Chapter 8: Enemies of the World Government

Sanji and Lucy went off running, coming face to face with two CP9 agents, Khalifa and one other that they hadn't met. Before Lucy could say anything, Sanji had already been seduced by Khalifa into her room, leaving Lucy with the unknown agent.

"You're the Celestial Goddess, aren't you?" The man asked, smirking at her. "I must say, you're even more beautiful in person than in the pictures. I may just need to ask Spandam if we can keep you around for our entertainment."

Lucy simply rolled her eyes at his obnoxious behavior before saying, "You'd need to be able to beat me to do that, and I'm doubting you'll be able to."

"I doubt it'll be much of a problem, Goddess," he emphasized the last word with a hint of sarcasm, causing her to raise an eyebrow at him.

"Do you know why I'm called the Celestial Goddess," she trailed off at the end, not knowing his name.

"My name is Troy, and no, no one really knows why you're called that," he squinted at her, wondering where she was going with her line of conversation."

"Well, Troy, maybe you'd like to meet the ones that gave me the name," she smirked, holding out a key and twirling it around her fingers. At first, he thought that it was a key from one of the other CP9 agents, but he quickly ruled that out, because, before he was able to answer, the key began glowing a deep purple color. Suddenly a bright light appeared next to her and a man came out of it.

"That would be me," the man said, smirking at Troy, wrapping an arm around Lucy's waist, "And I'm not a huge fan of the way you're treating MY Goddess, so I'll just need to teach you a lesson, I guess."

Lucy grinned up at the first Prince of Hell she had made a contract with and he grinned right back at her, pulling out his daggers and unfurling his amethyst wings.

"Eternal Darkness," Asmodeus said, swiping two of his daggers towards the man in front of him. A very much tangible darkness swiftly made its way out of the daggers, heading straight towards the man in front of them, before a mirror blocked its path, shooting the attack straight back towards him. Asmodeus absorbed the darkness before cocking his head at the man before him as the mirror shattered.

"It's called the Mirror Mirror fruit, I can mirror any attack you send my way," Troy smirked at them. "I wasn't expecting a two on one battle, but I suppose this isn't really one. I know now that it's not the Celestial Goddess that actually wins her battles, but her harem that fights for her."

Asmodeus growled and reached to attack, but Lucy beat him to it. She moved so fast, even he didn't detect it until he saw her whip wrap itself around his stomach.

"I fight WITH my friends, they don't fight FOR me," she growled out, using her whip to lift the man off the ground and throw him into the wall. She went back to wrap around him again, but he was gone.

After using his Soru technique to avoid the whip, he quickly followed up with a kick, yelling out, "Rankyaku". His kick was so powerful it knocked Lucy completely across the room, however, before she hit the ground, Asmodeus was there, catching her and gently setting her on the ground.

She sent her whip back towards Troy, but he mirrored the attack, sending the whip flying back in her direction where it wrapped around Asmodeus, before he sent another kick in her direction, this time sending both of them flying, hitting the ground hard, since Asmodeus's wings were trapped by the whip.

Lucy recoiled her whip from around Asmodeus, trying to figure out a plan of attack. The mirrors were definitely going to get in her way, and she needed a way to get to him without him sending it straight back at her. Suddenly, she came up with a plan.

"Open, Gate of the Maiden, Virgo!" She called out, holding out the proper key. The pink haired maid appeared quickly, already understanding Lucy's plan.

Asmodeus smirked. Most Celestial Wizards forgot about all of their other spirits once they had one of the Seven Princes contracted to them, but not Lucy. She had contracts with all seven, and she continued to call all of her spirits, not just them.

"Don't you get it? It doesn't matter how many people you have at your beck and call, although I don't understand how you make them appear out of nowhere, but that doesn't really matter, because you still won't be able to touch me," he smirked at them.

"Foolish man, mirrors can break," Asmodeus called, launching himself towards the man.

Troy sent out another kick, knocking Lucy back again, although he wasn't sure where the pink haired woman had gone, it seemed she had disappeared just as quickly as he appeared.

Asmodeus went against his instincts to go assist Lucy, knowing that it was what Troy expected and knowing that she would be fine, she wanted him to do this.

"Daggers of Darkness," Asmodeus called. The two daggers he was holding were encompassed in his darkness, and he quickly slashed them across the mirrors in front of him, breaking them and allowing the darkness to seep between the cracks of the broken glass. Then, with a punch, he broke through the mirror knocking Troy back.

Virgo came out from her tunnel in the ground, wrapping her chains around him to hold him in place, Asmodeus using his darkness to fortify their hold on the man, not allowing him to move. Then, he turned to smirk at Lucy, who had risen from the rubble of the fallen wall she had plowed into after Troy's last kick.

"It seems your signature attack is that kick of yours, pretty impressive, I must admit," she smirked, walking towards him, "But haven't you ever heard of the infamous Lucy Kick?"

She lifted her foot up, and kicked him in the face as hard as she could, sending him flying through walls, before cracking her whip, wrapping it around him, and throwing him back to the ground, unconscious and beaten. She walked over to him, taking the key from the necklace hanging around his neck before turning to Asmodeus and Virgo.

"Thank you so much for the help guys, I don't know what I would do without you," she smiled happily.

"If that is all, I will return to the Spirit World, unless you wish to punish me," Virgo said, bowing to Lucy.

"No, no punishment Virgo, you know that, and thank you again," Lucy smiled, watcher her friend return to her world before turning her attention to Asmodeus.

"It is I that doesn't know what I would do without you, Goddess," Asmodeus said, smirking down at Lucy, who rolled her eyes.

"You'd be doing the same thing you've been doing for the last few centuries," she giggled.

"They were quite boring, you've brought some much-needed entertainment, and love, into our lives, and for that we owe you an enormous debt," Asmodeus said seriously, the flirtation gone from his voice. "I will return now, but don't hesitate to call on me again, promise me."

Lucy smiled softly at the spirit, "I promise."

