When the agents of the Cipher Pol No. 9 arrived in the room minutes later, they already knew what had transpired in the room, which felt heavy with a tension that none of them had ever quite tasted before. The crimson light of the baby Den Den Mushi hadn't faded. It was still pulsing, slowly, painting their black suits with its glow. The golden Den Den Mushi lay discarded next to it.
Lucci was the first through the door, with an irritated scowl on his face, followed by Kalifa, Kaku, and Jabra. Each bore the same look, the look of knowing. That they knew what had happened. In fact, the entire base already knew.
But Spandam mistook their silence for respect and obedience. "Good! Good, you're here." His laugh was thin and unsteady. "We have a new directive. A… temporary change in plan." He gestured wildly toward the window where the storm-colored sea boiled far below. "We are abandoning this island. Effective immediately."
The agents exchanged glances, subtle and swift.
"Sir," Kalifa said coolly, "the Buster Call has been initiated. Protocol dictates that full evacuation is impossible."
Spandam waved her off. "Protocol dictates I must survive! Do you have any idea what'll happen if the World Government loses me? The bridge between authority and chaos collapses! We are the law's voice! I am that voice!"
Kaku's tone was mild, almost kind. "You mean to flee before the fleet arrives."
"Exactly!" Spandam seized on the word as if it had been praise. "While the ships approach, you'll delay the Strawhats and the escaped prisoners. Hold them off long enough for me to reach the southern docks. There's a personal vessel ready there. Once I'm at sea, we can negotiate with headquarters before they level the place."
Lucci's eyes narrowed. "You expect us to remain and perish."
"I expect you to serve!" Spandam snapped. "You'll hold the line. Consider it atonement for your failures. The Government will reward loyalty, I assure you. Once this island is erased, your… records can be rewritten. In fact, you, the most powerful and intelligent among all Cipher Pols, can surely survive."
The baby Den Den Mushi's shell trembled as it captured every syllable, transmitting them through corridors and loudspeakers. In the barracks, soldiers froze mid-stride as Spandam's shrill voice filled the air. "Hold them off while I escape," he was saying. "Delay them until the warships arrive. The Government can rebuild Enies Lobby later, but our priority is the ancient weapon!"
A ripple of disbelief spread through the ranks. Through the men and women fighting the intruders, with them turning toward one another in silent horror of realization. The World Government sacrificing one of their own base islands? Sacrificing them, the Marines? For something that they had never even heard of?
Up in the command room, Spandam continued, oblivious. "That freaky Cutty Flam, Devil Child Nico Robin, and that rubber fool Straw hat Luffy are to be taken alive if possible. But if it costs me this island, then burn it! Burn everything!"
Kaku's polite mask cracked for an instant. Kalifa's fingers twitched at her glasses. Only Lucci remained impassive, though the pigeon ruffled its feathers, cooing low as if echoing the murmurs that now filled the halls below.
"Understood," Lucci said quietly.
"Good!" Spandam exhaled shakily, relief flooding his features. "Now move! I'll coordinate from the docks."
He turned toward his desk, fumbling with keys and folders, not noticing the smallest thing: the hooded figure, the key figure of the 3Ps, Miss Arthusa, who had been standing in the corner since the meeting had begun, was no longer there. Where she had stood, two steel-bound suitcases rested on the floor, their clasps still locked.
Spandam snatched up a map, muttering frantic routes under his breath. "North lift's too slow… the bridge, yes, the bridge will do. Once I reach the secondary pier.."
Lucci's gaze slid to the glowing baby Den Den Mushi on the console. Its mouth moved, perfectly mirroring Spandam's babble. Kalifa followed his eyes; realization dawned, sharp and cold.
"Director," he said with a curt sharp tone. "You might want to check your transmitter."
"What?" Spandam snapped, half turning. "I'm busy, can't you–"
From outside, a roar of distant voices rose like a tide with thousands shouting, overlapping, the entire island suddenly alive with chaos. Sirens blared. Footsteps thundered through the corridors. Someone somewhere screamed, "The Buster Call! They've ordered the Buster Call on us!"
Spandam's words died in his throat.
He turned back to the baby Den Den Mushi, to the open receiver still glowing red beside the golden one. For a long, terrible moment he could only stare, his reflection flickering in the snail's glassy eyes.
Then the color drained from his face.
