Chapter 11: Brothers' War
The air itself seemed to tear as Subject Zero fully emerged from his shattered prison. He stood taller than Sam, his wings a grotesque tapestry of shattered obsidian and weeping blue energy - a monument to centuries of imperfect stasis. The derelict ship groaned, its very structure protesting his awful presence. He didn't stand on the deck so much as loom over it, a storm given flesh and fury.
"The bond of blood is the only truth," Zero's voice was a chorus of cracks and whispers, the sound of a glacier calving. "These insects you call a crew will be the first to witness your betrayal, little brother. And the first to be erased."
He moved with an inevitable, crushing force rather than Sam's lightning speed. One wing, vast and shadowed, swept down toward the Straw Hats like a falling cliff face.
It was met by a flash of blue and black. Sam intercepted the blow, his own transformed wings crossing like shields. The impact sent a physical shockwave through the ship that threw everyone back and listed the derelict violently to starboard. The sound was not of collision, but of annihilation - a deep, grating shriek that promised nothing could remain whole.
"Get to the Merry!" Sam roared, the strain evident in every cord of his neck. The gold in his eyes was a fragile flicker against the consuming black.
Luffy skidded to a halt, his sandals digging furrows in the wood. "We're not leaving you!"
"Sentiment," Zero sneered, pressing down. Sam's boots began to sink into the deck. "The original flaw I was designed to purge."
"You talk too much," Zoro snarled. In a move of pure instinct, he lunged. Sandai Kitetsu led the way, aiming not for Zero's body but for the pulsing core visible in his chest. The blade never connected. Zero's free hand snapped out, catching the cursed sword by the blade. Dark energy crackled, and with a sickening crunch, the high-grade sword shattered in his grip.
Zoro stared, wide-eyed, at the broken hilt in his hand.
Sanji was already there, a whirlwind of kicks forcing Zero to momentarily divert his attention. "Marimo! Now's not the time to admire the scenery!"
The distraction gave Sam just enough opening to shove back with a surge of power, creating precious feet of space. "He's right! You can't hurt him! His core absorbs Haki, shatters metal! You have to go!"
Nami's voice cut through, sharp with panic and calculation. "The current's shifting! This whole ship is breaking apart! If we don't leave now, the Merry will be pulled under with it!"
A massive vine, thick as a tree trunk, erupted from the deck between them, its purpose clear: to separate Sam from his crew. Robin's hands bloomed along its length, trying to hold it back, but it was like trying to stop the tide.
*"You see?"* Zero's voice was almost gentle. *"The world itself rejects your fragile connections. Come home, Seven. Our work is not yet done."*
Sam looked from Zero's outstretched hand to his crew fighting a losing battle against a sinking ship and a living nightmare. He saw the resolve on Luffy's face, the refusal to abandon a friend. He saw the fear in Usopp's eyes, and the courage that overcame it. He saw it all, and he made his choice.
The blue veins across his wings flared with such intensity it blinded everyone for a second. With a scream that was part pain, part defiance, he didn't push Zero back - he grabbed him. He wrapped his arms and wings around his brother in a crushing embrace and launched them both upward, through the tattered rigging and into the suffocating fog above.
"LUFFY! GO!"
His voice echoed down, already fading into the mist.
Luffy stared at the empty sky, his fists clenched so tight his arms trembled. The deck splintered under his feet.
"Luffy!" Nami screamed as the ship gave another violent lurch.
The captain didn't move for a heartbeat longer. Then, his voice was low, devoid of its usual energy but filled with an iron certainty. "...We go."
"But Sam—!" Chopper cried.
"We go," Luffy repeated, turning his back on the sky. "He told us to. So we trust him. And we'll be ready when he comes back."
Getting back to the Going Merry was a frantic, desperate struggle against the churning water and grasping vines. As Sanji revved the engines, the small caravel pulled away just as the derelict gave one final, groaning shudder and began its long descent into the abyss.
From the railing, Robin watched the ship vanish, her face pale. "He's still down there."
High above, locked in a battle of crashing wings and crackling energy, Sam fought. He drove Zero downward, toward the sinking wreck, toward a tomb he intended to share. Zero raged against him, but Sam's will was a singular, focused thing. It wasn't about winning. It was about ending.
They hit the water. The cold was a shock that stole his breath. The darkness swallowed them whole, the only light the frantic, dying blue pulse of their cores. The pressure built, crushing, and the last thing Sam saw before the blackness took him was Zero's furious, panicked face, and the ancient shipwreck waiting below to receive them both.
**End of Chapter 11**