The clones rush past. The sound of their footsteps fades to silence.
Sanza peeks out from behind the rubble. "Is it clear?"
Eliane peeks out beside him. "I think so."
Jannali curses. "Bloody hell. Let's go."
They move.
The laboratory entrance looms before them—a yawning mouth in the earth, its edges ringed with ancient machinery. They step inside, and the air changes. It tastes of metal and cold and something older—something that has been sealed away for too long.
Bepo looks around, wringing his paws. "This place is scary."
They move deeper, past rows of open pods standing dark and empty, their glass fogged with condensation.
Eliane's head swivels. "They are all empty."
Sanza asks, "Were they all full before?"
Eliane nods. "Yeah. But there are a lot more."
Jannali looks over her shoulder. "C'mon, shake a leg. Let's find her and bugger off."
Hongo asks, "You sure you know where she is? No one would have taken her?"
Jannali keeps walking. "Yeah, fair dinkum. Without her, this place wouldn't exist."
Law asks, "Could she have been moved?"
Eliane replies, "There were all these controls around her pod. They looked really important."
Law mutters, "Life support, then."
---
They round a corner and stop.
Hundreds of pods.
Rows upon rows vanish into the dark, each one cradling an Uta or a Gordon adrift in fluid, eyes closed, faces serene. A garden of sleeping faces. A harvest of identical dreams.
Hongo swallows hard. "What the hell?"
Sanza drifts toward the nearest pod. The Uta inside floats just above him, hair fanned out like seaweed, peaceful as a painting. When he speaks, his voice is hushed.
"This is my cousin, then?"
Eliane comes to stand next to him. "She is super nice. She sang with Vesta and everything. But when Marya asked her to come with us, the demon came out."
Sanza nods. "Of course she is nice. She is my cousin, after all."
A few steps back, a smirk tugs at Shanks's mouth as he watches the interaction.
Beckman claps a hand on his shoulder. "The kid's growing on you."
"The family charm," Shanks says. "It shines through."
Beckman raises a brow. "Family charm..."
"Ah... Captain?" Bepo's voice wobbles.
Law follows his gaze. "Dammit, we are taking too long."
In every pod, the fluid is draining.
Sanza and Eliane jump back as the clones' eyes snap open—red crosses and black voids, staring at them through the glass.
Jannali seizes Sanza and Eliane by the collars and hauls them backward. "Shift ya!"
---
One by one, the clones step out of their pods.
They close in from every side, a ring of identical faces, identical smiles, identical hungry eyes.
Shanks grips Griffon. Jannali snaps Gosan into a spear—the Hatzegopteryx humming with awareness. Law grips Kikoku. Eliane and Sanza both unsheathe their bamboo practice blades. Beckman and Hongo draw their pistols.
Hongo calls out, "What's the play here?"
"They're only clones," Law says. "So—"
An Uta steps forward. Her voice is soft. Broken. Unbearably familiar.
"Shanks. You abandoned me. You left me here, alone."
Shanks stops breathing.
Beside her, a Gordon speaks. "Her voice is a gift. It can heal this world."
Jannali curses. "Bloody hell. This is an absolute shocker!"
Then the Utas begin to sing.
It is a low, haunting melody, and it fills the chamber like smoke. Shanks's sword tip dips. Beckman's pistol lowers by inches. Hongo, Law, Bepo—one by one their eyes glaze, their shoulders loosen, and they sink into the song.
"Let me sing you a lullaby," the Uta clones whisper.
Sanza looks over his shoulder. He sees them—frozen, blank, caught in whatever spell the clones are weaving. His voice cracks with alarm.
"What are we supposed to—"
Only Jannali is still moving, her third eye blazing beneath the headscarf, her jaw locked tight against the music.
"Jannali!"
Jannali snaps, "What is it, then?"
She follows his gaze. She curses again.
The Uta clone's melody wraps around the chamber like smoke.
A Gordon smiles down at the three of them still standing. "You won't be leaving the island this time."
Eliane strikes first. Her bamboo blade cracks against a Gordon's shin—PAKOON!—and it staggers. Then another catches her wrist, and she squeals.
Sanza lunges to help her. Hands seize him from behind.
Jannali drives Gosan into the crowd. The spearhead comes alive—snapping, chomping—and clones vanish with every bite. But for every one that disappears, two more push forward.
Eliane screams. She's being pulled away.
"ELIANE!" Sanza screams as they drag him one way in the opposite direction.
"Bloody hell!" Jannali is forced back step by step, swallowed by bodies. "I can't use it like this—they're too close!"
Eliane twists in the clone's grip. Her face is flushed, her eyes stinging. "Let me go!" Her shoulders tense. A tear of frustration forms at the corner of her eye. She pulls back, struggling against the grip, her small body twisting.
"Let me go!"
The clone doesn't respond. Its grip tightens.
Her tears change. Frustration hardens into anger. Anger sharpens into panic. And panic becomes something else entirely—something hot, gathering in her chest. She pulls back again, harder.
"You're going to live in the dream," the Gordon croons, "forever—"
Eliane snaps.
Her wings appear—not folding, not retracting, but appearing in a burst of black feathers. Her voice booms. Her fire erupts.
"I SAID LET ME GO!"
The clones scream.
Fire rushes through them—a wave of white-hot flame that ignites in every Uta, every Gordon, every clone in the chamber. They disintegrate. They burn. They become ash on the wind.
Eliane stands at the center of it all, chest heaving, watching the clones burn.
The song dies with them. Shanks, Beckman, Hongo, Law, and Bepo blink. The trance shatters. They stare at the burning clones, at the ash falling like snow.
Sanza reaches Eliane first and grabs her shoulders. "ELIANE! ELIANE!"
He stops in front of her, gripping her shoulders. "Eliane, it's okay now! They are all gone!"
Jannali walks to her. She places a hand on Eliane's clammy shoulder. "No worries, love. Good on ya. They're all gone now."
Eliane looks up, wiping the wetness from her eyes. "Jannali?"
Jannali nods. "Yeah, love."
"You burned all of them," Sanza breathes.
Eliane sniffles. "I did."
Sanza nods. "Yeah." He steps aside, sweeping his arm out. "See!"
---
Jannali rounds on the adults.
"This is never gonna work," she says, "if you blokes rack off to dreamland every time a clone pops up."
Beckman's jaw flexes. "It got all of us this time?"
Sanza and Eliane walk up. Sanza announces, "Eliane burned all those clones up."
Bepo replies, "She did?"
Sanza nods, puffing out his chest. "Yeah! I was getting ready to use my power too, but she was faster. Lucky for you."
"It's the voice," Law says, half to himself. "Last time it came through Haki. This time it came through the song. If we could block the sound—"
Glass clinks behind them.
Hongo is kneeling over his pack, rummaging through bottles. He holds up a fistful of something small and spongy. "Would these work?"
Law stares at him. "You had those this whole time?"
Hongo shrugs. "Didn't know we'd need them."
Shanks claps him on the back. "Good thinking." He takes a pair and passes the rest around.
Overhead, the ceiling groans. Dust rains down. The whole laboratory quakes.
Law looks up. "Marya and Luffy."
"That thing is fighting hard," Shanks says. "They'll keep it busy—but not forever. The clock's ticking."
Jannali spins Gosan once and props it on her shoulder. "Let's get on with it, then!"