Disclaimer almost everything belongs to Eiichiro Oda that genius of a man

The Strawhats were slowly floating back down from Sky Island, everyone seemed completely fine even after all the injuries they sustained. They would arrive at Long Ring Long Land island soon, this thought was putting Zoro on edge as he remembered that this was where they met Aokiji. Even though he was much stronger than he was last time he wasn't delusional enough to believe that he could take a Navy General at his current strength, there also isn't any guarantee that Aokiji would let them go this time, this thought was worrying Zoro. Every second they got closer was causing Zoro to get progressively more anxious about the situation, after a few hours the Going Merry finally touches down onto water. The ship slowly sails onward to Long Ring Long Land Island, it would take the Strawhats a full day before they finally reach the island. When they finally do arrive at the island it was night most of the Strawhats were already asleep, Zoro being one of the only ones still awake him being used to keeping watch each night. Zoro sighs as he stares at the island cautiously, his staring is once again interrupted when he hears someone walking towards him, turning his head he sees that it was once again Robin who was smiling at him. He turns back to the island,

"What do you want?"

She chuckles,

"Can I not enjoy some night reading?"

He grumbles at her answer and decides to ignore her, they sit in silence until the morning dawn. Zoro was about to doze off when Robin suddenly closes her book causing Zoro to jolt at the noise, he snaps his head towards her and glares. Robin simply chuckles at this before yawning and stretching herself, as much as Zoro wanted to deny it she was pretty cute, growling to himself for thinking about that he turns away from her. Robin notices him do this but decides not to comment instead prompting to giggle to herself, Zoro closes his eyes hoping to get a bit of sleep before the rest of the Strawhats wake up and start causing a racket. Which wasn't much after cause after a few minutes he hears Luffy,

"Let's explore the island!"

Grumbling to himself he covers his ears in an attempt to ignore the sound, this would have worked if Luffy didn't run jump and start shaking him.

"Wake up Zoro! Let's go explore the island!"

Zoro growls at him,

"Leave me alone!"

Luffy simply laughs at him before running towards the kitchen, Zoro grumbles at him before getting up and yawning. He tiredly walks towards the kitchen hoping to grab a snack before he returns to his nap, breakfast passes without any disturbances and Zoro moves to his spot by the railing. He groans as a few of his joints pop then proceeds to try sleep, but once again to his major annoyance he is disturbed. Popping one eye open he looks up to see Foxy's ship slowly closing in on theirs, sighing to himself he hops off the ship and walks into the island hoping that he would escape the stupid Davy Back Fight. He slowly wanders around the island until he finds a house that if he was correct belonged to an old man named Tonjit, sighing he goes looking for the bamboo sticks that the man should have been standing atop. After a few moments of searching around he finds them, stretching a bit before he takes his blades out and starts cutting at the sticks. He hears frantic yelling coming above but he chooses to ignore it and continues to cut the stick down, after a few more cuts a man starts to fall down. Zoro patiently waits until the man is close enough, he jumps up to catch him, the man getting over his shock starts to thank Zoro. Zoro waves his thanks away and walks over to the house sitting down to so to take a nap, for once Zoro could actually take a decent nap which he was very thankful for. He awakens about an hour later and decides to check on the rest of his crew and see how they were dealing with the Davy Back Fight, when he finally sees the Strawhats ship in view he also finds the Davy Back Fight still going on. He grumbles as he slowly approaches them nobody notices him until he's right behind them,

"Yo what's going on?"

Nami and Usopp jump at his voice, they instantly snap their heads towards him. Finally noticing who it is Nami starts yelling,

"Where the hell were you! While you were gone we lost Robin and Chopper!"

Zoro lazily looks at her before sighing,

"It's fine I'll get them back."

She growls at him,

"How!"

He grins at her darkly,

"I'll find a way even if it takes me killing a few people."

