Latest Update:May 1, 2021
Summary: Impel Down hasn't been good for Sybil's sanity, coherence, or overall ability to adhere to a goal, but that's not going to stop them from stopping one of One Piece's greatest tragedies!
Hopefully.
Probably....
Link: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/impel-downer-one-piece-si.88526/reader/
Word count:29k
Chapters:14
Chapter 1: A clock person
"Hey. Hey you in the cage. Are you Portgas D. Ace?"
Ace slowly lifts his head up from where he'd let it slump as he waited out the endless days beneath Impel Down.
"Shut up," he snarls, annoyed at how rusted and guttural his own voice sounds. It's funny-- he's used to talking to everyone, all the time. And yet for days, the only ones that come are the Activated zoan guards, come to beat those on Level Six back into their bloodstained place on the bedrock of hell.
"Hi!" This guy is none of the above. In fact, Ace is almost positive that they shouldn't be down here at all. A white fur trimmed coat with pink and purple stripes? A pastel shirt with a loose black tie? Even for a pirate, the look isn't exactly... tame. They're also holding a newspaper up in one hand, and keep glancing between him and the clipping. "Well.. the tattoos look right...Hey. Your arms are kinda hard to see in this lighting..."
"The guards are gonna catch you," Ace warns them, eyes narrowing.
"Ah." They drop their fist into their palm. "I forgot."
"You forgot!?"
"Shh...." They press their finger to their lips like it's him who's not where he belongs. Then they extend their left hand out behind them.
"Widdershins."
The grinning face of a clock appears on the stone wall beneath the den-den mushi that keeps a constant watch on the area around Ace's prison. Then the hour and minute hands begin to tick... backwards. Ace strains his ears, and hears the hum of the transmitter snail.... Slow down.
"I'm a Clock person," Ace's strange visitor reveals idly. "That slow time clock is gonna remain for an hour. Well, unless I forget about it."
The silence stretches out as they simply remain in front of Ace's prison, just staring at him. Ace closes his eyes, but eventually his curiosity outweighs his stubbornness.
"Why were you looking for me?"
"So you are Ace." They nod, satisfied. "I'm thinking about trying to save you, but I don't know if I should. It might be better if you died."
....
He doesn't know why it feels like someone has managed to bury another blade directly into his stomach.
"You've come all the way down here just to tell me the same things that every marine says?" He drawls.
"No... I had other questions," his visitor says.
There's another long pause.
"But I forgot."
Of course. Ace watches them turn around and slip away, the ticking of various clocks appearing and disappearing as they subvert the world government's most guarded floor for.. What? For barely two lines of conversation?
The days pass, and he tries to forget about it. Compared to the general weirdness of the Grand Line, a character like that one barely even stands out at all.
-----
"Sybil-chan, what are you doing?" Ivankov startles Sybil out of their dazed thoughts at the bar, his huge eyes turning the entire surface of their wine into the reflection of only a single heavily masscarared eyeball.
Tick
"I'm drinking," Sybil says, voice dutiful. On the counter next to them lies another newspaper clipping. First Son of the Sea, Jinbei, Arrested! Sent to Impel Down!
"You've gotta learn to just let! the! outside! world pass, Sybil-chan..." Ivankov says, shifting to a different vogue pose for every accentuated word out of his lips. "Hell is real, but paradise is also real! Sing and dance and drink...." Then his voice darkens. "But I can't have you endangering this place by sneaking out. Finding a heaven of acceptance, then having to fall all the way back down to the bottom... that's.... That's!!"
He bursts into tears.
"That's so touching!! So tragic!!"
Sybil blinks.
"It is?"
"It's NOT! Hee-Haw!"
Sybil obediently claps along.
"That was a very funny joke, Ivankov!" She says, trying to be supportive.
"Thank you, thank you." Ivankov waves her off with the ennui of an established performer. "But, Sybil, dear... what were you even doing in level six?"
Tock
"Do you think some people are fated to die?"
Some people would say it's too early in the morning to start drinking, or to be having such a strange talk. But no one in Impel Down except for Sybil is forced to keep track of the time, so really, maybe it doesn't matter.
Sybil stares down at the newspaper, struggling with variables she barely remembers existing. For the longest time, she'd even forgotten that Fire Fist Ace was in here at all, her only memory of him the screaming despair of a man chained to the execution block. And there was another thing she'd forgotten! A very important thing!
"Sybil-chan," Ivankov says, interrupting their spiralling thoughts. "A very wise and handsome man once said this: If a god declares something fate, it's up to you to declare that god a falsity."
"The Celestial Dragons, huh...?"
Sybil's mind circles.
Tick
"I don't think they care about Ace, though."
Who was it, again....
"Shhhh! Shhh!" Ivankov's shushing is so loud that it draws the attention of half the room. But Sybil can't hear him.
Tock
It's impossible to break out of Impel Down without constant, multiple riots on different floors to keep the various guards occupied. It's impossible to leave without Jinbei, who can swim and fight in the sea. It's impossible to prevent back up from being called without Shiryu, who isn't unleashed until Blackbeard shows up. Impossible, Impossible, Impossible.....
Is it so hard to struggle against the whims of ink and paper?
Tick
Awakening in a pile of corpses, prisoner's uniform tacky with blood. Screams from above, screams from below,--
Tock.
Three days until the execution of Portgas D. Ace.
-----
Unlike the last time they'd been down here, the level is noisy and loud. Prisoners call out from cells as Sybil passes by, cheering and jeering.
