Robin stared straight ahead at the blank wall in front of her, feeling unable to concentrate on what was coming, what should have been one of the most important moments of her life. Her Baltigo University interview. It was incredible, she had spent months preparing for this yet now… she honestly didn't care about how it went.

All Robin could think about was the events of last night. She sighed, running her hand through her hair. What was going to happen now? Would things ever be the same again?

Just then the door next to Robin opened and out came a shaken looking teenager. Robin inwardly scoffed. What was he so upset about? So what if he'd had a bad interview, it wasn't the end of the world. It was nothing compared to what had happened to her and the rest of her friends last night….

Robin shook her head, a little shocked by how cynical that last thought had been. Since when was she so… spiteful?

"Nico Robin." A male voice boomed from inside the room. Robin got up from the small chair stationed outside the Professor's office and entered the room. It was small with a desk at the back overlooking the Baltigo University courtyard and a round table in the middle of the room with two bookshelves on either side of the room.

The professor looked at Robin, his expression fairly neutral. Not particularly unnerving, but not especially friendly either. "Hello there, I'm Professor Smith," He greeted, holding his hand out to Robin.

"Robin," said girl replied, taking his hand and shaking it. She sat down opposite the professor on the other side of his desk, trying desperately to even just temporarily focus on the task on hand, but unable to do so.

"So, let's begin shall we? To start off, I was wondering whether you could tell me what inspired you to choose Baltigo in particular to apply to?"

######

"Enough talking, let's go!" Luffy shouted. He and Sanji had just been dropped off by a police vehicle at the restaurant, where they'd met up with Law and Zoro. Instead of entering the restaurant, where a startling revelation had just been made, the four were outside arguing about whether to pursue Doflamingo or not.

"Luffy, you were nearly killed back there! Why don't we leave this to the police?" Sanji said desperately.

"No way," Law sharply said. "You three are free to do whatever you want but I'm going after Doflamingo."

"Well if you're going I'm going too!" Luffy said stubbornly. "We're friends and friends stick together!"

Zoro nodded. "I'm with Luffy, this is our fight too."

Sanji sighed, seeing that he wasn't going to be able to convince the other three to leave this alone. "Fine, but we should stick together, the four of us."

######

"I see," Professor Smith said, nodding to himself as he scribbled down a quick sentence on a piece of paper by his side. "That's a good answer. You mentioned in your essay a particular fondness for Ancient History and Archaeology. Where did that originate from?"

######

"Ace! Stop!" Thatch shouted, his colleague running through the empty streets of Baltigo at full pelt.

"Why should I?" Ace shouted back. "Teach is right here Thatch, right here! We can finally get him!"

"It's too dangerous! There's only two of us and we don't know this area at all, nor do we know how many men Teach has!"

"Then wait behind here and call for back up but I'm going on ahead. I won't let Teach escape. I need to pay him back for nearly killing my brother."

"You can't go alone!"

Thatch continued running after Ace, knowing that stopping his fellow Police officer would be impossible currently. He was just too angry.

######

"That's very interesting. So you more or less inherited that interest from your mother?"

Robin nodded. Professor Smith smiled slightly, mistaking Robin's hesitance for mere shyness. "So tell me what you know about the Shandian civilisation."

######

"You seriously think it's Monet?" Sanji asked. Law nodded.

"Doflamingo is after a girl. I'm not 100% sure, but there's a definite chance it's her, wouldn't you agree?"

"It would make sense," Sanji agreed. "She probably knows a lot about Caesar's research. If Doflamingo wants that information with Clown in jail, Monet would be Doflamingo's next best option."

Law gritted his teeth. "I won't let him touch her."

Luffy nodded. "Don't worry Traffy, I'll kick Mingo's ass before that happens!"

Law smiled slightly, genuinely grateful. "Thanks Straw Hat-ya."

"We need to find him first," Zoro said sharply. "I mean, he could be anywhere in this city, where do we begin?"

######

After following Teach for a while, Ace and Thatch had lost the former police officer in an industrial area. The two police officers hadn't given up though, searching the area carefully and finally finding coming to a lone factory. Ace walked past the storage containers surrounding the building, listening carefully for any sound of noise coming from inside.

"You really think he's here?" Thatch asked.

"Yeah…. Not sure why, but I can just feel it. He's here alright."

"Alright then, I'll call for backup, let's watch the building from a safe distance. If Teach is really there, we can corner him right here and now."

Ace continued walking towards the building. "You can do what you want, I'm going in."

"Are you kidding? Ace, this isn't safe! I know you're angry and you have every right to be, but let's be smart here!"

"I said you can do what you want. But you can't stop me from doing this."

Thatch sighed before following after Ace.

######

"Sorry, what was that?"

Robin snapped out of her daze and looked up from the table at the confused looking Professor. "I'm sorry?"

