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Rose's POV
"What do you mean we have ten minutes?!" Usopp yelled.
"If they plan to blow up the square, the shooter can't be very far," Vivi said.
"So Crocodile plans on killing his own men," I added. "This was never about taking over Alabasta with other people; this has always been about destroying this country so he can make a statement."
A man tried to attack Vivi, but Zoro and Sanji eliminated him before he got close. We were quickly surrounded by a hoard of Baroque Works agents.
"We've got two seconds," Zoro said.
The others ran off, and Zoro, Sanji, and I dealt with the problem and ran off to look for the bomb.
Steve's POV
"You still think you can defeat me? You know I'm one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, right?" Crocodile said, still refusing to take us seriously.
"Well, if you're the seventh… We're the eighth and ninth!" Luffy yelled.
Huh?
No one even acknowledged Luffy's remark. Luffy threw a punch at Crocodile, but the Warlord grabbed his hand and tried to suck it dry. Luffy ran forward and kicked Crocodile, but since his feet weren't wet, they went right through him. Crocodile reappeared not too far from me, so I jumped toward him and tried attacking from the air.
"Whip Cyclone!"
The attack hit Crocodile in the face, and he jumped back. Luffy kept the pressure on by using a new attack we came up with. Luffy threw his hand like a normal punch, and then he jiggled his arm to make it look like he had a dozen extra hands.
"Gum-Gum Shotgun!"
Crocodile turned his arm into a sand blade and cut the ground by Luffy. I ran in during the opening and slammed into Crocodile's stomach, knocking him back. I took the barrel off my back and threw it at the Warlord. I smacked the barrel while it was in the air to slam it onto Crocodile's head.
"Whip Spike!"
Crocodile moved and dodged my barrel, causing it to crash into the ground and shatter.
Crap. What a waste.
"Don't lose your barrel, Luffy! It's all we've got left!"
I heard a shatter from behind me and slowly turned around to find Luffy had drunk his entire barrel to make sure he didn't accidentally break it.
"YOU IDIOT!"
"Water Luffy." Luffy started spurting water out his bandages. "No, I'm leaking!"
This isn't happening.
"WILL YOU STOP PLAYING GAMES!" The infuriated Crocodile yelled.
Luffy squeezed his throat and shot a ball of water right at Crocodile, soaking him. I took my chance to run in and attack now that Luffy had made an opening.
"There's nothing wrong with having a little fun." I threw my whips back. "Whip Gale-force!"
Crocodile got sent flying back into a side building near the palace. Luffy and I took the brief moment to get some rest. I heard a scream and saw that Miss All-Sunday had let the king off the wall.
"Take me to the place where the 'true' history is written," the woman told the king.
I gave the woman an odd stare, but she only started to laugh.
Do I have something in my teeth?
"Your time is up," was all the woman said before Crocodile interrupted her.
"Nico Robin! Get out of here, unless you want to dry up, too," Crocodile told the woman as she started to walk away.
"Listen, Luffy," I leaned over to my friend. "That man that Miss All-Sunday took is Vivi's dad. I'm going after her. Buy me some time." I turned to start running after the woman.
"You're not going anywhere!" Crocodile appeared with his arm as a sand blade. "Desert Spada!"
"Gum-Gum Rocket!" Luffy crashed into Crocodile, launching him back and giving me a free path to the stairs. "GO!"
Please don't die.
I followed the woman through town. I had no doubt she knew I was following her. A short distance from the palace, she came across a platoon of Marines led by Rose's friend, Tashigi.
"Get out of my way," she told the girl.
"I have no intention of doing so," the Marine told her.
"Then I'll have to kill you."
The king started pleading with the Marines to leave her and go find the bomb that would kill a million people. The foolish girl said she could take the older woman and save the king.
"Treinta Fleur." Pairs of arms sprouted on all of Tashigi's men. "Clutch!"
The arms pulled and snapped the necks of the Marines.
That fruit is so... violent. I bet it makes for great massages, though.
One of the Marines pointed out that Miss All-Sunday was really Nico Robin, a woman who had a 79,000,000 Beli bounty since she was a child. Apparently, she got this bounty for destroying eight Marine ships when she was eight.
How could an eight-year-old sink eight warships?
