Aww thank you for the reviews~ :D Okay, so I decided to somehow add Paulie here cause well he's one of my fave chars in the Water 7 arc…. So here's the next chap~

Chapter 14:

"Wow, you guys really fucked this place up." Zoro now noticed as they all were outside watching the place crumble.

"I know! I don't know what Kidd did…. But it seems like he was quite productive in the time I was out!" Akane laughed.

"Out…?" Law looked at her confused.

"Oh I almost died cause of the Warden here. He poisoned me and then Vi-chan had to like gimme something that put off some years to my life." She simply stated making everyone's jaw drop-including Zoro who didn't know that fact.

"What?! You're life is going to be shorter?!" Nami gasped.

"Eh? Yeah… Well it's better than me dying right then and there. Just be happy I'm alive!" She shrugged it off and began to laugh.

"Oi Akane! You didn't tell me that before! I would've beaten that guys' ass!" Luffy pounded his fist to his palm in anger.

"Yeah! You should've told us!" Ace and Zoro said together.

"It doesn't matter! I'm alive right now, right?!"
"That's true." Robin agreed.

"Akane sis, you make people worry about you too much…." Franky shook his head.

"I'll check up on you when we get into the ship!" Chopper declared.

"You don't have to Chopper…." She told him and she immediately got shouted at by everyone.

"You idiot! Of course you have to get checked out!" Nami scolded once again.

"She's right, Akane!" Usopp agreed. "We don't know if you're body's okay or not!"

"I'm perfectly fine though!" Akane assured, moving her arms and legs. "See?!"

"That's not enough, Miss Akane." Law now joined in. "It could be a problem inside your body, not out." He stated, closing his eyes.

"Yohohoho, quite true. I would say the same but I don't have any insides! YOHOHOHO SKULL JOKE!" Brook laughed and tilted his head.

"Brook, now's not the time…." Usopp shook his head.

"AKANE-CHWAN! LET'S GO INSIDE THE SHIP AND I'LL COOK YOU THE BEST THING YOU HAD EVER!" Sanji suddenly declared. "I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL WE SET SAIL!"

"H-Hey guys… why is Sanji acting like that…?" Akane questioned. "What does he mean by setting sail? Aren't we going back?"

"Nope, you guys are setting sail from here." Ace answered for everyone who remained quiet.

"EH?! What?! Wait, we're setting sail f'real?!"

"Of course! Just who's fault do you think that is?!" Nami slapped the girl on the head. "We came all the way here for you, and fought many guards and that vice-warden too! Of course we're going to be well known since we tried to free prisoners! We can't go back now!"

"Th-That's true… But I didn't want you guys to know just cause of this!" Akane whined.

"Well what would you have done then if we didn't come?" Usopp asked.

"Eh? I was just gonna come ba-"
"That wouldn't help either!" Nami interrupted, slapping the girl once again.

"Ow Nami! I'm getting hit too many times today!" She whined.

"Ah, that reminds me. Akane, why didn't you pick up your phone a few days ago? Makino was calling you like crazy!" Luffy remembered suddenly.

"Eh? Oh that's because my phone's been off this whole time. I wanted to have a few days of peace until I went back and get lec-" She dug into her pockets and then took out her phone; only to see it all broken. "EH?! What's this?! It's broken!"

"Must be because of you fighting…" Law noted.

"EH?! No fair! I can't contact Makino or Shanks now! Oh my gosh! I didn't even say goodbye! I feel so bad!" Akane went into despair.

"Don't worry sis! Are you forgetting who I am?!" Suddenly Franky joined in all proudly.

"F-Franky! That's right! You're a ship- wait you're a shipwright… how would you-"

"You know when we separated for a few years? I know all about technology now!" He declared openly getting many jaw-drops in return.

"EH?! Really Franky?! You didn't tell us that!" Chopper shouted.

"Oh well you guys really didn't need me then." Franky smirked.

"Great! You got even better!" Luffy laughed, kicking his sandals together. "We didn't have a chance to test out our new powers huh? It's only been a month since we got back together and we haven't had any real fights!"
"True…." Robin smiled. "It was great to see everyone again though."

"Yeah!" Everyone agreed while Zoro scratched the back of his head awkwardly- Akane noticed this and began to laugh. She wrapped her arm around his shoulder and patted his back.

"And it was great to get a new crewmember in that time too!" She added and got more smiles.

"Miss Akane." Law coughed and she turned to her boyfriend.

"What?"

"I'll be going now." He told her.

"Oh really?" She let go of Zoro and walked towards the Captain. Akane patted his shoulders and smiled. "See you later," She then walked off.

"That's it?!" Everyone scolded the girl.

"What?" She looked at them confused.

"AKANE-CHWAN! DON'T GET CLOSE TO THAT BASTARD!" He ran towards her and pulled her away.

"Hey Sanji!"

Page break~

"Bye Law!" Luffy waved to Law along with his crew.

"See ya one day again!" Akane added and then turned to see the ship she longed to go on. "Sunny Go!" She shrieked and ran inside.

"Oh that's right. Akane really likes ships." Usopp remembered, standing next to Zoro.

"What's so special about them?" He muttered.

