I was numb to my surroundings with an absent expression on my face. Or at least, that's the expression I think I was wearing. I was too busy trying to make sense of the dream—nightmare(?)—that I just had.

Dream or Omen?

I was snapped out of my musings when I heard Nami cough violently next to me and then proceed to fall to the ground.

Thankfully, Vivi was able to catch her before she actually hit solid ground.

"What's happening?" she shrieked.

Then, Katrina woke up, "Ugh, would you stop existing for a moment? I need to sleeeeeeep," she dragged out the last word half childishly and half asleep. For a moment, I considered smacking her upside the head to wake her up, supernatural connection between us be damned.

But then I remembered the baby Velociraptor on my chest. And I also remembered that I conveniently forgot to tell her about that. Oops.

"Huh? Oh, Shivani, what's—UAGH!" she shrieked and fell off the bed that we all shared, before jumping twice and landing at the very least eleven feet away from me.

"What… is that… 'VANI?!" she screamed, pointing a shaky finger to the baby overgrown reptile hanging from my neck.

'Vani…? "Why did you call me 'Vani?" I questioned, completely ignoring the question she had just asked moments before. I caught a scowl flash across her face before she sniffed imperiously and said, "Because I wanted to, now tell me what that… thing… is,"

I sneered, "That thing, as you so degradingly call it, is a baby Velociraptor, its name is Invictus," I said pompously, while drawing circles with my thumb on the jaw of said Velociraptor. I ignored Vivi's weird looks directed at me and focused the entirety of my attention on the freckled blonde in front of me.

"You… You named it?!" Katrina screeched, disbelief and incredulity marring her features.

"Yes—yes I did," I paused for a second, "What are you going to do about it?"

Katrina just gave another inhuman screech in response, and this time, it was not I who had responded, but Vivi, and to be honest, I'm actually kind of proud that she decided to take charge.

"SHUT UP MOTA-SAN, NAMI IS NOT FEELING WELL!"

Although, the message itself wasn't very… ominous or demanding, she did a good job wrangling our attention and dragging it into her possession.

She sighed and looked at me with a big pleading stare. I hugged my baby Velociraptor a little tighter, eliciting a high squeal from the dinosaur.

"What?" I was already feeling uneasy enough with that bug-eyed stare of hers.

"Do you know anything of Nami-san's illness?" she asked, her voice equally pleading with those eyes of hers. I repressed a groan and said, "Of course I do! Who do you think I am?" I smiled condescendingly.

Vivi dropped the innocent child look and immediately shot a deadpan response at me, "I think you're Shivani Aika, and you just smiled way too much like Crocodile,"

I dropped the smile and stared at her before nodding slowly and putting down the baby dino, "Touché, Vivi, Touché…"

"NAMI'S NOT FEELING WELL?!" the door slammed open to reveal Luffy's simultaneously downtrodden and gaping face.

"EH?!" another voice came into the fray, and Usopp fell on top of Luffy, accidentally tying their legs together, however that was possible.

"SHUT UP! Nami-swan~ Are you feeling okay?" Sanji crooned helplessly, the smoke coming from his cigarette being that of a heart.

"Of course, she's not feeling well, dartboard-brow," Zoro berated nonchalantly while jabbing him in the back with the hilt of Sandai Kitetsu.

Almost immediately, the two idiots broke out into an argument, which escalated into physical levels in seconds.

"Wait…" Nami whispered.

I looked at her, and then looked at the argument in front of me, before groaning. On instinct, I put on a mask and yelled, "QUIET, SOLDIERS!" my eyes widened when I realized what exactly I did.

I looked at Luffy's blank face and sheepishly smiled, "Uh… Sorry?"

Luffy smiled and nodded, before turning a worried frown on Nami, "Will she be okay?"

I frowned for a moment, "Hey…" I started, garnering everyone's attention, "If you're all down here, then…"

Nami pushed Vivi away, and used my shoulder as a lever to stand up, "Who's manning the ship?" she cried hoarsely.

"Ah—" Zoro held up a finger, "I was,"

Nami stumbled onto deck and immediately began sniffing the air like some kind of dog, before her eyes widened and she stumbled back.

She whispered something that I could just barely make out, and what I heard made me immediately have a flashback of this moment from the manga.

