The Elementalist Lucia [One Piece x OC fanfiction]

XI - In the name of which justice?

The battle was still raging in Marineford. The Pacifista had entered the fray with Sentomaru. The Navy had tried to turn Whitebeard's allied forces against him, but Squardo had stabbed the pirate in the chest before realizing his mistake. Enraged that someone would dare attack his sons, Whitebeard threw himself into the fray, ready to slaughter anyone who stood in his way. Akainu stood up to him, confronting him in a duel that was beyond imagination. The strongest of the pirates took his anger out on the whole of the Navy headquarters, the stones cracked, the ocean split, the walls collapsed. It was absolute chaos. Sengoku took it upon himself to order his subordinate to break out the encircling wall in order to trap the pirates in the bay. His plan was undermined by Aokiji's ice, which blocked the sections of the wall, preventing them from emerging to the surface. Every second that passed was another step closer to the scaffold. Finally the ice gave way and the whole bay was surrounded, except for one section which could not rise, blocked by the body of Little Oars Junior who had fallen just in front of Ace. Akainu went on a rampage, melting the ice in the centre of the bay, drowning the pirates in boiling water, burning the Whitebeard ship. It was a massacre.

Lucia clenched her hands more and more nervously in her seastone sheaths. She pulled at her chains, trying in every way to break free of the shackles, not wanting to be so helpless. Sengoku could only notice her growing agitation and approached her, staring down at her. Caught in the shadow of his figure, she looked up at him with hatred. He frowned as he held her blue irises that would not let go of him. Their face-to-face encounter lasted only a few seconds before Sengoku decided there was no point in continuing it any longer. He turned away without saying anything. Lucia decided it was time to get some answers to her questions:

"How about a serious talk between you and me," she challenged him.

Without answering anything, he nevertheless interrupted her gesture and glanced at her. She felt him tense and on the alert.

"Why am I here, old man? Why are you bothering with me today when you've got enough on your plate with all this mess?"

Unable to make out what he was saying, Sengoku did not react. Frustrated, Lucia continued:

"Seriously? You captured me by chance, we all agree on that, you certainly didn't expect it. But that's no reason to hasten my death like that. All you had to do was ask Magellan to take care of it at Impel Down, and in a few seconds it was over, you put the word out in the press and it was over. What was the point of you hanging me up on this whole circus?"

She took another look at the battlefield before continuing:

"Whitebeard doesn't care about me, all those pirates don't care about me. They're fighting to save Ace, not me. Up until today you've been issuing a wanted notice on my name with an exorbitant bounty for no reason. The soldiers, the civilians, the pirates, the revolutionary army, I think they all believed your little stunt because they were in the dark. No one looked into why the government was so actively looking for me. And now you're making my death public, even if it means interfering in a war you have absolutely no control over? Seriously Admiral, what is your interest in this? Who do you owe so much to prove that I am dead? Who's behind the screen right now, waiting to see those blades end my life?"

She had spouted off, overwhelmed with anger and incomprehension. Sengoku's reply was just as bitter:

"As if you didn't know."

Lucia swallowed and then met the eyes of the Admiral, who had not taken his eyes off her. He breathed in before continuing:

"The entry on your wanted notice has changed. Now it's 'Dead' only. And you know perfectly well where that order came from."

A pall of horror passed over Lucia's eyes as a drop of cold sweat slid down her spine. She also sensed that Ace was listening intently to their exchange without letting on. The Chief Admiral of the Navy turned and walked away, but not without a final word to the young woman: