Grand Finale

(Garp POV)

In the land of Wano, inside a forest in the region of Kuri, Garp was sitting with his back against a tree as he caught his breath. It had been a little over a week since his arrival in Wano, but most of his time was spent in avoiding Kaido or Rocks.

He did manage to set off a few explosives that either killed a few pirates or blew up some of Kaido's ships, but he didn't get the chance to take out any of the major players. There were still thousands of prisoners throughout Wano, and though Garp did free hundreds of them, it never seemed like enough.

'When the hell is that brat going to get here?!!' Garp shouted internally when he heard the shouting of approaching men. It was only less than an hour ago when he was in town, and he might have been recognized by a few of the Beast pirates.

Frankly he was a little surprised he had managed to go this long without being found out, but it was still a bummer. After that moron pointed him out, it was like pirates and Cipher Pol agents just appeared out of thin air, all of them rushing to try and take him down.

At first he was thrilled, having all of his punching bags come to him in the droves, but then he spotted the giant figure approaching from the sky off in the distance. If it had just been Kaido, Garp felt he might have been able to stand his ground, but there was little hope of that happening.

Throughout the whole week, never had Kaido or Lin Lin been far off from Rocks. Apparently they weren't taking any chances with Jack, which was fair considering how he could appear almost out of nowhere and ruin someone's day. It was plain creepy.

Now here he was, fleeing once more, keeping ahead of the groups sent out to find his location for the big dogs. Running around a boulder, Garp was a little surprised to see a man in a suit, but it didn't last long before he punched the man's head clean off.

'I hate Cipher Pol!!' Garp thought as he ran past the body and through the trees. He was currently running eastward towards the Flower Capital of Wano, thinking it a good idea to finally get the stupid samurai involved.

In his time freeing people, he had managed to get himself acquainted with a group of people who were planning on taking out the shogun, Orochi Kurozumi. The guy really wasn't liked by anyone except some pirates, but even then that was a bit much.

Most pirates would pay good money to watch the little scum ball suffer, but because of his affiliation with Kaido then he was left alone. Garp figured that Jack would no doubt get rid of him in some excruciating way, so he didn't get too antsy about it. Plus it's not like Kaido was a god or anything.

The people of Wano weren't all weaklings, they just followed weird customs that they would rather follow then fight back. It was all honestly pretty stupid to Garp, but he wasn't about to go out of his way to try and change an entire groups outlook on the world to one that made sense, at least in his eyes.

How people wanted to live their lives was entirely up to them, and if they wanted it this way then they could go and do whatever the hell they wanted. Plus there was the fact that he was a marine who worked for the world government in the past, so he wasn't really one to talk about this sort of thing.

Since his little run in with the Cipher Pol agent, Garp had been running for a good 20 minutes, keeping himself hidden from view. He didn't want to risk using Moonwalk and getting seen by either Kaido or one of his underlings, but it didn't matter too much. The whole point of his being here was to buy Jack and Dragon enough time to get here and take out Rocks.

He had learned that Kaido's men were gearing up to set sail towards the East Blue, while what was left of Big Mom's group would be heading to the West Blue. Their goals were to cause enough chaos to force Jack to split his own forces to go deal with them, while Kaido, Big Mom, and Rocks would all deal with Jack personally by baiting him into a place of their choosing by using the lives of all the hostages they had gathered so far.

Garp knew that Jack wasn't a hero, or at least he never claimed himself to be one, but he wouldn't just sit back and let innocent people be killed for no reason at all, so the plan had a good chance of succeeding if they managed to pull it off.

Sadly they had been having a string of unfortunate events lately, and they just weren't able to set off. Either their hostages escaped, the captains were killed, or the ships blew up. It was a darn shame how those kinds of things happened every now and then.

Thinking he had lost his pursuers, Garp hunkered down in a deep ravine in the region between Udon and Kibi. By now he was sure that both Kaido and Rocks knew he was here, and they would no doubt be sending a lot more of their underlings around this region to try and find him.

Rocks still held a vendetta against him and Rogers for having beaten him in the past, but it was lessened to a certain degree back then because he had still managed to achieve his goal of becoming king of the world.

Had he tried getting his revenge then it would have just sparked a conflict that might have resulted in him being exposed for who he truly was. Garp let himself rest for a good hour, munching on some fruit and some edible brown vegetable things that didn't taste particularly good, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

Just when he was thinking he could just relax for a few hours, he heard a shout from above him. "HE'S HERE!!" The man roared, causing Garp to groan in annoyance. "I fucking hate Cipher Pol!" Garp grumbled aloud, recognizing the man for who he was based on his uniform.

With his cover blown, Garp shot up to the top of the ravine and grabbed the man as he tried to flee. "You couldn't have just kept your mouth shut!! I thought that was all you CP agents were good for!" Garp said right before he snapped the man's neck, killing him instantly.

As the corpse fell to the ground, Garp took a look around him, and he wasn't too thrilled at what he saw. More than half of the Beast Pirates were standing to one side, running around to try and surround him. There were a number of CP agents and some of Big Mom's underlings mixed in as well, but Garp didn't really care about all of them too much. His focus was more on the hulking form of Kaido and the slender man next to him.

"You're just as ugly as the last time I saw you, Rocks!! It's no wonder you kept yourself hidden in the shadows, everyone would have gotten rid of you just so they wouldn't have to see that ugly mug of yours!" Garp shouted across the field, quieting the area down almost instantly.

