ONE PIECE
Two Worlds, One Family
A young woman struggling to find her place in the world wakes up to find a bunch of cats in her room...cats that turn out to be the characters from her favourite TV show, One Piece! Bound to each other, whether they like it or not, and trying to figure out a way to find a certain somebody's lost Nakama and get everyone back to their home, what follows is bound to be chaos, friendship, tears, romance - and, adventure! (Kind of a re-write of Straw Cat Pirates).
~Parental Warning~
The following chapter contains:
. Low-level sexual references
. Low-level adult themes
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
The Last Day On Earth
"Do you remember when we first met?"
Undine's question seemed to have come out of the blue, but it didn't faze Newgate in the slightest.
The two of them were sitting on the deck of the Moby Dick, and present-Emma who was leaning against the mast watched what she knew was the last time that her parents had ever seen each other. She didn't know how she knew it, she just knewit...
Whitebeard turned to face Undine, smiling slightly. "Mochiron...I'll never forget the day that young girl with an attitude bigger than her height was first seen riding around on Ela the Sphinx. Nobody knew where she'd come from but everyone knew that she was trouble!"
Undine tilted her chin up. "Excuse me?" She sounded cross, but her eyes glittered in the moonlight. "Need I remind you of whose idea it was to turn to piracy to support the island?"
"I was always under the impression that it was our idea, Diko." Newgate replied, with a straight face.
"Maybe, but you said it first." Undine teased.
Newgate laughed. "Gurarara! Fine, then. Still, I'm sure that all of Sphinx won't soon be forgetting any of it..."
They lapsed into silence, with the only sound coming from the waves rocking gently against the ship. Present-Emma wondered where the rest of the crew was, and also where her younger self was. She was also wondering about what she'd just heard. Sphinx seemed to be the name of an island...there were also real sphinxes there? It also seemed like her parents had known each other since they were young...
The thought made Emma feel warm and fuzzy inside.
Undine was speaking again. "I went and saw Ru-Chan today." A soft breeze blew against her chestnut hair.
"And...?"
"She's pregnant." Undine said simply. Newgate didn't respond to this, although his yellow eyes glittered briefly. "And, she's worried. She knows...she knows that if the World Government finds out...then they'll both be killed...all because of who the child's Father is..."
Present-Emma's eyes widened slightly. Is she talking about...?
"I take it that he wasn't there?" Newgate said.
Undine nodded. "It's too dangerous for him to go anywhere near Baterilla now..."
She IS! She's talking about Ace's parents! Present-Emma was stunned, and her heart pounded in her chest. She dared to creep out from behind the mast, to better hear what her parents had to say.
"But...Ru-Chan told me...that Rodge is dying." Undine said quietly. "He doesn't have very long to live..."
"I see." Newgate sounded like he had expected this. His expression was unreadable.
"But..." Undine went on. "It does present somewhat of a unique opportunity. I told Ru-Chan of a way that she might be able to protect her child...it just depends on whether she's strong enough to do it." She sighed. "Even so...that child will grow up an orphan...I don't need to see the future to know that...Ru-Chan's body won't be able to handle the strain, and Rodge..." She cast a sideways glance at her husband. He was looking at her. "Well, I suppose that he'll tell you for himself...he wishes to meet up with you sometimes in the near future. I think that you should go." She suggested.
Newgate nodded.
"Also...and, I said this to Ru-Chan and she agreed, so don't disagree with me," Undine warned him. "I hope that our children can be friends." She looked up at the sky, which was studded with stars like diamonds. "Can you just imagine?"
Newgate looked thoughtful. "Like I've said, Diko...where there is the light of friendship, there will alwaysbe hope..."
"That's true..." Undine said wistfully. "And, that's also something I think she needs to hear..."
"Don't worry." Newgate sighed. "She will..."
They both stared at each other for a moment, before Undine stood up, and walked along the railing of the ship. Newgate watched as Undine moved her hands, and orbs of water were drawn up from the ocean.
Present-Emma was absolutely spellbound.
"Ru-Chan was saying that if the baby is a boy then they want him to be called 'Ace'." Undine told Newgate, as she manipulated the water. "And, if it's a girl, then they like the name 'Anne'." She smiled. "The names mean something to them...like Emma means to us..."
"The name of the ship that we first set out on." Newgate agreed.
I...I don't believe what I'm hearing! Present-Emma was stunned, although she wasn't sure why. After all, it made sense...
"I can imagine our Emma being good friends with Anne..." Undine smiled. "Or, being very good friends with Ace..."
"Getting a bit far ahead of things, aren't we Diko?" Newgate pointed out, and the two of them laughed. He continued to smile, as he added: "Of course, I'll have to approve of anyone who wants to date Edward Liborn Emma."
I have a middle name?!
"She'll be able to take care of herself, New-Chan." Undine said suddenly.
"Oh?" Newgate glanced at her.
"It finally happened," Undine nodded, moving the water around her in a loop. "When we were on Baterilla...I wouldn't have seen it if I'd blinked, but she definitely did it..."
"You're sure?" Newgate asked steadily.
Undine nodded. "Yes. Emma has the same powers as me." She sent the water flying away from her in a shower of sparkles.
Present-Emma couldn't stop herself from gasping now, absolutely unable to believe what her Mother had just said.
I can...do that, too?
Undine glanced up sharply, and then jerked her head around to the left, where a black-clad figure had just appeared seemingly from nowhere.
Newgate remained steady, although his yellow eyes were trained not on the newcomer but on Undine, who had suddenly gone rigid.
"Father Time..." Undine said faintly, her hands hanging limply from her sides.
"It is time..." The God Of Time said, holding out one hand.
Undine glanced at him, and then back at Newgate. Undine's eyes were full of tears, and her voice quivered. "New-Chan..."
"Diko..." Newgate's voice was also full of barely suppressed emotions.
Father Time seemed to sigh, then. "Ever since you were little," he spoke to Undine, in somewhat of a monotone. "I could sense that you wanted something more...however, none of us could have imagined that you'd find it here...and, now..."
"Now I have to say goodbye..." Undine had an underlying wave of anger in her words. The waves crashed up around the sides of the ship, seemingly in response to this.
"It's not goodbye forever." Father Time informer her, and Undine's eyes widened, as did present-Emma's.
"But...you said..."
"We'll see each other again..." It wasn't Father Time who had spoken - it was Newgate.
Undine turned to him, the tears spilling down her face now. She nodded. "Yes...soon..." She whispered, reaching towards Newgate one last time. "New-Chan...there is something that I must tell you...why you must protect our daughter at all costs..."
Present-Emma had to turn away now, tears that were both sad and angry pooling in her eyes.
They were supposed to have met again.
"It's not like that happened..." She muttered, climbing up towards the crow's nest like she and Sumi had both done so many time before. "Like Daddy and I, how are wesupposed to be able to meet again?! Why am I only finding out about who my Mother was in this world now?! Who's showing me all of this?!" She cried, pulling herself up into the crow's nest and coming face to face with none other than the Goddess Of Death herself. "Oh!"
Death turned to Emma, which was the first hint to her that something was about to happen. The next hint was when everything around them grew dark, and still, but not really in a frightening way.
Death stood up, and that was when Emma realised more of what the goddess really was - despite being the entity of such a mysterious and terrifying prospect, Death herself was incredibly serene.
"I know it's frustrating," Death said quietly. "And, that none of this makes sense to you right now. But, Emma, I promise you that one day it all will make perfect sense..."
The world around them had turned black, but Emma could still see clearly, so she saw it when a figure appeared next to Death, and staggered slightly.
"Twister!" Emma gasped, rushing forwards despite herself and grabbing into Twister's shoulders. "What happened?!"
Twister looked up at her with his one visible eye that was as black as onyx - where his other eye was, underneath of the bandages, there were blood stains. There was also blood on his hands, and Emma was horrified. "Princcccessssssss..."
"Twister..." Death did not touch the God Of Change, but her voice was suddenly tense. "What happened to my daughter...?"
"We were...attacked..." The God Of Change replied. "The one called Teech and...hissss Firsssst Knight...they attacked ussss together...their power...it wassss too much for ussss to handle..."
"Us...?" Emma echoed faintly.
"Mysssself, the Goddessssssss Of Fate, and the Goddessssssss Of Hope..." Twister shook his head. "Even Little Death wassss no match for them, and sssshe is more powerful than ussss three combined."
Emma gasped. Little Death was really that strong...and, Teech was even stronger? What about his First Knight?
Death's voice was steady, but her red eyes flashed when she said: "This is because...?"
Twister sighed. "I believe that Teech'ssss powerssss have grown by the influencccce of hissss Firsssst Knight...there were able to forccccefully take my sssscythe and Little Death'ssss, too..."
Emma noticed how Death seemed to flinch at this revelation, and dared to ask: "Th-that's bad, isn't it?"
Both Death and Twister nodded.
"Those scythes are forged in the most intense fires of the Underworld," Death explained. "And are designed to be able to tear through reality, which is why Twister as the God Of Change has one..."
"But...how did Little Death get her's, then?" Emma wanted to know.
"It wassss one of the lockssss ssssecuribg The Well Of Chaossss." Twister informed her. He looked like he was in a lot of pain, which worried Emma. Weren't Gods supposed to be all powerful or something? "Princcccessssssss, thesssse sssscythessss have enough power to cut down ussss Godssss, let alone mortalssss ssssuch assss your Alliessss...enough power to be dissssasssstrous in the wrong handssss..."
"And Teech and his First Knight have them..." Emma felt a cold feeling of dread wash over her when she realised this. "But...there's no guarantee that they'll know how to use them..." She said suddenly, and both Death and Twister exchanged a glance.
