Nico Robin

Cade scanned the horizon. Several minutes had passed since they last cannon fire sounded. The fight was over. They had escaped the navy and can no longer see the shores of Alabasta. She exhaled.

"Those marines aren't chasing us anymore," Zoro said. The others hum in depression. "Seems like we lost them." More humming. "What's with you all?"
"We're lonely," the crew whined out.

"You all really are pathetic." Cade shook her head. All except for her and Zoro were hanging between the railing posts of the ship. Their arms hung down as their faces clouded with depression. "You knew this could happen."

"If you all really wanted her to come that badly then you should have dragged her aboard," Zoro said.

"What?! You're a barbarian!" Chopper growled.

"Despicable," Nami said.

"Devil," Sanji said added.

"Three swords," Luffy said.

"Luffy, three swords isn't an insult," Usopp said.

"Four swords!"

"You just added one!"

"Whatever. Just cry for all I care." Zoro gritted his teeth.

"At least we're out to sea." Cade stretched. "I feel so much better. The air is already cooler."

The door to Nami's room opened up. A tall dark haired woman stepped onto the deck.

"Hm?" Everyone turned their eyes to the intruder.

Cade swirled water around her fists.

"You here for revenge?" Zoro grabbed his swords.

"Why are you here?!" Nami grabbed her head.

"Ah! Pretty lady!" Sanji gasped.

"Warning! Warning! Enemy on board! Enemy on board!" Usopp roared like a siren.

"Ah! Who is she?!" Chopper hid backwards against the mast.

"What? It's you. You're not dead," Luffy said.

"Don't point those dangerous things at me." The woman lifted her hands and their weapons hit the ground. "Didn't I tell you that before?"

"When did you board this ship?!" Nami asked.

"I was here the whole time in the cabin, reading a book and taking a bath." She pulled out a chair and sat down. "Monkey D. Luffy. You didn't forget what you did, did you?"

"Luffy!" Sanji grabbed the captain by his shirt. "What did you do to this pretty lady?!"

"Hey! Don't lie! I didn't do anything to you!" Luffy said.

"No, I remember clearly. You better take responsibility." The woman smiled.

"She... who... what did you do?!" Sanji shook Luffy by the neck.

"Let him go!" Cade ordered. "We're not going to get any answers with you strangling my brother!"

"Yes, my darling angel fish!"

"Geez. You're really weird. What do you want?" Luffy asked.

"Let me join your crew." Robin smiled.

"What?!" the crew gasped.

"You're out of your mind." Cade stepped forward. "You tried to kill us. You tried to destroy an entire country. You're not joining our crew."

The woman studied Cade for a moment.

Cade tensed. Was she a hater of fishmen? Why was she really on their ship? Why would someone like this woman want to join a pirate crew she tried to kill?

Robin turned to Luffy. "It's you who made me go on when I wanted to die. That's your crime. I have nowhere else to go. No where to return to. So let me stay on this ship."

"I see your problem. You can stay," Luffy said.

"Luffy!" Nami and Usopp said.

"Luffy?" Cade gave her brother a quizzical look.

"It'll be fine. She's not all that bad." Luffy grinned. "She did save me once."

"What?"
"It was after my first fight with Crocodile. I was buried in sand." Luffy nodded at Robin. "She came along and pulled me out."

"Fine. But I'm not thrilled about it." Cade crossed her arm with a harsh glare at the intruder. "You better watch yourself."

"Don't worry. It'll be fine." Luffy patted Cade on the shoulder. "My sister here isn't very open towards strangers until she gets to know them."

"I can understand that," Robin said. "Many people hate fishmen. I'm not one of them."

Cade scoffed. With a roll of her eyes she moved away from the intruder. Crossing her arms she leaned back against the ship and watched as Usopp pulled out a chair and a table. The sniper sat across of Robin and started to interrogate her. As the two exchanged words, Cade glanced around to determine the locations of her crew.

Nami was sitting at the top of the stairs seemingly distrustful of this new person on their ship, Zoro leaned against the mast, Luffy and Chopper were being entertained with Robin's extra hands and arms sprouting up from the deck. Sanji was no where to be seen so she assumed he went to the kitchen.

For the most part the crew didn't trust this new crewmember. But one by one the newbie was winning them over. Nami jumped into acceptance to this new woman with a simple bag of jewels. The navigator even had the nerve to call Robin big sister. Chopper and Luffy accepted her with in a few seconds of being entertained with her extra limbs. Even Usopp lost his distrust of Robin when she made antlers on top of Luffy's head. And Sanji... well, he was in love from the start.

It was only herself and Zoro who didn't take to this new comer. Didn't the crew care that this woman, this Nico Robin, was helping a warlord to take over a country and attempted to kill them all? Okay, she could understand Luffy doing that. He wasn't one for holding a grudge. But the rest of them?

Zoro walked past her and up to the figurehead deck.

Cade followed him. "I see you're not thrilled with her being here either."

Zoro nodded. "But there's nothing for us to do. Luffy already accepted her."

"Yeah." Cade frowned.

Both tensed when Robin walked up the steps.

Robin walked past them. Holding her hair back, she stared at the ocean. "How's the weather for sailing, Miss Navigator?"

"It's all clear from here!" Nami chirped, still eyeing her new jewels.

"You didn't even look at the sky!" Cade snapped.

"It's interesting that this crew has a fishman on board," Robin said.

Cade glanced at the woman. Was Robin trying to get information about them to use again them later? She couldn't tell. All she knew was she didn't trust this Nico Robin. How could someone switch sides so fast?

"One day I'd like to hear how that happened," Robin said.

...

Cade continued to keep a close eye on Robin as she moved about the ship over the next few days. So far the woman didn't do anything that she thought suspicious. Still she watched and watched.

"Nami, will the next island we're going to have snow?" Luffy asked.

"You want snow now?" Nami glanced at the log pose.

"The record in Alubarna said it was an autumn island," Robin said.

"Autumn! I like autumn too!" Luffy said.

"Hm?" Zoro paused in pumping his weights. He had relaxed enough with Robin around to work out, but Cade continued to catch glimpse of him watching Robin with caution. "Is it raining?"

Cade looked up to small dark particles falling towards them. "I don't think that's rain."

"Is it hail?" Sanji asked when one of the drops pinged and bounced off the ship.

A larger dark mass started taking the shape of a ship, casting a shadow over them.

"It's a huge galleon!" Nami said.

"Why is it falling from the sky?!" Sanji asked.

Cade stepped closer to Luffy.

"This is a dream! It's nothing but a dream! No! It's a nightmare!" Usopp flapped his arms.

"There's still more falling, be on guard, everyone!" Sanji said.

"I've got it!" Cade swirled her water, diverting the debris away from them.

"Cade! You're my hero!" Tears flooded Usopp's cheeks and grabbed onto her.

Cade wobbled, losing control over her water, allowing several piece of debris fall onto the deck. The damaged ship hit the water. Small waves rocked Merry. A skull landed on the deck.

"Ah!" Usopp's shrieks pierced Cade's ears. "It's a skeleton!"

"Why did a ship fall from the sky?" Luffy held his hat and looked up.

"Too weird." Sanji looked up.

"There's nothing there." Zoro eyed the blue sky and fluffy clouds.

Cade looked as well. For what she wasn't sure.

"What?!" Nami gasped.

"What's wrong, Nami?" Sanji asked.

"The log pose. It's broken. It's point up, not even moving," Nami said.

"That's not right. There's another magnetic field. It's changing the direction of the pose. If it's pointing up it means it must have locked onto a sky island." Robin glanced upward.

"Is there really an island floating on top of a flowing sea?!" Luffy pointed to the sky. "All right! Let's go! Everyone upward we go! Full speed ahead!"

Robin clamped extra hands over Luffy's mouth.

"It's impossible for a ship to go up, Captain," Sanji said.

"To tell you the truth I've never seen a sky island, I don't know about them much," Robin said.

"That's right! It's impossible! Floating islands and seas! The log pose is just broken, that's it!" Nami insisted.

"Yeah. Right. That's why a ship fell down from there," Cade said. "Maybe it is an island or maybe it's not. Either way there has to be something up there."

"Miss Navigator, what you should worry about right now is not the log pose, but how to get up there." Robin pointed at Nami.