Negotiations

Aokiji was injured but he wasn't mortally wounded, this was due to the gap in between their levels.

If both of them were at the same level this attack would no doubt kill him once it was released, there was no way to counter it, it moved as fast as lightning.

Aokiji got up and created two spears of ice covered in haki and threw them towards Lucius in an instant.

The latter simply put Charloss in front of him as a shield as the spears were about to hit him.

"Bastard" screamed Aokiji in panic as he cancelled his spears dissipating them into steam.

"Looks like you dont understand this situation," said Lucius as he took out his sword and cut off Charloss's finger waking him up

"Aaaaaahhh, youuu, save me Admiral, I order you to save me no-" screamed Charloss trying to get way.

"Shut up you pig" said Lucius as he choked him with his hand causing the latter to shut up.

"You want to live?" he asked.

Charloss nodded his head in fear.

"Good, then you'll listen to me"

Charloss nodded.

"Tell that admiral to back away and leave"

Charloss gulped and nodded.

He loosened his grip on his neck.

"A-Admiral, I order you to leave Sabaody right now" he said in a shaky voice.

"Don't worry, he will be safe and sound, once I am off of Sabaody we will begin negotiations" said Lucius with a smile.

Aokiji had no choice but to back away in frustration.

*ring ring*

"Oh, Bubble, are you guys out?" asked Lucius as he picked up his Den Den Mushi.

"Yes Master, we're in the clear, you can come back" she said.

"Alright, well the Admiral Aokiji, may we meet again" smiled Lucius turning into lightning and zipping away.

Aokiji could no away chase a Lightning Logia user, only Kizaru could keep up with him but he was being held back by Rayleigh right now.

"God damn it" sighed Aokiji

——

Meanwhile,

Kizaru was fighting Rayleigh.

He heard his Den Den Mushi ring and dashed away from the battle for a second.

"I am in the middle of a battle, what is it Aokiji?" he said.

"It's Saint Charloss, he's been kidnapped" said Aokiji in a grim voice.

"Kidnapped? Who kidnapped him that even you couldn't stop him" asked a shocked Kizaru as he left the fight with Rayleigh and stopped his pursuit of the Straw Hats and dashed towards Aokiji.

"The Reaper, Lucius Stone" said Aokiji.

"That rookie? You couldn't take him out?" asked Kizaru as he landed beside him.

" That 'Rookie' is an awakened Logia, controlling Lightning" said Aokiji

"Awakened? My, how dangerous, which direction did he go?" asked Kizaru.

"It's too late, he's already escaped far away, he may not be as fast as you when you turn into pure light but he's still terryifingly fast, and he has Saint Charloss that he used as a body shield" said Aokiji

"This is quite a mess, and that too right before the execution" said Kizaru with a sigh.

"Let's go, we need to get to Sengoku" said Aokiji as they both left after clearing up the area from other pirates.

—

"What did you say?" asked Sengoku in anger.

"Like I said, he kidnapped Saint Charloss" repeated Kizaru casually.

"Do you not understand the gravity of this situation" said Sengoku slamming on the desk.

"I do, but being angry isn't bringing back Saint Charloss" said Kizaru.

"Right, how did he even do it? You two couldn't stop him?" asked Sengoku.

"He had awakened his Logia Lightning Devil Fruit, and had extremely good control over it, he looks young but looks can be deceiving, he could probably be a lot older, such fine control requires decades of training" said Aokiji.

Sengoku sighed in frustration, while it did happen under the nose of two Admirals, it wasn't like they could truly go all out.

If three awakened Logia users went all out, they would sink the Sabaody Archipelago down into the ocean.

"Bring me Vice Admiral Momonga" said Sengoku.

——

Law was on the main ship of the Heaven Slaughtering Fleet with his crew following in the submarine waiting for his new Captain to come back.

They had slaughtered a countless Marines when escaping the Archipelago as the Marines had to fight to death with two Admirals commanding them.

Everyone was running low on stamina, they were just hoping their Captain would be back in one piece.

"What were those explosions?" thought Law with a tensed expression.

"Oh, Master is back" said Bubble happily as she sensed him.

Lucius suddenly appeared above the ship and dropped down, dropping Charloss on the ground.

"Lock this guy up" said Lucius

"Leave it to me" said Gabon.

