-Broadcast-
Stone by stone, piece by piece, Ada carved a path through the rubble with bloodied hands and unwavering determination. Her fingers had gone numb an hour ago, her nails cracked and torn, but she didn't stop. Couldn't stop. Each boulder she removed revealed more light, more hope, more proof that her companions were still alive down there.
Finally—finally—the gap widened enough for a person to squeeze through.
"Come on!" Ada called down, her voice hoarse from exertion and dust. "One at a time! Carefully!"
Kaku emerged first, his lanky frame unfolding as he pulled himself up through the opening. The moment his face broke into sunlight, he gasped—a deep, desperate breath of someone who'd genuinely believed they'd never see the sky again. His optimistic nature had been tested to its limits during those dark hours underground. He'd joked with Lucci about writing his last words, half-laughing even as genuine fear gnawed at his heart.
"Thank you, Senior Ada, I thought we were—"
The words died in his throat.
Ada had completely ignored him, her attention locked on the second figure emerging from below. The moment Rob Lucci's feet touched solid ground, she collapsed into his arms like a puppet with cut strings. The sobs came immediately—raw, wracking cries that shook her entire body. Tears flowed freely, soaking into Lucci's tattered uniform as years of suppressed emotion finally broke through the dam of her professional composure.
Kaku stood frozen, mouth hanging open in shock. In all their years working together, through countless missions and impossible odds, he'd never seen Senior Ada cry. She was the ice queen of CP0—beautiful, deadly, and emotionally impenetrable. Seeing her reduced to this vulnerable, weeping woman felt fundamentally wrong, like watching the ocean suddenly flow backward.
What the hell happened to her? he wondered, carefully averting his eyes to give them privacy. What could break someone that strong?
"Lucci," Ada choked out between sobs, her fingers clutching desperately at his coat. "I don't want to go back. I can't. Can we... can we just disappear? Live somewhere on the sea where they'll never find us?"
The words hung in the air like a death sentence.
Kaku's eyes went wide. That was treason. Open, unambiguous defection from the World Government. If the Celestial Dragons even suspected such thoughts, execution would be the kindest outcome they could expect. They were dogs raised from childhood, trained to serve without question. Wanting to slip their leashes was tantamount to suicide.
Yet Lucci's cold, predator's face softened in a way Kaku had never witnessed. The leopard man's hand rose slowly, gently patting Ada's back in an awkward but genuine gesture of comfort. "We failed our mission," he said quietly, his usual harsh tone absent. "When we return, punishment is inevitable. Perhaps... leaving isn't the worst option." His golden eyes shifted to his subordinate. "Kaku. Your thoughts?"
Oh, hell. The pressure suddenly crushed down on the giraffe man's shoulders. Kaku swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing visibly. He could feel Lucci's gaze weighing him, measuring his response. One wrong word and this conversation could end very badly for everyone involved.
"I... I don't object to the idea," Kaku said carefully, choosing each word like defusing a bomb. "But there's a practical problem we need to address first." He raised his wrists, the seastone handcuffs glinting dully in the sunlight. "Without the proper keys, we're stuck like this. We can't exactly live as fugitives when two of us can't even use our abilities."
It was an uncomfortable truth. Without unlocking the cuffs, both he and Lucci were crippled—unable to access their Devil Fruit powers or even their full physical strength. The sea was filled with pirates who'd love nothing more than to get revenge on World Government agents. In their current state, they'd be torn apart within weeks.
"The jailers are buried under tons of rubble," Lucci observed, his tactical mind already working through possibilities. "Even if we located their bodies, the keys would likely be crushed...." He trailed off, the implication clear.
Seastone truly was the Devil Fruit user's ultimate bane.
Ada pulled away from Lucci's chest, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. The brief emotional breakdown had passed, replaced by something harder, more focused. "On my way here, I saw someone. A long-nosed man lying unconscious in the rubble." Her lips curved into a slight smile. "An old rival. He might be able to help us."
-Broadcast-
Usopp had been having the worst day of his life.
And now, as gentle hands shook him awake, he opened his eyes to see Rob Lucci's face staring down at him.
"LUCCI!!!" The scream tore from Usopp's throat as he scrambled backward, hands raised in immediate surrender. "I give up! I surrender! Please don't kill me! I'll tell you whatever you want to know! I have a rare disease that makes me die if I get interrogated, but I'll answer questions anyway!"