Nami shivers at his tone, she tries to speak but Zoro walks past her grinning like crazy. He unsheathes Sandai Kitetsu, he could already feel the blade shaking in anticipation for the possible bloodbath they were about to embark in, everyone stares as Zoro slowly walks forward. Once close enough he point Sandai Kitetsu at Foxy and grins maniacally,

"Hey old fox, lets forget all this Davy Back nonsense, let my crew mates go and no one gets hurt!"

Foxy looks at him before laughing,

"This is a Davy Back Fight the only fighting there is here is when we have the competition, even if you do decide to fight you wouldn't be able to defeat us. We are the infamous Foxy Pirates!"

Zoro chuckles to himself,

"Your funeral."

He charges forward and shoots off the back of one of the Foxy Pirates hopping to the balcony that Foxy was in, he places his blade right up against Foxy's neck. His grins widens even more,

"Don't make me ask again."

Foxy gulps as he stares down the grinning swordsman,

"D-don't do anything! If you hurt me all the p-pirates in my crew will come a-after you! N-none of you will survive!"

This just causes Zoro to grin,

"My crew mates or your life make up your mind, though I don't mind all your men coming after me, that'll just let me kill even more people."

After a few silent moments staring down the grinning swordsman Foxy relents,

"L-let them go!"

Foxy's crew let Robin and Chopper go, Chopper races back to Nami while Robin slowly walks back chuckling the whole way. Zoro sheathes his blade his grin never leaving his face,

"Now that wasn't so hard was it."

Foxy glares at Zoro but gulps when Zoro's hand slowly moves towards the hilt of his sword,

"Just get out of here you despicable swordsman!"

Zoro chuckles at this, he jumps down from the balcony and slowly makes his way back to the crew. He turns towards Nami,

"Told you I could handle it."

Nami sighs and rubs the bridge of her nose,

"Sure I'll give you that."

As much as Zoro's readiness to kill anyone unnerved some of the Strawhats they were still thankful that they got Robin and Chopper back, Zoro smiles softly as the Strawhats embrace each other. Sensing the Foxy Pirates moving about he turn around one hand already on the hilt of Sandai Kitetsu,

"It'd be best if you guys just leave us alone, don't want anyone to die now would we."

The Foxy Pirates all freeze, one of them opens his mouth to speak but Zoro doesn't let him.

"Jinsoku!"

In an instant Zoro close the distance between him and the pirate his blade close enough to draw blood from the man's neck,

"That wasn't a request."

The pirate in question could only quiver as Zoro opens his black and red eye,

"Do you truly wish to die today?"

The pirate couldn't answer as even moving slightly would cause the blade to dig deeper into his neck, instead Foxy speaks,

"We're leaving you damn swordsman, just let my crew go!"

Zoro grins at Foxy sheathing his blade,

"Then get going."

Foxy grumbles and calls for the rest of his crew to return to their ship, before they sail away they yell at the Strawhats one last time.

"Don't forget us, we'll have our revenge one day!"

Zoro simply chuckles at them, the rest of the Strawhats all turn to him.

"Where did you go?"

Zoro grins,

"Cut bamboo, found an old man, took a nap."

They all look at him for a second before smiling at him, Zoro leads them to the old Tonjit's place. When they finally make it there they are greeted not by Tonjit but by an enormous man clad in white clothing, at the appearance of this man Robin recoils while Zoro simply stares at him tiredly.

"Ararara nice to see you again Robin."

Robin steps back in fear causing the rest of the Strawhats all to be on edge at this man,

"Who are you!"

But it was Robin who responded,

"That's Aokiji the Blue Pheasant, he's one of the three admirals of the Marines!"

Most of the Strawhats take a step back in fear of the man before them,

"What are you doing here?!"

Aokiji rubs his head lazily,

"I'm here on a walk."

He yawns and lays down on the floor causing the Strawhats to sweat-drop at his lazy behavior,

"Plus I'm here just to observe and report this discovery, though you should be warned that with the inclusion of Nico Robin all of your bounties will increase drastically."

