Inside the God's Shrine, hundreds of metres above the hidden city of Shandora, the Black Star Crew was sitting together in a large circle, drinking the Sky Mead, which was the speciality of the Skypieans.
On their side, both Vivi and Nami were lying on a large cloud bed, hugging each other to sleep, and their favourite puppy, Holy, was nestling close to them, keeping them warm.
"What are we going to do with all the gold, Captain?" The Bear Mink suddenly asked, and everyone turned to look at Sin.
"The gold belongs to the people of this country. We have no use for it." He told them, and they all nodded to his words. "How big is that serpent, Augur?"
"Nearly 250 metres long." The Marksman informed him with a smile. "I will be honest, it gave me a scare when I saw it start dancing after hearing the bell. The people call it the Master of the Sky, and luckily, it did not go on a rampage and seems quite docile."
"According to the Shandian Chief, its name is Nola, and it's over 400 years old now," Robin told him. "Would be a real shame if we have to kill it to feed Bonney and Lily."
"Hey!" Both the girls complained but then proceeded to down their refilled mugs of Sky Mead, continuing their drinking competition.
"Sin."
"Yes?" He looked at Yamato, who was finishing her mug, and then she wiped her mouth with her wrist before looking into his eyes.
"Who was Mors?" She asked, and Bonney immediately froze at her question, which in turn, made Lily stop and glance at her and then at Sin.
"He was my paternal uncle." He smiled, but could already tell that except for Augur, Robin, and Bonney, all of them could feel that there was a lot more to the story. "He was a Genius Scientist, a mad scientist, and once part of the MADS group, which included names like Vegapunk, Vinsmoke Judge, Caesar Clown..."
"Queen The Calamity." Yamato nodded her head.
"Yes," He looked into her eyes and nodded. "He was the former user of the Tori Tori no Mi, Model: Thunderbird."
His words surprised them all, and they finally understood why Sin seemed to be feeling off ever since they came to Skypiea.
"How did he die?" Lily asked.
Having seen how powerful Enel was, she assumed that Mors was likely just as strong. Especially since he was Sin's uncle, and a Black.
Not to mention, the Birkans revered him as a God too.
"I killed him."
The Giantess was not expecting that answer, and his words froze her, along with all those who were not aware of it.
However, one question popped up in all their minds, and Kuina was the one who blurted it out.
"How?"
Sin lowered his eyes and poured himself a mug full of Sky Mead.
"Do you know what happens to a Devil Fruit User if they eat a second Devil Fruit?" He asked, and they all tensed up at his words.
"Their body ruptures..." Lily gulped in fear.
"I fed him not one but two mroe, just to be safe." The coldness in his voice sent shivers up their spines, and they all held their breaths as Sin finished his mug.
The silence lasted for a good couple of minutes in the throne room, and eventually, one by one they lowered their eyes and tried to keep drinking.
"Why did you kill him?" However, Yamato was the brave one, and she looked right into his eyes as she asked that question.
Sin smiled at her.
"I had to." He said and then glanced at his sister, who had her fists clenched. "Before my Father passed away, he told me everything he knew about the Black Family, its history, heritage, and he entrusted me with the Family's Treasure, the two extremely special Devil Fruits, Hellfire and Frostflame..."
He started from the beginning for their better understanding.
"The Fruits were only meant to be used if the family came down to its last members and was on the verge of extinction, and when I was 10, I left home with my two Protectors to go to Avalon, a Sky Island, my Kingdom, and fetch the Devil Fruits for myself and Robin." He was still smiling, but it was not exactly a smile. "But there was someone who was waiting for me there."
"Mors?" The Oni-Girl frowned.
"Yes," He nodded. "He knew I would come to Avalon after turning 10, and my Uncle remembered my birthday."
"He wanted the Devil Fruits?" Lily guessed but curiously raised her brow when she saw him shake his head.
"No. He wanted me."
"Why?"
"Because he had high hopes for me." He gave a rueful smile. "He believed that I was extremely special, and that I was the one he needed. He was right."
"Sin..." Bonney tried to stop him, but he shook his head.
Even though she did not know all of the details, she did not want to hear them at all. It just ached her heart so terribly, imagining what Sin had been through, that it suffocated her.
"After he killed my two Protectors in front of my eyes, he kidnapped me and took me to the Sky Tower on top of Birka, and it was my prison for the next four years," He informed them his crew.
"He kept you imprisoned?" Kuina frowned. "Why?"
"Did I tell you that he was a genius scientist? Because sometimes, I feel like the word genius was not enough to describe him."
Everyone silently looked at him, trying to keep their worst thoughts at bay.
"There were two things that Mors focused all his research on, and they were the Devil Fruits and the Gene Factor. And the Madman had discovered a way to harvest the Devil Fruits." He grinned. "He created several gardens on Earthly Islands in the White Sea around Birka, and there, he grew trees to Harvest Devil Fruits, a project he worked on for decades. Of course, the success rate was never 100%, but it was a decent 70%. However, he only had a selected number of Fruit Bearing trees."
"Why was he collecting Devil Fruits?" The Swordsgirl frowned.
"For experimentation." He told her. "Mors, somehow, managed to develop a very special serum, which he called the Death Serum, and he experimented with it on Devil Fruit Users. His goal was to find one subject, who would lose his Devil Fruit Powers and still live."
His words tensed their hearts as the worst thoughts they were holding back, kept crashing on their minds.
"It usually takes three minutes for a Devil Fruit's Powers to leave a person's body after they die. Three minutes for your Genetic Makeup to turn normal, leaving no trace in your DNA that you ever consumed a Devil Fruit," He informed them. "The Death Serum was extremely special as it could freeze everything inside your body for exactly 8 minutes, and then it would melt, restoring your blood flow as it would create electrical charges that would shock your heart and brain. It also contained a mysterious nourishing factor too, which would provide your body with warmth and revitalise it, enough to theoretically revive a person from the Clinical Death."
Sin gently smiled at Hiyori, who was holding back her tears, and then pulled her close to him, wrapping his right arm around her.
"However, Mors never achieved success even after a couple of hundred Trials, which included people of all ages and strengths. And he was running out of Death Serums now. As it seemed, he could not make more of these Serums."
"He..." Pascia's voice wavered as she understood everything, and Sin nodded his head.
"Yes. He chose me as a subject for his tests."
"But you were his family!" Lily exclaimed in disbelief.
"Which is exactly why he chose me. We had the same blood in our veins." He smiled. "And those hundreds of experiments were not in vain. He had found out that if a person possessed Conqueror's Haki, and it was potent enough, coupled with the subject's will to live, they had a chance to survive the Death Serum. After he experimented on a man named Zargossa, who had managed to nearly survive the test, he knew exactly whom he needed next for the experiment."
"Zargossa? The Pirate?!" The Giantess exclaimed, hearing one of the most infamous names of the Pirate King's Era.
"Yes, the previous user of Shatter Shatter Fruit." He nodded. "He possessed a very strong will, and all three types of Haki."
Lily, who had grown up listening to the stories of Pirates such as Zargossa, understood very well that the fallen Pirate was an extremely strong person to be a rival of Roger and Whitebeard, and for Mors to capture such a man meant that the late Black was even stronger.
"And he chose you?" She gulped in a feeling of reverence.
"Why? Do you doubt my Will?"
"No," She immediately shook her head and grinned. "You survived."
"Of course." He grinned back at her. "The first time I unlocked my Conqueror's Haki was a year after my birth. The voices in my head were annoying me, so, I unintentionally let out a burst of my Conqueror's Will to suppress them. Mors was there that day, and it was then that he started taking interest in me."
"Awesome!" Lily had sparkles in her eyes after hearing his words, and only he had the heart to laugh at her antics right now.
How could he just laugh off his battles against death?
Perhaps, because he won?
"Guess what my first ever Devil Fruit was." He teasingly asked the Giantess, who immediately started racking her brains.