He smiled gently in return, before smirking and planting a kiss on her shoulder right before disappearing back to the spirit world.

She sighed, smiling, "What am I going to do with them?"

~.~.~

Zoro and Gajeel made their way down through the building, with Gajeel having to keep Zoro on the right path. They came face to face with Kaku and another CP9 agent neither recognized. Zoro took out his swords, going to fight Kaku as they moved to another room.

"So there are more of you bastards than we thought," Gajeel said, not entirely surprised. He didn't expect a government agency to NOT have hidden members throughout the building. After all, Fairy Tail had enough dealings with the Magic Council to know that governments almost always had something up their sleeves.

The man they didn't know, who was wearing almost all red, said to them, "Of course, as if we would let some wannabe pirates who think they're tough know the full might of CP9."

"You might want to watch what you say about us," Gajeel growled, "Cause if there's anything we're not, it's wannabes. You'll live longer if you learn not to underestimate us."

"You don't even have a bounty, and yet I'm not supposed to underestimate you? Don't be ridiculous," the man laughed.

"Gihi, well, at some point in their lives, all pirates had a bounty of 0, the name's Black Steel Gajeel Redfox, pleasure to meet you," Gajeel grinned wickedly, before sticking out his arm, "Iron Dragon's Sword!"

Gajeel's arm, now a sword, swung over towards the man in front of him, but when it hit him, his arm was stopped in its tracks. The man in front of him had turned that part of his body into a ruby gem.

"The power of the Gem Gem Fruit: Model Ruby. Did you know that rubies are one of the hardest gems in the world, they're not very easy to break. That combined with my iron body technique, makes my body almost impossible to harm," the man smirked, "The name is Red, not that it'll matter, you'll be in cuffs soon anyways, and then we'll get to find out how you lot have powers and can still swim."

"Even if you were to somehow capture me, you'd never be able to get that information out of me, I'd die before I told you anything," Gajeel growled out.

Red glared at Gajeel before yelling out, "Ruby Ruby Fist!", transforming his arm into ruby and punching out at Gajeel, hitting him in the face and knocking him back several feet. When he had regained his balance, Gajeel quickly sent a roar back towards him, only for the metal shards to be shot back in various directions, not even nicking his body.

"Ruby Ruby Kick!" Red said, sending a kick in Gajeel's direction, but he was able to quickly dodge the limb, jumping backwards and assessing the situation. Ruby was hard to cut, usually requiring lasers, so Gajeel would just have to get creative.

"Iron Dragon's Hammer!" Gajeel yelled, jumping straight above red and knocking out the ceiling, allowing the pieces to fall on him before slamming his hammer into Red's head. Even though the blow didn't chip him, it did send him flying to the side into one of the wall's surrounding them.

The man got up from the rubble, returning his body to normal, "Didn't I already tell you? With my ruby body combined with my Iron Body technique, you can't even hope to scratch me."

Gajeel growled as the man sent another of his ruby punches towards him, before smirking. The fist collided with his chest only to fall back down, not leaving a scratch. When Red looked at Gajeel, he noticed metal covering his body, almost resembling scales.

"You call that an Iron Body?" Gajeel grinned, "That's not even close."

The two men began trading more blows, sometimes managing to knock the other back into the decimated walls, other times only managing contact. However, neither man was able to do any actual damage to the other.

Red decided it was time to take things up a notch, sending a finger pistol into Gajeel's scales, so quickly he didn't have time to relax, leaving him with several small holes in his stomach area. Gajeel growled, not having expected the change in attacks. Red had seemed like a man who relied only on his fists and his ability to harden himself against attacks.

Luckily for him, though, he had his own secret weapons. Allowing shadows to slip into his scales, Gajeel smirked, letting his body turn into his Iron Shadow Dragon form, "Now we're finally talking. No more of this nice guy bullshit."

Red's face blanched as he watched the shadows encompass the man in front of him, his eyes glowing purple. He didn't know what was happening, it seemed that the man's attacks were based in metal, but, this was something else, although he didn't know exactly what it was. Devil fruits were only supposed to have one ability, and thus, devil fruits based in elements only included that one element. He knew the devil fruits that those marked with that strange symbol were different, but how different were they?

"Gihi," his laugh came out even more malicious that he previous ones, "Let's see how well your Iron Body holds up against an Iron Shadow Dragon."

An attack similar to the metal club that Gajeel had thrown his way numerous times in this fight came towards him, and he steeled himself to wait for the attack. This time, though, it was different, it was darker and there were things that looked like shadows surrounding the club. The attack managed to not only knock him back, but to leave cracks in his ruby body.

Red narrowed his eyes, he needed to step it up. He ran towards Gajeel, using several finger pistols on him, but not to much avail, as they didn't manage to break through the newly fortified scales on his body. He kicked back, and sent a Ruby Ruby Kick towards Gajeel, this time with the addition of his Rankyaku technique. The kick managed to crack and break some of Gajeel's scales, sending him flying back, but he quickly got up.

"Iron Shadow Dragon's Roar!" Gajeel yelled, and the projectile metal flew towards him, along with the addition of what he assumed were shadows, and knocked him back, sending cracks all over his body with the pieces flying off and hitting him almost everywhere on his body. When the attack finally stopped, he had to turn his body back to flesh, scared that the ruby would shatter and break into a million pieces.

Red tried to get in one more attack on Gajeel, but he had disappeared, only to reappear behind him, half of his body encased in the shadows of the building, causing Red's eyes to bulge out of his head.

"My name's Black Steel Gajeel, and you damn sure won't forget it," Gajeel growled, sending his iron and shadow encased fist straight into Red's face.

Gajeel came out of the shadows, allowing his scales to release, and poked at some of the holes in his chest from Red's attack, "He wasn't as much of a pushover as I thought he was gonna be."

He winced slightly at the holes, but didn't give himself much time to linger, quickly grabbing the key and using his nose to guide himself to where Robin was. If he had to be in another world, again, at least he could be satisfied that he got some decent fights out of it.