Rocks didn't seem too impressed by the comment, but Kaido had a slight smirk on his face. He wasn't about to laugh at his captain, but that didn't mean he couldn't appreciate a good joke at his captain's expense.

"Insolent!! You always were a pain in the ass, Garp!! Once I'm through with you, I'm going to take the heads of your son and grandson!! I'll have your three heads mounted on my wall!!" Rocks roared back, not being able to keep a lid on his anger at having seen Garp again.

"My family's got good looks, but I don't think it will be enough to make up for your sorry excuse for a face! That's not even a face a mother could love!!" Garp shouted, enjoying the spike in anger he could see his comment caused from Rocks.

Deciding to push it a little he added, "Is that why you became a pirate?! Your mother didn't love you so you decided to take over the world in the hopes that she would love you again?! Cause that's just sad!!"

The area was deathly quiet now, save for Kaido, who despite being more often than not in a foul mood, couldn't quite control his laughter. He had more often than not thought the same thing when he served under Rocks all of those years ago, so hearing them being voiced was quite hilarious.

"YOU!!" Rocks roared, his hatred practically oozing off of him. Before anyone knew what was happening, Rocks was charging at Garp with his sword ready to strike. Garp was ready for him, and both clashed before anyone could blink.

At a speed that hardly anyone could follow, both Rocks and Garp clashed back and forth, neither gaining ground over the other. It just went to show how monstrous the two individuals were, their blows forcing the people around them to take a few steps back.

For almost ten minutes they were in a constant struggle with neither making any advance over the other, until a crushing force hammered at Garp's mind, forcing him to momentarily pause to combat the attack. Rocks used that moment to slice into Garp's right side. Luckily his Armament Haki was no joke, and it was able to lessen the damage to a certain degree, but the wound was still an inch deep, and it did run a good 7 inches across his torso.

'Damned Redhead wasn't kidding about his Haki!' Garp thought as he distanced himself from Rocks. The wound wouldn't do anything to slow him down, but the bleeding was annoying. Thankfully he had monstrous control over his body thanks to the Rokushiki techniques and he was able to seal the wound in just a few seconds.

Looking at Rocks, Garp could see the confident gleam in his eyes, looking as though he had already won the battle. Garp didn't even have time to think of a response before he felt something inside of him ignite, causing a burning pain that almost doubled him over.

"HAHAHAHA!! YOU FOOL!! Did you honestly think I wouldn't come prepared to deal with you?!!" Rocks said mockingly, acting like some sort of super villain. "DID YOU REALLY THINK YOU COULD STOP ME?! YOU'RE NOTHING!!" Rocks roared with a cruel smile.

Still cackling like a madman, Rocks shot off like a rocket towards Garp, however just as he was about to bring his sword down to deal a lethal strike, a pillar of lightning slammed down on top of him, filling him with an insane amount of volts.

Rocks didn't get the chance to get his bearings before he was kicked in the face and launched back towards Kaido and Big Mom. When the pillar of lightning vanished, a man with platinum blonde hair, bordering on white, was standing with a wicked gleam in his eyes as he surveyed the men surrounding them until they came back to Rocks.

"HE'S THE VANGUARD!!" Luke stated loudly before he swung one of his swords in a wide horizontal arc, sending a wave of lightning to the pirates and CP agents surrounding him. Most of the higher ups were able to either block or get out of the way of the deadly beam, but hundreds of people were brought to their knees in just seconds.

"YOU!!" Rocks shouted as he got back on his feet. He recognized Luke right away, and where he was, Jack and the others weren't far off.

"So you're the douchebag in charge of the dragons! It makes a bit of sense now that I see you. With a face like that it was probably the only thing you could do to stop people from laughing at you!" Luke said, getting a mixture of responses from the people around him.

Kaido still thought it was funny, Rocks was pissed, Garp was chuckling despite the poison flowing through his veins, and Big Mom was seething, though that was probably more to do with her last encounter with Luke than what he said about Rocks.

"It's about time you showed up!! I'm an old man, God damn it!! I shouldn't be out here playing with these idiots!!" Garp said jokingly to Luke, who nodded his head solemnly to him. "Don't worry old timer! Big daddy Luke is here to fix everything!!" Luke said in a mocking tone. "Besides, we had to clean up the filth before I finally found you!" Luke added in a more serious tone.

"Oh yeah? What did you do?" Garp asked, the both of them completely ignoring the people around them. "The others are currently moving through the island, slaughtering every pirate and CP agent! We found a bunch of ships full of chained people, but they're all fine now. We even came across a few thousand people who were part of a resistance or something. Said you helped them. That's how we figured out you were here!" Luke said cheerfully, his words sounding like a nightmare to the people around them.

He had purposely spoken loud enough so that the pirates surrounding them could hear what he was saying, letting them know that they were now up against a monstrous force of their own, rather than just Garp himself.

At the news of Jack and the rest of his force being in Wano, a few of the pirates in the area started to flee, while most of them stayed where they were, knowing they were better off here with Kaido and Big Mom than they were out there on their own against Jack.

Seeing how his plans had all gone to shit, Rocks unleashed his Haki in full, hoping to at least get rid of Luke before Jack arrived. However before his Haki made it even halfway, it met an opposing force, halting it momentarily.

