The days passed quietly and they were only a few miles from Dressrosa. Law still hadn't told them anything concrete about his plan. They knew that their final target was Kaido, that their intermediate enemy would be Doflamingo. The coming night would certainly be the last one they would spend on the Sunny before starting their fight on Dressrosa. As usual, Lucia came to perform her little nightly ritual. Chopper and Usopp were on guard tonight, they were back to back on the deck, hands clutching makeshift weapons, watching the sky for any trace of Doflamingo if he came to attack them. Law was sitting on the bench that surrounded the main mast of the boat. Lucia came to sit beside him to be more comfortable, her papers on her knees, a pencil between her fingers and began to draw, regularly raising her eyes towards the sky. She did not speak to him, understanding that he was certainly trying to sleep a little before the next day which would certainly be eventful.
After a few minutes, a slight movement in the open sea caught her attention and she turned away from her work to squint a little, trying to see what could have caused it but she saw nothing. She shook her head and giggled, she was imagining things. But the second she thought that, the boat was assaulted by a volley of projectiles that fell from the sky. Lucia got up hastily before a fist crossed her face brutally. The fight then started between these creatures and the pirates, who had no idea who their opponents were because of the darkness. The clouds had suddenly covered the moon and prevented them from discerning their surroundings properly. Using her sword and her powers, Lucia defended herself as best she could, but she still felt overwhelmed by her attackers. But what are these things?
A hissing sound was heard and suddenly everything stopped. Then a voice pierced the silence, the light returned, and they saw a man standing on the top of the ship's mast. Lucia squinted her eyes to see him better. He announced that his name was Breed and that he had the powers of the trainer's fruit. At his side, a sea rabbit carried Caesar. Without warning, their mysterious attacker escaped with Caesar. Franky ordered Luffy to take the Shark sumberge, their submarine, to follow their trail and retrieve Caesar. Chopper grabbed Luffy's neck to accompany him, and without thinking Lucia did the same. The carpenter called out to them:
"EH! I remind you that the submarine can only hold three people! If Tra-guy comes with you it will be a problem."
"No", replied Lucia. "I don't take space, I am made of water, I remind you."
"Ah yes..." thought Franky. "Well, it's great, so go ahead."
Lucia smiled before going down by the trapdoor which led to the submarine and taking place on one of the seats, Chopper on her knees, the rudder between her legs. They shot underwater, easily spotting their mysterious assailants. Chopper remarked that the creatures looked like rabbits and Law explained that they were indeed sea rabbits, but that they didn't belong here in the New World. Chopper then described what he had heard during their fight, which one of the animals had yelled that it didn't want to do this. Lucia frowned:
"Do you think they were forced into it? You think they were forced to do that by that man?"
"That's what I'd like to find out" Chopper explained.
They then managed to disembark in the enemy ship by going underneath and discovered a huge natural cave. If Lucia, Chopper and Law tried to be as discreet as possible, it only took a few seconds for Luffy to start screaming. Law immediately tensed up:
"Damn it we said we were trying to stay undetected!"
"Everything is in the verb Trafalgar, everything is in the verb... "trying"", sighed Lucia.
They followed a corridor and ended up in the center of an immense aquatic dome, dominated on all sides by water, surrounded by glittering fish. Amazed Lucia could not hold back a huge smile, captivated by the architecture of the structure which gave her to see her favorite spectacle. However, after a few steps, they were again attacked by these strange animals which jumped on them. They then launched into battle, dominating their opponents quite easily. Nevertheless, one of them resisted them more, mastering the Haki but it was not enough to resist Luffy for long. The sea animal had a most surprising reaction afterwards, it threw itself at Luffy's neck. In fact, the strange animal had already met the pirate captain when he was in the Alabasta kingdom. Chopper told them that he had become his disciple after the pirate had defeated him the first time. Lucia scratched her head:
"I'm going to pretend everything is normal... but if this Dugong is from Alabasta... what is he doing here?"