~.~.~

Chopper and Natsu made their way through the large building, using their noses as a guide to try to find some opponents to get keys from to go save Robin. Natsu was so excited that he kept lighting himself on fire, putting them down, and then bursting into flames again. Chopper was slightly concerned, as he had never actually seen Natsu this excited, although he supposed that was to be expected. He didn't think he had ever seen Natsu really fighting before.

They came face to face with two CP9 agents and Natsu turned to one of them, sniffing the air a few times, "You smell like Gajeel, except without the blood."

The man scrunched his nose up, wondering what he meant both about his smell, and whoever 'Gajeel's' smell, whoever that was, and why he smelled like blood.

Chopped had already run off to fight the other man, who Natsu hadn't paid enough attention to, too busy paying attention to the man in front of him, moving closer and sniffing him more. The man started swatting at him, trying to get him to back up, before Natsu spoke, "Do you have some kind of metal ability?"

The man narrowed his eyes at him, "Yes, my name is Wieland and I ate the Metal Metal Fruit, Model Steel, how did you know?"

"Because you smell like Gajeel, and he's the Iron Dragon Slayer," Natsu said, grinning happily.

"Right, and you are?" The man in front of him narrowed his eyes, recognizing the mark on his arm, but not believing that he could be from the supposedly fearsome group of individuals with special devil fruit powers.

"My name's Natsu Dragneel, and I'm the Salamander, at least that's what they called me back home," Natsu grinned.

"Where is back home?" the man pressed, trying to get some information out of him. The guy seemed naive enough that he might be able to get something out of him without even needing to fight him.

"I don't think I'm supposed to talk about that, besides, I need the key around your neck, which means we get to fight, and I haven't had a good fight in a long time, so I'm all fired up," Natsu grinned happily, his fist going up in flames as he punched it into his hands.

The man's eyes widened as he saw the fire, seeing why these devil fruits were so interesting. He knew for a fact that Fire Fist Ace had the Flame Flame Fruit, and yet here was a fire ability, right in front of him.

"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" Natsu yelled, sending a flaming fist at the man, who quickly transformed his body into steel. Natsu's fist punched the empty air where Wieland had been standing. He quickly turned to where the man had suddenly appeared. He again tried to attack the man, but again only managed to punch the air where he had once been.

"Would you stop doing that?" Natsu pouted, not liking the way that Wieland kept dodging his attacks.

"Not a fan of my Shave technique then?" Wieland smirked.

Natsu decided to settle down and take things seriously, deciding to blow a fire dragon's roar in Wieldand's direction, and when Wieland disappeared and moved to the right, Natsu followed him with his mouth, allowing the flames to engulf the man, who turned his body to steel.

Natsu frowned, he had managed to land his roar on the man, but it didn't cause much damage to him once he turned his body to steel. He watched as Wieland smirked at him and then sent a powerful kick in his direction, knocking him backwards. Natsu quickly used his hands flip backwards and then used his feet to bounce off the walls and straight towards Wieland, setting his body on fire and yelling "Fire Dragon's Sword Horn."

Again Wieland used his Shave technique to quickly dodge out of the way, watching as Natsu head butted the wall, falling onto his back with a pained groan. Natsu hopped back up, using his Fire Dragon's Wing Attack and managing to encompass the man in flames, but once again, the flames didn't manage to cause any real harm to him.

Wieland moved to right in front of him, using his finger pistol techniques several times around Natsu's body, before quickly moving out of the way again as Natsu sent another fiery fist in the direction of his head. They continued to go back and forth, with Wieland dodging most of Natsu's attacks and using his steel body to defend himself from the rest of his attacks. Natsu continued to get kicked, thrown into various parts of the room and stabbed with Wieland's finger, before he finally got up from the rubble of the wall he had just been thrown into.

"Damn it! This is getting boring," Natsu complained, "Guess I can't hold back anymore."

Wieland looked on confused and Natsu began stretching, listening to his small complaints about the fight being boring.

"I have to give it to you, your steel body thing is really strong and the way you move around so fast is so cool, but no metal is harder to break than Gajeel's, trust me I'm the one who broke it. I wasn't expecting to have to go all out for this, but I'm happy I can, 'cause I'm all fired up now," Natsu grinned at him, his body bursting into flames, and Wieland watched with wide eyes as sparks started coming off of him as well.

"Lighting Fire Dragon's Roar!" Natsu yelled, and Wieland quickly used his Shave to move out of the way, but the attack followed him, crashing down on him.

'Lightning... damn,' Wieland thought, realizing belatedly what that meant to a body made of iron. The attacks, especially long-range attacks, would be attracted to his metal, but his regular body wouldn't be able to withstand most of the attacks.

Natsu smirked, remembering his and Gajeel's fight with Laxus and how Gajeel was able to attract the lightning attacks to himself using his metal. Maybe there was something good out of knowing the metal head.

Cracking his knuckles, he continued to throw long-ranged attacks towards Wieland, who did his best to dodge and defend himself from them. Wieland also threw attacks towards Natsu, his kicks, and steel fortified finger pistols being his two primary attacks.

Finally, Natsu decided he had already lost too much time, and although the fight was fun, he needed to go help save Robin. He raised his hands above his head and yelled, "With the flames of my right hand, and the flames of my left, put them together and this is what you get! Lightning Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!"

Two large balls of fire and lightning formed in both hands and when he slammed his hands down together, the two balls combined and flew straight at Wieland, and although he dodged out of the way, it followed him and slammed straight down on him, knocking him out before he even had a chance to react.

Natsu was panting as he approached him, kicking him lightly to make sure he really was unconscious. He reached down and grabbed the key around his neck and then ran off to find Robin.

~.~.~

Everyone stopped as they heard Robin's warning over the loud speaker, now knowing that a Buster Call was headed to Enies Lobby and would be there in under an hour. The Straw Hats either continued their fights with the CP9 agents or headed towards the Gates of Justice with their keys to try to unlock her cuffs and set her free.