"CYCLONE! TURN THE SHIP AROUND!"

It seems that my urgent voice has gotten to them, because within seconds, everyone was twisting the sails and steering the rudder. I grunted while pulling the rope for the mainsail, and my muscles immediately spasmed.

"Uurgh…" I fell to the ground, and it may have just been my imagination, but I heard the grating tone of Corruption laugh as I had the equivalent of a conscious seizure on the ground.

"—you okay?!" I heard somebody shout over the violent winds of the cyclone.

I grunted and got up, "Yeah, I'll be fine, probably,"

"THE HELL DO YOU MEAN 'PROBABLY'?" the voice screeched. I numbly recognized it as Usopp's.

I blearily opened my eyes and tried to get up. My muscles protested at the strain of moving so soon. I looked at the ocean in front of me, and my eyes immediately blew open wide.

"That's… wow…" I whispered.

What was in front of me was not peaceful sea, but a Cyclone. Lightning spewed down at random intervals, thunder boomed every second, and waves that could compete with Tsunamis towered over and almost threatened to crash the Merry, had we not been able to get out of range at the last second.

Vivi looked at Nami with a shocked expression, before smiling, "That was amazing, Nami-san,"

Nami just weakly smiled and collapsed, effectively turning the mood 180o.

"Nami!" Luffy yelled, his emotions being broadcasted on his face. I could see clear worry, a bit of fear and a touch of hesitation, "We need to get a doctor!" he yelled, after a few moments of intense battle with his inner thoughts and emotions.

"No…" Nami stood up weakly, "I didn't tell anyone, but… Vivi. There's a newspaper in my desk drawer, I think you should see it," she breathed.

"No need," Katrina had a grim expression on her face, "All she needs to know is that 400,000 Royal Soldiers have defected to the Rebels, and she's on a time crunch,".

"Wow, I didn't know that you could be blunt without having to sugarcoat everything you come across," I sneered, still feeling the personal sting of what she said about Invictus this morning.

"And yet, who's the one that wears the masks?"

Oh.

Oh.

That hurt. I didn't know I was sending a cold glare her way until I heard a weak squeal next to me. I looked down with an irate expression on my face, and saw the baby velociraptor that had taken a shine to me.

My expression immediately softened and I picked him up, stroking the scales on his side. I turned my attention to Vivi and asked, "What is your decision, Vivi?"

For a moment, Vivi seemed to be thinking, "I know… that Alabasta is in peril. And if I don't get there as soon as possible at top speeds, my kingdom will die…" she sucked a breath in, and I subtly tensed my hold against Invictus, what will she choose?

"That is why we need to find a doctor for Nami-san as soon as possible!"

I let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding and smiled, "Well… Then I know an island we can go to~" I sang.

Almost instantly, all the heads on the deck turned in my direction, Katrina's included, why? I don't know, ask her yourself.

"""YOU KNEW AND DIDN'T TELL US?!"""

My eardrums almost burst from the soundwaves coming off of them, and I staggered back in surprise, distantly noting the whining of Invictus on my chest.

I groaned, "Yes, I knew and didn't tell you, but now that the Cyclone is done and over with, I'm pretty sure we're going in the right direction. We're supposed to be heading for a Winter island, and—"

"Hey, do you think people can stand on water?" Zoro interrupted.

"Don't be silly, Zoro, that isn't—oh," Usopp shook him off and peered over the figurehead of the Merry, and immediately his jaw went slack.

"Cold weather today, isn't it?" the strange man said.

Luffy gaped at the man for a moment before his brain caught up to him, and he immediately shivered, "Yeah, really cold!"

Usopp decided to play along, "Yeah, brrrr!"

Chess smirked and all of a sudden, the ocean in front of the Merry rose and the water trickled down from the colossal thing to reveal a dark metal submarine.

I tilted my head up to the sound and sight of a fat king with a metal jaw eating a piece of meat on a knife. Oh wait, correction, piece of meat and the knife. That was… way more disturbing in reality.

I sighed and thought back to my dream, Just who is that blue goddess.

Apparently, zoning out was the wrong thing to do, because within seconds, I found at the very least, 5 rifles to my head, and the certain absence of a baby velociraptor on my chest. My attention was stolen by a squeal to my left, and my eyes immediately darkened.

