Sorry for this being so late, there's lots of work to do at school and on top of that I got a cold… Well this probably won't be the type of ending you all though it would have had but please enjoy. (:

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Secret weakness and the meeting

The enemies each have a secret weakness. Will the straw-hat crew find them and be able to defeat their opponent?

"You know, boy, you are very lucky." Elli took in deep breaths.

"I guess." Luffy seemed almost as tired as Elli was. "But I really don't need any luck to beat someone like you."

"You still think you can beat me kid?" Elli got more and more impatient with Luffy's determination.

"Of course I do."

"I will admit that you have a chance of winning but your friends truly do not." Elli tried to sound menacing.

"I told you I have going to win, that's not news to me." Luffy smiled. "It would be a bad decision to underestimate my friends."

"Are you not the one doing the underestimating?" Elli said.

"No. Who'd get beat by the three weird looking people with mask that are fighting outside?!" asked Luffy oddly.

"That is no reason to underestimate them you fool!" Replied Elli as he lost his cool.

"Well whatever, right now are fight matters."

"You are right. Shall we continue what we started?" A nasty smile made an appearance on Elli fierce face.

"Bring it." He said seriously but at the same time taunting him.

"Alright, you asked for it kid." said Elli as he went back in his battle position, ready at any moment to fight.

"Eat this!" yelled Tia from a distance has she started throwing something at Elli.

"What is this?!" Elli started screaming from the pain. "It could not be!"

"Haha! I knew that would work…" Tia said smiling at her victory.

"Are those…….Cucumbers?!" Luffy asked oddly and amazed as he watched Tia throw cucumbers at Elli which made him pretty much powerless.

"You bet!" she said smiling.

"How come it's working, they're just cucumbers?" he asked confused.

"Well yes, but you see, Elli's very allergic to cucumbers." She smiled. "He's going to be knock out cold for awhile, don't worry."

"So that's why you stopped on the way here..." said Usopp.

"Yup!" she smiled at them.

"Well that solves a lot of our problems." Nami said also smiling and starting to trust her a little more.

"Tia, you're back!" Luffy said just now noticing she was not in Devoveo Tower anymore.

"Slow…" Chopper and Brook said at the same time.

"Yeah!" she smiled sweetly and joyfully at all of them.

"That's great!" Luffy said as he got up and walked up to Tia and held her in his arms. "I'm glad you're ok."

"Me too." Tai smiled and blushed. "Luffy, can this wait… I'm just so... tired…and.." Tia collapsed from the lack of sleep and of energy, she had been trying to stay awake and joyfully the last couple of hours.

"Tia!" Luffy still held onto her and worried. "Chopper, come here."

"Don't worry she just fainted, she needs some sleep." Chopper informed Luffy and the rest of them as he made sure Tia was alright.

"We should take her back to the ship." Brook said.

"Brooks's right, we should go before Elli wakes up; when ever that'll happen." Usopp reminded them.

"This reunion will have to wait, we have to get the other and go back to the ship." Nami hurried.

"Agreed."

They went back to the front of the castle doors where they had left Robin, Zoro and Sanji to fight the three great ones. They arrived there in seconds.

"Zoro! Sanji! Robin!" Luffy yelled out.

"We're over here!" Sanji replied.

"You guys are done already?" Nami asked surprised.

"You wouldn't believe what their weaknesses are! I could hardly believe it myself!" Zoro said amused. "You guys are done too?"

"Luffy, who's the girl?" Sanji said as he saw Tia on Luffy's back, fainted.

"Elli had an unbelievable weakness too." Luffy laughed. "This is Tia, we have to get her to the ship quickly; she fainted."

"I see. Let's hurry then." Sanji said as they walked back to the ship, moving passed the storm that was still there but leaving quickly now that Elli couldn't keep it up any longer.

Back at the ship, Tia was sleeping in the dining room as Sanji made some food for everyone. Luffy was right beside her the hold time. Chopper was with the still weak puppy Jeraud and the others were just waiting around with not much to say. Tia woke up the minute Sanji put her food in front of her.

"Soup?" Tia mumbled as she woke up.

"Tia are you alright?" Luffy asked concerned.

