"We're finding the others, and we're leaving," Varin said as he left the room, not before causing enough destruction inside to make sure opening the door would take time. He wanted his art piece on display as long as possible.
Robin opened her mouth, ready to say something, definitely some half-assed attempt at levity for what she thought happened. But she decided against it at the last second and simply nodded.
Varin took a key he'd taken off Spandam and used it to unlock her seastone cuffs. The restraints fell away, and Robin flexed her wrists, feeling the return of her Devil Fruit power like a weight lifting. "Can you use your fruit to find the others?" Varin asked as he straightened up. "We don't have a lot of time. Bastard called a buster call"
Robin closed her eyes for a moment, concentrating. Her consciousness stretched outward through the fortress; her ability to sense her body parts extended to search through the chaos. Below them.
"Luffy is still fighting near the docks on the backside," Robin said, her eyes opening. "The upper section. Zoro, Nami, and Usopp are on a Bridge; they're headed toward the gate. Sanji and Vivi are moving through the corridors opposite of the others, with someone else. Chopper is..." She paused, concentrating harder. "Chopper is with the others on the bridge, trying to get them moving faster."
"How long do we have?" Varin asked, moving toward the corridor, his implication of her knowledge about the Buster Call was clear and mildly hurtful.
"Minutes," Robin said simply. "The tower is collapsing. Once it falls, the gate won't be accessible anymore. And the Buster Call ships are already positioning themselves."
They ran together down the corridor, the fortress shaking violently around them. Behind them, Spandam's body continued to sway outside the window, a monument to Leif's final gift—enough chaos to cover Varin's escape.
"Nami, Usopp, Zoro, and Chopper first," Varin said, pulling Robin toward the stairwell that would take them down toward the Wobbling Bridge. "We get Luffy last. Lad'll hold till then. He's as stubborn as they come."
Robin followed without hesitation, but as they descended, she took in his appearance properly for the first time. Varin was covered in blood—his entire arms dyed red up to the elbows, his torso crisscrossed with wounds. His silver eyes were cold and empty in a way she'd never seen before.
"What happened down there?" she asked quietly.
Varin didn't answer immediately. They reached the lower corridor and started moving toward the bridge entrance. "Not your business, lass, family matter, and not a word to the others," he said finally, his voice rough. "We need to move in any case."
They emerged onto the Bridge to find Zoro, Nami, Usopp, and Chopper halfway across. When Zoro saw them, his expression shifted from grim determination to relief. "About time!" Zoro called out, jogging back toward them. "Where's the captain? And curly brow?"
"Luffy's near the docks," Robin said. "Fighting the strongest one they have. Sanji and Vivi are in the lower levels; they should—"
She never got to finish as Nami's eyes widened when she saw Varin, taking in the blood, the wounds, the way he was moving as someone running on pure will alone. "What the hell happened to you?" she demanded, grabbing his arm and immediately regretting it when she realized what that arm was covered in.
"Fight," Varin said flatly. "You ain't in top shape either."
Chopper made a small sound of distress and moved toward him, his doctor instincts overriding everything else. "We need to get you medical attention! Those wounds—"
"After we leave, they're no worse than yours, or Zoro's, or Nami's. " Varin interrupted. "If we keep talking, there won't be enough of us to scrape off the ground/"
"How did you even get down here?" Usopp asked, glancing at Robin, then back at Varin. "We came to rescue you both, and you're just... here?"
"We escaped; now let's go," Varin ordered, not giving them time to question him. He shoved past them before grunting. "Im serious; this whole place is about to become rubble and Marines." As he finished, he looked towards Robin.
Robin understood immediately. She gestured toward the passage that would take them across the front rampart. It was the quickest route to Sanji's location, and they needed speed more than safety now.
They ran through the fortress corridors, the stone still steady beneath their feet. The Buster Call hadn't arrived yet. They still had time.
When they emerged onto the front rampart, the same rampart where Varin had been forced to his knees maybe two hours ago, the one that unfortunately faced the front of what used to be Spandam's office. And there, suspended from a Marine flag, was Spandam's corpse.