Luke's Haki held out as best as he could, but in the end he felt himself being pushed back by Rocks' own. Sensing his power encompassing Luke's, Rocks began to move forward with a sadistic gleam in his eyes, only to freeze in his tracks as his Haki was completely overtaken by a third party.

The pressure was unlike anyone had ever seen, and all eyes instinctually moved to the sky towards the origin of the terrifying power. Floating in the sky like the God of death himself, was Jack!

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(General POV)

Staring down at the scene before him, Jack couldn't help but frown. The last time he encountered Rocks in the Holy City, he felt a sense of dread, and he could feel that same thing here as well. No matter how he looked at it, he couldn't explain what it was, but it was originating from Rocks himself.

It wasn't the man's Haki, though he did have to admit that it was the most powerful Haki he had ever felt, aside from that of his own. Despite the feeling of dread, Jack made his way down so he was in the middle of the battlefield next to Luke and Garp.

"You look like you've seen better days." Jack commented when he noticed Garp's pale face. "Poison will do that to a man." Garp stated, practically doubled over at this point. Reaching out a hand, Jack rested it on the wound on Garp's side before he sent a pulse of blue and black flames inside the newly opened cut.

He had done this so many times by now with Kureha over the past few months that this was almost nothing for him now. Like a shot of rejuvenation had come forth, Garp's complexion was slowly changing as the black flames devoured the poison, while the blue flames moved about to reinvigorate the cells in Garp's body.

It took less than a minute before Jack removed his hand from what used to be a wound, which now looked like a long faded scar. "You'll need a day or two to be back in peak condition. A lot of your blood was poisoned, so you'll need to build all of that back up, but you should live if nothing else happens." Jack said, giving his two cents before he turned his attention back to the main threat.

"Geez!! I didn't think it was possible, but you're even uglier in person!!" Jack stated, recoiling a bit at Rocks' appearance, causing both Luke and Garp to burst out laughing.

Rocks didn't find his words very amusing, but at least it didn't look like he was going to freak out about it again. Looking out at this ever growing sea of pirates, which by now was well into the thousands, Jack couldn't help but smile. If everyone was here, then the forces moving in around the land of Wano wouldn't have much difficulty in taking out the threats.

"It looks like most everyone is here, so I don't see any point in putting this off any longer!" Jack said, smirking with a mocking smile as he rolled his shoulder, like he was loosening it up for battle.

"You don't really think just the three of you can take us all on, do you?!!" Rocks asked, almost laughing at the statement. Despite being overtaken by Jack's Haki, he still wasn't all that scared of just the three of them, especially not with the force surrounding him.

"Who said there were just the three of us here?" Jack asked, his smile saying all that needed to be said. Sadly, the pirates didn't have enough time to find the others before heavy gunfire sounded out from the skies, causing almost a hundred individuals surrounding Rocks to drop to the ground dead.

A second later and the origin of the gunfire revealed itself to be a giant ship with black sails. The pirates and CP agents on the ground were terrified, though not from the ship itself, but from the people on the ship.

Like beacons of power, Whitebeard, Shanks, Rayleigh, and Dragon were standing in front of the ship, and they were just the most notable of the monsters aboard. Add in the fact that most of Whitebeard's commanders were there, as well as Shanks' three remaining crew members, the Generals of the WMP, the other members of Dark Phoenix, and over a hundred members of the Adventurer's Association, it was a force that could topple the world.

This was just the elite force mind you, as most of the fleet was currently making their way inland after having been dropped off in key locations, but it was still a terrifying force.

"Are you okay to fly?" Jack asked Garp, though the man didn't fully comprehend the question before he was thrown into the sky towards the Pearl, getting caught by Dragon only a second later.

"When this is over, I'll show you just how much love I have for you with my fist!!" Garp bellowed as he shook his fist down towards Jack, promising how he would get back at him. If Sengoku were here, the man would no doubt be praising Jack and laughing his ass off, but sadly he wasn't, though he was mostly likely watching what was going on from the video feed that was taking place just feet away from Garp.

This battle would be the deciding factor for the world, so it was understandable that it was being recorded. Win or lose, the world would know the outcome, and what to expect in the near future.

Turning his attention back to Rocks, Jack smiled broadly at the pissed off look on his face. As if to cement the hatred, figures fell from the sky and landed beside Jack, each of them unleashing their Haki on the surrounding enemies.

"As you can see, the people of this world aren't just going to roll over and let you do whatever you want, regardless of whether or not you brand them as pirates or criminals!!" Jack said loudly, unleashing his Haki to punctuate his words.

There was a moment where no one said a thing, both sides just staring at each other, until finally the signal for battle was given, though surprisingly, or unsurprisingly really, Luke was the one to give it. A bolt of lightning was shot towards Rocks, though he redirected it away from him and into one of Kaido's underlings.

After that bolt was fired, it was like a silent order on both sides was given, and they all began to rush each other. Luke was the first to launch himself off towards the other side of the battlefield, but it was Jack who arrived first, his sword clashing with Rocks' own. The strike was so powerful that it pushed most everyone away from them, but there were still people who were able to withstand such a force.

Big Mom tried to take advantage of Jack being held at bay by Rocks, attacking Jack from the side, but she didn't even get close before she was pushed back by a sword coated in lightning. "Where do you think you're going, bitch?!!" Luke roared as he swung twice in quick succession, forcing Big Mom back a ways.

