Despite having to drag the giant golden ball behind him, Luffy ran faster than Sid on her wavers. It wasn't because she was tired or because she had to carry Pierre. She was skating as fast as she would even at perfect health and with no additional weight. It was more of a tribute of just how determined the Blue Sea pirate was to get to the false god. He was quite vocal about it too.
"Raaaahhhhhhh!" Luffy roared as he ran up Giant Jack, "Nami! I'm coming to get you. Enel! I won't let you have that golden bell!!!"
They broke through the cloud layer that hid away Shandora and continued up and around the vine. Once the white clouds disappeared, the sky was replaced with Enel's thunderclouds, which were thicker and blacker than ever before. Rolling thunder reverberated above their heads and it only motivated Sid to move faster. It wasn't until Aisa shouted did Sid and Luffy's eyes move anywhere except forward and upwards.
"Look! Down there! There they are! Stop! Stop!"
Sid and Luffy kept running but they looked over the edge of the vine to see Wyper, Gan Fall and the others, who were all still laid out and unconscious except for one Blue Sea woman.
"Ah! Robin!" Luffy cried when he spotted his nakama.
"Boo, come here," Sid ordered and when Boo got close enough she grabbed Aisa by the back of her dress. Boo bleated out in surprise while Aisa let out a high pitched shriek but Sid ignored all of that and threw the child over the vine, "Go to Wyper! Oy! You down there! Take care of them, will you?"
With that she tossed Pierre over as well. Sid only stopped in her tracks when she heard both Aisa and Luffy scream for very different reasons.
The Blue Sea person had sprouted a net of arms to catch Pierre and Aisa, which freaked the child out. Meanwhile, Luffy's ball had glided over the edge and almost took Luffy clean off the vine if not for Luffy's firm grip. He dangled over the sides with his fingers dug deep into the flesh of the plant. "Sid! Help!"
"Luffy?!" the woman named Robin called up. Her additional arms vanished in a burst of flower petals and she continued to look calmly up at her captain, despite the non-stop screaming from the child.
"She grew hands! HANDS!!! GYAAAA!"
"Aisa. Shut it!" Sid snapped while she grabbed Luffy's wrist with both hands and started to pull him back up while Boo flew down to give the rubber boy a boost. The child's mouth snapped closed but it only muffled the screaming.
"What's that gold on your arm?" Robin asked.
"Robin! The gold bell is up at the top of this vine, right? Enel's after it, right?!" Luffy shouted.
"If the belfry does exist, it'd have to be there," Robin answered with a nod, "But he's already-"
"Yosh!" Luffy said and sprinted right past Sid, almost clobbering her with the bouncing metal ball.
"Wait! Luffy-" Robin called out but her voice was covered by the healer.
"Watch it!" Sid snapped and then hurriedly followed behind the rubber boy, "Oy! Luffy! How does that woman know where the bell is?"
"She just does," Luffy said, "Robin knows things."
Sid raised an eyebrow. "Got it. I'll ask her myself."
Underneath them, Robin turned to smile politely at the terrified child. "Say, can you help me with something?"
Aisa's scream immediately stopped and she took one step away from the weird woman.
"Do you know where our navigator is? She has orange hair..." Robin said slowly but in a serious tone so that the child could understand that she was not playing around.
"Eh? You mean Nami?" Aisa asked and she pointed up at the ship, "She's up there with-...Huh???" Her arm dropped and she listened intently for the voices around and above her. "I only hear one voice coming from the sky..."
Just then, a sound of a strong waver jet came from a distance. Soon, Nami appeared around the corner from Giant Jack on her waver and two passengers behind her. At the sight of a familiar face, Aisa broke into a relieved smile.
"NAMI!" she cried.
"Navigator? Long-nose! Cook!" Robin said, identifying Nami's passengers.
Nami grinned back at them and then stopped her waver. "Aisa! Thank goodness. Are you alright?"
Aisa ran to Nami and threw her arms around her legs.
"Aisa, where's Luffy? Where's Sid? Weren't they with you?" Nami asked.
"Luffy and Sid just went up the vine," Aisa said, "They went to fight Enel and rescue you!"
"Crap! We just missed each other," Nami gasped.
"They just left. I tried to stop them but..." Robin said with a shrug.
The long-nose Blue Sea man groaned. "Talk about bad timing. There's no time left. We gotta escape now!"
Nami revved up her waver and looked up at the vine. "You guys go ahead. I'll go grab Luffy with my waver. We'll meet you on the Merry."
"What about Sid?" Aisa asked.
"I'll...I'll go get her..."
The group whirled around towards the gruff voice and both Aisa and the long-nose shrank back in fear.
"Wyper!" Aisa gasped as the Shandian warrior got to his feet, only to lose his battle and fall to his side.
"What the-" he growled and looked down, "Why do I only have one waver?!"
Aisa shrieked and quickly hid behind Robin. "S...Sid...Sid took it..." she said meekly.
"She did what?!"
"Your's is the only pair with Sea Prism Stone in it."
"So swap shoes with me! Don't take just-...Ah, never mind," Wyper sighed and then he looked up at the darkened sky, "So...it has begun..."
"I'll get both of them back," Nami said as she revved up her engine and started to climb up Giant Jack.
Kaboom! Kaboom! Kaboom!
Lightning began to rain down from the sky and struck various points off in the distance. Some lightning bolts were thin but some were big...Really big.
"Hurry, Nami!" the long nose called out and then turned to Robin, "C'mon! We need to take everyone to the ship!"
Aisa mustered up all her courage and she grabbed Wyper by the wrist, who was now facing away from the group and with his fists clenched tightly at his sides. "Let's go! Wyper! We need to get out of here!"
Instead of scolding her, instead of barking orders at her, Wyper did the one thing Aisa never expected him to do. He took her hand into his and gave it a hard, but not painful, squeeze.
"Aisa..." he croaked, "Look..."
Aisa followed his gaze and at first, she wasn't sure what she was looking at. Just a thick plume of smoke way out in the horizon but then, God's Voice kicked in and she heard her mother's voice cries along with everybody she knew and loved.
"Our village!" Aisa gasped, "Enel...destroyed our village!"
The devastation and the voices were too much for the little girl and she couldn't move, much less react. Her eyes watered but no tears came out. She was furious and destroyed at the same time yet could not even scream. She stood there frozen in place like a statue. That is until she heard one voice, as if it was being shouted right in her ear, that cut through everything.
"Aisa! Knock it off. IT'S FINE! You hear me? Let it go. It's fine!"
"Sid?" Aisa finally whispered.
"Eh? Aisa's here?"
"No, Luffy! I know she can hear me and that's why I'm talking to her right now. Keep running!"
"Shishishishi. Okay."
"Luffy...Sid..." Aisa whimpered as if they would hear her plea.
"Ugh. Where was I? Right! Aisa! I know you can hear me!" Sid continued to shout, "I know you're crying and probably screaming your head off because I know you see what I see and you hear everyone else and that's my point! You can hear everyone. I know the old man isn't stupid enough to just sit idly by while all this is happening. I'm sure he must've evacuated the island by now. That means they're all alive and that's what's important! That's what I've been trying to tell the stupid village this whole time. Wyper, this whole time! Shandora doesn't matter. The sky islands doesn't matter. The village is where we are. Home is made by people, not by geography, so get a grip! We didn't lose anything except what? A few toys? Some supplies...AH! My plants! Ugh...whatever. I'll get more. Anyways, you get my point, Aisa. We're going to be fine!!! Okay...hopefully you got all that. If not, I just rambled to the back of Luffy's giant ball for no good reason. Ugh! REALLY hope you're not screaming your head off down there...If you're still listening, wipe your face and shout at the top of your lungs, 'IT'S FINE!' You'll feel better. Trust me. Healer's honor."
"Sid..." Aisa whimpered. Now with Sid's guidance, Aisa took another listen to the voices and it dawned on her that the cries were not that of sorrow but of gratitude and relief.
"Chief! Thank goodness you made it on the ship."
"If the Skypieans didn't warn us, I don't think we would've made it in time."
"If we lingered any longer, we would've been ash!"
Aisa withdrew her hand from Wyper's grip and rubbed her eyes with the back of it. She then threw her head back and puffed up her chest. "IT'S FINE!!!" she shouted towards the smoke.
Wyper raised an eyebrow and then moved his gaze to the vine. "Sid told you to do that, didn't she?" he growled.
Aisa gulped, not out of fear, but just so she could regain her composure, and then turned to Wyper. "She said it would make me feel better....And it did."
"Aisa? Is everything okay?" Robin called out from behind.
