Chapter 1123 Summary
Short Summary:
With the Marines knocked out by the Haki burst, the Straw Hat Pirates and allies depart from Egghead and head to Elbaph. As Sanji looms over Vegapunk's body, a flashback occurs where after discovering a traitor among the satellites, Vegapunk, Shaka, and Pythagoras eventually learned that traitor was York, who had given both Vegapunk's knowledge of the Void Century, as well as the Mother Flame to the World Government. Realizing their doom, they secretly recorded their message and erased all knowledge of this discovery to help their plan succeed. It was before his death, Vegapunk expressed his wish to Sanji for his crew to find the One Piece.
Detailed Summary
The Haki burst has knocked out every single Marine within the Fleet, including the Vice Admirals, near Egghead. Seraphim S-Snake, who is still bound inside her Seastone Bubble, tries in vain to warn a knocked out Pomsky that the Straw Hat Pirates are getting away. The Giants note that the burst was even stronger than Shanks' despite the lack of hostility in the Haki. Luffy thanks Emet for helping them escape, though by that point the Iron Giant had powered down again. Dorry and Brogy decide to take advantage of the situation and depart for their home of Elbaph. While everyone is resting, though, Sanji walks over to Dr. Vegapunk's body and tells him that everything he said to him earlier does not feel right to him, especially since most of it seemed outrageous.
The story then cuts to two weeks before the current events. Dr. Vegapunk, Shaka, and Pythagoras detected an abnormality from their power plant in that the energy used on the Seraphim had been steadily increased. The data indicated to the three of them that a portion of the Mother Flame had been stolen, and that the manipulated data meant to deceive them indicates one of the Satellites was responsible since only they could be so smart to achieve this. Aside from the Stella and the two present with them, the other four are now under suspicion, though Dr. Vegapunk is heavily leaning towards the culprit being Lilith due to her being designated his "evil" Satellite. Because of this, the three decide to switch their brains to "stealth mode" so whatever they experience will not be known to the culprit. One week later, Pythagoras confirms that the culprit is York because the information she synched with the rest is all fake. In addition, Shaka reports that the Sea Beast Weapons were used as well along with a white Den Den Mushi used for wiretapping. Dr. Vegapunk manages to recover the conversation where they learn York told the World Government that he had been studying the Void Century, explaining the surge of Cipher Pol agents who had been visiting the island recently.
The next day, Dr. Vegapunk learns that Lulusia Kingdom was destroyed. Dr. Vegapunk surmises it was the result of the Mother Flame being stolen by York and given to the World Government, which fuels his belief that the World Government is in possession of one of the Ancient Weapons of the past, though he knows he cannot tell this to the public. He does heavily blame himself for this travesty because he isolated his greed from his own mind. Dr. Vegapunk tells the two Satellites that at this point, it is impossible to stop what York has set into motion; the World Government will erase them for studying the Void Century but will spare York because she demonstrated her worth to them. Shaka tells him they could still flee, but Dr. Vegapunk instead requests a ship for the other researchers and residents, saying they cannot escape their fate. However, he says that Egghead has resources that Ohara did not have twenty-two years ago, so if he does die soon, he will do it on his own home, trying to expose the true nature of the World Government as best as possible. He apologizes to Shaka and Pythagoras for getting them involved in this, but they state they were thinking the same thing since they are him too. In addition, Dr. Vegapunk wishes to save his sky-island-manufacturing technology, the Cloud Plant, as he thinks it will be humanity's best chance to survive.
Some time later, York spotted Dr. Vegapunk fiddling around with the Iron Giant, claiming he is using the Mother Flame to try and move it. York says she hopes he will finish it soon, but deep down, Dr. Vegapunk wishes it does not. Two days later, Dr. Vegapunk records the message to the world and hides the Broadcast Den Den Mushi within it, believing no one would find it there. He also programs the message to play when he dies, and so no one else finds out what they have done, he erases his memories of the past two weeks along with Shaka and Pythagoras'. Once that is done, the amnesiac Dr. Vegapunk finds a letter he left for himself beforehand informing him that the World Government knows he was studying the Void Century but he has put together the ultimate countermeasure before he dies. Some time later, he learns that the Straw Hats and Bonney, Cipher Pol, the Marines, and Kizaru and Saturn have arrived.
Catching up to the siege, when Dr. Vegapunk, Atlas, Franky, and Sanji were on their way to save Bonney, Dr. Vegapunk informs Sanji that he has chosen to stay on the lower level despite knowing he will die, but he insists that something world-shaking will happen when he does. Finally, he tells Sanji that he hopes the Straw Hats find the One Piece. Speaking of, Usopp and Luffy are extremely excited that they are going to Elbaph after all this time, though Luffy is extremely exhausted.
