Fanfic / Summit Apocalypse

People join the Marines, many of them believing it to be the right thing to do, that the World Government is truly just. And some on them not only end up in a position that tears down that lie, they wind up with an opportunity.

"Summit Apocalypse" starts with Ace's execution being planned and an disillusioned scientist taking an opportunity to for atonement to one of her former victims - The last Lunarian, King.

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Tropes:

• Altar Diplomacy: Big Mom has tried to get King for years this way, and she starts to plan it again now that he is a father.
• Androcles' Lion: In his past, when he was escaping with Kaido, King saw Delia in a burning room, and saved her life. She later enables him to be able to get the Seraphim by providing him information. Downplayed as he had intended saving her life to be a Cruel Mercy.
• Berserk Button: King is furious when he finds the Seraphim don't have names, just designations.
• Designer Babies: The Seraphims aren't exact clones of the Warlords since they have at least two confirmed genetic donors - one of the Warlords and a dead Lunarian. It is especially obviously when King thinks about S-Shark
  Nika, they had actually grafted Lunarian DNA onto a fishman embryo!
• Even Evil Has Standards: Kaido was legitimately disgusted to learn about how the Government was planning to use the Seraphim as Child Soldiers.
  Kaido: "What does matter is that you've resurrected King's people to use as slaves. It's hard to explain just how... offended I am at this discovery.”
  • In another example, the Beast Pirates, despite being conquerors and very unethical pirates, apparently draw the line at trying anything with the Seraphim.
  “Cloned from the Seven Warlords? You mean we'll have our own Boa Hancock?!"
  “You did hear that they'll just be little kids, right?”
  “Right, he did say that. Aw, dammit!”
  • They're also disgusted with what the World Government did to the Lunarians.
  “Why those smug, puritanical shits! They've been prancing around all this time calling themselves the saviours of the world – they have the balls to act like they're better than us with that in their closet?!”
• Everyone Has Standards: Whether out of reason or genuine morals, Big Mom knows she can't offer her usual marriage proposals to the Seraphim as they are five years old.
• Friendship Moment: Kaido may be a tyrant and an Emperor, but he does value King and sincerely views him as a friend. When King says he wants the Seraphim, Kaido instantly agrees.
• Hope Is Scary: After undergoing the genocide of the Lunarians, becoming their Sole Survivor, and being used as a test subject by unethical World Government doctors Playing with Syringes, King is - well, see the following quote.
  He could only think about everything he'd lost – his family, his friends, his community, everyone he'd ever loved and valued – and how terrifying it was, to suddenly be presented with the ashes of a rebirth.
  Hope could be so cruel and he doesn't know how he'd take it if it was taken from him now.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: While there's almost definitely personal bias in it, Garp's response to the attack on Egghead is to suggest the Navy just return Ace to Whitebeard and rush to Egghead to stop Kaido from succeeding. Akainu protests, only for Garp to reply:
  “Do you want to fight two Emperors or one, brat? Because I can promise you that if we try to have it both ways, the Navy won't survive today.”
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Invoked by Delia. She revealed the existence of the Seraphim and their identity of their genetic donors while Marine forces are preparing to to go Egghead to back up those sent earlier. The Warlords are not impressed.
• Morton's Fork: The Navy runs smack into this. Kaido is invading Egghead Island and has a good chance of capturing Vegapunk - right as Whitebeard is coming to Marineford to stop his son's execution. If they stay to fight Whitebeard, Kaido will have Vegapunk and any weapons and technology he can produce. If they give Ace to Whitebeard to try and get him to let them send their forces to save the scientist (something that might not even work), it will be a hit to their reputation and they will have to work overtime for at least years to overcome it in the best case scenario. Their attempt to Take a Third Option does not work out.
• Not So Stoic: Mihawk and King both react - poorly - when they learn about the Seraphim, with both of them separately noticing they feel more alive than they have in years.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In Chapter One, no less. King is, normally, The Stoic, and every last member of the Beast Pirates knows it. Which is why so many of them are legitimately stunned and worried when they hear the scream that King makes when he learns about the Seraphim. The OOC actually doesn't go away after that, either - King is utterly driven to find and free the Seraphim during the attack on Egghead Island, charging ahead of the rest of the Beast Pirates.
• That Thing Is Not My Child!: Averted completely with Mihawk, King, and Hancock. Hancock is quick to start thinking of S-Snake as a daughter - although there is also some disgust over how they were created, in her case, due to her Dark and Troubled Past.

  Hancock: She had a child! Oh, she needed to tell Luffy about this as soon as possible. He would make a wonderful father, she was confident in it. Her sisters needed to know too – they were aunts now! The little princess needed to be introduced to Amazon Lily with all due respect.

• Villainous Rescue: An indirect example takes place - Kaido attacking Egghead right before Ace's execution means the Navy has to rush numerous troops there to keep him from capturing Vegapunk, and since trying to take on Whitebeard with anything but their full strength would practically guarantee their loss, the Navy has to delay the execution in an attempt to stop Kaido.
• Villain Respect: Akainu is a very powerful Marine with a strong Devil Fruit and skilled in using it. Kaido still finds him lacking in comparison to Oden.

  “Only one man has ever pierced my hide... and you are not even half his measure.”

• Xanatos Speed Chess: Linlin realizes that she cannot hope to get anything from Egghead on such short notice, as the low defenses in the area mean that the confrontation will be over by the time she gets there. But she can expand her territory into the areas that the marines left undefended.