The flag still held him aloft, swaying slightly in the sea breeze. His body was still, as if it could be swaying in the wind. No more blood was leaking, though his lower half was completely dyed crimson. His ribs parted in a bloody mockery of the bird that was meant to mimic
Nami made a choking sound and looked away immediately.
Usopp's face went pale. "What the—"
"Ignore it, it's not for you," Varin said lowly as he kept walking, even when the others were still staring wide-eyed.
"V-Varin, you can't just... Enel was one thing; you lost your mind... but... but this...," Chopper stammered, his small form visibly shaking.
"It doesn't matter unless you feel like fighting another admiral," Varin replied coldly. "So I suggest you move your asses and stop gawking. The only reason I haven't done it before was that Robin had half a brain not to piss me off."
The words hung in the air like a blade. Usopp's face went even paler. Nami's jaw tightened. Zoro simply nodded slightly and kept moving, understanding that pressing Varin right now was a losing proposition. Chopper hurried to catch up, his distress clear but his instinct to follow his crewmates overriding his shock. Robin walked beside Varin without comment, her expression unreadable.
"The east corridor," Robin said simply, breaking the heavy silence. "Sanji and Vivi should be close."
They moved deeper into the fortress, leaving the rampart and its grim monument behind. The stone corridors seemed darker now, the weight of what had just happened settling over the group like a shroud.
Nami kept glancing back at Varin, clearly struggling with what she'd just witnessed. Usopp was silent, processing. Only Zoro seemed unsurprised, as if he'd already understood on some level what Varin was capable of when pushed far enough. "Luffy won't care," the swordsman said quietly as they ran. "He'll just be glad you made it."
"Don't matter if he did," Varin said with complete seriousness. "I would've done it either way. The bastard got off easy. I'll be seeing him again in Hel, and I'll do it again then."
The words landed heavily. Nami flinched, her eyes darting from Varin's face to the blood on his arms and back again. Usopp swallowed hard and looked down at his feet. Chopper said nothing at all, his small hands clenched tightly.
It wasn't long until they rounded a corner, and the corridor opened into a wider hall. Ahead, through a broken archway, Varin caught sight of movement. Two figures were running hard toward them, one with golden hair and a cigarette clamped between his teeth, the other small and quick, her long hair streaming behind h...
"Sanji! Vivi!" Usopp shouted, his voice cracking with relief.
Sanji skidded to a halt at the archway, his eyes sweeping over the group before landing on Robin. Something in his expression softened, then hardened again as his gaze moved to Varin, and he took in the blood, the wounds, and the arms that were stained red to the elbow.
"Christ," Sanji muttered, pulling the cigarette from his mouth. "You look like you went through a meat grinder, Varin."
"Feels about right," Varin said flatly.
Vivi's eyes were moving rapidly from face to face, counting. When they reached Varin, her breath caught. She took a step toward him, then stopped, her hands balling into fists at her sides. "Varin," she said quietly. "What happened?" She waited for his response, but once it was clear there wasnt going to be one, her jaw tightened, but she didn't say more. She turned to Robin instead. "Are you hurt?"
"Bruised," Robin said. "I'll live."
Sanji looked past them into the hall. "Where's the captain?"
"Near the docks last I saw," Robin said. "He's fighting one of the head agents."
"Of course he is," Sanji said, but there was no humor in it. He was already scanning the corridor behind them, his shoulders tense. Before anyone could say more, a heavy metallic footstep echoed from the far end of the hall. Then another. The sound was deliberate and rhythmic, growing louder with each step.
A figure stepped into view. He was enormous, though still shorter than Varin; the man was just as broad, and wearing an absurd amount of bright color. A pair of sunglasses sat on his face, and his hair was a shock of bright blue.
"SUUPER!" he bellowed, striking a pose with one arm raised. "I'm the cyborg of the Franky Family, Franky! Im the guy who's gonna save your sorry asses!
Usopp let out a startled laugh despite himself. "Franky, you idiot, we know who you are."
