No one's POV

First there was darkness.

Then there was sound.

Then came the light.

No man's land. A place that dwells between Heaven and Hell where a person waits for a decision to be made.

She floated, clad in nothing but a simple white gown, her black hair fanning out like a dark halo. She did not open her eyes but she heard them. The voices.

"It's my entire fault!"

"Multiple puncture wounds...

Cracked ribs...

Massive blood loss..."

"I miss her so much..."

"I shouldn't have let her go."

'So familiar...'

And just as quickly as she heard them, they left. One after another her memories left her. Everything she had grown to know and love in that world was just gone. As if there was nothing there in the first place.

Then a fifth voice was heard, slowly increasing in volume. This one was unknown to the girl and held an urgency to it.

"...wake up...wake up...wake up...WAKE UP!"

Her eyes snapped open as light flooded into her, mouth open in a silent scream and back arched upwards. So much light was making its way inside her, that all that was left was darkness. And even that was starting to be absorbed by her. All at once, everything stopped and she was falling.

She slowly came back into consciousness. And immediately three thoughts assaulted her mind. The first was 'where am I' and the second one being 'am I falling' and the last was 'is that an island'.

For indeed she was falling and that was an island she saw.

As she slowly started to become aware of her surroundings, she noticed the wind howling in her ears and saw a big looming moon behind her. She looked straight down but was only met with the stars that were being reflected back at her.

Looking around all she saw for miles around was darkness and the calm waters of the ocean. ''Wait how did I know that it's an ocean'', she questioned aloud.

But the question quickly flew out of her mind when she was faced with a bigger problem.

The island was getting closer and she wasn't slowing down.

Panicking, she flailed around for about 3 minutes, then realizing that it wasn't helping her situation, got into a fetal position, legs to her chest and arms wrapped around them, and prepared for a painful landing.

Unbeknownst to her, light started to collect around her and formed a glowing translucent but protective barrier as she drew closer to the growing island.

Eyes closed, prepared for the bone-crushing pain and streaks of light chasing her, she met the ground with a sonic boom.

On distant islands, people for miles around saw a blazing streak of light falling to the ocean and they all heard the resounding boom.

Rumors flitted around on what the light was exactly and if it was just a government experiment or a hallucination.

The few religious folks on the islands believed it to be an angel falling from God's grace.

Some of the superstitious believed it to be a good omen of new life and a symbol of reaching one's destiny. Others saw it as a bad omen with comings of war, death or demise of a close person.

In some way, everything was true.

The marine recruit hurried through the halls carrying mysterious news. By now the rumor had spread to the innermost reaches of the World Government of the falling light.

They were quick to send someone to investigate and look for any type of debris in a 5 mile radius. But nothing worth mentioning was found. That is unless you counted The Vanishing Island.

Legend has it that the Island used to be the resting place for the Sea God. It was said to be a beautiful place where the plants thrived and blossomed and the animals roamed freely. But what really made the Island unique, was the water. It is said that the Island contained special hot springs blessed by The God Himself. These blessed springs contained healing and purifying properties. For this reason, the Sea God rested there and would always bathe in the holy hot springs. Having heard of the Island's "treasure", the other Gods grew jealous, and began to seek out the Island.

Upon learning this news, the Sea God feared that the Gods would send the Humans to search for the Island. Worried that the Humans would take advantage of the Island's treasure, the Sea God cast a spell and put up a barrier to hide the Island and protect it, so that it may never fall subject to the Greed of Humanity and the Jealousy of the Gods. But there was a hole in the spell. It seemed that whenever an event that could change history was about to occur or the world seeed to be in the midst of chaos, the Island would appear for a short period of time at different intervals. It never appeared in the same place for it was always moving.

Having no success in finding the Island, the Gods lost interest and truth became legend among the Humans. To this very day, it has been said that the Sea God still finds refuge at the Island. And across the world, there have been sightings of an Island appearing one day and gone the next.

'To have that Island appear...', the marine contemplated. He shook his head. It was above his pay grade to worry about that kind of stuff. Mind now empty of all thoughts of the Island, the man stopped in front of a door and knocked.