Zoro tunes out the rest of the conversation but still stays vigilant, he silently watches Aokiji as they lead old man Tonjit to the water. His nerves hit an all-time high as he watches Aokiji freeze the ocean for Tonjit to cross, he thinks to himself,

"Am I actually going to be able to stall this man?"

As they watch Tonjit cross the ocean Aokiji speaks up,

"Even though I only came to see Nico Robin, maybe all of you should just die here."

Most of the Strawhats all stare at him in shock and fear the only exception being Zoro who was steeling himself for a battle,

"The government isn't taking you guys seriously, but after carefully analyzing the situation, it has become obvious that you are a very determined group of individuals. Your group currently consists merely of a handful of rogues, yet judging from the degree of trouble you've been causing. There is little doubt that as time passes you will become an acute threat, in the time between the issuing of the first bounty on a member of your party to the present your growth, so to say, has been quite extraordinary and though you have so far limited yourself to fighting other pirates, I am concerned with what the future holds once you grow tired of your prey and search for new game."

Usopp screams at him,

"Wh-why are you saying all this! Aren't you only here for a walk!?"

Aokiji sighs,

"Your party is now especially dangerous because of you Nico Robin."

Luffy yells at him but Zoro ignores him to concentrate on the admiral in front of them,

"The size of your bounty does not reflect the threat your combat ability pose. It also gives to show how dangerous you are to the government. And even though you were only eight years old, you had such a high bounty put on your head. As a child, you were a true survivor. Betraying your partners using them as tools, after the recent feat of survival you have undertaken, are these the new tools that you have chosen to manipulate to achieve your goals?"

The Strawhats all yell their disagreements at Aokiji, he simply sighs at them,

"That woman's curse will bring that day to pass soon enough, here's the proof: every group that Nico Robin has ever associated with has ended up completely annihilated. Always leaving her as the sole survivor, why is that so, Nico Robin?"

Luffy yells at him,

"Shut up, you! What happened in the past doesn't matter!"

Aokiji spares a glance towards Luffy,

"I see you have earned the trust of these people."

Robin finally having enough,

What are you trying to do?! You want to arrest me? Come and get some! Treinta Flores!"

Most of the Strawhats try to stop her, while Zoro sighs and ready's himself for a fight.

"Clutch!"

Zoro watches Aokiji's body fall apart knowing what was about to happen, silently he activates his Armament Haki. Aokiji reforms from the broken shards of ice,

"That was a bit harsh wasn't it?"

Not going to give Aokiji any time to recover Zoro charges forward,

"Jinsoku!"

Aokiji's eyes widen slightly as he sees Zoro quickly approaching him with a Haki covered blade,

"You can use Haki?"

He instantly summons his Ice Saber and locks blades with Zoro,

"Yea so what if I can?"

Aokiji sighs,

"Nothing, it's just surprising to see someone use in in Paradise. But then again you were never a normal pirate now were you?"

Zoro growls instead of responding, he disengages and yells at the Strawhats,

"Guys, get out of here now! I'll hold him off for now, but you guys need to get out of here now!"

Luffy didn't take this well,

"No, we'll take him together!"

Zoro growls at him,

"Enough, Luffy don't be an idiot for once! This is a Marine Admiral even with all of us together we wouldn't be able to defeat him, get out of here now and we might all walk away from this with our lives intact!"

Luffy freezes when he sees the expression of dread on Zoro's face, he gulps and his face drops a bit but he complies calling to the others,

"Everyone head back to the ship!"

The rest of them start running back to the ship, Aokiji notices this,

"Ararara having you guys escape would prove to be quite troublesome."

Aokiji disappears from Zoro view causing him to snap his head towards his crew, he activates his Observation Haki to try find him. He find Aokiji quickly making his way towards Robin, he growls to himself and charges after him.

"Don't think I'm just going to let you hurt my crew!"

Aokiji got to Robin before Zoro could stop him he starts to freeze Robin's body only to disappear again when Zoro brings his blade down on the spot where Aokiji was, Zoro growls,

"Get out of here now, you don't have the time to just stand around!"