"Ah, but the two we're rescuing don't. I was practising the whole time over here on the tom," Franky said, turning toward Varin with a grin. He looked Varin up and down, taking in the state of him. The grin faltered for a moment. "Damn. You look like you crawled out of a grave. Name's Franky, by the way. Don't know if you heard." Franky's gaze moved to the bloodstained arms and stayed there for a long moment. Then he shrugged, the gesture oddly gentle for someone so large. "Right. Well. You're alive, and that's what counts. Let's get moving before this place comes down on our heads."
Zoro grunted in agreement. Nami was already moving toward the exit, glancing nervously at the ceiling as dust began to sift down from the cracks above.
"Come on, we've got to get Luffy and the damn boat before this rock becomes rubble," Varin growled, taking off in a half sprint before anyone could argue.
The others scrambled after him, as Varin led them through the fortress with a certainty that made Nami frown. Every turn was correct. Every passage opened exactly where he expected it to. The corridors that should have been a maze to someone who had only been inside this place for a few days moved past them like they had been drawn on a map and handed to him.
It made Varin even more angry. Leif had planned the escape as well; Varin knew where the docks were, because Leif had made sure to leak that information, and even take him most of the way down to them. His brother had made certain Varin knew exactly where the docks were and how to reach them. Every step of this path was a gift from the man Varin had just killed, and the anger that rose with that knowledge was so hot it made his bloodied hands shake.
He slammed through a door at the end of a corridor, and the wall beside it cracked under his shoulder.
"Varin—" Chopper started.
"Keep moving," Varin snapped without looking back.
They burst out onto a stretch of open stone near the docks. Smoke hung low over the water. Somewhere beyond the walls, the sound of cannon fire was growing closer, and Varin could feel the fortress trembling under the weight of it.
And somewhere beyond the walls, the cannon fire was growing closer. Varin could feel the fortress trembling beneath his feet.
Ahead, in the center of a cracked courtyard, Luffy was still fighting. He was bruised and bloodied, his straw hat gone, his chest heaving. Across from him stood a CP9 agent with a lean, spotted build and eyes that burned gold. Both of them looked like they had nothing left, but Luffy's stance had the stubborn set Varin had seen before, the kind that meant the captain had no intention of going down.
Nami grabbed Usopp's sleeve. "Luffy!"
"Is he losing?" Chopper whispered, though he didn't sound certain.
"He's not," Zoro said. "Look at his feet."
Varin looked. Luffy was still planted, still moving, still grinning through split lips.
"Who's the cat?" Varin asked, not taking his eyes off the fight.
Robin's gaze stayed on the courtyard. "He's the strongest of CP9 after your…brother," she said. "Leif was the second in command. This one leads with him. Same kind of man, I think. Loyal to the work, careful with his mercy, and very good at making other people feel small."
Varin's jaw tightened. "Leif wasn't like that."
The ground shook again. Stone dust rained down from the walls, and somewhere behind them a tower groaned.
"Everyone, listen," Varin said. His voice was low and level, and it carried the weight of someone who had stopped asking permission. "The Buster Call is starting. Get us a boat and get us ready to get the hell out of here."
"Varin, we need to—" Nami started.
"Now."
Nami looked at him for a long moment, then nodded and ran. Robin followed without a word, her hand already reaching out, her fruit spreading across the stone to search for hulls in the harbor.
Sanji flicked his cigarette away and cracked his knuckles. "You planning on telling us what you're doing, or should we guess?"
"Luffy's fight is over in a minute," Varin said. "I'm not waiting for him to finish it before the Navy finishes us."
Franky laughed, a loud metallic sound that echoed off the walls. "SUUPER! I like this guy!"
Vivi stepped beside Varin, her eyes searching his face. She opened her mouth, then closed it again, and for once she said nothing at all. Varin could see the question in her eyes, and he could see her deciding that now was not the time.
Varin bent his knees, the muscles in his legs coiling. Blood dripped from his fingers onto the stone.