"You actually held them back, two frickin Admirals and this was your plan huh?" said Law with shock looking at Charloss, then the shocked expression turned into a smile as he laughed.

Like he had said, not a single scratch on him.

"Are you a Mastermind or a Madman, I can't tell" smiled Law

"Now, we have to wait for the Marines to send someone to contact us and begin negotiations" said Lucius with a laugh.

He didn't have a lot of stamina left right now, the Ray of Apocalypse was the strongest attack he currently had and it burned almost all of his stamina.

He walked towards Apoo and Bege who were captured by Gabon and Robin.

He then proceeded to execute Apoo and Bege, taking their devil fruits.

*Gained 4 Levels*

*Levelled up to Level 42*

*4 Skill Points*

"Put it all into Sword" he said.

*Sword : Expert Stage : Level 5*

—

A few days later a marine ship arrived near the fleet, it wasn't very big, and was led by a Marine Vice Admiral, Momonga, who was going to give him the Den Den Mushi that connected to the Marine HQ and begin negotiations for Saint Charloss.

"Wasn't he supposed to be a rookie, how does he have a such a big fleet?" said Momonga.

He looked at the fleet and the sky above covered in thunderclouds spanning the entire fleet.

"I heard after the incident at Sabaody all the remaining pirates on the archipelago joined his crew in their escape" said Commodore Smoker who was on the side with Tashigi also with him.

"2498,2499,2500,2501…." counted Tashigi.

"There's no need to count it" said Smoker

"A-Ah, I-I was just curious" said Tashigi, though despite saying that she kept counting under her breath.

"I am surprised you can actually count with such accuracy" said a marine nearby as they could barely sea anything over the rain and thunder.

"This guy is strong and has a thing for gathering likeminded people" said Momonga.

"It's just because he held Saint Charloss hostage that he managed to get away, otherwise Admiral Aokiji would have crushed him" said Smoker in annoyance.

Momonga looked at him and sighed.

"Well anyways, we have to extremely careful, this is the life of a Celestial Dragon at stake , if anything happens we'll be at the chopping block" warned Momonga to the hot headed Smoker.

"I know, you don't have to worry about me" said Smoker.

"From all the information we have on him he's a fickle madman who does what he wants, DO NOT PROVOKE HIM" warned Momonga once more.

—

Momonga boarded the ship as he was now face to face with the person who dared raid Enies Lobby and Sabaody Archipelago, killed countless Marines and took a Celestial Dragon as hostage right under the nose of two Marine Admirals.

The Reaper, Lucius Stone, Captain of the Heaven Slaughtering Pirates.

"Welcome, Vice Admiral Momonga, please make yourself comfortable" laughed Lucius spreading his arms as his Commanders stood at the four corners.

Tashigi gulped as she looked at him and looked around, she could feel the pressure exerted by him and his commanders, they weren't rookie pirates like the one's she encountered, this was a real strong crew.

As she looked at Lucius she started to feel light headed.

Smoker also had his eyes trained on Lucius trying to analyze him, Lucius looked at him with a smile for a second which caused Smoker's heart to skip a beat as he felt intense pressure on him the moment he looked at him.

The smile wasn't that of a friend but that of a devil.

"Lucius Stone, it would be great if you could reign in your Conqueror's please, we are here for peaceful negotiation" said Momonga rubbing his temples as he saw his men passing out, he was pressured too but he was strong enough to not pass out.

"Aya my bad, I didn't realize the Marines were so weak" laughed Lucius.

Smoker wanted to say something but a sharp look from Momonga was enough to keep him shut.

"Lucius Stone, we need to see that Saint Charloss is alive and well before we begin negotiations" said Momonga.

"Of course, Saint Charloss is well and taken care off" said Lucius as he signalled and a few men escorted him.

Seeing that he was fine, Momonga took out the Den Den Mushi.

"Biri Biri Biri, click, Momonga? Have you reached safely?" asked Sengoku on the other line.

"Yes Sir, I am with Captain Lucius Stone" said Momonga.

"And Saint Charloss?" asked Sengoku

"He is perfectly fine" said Momonga

"Very well then let's begin the negotiation, Lucius Stone, tell me what you want" said Sengoku seriously.

"What I want? It's simple, I need entry to Impel Down" said Lucius shocking everyone.

