348"So any ideas?" Nami asks as their cages swing back and forth ominously over a pool of water.
"None," she replies dully.
There is one knife up her sleeve along with a handful of shuriken. These blades aren't strong enough to cut through metal, and any attempt at using her flames will heat the cage, burning her. If she somehow manages to break through the bars, there's the water of unknown depth below her.
Assuming she survives all of that, she still has to fight Edwin, who will be there the moment she's free.
"This is the worst." Nami falls back against the bars of her cage with a sigh.
"At least we're better off than Robin and Chopper," she says, glancing at them with a wince.
With the bottom of their cage submerged into the pool, the two Devil Fruit users remain stiff and silent. While their eyes remain wide open, she can't tell if they're actually conscious at this point.
"Yeah, but it doesn't make this any less boring," Nami says.
She hums in agreement. If she were to describe the place they're being held at, she'd say it resembles something of a boss stage. While it's oddly huge, the only thing in the room is the pool and a walkway over it that snakes around the cages.
Meaning there is absolutely nothing to look at while they wait to be rescued.
"Want to play a word game? I'll say a word and you say one that begins with the last letter," she offers, unable to think of a good conversation topic.
"What are you, five?" Nami snorts.
Well, that's not a "No." Taking it as assent, she spits out the first word to come to mind
"Utopia."
"Ugh, I hate that word." Nami makes a face before saying, "Assessment."
"Taint."
"Treasure."
She tilts her head and thinks.
"Entertain."
The door opens and shuts with a squeal. Heavy boots clank against the floor, and Nami and her tense as Edwin stomps down the walkway to their cages; her cage rocks with every step he takes.
"Girls in timeout should be sitting there quietly," Edwin says before reaching up to grab the bottom of her cage. "You've been misbehavin' some kinda bad lately, Divebelle." He shakes the cage hard enough to bang her head into the bars.
"Bite me," she says through gritted teeth.
"What an ungrateful daughter," Edwin says, continuing to shake her cage viciously. "Just cause you're the youngest don't mean you should be a brat!"
"Youngest?" Nami's eyebrows twitch.
Before that train of thought can be questioned, the door explodes, flying off dramatically before hitting the floor with a quivering shriek. Edwin stops shaking her but keeps a grip on her cage.
(Dizzy, she's so dizzy.)
Stepping through the doorway without so much as a wrinkle in his suit, Sanji holds up a cigarette and takes a long drag. The lazy look he gives their cages is at odds with the dangerous way his shoes tap against the floor.
"I see you're the kind of pervert to lock up any woman you have your eye on. Despicable," Sanji says lowly.
Before any of them can point out the hypocrisy of Sanji calling anyone else a pervert, Edwin lets out a soft, tinny laugh. The diving suit helmet glints ominously in the dim light.
"I'm doing this for their sake, pretty boy." Edwin rocks her cage gently. "This is my daughter, Divebelle."
"My name is Kuina," she says reflexively.
"And these are her sisters, Seawitch and Marina." The way Edwin looks at Nami and then Robin makes it clear who's who.
"Why am I Seawitch?!" Nami screeches.
"And no boy is allowed near them! Take one more step and you won't get out of here alive," Edwin says dangerously.
Sanji, with calm and languid movements, lets out a puff of smoke before throwing his cigarette down and stepping on it. His eyes flick from the comatose Robin and Chopper to Nami before landing on her unimpressed face.
"That 'daughter' is a guy!" Sanji suddenly bellows while pointing at her.
"Really? Would have never guessed since you keep calling me by female pronouns," she says, voice thick with sarcasm.
Sanji sputters.
"I think those are accidents, but he probably doesn't think of you as a man," Nami muses beside her.
"Those sound like fighting words," she deadpans.
While the three of them distract Edwin, Usopp takes aim behind Sanji with his smaller slingshot. She shakes her head subtly when it looks like Usopp is targeting Edwin. That won't work. The slingshot moves over to Nami, and Sanji dashes towards Edwin.
"Don't blame me for being confused when you're being locked away with the girls from a bad boy like me," Sanji smirks.
Sanji flies forward with a fierce kick, but Edwin doesn't budge against the sudden attack. Usopp fires, and Sanji uses the chance to push against Edwin's helmet to bounce over to Nami's cage.
With lightning fast reflexes, Edwin is already standing in front of Nami protectively, but Usopp's explosive shoots past, hitting another target instead. Sanji lets himself fall backwards, and the combined force against Robin and Chopper's cage causes it to be thrown out of the water.