"Yeah, I'm better now." She said and at the same time her stomach grumbled. "Hungry."

"Then eat," Sanji said pointing at the beautiful soup he had made as an appetizer. "It's soup."

"I can't…" she said childishly.

"Why not?" Luffy asked questionably. "Sanji's food is really good."

"I know but…." Tia continued.

"But what?"

"It's too pretty to eat!"

"What?!" Luffy and Sanji said at the same time. The rest of the crew gave them odd looks. Tia's stomach grumbled again.

"I think I'll eat it anyways." She said picking up her food and making everyone in the room speechless. "Thanks for the meal." She said as she started eating. "This is really good!"

"Told you it was." Luffy said happily.

"Here have some of this." Sanji said as he brought her the rest of the meal.

"Thank you!" she said pleasantly.

"So Tia," Nami started as Tia and everyone else had finished eating. "How did you know cucumbers would defeat Elli?"

"Well cucumbers won't defeat him but only make him lose consciousness for about a day or so." She said laughing at Elli weakness. "When I first came to this island, I had a job had a baker at a little bakery in town, on one of the festivals I was put in charge of making lunch for everyone going to the festival; including the royal family. I had put cucumbers in the food I had made and went Elli touched one of them he lost conscienceless for the whole day. Jer had then explained to me that Elli was very allergic to cucumber, not deadly but very."

"That explains a lot." Nami said.

"Yeah." Tia said happily.

"Come to think of it, you three said the three great ones had weaknesses too." Nami said.

"You guys fought the three great ones?" Tia asked.

"Yes we did." Sanji said.

"They're unbelievable aren't they?" Tia laughed.

"Yes." Robin said as she, Zoro and Sanji laughed.

"Don't keep us out of the joke like that, tell us." Luffy whined.

"Oh sorry." She said still laughing. "Well you know Elli's weaknesses are cucumbers, but the three great ones each have a different one. Callista's weakness are flowers, Cillian's weakness is blood and Cain's weakness smoke."

"They were a bit too easy." Sanji admitted while laughing.

"What's with that?" Luffy said as he too laughed.

"Tia, do you have a weakness?" Nami asked with a bad intention.

"hmm…." Tia wondered. "Well…my weakness would have to be…" she hesitated for a moment.

Luffy laughed.

"What's so funny Luffy?" Tia whined.

"Did you get over your phobia?" Luffy asked half laughing.

"No, you didn't have to remind me!" she yelled as the thought of are phobia came back to her.

"Tell us what it is already!" Nami yelled impatiently.

"…Cockroach…" Tia admitted ashamed. Luffy laughed but Tia glared at him for it.

"Cockroaches?" Zoro asked. The sound of the word brought shivers down her spine.

"That's not funny." Tia said seriously.

"Yeah it is." he said still laughing. "They're so cute." He teased.

"Luffy!" Tia yelled. "They're so gross…." She shivered.

"Sorry, sorry." He said with a last laugh.

"Thank you." She said.

"Sanji, can I have something to eat?" Luffy whined hungrily.

"Luffy, we just ate."

"Yeah but that was a late supper, we missed lunch." Luffy kept whining.

"Oh I'm sorry." Tia apologized guiltily. "I didn't mean to make you miss you lunch. If you wouldn't mind, Sanji, maybe I could make something in your place as a thanks?" Tia offered.

"Ooh! Tia's a good baker; you should let her Sanji." Luffy said.

"Alright then, Tia come this way with me please." Sanji said nicely. "I'll show you were everything is." They both left the room to go to the kitchen while everyone else stay in the room.

"I can't wait to see what Tia will bake." Robin said to please Luffy.

"She a great baker, I'm sure you'll like whatever she'll bake." Luffy smiled.

"So Luffy… She's joining to crew?" Nami asked uneasy.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Well it's just that we don't know much about her and…I just though we get to know her more before we made any decisions." Nami said, trying to buy time.

"Nami, Luffy's the captain; I don't think you'll want to stand in the way of his decision." said Zoro clearly seeing that Nami didn't like the new girl all that much.

"But…" Nami started as she looked in the direction of Luffy confused face.

