Chapter 48: Aether Island
(AN: There are going to be a few fanfic Sky islands for a few reasons. One, I need to pass some time since I want the MC to mess around with a Canon event that takes place in 1514. Two, I want some practice writing these islands, cause the MC is going to visit a lot of new islands in the New World.)
(The Next Day)
Rex sent Cricket back down to Jaya, where he eagerly claimed that he was going to search for the legendary 'man eating islands' and set off at once. Rex smiled, he hoped they would meet again.
Now, it was onto the next matter.
"Eh? Birka?" Gan Fall questioned when Rex asked for a route to the mysterious island. "Why would you want to go there?"
To Gan Fall's knowledge, Birka was a rugged and terrible place to live. Many Birkans would come to Sky Island in order to escape from the difficulties that plagued the distant Sky Island.
"Is Birka a particularly bad place to go?" Rex asks curiously. In the original manga, little was mentioned about Birka other than the fact that Enel destroyed it.
"Birka is a horrible land!" Gan Fall says with a gasp. "Lightning comes down on them like rain drops at constant pace. Everyone on Birka is either a seasoned warrior, or dead, legends say that mantra is as common on Birka as Sky Fish!"
Rex widens his eyes. He didn't care about the danger, but that last point intrigued him. If that was indeed the case, that meant that the Birkans almost definitely had a means of training Observation Haki. Not to mention, the Lightning could mean a Birkan had eaten the Goro Goro no Mi.
"Do you know where it is or not?" Rex asks, wanting to set off as quickly as possible.
Gan Fall stares at Rex like he is a madman, but decides that if Rex wanted to die, it wasn't on him. "Birka is 30 degrees from the South bird tilt to the West bird tilt. As for how far it is, on a rapid ship, the journey can be made in two months."
Rex nods, understanding the location. Log Poses were neither used nor needed in the White Sea since weather problems weren't too dramatic. Instead, they used compass birds to sail.
Rose had captured quite a few such birds in the wilds of Jaya, intent on studying them, so Rex could use them to navigate to Birka.
Rex thanks Gan Fall for the information as well as his generous donation of Dials to the King Pirate Center for Troubled Youths, before setting off at once.
"Hawkins, set our course, South 30 Degrees West!"
(Two Weeks Later)
Rex missed bad weather.
Sailing on the White White Sea was… eerily calm.
Aside from a few uninhabited islands and some sea fish, there was absolutely nothing in the whole Sea.
After sailing in the Grand Line with his luck, Rex found the calmness to be disturbing. It was almost like something was waiting for Rex to drop his guard but he wasn't going to do it. Once burned, twice shy.
Rex squints as he gazes on the horizon.
"Captain, we will soon reach an island." Hawkins says, shuffling his deck of cards as he puts them away.
"And?" Rex asks, waiting for the announcement of limitless doom before him and infinite suffering.
"I have no other news to give you." Hawkins says simply, returning to his navigation perch.
Rex frowns. This made no sense. It was a fundamental law of the universe that wherever he went trouble woul-.
Woosh!
Rex ducked immediately as an immense bird the size of a fighter plane swooped down at him.
"AHA!" Rex shouted smugly, knowing that something had to be wrong. "Man your battle stations! We're having chicken for dinner!"
Then, Rex turns around to get a good look at his opponent.
The bird was large, with a green body and multicolored feathers. It reminded Rex of a Pokémon from his past life, a stupid yellow Pokémon that was a damned defeatist.
Rex kicks out his leg, sending a blade of wind towards him. It was at times like these that he loved the Rokushiki.
"Squawk!" The bird cried out in pain, but it had managed to dodge out of the way, causing the attack to only graze it. As such, the massive blade of wind barely makes more than a flesh wound.
"What kind of bird is that!?" Kid cries out, watching as the bird effortlessly swats aside a fist made of metal that he thrusts at it.
Dozens of crewmen start firing bullets at the bird. Bonney shoots out condensed hairs at it while Hawkins and Monet use their Devil Fruits to keep it at bay. Still, none of these rapid attacks reach the bird with it dodging at the last second every time.