"Relax," a female voice said calmly. "We're not here to hurt you."
Usopp's panic-induced tunnel vision finally widened enough to take in the full picture. Three CP0 agents stood before him—Lucci, Kaku, and a beautiful woman in a red qipao. But something was off. Their body language wasn't aggressive. Lucci's expression, while stern, lacked the murderous intent Usopp had witnessed in the Sky Screen's future broadcasts.
Before anyone could explain further, a familiar voice cut through the tension like a blade.
"Hey."
Everyone turned to see Roronoa Zoro approaching with his signature swagger, one hand resting casually on Wado Ichimonji's hilt. Princess Mansherry rode on his shoulder, her tiny frame looking even more delicate next to the swordsman's muscular build. Zoro's single eye locked onto the CP0 agents with the focus of a predator spotting prey.
"Bullying a wounded man?" Zoro's voice carried a dangerous edge. "That's pretty low, even for government dogs. I suggest you step away from my crewmate before I make you step away."
The killing intent that rolled off him was palpable—not wild like Luffy's Conqueror's Haki, but cold and precise. The intent of a man who'd killed before and wouldn't hesitate to do so again. Even Lucci, with all his experience, felt his instincts scream danger warnings.
"Wait!" Ada stepped forward, positioning herself between the two groups with her hands raised in a placating gesture. "We have no hostile intentions. I swear it. You've met Eren Yeager, correct? You're his friends?"
Zoro's hand didn't leave his sword. "What about it?"
"I'm his sister." The words came out in a rush, desperate to defuse the situation before it turned lethal. "We survived Flevance together. The White Town massacre. I was taken by the World Government and raised as their agent, but... but I've remembered everything now. I know what they did. What I've been doing." Her voice cracked slightly. "I can't serve them anymore. I won't. We just need help removing these seastone handcuffs, then we'll disappear. You'll never see us again."
The explanation tumbled out in rapid-fire sentences—her true identity, her recovered memories, Eren's role in awakening her past, the decision to defect. Every word carried the weight of a world turned upside down, an identity shattered and rebuilt in the span of hours.
Zoro studied her for a long moment, his single eye moving between the three agents with the assessment of a master swordsman reading his opponents' intentions. Finally, his hand fell away from his sword.
"Fine," he grunted. "I'll let this slide. But if you're lying..." He didn't need to finish the threat.
"I'm not," Ada promised. "We're done fighting."
All eyes turned to Usopp, who was still sitting on the ground looking thoroughly confused about how he'd become central to this strange negotiation.
"M-me?" he squeaked. "What am I supposed to do?"
"You," Ada explained patiently, "possesses abilities we need. Can you unlock seastone handcuffs?"
Understanding dawned on Usopp's face, followed immediately by pride. "Oh! Oh yeah, I can totally do that! Watch this!"
He rummaged through his ammunition pouch with exaggerated confidence, finally producing what looked like an ordinary plant seed. With theatrical flair, he approached Kaku first, examining the seastone cuff's keyhole with the intense concentration of a master locksmith.
"Stand very still," Usopp instructed seriously. "This requires precise botanical manipulation."
He inserted the seed into the keyhole, then stepped back. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the seed began to swell, expanding to fill the internal mechanisms of the lock. Tiny roots and fibers grew with impossible speed, conforming perfectly to the shape of the key that would normally fit. The organic material hardened, transformed by some combination of Usopp's evolved abilities and sheer force of will.
Click.
The cuff sprang open, clattering to the ground.
"HA!" Usopp pumped his fist in triumph. "Witness the genius of the Great Captain Usopp! Behold my mastery over—"
"The other one too, please," Kaku interrupted politely, extending his second wrist.
"Right. Yeah. Obviously."
Three minutes later, both CP0 agents were free, flexing their hands and testing their returned strength with visible relief. Lucci rolled his shoulders, feeling his Devil Fruit power flowing naturally again after hours of suppression.
"Payment," Lucci said simply, placing both sets of seastone handcuffs in Usopp's hands. "High-purity seastone. Rare and valuable. Use them well against other Devil Fruit users."
Usopp's eyes gleamed as he examined the cuffs. These were legitimate World Government issue—far superior to anything pirates could normally acquire. "Oh yeah, these are going in the armory. Nami's gonna flip when she sees—"
The world turned white.
