. It took him a few seconds before he was breathing wetly. He spat the taste of blood out of his mouth before breathing in deeply. "Well," he started, cracking his neck.

Yoruichi had barely noticed it happening, she was so distracted by his wounds and healing factor, but Law was different now. Taller, for one. His body was perfectly muscled for his build - he had been fit before, but not brimming with defined muscles that flexed minutely with every moment. His face was a bit different, too. He was already a handsome-looking guy, but now his face looked like an idealized version of himself.

Yet, when he used a hand slick with blood to smooth back his hair, Yoruichi knew it was still the same Law underneath.

"That was pretty unpleasant! Thanks Singed, you're a real lifesaver! I actually thought I was a goner for a minute there!" Law said with a laugh, throwing his legs over the side of the operating table that was drenched with his blood and wearing an easy smile. Despite his brush with death, he seemed stronger. Still careless and carefree, but focused. Honed. "I'll pay you back later, but first, we gotta show off some uninvited guests."

Oh? He was able to sense them?

"Aren't you forgetting someone?" Yoruichi remarked as they headed for the door, Singed watching them with barely concealed curiosity.

Law gave her a sharp grin that was full of bloodstained teeth, "Don't you worry about that, Yoruichi! I owe you," he said, striding through the door with a chuckle. As they walked out, their guests arrived, landing heavily on the ledge that overlooked the putrid river of chemical runoff that cut through the stone. Oden landed first, planting her kanabo into the stone.

Rumi landed next to her, her expression tense, which narrowed when she saw that Law was up and whole.

The third person that joined them, however, was new. A large, heavily built man with blonde hair and dressed like the American flag landed between them. He rose to his full height, being a head shorter than Oden, yet he carried an overwhelming presence that she simply didn't have. It wasn't that Haki stuff, or spiritual pressure. It was simply an overwhelming intensity that was born of a force of personality.

"To the villain Heartless!" The man boomed, pointing at Law with a meaty finger. "Your reign of terror is at an end! The people across the worlds you have ravaged shall take heart! For there is no reason to fear, because I. AM. HERE!" The man declared, and Law met his intense expression with a blank stare for a brief moment before it was replaced with a full smile that was all teeth. He reached out with a hand, and falling into it was a familiar mask.

The mask of Heartless.

"Let's see about that."

...

The next chapter is currently available on my Pat re on and Subscribe Star, so if you want to read it a week early, all it takes is a single dollar in the tip jar. Or, for five dollars, you can read the chapter after that two weeks before its public release! I hope you enjoyed!