[EotB] 052. End of the Night (Patreon)

15 years before Romance Dawn (1524.05.06)

Gloriosa paced up and down the length of the ship’s deck, trying to bleed off some of the nervous energy coursing through her body.

She was the only one here to be so out of sorts. Shakky and Rayleigh were seated around a small table near the railing, chatting quietly and enjoying a nice bottle of wine pilfered from the bar’s stores before they left.

On her next go-around, Gloriosa made sure to direct a disgruntled glare at them as she passed.

Unfortunately, this only elicited a smile from the pair of them.

“Relax, Gloriosa,” Rayleigh drawled, delicately swirling his wine and holding his glass by the stem, like a proper fancy gentleman. “Why don’t you take a seat and have a drink with us while you wait?”

Gloriosa didn’t know what he was playing at. Rayleigh could be a smooth bastard when he wanted, sure – nothing like Roger, of course, but then, Roger had been one of a kind – but drinking wine didn’t suit him at all. He was a rough-and-tumble, hard liquor kind of man. He should be drinking straight from the bottle, or from his hip flask, like a proper drunkard.

“Excuse me if I’m the only one here taking things seriously,” she snapped, and turned to look up at the sky.

Most of it was blocked by the immense bulk of the Red Line, of course, but the weather was clear enough tonight to see far, far, far above, where the sky glowed faintly red. And not from a sunset, either, as night had long since fallen.

What was going on, up there?

“There’s no need to worry, quite yet,” Shakky cut in with a reasonable tone. “We’re still well within the time frame you and Hancock predicted.”

“I know, I know. Just... It’s been weeks. I wish we could have just gone with her and helped her more directly.”

Rayleigh chuckled. “Oh, yes. I’m sure that would have gone well. The navy wouldn’t at all overreact to our sudden reappearance.”

Gloriosa sighed. She didn’t need Rayleigh’s sarcasm to know accompanying Hancock up to Marie-Joie had never been an option. It wasn’t even about their reappearance, as much as it was Rayleigh’s. One whiff of the Dark King’s presence near the World Government’s seat of power, and all three admirals would descend on the scene, ready to end him once and for all, no matter the cost.

Hancock, as strong as she was for her age, wasn’t ready for that kind of battlefield.

No, paradoxically, it was better to let her go alone. One unknown, comparatively weak girl would elicit a much more measured response from the Marines in the city.

Gloriosa just hoped nothing went wrong.

Tritoma was apparently suffering from Love Sickness, and, well, Gloriosa still hadn’t given up hope of convincing Hancock to succeed her as empress.

Sure, there were a few obstacles in the way, not least of which her desertion, but the kid would make for an amazing empress, Gloriosa was certain.

Only thirteen years old and already tracking her sisters down across the Grand Line, with only her snake for company, then moving on to infiltrating the capital of the world, with good enough odds of actually surviving the stunt that Gloriosa hadn’t felt immediately compelled to insist she abandon her fool ideas.

It was actually kind of absurd.

What had Gloriosa been doing when she’d been thirteen? Goofing around with her friends back on Maiden Island? Sharpening up her Haki in prevision of taking her trials a few years down the line, maybe? Same for Shakky.

What about Rayleigh, then? Or Roger, in his day? Monsters both, but it had taken them years to ramp up, to gain power and accrue experience across the seas.

Gloriosa had watched Hancock practice the Internal Destruction Rayleigh had shown her. She’d been a bit dubious, at first, because it was a ridiculously advanced Armament technique. Even in the New World, the only ones capable of it would have bounties in the billions. Gloriosa herself had never properly gotten it down, despite running with the Rocks for years. Rayleigh hadn’t seen fit to warn Hancock of that, however. Instead, he’d made it look like the most natural, effortless thing in the world, and Gloriosa had decided not to discourage the kid with the truth.

Except, then, she’d actually done it. At thirteen years old.

She couldn’t use it in the midst of combat, just yet – it took her nearly a minute of unbroken focus to wrangle her Haki into the proper form, last Gloriosa had seen her – so it would only be situationally useful, for now, but at what age had Rayleigh or Roger or Newgate achieved the same?

The only exception that Gloriosa could think of was Linlin, who, according to the stories she’d shared when they’d been crewmates, had apparently been outright born with the freakish strength necessary to kill Elbaph giants in a temper tantrum.

Still, that Gloriosa needed to go to Charlotte Linlin’s example to find a match for Hancock’s precocious strength was telling.

Absurd.

Over the past few years, Gloriosa had grown quietly concerned with the waning isolation of her home island. Spurred on by the World Government’s recent technological advances, Amazon Lily’s status as an unassailable bastion was slowly, gradually, inexorably eroding.

So, it felt a bit like fate, that just when this weakness was beginning to manifest, what might very well be the strongest Kuja to have ever lived – in the making, at least – would suddenly fall into their lap. A shield, a deterrent, more powerful than the Calm Belt could ever be.

