OP77: The First Empress

The soil shook with my every step, but it wasn't because of me... it was because of the titanic battle taking place not too far away where my little brother and big sisters were giving them hell. Although I wanted to join the fight, I was tasked to look for the vice chief of the Kuja Pirates, Shawty.

*RUMBLE!*

My body transformed, gaining a green scaled skin and white hair, my hair transformed into snakes that smelt and sensed everything around me. They said she was undergoing the torture of food deprivation, if I don't move fast... it may be too late, but this jungle is massive and I don't know where to start.

I stopped in my tracks to try something, my eyes and the snakes' on my hair emitted a certain soundwave, a small hissing. I received a response... as expected there are anacondas in this jungle.

Their hissing pointed in the direction for me and in no time I reached a clearing where there was a massive black ship resting on the sand, adrift.

'That must be it!'.

*BAANGG!*

I blasted the carcass that broke like cardboard in front of my palm and infiltrated it. It was dark, the world around me turned blue and green... it took a bit of time but I found her.

"S-Shawty..."

**

**

"You can just leave me here, go and help them!".

"I can't do that... Veyron told me to take care of you and I'll do just that, don't underestimate them".

Marigold did want to join the fight, but she trusted that they'd be okay by themselves... they had just arrived on this island and didn't know if there were any unexpected variables. If this girl was to be taken hostage, that would be a much more catastrophic conclusion.

Robin grits her teeth, and although she knew the CP0 wasn't expressively after her, she still felt weak and unable to be of help to anyone.

"W-What-".

Marigold looked at something aghast, Robin followed her gaze in the middle of the jungle and she saw it too. One of the fruits in front of her, a big watermelon, started to twist and turn, shivering, it changed in colour until it gained a flaming pattern with lightning sparks.

"A devil fruit... one of them must have died, quickly pluck it!" Marigold exclaimed.

Robin did take the watermelon that was a bit heavy, "I have already eaten a devil fruit... I didn't see any picture of a fruit like this in the encyclopedia back in Ohara".

"I can tell you what that fruit is..."

!!!

Marigold protectively stood in front of Robin against the newcomer that just arrived, it was a man with a golden hook.

"Crocodile...?" Robin recognised him by his wanted poster, the man was a warlord candidate, "What are you doing here?".

"Crocodile, the name doesn't ring a bell..." Marigold who hadn't read newspapers in the last year didn't know anything about this upcoming star.

The man remained silent, his eyes fixed on the watermelon, "That devil fruit is a mythological zoan. I originally came here for you, Demon Child, but taking that fruit away will be worthwhile too".

Marigold got angry at being utterly disregarded, the man started turning into sand which prompted her to know he was a logia user.

Her body started to transform into a beautiful version of herself with flaming white hair, a golden horn and several snakes parting from her back.

!!!

"Awakened Zoan?!"

Before Crocodile could even say his next word, Marigold was already in front of him, ready to palm the hell out of him.

*BAAAANGG!!*

The palm coated in Haki -imbued with the brutal strength only an awakened zoan could give- hit his chest squarely, making the wannabe warlord spit blood and be blasted away towards the jungle in a pitiful manner.

Marigold looked at everything with disappointment, she didn't even use her whole strength in that hit.

"Warlord candidate? What a pitiful little crook, wasting my time... it seems warlords aren't much nowadays".

Robin gasped silently, Crocodile was a pirate she could only be afraid of without even being able to retaliate, yet all it took Marigold was one palm!

**

**

A pair of eyes opened to a newfound shock and surprise. The Skypeans and Shandians assailed by the regime of a new wicked God, opened their eyes to see that the nightmare was finished and they were surprisingly alive.

The night had already fallen and the only source of light was the bonfire lit up next to them.

Veyron was sitting together with Tsuru around a bonfire while Primrose, Gion Hancock and Stussy pilled up the survivors and tried to do at least a basic first aid.

Veyron's psychokinesis levitated all of the bodies, making it easier for them to be treated while Tsuru's devil fruit cleaned all of them.

"What is going on? Who are you?".

The man's eyes turned into stars when he saw the person treating him could only be labelled as a goddess. Hancock brushed her hair aside and let the Shandian fall back down now that he had woken up.