Robin nods at him before racing towards their ship, finally with his crew gone and turns his attention back to Aokiji.

"Shall we resume our battle?"

Aokiji sighs putting himself in a lazy battle stance,

"You won't be able to last long against me swordsman."

Zoro grimly responds,

"I know."

Aokiji looks at him oddly,

"Then why do you fight?"

Zoro grimly smiles at him,

"To protect those I care for!"

Aokiji studies the man before him, he was an oddity in this pirate world. He was much too powerful for a man from the East Blue and knew things that many much older pirates barely knew, he narrows his eyes at Zoro.

"You are a odd man I will give you that, but this will be your resting place."

Zoro chuckles darkly at him,

"I can't die in a place like, not until I defeat Mihawk!"

With that Zoro charges forward at the Admiral bring his blades down hoping to strike the man down, but he knew that no matter how much effort he put into it right now he wouldn't be able to defeat him. When their blades clash and Aokiji disappears after it Zoro growls,

"Ashura no Kohai!"

The ground breaks up after his attack causing Aokiji to reappear a few feet away from him, once he gains a good footing Zoro charges in for another attack,

"Ashura Hakai!"

The strike barely gets past Aokiji's guard only causing a nick on Aokiji's cheek, Aokiji jumps back and touches his wound,

"You are more powerful than I expected."

Zoro grunts at him,

"I'll take that as a compliment."

This time Aokiji moves forward for an attack, instantly putting Zoro on defense. His strikes were to powerful and fast, Zoro could barely keep any of them from tearing at his body.

"Gah!"

Aokiji watches curiously as Zoro stops completely and grips his closed eye,

"Leave me alone you damn demon, I have other problems to deal with right now!"

It takes a moment but Zoro finally stops shaking in pain, Aokiji looks at him oddly,

"That was quite odd."

Grunting Zoro responds,

"Don't worry about it I can still fight."

Aokiji chuckles at him before his adopts more serious expression,

"With you as powerful as you are, I don't believe I could let you leave alive."

His vision slowly being covered in dark spots Zoro responds,

"I never expected you to let me leave alive, but at least let my crew go."

They stare each other down for a moment before charging forward, their blade strike relentlessly at each other for a few moments before they both jump back. Aokiji was barely winded but Zoro was slowly become more and more exhausted his breaths were more like pants at this point, Aokiji notices this,

"I don't think you could last much longer swordsman."

Zoro snarls at him,

"Yea I won't, Kiki Kyutoryu: Ashura!"

Aokiji watches in amazement as Zoro grows limbs and two heads,

"Quite an interesting ability you have there."

Zoro was shaking from exhaustion and pain but could still respond,

"This is the final strike, lets stop talking and get to fighting."

Aokiji narrows his eyes at Zoro,

"Very well."

He coats him blade and arm in armament Haki,

"Come swordsman!"

Zoro growls at him,

"Ashura Hakai: Ajimasuburesu!"

"Frozen Torment!"

They stand backs facing each other for a moment before Aokiji's blade shatter and Zoro drops to the ground his Ashura form already dissipated and frost starting to grow rapidly onto his body. Aokiji turns towards Zoro's fallen body,

"This trip has been quite a surprise to me and I have you to thank swordsman."

Aokiji slowly walks away studying the few cuts he has on his body,

"Do you think this was all that there was going to be mortal?"

Aokiji snaps his head towards Zoro only to see his body slowly being coated in a black flame and him slowly stand up,

"Why are you still standing swordsman?"

He scoffs at Aokiji,

"Do you think I am that pitiful swordsman! I am the great Demon of the Core, Volron!"

Aokiji narrows his eyes at Zoro who was now being possessed by Volron,

"I don't follow."

Volron scoffs at him,

"I didn't think a simple mortal could understand the grandiose being that stands before him anyway, so let us do this on terms that you do understand. As pathetic as this vessel is I will not allow you to disgrace me!"