Most of the Earthlanders arrived just in time to see Sogeking begin attacking Spandam and the Marines waiting to transfer Robin. They looked on as Franky was able to free Robin from her cuffs, cheering violently in happiness. However, right after Robin took out Spandam, the Buster Call arrived through the Gates of Justice.

In the midst of Luffy and Lucci's fight, Franky and Robin manage to steal Spandam's escape ship, and the Earthlanders and the remainder of the Straw Hats all join them on board, watching and waiting for Luffy's fight to come to an end. The Marines that came during the Buster Call turned their attention to the ship, determined to capture Robin and the remainder of the crew, hopefully alive so they could question them.

Makarov stood from where he had been sitting against the side of the ship, deciding it was time for him to make himself known in this world. After all, he was renowned in his own world, being a Wizard Saint, he may as well be infamous in this world. He looked at the crew, "Allow me to begin this fight."

He steadily walked in the direction of the Marines' ships, growing larger and glowing more with each step he took. He held his hands out in front of him, continuing to grow and beginning to float into the air, "You have threatened the lives of my children, and that is an unforgivable act in my eyes, I will give you three seconds to surrender and allow us to pass. Three."

The Marines watched as the tiny little man they had barely noticed before grew larger and larger, the strange light in his hand growing brighter and larger along with him.

"Two."

The Straw Hats that were not from Fairy Tail watched curiously, wondering what magic Makarov was going to use, most of them having never seen Makarov in battle before, only knowing of his status in Earthland.

"One."

As he counted off the final number, the ball of energy in his hands grew impossibly bright, and the air around him seemed to tremble as Makarov spoke his final words, "Fairy Law."

The light exploded outwards, in all directions, followed by gusts of winds and a pressure that no one except the mages present recognized. It fell over everything in the vicinity, and the Marines thought he was insane, expecting that the attack would also harm the members of his own crew. However, as building crumbled and Marines began dropping like flies, their eyes widened when the members of the Straw Hat Pirates remained completely unharmed.

One of the Vice Admirals present was in awe, watching as his men fell one by one, wondering how the little old man had managed to spare the members of his crew, when the attack clearly should have harmed them. He thought the attack felt almost like Conqueror's Haki, but if it was, this man had an insane amount of control over it, and even besides that, this felt more powerful than even that. Looking over the Straw Hats, he saw that even most of them looked astonished at the attack, as if they were just as surprised as he was.

"So that's Fairy Law," Cobra whispered, astonished, although he wouldn't admit it.

"What?" Zoro asked, looking over at the dragon slayer.

It was Sting who answered, his eyes wide, "Fairy Law, it's said to be one of the most powerful spells in our world, only a few can master it, and it is rarely used."

Franky couldn't help but overhearing the conversation, wondering what they were talking about, spells, our world? What did it all mean?

"Well, we have two masters of it on this ship," Lucy said, looking slyly up at Laxus.

"Shut it, Blondie," Laxus glared half-heartedly at her.

The Marines watched as the old man reverted to his regular size, a harsh look on his face as an innocent looking girl came up next to him.

"Mira, I trust you can take it from here," Makarov said, looking at the usually happy girl.

Her face was as hard as his, and she looked down at him, nodding, "It's been a while since I've fought like this, so I may be a bit out of practice, but I'll manage."

"I give you permission to use that form," Makarov said, looking at her, before turning his back on the Marines and walking back to the remainder of the crew.

"Are you sure that's a good idea, Gramps?" Laxus asked, looking down at his grandfather.

"Yes," was all Makarov said.

Mirajane looked over to the Marines, before yelling out, "Take Over Magic: Satan Soul: Halphas!"

Before their eyes, her entire body changed, sky blue wings and a tail of the same color sprouted out, her outfit changing into a revealing blue one piece, her arms and legs being covered in scales the same color as her new wings and tail. Horns came out of her head and when she looked up, launching into the air using her wings, her face was so dark and angry that it caused several of the Marines still standing after Makarov's attack to take a few steps back.

"Cosmic Beam," she said, holding her hand out in front of her as purple and blue energy began whirling into a vortex in front of her. She pulled her arm back before blasting the energy straight towards the Marines' ships, followed by several pink colored projectiles of energy, destroying most of the ships and the remaining Marines. Had they been on land, it most likely would have left behind an enormous crater.

Mira turned her head back to the bewildered crew and said, "Let's do this for Robin!"

She then flew off to fight the remaining Marines, followed by the majority of the crew and they began their battles with the Marines. The Marines did their best to fight back, holding their own through sheer number, but they continued to watch in awe at the abilities of the pirates.

They watched as the red-head, who they heard the pierced man refer to as Titania, changed out her clothes and weapons almost effortlessly as she fought with the Marines, each change apparently bringing some sort of new ability.

The blonde and black haired pair were fighting together perfectly, pulling and pushing in unison, and sending off beams of light and dark. The Vice Admirals knew that Admiral Kizaru had eaten the Logia Devil fruit for light, and were thus surprised when they saw the blonde firing off attacks so similar to Kizaru's.

Even more surprising was the little blue haired girl, being carried through the air by a flying cat of all things, like a few of the others present there. The girl was sending gushes of air throughout the area, knocking men around left and right. There were other times when she chanted things out and then her allies were suddenly faster and stronger than before.

As the Vice Admirals looked around, they noticed quite a few of those little flying cats, carrying some of the pirates around as they attacked, lifting them away from danger, and giving them the distance they needed to make long-distance attacks.

It was like nothing they had ever seen before, each of them fighting so hard and so completely just to save one woman's life. They then watched as Luffy fell over, and Sogeking took off his mask to encourage Luffy to keep going. The Straw Hats echoed his encouragement, watching as Luffy got up to continue his fight. Luffy was finally able to defeat Lucci. The Marines begin to move towards Luffy, aware that he can't move, and then destroy the escort ship they were going to use to escape, essentially trapping the Straw Hats in Enies Lobby.