"Uh… you said something about a Factory and a Teacher I think?"

Robin shook her head. "S-Sorry, my mistake. I meant to say…"

######

"Hey Law I just remembered, before the police found us earlier, you were about to say something about Robin. What was it?"

Law gulped slightly at Zoro's question, which didn't go unnoticed by Sanji. "Now's not the time for that, we need to focus on finding Joker. I'll tell you later."

Zoro nodded, satisfied, but Sanji examined Law's face carefully. He could tell there was something up. Luffy groaned loudly.

"Where the hell is Mingo?"

"Luffy has a point, we have no idea where we're going, this is pointless," Sanji said, more to Law than anyone else. Law gritted his teeth.

"I don't care, if Monet is in this city somewhere, I'm not going to stop looking until I find her."

"I understand the way you feel, but-"

"There is no but! I said you three are free to do whatever you want, but I'm not stopping."

Sanji stood in front of Law, stopping the dark haired teen in his tracks. "Law, I get how you feel. If Hancock, or Robin or any of my friends was in this position, I wouldn't give up until I found them either. But we have to be smart about this for Monet's sake. Let's just stop for a second and think about this. Where would Monet likely be?"

Law was about to walk past Sanji when Zoro put a hand on his shoulder. "He's right. I've been there before, and running around aimlessly doesn't do anything."

Law sighed, seeing reason at last. "Alright… but how are we supposed to figure out where she is?"

Sanji thought for a second. "Well Monet was the adopted daughter of that Caesar Clown and wasn't she a scientist herself too?"

Law nodded. "Yeah that's right, Caesar taught her a lot of stuff so that she could help him out."

"So if she's in Baltigo now, she might have found a job here in which she could use those skills."

Law gasped. "The University!"

"So you think Monet works somewhere in the University?" Zoro asked.

"It would make sense," Sanji said. "I mean, I don't think it would be difficult for Monet to get a job as some sort of lab assistant in the University."

"Yosh, let's go to the University tomorrow then!" Luffy shouted. Sanji rolled his eyes.

"We can't stay here, we have school tomorrow and for the rest of the week. We're going to have to set off back home first thing tomorrow. Law on the other hand…"

Law nodded. "Yeah, leave it to me.."

"Nami and Robin can help too. So can Hancock actually, although I don't think she knows that much about this whole thing," Zoro said.

"That would be great if they could help, yeah," Law agreed. "Alright then, maybe we should go back to the restaurant. The others are probably worried about us…"

######

"Wh… What did you just say…?"

Dragon turned to Nami, his calm expression a huge contrast to the collective shocked expressions held by the rest of the table. "Monkey D Luffy is my son. My full name is Monkey D Dragon and I am Luffy's father."

"B… Bullshit!" Nami shouted, standing up, her rage clearly visible.

"It's the truth. Whether you believe it or not is of little consequence. Although if you did want proof, then you'd just have to ask my father. Luffy still is under the care of Garp, isn't he?"

"Garp is your father… You're Luffy's dad…." Chopper said in an almost zombie-like way.

Nami glared at Dragon. "Luffy's dad walked out on him when he was too young to even remember. I don't care whether you are him or not, you have no right to even try and see Luffy now!"

Dragon just looked blankly back at Nami, seemingly completely unfazed by her anger. "I would say that's for Luffy to decide, wouldn't you agree?"

######

"Your knowledge on the Shandians is very impressive. I see you've read up well on the subject. Now what do you know about Poneglyphs Robin?"

######

Ace and Thatch entered the factory together, the moonlight through the windows the only source of light within the seemingly empty building.

"It seems empty," Thatch muttered to himself while Ace went ahead.

"It's not," Ace said, his back to his colleague.

"Ze ha ha ha…."

Thatch froze at the sound of the familiar laugh. "Teach!"

Both Ace and Thatch frantically looked around the nearly pitch black room, unable to pinpoint exactly where Teach's voice was coming from. Suddenly a gunshot was fired and Thatch yelped in pain, falling to the ground.

"I got him," an unfamiliar voice said loudly. Ace ran to Thatch's side, noting that the gunshot came from above, meaning the warehouse must have a second floor.

"Nice shot, Van Augur," Teach's voice praised.

Ace dropped down next to Thatch. "Thatch, are you OK? Shit, I can't see properly…"

"We… Need to get… Get out…" Thatch mumbled.

Ace slung Thatch's arm around his neck and lifted his fellow police officer up, hurrying towards the door that was thankfully close by to them. He swung it open but froze at the sight which greeted him.

There were two men standing there with guns pointed directly at them. One of the men was tall with a cigar in his mouth and the other had pale white skin, a black hat and two big earrings.

"Ze ha ha… Looks like my plan worked."

Ace turned around just in time to see Teach open the warehouse door, a man with long brown hair and some somewhat peculiar glasses next to him.