"…Oh," he whispered.
The island outside answered like a living tide. Not stopping at the walls of the courthouse or the iron gates. It raced through corridors and across the great open plaza, down to the docks where cannon smoke still hung heavy in the air. The baby Den Den Mushi's trembling voice echoed from every speaker, its metallic undertone having warped Spandam's shrill commands into something monstrous.
Almost all the marines, pirates, carpenters and the outlaws had turned their heads towards the nearest receiver, confused at first. But it was only for a while, until someone spilled what an actual Buster Call is.
And among the chaos was one such Nico Robin, who had frozen where she stood. The color had drained from her face as the voice repeated over and over in her head, clear and merciless, snatching her breath, squeezing her heart in the wrong ways. The sound was striking through her like the bell that once tolled over Ohara before the flames rose and consumed everything. With the name Buster Call.
She remembered the sky turning red, the scholars screaming for their books, her family, her mom, her teacher, her friends, Saul… everyone dying.. With the sea boiling under the warship's guns. She had sworn never to hear that sound again. She had sworn to not go hunting for anything similar. And yet here it was, carried on the same mechanical tone, delivered by the same kind of man who spoke of justice as if it were a blade that must always taste blood.
Her knees weakened; her hands trembled despite herself. "Again," she whispered, voice breaking. "They're doing it again."
Luffy turned at once. His expression, open and boyish moments ago, hardened with a quiet fury that made the air seem to press inward. "Robin," he said simply, stepping closer.
"They will destroy everything," she muttered, each word brittle. "Their own soldiers, the island itself… all because they believe that is justice. Because that man believes he is delivering justice and power is the reason enough to do it."
Around her, the crew gathered without any second thought.
Nami laid a hand on her shoulder, firm and steady. "Then they are wrong," she said, her eyes glinting with anger. "This isn't justice."
Sanji exhaled smoke through clenched teeth. "The moment someone treats lives like numbers, they are worse than trash."
Usopp swallowed hard but nodded, his voice rough and small with fear but still holding onto courage. "We are not letting them do this again, Robin. Not while we are here."
Chopper pressed closer to her side, his small arms wrapping around her wrist as if to anchor her. "We will be fine. Our friends will be fine," he murmured, his determination trembling through his tiny body.
"It's them who should be scared of us anyway," Zoro smirked, his eyes glinting with slight worry before looking ahead at the marines who were already scrambling away to get off the island.
Robin's vision blurred. She felt the warmth of everyone around her, the strange, reckless warmth of a crew that believed and did the most impossible things, of a crew–no, family–whom she never thought she could be a part of. For years she had stood alone against the cold echo of that siren, but now she felt no longer alone.
She drew a breath that steadied her shaking and she nodded once, managing a small, strained smile. "Thank you," she said, almost in a whisper. "I won't run."
Luffy grinned, fierce and bright even under the ever worsening weather. "Good," he said. "Cause we are gonna crush them all."
Somewhere above, a second alarm began to wail. It had an ugly, blaring note that rolled across the sea. Sirens shrieked from every tower, overlapping in discordant panic.
Below, the base erupted. Soldiers shouted over one another, confusion shattering into terror. Orders contradicted orders, men threw down rifles and bolted for the lower lifts. The air smelled of burning oil and fear.
Marines fled from the tied intruders they captured moments ago, leaving them scared and confused too. They didn't know the full story but they knew that whatever had led the Marines to flee was something big.
Across the plaza, the two giants Dorry and Brogy roared, confusion turning to fury as cannon crews abandoned posts. Their massive steps shook the ground, but the smaller allies motioned frantically for them to hold back.
"Too heavy for the bridge!" Paulie shouted. "Wait for the rest!"
Nearby, Yokozuna croaked and thrashed at the few unlucky Marines that got too close to him in their panic, eyes wide as thunder rolled over the horizon. He stayed beside the giants, unwilling to leave just yet, while others crossed.
Those able to run did. The drawbridge–that impossible distance that connected the Courthouse and the Tower of Justice–finally began to lower. Its gears screamed against the storm wind, its chains rattling as if the whole island was groaning or it understood what fate had for it in the coming future.
Franky's men and the shipwrights were sprinting across the lengthening span, their boots hammering the wet iron. The air was already beginning to smell of ozone and salt, with every few seconds lightning flashing far out at the sea, revealing the faint monstrous shapes of the warships advancing through the mist.
