The Puppet Master [One Piece]

Vanishing Act

~Marco's POV~

I couldn't help but smile at the beautifully broken girl before me. Though she put on a tough act and was quick to lash out at others, she had a very gentle and caring nature. She'd been worried about Oyaji so much so that she'd risked her life to save him. We should have told her about our plan. If we had she wouldn't have exposed her abilities to our enemy.

She paled considerably and took a faltering step away from us before her knees gave out beneath her and she slumped to the deck with a cringe. Her body was beaten and broken from the torturers of Impel Down. It was a miracle she'd been able to carry on this long. For such a small girl, she had an amazing tenacity and a burning determination that rivaled any I'd ever seen.

"Echo, you're pushing yourself too much." I noted as I saw tiny drops of blood seeping from the eerie wires that lined her entire body.

"I can't fail." She grumbled as she futilely tried to get back to her feet.

"Why are you risking everything for this?" I asked her curiously as I knelt next to her and draped her arm across my shoulders so I could help her stand. She'd have fought me with everything she had if I'd tried to pick her up.

"My mother once told me, everything happens for a reason. There was a reason I had so many visions about Ace, and after meeting him I understand it. I had a big family, an entire civilization that loved me, cared for me and helped raise me, and I lost them all to the injustice that is the world government. Ace has a big family full of people who love him, care for him and who are helping him to grow and they would feel the very same pain if they lost him to the injustice of the world government. I can't let history keep repeating itself." Her murky sea green eyes burned to a nearly smoldering acidic green as she spoke.

I watched in awe as her resolve seemed to burn away all her aches and pains and she stood up straighter with determination in her smoldering gaze. She glared at the marines all around the bay lost in some dark haunting memory. Her fingers twitched and some of her creepy wires dropped to the deck at her feet.

"I'll make every last one of them pay for all the families they've torn apart." Her voice sounded far away.

"Echo?" I reached for her cautiously but she vanished from my line of sight in an instant and was soon racing across the ice at an insane speed her hellish wires tearing through anything and anyone that got in her path, luckily it was only marines blocking her way. In her current state, I wasn't sure she'd be able to discern friend from foe. She was a truly fearsome fighter.

"Marco." Oyaji's voice boomed from behind me startling me from my thoughts. "Make sure those two brats stay alive." He ordered indicating Echo and Ace's younger brother.

I sighed as I watched Echo square off against one of the giants. "They're not going to make my job very easy."

Oyaji chuckled, "Not hardly. Stubborn brats."

Jinbe and the revolutionary Ivankov had Luffy's back, sighing I took flight and headed for Echo as Oyaji decided to get serious and lead an advance toward the scaffold. Now that he was officially in the war, the scales were tipped in our favor.

From how the marines were approaching Echo, after she took down her giant opponent, I assumed they were given orders to apprehend her. Now that everyone knew she could see the future, they wouldn't want her gift to go to waste. I wasn't about to let them get their hands on her. She'd gone through enough pain and heartache at the hands of the government and the marines, I wasn't going to let them hurt her anymore.

I landed at her side in a burst of blue and gold flames before launching an attack on the approaching marines. Echo looked to me curiously before shaking her head and continuing her attack letting her hellish wires loose and sending them hurtling toward the surrounding marines.

The marines began to retreat. Echo looked to me curiously. "We're not THAT intimidating are we?" She asked me curiously before looking down at her bandaged and bloody appearance.

"Not hardly-." I cut off as her gaze became unfocused and she swayed on her feet for a moment, "Echo!"

"Walls." She said distantly as she fell into my arms, "They're going to activate a barrier and trap all of the pirates in the bay..." Her voice fell away for a moment before she continued in a daze, "It's going to rain molten lava."

"Damn." I glowered before swinging her onto my back, "What else?"

Her body trembled as she forced herself into a vision and I mentally kicked myself for pushing her. It was taking a considerable toll on her body, but we needed more insight or else we were all sitting ducks.

"Shanks." She breathed softly.

Red Hair would kill us all. Things were looking quite grim for the Whitebeard Pirates and their allies. "What else, Echo?" I begged her for something more.

"Marco, that thing I did, where I disappeared, do you think its possible to do that with someone?" She asked me shakily.

I bit my lip, that strange ability of hers was dangerous, it put too much strain on her body, "I don't know, Echo. Why?"

"What if I could get to Ace and take him with me?"

"And what if you get to Ace and can't take him with you? If Garp doesn't kill you, Sengoku will." I shot at her.

"They know my secret now, they'll want to use my foresight for their own personal gain." She noted.

That is certainly how they were acting.

"Echo, you've been running on empty for quite some time now, you're going to kill yourself." I said morosely as the ice beneath my feet began to tremble and groan. They were activating the barriers.

"But isn't Ace all that matters?" I could hear the smile in her voice. "He's the reason we're all here. I have to save him, why else would I have so many visions of him?"

"At the cost of your own life?"

She paused for a moment. "Marco, if I die, will you tell Shanks thank you for me?"

"I'm not letting you die, Echo." I snapped at her as she released her hold on me and hopped off of my back.

"If I die, it won't be anyone else's fault but my own." She smiled, "You'll tell him, won't you?"

"Echo, I won't let anything happen to y-." I cut off as her body began to shimmer and fade, "ECHO! DON'T!"

She vanished.

I looked to the scaffold in a panic waiting for her to appear, but nothing happened. Where was she?! "ECHO?!"