"Zoro's right, I think Luffy already decided that Tia would join. I don't see the problem." said the blue-nosed reindeer.

"Well I'm just thinking about the last few days here, it seems all upside down." said Nami.

"They have been pretty exciting." Usopp agreed. "But I think having Tia here is a good thing." Usopp gave Luffy a look.

"We'll still have lots of time here, you'll all have time to get to know her in that time." said Luffy.

"What do you mean captain? We're going to stay here for awhile?" Brook asked.

"Yeah, I mean after this whole mess, Tia will have to stay here and try to fix it."

"How long?" asked Zoro.

"I don't know maybe a week."

"The Log Pose still isn't set yet. Does someone know when it'll set?" Nami asked.

"Let's see, we've been here for about two days so that mean we still have another three days before it sets." Robin answered; she had read about it in the library.

"That's just great." Nami whined.

"What's the big hurry?" Zoro complained about her complaining.

"Well…" Nami said a bit depressed.

"Well what?" Zoro asked impatiently.

"Nothing." said Nami bored.

"Every one!" said Sanji as he and Tia came in the room with plates. "It's ready!"

"Wow!" Usopp and Chopper said as they saw the dessert being set on the table.

"I thought you'd like something sweet so I made you my most special dessert. I know it's really late but…" She said happily.

"Oh! Is that your special dessert?!" asked Luffy excited.

"Yes! My special 'Mont-Blanc mini cakes'!" she said.

"I remember that! You and your mom used to always make that." said Luffy before he took a bite out of the beautiful dessert. "It's still very delicious!" he complimented.

"Thanks."

"This is really good. How did you make it?" Robin asked curiously.

"Well that's bit of a family secret." She teased. "But it's made with the basic and some more special things."

"It's really sweet." said Usopp.

"Mmm! It really is sweet! That's really good." said Chopper.

"Thanks for your kind words." Tia thanked them very happily.

"You know Tia; you're a very good baker. Have you ever thought of opening a bakery?" asked Sanji.

"Oh of course, I do in fact own a little bakery in town. It's called 'Delicious Art '."

"I went there the first day we came here!" yelled Luffy surprised.

"Really?" asked Tia surprised as well.

"Yeah!"

"Haha that's nice." said Tia happily.

"So Tia when did you come here?" asked Nami, wanting to know more about her.

"Well-" Tia started answering Nami's question when Franky walked in the door.

"Franky, you're done?" asked Luffy.

"You bet. It's Super!" Franky said giving Luffy the thumps up.

"You're Franky? That must mean you're the carpenter, nice to meet you." Said Tia trying to understand what was going on.

"Tia we have a surprise for you." said Luffy.

"What? Oh really? That's very nice." She said happily but still a bit lost.

"Come with me for a minute." Said Luffy as he and Tia left the room.

"What is it Luffy?" asked Tia curiously.

"You'll see."

Luffy was bringing Tia to the hall where all of the crew's rooms are. They stopped at a door that looked new.

"This is it, why don't you go inside." said Luffy.

"Alright." Tia opened the door. "Oh Luffy! Is this for me?"

"Yeah, this'll be your room." Luffy smiled at her.

"Thank you so much!" Tia said. "Aiko!" she said as she saw that her cat was here, waiting for her. She sat down on the floor with her cat and looked at how beautiful her room was.

"I'm glad you like it." said Luffy as he sat down next to Tia and the cat she held in her arms.

"Of course I like it!" Tia said happily smiling at the captain.

"It's been pretty crazy that least three days hasn't it?"

"Sure has… It's all turned out well didn't it though?" said Tia.

"Yeah." said Luffy smiling.

"Thanks Luffy." Tia smiled sweetly as Luffy and he smiled back.

"For what?" he asked.

"Everything." Said Tia as she let go of Aiko and hugged Luffy.

"Any time." said Luffy, hugging her back tightly. "Tia…"

"Yeah?"

"I have something to tell you…" said Luffy getting serious and nervous.

"What is it?" asked Tia curiously, letting go of Luffy so she could listen to what he had to say better.

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You'll have to wait for the next chapter to see what Luffy as to say! Thanks for reading my story! I hope you like it so far. (: