A/N: I've never actually written a fight scene before, so this was something entirely new to experience. I hope that I haven't done too badly, but I'm glad I started here. It gives me a lot more room to move.

I'm also uploading this sooner, so now instead of late June. I kind of got on a roll and couldn't stop, so I hope that you don't mind that this chapter is early (probably won't), and I will still upload another chapter in June but it will be in late-June due to exams.

Please enjoy this chapter!

Nico Robin wasn't sure what prompted her to return to the scene where her boss had buried Monkey D. Luffy alive, nor was she sure why she helped him get out from underneath the sand.

All she knew is that she did it.

The pirate captain was bloodied and bruised, unable to move far at all with chest heaving in and out with deep breaths. His eyes told a different story, determined and full of fire, even if they happened to be bloodshot, the scar under his eye pulling and puckering as if it were to rip open once more.

His voice was quiet as he huffed out a thank you, but Robin was curious.

"Why do you fight?"

The boy; he was only a child, but so was she once, stared up at her in confusion.

"All of you that carry the name of D…"

A giant smile flashed past her eyes, marine blue and ice. She shook her head from that memory; now wasn't the time.

"D?"

Even the pirate in front of her didn't know of the Will of D.

Just what in the world are you?

There was a familiar silhouette behind her, one that she had left bloody but alive.

"What has happened to her highness?"

"Oh, you're awake."

"Now that I understand the nature of your powers, I won't be taken by you so easily!"

He was angry, but she wasn't going to allow him to do anything to her and thus directed his attention towards the pirate captain in front of her.

"Stop it, we don't need you to be any more injured then what you were." She made her way back to the crocodylus musacae, gesturing with a hand towards the boy.

"Why don't you save the boy? He's one of the brave and gallant knights who safely escorted your darling, dearest Princess Vivi back home."

Climbing atop the beast, she continued.

"Besides her highness is fine, she's currently headed towards the capital. I'm unsure as to what will happen from here on out," Turning to leave, she looked at the two she was leaving behind. Both loyal to the Princess in different ways and both expendable in the eyes of Crocodile's plans.

"But you know the state of this country…"

Nico Robin had left, replaced by Miss All Sunday as she rode off towards the capital of Alubarna.

We'd lost time, too much time trying to cross the Sandora River.

"Do you think we can make it in time?"

I hadn't seen or heard Zoro so worried, or at least worried about how the swordsman usually was.

"We'll be cutting it close, even with the perverted camel." Said camel was eyeing us girls, so I gave him a glare and he turned away, cowering.

Good.

"Eyelash can only hold two people, and don't forget from here on out we'll be targeted by Baroque Works." Usopp pointed out, causing our shoulders to all drop.

This wasn't going to be easy.

"Look over there!"

"Is it m…more enemies?"

Usopp was trembling, his obvious fear leaking through more so now that Luffy wasn't with us. I patted him on the shoulder, trying for comfort but I ended up scaring him more causing him to jump and let out a squeal.

Zoro and Sanji couldn't hide their mirth, laughing as I apologised to the sharpshooter.

"No! It's Carue! He's brought the Super Spot-Billed Duck Squad!"

Carue had indeed returned, with a group of ducks all roughly the same size as him or larger and each wearing a different style of attire. There were some truly impressive headgear and goggles, each saluting the princess as they came to a standstill.

"You've got fantastic friends, your highness."

Vivi blushed at the praise, her hand stroking Carue's hatted head.

Each of us was picked by a duck, and most definitely not the other way around (they were picky things it turned out). The one who had picked me actually pulled my hood off with its beak and walking around me in a circle, as if inspecting me before nodding. It seemed that it liked what it saw, but now it meant that my blonde hair was on display for everyone to see, with its distinctive highlights and hairstyle.

(There was a reason why I currently wore the hood, and that was until I got a bounty I didn't want my defining characteristic to be the most noticeable thing about me. I did want a level of anonymity, at least until I was stronger and the hood helped out with that.)