"Eh? You don't know right? This is actually our second ship! Our first one got destroyed when someone attacked it… even though we didn't really sail in it… and then Franky made this!"

"Wait he made this all?!" Zoro's eyes widened.

"Yeah! Well actually with someone else… But cool right, Zoro?! We have the best of the best!" Luffy joined in laughing, keeping the 'well actually with someone else' quiet. "Off to sail for real now guys! We have everyone now!" The captain raised his arms high and everyone shouted a "YEAH!"

Page break~

"Man this is so much better!" Akane laughed as she sat outside with Robin and Nami. "Before when I was with Kidd and Bellamy it was so boring!"

"Bellamy?!" Nami looked at her shocked.

"Oh yeah… he was there too… I wonder what happened to him, Buggy, and Mr. 3…" Akane thought aloud.

"Well we know Bon-chan went with Vi-chan!" Luffy interrupted, running away from Chopper and Usopp in a game of tag.

"Yeah that's true." Ace nodded his head, popping out of nowhere.

"Ara, Marimo-san. Where are you going?" Robin noticed Zoro walking up towards the crow's nest.

"Ah? I'm training." He answered. "Franky put some weights up there for me."

"Oh really?!" Akane got up excitedly. "I wanna come too!"

"Ah?"

Page break~

Zoro lifted up 100 lbs with ease and Akane looked at him impressed. "Oh, you have nice body strength!" She noticed while Zoro didn't say anything at that comment.

"Why are you here?"

"Eh? Why not? I wanna see how strong you are! I know how strong everyone else is… well at least I know that they're stronger than they were a few years ago… but I haven't seen how strong you are!"

"Just what happened to you guys that made you separate?" Zoro suddenly asked, interested.

"Eh?"

"What happened?" Zoro repeated, now putting down the dumbbells. "You guys keep talking about that and I don't know." He now eyed her.

"Oh…." Akane sat down at the bench and swung her legs back and forth. "It's the worst thing that's ever happened to us."

"What?" Zoro sat next to her and got a towel to wipe off his sweat.

"You see, there used to be one more member in this crew before you came… there was 10 of us before too."

"AH?!" Zoro looked at her with disbelief.

"Yeah…. His name was Paulie."

"Paulie?" He repeated the name.

"Yeah…. He was a shipwright too. He and Franky were really close actually. But then… after a huge fight with a man named Blackbeard… everything went wrong…" Akane closed her eyes tightly. "Blackbeard was actually Ace's biggest enemy at first because he used to be in his crew and killed his own nakama; and we all knew Thatch- the guy who got killed first-so we hated him already. Thatch and Ace were really close… And then after a while his target became us- Ace's younger brother's crew."

"What?" Zoro's eyes widened once again while Akane just nodded her head.

"He came after us and then this was when we were too overconfident with ourselves- we didn't lose any fight… we thought we could become the crew of the Pirate King without losing… but we were totally wrong." She began to twirl her hair and sighed deeply. "He caught us by surprise… First, he came at us one by one… that bastard was a fuckin' coward!" She gritted her teeth and Zoro could see the hatred flowing out of her. "He came to Chopper first, then Robin, then Sanji, then Nami, then Brook, then Franky, then…." She now choked out. "Then he killed Paulie right in front of Luffy and my eyes."

"What the hell…." Was the only thing Zoro managed to say.

"Paulie tried his best to fight back but when Luffy and I managed to get there he just killed him… We don't know why he did though! He left the rest of our crew half-dead… but just killed Paulie… Then Luffy and me went on a rampage and tried our best to kill that bastard… but this guy… he was as strong as Ace… probably even stronger… and we got beaten really easily… then he told us, 'let this be a lesson to you guys!' and left…."

"That's-" Zoro felt anger going throughout his body himself.

"Horrible right?" Akane smiled weakly. "A week after that, we didn't talk at all. None of the crewmembers wanted to see each other…. So we decided to take a break… and separated for two years. Actually we all left the island we lived in during that time. Everyone was worried about us obviously, but we didn't have a choice. We just couldn't face each other… Nami went to a sky island and learned about weather there from what I heard; Chopper went to an island which only relied on herbs and became smarter there; Franky learned more about building stuff- and apparently technology- from an evil scientist's lab; Brook went around and learned more about music; Robin… she went somewhere I don't even know but became even stronger; Sanji went to that Okama's land and became stronger from running from then all that time; Usopp lived in a carnivorous land for that time and became really strong trying to keep alive; Luffy went to an island and got trained by Rayleigh and got help from a guy named Jinbei; and I found Law- he helped me become stronger and actually helped me with my devil powers." Akane finished.

"So that's how you and him…" Zoro drifted off; though he really didn't care right now. Somehow, he felt the pain in everyone. He couldn't even imagine how each of them felt during that whole time. Losing a friend that close was the worst thing in the world.

"Yeah." Akane got up suddenly and held out her arm to help Zoro up. "Though, it's been two years and we came back together! So now we're not going to accept another loss!" She smiled as Zoro took her hand.

To be continued~ Aww! This made me sad! T_T But I decided to kill of Paulie since I did NOT want Ace to be dead xD Well until next time~ :)