Ace snarled at Teach. "What do you want? To kill me?"

Teach shook his head, clearly amused by the situation. "Of course not Ace, why would I want something like that? No, I'm here to offer you an exciting new opportunity. Join my gang. I could use a reliable guy like you as my right hand man. Besides… it's not exactly like you're in a position to refuse right now, is it?"

"I told you, I'd rather die than join you!"

"Ze ha ha what a brave thing to say. Shiliew, why don't you show Ace the reality of this situation?"

The man with a cigar in his mouth shot Thatch straight through the chest.

######

"Well then, I think that's all we have time for. It was a pleasure meeting you Robin."

Professor Smith smiled a friendly smile, really signalling that the business of the interview was truly over and that both him and Robin could now relax. Not that Robin could have relaxed if she'd tried of course. Robin smiled gingerly back and the two shook hands before Robin left the room, a nervous looking teenager sitting on the chair outside Professor Smith's office. He looked up at Robin, maybe trying to get some sort of clue as to what awaited him in the room, but Robin's hollow expression was probably misleading. It had nothing to do with the interview after all.

Robin made her way back to the cafeteria, where Nami was eating lunch, although she didn't look herself either. Robin quickly got her lunch before wordlessly joining her best friend. They sat in silence for a long while before Robin finally spoke.

"Luffy and the others aren't back from the hospital yet?"

######

Sanji glanced down at his phone screen and compared the name on the map to the one on the side of the street. "We're nearly there I think, the restaurant should be just up ahead."

Zoro yawned. "Jeez what a night. I need to get to bed…"

Sanji frowned. "Bed… Hey, where are we gonna sleep tonight? We never figured that out, did we?"

Luffy laughed. "Ah, don't worry about it! I'm sure everything's gonna work out somehow!"

Law rolled his eyes. "I wish I had Straw Hat-ya's optimism…"

"By the way Law, if we're going back now, what was it you wanted to tell me before?" Zoro asked.

Law froze at that, surprising the other three boys. "I think you and I should talk in private Roronoa. You two go on ahead."

Sanji and Luffy exchanged a confused glance before continuing on their way. Luffy looked back at Law and Zoro. "What's that all about?"

Sanji looked grimly at the other two teenagers. "I don't know, but I have a bad feeling about this…"

After a couple of minutes of walking Luffy and Sanji finally reached the restaurant. They were about to go inside when a police car turned the corner onto the street and skidded to a halt next to them. The driver kicked the door open, revealing a panicked looking Marco.

"Luffy! You guys! Get in! NOW!"

"Wait, what happened? Did you catch Teach?" Sanji asked.

"Just get in NOW! We have to go to the hospital!"

######

"ACE!"

Sabo looked up just in time to see Luffy enter the hospital waiting room.

"Wh… What happened?"

Sabo stood up and went to Luffy's side. "Ace and another police officer were surrounded by that Teach and his men. Just when they were about to… to shoot Ace, the police backup the other officer had had called for arrived. Teach panicked and shot Ace before him and his men escaped. The other one was already dead but Ace..."

"He's not dead… right?"

Luffy's face was tilted towards the ground, tears streaming down his face. Sabo shook his head. "No, he's alive, but he's in critical condition. He's having emergency surgery now."

"He'll survive though, right?"

Sabo pulled his younger brother into a hug, him unable to stop his own tears from freely flowing.

######

"So what now?"

Nobody could really answer Usopp's question. Him and the rest of the group minus the ones having interviews were in the hospital waiting room, doing exactly what the room was intended for. Waiting. Waiting for some news regarding Ace.

Sanji slammed his foot against the wall. "Shit… If Luffy and I had just gone with Ace…"

Chopper looked sympathetically at the blonde. "Sanji…"

"Hey Usopp, did Zoro text you back?" Franky asked.

No one had seen Zoro since he and Law had separated from Luffy and Sanji last night. After those two had reached the hospital, Sanji had called Nami to tell her what had happened to Ace and asked her to pass on the message to the others. He had then tried and failed to contact both Zoro and Law while Nami and the others had immediately rushed over to the hospital, the whole Dragon thing taking a back seat in their minds. After remaining there for a couple of hours, Sabo suggested that Nami, Robin and Hancock go back to the University to get some rest. It was nearly 3a.m. at this point and they would have to be up early for interviews the next morning. Everyone else, Sabo included, had stayed in the hospital waiting room overnight.

"I figured something was up," Sanji said, remembering the bad feeling he had last night about Law.

Usopp stood up. "I think I'm gonna go look for him. You wanna come with me Chopper?"

Chopper nodded and the two separated from the group. "Hey Usopp… This… stuff will all be over soon right?"

Usopp waited for a moment before staring grimly ahead. "I don't think so. I think this is just the beginning."