This is possibly because this time, Sybil remembered to steal a prison uniform. It's both too big for them and too tight around the shoulders. Incredible workmanship.
There's two people in Ace's cage.
"I came back," says Sybil. "Hi."
The aura from Jinbei is palpable, the crushing weight of the sea brought to bear against a weak Devil-Fruit user.
They immediately cheer up, almost bouncing with delight.
"Jinbei!" They say. "I'm a huge fan. Can you sign--"
"The. Surveillance." Ace squeezes the words between clenched teeth.
Oops.
"Widdershins."
Jinbei's eyes narrow as he watches the stranger trigger her devil fruit, a strange clock effect appearing underneath the den-den mushi. The clock face itself seems to smirk back at him the longer he stares at it, a cheery white grin beneath the ticking hands.
"Ace..." He rumbles. "Who is this woman?"
"I'm Sybilline Jinx!" Sybil drops into a deep bow. "At your service."
They think about that for a second.
"Not really at your service, because I'm not going to be aiding you in any way. Conceptually at your service."
"You're a jailor," Jinbei says, voice cold. "I already said I wouldn't participate in starting a war that would shake the world."
"You will, though? And you have." Sybil can't remember exactly which is which. "I wrote down my questions in advance this time so I wouldn't forget them."
"I won't be answering," Ace says.
"That's fine. Okay. First one: Would you die to make Luffy King of the Pirates?"
This time Sybil really does fall to their knees for a second, caught off guard by the pure weight of rage in the cold air. They pant on the ground, shivering slightly.
"....No," Ace finally answers them. "I joined Whitebeard's crew so I could make my father king of the pirates!"
His voice echoes around the cell room.
"That actually helps a lot," Sybil says. "Thanks. Two more questions. Do you believe in destiny?"
....
...
"You're not my type," Ace says.
Sybil chokes, so startled that their concentration fades and along with it, their temporal bubble. They hastily climb back onto their feet, standing stiff and tall as a proper guard.
"That will be all, Portgas D. Ace," she says, voice low and formal. She does a perfect prison guard salute and spins on her heel to walk away.
"Wait," Jinbei says behind her. "You said three questions. What was the third?"
Hm?
"Ah..." She scratches her head absentmindedly. "I forgot..."
Two days before the execution of Portgas D. Ace
------
"I don't recognize the name," Jinbei says, once he's sure that he and Ace are alone. "Sybilline Jinx? I don't recall a single bounty or incident report."
Ace shifts slightly in his chains.
"Me neither," he admits. "Their devil fruit is pretty unique, as well. I recognize it from the catalogue-- it's the Tokei Tokei no Mi (Clock Clock Fruit), but there was no known wielder..."
"They're probably just a long time prisoner that got free but was unable to escape from the depths of Impel Down," Jinbei says, mulling the situation over in his mind. "Looks like you ended up as their new source of entertainment."
"If that's the case..." Ace says, the pain making it hard for him to think straight. "Then why.. Did she ask about my little brother?"
------
Luffy's here.
Why had Hancock told him that? Why had she brought Luffy here? Why had Luffy even come here! Damn it!
Ace strains against his chains as if that will block out the low sound of Crocodile's laughter, drifting endlessly into his ears from a nearby cell.
First Jinbei, arrested because of him. Now Luffy doing this... how much more is this execution going to cost him in the lives of his friends? His family?
His eyes flicker to the den-den mushi outside his cell.
Sybil might know if Hancock was lying.
But Sybil seems like a bit of a liar themself...
Damn you, Blackbeard...
------
Tick
Cheers and bets pass between the merry people of Paradise as they track Monkey D. Luffy's progress all the way from level one down to level three.
Sybil can't really join them, since they're.. busy. They've got various scraps of paper all around them, and they keep jotting down stuff, then opening up their midsection and tossing the scraps in. Sure, they sometimes forget that they wrote stuff down, thus invalidating the whole thing, but some steps are better than no steps at all, right?
Right?
Tock
Spider-man betrays Whitebeard. Akainu lies.
Throw it in.
Warn Whitebeard about Blackbeard?
What will that do? Will it matter? There's stoppable things, and unstoppable things, and they don't remember
Throw it in.
Death of giant
They can't remember his name. Just some friend of Ace's.
Tick
Buggy vs. Mihawk
Did it matter? They don't know. Will it still happen? Did it need to happen? How important is Buggy?
Execution ahead of schedule
Sybil stares at that one for a long time. It feels like the kind of thing they're gonna forget about. Should they tell someone now?
Tock
Akainu
That's all that piece of paper says. To be honest, aside from his hand through Ace's chest, they remember absolutely nothing about him. Just this awful sense of dread. But they're sure he did something else, did a lot of something else. They remember--
Tick
Akainu, a scream
They stare down at that piece of paper, then rip it up. Helpful memories. What the hell is that?
Luffy punches Garp.
Tock
Is that 'destiny?' The only person capable of defeating Garp is his grandson, whom he loves. Ace can only stand a chance at being saved by Luffy. Sending someone in Luffy's place is worthless, pointless. But in the end---
Thank you for loving me
Sybil stops writing things down. They slump over their seat at the bar, clutching their pounding head.
Tick
"Forget it..." She mutters, feeling the slips of paper flutter inside her hollow chest.
Tock
18 hours before the execution of Portgas D. Ace
Tick.
Link: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/impel-downer-one-piece-si.88526/reader/