Growing Heart

Ch 9 - A Second Chance

"Ugh..." Sid slumped against the railing, "Your teenage rebellion phase is going to be a real delight..."

"So that's who it was...that sly voice I've been hearing..." Enel said, finally locking eyes with the Shandian child.

"Luffy! We're coming to save you!" Aisa shrieked as she and Pierre swooped forward towards the falling rubber boy.

"How annoying. You're wasting your time!" Enel jeered. He rapped his knuckle against the drum behind him.

"Oh no!" Nami gasped as she joined Sid at the railing, "Aisa! Pierre! DODGE IT!"

"God's Judgement!" Enel cried.

Sid took a deep breath. "Please, ancestors...Just...one more time...That's all I ask...Let me protect them."

"Eh?" Nami turned to face the healer but the healer was already stepping onto the railing and taking a big leap over the edge. "SID?!"

Sid kept her arms pinned to her side, streamlining her fall and she reached Aisa, Pierre, and Boo within a second. She wrapped her now blackened body around Aisa and firmly tucked Boo below her chin. "Got you!"

"EL THOR!" Enel yelled as he struck them down with lightning so thick and powerful, it was more a pillar of energy than a mere bolt.

-The Shandian Village-

"Abandon the village?! What are you saying, Chief?!" a tribal man demanded, "What about the warriors? They're still not back from Upper Yard!"

"There is no need to wait for them," Chief Urepo replied.

"What?" his people gasped.

"But...But your own granddaughter is out there!" someone else protested.

"And she's got a good head on her shoulders, along with the rest of them," Chief Urepo said, "Those warriors are not children. They will avoid their own dangers on their own. Have faith in them."

He tightened his hold on his staff and he thumped it for emphasis. "We need to focus on us here. You heard the warnings from the Skypieans and you saw those ominous clouds. Most likely Enel will destroy us along with Skypiea. No doubt he intends to repeat here what he did to his own homeland of Birka. Now hurry and set sail! Focus on keeping these people alive!"

His people gulped, looked at each other, and then scattered in every direction.

Chief Urepo casted a long look at the statue of Cagara. It's all over...Wyper...Sid...It's all right. You did everything you could.

He lowered his gaze and headed towards the center of the village.

"Ah! Chief. Aren't you going to evacuate too?" a young teenage boy asked when he passed by.

Chief Urepo nodded solemnly. "I'll leave when everyone else has. In the meantime, I'm going to collect a few things."

"But...But your tent is in the other direction."

Chief Urepo let out a rare smile. "Not for me...For Sid."

"Horsey-Bird! Sid! Horsey-Bird! Sid! I'm so sorry! You guys hurt yourself from protecting me! Wake up...Please...wake up!" Aisa cried. She ran from body to body while a blackened Boo floated in frantic circles around her head, "Horsey-Bird! Sid!"

Sid winced and she slowly sat up from the rubble. Her whole body ached in a way she never thought humanly possible. Her body felt numb but her other senses seemed to be heightened to a sensitive degree. The sun was too bright. The smell of dirt was too stifling and the sounds...Oh, the sounds...