"Move it!" Paulie shouted again, dragging one of his crew forward by the collar. "We've got minutes before the fleet's in range!"
From the bridge's midpoint, one could see the world as four distinct quarters. Behind them is everything they've fought and won against so far, which was drowning in alarms. And ahead of them, the Tower of Justice, where they would gain back their gold and get revenge. To their left, right and below is a great void that has no end in sight, black and ominous under a ceiling of storm clouds.
It's as if the area where the 3 islands of Enies Lobby are located had once been deleted from existence. Water falls into the gapping void, never filling it, as if it never reaches the bottom. Further out is the sea, raging like there's no tomorrow and a bit further out a dark fence that surrounds the whole of Enies Lobby.
Sheets of rain blurred the horizon where the ships waited, their cannon mouths glinting gold each time lightning struck.
Yet amid the panic, there remained a purpose. They ran not only to escape but to reach something: the promised contract, the money, the hope that everything will be fine in the end.
The roar of the storm was deafening, even if they were roaring not in Enies Lobby, where the sun always shone. Winds were lashing the bridge in spirals, dragging sheets of rain sideways, turning the iron span into a living, trembling thing. The void beneath had become something they could fall into and never return from if they aren't careful.
The ragtag group of pirates, outlaws and carpenters were halfway across when the shadows descended from the top of the Tower of Justice like predatory birds. With their boots striking the bridge's surface with a heavy, deliberate rhythm. The impact sending sprays of rain outward in perfect circles.
"Move!" someone from Galley-La shouted, but the cry came too late.
Four figures stood between them and the mainland: Rob Lucci, calm and statuesque; Kaku, all sharp angles and polite menace; Kalifa, water dripping from her gloves like spun glass; Jabura, grinning with wolfish impatience, along with Fukurou, Blueno and Kamadori. Their black coats whipped about them like banners of authority.
The Strawhats and their allies skidded to a halt, soaked and breathless.
Lucci's gaze swept over them, unhurried, predatory. "You have one chance," he said, voice carrying clearly despite the wind. "Hand over the dangers to society. Nico Robin, Cutty Flam, and the kid Monkey D. Luffy. And then perhaps the rest of you will be granted a merciful death."
His tone was so calm it chilled the blood.
Luffy took a step forward, water pooling at his sandals. "You want me and my friends?" he said quietly, looking straight at the guy. "Then try, come at us!"
Franky snorted beside him, folding his massive arms. "As if I'd ever let some government lapdogs drag me back. You idiots don't even know what you're fighting for."
Robin's breath caught, but she stayed beside Luffy. She could feel the heat of the crew's resolve behind her like a physical wall. Every single one of them had moved instinctively to stand in front of her, shielding her from sight. That small act made her heart ache.
Lucci's expression didn't change. "Then you choose death."
Kaku sighed, almost apologetic. "Boss did give them a chance."
The wind shrieked at once and then suddenly the bridge exploded into motion.
Luffy didn't even need to move as his crew moved at once. With Sanji shooting forward in a blur, his heel igniting with friction as he drove a flaming kick toward Jabra's clawed guard. It was when all hell broke loose.
Pauli's ropes lashed forward, snagging one of Kumadori's staffs before the man could chant another verse, while Tilestone charged with a beam the size of a tree trunk, roaring Iceberg's name. The Franky Family crashed in too like a wave with their chains, wrenches, and sheer fury swinging wild, but CP9 moved like blades through water.
Fukurou zipped past with manic laughter, knocking dozens of men aside like bowling pins. Even weakened slightly, even uncoordinated, he was a monster born to kill.
"Keep the line!" Zambai bellowed, driving his fist into a marine's shield before Lucci's hand caught him mid swing and hurled him through the air. The crash when he hit the iron pillar back at the courthouse echoed ruthlessly.
"Zambai!" Franky's voice cracked with fury, but before he could reach him, Kalifa's hand swept out with a shimmer of soap slicing the air, and he was forced to block, skidding backward through small puddles of water. "Don't you dare touch my family!" he barked.
The agents barely seemed to hear him. They moved with precise indifference and ruthlessness, their focus locked on three names. Every strike was calculated to push towards the Strawhats and Cutty Flam, every fall of a Galley La worker or a Franky Family member another stone paving the way to their goal.