"Impel Down you say? This is not the time to joke" said an annoyed Sengoku.

"Oh, but I am serious" said Lucius with a serious expression.

"Do you want to be imprisoned?" asked Sengoku with a tick on his forehead.

"Of course not, I just want the gates to open and me and my crew allowed in, without handcuffs of course, the gates shall not be opened for an hour, no one shall go in or out" said Lucius.

"Do you really think we can just give you free access to the Marine's Strongest Prison?" said Sengoku angrily.

"Oh, do you really think you can take this blow to your image?" said Lucius

"What do you mean?" asked Sengoku as he calmed down.

"The Marines have captured Whitebeard Pirates' Second Division Commander, Portgas D. Ace who in reality is the son of the late Pirate King and is about to be executed, all the Marine forces are going to be in one place because there is no way Whitebeard is gonna just sit this one out." said Lucius

Sengoku had a bad feeling about where this was going, he remained silent, the knowledge of Ace's execution had already been made public so him knowing that wasn't a big surprise, but him knowing about Ace's true identity was indeed a shock but what came next almost gave him a heart attack.

"I wonder what will happen if at the same time, a parallel execution be held, a public execution of a Celestial Dragon" smiled Lucius shocking everyone listening.

Momonga who was sitting calmly stood up in shock as he heard this, even Smoker got ready to attack.

But the next instant Momonga felt the burning hot hand of Bubble on his back and Smoker felt the Scythe of Gabon on his neck.

Bubble could control her explosions completely at her whim and could choose not to explode something she touched if she wanted to and felt she was close to awakening her fruit.

"Choose your next action very carefully" said Bubble in a threatening tone in Momonga's ear.

"Smoker, everyone, put your weapon's down" ordered Momonga.

Everyone calmed down again and sat down.

Sengoku was thinking hard about this situation. They were about to execute Ace publicly and had already publicly announced the dates, they couldn't just change it or postpone it. And when the execution happens, there is a 99% chance that Whitebeard Pirates would strike.

They would need the full force of the Marines and the Warlords to fight the Whitebeard Pirates.

If he were to actually publicly execute a Celestial Dragon, they had basically zero resources to stop that.

They would need to send an Admiral to stop Lucius Stone and they couldn't afford to do that when a possible war between the Marines and Whitebeard Pirates was about to erupt.

"Fleet Admiral, we have no choice, we can just catch him outside Impel Down when he comes out, that is if he even survives Impel Down" said Aokiji.

"We don't know why he even wants to go to Impel Down, does he want to stage an escape to make a name, after all only one man has ever been able to escape from that place, once he goes in there is no coming out" said Kizaru.

"There is nothing that punk can do , what's he gonna do there, kill a few pirates or what? He's just full of himself" said Akainu.

Sengoku sighed.

His voice was once again audible on the Den Den Mushi.

"Alright, I'll give you access to Impel Down for 1 hour, let's discuss how the exchange of Saint Charloss will go" said Sengoku with a sigh,.

He felt he aged 10 years during these 10 minutes.

To that Lucius just smiled.

Law on the side was also shocked, from raiding Sabaody Archipelago, to kidnapping a Celestial Dragon to managing to escape under the nose of two Admirals.

"Was this your plan all along? Everything is planned too perfectly and at the right time to be just a coincidence, a Pirate negotiating with the Marine Fleet Commander and the latter being completely powerless in the negotiation "thought Law.

"He actually caught the Marines in a rock and a hard place, there is nothing they can do apart from ceding to his demands, what a terrifying man" thought Law with a smile.

The very thought that someone would actually dare to hold a public execution for a Celestial Dragon sent shivers down the spine of Sengoku.

If that were to actually happen, the Marines and World Government would become a complete joke.

—

A/N

Stats -

Lucius Stone -

Level - 42

Skills -

Sword : Expert Stage : Level 5

Awakened Rumble Rumble Fruit : Level 2

Observation Haki : Level 5

Advanced Armament Haki : Level 1

Conqueror's Haki : Level 1

—

Bubble : Level 31| Spring Spring Fruit | Bomb Bomb Fruit

Robin : Level 30| Awakened Hana Hana no Mi

Gabon : Level 31 | Clone Clone Fruit |Calm Calm Fruit| Slow Slow Fruit|Scythe

Law : Level 31 | Ope-Ope Fruit