"It's almost as if…" Rex mutters under his breath, seeing the birds artful dodging style.
Rex widens his eyes, that was impossible. Still, he knew it was the only explanation.
Rex whistles loudly, causing Chicky, Rex's favorite Goayu bird, to fly out of the hold. He then signals Bonney to age it up before enveloping it in jacket form.
While Rex rarely used his bird form, due to the inconvenience of having no arms, it was still rather potent against flying enemies like this bird.
Flying up to the bird, Rex decides to try out his latest dial invention, an idea he had gotten from the human auction. He wrestles with the bird, talon-to-talon, to keep it immobilized while he takes in a deep breath.
"Thunder-Fire Breath!" Rex roars out, sending a massive burst of flame out from the flame dial. Using the ionized particles in the fire, Rex sends out an electrical current inside the fire which is much more potent than in normal air.
Rex grins as he sees the bird burn and spasm simultaneously. To him, a sneak attack was the greatest insult. It was as if the bird thought he had dropped his guard.
No siree. Rex had watched the Marineford War. Even Whitebeard could be fatally injured when he dropped his guard. Rex would never drop his guard even if he was in an impenetrable fortress all by himself.
Still looking at the dead bird, Rex cannot help but frown. For one, this bird didn't seem adapted to long flights, but he was way too far away from Birka and Angel Island for the bird to be from either island. For another, this bird didn't look like anything he recognized.
Rex was almost certain it was a Zoan user but since it hadn't changed back to human form after its death, he was conflicted.
"Hawkins, is the log pose reacting to any nearby islands?" Rex asked on a hunch.
Hawkins frowned, not having used the log pose up in the White White Sea but decides to take it out. Then, much to his surprise, it then locked on to a direction to the south.
"How peculiar." Hawkins says with a frown. "It appears there is an island mass in the South direction."
After all, most Sky Islands didn't have enough mass to create a magnetic field. The only exception was Shandora but that was unique because it was originally a land mass.
"Alter course to check out the location." Rex said, genuinely curious as to what the story behind this island was. Maybe the knock-up stream had gifted him some more gold, Rex thought with Berry signs in his eyes.
A few hours later, Rex and his crew can finally see the island. Along the way, they face two more aerial attacks from similarly extinct species and a naval attack from what appeared to be a juvenile Sea King that had been handled by the Blugori.
However, Rex finds it extremely odd that Sea Kings could even attack his ship, as it had a marine's sea stone coating underneath it. Was the coating wearing off?
"Captain, this doesn't seem to make any sense." Rose muttered with a confused expression. "These animals all have adaptations that implies they were once native to the blue seas, yet they are all hear. For land animals it is understandable, but I fail to see how a sea creature could ascend to sky island."
Reaching the island, Rex feels there is something off. For one, the island is fragmented, with a single large land mass and dozens of other smaller ones attached to it. However, the islands aren't attached by clouds, but rather, they're attached by stone pathways under the White White Sea.
What's more, there seemed to be countless odd animals occupying each land mass, looking down on the ship with hungry eyes.
Rex frowns, feeling more and more like a sense of Déjà vu was coming over him. Strange animals, Sky Island, land mass flying in the sky, what was he forgetting?
Then, Rex sees it, the thing that tied everything Rex was thinking together. An immense Jolly Roger flying on a distant mountain of the island. A Jolly Roger that was once feared across the seas as a symbol of doom.
"Golden Lion." Rex mutters under his breath.
Immediately, Rex wants to turn around and flee at once. While Luffy may have beaten Shiki in the Movie, Rex didn't think that he had comparable plot armor.
Shiki was a beast. He soloed Marineford and managed to cause heavy losses, he was comparable to Garp, Whitebeard and Roger in their prime. Hell, the man frigging escaped Impel Down solo!
However, as Rex turns around, he sees numerous large Sea Kings closing off the path behind him. While he could sail out, he would have to do it by force, no doubt garnering the attention of Shiki.
