Charles was a bit vexed. In his memory of the original story, Ace stayed locked up in Impel Down until the morning of the execution day, when he was handed over to Marineford.
He'd come to Impel Down days in advance, so how was Ace already gone?!!
While Charles was fretting, a deep voice rang out.
"Young man, I heard you say you're here for Ace. Are you a friend of his?"
Charles looked over. The speaker was the fish-man locked in the neighboring cell.
A whale shark fish-man, with distinctively curled eyebrows and sideburns, a short, thick black beard at his chin, and a lightning-shaped scar at the corner of his left eye.
His hefty body wore a yukata, the front open to reveal the sun tattoo on his chest.
At the moment, though, his hands were shackled to the cell wall, making for quite a pitiful sight.
This was a big name: the current captain of the Sun Pirates and, like Crocodile, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea.
"Knight of the Sea Jinbe, huh," Charles said, turning to him. "Could I trouble you to tell me where Ace was taken? I came here to rescue him on his little brother's commission."
Jinbe sighed. "You're late. Ace was transferred long ago. I heard Vegapunk needed Logia users, so Ace was secretly sent to his research base."
Charles rubbed his brow. Running into a surprise like this made it hard not to get a headache. What he didn't know was that he himself played a part.
Kuma breaking free of the World Government's control had a bigger impact than Charles imagined.
Even though the Pacifista PX line was complete, the truly important project was the next: the Seraphim.
And the most critical portion of the Seraphim experiments was recorded in Kuma's body. To finish the research, Vegapunk needed more samples.
Besides Kizaru, the admiral who always cooperated with Vegapunk's experiments, the other two Marine admirals—also Logia users—had their blood drawn.
In the spirit of "waste not," the World Government simply handed Ace over to Vegapunk too.
Whichever way you looked at it, that made little sense. Egghead, Vegapunk's lab base, sits deep in the New World. Sending Ace there clearly added a lot of risk.
It was practically as if the Paramount War were destined to happen, just to make Charles's trip to Impel Down a waste.
Egghead's location was a state secret even within the World Government. Rescuing Ace before the war broke out was out of the question.
"So things weren't going to be that simple after all."
Charles offered the admission sincerely. His Impel Down operation had gone ridiculously smoothly—he'd reached Eternal Hell without alerting anyone.
Only for the key piece to break against expectations at the last moment. Fate wasn't so easily defied.
All it did was harden Charles's resolve. The more fate pushed, the more he would push back. That was what he'd been striving for all along.
With his conviction set, Charles looked to Jinbe. "Seems the war can't be avoided now. You got locked up here trying to stop it. Are you going to stay?"
"The debt Fish-Man Island owes Old Man Whitebeard is one I could repay with my life," Jinbe said. "If you can, please take me with you."
"I understand," Charles said with a nod. "Then let's go together."
He reached for the lock on the cell door. Where his fingers touched, the metal reddened faintly, and then—click—the door swung open.
Locks in the pirate world are strange. Thanks to seastone—tough and suppressive of Devil Fruit users—shackles and manacles are solidly made.
But because seastone is so hard to work, even Wano's master smiths can't craft very fine components.
So the inner workings are fragile. That's how Rayleigh and Luffy both pulled off unshackling themselves by hand.
For Charles it was nothing. A touch of destructive flame was enough to knock a lock out of action.
He stepped into the cell and did the same to Jinbe's cuffs, freeing him.
As the two stepped out, the other prisoners grew restless.
"Hey, brat, let me out too! I hear you're going to war with the Marines—perfect, I've got a bone to pick with them!"
"And me! I've got treasure stashed outside. Let me out and it's yours!"
…
Charles frowned and swept the lot with a cold look.
The Marines have done many inhuman things, but one thing they didn't get wrong was locking these people up in Impel Down.
Cases like Ivankov's—wrongly imprisoned—are rare here. The vast majority in this place are garbage that ought to rot here forever.
He had no intention of letting them out.
Sensing that, the inmates started roaring louder.
Only this time they were summoning the guards—if Charles wouldn't free them, they wouldn't let him walk away easy either.
The deeper dark of Eternal Hell had remained quiet. The true big shots were locked in there; they weren't tasteless like the rabble outside.
"Enough noise."
Charles's eyes opened a fraction wider and a ring of pressure rippled across Eternal Hell.
The howling fell silent at once, but a few gazes lit up in the dark.
"Interesting. That isn't Conqueror's Haki, is it?"
"Looks like the seas got lively while I was locked up!"
…
Charles took a long look into the beast-haunted dark, then turned on his heel.
The ones in there were monsters among monsters. Even if he didn't let them out, it wasn't certain they couldn't break free on their own.
Whether they gained freedom or not wasn't his concern. Sparing the nuisance here was mercy enough.
All the shouting had, of course, alerted Impel Down's guards. A quiet exit was off the table.
He and Jinbe moved fast, bursting into the passage before it sealed. The traps within were flattened under Charles's feet, and they reached Level 5 in short order.
Ivankov and his people were already waiting. When Charles and Jinbe appeared, he said at once, "The guards have been alerted. What now? Forcing our way out won't be easy!"
"Relax," Charles said with a thumbs-up. "I've had a plan from the start. Lead the way—to the elevator."
Ivankov didn't understand, but since he'd entrusted his hope for freedom to Charles, he didn't argue. He led the group toward the Level 4 elevator.
Soon they reached the elevator entrance. Charles summoned the Warlord and had it hack the outer railing to scrap.
Then he jumped into the shaft, spread his flame wings, and shot upward.
He quickly spotted the massive lift above, slipped through a gap onto its roof, and sliced through the thick chain hauling it.
As the elevator dropped, Charles summoned Zhongming. The great bird snatched the elevator roof in its talons and began a slow descent.
Charles waved to the others outside. "Everyone in. I'll carry the lot of you out."
Faces lit with delight. No one had imagined Charles would come up with something like this.
Once everyone had piled in, Zhongming cried and beat its wings hard, hauling the elevator skyward.
Charles stood on Zhongming's back, sank into his stance, and drove a fist at the rapidly approaching ceiling.
"Flame Dragon King's Crushing Fist!"
Outside, the guards gaped as a colossal pillar of fire punched through swathes of the structure and blasted into the sky, followed by a great bird hauling an elevator.
Dodging a ragged volley of shells, the bird climbed into the open air and vanished from sight.
On Zhongming's back, Charles felt no joy at leaving Impel Down. He pulled out a Transponder Snail and dialed Luffy's number.
______
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