With only one arm and one eye she had lost a great deal of her previous strength, so Luke alone was able to push her back. Meanwhile Shanks had found Kaido, his anger at having lost his friends just days before unleashed like a nuke.

The area turned into complete and utter chaos in just seconds. Despite the far larger army against them, Jack and his force struck hard, pirates and CP agents dying by the dozens each second, though these ones weren't the weak ones who traveled the Blues. Many of these agents had Devil Fruits, and most of them were trained in at least three of the Rokushiki techniques.

The higher ups in Cipher Pol were relentless as they tried to take out some of the big guns, and a few of the WMP and Adventurer's were killed as well. Dragon tried to lessen the damage, but ultimately he couldn't be everywhere.

Kaido was attacking like a madman, going for anyone around him and not just Shanks. If not for Whitebeard sticking close by then Kaido would have gotten his hands on Ajax, but thankfully he had managed to get out of the way with only a few scrapes.

Big Mom was still locked down in a heated clash with Luke, the man being relentless in his drive to take her out, not giving her a moment to get her bearings. Katakuri had tried to intervene and help his mother, but he was pushed away by people who seemed to appear out of thin air.

First it was Canna, who had almost shot a beam of light right through his skull, then he was blocked by a barrier created by Tashigi, and then others. Each time he found a way to divert their attention to someone else, but it seemed like the second he got rid of someone, another person would take their place.

All he could do was watch as his mother was being pushed further and further, as well as his own brothers and sisters were being killed every minute. The random underlings belonging to his mother's crew dying meant nothing to him, but it pained him to see his family die. Sadly, the unmovable mountain that was his mother was now being chipped away by a monster, and there was nothing he could do about it.

In the sky, Nojiko, Yasopp, and the gunners of the group were taking shots, picking people off seemingly at random, though they were also the eyes in the sky, making sure there was no one who escaped the battle.

Yasopp took an almost sadistic pleasure in ending the lives of Kaido's men, and would even take the occasional shot at the Emperor himself, though was unsuccessful in causing any real harm.

While she did cause quite the damage, Nojiko's main role was to get any injured on their side and bring them back to the ship so Kureha could patch them up. Law would have been better in this situation, but the man was better used in the battlefield, causing untold chaos himself. Being in the mix of things, he could even go about sending the injured around him back to the ship or away from the fighting.

Meanwhile Jack was still going toe-to-toe with Rocks. Their fight had been so extreme that the rest of the battle moved away from them, leaving them to themselves, with the closest people being Kaido, Shanks, and Whitebeard.

Tilting his head to the side, Jack narrowly dodged the tip of the sword in front of him, but he followed through by thrusting his own towards Rocks' heart. Seeing the approaching blade, Rocks jumped back to put some distance between himself and Jack, but Jack was hot on his heels, firing two shots in quick succession.

Rocks was able to dodge one and deflect the other, but the power behind the shot had caught him by surprise, so when he deflected it, the bullet missed anything vital, but it still went through his shoulder. Rather than just a small hole, a fist sized chunk was missing from Rocks' shoulder, eliciting a series of curses from the man.

Seeing as how things weren't going to well with Jack, Rocks decided to use something he had considered a last resort, but to use it he would need to gain a little bit of time, so he began to move their battle towards the main fighting area, hoping to use the people around them as meat shields to slow Jack down. He himself didn't care about friendly fire, but he knew Jack would, so it was one of his only options.

As the battle began to get more heated, a roar from the east garnered most people's attention. When they looked to see what was going on, a group of thousands of pirates and samurai alike were running right towards them, and hot on their heels were WMP soldiers, Adventurers, Samurai, and Whitebeard's allies.

The approaching pirates and samurai were Kaido's and Orochi's underlings, all of them fleeing from the monsters who were hot on their heels. The Samurai with Jack's allies were the ones who were trying to take down Orochi, and it seemed like they figured now was as good a time as any to attack.

The hundreds of people that Garp had freed were in the group as well, each of them out for blood having potentially been used as shields. Kurozumi Orochi was in the lead of his fleeing men, hoping to use them as a shield until he got to Kaido, but when he saw how busy Kaido was with Shanks and Whitebeard, it looked as though all the color had drained from his face.

The same apparently went for his underlings as well, considering how they seemingly all stopped in their tracks at the gruesome scene of battle in front of them. Sadly for them, the soldiers hot on their heels were expecting a scene like this, and took advantage of the situation.

When both forces met, the WMP swept over them like the plague, killing them without mercy. There were screams of people surrendering, but they were drowned out in the fighting and mostly ignored. Pirates never took prisoners, they took torture dummies or slaves, so the soldiers knew they couldn't just surrender to these men, nor would they allow them any salvation in this battle. The fight would determine the fates of the world, and no one wanted to be on the losing side.

With the addition of the pirates and soldiers, the battle took a drastic increase in intensity. The situation turned in Rocks' favor with the influx of Jack's allies, and Rocks used his advantage to keep Jack at bay. Ultimately he steered the fight towards Kaido, using the moment to take a strike at Shanks to pull some attention away from the fight.