"Enter", a gruff voice yelled. Hesitantly the marine opened the door, only to immediately salute to his higher up. Situated behind his desk glaring at the door was none other than Admiral Akainu. Somehow managing to look bored and menacing at the same time, he signaled the man to continue. Audibly swallowing, the man saluted. "SIR! We have investigated the situation with the unidentified object as you ordered sir!"

Akainu slightly straightened at the mention of the current situation. "Oh? Have you found anything?"

The man faltered for a second before composing himself. Akainu still noticed the slight change in the recruit's demeanor. "Nothing significant sir as of now. Although there were strange reports by some of the soldiers that were sent there."

"And?"

The man braced himself knowing how absolutely ridiculous it was going to sound. "W-Well they said that they found an island."

Akainu narrowed his eyes. "So? What seems to be the problem? They must have searched the island by now."

"That's the thing sir. They said they saw an island but when they went to investigate it the following day, it was gone." The man took a small step back.

Silence.

"EXPLAIN."

"W-Well they said that they saw an island as they were approaching the site. When they went to investigate it the next day, the island was gone," the soldier stuttered out.

"So you're saying that overnight an ISLAND managed to vanish into thin air?!"

"...Yes."

Akainu just sat there rubbing his temples in annoyance. He could already feel a headache coming on.

"There's something else sir."

He glared at the marine. The metaphor Don't shoot the messenger came into mind as he stared down the man, knowing fully well the result it had. He took a deep breath before speaking. "What is it now?"

"The men are afraid. They've heard about the local legends in the surrounding islands about a vanishing island. The locals think that the falling light is a sign of bad luck with a coming of death and war," the man tentatively said

Sittig quietly, Akainu thought about this new piece of information though his face revealed nothing. This means that the public had a seen the light and they were spreading rumors. If they were to take notice that the Government is taking interests, it could prove to be disastrous. 'Pulling back and doing nothing seems to be the best course of action,' he contemplated.

"Here's what you're going to do."

Casey's PoV

The first thought that flashed through my mind when I opened my eyes was,'Damn my head hurts like a bitch.'

My second thought was,'Where's a bag of Lays and chocolate when you need one!?'

By this time my brain had dragged itself outta bed, and I wasn't craving some chips and chocolate as much as when I became conscious.

...

Wait what!? Where am I and why was I unconscious!? I freaked out and started to actually look at my surroundings, trying to deduce how I got here and where is exactly here. When I turned around, I froze.

There in the middle of a small clearing, my body was floating in a glowing cocoon? Or should I say orb? More like a capsule maybe? But it's just a glowing clear ball surrounding my body, with knees pulled to the chest and arms wrapped around them. My eyes were closed and I looked like I was sleeping.

WHAT. THE HELL. IS GOING ON?!

BMQ: I FINALLY UPDATED! YAY!

Casey: About time shitty author. You waited too long.

BMQ: Well somebody has been spending too much time around Sanji-kun.

Casey: Stop trying to change the subject. =-=*

BMQ: *slams head into the floor repeatedly* GOMEN'NASAI! I didn't mean to take so long updating but school has been brutal and I haven't found the time.

Casey: Oye don't you have something to tell our readers?

BMQ: OH YEAH! In other news, I posted a new story. The first chapter is really short and I don't really know where I'm going with it. But I can see the potential it has and I might update it if I get good feedback and my schedule permits it. So go on ahead and read it and let me know what you think.

Casey: Uh aren't you forgetting something?

BMQ: No?

Casey: THINK AGAIN.

BMQ: OF COURSE! Thanks for reminding me lovely!

Casey: Don't sweat it.

BMQ: HONORARY MENTIONS! Alynn-Aorels, Amazons Logic,FearyPirate, Ghostunderasheet, Hebi-Ayame-chan, Kazuki Yuuto Renge, Lilikoikoi, Littlebirdd, MsPatricia, PurpleJosei, Rei Slayer, Ryan.w123, hiraikoneko, , squirpsdolphin, thakidisbac, Aria868, Manic Archmage, MaryMarina, Quaarus, QuirkyKit, SilverToMo, wolfzero7, MonkeyBoy87, and guest first one! Thank you for reviewing, following, favoriting, and caring about this story!

Casey: Arigato guys!

BMQ: You guys are the best! Without you guys none of this would be possible.

Casey: Until next time.

~TheBloodyMadQueen