The next day started rough, with a sandstorm that woke most of us by blowing over the tents and burying us in sand. Ace tried to stay apart from the rest of the crew, but between Vivi's kindness and Sanji's questions, he kept getting brought back in. The sleep helped immensely, and after breakfast we continued on our journey.

I did much better, and since everyone agreed I wasn't allowed to carry anything, I felt stronger too. I still wanted to do my share, so I focused on my pace, and keeping everyone happy. My first thought, was to distract them. If they didn't focus on the heat, or being thirsty, then the journey would be easier.

"Ugh, it's so hot!" I heard Chopper say.

"I'm so thirsty!" Luffy said.

"Hey Luffy!" I called. "What if, you woke up this morning, and you were half man, half robot like a cyborg?"

"Huh?" Luffy said, looking back at me. "I'm not half robot Kia."

"I know, silly. But what if you were?"

"Huh.. If I was? That would be so cool! I'd walk like this…" Luffy showed off his robot walk, "and talk… like… this," and demonstrated his robot voice. "It would be awesome!"

"I don't know Luffy," Usopp said, scratching his chin. "You probably wouldn't be rubber if you were half robot. There's no such thing as a rubber cyborg."

"I'd be the first!" Luffy yelled, punching a fist up in the air.

I giggled at his enthusiasm. "What if someone else had your powers? Or if you traded powers. How different would you and Ace be if you had each others devil fruit powers?"

"Luffy would probably set the ship on fire," Zoro commented dryly.

"Or burn the food, trying to get it to cook faster," Sanji added.

This time it was Vivi and Nami that were laughing. "I don't think I could picture Ace using Luffy's powers," Nami said. "That would be so strange."

"True," I agreed. "But one way to think about how to beat a devil fruit user, is to think about what their powers are capable of."

"That's a smart way to think Kia," Zoro said, and I smiled. Getting praise from Zoro didn't happen often, and was always an amazing build of confidence. "Are you thinking of how to beat our captain?"

I laughed at that. "No, I just like to play What If. Thinking about how things would change if one thing was different. But, it doesn't work for everyone. Some, like Luffy, go more on instinct once they are in the fight." I replied.

"You sure think highly of your captain," Ace mused, and Luffy grinned. "But I wonder how you would determine what our powers are capable of, and how to beat Luffy and me?" He asked me with a slight smile on his face.

"Well, it would take some time to think about, but… with Luffy, I'd think about freezing him somehow."

That got strange looks from just about everyone, and I shrugged. "I would think that rubber wouldn't work well if it was frozen, so Luffy wouldn't be able to stretch like he normally could. But…" I continued speaking as I thought, tapping my chin, "his body heat could work to keep him stretchy… hmm. I'd have to give it some thought."

"I guess you'd try to get me in water then, hmm?" Ace smirked at me this time.

"That would technically work for any devil fruit user, wouldn't it?" I quipped back. "No, with you I'd lean more towards the unexpected. Using oxygen maybe, getting the fire out of your control, which would be a big distraction for you."

Ace looked surprised. "That would definitely be unexpected," he said seriously.

My brain was moving a mile a minute, because this was an opportunity that I hadn't really planned on. Part of me really wanted to warn Ace about his upcoming fight with Blackbeard. After all, getting turned over to the marines is what led to his death. But… it also kept Blackbeard from continuing after Luffy, and… ugh! There were too many what ifs, and it was too dangerous. But I didn't want Ace to die…

In that moment, I went with my heart, instead of my head.

"Or, I'd just get a devil fruit that voids all others."

Ace stopped in his tracks and looked at me, causing Luffy and then everyone else to stop as well. They were looking at either Ace or me with curiosity, except for Zoro who looked bored, though I've come to learn that's how he always looks when he is paying attention.

"Is there really such a devil fruit, or are you still playing What If?" Ace asked, interested.

"I don't know too much about it, but yeah there is one. The Dark-Dark fruit. From what I heard, the user draws in everything into their darkness, basically making it so that the other devil fruit user can't access their powers," I said, then turned forward and started walking again. "That's another reason why it's smart to know how to fight without relying on your devil fruit powers, like you and Luffy can."

Luffy and Ace both grinned at me, and I smiled back. They truly looked like brothers in that moment.