Kaido took the moment to try and strike out at Jack as he passed, halting Jack from pursuing Rocks. Whitebeard tried to intervene, but a CP commander pulled his attention away for the moment. Rocks took the opportunity to pull something from inside his pocket and pushed a button. Seeing the item in question, Jack felt a sense of dread from it, and it was then that he realized that it was the source of the creepy feeling he got from Rocks.

He knew that nothing good could come from it, so he tried to get to him, but Kaido kept interfering. After about a minute, something happened that drove Jack to worry, ultimately stopping the battle in its tracks. A spaceship looking thing appeared in the sky, floating above the battlefield.

It's size eclipsed that of even small islands, and Jack had a sinking feeling he knew what it was. 'Uranus...' He thought, a hint of dread washing over him. His dread was only confirmed when Rocks began to cackle like a lunatic, acting as though he had already won the battle.

"HAHAHAHA!!! I WIN!!! URANUS IS IMPERVIOUS TO DEVIL FRUITS, AND IT'S POWER IS UNRIVALLED!!" Rocks roared, sounding as though his victory was assured.

Hearing that and seeing the spaceship, Jack thought quickly on what to do, when a thought struck him. Not having a better idea, and knowing time was of the most importance, he ignored Kaido and shot off into the air faster than the speed of light.

Before anyone knew what happened, Jack was floating only a few feet from the spaceship. He could feel a weird unknown energy gathering around it to counter whatever he was going to do, but he acted quickly and touched the ship, causing it to disappear before everyone's eyes. The whole battlefield was quieter than space itself, while Jack floated alone up in the air.

'Inventory for the win!!' He thought, his smile intensifying by the second as he looked at Rocks' disbelieving look. Everyone else around the battlefield just stared dumbly, not sure if they saw that right. After all, watching something the size of an island just wink out of existence before your very eyes was a little far fetched, even for a Devil Fruit ability, but then again this wasn't even the weirdest thing Jack had done before.

Seeing his final trump card simply disappear all anticlimactically, Rocks was on the edge of no return. His mind spun for ideas on what to do, but ultimately he couldn't think of anything he could do to salvage the situation. Finally he decided to throw away all his plans, and simply cause pain.

Looking towards the man who had caused all of his problems, he thought best how to cause the most pain to him, and his eyes suddenly drifted to the ship with black sails floating in the sky, more exactly towards the obviously pregnant blue-haired woman floating next to it, her eyes glued to Jack.

With his mind made up, Rocks signaled Kaido to transform and follow him, which Kaido did without further delay. In his titanic dragon form he could cause the most destruction, and right now he felt like they needed to cause an immense destruction right now to level the playing field. Regardless of this being the most fun he has had in years, Kaido still hated losing above all else, so he would try and take out anyone he could with him as well.

Seeing Kaido transform into a massive dragon, Jack shot off to make sure he wouldn't decimate his allies on the battlefield, although he did still keep an eye on Rocks. At the moment it looked as though Rocks was trying to lead him into another heavily condensed area of people, so Jack shouted out to Whitebeard to try and hold him off for a few minutes while he fought Kaido.

All he needed to do was get in close enough so he could nullify Kaido's powers, then he could hopefully take him out or sub out with someone so he could take out Rocks, but Kaido must have known that was his plan as he was trying to put some distance between the two.

However Jack's speed was second to none, and it only took a few seconds to catch Kaido, despite all the maneuvering he tried to do. Once he got close enough, Kaido was forcefully reverted back into a human before he engaged in another clash with Jack.

Meanwhile Rocks was hammering it out with Whitebeard, both of them causing their own bouts of chaos. However their fight only lasted a few seconds before Rocks began to create some space between the two of them.

As soon as he noticed Jack was preoccupied with Kaido, he took the chance to burst away from Whitebeard and into the crowd closer to the floating ship, looking like he was just trying to make Whitebeard struggle to not injure his allies.

Once he was finally close enough, Rocks launched himself into the sky towards the blue-haired woman, ready to strike her down for all the world to see. It was only when he got within a few feet of Nojiko that she finally noticed him, but by that point it was already too late for her to do anything, and Rocks smiled triumphantly as he thrust his sword forward, piercing right through the heart, getting a cough and a gurgle of blood spat on his face for his reward.

The whole battle paused as they looked into the sky, the scene shocking everyone to the core. There stood Rocks with a body impaled on his sword, the wound clearly a fatal one that no one would be able to walk away from. The deathly silence lasted for a few moments before the body impaled on the sword finished saying something, followed by a blinding light that covered the area.

"-ha..."

When the light cleared, everyone saw a headless corpse fall to the ground. Coughing out a mouthful of blood, Luke looked over his shoulder at the wide-eyed Nojiko, giving her a smile as he whispered something to her, then closed his eyes as he began to fall, the transformation from Ultra Mode disappearing before everyone's eyes.

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(Luke POV)

A few minutes before, Luke was in a heated clash with Big Mom, seeming as though he was toying with her. Although to be fair, with her missing arm and eye, and him being in Ultra Mode, it was kind of a one sided beatdown.

With his Haki spread out to encompass the whole battle, he watched as Rocks put some distance between Jack and Whitebeard, and seeing the direction he was going, a feeling of horror spread out over Luke. With a sense of urgency, Luke thrust his sword into Big Mom's throat, then kicked her in the side of her head, sending her to the ground.

Without a second to lose, he shot off into the air, forming a sphere of lightning in his palm. He spun it back and forth, mumbling the words in his mind. It was at this moment something in his mind happened, and he saw something he knew, but dreaded.