But the government's perfect weapons were faltering too.
Kaku staggered as his leg lengthened too suddenly, almost pitching him off the bridge before he caught himself with a curse, Kalifa's footing slipping as the rain mixed with her own soap bubbles. They were powerful, yes, but unrefined with their new devil fruit powers, clumsy with their gifts they hadn't mastered yet.
The storm itself seemed to turn against them.
With lightning forking above, the light glinting on wet metal and desperate eyes. Every crash, every scream was swallowed by the roar of the wind outside the Enies Lobby.
"Fall back!" Pauli shouted, his voice hoarse, but it was too late. One by one, the Galley La carpenters were going down. Their bodies being flung from the bridge, their chains torn, their ropes snapped under the strain.
But..
"Hold on!" Robin's voice was also cutting through the chaos, calm amid the ruin. Her hands were blooming across the air–dozens, hundreds–catching the ones tumbling towards the abyss. She guided them through with impossible grace, lowering them to the battered remnants of the courthouse before going to catch for the others.
The bridge was emptying fast. Save for the CP9 agents, Strawhat Pirates and Franky.
Luffy wiped the drops of rain from his eyes, his chest rising and falling steadily despite the carnage surrounding him. Around him, his crew took their places without a word. Their movements were not yet refined, but filled with instinct, trust and fury.
Sanji rolled his neck, his flames flickering at his heel. Zoro drew his blades, the steel gleaming dull silver in the stormlight. Nami's Clima-Tact sparked, electricity dancing down its length. Usopp and Chopper took cover together, the sniper loading his shots while the doctor's eyes glowed fierce and determined. Franky's knuckles clicked open with the whir of hidden weapons. Robin stood at their backs, her expression unreadable, but her eyes burned with something fierce.
Across the broken span, CP9 regrouped. Lucci stepped forward, his body transforming into his Zoan form slowly, letting his tail curl lazily, and his sharp gaze to lock on Luffy.
"Your crew's finished," Lucci said quietly. "Now it's just us."
Luffy grinned, tilting his head just enough for the light to catch the curve of his strawhat. "Good," he said, voice bright and wild as the sea. "'Cause that's all I need."
The storm surrounding them raged on, and the true battle began.
Garp watched. He watched the sea and the storm become no longer just weather, but a monster willing to swallow anything and everything in its path. He watched lightning ripple through the clouds like white fire, painting the horizon in a momentary day. He saw the thunder that followed roll over the ocean in waves, shaking the masts of the ten battleships that sliced through the black waters.
"ALL HANDS ON DECK!" The cry came again and again, swallowed by wind and rain. "BRACE THE MAINSAIL! HOLD COURSE FOR ENIES LOBBY!"
The fleet was a wall of iron with eight battleships under Vice Admirals Yamakaji, Doberman, Onigumo, and Jonathan, and two more trailing in formation under the flag of a reluctant Vice Admiral Monkey D. Garp.
The sea itself seemed to fight them, her waves rising like living jaws.
"Man the cannons!" Doberman's voice boomed through the rain, sharp and cold as the edge of a blade. "Ready powder and shot! Forget mercy! Forget hesitation! The orders are clear! Its annihilation!"
Jonathan's commands followed, calm but unyielding. "Secure the decks! No stray shells! I want precision fire on my mark!"
Yamakaji and Onigumo shouted over one another, their voices blending with the thunder as crews ran, ropes slapped wet decks, and cannon muzzles gleamed in the flicker of lightning.
But amidst the chaos, Garp's voice was calm. "Ease the mainsheet, port side!" He wasn't screaming like the others. No, his orders weren't screamed but measured, cutting through the roar with authority born from decades at sea. His ship pitched dangerously as a wave slammed into its hull, but Garp was already there, his massive hands gripping the wheel, boots braced against the incline.
"Steady, steady…" he muttered, half to himself, half to the ship. "You old girl, don't you dare roll on me now."
The deckhands looked at him wide-eyed, struggling to follow his movements. Garp barked out his next orders without looking back.
"Reef the fore-sails! Smartly, lads! You'll tear 'em clean off if you don't know the wind's mood!" He turned the wheel hard to starboard, muscles straining as the timbers groaned in protest. "Heave-to! Keep her nose against it..! That's it! Don't let her drift broadside!"
