For one horrifying second, everything was still. No sounds. No screams. No thunder. No reaction. Just plain processing of the situation. Just the cruel, paralyzing silence. Just the faint smell of smoky air and blood pooling beneath a body far too small, far too precious to be lying so damn still.
Until the world snapped in from its shock, losing its goddamn mind.
The storm outside exploded with a scream of thunder so loud it shattered all the remaining windows and glass. The sound was agony, rage, and mourning. The wind rushed inside the wreckage of the G-8 base, mourning, searching, and swirling like a beast denied its master. It wasn't just the wind anymore. It was the pure grief of the wind and sky. It was monstrous and angry, wanting to know why he left them again.
The sea roared, rising, crashing upward like a monster losing control, surging up the floors and flooding through the corridors in blind, destructive panic. There were tsunamis too, clawing up the side of the marine base like desperate hands, reaching for the one who once calmed them with just a laugh.
It was the world unraveling. With the lightning striking anywhere and everywhere in rows of bolts. With the rain slapping against steel so hard that it sounded like gunfire. With the winds slamming through the broken windows, tearing down anything in their way. With the ocean claiming anyone in its way.
The air was electric. Chaotic. Broken. Just like the ones inside the room.
"..No. No. No, no, no, nonononononono.." Chopper's voice didn't even sound like his anymore. It was shaky, cracking and wrong. "LUFFY!"
The next flash of lightning lit up the horror on his face as he threw himself at Luffy's cot. Slamming his tiny hooves onto Luffy's little chest again and again with desperation replacing rhythm.
"Breathe! WAKE UP!" CHopper sobbed, drenched from the rain now pouring through the broken roof. "Come back! Come back, PLEASE!"
But Luffy didn't inhale. He didn't twitch. There was no heartbeat. The golden glow under his skin was also fading, and with it, the heat. His face was turning pale, too pale, to the point it started looking blue, and his lips were cracking.
Outside, the sea slammed into the walls like it wanted to shatter the world for what had just happened. The thunder still screaming like it had a voice and it was howling in pain.
Nami stood frozen, lips parted like she wanted to scream but her voice was lost in the windstorm. She didn't even feel the cold. Couldn't register anying. She didn't even feel the glass embedded in her leg. Her sense of pain was almost gone. Her eyes locked on Luffy. On his golden blood. On Chopper's shaking form.
She broke. A choked sob tore free, sharp and raw and ugly. As she dropped to her knees, she barely felt even more glass craving into her skin. She started crawling forward through the puddles and debris until she reached Luffy's cot and collapsed over him, burying her face into his tiny chest.
"Don't.. please.. don't leave us," she whispered, almost soundlessly, her body trembling. "You promised, Luffy. You promised you'd never make me feel like this again.."
The wind shrieked like it agreed, bursting into the room with such force it knocked over everything not bolted down, knocking medical cabinets to the floor, empty beds to the side, bookshelves and reports swirling in the air as if caught in a mini tornado. It wrapped around her like it was mourning with her, like it was mourning with the crew.
Sanji was already on his knees. His hand gripped Luffy's limp wrist, like he could force warmth back into it, as if to feel a pulse he knows won't come. His other hand covered his mouth, trembling.
"No," he muttered, a single broken word, rain dripping from his soaked bangs into his wide, glassy eyes. "No, you little brat.." He tried to laugh, tried to make a stupid joke, but nothing came out but a shaking breath. "You don't get to die like this.." His voice cracked into pieces as his forehead slammed against the bedside, his body convulsing with the sobs that escaped despite everything. "Not like this. Not you, you stubborn bastard.. Don't you have a dream to follow?"
Outside, the wind slammed the broken shutters back and forth like they couldn't bear to witness the sight of their one and only master. Even the rain was thickening further. It was a downpour fueled by heartbreak.
Zoro hadn't moved. Even when the storm surged behind him and his shirt was soaked, clinging to his skin. With wind curling around his frame like it wanted to hold him back, but he was a statue.. until he wasn't. Until he lunged. Until he grabbed Luffy by the front of his shirt and hauled him up into his arms like he still weighed something. Like, there was still a soul in there to carry.