I couldn't tell if Ace was just interested in the idea, if he had heard of the Dark- Dark fruit before, or if he even knew that it was the fruit Blackbeard had been waiting for. As much as I didn't want to affect the Straw Hat's journey, or change something that could end in catastrophe, this was Ace. I couldn't just tell him about it straight out, there would be far too many questions, but… I couldn't do nothing either. I could perhaps end up regretting it later if I somehow made things worse, but I knew I would regret it if I didn't try something. It may not be much, but it could have dire consequences.

I also realized in that moment, that while I wasn't ready to make huge changes, there were small things that I could do to make life a little easier for the crew. I decided to start there, and see how things went.

"Hey Sanji, let's eat some of your box lunches," Luffy said, breaking the silence.

"No. Not until Vivi says it's okay," Sanji replied.

Luffy turned his grin to Vivi. "Come on Vivi, let's have lunch!"

"But Luffy," Vivi said, her conviction wavering under his enthusiasm. "We're not even a tenth of the way to Yuba yet…"

"Vivi, haven't you ever heard the proverb? Whenever you are hungry, you must eat!"

"Is that true?" Chopper asked Zoro, who shook his head and sighed.

"No," Usopp grumbled. "The big liar just makes stuff like that up!" Chopper nodded, as though he wasn't surprised.

"How about we stop for lunch at the next rocks we find?" Vivi suggested. "That way we can rest in the shade?"

"Yeah! Let's find rocks, "Luffy cheered. "Okay! Whoever wins at rock, paper, scissors gets to carry everybody's stuff!"

"Don't you mean whoever loses carries the stuff?" Sanji asked.

"Ready?"

"Oh hey, Usopp!" I interrupted. "I bet I can find rocks before you can!"

"What?" Usopp stared at me in disbelief. "I have sniper goggles Kia, there's no way you'll win."

"I guess we'll find out!" I said and started walking quickly ahead, hoping the distraction worked.

"Hey, wait for me Kia! I'll find the rocks!" Luffy called.

"Great! You'll be on my team then!" I yelled back, waving him forward.

"What? No fair teaming up!" Usopp called, running to catch us. The others glanced around at each other, not sure what had gotten into me, but finally shrugged and continued on.

The distraction didn't last long, and pretty soon Luffy and Usopp were panting loudly and complaining about everything. The heat, being thirsty, the inability to sweat, being hungry… I was getting as annoyed as everyone else. I was just really glad that Luffy didn't have everyone's packs.

After a couple of hours we saw what looked like rocks, but were certain it was a mirage- we had seen countless "rocks" before. But after looking through his goggles, Usopp declared that these were real, and Luffy whooped and took off running. Vivi and I smiled at each other, and everyone continued to trudge through the sand after him.

It wasn't long before Luffy came running back yelling for Chopper's help with a flock of injured birds. Chopper immediately forgot his own discomfort and grabbing his backpack, went with Luffy to help. Vivi looked stricken, and started chasing after them, and we all followed in a rush.

"There were birds here, I swear!" Luffy shouted as he ran around looking for them.

"I'm so sorry Luffy, but those birds, were desert bandits," Vivi managed to get out as she leaned over, panting.

"Wait, they were faking?! Just to steal from us?" Hearing the indignation in Usopp's voice made me smile at the irony, though I was sure he wouldn't appreciate the thought.

"Well, the good news is they didn't get all of our supplies," Sanji said, looking through his pack. "The bad news is that our captain was carrying most of our water."

"Hey, it's not my fault!" Luffy complained, "they outsmarted me."

"So… you're dumber than a bird?" Sanji asked dryly.

"What'd you say?" Luffy growled, ready to fight.

"All right you two, knock it off," Zoro jumped in. "Everyone's a little heated, but it could have been worse." He walked over to sit in the shade. "We'll figure something out, don't worry." We all followed his example to take a break except for Luffy, who had spotted a bird and ran off after it.

Usopp and Nami yelled after him, but most of us just shook our heads. "Don't worry so much," Zoro said to Usopp. "Luffy can take care of himself."

Sanji started passing out lunch rations, and although there wasn't much water, he still gave us all a little. We sat in relative quiet as we ate and simply rested. The shade was much better than out in the sun, but it was still very hot. We continued to wait for Luffy after we had finished eating, and Nami started to wonder out loud if he had gotten lost, with Sanji and Zoro making disparaging comments as well.