Aokiji stands on guard as he once again goes into battle with the swordsman but this time he wasn't as certain about his victory.

~A While Later~

Luffy and Sanji are running towards the the mass of ice that was created from Aokiji and Zoro's fight,

"Hurry up Sanji!"

Sanji doesn't respond but continues sprinting towards their destination, after a few moments they arrive at their destination finding the area completely decimated, they pause for a moment to stare at everything to before starting to search for Zoro. They don't find Zoro until they move further into the center of the chaos, they freeze for a second to look at the condition Zoro was in. Sanji stutters out,

"I-Is he even a-alive in there?"

Luffy ignores Sanji as he races towards Zoro who was encased in a giant block of ice, Luffy pulls his fist back ready to punch the block but Sanji stops him.

"If you break it you could shatter him too!"

Luffy turns towards him with an unreadable expression of his face, they both silently agree that they would have to bring the block of ice containing Zoro back to the ship and thaw it there. When they start to drag the block of ice they notice that Zoro's eyes were both turned black and red something they only saw once and those eyes were darting around inside the block of ice like a crazed dog, they decide to ignore it for now so to bring the block to the ship as quickly as possible. When they finally get within view of the ship the rest of the crew run towards them and stare in shock at Zoro's condition, they all turn towards Luffy and Sanji,

"What happened?"

They simply shake their heads indicating that they didn't know, they look up towards the ship to see Robin watching them with a scared expression on her face. They turn away from her so to start thawing Zoro out hoping that they weren't too late to save him.

~Two Days Later~

Zoro tiredly opens his eyes and stares at the ceiling of the room he was in, groaning he tries to sit up but finds his body still completely exhausted from the battle with Aokiji. Sighing he lays back down and closes his eyes to get a bit more rest, for once he was allowed to do this sleeping for what he would have assumed were a few hours at best. He is awakened later by the footsteps of a small creature, popping one eye open he looks around for the person responsible for the sound and he spots Chopper. Sighing to himself he tries to sit up again to greet him,

"Yo Chopper."

Chopper not expecting him to be awake jumps back in shock,

"Z-Zoro!"

Zoro groans at this,

"Don't yell I have a headache."

Chopper races out of the room and calls the other Strawhats, after a few moments the rest of them come rushing into the room annoying Zoro greatly. Nami was the first one to speak,

"What the hell were you thinking, you can't take on an Admiral!"

Zoro growls at her,

"Stop with the yelling, I have a headache right now for gods sake."

Nami looks a but embarrassed by this but continues questioning him,

"What happened?"

Zoro sighs,

"We fought, I lost simple as that."

That wasn't the answer she was looking for but Zoro wouldn't let anything else out, Chopper decides to speak up this time,

"You're lucky to be alive, you were completely encased in a block of ice."

At this Zoro narrows his eyes, he didn't remember this part. He remembered them clashing and him losing but everything after that was a bit blurry, but he knew that we wasn't just laying on the ground he could feel his body moving even though he wasn't willing it to do so. He files that information away and brings himself back to the current situation he was in,

"Where's Robin?"

The Strawhats all pause for a moment looking at each other,

"She's in the girl's quarters, she hasn't left it since we returned to the ship."

Groaning Zoro tries to stand up, Chopper stops him,

"Stop you're still injured you should rest."

Zoro grumbles at him,

"I'll be fine, I can take a hell of a lot more than be completely frozen."

They wanted to argue and stop him but Zoro was already stumbling pass them, he was slowly making his way towards the girls quarters to find Robin but when he was about to reach the door Sanji stops him. Zoro spares a glance at him,

"What?"

Sanji taps his cigarette before speaking,

"I think it would be better if we just left her alone for now, some people take time to open up and even longer to recovered from something like this. You would know this yourself."

Zoro grumbles at him,

"I know what I'm doing cook."

Sanji sighs at lets go of Zoro,

"Just don't screw anything up."

Zoro glares at Sanji before turning back towards the door of the room and entering the room, the room was dark and he could barely see anything. Zoro sighs and searches around for a light, but before he could he hears a voice come through the darkness,

"What are you doing here?"