"Don't you dare," Zoro growled, thunder cracking with the sound of his voice. "You hear me, you i-idiot?! Don't you fucking dare leave us!"
Lightning slammed just behind him, shaking the walls. The entire building groaned under the weight of the world's grief.
Zoro had never begged. Not even when he was bleeding out. Not when he was famished. Not even when he was on the brink of death. Not even when Mihawk had brought him to his knees.
But now his voice was shaking, each word more frantic than the last. "You said we'd see the end together." His grip tightened around Luffy's shirt, knuckles white. "You said you'd be King. You said you'd fight destiny, the gods, and every damn fucking thing that dares to take you away from us!"
His voice broke as he pressed his forehead to Luffy's cooling one, the storm behind him shrieking like it was echoing his plea.
"Y-You swore, dammit!" Zoro's chest heaved, his shoulders shaking, rain, which was coming through the shattered window, and tears mixing on his face. "Y-You freaking swore it. So FIGHT! Get BACK to us, you fucking idiot!"
Outside, the sea crashed harder. The clouds rolled in darker.
.
Sabo could feel the change in the air. He had felt it for what seemed like hours now. It was too sharp, too wild, as if they were being dragged back to something, like a wound in the sky. Some may say that the weather was utterly disastrous, even for the Grand Line, but Sabo knew better. It wasn't just a storm. It was something ancient, divine and furious. The kind that didn't blow through the world.. The kind that tore through it.
And when the sky turned blood red, when the clouds began spiralling as if demanding destruction everywhere, clawing at the heavens as if they were trying to undo creation or the world itself–Sabo knew.
He knew. He didn't need any confirmation. He didn't need words. His mind already knew but his heart refused to.
There was something wrong. Something terribly, horrifically, unforgivably wrong with his baby brother. His little sunshine. His Luffy.
That's why he held onto Luffy's vivre card with his cold, calloused hands, clutching it like it was a damn lifeline. Like if he let go for even a second, then the universe will take away his precious brother in a blink of an eye. And he will lose him forever, even if Luffy is a damn god.
Or maybe.. maybe if he held onto it hard enough, he could stop whatever was happening. He could get in contact with Luffy. Maybe if he kept it from disintegrating, it would keep Luffy's soul from slipping away.
Or.. maybe that little scrap of paper was the only thing keeping Sabo from falling apart at the seams. Maybe it was the last thing tethering him to sanity, keeping his feet firmly on the deck, rather than lunging straight into the ocean.
He was standing at the helm of the ship, unmoving, soaked to the bones, with his shirt clinging to him and hair plastered to his face. His eyes were wide, unblinking as the rain lashed across his cheeks like the sky was questioning him for not getting to his younger brother in time.
And in all of this, he couldn't even notice the crew calling his name. His body instinctively held onto the ship and leaned to stay balanced. He couldn't hear the frantic voices, or the alarms sounding, or the roar of the sea threshing beneath them, lunging their ship into a haphazard direction but definitely toward Luffy.
All Sabo could see was the goddamn card. The last corner of it quivering.. as if bidding goodbye, until it had one final breath to give before blackening.. curling.. and turning to ash. Right there in his hands.
It was gone. Just like that. And with it, the brother who had made the world worth saving, the brother who gave him a family.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" His scream tore out of him as if his own life had been cut short. As if each limb of his body had been snapped, and tore through him. As if his heart had been ripped from his chest, not even giving him the courtesy of bleeding out slowly.
Sabo dropped to his knees so hard that they cracked the wood beneath him, with the ashes of the vivre card–of Luffy's vivre card–slipping through his fingers before mixing with all the turmoil, like the universe spitting in his face.
"N-No.. n-n-no, n-no, no, pl-please.." His voice was breaking, shattering into something unrecognizable. It was raw. It was a choke. It was a gasp. Something desperate, wild and pathetic. "T-This is-isn't.. th-this c-can't be.. h-he's not.."
He slammed his fists into the deck, over and over. He didn't even stop when blood smeared across the wood, mixing with the rain. He didn't even stop when they started becoming raw. He didn't care.
