Chapter 2
Ancient
Sorry it took so long to update this. I've been working on my college classes and my other stories. It was hard to pick out a title, too.
I do not own One Piece or The Elder Scrolls.
"Alright. I'm going to check your leg muscles. I want to see if you are capable of walking yet." Chopper spoke as he reached into his doctor's back.
After the initial shock of waking a woman from an ancient slumber and what her mission was, things calmed down enough that Chopper was able to proceed with giving the young awakened woman a physical.
The awakened woman, Merta, nodded as she sat back in the coffin, allowing Chopper to continue the examination.
"Right. I'd like to see if I can walk again. It has been…how long?"
Robin answered the woman as she sat at the coffin's edge whilst Luffy and Ussop went back to the ship for the rest of the crew, the former excited while the latter was fretful.
"Somewhere around nine hundred years. But with the World Government making it forbidden to even study that time, much knowledge of your time was lost."
She then asked another question.
"What was the date you were sealed away?"
Merta thought for a moment as Chopper examined her legs.
"Let's see… It was the 4th Era, Year 202, the 29th of Evening Star. Just two days before the Old Life Festival."
The reindeer gave a confused look.
"Huh?"
Placing a couple of fingers on her chin, Robin came up with a hypothesis.
"Perhaps our calendars have changed over the centuries, as well. Can you elaborate, Miss Dragon-Eyes?"
Merta raised an eyebrow for a moment, then closed her eyes in thought.
"Well, Evening Star was the last month of the year. And it was the year when Emperor Titus Mede II of the Cyrodiilic Empire was assassinated, ending the Mede dynasty. And when the civil war in Skyrim was nearing its climax."
This left the reindeer even more confused and the archeologist even more intrigued.
As the questions in their minds grew, the sound of familiar voices began to echo in the tomb.
"We're telling the truth! There's a woman from the Void Century in this tomb!" Ussop's voice rang.
"Impossible. That was nine hundred years ago. Are you sure you hadn't found a mummy or something?" A new woman's voice replied.
"She's not dead, Nami. She's just been asleep for nine hundred years." Luffy's voice protested.
"That's something I'd expect Moss-Head to do." A newer male voice spoke in a joking tone.
This was followed by bickering between the same voice and yet another new one. The voices were about to argue some more until they entered the tomb, the torchlight giving Merta a visual of the remaining crewmembers. And they were the most unusual bunch she had ever seen.
The first to enter the chamber after Luffy and Ussop was a man with green hair and a scar down is right eye. The three swords on his belt gave the impression that he was a swordsman of sorts. But why three was Merta's mental question.
The second figure was a man dressed in a black suit. He had short blond hair, a curly eyebrow, and stubble. There was a white stick in his mouth that was emitting smoke. He didn't carry a weapon, but Merta could sense that this man was just as strong as the first.
The third figure was a woman with long red hair. She was dressed in a long coat and boots. When her eyes saw the gold and jewels that littered the tomb, greed lit up with a snap. It made Merta wonder if she was under some Daedric influence.
The fourth figure was a large-looking man with a metal nose and blue hair. He was dressed in a brightly-colored shirt with hardly any other clothing. Merta had to look away to gather her thoughts on the man's madness. Perhaps Sheogorath got to him and the man was thinking there was a heat wave going on.
The fifth and final figure made Merta literally jump out of the coffin and grabbed a nearby sword and shield while crying out "demon." The reason being this figure was a walking skeleton dressed in brightly colored and obscure clothing and carrying a cane. Having dealt with walking skeletons in the past, Merta began to wonder if one of the crewmembers was a necromancer.
Seeing Merta raise her sword caused the skeleton and Ussop to scream in terror as the green-haired man was inches away towards his sword and the woman shaking in shock. The blond-haired man, however, started to swoon upon seeing the ancient woman while the blue-haired man was raising his armored arms in defense.
But before anyone could react, Merta's legs gave out and the woman collapsed at the combination of her weight and that of the sword and shield.
"Damn it!" She cursed under her breath.
She had forgotten that there was a chance that her legs were too weak to stand on.
"Merta!" Chopper called out as he ran to his collapsed patient.
Merta growled as she struggled to stand.
"Which one of you?"
The question caused the group to raise eyebrows in confusion. Seeing this, Merta expanded her question, keeping her eye on the skeleton.
"Which one of you is the necromancer?!"
That caused the group to blink in confusion. What in the world was a necromancer? Seeing the answer, Robin spoke up to the crew as she walked towards the armored woman.
"A necromancer is a sorcerer that meddles with the dead. You know, summoning ghosts and bringing the dead back to life."
She then turned her gaze to Merta, who was still struggling to fight.
"You don't need to worry about Brook, Merta. He's a friend and won't harm anyone innocent. In fact, he's more scared of you than you are of him right now."
Upon hearing this, Merta looked to the skeleton and noticed that he was cowering behind the larger man. Robin was right. Now Merta was more confused than ever, but allowed her weapons to drop, mostly because she couldn't hold on to them anymore.
Seeing the woman disarming herself, the crew began to relax as Luffy stood between the new woman and the group. He looked to Merta first, gesturing to each of the newly arrived crewmates.
"This is my crew. Zoro, Sanji, Nami, Franky, and Brook."
He then turned to the crew, gesturing to Merta.
