Chapter Text
In a cave in the East Blue, a young godchild lets his powers loose - fear, anguish, and despair coating each wailed shout. It is soon, much too soon, body caving under the onslaught, white light almost blinding those next to him, plaintive cries begging him to stop, let go – not there, not then, you’re safe, safe, safe. It lasts a handful of seconds and yet echoes across the Blues, a message carried by Sea and Storm, whispered by Earth and Fire, shrieked by the Blizzard in the North Blue. A homecoming. An awakening. The promise of a new dawn getting closer and closer, ready to put to rest a war that had been simmering for ages. A cipher all those bearing the letter D can receive, but not all can crack.
And all across the Blues, a call rings bringing with it either a jolt of remembrance or a shiver of dread, a bloom of hope and fear, or an unspoken threat. Across the Seas, those mostly attuned to the Ocean and Her whims understand that the tides have been irrevocably changed. It is now up to time itself to say in which manner.
In Baltigo, a girl scarred by white pigmentation laughs childlike, jumps in delight, and whoops in joy under the confused eyes of Inazuma. On the Moby Dick, a man staggeres, his heart skipping just a beat, dread beating like a dirge in his ears. In Elbaf, hidden from sight, body still wrapped in bandages although his wounds had long since healed, a giant grins almost feral. In Alabasta, caught in a wind storm, unafraid and wild, a blue haired princess twirls in delight, her guardian trying to furiously bring her back to shelter. All across the Blues, a drum tolls and tolls and tolls.
***
The news comes to Shakky’s bar long before the newscoo has the time to let the announcement fly, before Morgans can posture and cackle and before the World Government can spin smiting yet another island off the face of the earth in their favor.
It comes with a ring from the den den mushi, one kept special for a certain blue haired brat that is the reason Rayleigh went prematurely white. No, it had not been Red, at least Shanks had had the common sense to remain in sight – too much in sight, if someone asked Rayleigh, but then again he had had Beckman and Yasopp even in the beginning and those two were enough to curtail some of Shanks’ shenanigans. No, it was Blue that had him go grey, Blue that had disappeared from Loguetown before either him or Gaban can catch him – too caught in their grief, in the backslash of haki, in the pain that burrowed in their bones, beat in tandem with their heart – that by the time they had come back to themselves Red was gone, but easily found even if they elected to simply keep an eye on him from afar, and Blue seemed to have vanished in the wind. For a while they have feared the Sea had called him back to herself, cradled him one last time as she hadn’t been able to do after his devil fruit.
Shakky races him to the snail, a well-placed elbow in his side making Rayleigh wheeze in pain as she picks up and greets her favourite child.
“Took you a while to call, Bluelbell. Is Red around you too?”
Rayleigh doesn’t hear what happens, but whatever Blue shares is no good news. Shakky’s eyes turn flint sharp, her lips furrowing in a snarl so alike those that used to grace her lips back when she was the feared Kuja Pirate Captain.
“Blue, are you safe?” the answer seems to pacify his wife because she nods a couple of times and allows Rayleigh to take over, to listen to everything his son may have hidden from his adopted mother as well.
“What happened?”
Rayleigh almost does not want to hear the answer; how can he when nothing good ever comes from Blue calling. It is never ‘Hi Pops, how are you?’ but rather the likes of ‘Shanks got shot, he’s in a coma,’ ‘Ace is alive, but Rouge died just as we feared,’ or ‘Nika is back, he’s back, dad, dad he’s just a child, small, so small and they want to kill him, I’m not strong enough to protect him, what if they find out about him, what if they come when Shanks isn’t near, what if he dies, what if I fail.’
Rayleigh is afraid to find out what Blue had called to say because what if it once again will bring his whole world come crashing down.
“Foosha was attacked.” He thinks he feels his knees give up, feels bone and wood collide, but is unsure of it because all he can feel is static in his ears, a cry in his heart and his Haki bursting out in a daze of fury, shattering bottles and glasses alike.
***
The Wind Granma shakes under the onslaught of the waves, the storm battering it on all sides vicious even for the weather of the New World, howling its unhappiness to all and sundry, making wood rattle and metal creak, a sinking sensation lodging itself in Dragon's soul as the memories at the back of his mind evade his grasp, keep him locked in the uncertainty plaguing him whenever his devil fruit is not at work. And yet, even without them, he knows in a way that cannot be explained that something had gone wrong, knows that the anger of the elements is no mere whim of nature but rather a bell tolling in warning. His hands twitch by his side warring with his desire to ring the den den again, to try and catch wind of Makino even though he had failed thrice over, the snail failing to connect as never before.