That was when Usopp told them he heard a voice and encouraged them to jump into the sea, they all began hearing the mysterious voice, and listened to Usopp, jumping into the waters, with Robin helping Luffy to get away from the Marines and into the water. However, instead of falling into the sea, they landed on the deck of a ship, the Going Merry.

The crew began to cry in happiness that their beloved ship had come to save them, and once everyone had safely made it on board, they began to make their way away from Enies Lobby. However, they weren't alone. Following them were several Marine ships, hoping to stop them from leaving by firing cannonballs towards them. The crew managed to keep the cannonballs from causing too much damage, when Lucy decided it was time to reveal one of her greatest weapons on the sea.

"Here's to hoping she doesn't kill us in the process," Lucy said, making a quick sign of the cross, causing to Franky to look at her with a funny look. She took out a key and said, "Open, Gate of the Water Bearer: Aquarius!"

The mermaid came out of the light, looking extremely annoyed, until she took in Lucy's state and the circumstances they were in.

Lucy looked at her oldest spirit with big eyes, asking, "Please, help us, we need to get out of here to save our friend."

Aquarius's face softened just slightly before she rolled her eyes, "I guess I can help you just this once, but after this I'm going on a vacation with my boyfriend, and you better NOT interrupt us!"

Lucy almost cried in happiness when her spirit turned around and lifted up her urn, taking the waters around them under her control, and propelled the Going Merry forward and out of harm's way, pushing the Marines' ships back in the process, shocking the Marines and pirates present. It was a powerful wave that carried the Going Merry for a long time.

"Now, I'm going back, and remember, Scorpio and I are going on vacation," Aquarius said, scowling down at Lucy, "And I swear, girl, make sure you stay safe."

Lucy could have sworn she heard a softness in Aquarius's voice as she disappeared with her last few words, but Aquarius would never admit it.

Aokiji arrived at the island to see Lucy's last attack, the blue mermaid sending them all flying back, and he looked around at the damage to Enies Lobby, and the dozens, if not hundreds, of injured Marines lying unconscious throughout it.

"Just who are these Straw Hats, and what do we do with them?" He questioned, coming to the conclusion that the World Government had completely lost this battle.

~.~.~

Now on the open sea and on their way back to Water 7, the Straw Hats and their guests relaxed a bit, finally free from Enies Lobby.

"So that's Aquarius, huh?" Zoro asked sitting next to Lucy on the deck.

She hummed an affirmation and smiled at Chopper as he shivered slightly, "I understand why Happy and Natsu are so scared of her now."

Lucy chuckled slightly, "Well, she can be a bit rough around the edges, but I know that she cares..."

Gray walked over towards Robin, nudging her slightly with his shoulder, a small smile on his face, "We told you we would take care of you, didn't we?"

She smiled softly, "Yes I suppose you did. I just, find it hard to believe I suppose, everyone's always left me."

Gray frowned at her, forcing her to look him in the eyes, "We never leave one of our own, and we never let them leave us, at least, not without good reason."

Tears formed in Robin's eyes as she uncharacteristically rushed forward to hug Gray, arms going around his naked back, as he had lost his shirt during the battle and never bothered to find it. He stood shocked for a moment, before smiling and wrapping his own arms around the girl.

"Shhh, don't cry, it's gonna be okay, you're safe now," Gray said softly.

Sanji, noticing the hug, wanted to hug Robin too, and took a mostly unwilling Nami over to them hugging both girls tightly to him, hearts in his eyes. He was soon joined in his hug by an energetic Luffy, thinking it was a group hug free for all, which caused Sting, Lector, Happy, and Natsu to jump in, Sting dragging Rogue and Frosh in with him. Wendy noticed the hug and happily went over to join with Carla, who for once didn't make a comment. Pantherlily went in with Carla, dragging Gajeel behind him. Chopper noticed the commotion and went over to join in, followed by Lucy, who dragged Zoro, Laxus, and Cobra in, mostly against their wishes, although, they didn't really complain that much. Erza and Mira came over to join the love fest, as well, and Makarov turned to Franky and Usopp happily.

"Well, aren't you going to join in? We couldn't have won this battle without either of you," he said.

"Neither of us are technically part of the crew," Usopp said sadly.

"Worry about such trivial technicalities later, for now, just rejoice in our victory," Makarov said, giving a 'light' tap on boy boys to make them join in the hug, before jumping onto Mira to join in himself.

For now, at least, they were all together, and they were all happy.

~.~.~

The next few days passed by quickly, with Iceburg happily congratulating them on their victory, and the whole town celebrating the fact that they had managed to defeat the people who tried to kill their beloved mayor.

They began preparations for a new ship, which was currently being built, courtesy of Franky, had their wounds treated and were mostly on their way to recovery after Wendy and Chopper's ministrations, and were busy relaxing and enjoying the time they had left on Water 7. That is, until a giant fist interrupted their calm.

"What?! This is your grandfather?!" practically the entire crew yelled when the Navy Vice Admiral Monkey D. Garp came knocking on their door, or more accurately, knocking out their wall.

"I'm afraid I don't see the significance," Lucy whispered to Robin, holding Natsu back by his scarf as he tried to challenge the Marine to a fight after seeing how hard he hit Luffy. She noticed Nami holding Sting back in a similar way, shaking her head.

"Garp is the man that caught the previous King of the Pirates, Gol D. Roger, and is thus a very respected and renowned member of the Marines," Robin said.

"And yet he treats his grandson like that?" Lucy said, bewildered at Garp's particular brand of 'tough love'.

It was then that Luffy's lineage was revealed further, and luckily for the Earthlanders, even Luffy wasn't aware of the significance of who Luffy's father was, leading to Robin giving them an explanation. The significance still passed right over Luffy's head, as it did with Natsu and Sting as well, but the others understood fairly well.