The cage bounces harshly against the floor, but Robin and Chopper are no longer imprisoned by the pool. Robin's arm twitches.
Usopp fires another explosive towards Nami's cage, and Edwin takes the hit without so much as a shrug. The hulking diving suit stomps towards Usopp while Sanji breaks the chain holding Robin and Chopper's cage.
"What's this guy made of?" Usopp shrieks while continuing to fire rapidly at the undamaged Edwin.
Sanji is able to block the punch that would tear off Usopp's head with his leg, but there's an ominous crack that rings out. Usopp disappears, and whatever Sanji is saying to Edwin is too low for her to hear.
"Nami."
She does a double take as Nami crosses her arms with a satisfied expression. She frowns in confusion. Why would anyone say their own name?
"It was 'entertain,' right?" Nami winks.
Ah, that's right: the game. These Straw Hat Pirates really don't know what "time and place" means. Are names even considered to be words?
"I don't think that counts," she says. "Ice."
The chain holding Nami's cage suddenly snaps, but a pair of hooves grab onto it before Nami can hit the water. A large, muscled Chopper peels the cage open, and Nami jumps onto the walkway with a sigh of relief.
Unfortunately, what no one realizes is how unstable the pulley system holding the cages is. The sudden uneven weight is too much, and part of the pulley breaks.
She hits the pool before she can even blink. Cool water goes over her head, and only experience from being tossed into the sea keeps her from inhaling. She's completely submerged for less than a second before she's being pulled up.
"Don't worry, Divebelle! Pa's got you!" Edwin shouts, yanking on the chain attached to her cage.
Once the water comes up to her waist, Edwin wraps the chain around the remaining part of the torn pulley. The Straw Hats make no movement towards Edwin until he's finished tying the chain in a knot.
Legs and hooves go flying the moment everyone is satisfied that the chain will hold, but it doesn't look good for the Straw Hats. Beyond a few dents, there is no visible injury to Edwin's diving suit.
Neither Robin nor Usopp are anywhere to be seen. The only ones holding off the seemingly invincible Edwin are Sanji, Chopper, and Nami, who's Clima-Tact is limited in this kind of environment. She needs to help somehow.
The cool water at her waist gives her an idea. Taking a breath, she exhales a steady flame to the cage around her. Steam rolls around her like a fog. The metal beneath her feet grows warm enough to be felt through her boots, but it's not enough to burn her.
If she can weaken the metal enough, even a lousy knife should be able to break through it.
Perhaps her idea may have worked if the combined blow from Chopper and Sanji didn't throw Edwin into the remaining piece of the pulley, breaking it completely.
Her cage falls, but before she can get another faceful of water, rubbery arms stretch out and grab the chain of her cage. She gets a glimpse of a wide, toothy grin before her cage bursts open around her.
She's dropped into the pool once more, but this time she's free to swim out herself. Breaking the surface of the pool with a gasp, she grabs onto the side of the walkway and looks up. Standing over her, clutching three swords and bleeding profusely, is the one person she thought she'd never see again.
"Zoro," she breathes out a soft laugh. "You idiot, what took so long?"
"This place was a maze," he grunts as she heaves herself onto the walkway. "Doors kept closing and shutting on me."
Zoro waits for her to get to her feet before sheathing his swords and undoing the pink katana attached to his side. He holds the hilt out to her and gives a cut on his leg a rueful glance.
"Your sword bites," he says.
"Of course it does. It's my partner."
Grabbing Tsubasa de Tobu, she slides the blade out and it makes a sharp, hissing noise. Don't leave me behind again, the sword seems to say. Holding the scabbard in her left hand, she swings the sword until her grip adjusts for one hand.
"Hey, Luffy, save some for us!" Zoro yells before pulling out two of his swords.
Luffy is beating Edwin into the floor hard enough to leave dents to both the station and the diving suit, but Edwin still doesn't appear to be slowing down. Nami adjusts her Clima-Tact, and sends her a pointed look.
"Easy," Nami says, stepping towards Edwin.
She gets it this time. The next word that comes out of her mouth makes her grin subconsciously.
"You," she says.
"Hey!" Nami shouts with a glare before pulling her arm back. "Ultimate!"
"Epic!" She calls back immediately.
"Cyclone Tempo!" Nami screams, swinging the Clima-Tact.
A gust of wind comes out of the staff, and Edwin goes flying straight into her and Zoro's blades. She tears the diving suit in half one way, and Zoro tears it in half the other way. The pieces fall into the pool below them.
"No blood," she notes as the pool remains clear.
"I don't think any of them are human," Zoro says, staring at the water intensely. "Luffy ripped that big guy in half, and it was just a skeleton."