He kept slamming them into the soaked wood of the ship deck, again and again and again and again and again, until the rain mixed with blood, until the planks groaned beneath the force, threatening to split, until every bone in his hand felt like it would crack.
"SA—"
Until he could feel something. Anything. Anything except this damn unbearable anguish inside his chest.
He wanted to scream. He wanted to demand the universe to give his brother back. He wanted to fight. He wanted to kill whoever was responsible for hurting Luffy. He wanted to do something but in the middle of the ocean, with their destination still afar, Sabo felt like shattering. He felt hollow and lost in despair. He felt like dying—
"—BO!"
Like the world was ending and with it he didn't have anywhere to go. Like nothing was worth living for–
"SABO!!!"
Sabo's head jerked up, coming face to face with his father, whose massive hand had reached out, steady despite the tremble, and closed around his bleeding, raw and pale knuckles, halting their brutal assault.
"Enough," Dragon said, his voice low, hoarse and almost gentle. "That's enough, Sabo."
Sabo's eyes filled with renewed tears, glassy and hollow, his lips quivering and voice cracking like it didn't remember how to work anymore. "He's.. he's g-g-gone, d-dad, he's r-really.."
"I know." Dragon's other hand came up, cupping the side of Sabo's face, caressing his cheeks and wiping away the tears, urging him to look at him. His grip was firm and his eyes were stormy.. And wet.
There were tear tracks on his cheek, but his jaw was clenched, and he didn't let his voice falter. Not yet.
"There will be time to cry," Dragon said. "But not now."
Sabo's breath hitched. "B-But it was L-Luffy.. Our Lu.."
"I know," Dragon answered, rising slowly as if the weight of the sky was on his shoulder, and pulled Sabo up with him. He turned to the crew gathered behind them, soaked, frozen in grief, many of them crying outright at the loss.
Dragon's presence hit everyone like a cannon blast. It was commanding, final and absolute.
"No more mercy," he commanded, his voice rumbling like the thunder overhead. "No more silence."
His cloak snapped in the wind like a war banner.
"They thought they could extinguish the sun," Dragon growled, and the wind seemingly howled with him. "But they forgot, when you steal light from the world.." He stepped forward. "..You leave nothing but darkness behind."
The Revolutionaries stood taller at the message, wiping their tears away, even if their grief didn't leave. But it hardened. Hardened into rage. Into purpose.
"Whoever touched my son," Dragon stated, his voice was like the storm and the thunder itself. "Whoever dared to hurt our sunshine, we will make theirworld go black."
.
Ace was standing at the very edge of the Spadille, his grey eyes practically glued on the shrinking piece of paper clutched in his shaking hand. The Vivre Card, the string that tethered his world together, was crumbling. Bit by bit. Flake by flake…
"Luffy.." Ace's breath seemed caught in his throat as he uttered the name. It was like a whisper yet it had something far more in it. It was a wound, leaking from his lips. So broken, so quiet, so heartbreaking that no one could hear it except the sea itself.
Not even a second passed, when the final shred of the Vivre card withered into ash and vanished completely, dissolving into the suddenly shrieking winds and the storms itself, leading something inside Ace to snap.
But Ace didn't scream. He didn't cry. He just.. broke. His heart didn't race. It just stopped. Because there was no goddamn way.. No fucking way.. that Luffy, his little brother, his sunshine, his joy, his reason, his fucking world, just.. disappeared.
He was almost dead silent, standing still with his limbs shaking, until the very air around him shifted and his heart burst with fury. First it was a flicker, then a twitch until the air itself crackled with a WHOOMPH!
Deuce was the first one to notice the change in Ace. He was the first one who could feel that something was utterly wrong. But by the time he opened his mouth to question about it, Ace's flames had erupted, bursting out of him like a volcano wanting to burn the whole fucking world down. Claiming even the rain, which didn't dare fall on the Spadille anymore, evaporating midair, leaving nothing but steam and smoke and rage. Wrapping him in an inferno as if it could stop the damn reality from haunting him.