Death sighed. "Emma is right..." She couldn't help but glance at Emma then. The Princess Of Light was standing there in just underwear and a pink night-top that said 'Prickly In The Mornings' complete with a picture of a cactus on it. Her hair was messy and she was wearing one sock, her magical compass, and the red necklace...Grace's Heart. But, it was the look in the red-haired Princess's hazel eyes reminded Death so vividly of two other gods right then and there, that she lapsed into silence. This child...
Twister, however, finally answered Death's previous question. "Little Death fled back to that place, on Level 0...sssshe probably feelssss ssssafesssst there..." He added.
"Her home..." Death agreed and then, for Emma's benefit, she added: "In the cave where you and your First Knight appeared to me a few weeks ago?" Emma nodded, remembering the weird cave with the glowing rocks. "There is a place known as the Cave of Phosphorescent Flowers. It is where my daughter spent most of her young life...with the exception of those times when Twister would help her to sneak out to World 192853746, that is..." She added, in a way that told both Emma and Twister that Death had indeed known all along about her daughter's exploits.
"It issss alsssso where I musssst go, now." Twister added and, when both of the women glanced at him, he added: "With resssspect, I have known Little Death for all of her life..."
Death guessed what Twister wasn't saying. "None of this is your fault, Twister." She said gently. "I have always been grateful to you for being there for my daughter...both Life and I." She added, and Emma had a sudden vision of that handsome God Of Life, and suddenly wondered if he could sing like Chad Kroeger.
Focus, Emma! She scolded herself.
"Thank you, Twister. Yes, go to Little Death now, as I am unable to."
"Why?" Emma asked her. I think that Little Death would want her Mother to come!
"I must go and prepare myself for what is to come," Death replied, and her words sent a chill own Emma's spine - she knew what Death meant. Death smiled slightly at her. "And, you too, dear Emma...you must go and enjoy the next twenty-four hours. Be with your family and friends...and, do not worry about us." She added, sensing Emma's next question. "Fate would have gone back to her sisters," she glanced at Twister, who nodded, and Emma envisioned the Goddess Of Destiny and the Goddess Of Karma. "And the Goddess Of Hope...?"
"Sssshe hassss returned to Level 7," Twister said. "Physsssically, sssshe issss fine..." He added, and Death looked slightly worried.
"What do you mean...?" Emma asked, just as she felt herself whiting out.
"Do not trouble yourself over it, Emma." Death reassured her, clasping her hands together. "I will send Grace to check on her..."
"My Nanna?" Emma said. She felt her heart hammering again.
Death smiled again, although it was a sad smile. "Yes...she has continued to watch over you from the Celestial Realm...the time will soon come when you can meet her again, but for now...go, and enjoy the time that you have left...it's alright..." She added, in a gentler tone.
"My Nanna's been watching over us?" Emma called to them, as she felt herself vanishing.
"Always." Death nodded.
"And, forever..." Twister added.
"Forever and for always..."
Always...forever...
Always...forever...
Always...forever...
DAWN OF THE FINAL DAY
6:00 - 24 hours remain.
"...'I Love You, Always Forever'...'Forever Angel' no wait, that's a sad one...hmm...perhaps 'Always'...?"
"...Nami, what are you doing...? Aurgh, I seriously feel like I'm 'always' and 'forever' trying to figure that out...!"
"...she's going over a playlist, Zoro...ooh, Nami, what about that one - 'Forever And For Always'...?"
Where's Vivi-Chama? Emma wondered, as her eyes flew open and she heard the voices of Nami, Zoro, and Luffy for the third morning in a row upon waking up, but not Vivi's.
She got up, quickly getting dressed in black leggings and a black turtleneck, and grabbing the Baby DenDen Mushi off of the side table. Stopping to slip out of the one sock that she managed to keep on during the night, Emma heard the three voices that had woken her up coming from the dining room, and instead followed the sound of much quieter voices coming from the spare bedroom that the girls were sharing. The voices belonged to Vivi and Robin and, for some reason, Emma paused outside of the door.
"...I'm not sure why I stayed and listened," Vivi was saying. "But, I'm glad that I did, even if it doesn't make much sense to me." She admitted. "But, I thought that you, who've researched this kind of thing before, Robin-San, might be able to make more sense of it all...I mean, I recognised the names like Pluton and Poseidon," (Emma's eyes widened). "But...who is this 'Im' person?" She wondered.
"I've never heard the name myself." Robin replied.
Me either... Emma thought. I don't recall seeing the name in the manga at all, so I wonder if Eiichiro Oda knows about 'Im'...
"Still," the archeologist went on. "It would seem that the World Government is much more aware of the circumstances surrounding Emma-San's identity than what they initially let on."
Wait...what...?
"Hai...after all, Emma-Sama's Mother sounded incredibly worried about what might happen after she was gone..." Vivi sighed. "Now, we can understand why. And, then, there's the second part of the song...Fate did warn me that there was a second verse, but that if I'd heard it before then it wouldn't have made any sense..."
"Does it make sense to you now?"
"No, not really..." Emma heard Vivi sit down on one of the mattresses. "I mean, the first part barely makes any sense as it is. Not unless you know the full story."
"Which you do." Robin pointed out. "The gods chose to reveal to you quite a great amount of what we had to do..."
"I had to know," Vivi agreed. "It was a great burden, but it was also the only way that I could use the power of the gods and effectively fool the World Government...for a short while, at least. Emma-Sama, as the true Princess Of Light, has a far greater power than she knows."
"One could almost say that she has yet to find herself..." Robin mused.
Under the rule of a Princess you have yet to find... Emma recalled.
"But, now..." Vivi was saying. "It seems like there's more to this...almost as if...what we have to isn't what was originally intended for us to do..."
"Is Emma-San aware of any of this?" Robin asked Vivi suddenly.
"No." The seventeen year old replied. "Emma-Sama climbed up into the crows nest just before her Mother mentioned what being the daughter of the Ocean Goddess would mean for her...she didn't even hear the second part of the song..."
"I see..." Robin said thoughtfully, just as Carue appeared in the doorway, poking his head out and looking at Emma quizzically.
Vivi appeared a moment later, looking tired but she smiled at Emma nonetheless.
"Ohayoo, Emma!" Vivi said, somewhat too cheerfully. "Did you just wake up? Come on, I'm sure that we should get to breakfast before the guys wake up - you know how Luffy-San is with bacon!" She added, putting a hand on Emma's shoulder and guiding her gently but firmly down the hallway.
Emma was suspicious about this, although she was also wondering something.
Did the Ocean's Flower show Vivi those same dreams, too?
From the dark circles under Vivi's eyes that matched Emma's own eye-bags, she guessed that it had...
Ah, but WHY...?
Emma chose not to tell anyone about her meeting with Death and Twister. She would tell them, but she didn't want to do it right now. Not with another kind of battle to be waged.
"Luffy, did you seriously just eat all of that?!" Sanji sounded irritated, as he brandished the closest thing at hand at Luffy, which happened to be a spatula. With the other hand, he pointed to a number of empty plates.
"Umm...no..." Luffy looked like he was half asleep, which may have been attributing to his terrible lying.
"You didn't use the extra bacon to give the Smiley Face Breakfast Special a bacon body?" Sanji questioned, waving the spatula threateningly.
"No...of course I...didn't..." Luffy said, with shifty eyes.
Emma and Vivi exchanged a glance, as Nami came up beside them and put her hands on her hips.
"Ne, Luffy!" She called to their captain. "Does the bacon man live in a bacon house?"
Luffy's eyes lit up. "You bet!"
Emma and Vivi groaned.
Sanji and Nami both took the opportunity to whack Luffy upside the head (Sanji used the spatula).
"That breakfast was for ALL of us, baka!" Sanji told him. He looked over at Emma and Vivi. "Ah, my Mellorines, I'm so sorry!" He said, in a completely different and also sincerely apologetic voice.
"Daijoubu..." Emma sighed.
"No, it's not!" Usopp complained, also coming into the kitchen and followed by Franky, Chopper, and Zoro. "What are we supposed to eat for breakfast, now?"
"Did Luffy eat all of our breakfasts again?" Chopper wanted to know.
"Seems that way." Zoro nodded.
"You'd think that we'd all be used to it by now..." Franky mused.
"Karoo!" Carue agreed, probably remembering the time that he'd been used as fishing bait.
"Ne, minna," Vivi said soothingly. "It's not as if we're out at sea, so it's not like it's the end of..." She cut herself off, and then hastily corrected herself with: "I mean, we've got other options."
"Yeah..." Nami agreed, looking outside and everybody else followed her gaze.
They saw Lee and Bruce sitting outside with Ranger (who was sleeping) and Brook (who was playing a John Denver song on his violin). Garp had just showed up, holding a variety of bags, including ones from McDonalds.
"See? Good old Grandpa Garp won't let us starve to death!" Emma smiled.
"Ooh boy, hash browns!" Luffy cheered, breaking free of Nami's grip and hurrying outside.
Emma turned to the slightly frustrated navigator. "Nami, save me some hash browns, I'm gonna go and get Robin-San now, okay?"
"Actually," Vivi said quickly. "Why don't I go and get Robin-San, and Emma you go and find Ace and Law?" Emma gave her a Look. "Please?"
Emma sighed. It was too early in the morning to argue with anybody. "Okay." She replied.
Besides, when Vivi went off down the hallway, Carue stood in the doorway, almost as if he was guarding it or something, so Emma didn't really have a choice.
She found Ace asleep on the couch in the games room, looking almost angelic in his sleep.
'I hope our children can be friends...'