The answer came faster than expected, in fact this Dugong was the head of a pirate crew of sea animals that had been captured by the famous Breed who had subjugated them like slaves. Now they were obliged to obey him at will, without being able to retaliate or challenge his orders. Breed's voice suddenly pierced the air through loudspeakers scattered throughout the space and ordered the animals to line up, which they did despite themselves. Breed then appeared and strolled among the animals like a circus master, cracking his whip on the ground. He then turned his attention to the three humans present.
"I know you, you are Trafalgar Law, the Warlord, Straw Hat Luffy, whose head has a bounty of 400 million berries, and the pretty Lucia, the Elementalist, whose bounty is 650 million. I'm surprised you've made it this far, you human scum."
He held out his hand and a green goo began to ooze from his fingers. Luffy dared him to try to touch them, but in reality, Breed's attack was aimed at Chopper. The green substance surrounded the little reindeer's neck as the pirates watched in amazement. He ordered the doctor to attack them and knock him down. Without being able to control himself, he swallowed a rumble ball, which gave him the power to take his gigantic form. He then began to attack them, no longer in control of his body. Law prepared to disable him with his power, but Luffy stepped in, forbidding him to touch his friend. This second of inattention allowed Breed to pass two collars to them as well, subjecting them to his power. He then turned an unhealthy look on Lucia:
"I know I won't be able to reach you... your Logia fruit would make my attacks ineffective so I'll just ask you to let me do it... otherwise I'll have to use a much less pleasant way, believe me..."
Lucia looked back at him with eyes full of hatred before rushing towards him:
"I'd rather die than bend to a coward like you, free them now!"
She deployed a huge wave that was about to fall on Breed but he did not move and smiled.
"Poor little idiot..."
He took an object out of his pocket and immediately, a violent electric discharge spread in the water and came to electrify the body of Lucia. Taken of convulsions, she let escape a cry of pain before falling down on the ground, her body numb, breath short.
"Bastard..." she spat.
"Water is an excellent conductor of electricity my dear and one of the side effects of a discharge such as the which you have just undergone is not to be able to move the least muscle during some seconds."
He approached slowly, savoring his victory, then, without the slightest effort or difficulty, he placed a collar around the young woman's neck. He approached her and placed a finger on her jaw:
"Oh that's such a shame, I must admit that if I find humans of an absolute ugliness in normal times, some women have a charm it is true."
He laughed and his finger went down a little more, brushing Lucia's neck, then plunging along the collar of her blouse, brushing her breast. She had a movement of retreat, moved by anger and a bottom of fear.
"DON'T MOVE! AND NO USE OF YOUR POWER!" he shouted.
Immediately, she felt her body go limp, she was unable to make the slightest movement. Whereas the glance of the pirate slipped in her cleavage, she mobilized the last muscles which were still under her control and she spat in his face. In response, he hammered her body with lashes. Each of the blows slammed in the air and she clenched her teeth, refusing to give him the pleasure of showing any sign of pain.
"DON'T TOUCH HER!" belched Luffy.
"Oh, but he'd be jealous," Breed sneered, panting after taking his anger out on her. "Don't worry straw hat, I'll leave her to you, she's much less interesting than I thought."
He pushed her with the tip of his foot and she ended up falling to the ground, her chest and back marked by the red lacerations, her face tensed by the burn of the leather on her skin. He laughed again:
"Don't think you're entitled to anything, you little fool, you only have your face to save you, and once I've disfigured it, you'll be worth nothing at all!"
He laughed even louder and raised his whip again.
"STOP!" shouted Luffy.
"That's enough!" said Law.
"STOP!" Chopper shouted.
He brought it down a few more times on Lucia's body who took more and more blows, without letting out a single sound, and he only stopped when his arm was sufficiently sore from this energetic back and forth movement. Facing the ground, Lucia was breathing heavily, spitting a little blood and gave a last hateful look to Breed before he turned his attention back to Law and Luffy.
"You'll see..." he muttered, "how scary it can be to be my pets!"
The three of them were led into a seastone cell with handcuffs on their wrists. Breed had decided to keep Chopper, obviously taken with the look of the little reindeer. After being thrown to the ground, Lucia struggled to her feet, every muscle protesting as she moved. She grimaced, which did not escape Law:
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah", she articulated, "don't worry I knew worse..."