Aisa turned and gave a confident nod at the woman. "En! It's fine."
"Wait! Hold it!" the long-nose interjected and raised his hand in the air, "I get Luffy trying to rescue Nami but why is the guerilla woman helping him? EEK! DID LUFFY ASK HER TO JOIN OUR CREW?"
Aisa shook her head. "They're not just going for Nami. They're also going for this...bell?"
"Ah yes," Robin said and crossed her arms, "The golden belfry at the top of the vine."
"'The golden bell'? Is that what you said" Wyper demanded. He spun around and stared Robin dead in the eyes.
Robin nodded.
"You also spoke of the bell before being hit by Enel's electric attack," Wyper said. His eyes narrowed, "So Enel really is going after it?"
Robin nodded again.
"Wh-wh-whoa whoa whoa!" the long-nose shrieked, "This is no time for treasure hunting. Do you not see the thunderbolts?! We have to get out of here or else we'll die."
"How do you know the bell is at the top of the vine?" Wyper continued.
"Is no one listening to me?" the long-nose wailed.
"The ruins of Shandor in the layer below us," Robin answered, "This vine pierces right through the heart of the city. A map I found in the ruins indicated that the golden belfry that held the golden bell was at the center of the city. In other words, the shock from being thrust upward by the vine must have shot the golden bell into the sky straight above."
"And Sid knows this?!" Wyper shouted as he ran towards the vine. He didn't make it very far though and he stumbled to the ground after only a few steps, "Gahhh!"
Blood dripped out of the bandages across his chest and he coughed some out, staining the white cloud beneath.
"Wyper!" Aisa gasped, "No. You can't go up there. Not in your condition. You're all beat up..and even if you do climb up, there's no way for you to reach Enel in the sky."
"I have to go..." Wyper groaned. He lifted up his head and scowled at the skies above, "The bell that Great Warrior Calgara sought...I have to go!"
"Calgara?" Aisa repeated.
"Ah...That's what our true goal was..." Wyper said and then raised his fist, "Enel! I refuse to let you have it!"
Crrreeakkkk!
"Eh?" the long-nose pulled his goggles over his head and looked up at the sky, "EEK! Incoming! Everybody get out of the way!"
He scrambled away from the vine and after a few seconds, the tip of Giant Jack came hurtling down, breaking through the cloud layer and crashing in the lost city beneath. The force of the crash sent everyone tumbling to the ground. Wyper made a quick grab for Aisa and pulled her to his chest, protecting her from her fall.
"What the hell is going on up there?" the long-nose cried.
High above them and further than what even the long-nose could see, Luffy dangled with only one hand grabbing onto a feeble stem of the vine. His metal-cased hand stretched below him and it's weight was causing the stem to bend at a very alarming angle. The healer stood on top of the stem. Once again, she was trying desperately to pull the rubber boy up while the sky sheep tried his best to offer some sort of support to the bending branch.
"You can do it, Sid...Come on! You did it before!" Luffy shouted his idea of encouragement.
"It's not as easy when there's nothing supporting the ball this time!" Sid snapped. Beads of sweat poured down her face yet she still managed to throw her head back and glare directly up at the false god, hovering above in his ark.
Enel smirked. "Yahahha. You two can stay there for a while. I'll show you something interesting."
He vanished in a flash of light and did not appear anywhere within sight. From the left of Sid, the sounds of thunder and lightning began to become more frequent. She gave it a quick glance before returning to Luffy but her focus remained at the task at hand. Her years of being in the battlefield trained her to know that a warrior must be aware of their surroundings but a great warrior knows how to do so and not lose their sense of focus.
"What? What's going on?" Luffy asked, openly gaping at the lightning storm happening towards the sidelines.
"Don't worry about it right now," Sid said, "We need to take advantage of this while Enel is gone."
"Ah! Right!" Luffy said, "Pull me up!"
"It's hard, especially since your ball is bouncing up and down like that."
"It's not bouncing," Luffy said, "It's yo-yoing."
"What's a yo-yo?" Sid asked.
Luffy's eyes lit up. "Ah! I got an idea. Sid! Let go of me."
"What?!"
"Let go!"
"Alright. Alright. Boo!" Sid leapt off the branch and Boo swooped in and caught her almost immediately.
"Yosh!" Luffy said. He pulled his arm in and let it drop, which made the ball stretch his arms even further. He kept doing that until not only was the ball bouncing up and down, the stem Luffy was holding was getting pulled down with it, "Gum-Gum...Yo-Yo!"
