We finally get to the start of the story. I meant to get here in three chapters but instead got to it in four. Thank you to all whom favorited or followed, I'm glad this is being received well. And here I thought it would go nowhere. Seems at heart I possess Lucy's own pessimism. Considering she's a much more extreme version of my personality that's not hard to believe. Anyway this chapter is the one where I reveal the new devil.

Thesonicsuperstar: But how much was Shanks letting her win, to avoid the villages blaming Lucy? Though looking over the final thing she did mercilessly kill him over and over. She still surprises me when I write her at her personality. This chapter did have the new devil fruit, but it is not the end of the prologue…I have plans. (he may or may not lose an arm).

SakuraS41: Blame the dyslexia, as I'm writing I go how do I spell this …Oh yes like this! Because it's spelt correctly, if the wrong word, it doesn't flag up on word and I always miss something during re-reads. But thank you for bringing this to my attention! No longer will it happen (what am I kidding)!

Pattou59: More! Unlimited power! Thanks for the encouragement though!

Writing is in Italics

Techniques and devil fruits in underline

I DON'T OWN ONE PIECE, and I never will.

Chapter 4 start:

Until one day, a bandit kicked down the door of the Party's bar demanding ten barrels of grog, and fate once again pulled the stings.

Time is cruel.

It holds no apathy, no compassion, and most importantly no loyalty. Time is slave to no one. In fact, time could be considered above all other things in this existence. An existence above all others. It saw the beginning of the universe, and will see the end of creation and then and only then will it die. In comparison, what are the mountains, the oceans, the civilizations that believe themselves above all other things in nature? But specks in its existence, a momentary blip that flashes brightly like a supernova if but for an instance before disappearing once again.

And time watched, watched as the mountains rose and then were ground into dust. Watched as the oceans formed, then drained. Watched as civilizations grew, expanding and building, destroying and innovating, believing themselves to be on top of this world. Then collapsed into nothing, caused by problems of their own creation. It watched and watched. Ticking slowly, but constantly.

It did not care about anything, it only watched in apathy. Always observing, never committing to one being over another. It did not care who you were, what you were, or what you were going to do. It simply watched in silence. An ever present companion, who sat in the background. To some a friend, to others an entity of misery. But always observing in neutrality never out of another per purpose but to watch.

And yet to Lucy, it seemed to be so cruel. In her mind, she believed that time was out for her. Time when she wanted it to go faster only slowed down. When she wanted it to last forever it sped up. The time she wanted to last forever, had ended. Time had slowly devoured its way forward, eating and eating till it turned to her and said 'why hello there' then proceeded to punch her In the face. Time seemed to hate her.

And as the mountain bandit leader commented ''Make way for the scourge of the Mountains!'' She started to hate it in return. The bar door bounced once, twice then settled in the middle of the tavern. The once partying pirates all staring at the new comers. Shanks who had been telling her a story of his time on the Oro Jackson paused and looked towards the door. All eyes were locked onto the intruding bandits.

The leader of the bandits, who had a name Lucy quite frankly forgot, smirked stating ''heh heh…so you call yourselves pirates, eh? First time I've seen pirates…you look like a sorry lot to me.'' Then he strolled into the Party's bar an arrogant gait in his step. His goons all wearing white with a light pink headscarf on their heads followed in after him. In the silence Lucy observed the man. Black goatee, top knot and two scars over his right eyebrow which made an x shape. He wore a red trench coat; on the left side of it was a strip of black material with a golden double helix running from his shoulder to his ankles. Underneath he had a white polo shirt, and simple black trousers. At his waist lied a sword. In Lucy's opinion he looked pretty normal all things considered.

Then with a smirk still on his face and his left hand on his chin stated ''we're mountain bandits. Oh, don't wet yourselves. We're not here to bust up the place. Just sell us ten barrels of beer, and we'll injury as few as possible'' His eyes racked Makino up and down, and for a second Lucy wanted a gun to shoot the man. Instead she looked around the bar; if this was happening then a certain treasure chest must be here.

''I'm sorry…we just ran out of liquor'' Lucy only herd Makino speak out of the corner of her mind. Her very focus on a little wooden box, almost undescriptive. Inside held a fruit capable of turning Monkey D Luffy, into a powerhouse. The Rubber-Rubber fruit a power capable of turning the eater completely from their muscles to every cell in their body into rubber. A fruit which for what it was held the potential to match even the best fighters of the series in strength speed and destructive power. A fruit that for better or worse, was hers if she so wanted.

The whole world seemed to disappear, the bandits, the pirates, Shanks, Ben even Makino. All that mattered to her was in front of her was the little box containing the power of fate; Luffy's fruit. And for a second she hesitated. Was it truly hers? Was it worth the relationship that they had spent months building? And most importantly did she even want it at all?

It was powerful, yes, and perhaps necessary for whatever path she went down. But did she want to follow that path? If she accepted fate, that this fruit was hers, then she would have to accept that path as well. If this was the start of the story, then to accept this fruit would be to accept following the narrative. What if- No…No! Lucy thought, and in that moment she remembered could dance to her own tune, even if she was forced to dance to destiny, she would dance not as a pawn of fate. But as herself. And just like that, in a split second she made up her mind. To move forward, to advance, she couldn't… no mustn't waver. The only path was to walk forward, to face the countdown.

With a click the small box was opened. Inside, laid an even smaller fruit. The best way to describe it was like a pear, thicker on the bottom than the top, it was smooth no bumps marring its surface. On the top lied a thick stalk like a pumpkin, but narrower. It was a soft type of blue, almost turquoise though closer most defiantly closer to blue than green. Black swirls pushed their way from the bottom upward, creating an almost wave like pattern of swirls running diagonally up the fruit. In all it was the strangest thing Lucy had seen in her life.

'But wasn't it purple, and kinda more circular in shape?' She thought 'Is this the wrong devil fruit?' In this very moment she panicked. Even as she reached out and took the fruit from the box. It was different, not the Rubber fruit, what did that even mean? Was this what the Gods meant when they said to make things interesting? And by that reasoning…if this devil fruit was different… what else was different?!

As she panicked Lucy Imagined all sorts of stupid fruits it could be, what if it was like the human-human fruit? Neigh worthless? What if it was a bog-standard zoan? A mouse? What would she become? It was too much of a gamble she thought. She shouldn't do it.

The sound of a glass breaking broke her out of her thoughts. It seemed the mountain bandit had back handed Shanks offered sake bottle causing it to spill all over him. Lucy looked around quickly and noticed everyone was staring at the incident, not one person had noticed her with the fruit.

'But would I get another chance?' she thought eyeing up the fruit. Devil fruits were the difference between success and failure in this world. If one looked at all the most powerful characters in one piece almost 90% had devil fruits. While not the only way, it was the most accessible way to become powerful. Even though she did not know where she wanted to go, having a…supernatural ability could only be a boon... right? 'And what else do I have going for me?' She thought harshly. She'd never really gotten into fights in her last life, none in this one, and the ones she did ended…poorly to put it blankly. Even her shooting lessons showcased how subpar she was in that category.

In her mind at that point, a thought passed through 'but what if it was a logia…or an amazingly overpowered ability. Think of all that you could gain!' this thought raged on against a different one 'but what if it was rubbish'. Back and forth, these warred with each other, even as Shanks bent down to pick up the glass shards off the bar floor.

Lucy was at a bypass, what to do? Was it worth it? She was so caught up in her own internal struggle, that it took the Bandit captain slashing the bar near her to break up those thoughts. And as she looked at Shanks, sat on the wooden floor, beer and glass covering his form a voice popped up her from her mind '…what if, what if, what if…Lucy, if you get scared at the possibility of the future then you will never be able to move forward…you need to look at yourself and say, not what if, but what will I be or do…I…have come to realize that in order to gain something you must first give something up. Resources, money, time…even people…To advance you must leave something behind…You are so consumed by what has yet to even happen that you shun even walking a step forward…The road will be hard…But I can promise you…if you keep moving you will find a place in this world to call your own' A rancid taste broke her out of her thoughts.

It tasted like milk years out of date, mixed with the rancid guts of a fish marinating in its own filth and a pinch of some unknown rotting vegetable. Needless to say she vomited most of it out, quite loudly in fact, but a small part of it lingered on her tongue and most importantly some slipped down her gullet.

''Lucy? ...Lucy!'' Shanks shout broke her out of her surprise, and as she looked over to the man she found him so close staring at her in concern. But his gaze quickly moved from her to the object in her hand and she followed his gaze. The fruit had a small but noticeable bite mark on its side. It seemed that while lost in her thoughts she had taken a bite of the fruit. As she looked around it seemed the bandits had left while she was locked in her thoughts.

''Lucy…what have you done?'' He gazed up from the fruit to look her in the eyes. All of the mirth usually in his eyes gone. For once Shanks was serious. Never had she seen that look in his eyes, not even on that fateful little clearing.

And she had no response.

Did she even want to eat it? DID SHE EVEN HAVE A CHOICE NOW?!

Shanks realizing that she was not going to be speaking broke the ice ''that was a devil fruit, the one we stole from an enemy ship earlier'' His eyes had returned a look of concern. ''Lucy listen to me…that was a secret treasure of the sea…it will curse you to never swim again'' He started slowly seemingly aware that the young girl had gone into shock.

It took a long time for Lucy to organize her thoughts', but when she was coherent enough she asked quietly 'Shanks…which one?'' Said man looked at her eyes for a second and then stated ''that was the Partition-Partition fruit, it grants the user the ability to separate things''.

The ability to separate things? She had Buggy's fruit? No that was not possible! He had the Chop-chop fruit, and she had heard of him roaming the east blue with a devil fruit. Did he have a different devil fruit now? What was going on?

Realizing the entire bar was waiting for her answer, Lucy decided to ask the million dollar question ''I have the ability to separate myself?'' Shanks looked thoughtful for a second before shaking his head and said ''No, I have a good friend with that ability. Most likely it's a familial fruit of that one though''.

A familial fruit? What was a familial fruit? How much did she not know about this world!? Shanks must have noticed her surprise because he gave her the answer ''Familial devil fruits are fruits that possess very similar or almost exact powers. Their usually found in zoan types. Like the fruits dog-dog model Dalmatian and dog-dog model Labrador and on and on. Usually their slight variations in zoan types along the species type. But there are also some familial fruits that are paramecia or Logia''.

Lucy looked slightly out of her depth. Never In her memories could she remember any mention of a familial…thing. But it in a way kindaaaa made sense in a way to her, to organize zoan types into family groups based on species. But Paramecia and Logia, she thought, like what? So she turned to Shanks and asked ''Can you give me some examples?''

Shanks looked thoughtful for a second before turning his head towards the ceiling and started explaining ''weelll there was the heat-heat fruit and the high temperature-high temperature fruit, there was the iron-iron fruit and steel-steel fruit, the shake-shake fruit and quake-quake fruit… ughhh I can't really think of more off the top of my head'' He turned to look back at her a small smile on his face.

''Don't forget the sap-sap fruit and the amber-amber fruit!'' Cried one pirate from the crowd. The red haired captain turned from her, looked at the man with a smile on his face and thanked him.

'Wait…the shake-shake and quake-quake fruits? There was another person with the power of whitebeard running around!? What the?' Lucy thought and quickly explained said thought to the pancake beside her.