"ARE YOU DONE?!" Miss All-Sunday snapped at Tashigi, who just sent her troops away to stop the bomb.
I guess that's a sensitive subject.
"Release that man," Tashigi said, pointing her sword at All-Sunday.
The sword suddenly turned around and was pointed at Tashigi's throat.
"I told you to stay out of my way!" As the sword was about to pierce the girl's throat, I made my move.
"Whip Fishing Rod!" I grabbed the sword and forced it out of her hands and into mine. "Enough, you made your point. Let the girl go."
I stared the woman down as I dropped the sword and heard it clang on the ground.
"I'm so pathetic. Saved by a pirate." The Marine was on the ground sobbing.
My arm moved on its own and wrapped one of my whips around my neck and pinned my arm behind my back.
"Walk or die," the woman instructed me.
Since I didn't have much of a choice, I obliged. We walked through town in silence until we got to the Royal Tomb. The king pushed a hidden switch, and a passage opened up.
"Is it down there?" All-Sunday asked.
"No one else knows this place exists."
"In a country like this, there are some things even the king doesn't know," All-Sunday remarked.
The king asked if she could read something called a Poneglyph, to which she responded that was why Crocodile couldn't kill her; he needed her. The two had a brief back-and-forth about this 'Poneglyph,' most of which was lost on me.
"Someone care to explain what it is you two are talking about?" I asked, finally speaking up.
King Cobra shot me a look that said, 'Keep quiet if you wanna live.'
Miss All-Sunday just clicked her tongue. "Why are you so dumb?"
"HEY! I'm smart."
No one said anything as my complaints fell on deaf ears.
"Dumb is the wrong word…" the woman finally spoke up. "Ignorant would be better…"
We walked to the back of the passage, and All-Sunday opened a door that led into a large room with nothing but a big block in the center. Nico Robin walked to the center of the room and started to read the writings on the thing.
"Find what you were looking for?" Cobra asked her.
"This is it. This is all you're hiding?" the woman asked the king.
"I did what you asked. Are you not satisfied?" the king said.
I heard footsteps coming from the back of the tomb.
"So this is where it was. Any normal person would be ignorant of its existence," said a voice I recognized as Crocodile.
Luffy!
The man walked into the room and looked at me. "So this is where you ran off to, and you got yourself caught. How sad."
"Where is Luffy?" I stared at the man.
"Straw Hat? He's back at the palace, working on his tan," the man said, laughing.
I let out a low growl, but Crocodile ignored me and went to tell All-Sunday to read what was written out loud. The woman started reciting a long list of conquerors and kings that had ruled the country. King Cobra looked confused as she read, and Crocodile was pissed.
"I don't care about a list of kings! Where is the Pluton?" He screamed.
"The word 'Pluton' isn't anywhere on this stone," she told the man.
"How unfortunate… you were a great partner, sigh, but it's time to kill you now," the man said.
What?!
"You were a worthy partner, but in the end, you're breaking your promise. You said if I got you here, you'd tell me about the Pluton," Crocodile swung at All-Sunday. "But you know what, Nico Robin? I'm not mad, know why?"
Robin threw a vial of water at Crocodile so that she would be able to stab him with a knife, but he avoided the attack and cut her down with his hook.
"I never trusted you from the start," the man said as she fell to the ground.
I feel like my blood's on fire. I'll kill this bastard!
The hands that had been holding me turned into petals and floated away, allowing me to free my neck from the grip of my whip. The whole room suddenly rumbled.
"The bomb shouldn't have gone off yet." Crocodile turned to the king. "What did you do?"
"I just moved a pillar. Now everything is off balance. This whole place should collapse soon," Cobra told him. "I will never give you this country."
"I can just turn the rocks to sand, and I'll be fine. You'll die a fool, Cobra!" Crocodile gloated.
"You still have to deal with me," I said, commanding attention.
"Oh, I forgot you were even here. I tend not to care about insects," he said with a casual look. "But you have no water, so how will you even hit me?"
Damn, he's right. I don't have anything that can harden the sand. I need a liquid… That's it!
I threw my shirt off suddenly and cracked my whip against the ground. "I just got a brilliant idea."
Rose's POV
I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off looking for this bomb. We only had ten minutes, and I hadn't seen so much as a trace. When I was looking around, I saw a huge cloud of red smoke in the sky.