"Ouch!".

"Since you're all awake then hurry up and help your people yourself".

She couldn't be arsed to help any of those men, but since it had been a request from her fiance, Hancock reluctantly accepted. Now that they were starting to wake up, however... they could do it themselves.

The princess walked up to Veyron, making Primrose shake her head in exasperation and Gion looked at her in irritation.

...

"What is your next move, Veyron?" Tsuru asked the boy, her gaze moved for just a moment to look at Hancock who smiled brightly and leaned against her fiance.

She was sitting opposite to him at the bonfire. Veyron put his arm around Hancock's waist.

"Marigold, Robin and Sandersonia should be coming back soon. My original reason for coming here was to obtain that devil fruit, but now I don't know... once we get Shawty back we will head back down and that will be the end of it".

He scratched his head in apparent defeat, certainly, these people were liberated from tyranny and that filled him with joy, but he also lost sight of the fruit he came here to collect.

The Shandians and Skypeans were confused, it was Gion who had to give directions, telling them that the person who had invaded Skypea was now gone and they were liberated. Their first reaction was to go and call two individuals, one of them was gone after being heavily injured by Enel, his name was Gan Fall. The other was a Shandian called Wyper who was still unconscious among them.

Soon enough the first group of people appeared, they were Robin and Marigold who much to his surprise came along with two devil fruits.

"Ah?" The boy gasped and Hancock yelped when he stood up abruptly.

One was a flaming watermelon with lightning specs, the other was fruit he had never seen except that it was white with black lines and white lightning specs.

"What took you so long girls?"

"Robin wanted to explore the island... after we found the second devil fruit we realised that you were victorious" Marigold presented the two devil fruits to him, "We picked those up in the jungle and came upon them by chance. I had never seen two devil fruits so close to each other".

Veyron frowned and tapped his chin, 'Could it be because of the forcefield? Did it somehow stop those devils inside the devil fruits from going any farther? Does that mean that the Yami Yami no Mi and the Goro Goro no Mi are also in this forest?'.

To start, both of these devil fruits had lightning represented in them, so any of them could be the Goro Goro no Mi.

"Where is Sandersonia?" Marigold noticed the green-haired sister hadn't yet arrived.

"She hasn't come back... should we go and look for her?" Primrose trusted her daughters' capacities but with how long Sandersonia was taking, she was starting to get worried.

"This place called Upperyard is quite vast, it is not a surprise if she got lost a few times coming back here, we got lost as well" Robin declared.

"I'm here..."

Sandersonia came back, appearing from around some bushes still in her awakened form. She was bringing some things along. Two devil fruits were wrapped in her hair, and her arms were carrying a body.

Veyron wanted to ask about the fruits, but when he saw the body, his entire self shivered.

"N-No..."

It was Shawty's body, dehydrated and lifeless. All the girls rushed towards her, they checked her pulse and breathing... there wasn't life in there.

"Shawty... I'm so sorry..." Primrose was the first to break followed by her daughters, they had known this woman ever since they were little infants and now she was gone.

They were too late.

Veyron leaned forward, repressing his wrath... he closed her eyes. Although the time they spent together wasn't long, Shawty had been very attentive and answered his every need. Once again he recalled that One Piece could be a very fun story, but also... a very sad one.

"She had to die for nothing..."

"It wasn't for nothing, I found this"

Her sadness was perhaps the greatest as she had to carry the body all the way here. The sobbing Sandersonia passed something else to him after she dropped the devil fruits, it was a dairy.

He opened it and read a few pages... they were notes on the missions given to him by a group he called the 'five elders'. Those five bastards he recalled from the manga were the leaders of the World Nobles.

"He was tasked to capture a member of the Boa Family. It was a mission given to him by his 'higher ups'... that's why he was after mother".

"Why do they even want us!?" Hancock flinched in disgust, "It wasn't enough for them to hold us captive for five years?!"

"I know the reason..." Stussy spoke and gained the attention of everyone at the bonfire.

"It is related to the first empress of Amazon Lily who was also the first member of the Boa Family".

"Do you know the name of that person?" Robin asked.

"Nefertari Lili".