Even the deck beneath him was groaning and blackening at an alarming rate, nearly catching fire if not for the last dying instinct in Ace, some fragment of him that gave a damn about his crew and his home.
But that was not enough as a pillar of fire shot into the sky the next moment, piercing the skies like death itself. The night had suddenly turned to day, bathed in an unnatural, violent light. And the ocean thrashed like it felt his fury, with the waves climbing high and smashing against the hull. As if demanding Ace to take revenge, to burn down the whole world that dared to snatch their lil sunshine away.
And the Spades? They had frozen. Taken aback by the sheer heat Ace was giving off. Because they had never ever seen Ace, their captain, like this. Not when he was pissed. Not when he had been hurt and broken. Not even when Ace faced betrayal.
This was different. This was his fury and they understood what had transpired. They could instinctively realize what had happened and knew that they cannot stay quiet anymore.
Ace's eyes didn't shed tears. Not yet. His lips didn't curl into ugly parting, leaving sobs in their wake. Not yet.
Instead, Ace's lips twisted into a snarl. His eyes glowed molten red due to his fire as he let out his words, growling, "They killed him.." he muttered, low and guttural. "They killed Lu.. my baby brother.."
That's when the crew finally got the clarity of the situation, soaking in the realization hitting them full force in the face.
Gasps. Shouts. Sobs. Tears. They tore through most of them's mouths. Half of them even dropped to their knees and the other hand stared in horror and heartbreak, feeling an empty hole in their heart.
But Ace? He moved, his head slightly bowed, his eyes shadowed by his hat, as flames curled around him in fury like the wings of death itself, wanting to claim every life which dared to hurt him.
He was already halfway to the helm before anyone could gather their wits. Before anyone could react. He could see the marine base. He could see, feel it. Feel the haki of the precious crew of his baby brother's, some scattered, some clustered. The vivre card had pointed at that damn cliff-locked marine base before it disappeared.
Ace's mind was already swirling with plans. With every step, every face, every government bastard he was going to fucking track down and chase them like a mutt and burn them out of existence. Because Ace didn't just only want revenge. He wants to burn the hell out of the person who dared to take away his sunshine.
"Mihar," Ace's voice cut through the storm like a sword. "Track them down. Every last Marine bastard. Every World Government rat who could've even breathed near Luffy when he died. I want names. I want faces. I want the smell of their fucking blood on record."
Mihar nodded instantly. "Y-Yes, Captain–"
Ace turned, mouth opening to give his next order, when–
Purupuru purupuru!
The den den mushi, which had miraculously survived Ace's hellfire inferno, rang from his pockets.
"What." Ace questioned, almost growled as he yanked the receiver up.
"It's started." Dragon's voice came through. It was deep, choked yet powerful. "The Revolution begins tonight. For my son. For your brother. We are out for blood. Revolution of revenge for our Sun, the corrupt shall shrivel in the darkness it left behind."
"You don't need to tell me, old man. I would burn the whole fucking world down even if you had wanted to stop me."
.
The inside of the Marine base was chaotic. The room where Luffy was, where Nika's dead shell lay, was frantic yet still, filled with silent screams and the crushing weight of despair.
But the outside, once chaotic, went still, as if a being that could shake the world had arrived, which started with a massive cataclysmic wave of conqueror's haki which roared across the base like a dance of a thousand beasts. Yet the King's Haki didn't radiate any rage. It was just pure, silent judgment. Like a silent command for everyone to fall with no otherwise in it.
In not even a single second, each human fell to the ground as if their strings had been snapped.
There was not a single marine, not a single soul, not a single criminal or pirate conscious, as Artebel, the Spirit of the Forest and Beasts, walked through those silent flooded halls, not even glancing at the collapsed bodies.
Artebel was woven from nature, her form a Chimera embodying the creatures she controlled as extensions of herself. One could hardly describe her appearance beyond her long, dark hair streaked with white tips, which reached the ground. Her striking jungle-green eyes rested on an uncanny face, leaving an everlasting impression on any mortal soul that would be so unlucky to witness it.
