Chapter 3
THIRD POV
The pain of being rejected stung Riley. She had gone through physical pain, she knew how to deal with that. She had also dealt with emotion pain but that had always been her weak spot. It was always the way to bring her to her knees and break down her walls.
As she ran she silently wished to see one of the kids. There were millions of them, but there were also billions of worlds. It could be a very real possibility that she was the only one here. Once again fate smiled down on her for maybe the first time of her life. Her small frame hurtled into a much larger one and she ended p sprawled on the ground.
Fear pulsed through her. Was it Usopp? Had he found her? Did he want to kill her? Her fears were quieted though when she lifted her gaze and was met with an outstretched hand. She allowed her eyes to travel up the length of the arm to met with intense green eyes and silvery hair. A sad smile forced its way onto her face and she gladly accepted the hand.
"Cale...I was afraid I was the only one here."
He released her hand and smirked. His eyes focused on her teary ones and anger flashed through his neon green eyes.
"You look like you were a little more than afraid. What happened?" He smiled crookedly, "Whose head am I smashin'?"
Riley chuckled and shook her head. Cale had always been so protective, but not just of her, of everyone. Every kid needed to be saved in his eyes.
"It's okay Cale. I can handle myself. It was my fault anyway. I pulled the parent thing..."
She smiled sheepishly and followed Cale as he walked. They were surrounded by green and Riley thought the word was tree or forest.
Cale nodded understandably and kept silent. It was usually like that between the two of them. They understood each other without words, it was because they had known each other forever. Cale was only two years older than her at age 17. Now she looked him over.
She had never realized how tall he really was, okay Riley was a little shorter than average, but he was like unnaturally tall compared to her puny five foot. His hair had always defied gravity but it fit him perfectly considering Cale had an incapacity to follow orders. He rebelled against everything. He had somehow managed to snag a pair of neon green high tops and some black skinny jeans. He wore a dark green short sleeved shirt. It fit him well and he walked like he knew it, which he probably did.
They exited the...forest...and walked back into what Usopp had called a town. His name didn't hurt. Cale did that to people his confidence and rebellious took up to much space for you to be sad or angry.
"So are you gonna really tell me what happened or am I gonna have to wait even longer? And don't try to tell me nothing, I know the game you play."
Riley chuckled and prepared to tell her tale.
"Well I met these three kids. They took me to their leader, he's 17 like you, and he then became my sensei. Did you know that a house is where families live? We never lived in a house huh?"
"Don't try to change the subject Riley. Tell me the rest."
She sighed and continued with a pout.
"Well he told me that I needed new clothes so we meet this adult who gave me the clothes I'm wearing now. I thought she was gonna eat me! She was so fat!"
Riley released a tinkling laugh and Cale joined in with a deep-throated one.
"She was one of the younger kids mom, she scared him and I said something about that not being right...the leader, my sensei asked me how I knew what a mom and dad were. You know the rest of the story...Cale...I wanna know why."
Cale had stiffened when she had said that. It was a question that they all asked themselves. Why. Why were they the ones who had to live like this? The ones who didn't know what a house was. The ones who would suffer so much before , if they were lucky, they died.
It was a question that never had an answer.
"Riley we are special. You know that. Those adults didn't. We weren't special to them, we where just subjects and experiments, not humans with feelings. We need to be thankful for being different."
"BUT I'M TIRED OF BEING DIFFERENT! I don't want people to be afraid of me, or to hate me. I want to make friends, and not just friends like us. I want normal people to accept me...But most of all, I want to find something to believe in. Why can't we have that? Why does it have to be so hard for us?!"
She had stopped walking and was now standing in front of Cale. He kept his expression neutral. His voice came out hard and firm though.
"It is just because we are different that makes us strong. The will we have is stronger that anyone elses. The only ones that can understand us are the ones like us. You need to remember that and stop dreaming about stupid things."
Riley was shocked by his words but stayed silent. It didn't matter what Cale said, he was the closest thing to a family she had but he didn't understand her dream. Her dream to find something to believe in and never let it go, she vowed silently to herself that she would accomplish that dream. It was her dream...Riley's dream.
WITH USOPP
He was such an idiot. She had revealed a part of her past (no matter how scary and disturbing it had been) and he had made her run away. She wasn't the monster she was the victim. She needed help. What would his dad think of him now? Usopp knew, he would be disappointed.
At this moment Usopp was not a person his dad would be proud of, and that hurt deep. Pepper, Carrot, and Onion were still scared and shocked. Usopp knelt down in front of them and tried to calm them down.
"Guy's, just forget what she said. She was telling a story! Just like me, she still needs practice though. The great captain Usopp shall teach her all about heroic stories and defeating giant goldfish. You guys should go play or something...whatever young vegetables such as yourselves do."
Even though his words made no sense the kids brightened up and ignored the dig on their names. All three of them ran off yelling random things about goldfish.
Usopp sighed and trudged down the street. He needed to think about Riley and her past. She could be a danger, but she had seemed so normal for a second back there. Usopp's cowardly side told him that she would only be trouble. The side of him that wanted to do the right thing was drawn towards the hurt animal look Riley had shot him before running away.
He sighed once again and jumped into a tree. Maybe he should just let her figure it out herself, that sounded okay. If she wanted to come back it wouldn't be too hard to find him or one of the boys.
He fell asleep for about half an hour and was woken up by Carrot and Pepper.
"OI! CAPTAIN! WAKE UP!"
He rolled out of the tree and landed painfully on the dirt ground.
"What do want now?" He sat on the ground rubbing his head painfully.
"We lost Onion."
They said the sentence in perfect sync, like they had practiced it.
"What the hell do you mean that you 'lost' Onion! He's like 500 pounds! There is no way you could have lost him."
They were about to reply when the so-called 500 pound boy came running up the street.
"SOUND THE ALARM! THEY'RE HERE! THEY'RE HERE! THEY'RE GONNA KILL US ALL! OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOO!"
Usopp jumped to his feet and stared at the brown headed boy running towards them.
"What is he screaming about. That's my job..."
Onion reached them and shouted with tears running down his face,
"PIRATES ARE HERE! BLOOD THIRSTY MARAUDERS! WE DON'T STAND A CHANCE! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!"
"Stop playing around Onion. Pirates never actually show up here."
"I'm not playing captain. Pirates really are here. We're all gonna die!"
At the young boy's words Usopp did the thing that any sensible lying coward would do, and ran. All three boys stared after him and called after him in sync.
"YOU CHICKEN!"
Usopp ran a little farther and proclaimed he was sick. Apparently it was a very serious disease called, 'I'll-die-if-I-don't-eat-my-snakiosis'. All faith the boys had in their captain disappeared.
"You big stinking LIAR! You always told us that you wanted to become a real pirate someday and now's your chance! What kind of pirate is afraid of other pirates!?"
Carrot knew his words were a little harsh but their captain needed to suck it up.
"I think it was Buggy the Clowns mark I saw."
Usopp only started to shake harder and sweat poured down his face. He began to robotically turn away.
"I only saw two boats though!"
Usopp didn't pause in his escape plan.
"And there was only three people!"
Usopp whipped back up the hill and gave his crew members a thumbs up. The boys sweat dropped but smiled at their goofy captain.
"Well what are you cowards waiting for? We have pirates to defeat!"
He led them towards the beach and so was set in action the worst plan Usopp had ever done.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own One Piece
AN: A slightly longer chapter. You got to meet Cale and learned a little more about their past. I think i poured it a little heavy with the angst but
oh well. I hope you enjoyed and thank you for supporting Riley and her dream so far! This chapter was completely re-written as of 1-13-13.