"The boss!" Luffy chirps from where he's watching Chopper wrap Sanji's ankle. "It was gross, so I threw him out the window."
"We're under the sea." She blinks.
"So?" Luffy tilts his head.
"Don't bother," Sanji says, rubbing his head. "You'll hurt yourself thinking about it."
...
"Robin, I didn't see you in the fight, and Usopp was gone too. Where did you go?" She asks once the two step through the doorway.
Robin smiles carefree while Usopp's eyes are wide and unblinking as he stares into the void; his hand trembles slightly. She can only imagine what Robin must have put Usopp through while everyone else was fighting Edwin.
"I remember reading about a room dedicated to keeping the pressure level in different parts of the station," Robin says. "When we were knocked out by changes in the pressure, I knew there had to be another person controlling it. If we wanted to stand a chance, then we must get rid of that person."
Robin folds her arms and looks at the pool knowingly. It wouldn't surprise her if Robin literally left an eye behind to watch over the battle.
"I was told Edwin hadn't spared anyone down here," she frowns, thinking of Jac's words.
"There was another weirdo in a diving suit running around," Zoro tells her. "He wouldn't say anything, but he controlled those damn doors."
Which means the Stenuit Station had a crew running it after all. There's no mistake that the original scientists are dead, but what's left doesn't bleed and needs suits to keep going.
She fights down the urge to think, abomination.
"Another thing I noticed is that there are remains of a Den Den Mushi on the ceiling in each room. I poked one, and what little flesh was there still appeared to have a heartbeat," Robin says.
"Gross," Nami shivers. "Is that how this creep has been watching us?"
"And yet, there doesn't seem to be any way for the Den Den Mushi to speak to each other," Robin notes.
"It all comes back to the one question," she says with narrow eyes.
"Franky and Brook are guarding the submarine in case there are more of these creatures, but it would be unjust of us to leave without completing the mystery." Robin looks over at Luffy.
Nothing on Robin's face visibly changes, but she gets the feeling that Luffy is being given a big dose of puppy dog eyes. Sanji, accidentally caught in the line of fire, falls over with hearts in his eyes while Luffy stares at Robin unyieldingly.
"Let's go be detectives!" Luffy nods sharply before running out the doorway.
The Straw Hats wait a heartbeat before scrambling after their wayward captain. Zoro grabs her arm and pulls her after him. She lets him.
They scour the station until they find a hidden door in the center of the station. What waits for them behind it is a lump of flesh with a face melted into it. She doesn't hesitate to turn around and kick Chopper out of the room before he can see it.
Usopp pivots on a heel and walks after Chopper without a word. Nami looks ready to go for the door as well, but she dives forward to grab Luffy's hand to keep him from poking the fleshy blob. Zoro keeps his shoulder against hers, and Sanji leans against the doorway to keep an eye on all of them.
Robin stands over the blob with her arms crossed; there's a solemn expression on her face.
"You discovered a Poneglyph. That it is why this tragedy took place. The Poneglyph is long gone, yet you remain," Robin states with certainty. "You are the real Edwin Jon, aren't you?"
The blob of flesh shifts, and she tries to keep from staring at the face that seems to be sliding with every movement. If Robin is correct, then this is the true result of the experiment that went down.
"Sorry" won't make any of this better.
"If I am?" The blob rasps out.
"Now we must put the mystery of the Stenuit Station to rest," Robin says gravely. "Kuina, if you would do the honors."
She folds her arms into her sleeves and finds no relief from the cold. She's still soaking wet. It's Edwin's fault that she took a dive into the water, but she still remembers the fact that he pulled her up immediately.
"One question. What is your Devil Fruit?" She asks.
"I don't have one," the pile of flesh croaks.
"You do," she says gently. "Jac fed it to you. He forced you to be this way. You wouldn't have survived otherwise."
"No, no, no. Jac wouldn't," the grotesque mouth gasps. "Jac wouldn't do this. Not to me."
Perhaps the alive Jac wouldn't have left his friend in such a state, but she doesn't know the nature of this Devil Fruit. Perhaps it's something like Gecko Moria's, perhaps not.
"How many people are in this station? How many are there, really? Jon, how many?" She coaxes using his name.
"Just me. It's always been just me," Jon sobs.
"And you've been lonely this whole time. Enough to randomly grab ships to drag down here," she states softly.
Luffy looks at the blob of flesh with a frown. She's surprised he doesn't say anything when the silence seems to drag on for an eternity.
