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:
"Whatever the outcome of this fight, you won't see it. Things are as they should be"
Lucia bit her lip so hard that she felt the taste of blood filling her mouth. This time it was too much. Hateful, she stood up and confronted him:
"So that's it? The world organization that claims to be the guarantor of absolute justice is just following the orders of a couple of poor guys without asking questions? Is that how you see yourself? As the lapdogs who do the bidding? You just kill me because you're told to?"
His voice echoed across Marineford Bay. Down below, the fighting did not stop, but everyone was challenged by Lucia's screams of rage. Pirates, prisoners, admirals, soldiers, all turned to her or at least listened to what she was saying.
"Without wishing to flatter myself Admiral, I don't think I've done much harm to you or your men. How many here even know who I really am? And let's not talk about Ace. Now you're all screaming and blaming a man because he's a pirate and, more recently, because he's the son of a man you despise. But tell me, did Roger, Whitebeard or even Ace do anything to you? Until proven otherwise, pirates or not, they haven't attacked civilians, they haven't razed islands, they don't trade in slaves, they don't shoot at others just because they feel like it."
"Shut up!" shouted Sengoku.
"Certainly not!" Lucia shouted in response. "That's enough now. You wanted to have a public execution? All right then, let's make the most of it, let the world listen for a change. Because your speeches are nice, but it's getting a bit boring to have only one side of this whole charade."
She stepped forward as much as she could and addressed the soldiers directly this time:
"Do you have any idea what you are fighting for? For justice," she laughed. "It's all a sham. The two heads you put to death today are less criminal than the pirates fighting alongside you. But because the government is so afraid of their power, it prefers to put them in its pocket, thinking that it won't have to face them. Gecko Moria stole the shadows of hundreds of civilians on Thriller Bark to conduct his experiments and his plan to dominate the seas. Doflamingo has a nice little human slave market on Sabaody where innocent men and women are put up for sale every day for the eyes of our beloved global nobility. Yet these men are freer than Ace and me. Why are they? Because your justice is just a cardboard facade."
"For God's sake Lucia shut up," Ace growled.
"Now you're yelling at a man because he's the son of a world-famous pirate, but do you even know what crimes Roger was accused of? You only pick up on rumours and hearsay because that's what works best. You were told to hate pirates and Roger, so you do. What kind of justice do you really think you are serving by acting this way?"
Exasperated, Sengoku grabbed Lucia's arms to pull her back and force her to step back, sit down and be quiet. He squeezed her forearms hard, making her wince in pain, but she wouldn't budge. She turned to him and spat in his face:
"You are only serving a corrupt order that silences the troublesome, those who would restore true justice to this world."
"Are you suggesting that the pirates want to bring justice?" Sengoku sneered, outraged.
"No, I'm just saying that if we stopped this ridiculous quarrel between pirates and the Navy, if we took five minutes to open our eyes to the reality of things, we might be able to solve problems more important than your damaged ego! Your little pride was crushed the moment Roger died, with those last words. You thought you had won against piracy that day, but since then it's only been worse because of the new wave he unleashed. You are angry with him because new pirates have taken to the seas, driven by his words. I'm not saying they're all saints, you and I know that some of them are real scum. I'm just saying that you're too blind to really see which ones deserve to be put in irons."
She struggled, trying to break free of Sengoku's grip:
"And today, you hear me, today there is no way I'm going to let Ace die just because he's Roger's son! A CHILD IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS PARENTS!"
The second Lucia screamed these sentences, a powerful discharge of Conqueror's Haki emanated from her and spread throughout Marineford Bay. Surprised, Sengoku stepped back, freeing the young woman who fell to her knees on the ground, panting, her arms and throat aching. Ace opened his eyes wide, surprised to see that his sister also possessed this ability that he himself had discovered when he was younger. Garp didn't know what to say, stunned by her speech and show of strength. Down below, the shock was the same. Soldiers collapsed, annihilated by the blast. The big names in piracy and the Navy, however, remained standing. Akainu squinted, wary. Aokiji and Kizaru just stared at the scaffold in disbelief. Whitebeard clenched his fist around his weapon while Marco laughed softly beside him on the bow of the ship. Doflamingo was the first to break the silence by bursting into laughter:
"Geez, the kid has the Conqueror's Haki! That's a first! I thought you were one of the only woman to possess this ability with Big Mom, Boa Hancock."
The pirate empress didn't answer anything. She was rehearsing the young woman's words, which strangely echoed an old grudge that had lingered deep inside her since she was a teenager. Jinbei, on the other hand, was looking at the two pieces of ice that were still overhanging the bay... it seemed to him that he had felt the water stirring... but it was certainly only a figment of his imagination.
Lucia got up and walked forward again, not paying attention to the general amazement. She was fully aware of what she had just done. It was deliberate, if she wanted to be taken seriously she had to pull out all the stops. She had not been able to mobilise as much energy as she wanted to because of the seastone but it had been enough for this time. Once again she raised her voice and addressed the men fighting:
"Ace does not have to pay for the crimes you accuse Roger of! His birth in itself is not worthy of a death sentence! Killing him for being born here and now will not glorify you, it will not erase your resentment, nor your deep sense of failure!"
She did not have time to continue when a fist crashed violently into her temple and knocked her to the ground. She hit the ground hard and a pain shot through her skull. Feeling blood running down her cheek from her skull, she looked up to see Sengoku, in a rage. His eyes shone with a strange golden glow and she knew it was only a matter of time before he used his devil fruit to silence her for good. She smiled:
"Go ahead, you're dying for it, aren't you! Except that if you lose control, your whole carefully planned little play falls apart. Finish me now and your show is over. Whatever you do, I've said my piece and the world has heard my words."
"No one will take them seriously."
"Those who will make the New Era will! Don't forget Sengoku, I'm that grain of sand in the wheels of government that's been derailing everything for years. After all, that's why you have to kill me today, isn't it?"
Sengoku clenched his fist so hard that his knuckles turned white. At the end of a heavy face-off, the Chief Admiral loosened his hand and turned away to overlook the battlefield. The conflict had resumed with even greater fervour on both sides. The pirates were over-motivated by Lucia's speech, while the soldiers, their pride stung, were redoubling their efforts to put an end to the attack she had just made on the honour of the Navy. He sighed, containing his resentment:
"I know an easy way to put an end to your little vendetta."
With an energetic movement, he shook off the two guards who had passed out on the scaffold following Lucia's Haki. It took many minutes for the two men to regain consciousness. Once they were fully awake, secure in their legs, they took up their weapons and positioned themselves on either side of Ace. Then, in one movement, they crossed their blades in front of Ace's face. Lucia's blood ran cold in her veins. They were moving the execution forward. They were going to kill her brother in front of her eyes.