"Guys, this is Merta Dragon-Eyes. Or as Robin called her, Uranus."
Hearing the name "Uranus," the crew's jaws dropped as they let out a cry.
"WHAT?! URANUS?!"
Merta cringed in agony at the unified shout as if she were experiencing a hangover.
"Knock it off or I will sew your mouths shut!"
The group obeyed as they eyed the archaeologist and captain while Chopper tended to Merta's blooming headache.
"Seriously, guys. Why did you go and wake one of the three ancient weapons?" The nearly nude man, Franky, asked, keeping an eye on Merta.
As if nothing had happened, Luffy answered the cyborg's question with barely a blink.
"Oh. I opened her coffin."
Hearing this, Nami angrily smacked the rubber man into the ground.
"HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT SO CASUALLY?!"
A growl from Merta was enough for Nami to catch herself before she could yell any more. It was then that the navigator noticed the piles of gold and jewels that littered the tomb. With belis signs in her eyes, Nami charged towards the nearest pile.
"Hello~, my pretties."
But as Nami was about to touch the coins, Merta spoke up, unable to move from her spot.
"I wouldn't touch that if I were you."
Nami froze before turning to the ancient woman in complaint.
"Why the hell not?!"
Merta gave her answer in a blunt voice, still fighting her drowsiness.
"Because that treasure is for the restoration of my homeland. It has been laced with heavy curses so that no greedy fool could steal it, or at least get away with it."
Hearing this, Nami scoffed as she went to touch the treasure. But to her dismay, she found herself getting electrocuted by it instead. Merta sighed as she spoke.
"I did warn you."
As Nami freed her hand from the booby-trapped treasure, she collapsed on her behind while her hair stood on end emitting static. Robin then returned her attention to the young woman in the coffin.
"You say you're from Tamriel? What can you tell me about your homeland? I'm quite curious about it."
Merta raised an eyebrow before answering.
"My homeland? Tamriel is a continent. My family may consist of Nords from Skyrim, but I was born in the Imperial City in Cyrodiil."
Hearing this, Robin looked to the crew and spoke.
"Can any of you find a map amongst this treasure?"
The pirates cringed as they looked at Nami, who was in the process of removing the static-charged frizz from her red hair. Seeing this, Merta grabbed ahold of the sarcophagus and started to push herself to her feet.
"The traps won't work on me, you milk-drinkers. I can touch everything in this chamber."
"But your legs are still weak. You need time before you can stand." Chopper scolded her.
But Merta wouldn't have it.
"There is a map in a chest in a northern part of this chamber. It should contain maps and an atlas."
It was then that Sanji scooped Merta up bridal-style, going into Lover-Boy mode, which did not amuse Merta.
"I shall carry you to those maps, milady!"
Merta narrowed her eyes and growled.
"Put me down before I introduce my fist to your face."
Sanji obeyed but his mood didn't change as he graciously placed Merta so she was sitting on the edge of her sarcophagus before backing away.
After a sigh, Merta spoke to Chopper.
"So there's no major damage on my body?"
Chopper blinked for a moment in confusion before he gave Merta her answer.
"Other than depleted stamina and other energies, you seem perfectly fine."
Merta thought for a moment before she raised her right arm. The pirates remained confused until a glowing gold-white light appeared around her body. Seeing this, the pirates were startled and confused as they watched Merta do something.
It was then that the smarter of the pirates (aka not Luffy) noticed a change in Merta's posture. She was shifting from a hunched over position to perfect posturing. She also looked better as well, as her coloring changed to a healthy cream and the bags under her eyes were vanishing. Just then, the light vanished and, to the pirates' surprise, Merta stood up on her own, looking rejuvenated.
A smile forming on her face, Merta opened her eyes and looked to her hand where the light was.
"Ah. Much better. It was a good thing my Magicka reserves remained intact. Bless the art of Restoration magic."
Merta then looked to the pirates, who remained stunned. Raising an eyebrow, she spoke to her revivers.
"What's wrong? Haven't you seen Restoration magic before?"
Nami was the first to speak, still in shock over what happened.
"Did you just say…that was magic?!"
Merta, now fully revived, remain confused at Nami's statement.
"Yes. I just said that. Didn't your parents tell you that we are all capable of magic?"
There was nothing but silence. No questions. No answers. For what seemed to be hours, the Straw Hat Pirates remained stunned. Finally, Luffy spoke with a gleam in his eyes.
"WOW! THAT WAS SO AWESOME!"
His declaration startled the ancient woman for a moment as he kept asking question after question about how she was able to use magic. Merta moved back from the excited captain as she made her way to the chest she was thinking about earlier. Remembering why she wanted the chest earlier, Merta turned her back to her strange "visitors" and proceeded to open the chest. She pulled out two parchments and handed them to Robin.
"The smaller is a map of Skyrim. The larger is an atlas of Tamriel."
As Robin began to unfurl the maps, Nami had a thought and looked to Merta.
"Just out of curiosity, how old are you?"
Merta raised an eyebrow at first. But remembering how long she had been in the coffin, she gave her answer.
"Well, with the estimate about how long I have been asleep in that sarcophagus, I'd say I'm around 921."
The crew, save for Robin and Chopper, shouting in shock.
"WHAT?! 921?!"
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