Luffy and Zoro caught up with some old friends, or acquaintances, before Garp had to ask the question of who exactly the members of Luffy's crew were.

Luffy stared at him blankly, and the Straw Hats were all fairly worried that Luffy's loose mouth would be like Garp's and he would reveal their secret without a second thought, but all Luffy said was, "They're my friends. What else would they be?"

The Straw Hats visibly sagged in relief, something that didn't go unnoticed by Garp, but as he kept pestering Luffy and the others about it, he quickly realized he wouldn't be able to get any straight answers.

"Well, Luffy, I won't arrest you today, seeing as this is the first time I've seen you in a long while, and even the Navy has to respect family loyalty, at least to a certain extent. But I do need to tell you, having those 'Fairy Tale' people on your crew, whatever 'Fairy Tale' means, is making the bounty on your crew rise. The government wants to know who they are, where they come from, and how they got their abilities, which means they'll be hunting you now more than ever, especially after you stupidly attacked Enies Lobby like that," Garp said.

"Like I care, they're my friends, and we'll always fight to protect our friends, that's what friends do," Luffy said, his simplistic attitude about the implications of the Earthlanders being on his crew causing the Straw Hats to both roll their eyes in exasperation and smile in affection.

Garp sighed, shaking his head, but didn't say anything more, knowing that it would be pointless. He took his two trainees and left the Straw Hats in peace, at least for now, anyways.

~.~.~

Aokiji wasn't exactly looking forward to this meeting. It comprised of the Fleet Admiral, the three Admirals, Smoker, as he was the only Marine that had had many dealings with the Straw Hats, some of the Marines that had been present at the fight, and a few of the defeated CP9 agents.

Sengoku sighed as he began the meeting, "So, did we manage to learn anything new about the Straw Hats during this... unfortunate ordeal, specifically the ones with the strange mark on them."

One of the CP9 agents began explaining to them what Robin had said about experimental, manufactured devil fruits that gave them the abilities without the drawbacks.

"Do you actually believe that? Devil fruits are naturally occurring, you can't just make one," Akainu said.

"Well, Vegapunk is studying devil fruits, and he's made some discoveries we didn't think were possible before, like merging a devil fruit with an object. Who's to say that others out there aren't researching devil fruits as well?" Sengoku sighed. "Do we have any reason to believe that Robin would lie?"

Aokiji spoke for this part, "Well, it could honestly be one of two ways. She could have been telling the truth in a desperate attempt to discourage the Buster Call, but she also could have been lying to protect them, it's difficult to say, especially since we don't have one of them."

"If it was a lie, though, it was definitely agreed on by all of them," one of the female CP9 agents said, "I fought one of them, his name was Cobra, and he said that seven of the members had eaten a mutant mythical zoan type devil fruit, dragon versions. Each has an element, and they have the ability to absorb or eat their elements for power. The one I fought sucked up poison as if it was his last meal."

They watched as the woman shuddered, remembering her fight.

"Which ones could they be though?" Kizaru stated.

One of the CP9 members spoke up, "Actually the guy I fought always yelled out Iron Dragon before each of his attacks, his name was Black Steel Gajeel Redfox."

"The guy I fought always said Fire Dragon, his name was Natsu Dragneel, and he said some people knew him as the Salamander," another one spoke up.

Soon they had a list of seven names, who they had decided had eaten this mythical zoan type devil fruit. This then left them to question what other devil fruits had been eaten.

"Well, the white haired girl, she yelled out Satan Soul," a one of the Marines that had been there that day said, "Maybe her devil fruit is another mythical zoan, with some kind of demon, I heard someone call her the She Demon."

"I don't know what the red-head's power was, but she was terrifying, that Gajeel dude called her Titania, and I can't help but feel like It's a fitting title," one said.

They continued discussing the abilities of the various different members of the crew had, coming to a conclusion of who were the "fairy" members, as they had decided to call them, and who weren't.

"Regardless of what kinds of devil fruits the have eaten, or whether or not they are the 'fairy' members, the entirety of the Straw Hat Crew are now enemies of the World Government, and they must be treated as such," Sengoku said. "Their new bounties will be released tomorrow."

With that, he got up and left, thinking of all the strange abilities that had been shared in the room, and how they still knew so little about this group of 'fairies'. He had a feeling of dread in his stomach, suspecting that they had barely scratched the surface of the strength of the various members of the Straw Hat Crew.

~.~.~

As Sengoku had announced, the Straw Hats' bounties were posted the next day, and thus, the Straw Hats gathered around the stack to compare and giggle at the bounty papers before them, brought to them by none other than the Franky Family.

The first and highest, was, of course, Luffy, being their captain. His smiling face and peace sign didn't seem like it belonged on a bounty, but the number there was certainly large enough to indicate a danger to society, having risen to 300 million.

After that, receiving his first bounty and surprisingly passing up the first mate was Makarov. Someone had somehow managed to snap a picture of him in his titan form, holding the ball of light known as Fairy Law in his hands. In big letters, his name "Titan Makarov Dreyar" was listed at the top of the sheet, and at the bottom, his bounty read 250 million belis, an extremely high first bounty.

Following his was the first mate's, and Zoro couldn't even be upset that Makarov had passed him up after seeing him in action, even if it was only for a few minutes. Besides, his bounty had still risen significantly, placing him at 200 million. He suspected that if the Earthlanders weren't part of their crew, it might have been a little lower than that, but their presence made him more dangerous by association with an unknown danger.

No one was surprised to see "Living Lightning Laxus Dreyar" as the next bounty in the stack, the government using the same picture as before, and Laxus still wondered who and when someone had managed to snap a picture of him like that. His bounty had risen to 200 million he saw, and he smirked over at Zoro, who smirked back at him. The number two on the crew and the number two in the guild, how fitting.

Next was Lucy's bounty, keeping her name "Celestial Goddess Lucy Heartfilia", and also keeping the picture they had taken of her for her last bounty, however her bounty had risen to 190 million. She admired how good she looked in the picture, blushing when she saw how close in number her bounty was to Laxus and Zoro's not believing her eyes and attributing it to the fact that she had a bounty before and they still didn't know what her ability really was.

Erza's bounty was next, and she couldn't help smiling proudly when she saw it, even though she really shouldn't be proud of having a high bounty, but for some reason it felt like she had just been promoted to S Class again. Her bounty was high for a first bounty, at 190 million like Lucy, and they had made her name "Titania Erza Scarlet", reminding her of home. However, when her eyes landed on the picture, she blushed as red as her hair when she realized the photoshoot her and Nami had participated in a few days ago had been a ruse to get a picture for her bounty. She was crouching down, wearing her seduction armor and turned around making a sultry face at the camera, holding a sword between her legs. She heard chuckles around her and turned to glare at her comrades, her face and ears still red.

Mira Jane's bounty was next, and the picture couldn't have been more different. She was blushing slightly while smiling innocently at something off camera, tucking a stray hair behind her ear. It looked far too cute and innocent to be on a bounty poster and it was a complete opposite message from the name and number written on the paper. She had the same bounty as Erza and Lucy at 190 million, and her name read "She Demon Mira Jane Strauss". She briefly wondered where they had heard that name or if they had used simply based on the abilities she had shown during the battle. She supposed it didn't matter either way and giggled slightly at how people must really be misjudging the three women based solely on the pictures used in their bounties.

Gajeel smirked when he saw his was next, grinning happily over at Natsu as if to gloat that his bounty was higher on the list than his. His smirk grew even wider as he took in the picture someone had managed to take of him during his battle at CP9, a shit eating, blood thirsty look on his face and his body covered in iron scales. He looked terrifying, and that was just how he liked it. When he saw the name, he was happy that he had given the damn agent his old title, feeling a little more at home as he read, "Black Steel Gajeel Redfox" in bold letters at the top of the page, followed by a bounty of 175 million at the bottom. He was a little put out that the girls' bounties were higher than his, until he thought about how terrifying each could be when angry, Lucy about her spirits, Erza about her cake, and Mira about her bar, and figured that the numbers were fitting.

Natsu smiled happily when he saw his next in the pile and threw a grin back at Gajeel when he saw his bounty was at 175 million beli just like Gajeel's. He then transferred his grin to Gray, happy that his was higher on the list than the Ice Princess. He smiled happily at the bounty, as it wasn't too far below Laxus's, Erza's, and Lucy's and it wasn't below Gajeel's at all, and it was before Gray's. Natsu's picture, however, wasn't nearly as scary as Gajeel's, as his picture was Natsu grinning like an idiot somewhere on Water 7 and not looking very dangerous at all. Still though, Natsu was happy as his read his name, "Salamander Natsu Dragneel." It made him feel like he had a little piece of Igneel with him, now that this entire world would know him as Salamander, his father's legacy, just like Earthland did.

Gray was frustrated that not only was Gajeel's, but Natsu's bounty was before his. However, his mood quickly changed when he saw his bounty come up next, leaving him tied with both rivals at 175 million. He smirked at them both before looking back at his bounty. The picture was of him naked, although they had cropped out the bottom half of his body, showing off his Fairy Tail guild mark, which made him smile. He was in his Ice Make stance, and frost could be seen in the air around him, ice forming on the wall behind him. The name "Ice King Gray Fullbuster" was written at the top and he smirked again, he could live with a title like that.

Cobra's was next, and no one could really say they were surprised, and the one's that were surprised thought that his should have come earlier. After all, most of them knew how Cobra could be during a fight. The picture was terrifying, as expected, with purple fumes coming off of him and forming the shape of a dragon behind him. His skin was covered in purple scales and his grin looked as sadistic as Cobra was. His bounty was 175 million, like the three before him, and his name was "Snake Cobra". He rolled his good eye, wishing he had given them a title like Gajeel and Natsu obviously had.

Rogue ignored Sting's pout when his bounty came after Cobra's, showing his name "Shadow Dragon Rogue Cheney" at the top of the page. His bounty was 150 million, and although he was a bit disappointed it wasn't as high as the other slayers, he could manage, seeing as he didn't really want to have to deal with a fight over who's stronger with the others. The picture was a simple one of him looking away from the camera, shadows were surrounding his him, but his face was blank of emotion, like it usually was, and he could just barely see Frosh in the bottom corner of the picture, which made him smile, happy that his little friend had found a place with him.

Sting's pout disappeared when his bounty came up next. It wasn't as high as the other slayer's, but at least he was tied with Rogue at 150 million, and he figured that the only reason his wasn't as high was because he didn't fight any of the CP9 agents head on. Of course, that had to be the reason, he told himself. He moved his attention to the picture, and smiled proudly. He looked hot. He was wiping something off his face with the back of his hand and smirking at something off camera, his other hand pointing outwards to send off another attack. His name, "White Dragon Sting Eucliffe" wasn't incredibly inventive, but it was the name he went by in Earthland, so he wasn't too put out.

Wendy blushed an alarming shade of red when she saw that her bounty was next. She was expecting to be towards the bottom of the pile, but instead she followed the other slayers with a 100 million beli bounty. The picture, luckily, wasn't too embarrassing, and was her walking through the streets of Water 7, smiling happily, her hair up in a ponytail to avoid the heat. She felt the proud smirks of the other members of the crew on her, and blushed even harder as she read the name they had given her, "Sky Princess Wendy Marvel."

Robin's picture had changed to one of her as an adult now, replacing her childhood photo, and her bounty had risen to 80 million, her name remaining "Devil's Child Nico Robin." She was proud to be wanted for something other than her ability to read poneglyphs, and instead for being a member of the Straw Hat Pirates, her family. It filled her with a warm feeling inside when Gray and the others congratulated her on her new bounty.

