Author's Notes:

Aaaaaalright! 5th part and I thought it'd be good to give something away about 'Maya's' story... not much, though...
Reviews are as always welcome!!
Now go and read on!

=--=
...
=--=
=means flashback!!

/()/()/()/()/()/

"My foes call me 'Shadow'... only people I trust with my life and consider as friends are allowed to call me by my real name... Maya."
Having said that, she stepped inside the room and closed the door behind her, waiting for the lock to click shut.

For a moment, everything was silent, the only noise being her raspy breathing.
She was fighting hard against the tears and feared she would lose the battle, if she didn't move now.

She was really exhausted from the strain of the last few minutes.
Her muscles hurt, making her feel as if she'd fought against the whole marine and the wounds from Spear hurt like hell.

Letting go of the door knob, Maya was just about to walk over to one of the wooden chairs,
intending to sit down and rest, when she heard the captain's voice from outside.

"Hey, guys!"
A pause as he probably waited for the attention of his friends.
"We still need a musician and a mascot!! Every pirate king should have a parrot and Kyra won't stay without her friend... 'Maya' is our new teammate!!"

'Maya'...
She hadn't heard her name out of a stranger's mouth in a very long time.

'Maya'...
It had been more than four long years since her best friend had called her by her real name.

=--=

"Maya!!"
"Yeah?"

"Come on! We gotta watch the boys jump into the sea! They wanne show off in front of us!!"
Smiling mischievously, the young girl grabbed her jacket and ran down the stairs, leading to the lower floor of the house. Her best friend Zoy was already waiting outside on the front porch.

"Mom? I'll be back for dinner! Bye!!"
"Hey, Maya! Wait!"
Cursing silently under her breath, she waited for her mother to come out of the living room.

"What about your swords training?"
"But, mom! Dad is occupied with the training of the new bodyguards-recruits of the king!...
I don't need that baby-training anymore! Pleeeease!!"

Sighing, her mother nodded and gave a small peck on her daughter's cheek, waving 'bye' as
Maya and her friend ran off towards the cliffs.

The last thing Maya saw of her mother were her smiling eyes as she closed the door behind her.

=--=

"Anybody hungry?"
The noise that followed the chef's question brought Maya out of her revery.

Surprised she realized, that she was still standing beside the door and hadn't noticed the pirates
enter the room. By now, they were already sitting around the large table, waiting impatiently
for their meal to arrive on their empty plates.

Especially the captain with the strawhat was bouncing up and down on his seat like a rubber ball
on drugs! She assumed, that he hadn't even taken notice of her standing in the corner. So she sat down on the little bench behind her and watched the other people in the room for a while.

"Yeah!! Meat and bacon!! My fav meal!"
"Who'd have thought... " Zorro mumbled, as he took the first bite of his steak.

"Hey, Maya... " She flinched at that... again her name. " You don't want to eat with us?" The red-head asked, voice friendly and a warm smile beckoning her to eat with them.

"No. I don't want you to go to a great deal of expense for me... already cost too much to keep me here for two days... "
"Whatever... "Luffy told her around a whole package of sausages in his mouth.

Irritated, Maya stopped mid-sentence. Her eyes fell on Nico Robin sitting at the table, with her back against th opposite wall... she was facing her. At the sight of her enemy eating there as if she was the innocence in person, anger made the blood in her vains boil up.

Her gaze wandered back to her fists, lying clenched in her lap.
She still didn't know why she had rescued her of all people! There was no damn reason why she...

"I'm sorry, but I don't think I introduced myself." A bit surprised, Maya looked up, finding the ship's cook standing in front of her. He was smiling sweetly down at her, a lighted cigarette dangling out of one corner of his mouth.

"My name's Sanji and whenever you feel the need to eat or drink something or when you need somebody to help you get dressed..." A plate came flying from behind him, hitting him hard across his blond head.

"Sanji, leave her alone! Always the same with ya!!"
"Oh, no, my Nami!! Don't be jealous! Nobody could ever replace you in my heart!! I'm your lovesick slave forever!"

Grumpling, she got back to her meal, just to find the bowl of ice-cream lying empty in Luffy's hands.

"More like idiotic maniac..."
"What?! You got a prob with me, Zorro?!"
"What if?!"

Nami didn't pay much attention to the fighting men... they were so much like immature apes, and
she really didn't have the time to take care of them everytime they thought it to be necessary to
show off!

"By he way... don't worry about the money... you rescued my life. The treatment is free... this time."
Nami grinned boyshly.

Maya decided that it couldn't be wrong to like this woman. She had something that remembered her of her former best friend... genuine, roguish smile, laughing eyes and red hair...

=--=

"Hey, Maya!! Watch out!"
Too late... one of the boys had already pushed her into the sea. She had barely time to hold her breath and as a result coughed up a lot of water after re-emerging.

"Hahahaha!! So lil sea-horse... when are we gonna get back? I need to finish some work at home, before my parents come back tonight." Zoy told her friend, already drying her red hair with a towel.

"Alright... just wait a sec..."

=--=

"Yeah!! I'm full! Another bite and I'll explode! Hahaha!... " Leaning back against his chair, Luffy started rubbing his bulging belly. Everybody around him, had already finished their meal and Sanji and Usopp had nearly cleaned the table from the remains of the dinner.

