2:41 am…

Saturday night…

5 cups of coffee…

7 boxes of pocky…

3 cups of hot chocolate…

And only one chapter…

Dammit, I'm pathetic.

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-Alabasta-

1,578 rooms.

Cobra knew that there were this many rooms in the palace, because when Vivi was about 5 years old she had counted them all.

1,578 rooms, and he found that he couldn't leave this one room. One might call it the medical room.

1,578 rooms, and he stayed only in this room, never leaving it, for 3 days.

A blue-haired woman lay on a bed at the back of the room. Next to her, on the right side of her bed, sitting on a chair sat Cobra, bags under his eyes. He hadn't slept for 3 days. He had just sat here, watching over this woman.

He didn't even know if she was the woman he thought she was!

She had stirred in her sleep a bit, but never awoke. It was a bit frustrating – He had so many questions to ask her. But he hadn't gotten a chance to ask her.

Cobra felt his eyes start to close sub-consciously. He tried keeping them open, but found he couldn't, and he began to float off into a light sleep. Next to him, the blue-haired woman stirred in her sleep.

Click… click… click… ding!

Cobra was fully awake in a flash, and sitting, fully alert, next to her on the floor. The woman stirred again, and slowly opened her eyes. Cobra stood up, and leaned over her.

"Is it really you?" He asked quietly, barely speaking in more then a whisper. The woman looked up at Cobra, trying to form the correct words. Her mouth moved once, but no sound came out. "Is it really you?" Repeated Cobra, tears starting to form in his eyes. The woman opened her mouth again, but once again no sound came out. Finally, she found the strength. "Y-Yes… my love…" She whispered, barely audible.

But those words registered with Cobra as though he had just gotten run over by 50 camels.

"But… how?" He asked, so quiet that nobody else could hear him. "I can… tell you my… love…" Whispered the woman. "Alright…" Cobra replied. "My dear, sweet, Titi."

And with that, the former queen took a deep breath, and began to speak.

"It was never… confirmed that I was dead… was it?" Cobra shook his head. "I never… died… I… disappeared…" Cobra nodded this time. "Well, let me… tell you what… really happened…

"As you probably… know… at the time there were… a lot of bandits around… Alabasta… Bandits that specialize in… kidnapping people… Well, let's just say I… got on the wrong side of a group… of these bandits." Titi began, in between breaths.

"These bandits… kidnapped me… This was the day I… supposeably disappeared undoubtedly… Well, they kept me… in their headquarters… for weeks… I expect they wanted… to bring me to the palace… and say that they found me… Well… it didn't turn out the way they wanted to…

"It turned out they had made enemies with… a group of pirates. This group of pirates… attacked the bandits… and took me hostage, taking me away… from Alabasta…

"They sailed through… the Grand Line… holding me as a… hostage. They never got around to it… Their ship was destroyed, and I… barely escaped… I swam… and swam… and swam… until I reached an island… Yes, I reached… an island by swimming in… the Grand Line." Titi chuckled, before resuming her explanation. "For about… 3 years I was on that island… trying to figure out a way… to get back… nobody believed me… when I told them who… I was. Finally, somebody told me they could get me back to Alabasta.

"We were about 1/8th there when we were attacked… We barely escaped with our lives… A navy ship picked us up… They took us to an island, but arrested the pirates… because they were pirates… they recognized me though… I tried to get them out of being arrested, but it… didn't work." Titi paused, and took a few deep breaths, coughing once or twice. "I bought a ship… And began sailing back to Alabasta…

"I had no log pose, or eternal pose… and Alabasta was so far away. Not to mention there was… bandits looking for me to take me hostage… and pirates… It was… difficult… I sailed for years… I lost count of how may years…

"Finally, I found my way back here… I docked… and began my way through the deserts… I ran into a few… creatures… but… as you can see, I made it here… with the help of Pell of course…" Titi wrinkled her brow. Cobra placed his hand on Titi's forehead. "I'm so happy… it's really you…" tears began falling down his face. Then he realized that he had no way of telling if it was really Titi or not. "But… I don't know if-" Titi cut him off by whispering something in his ear. Cobra moved his head away, and looked at Titi. "It's really you!" He exclaimed, his voice bursting his joy. Titi smiled, and Cobra replaced his hand on her forehead. "Rest my love… I am going to send a letter to Vivi." Titi frowned at those words, unsure what he meant by send Vivi a letter. It meant Vivi wasn't here, and that made Titi instinctively worry. Cobra, seeing Titi's discomfort, chuckled. "Don't worry. She's safe." He reassured her. Hearing those words, Titi relaxed. "That's good…" She sighed. Cobra smiled. "I'm going to write a letter to her. Now rest." He ordered. Titi smiled too. "Alright…" She said.

And with that, Cobra left the room to is study, and Titi sank into the state we call sleep.

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I must say, this story is exciting even me. ^^ I can't wait to write out the rest of it.

By the way, I apologize for any OCs that may come up.

I also must say, that Titi's personality in this story is going to be based off of what I think she would be like. Because we haven't got any info on her, I'm just using stuff from my imagination. ^^

Anyways, hopefully the fourth chapter should be up soon!