Zoro finds a light and takes a seat across from her,

"I'm here to check on you."

She sighs,

"Why would you check on me, you were the most injured one out of the whole crew."

Zoro grumbles,

"Yea, I know but I'm not not talking about how you are physically, I'm here to see how you're holding up mentally. Can't be easy on anyone when they get visited by an Admiral that had a large part to play in their past, add the fact that he just tried to kill you won't make anything better."

Robin stares at him oddly while he stares back at her with a neutral expression on his face,

"How do you know that I have a past with him?"

Zoro chuckles,

"I would say I figured it out, but you wouldn't buy it for a second would you."

Robin slowly nods,

"This isn't something you can just figure out."

He looks at her with a unbelieving look,

"It actually wouldn't be that difficult for someone to just figure it out themselves, but that isn't how I knew."

She grips her hands tighter as she continues with this conversation,

"Then how did you know?"

Zoro sighs,

"You know that I won't tell you."

For the second time that week Robin loses her cool,

"Than what was the point of you being here?!"

Zoro hardens his gaze,

"I came to check if you were alright, if we wanted me to leave you could have simply told me to."

Zoro stands up and heads towards the door,

"I'm not pushing you to do anything you don't want to, I'm just here to check if you were alright after what happened."

He exits the room leaving Robin to sit in silence trying to calm herself down after her outburst, she holds her head as she try's to stop herself from breaking down. Zoro closes the door behind him sighing, he slowly makes his way towards his usual napping spot by the railing of the ship.

"You humans are detestable."

Zoro sighs as he recognizes the voice,

"Why are you in my head again?"

Volron scoffs,

"You think I want to be in here, when you used that wretched ability of your. You separated my body from my power, all I can do is bide my time and wait for my powers to recover."

Zoro chuckles at this,

"And you think I'm just going to let you do that?"

Volron growls at him but doesn't respond, but then a question popped into his head,

"Hey, what happened to Ashura? I haven't heard from him in a while."

Volron growls yet again,

"You think the God of Demons has time to watch over a pitiful human like you."

Zoro chuckles at him,

"Sure whatever you say."

He sits down and closes his eyes hoping to take a nap for the time remaining until they arrive at Water 7, he remains mostly undisturbed until Robin finally leaves the girls quarters a few hours later. She receives a warm reception from the rest of the crew, Zoro smiles at this before returning to his sleep hoping to be able to rest easy until they finally reach Water 7. This would go fine until he hears the Strawhats yelling at something, popping one eye open in annoyance Zoro looks at what they were yelling at. He sees them all yelling at a frog that was swimming like a person, Zoro chuckles at this a bit before racking his brain trying to remember when this happened. He doesn't need to think for long as the sound of an incoming train instantly jogs his memory, he smiles darkly as he stares at the train.

"We're getting pretty damn close to Enies Lobby, it's almost time to raise a whole new level of hell upon this world."

With his eyes shining darkly Zoro walks to join the rest of the Strawhats.

That's a wrap this was an alright chapter in my opinion, though for the Water 7/Enies Lobby chapters I'm going to take a few main parts completely from the canon. I always saw Enies Lobby as one of my favorite arcs in the whole One Piece narrative so I don't want to take away from it too much, though it might be shot down a bit with the appearance of Wano Kuni, but we'll have to see. Though I believe that the conversation between Zoro and Robin after Zoro wakes up from the fight with Aokiji could have been better though this is the best I could think of for the moment. I'm also coming up with ideas for yet another Zoro Volron conflict, this time I'm hoping that it would be better than the Sword of Promise and Destruction. So you guys can look forward to that, though I think that once I reach Sabaody I'm going to deviate from the canon story a bit but not exactly, I'll be throwing a few mini stories in there maybe one major one before returning to the canon story line. No exactly looking forward to it but I believe that it would be necessary for the story. Once again if you're reading this and enjoy it thanks for reading.