The drop wasn't nearly as horrific as I'd envisioned, from sky island to Marineford. It was the *scent* that got to me. Seawater and blood and ozone-raged air – the religious trinity of war. I was standing up from my Doomsday-sized hole, brushing off dress shirt sleeves that cost more than most Marine salaries. Twenty-five feet tall is nice, like being able to see over the peaceful crowds. Perks such as seeing Teach with his boot suspended over Straw Hat's head.
"Well, well," I lazily drawled, my own voice appallingly loud in the resulting silence. "If it isn't Marshall D. Teach. King of the hill with a rubber kid? Bit beneath you, isn't it?" I went to great lengths to ignore Luffy flailing about in the dark pit. Priorities were important. Teach's eyes darted up towards mine, dinner plates wide with it. Acknowledgment, and then naked, distilled fear. Excellent. The 'Destroyer of Mariejois' title wasn't always helpful, but occasionally it really paid off.
"You!" Teach gagged out, shadows from the Yami Yami no Mi swirling around Luffy. "Doomsday! What in the hells are you doing here?"
"Just tourism," I shrugged, the movement vibrating through feet. "Heard they had a good execution planned. Horrible reviews, though." My eyes fell to Luffy, then up to Teach. "It looks like you're taking over here. Kind of disorganized." I cracked Fake Mjolnir against my leg. The hammer wasn't vibrating – it was grinding, like tectonic plates fighting. Chaos, not thunder. More fun.
Teach recuperated quickly, puffing up. "This don't concern you, Hydra! Run along before I—"
"Before you what?" I cut in, taking a giant step forward. "Before you managee to finish trampling a kid into the ground? Brilliant plan. Honestly revolutionary." My tone fell, low and foreboding. "Let him go, Teach. Or I'll make everyone remember why Mariejois still reeks of charred Celestial Dragon."
The instant of pause had been fleeting, but a turning point. Teach's focus wavered, the abyss of shadows dancing. Just long enough. Luffy gasped, stumbling backward in haste as the fingers relaxed infinitesimally. Teach roared, completely facing me, fists snapping, shadows surging savagely around him. "You think you scare me?! I've got powers you can't—"
He did not finish. I would not let him. Not with Fake Mjolnir as it was unleashed. Like releasing a starved kraken. It did not go in a line – it corkscrewed space, producing currents of unbalanced green energy, distorting space around it. Not thunder. Pure, raw wrongness. The Embodiment of Chaos.
Teach saw it coming, attempted to duck. Too slow. Too caught up. Too concentrating on the big fella, not realizing the hammer had a mind of its own. It hit him square on the temple. Not so much a blow as a tap by a falling skyscraper.
It was not a thunderclap. It was a wet crack and nothing else. Teach dropped like a severed puppet. Face-first onto the broken Marineford plaza. Out cold. Fake Mjolnir found its way back into my hand, humming its delight like a happy stalker.
I allowed the silence to thicken and weigh, punctuated by distant screams of injured Marines and pirates. I flowed over shell-shocked faces – Admirals in mid-movement, mouths of pirates agape, Luffy with his eyes wide in awe at the edge of the darkness void that had fallen with Teach's awareness. I carried Fake Mjolnir over my shoulder, the wild power it had by warping the air.
"See?" I said, my voice sharp-cutting the quiet. Drying. Ungenerous. "I said the reviews were bad." I kicked Teach's lifeless bulk with my boot. "Get this fellow a blanket. He seems to be out cold." I glanced over to catch Akainu's attention diverted by his fight with Aokiji. "Carry on."
The warning was not subtle. Loud. Irrefutable. Doomsday was no threat. He was the hurricane you couldn't see until he blew your house into splinters. And he'd just given them a hurricane.
And then there was the hard part. Rising again. Sky islands are not subway stops. Fake Mjolnir was not anarchy; it was my anarchy. I hugged the hammer close, concentrating. Not on flight. On traveling in a specific direction. On raw, furious fuck gravity. With a grunt of demented strength and a spurt of mad that rattled my teeth, I sprang upward like a champagne cork released into the sky. The wind howled past my ears, the battlefield dropping fast behind. Up. To the cotton white clouds that shrouded my Sky Island. To reason? No. To Perona and Shyarly? Yes.
Coming down to Skypiea was not dignified. It was a landed crash into the cloud just short of the Thousand Calamities. My ship, well-named, creaked with impact. Perona floated close, arms crossed, her hair flying pink in the shock wind my landing caused. Shyarly leaned on the rail of my ship, blank face, but tension in her tail was palpable.
"Well," Perona slurred, her Hollows dancing in and out of existence around her head like shades of smoke. "That was... effective. Knocked Teach out, stole the scene, and disappeared. Like a dramatic fart in a storm."
Shyarly lashed her tail from side to side. "We saw the drop. We saw the crater. We saw you.. resolve the Teach dilemma." Her voice low, threatening. "And then we saw you walk away. Without a fight."
I smudged cloud fluff off my dress shirt. "I fixed the immediate issue. Teach was seconds from creating Straw Hat paste. Mission success." I approached them, the ship groaning beneath me. "Staying? That was lunatic suicide."