"Luffy!" Sid warned, "It's about to-"
The stem snapped as the ball flew straight past the stem and up into the air, taking Luffy with it. The rubber boy sailed high above the vines and even through the last cloud layer that sat between them and the ark.
"Would you look at that?" Sid whistled while Boo carried her up to Luffy as fast as he could.
When they broke through the cloud and joined the captain, Nami arrived as well on her waiver.
"Alright! We're back on track!" Luffy cheered when he saw Sid, "Now's our chance to get on board."
"Luffy! Sid!" Nami called out and stopped her waver right in front of them, "Finally caught up with you two."
"Eh? Nami? What are you doing down here?" Luffy asked.
"I came to get you guys! Sanji-kun and Usopp saved me so I was down below," Nami said.
"Really? You were? That's great!" Luffy cheered.
Kaboom.
Nami gasped and she turned towards the lightning crash. "Look at the sky," she gulped, "The thunderclouds are changing shape."
"Ah..." Sid said as she leaned over Boo's horns to get a better look. The clouds directly above Angel Island were forming into a tight, black sphere. As it did so, it let in the sunlight above, causing an ominous circular shadow over the city of angels.
"That thing is bad news," Nami whispered, "That's a thundercloud wrapped in a spherical shroud and it's packed with intense currents and internal electric discharges."
"Angel Island is about to be destroyed," Sid stated bluntly.
Nami glared at the Shandian. "How can you be so cold hearted?! I understand there's a war but-"
Sid let out a dry laugh. "This is no longer a war. It's a fight for survival."
Kabooooom!!!!
The sphere descended unto the island then burst into a brilliant blue light like a second sun. Luffy's jaw dropped while Nami's hands went to her face. The only thing Sid did was use her hand to shield some of the light from it. She didn't squint. She didn't move. She just watched it quietly from start to finish.
When the light faded, nothing was left of the island. Not even a patch of Sea Cloud.
"He...eradicated Angel Island," Nami whispered in horor. She quickly made a grab for her waver and revved up the engine, "Come on! Luffy! Let's go! Everyone's headed for our ship. We gotta get going too! Aisa is there with them, Sid, so come with us."
Sid and Luffy remained motionless with their eyes still on the nothingness that was Angel Island.
"I can't," Luffy said.
"You can't. Why not?" Nami asked.
"Even if I don't have to save you...I still have unfinished business," Luffy said.
"Business? What business? Are you trying to get back Enel or something?"
"Sid and I are getting to the gold bell!" Luffy declared.
Nami groaned. "Gold!? Your life is more important you know. Just look! Even if lightning doesn't hur tyou, he has the power to destroy everything in other ways! If it's gold you want,, then look. You have so much gold on your arm! Forget about the bell. You'll get killed!'
"So what?" Sid scoffed, "I'm getting that bell if it's the last thing I do."
"So WHAT?!" Nami gasped, "Listen! Just because you have a death wish doesn't mean you can just pull Luffy into it too. Luffy! Whatever Sid has convinced you, you should-"
"YOU SAW IT YOURSELF!" Luffy shouted and Nami snapped to attention.
"Saw what?" she asked.
Luffy finally turned to his nakama. "The city of gold exists! It wasn't a lie. Old diamond-head's ancestor wasn't lying so I have to let the old guy know! The city of gold exists and it's in the sky!" Luffy pointed down at his feet, "If I ring the bell, he should be able to hear it down there. Otherwise, he's going to keep searching on the ocean floor until he dies! I can't let Enel just take it!"
"Luffy..." Nami whispered.
"I'm sure the huge bell can be heard from anywhere so that's why I'm going to ring the golden bell!" Luffy shouted.
Nami stood staring at her captain for awhile and she didn't say another word. Finally, her gaze travelled to the Shandian. "And...and you?" she asked softly.
"Once that bell is rung," Sid said and looked out towards where the village once stood, "It'll put in end to my duel."
"What? I thought you said this wasn't about the war anymore!"
"Not with the Skypieans..." Sid replied with her eyes still on the village, "My duel with my ancestors."
"Huh?"
The navigator did not understand at all what this Shandian was saying but next to her, her Blue Sea nakama, readjusted the straw hat on his head and gave the Shandian a knowing nod.
"Yosh," he said, "Let's go."