Sanji had finally received a bounty, and the crew members couldn't help but snicker when they saw the pitiful sketch he had received for his bounty. His name, "Black Leg Sanji" was written across the top and his bounty of 77 million was written at the bottom. A few of the crew members tried to reassure him that the government would eventually get a better picture and that his bounty would rise with time, but he was too depressed to listen to them.

Next was "Sniper King Sogeking" who had a bounty of 40 million, his masked face staring back at them defiantly. The Straw Hats missed his presence, with the bounty only reminding them of Usopp's place on their crew, but they quickly moved on, hoping that things would smooth out between them before the left the island.

Nami started freaking out when she saw not only that she had gotten a bounty, but that she, like Erza, had been tricked into modeling for her own bounty poster. Her bounty of 16 million and her title "Cat Burglar Nami" seemed to mock her as she shook her head, hoping it was a sick joke, since she had never wanted a bounty in the first place.

Following her, surprisingly, was "Black Panther Pantherlily", his picture showing his battle form as he fought off a Marine at Enies Lobby. His bounty was small compared to the others at 4 million, and he couldn't help but chuckle at the asterisks at the bottom of the page that sometimes his appearance changed to that of a somewhat regular black cat.

The rest of the Exceeds and Chopper seemed to be mistaken for the crew's pets, leaving them all with bounties of 50, which greatly disappointed Chopper, Happy, and Lector, while Frosh didn't seem to care, and Carla was appalled she had one at all. They had given them all their own titles, too, despite he government's belief that they were simply pets. Each paper held a simple picture of each of them, "Fish Lover Happy", "Red Cat Lector", "Frog Enthusiast Frosh", "Lady Carla", and "Cotton Candy Lover Chopper".

That was the end of the bounties, or so they thought. The Franky Family had been watching them nervously, and when the crew finally turned to face them, they began stammering about how they were working hard on the ship and how important Franky was to them before showing them one final bounty poster.

This one was for Franky, showing him angrily shouting and had "Cyborg Franky" listed at the top, his bounty of 50 million scrawled at the bottom. Each of the Straw Hats was surprised, they hadn't meant to drag him into this, and now he was a wanted man.

The Franky Family began begging the Straw Hats to bring Franky with them on their crew, knowing he would be happy on the open sea, with his proudest creation, the ship he was building. Luffy told them that he was already planning on asking him to come with them, causing the two men and two women in front of him to cry out in happiness.

~.~.~

After their bounties were released, the Straw Hats were on a time crunch to get safely off of Water 7. The new ship Franky had made for them was truly impressive, and they asked him to join their crew. It took some... persuasion, but he finally agreed and he hopped on board as they began to leave, all of them knowing that something, or rather someone was missing.

Their thoughts were interrupted, however, when Garp appeared on his Navy ship and began literally throwing cannon balls at them, telling them that now that their bounties had been released, he couldn't get away with just letting them go, no matter that Luffy was his grandson. After some heartfelt words from Usopp on shore, while the Straw Hats were desperately trying to deflect the cannonballs being thrown at them, Luffy grabbed Usopp and dragged him onto their ship, before Franky used what he called a Coup de Burst to propel them away from Garp and his ship into safety.

All together again, the Straw Hats smiled happily, brainstorming names for the ship before deciding on the Thousand Sunny. This would be their new home for the time being, and they couldn't be happier to be all together.

~.~.~

Now that the Straw Hats have made front page news for the second time, the first of course being with their defeat of Crocodile, why don't we take a look at what others think about their activities and bounties.

…

Ace looked at the paper containing his brother's latest exploits, smirking at what he saw. Every single member on his crew, including the little exceeds, had managed to score themselves a bounty. There were a few faces he didn't recognize, but based on their appearance and the little the paper had to say about their abilities, he assumed they were from Earthland. He found the pictures of the girls rather amusing, and he assumed that they were most likely not indicative of either their personalities or their abilities. He knew that his little brother had a strong and loyal crew, and he wondered what kinds of adventures, and troubles, the kid would get up to before he would see him next, hopefully in the New World.

…

On the Whitebeard ship, Whitebeard and his commanders that were present had a good laugh reading through Ace's brother's activities. Whitebeard thought that's what he should expect from anyone Ace considered his brother. The people on his crew seemed interesting as well, although Whitebeard was most interested in the old man. It's not every day that a man his age appeared on the Grand Line out of nowhere and got a bounty like his. He'd need to keep his eye out, he may have some competition in his role of Grandfather of the sea.

His commanders, however, were more enthralled in the three women that had gotten 190 million beli bounties and were drop dead gorgeous to boot. Especially considering none of them really looked like fighters, more like models if anyone asked them, but there had to be a reason for their bounties, so they decided not to underestimate the women, or the men, on the ship, as obviously the men were powerful as well, most of them having bounties exceeding 100 million for their first bounties.

Their minds were all on the cryptic information Ace had given them about his brother's crew not being exactly what it seemed. There really wasn't much information about them except vague descriptions of their abilities and their role in the Enies Lobby incident. They all wondered what exactly Ace had been getting at, but suspected they would find out at another time, their secrets being something that wasn't best shared through something as insecure as a letter or a Den Den Mushi call.

…

Shanks had decided to throw a party in honor of Luffy's success on the Grand Line. Not many pirate captains had the balls to act against the World Government in quite the way that Luffy had, and not many captains had a crew that was willing to do it with him. All of the Red Haired Pirates were proud of the little boy that had grown up to be a fine pirate, and from the looks of it, his crew was nothing to scoff at either.

A few of the crew, Yasopp, Shanks, and Ben being among them, noted that some of the details of the members were a bit vague, and they could tell something else was going on, although they didn't know what. They ignored this though, at least for the time being, and decided to think on it later in favor of celebrating the Straw Hats' success.

~.~.~

I really, truly suck, and I am 100% aware of this, but I made a nice long chapter that I really hope that you enjoy this chapter, I know I said this last time but I'm going to TRY to be better, anyways, please tell me what you think, I love reading your comments! 3