Usopp's signal!
I made my way through town, trying to get to the signal. I was struggling to get to where I wanted to go because of the crowds.
"Go this way!" I looked over to see Tashigi pointing me to an alley. "This will get you there faster."
"Thank you, Tashigi."
I didn't question my old friend and ran down the alley. Once I got out, I saw Usopp and Vivi about to be attacked by Baroque Works. I ran in and cut down the men trying to attack them.
"Blade Shower!"
"Go find the bomb. I'll cover you," Tashigi said, taking on more of the organization's agents.
I followed Vivi to a clock tower near the center of town. Along the way, we passed by a lot of people fighting.
"Stop!" Usopp pulled Vivi's head down. "Looking around won't help anybody. If we don't stop that bomb in two minutes, everyone will die."
"We need the others!" I yelled out over the nearby fighting.
"VIVI!" we looked over and saw Nami riding Chopper up to us.
Vivi explained that the bomb was inside the clock tower.
"Great, we know where it is," I said. "But how are we going to get up there? Even I can't climb that high in a minute."
We heard yelling and saw that Zoro and Sanji were already halfway up the tower. Nami started to say something, but she was interrupted by a person hiding in the clock tower.
"I'm afraid this is our last job, Mr. 7."
"Indeed, Miss Father's Day."
We looked up and saw two people hiding inside the clock. Vivi explained that these two were a sniper team.
Weren't Mr. 7 and Miss Father's Day the names they wanted Zoro and me to take?
We ignored the two people at the top, and Nami told us she had a plan to get Vivi to the top of the tower. She had Vivi sit on Chopper, Chopper stand on my back, and me on Usopp.
Usopp screamed in pain as Nami's staff spun into him and launched him into the air.
"Now, jump!" Nami yelled.
I see.
"Okay, ready, Chopper!" I wrapped the Chain Blade around his body and threw the reindeer higher into the air.
They went up to Sanji, who kicked them to Zoro. Chopper jumped higher and higher until he had no one left and threw Vivi to the top of the tower. As he was falling, Zoro got shot by the snipers at the top of the tower. When Vivi landed in the tower, she pulled her string weapons, and the snipers fell from the tower.
"Amazing!" Usopp cheered.
Vivi didn't come out of the tower for a while. We began to worry if she was okay or if she had stopped the bomb.
Vivi came to the door of the clock and started screaming, "It's a time bomb!"
Crap!
"What are we going to do!" I yelled. "I don't wanna die, Zoro!"
"You see that?" Zoro asked me. "That big bird just flew into the tower."
We looked up and saw a large falcon dragging the bomb out of the tower. The bird took the bomb into the sky, and nothing happened for a few seconds. Then, the whole sky lit up as the bomb exploded.
"Why..." I gasped.
"That bastard..."
"To protect the country, he..." Nami and Sanji were just as shocked as I was.
"Hey…" Usopp tried to get our attention.
We looked back and saw the rebels and the royal armies were picking themselves off the floor and going right back to fighting. Vivi started screaming for everyone to stop, but no one was listening.
"She always cares too much. It only gets her hurt," I said sadly.
Nami started banging on Zoro and Sanji's chests. "I don't care! Do something! Save anyone you can!"
She pushed us back into the street to try and stop the fighting.
Steve's POV
"AGGHH!"
"What the hell are you doing!" I heard Cobra yell.
I tightened my whip again and slammed it into my back.
"AGGHH!"
It hurts, but I need it.
"Are you some kind of nut?" Crocodile asked.
"No." I looked up, still reeling from the stinging on my back. "I'm a genius."
"Are you trying to kill yourself so I can't take credit for murdering you?"
"WHIP CRUSH!"
My weapons slammed into the Warlord and sent him flying back. I panted; I felt the blood trickling down my back.
"You know, I wanted to kick your ass before, but after what you just did to that woman, I want to do it even more!" I yelled.
"You punk, you used your blood like water. And now you have the audacity to defend that woman!" he stood back up.
I got ready to go back at him, but I was interrupted.
"CROCODILE!"
I turned around and saw him. "Luffy!"
"How many times do I have to kill you!" Crocodile yelled.
"I'll keep coming 'til you give it back," Luffy told the man.
"What are you even talking about?" Crocodile groaned.