''Oh yeah, there was a guy like that. I'm surprised you knew who Whitebeard is, guess his name even rings in this sleepy little village.'' At her unamused glare, he smirked and continued ''He was a marine…a captain I think, kinda known for shaking the buildings around him. Destroyed a town or two. Well one day he gets cocky after a promotion to rear admiral and tracks down whitebeard. 'Hey you old man, look at my power, it's just as powerful as yours!' he said'' The quote was said with some type of accent she couldn't quite place. But based on his exaggeration it was obviously to mock the man. Despite the annoyance she asked ''Then'' the red haired man smiled then said ''then Whitebeard responded 'gurarararaara you call this an earthquake you brat. This is the best joke Sengoku has sent me in a while. Now let me show you what an earthquake really looks like'''

''What happened?'' Asked Lucy. Surprisingly it was Ben that answered her ''and then'' he started, lighting a cigarette ''He used his power and shattered the rear admiral into red paste on the ground…along with the island underneath them'' Her surprise must have shown because he just laughed quietly at her.

So what was her power? If it was not the ability to partition herself like Buggy, was it the ability to partition others? The ability to 'separate objects' could mean different things. The definition was kinda along the lines of 'the action of dividing something into smaller bits' so kinda like a swing from Mihawks blade? An ability that allows the user to cut an object into pieces. So a purely offensive ability. Could someone block that attack? In her mind she could imagine someone with a shield boasting about their defenses only to get cut in…half. Now that she thought about it the ability to partition humans sounded incredibly deadly, an extremely lethal full frontal devil fruit. Let it be known Lucy was a pacifist, so this fruit…it scared her. Its pure destructive capability's, the power to effectively break everything in this world. Could she handle this power? What were the limits…or even better did it even have any? A fruit like this with no limits… could she split islands in two?

''Well, are you not going to test it?'' Shanks spoke out of the blue. By now most of the pirate crew had gotten back to partying, so it seemed to be only them speaking together.

''How? I have no idea what I'm doing?'' Lucy replied in response. What if she tested it and split the village into pieces? What if she accidently partitioned everyone in the room into five? Until she knew…anything really this wasn't a power to be fooling around with.

''Here'' Shanks said, before sliding an old beer bottle of his along the ruined table top. Being careful to not get the bottle caught in the long slice that the mountain bandit left. ''Why don't you try 'partition' this bottle in half''

For a while Lucy just stared at the bottle, how does one go about partitioning an object? Eventually she tested her first hypothesis by stating ''partition'' while staring intently at the bottle, desiring it to divide. It did not. Instead she got a laugh from Shanks, which he got a glare back in return from her for. After which she tested her next hypothesis moving her hand vertically in front of the bottle, while desiring it to divide. The same result. Slowly getting annoyed at both the stupid bottle, and the giggling red head beside her she tested her third hypothesis. By both stating Partition and making an air slicing movement with her hand. The bottle still in one piece goaded at her, it said 'what a useless power you have'.

At this Shanks laughed heartily beside her, clapping her shoulder harshly on the back while doing so and in-between his laughs got out ''He Hey L-He Lu, Why don-HEHE Why don't you say Hocu- hehehehe HOCUS POUCUS HAHAHAHAHAH''

If glares could kill then red haired Shanks would be twelve feet under by her gaze. He did not stop laughing at her though. Huffing out loud, Lucy stared at the stupid bottle, with its stupid little gleam and in all her annoyance instead of desiring the bottle to split, simply thought while doing the slashing motion 'I will cut this God damn bottle in half!'.

Imagine her surprise when not only did the bottle, but also the bar and the wall in front of her split in two. Silence reigned as everyone stared at the large six inch gap in the wall, at the now completely divided bar. Shanks who until this point was laughing started chocking on his own spit in surprise and after regaining his composer shouted ''what the hell Lu!''

Said girl was staring at her hands in shock, it was her worst nightmare. Everything she feared about the fruit was true. It was a purely offensive ability that split anything in two. If it could cause this much damage to the bar…what would it do if she lost control in front of a human? The six inch line in the wall ran along the arc of her swing, it was a perfect line running from almost the roof to the floor directly in front of her. Most importantly there was no splinters, the wood had been cleanly cut in two in a line most swordsmen would go green with envy at.

