Two updates in one week!? WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!?

This chapter's a bit shorter. I'm trying to start uploading shorter chapters more frequently, instead of writing a 4,000 word chapter every month. So, hopefully it works out.

Thank you all for being awesome!

I don't own One Piece.

Away From Home

Chapter 10

Robin picked herself off the ground and brushed herself off, hoping none of the falling bricks would hit her. She couldn't see a thing, she could only hear the remaining bricks crash against the ground and...splash? She wasn't quite sure.

She was suddenly brought out of her thoughts by a loud crashing sound next to her.

"Ow! Damn it! What the hell!?" The green haired swordsman swore as he rubbed his head, sitting on the ground next to a surprised Robin.

"Zoro-san, I can't see anything. Where are you?" She asked politely, hesitantly reaching out around her.

Zoro groaned and pulled himself off the ground, "I can't see anything either. Come here..." He said as he closed his eyes and grabbed her wrist, gently pulling her towards him. Robin obliged and listened carefully as he slowly drew one of his katana from its sheath. He gently pointed it in front of him as they walked forward, waving it around hesitantly. It collided with something, producing a hard clinging noise.

"There's a wall..." He moved his sword to the left as it made another sharp noise. He scraped his sword along the object.

"Aaaaaand there's another wall... We're really making progress..."

Robin stifled her laughter, but her shaking arm gave it away.

"What's so funny?"

"You, Kenshi-san..."

"Me?"

"Yes. Your sarcasm can be quite humorous at times."

"Whatever..."

"Kenshi-san, I see a light up ahead."

"Huh!?" Zoro snapped his eyes open and saw two dim lights a few yards ahead of them, "Come on," he pulled Robin along as they jogged ahead.

They made it near the two lights, which were dimly lit torches on each wall.

"Oh crap!" Zoro yelled as he stopped abruptly, causing Robin to run into his backside. His foot was leaning off the floor, half off it on the edge of the ground and the other half floating in midair.

"What the hell? You've got to be kidding me!" Robin looked in front of them and found the source of Zoro's distress. There were two torches on the ground just below the others in the wall. Robin reached down to the ground, picked up a rock, threw it ahead of her, and watched as the lower torches rippled evenly. They were reflections...

"Did you hear that, Robin?"

"Hear what?"

"Toss another rock in." Robin did what she was told and tossed another rock ahead. As the rock hit the water she heard the familiar splash it made followed by a deep sizzling sound.

"It's the same as above," Zoro clarified, "I don't know where to go from here without getting chewed up by that stuff..."

"Zoro, catch," Robin said as one of her extra appendages tossed one of the wall torches to him.

"Good thinking. I actually forgot you could do that..." Robin looked at him curiously.

Zoro waved the torch in front of him, showing him and Robin what they didn't want to see: nothing but dark acid.

"Let's try searching over here where we can actually walk," Robin suggested. The straw hat waved the torch around recklessly behind them before coming across something on the wall.

"Hello, what's this?" The torch lit the wall to show a small notch in it, which Zoro shot his hand towards without a second's delay. Feeling around, his fingers wrapped around a hinge as he pulled out, pulling a small piece of the wall out with it. Loud creeks and noises could be heard from inside the wall, and the sound of large amounts of water, or in their case acid, falling filled the room.

"Zoro-san, look!" Robin tapped his shoulder and they watched four square platforms ascend from the acid in front of them, acid pouring off of them into the rest below.

Zoro grinned at Robin, "There's our ticket out of here."

The straw hats continued forward, jumping from platform to platform, making sure the other didn't slip into the acid and 'disintegrate from skin to organs to bones' as Robin had put it. They finally reached the end of the dark room and followed the narrow path between the stone walls forward. They got to the end and were met with another stone wall with two torches on either side of it.

"This is really starting to piss me off! What, are we supposed to fall again!?" Zoro roared as he stared at the blank wall.

"Not quite, Zoro-san," Robin squeezed past him and ran her slim fingers along the wall, finding two vertical creases on each side of the wall from top to bottom. "I believe it's some sort of door..."

"A door?" Zoro asked, motioning Robin to step back as he positioned himself in front of it. "Well, there's only one way to find out!"

Zoro pushed as hard as he could, furiously grunting in the process. Robin watched as the bulky man pushed the wall, but to no avail.

"Gah... Damn door... Agh..." He regained his breath, "Screw this!" Zoro unsheathed two of his katana and prepared to strike the wall before being stopped by Robin.

"That may not be a good idea, Kenshi-san. We don't know if this place is entirely stable. We've fallen through the floor twice already and there's a giant tree above us. We must be patient," Robin patted his shoulder gently, calming him down as he sheathed his swords. Zoro looked down to the ground and cracked his knuckles.

"Watch out, Robin," The green haired man crouched towards the bottom of the door and tucked his fingers underneath the small opening before lifting with all his strength. Robin watched again, this time impressed while the swordsman lifted the giant stone door off the ground. He roared until the door was halfway off the ground.

"Robin, go! I can't hold it much longer!"

"What about you!?"

"I'll think of something, just go!" Zoro yelled and Robin regrettably listened. She crawled past Zoro and underneath the door into a well lit room. The door smashed shut and she immediately turned around and yelled his name through the stone wall.

"Zoro-san! Are you alright!?"

"Agh...yeah...gah...I'm...ugh...fine..." Zoro gasped before spitting up blood. He placed his hand on his stomach and felt warm blood trickle into his hand. "S-Shit..."

Robin heard him, "What? Zoro, what's wrong!?"

"N-Nothing..."

Robin furrowed her eyebrows in anger, "There's definitely something wrong when you say 'shit'. What is it? Tell me!"

If Zoro wasn't about to collapse, he would probably be terrified from Robin screaming at him. "My...damn wound...o-opened up...again... I-I'm...agh... I'm...f-fine..." Robin heard him gasping on the other side before hearing a loud thud followed by silence.

"Zoro!" Robin yelled, but got no reply. She frantically searched her side of the door for some other way to open it, but it was just the same as the other side. She turned and looked into the room she entered and was momentarily amazed by it. It was a huge, chapel-like hall. Pillars stood supporting the ceiling on each side of the high room. A large, throne-like figure made of stone sat at the end of the room with decorative patterns carved into it. Robin looked more closely and saw that it had tusks, resembling some sort of half-man half-boar. The extremely high ceiling had a dome shape to it and patterns carved in as well. Statues of unknown figures stood on either side of the center walkway, all made out of tan stone and brick.

Robin's historical mind betrayed her as she walked towards the center altar, passing the many pillars and statues that filled the room. She eyed the large boar-like figure behind the altar, attempting to decipher its identity. Her blue eyes landed on text carved into the front of the figurine, but as she was about to read it, a loud slashing noise sounded behind her.

Robin turned to see the stone door get sliced into eight different pieces and crumble to the floor. She watched the familiar figure intently as he slowly made his way over the rubble and into the room she stood in.

"Zoro-san! Are you alright!?" Robin ran over to him, but he just stood there breathing heavily. "Zoro?"

The ex-bounty hunter looked at the archaeologist, "Robin, we've gotta get out of here..."

Robin looked into his blank, serious eyes, "W-Why, what's wrong?" she asked rather nervously.

"I don't know. I've just got this feeling that something bad is going to happen... Where are we now?" he looked around the large room.

"I'm not sure... It's some type of ancient hall. I've never seen anything like this before."

"Well, let's look around quickly and find a way out of this place."

"Of course," she looked at him and examined his condition. Blood continued to drip down his abdomen and over his already blood-encrusted bandages.

"Zoro...are you sure you're alright? You're bleeding again..." She asked, stepping closer to him.

"Yeah, I'll live. I just needed to catch my breath before," he stated, watching as her deep eyes scanned his entire self. He shifted uncomfortably.

"These bandages have to be cleaned or you'll get an infection," Robin gently glided her hand over his bandages. Zoro regained his composure and grabbed her hand.

"Come on, we've gotta set out of here first," he dragged her forward towards the center piece.

"I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I found some writing here before-"

"Look at this," he interrupted. Robin looked to see a small lever similar to the one in the previous room's wall. He pulled it like he did the last one, but it didn't budge.

"What the hell? This thing's broken?"

"That's odd... It didn't move at all. Maybe we need to activate it somehow..."

"How the hell are we gonna do that?"

Robin looked back across the room, scanning everything she saw. Four statues and four pillars each stood tall, the now broken door lay in pieces, the large dome-shaped ceiling, and the unusual markings in the wall.

"Hey, what're those?" Zoro asked, pointing to four square outlined tiles on the floor. Robin walked up to and crouched above one, examining it. It was an elevated square tile that rose about an inch off the ground. Robin got up and looked at the statues, noticing how each had a square base.

"Zoro-san, help me move these statues onto these tiles, but please, don't over exert yourself."

"Yes, mother..." Zoro sarcastically snorted.

"Fufufufufu... That's the spirit..."

Zoro and Robin moved the statues onto the tiles with inhuman speed, thanks to Zoro's strength and Robin's powers. Each time they set a statue on a tile, the statue's weight pushed it down with a reassuring click.

"Last one," Zoro said as he dropped the large statue onto the last tile, pushing it down and clicking it in place.

The two waited eagerly for a moment, before a loud rumble took over. The four statues began glowing green much to their surprise. The large boar statue at the head of the room began shaking, and a small slab of stone on its front lowered, revealing a medium-sized hole.

The two pirates grinned at each other before making their way up to the altar. They walked up to the figure and looked in the opening before stopping dead in their tracks.

Robin gasped and took a step back, bringing her hand up to cover her mouth in astonishment.

Zoro stared at the object with wide eyes, tensing every muscle in his body.

"W-What the...hell...!?"

...

...

...

Chopper's hat.

Hooray for further unexplained plot twists! This story's taking a long time, but all will be explained! Although it seems like I'm just rambling on with the plot, I do have it all planned out.

Thanks everyone! Don't forget to drop in a review! (I've got a statistics exam this week, so I need all the courage and support I can get...)