Luffy's opponent swung a kick toward the captain's ribs. Luffy's arm stretched and snapped, his fist ready to answer, and the two fighters leaned into the final exchange.
Varin ran, crossed the courtyard in three long strides, and leapt. The gap between Luffy and the cat agent was wide, but he cleared it easily, arms wide, blood flying from his wounds. He came down hard on the cracked stone and landed squarely between the two fighters, his back to Luffy, his face toward the enemy.
"By order of a Styrnvald duel, we're allowed to leave so long as we no longer attack your own." Varin barked as he landed. "Stand down."
The agent's head snapped toward him. His eyes narrowed, taking in the blood, the wounds, the arms stained red. For a moment he said nothing. Then he shifted his weight, and his body began to coil with the controlled, lethal tension of a man who had never been told to stand down by anyone he respected. "A Styrnvald duel," he repeated flatly. "You're the one who was supposed to be executed. I was told you were in the arena with Commander Leif, and that the arena would be sealed until it was over."
He glanced past Varin at the wall, then at the cracked stone beneath his feet, then back at the blood. His eyes lingered on the arms. Something in his expression tightened. "That's not you; you're covered with."
"Stand down," Varin said again, quieter this time.
Lucci's lips curled. He did not answer with words. He launched himself forward, a blur of motion aimed at Varin's throat, his leg snapping up in a kick that could have taken a man's head off.
Varin did not dodge. The air around him tore open with a sound like a rifle crack. His body convulsed and surged outward, fur ripping across his skin in a wave, bones snapping and reforming with a violence that shook the courtyard. He rose, and kept rising, until the warform towered over the cracked stone, twelve feet of grey muscle and teeth and black eyes. The kick that should have landed on his neck struck his forearm instead, and the impact did nothing but rattle the stones beneath them.
Lucci looked up at him. He did not flinch. He did not raise his arms again. Slowly, he let his stance loosen, and his hands dropped to his sides.
Then he spoke.
"Your brother," Lucci said quietly. "Did he die well?" Varin closed his eyes and nodded slowly
"Go," Lucci said, and the word had no warmth in it. "Even I am not stupid enough to challenge Styrnvald rule." He turned away from them, his shoulders squared, and walked toward the far side of the courtyard without looking back for about three steps before he collapsed.
Varin let the warform fold back into his human shape. It came apart quicker this time, the fur receding and the bones clicking back into place, and he dropped to one knee on the cracked stone before he caught himself. His ribs screamed. His hand, which caught himself, throbbed with every heartbeat.
Then he stood and crossed the courtyard to Luffy.
The captain was slumped against a broken pillar, his arms hanging loose at his sides. His chest rose and fell in shallow, ragged pulls. His face was a mess of bruises and blood, one eye swollen nearly shut.
"Varin," Luffy said, and grinned, though it cost him. "Took you long enough. I can't move anymore. My legs are done. I think I'm done."
"You're not done," Varin said. He bent down and hooked one arm under Luffy's knees and the other behind his back, and lifted him without ceremony. Though the man weighed almost nothing. Varin's torn arms protested every inch of the movement, but he held on.
"You didn't have to come get me," Luffy mumbled against his shoulder. "I still had him."
"Aye, I know you did," Varin said. He shifted Luffy's weight against his chest. "But what kind of crewmate lets his captain struggle alone while the rest of us are standing around doing nothing?"
Luffy was quiet for a moment. Then he laughed, a weak, wheezing sound. "Yeah. Yeah, that's fair."
Varin turned and started running. The courtyard gave way to a narrow street, then a stretch of broken stone that ran down toward the water. Smoke thickened as he went. Behind him, somewhere far off in the sky, the first shapes of the Buster Call fleet were starting to blot out the light. And even as his legs burned, and his breath came in harsh, uneven gusts, he did not slow down.
The docks came into view through a gap in the smoke, and so did the others.