''Lu-Lucy what?'' Makino's voice ran out, a mop and broom fell onto the floor with a clatter. As Lucy turned to face her first friend she saw something in her eyes that scared her.

Fear. Raw primitive fear.

Something in Lucy's heart stopped then, as she stared at the one person who had always been with her, from her worst to her best. Who in the early years when she did not know what was going on. Who was practically her mother, if not for the fact she was an adult reincarnated into a child's body. Who…was staring at the hole in her wall, at her with such fear. And something crept into her heart to replace the thing that she just lost.

That thing in her heart whispered 'they'll never accept you now. You'll always be a freak. Always be rejected…and in the end we'll end up all alone again'

And in that moment Lucy not knowing what else to do decided to make the only decision she thought she had. She got down from the stool, and ran from the bar as fast as she could. The shout of ''Lucy!'' from both Shanks and Makino dogging her at every step. But she kept running and running and running and running, till all the air had left her lungs, till every breath which left her mouth tore at her throat like she was breathing sandpaper. In the end she did not know where she ended up, by observing her surroundings she half guessed the forested interior of the island. The sound of the jungle echoed around her. Monkeys calling in the distance, bugs buzzing around her ear, the scent of the rain forest in her nose. Never had Lucy entered the rain forest, the adults of Foosha village forbid it, claiming the thousand dangers of the land. But none of that mattered to the little girl, only her thoughts…only that fear in Makino's eye.

It took a long time for her to calm down, no matter what she did her breath came out in little gasps, however even they subsided. When she did eventually calmed down, she realized the small scrapes and scratches lining her limbs and cloths. The mud coating her bare ankles. And most importantly she also realized the fact she was quite lost. But for now that was a minor issue, the only thing that mattered was containing the raging of her heart. So she sat down back leaning against a tree, her face in her knees

Hours must have passed, or perhaps minutes, Lucy didn't know before any energy to move came. Deciding against staying in such a dangerous place, especially at night she got up and absentmindedly marched forward, in which direction she did not know. Most of her energy was spent in her mind, between the waring ideas, as she simply moved forward only really concentrating to maneuver around the obstacles in her path.

Eventually she came across a small path, at best a mud road deep in the forest, full of pot holes. Much of the path was slowly being recaptured by the forest, but with no other leads and nothing else to do she walked along if for miles. It went on and on, through the dense undergrowth, where Lucy didn't know but she had no other alternative.

It was a voice which broke her out of her thoughts.

The voice of one Bandit, Higuma stating with an amused voice ''so what have we got here?''

DUN DUN DUN, A CLIFF HANGER.

Well I did it again, I wanted to go one way and oh look what if Lucy did -! Oh yeah that sounds cool, let's do that. I am horrible at keeping chapter plans. So her devil fruit has been revealed. The Partition-Partition fruit, hopefully one that it not already taken. In a nut shell it allows her the ability to separate things (but only in a certain distance of her). The google definition was 'The action or state of dividing or being divided into parts' AND 'a structure dividing a space into two parts' Both are important to what I have imagined for her power. But you'll have to see. That being said there are some rules to her powers, in no particular order:

It can only effect physical objects (so no memories or other nonphysical stuff)

It only works within a set radius with Lucy at its centre (in a dome like laws room, but invisible)

The user has to want the ability to Accor for it to activate (but she doesn't know that)

It cannot create or destroy matter (only partition it into two pieces)

It cannot split sea stone or water (for obvious reasons)

Partitioning an object does not affect its momentum or the laws of nature that effect it

Once separated the user cannot rejoin the partitioned object to form the original object (so no Buggy, if she partitions herself she loses whatever body part she partitioned)

It cannot cut haki infused objects (to balance the power, and give some defense against it)

Till next time bye bye