The ship steadied, barely, slicing the crest of a monster wave instead of being crushed beneath it.
"Secure all loose gear!" Garp added, catching a rope and knotting it himself, not that he needed it. "If it's not nailed, lash it! I don't want anyone dying from flying barrels!"
Around him, men scrambled to obey. He moved like a man who knew the sea's moods, who could feel her anger in the air pressure, the scent of ozone and brine.
He knew exactly what this was.
The storm wasn't just a storm. It was the front edge of Aqua Laguna, and it was coming fast. He doesn't know whether he wished for it to come sooner or to only arrive after he finishes.. his duty.
"Damn it all…" Garp growled under his breath, eyes narrowing on the distant outline of the island half-shrouded by rain and fog. Enies Lobby's towers gleamed faintly under the stormlight. The place where the sun never set had a storm forming around it, slowly closing the gap between the sky and sea.
And somewhere there, his was grandson.
He clenched his jaw, remembering what he'd done not even an hour after Sengoku's call.
The conversation played back in his head like it was still happening.
The Den Den Mushi was on his desk blinking awake with a crackle of static. Garp didn't even sit before dialing the frequency he'd normally never dial using this den den mushi.
The snail's face shifted, its features morphing into sharp eyes and a familiar tattooed cheek.
"…Father."
"Dragon." Garp's voice was gravelly and rougher than usual. "Listen carefully. The Government's launching a Buster Call on Enies Lobby."
There was a slow, measured inhale from the other side, with the snail mimicking the wide eyes of Dragon.
"…On Enies Lobby?" Dragon's tone was unreadable but beneath it, there was a tremor. And Garp could hear it clear as day even when his son tried to hide it.
"Aye. Orders straight from Sengoku. The Vice Admirals are already mobilized. I'm sailing in command of two ships."
"Why tell me this?" Dragon asked, though they both knew the answer. But none wanted to acknowledge it yet.
"Because I've got a bad feeling," Garp said simply. "The kind that crawls up your spine and bites your neck. Word's been quiet from Water 7, too damn quiet. And if I know that brat of yours…"
Dragon's voice sharpened. "He's there."
Garp exhaled, the sound heavy. "Yeah, he had just been… revived just days ago. You really think fate's gonna let him rest for long?"
A beat of silence stretched between them the two men who shared blood, history, and an unspoken understanding of the world's cruelty.
"I told him to stay away from the storm, to not draw too much attention" Dragon muttered. The background noise on his end grew with voices shouting, orders being relayed, footsteps running on metal. "But he never listens. He never did."
"How can he, when he is the storm himself?" Garp let a sharp smile crawl on his lips. "Moreover, he takes after both of us."
Dragon allowed himself a huff that wasn't quite laughter yet. Though, his voice turned sharp, focused, to that of the voice of a commander. "Southern fleet, redirect course. Notify all revolutionary cells near Water 7 to converge on the western quadrant of the Aqua Laguna front. I want ships ready within the hour."
"Dragon…" Garp's tone softened, just slightly. "Are you planning on fighting the Navy now?"
Dragon didn't answer at first. The sound of thunder filtered faintly through the snail's receiver, distant but echoing. "I'm planning," Dragon said finally, low and certain, "to reach my son before some asshole does."
The Den Den Mushi's eyes flashed with the same intensity that lived in Dragon's own.
"You don't have much time," Garp simply said.
"Neither do you, Father." Dragon's voice was quieter now, almost human again. "You can't stop the call, can you?"
Garp closed his eyes. "No. Orders are orders."
"I'll get him out." The line crackled with Dragon's vow.
Garp wanted to say something, anything, but before he could, the background behind Dragon erupted into shouted commands: "Wind direction northwest! Engines ready! Contact Sabo and Ace–"
Then the line went dead.
The rain was heavier now, thick as curtains, but Garp could still see the faint glow of fire flickering from the island ahead.
He gripped the wheel tighter. "Luffy…" he muttered under his breath. "You better be ready, boy. The storm's comin' for everyone."
Behind him, the fleet surged forward through the fury of the sea with ten warships driving toward Enies Lobby like executioners under heaven's wrath.
And far beyond the storm's veil, unseen through lightning and fog, dark sails cutting across the horizon in silence were the banners of the Revolutionary Army rising like ghosts from the deep.
