Chapter 1: 2 Years Later...

The sound of grinding doors was evident as the giant set of steel double doors leading into the Madness Maze opened up, and Specter stepped out of the room to greet the two once again. Over the course of two years the emotionless boy had grown taller with longer hair and more pronounced facial features, and had ditched his previous clothes for a buttoned up white shirt with a upturned colour, that had 'STORM' written in dark blue on the back, to macth some baggy black trousers and boots.

The sound of wood colliding with rock could be heard as Gundar, seemingly not aged a day, strode out of the cave. "Ah, good to be out again, it still is stiffling in there."

"I am pleased you are alright, Grandfather." Specter said in his emotionless tone. "But, you do know you both have been coming out of the cave every Saturday to restock on wood, right?"

"Yes, yes, I know." He waved his grandson off before turning to the cave entrance. "Hey! Ellix! C'mon now!"

For a moment there was nothing, then the sound of footsteps.

"Oi, oi...has it really been 2 years already?"

I stepped out of the maze with a confident smile. Over the two years My limbs had grown slightly longer to make better use of my Rokushiki (which I now had a Doriki of 3250) and I had become slightly more muscular, though nowhere near bodybuilder level, as well as slightly paler due to being stuck in either a cave or a fog-ridden island for a long time. I now wore a dark purple jacket with the skinny sleeves rolled up to just above my elbows, as the end trailed down to the back of my knees, the whole thing being unbuttoned to show my short sleeved aquamarine shirt with the new Criminal logo across it in black. I also wore dark blue shorts with a black leather belt, and slip-on blue shoes. But my most prominent new feature was the 'V' shaped scar, starting from the right side of my head, going under my rigth eye, and going all the way up from between my eye and nose to my forehead, where another small scar dashed through it to make a wonky 'X'.

"It sure has been, Ellix." Gundar nodded sagely.

"It sure is great to hear you call me by my name, you old fart. Doririririri!" I laughed.

"And it is good to hear you treat me with the respect I deserve!" He harrumphed. Over two years I had gotten used to his reversed respective terms.

"Everyone...I wonder how they're doing?" I thought aloud. Through my training, the only thing I could think of in the darkness with nothing but a small fire to warm me, was my nakama, and how they too were growing stronger so that we could all reunite someday.

There was a sudden roar, and I looked back to see an assortment of monstrous moles, scorpions and worms tearfully peek out of their homes.

"Awwwww, c'mon guys." I said to the monsters I had befriended instead of eaten. "I gotta go and see my nakama again, and I'm really gonna miss all of you too. But you guys have to be strong, okay?" They all nodded. "I knew you could! I promise I'll come back and visit again someday!" I waved to them as they roared back happily.

"I am incredibly stunned that you managed to tame the monsters in the Madness Maze." Specter said dully.

"Well, I couldn't eat all of them. That'd mess up the food chain." I reasoned. "Besides, after me beating them up, they're all working together instead of fighting all the time."

"You did a good job there, Ellix. I'll give you that." Gundar chuckled as we walked out into the fog covered island towards the boats. "Since I'm feeling generous, and that this IS special trip, we'll take Ship 1."

"Sugoi! VIP ride!" I fist-pumped as I jumped on board. "Set sail to Sabaody!"

"Oh no, we're not going there yet." Gundar shot me down as he and his grandson climbed on board.

"Eh!?" I faceplanted the deck. "Why not!? It's been two years hasn't it!?"

"It has, but first we're going to see your captain." My eyes widened at that. "Rayleigh got in touch with me, and we agreed to have you two meet up and sail to Sabaody together."

"Really?" I gasped. "I get to see how Luffy's been doing..." I smiled at the thought of my captain and that big grin of his, it would be so good to see him again! I wondered how he'd changed, how everyone had changed of course! And then I thought of Nami...I had thought about her every day (as far as I could tell. No sense of time in tunnels) when I wasn't training or eating. I had missed her, and a big fear of mine was that she might have...moved on or something.

I shook those thoughts out of my head, I knew that Nami would be stronger, and I knew that she still cared about me just as much as I cared about her. I was still dreading to tell her that the wristband she had given me got broken though.

I sat in silence as we dived under water and started moving, when I thought of something. "Hey Gundar...do you know Rayleigh?"

The old man chuckled. "When I was a kiddo, still captain of the Thief Pirates, the only others who knew of our existence were the Roger Pirates. You could say we were rivals in a way. We'd always lose, but we'd also always escape before they could finish any of us off, it was damn fun! Gyohohohoho!"

'That's your definition of fun?' I sweatdropped.

"But, after all that fighting, we became friends in a way." He smiled from under his beard. "That's what fights can do for ya, make friends."

'I guess that makes sense.' I thought, thinking about how we had always fought an opponent with a nakama of ours before they joined.

I waited in silence for a little bit longer, then talked with Specter for the rest of the journey. Eventually though, we surfaced. "Alright! This is our stop!" Gundar called.

"Really!?" I immediantely jumped off the deck onto new land, where I was greeted with the thick foliage of a jungle, before cupping my hands over my mouth. "HEEEEEEEEEEEY! LUFFYYYYYYYYYYY!" For a moment there was silence, and then...