She glanced at Luffy who was struggling against the bars of the cell while ordering their enemy to give them back Chopper. She sighed and leaned against the bars at her back. The contact with the seastone didn't make her feel weaker or dizzier, but feeling the cold metal against her raw skin made her squeal in shock and she gritted her teeth.
"Damn", she growled, "I swear that if I have him in front of me it's going to be bad!"
They then discovered that right next to their cage was actually Caesar, their own prisoner, also subjected to Breed by one of those collars. He told them that this man was not working for Doflamingo and that he was obviously stealing creatures to create an animal kingdom. His diatribe was interrupted by the voice of the trainer who came once again from the loudspeakers posted in the corner and he ordered Caesar twice to lie down, which the scientist was obliged to do. Lucia nodded. He had to repeat it... so that Caesar... Her mouth opened as she realized something important and was about to say it before understanding that they were probably bugged. She bit her lip as she held back her words, but her eyes met Law's and it seemed to her that the pirate was thinking the same thing she was.
She didn't get a chance to ask him, however, as the trainer appeared in the cell himself. He entered the room accompanied by Chopper, who was fine but was now dressed in a funny pink dress with lots of ribbons and frills. When Breed brought him against him to hug his face, Chopper unintentionally scratched him as he struggled. The pirate's reaction was swift, the whip snapped once more, this time on the reindeer's small body. Despite Luffy's protests, Bredd continued to abuse the pirate, explaining that he didn't need "companions" but simple slaves who would obey his every wish without retaliating or finding fault with him. This is why he preferred animals to humans. This also explained why he wanted Caesar, he wanted the scientist to produce Smiles for him, these artificial fruits that allowed those who ingested them to obtain Zoan-like powers, animal powers. He wanted to create a kingdom, a world only composed of animals, without any human, kingdom of which he would be the uncontested master. Lucia shuddered and clenched her fists. Without blinking, Luffy declared that he would never submit.
"I am a pirate", Luffy spat, "no one can give me orders. Pirates are free and unsubmissive."
This speech increased Breed's hatred and he decided to put the three pirates to death. He then raised the cage in which they were locked and discovered a new room, a gigantic metal dome in the middle of which sat a column on which Breed and Caesar were seated. Chopper was with the other sea animals, slaves of Breed, still on the ground, suffering the aftermath of his transformation earlier. Dozens of spotlights lit up the room, which looked like a real fighting arena. The next moment, the seastone handcuffs of Luffy, Law and Lucia fell off.
"Let the show begin," Breed thundered. "I'm going to show you the full power of the Tamer's Fruit. Okay, now Trafalgar, here's what I want you to do: I want you to take out the Straw Hat! As for you Straw Hat, I order you to kill Trafalgar Law. Now, fight without using your powers, fight with your bare hands until you die with your mouth open!"
"NO!" screamed Lucia.
"Forbidden to use your power also the Elementalist and forbidden to hit one of them. You remain spectator. And forbidden to raise your hand on me."
Lucia's eyes widened in horror. She wasn't going to have to watch this, was she?
"The moment has come, let's make way for the spectacle of the great massacre!" spat Breed in a victorious tone.
Lucia could not do anything, she saw the two men facing each other, completely helpless. We have to do something... we can't let them kill each other like that... However, with a scream, Luffy rushed at Law and started hitting the Surgeon of Death. Without waiting, Law retaliated and also used all his strength against the straw hatted captain. Each blow was phenomenally powerful.
She hadn't really thought about it. She realized what she had just done once her breath stopped under the impact. Was it the screams of pain and rage that made her react? Seeing the blood flow? Law's fist slammed into her abdomen as Luffy's crashed into her back. Drops of red blood came crashing to the ground.
"LUCE!" shouted Luffy.
"But what are you doing, don't stay there, you stupid!" said Law.
Bent over, Lucia gasped, trying to catch her breath. Breed gritted his teeth:
"STOP! What are you doing, the Elementalist?! You were supposed to be a spectator!"
"Yeah," Lucia spat. "Except you just ordered me not to hit them... you didn't tell me... that I couldn't stand in their way, that I couldn't take the blows for them."