The clash on the drawbridge had become something primal. It was not just war anymore, but survival.
Steels were screaming. Winds were howling. Blood was mixing with the water puddles, dying them the same color, which inevitably sullied any decent trousers or shoes.
But the Strawhats stood in the storm's heart–drenched, battered, but unyielding. Even Franky's arms were hissing steam with every shot he fired. Sanji's footwork had blurred into flame and smoke, with Jabra barely keeping pace. Zoro and Kaku clashed steel to steel, their blades sparking white lightning through the rain. Nami and Chopper fought side by side, electricity and medicine combining in strange, brilliant precision, while Usopp's shots cut through the chaos like punctuation marks in madness.
And Luffy? He stood at the center with his presence like a heartbeat the world couldn't ignore.
The weaker agents had already fallen. Kumadori, Fukurou, and Blueno, all gone, thrown or blasted into the endless void below. The Galley-La and Franky Family men had retreated under Robin's command, carried back to the shattered Courthouse by her many hands, their shouts fading into the distance.
Now only a handful remained upon the bridge. Handful souls, and a sky that no longer knew peace.
The wind was beginning to shift in a sudden and unnatural way once again. But it wasn't coming from the ocean, but from everywhere at once, spiraling and trembling like breath against skin. The cold air whipped their soaked clothes flat against their bodies, but when they looked up, the sun was still blazing.
It shouldn't have been possible. Enies Lobby never knew night, but even its endless light had never burned like this. The sky was pure white-gold, clouds thinning as though torn apart by unseen fingers. The temperature plummeted and rose in the same breath.
"What the hell…" Franky muttered, eyes wide behind wet goggles. "That ain't natural heat–"
Nami's fingers tightened on her staff as she glanced at Luffy. "This isn't the weather. This is… something else."
Even if Nami didn't imply Luffy having a hand in this all, every head on the bridge turned toward the boy at the center of the bridge.
Luffy's hat shadowed his face, water dripping from its brim in rhythmic beats. His chest rose slowly and even, his body haloed by light so bright that the edges of his outline seemed to waver. The air shimmered around him, golden and alive, like the sunlight itself was leaning closer.
To his crew, the warmth felt like protection, a strange, gentle radiance that dried their soaked skin, that steadied their lungs. But to the others, it was suffocation.
The assassins felt it first. Their breath hitching, their hearts pounding like they were staring into a furnace that could melt reason itself. Even Lucci's composure cracked for half a second as his instincts screamed that this–this kid before him was not human, not like he had any right to judge, he had long lost his own humanity.
Luffy tilted his head slightly, as if listening to something no one else could hear. The wind was nervously whipping around him, tugging at his clothes, whispering through the fraying edges of the bridge.
"...I know," he murmured under his breath, voice so low it almost vanished in the wind. "I can feel it." His eyes flickered upward, meeting the swirling golden glare above. "It's coming. Her wrath is coming."
The crew froze, uncertain if they'd heard right. Uncertain if they even knew what Luffy was talking about. But none wanted to disrupt Luffy.
Luffy smiled faintly, though it didn't reach his eyes. "Be ready, guys."
The air vibrated, a tremor that felt deeper than the sound itself played. The ocean beyond Enies Lobby was heaving, as if an ancient being was awakening from a deep slumber. The storm's pattern broke, the clouds scattered, not by wind, but by light.
Luffy's skin glowed faintly where the sunlight touched him. Every drop of water steaming off his shoulders vanished in the same moment. It almost felt as if the warmth rolling off him wasn't heat, it was presence.
Lucci's pupils narrowed as he squashed the strange feeling of respect and other nonsense rising within him for the kid before him. "..So the rumours were true," he spat it like a curse.
"What kind of monster are you?" Jabra snarled, baring his sharp teeth.
Luffy didn't answer. He didn't have to answer to mortals asking his worth. Because even without them, without words, the sea recognized him, the sun bowed for him, the winds craved his presence. On top of that, even before he could reply or do anything, the awful, ceaseless wails of the sirens that had screamed since their arrival stopped all at once.
The silence that followed demanded everyone's attention.
Crkk– shhhkk–
The intercoms crackled to life. The static hissed. And somewhere deep in the island, metal relays whined and clicked back to life.