Robin was sitting across from Luffy, eyes casted downwards, staring at her folded hands.
She knew that Maya was watching her intently, her gaze literally boring a hole into her head.

The archaeologist knew her... The large, ugly scar on the girl's back the only reminder Robin had needed to finally remember.

She just wished that she had never met her again... the presence of the young woman brought up
memories of a time, Robin would love to forget about.

It had been four years, since she had seen Maya for the first time.
Four years... but it felt like it had been only days.

=--=

"Kill them!!"

=--=

"Why?"
Looking up, Robin stared at Maya, who was still sitting on the bench, leaning heavily against the wall behind her. Her lips were pursed, cold eyes staring at the older woman... at her enemy.

"'Why' what?" Zorro asked Maya.
Inhaling as deep as her hurting shoulder allowed, Maya sat up straight. Never again would
anybody see her vulnerability. She had allowed her carefully built walls to crumple when the pirates had taken care of her, even though she had been the reason why they had very nearly died.

"Why are you treating her like this? What the hell did she do to deserve you?!... To deserve friends and absolution for her cruel deeds!?"

A picture flashed through Maya's mind... Nico Robin, Miss All Sunday, standing above her mother... eyes cold like ice staring down at the bleeding, dead body...

"'Cause she rescued me."
Frowning, Maya looked at the captain of the crew. He had turned around to face her, hands propped up on his knees.

'She rescued me'... The words echoed in her ears, repeating themselves like a mantra over and
over again. They didn't make any sense!

'She rescued me'... Just because she had safed one damn life? That's why nobody talked about the deaths she was responsible for?

=--=

"Mom?"
"Yeah, Maya?"

Minding the injuries of her mother, Maya sat down carefully on the hospital bed her mom was sitting in. She had been on a mission as the CO of the island's fleet to overpower some pirate ships that had been seen sailing straight towards the harbor. They had won, but not without considerable losses and injured men and women... among them also her mother.

"Why don't they execute him?"
Maya pointed at a half dead man, lying motionless in another bed in the room.

"Because he rescued me."
"But he's a bad guy... he's a pirate and has killed many, many innocent people!"

Soft eyes smiled down at the young girl.
With the hand that was not covered in thick bandages, Maya's mom stroked her daughters
head lovingly.

"Maya... maybe you are right. This man is probably a murdering pirate. A man who's killing other people, because his captain orders him to... But today, he has done something nobody has told or ordered him to do. He followed his heart and mind and rescued me and five other man, by stepping in front of us and fighting off his own comrades. He killed again, but this time in order to safe us!"

Eyes fixed at her mother's scratched face, Maya listened, trying to understand what she was
talking about.

"What I'm trying to say is, that... sometimes you can't judge somebody because of one deed... no matter how cruel it was what he did. Everybody deserves a second chance... a chance to show what really lies hidden within this person. That doesn't mean that we can just let every felon loose. No! A last chance is only for those reserved, who take it with their own free will!"

"So we forgive him, because he rescued you?"
"Forgiving doesn't mean forgetting, Maya. He will be sentenced, I'm sure about that. But I and your father have forgiven him... without him, I would have never seen my beautiful daughter again. He deserves absolution."

=--=

Forgiveness?
Why would she want to forgive her?

'Forgiving doesn't mean forgetting...'
Yeah, she would, no could never forget what this woman had done. But maybe she could try and finally go on with her life, which had stopped the day she had realized that she was alone.

'Alone'... for four years, she had been alone, her only friend and ally being Kyra. She had learned the hard way not to trust anybody... especially not with her life.

But now, she was here.
People, who didn't know her a bit, offering her shelter. A new home.
A new start.

They had been seemingly able to forgive her without giving it another thought that she had been the reason why half of them had very nearly died.

Could she do the same?
'Everybody deserves a second chance... a chance to show what really lies hidden within this person.'

A second chance?
Even herself deserves one?

Maya allowed the words of her mother to linger on her mind for a moment, trying to find the right words to express her only wish, running through her head.

Slowly she got up from the bench, a jolt of pain running through her shoulder and abdomen.
Without making eye-contact, she walked over to the table where the seven strawhat pirates where still sitting, watching her.

Inhaling deeply, she finally looked up from the floor and gazed in everybody's eyes... even into those of Nico Robin.

"I'm sorry... for what I've done. For having tried to extinguish one life and for being the reason why you have gotten into danger."

Bowing slightly (the bandages didn't allow more than that), she closed her eyes, a tear falling down onto the wooden floor.

"I hope you can forgive me and allow me to get things straight again... all I'm asking for is a second chance to prove my value as a human being and friend."

For a rather long second, the crew was silent, and Maya feared to look up.
"Hahahaha!! I forgive ya, if you stay here as a new strawhat pirate!"

Smiling, Maya stared at the broadly grinning captain.
She had her second chance and was going to let it pass by unused...

/()/()/()/()/()/

FINIS!!

I told ya, there isn't that much about Maya's past, but if ya wanne know everything about her probs with Robin, tell me!!
So: review, anyone? ;D