I believe that Lucci is still planning on betraying the marines, after the
CP9 cover story
it only makes sense, I highly doubt Oda would drop a plot point like that after dedicating a whole cover story to it so here’s my prediction on his goals
I think him along with CP9 have always been waiting for the opportunity to get back at the world government after the events of independent report when spandam framed them for the fall of Enies lobby and their mission to egghead was the perfect opportunity
I’m guessing that Lucci knew about Luffy defeating Kaido and that it would take a week for him to recover and the
destruction of lulucia being related to Vegapunk
as only he had the technology to cause that much destruction and intentionally decided to take the mission of Assassinating Vegapunk as an excuse to go to egghead
it was probably a gamble guessing the straw hats would go to egghead out of the 3 log pose routes from Wano but he probably decided to take the risk considering how often the straw hats gets themselves into trouble with the government
after arriving to egghead he probably intentionally chose to fight Luffy knowing he would lose as I don’t think he would be stupid enough to try beating him after he beat Kaido and knowing he was awakened from his wanted poster picture
He also likely already knew that Stussy would betray him and decided to let himself be knocked out as there’s no way a master at rokushiki would lose to a simple technique like Stussy used, why did he do this? you might be asking, it was probably to make himself look like less of a threat for his actual plan that I’m gonna get to soon
He was probably fine being captured since he knew the straw hats wouldn’t kill him or Kaku and took into account that York would betray Vegapunk and the straw hats, that way he would not only make himself look less of a threat but also gain the straw hats trust temporarily for them to leave him free long enough to take out Stussy to make sure she couldn’t potentially get in the way of his plan
He also timed all this with Kizaru’s and the vice admirals arrival to keep all the straw hats occupied and sent the marines info on the status of the straw hats to make sure Kizaru fights Luffy as an admiral like him is the only one that could compete with a Yonko and the vice admirals to fight the straw hats to keep them all occupied
He’s also cooperating with the Blackbeard pirates who he got into contact through his connections with the underworld as a broker and told them to travel to egghead as we can see a
Blackbeard Pirate ship heading to egghead
He chose to fight Zoro since he knew he would likely underestimate him and not go all out as he’s confident he could probably last long enough against him, by the end of the fight Lucci will likely lead Zoro into a trap or lead him into a confrontation with the Blackbeard pirates while he carries out his main plan
And what is his plan you might be asking? It’s to hijack control of the mother flame and use it to Nuke Egghead, from the report he sent to Kizaru he clearly knows the
Mother Flame’s power station
And why would he do this? It’s to get back and both the straw hats and the world government, he not only gets to use the governments own weapon to take out one of the Marines precious Admirals shaking the balance of the theee great powers but also take out the straw hats and get back at them for humiliating him and CP9 at Enies lobby
Obviously the plan likely won’t work and both the Marines and the Straw hats will get off the island but he will still get to hurt the government financially by destroying all of Vegapunk’s technology they invested in
The arc will likely end with Lucci and Kaku escaping egghead to keep plotting against the world government sometime later in the final saga