Emma smiled, as the sunlight danced across her lover's face. We did becomes friends, more than friends, in fact... Emma thought, as she sat down on the coffee table in the games room, and picked up a black texta. I feel like...the four of you knew that would happen, all along...I don't care if the World Government hates it...
Just then, a hand grabbed her wrist, stopping her from drawing and she stared down into the deep brown eyes of one Portgas D. Ace - whose face she had just been drawing on.
"Ohayoo." Emma said, trying to keep any and all expression off of her face.
"Ohayoo." Ace replied, remaining just as poker-faced, before he smirked suddenly and moved, managing to flip Emma over so that she was now being restrained by him. The tables were turned, as Ace cheerfully ignored Emma's protests and drew across her face, warning her to stop moving so much or else he might slip. When he finally finished his handiwork, they both started laughing, realising that they'd had the same idea and drawn a cat nose and cat whiskers on each other's faces.
Emma was also blushing slightly, realising that Ace still had her pinned to the couch, and he realised what was making her blush.
He got that look in his eyes which Emma recognised from just over a week ago...when they'd spent the night together. Her heart began to beat faster, as she felt the heat from Ace's body on hers, and sensed that same electric feeling all throughout her that seemed to be her body's way of reacting to this man who loved her as much as she loved him.
Staring into Ace's eyes now, Emma realised that this was something that she never would have done, before she'd met Ace. She had started to trust people more than she'd ever thought herself capable of doing...enough to keep eye contact, and to trust them with her secrets...they had changed her, and this man had changed her the most of all.
Ace, too, was thinking along these same lines, as he stared down into the hazel eyes of the woman that he loved...that he trusted, probably more than anybody else. True, he still wanted to protect his little brother, but it seemed that Emma wanted to do that as well...and, well, Ace had already decided that he was going to protect those that were important to him, only now that desire had extended to protect both Luffy and Emma.
'But, what if you had to choose between them?' A sudden nagging voice in the back of his mind said. 'You're already going to have to die tomorrow, but imagine if you let both of them down by failing in this mission...?'
"Ace-Chan?" Emma's pure, melodic voice cut right through the nagging voice in their back of Ace's mind, and he looked back down to see an expression on her face that he recognised - it was the same expression that she'd worn on their last night in the other world, when she'd turned around to face him after saying that she wanted to be with him.
A warm, almost tingly feeling ran through Ace's body just then, and he suddenly knew just what he wanted to do with his time, right then and there. "Emiko..." He murmured, adjusting his position slightly but, just then, there was a cough from the entrance to the games room.
Emma and Ace looked over at the doorway, startled, to see none other than Trafalgar Law standing there. The surgeon had a slightly dark look in his eyes, but all that he did was point towards the sliding doors leading outside.
Emma saw Ace look, and then she heard him curse quietly.
"What? What is it?" Emma asked, slightly confused, as Ace drew back from her and allowed her to sit up.
She turned towards the doors to see Sanji, Usopp, Franky, and Brook all standing there, staring in.
Emma felt her whole entire face turn red but then, remembering the cat nose and cat whiskers that Ace had drawn on there, she got an idea.
Smiling slightly, Emma moved so that both Ace and Law were behind her, before she touched a hand to her compass. The light emitted from it, transforming Sanji, Usopp, Franky, and Brook into cats.
Emma sighed, and then smiled at both Ace and Law, as well as Vivi, Robin, and Carue who were passing by.
"Come on, I think that Nami managed to save us some hash browns!"
After breakfast (in which Luffy ate forty-seven of the ninety-two hash browns that Garp had brought back, Zoro casually insulted Sanji by saying that McDonalds made better hash browns than him, Law stated three times that he didn't have to explain why hash browns were better than bread, and Emma and Vivi discovered the joys of wrapping hash browns up in bacon rashers) the Straw Hat Pirates, Garp, Ace, and Law milled around in the kitchen and the living room, mainly staying out of the way of Emma and her parents, who appeared to be having a disagreement over...something.
They were talking in hushed tones, but all of them could hear the way that Emma was talking and knew her well enough to know when she was upset.
Although their biggest indicator was when she suddenly stalked into the dining room, sat down at her piano, and started playing 'Beethoven's 5th Symphony'.
DUN DUN DUN DUUUNNN...
"Uh...Emiko..." Ace said quietly, coming into the dining room.
She glared at him, and he stopped.
DUN DUN DUN DUUUNNN...
Emma then sighed and, though she continued playing, she turned to Ace. "Ace-Chan?"
Ace just stared at her for a moment. It was a little disconcerting to see her fingers flying over the piano keys when she wasn't even looking at them.
Her expression turned quizzical. "Nani...?"
Ace shook his head. "Uh, nothing, just...is everything...okay?"
Emma frowned slightly. "No...I mean, yes...but..." She stopped playing. "It's complicated..."
Ace held out his hand, which Emma took, and they went down to her room...where she promptly sat down at her keyboard and started playing that. Well, at least she wasn't playing the same thing as before, but the fact that the lighting in her room was dim made it seem somewhat surreal. Ace wasn't even sure she knew what she was doing.
And, as Emma played, she also talked. "Can you believe that my parents are going out again today?!"
Ace, who had shut the bedroom door, just waited.
"I mean, they went out the last two days, so why a third day?!" Emma wanted to know.
Ace waited.
"Like, even if the world wasn't ending," (Emma had, thankfully, lowered her voice here). "They know that we're going to go and fight a god tomorrow morning!"
Ace waited.
"I spent so long trying to make them understand me, so why can't they at least make the effort to on our last day?!" Emma had managed to keep her voice down but, as Ace watched, a couple of tears dripped down her face.
Ace felt his heart wrench, as a million things went through his mind. He remembered comforting Emma after her fights with her parents, and about how hurt she had been by what had happened. And now here she was lamenting because she knew that she was never going to see them again, and she wanted to make amends with them on their last day.
Usually, Ace would have agreed with her, telling her that her parents (in this world) were horrible people and that she deserved better (which, he reminded himself, she had in the other world).
He knew something that she didn't, however. He also knew that he couldn't tell her about that.
Emma stopped playing; turning off the keyboard she turned to face Ace, smiling slightly all of a sudden. "Thanks for listening." She said. "I guess that I'm just ungrateful, ne?"
Ace shook his head. "Iie. You're only human...well, you know...you're allowed to have emotions." He leaned back against the head of her bed. "I mean, I know that I'm no expert on parents or anything..." He smiled a little bit. "Probably a good thing that I'm never gonna be a Dad...I doubt that I would've been a good one..."
Emma's eyes widened. "Ace-Chan, seriously?" He glanced up at her, seeing that she looked upset, but not at all about what he'd thought that she would be upset about. "You would've been an awesome Dad!" She kind of jumped onto the bed in front of him, startling him slightly. Resting on her knees, she went on with: "I mean, among many, many other things...at least the kids wouldn't have drawn on the walls, because they could have just drawn on your face." She pointed to him. "Like I do."
She said it with such a straight face herself, which was made even more hilarious by the fact that both of their faces still had the cat noses and cat whiskers that the other had drawn there.
Both of them started laughing.
Emma looked at Ace, and wondered once again how she'd gotten so lucky. She also thought that she heard the phone ring, but decided not to worry about it. It was probably just a telemarketer, anyway.
"What was that song that you were playing, anyway?" Ace asked presently. "The second one." He added.
Emma tilted her head to one side. "That song was..." She hummed a few bars of it, and then sung a few lines. "Should show you the sights 'cause I'm sure that I said that I would...we gotta..." She broke off suddenly, blushing.
"Nani?" Ace blinked. The song sounded vaguely familiar...Emma might've listened to it before.
She sung the next line of the song, and Ace understood immediately why she was suddenly blushing.
"Why were you playing that song?" He wanted to know, it daring to ask her how she'd been playing a rock song on her keyboard. He just had to accept that his fiancée was a woman of many, many talents.
"You know, I have no idea myself." Emma replied, just as Ace pounced on her.
"Who was that on the phone before, anyway?" Emma asked Vivi curiously, walking slowly into the kitchen to find that just under half of the crew appeared to be missing.
Vivi herself was playing poker with Brook, Chopper, and Franky (and winning too, by the looks of it), while Garp and Carue sat nearby, and Sanji made lunch (BLTs!) - it seemed that somebody had gone shopping.
But Nami, Robin, Luffy, Usopp, Zoro, and Law were not there - Emma found that she could sense it mostly with Law, as well as Luffy, and that she could sense that the other four were with them also.
"Your sister," Vivi said, remaining completely Pokerfaced as she swapped out two of her cards, although she raised an eyebrow slightly at Emma's messy hair. "She then came and picked up Luffy-San and the others, because there's something that she needed them for - Nami spoke with her, not me." She added, by way of explanation to her vague retelling of the events. "They left just under two hours ago, actually..."
"Which you would know," Garp said to his granddaughter, from where he was watching the news on TV. "If you'd been out here...what have you been doing for the last hour and...?" He trailed off, as Ace walked into the room behind Emma, his hair also messy but a small smile on his face. "Aurgh..." Garp facepalmed, as Franky grinned, Chopper looked confused, Sanji merely smiled, Vivi looked almost as embarrassed as Emma, and Brook had no expression on his face but that was because he was a skeleton.
"Oh, and your Mum sent you a message." Sanji continued to smile as he pointed to Emma's new phone, which was sitting on the coffee table next to Su-Chan.
"Which we totally didn't read!" Chopper piped up.
"Sure you didn't..." Emma rolled her eyes, and decided not to tell them that the phone indicated that the message had been read. She was just impressed that they'd managed to figure the fancy piece of equipment out.