Perona floated towards me, poking my chest with an ethereal finger. "Suicidal? They're entering a war, Cassian! Shanks's and Dragon's armada! Admirals! Sengoku! We could have—
"Died," I cut in, my own voice flat. "Needlessly. For what? Ideals? Justice? Pirate pride?" I nodded in the direction of the far-off, tumultuous battle still ongoing in Marineford. "See that mess. That's a meat grinder. There's too much risk. Akainu's flames, Aokiji's ice, Kizaru's light-show... Mihawk's swordsmanship. Going down there promises nothing but suffering and a ginormously messy demise." I held Shyarly's fierce glare. "Luffy's fine. Teach is out of commission. That was the important part."
Perona snorted, crossing her arms. "So practical. So... boring. Where is the magnificent performance? The magnificent anarchy?"
Shyarly cocked her head, scowling. "You betrayed Luffy to Lucci. You began this war. And now you just walk away?" She didn't speak in accusation, but in analysis... Judgment.
I leaned against the hull of the Thousand Calamities. "Guilt? Yeah. A little. But pragmatism prevails. Lucci got Luffy delivered? Fine. But I protected Teach from stepping on him. Balance sheet's even. Brawling now? Futile risk. Too many variables." I pointed out toward the battlefield in the distance. "My work now? Sit. Watch. Stop Kaido from thinking this is the right moment for an aerial barbecue. Or Big Mom from thinking she suddenly needs Marineford cake."
Perona floated beside me, resting her head on my arm. "Watching? That's your plan?"
"Watching," I vowed, encircling Shyarly with my other arm. She didn't struggle, her tail coiling around my leg. "And waiting. Wars are done. Victors rise. The Fallen lie down. We'll find out who still stands." I gazed down at the far flash of light and flame. "Then... we choose what destruction to unleash next." Fake Mjolnir whummed against my shoulder. It applauded.
**
Saturn strained hard after meddling with the war. His muscles pained from the effort, the new sensation of physical strain a bitter reminder of how low things had sunk. He stood in the ruins of Marineford, the bitter smell of smoke and defeat heavy in the air. Sengoku sat next to him on the ground, sunken eyes, decades older in appearance. Akainu burned with rage, magma flowing from fists clutched hard onto broken stone. Kizaru's usual indifference was overcome by an irate weariness. The Straw Hat Pirates. they'd gotten away. Disappeared in the confusion Doomsday had caused.
The silence was oppressive. Not the silence of triumph, but the empty silence of complete defeat. The big stage of the World Government, so carefully prepared for the performance of Monkey D. Luffy's execution and return to pure supremacy, reduced to a smoldering wreckage. And the mastermind of this ignominy was not some visionary revolutionary like Dragon. It was a force of nature contained in flesh. A pirate named Doomsday.
Saturn's eyes gazed out over the destruction, before at last coming to rest on his fellow Gorosei. "We miscalculated him," he croaked, his voice raw. "We considered him a mere bruiser. A monster. We overlooked the method."
Warcury growled, his great frame exuding rage. "Method? He destroyed Teach and disappeared! He started this war and left it!"
"Exactly!" Saturn snapped, the noise high in the quiet. "He caused it. He manipulated Lucci. He had Luffy brought here. He was aware of the powder keg he was fanning. And then." Saturn pointed in the direction of the crater where Doomsday had descended, then the vacant sky beyond. "He entered only when it served his purpose. To save Luffy? Maybe. To humiliate Teach? More likely. To show us." Saturn's voice dwindled away to a whisper. "that he'd be able to walk onto our stage, reposition the pieces, and walk away unscathed."
Ju Peter rubbed behind his glasses, his expression unreadable. "His bounty... fifteen billion. An insult. It should be infinity."
Nasujuro remained silent, his hand on the hilt of his sword, his gaze fixed on the distant horizon where the Straw Hats had disappeared.
"He didn't fight," Saturn went on, the comprehension freezing him more than any wound. "He didn't fight the Admirals. He didn't battle Shanks or Dragon. He didn't stay around to conquer. He made one, sharp strike and vanished. He showed us our weakness. He showed us the vulnerabilities in our infrastructure."
He gazed at the ruined remains of the execution stage. "The Celestial Dragons... reduced to ashes. Completely destroyed. By his hand. And now this." Saturn shut his eyes, the totality of the new order weighing heavy upon him. "The old order... is finished. The Marines shattered. Our power an illusion. The balance of power." He opened his eyes, meeting the stern looks of his equals. "...now belongs to the Emperors. With Kaido. With Big Mom. With Shanks. With Blackbeard. And with him. Doomsday. The shadow king."
Warcury punched a broken wall, and pieces of it flew every which way. "We will find him! We will—"
"Obey what?" Saturn cut in, his tone worn. "Our troops are shattered. Our pride is dust. He sails the heavens. He wields anarchy itself. He likely has minions we haven't yet dreamed of." Saturn remembered the rumors – the terrible Sky Island, the impossible vessel, the Ghost Princess and the Mermaid Seer by his hand. "He's not playing our game. Never did."
He gazed once more out across the sea, where the Red Hair Pirates had stood fast and the Whitebeard Pirates' and their allies' forces were reorganizing. "The world has changed," Saturn panted, the words metallic-tasting like ash. "The pirates make what is law now. And the face of it all... is a man who could not wait for the world to burn." He shut his hands into fists, his knuckles pale. "And we... we lit the match." The silence that followed wasn't so much deafening; it was the finality of an era.