"EEEEEEEEEEELLIIIIIIIIIIIX!" I had never been so happy to hear that voice in my life as my captain, Monkey D. Luffy, rocketed out of the jungle and crashed into me. "Ellix! Rayleigh told me you were coming, and your really here! Shishsishi!"

"Luffy! It's really you! It's so good to see you!" As we stood back up I noticed my captain was not much different from when I last saw him, still having his same silly grin, and relatively same shirt, shorts and sandals. He was more muscular, and had an 'X' shaped scar on his chest from Akainu, and now wore a yellow sash aroung his waist, and off course, his trademark strawhat.

"You too, Ellix! You look pretty strong now!"

"Same to you!" We both laughed.

"Luffy! Where are you?" We turned towards the familiar voice to see none other then Boa Hancock appear, followed by her crew. "Luffy! I was so worried when you ran off like that!"

'Guess she's still all lovey dovey for him...' I sweatdropped.

"Oh! Wodo T. Ellix. It appeares Rayleigh was right about your arrival." Sandersonia said.

"Yep, here I am!" I waved.

"Just don't forget who brought you here, Ellix!" Gundar called as he and Specter walked over.

"Hey there, hairy ossan!" Luffy waved, whilst I facepalmed from his bluntness.

"It is good to see you again, Strawhat. I am simply awashed with joy." Specter stated.

"Ya don't sound like it." Yep, Luffy hadn't changed a bit.

"Ah, I believe Rayleigh spoke of you...Gundar, was it?" Elder Nyon said as she stepped forward.

"Indeed I am." Gundar nodded as he walked up to her, towering over the other elderly person due to his wooden stilts for legs. "And may I just say that it is an honour to meet you, Nyon-san. Rayleigh did not lie when he spoke of your beauty."

"Flattery will get you nowhere, Gundar." Nyon smiled, making me cringe.

"Why have you all appeared here now?" The Snake Princess demanded. "I thought you were to reunite at Sabaody?"

"Huh? Hmmm...good point." Luffy strained to think of a reason, though it looked like all he was doing was giving himself a headache.

"I believe I can answer that." Gundar said, stepping forward. "A week ago, me and Rayleigh contacted each other seeing as the time for the Strawhats to reunite was closing in, and we decided on a way to see if the training that the crews two most infamous members had paid off or not."

"Your talking about us, right?" Luffy grinned.

"Correct." He nodded. "We decided that the test would be a battle..."

"...between each other."

"EH!?" Everybody facefaulted.

"Me..." I started.

"And me..." Luffy continued.

"Fight each other?" We finished.

"You!" Hancock exploded in flames of rage. "How dare you lie! To have my dear Luffy and his crewmate fight each other! Rayleigh would never agree to such a thing!"

"For once, I agree with the Hebi-hime." Nyon added. "You cannot possibly be expecting us to believe that Rayleigh would say that!"

"We both agreed on it, deciding it the best course of action." Gundar shrugged it off, getting out a letter from his pocket. "Rayleigh said you would disagree to it, so he wrote this to prove it to you." He gave the letter to Nyon, who read it before facefaulting.

"I-It's true!" She gasped. "This is Rayleigh's own handwriting validating the decision!"

"Impossible! Give me that!" She snatched the letter off of her stepmother and read it furiously.

"A fight between you two was discussed and believed to be the best test to see how far you've come by showing each other your new strength." Gundar elaborated.

"I...guess that makes sense." I said.

"I like it!" Luffy grinned. "Ellix! I wanna see how strong you've become, and fighting you sounds pretty sugoi! Whaddya think?"

I thought about it for a minute. "I guess it does sound like a good method...and it would be awesome to have a chance to fight you! Okay, I'm in!"

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" I jumped as Hancock turned on us with a demonic aura to rival Nami's. "I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO HURT LUFFY FOR A REASON LIKE THIS!"

"Hancock, I understand your feelings for Luffy, but this will be perfect in showing their individual development." Gundar said.

"LIKE HELL I WILL ALLOW SOMETHING LIKE THIS! THINK OF SOMETHING BETTER!" She roared.

"Don't worry, Hancock." Luffy told her. "Me and Ellix are all for it, and besides, I'm not planiing to lose!"

"Is that a challenge?" I smirked.

"O-Okay Luffy." She said shyly. "if you want to go through with it, I support it wholeheartedly.

'What a U-Turn...' I thought before sweatdropping in time with almost everybody else.

xxxFishmanIslandxxx

We had all walked to the center of the island, a wide expanse of plain with just us standing either side. I had to admit I was nervous...because Hancock had said that 'If you hurt a single hair on Luffy's head, I will utterly destroy you'.

We stood either side of the field as everybody else watched from the side "Kya! Goooooo Luffyyyyyy!" Hancock cheered before shooting a hateful glare at me.

"Go show 'em your best, Ellix!" Gundar shouted.

"Ellix, let's give it our all!" Luffy smirked.

"Got it, I won't hold back, Luffy!" I copied him.

And so the ceremonial battle began.

Wooooo! We're finally at the timeskip! And I think this is a pretty sugoi way to start it off!

Ellix: Heh, you did pretty good with my clothes! And this scar, whilst it stung like hell when that scorpion slashed me, is pretty cool!

I hope this was a good start to Post-Timeskip for you folks! Next chapter it's Ellix vs. Luffy! Be there! Reviews are nice!

Ellix: And say what you think of Post-Timeskip me!