As each of us sat atop a duck, we stared out at the vast amount of desert that we would have to traverse until we reached our destination.

"If we're going to do this, we've got to do this now." I voiced my opinion, reaching into my bag and pulling out a small speaker with a microphone attached to it and handed it to Vivi; she was going to need it and even if it didn't work out, well at least we had tried it.

"What's this for?"

"Just in case you shouting at them isn't loud enough, hopefully, this will help. I mean, you never know when something like this would be necessary."

The speaker was something from home, powerful enough that it was used at festivals and something that I had unintentionally stolen. It had been borrowed from the Music Department and I never had the chance to give it back.

She looked at me with a deadpan stare, "This is another one of those things, isn't it?"

"Yep!" I cheerfully grinned, but it didn't reach my eyes.

Meanwhile, Sanji was looking at Carue, "You look after her. Look after each other."

It was nice to see character development this early on.

We bid the Princess farewell, each of us pulling over cloaks that would shield us from view.

"You don't think this is going to end well, do you?"

Zoro's voice was quiet, as his question drifted towards me as we went over the plains.

"It didn't the last time, I want it to go better this time. For everyone involved."

If the speaker and microphone worked, then it may not end the way it did last time.

Alabasta might get an even better result than the civil war that had occurred, even as small as it was, it still happened.

Ulpia couldn't help but wonder if the plan that Ebony and she had concocted in ten minutes was going to work. At all.

They were going to have to fight, there would be no other option purely because she could sense the Unluckies hanging around and they were exclusively loyal to Mister Zero and would take those picture things with the box that flashed, a camera she was told it was called.

She could give it hope, but that wasn't something she wanted to rely upon. But then again, stranger things had happened. Alduin showing up at her unwarranted, well sort of, execution and saving her was once the strangest thing to have happened to her, but then finding herself in another world entirely and forever cut off from everything that she had ever known. Helgen had been knocked firmly off of its perch on her weirdness scale.

She was going to stick with Mister Two, hidden away in the shadows until Ebony showed up; they were going to have to fight each other to save face, with Ebony confiding in Ulpia that she definitely didn't want that to happen. She knew that the Dragonborn would utterly destroy her in a serious fight.

Ulpia was under the impression that Ebony didn't know her own strengths, but was content to say that she didn't want to fight the only ally that she may have found in this world that didn't actively want her dead for something outside of her control.

Earlier she had a nervous underling walk straight up to her, shivering in fright even as he confidently walked up to her in front of many of the other named members. He had taken her aside and spoke the words, "The Crow sends their regards."

Ebony had found her a minion to boss around!

Ulpia had sent him on his way, asking him to infiltrate the Baroque Works members who had been posted to the side of the Royal Army in civil war. He might not be able to do much, but the fear that both the Straw Hats and Ulpia had put into him was enough that he was going to listen.

Now the only thing to do was try and get Mister Two on their side.

The okama in question was dramatically wallowing, spinning round and round in circles. He had tried to pull her into a dance but she declined. This time at least.

The King was tied up in chains behind them, attached to the wall with a gag in his mouth. He had his eyes closed, but every now and then he would open them up to glare straight at them all; mostly at her, as she was the one that had taken him from the palace, but she had tried to be as gentle as possible about it and it certainly wasn't her who had given him the black eye.

"We've got an hour left until the plan commences, what shall we do in that time?"

The hour passed without any issue, but Ulpia couldn't help but feel like something big was going to happen.

Good or bad, she was unsure.

But she couldn't wait much longer before she was going to attempt something on Crocodile herself.

The speaker and microphone were as much of a warning than what Ebony had said to her.

It hadn't worked out whenever Ebony had seen this happening the last time, and that thought crushed Vivi more than she liked to admit. All she wanted to do was think of her people as calm, friendly not bloodthirsty nor twisted in the way that the drought had turned them into.

That Crocodile had turned them into.

Even if the microphone and speaker didn't end up working, at least she had tried. That they had all tried.

She could see the others off in the distance, as they played distraction, splitting off into pairs and going off in different directions after dodging a bomb that had been thrown at them by Mister Four.

She clasped her hands together, almost in prayer.

Thank you, everyone!

Taking the reins, she spoke to the ever faithful Carue.

"We have to hurry, the rebels will be here any moment now. Let's go!"

"Quack!"

Carue nodded in agreement and took off running in the direction of the rebel army.

Vivi could only hope that she would it there before them, and would be able to at least stop some of them from fighting.

Shouting hadn't worked. Vivi knew that it probably wouldn't, but she had to try.

Reaching for the microphone and speaker, switching it she shouted into it, hoping that it would amplify her at her loudest.

"STOP REBELS!" She was a little out of breath from all the rushing about, but this was more important than her lungs. "THIS FIGHT HAS BEEN SET UP!"

Her voice echoed, louder than she would have thought possible with a speaker the size that it was. It fit in her hand, and whilst it was longer than her palm, she could easily grip onto it.

In front of her she could see a group of rebels stop, pulling their camels up, these ones were at the front of the group and caused those behind them to also have to pull up short. She could see a familiar figure at the front, looking at her silhouette in confusion.

"WHAT?"

The question was shouted at her, almost as suddenly as a bullet flew past her head, and another that had shot it from its intended path.

She had to answer quickly, otherwise, those bullets would have definitely caused the civil war to break out in even more bloodshed.

"KOHZA! PLEASE LISTEN TO ME!" She was crying now, "THIS IS WHAT CROCODILE WANTS! LISTEN TO ME!"

The rebels had gotten closer to her, only now realising who she was.

"Isn't that the Princess?"

"But she was missing!"

The only person she wanted to talk to at that moment was Kohza, and he got down off of his camel.

"Vivi?" He reached out a hand to her, shakily not knowing if it was the right thing to do in that situation. "What's this about Crocodile?"

She collapsed onto her knees, Carue supporting the majority of her weight as she attempted to right herself.

"Crocodile is the cause of all of this," Taking in a deep breath, looking up into the eyes of her childhood friend. "Baroque Works has infiltrated the country. We're all in danger."

Kohza was looking confused and angry, wondering why the country's Hero would want this to happen.

Vivi tried to explain, but the rebel crowd was getting angsty. Most wanted to listen to what their Princess had to say, but the rest.

They just wanted blood.

Another bullet flew in their direction, with Carue leaping in front of it as it was directed towards Vivi herself.

"Carue!"

The duck was bleeding heavily, as his body covered hers.

The rebels around them turned towards the capital in shock.

"The guards have turned on the Princess!"

"If they are willing to shoot the Princess, what would they do to us?"

"Yeah!"

Kohza and Vivi watched in horror as the rebels who were still seated on their camels stampeded towards the city gates.

The War had begun afresh, as though all of Vivi's words about this being what Baroque Works and Crocodile wanted had been nothing more than a whisper.

I had no idea what I was doing, only that I was following behind Usopp and the Pervert Camel on my duck at a further distance, having been the last to leave as a decoy.

Sanji had split off from us, going with Chopper to face Mister Four and Miss Merry Christmas. I knew that they weren't going to have any issues facing them; the only problems being the ones that Usopp and I were headed off to fight.

Mister Two and Miss Midsummer Eve.

Bentham of the Wild and Ulpia Rilulus.

Standing in front of Mister Two, as Usopp and Eyelash removed their hoods and still trying to wrap my head around the decoy that we had used that was also a camel who had ridden atop a duck.

One Piece was confusing.

Ulpia was nowhere to be seen.

Usopp, on the other hand, had been soundly trounced by Mister Two and was bloodied and beaten.

"Come on Usopp! Eyelash!"

Sanji rounded the corner, scolding the two lying on the ground.

"The decoy part was played perfectly, at least. But the two of you could have done better!"

"Why are you even here, Sanji?"

Usopp sounded curious, even suspicious.

"Because your ducks ran to me for help!"

He then spotted me.

"Ebony! Where is Mister Two? Miss Midsummer Eve?"

"Midsummer Eve didn't show up, and I was too far away to even see Mister Two."

"Shit!" Sanji's cigarette was bitten in half, "Mister Two must have gotten away!"

I spoke too soon, as a familiar voice could be heard from above.

"Hello, Crow Queen."

"Miss Midsummer Eve."

I carefully made my way off of the duck, keeping my eyes on the Dragonborn. We had to put on a good show, after all. We didn't know who might be watching us.

Sanji was clearly torn, but I shooed him off.

"You go and help Vivi, we'll be okay here."

He nodded and took off after Mister Two, or at least in the general direction that Vivi was as it was clear that Bon Clay was going to go after the Princess.

Usopp and Eyelash looked awful, and I couldn't help but feel terrible. If only I had gotten to them sooner, maybe they wouldn't be in such bad condition.

"Go! I've got this!"

"But Ebony.." I didn't let Usopp finish before I was pushing him towards the ducks.

"Go!"

I still hadn't taken my eyes off of Miss Midsummer Eve.

Time to see if I would be able to measure up to the standards of the Captain.

"Shall we begin?"

Ulpia was still standing on top of the building, staring at me with her piercing gaze.

This would be make or break, and even if the two of us had a plan (which was literally just to follow Luffy, and Crocodile will be eventually defeated) I was still going to have to measure up.

"Let's do this!"

"What else can we do? The war has already begun?"

Vivi was looking at her childhood friend, as he screwed his hands up in his hair in despair.

A shadow moved over the pair of them, as a familiar voice spoke to them.

"That duck is done for! If we don't hurry, that battle is only going to get worse."

Vivi could feel her skin crawl, backing up slightly. Something wasn't right, Usopp knew what Carue's name was and would never call him duck, the two of them liked each other far more than that.

"Vivi, who is this?"

Kohza asked, watching as his friend flinched backwards.

"What's wrong?"

There was a concerned look on the mans face, but even Kohza felt that there was something off

"Usopp, prove it's you!"

He lifted an arm up, wrappings covering it. "Are you doubting me? Look!"

"No!"

Carue had also noticed the strangeness of the entire situation, took one look at the man on the camel and grabbed Kohza by the back of his top with his beak after grabbing Vivi by the wing, taking off towards the capital at the fastest speed that he was able to whilst injured.

Carue fled, running as hard as he could with his two passengers, knowing that he had to get the pair of them away from the place.

"Don't hurt yourself!"

"What is going on?" Kohza had let the duck fling him onto his back, knowing that his weight was definitely pulling the duck down further.

"That's not Usopp!"

"Whose Usopp?"

"A friend!"

It felt like we were in the Old West, where stand offs were supposedly common and guns were to be drawn at noon. The town was deserted, and the wind was blowing the sand in a dramatic fashion. Either that, or I saw is as dramatic as the two of us stared the other down.

"We have to do this, don't we?"

This made Ulpia crack a grin.

"Unfortunately," She leapt down from the building, landing in a crouch directly in front of me. "But I'll go easy on you!"

"That doesn't comfort me in anyway, dovahkiin." I grumbled and she laughed.

"No, I suppose that it wouldn't."

I dropped into a defensive stance as she came towards me, fist raised with lightning forming around it.

This was going to hurt. And it definitely would have, as the spell left her hand, I dodged out of the way rolling onto the ground as her other hand flicked a dagger towards me.

The dagger landed hilt up, the blade buried into the sand. I had to be quick, so I grabbed it and threw it back at her, which she dodged. I scrambled to my feet, slipping my hands into the knuckledusters resting at my side.

"Not bad."

She grinned at me, a little bloodthirsty.

"Not many people know how too dodge."

"Most people are stupid."

That included the admirals; I couldn't remember them ever dodging attacks. But I mustn't think on it at the moment, I had something more important to do.

She laughed even as she dived at me with the dagger I had thrown back at her, swiping my arm, cutting through the fabric.

She hadn't broken skin.

I threw a fist forward, which was blocked and thrown away from her face. I kicked out towards her legs, knowing that she had never fought with her legs before.

A weakness that I could try and exploit.

This ended up knocking her to the ground, but she didn't stay there for very long as she fired up another lightning spell. This time it grazed me and I let out a cry of pain.

I hadn't ever felt something like it before, the hairs on my arm where she had managed to hit me stood on end and once the initial shock was over it felt like burning.

(I almost regret equipping her with lightning, but I couldn't help but feel that even if I had done it when playing Skyrim, it's not like she wasn't her own person. She wasn't a character in a video game, not any longer.)

"Fuck!"

I'd just have to put cold water onto it later, there wasn't a whole lot I could do about it now.

"Can't handle a little lightning?"

She was taunting me now.

I didn't grace her with a reply as I dived towards her in a parody of a wrestling spear. That hurt more than I would care to admit, never having tried something like that before and probably didn't want to ever try it again. I was practically sitting on top of her, straddling her sides as I punched her in the nose.

She didn't have time to raise a defence, and the both of us heard a large crack!

I'd broken her nose and blood came pouring out, a second later it started to also turn to gold dust. The mix of red blood and gold dust would have been almost beautiful if it wasn't a dead giveaway of what a person was.

The broken nose, nor the blood and dust seemed to phase the dragonborn as she pushed me onto my back, with the pair of us rolling around in the sand trying to gain the upper hand on the other. She had incredibly sharp nails, digging into my skin and leaving marks that stung.

I still wasn't bleeding though; it was as if she was trying to inflict the least amount of visible damage, whilst still kicking my arse. Like she couldn't have cared less if someone saw her as an Outlier, but was careful to not out me in the process.

Almost considerate of her.

In the end, we pushed apart from each other, a little exhausted from rolling about so much.

A birdcall and a camera flash could be heard, making the two of us turn around just as the Unluckies flew off.

We stared at them, as they flew off into the distance. I slumped over in relief, I didn't have to fight anymore. I hoped.

It seemed that that Ulpia agreed, as she sat on the ground holding a hand to her nose. The bleeding hadn't stopped, but it was slowing down.

"That's over, then?"

It was more of a question than a statement.

"I'd like to think so," She patted the sand beside me indicating for me to sit down. "How are we doing this? How are we bringing Crocodile down?"

"Well, we have to wait on my Captain," I sat down next to her, at a slight distance though. The fight had made me a little bit paranoid, probably all the adrenaline still rushing through me. "But it shouldn't be too long now."

"Resistance is futile!"

Carue had somehow made it to the top of the the cliff face entrance of Alubarna. He had collapsed almost immediately, even though he tried to protect Vivi (and subsequently Kohza) from the okama pursuing them.

The fighting that surrounded the trio was intense, as Royal Guards and Rebels clashed around them. Even the shouts of the two of them did little to halt even the closest of the fighters around them. They had made it what they thought was a safe distance, when the voice of Mister Two could heard behind them.

"I said, resistance is futile!"

Carue wouldn't stop quacking, urging the others onwards, to get away.

"I've got her!"

Kohza was more willing to leave Carue behind, as long as it meant getting Vivi to safety, or at least way from the situation.

"Carue!"

Mister Two was getting closer, as he could be heard even over the rowdy fighters.

"Vivi! We've got to get to Chaka, he has to be able to do something!"

"What about you?"

"If Chaka can get his lot to stop, I'll be able to get the rebels to stop."

The two attempted to weave their way towards Chaka, but were stopped in their tracks.

The okama had found them and was gleefully cackling in their faces, crowing about it and how he was going to kill Carue and Kohza for interrupting. Mister Two stalked ever closer But was interrupted by two members of the Duck Squad kicking and head butting the Okama out of the way.

Vivi recognised them as the ducks that Sanji and Usopp had been riding and couldn't help but feel a shot of fear. She hoped that they were okay and that nothing had happened to them.

"Thank you!"

The two ducks nodded, and a very welcome voice was heard.

"Brilliant job, Commander Carue. We can still stop them, can't we Vivi?"

"QUACK!"

Carue's response was heartfelt, even as he lay injured on the ground.

"Sanji!"

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Kohza mouthing the name. She hadn't seen him in so long and he had grown so much, but he was still much the same as he had been. Just as passionate about everything, even if he was more scarred of the world in general.

"Okay, you guys can go now." The two ducks saluted Sanji, who had lit another cigarette. "Ebony is taking care of your colleague, so I'll take you on."

The okama looked at Sanji in confusion, "Who are you meant to be?"

The ducks that had come to their rescue were attempting to get Vivi and Carue out of there, whilst giving Kohza distrustful glances.

"I'm fine! Take Carue and go!"

Sanji hadn't answered Mister Two, which caused the okama to shout at him.

"DON'T GET IN MY WAY!"

"Vivi! Go!"

"OK!"

Kohza and Vivi ran with the ducks, and Carue on their back, diverting attention away from them.

Sanji stared at the person in front of him.

He couldn't understand why people dressed the way the okama in front of him did, but he didn't want to judge. He tried so hard not to judge at least, but sometimes behaviours were ingrained and learning to unlearn them was even harder than initially knowing about them.

The okama was screaming dramatically, about having lost the Princess and the Rebel leader and how they had met and how Mister Zero was going to be so mad at him.

"You know, you took our sharpshooters goggles. I would really like to get them back for him."

As if the two were thinking the same thing, they both lunged at the other, legs raised as they collided.

"Why don't you give them back? I'm not going to down as easily as he did, you know?"

The okama's face screwed up in annoyance, "You're one of Straw Hats friends! You must be Mister Prince!"

The glasses Sanji was using as a disguise fell from his face, and smashed to the floor cracking in the middle.

"No, I'm just a first rate cook of the sea. My name is Sanji."

"A COOK!" Mister Two seemed outraged at the notion, "Well, I'm a first rate okama! Why would a cook fight a criminal organisation?"

Apart from the fact that I was kind of born into something that greatly resembled a criminal organisation, despite the family being royalty? Also, I was taken in by a pirate, I've never not been a part of a criminal organisation.

Sanji couldn't help but think.

"I'm a bit of a criminal myself, you know?" He smirked at this, "I'm a pirate cook."

"Tch, this is an eye for an eye, isn't it?"

Mister Two glared at him, spitting the words out, but Sanji couldn't help but feel as though his heart wasn't into it.

"Precisely. You and Baroque Works are going to leave this country alone."

Like I hoped that my family would have left the Germa Kingdom alone.

The two dived at each other again, Okama Kenpo versus Black Leg Style, evenly weighted against each other.

Luffy knew that he didn't need to worry about his crew, the stronger members would be able to take care of the weaker ones. Nor was he worried about Vivi and her country, they would be able to save it, no worries about that.

No, he was worried about Ebony.

They hadn't really had a chance, as a crew, to talk about what her being an Outlier actually meant nor how she knew about stuff.

He remembered being nine years old, when he and Ace had come across a group of bandits torturing a poor man who was unable to defend himself, golden dust pouring out of his open wounds as the bandits (thankfully, none of Dandan's group) taunted and jeered, calling the man demon amongst other things.

Ace had steered him out of the way, and out of the forest, mouth taught in a tight grimace.

The two of them knew better than anyone else what being called demon meant; he may not know who his father was but he knew that Gramps was just as worried about people finding out about his parentage than he was about people finding out about Ace's. No one deserved to be called a demon purely because of who their father was; they only deserved the name if they had done something themselves to warrant it.

He didn't want that for Ebony, who was kind.

The crew was a little flighty around her and he knew that it hurt, that was why everyone needed to sit down and talk, but Alabasta took priority at that moment.

He could only hope that Ebony didn't resent him for not bringing the topic up sooner.

A/N: Please comment and favourite! I also re-uploaded the first chapter earlier this month, so hopefully its a LOT more coherent than what it was earlier.