But the second Biolenta god was not just walking through the base, the god strutted as if everything in sight was owned by her. Because it is the truth. Because that's the fact.
Each step of Artebel birthed roots and vines that curled from her feet like ancient blessings, or rather, warnings. Flowers blooming, trees whispering, the floor cracking open to sprout life itself with a little touch of her divinity.
And yet golden tears were leaving wet tracks on her face. They were not sobs, but silent streams falling from her unshaken face. Her eyes were glowing with a divine fire, her expression firm.. way too calm. The kind that one can only see before a forest fire devours everything in its path.
Artebel reached the room where her brother lay. Where her youngest sibling, the Eternal Heir of Light and Shadow, Nika's cold, mortal shell laid still. And beside whom were the mortals whom Nika called his friends, scattered on the ground, unconscious like puppets with their strings snapped in half.
Artebel watched, waited until after a heartbeat later, the waters came rushing in and the sentient form of her mother formed. Even though Artebel didn't turn, didn't remove her eyes from the corpse, she could feel her Mother's body filling with sorrow. She could hear droplets falling bountifully, the very sound of the waters weeping.
This was not the first time Nika escaped from his duties to play mortal. It wasn't the first time he had died. But no matter how many lifetimes he burns through, Mother never got used to this. Of Nika crumbling in pain due to the weight of his own powers devouring him whole, and being the most expressive about it.
"Greetings, Mother." Artebel's voice chimed like the crickets in the summer, yet the playful song of the forest and spirits was absent from it. "I never seem to get why Nika willingly chooses pain and suffering over his duty. But at the same time it's almost amusing to watch him go through it." Artebel's lips curled slightly as she ran her hands through the dark, unruly hair streaked white at the ends, which was now stiff with dried mortal and divine blood.
"But I am known to be fair," she whispered when her Mother didn't say a word. "I do not grant second chances but Nika, my dear brother," her eyes flashed for a moment with gold, with something ancient, "you are worth breaking my laws for this time."
With those words, light—divine, ceremonial, blinding—surrounded Nika's mortal shell along with golden vines spiraling upward, wrapping gently around his corpse and lifting it in the air. Her youngest's brother's chosen mortal shell was hovering like a relic of the ancient as divine powers surged around him in threads of green and gold.
She began to chant in a forgotten language, so old that no one except the protectors of the world knew of it, calling upon her powers over the spirits, the realm of death, snatching the soul of Nika before the Warden of Stone and Silence got his hands on it.
The wind was humming, calming down. The Earth was listening, swaying in an otherworldly rhythm. And the sky was trembling with renewed hope, which was granted the moment Nika's soul reappeared.
But it was not a god, not yet, even though the soul had all the unrestrained powers. But it was not the Heir yet. Rather, it was a baby with almost no memories at all. With nothing but the sense of being. The soul was pure light, infantile, lost and glowing with chaotic power, swirling and twitching like it didn't even recognize anything. Not even itself.
Yet he is Luffy and the other mortal incarnations, but also Nika, and also neither.
Mother Sea was the first one to move, cradling the baby soul in her arms like it's still hers, still her little baby boy to whom she couldn't reach in time yet again. She hummed softly, letting waves of her calm blue light pass into the soul, soothing it, loving it, telling it how much she loves him even though soon there will be a future where she can no longer hold him.
Artebel's lips hadn't stopped chanting, but maybe she was delaying a little on purpose, allowing Mother to caress the one who stays far away from everyone's reach. Maybe she was letting his presence, even if it was in the form of a soul, soak in her heart.. Maybe. But that's only for her to know.
But the chants had to end. She had to end it now or Nika's soul would enter the mortal curse of being reborn and suffering anew. So, she did, knowing that there are mortals willing to burn everything down to find him. To get him back. To step into hell just to see a smile of his.
She stepped forward after Mother let go of Nika's soul, taking command. Lowering the soul into Nika's mortal shell, allowing her green calming light to enter the soul, waking up sleeping memories till moments before, inside him.
The effect of all those spells was visible as Nika's mortal shell stretched, from an infant to a toddler to a teen.. to Luffy again. Lean, small, godly, even in fragility. His chest was once again rising, slowly, gently. He was breathing. He was alive once again.