Luffy ran up and punched Crocodile in the face. "Give Vivi her smile back!"
Luffy must have figured out how to use the blood like I had. I got up and went next to Luffy.
"What happened to you!" Luffy yelled, looking at my scarred back.
"I needed to fight Crocodile," I said, panting. I had lost a lot of blood, and my vision was blurring. "We need to hurry."
"Fine, I'll start taking you two seriously." Crocodile took off his hook, and a smaller hook oozing with poison was under it. "This will be our last fight. Let's finish this!"
"Gum-Gum Pistol!" Luffy threw a punch at Crocodile and missed, but nearly got cut by the poison hook.
I ran forward and jumped towards Crocodile. "Whip Typhoon!" Crocodile reached out and tried to grab me in the air, but I used a whip to pull myself to the ground. "Whip Lash!"
Crocodile jumped over my attack and brought his hook down to impale me. Luckily, Luffy grabbed me and pulled me back, but he wasn't fast enough, and I felt the hook scratch the skin on my ankle. My skin was burning from just that little drop.
The area I had just been turned to mush when the hook touched it. Crocodile dashed forward and nicked Luffy with the hook. Luffy grappled the man and threw him back to me where I picked him up and slammed him into the ground.
"This match is set, the poison is seeping through your bodies. You'll both be dead in a few minutes!"
"You don't understand anything," Luffy told him.
We ran back in and assaulted Crocodile with a flurry of Punches, Lashes, and Kicks.
"Why are you still fighting? The poison will kill you soon. You have no stake in this country. Why fight for it?"
"For Vivi." We explained. "She'd die if she had her way. She'd die because of you."
"Gum-Gum Gatling!" "Whip Hurricane!"
We attacked Crocodile and fell to the floor a few seconds after that. Our bodies had given out. The poison was just too strong.
"So, do you still think you can win? I don't have time for amateur pirates like you," the Warlord gloated. "It's over! You're finished."
Crocodile started telling Cobra how the bomb the others were going to stop was also a time bomb, so stopping the shooter wouldn't stop the bomb. I had to keep going. I couldn't let this bastard win. Somehow, I mustered the strength to pull myself off the floor.
"We're not finished," Luffy told Crocodile.
"You both look pathetic. The look suits you. How can you say such ridiculous things? Just stay dead!"
"Because… We're going to be Kings of the Pirates!" We yelled.
Crocodile became enraged and charged at us with his hook. Luffy kicked the hilt of his false hand up, and I wrapped my whip around it and pulled. The crude tool snapped off and broke when it collided with the ground.
"We will surpass you," I said.
Luffy ran up and punched Crocodile in the gut, and I slammed my whip into his head. Crocodile twisted the gold portion of his hand, and a small knife emerged.
"Do you know who I am? You are nothing to me!" he stabbed at Luffy, but Luffy ducked and kicked him into the air.
Crocodile made a giant sandstorm inside to try and stop us, but Luffy had already started twisting his body. Luffy launched us toward Crocodile, and we went in for our final attack.
"Gum-Gum Storm!" "Whip Blizzard!"
He tried to stop us with a collection of sand blades, but our attacks broke through his defense.
"AAAHHHHH!" "DIE!"
Crocodile got sent flying through the roof of the temple. Unfortunately, that meant the room only started to collapse faster. Luffy and I both fell to the floor, completely devoid of energy. The poison had taken its toll. We'd be dead sooner or later. While on the floor, I heard the King and Nico Robin talking.
"I just wanted to know the 'true' history… I'm afraid my dream just had too many enemies."
The king grabbed Luffy and me and forced something down our throats, and I instantly started to feel better.
"We gotta get out of here," I told Luffy as we laid on the floor.
He silently walked over to the king and picked him up. I trudged over to the woman I had become fond of and threw her over my shoulder.
"Let's get out of here," Luffy said.
"What are you doing! Put me down!" The woman yelled. "I've lost what I wanted in life. Just let me die!"
"Why should I listen to you? I don't care what you think, I'm saving you because I want to. You can do whatever you want when we get outside," I told her.
Watch your hands, Steve, no unsafe touches.
Luffy and I ran through the collapsing temple and got outside just before it fell apart. I kept my promise and put the woman down. I would have liked to hold her a little longer, but I mostly did that because right after, I passed out.