They were in the middle of a fight. A horde of Marines pressed in from every side, dozens of them, rifles and swords and Den Den Mushi crackling orders on their belts. Several of them wore captain's insignia, and they moved with the kind of discipline that suggested they had been drilled for exactly this kind of mess. Zoro was at the front, cutting a path with two swords and a hilt. Sanji's wasn't anywhere to be seen. Franky was a wall of steel and noise, flinging Marines into the water like they weighed nothing. Nami was dragging Chopper back by the collar as a blade came down, and Usopp was firing from behind a cargo crate, shouting lies with every shot.
"Varin!" Robin's voice cut through the din. She stood near the edge of the dock, her hands spread, and the stone beneath a cluster of Marines was already beginning to bend and crack under the weight of her fruit.
"The Merry!" Nami shouted desperately. "They're trying to get to the Merry! We have to hold them off!"
Varin looped Luffy around his neck like a scarf, the captain's limp arms draped over his shoulders. "Hold on, Captain," he growled. "We ain't dying here."
Luffy's head lolled against his temple. "Mm. Okay. Don't drop me."
"Wouldn't dream of it," Varin said as he charged. The first wave of Marines met him at the edge of the pier. He didn't slow down for them. He drove his shoulder into the nearest man's chest and felt the ribs give under the impact, then caught the next one by the collar and swung him into a third. A blade came in from the left. Varin turned his torn forearm into it, let the steel bite, and drove his knee into the swordsman's stomach hard enough to fold him in half. A rifle barrel jabbed at his face. He snapped it aside with the back of his hand and slammed the rifleman against a mooring post.
Blood sprayed with every movement; some of it was his, most of it was not.
The Marines were pouring in from the freshly docked ships now, a steady flood of white coats and gleaming bayonets, and they shouted to each other as they came. Varin grinned without humor. He caught a bayonet with his bare palm, twisted, and the rifle came free. He used it as a club. The stock cracked against a jaw, then another, then a shoulder.
Then a man with captain's insignia stepped in front of him, a long saber drawn and steady in his hand. The officer's stance was textbook, weight balanced, blade held high and ready, and he did not flinch as Varin approached.
"Stand aside, pirate," the officer said. "You're finished."
Varin did not stop. He lowered his shoulder and drove straight into the officer's guard. The saber came down across his back, a hot line of pain, and he kept going. The officer's feet left the stone as Varin's momentum hit him, and he went skidding backward across the pier, slamming into the rail hard enough to crack the wood.
Varin did not stay to finish him. He pushed past the fallen captain and kept his feet moving, forcing a path forward one step at a time.
Another captain came at him from the side. A kick aimed at Varin's knee. Varin took it on his thigh, felt the bone protest, and answered with a backhand that sent the man reeling. Another officer tried to stab him from behind. Varin heard the footstep, turned, and caught the blade on the meat of his shoulder. He ripped it free of the man's grip and threw him bodily into the water.
He was not trying to win these fights. He was trying to buy space. Every shove, every push, every shouldered Marine carved out a few more feet of stone between the Straw Hats and the gangway, and that was all he needed.
"Keep moving!" he roared over his shoulder. "Get to the ship! Go!"
Zoro was already moving, pulling Usopp by the back of his shirt. Sanji vaulted over a crate and kicked a pair of Marines off the dock before they could raise their guns. Chopper scrambled ahead with Nami, the reindeer's hooves slipping on the wet planks. Vivi was close behind them, one hand clamped on Franky's arm, and the cyborg was laughing through his teeth as he hauled a pair of Marines off the gangway and tossed them into the harbor.
"SUUUPER!" Franky bellowed. "Get on board, all of you! I'll hold the ramp!"
Varin glanced back once, saw the crew piling onto the Merry, and let out a breath he had not realized he was holding.
None of his blood had come for him. No Styrnvalds. No Astrid, no bannermen, no family in full armor. Just Marines, and Marines he could handle with a bloody arm and a broken body and a captain wrapped around his neck. If one of his kin had come down that pier, he would not have made it to the ship alive; none of them would have. He shoved another Marine aside, boots slipping on blood and salt water, and kept pushing toward the Merry.