A flash of light erupted in the distance, originating from somewhere near the King's Plateau. But this wasn't normal light. This was the brilliant, terrible radiance of nuclear fusion—the same power that had devastated the underground arena now unleashed on the surface.
"RUN!" Zoro's bellow snapped everyone into motion.
Pirates and government agents scattered in unison, old enmities forgotten in the face of mutual annihilation. Geppo carried the CP0 agents skyward in desperate leaps. Zoro grabbed both Usopp and Mansherry, his legs pumping as he sprinted away from the expanding light with every ounce of speed his body could muster.
But Baby 5's final, suicidal explosion was too fast, too powerful, too all-consuming.
The white light swallowed everything—the palace ruins, the flower fields, Violet's cottage where a mother had tried to protect her children. Stone, flesh, memory—all of it dissolved in the terrible purity of atomic fire.
When the light finally faded, nothing remained but scorched earth and the echoes of screams that would never be heard.
-Real World-
The Sky Screen's audience watched the carnage with horrified fascination, but many minds had already latched onto a different detail entirely.
CP0—the World Government's elite agents, known as the "Strongest Shield of the Celestial Dragons"—were supposed to be unfailingly loyal. Fanatically devoted. These were the men and women who carried out the World Government's darkest orders without question or mercy. They were tools, weapons, extensions of the Celestial Dragons' will.
Yet here was Ada Wong, one of CP0's finest operatives, openly proposing defection in the arms of the organization's future leader.
The implications rippled outward like cracks in a dam.
If even CP0 could be turned, could be seduced away from their purpose... what did that say about the World Government's control? The Gorosei preached absolute loyalty, but hearts were proving more complicated than doctrine.
The age-old wisdom echoed through a million minds simultaneously: "Heroes are buried in the land of tenderness." No amount of training could armor a man's heart against a woman's tears.
Somewhere, at this very moment, Spandam watched that scene with bulging eyes and a face twisted into something barely human.
"That BASTARD!"
Spandam's roar shook his office, sending papers flying from his desk. His face had gone purple with rage, veins bulging on his forehead like worms beneath his skin. Spittle flew from his lips as he ranted at the Sky Screen broadcast, utterly heedless of dignity or decorum.
"How DARE he! How DARE he touch her!"
He'd raised Ada from childhood, recognized her potential, personally overseen her development into the perfect agent. She was HIS protégé, HIS greatest achievement, HIS—
The thought cut off as something darker, more twisted bubbled up from the depths of his subconscious. Feelings an adoptive father should never harbor. Possessiveness that crossed every moral boundary. The World Government had bred him for cruelty, but they'd failed to teach him how to recognize his own depravity.
"A murderous orphan," Spandam hissed, his hands clenching into white-knuckled fists. "That's all Lucci is. A killing machine I pulled from the gutter and pointed at my enemies. And now he thinks he can just... just steal what's MINE?"
Rob Lucci currently served under Spandam's direct command in CP9—still years away from his eventual promotion to CP0's leadership. He was young, talented, and completely vulnerable to a superior officer's machinations. The fact that Lucci was a once-in-a-century genius meant nothing if Spandam decided to destroy him through official channels.
"You want to betray the World Government?" Spandam giggled, a high-pitched sound that belonged in an asylum. "You want to run away and live happily ever after with MY Ada? Then let me help you with that dream, Lucci. Let me help you disappear permanently."
Plans began forming in his diseased mind—ways to frame Lucci for crimes he hadn't committed, missions designed to end in death, careful manipulations that would see the leopard man eliminated without any trace leading back to Spandam himself.
"I'll kill you," he whispered to the image of Lucci on the Sky Screen, his voice dripping with venom. "I'll erase you so thoroughly that Ada won't even remember your name."
At that very moment, the rest of CP9 continued their mission in Water 7—searching for Franky, hunting for Pluton's blueprints, completely unaware that their leader had just sentenced them all to death in his heart.
Everyone except Ada, of course.
She was special.
She would always be special.
And Spandam would make absolutely certain she never found happiness in anyone else's arms.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Writing takes time, coffee, and a lot of love.If you'd like to support my work, join me at [email protected]/GoldenGaruda
You'll get early access to over 50 chapters, selection on new series, and the satisfaction of knowing your support directly fuels more stories.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~