"This is Admiral Akainu," a voice rough and commanding rolled across the soundscape. "All forces stand down."
The wide eyes of the Franky Family, the gasps from the Galley La workers, the sheer fear in the eyes of some of the Strawhats, spoke volumes.
"Marines," the voice thundered on, echoing from the towers, the ruins, and the very island. "You have done your duty. Now fulfill your justice. The criminals, the pirates, are to be purged. Every last one of them."
Almost everyone knew where the Admiral was going with his words, but they still hoped for an exception, for a reason not to lose faith.
"Your sacrifice will not be forgotten. Remember what you fight for. Absolute Justice. The kind that leaves no criminal unbound and protects civilians at all cost. So, do one last thing for the Marines, for your families, for the world you are protecting, and for your flag–"
The tone sharpened, rising to a roar that rattled every metal frame on the island.
"–SACRIFICE YOURSELVES FOR JUSTICE!"
The intercom screeched, then cut off in a burst of static, leaving panicked marines who were unable to find a safe place. But mostly, most of them stood frozen. Because no one would have thought that an Admiral would encourage something like this. This was what the marines expected from Spandam, the cowardly chief who might have escaped long ago, but not from the Magma Admiral. Hence, the echo of that last word–sacrifice–sunk in like lead.
A second later the static returned and everyone expected the worst again, but the voice that came through next was not Akainu's. It was deeper, rougher and weathered as if by stone and wind. "..Is this truly the justice the Marines fight for?"
The tone carried contempt and conviction. Every soldier still conscious lifted their heads in shock as the voice rolled through the broken, hijacked speakers again.
"The sacrifice of your own men? The slaughter of innocents to satisfy the pride of a few old men in gold chairs?" There was a pause and a low breath. "Pathetic. Truly, this is the thought process of the government's dogs? Blind obedience wrapped in a pretty word."
Lucci's head snapped toward the nearest tower, his eyes narrowing. He knew that voice. In fact, everyone knew it.
"This.." Franky whispered, stunned, missing the small smile gracing Luffy's lips. "No way–"
The voice continued, calm and terribly picking the faults. "This is what the Revolutionary Army stands against." The air stirred, thunder echoing faintly in the distance with the confirmation that yes, indeed, it was the leader of the Revolutionary Army, the most wanted criminal with the highest bounty alive 'The Revolutionary' Dragon has himself graced this Buster Call with his presence.
"We fight for liberation. For those shackled by fear and money alike. For the truth buried under centuries of lies. For the freedom to live, not as tools of Celestial greed, but as people."
Luffy's expression darkened, his hat shadowing his eyes as the merciless actions of the Celestial Dragons swam before his eyes, as the hundreds of slaves and humans begging for freedom, crying for mercy, echoed in his ears.
"Our war is not just rebellion. It is a revolution. We fight to strip the masks off tyrants, to drag the light into the chambers of corruption. To end a system that feeds on the poor to fatten kings."
Each word struck like the tolling of a great bell, giving judgment from heaven.
"The World Nobles call it chaos, but we call it justice. The kind your 'Absolute Justice' could never understand."
Lightning split the clouds again and this time, far on the horizon, other lights flashed back. It was not thunder. It was a signal to fire.
The voice was growing closer and closer now, not just through the speakers but through the air itself, amplified by the winds that had begun to favor the pirates.
"Our desire is not destruction. Its rebirth. A world without slaves, without Celestial Dragons, without thrones built on the bones of our children." The transmission cut for a second, the static, wind, a half audible shout in the background, before the line came in again, quiet but shaking with certainty. "We seek not to overthrow the world… but to remake it."
Silence followed the last words like the hush after thunder and the world seemed to hold still for a second before the horizon split.
From the east, the sea itself roared alive. Ten battleships cresting the storm's black ridges, their iron hills hammering through the waves, cannons bristling like teeth, surged forward. The flags of justice snapping under the rain that felt like glass. Vice Admirals barked orders that vanished into the wind, their decks crawling with soldiers who gripped rifles and prayers in equal measure.
From the west, through the most and lightning, other sails emerged. Dark, tattered and proud. The sails of the revolutionary army. Their ships cut the waves in clean, deliberate formation, with every mast flying a crimson insignia of the rising wind.
Between them, Enies Lobby trembled.