"Replication. That's, that's what they were hopin' for," Jon rasps out, "but it don't work like that. They cut little pieces of me and stick me in them, and then, and then I got another set of eyes, another set of brains, and—" Jon breaks down into unintelligible mumbling.
She's finally learning the power of her enemy's Devil Fruit. It doesn't feel like a moment of triumph in the least.
"The boss," here Jon's voice hardens into a deep hatred, "the boss did this to me. Jac didn't know what he was doing. He just thought the fruit would save me. The boss didn't let him see the scalpel, didn't—" The pile of flesh shudders.
"So when he made the mistake of putting a little bit of me in him, I took his face and put it in that tank along with another piece of me. Now his body runs around as a monster, and his face is an abomination."
She twitches at the word. There's an itch in her throat, and she has to remind herself that setting anything on fire would probably kill them all horribly.
"So that starfish thing is from the same person as the boss. Why does he think he's Jac?" She asks, clearing her throat.
"My mind has been torn into pieces," Jon laughs. "You think that don't affect nothin'? You don't think I don't mix up the two people who did this to me?"
She doesn't bother asking for more details. If he takes over the bodies like a parasite, or if all of this can be considered split personalities, or how much of the original person's mind is still in there.
It's all too horrifying to think about.
"All those eyes in that one monster, were they from the people who hurt you too?" Zoro speaks up from beside her.
"The first time I dragged a ship down it was an accident. I was just tryin' to get help," Jon says. "But the pirates didn't like that. When they destroyed a painting that belonged to Wes, I took their eyes."
Luffy presses down on his hat, and the brim hides his eyes. Zoro lets out a quiet sigh only she can hear.
How lonely, she thinks, he must have been to continue to mourn the loss of people who he probably wasn't even close to.
"Jac left something for you to read," she says, finally figuring out the writer's identity. "His last words were 'Jon I'm sorry.' "
Those grotesque eyes fill with liquid. She can't bear to look at them and averts her gaze.
"Go on and leave," Jon says roughly. "Go, while I still got my brains. Nothin's going to attack you now."
"When I become the Pirate King, I'll come back and bring you to the surface. We'll roll you in sand and make a sandman out of you!" Luffy vows suddenly.
"Who knows? There's a lot of Devil Fruits out there. Might be one to turn you into something person-shaped," Sanji says before pushing away from the door.
They leave Jon there and make their way to the submarine. As he is, still lost in grief and unable to move forward, Jon would never survive aboard the Thousand Sunny. Even with such a powerful Devil Fruit, nothing can be done without the will to use it.
Franky welcomes her with a slap on the back, and Brook tilts his hat to her. She looks between them and wonders why she's so happy to see them.
She stops and looks to the ceiling. Somewhere up there is a Den Den Mushi zombie.
"One last thing, did you use a kid's body to help me?" She reaches up and tugs at the ribbon still wrapped around her ponytail.
"There's never been a kid here," Jon's tinny voice replies. "Those clothes were on one of the ships. I looked and looked but I ain't ever seen a corpse, but just in case, just in case, I wanted to keep 'em nice. It's probably what made that one focus so much on you being his daughter."
So what made that childish voice from earlier? A cold shiver goes down her back, and she decides to get onto the submarine without delay.
The ride back up to the Thousand Sunny is much less dramatic than her ride down towards the station. The only uncomfortable part is how small the shark submarine is. Having to sit on Robin's lap, she now knows what "boobs of steel" mean.
She won't be able to look Chopper in the eye when she explains why her headache has returned.
The first thing she does when she steps out onto the Thousand Sunny is go up to the ship's deck and flop onto the grass. It's so soft compared to the harsh metal of the underwater station.
She rolls around and presses her face deeply into the lawn. Tsubasa de Tobu moves easily with her, and she decides that a nap is in order. She's tired, dirty, wet, and hungry. Absolutely nothing short of a disaster will make her move from this spot until it's time to eat.
The sounds of the Straw Hats moving around the wooden ship are like a lullaby compared to the screeching of metal and heavy boots.
Forget food, she is definitely not moving from this spot until tomorrow.
"Oh, cool. A mermaid," Luffy says before his eyes bug out of his skull.
She sits up immediately. There, not but a little ways from her, is a woman with short, green hair and a pink fish tail. The woman stares at them, and they all stare back. As one they scream out,
"EH?!"
Sorry about the wait. For those checking in with me, they'll know I had too many real life problems to deal with to continue writing. I appreciate your patience!
For anyone still wanting to read the April Fool's chapter, I'll post the link on my tumblr under the tags "finding your wings" "one piece" or fanfiction" Take your pick.
