I had a strange dream while I was unconscious.

I was in a completely white room, lying on a black leather couch that wasn't that comfortable. I sat up and looked around the room. The carpet was a dark black and there were other couches lying around the huge room.

But sitting across from me was a woman in an elegant red dress that had shiny crystals sewn into it. I couldn't see her face; she was looking to the floor.

"Hello…?" I asked the woman. "Where am I?"

"You're safe now, sweetie…" she said. "You're ok now."

I recognized the voice immediately. It was my mother.

"Mom…?" I asked. "Is that really you?!"

She looked up. Her face was exactly the same as I remembered it. Her raven black hair had gotten so much longer since I saw her last. Her brown eyes seemed brighter than ever.

And she nodded at me, with tears streaming down her face. "Yes," she said.

"Where have you been?" I asked. "I thought you were dead!"

"I can assure you, I am alive," she said, wiping her eyes. "It's good to see you in person, Maggie. But, I'm afraid you must be leaving now."

"What?" I asked. "No! I want to stay with you!"

"You will, soon," she said. "I promise, we'll meet again soon."

My vision started blurring as the dream faded away.

"Mom!" I yelled for her. "Mom!"

But I woke up.

I sat up in reality and blinked a couple times. Something was weird about the dream, almost like it wasn't a dream.

It felt so real…

But I shook it off and rid my eye of the tear threatening to fall.

"It was only a dream…" I whispered. "Mom is gone, Magnolia. Get a grip."

But that's when I realized that I felt completely fine. No pain at all, not even in my arm. It was almost like nothing was wrong with me.

"Magnolia!" Chopper said, seeing I was awake. "You're awake!"

I finally realized that I was still on the Merry.

"What happened with the guy with the bird?" I asked.

"He went away…" Chopper said. "Are you feeling ok?"

"Never better," I said honestly. "Really, not even my arm hurts."

Chopper scowled and said, "Maybe you went back into shock…" He walked over to me and pulled my arm from the sling. I didn't even flinch. He inspected it and found nothing wrong. "EHH?! What the heck! It was broken before! What happened?! What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything, it just healed itself or something!" I said.

"But that's impossible!" Chopper said. He started circling me, inspecting every inch and found absolutely nothing wrong with me. Even after I was beaten to a pulp by the priest!

I was completely fine with no explanation whatsoever. That is, until…

I heard my mother's voice in my head say, You're welcome, Maggie! But you need to learn to heal yourself next time… Boss is going to get mad at me if I keep healing you like this… Be safe, sweetie!

I blinked a lot, thinking I was hearing things.

"What?" Chopper asked. "What's wrong?"

"I thought I heard something…" I said.

"What did you hear?" he asked.

"My mom…"

Chopper looked at me sympathetically and said, "You might've just imagined it…"

"Yeah," I said. "Probably."

"Well, anyway," he said.

"Oi, Chopper!" I heard Nami call from somewhere in the forest. "Maggie-chan! Are you guys there?!"

I stood up and smiled, seeing that Zoro, Robin and Nami had returned safely.

"We're good!" I called back.

"Yeah!" Chopper added. "Nothing scary happened… not one thing!"

Nami snorted with laughter.

But then, something else caught our attention.

Luffy, Usopp and Sanji were all entering the lake on a small boat. As they neared all the sky sharks, Luffy Gum-Gum Gatling-ed them out of the way.

They all waved to us.

The gang was back together again!

Once everyone was aboard again, Chopper told everyone what happened. Apparently, the Sky Knight had come to save us and nearly died in the process. He was in the boy's room on a couple blankets Chopper set out for him. Chopper said he would recover, but everyone was still worried.

The Going Merry had seen better days. The mast was somewhere in the middle of the lake, it was beat up and burned, and I'm pretty sure she wouldn't float if we tried to get her back in the water.

But then, I realized something that probably was the worst news of the day.

"My bag was in the crow's nest!" I said.

Chopper's eyes bulged out of his head. "It was?!" he asked. "I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry! I was trying to save the ship and-"

"No, no," I said. "It's alright… It's my fault for leaving it there in the first place…"

"Maybe we can get it back!" he said.

But I knew there wasn't much hope for my bag. I tried to cope with the fact my precious dagger was gone and my only set of handcuffs left was at the bottom of the lake.

I sighed and said, "I'll manage without it. Really, it's ok."

I was a little upset that my dagger was gone, but the evening took my mind off of the loss.

The thing is, even though I really hate my dad for all the terrible things he put me through, I still respect that he is my father. It's a complicated relationship… He gave me the dagger and told me to protect myself with it, so I will. It's a kind of love-hate relationship I guess… I don't really even think I fully understand it myself.

But then, Sanji said we were going to get to camp out in the forest!

"If we stay here and have the fight, the ship will be completely ruined!" Usopp said.

"Also, it's probably easier to fight on the shore," Sanji added.

"Camping!" I said. "I've never been camping before."

"Let's have a party!" Luffy said excitedly.

"Yeah!" Chopper agreed.

"Wait…" Usopp said. "We have to camp in enemy territory?!"

But Luffy wasn't listening. "Let's start by barbecuing those sky sharks!"

And so the party was set and Zoro sliced up one of the sky sharks with no problem. I found it weird how he had so much trouble with one before, but then beat one so easily now.

"Guess this one was just weaker," he said when I asked him about it on the shore.

We all gathered wood for a bonfire and Sanji got the sky shark meat ready for cooking stew. Once the fire was started, Sanji began the cooking.

Starting the fire made me think back to Alabasta, specifically when I got lost with Luffy's brother. He was made of fire, so making a fire was no hard task. I smiled at the thought of Ace. It seemed so long ago that our adventure in Alabasta was over. But a new one up here was only just starting.

Usopp pitched a tent around our campfire for the girls to sleep in. I sat down on a large root next to Robin and Chopper.

Usopp called our attention to him. He'd set up a chalkboard in the middle of the forest. "Time for reports! Everyone be quiet! Sanji's group, you go first. Tell us what happened."

Everyone became silent and looked to Sanji for his story.

"We encountered Satori from the Illusion Forest, a priest who uses surprise balls," he said. "The surprise balls were one thing, but the toughest part was that he predicted our movements using a technique called Mantra or something."

"Scary…" Chopper said.

"Ok, you next, Chopper's group!" Usopp ordered.

"The priest Shura, who appeared out of nowhere, uses a spear thing that burns everything!" Chopper said, enthusiastically. "He predicts movements too, but he couldn't predict Magnolia's… I think it's probably because she can stop time, but that's beside the point… I tried to attack him many times, but he kept dodging. The bird he was riding blew flames and burned the main mast. The Sky Knight was defeated, too…"

"Man, you guys really had a hard time," Nami noted.

"Yeah," I said, patting Chopper on the shoulder. "But we did everything we could, right?"

"Yep," he said.

"Nami's group!" Usopp ordered.

"Well, we discovered that this island is the other half of Jaya," she said. "The city of gold didn't sink in the ocean; it flew up in the sky!"

"Alright!" Usopp said. "Thanks for your reports! Based on your reports, we've learned many things. However, the biggest discovery is this!" He pointed to the chalkboard where he had taken notes on our stories. "This island is the city of gold!"

"I literally just said that…" Nami said.

"So what's this Mantra thing?" Zoro asked.

"Maybe it's like intuition or something…" Sanji said.

Chopper, who brought the Sky Knight with us, was tending to his wounds as I looked back.

Robin tapped my knee and I turned to look at her. "Are you alright, little watchman?" she asked.

I nodded, smiling, and said, "Yep! Chopper-san said I'm completely fine now."

"Even your arm?" she asked. I nodded. "But it was broken only this morning, wasn't it?"

"Amazing, huh?" I said.

"Yes, quite," she said, looking at me intently.

"Ahh, I can't wait!" Luffy said. "This gold sounds fun!"

And so that was it. We were going to find the city of gold, despite a warning that it would make god mad.

"We've got enough enemies. It's gonna be a survival game!" Zoro said, looking forward to tomorrow.

"Shouldn't we at least be a tiny bit afraid of god?!" Usopp asked, completely terrified.

I admit, I was a little unsettled by Zoro's words of the survival game.

Luffy stood up and put his arms in the air, laughing mischievously. "Alright! Let's do it! Gold hunting!" he yelled.

I was kind of confused as to what our actual goal was, finding the gold or finding god…

But as everyone else either opposed or agreed with Luffy's plan, I was thinking to myself about my mom's voice earlier.

"You need to learn to heal yourself next time… Boss is going to get mad at me if I keep healing you like this… Be safe, sweetie!"

Was it even possible…? Could my mom still be alive? If so, how was she communicating with me?

But I mentally slapped myself at the thought.

Mom is dead, I thought. There's no way she can just talk to me in my head, it's impossible. Old scars shouldn't be opened again.

But, for argument's sake, if she was alive and well, what did she mean by 'heal yourself next time' or 'Boss is going to get mad'?

Who was she working for? And how could she heal?

Thoughts raced through my mind as I tried to make sense of her mysterious words.

But then, a thought occurred to me.

If my Devil Fruit is the Tick-Tock Fruit, a fruit that lets me control time… couldn't that mean I could speed things up? Even wounds? Is that what Mom meant by 'healing yourself'?

I searched around the floor, looking for something sharp on the ground and found a sharp rock near my feet. I hesitantly cut a tiny section of my finger and watched as the blood pooled up into a bubble and then ran down my hand.

I looked at the little wound and concentrated very hard. I sped up the healing rate of the broken skin and it mended itself in about a second. There was no mark or even a scar to indicate I had cut myself.

I smiled at the thought of a new power.

What should I call this new ability? I asked myself excitedly.

Since I wasn't very creative at the moment, I came up with a really stupid title: Time Mend. But hey, it worked so I thought I'd keep it.

Then we split up, each assigned a job to accomplish before the sun went down.

Luffy and Sanji stayed at camp to cook the food under Sanji's directions. Chopper and Zoro went out to look for medical herbs along with other edible plants. Robin went exploring and came back with a salt crystal. I watched Nami as she wrote things down on pieces of paper, but I wasn't really paying attention to what she was writing. Usopp was gathering up wood to repair the Merry.

Sanji called everyone together and said that the stew was ready. He and Chopper handed out bowls to everyone.

"Ladies first," he reminded Chopper.

Once we all began eating, Nami said we needed to have a strategy meeting for tomorrow.

Apparently the two islands of Jaya looked like a skull when placed together. So when Noland wrote that the gold was in the 'skull's right eye' that's where we needed to look! Nami also said that we should split into two teams tomorrow.

"There's no doubt about it!" she said. "There's an enormous amount of gold waiting for us here!"

Even ate the delicious stew and kept eating until there was none left at all. The sun was almost set and I was beginning to feel a little drowsy.

"It's gotten pretty late. We need to put out any unnecessary fires," Robin suggested. "They'll reveal our location to the enemy."

But despite all of that, we made an even bigger bonfire than before to keep the wild animals away.

But even still, we were almost attacked by wolves. Nami just had to punch the Alfa.

But the Alfa told his pack that they were no match for us and took a liking to Nami because 'she packed a mean punch'.

"Did we just work things out…?" Usopp asked.

"Seems that way," Zoro said.

"Then let's all have a campfire together!" Luffy suggested.

"Yeah!" we all cheered/howled.

Robin just sat on a root and smiled at us, amused at the light-hearted atmosphere.

So as the sun set, we partied with the wolves.

I, however, found it hard to keep my eyes open, but it was hard to sleep with all the noise everyone was making.

Robin and I sat next to each other, watching the crazy bonfire. The Sky Knight eventually woke up and we all thanked him for helping us out.

I yawned and went to sleep in the tent set up for the girls before everyone else.

I dreamed about my mother again that night. But I was younger and Dad was there too. We were back in our house in the East Blue and everyone was happy again.

I didn't want to wake up, but I had too. The sunlight poured onto my eyelids through the tent's opening. I opened my eyes and got up.

Maggie, I got something for you! my mother's voice said in my head. Look to your side, sweetie.

"Mom…" I whispered, looking to the side.

And there it was. My bag.

I stared at it for the longest time, wondering how it could've gotten there.

"But…" I said. "It was at the bottom of the lake!"

I opened it in my lap and saw that everything was in there: my dagger, the last set of handcuffs. (Despite its depth and size, I only kept those two items in it.)

I looked around the tent and saw I was the last one awake. Robin and Nami had already left.

I put my eye patch one, ran my fingers through my hair, put my bag's strap over my shoulder and stepped outside to face the day.

"The Going Merry's been repaired!" we all said, completely shocked at the spectacle before our eyes.

Everyone was back on the sacrificial altar and staring at the repaired ship. Even the mast was back!

Usopp was crying by the time we all stepped foot on the deck.

I looked up at the crow's nest and wondered how my bag had gotten to me and even how the mast had gotten out of the water!

"But who'd fix our ship for us out here?" Zoro asked. "The only people besides us in Upper Yard are our enemies…"

"Maybe it was an angel!" I said. "Even my bag was given back."

"Hmph!" Nami said. "I'd be more worried if someone wrecked it, but since it's fixed, who cares who did it?"

"But shouldn't we thank them?" Chopper asked.

"C'mon Merry… Who was that?" Usopp asked the ship.

After one failed attempt at getting the newly repaired ship off of the altar, Usopp finally came up with a plan that was bound to work.

And it consisted of using Chopper as sky shark bait.

It actually worked! The Merry was lowered into the lake with the help of a sky shark.

"Way to go, Usopp!" Nami cheered.

Chopper was completely traumatized.

"You were so brave, Chopper!" I praised. "You were awesome!"

Once everyone was back on the boat, we held a final strategy meeting.

"The search team will go this way, straight south…" Nami said, pointing to the map of Skypiea. "The right eye should have some sort of ruins, so watch out for enemies and bring some gold back!"

"You make it sound so simple…" Zoro complained.

"I'd love to investigate the ruins!" Robin said.

"You keep talking about the gold, but you're not coming?" Luffy asked Nami.

"No way! It's too scary," she said. "Meanwhile, we'll leave the island in the Merry," she continued. "We'll be in danger, too, you know. We'll head for the beach ruins area as fast as possible. Let's meet up there, and then escape from Skypiea." She pointed to the respective places on the map.

There were two teams, the search team and the escape team.

Through some begging and pleading on both ends, I got to go with the search team.

"I'm completely healed!" I said. "Ask Chopper, he said so!"

"It's still too dangerous!" Nami said.

"Hey, if she wants to go, let her go," Zoro said.

"Can I, please?!" I asked again.

Nami sighed and finally let me go with the search team.

"Yes!" I cheered.

So the search team consisted of Chopper, Luffy, Zoro, Robin and me. The escape team was Sanji, Nami and Usopp.

We all got ready for our part in the mission.

"This is going to so much fun!" I squealed.

(I don't own One Piece or any of the characters. This was made for entertainment purposes only and no copyright is intended.)