Breed took in his words before smiling broadly:
"Oh oh... but she's smart too... I like you after all, I'll keep you with me. But you deserve a little lesson, to remember that you must always follow my orders. So Lucia, I ORDER YOU to do everything you can to get between Trafalgar and the Straw Hat until you're at death's door. It'll put your mind at ease!"
Lucia giggled as she wiped the blood that was still running down her chin:
"Death? I've already been there, you idiot, it doesn't scare me."
Breed gritted his teeth:
"TRAFALGAR! STRAW HAT! RESUME THE FIGHT!"
Lucia smiled weakly and planted her gaze in Law's:
"I'm sorry, I can't inflict Luffy with my face so I'm going to make sure you're the one who attacks me from the back... I'm counting on you not to hit where it hurts too much."
It took him a moment to understand what she was talking about. She was mentioning her heart, if she ever took a shock too violent, nothing said that she would survive it. He tensed his face:
"You're really unbearable and on top of that I'm the one who does the dirty work? Why couldn't you stop yourself from intervening? "
"You know me", she laughed, "following orders is not really my thing. And I hate to see blood being spilled... especially when it's the blood of people I care about or at least respect deeply."
"LUCIA GET OUT!" shouted Luffy as he came back to the attack, fists in front.
"Sorry", Lucia breathed.
For long minutes, Luffy and Law continued to try to reach each other but each time, Lucia's body came between them, taking all the blows instead. As she had predicted, she did her best to make sure that Law was the one who hit her from the front and thus avoid a potential fatal injury. Her blood began to flow quickly, from her head, from her mouth, to come crashing to the ground. One of Law's blows was more violent than the previous ones and she bent in two, falling half on him. She felt his hands which rested on her arms to prevent her from falling and he crossed her glance. He saw tired and wounded eyes but in which shone an incredible lucidity. She then carried her face close to his and whispered some words in his ear which made him shiver. Then, in a slow movement, her eyes closed and she felt her strength leave her. She fell to the ground, her body bruised, but the order did not stop. Despite the pain and fatigue, her body continued to move without her control, taking more and more blows.
"STOP!" cried Luffy in desperation. "STOP! LEAVE HER ALONE!"
Breed finally clapped his hands:
"That's enough, break for everyone."
Immediately the two boys stopped their fight and Lucia's body fell heavily to the ground.
"LUCIA!" shouted Chopper.
"Are we still alive the Elementalist?" asked Breed.
Lucia turned on the ground and stood up to stare at him:
"Of course... I'm indestructible..."
Still, her breathing was wheezy and she had to admit that the pain was getting worse every second. Breed smiled a satisfied smile:
"Well, Trafalgar, Straw Hat, get back to the fight. Elementalist, sit and don't move. And you won't close or eyes or look away."
Lucia felt her body rise despite the pain and sit on her knees before freezing, leaving her, this time, simply a spectator of the confrontation. The confrontation between Law and Luffy started again, with always so much force and violence. Luffy delivered a blow so powerful that it destroyed the column on which Breed was perched, allowing Caesar to take advantage of the chaos to escape. The trainer noticed him but decided to let him do it, preferring to enjoy the show before his eyes for the moment.
After a while, the seal Dugong, Luffy's friend, had a similar gesture to Lucia's and interposed himself between Law and Luffy then stood up to Breed, trying to prevent him from continuing his cruel manipulation. What followed was a series of lashes and tears that revolted Chopper as much as Lucia. Breed was tired, this was the second individual to thwart his plans. Finally he ordered the two pirates to stop fighting, Lucia breathed a sigh of relief before she realized what was coming next. In facts, Breed had stopped the fight so he could simply order the seal to slaughter the two humans himself. Without being able to do anything about it, the seal's body slid right past the two men. With tears streaming down its face, the animal couldn't hold back its arm as it struck Luffy in the chest. Lucia clamped her hands over her mouth to stop herself from screaming as the seal's fists struck the pirates without stopping, tears streaming down its face.
"Now throw them both into the sea!"
In one final blow, the animal threw the two pirates, who broke the glass in their fall before disappearing over the cliff.
"LUFFY! LAW!" screamed Lucia and Chopper simultaneously, terrified.