Well, Gloriosa didn’t want to make it sound like Hancock’s power was the only thing of worth she had to offer. She was a good kid, risking life and limb to save her sisters from a fate worse than death. For that alone, Gloriosa would worry for her and pray for her success. She wasn’t heartless.

But still, emotions aside, she couldn’t exactly unsee the strategic considerations staring her in the face. There was potential, there, to perhaps secure Maiden Island’s position forevermore.

Which... might not be as much of an exaggeration as it sounded, because Gloriosa had also spoken to Hancock about her strange experiments with Life Return.

It beggared belief, and the specific biological details had flown over Gloriosa’s head, but if the girl could actually make herself immortal...

Like everyone else, Gloriosa had heard the rumors of the Op-Op Fruit’s ultimate power, of course, but that was all they were: rumors. As far as she was aware, immortality remained nothing more than a persistent myth. Yet here was a child apparently confident she could achieve exactly that through a power so niche and obscure few knew it existed at all, and even fewer among those bothered to practice it at all.

Age was perhaps the one enemy even the true monsters of this world couldn’t defeat. Rayleigh himself, though only retired for going on a decade, was already slipping past his peak. Newgate – and Garp, too, on the navy’s side – were both still active and kept themselves sharp in the New World, so it wasn’t quite as obvious with them yet, but even they were clearly on a downward trajectory.

But an empress whose age only enhanced and refined her strength...

Well, Gloriosa didn’t want to get too far ahead of herself, just yet. For now, Hancock was still only a child.

One who should hurry up and get down there already.

The universe must have listened to her pleas, because Rayleigh chose this moment to let out a small, considering sound. Gloriosa followed his gaze up.

It took her a moment to decipher the sight.

“Is that... Salome?” she asked dubiously.

“Looks like it,” Shakky said, getting to her feet, her drink forgotten. “With wings. And passengers. Only two, though.”

Indeed, Hancock’s snake, now covered in white feathers, was gliding down, half a dozen wings stretched open on both sides of her long body. Her glide – it couldn’t be called flight – looked distinctly unsteady, strained by the weight of the two girls desperately clinging to her.

Strained enough that, at this rate, they wouldn’t land on the ship. Which was a problem, considering Salome’s obvious Devil Fruit, and the girls’ equally obvious injuries.

“Rayleigh!” Gloriosa called.

The man was already standing up. “Yep. Shakky, a little help?”

“Of course.”

The two of them dove off the side of the ship, right as Salome plunged into the waves, Hancock’s sisters yelping as they too sank like stones.

Did they have Devil Fruits, too? Hancock hadn’t mentioned anything of the sort, which had... unfortunate implications.

Either way, it didn’t take long for Rayleigh and Shakky to resurface and bring all three of them onboard the ship. Rayleigh in particular looked somewhat comical, with a giant snake dangling from one shoulder, and a little girl from the other.

When the children were on deck, coughing water out of their lungs, Gloriosa took them in. The younger one, with the orange hair, looked rather woozy, her gaze swimming unsteadily; either she hadn’t handled her dip in the sea too well, or she’d taken a blow to the head. The other was... Well, it looked like her period in captivity had not been kind to her.

Neither looked at all like Hancock, but that was no surprise. Kuja women may exclusively give birth to girls, but the three sisters’ different fathers would still have an effect on their appearance and heritage.

“Are you two all right?” she asked once they looked to have caught their breaths.

The green-haired one – Sandersonia – nodded. “Yes. Mari’s got a concussion, we think.” She wiped water from her face with her only hand and looked up. “Are you... Empress Gloriosa?”

“I am. Or rather, I was.” She chuckled. “I’m just Freeloader Gloriosa, these days.” She didn’t want to stress the girl after what she’d been through, but a question had to be asked. “Could you tell me where Hancock is? The plan was for us to take all three of you back to Sabaody.”

Sandersonia bit her lip, a look of abject guilt and self-loathing flashing across her face. “She... She stayed behind while we sneaked out. I think she set the city on fire to cover our escape.”

...Oh. Was that what the red light in the sky was?

Gloriosa had suspected so, but...

There were people, up in Marie-Joie, who would see it as beneath their dignity to make a move to quell a slave breakout, but setting the city on fire... That might attract the wrong kind of attention. Gloriosa hoped Hancock knew what she was doing.

Rayleigh, on the other hand, didn’t seem worried in the least. Instead, he was grinning like a maniac. “She did, did she?” he said, laughter in the back of his voice. “Hehe, I knew there was a reason I liked her.”

Of course, he would. He probably wished, even more than Gloriosa, that he was up there with Hancock, poking the World Government in the eye like in the good old days.

Sandersonia looked up at him when he spoke, suspicion in her gaze. “Who are you?”

Rayleigh shrugged disarmingly. “Silvers Rayleigh.” He gestured toward Shakky, where she knelt beside the youngest sister, Marigold, checking her condition. “I’m just Shakky’s husband.”

