The Fallen Angel And The Demon In Green

Chapter 9: Revenge and Redemption

The moon occupied a large part of the sky, round and proud, in all her splendour. No clouds obscured her view, as if she had reserved all the seats of the night beforehand. With curious eyes, the moon watched as a blond man dashed through the forest, sheltering in the veil of night. Of course, despite being hidden from all the enemies guarding the precinct, the celestial body spotted him without difficulty. Another man, wearing goggles and a bandanna on his head (the only thing the moon could see from her position in the sky) was following the blond's tracks closely.

The two men crouched down as they reached the back of a stone tower, having already passed the fence walls and other obstacles that she could not name, for they were man-made inventions of weaponry. The moon was a little disappointed when the men disappeared through a hidden hole in the stone wall. There was nothing to be done, she would have to look for the others. To her dismay, the moon caught a glimpse of the other pair, a broad-shouldered man and a black-haired woman, as they furtively entered the other tower, the one in the opposite side of the compound.

With a sigh, the moon remained fixed in the forest clearing. Her gaze roamed over each of the stones that made up the buildings, as she struggled to ignore the aura of despair and misery silently cried out from the thousands of souls trapped inside. The last group she had been expecting appeared shortly after. A man with a straw-hat, a green-haired guy with three swords, and a cloaked young woman in between the two. They approached the fortification, and the gates opened for them to pass. With a grin, the brunette led the way towards the tower in the centre, the one that still no one had infiltrated.

The moon sensed that this specific group spelled trouble. She had seen these men before, upsetting the world' s order, knocking over dominoes one by one, wreaking havoc in their wake. They are what people call "bad news". And normally, she wouldn't care. The affairs of mortals are their own; if anything, the moon tends to be the object of human contemplation, not the other way around, that is the natural order of things.

Still, the natural order of things has been in turmoil for some time, and the moon knew, because cycles tend to be that way, that to reach a new equilibrium, chaos was imperative first. So, as the main standard-bearer of balance, she saw fit to wish the straw hats luck. If all went well, she would see them again, certainly before the sun came to shove her off.

----

"Should we...ring?" Luffy voices, confused.

"Don't be stupid, they opened the gates for us, they know we are here." Zoro says.

"Well, why aren't they opening this door then?" The captain whines.

I see Luffy is about to suggest to "barge in and send everyone flying" for the tenth time, so I try to direct his attention elsewhere, "Are the others in place? We should check."

Zoro nods and pulls a mini snail transponder out of a pocket.

The plan was simple. Franky and Robin will look for the button key in the left tower, while Sanji and Usopp do the same in the right tower. When both groups reach the control rooms, they are to press the button that opens the prison cells at the same time: that's the only way to free the enslaved people, who are locked in the central tower, the one in front of us right now. In the meantime, we have to cause a distraction by making it look like Luffy only came to hand me over and get Nami back.

If the two-button system they implemented after Saphir blew up half the building was a pain in the ass, the enhanced emergency response was straight-up nightmarish. All the guards have a device to lock down the whole place in case of a prison break; this means fewer places to hide and more guards with guns looking for intruders. If possible, we have all agreed to avoid it. Although Usopp warned me not to get my hopes up on that with Luffy around.