"Dragon-boy," Ivankov's face is twisted in a mix of rage and sorrow the likes of which the revolutionary leader seldom sees on the Okama Queen's face and Dragon braces himself for what will likely be bad news. "Clown-boy's first mate made contact. Foosha was attacked. They boys are still unaccounted for and your father is en route to the island, for what purpose we do not know. For what is worth Akagami is also making good speed there.”
The wind howls in sync with their words, furious shrieks of ours, ours, ours, betrayed, attacked ringing in Dragon's ears as the storm comes to life around him, as part of him, lightning crackling next to the ship, making even his crew take a startled step backwards.
Dragon does not expect the cry echoing across the waves - desperate, haunted, mournful, a scream of not again, not now, no, no, no, weak, helpless, fear - warmth burrowing in his bones, searing hot lodged in his sinews, a power screaming, claiming, possessive, curling around his soul, making him aware that something is terribly wrong with his son because nothing but the direst circumstances could have made him let loose like this, no one around him would have allowed him to slip up, make his presence viscerally known across the Blues, with a strength betraying times long lost, acting like a beacon to all those that could feel it, friend and foe alike.
"Set course to the East Blue. We need to get to Foosha. Even if it’s too late, we need to try to get there before the World Government sets a buster call against them."
***
The maiden voyage of the Polar Tang comes too late for Law's liking; after all, they could have set sail a year ago if Cora-san hadn't decided to be a mother hen and worry to hell and back just because the two of them had managed to get a bounty while accidentally busting into a marine facility. His dumb clown of a father needed to get in touch with his equally dumb worry wort of a father - Law only knows how much he had had to cajole and convince Cora-san to send an encrypted message to Sengoku to let him know he was alive. It left somewhat of a bitter taste in the younger pirate's mouth to be helping a marine, especially a high-ranking one, but he knows how much Cora himself would have suffered had the Sea not guided him to Swallow island, had they been cut of years upon end. If anything, Sengoku deserved to know Cora was alive only because he had been the one to raise Law's pseudo father into the insanely loyal man he was now.
Now, one year late, a moniker of Arsonist Cora that has Sachi and Penguin cackle whenever they see the man's first bounty poster - it's not the first one by far, that one belonged to Corazon a man with blood splattered on his face, and eyes so empty you felt as if staring into the abyss - and a 20 mil berry bounty for Law - the name Heart stealer Law would have to disappear if it's the first thing he does when he properly hits the North Blue - Cora had stopped fretting enough because Doflamingo was busy polishing his ass on a cushion in Dressrosa and allowed them to set sail.
Law does not expect to face his first Grandine level Storm in the fucking North Blue of all places; it starts all of a sudden, a maelstrom shrieking rage against all it comes across, almost tossing Penguin overboard, Sachi's quick thinking and Bepo's equally quick submerging the only thing keeping the Tang from becoming a plaything of the wind and waves. The Blizzard itself roars, its madness almost more palpable than ever before, combined with raw anger at audacity too big to phantom. Words batter at Law's mind, hard enough to make him stagger, a migraine building behind his temples - blood spilled, hurt, hurt, hurt, attack, foe-rage-rage-rage. A cry echoes across the waves, pale, coming from far away and yet hitting them with uncanny accuracy, wrapping around Law, sinking its claws in his heart with familiarity and desperation he had not felt in centuries over fail, fail, fail, failure, again, again, fallen, mother, Leto, Gramps, Tyr, forsaken, hurt, hurt, hurt. And it is on oh so east to realize who is wailing, oh so easy to figure out which of them had been attacked again by the thrice-dammed fake gods on their fake thrones.
He comes to with his ears ringing with still echoing cries and a certainty in his heart oh an existence that he had not expected to face - not soon, not in this life -, Cora collapsed to his knees at his side, blood pouring from his nose and gaze vacant.
"They're aching for him. Mourning. Who is he?" Cora's voice is a horse warble, almost as if he had the habit to smoking two packs per day, something he used to do only during his time with the Donquixote family.
"Nika. He's back." But no, not quite; as the Sea whispers to him and the wind chitters around them it is easy to make out a new name, one wrapped in love and the echoes of family. A new name for a new age. Money D. Luffy.
"I look forward to meeting you, Luffy-ya," Law smiles under his breath, helping Cora back to his feet and barking a new course for Bepo. Storm or not they have a mission to accomplish and even the unexpected reveal won't stop them.
***