Ace looked over Emma's shoulder as she read the message.
"Okay," Emma nodded to Ace. "Right...ne, Sanji-Kun, how long until lunch is ready?"
"About half an hour, Emma-Chwan." The cook replied.
"Arigatoo. Time for a quick shower and hair wash," Emma said, more to herself than anything. "I'll be out in a bit, so can one of you guys please answer the doorbell if it rings?" She added, turning and heading for the door.
"Okay!" Sanji and Franky replied.
"Ah-ha!" She declared triumphantly, still with her back to them as she held one hand up in the air and pointed triumphantly at the ceiling as she looked straight up in what was suddenly a very Hancock-like pose. "Now I know that you read the message! You didn't question one bit of that, did you?!"
"Damn it..." Franky groaned.
"She got us..." Sanji muttered.
Emma was smiling in a triumphant way, as she headed out of the room. "I'll leave some hot water for you, Vivi-Chama!" She added.
"How come?" Vivi had the good sense to suddenly asked. It was like a halo suddenly appeared over her head or something, as Sanji and Franky stared at her in awe.
"Because we're going to go and save the worlds at six AM tomorrow morning," Emma explained.
"As opposed to six AM tomorrow night?" Franky muttered to Chopper, who smiled.
"And, before all that, we're going to be staying at the hotel where my Mum works, and they invited us to dinner, so we all must look our very best." Emma finished. Since this may very well be the last time that we ever see them again...Mum must have been planning this all along... She added silently, and walked out of the room.
"Oh no, YOU stay here!" Emma heard Garp yell to Ace, followed by a crash and what sounded like glass shattering. "I might like a hot shower too before we leave, and there's no way I'm getting that if you go anywhere near that bathroom in the next thirty minutes, you ungrateful brat!"
"There's a word to describe people like you, Ojichan!" Ace protested, before he must've quietly said the word but Garp heard him; what followed was the sound of Ace running for the front door and flinging it open, as Garp gave chase. "Just leave it inside there, Ma'am!" Was the last part of his sentence, which confused Emma.
She found out later, however, that it was because a courier had arrived at the exact moment that Ace found himself running for his life. The poor woman from Australia Post had been stunned by this and then by Brook. So Sanji had made her a cup of tea while Vivi had signed for the packages, Garp chased Ace around the entire property eight times until they both fell asleep standing up and some native bees formed a beard around Garp's face, and Emma had listened to songs like 'From This Moment On' and 'Let's Get Married' in the shower.
The limo driver pulled up at the address, which was at the end of the cul-de-sac, and got out.
To give her credit, she didn't have the same reaction as the Australia Post courier had that morning, even when Brook - in his cat form - asked her his usual question.
She just opened the back door of the limo for Garp, Franky, and Brook (who were cats); Vivi and Sanji (who were not), Chopper the reindeer, and Carue the riding duck. She didn't bat an eyelid.
"Where's Emma-Chan?" Sanji wondered.
"Yeah, and Ace...?" Chopper added, staring in wonder at the limousine's interior.
The large grey and tan cat that was Garp began to growl.
Vivi said, quickly: "She's saying goodbye to Ranger."
"Ah." Sanji, Franky, Chopper, and Brook said in unison.
Emma and Ace came out of the house just then, with Ace being the one to lock the front door because Emma was carrying a small bag - she was also crying a little bit.
To further add to the limousine driver's credit, she didn't question this, as she closed the car door behind Emma and Ace.
"Ne, Emma," Vivi whispered to her, giving the older girl's hand a reassuring squeeze. "Don't cry - you'll have to put on your makeup again. You stabbed yourself in the eye with the mascara before, remember?" She reminded her, and Emma nodded.
"She what?!" Chopper was horrified.
"It happens all the time." Sanji informed him.
"It does?!"
"Remember the last time we were here?" Chopper had his blue nose pressed to the car window, as they drove along the highway, heading towards Lee's work.
Emma found it hard to believe that her Mother was still working, even after they'd all become multimillionaires, but, she had. She was still working her same job even though she could have probably become the CEO of the entertainment complex if she wanted to.
"Sure do," Sanji nodded. "Emma-Chan's Uncle had his birthday down by the river here a couple of months ago," he explained, for the benefit of Brook, Franky, and Vivi. "It was...interesting..." He glanced at Emma, who glanced at him from over her glass of wine - she was being very good; this was only her second one, and Vivi had poured it for her so it was a modest amount.
Emma smiled slightly. "Which bit? The bit where I punched my cousin...?"
"Or, the bit where I called her cousin's girlfriend a 'useless fat slut'?" Ace supplied.
"Could've been the part where the police showed up to arrest Emma?" Garp spoke up.
"Hey, maybe, it was when Coby showed up out of that portal and Emma had to beat him before we could all go home?" Chopper guessed.
"Which I did and then we all got beamed up like on Star Trek..." Emma remembered. "I threw the winning lottery ticket down to my Mum when we did..." She added.
"Or, perhaps, just a mix of all that?" Sanji nodded wisely.
Vivi was looking stunned by this stage, as was Franky. Brook, meanwhile, had commandeered the limousine's tiny jukebox and managed to figure out how to operate the thing even without opposable thumbs. He'd been taking requests all throughout the trip (mainly from Emma) but now he put on a song that turned out to be quite fitting: Millionaires, by The Script. It had only come out the year before, but it was a good song and they all enjoyed listening to - and, in the case of Emma and Brook, singing - it.
The limousine pulled up out the front of the entertainment complex, and the group inside got out.
The waiting security guards sprang into action as the crowd sprang into action.
"There they are!"
"It's them!"
"Oh my God!"
"Kyaaa, that's Sanjiiii!"
"That skeleton cat must be Brook!"
"The blue cat is Franky - he's SUUUPER!"
"The grey cat is Vice Admiral Garp!"
"The Grandfather of Luffy, Ace, and Emma?!"
"No way!"
"There's Emma herself!"
"Look, she has Whitebeard's tattoo, just like Ace!"
"She's such a Mary-Sue!"
"You're just jealous!"
"Ace is HOT! Emma's SOOOO lucky!"
"Chopper is SOOOO cute!"
"So is Carue!"
"Who?!"
"The duck, for God's sake, didn't you watch episode 65 yet?!"
"I only read the manga!"
"Well, read chapter 109, then!"
"Franky, you inspired me to become a carpenter - I love you, man!"
"And I love YOU, random citizen!" Franky called back, exciting the whole crowd as the rest of them just tried to get into the hotel.
"Marry me, Princess Vivi!" A young man managed to make his way to the front of the crowd and grabbed Vivi's hand when she walked by him.
Vivi nearly tripped - she had to grab onto Sanji's arm to stop herself from falling, and it didn't help matters that the strange man still had her left hand. She was somewhat used to strange marriage proposals, being a Princess and all, but she hadn't had one in awhile and she hadn't expected it to happen here.
As Vivi faltered and tried to find a polite way to turn this man down, and Sanji looked just about ready to do it for her (but, probably not as politely as Vivi would have), the crowd let out another excited cheer.
"It's HIM!"
"There you are!" Luffy suddenly appeared in front of Sanji and Vivi grinning his trademark grin, although both Sanji and Vivi could see a very faint dark look in their captain's eye that would have been impossible for somebody not well acquainted with Luffy to have noticed. He grabbed their hands and dragged them towards the doors of the hotel, ignoring the screaming and the commotion. "Come on, you guys gotta see this place!" He added, as the doorman closed the doors behind them, drowning out the noise from the crowd.
"Wow..." Chopper was in awe, standing in the hotel lobby with a stunned expression on his face. "This place is huge..." He was staring up at the glass elevator along with Franky and Carue. They looked a strange sight - a large blue cat, a very large riding duck, and a bipedal blue-nosed reindeer.
Emma noticed this, too, and touched a hand to her compass. Brook, Franky, and Garp transformed out of their cat forms, as Nami and Usopp came over to them.
"You guys wait'll you see where we're staying!" Usopp exclaimed, as they headed over to the elevators, and a hotel clerk set about getting a trolley for their bags.
"It really was nice of Emma's parents to get us rooms here for tonight." Chopper commented, as they rode the large glass elevator up (although somebody seemed to be missing, Emma noticed).
"Not just rooms, Chopper," Nami corrected him gleefully. "The penthouse!"
"Wow!" Chopper, Franky, Sanji, Vivi, Emma, and Ace said at exactly the same time.
"I feel kind of bad about arguing with them earlier, now..." Emma added, as they stepped off of the elevator and she found herself face-to-face with her First Knight.
"Don't." Law advised her. "You're allowed to have feelings."
"Like guilt?"
He rolled his eyes, but smiled slightly. "Don't be pedantic." He scolded her lightly, as some hotel clerks brought up their bags.
Luffy, Nami, and Usopp then took Emma and the others on the grand tour, ending with the penthouse's common area, where Robin and Zoro were waiting for them.
Robin was sitting at a desk and writing, and Zoro was sitting on the couch watching a baseball game live from America on the TV.
They walked in just as the fanfare created by Tommy Walker was played and, on instinct, most of them said: "Charge!" Right along with the crowd who were watching on the TV.
"Oi, you three," Zoro said then. "Where's your Grandfather?"
"Nani...?" Emma, Ace, and Luffy all stared blankly at him, and then realised that Garp had indeed gone missing.
Law sighed.
At the same time, Robin glanced up from whatever it was that she was writing, and said: "Vivi-San, I believe that Carue is also missing..."
"Nani...?" Franky, Chopper, and Usopp all blinked.
"Oh no, Carue!" Vivi looked like she was about to start panicking, until Nami stepped in.
"Okay, everybody calm down, they can't have gone too far!" The navigator said firmly, and they all looked at her. "I mean, I know it's a large hotel, but look here - I've got maps!" She produced a couple of maps from seemingly nowhere. "I've been here for a couple of hours, after all." She explained. "The hotel and its grounds are easily divided into areas, so we'll split up and each group will take one section." She began handing out the maps. "There's a great photocopier in the other room - it's a Fuji Xerox that does double-sided printing in monochrome and colour!"
"Ooh..." Emma, Chopper, Franky, and Ace were impressed.
"Come on Vivi, we'll find him!" Luffy said, taking the map with one hand and Vivi, who still looked incredibly worried, firmly by the arm with the other hand. "Plus, we get to explore this place! Come on, we'll take the riverside!" He added, and Vivi had no choice but to listen. They left the room together.
"We'd better go with them..." Emma began.
"In case they find Ojīchan instead of Carue." Ace finished, as Emma set down the bag that she'd been carrying.
"Or, more of those crazy fans." They added together, and the two of them hurried off after Luffy and Vivi.
Nami was nodding, ignoring the annoyed Look that had flashed across Law's face just then. "That's fine, then. Usopp, Chopper, and Franky, you three take the area closest to the rail line. Brook, Zoro, and Sanji-Kun, you three take the western grounds and don't give me that attitude!" She added, mainly to Zoro as he and Sanji were glaring at each other.
"But, Nami-Swan," Sanji protested. "What are you going to be doing? And, what about Robin-Chwan?"
"Robin's been writing something for the past few days now...it looks really important..." Chopper pointed out, going over to have a look and, unlike with Emma, Robin let him see what she had been working on that afternoon. "Oh, wow, it is!"
"Perhaps it would be beneficial for you all to take a look at it?" Robin suggested. She had noticed that Law had picked up Emma's backpack and left the room without anybody noticing. "Although, I'm afraid that Vivi-San was the only one of us who actually heard it and I don't have either hers or Emma-San's singing voice, so I'll just tell you that this is the second verse to the song that the god Twister taught to Emma-San."
She was met with looks of shock in varying degrees, except for from Nami who already knew and was staring out the window at Perth City in the afternoon - and, at that cloud that was actually a rift in space and time. She said: "It starts off like this...the seeds of the past have been sown...the strength of those flowers has grown..."
"For darkness inside light's own power, brings forth light in the darkest hour..."
"Hey, Vivi? What are you humming?" Luffy wanted to know.
Vivi shook her head to clear it. She hadn't even realised that she'd quietly started humming and then singing the song that she'd heard in her vision-dream last night. The first time that it had happened, Vivi had felt like she was intruding onto something that she wasn't meant to see...until Undine had given her daughter that necklace. The same necklace that Emma had now given to Vivi...well, she hadn't exactly given it to her, although she'd handed it back to Vivi yesterday when she'd transformed them all out of their cat forms. Vivi had started to suspect that maybe she was meant to be seeing these precious memories after all; Emma's sudden ascent up to the crows nest right before Undine had revealed to Whitebeard that the World Government had more than one reason to kill their daughter had confirmed it for Vivi. She was meant to help Emma, that much was for certain.
But now, as Emma and Ace helped her and Luffy look for Carue, Vivi couldn't help but wonder what had happened on Emma's side of the vision after she'd disappeared...
They were walking around the entertainment complex, trying to ignore the security guards who were keeping their fans and the TV reporters (whom they'd started dubbing 'The Herd'), at bay some distance away, when they finally found Carue, but...
"Hey, who's that with him?" Luffy wanted to know, seeing the look that Emma and Ace exchanged. Emma looked like she wanted to run for the hills...or, quite possibly, take a moment to punch the blonde-haired woman that was standing next to Carue. And then run.
Carue and Vivi greeted each other like he'd been missing for a year, but then Vivi turned to face the older woman who was standing there, and her grey-blue eyes lit up in recognition - but not in a good way.
She recognised this woman instantly. Both from the confident way that she had stood there and held Carue's reins, and also from the visions that the gods had shown her - there was no doubt about who this was.
Sara.
She and Emma had been friends in high school, both of them short with a similar medical history and the same interests and hobbies. The quiet Emma had finally made a friend in the bubbly new girl, but then Sara had turned around and ditched Emma...right when Emma's Nanna had been dying of skin cancer.
Upon being shown this, in her lead-up to meeting up with the other Allies, Vivi had tried not to draw too many conclusions; after all, at that point, she hadn't met either girl and so she had tried her best to be diplomatic. But, Emma's Nanna had not been diplomatic about her feelings towards Sara, and it didn't have anything to do with Sara convincing Emma to skip Hazel Grace's last ever birthday party to go horse riding with her (okay, maybe that had something to do with it).
Vivi was curious to see now how Emma would react to this situation. It almost seemed like a test.
As Emma walked towards Sara, she couldn't help but eye her up and down, and noticed that her former friend was doing the same to her. Emma tried not to think about what Sara might be thinking of her (if it was anything along the same lines, then she'd be wondering why Emma wasn't adding anything to her height by wearing heels).
Ace motioned casually to Luffy to stand back a bit.
When she was standing directly in front of Sara, Emma stopped, and said: "Sara."
"Emma." The younger woman replied, still with that same British accent.
Vivi refrained from rolling her eyes.
"What brings you here?" Emma enquired. Okay, cool it, look she may still be British but you don't have to address her like you're addressing The Queen!
"Ash was saying at work that there was a thing on tonight." Sara replied, her expression unreadable.
"Who?" Emma heard Luffy whisper to his brother.
"Her cousin!" Ace hissed back. "We played Mario Kart at her house six days ago!"
"Oh yeah, and Usopp cheated!"
"Ssh!"
Emma saw Sara raise an eyebrow, which did nothing to quell her annoyed feelings. How dare Sara show up out of the blue uninvited like this! Emma was also remembering seeing Sara at Ashlee's party, and how she'd acted like everything was beneath her and flung herself all over Ace...Emma then recalled how she'd called Sara 'perra'...
Almost as if reading her mind, Sara went on with: "I had no idea about all of this when Is aw you guys at Ash's party back in March."
"Nobody knew." Emma said simply.
As she and Carue edged around to where Luffy and Ace were standing, Vivi glanced at Emma. If I concentrate hard enough, then, I'm sure that I can read Emma-Sama's thoughts right now...she's thinking...
"Ne, Vivi, I think that Emmy hates it when Sara calls her cousin 'Ash'." Luffy stated Emma and Vivi's thoughts, and all three women who were present jumped.
Ace facepalmed. It was true, of course, but Luffy had said it a bit too loudly. He watched as Sara's chin tilted up slightly, and saw his fiancée's posture shift slightly. Something was about to happen, he just knew it.
Perhaps Vivi sensed it too, and perhaps she didn't want to witness it if it was going to get ugly, because she said: "Luffy-San, let's go and check out what's over there." She motioned towards something that seemed a whole lot more exciting to Luffy than watching two women talk to each other, and the two of them, plus Carue (sticking close to his mistress's side), headed off, leaving Ace to watch the fireworks...of which there were none.
At least not the ones that they'd all been expecting.
"I'm not entirely sure why you came here, Sara." Emma admitted, staring at a spot just past Sara's left ear - her Mum had once said that doing that made it look like you were keeping eye contact, even when you weren't. "You don't like me, remember?"
"I'm here because of Ash." Sara told her.
"News flash, this night's about people who are here to see me." Emma informed her firmly, holding her arms. "And, my Nakama." She added.
Sara just stared at the Baby DenDen Mushi, who woke up just briefly enough to stare back at her before falling back to sleep again.
"There's something that I've wanted to say to you for a long time Sara, and I'm going to have my say." Emma held up a hand when Sara looked like she was about to say something. "So, shut up and listen."
Ace watched as Sara literally shut her mouth just then, and smiled slightly. Yeah, you'd BETTER listen...
Ace could also tell that Emma was about to deliver a long speech, and made sure to pay as close attention as he could. Emma's voice was getting that tone again, after all...
"As you know, when we met in high school, I had never really had a close friend there, since my best friends and I all went to different high schools. Plus, everybody thought that I was weird, whether it was because of my anime addiction or being able to eat whatever I wanted without having to worry about my weight or some other third thing. And you were the first new person in a long time who seemed to get me. You had your own medical problems, you were as obsessed with anime as I was - maybe even more..."
Yeah, then, maybe... Ace thought wryly.
Emma was still talking. "You helped me with my confidence, and made me feel less awkward about going to school. You even helped me to live out something that I'd dreamed of doing for solong, which was to ride horses!"
A dream...
Ace watched as Sara's eyes glazed over. "Yeah, about that..." She began, but was silenced by the suddenly fierce Look that Emma gave her.
"And, you know what?" Emma sighed. "I admit it, okay? I admit that I liked going over to your awesome house, with your awesome parents who let me call them by their first names." Jan and Al were...actually...okay. They were nice people. "I loved playing with your three dogs who reminded me of the poodles next door, and your three cats who had sharp claws, and your pecky chickens, and, yes, I especially loved that you let me play with your horses and even ride one of them because that's something that I'd always wanted to do! You told me that you'd been riding since you were a little kid, back when you lived in England, and you know what? I was jealous! I was jealous that you seemed to have such a good relationship with your parents, and that they let you do things like rollerblade in the house and have a laptop computer and buy anime stuff without getting angry at you! I loved that I got to experience your life, too!" She then seemed to check herself, and Ace wondered if she was thinking of the wine that she'd had on the way over and how best she should behave herself. Her voice was as melodic as ever, though. "But, you know what I loved, above all else?" She said, in a quieter voice. "I loved that I finally found a friend who I thought was so much like me. I still cherish that thought, even if it turned out to be wrong."