Most things he did would result in either Nojiko dying, or someone on the Pearl dying. He couldn't find any scenario where he could defend against Rocks without casualties, and so he made up his mind right there. There was no way he was going to let Rocks kill Nojiko, and he would rather die a painful death than let that happen.

He owed Jack, and if his life was how to repay that, then so be it. He took the strike, trying to lessen it with his Haki, but it didn't seem to do anything as the sword struck deeply and he could feel his blood stop pumping.

With all the strength he could muster, he raised his arm towards Rocks' head, before shouting "-HA!" Finishing the line for the signature Kamehameha wave he had been charging up. Sadly, it sounded more like a whisper than what he was trying for, but the end result was still the same. Rocks' head was gone, and his corpse fell to the ground a second later.

Looking over his shoulder at Nojiko, he could see the horror in her eyes, and he could only weakly smile at her. "I was free... I was free..." He said, the words coming out in a whisper. After that, it seemed like all of the strength left his body, and he began to fall. He felt arms catch him, then everything went black!

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(General POV)

Luke's body had only been able to fall a few feet before Nojiko caught it, pulling him back to the ship. "Nononononono! Luke!! NO!!" She screamed as she moved as fast as she could, rushing him to Kureha, who at this point was already waiting at the railing of the ship. It only took her a second to see that he was dead, and with wide eyes she shook her head.

Out of everyone in this battle, if there was someone she thought wouldn't die, it would have been Jack or Luke, yet she couldn't deny the fact that the demon was no more. Tears welled up in her eyes, and Nojiko couldn't stop as she cried like a little girl. She was so distraught, she failed to realize the terrifying force that encompassed the area down below. She sat there holding Luke's body close to her, praying this was just a bad dream.

On the battlefield, a few people were feeling the same as Nojiko, however they dealt with it in a different way. The members of Dark Phoenix were all distraught, but now wasn't the time to grieve. Instead they all directed their anger towards their enemies.

If before they were monsters reaping lives, now they were destruction incarnate. A few members of the WMP went a little mad as well, Luke having been either a good friend of theirs or a mentor. The same could be said about the Adventurer's as well, though Stain was clearly taking it the hardest.

Miniature Nukes were going off all around him as he made people simply disappeared in explosions. He was using his own blood to fuel his rage, which might have some horrifying side effects if he didn't get a handle on it soon.

However the worst person affected by the death, was without question Jack himself. The terrifying pressure came from him, holding most of his enemies on the battlefield in place. There were even a few cases where those under his power straight up died, though he didn't really care about that.

With both arms spread out to either side of him, tears in space opened up, followed by hundreds, if not thousands of shadow arms coming out. Within seconds the shadows were barring down upon the people in the surrounding areas, either ripping them apart, or puncturing them until they bled to death.

There were even a few situations where the shadows penetrated someone, then the next second they would begin to turn inside out, being sucked inside themselves, followed by a rain of blood and gore.

When the shadow arms came for Kaido, he couldn't even fight back as the hands wrapped around him. Whenever he swung his mace at them, the shadows seemed like water where they morphed around his mace before becoming whole again.

Suddenly it was like a blinding pain was shooting through him, and he tried even harder to get away from his bindings, but it was simply useless. He might have an extremely touch exterior, but the shadows were creeping over him, sliding into his clothes and probing his very being.

Some pried at his mouth, and despite how he resisted, it was all inevitable. One way or another, the shadows found their entrance inside of him, and before long he found himself an empty husk. That wasn't to say that his soul was gone, but more like he was a hollowed out corpse. No bones, organs or muscle, simple human skin.

Jack walked through the battlefield with seemingly lifeless eyes, ripping people apart like they were nothing. As he walked, he came upon Big Mom, who was lying on the ground with one of Luke's swords stuck in her throat, but she was still hanging on by a thread. That changed however when Jack pulled the sword out, then severed her in two with it before moving on to the next poor soul.

Before long, Jack made his way to Orochi, who began to beg and plead for his life. However Jack wasn't in any way to listen right now, and upon his command, thousands of tiny shadows buried themselves inside Orochi.

What followed was very similar to what happened with Kaido, only instead of being hollowed out, he had his exterior pulled inside of him, while his interior was moved outside. The shadows worked to make it so it would be the most excruciating thing possible, but the suffering only lasted a few minutes before he died. Still, what might have been a few minutes most likely felt like an eternity before the pain finally ended.

It didn't take much after that for Rocks' remaining forces to be completely overwhelmed and crushed. A few of the enemy samurai were taken prisoner by their own people, although that was only because they believed that even the shadow hand thingy might be a bit cruel for their people, regardless of their crimes.

The Best Pirates and Big Mom Pirates were not given such a luxury however, and they were wiped out to the last man. Big Mom no doubt had some more children back in Totto Land, but they wouldn't be able to form even the most minute resistance against the WMP. As for the Beast Pirates, they were well and truly done. Same went for Cipher Pol. They were all simply gone.

With his rampage over and done with, Jack made his way back to the ship where, his mind almost breaking at seeing Nojiko cradling Luke's corpse in her arms as tears poured down her face. Looking up at him, Nojiko couldn't form any words, simply letting her grief take over. Jack wasn't any better, not being able to form any coherent words as tears streamed down his face.

Eventually he was able to muster up the strength to gather up Luke's corpse and store it away, then took Nojiko into his arms as he went down below deck. He would let Dragon deal with all of the publicity crap, announcing to the world about their victory. Right now he couldn't be bothered to do anything like that, and went down to be with Nojiko.

It wasn't much later that the others showed up in the dining room, all of them looking rather depressed compared to their usual selves. It wasn't just Luke they had lost, a few hundred people having died in the fight. Casualties were lessened due to inference of the stronger combatants, but it still wasn't enough to prevent as many casualties as they had.

Luke's death did hit the hardest, and everyone was in mourning. They had all seen him sacrifice his life for Nojiko, and his final act of taking out Rocks. No one was to blame for it, as it was seemingly unavoidable.

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After the battle which would come to be known as 'The Battle for Dominance', the majority of people headed back home to Foosha. Whitebeard stayed in Wano, helping reinstate the Kozuki family back into the seat of power.

Before the fighting, 2 samurai men and a child had entered Wano and were being shielded by rebels, but now it came into the light that it was actually the son of Oden. Whitebeard had proclaimed that he would train him how to fight, and tell him everything he knew from when Oden had travelled with him, though he wouldn't be staying in Wano and ruling by his side, that would effectively be recreating what Orochi had with Kaido, even if it was attained differently.

One of the two Samurai was outed as a traitor, having attacked one of their allies in plain view during the battle, which was why he wasn't alive now, having been gruesomely torn apart by Jack in his rampage.

When everyone got back to Foosha, things were a bit more quiet than usual, and Jack could make a pretty good guess why. The battle had been broadcasted all over the world, especially here in Foosha. Luke's death had hit most people here pretty hard as well, though it also had to do with the fact that many people lost their loved ones during that battle and were now in mourning.

Luke had helped thousands of people here, and not many people were taking his death very well, especially a certain little cat-girl. Selene had taken the death about the same as Jack, though she hadn't been able to cause the same level of destruction.

Luke was essentially an older brother/father figure for her, and his death had crushed her spirit. She was a small fraction of what she once was, and it was sad to see her in that state. Viola was somewhat the same. She had cried and cried for days, not leaving her room even once.

It wasn't until Jack brought her father and niece to come see her that she finally spoke with someone, though her words shocked a few people. She was apparently pregnant, and not even Luke had known about it when he died.

The news of her being pregnant with Luke's child quickly spread, and the news actually brought Selene out of her depressed state somewhat. She stuck around Viola to an unhealthy degree, almost as if they were attached at the hip, glaring at anyone who came close to her, essentially acting like an overprotective bodyguard.

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Years passed rather quickly after that, and the world went into a great state of change. Guilds sprouted up all over the world, some big, some small, and even some dark. The WMP spread out all over the world in what seemed like a blink of an eye, and a council was formed, though it changed on a regular basis during the voting.

With all of the Blue Sea's connected, the next step was the Grand Line. A Sea Train route was built, going from island to island, though there were quite a number of them that could only be reached by ship. Pirates were almost erased overnight, though the random group did appear every now and then, though they were dealt with fairly quickly.

Where Sabaody Archipelago was, quickly became the new Marine HQ. A massive tunnel was burned through the Red Line, and a few islands were smashed together forming a base that was essentially in the center of the world. It was almost in equal distance from each of the Blue Sea's, and could be in Paradise or the New World in the blink of an eye.

Gran Tesoro or as it was now called, 'The City of Dreams' was even located there, it being one of the major cities in the whole world. Nami and Carina went into business with each other, creating a few major casinos similar in style in a few key places around the world, and became some of the richest people the world had ever seen.

Robin and Smoker had eventually got married and had kids, and though they travelled the world with Jack and the others, they often went back to Sabaody where they had a home. It was also where the leading academy in the world was located, and Robin stepped in on occasion, giving history lessons and the like.

Smoker would usually take the time to go on a little adventure with his son, the little family as happy as could be.

Tedi and Lucian finally went back to Zou, taking the other minks in the East Blue with them. Even Selene went, though that was just to see her home again. She spent most of her time being a big sister to Luke's daughter, Scarlett. As happy as it made Viola to have the cat-girl around, it gave her more than one headache whenever she taught her child some unhealthy thing, but that was just the way of things.

Nemo spent a lot of his time in Atlantis, the island created specifically for Mermaids and Fish-men above the sea. It was built with the image of Fishman island in mind, but there were changes that couldn't be found below the sea. It was the nearest city to Marine HQ, but it was still a good way away to allow them some privacy.

The New Fishman Pirates had been wiped out years ago by Nemo in what was described as a bloodbath. They had all attacked him because of his human heritage, but even with their steroids it was nothing in front of true strength. He had actually stopped adventuring and got married to Madame Sharly, though he did visit Sabaody often to hang out with Jack and the others.

Kureha taught medicine in the academy on Sabaody, creating the greatest medical breakthroughs the world had ever seen. Chopper actually joined Luffy in exploring the world, though it was under a guild license than pirate, though that still didn't stop Luffy from proclaiming himself the king of the pirates.

Shanks and Makino were together, though they hadn't got married. They did have a kid, but neither really cared about the whole ceremony thing, which did piss Garp off to some degree. He still gave Shanks the talk, and damn near killed him on a few occasions.