Rex gulps.
"Dock the ship behind that large cliff." Rex says, choosing a land mass that was relatively large to hide his ship. "After that, I will disembark taking the Pterosaur we captured to scout the island."
"Alone?" Rose frowns. "That seems unwise given the strength of the creatures that inhabit the island."
"I won't be alone." Rex says, having an idea. "Me, Rouge, Chicky and Harrambe will go together."
After all, there was no way that Shiki knew every single animal on the island. If Rex moved together as an animal with a pack of animals, there was no reason that Shiki would suspect anything.
Rex then departs, flying off in the sky with Chicky.
Rex had to admit, flying was an addictive feeling, far better than even Geppo. The Jake Jake no Mi won points in his eyes for being one of few fruits that could enable flight, albeit in a roundabout sort of way.
"Do you see anything Chicky?" Rex asks, knowing that Chicky's vision was far superior to his.
The massive bird squints its eyes, scanning the area. Then, it swoops down, with Rex following shortly behind it.
"Squawk!" Chicky cries out gleefully as Rex sees its 'discovery'. The 'discovery' flails around in Chicky's beak as the bird throws it up in the air and consumes it in one bite.
'Seriously? A giant mouse?' Rex questions internally, cursing Chicky for being so food-centric. Then again, Chicky had been spending time with Bonney lately. It seemed Bonney was a bad influence on the bird.
However, a rustle in a nearby bush puts Rex back on edge as he wheels his head around to look at it. Placing his Observation Haki on highest alert, Rex inches towards the bush very slowly.
Then, the rustling stops.
"AHH!" A war cry echoes out as a legion of warriors descended on Rex from the sky. "Kill them!"
Rex looks up to see over a dozen Skypieans with spears who were… flying?
Shaking his head, Rex immediately gets combat ready, flying up at the descending warriors. He lets out a primal roar as he scratches out with his claws, causing the warriors to scatter like mice.
The warriors all descend, falling to the earth and looking down at Rex
Rex then gets a good look at his enemies. They looked like Skypieans, but there were a few differences. First, they seemed to have grey wings, with the males possessing a dark grew while the females had a lustrous silver. What's more, their wings were many times the size of any Skypiean Rex had seen.
"The flying lizard is an awakened one! And its strength is immense!" The man in charge of the attack party cries out in shock. "Focus all your attacks on it!"
Rex frowns. What did they mean by 'Awakened One'? Were there other animals with sophisticated intelligence on the island?
It made sense. That bird Rex had fought earlier seemed to be oddly intelligent. Not to mention the Sea King that seemed to ignore Sea Stone coating.
Still, Rex had no time to think as the warriors started to lash out at him with spears. He doesn't hold back in the slightest, using as much power as his pterosaur body can muster.
Rex almost feels bad for the warriors. If he were an ordinary pterosaur, these warriors would likely make quick work of him. Unfortunately, with his Jacket Fusion he had all his strength and intelligence added to the pterosaur's naturally powerful body. It wasn't even fair to call it a fight. It was a massacre.
"It's way too strong!!" Another warrior shouts out. "We need to retreat!"
'Retreat?' Rex snorts in his mind. There was no retreat for those who attacked him. Best case scenario, they could 'retreat' into the afterlife.
Every slash Rex sends out would turn a spear into splinters. Every wind blast from his wings knocks the warriors off of their feet, slamming into rocks. Eventually, Rouge and Harrambe show up to pick off all the stragglers, beating them to a pulp.
Rex missed this feeling, maybe every once in a while, he should fly over to the East Blue and beat some weaklings up. It was nice to feel strong.
Eventually, the warriors have all fallen into a helpless little dog pile. But Rex opts to keep the warriors alive, retrieving the head warrior to examine his memories. The others are picked up by Chicky who then flies them off to the ship with Rex. It was time to get some answers.
(Several Hours Later)
Rex rubbed his forehead in exasperation at all he had just learns.
The warrior, who Rex learned was named Ares, was a member of a race known as the Aetherians. The Aetherians were a people descended from the Lunarians of the Red Line who fled the destruction of their home.
From what Rex could understand, the Lunarian refugees fled to a Sky Island known as Aether not far from Birka where they began to intermarry with the Skypieans. That led to the birth of the Aetherians, who retained some of their ancestors' strength and capacity for flight, but were much weaker, losing the ability to manipulate fire.
However, the Aetherians did not meet with peace in their former home and around 25 years ago, Birka seized Aether island and forced out the Aetherians. They then wandered around the White White Sea until they found their current home, which they named New Aether Island.
Unfortunately, New Aether Island was occupied and 7 years after the Aetherians settled it, the owners came back.
"Did you look up that name in our Bounty-Dex?" Rex asks, hoping that the bounty would give him some information on who he was dealing with. He kept a book with all the bounties he could get his hands on and kept expanding it.
"Yeah, but it's an old one." Rose said, blowing dust off of a tattered bounty paper. "Says his name is Rufer Apex, also known as the Crocogator. He was an officer on the Golden Lion pirate ship but disappeared after the battle of Edd War. Guess we know where he went now."
Rex takes the bounty up, careful not to damage it. Apex was no weakling, with a hefty 300 Million Berries on his head. That was before the age of pirates too, and bounties were smaller.
If Rex had to guess, Apex's bounty on the seas today would be around 500 million berries. However, this was given he didn't decrease in strength, which Rex highly doubted.
"If my math is right, this old geezer should be in his late 70s by now." Kureha said, looking at the bounty. "With how cruddy pirates treat themselves, what with their excessive drinking, I'd be surprised if he can still walk straight, let alone fight!"
"No, his strength shouldn't have decayed too greatly." Bonney says, noticing something in the bounty form. "It says here he has an ancient Zoan devil fruit, the Wani Wani no Mi: Model Razandrongobe. Zoan users tend to age more gracefully than most."
Rex nods, scratching his chin. Given that Apex had lived peacefully on this island for close to two decades, his strength should have weakened. Still, Rex didn't like the thought of fighting a New World pirate who probably had both types of Haki and numerous other tricks up his belt.
Apex had easily bested any resistance that the Aetherians could muster, enslaving most of them with a few escaping into hiding. Ares and his crew were among those survivors, trying desperately to free their allies.
But, on top of Apex, two of his top lieutenants were here, both with a bounty that was once 100 million. While they too were rather old, three top pirates were a tough lineup to beat.
Ares and his men could personally attest to that. In fact, they had never even met any of the head honchos with the fodder-level members of the crew being more than enough to handle them.
"Captain, there's one thing I don't understand." Killer said. "Apex being here explains the pirate connection, but what about all these strange creatures. According to Ares's memories, they only arrived on the island just over 10 years ago. How did they get here?"
Rex smiled. That was one thing he did understand about the whole situation.
Odds were this island had been sent up here by the Golden Lion as a refuge after the fall of Rocks D. Xebec. Eventually, Golden Lion gathered his crew and forgot about the island, going down to the Blue Sea to sail.
Then, after the Battle of Edd War, which matched the time of Apex's arrival, Apex defected from the Golden Lion pirates and hid away here to live out his days. Shiki went on to sail the seas and eventually got locked up. When Shiki got out, he discovered Apex, and let him live as long as he could use Aether Island as a breeding spot for his mutants.
And boy was it a good place. The monsters had all grow immensely strong and some of them even awoke Observation Haki. If it weren't for the fact that the Island was sinking due to its weight, Golden Lion would have been mighty proud of the monsters when he got back.
Yeah, Golden Lion was kind of an idiot now that Rex thought of it. While his powers were sufficient to bring the island into the sky, the moment he left, it already started sinking. Fortunately, the pace was rather slow, but inside of a year this Island would be smack dab in the middle of the Grand Line, with all of its inhabitants dead.
However, now that Rex knew this information, what was his play?
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone