Boy, it's been a while, huh?

Hello to all you returning and new readers! This is FWB, back with Maria's Adventures in the One Piece world! Or, at least, the first chapter in the two post-TimeSkip arcs I have planned for now.

Yes, I said 2 arcs. Maria's going to be around long enough for Fishman Island, and then an original arc of her own. After that, she's moving on to other worlds and other adventures - momentarily. She will be back some time after I finish the Dark Tech arc and other stories. Just...later. And probably with a friend.

I'm deciding to do this mostly because - if you guys have looked at my profile - Maria is an OC who has been to more places than just the Grand Line - she travels between fandoms. And that means she has friends from other fandoms. Friends she can call on for help.

So, in lieu of that, I am going to pull her out before she ends up completely breaking the original plot of the manga/anime. She's already doing that in the Fishman arc, and I'm not about to let her break it further. (Not yet, anyway)

If you guys want more information on where Maria's been, the list of stories is posted - in order - on my profile. Be warned, though, I started writing these back in 2012, so my writing isn't quite up to par for the first 4.

And with that announcement out of the way - let's get back into One Piece! It may be a couple weeks before I post the next chapter, but at least you guys know I'm working on it!

Chapter 141 (or 1) – Return to Sabaody!

A figure leapt over the side of a ship with effortless, practiced ease, the ground squelshing under deep red boots that had a metallic sort of look to them. The boots' owner looked up at the others on the ship and grinned. "Thanks for all the help, guys. I wouldn't have gotten my memories back if it wasn't for that island."

"It was no problem on our part." The dark-haired teenage girl leaning against the ship's railing shrugged, wings on her back fluttering a little at the movement. "It should be us that are thanking you – you gave us hope that we could get our captain back."

"Not as much as I'd have liked to." Bright blue eyes darkened a little. "All I really did was nearly wreck your island most of the time."

"Hey, the people in TransTown loved you." A man with a guitar slung over his back grinned maybe a bit too widely. "And you helped them expand a lot more than we ever did, so that's definitely a good thing!"

The figure on the ground laughed. "Well, that's one way of putting it!" She paused, tilting her head to one side as her brown hair slumped over her shoulders. "Are you sure you don't want her necklace? You could end up running into her just as much as I could."

"I'm certain. If there's anyone who has a chance of returning it to her, it's you." The girl with wings fixed the other with a serious look. "Good luck, Maria. You're going to need it in the New World. When you find Airam and bring back Myra, make sure to tell her where it is she can find us."

"Will do!" Maria gave a salute with one hand, then turned and walked into the Sabaody Archipelago. As she walked, she pulled up the hood of her orange jacket, obscuring her face from view.

"Time to find the rest of my crew," Maria murmured to herself. She held out her right hand, and a red staff appeared in her hands with a flash, a firebird carved into the top with wings outstretched. "It's been two years…I don't know how much they've changed, but I bet they'll still be the same." A grin crossed her face as she zipped up her jacket, hiding her red T-shirt from view as well.

It was an old, familiar outfit, but Maria still felt it was a good one. A familiar one.

Maria's POV

The archipelago itself didn't really look all that different from what I remembered from two years ago. There was something…different in the air, though. A different kind of tension from the one I'd felt here two years ago, when the Celestial Dragons ran rampant.

And when Kuma had forced me to separate from the rest of the Straw Hats.

The buildings looked a little more beaten up, for example, and there were a lot more people wandering around in scruffy clothes than I remembered seeing before the Auction Incident where Luffy punched a Dragon.

The locals definitely looked a lot more wary than they had been, too.

I stuck a foot out as I passed a pirate leering at a young woman. His face hit the sappy ground, and I smiled under my hood as I nodded to the young woman before continuing on my way as she bolted in another direction. The smile faded after a moment, though, as the pirate scrambled to his feet behind me and looked around for the person who tripped him.

"Should have figured there'd be a lot more pirates around here, if the Marines moved bases," I muttered, thinking back to the newspapers that sometimes came up on shore of the Memory Isle. It may have been in a Calm Belt, but that didn't mean that Sea Kings didn't stir up the waters around ship wrecks every once in a while. Pirates who tried to enter the Grand Line "the easy way."

We did get some of our news a different way, though, but I wasn't planning on thinking about that right now. There were…darker sorts of news that had come from that.

I skirted a swordfight in the middle of the street as others scattered or gathered around, jeering and yelling names.

"If I beat you, then I get to join Straw Hat's crew and you don't!"

I stopped short and looked back. "What was that?"

One of the guys at the back of the crowd – scruffy-looking, worn clothes, and a rather ugly mug like the rest of them – looked back at me with a disbelieving expression. "What, you mean you haven't heard?"

"Heard what?" I turned fully and planted my staff in the ground in a meaningful movement.

"Straw Hat Luffy is back after two years! He's planning on going wild in the New World, but he needs a bigger crew in order to do it! He's meeting later today – and we're all gonna see about joining him!" The man cackled. "Man, I can't wait to serve under that guy!"

I blinked blankly at the man's words. Was Luffy really looking for new crewmates? I was pretty doubtful of it – he didn't just pick people willy-nilly, and especially not like this.

No, there had to be something else going on.

"Doesn't sound like something for me," I said flatly.

The man shrugged. "Suit yourself. More of a chance for the rest of us." He went back to watching the sword fight as a loud cry went up from the rest of the crowd.

I snorted and rolled my eyes before I turned and started going down the street again. My foot crunched against something, and I looked down.

A flier, with our mark, advertising the exact thing that the man had just talked about.

I looked to the left and to the right, and when I didn't see anyone else nearby watching me, I sent a burst of flames down my leg and set the flier on fire.

Someone was using our name to get people to join their crew? That was going to backfire horribly.

"Now the question is, do I crash this guy's party or do I find my crew and we crash it together?" I sucked the fire back up through my leg, leaving ashes of the flier behind. "It wouldn't exactly be fun without them, and I kinda want to see how everyone's been doing, first." I tilted my head to one side for a moment. Shakky's Bar had been the decided-on meeting place – everyone knew that – but I could still run into people making my way there. Probably.

Max and her crew – the Purple Pirates, minus their captain – had gotten me as close as they could to the grove the bar was at. It wouldn't make sense to go in any other directions before then.

"All right, Shakky's it is," I murmured to myself.

I started moving down the street again, into a more battered area of the street. Fewer locals were walking around now, and more pirates. Must have been another lawless—

Bang!

I stopped in front of another bar when I heard the gunshot. The building looked like it'd seen better days, and the door was one of those swinging saloon ones, so I could hear what was going on inside.

I was just close enough to hear a man's voice – sneering and loud – say a few things that caught my attention.

"A 55 million Beri bounty? Check the poster once again! It says 'At least 70 million Beri bounty!' We're not gonna deal with captains with a lower bounty! How did you guys even get here, safely?"

I started to move closer to the partially open doorway.

"Go away, pest. Don't you know that I'm the Revolutionary Dragon's son?!"

Another gunshot went off as I was about to step towards the open door and into the bar itself, causing me to pause.

That… did not sound like Luffy.

I stepped into the bar and quickly squirreled myself away to a table in an unused corner. No one noticed me come in, which I found as something of a relief.

Mostly because my eyes, like everyone else's, were on the group sitting at the VIP table.

A large, burly man with a familiar yellow mask, a short, skinny man with blue hair, a woman with a stomach and short orange hair (with an ugly face to match), a little girl with an orange jacket and a red dress, and a large, potbellied man with a straw hat that had definitely seen better days.

I could see a sort-of resemblance, but these people were not the Straw Hats. If anything, they were cosplayers who didn't have everything they needed to match the originals.

I gripped my staff more tightly. These people thought they could just take our names and slip in like they were the ones who had left two years ago, huh?

And just when we actually were starting to come back together. Great.

"He's so merciless," muttered one of the bar patrons near me.

"Can't be helped," said another sitting next to him. "He has achieved a lot."

The fake Luffy leaned back on the couch he and our dopplegangers were sitting on. "Hey, Franky. How many people we got so far?"

"About one hundred people," came a rasping reply. Sounded like he was more of a chain smoker than Sanji, and that was saying something. "Three whole pirate groups have joined us. Ten of them are with a bounty."