I inclined my head in that direction, and saw a laughing soldier twisting the neck of Invictus. Oh. I have a new achievement! This marks the first time in my life that a vein is actually throbbing on my forehead! Woohoo!

I flicked out one of my daggers and did a right hook with the blade in an underhand grip across the face of the guy in front of me, before crouching down and doing a leg sweep for everyone else.

'Why aren't you using your Devil Fruit?' Katrina mentally asked me. For a moment there, I almost forgot that we even had that mental connection to begin with.

Removing a few mental barriers, I replied, I might be overusing it. Trying to stimulate use, and yeah, I finished hastily, before elbowing some dude behind me in the ribs. I ran forward to the guy who paused in torturing my precious little Invictus, to gawk at me downing everyone around me.

I fixed him with a cold glare, raised my right fist, and he saw no more. I picked up the baby dinosaur in my arms and looked around the ship. I saw that Zoro and Sanji were easily downing at least twice the amount of people that I had downed, while Luffy launched Wapol-dude into next Tuesday.

After everything was done, Luffy marched up to me and asked, "Where is the island that can help Nami?" he still seemed to be quite irritated from the ship being eaten.

I smiled sheepishly and replied, "First, did you get an eternal pose from them?"

Usopp grunted and fell onto the deck in front of me, before making an unintelligible sound and lifting up an eternal pose that he nabbed from them.

I smiled and took the pose from him, "We go there," I tapped the eternal pose once with my finger before frowning, "Now. Nami will die in less than a week if we don't go now,"

That seemed to spur everyone into action.

I sighed and looked forward, closely clutching Invictus to my chest. We'll be cutting it close, but we'll make it. I smiled and went under the deck to where Nami was sleeping. I stared at her for a moment before opening a nearby closet and taking out at least 2 comforters.

Gingerly, I tied the comforters around the velociraptor, and put him in the closet, while leaving the door open a bit so he could breathe. Next up was Drum Island; Too cold for him to come with us, so I leave him here.

I heard a gunshot come from above deck and I scowled. Guess it began.

Wasting no time, I ran up the stairs and on deck, while keeping a loose hand on the hilt of my dagger. Once I reached the deck, I gasped and screeched to a halt.

Vivi was down and bleeding on the ground, some guy up on the bank had a smoking rifle, most likely from recent use, and Luffy was down with her. What the hell did I miss? I thought dumbly.

'You missed Vivi getting shot' was the sarcastic reply shot back at me.

Ha, ha, genius, no really, what did I miss? I returned with a sarcastic jab of my own, with an imperceptible amount of venom inlaid with the words.

'…' I could hear the scowl Katrina was probably wearing right about now, 'Vivi got shot, she chose not to fight back and instead bowed down to the same people that shot her and chose to beg them for help. Not to mention, she called Luffy a terrible captain, which I vehemently disagree with, and now he's bowing down with her in an attempt to do things right,'

I frowned and recounted all the events that I knew about, Oh yeah, how could I forget this happened?

'Don't know, maybe you're stupid?' came the sarcastic insult at me.

Says the girl that failed to remember about the Candle Wax Set, despite me telling her about it before we even began the arc, I deadpanned.

'…Fair enough' she conceded.

All of a sudden, I remembered something, and I just couldn't resist, I hope this island has enough ice for that burn.

'…I walked right into that, didn't I?' came her weary reply.

I simply cackled like a madwoman out loud, startling everyone in the vicinity. I stopped once I realized that at least 100 different pairs of eyes were on me.

"Uh… hi?" I meekly waved at them while sheepishly smiling like an idiot. I hastily put up some mental barriers and screamed, WHAT THE HELL DID I GET MYSELF INTO?!

"See! This is why we can't allow you on our island! Psychopaths like her reside on pirate ships like yours!" He spat out the word 'her' and 'yours' as if they were poison in his mouth. The man who said the words, I realized, was the one who shot Vivi, and all of a sudden, my blood began boiling again.

