Hiding the Truth (One Piece)

Chapter 9 - The Fight with Baraque Works

I was partnered with Zoro, all of us hidden under the white material that would act as our disguise when we reached the city.

I knew that using decoys was the only way for Vivi to get near enough to talk to the rebel leader without being attacked directly by Baraque Works, who would stop at anything to prevent a peaceful solution from being reached. We rode towards the city for about an hour when the events of the day were beginning to affect me and I was slipping in and out of sleep. I guess Zoro had noticed my condition because not long afterwards he told me to rest.

"You haven't healed yet, sleep and I'll wake you up when we near the city" Zoro suggested but only turned with a look. He chuckled at my expression before nudging me to lean back against him.

"I don't think we'll have any trouble before we get there, so sleep" For some reason, I felt safe enough in his arms, passing him the reins and soon fell into slumber.

Zoro's POV

I suggested for her to get some sleep and when she passed me the reins, she quickly fell asleep, her breathing deepened. I wrapped my arms around her waist whilst still holding the reins and we continued ridding, trailing Vivi who had taken to leading the way.

Nami, who was partnered with Chopper and Usopp threw a knowing look with a smirk and I scoffed at her. I knew what she was implying and honestly the women was a menace, we were going to a city where a war was about to break out and she was plotting ways of hooking me up with Lana.

I didn't even know if she was going to join the crew, but I have to say she was quite clever, having come up with a practically fool-proof plan in such little time. A grateful difference to the usual reckless captain that we seemed to be damned with. We spotted the city's skyline in the distance just as a pinkish hue began invading the dark blue that covered the sky.

Gently shaking Lana awake, she came around and with a nod, I handed her the reins seeing as she would be directing us through the onslaught. During the commotion that had broken out in the outskirts of the minions attacking us, we had gotten separated from the others and found ourselves ridding the ducks through the chaotic mess of soldiers and rebels slashing each other to the ground. We hopped of the duck and it ran back to who knows where when we were stopped by two individuals.

The man and women standing at the end of the ally were clearly apart of Crocodile's agency and it seemed they had actually fallen for the plan. I didn't even have to look over to know that Lana was smirking at the clear success and I too couldn't help the smile forming on my face.

We removed the hoods that concealed our faces and I couldn't help but snicker at their shocked looks. From the looks of it, the two were fighters and they had probably thought they had actually cornered the real princess. Lana had guessed that they would aim for the one with two on a duck thinking we would partner Vivi with someone.

"Sorry, but you'll have to go through us before you can come near the real princess" Lana spoke loudly to them, her words echoing across the narrow alleyway. The women moved to intercept Lana while I took the man with steel arms. As the fight progressed, it seemed that this would take longer that anticipated. 

Lana's POV

The woman hurled herself at me with those goddamn spikes, swinging every which way in hopes of getting a lucky hit. I couldn't help but sneer in disgust at her ability, even if you can't control what devil fruit power you get, having spikes grow on your body was just gross. She didn't have to use Haki to pierce me, those spikes did the bloody job. I grunted in pain, biting my lip to stop the scream as one spike went through my foot.

At this rate, I would be overpowered if this went on. With my foot injured, not to mention I wasn't fully recovered from the previous fight I had endured with Crocodile. She managed to hit my left arm as well so I had two limbs down and only two working.

Thankfully I was right handed so it would help me a bit more. She was about to throw a blow that would have stopped my heart if I hadn't dodged it just in time.

"Going to give up?" She sneered at me but I could see that she was too overconfident. I smirked but before she could realise what was happening, I ran at her and formed a water spear in my right hand and froze the tip just as it sank into her chest right where her heart was.

She just sank to the ground with those being her last words, her smirk frozen in place. I snarled down at her and answered her question, a sick pleasure knowing she would never hear it.

"When hell freezes over" I turned away from the heap on the floor and tried to find Zoro hoping he was okay. I found him collapsed on the ground next to a dead Mr 1 and nudged his side a little to wake him. 

"Come on Zoro we don't have time, we have to find Vivi" he seemed to wake up from his stupor at the sound of her name. He stood up, a little disorientated and grumpy before looking over me.

"You're injured" he bluntly stated, his eyes lingering to the wounds that still bled. You don't say.

"So are you, but you don't hear me complaining. Come on before anything worse happens to the other lot" We ran, limping in my case, towards the battle noises but we were stopped when we bumped into Nami.

"Where are the other two?" I asked her, glancing around in hopes of spotting Chopper or Usopp.

"Their fighting some mole women and a really slow man just on the outskirts of the city, they told me to go ahead and find you guys so we can help Vivi" she limped showing she was injured her foot or leg.

"Zoro, could you help me? I can't walk well with this foot" she asked innocently, her grin dripping with false sweetness. Zoro grunted but I could tell that he wasn't going to refuse.

We made our way through the city and I slashed down any Baraque works that tried to come at us whilst Nami was being carried by Zoro. They were having an argument about whether she was really injured but all I cared about was making it to Vivi, I was still limping but I tried to hide it as best as I could. 

We got to the tower, a monument that stood at the centre of the city when I realised that there was a bomb in the clock tower. My body was starting to shut down and all I could do now was cut down any Baraque Works that were insane enough to try and stop us, my mind running on autopilot. 

I released that the fighting had stopped when I sliced down a Baraque Work Billion, the silence echoing across the square. I turned around to the others and everything was quiet, if someone was to drop a pin my guesses were that everyone would have heard it.

Just then, everyone began to cheer as the rain finally came down and drenched the people below. The celebration was cut short however when a loud gun shot rang through the air.

Everyone froze and turned to the direction of where the bullet had hit. I spotted the others horrified faces as they watched me sink to the ground, seeing the culprit who stood behind me. I saw the others rushing to me but my eyes began to lose focus, their figures blurring just before the darkness began to cloud my vision and soon consumed me.