A wholly insufficient introduction, but it seemed to satisfy the kid’s curiosity – no doubt thanks to Shakky’s name, rather than because she recognized his own. Instead of pressing, she looked back at Gloriosa. “Hancock said she’d follow after us once she was done creating a distraction. We have to wait for her!”

Salome, lying exhausted on the deck next to the girls, her wings slowly retracting into her body, let out a low hiss and nodded in support.

Marigold attempted to do the same a beat later, but Shakky gently held her down. “Of course, don’t worry,” she said. “But in the meantime, how about we take care of your injuries, yes? You in particular, young lady, definitely have a concussion, so try not to move your head around too much. Gloriosa, would you fetch the first-aid kit from the cabin?”

“Sure. Give me a second.”

♦♦♦

The following minutes seemed to stretch infinitely and were mostly spent in restless silence, broken only by the sound of the waves striking the hull. Every second that passed without sign of their elder sister seemed to heighten the girls’ anxiety, and Gloriosa herself, though she wouldn’t admit it in front of the children, was starting to get worried again.

It was taking all of her self-control not to resume pacing.

Until Rayleigh’s head suddenly snapped up toward the Red Line, his eyes wide open, the smile gone from his face.

“Ah. We might have a problem.”

That certainly didn’t help the tension. For Rayleigh to consider something a problem...

“Ray?” Shakky asked, standing up and preparing herself to move. She was as blind as everyone else to the cause of his words, though, as no one here was capable of rivaling the range of his Observation Haki. “What is it?”

“Garp.”

Gloriosa’s stomach sank. If there had been a single name she would have preferred not to hear ever again, it would have been this one.

Gloriosa’s stomach downright shriveled when Rayleigh’s hand fell onto the hilt of his sword. The motion looked casual, incidental; it was anything but.

“He knows we’re here.”

Oh, shit.

For a minute, the standoff continued, Rayleigh staying perfectly still, everyone else staring at him, waiting for his lead. Even the children stayed silent, their faces pale, making the wise decision not to disrupt his concentration.

With her gaze trained on him, Gloriosa didn’t miss the moment Rayleigh’s brows dipped into an actual frown. “Hancock’s here. He was waiting for her.”

Oh, shit.

There was no way even Rayleigh could climb the Red Line in time to interfere in whatever battle was about to take place. What could any of them even do to hel–

“Huh. Well, now. They’re not fighting. I think they’re... talking.”

Talking? Garp didn’t talk; he punched things. That was the entirety of his skill set and personality.

But then... Hancock was a child, so the old brute might give her a bit more leeway than he had ever granted any of them during their pirate careers. Thinking about it more carefully, it was actually difficult to imagine Garp seriously attacking a child, no matter the circumstances.

...Of course, Garp wouldn’t need to attack seriously to deal with Hancock, so that wasn’t as much of a reassurance as it might have seemed.

The next few minutes were so harrowing Gloriosa thought she might be sick – she really was getting too old for adventures like that; there was a reason she’d retired – until Rayleigh let his hand drop from his sword and relaxed.

“Kid’s coming down. Garp is leaving.”

Gloriosa had no idea what could have convinced the man to let Hancock go free, but she didn’t let her confusion prevent her from breathing a quiet sigh of relief, one she heard echoed in Hancock’s sisters as they shared a tremulous smile.

That relief proved premature when, nearly two minutes later – the Red Line was tall – Hancock’s form resolved into more than a distant pinpoint, in the midst of a cloud of rubble and falling rocks.

She was tumbling through the air, entirely uncontrolled.

Rayleigh clicked his tongue. “She’s unconscious. She won’t be able to brace herself for the impact with the sea.”

A gasp came from one of the children. “Hancock’s got a Devil Fruit! She’ll drown!”

A Devil Fruit? That was new...

And fortunately a much less intractable issue than a stray vice admiral popping out of nowhere. Rayleigh didn’t wait for Sandersonia and Marigold to beg him to intercede before he drew his sword.

In one smooth motion, his blade flicked out and carved a giant hole into the sea. As the water rushed back in to fill it from every direction simultaneously, it all collided at the center and exploded up in a giant geyser, timed perfectly to catch Hancock and cushion her fall.

By the time she disappeared beneath the surface, gently enough not to have harmed her, Rayleigh had long since sheathed his sword and plunged in after her.

Only a minute later, he was back on deck, with their last passenger in tow.

Hancock... didn’t look so good. Her hand, her face... She was heavily injured.

And yet, she was alive. After assaulting Marie-Joie and apparently setting the whole city on fire, after facing Monkey D. Garp...

Utterly absurd.

Gloriosa almost laughed, but the crying children leaning and fussing over their unconscious sister probably wouldn’t appreciate her almost hysterical amusement.

While Shakky approached the girl with her first-aid kit in hand, and Rayleigh wrung his clothes dry for the second time this evening, Gloriosa turned away and hurried for the ship’s helm.

Best they stop pushing their luck, whether it be with Garp’s patience, or with the nearby Red Port and its numerous warships lurking just over the horizon.

Once they were back on Sabaody, they could better take care of the three sisters, and then, see how the dust settled.