Sara was staring at Emma with an unreadable expression. "Are you finished?" She asked suddenly. And, without even waiting for an answer, she said: "Basically, all I've heard is how great my life was and how great my house was, and how you used me just so that you could ride horses and feel understood." She shook her head. "How come you never invited me over to your house?"
Emma answered straight away. There was no time to hesitate, no time to best think how to word this, or else Sara would think that she was lying. "Because we had my dying grandmother staying with us. You knew that." She added, in a voice barely above a whisper, but it still managed to sound fierce.
"What, you think that I didn't understand that?!" Sara wanted to know. "My Grandfather died in 2006 as well, if you'll remember!"
"I do remember!" Emma exclaimed. "We weren't friends anymore but I'd sent you guys a sympathy card! I met your grandparents when they were over from New Zealand!"
"Then can you imagine how I felt when they went back there, not knowing that it was the last time that I'd ever see him, and then five months later not getting to say goodbye?!" Sara sounded slightly angry now.
"Yes, because I didn't get to say goodbye or sorry to my Nanna!" Emma half-shouted, and a flock of nearby black swans took flight in a panic.
Emma and Sara stared at each other for a moment. Ace, meanwhile, just waited, wondering if Emma had forgotten about The Herd with their state-of-the-art multi-focal camera equipment and subtitle guy named Larry.
"Look," Emma said, with the air of somebody trying hard to maintain their composure. "I didn't want to get into an argument with you, because I'm not going to carry what happened between us for the rest of my life and to my grave, so here goes - thank you."
Ace blinked slightly.
Sara looked shocked. "I'm sorry, what?"
"Thank you." Emma repeated. "Because, for the longest time, I didn't understand why any of what we just talked about had to happen. Why did I finally make a friend and get to live out a dream, only to have it disappear right when I needed the distraction in my life the most? Why? To make me stronger. To make me realise that, yes, bad things happen but, eventually, good things will, as well...there will be better things later and there will be many..." She added, and Ace saw a brief look of warmth in her eyes, which he recognised - she had just quoted somebody significant, although he wasn't sure who, exactly. No doubt that the thousands of One Piece fans listening in would, though. "And, you know what? Those good things were happening - all around me, I just didn't realise it at the time, until I grew up a little bit. So, basically, I'm thanking my friends and my family and my Nakama, for providing those good times that helped me to understand this lesson." She held her left hand up to her chest. The ring on her fourth finger glittered in the sunlight. "And you, Sara? Thanks for hearing me out. I hate being interrupted." She added, with a wave of her hand as she half turned and walked over to where Ace was standing with an expression midway between shocked and amused.
She merely smiled at him, and took his hand in hers, starting to walk away from Sara who suddenly seemed to unlock her jaw.
"W-wait!" She stammered, and both Emma and Ace paused. "You never said that you were sorry for embarrassing me in front of my friends and using me like you did!" She sounded like she had wanted to say that for years.
Emma tilted her head to one side. "Did it bother you that much?"
"It still does!"
"Then I'm sorry you still feel that way. Sayonara."
Sanji walked back into the penthouse common area, sighing. "Nami-San, I hate to trouble you, but..." He trailed off when he saw Nami sitting on the couch with her head in her hands. Her shoulders were shaking and he honestly couldn't tell if she was laughing or crying. Looking at the TV provided no clarification, as Robin had just switched it off. Looking at the archeologist herself didn't much help either, because her expression was sympathetic but her eyes were glimmering with amusement.
Nami finally looked up when Sanji came over to her, and he saw that there were tears in her eyes but she was smiling. "Oh, you should've heard it, Sanji-Kun...Em forgot about The Herd so we all got to see it when she had a confrontation with that girl Sara - remember Robin, Franky, and Usopp told us about her?" Sanji nodded, recalling hearing about Emma's former friend.
"Why was she here, though?" He asked the two women.
"It seems that Sara's horsemanship skills extend somewhat to Spot-Billed Ducks, because she managed to find Carue." Robin explained. "She also overheard Emma-San's cousin mention tonight's event."
"They work together." Nami added. She shook her head, although she was still smiling. "Em did not look happy to see her or hear her using Ashlee's nickname, but then she managed to turn it around by admitting to her faults regarding their friendship-split even though it was obvious that she wasn't entirely to blame."
"It takes two to tango." Sanji agreed, suddenly picturing Nami in a red tango dress.
"Anyway," Nami rolled her eyes, probably guessing where Sanji's thoughts had just strayed to. "Emma then went on to say 'thank you'."
Sanji just stared at her. He hadn't expected that.
Robin, carefully straightening out a stack of A5 paper, smiled. "Emma-San acknowledged that she hadn't understood the situation that had occurred between them because she needed to grow up a bit first, and that only by experiencing all of the good times with her loved ones - even with the hard times - was she finally able to accept what had happened and move on." She and Nami exchanged a glance, then, and Sanji wondered what he was missing here.
"But then," Nami's grin turned a bit mischievous just then. "She went on to thank her loved ones - including us - for those good times. She then thanked Sara for not interrupting her, and walked away!"
Sanji felt a feeling of pride well up inside of him for Emma just then. He wasn't going to admit it right then, but he had begun to realise just how much Emma had changed in the few months that they had known her. From the shy, insecure, and unsure young woman that she had been when he'd first met her (well, okay, so she'd been a shy and timid cat when he'd first met her, but, he'd been able to tell straight away that she was something more)...had come a stronger, more confident woman. She was almost like a cute little caterpillar emerging from her cocoon as a stunning butterfly, Emma had started to spread her wings as of late...although Sanji couldn't help but wonder if she might have another stage that they had yet to see. Something still seemed to be waiting, deep down inside of her.
"Our little genius." Nami was saying, still with that smile. "When Em was walking away, Sara had the nerve to say that she never got an apology! So, Em asked if it had bothered her and when Sara said that it still did..." She chuckled, remembering.
"Emma-San stated that she was sorry that Sara still felt that way." Robin informed Sanji, who also chuckled. He could also imagine the fiery red-had saying that, too.
"Still," Nami gazed out the window at the late afternoon sky. "It'll be nice to make this last night a really good one." She said, a little wistfully.
That reminded Sanji. "Oh, Nami-Swan, I do require your help on a small matter..." He clasped his hands.
She gave him a Look. "Just spit it out." She instructed.
"Well, if it's not too much trouble, do you think that you could come down to the ballroom and use your brilliant organisational skills - not to mention your amazingly artistic mind - to help get the catering staff into order?" Sanji gazed imploringly at the young woman.
She gazed steadily back at him, sizing him up, before she sighed and stood up. "Okay, what happened?"
"Half of the catering staff aren't working today because they're following Emma-Chan and Vivi-Chan and the others around, Brook harassed a waitress who started quoting Kalifa because her son watches One Piece, Chopper got carried away by a group of adorable fan girls and Usopp went to save him but they haven't come back yet..."
"Why aren't they out there looking for Garp?!" Nami exclaimed. "I told them to..."
"I know!" Sanji shook his head. "Oh, but Garp's yelling at centre management right now, he's furious because he found out that a shipping crate that came in earlier today had an infestation of Giant Centipedes and Bad Roaches..."
"Ethmostigmus rubripes?" Robin mused, at the same time as Nami squeaked: "Bad roaches?!" She looked around their room in horror, as if she expected the bugs to suddenly come pouring out of the furniture.
"We'll get some traps." Sanji assured her quickly. "It would probably also be a good idea to let Emma-Chan's Mother know, if she doesn't already."
"You're right, she should know about this." Nami agreed, as they headed for the door. Robin smiled as she heard both the navigator and the chef shudder. "Ewh-h-h...bugs..."
Why can't they all be cute little butterflies like my Mellorines? Sanji wondered.
Later that afternoon, Emma was sitting in one of the huge bathrooms in the penthouse, chatting with Vivi, Nami (who seemed frazzled but calmed down after she had a glass of rosé), and Robin (who was taking a break from her writing) as they gave Carue a bath.
The Spot-Billed Duck stood still for a moment, before he shook himself dry like a dog, and Emma quickly brought up a curtain of ribbons to shield herself, before realising that she'd forgotten about her friends.
Vivi shrugged in a good-natured way, and Robin merely smiled.
Nami, on the other hand, exclaimed: "This top is dry-clean only!"
"Then why are you wearing it now?!" Emma wanted to know.
Nami's response was to pick up a nearby ice bucket that wasn't too heavy despite being full of melted ice by now. She threw said water at Emma.
Emma gasped, as the cold water drenched her, and wondered where that mysterious power to control water was supposed to be - shouldn't it have helped her out, Waterbending-Style?
Just then, Robin said to Nami: "Nami-Chan, there's a spider on that." She pointed to a teeny-tiny speck that was on the side of the ice bucket.
Nami looked, and saw that whatever it was was right next to her hand. She shrieked...and threw the ice bucket at Vivi!
It was Vivi's turn to shriek, as she dodged the bucket, which landed in the water of the bath and sent a huge tidal wave up that drenched all of them including Carue, who quacked indignantly. It was Vivi's turn to give Nami a Look, until the navigator claimed that it was Emma's fault and then she and Vivi waged a water war on Emma that was largely one-sided until Robin and her many hands got involved and Vivi was forced to hide behind Carue as Nami refused to surrender.
Listening to the shrieks and laughter that were coming from the locked bathroom, the men could only wonder what on Earth was going on in there!
They didn't really get it and it didn't really matter. They then had to wait around for Emma's Mum's secretary to send her assistant and resident handyman to come up and fix the heater so that the girls wouldn't freeze to death - since when they tried to turn said heater on a centipede fell out of one of the vents, and then the air-conditioning came on instead.
"Oh, sure, this air-conditioning works!" Emma had complained from the bathroom. "And, did you just set fire to something, Ace-Chan?!"
"No, Emiko, it's just the Southern Lights!" Ace had to hastily throw the smouldering remains of the centipede down the laundry chute only for more to crawl out of there. He then had to try and come up with something in response to Emma wondering how he expected her to believe that the Aurora Australis, at this time of the year and day and in this part of the country, was localised entirely within their hotel room.
She also got annoyed because he told her that she couldn't come out and see it.
"Why?!" She wailed, pushing on the door that Ace was currently leaning against to prevent her from coming into the room. "You let Nami and Vivi-Chama and Robin-San and even Carue come out!"
What she didn't know was that everyone - including the heater repair guy, whose name was Jiles - was currently trying to get rid of the centipedes.
Nami was sitting atop Carue with her legs tucked up underneath of her in horror, and gave the orders, as Sanji quietly declared how he'd save her...right before he got into an argument with Zoro when the swordsman told him that maybe he should actually do something.
Then, before it got out of hand, Robin suggested to them both to see who could dispatch the most centipedes, and both men agreed.
Franky was asking Chopper if he could talk to centipedes and Chopper said that centipedes were too driven by instinct to be any sort of conversationalists. They then both looked over, and blinked in surprise, seeing that one particular centipede was sharing a cup of tea and some scones (including cream and raspberry jam!) with Brook. Brook appeared to be asking it if it was a good dancer with so many legs.
Luffy was laughing as he chased Usopp around the room with one of the centipedes.
Said centipede was suddenly dispatched by a razor-sharp Peacock Slasher, and it turned out that Vivi had killed the most centipedes.
A few people, including Jiles, applauded.
Ace, meanwhile, continued to lean with his back against the door, and listen to Emma deviate between singing and complaining that she was the only one not out there and that even her Mum's secretary's assistant Jiles knew what was going on!
The only one not there at the moment was Law...in fact, nobody had seen the Heart Pirate Captain in awhile...
Emma was unsure of what to think when a hotel attendant knocked on the door half an hour after the girls had called a truce on their water war; she opened the door to be given some parcels, including a bag from the dry-cleaners, and thanked the attendant even though she was feeling utterly perplexed.
"It's just a dinner, why did Mum go all out?" She wondered, recognising Lee Pax's signature on the dry-cleaner's note. "And, where IS everybody?" She asked nobody in particular, not really expecting an answer. Su-Chan certainly didn't give her one - the Baby DenDen Mushi was snoozing next to Emma's phone on the bedside table when Emma came in and threw the parcels gently into the bed. The snail phone didn't even wake up when the regular phone buzzed with a text message.
"It's from Mum..." Emma noted. "Be up in five...up in five..." She repeated, and had a sudden vision of Nami looking like a runway model, Robin looking like the lead actress in a Moonbay Fox production, and Vivi looking like, well, a Princess. She suddenly realised just how much effort her Mum had gone to to get all of this stuff for her, and now she had five minutes to put it all on and look presentable! "Yikes!"
As Emma tried to slide into her dress and her shoes at the same time, she envisioned her Mother coming up in the elevator.
"Tie the straps, aurgh, why are they shoes with straps?!" Emma wanted to know, now picturing her Mother exiting the elevator and walking a long the corridor. "And...hair, where's there a brush?! Nami's will have to do! Aurgh, no, wait, that's Carue's!"
"Emma?" She heard Lee's voice call to her.
Eek! "Just a second!" Emma replied, but she heard the door open anyway. "Hang on a minute...aurgh!" She cried out as she tripped.
And, so, Lee Pax walked into the room to find her youngest daughter resembling somewhat of a Cinderella, with one shoe on and her dress half done up and messy hair and smudges all over her face.
"Do you...need my help?" Lee asked calmly.
"YEEEEEESSSSS!" Emma nearly sobbed.
"So, tell me what's going on." Lee said presently, as she fixed her daughter's hair.
"What do you mean, Mum?" Emma blinked, still trying to shake off the feeling of that stuff that fixes the makeup to one's face. "I've told you everything you need to know..."
"So," Lee tugged at a knot in Emma's hair, making her jump. "Tell me something I don't know."
"Like what?"
"I don't know, like, anything!" Lee suggested. "You've barely told me a thing about this other world that you went to."
"What do you want to know?" Emma asked, already going through the mental list of things that she couldn't tell her Mum!
"What's that thing there?" Lee wanted to know all of a sudden, pointing to Su-Chan who was now snoozing on the bathroom bench in front of them. "You've had it with you since before we found out about all of this..." She added, trying not to sound accusing.
"A Baby DenDen Mushi." Emma replied.
"Which is a 'what', exactly...?"
"Well, DenDen Mushis are animals with special technology fitted to their shells so that they can be used as communication devices. I can't show you now because there's only one in this world, but, this is the bit that you talk into, see?" She lifted the mouthpiece out of Su-Chan's shell. Su-Chan gave her a Look like: 'What the Hell you doing?' Before going back to sleep when Emma replaced the receiver. "And, the DenDen Mushi would do the talking, but in the other person's voice. Sometimes they even adopt some of the other person's facial expressions."
"How?"
"Umm...ask Usopp or Franky or someone, because I honestly have no idea myself." Emma admitted. "I just keep it, feed it lettuce from time to time, and named it Su-Chan."
"Do other people name their...those things?" Lee wanted to know.
"I'm not other people." Emma reminded her.
Lee just shook her head, smiling slightly. "Where did you get it from? I don't think that's something that you ever told us the truth about."
"No, probably not." Emma agreed, watching in the mirror what her Mum was doing to her hair, before she realised that Lee was waiting for an answer. Emma sighed. "Sumi-Chan gave it to me."
"Mmm." Lee pursed her lips together slightly, as she managed to continue fixing her daughter's hair and look at the Baby DenDen Mushi more closely. "Was she a nurse?"
"Huh?" Emma blinked, and then nodded, wincing when that made her Mum accidentally pull on her hair. "Oh, yeah, she was. On...on Whitebeard's ship." She glanced to the side, and then checked her phone's clock. Nearly six o'clock. "And, before that..."
"Before that?" Lee pressed.
"She was the doctor of the Spade Pirates." Emma smiled slightly. "That was the crew that Ace-Chan was the Captain of, before he became a Whitebeard Pirate. I was told that...that Ace-Chan saved Sumi-Chan from slavery...but, I could see how much they cared about each other, anyway. He looked out for her like she was his little sister or something."
"She was only young, wasn't she?" Lee remembered. She was treading very carefully at the moment. This was never the kind of conversation that she had ever imagined having with her youngest daughter. "A teenager, or...?"
"Yeah, she was a year younger than Vivi-Chama, so she would've been sweet sixteen this year." Emma said sadly.
"She'd certainly been through a lot, for someone so young." Lee spoke calmly, but she could sense the sadness from Emma. There was more to this Sumi situation than Emma was letting on.
"Yup." Emma bit her lip, and then realised that she'd have to put on more lipgloss if she did that, so she twisted the rings on her fingers instead. "She was in a relationship with one of the Commanders on Whitebeard's ship. I never met Thatch, and he was quite a bit older than Sumi-Chan...a bit like Aunty Bev and Uncle Roy, or Nanny and Dad's Dad...but, still, I think that they were very happy together, until..."
"What happened to him?" Lee wanted to know.
"He was killed by one of their own," Emma told her Mum. "An absolutely horrible man named Teech." She said the name with a great amount of venom, but Lee did not flinch. She'd had encounters with horrible people in the past, too.
She wasn't prepared for what came next, though.
"On that same night, he also attacked Sumi-Chan and killed the unborn child that she was carrying." Emma spoke in a low voice. "Only the other nurses and Whitebeard knew about the baby, but they all knew what happened to Thatch - Teech killed him and stole the Devil Fruit that Thatch had acquired...actually, he did it because of that. He wanted the powers of Darkness, and, he got them."
Lee knew a bit about the Devil Fruit Powers, such as Emma's ribbons and Luffy's stretchy-ness. The powers of Darkness sounded...different, though...
Emma's voice rose slightly. "The fact of the mater is that Teech killed one of his own shipmates in cold blood. Whitebeard considers his crew to be his family, and this was the ultimate taboo. The code of the Whitebeard Pirates is absolute, if you know what I mean...?" She glanced up at her Mum, whose expression was unreadable but she also nodded. "Ace-Chan said that he'd do it, even though others advised him not to. Teech had been in Ace-Chan's division, so he felt responsible. It was also because of how it had affected Sumi-Chan so much. But...when he got there...he found out the hard way that Darkness is the power that draws everything in. Even other Devil Fruit Powers, and then it nullifies them. I know first hand."
Lee noticed that her daughter's hands were shaking now.
Emma fought this man?! Who would kill an unborn child?! She could picture him so clearly, and it wasn't just from the cartoon drawing that she had seen of him.
Emma's voice was shaking, too, when she said: "Teech could have probably killed Ace-Chan outright, but he didn't. He handed him over to the World Government."
"Why did he do that?" Lee asked. "What did he stand to gain from doing that? After he'd already shown how easily he could murder somebody..."