That many people were that eager to join, huh? Probably just because they wanted to ride on the coattails of our fame.

My fingers itched; I recognized the need to strike at people who were in the wrong. I held back, though; I didn't want to reveal myself in the middle of this place, without everyone else to back me up.

"Luffy" started going on about rookies who were joining up with them, including a brother-pair of captains named "Caribou" who were known for killing Navy officials. If they were interested in joining this fake crew and were probably in Sabaody, they were definitely a pair to keep an eye out for, along with everyone else.

"Oh? And you, woman, who's been there for quite a while."

I looked up at "Luffy's" voice, jolted out of my thoughts a little. I noticed then that he wasn't looking at me – he was looking at an orange-haired woman sitting at the bar. From where I was sitting, I could only see the jeans she was wearing and the thin strap of something going across her back under her orange hair, which went down to her lower back. Did she just have a bra on and nothing else up there?

Wait. Orange hair?

"Stop drinking alone quietly and come join us!" "Luffy" called. "She's cute."

"Pervert," I muttered under my breath.

The woman didn't move. "Luffy" noticed.

"Hey, sister, can't you hear me?!"

"Hey, he's talking to you," muttered the bartender.

There was silence for a moment. Then the woman sighed.

"That's okay. I'm waiting for someone."

I sat straight up in my chair. I knew that voice.

I grinned under my hood. I couldn't believe how much she had changed, but something told me she was still the same despite how she looked.

I slipped away from the table and came up to the bar. My shoes hitting the wooden floor made a bit of an echo as I sat to her right. She didn't turn her head towards me, but I could feel the gazes of the others sitting at their tables on me.

"Something tells me we might be waiting for the same person," I said.

The woman turned her head slightly.

"And who the hell are you?!" "Luffy" demanded harshly. "Hey, sister, get over here – we don't have enough beautiful women on our crew, if you know—"

I leaned back and glared at him from under my hood. "She's not interested. Bug off, you potbellied moron."

The tension in the room increased rather abruptly at that while "Luffy's" expression darkened. The little girl sitting next to "Nami" was staring at me with an angered expression.

The woman next to me rolled her eyes at my comment; I could see the flicker of a smile cross her face for a second.

Was that little girl what they thought I looked like? Well, they were going to be in for a real shock.

"H-hey, you'd better apologize," the bartender hissed at me. "That's Straw Hat Luffy! Remember? He's the crazy pirate who burst into the War of the Best two years ago!"

"Is that what they're calling it now?" I turned my head to look at him. Even if he couldn't exactly see my eyes, he still flinched back. "I should think that the people who survived it are calling it something different and a little closer to the truth."

The bartender gained an uncertain expression at my words.

The man with the yellow mask laughed. "You're waiting or someone, huh? He must be a wimp who'll apologize once he hears Captain Luffy's name! So come here now!"

The woman turned to look at them. "I'm only going to say this once – you're no match for me, so I'm not going to drink with you!"

I blinked, impressed. Nami – for it was Nami – had gotten a lot more confident since I'd last seen her.

"What?" "Luffy" didn't look like he was completely comprehending Nami's words.

"Do you understand, Straw Hat…who?"

I started snickering, even though I was the only one who was making any noise.

"Did you just say 'who'?!" "Luffy" definitely sounded like he was getting it now, and he wasn't liking what he was hearing. He stood up. "I'm Straw Hat Luffy!"

"H-hey, you better apologize!" the bartender hissed. "You're in danger!"

I pulled up my hood a little, showing more of my face. I raised an eyebrow. "This no-name giving you more trouble than he's worth, sir? I don't think you really ought to be worried about him. He probably wouldn't even be able to make it to Fishman Island at this rate."

I saw "Luffy's" face twitch as Nami smiled a little and the bartender stepped back nervously.

"Luffy" started to raise his pistol as the door creaked open behind us. "You've got a lot of nerve, the both of you!"

"Nami" got up and put a hand on her weapon; my lookalike got up, too. "Let us handle it."

"Yeah." My lookalike gave a grin that should not have been on a little girl's face.

The two of them started coming over, and I turned in my seat a little.

"Hey, you!" "Nami" sneered. "You're a funny woman." She slipped between me and Nami and pointed the pistol at her. "I'll make it easier for you. Are you gonna drink with Captain Luffy? Or do you wanna die?"

"And are you gonna apologize to Captain Luffy? Or do you wanna die?" The little girl pointed at me accusingly. I could see little firecrackers poking up from under the sleeves of her jacket.

I turned around and looked down at the kid – she probably only came up to my waist, no higher. "You're a bit too small to have firecrackers up your sleeves, kid. Go home; a pirate's ship is no place for you."

"Nami" turned her head to look at me sharply as the little girl stared at me, wide-eyed.

"I am not a kid!" the kid snapped. "I'm Fire Storm Maria! I've got a 235 million Beri bounty!"

Oh yeah, that's right; they'd changed my title. I guess my presence at the Marineford Massacre really made an impression on the higher-ups that "Fire Staff" wasn't enough of a moniker.

"Well, that's funny." I threw back the hood of my jacket, then leaned over and looked at the girl as her eyes got wider. "I could have sworn you were her biggest fan."

The bar was completely hushed. I could feel the stares of the fake Straw Hats on me, probably more out of disbelief than anything else.

I heard the stretch of rubber. "Sure Kill: Green Star…"

Now, that voice was familiar. I grabbed the girl and pulled her away a couple feet – she was just a kid; she had no reason to get hit with anything.

Snap!

"Devil!"

Something exploded into pink smoke in front of "Nami," and a giant Venus Fly Trap suddenly grew out of the floor, taking the doppleganger up in its jaws.

My eyebrows shot up as Nami looked up with wide eyes.

"Wh-what is this?!" the fake Nami shrieked.

"Whoa," I commented. "Don't think I've seen an attack do that before!"

Then the plant started moving towards the fake Straw Hats, and my surprised expression turned into more of a sinister grin.

"Wh-what is this?!" "Luffy" demanded.

The group quickly devolved into screaming as the plant wrapped its vines around them.

"What is that plant?" Nami asked in confusion.

"Doesn't look like a Leech Seed." I was barely holding back snickers. "Although, that would be more dangerous than this, probably. Definitely not a Carnivine, either."

"You are being way to calm for this," Nami said flatly, looking back at me.

I grinned. "I could say the same to you, considering how you used to be in situations like this."

Nami rolled her eyes. "You really haven't changed in the last two years."

"Oh, I've changed." I winked. "It's just that most people wouldn't be able to notice."

"So, young ladies, do you want a drink with me?"

I turned my head at the voice, and my eyes nearly bugged out of my head when I saw who was sitting to my right.

I saw the long nose, yes, but I also saw the goatee and the muscles. Where the heck had those come from?!

The young man pushed up the brim of his floppy hat and grinned at us.

Nami let out a delighted laugh and grabbed him in a hug, forcing his head down into her chest as she jumped up and down excitedly. "Usopp! Long time no see! I can't believe it! You became stronger!"

"Yeah, no kidding." I rose to my feet, an amazed expression on my face.

"Y-you've blossomed yourself!" Usopp replied. His voice was muffled a little.

"What?! She had been waiting for that geek?!" "Franky" exclaimed in disbelief.

I pointed my staff at them, expression dropping into a more serious one. "Oi."

A little sphere of fire blossomed on the top of the staff, and it shot towards "Franky" without much fanfare and promptly set his hair on fire, causing the fakes to start panicking even more.

"Did you do that?" Nami let Usopp go and pointed back at the giant plant.

Usopp laughed. "Yes, I did! That's my new weapon, Pop Green! It's not like I was watching the sea and doing nothing for two years! I'm sorry, but I no longer belong to the weak trio with you and Chopper! I became a warrior who isn't fazed by anything!"

"Hey, you!" the man in the mask yelled. "Is this what you've done?!"

Usopp's jaw dropped. "What?! Sniper King?! Why?!"

"I guess your still fazed by some things." I rolled my eyes and snickered.

Nami rolled her eyes. "Usopp, forget about them. Let's go somewhere else. I have a favor to ask of you, too." She grabbed his hand. "Come on, Maria."

"Coming." I started to follow after her as Usopp continued to gawk at the fakes.

"H-hey, miss, you haven't paid yet!" called the bartender.

Usopp quickly recovered himself and threw a bag at the bartender while Nami started messing with a thin blue pipe that looked familiar. "Keep the change!"

A little bubble with a dark cloud in it came out of Nami's pipe. I watched it float up as we walked out of the bar, and I noticed there were others already with it.

My eyebrows shot up as we stepped out of the bar. Nami had done that without anyone else noticing. Her slight of hand was getting better.

"So, why'd you release all those little storm clouds?" I asked as we stepped out of the bar.

Nami looked back at me with a sly smirk "You see, I wasn't sitting around, either. I ended up with—"

Almost as soon as she started explaining, the entire bar was lit up with lightning as a shockwave of thunderous noise and light blasted out from it.

"—so I studied about the new technology-"

"Really? You were in the sky?" Usopp asked in disbelief.

"Anything can happen on the Grand Line," I commented. "I mean, I ended up on an island that replayed all of my memories for me to interact with!"

"Whoa! So then, you've got more of your memories back?"

I grinned at Usopp "Not more. All of them."

Usopp's jaw dropped. "R-really?!"

"But you don't look like you've changed a bit." Nami looked me over. "Other than the shoes, I guess."

"I can't really change how I look because of who I am." I shrugged. "The shoes thing is the only thing that's different because I want it to be."

Nami hummed at that. "Have you been to see Shakky and Rayleigh yet?"

I shook my head. "I just got here. It took me a bit to get away from the town on Memory Isle – they had a party for days when they found out that I was going to be leaving. Luffy would have loved it."

"Ah, I bet he would have." Usopp nodded knowingly. Then he paused. "We've got a tail."

I felt something tug on the back of my jacket, and I turned and looked down.

I was met with the glaring, unharmed face of my little lookalike, who had firecrackers in one hand and a lighter in the other. "You can't be the Fire Storm! She died in—"

I sighed, dismissed my staff, grabbed her hands before she could bring them together, and yanked the lighter and firecrackers out of her hands. "Those are only rumors, kid. You shouldn't believe everything you hear, y'know? Besides, if I was dead, do you really think that a bounty would have been put out on my head?"

The kid spluttered, trying to find words in protest, but didn't come up with anything coherent.

"Listen. Don't go back to those bozos back in the bar. They're only going to cause trouble sullying up the name of the Straw Hats, and I'm pretty sure that they're going to get it for that. You being near them is only going to get you in even more trouble, so I suggest you hoof it and don't set foot on a pirate ship anytime soon."

The girl scowled up at me, then turned and bolted. I sighed and shook my head as she ran off.

"Fire Storm, huh?" Usopp cocked his head to one side. "Where'd that one come from?"

"After what the Navy saw of me at Marineford, I guess they decided a name change was in order." I crushed the lighter in my hand and dropped it and the firecrackers.

"That's right! You were there!"

"Where's Luffy?" Nami grabbed at my jacket and forced me to look her in the eye.

"He and I trained on different islands; he's probably coming here separately." Two years of training nothing; I was still a little uneasy about making Nami mad. Especially after the lighting she set off! "I-I bet he'll be here soon, though!"

Nami sighed irritably and let me go. "I should hope so, because otherwise I've got a few words to say to him."

"…I don't doubt it."

"Hey, maybe we should get back to Shakky's bar to see if anyone else has gotten here?" Usopp suggested. "Shakky said that Zoro got here ten days ago now, and Franky did, too."

"Really? That's awesome! Have you gotten to see them yet?"

Nami shook her head.

"I've seen Franky, but I haven't seen Zoro yet," Usopp said.

"It shouldn't take too long for us to get together again, though." Nami tapped her chin in thought. "Considering what happened the last time we were here, we'll probably end up causing a bit of a ruckus no matter what happens."

I snorted. "That's one way of putting it. Here's hoping we find everyone before we get caught in anything worse than what happened back there." I motioned back to the bar that Nami had zapped.

"Here's hoping," Usopp agreed.