"How about this?" I called out, pushing my rage down for a chance to negotiate and heal Nami already because if we don't, then she will die, "We came across one 'King Wapol' on the sea. He was headed in this direction," I let that sink in for a moment, before continuing, "He tried to eat our ship," I caught the winces of a few citizens on the bank before smirking, "Clearly, we didn't like that, so we fought them off and our captain launched Metal-jaw into next Tuesday,"

I stopped pacing, "His crew went to go pick him up, and they have a fast ship, not to mention, Purple-head was looking for Drum Island himself. I'm willing to bet you, that within a week him and his crew will be here. For what? I do not know, but when they do get here, and they will, you need us to help you fight him off," I looked in the eye of the guy who turns into a bull and leads the other guys, "So, what's your choice?"

I peeked out through the corner of my eye and saw Vivi's horrified expression. She must not know what I'm doing. Do I really come off as aggressive?

The bull-guy whose name I completely forgot, looked oddly at Vivi before opening his mouth, "Very well," I mentally cheered, "However 2 of your best fighters must stay down here with us when we fight Wapol," he then stared at me, "I would also like to know how you knew that this land is that of Drum Kingdom,".

I smiled, "Agreed, then,"

~\_o_/~

We were inside a small shack, where the transforming-bull-guy-whose-name-I-forgot began talking about Doctor Kureha. And then all of a sudden, I realized something—

"YOUR NAME IS DALTON!" I hit my open palm with my right fist in a downwards motion.

I laughed sheepishly when the now named Dalton leveled a glare at me, before his mood did a flip and he stared confusedly at me.

"Ignore what I just said, please," I asked politely, feeling a sting on my forehead where Katrina facepalmed herself.

Damn, can you stop abusing yourself? It's abusing me too, I mused in our connection.

Katrina's response was to punch her cheek as hard as she could.

Are you stupid or something? I deadpanned, careful not to show my emotions on my face, because, well, if my face runs through a bunch of emotions despite no one saying anything… Yeah, Dalton already pretty much hates me, there's no need to make it worse.

Luffy grabbed Nami and tied her to his back, then he and Sanji made headway for the Drum Rockies. I turned around and was heading for the door, when a mitten landed itself on my shoulder.

I followed the hand to the owner and hid a frown.

"Yeah, is there something you need?" I asked flippantly, with a dangerous undertone. I tensed my body, ready to whip around and deck him in the face at a moment's notice, should I be provoked.

"…How did you know?" came the pensive reply.

I turned around and looked Dalton in the eye, "Know what?"

He stared, "I never told you the name of our kingdom, so how did you know it was Drum?"

I averted my eyes nonchalantly and said, "There are the Drum Rockies, I'd have to be an idiot to not notice those,"

"But you can't see the Drum Rockies from the river where we found you, and I doubt that your eyesight is that good. I've already caught you squinting to find something on the ground 2 feet away, when it was right in front of you," his face turned deadpan near the end, and I sweated.

Crap… he saw that?! I smiled widely, trying to hide my innermost thoughts, before getting a strike of creative genius.

"Well… I know many things. Things that you should not know, nor question, for if you do, the world will end in Anarchy," I nodded resolutely, Yeah, that seems like a good cover story.

"What do you mean?" He questioned.

I shrugged, "I mean exactly what I say: If I tell you anything, the world will end, and not in a good way," I literally just made that up, but if he believes it, then I don't have to tell him…

He looked at me and sighed, "Then you know…"

My mind blanked out, and I hesitantly ventured, "Know what?" At seeing his suspicious glare, I hastily added, "I know a lot of things, you're going to have to be more specific,"

After a moment of silence, he sighed again and looked into the far distance, "Nothing,"

I frowned and scrunched my brows together in thought, before snapping my fingers, "Is it because you used to support Wapol?"

He looked at me incredulously before chuckling a bit, "How did you know?" he asked somberly.

"…Ink and paper from a respected man," I settled on that for an explanation. Technically I'm not lying…

'You know, you have yet to explain that… thing, yet, Shivani,' Katrina sent through our link.

I growled and gritted my teeth, That thing, as you so degradingly call it, is a Velociraptor, easily one of the most dangerous dinosaurs of its time, and the only reason it didn't usurp the T-Rex in terms of strength and power, was because of sheer size difference. Its name is Invictus, and it already imprinted on me. It's staying with us.

'…' In the distance, I could see Katrina stiffen, and then sigh, 'Fine, but if it eats Chopper in the future, I'm pinning everything on you,'

In a not-so rare bout of bitterness and pettiness, I returned with, Well, it's not like you haven't already pinned things on me for no reason.

Okay, maybe that was a little too far, I could feel her turmoil, indignance, rage, and sadness hit me like a freight train through our link, but my pride wouldn't allow me to apologize.

Dalton looked oddly at me and snapped his fingers in front of my face. I shook myself out of our link and looked at him, "What?" I said impatiently.

"When will Wapol come?" a grim look came about his features.

I grimaced, "How are you so sure I'll know?" I challenged.

"You're like the Devil. You know too much, but you won't tell unless we give something in return," he muttered, "We are already healing your nakama, now you need to hold up your end, Devil," he said a bit louder.

Thankfully, he wasn't loud enough to garner any attention. I pulled him by the collar down to my eye level and hissed while darting my eyes back and forth, "The hell are you talking about?! I'm not a 'Devil'!"

Dalton glared at me, "Yes, you are, you know all of the most painful parts of my life, you know when Wapol will come to destroy us, and you're not telling us a thing. How is that not being a Devil?"

I rolled my eyes and groaned, "He will come within one day, are you happy now?!"

"Give me a time, Devil!"

"I GAVE YOU A TIME!"

Okay, now, we were garnering attention.

"—KE HELL!"

"SEE?! YOU SWEAR WITH HELL, YOU ARE A DEVIL!" he yelled triumphantly.

We both had garnered quite the crowd by then. I reckon they're all watching the spectacle. Oh, what am I saying, of course, they're watching the spectacle, and if my luck is any worse, I'm quite sure that Katrina found a way to record this, too.

I turned my attention in the direction of our link's pull, and stared into Katrina's teary eyes, and red face. She was busting a gut suppressing laughs at my expense. Good news? At least she didn't find a way to record it.

"HEY! STOP IGNORING ME, DEVIL! I KNOW THAT YOU KNOW WHEN WAPOL WILL COME! TELL US!" he yelled.

Upon hearing Wapol's name, the crowd, barring Katrina and myself, shared a wince, and began chanting with new vigor, "TELL US! TELL US! TELL US!"

My heart dropped with the sight I was seeing, "Oh Oda, now they're rioting?!"

Katrina finally seemed to be having enough of laughing at my suffering, and decided to step into the fray, "Okay, you two lovebirds, break it up. She doesn't know when Wapol will be coming, but she knows it will happen within one day, so all we got to do is be ready till then," she put extra emphasis on the word 'she', and I immediately sent through the link.

Sly girl.

Her only response was a smirk.

I grinned and immediately sent vulgar images through our link, and I took pleasure in seeing her face turn all pretty shades of white and maybe a hint of gray and green.

I cut down the link when I saw the grudging agreements of everyone in the crowd, and Dalton's grumpy face.

"Look," I started.

"What," he replied, not looking at me.

"Whenever he comes, me and Mota will be there to help you, no matter what," I stressed.

He stopped kicking at the ground like a petulant child throwing a temper tantrum and looked at me, before conceding, "Fine,"

I smiled, before frowning, Dalton was never like this in the anime, nor the manga, was he?

'He wasn't,' came the reply, equally as pensive and suspicious as mine.

I looked at Dalton again, and saw him smile at the people working the village, and all of a sudden, a dark purple and black miasma rose from his eyes and dissipated into the air. Strange, that wasn't—CORRUPTION!

I barely contained a gasp, as me and Mota were sucked into a dark Void.

I launched myself up on the nonexistent floor and looked around, keeping a hand on the hilt of my dagger. I took note of the fact that Katrina was next to me in all this.

I stopped and gasped, "Whoa…" this is the same place that we were sent into the One Piece world!" Katrina got up and staggered next to me, while keenly scanning the place with her eyes.

"Why are we back here?" I asked no one in particular.

"Maybe she wants to send us back!" Katrina offered, looking slightly grumpier than she was 30 seconds ago.

"No, I'm not going back until I'm done with this journey!" I yelled with conviction.

I grabbed Katrina by the arm and walked across the void, "Let's go,"

"Wait, what?! Where are you taking us?!" she yelled, kicking and thrashing. After a while, my grip grew weak and she wiggled herself out. "Where are you taking us?" she glared.

I shrugged, "Wherever my gut tells me to go," I replied, before trying to make a grab for her arm again. She saw my unusually sluggish movements and ducked out of the way, "I swear, sometimes you're worse than Zoro!" she sighed exasperatedly.

I grunted, and pulled my arm back to stare at it.

"Why are you staring at your arm like that? If you stare any harder, it might fall off!" Katrina joked, "But seriously, why are you staring at your arm like that?"

"I'm slow," I replied, still staring at my arm, "I have a Devil Fruit made for speed, and yet… I'm slow. Why?" I questioned to no one in particular. After a while, I sighed and got up, before turning on my heel and going in the direction I was originally going in before we stopped.

"Hey! Wait—wait up!" Katrina panted, while sprinting after me. Wait—how did I get so far from her in the first place?

"What happened?" I asked her.

"That's what I was going to ask you! You just suddenly rocketed off at top speed!" she gestured wildly with her arms.

I frowned, "My Devil Fruit is acting up. This isn't good,"

"Yeah, well, unfortunately, I don't have any Kairoseki, so… yeah," Katrina rubbed the back of her head with a hand.

I shook my head, "That doesn't… matter…" I trailed off as I stared up in awe at what was in front of me.

"Hey, why'd you stop?!" Katrina stepped up next to me and her voice died in her throat.

"Whoa…"

It was that blue goddess again, but this time, she was doing something with her power. She had a seemingly infinite amount of crystal screens, holographic screens, mirrors, reflective rocks and basically anything that could bend or reflect light. All of those screens had some sort of universe on them. One such screen had our home, while time was still stopped within it. Another screen also had my home, but this time, me and Katrina were males, and we were gaming in some PC café, or whatever.

There were hundreds of alternate universes, for everything. It was amazing.

"Hey, Norzira!" came a very, very familiar voice, that made my blood run cold.

The blue goddess hummed, and opened one black and light pastel eye, along with the three eyes under her eye. I originally thought they were dots, but in reality… they were eyes. But what for? Then I remembered her name. Norzira.

My dearest sister… Norzira…

I suppressed a gasp, and grabbed Katrina's arm, and ducked behind a screen to hide.

"How's it going? Any sign of Corruption?" a female that looked damn near identical to Shivani entered the Void, effectively frying both Shivani's and Katrina's brains.

"Did you have a secret twin or something that you didn't tell me about?" Katrina whispered at me, while I felt the blood drain from my face.

"No… no that isn't…" I felt oddly lightheaded.

I was snapped back to reality by the groaning of the now-confirmed Norzira.

Norzira grimaced, "I have a few, but we won't be fast enough. At least three of her fragments have woken up across the multiverse. I can try to collapse the worlds those particular fragments are in, but it won't be enough,"

The other woman grimaced, "How near is it to Shivani?"

I felt a pang in my heart as I heard that woman say my name so detachedly.

"She's made contact. We need to stop Corruption before the multiverse collapses in on itself and everything will end," Norzira stressed.

The woman growled, "What do you think I'm trying to do?! I've already traversed at least 50 of your worlds, making sure that Corruption stays in chains, and we delay her return for as long as we could. I've bought us at least 30 minutes," the woman grimaced, "When I say it like that it sounds so measly…"

"Don't feel that way," Norzira said firmly, "Every second counts,"

At this point, I couldn't take it anymore, and I jumped out from behind the screen, effectively startling both Norzira and the other woman, before preparing to pounce on her, "Why?! What's the meaning of this?! WHO ARE—" a flick of a royal blue hand, and blissful darkness. For both of us.

When I woke up, I was in a bed of snow, and Katrina was next to me, already awake. I sat up next to her, and she asked me, "Who was that?"

I grimaced, knowing exactly who she was talking about.

"That… was my mom,"

AN: I am so, so sorry that I wasn't able to update earlier. I made a slightly longer chapter, about 5,000 words, to suffice for it. I got a bit of a writer's block, and I didn't know how to write Drum Kingdom to make it interesting, so... yeah. I know that this chapter, despite being longer, is of a slightly lower quality, and I don't have a beta to help me fix this, and basically, a lot of problems are piled up on top of one another. I have three stories, that I'm trying to pay all equal attention to, and it's really not working out, so I'll try to set up a poll later on, asking which story you want updated the most. Again, thank you for reading my stories, and good health to you all. (It's COVID, I don't know what else to say)