The drawbridge moaned under strain as the first guts of wind slammed into it and in that chaos of light and sea and fury, two armies faced one another across the flooded strait. With both sides ready to fire. And knowing that the first spark would ignite a war the world wasn't ever ready for.
And atop the shattered remains of the courthouse, three figures stood against the raging sky.
One cloaked in a long, green hood that whipped violently in the wind. His face was hidden but his stance was unmistakable and his attire recognizable. Beside him stood Cole, with his orange cloak fluttering in the wind, and his mask hiding the stone face. And on Dragon's other side stood Cyane, his cloak soaked and hair plastered to his face.
Dragon's voice rose again, but this time it was not from the speakers. It seemingly came from the very air. Rolling through the storm like a living thing, deep and commanding, amplified by the wind that now answered to him too.
"Marines of Enies Lobby!" His words carried across the sea, echoing off the towers, the ship, the frozen water itself. "You have heard your Admiral's orders. You've been told to sacrifice yourselves for a cause that devours its own."
Lightning flashed behind him, painting his hooded silhouette in silver.
"Look around you," he thundered. "At your comrades beside you. At the men you've fought beside for years. Are these the lives your 'justice' demands as payment?"
The wind howled through the bridge's remains, carrying his voice to every ear. Soldiers on the Marine ships hesitated, their hands faltering on the cannon ropes.
"Your leaders do not see you as protectors," Dragon continued, his tone sharper, colder. "They see you as tools. Disposable pawns to maintain the illusion of order. Do not die for tyrants who would never remember your names "
Cyane raised his hand, pointing towards the horizon where the Buster Call fleet was cutting through the sea. "They are coming to erase everything. Even their own."
Dragon's gaze turned to the drawbridge before settling on his son in the middle. He was safe. Alive.
"Vice Admirals of the Buster Call," he called, his four low but heavy as thunder. "Stand down. This is your only warning. You claim to fight for justice, yet march to exterminate civilians and your own men alike. If you proceed–" he raised his hands, fingers splaying against the wind. "–then you will be judged as enemies of freedom itself."
The wind stopped for a moment. The entire island went dead silent, waiting for the answer but it came in the form of the temperature dropping. The surface of water, the waves themselves, freezing in the middle of motion, locked onto jagged peaks of ice that glitter under the ghostly sunlight. The transformation swept outward like a living frost, swallowing the tide, solidifying the ocean into a battlefield of glass.
Footsteps were soon followed, echoing and soon from the edge of the frozen wave, a tall man walked forward, his hands lazily stuffed in his pockets, and his breath visible in the air.
"Akoiji.." Nami muttered from the bridge, her voice slightly trembling.
The admiral didn't look at anyone in particular as he walked, with each step cracking the frost beneath his boots. When he reached the highest crest, he paused, then with a flex of his legs, leapt high, soaring up the side of the Tower of Justice like gravity had forgotten him.
He landed atop it in silence, his ice spreading under his feet in a web of frost. His eyes met Dragon's across the gulf between towers, the two men of different ideologies staring through the rain and light.
"You never did know when to stop, Dragon," Akoiji said, his voice quiet but carrying. "You realise what you are starting here?" He looked back at the kid in strawhat. "Just for a brat."
The clouds above them flashed red. Something was falling.
And it was a streak of molten fire that tore through the sky, whistling like a scream. It slammed into the top of the tower beside Akoiji, shaking the entire structure to its foundations. The impact threw up a column of steam and shattered stone.
"Starting?" From the molten out, Akainu's voice came, low and venomous. "No, Kuzan. He is ending it."
Dragon didn't move. His hood shadowed his expression, but the faint smile that crossed his lips was unmistakable.
"I warned you." Dragon said, calm as the eye of the storm.
The air tightened and suddenly everything was forgotten. Everything was in the background for Luffy, who could feel the wind tremble and the very nature cry for mercy.
Luffy's head tilted up. His red pupils shrank to thin rings of sunlight.
He could feel it. The rhythm, the pulse, the storm's heartbeat all shifting in panic. The wind brushed against his face like a hand tugging at him, desperate and pleading for him to get the hell out of the place.
"..What's wrong?" he whispered, though he already knew.
–"kami-sama–"
"–mother of everything–"
"Wrath–!"
"Leaveee, Nika-sama!"
"It's the Aqua Laguna!"