"Mmm..." Emma nodded, glad that her Mum understood. "He wanted Shichibukai status - that is, to be one of the Seven Warlords. They're pirates, but they work for the World Government. He did it only to recruit some of the world's worst criminals, and he did that by gaining access to Impel Down - that's like that world's version of Alcatraz meets Azkaban." She explained and Lee, who loved watching all those shows about solving crimes (not to mention being acquainted with the Harry Potter series), nodded - she also understood that part of this horrible man's plan. "Nobody gets out alive, unless they're being taken for public execution."
"Which Ace was." Lee realised. It was a chilling thought, all of a sudden.
Emma nodded, her face very serious and her eyes not really looking at anything. "They revealed to the whole world that Ace-Chan was the son of the Pirate King, even though Ace-Chan never knew him and grew up hating himself because everybody said that Roger's son would be a demon child. Fleet Admiral Sengoku even made it sound like Rouge's sacrifice was a bad thing! They were then going to kill Ace-Chan...a live execution at Marine Headquarters. The World Government knew that by doing this, Whitebeard's fleet would go to war with them. They were hoping to take out both Ace-Chan and Whitebeard, and as many of the Whitebeard Pirates and their allies as they could. Even after Luffy broke out of Impel Down with two hundred and forty other prisoners and stormed Marineford, the World Government was about to win...until I crashed that war zone by mistake and swept a whole bunch of people away to safety. The World Government's had it in for me ever since."
Lee closed her eyes briefly and, when she opened them again, Emma was looking at her in the mirror.
"Do you know what they call me?" Emma asked her, realising that she'd never mentioned this part to her Mum and, eager all of a sudden to see Lee's reaction to this bit of information, she sent a ribbon over to her open bag and pulled her Wanted poster out.
Luckily, it was the one that said just EMMA - the World Government seemed to have done half the batch as that, and the other half with EDWARD EMMA.
Lee looked at the wanted poster that the ribbon was holding out to her, as she continued to tie up her daughter's hair.
Her daughter had an honest-to-God Wanted Poster? All that Lee could think was how her Mum had always sworn up and down that they were related to Ned Kelly, but Lee suspected that it might have actually been Moondine Joe.
"That's a good picture of you." Lee commented.
"It's my powered-up form, as the Princess Of Light." Emma informed her.
"Mmhmm." Lee's dark brown eyes scanned the poster. "Yet, they call you The Demon Of War, I see..." How...how dare they!
"Akainu probably came up with that name, since he was deadset on killing Ace-Chan and Luffy but I prevented that." Emma speculated. "He hates me." She added and Lee, remembering the name and who this Akainu was, tried not to shudder. "Nobody's epithet is really very nice...depending on what they did. Robin-San's is 'Demon Child'. Not really very fitting."
"No, it's not." Lee agreed. "Dead Or Alive..." She murmured.
"I think it'd be an insult to me as a Pirate for it not to say that." Emma replied firmly.
"Is that so?" Lee wasn't sure what to say to that. All of her life, she'd been taught that right was right and wrong was wrong. The world that her youngest daughter was so fond of seemed to make exceptions to the rules - there were still horrible pirates like this Teech, but there were also horrible law enforcers like Akainu. There were also good Marines, like Garp (Lee was secretly thrilled that Emma seemed to have found another Grandfather, since she knew how much Emma missed the only one that she'd ever known). And, as for good pirates...
"See that number there, Mum?" Emma pointed to the numerical value on the page. "Before, it was eight number nines...after what happened on Dawn Island, though, they raised my bounty by two."
"Is that significant?" Lee wanted to know, a little bit disconcerted by how calmly Emma seemed to be talking about all of this.
"Yes." Emma nodded. "It means that I am what's known as a Supernova. As in, I'm a rookie pirate who's achieved that kind of bounty. I think that it's ridiculous of them to raise it by only two, because what kind of a number is one hundred million and one anyway...?"
Lee was only half-listening. I wanted my daughters to achieve something with their lives, but...
"So I'm considered one of the 'Worst Generation', but guess who else is?" Emma said brightly. "Luffy! And Zoro! Law-Chan is as well. And Ace-Chan, although his is from the previous generation since he set out before we did, sort of...there's another girl Supernova, too, I haven't met her yet but I want to. Her name's Bonney."
Lee shuddered this time. She worked with a Bonnie. She didn't like her.
"I've met Kid-San, though," Emma went in. "He...you wouldn't like him. He's kinda homicidal and...well, basically, he's not for the faint of heart." Lee suddenly realised that Emma was starting to sound more upbeat than she had in a long, long time. She was also starting to have no clue what Emma was talking about. "Still...it's weird, this whole 'Worst Generation' thing, because it's slightly different from being a Supernova...like, I understand what my actions have done in regards to upsetting the World Government, but the Worst Generation were meant to be the eleven rookies who reached Sabaody Archipelago with such high bounties, which shouldn't actually include me as the twelfth, but Admiral Aokiji was saying..." She suddenly realised that her Mum didn't appear to be listening, although she was still doing something with Emma's hair. "Mum, what is it?" She suddenly gasped. "Oh, I know! It's Admiral Aokiji, right? Yes, he's the one who tried to kill me, but remember that I got saved by Marco-San, alright?"
"I do remember, but that isn't it." Lee told her.
"Oh..." Emma thought for a minute. "Then, are you worried about Kid-San? Don't be, Luffy and Law-Chan have made it pretty clear that they don't want me in the same magnetic field as him, you should've seen them at Sabaody those two times..." That first time must've been EPIC...
Lee shook her head. "That's not it, either, although I agree with those two on that note."
"Is it because Bonney has the same name as Bonnie that you work with?" Emma guessed. "It's spelled differently, but you can call her by her family name - it's Jewellery. Isn't that cool?"
"Yes." Lee agreed, but then she sighed. "Emma, all of your life, I've tried to teach you right from wrong." She looked very seriously at her youngest daughter's reflection, trying to ignore the scars on her arms. "I've also tried to shield you from the worst things that are out there...but, somehow, on your own, you've ventured out into a whole different world, one that I'm not sure I can protect you from."
Emma did bite her lip just then, because she was suddenly hit with a wave of emotions inside of her. How was she supposed to just carry on, knowing that at six o'clock tomorrow morning this world and everyone in it would be Erased? Couldn't I just...teleport a bunch of people that I like to the One Piece world, of maybe everyone...? Almost as soon as she thought it, she dismissed the idea. Georgia had just barely survived in that world, and it would probably never recover from her. A mass evacuation was, without a doubt, out of the question.
"Mum...you know, I mentioned Ace-Chan's Mother - her name was Portgas D. Rouge. She knew that the World Government would kill her baby just for his heritage, so she sacrificed herself by holding her pregnancy for twenty months in order to fool the World Government. Then, there's Nami's story...Nami's adoptive Mother, Bellemere-San, sacrificed herself to save Nami and Nojiko when their village was invaded by this Mafia-like pirate crew demanding money for each person there to continue living; Bellemere-San, knowing that she only had enough for her girls, knew that she was about to be shot point-blank but still insisted that the money was for her daughters...then that pirate crew forced Nami to draw maps for them or else they'd kill everyone else as well, and the World Government stationed near to there was corrupt so Luffy and the others had to liberate Cocoyashi Village."
Lee had her eyes closed again briefly, and so she didn't see when a light seemed to go on in Emma's eyes.
Arlong...a Saw-Shark Fishman...did Undine have some sort of an issue with Arlong, even back then...?
"Also, Mum...Ace-Chan was telling me that she spoke to Little Death the other day..." Emma said quietly. "And, Death herself said that a Mother never stops loving her children..." She broke off, suddenly, staring at her reflection in the mirror.
"And, it's true." Lee said firmly placing her hand on Emma's right shoulder (the one with less scars). "It doesn't matter what anybody else says, I will always love my children, okay? Whether you're a Pirate or a pensioner, you will always be my daughter and I love you." She noticed that Emma wasn't saying anything, and frowned. "What's wrong? Don't you believe me?"
"What I don't believe," Emma had finally found her voice. "Is what you're doing to my hair! I look about five years old!"
Lee looked at the slightly Princess Leia hairstyle that she had given her youngest daughter without even realising it, and the both of them burst out laughing.
"Beware the foes not fully discovered...and seek the truth that must be uncovered..."
"...Little Death...?"
"...Mummy...? I feel...weak...what happened to Twister...and, where's my scythe...?"
"You won't be needing it anymore." The voice cut through the still air like a knife.
Death whirled around, to see somebody that she had never expected to see again. "You!" She hissed. "You are his First Knight?!"
"Correct."
Those cold eyes pierced into Death's deep red eyes, and it was at that moment that Death realised what had happened.
"What have you done with the God Of Change?!"
"It is his own fault for challenging me."
Oh, no...Twister...where are you...?!
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
I had to break up this chapter and the next one, for my sanity's sake as well as the length of the chapter. That means, however, that depending on how much I wanna write on my phone, the next chapter could be either really long or really short.
The chapter after that is going to be where things start moving...sort of...
Don't ask me what a 'bad roach' is, because honestly I have no idea. Maybe they're six feet tall with sunglasses and a hommies jacket? Who knows...
Heh, Jiles. I LOVE that name...
SONG LIST:
. I Love You Always Forever, by Donna Lewis (mentioned)
. Forever Angel, by The Corrs (mentioned)
. Always, by Bon Jovi (mentioned)
. Forever And For Always, by Shania Twain (mentioned)
. Country Roads, by John Denver (the song that was being played by Brook)
. Feeling Way Too Damn Good, by Nickelback
. From This Moment On, by Shania Twain (mentioned)
. Let's Just Get Married, by Jagged Edge (mentioned)
. Millionaires, by The Script (mentioned)
. Northern Lights, from Shaman King (the song that Emma was singing)