As for Jack and Nojiko, they had two kids, a boy and a girl. Their oldest, a young boy with dark ashen grey hair. They had named him Luke in memory of him, and the kid took great care for his namesake. He was a little monster just like his father, though thankfully without all of the unbelievably weird tendencies to pull things from thin air.

Jack's daughter, Bellamere, (Bella for short) was the spitting image of her mother, even acting mostly the same way. Under Nami's and Soran's tutelage, the little girl quickly became a threat to all of Jack's vast wealth.

She grew up with the greatest education a person could ask for, had a backing that no one in their right mind would dare challenge, and wasn't afraid to turn on the waterworks to get what she wanted. Thankfully though she had other qualities people actually liked about her.

Like her mother and aunt, she had a fondness for Tangerines, which of course meant she had to have one of the largest tangerine fields in the known world. That in itself would have set her for life, but she was still young. She also shared the desire to see the world like her father had, and that was ultimately what her end goal was to do, though she would have to get a bit older.

Luckily she had an extremely overprotective older brother who would do almost anything for her, and he also loved to travel. Plus if he didn't, there was always her grandparents. She had Grandpa Garp, Goku(Sengoku), Rayleigh, Beardy(Whitebeard), and Grandma Tsuru. If she had to pick between them, she'd probably pick Garp, he spoiled her the most, and encouraged her to cause problems for the others. She could respect that.

A little over 15 years had passed since 'The Battle for Dominance' and everything was going pretty good for Jack. That is, if you didn't count the headache he was getting lately from his kids. Luke was adamant on going out on his own, and this naturally meant that Bella had to go too, regardless of the fact that she was 5 years younger than he was.

Scarlett would of course need to tag along, her and Luke practically being inseparable, while Kuzan, Smoker's son, needed to go as well. It seemed like all of their kids had to all go out together, and because his kids started it, he had to be the one to figure it out. At least that was what the others had all said.

"Why exactly do you need to go now? Why not wait a few years?" Jack asked, almost ready to throw in the towel. Every excuse and hurdle he had thrown at them had been swept away like it was nothing. Each of these kids were beyond monsters, having been trained since they could walk.

He had stated that they would all need to be able to kill a sea king before they could go, and they had all done so the next week. He couldn't even say that they had to wait until they were at a better level of Haki, because they could all use it, and Luke was already at a frightening stage in it.

They could all use weapons, and knew how to navigate the world better than he could. Getting scammed was thrown out the door. Hell, Jack's biggest worry was them scamming everyone else.

"Come on, dad!! We just want to go explore! We'll be back in a year!" Luke pleaded, causing Jack to grumble to himself. He wanted to just let them go, but Nojiko had told him that he would be sleeping by himself every night that they were gone, which was just cruel. It was one of the assurances everyone had that Jack wouldn't let them go, but they had not taken into account the big watery eyes belonging to a certain little girl that had had him wrapped around her finger.

"PLEASE, DADDY?!!" Bella asked, her eyes growing to abnormal size as they glossed over, looking like they were going to let the dams burst any second.

Seeing those big eyes pleading up at him, Jack knew he would cave. It was at that moment he decided on something. Taking out a pen and paper and wrote something down before sticking it on the table.

"Outside, let's go! We're leaving right now! Your parents left this up to me, that was their mistake!" Jack said as he ushered them all out of the house. They all quickly ran to the water not far away, then boarded a tiny boat that Jack made appear out of thin air, looking the same as it had all of those years ago.

Everyone got on, holding on as tight as possible. This wasn't the first time they had rode on something like this with Jack, so they knew what to expect. Packing their essentials wouldn't matter now that Jack was coming, as he had more than they could ever hope to bring.

"Why are you coming with us?" Luke asked, not mad or annoyed that they were essentially being chaperoned, but just out of curiosity.

"If your mother's going to be mad at me the whole time you're gone, I may as well be gone too!" Jack said as he launched the ship upward. First destination was the Sky Islands!

A few hours later, Robin and Smoker arrived at Jack's house expecting to find their son, however they found a drunk Nojiko and Viola instead.

"YOU MARRIED HIM!!" Viola shouted, then downed her glass of wine before refilling it.

"DON'T BLAME THIS ON ME!!YOU MADE THE DECISION JUST LIKE THE REST OF US!!" Nojiko shouted back, downing the rest of her wine as well.

"Umm... What's going on?" Robin asked, unsure if she wanted to know the answer. In response to her question, Nojiko slid a piece of paper towards her, then went back to drinking. Grabbing the letter, both Robin and Smoker read it before sitting down at the table and grabbing one of the many wine bottles.

"I'm gonna strangle your husband!" Smoker stated, downing a few drinks. "Yeah? Well get in line!!" Nojiko stated, then went right back to drinking.

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Dear Nojiko and friends, I took our children on an adventure! Be back in a year! Catch us if you can!! Love, Jack XOXO

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THE END

(A.N. I finally finished this book!! There were some ups and downs, but I made it!! Might not have been the best fan fic, but it sure as hell wasn't the worst!! I really hope you guys enjoyed it, because I really enjoyed writing it!! With the book done, I can finally show you my surprise that I told you earlier about! I started a Game of Thrones Fan Fic, and you can read the first five chapters already!! Don't know the release rate, but hopefully I will get better at it. Anyway, congrats to me!! I did good! BYE!