Artebel carefully placed him down onto the medical bed with infinite softness, pressing one last kiss to his forehead, before rising.
"It won't be long before the shell will be capable of holding his powers. Then he must retu–"
"Not yet. Not now." Mother Sea spoke for the first time, interrupting Artebel, whose lips were curved into a soft smile.
"As you wish, Mother," Artebel spoke, her lips curling into a slight smirk, as she turned to retreat, leaving Mother to watch Luffy for a little while. After all, the mortals weren't going to wake up for an hour at least while Luffy might wake up in less than ten minutes. "Farewell."
.
There was still a spark of revolution, of blood thirst in the air, even though the storm had calmed. Even though the clouds no longer howled with grief, and the waves had retreated back to their domain. Leaving the G-8 Marine Base looking as if ten natural disasters had hit it at once, but not before pressing down silence on the ruins.
But beneath that silence was something louder. Rage. A quiet, terrifying kind. The kind that didn't scream but boiled. The kind that wanted justice to be served with the blood of every soul within a perimeter. It was a revolution of emotions that had begun to simmer across the seas, hotter than fire, deadlier than war. For those who knew what was lost, for those who were united in shared agony, betrayal and wrath.
The ones who committed the atrocity didn't know it yet, but they had made a mistake. They had hurt, taken away and killed their sunshine.
The seas would have run red. The world would have burned. The names behind the horrible crime would have been hunted, ripped apart, and scattered to the winds. Ace would have led a raging inferno, devouring anything and everything in his grief. Dragon would have unleashed the army, head-on battling with the World Government, wanting the heads of every last soul. Sabo would have shattered the heavens just to hear his brother laugh again, after personally making sure that everyone responsible had a permanent resident in hell.
It would have been carnage. It would have been the world regretting and crumbling to ashes. But something happened.
Something impossible.
Where the ashes lay, where hope had been reduced to powder and consumed by the sorrowful and wailing rain, a light was beginning to flicker. Faint. Barely there. But real.
The ashes twitched back, stitched themselves back, in Sabo's hand. The wet, soiled remnants that he hadn't let go since they disintegrated were beginning to shift. Almost like dust being breathed on by life itself. A golden spark blooming in the middle of the pile, dancing between his fingers.
In Ace's grip, the remains of Luffy's Vivre Card pulsed once, then again. It was a soft shimmer, barely noticeable under Ace's own fire but Ace felt it. His angry, revengeful eyes snapped down at the tiny particles of ash clustering together like moths returning to the flame. Piece by piece, like puzzle fragments reforming in reverse, the Vivre Card began to rebuild itself.
Dragon gasped as the edges of the Vivre Card curled back into existence. It wasn't paper. It was a miracle. It was light. It was magic. It was something older than time crawling back into the world with a whisper of 'Not yet'.
And everywhere, in every heart and hands where someone loved Luffy and held onto his vivre card, the same miracle unfolded.
There was silence at first. Followed by confusion and disbelief. And then, hope.
"Is it.. coming back..?" Koala whispered, her tear-soaked eyes wide as she looked at the Vivre Card Sabo was holding.
Sabo didn't respond, but his lips parted and his whole body trembled with sheer relief. "L-Luffy.. he's alive."
On the other side, Ace's voice cracked as he stared at the card like it had just risen from the grave, like something extraordinary had happened for the first time, which was true. "That idiot.."
It wasn't a full Vivre Card yet. It was a flickering candle about to die or gain strength to rival the sun. But that did indicate that their little precious one was alive.
And that raised hope. Not the kind that made someone soft. But the kind that made them dangerous.
Because if there was even a fraction of a chance that their sunshine was still breathing, then no one was holding them back anymore. They would tear through every sky island and every Marine stronghold, dive to the bottom of the sea, break through hell if they had to, to find him. To check that he truly wasn't a cold corpse but his goofy self.
But if someone had hurt him, if someone had dared to lay a hand on him, they would be begging for the mercy of the sea and sky and get none.