"I'm sorry."

We all looked over at Ace. He had remained quiet through all of this, and it was easy to wonder what he was thinking about us- his brother's crew.

"I know my brother can be a flake, and I'm sorry."

Nami and Vivi waved his apology away, but I wanted to assure him a little more. "Sorry? Luffy's great! Sure, sometimes he does dumb stuff, but he makes up for it. And who here doesn't do dumb stuff?" I asked with a smile. Sanji and Zoro gave small smiles as they stood and headed out to look for him.

"I'm glad he has all of you," Ace said.

"Seriously," Nami said quietly, but still loud enough for us all to hear. "How are these two brothers?"

No one got to reply as the ground began shaking, and a huge cloud of dust shot into the air, and then came right towards us.

"What is that?"

"It's Luffy!"

"Why is he on a camel!?"

"AAAHH! What's that chasing him?"

"I gotta admit, that boy does have a knack for attracting trouble," Ace said with a smile. I looked over at him, realizing that the two of us were the only ones still sitting. We both turned as we heard Sanji and Zoro call out to Luffy, and the three of them attacked the huge Sandoran dragon that had been trying to eat Luffy, at the same time. I was grinning as it fell, and Vivi, Nami, Chopper and Usopp were standing there, stunned.

"Every time those guys fight… I end up feeling sorry for the monster," Nami said.

I turned back to Ace. "Didn't feel like joining in?" I asked jokingly.

"Didn't want to spoil their fun," he replied with a smile.

The ground rumbled behind us, and Chopper yelled my name.

"Sorry! I forgot to mention that Sandoran dragons always hunt in pairs!" Vivi shouted, with Usopp shouting back, "You've got to start remembering these things sooner!"

I looked at Ace and said, "your turn."

He gave me a grin, then looked up at the dragon. "Wanna play?" It roared at him, and he answered, "okay, if you want to." And he jumped straight up in the air, the dragon's jaws closing around him easily.

I understood why the other four were screaming, these dragons were as big as houses, and could easily eat us all in one gulp. But one thing about logia devil fruit users, they were literally made of their respective element. That dragon had just swallowed a fire ball, and didn't even know it.

I watched as flames literally shot out of the dragon's face. It's nose, mouth, even its eyes… eww. Its body became a tower of flame, with Ace jumping out from the top, solidifying again, and landing back almost where he had been standing previously. The cooked dragon fell over, dead.

We waited as Luffy ate as much as he could, and Sanji took some of the already cooked dragon- jerky to add to our food supply.

"Uh, Luffy?" Zoro asked suddenly, and Luffy looked up. "What's the deal with the camel?"

"I dunno. I saved it from a mystery plant that was trying to eat it, and then the monster showed up, and we came here."

"He doesn't look wild," Nami added. "He's wearing a saddle and bridle."

"Hey, it is you!" Chopper said excitedly. He turned back to us. "He helped me get back to Sanji when I escaped from Katorea." I grinned as Chopper's voice changed as he interpreted the camel's grumbles for us.

"I thank you for your help, and I'd be happy to give some of you a ride, but I'm afraid I don't take male passengers, I'm just too macho." I could have sworn I saw the camel wink in our direction, and in trying not to laugh, I let out a loud snort.

I could hear Ace laugh, even as the other guys were yelling at and even punching or kicking the camel, though not hard enough to really hurt it. Nami looked thrilled, and Vivi was doing a much better job of keeping her laughter in, but I was laughing so hard it was making my stomach hurt.

"Ki-ah!" Luffy said in a whine. "It's not funny! I want to ride the camel too."

The boys stormed away from the source of their newest frustration, and Nami swooped in, petting the camel's face and determining that we would call him Eyelash. Vivi and I argued over who should ride with her, in that both of us wanted to stay on the ground. She finally relented, once I promised I would tell her when I needed a break, and Ace butted in and said he would tell her even if I didn't. I turned and gave him a glare, to which he only tilted his hat, as if I had thanked him.

Nami then yelled, "Giddy-up Eyelash!" and they took off at a run. "Better hurry guys! If you get separated you'll die in the desert!"

The guys all ran around grabbing their packs, Zoro giving orders, Sanji swooning over Nami's "cruel side" and Ace yelling "After them!" We all started running after them, and somehow they all yelled in unison without trying.

"WAIT FOR US!"