A/N: Hey everybody! I know, I know, long time no see, but I've been, like, extra busy these past few weeks, and have ha absolutely no time to right... at all. I actually don't really like this chapter because its just so short, but I couldn't leave you guys hanging any longer so I did my best. Also, next weeks chapter might also get postponed. Sorry. Im going out of town for family on Friday and wont be back until Tuesday, leaving me practically no time before the next update, which would be Wednesday. Hopefully, after that though, my schedule will be a lot less hectic and I can provide nice, somewhat long, chapters weekly! Anyways, I've rambled long enough, lets get into the next chapter!
"So, this legend, its not going to curse us will it?" Cat Burglar asks evenly, hoping for her sanity that it wouldn't. Robin smiled slightly, shaking her head.
"No, though if we don't work fast we could end up dying here and erasing our past completely." Robin said calmly, nonchalant. It took the crews all of 5 seconds to process what Robin had just told them before the fear and panic set in.
"WHAT?!" The shout could be heard all the way in Yuba, though Robin merely chuckled behind her hand, having expected the reaction.
"Erase the past?! Were gonna die?!" Tony asked, having a mental breakdown as he flailed his arms, Chopper doing the same except adding screaming to the mix.
"I knew it! Were done for! This is where we die!" Sniper moaned, tears falling fast.
"Why does this always happen to us?! Monkey! This is all your fault! Im raising your debt too Roronoa!" Cat Burglar cried, much to Roronoa's anger and Monkey amusement.
"What?! You can't do that you damned witch!" Roronoa growls through clenched teeth.
"Don't talk to a lady that way shitty marimo!" Both Sanji's scolded, causing both Zoro's to roll their eyes and glare.
"Its like a damn echo, one love cook was bad enough." Zoro mumbles, though loud enough for everyone to hear.
"What was that moss head?!" Sanji asks, the two getting into a fight along with Black Leg and Roronoa.
"Were all gonna die and the Zoro and Sanji's are fighting, of course!" Usopp cries, not even bothering to scream.
"Im gonna get grey hairs early on this crew." Nami says sadly, petting her short hair.
"I-Im sure you wont Nami-san." Vivi said, trying to comfort the young navigator.
"Yohoho~! This sure makes my heart race! Ah- Not that I have a heart! Yohohoho~! Skull Joke!" Brook laughs. Franky sighs, shaking his head.
"The world will be deprived of one Suuu~peerrr~ pervert!" He says, using a tissue to wipe his teary eyes. Luffy and Monkey laugh, rolling on the ground.
"Y-You guys are hilarious!" Monkey says through his laughing, not bothered in the least that his whole life, as well as his existence was on the line.
"Man, I wish you guys didn't have to go!" Luffy laughs as well, knowing it wouldn't be this lively for a while until he caught up to this future, where he had more members and a big ship.
"Its a wonder you lived past your childhood Luffy." Ace says, shaking his head and pinching his nose, only sending both Luffy's into another fit of laughter. Sabo pats Ace's shoulder, still not completely used to the idea that he was real, and smiles sympathetically his way.
"He had you looking after him, right?" Sabo asks, and Ace was silent a moment before nodding.
"Yeah... but that doesn't mean it isn't a miracle he's lived! He's lucky he always followed me or else he might have actually been digested by an alligator!" Ace says, and Sabo laughs, remembering the days when he and Ace would rescue their rambunctious, trouble magnet of a little brother.
"Uh, maybe we should let Robin-san continue, so we don't all die..." Vivi said nervously, still unsure about Robin but trusting her for the moment. Everyone looks at the princess, making her slightly uncomfortable, before they settle down, ready to listen again, to which Vivi sighs in relief, the tension flowing away.
"Thank you Vivi-san. As I was saying before, if we don't get out in time, we could die, and if we die it would erase our future, in essence, erasing our existences. The legend behind Heiwa is a slightly tricky one, but I think I've gotten a good understanding of it." Robin says, opening the book she had with her. Everyone nods, waiting for her to continue.
"It speaks about a legend where the first inhabitants of the island preformed horrible rituals in the name of progressing their civilization. After a few years when their population grew and it became apparent they would survive longer then they thought the original inhabitants felt guilty for their past mistakes and wanted to atone for them, or, in other words, go back and fix them." Robin says, waiting for everyone to understand.
"So... they wanted to go into the past?" Chopper asks, and Robin nods.
"Yes, they believed that way they could fix their wrong doings. To do this they did more experimenting, until one day they created something that essentially blanketed the island. Whenever anyone who felt guilty about something in their past approached the island they would be sent back to the past to fix their mistakes, or forgive themselves. When this was created the members of the island were all sent back, until some of them atoned, and made peace with their past. When this happened they were sent back, except for a few. One of the last ones to come back said that people from the future were coming back, people they knew, friends, family, but eventually enemies as well. When they didn't make peace with their past their enemies came to the past with them and began killing them, erasing their past and future." Robin says, finishing the book and closing it.
"W-Wait, what does that mean?" Sniper asks, slightly fearful, having an idea as to what horrible future awaited them if they didn't hurry.
"It means that, the longer we take the more chance we have of one of our enemies appearing, one that we can't beat, and one that would most likely kill us." Robin said as if stating the weather. The weakling trio of the past as well as the future, though they weren't so much the weakling trio in the future anymore, blanched.
"But we have too many enemies!" Cat Burglar cried, tears of fear running fast.
"So all we have to do is make peace with our past, right?" Roronoa asks calmly, and Robin nods.
"If what the legend says is true, then yes." Robin says.
"B-but how do we do that?" Tony cries. Robin shrugs.
"We have to figure out why we were sent here in the first place, why we would feel guilty about this point in our life, and then make peace with it." Robin explains. Sabo frowns.
"But why am I here? My past self isn't anywhere near here, and I don't know anything about what happened here other then what newspapers told me." Sabo says, Brook and Franky nodding their agreement.
"I believe you were sent here because of your relation to Monkey, Brook and Frank as well. The legend did say friends and family of the ones sent back were being sent as well." Robin said. Monkey suddenly shuddered.
"D-Does that mean grandpa'll show up too?" Monkey asks fearfully, the future crew as well as Sabo, Ace and Luffy paling.
"I-I hope not! He's crazy!" Cat Burglar shouts, Ace and Sabo nodding their agreement.
"Wait, your Grandpa?" Sanji asks, and they nod.
"I feel bad for you guys, he must have found you then, huh?" Ace asks, and the future crew nods.
"Yeah he found us! He also threw cannonballs at us! Let me tell you, that was not a fun day!" Sniper says, and now even the past crew was paling.
"W-Wait, y-your grandpa threw CANNONBALLS AT YOU?!" Nami shouts hysterically. Monkey nods.
"Yeah, grandpa sure was mad, but he let us go in the end..." Monkey says, though he didn't sound all that happy either.
"I don't even want to know anymore..." Usopp groans, falling down in tears.
"Back to the original question, it is a possibility that Garp-San would show up here, though as an enemy or friend we wouldn't know." Robin says, causing the brothers to all shudder again.
"But all we have to do is get home before that happens, right?" Franky asked, and Robin nodded.
"Correct." She says, still perfectly calm.
"Robin-Chwan/Chan, your so smart~!" The cooes from the Sanji's was promptly ignored by everyone as they thought.
"Now that leaves us with the same question as before, why would we be guilty about this part of our life?" Cat Burglar asks, trying to calm down from the potential threat of enemies, or Garp, appearing.
"I do have an... idea, though it could be wrong." Robin says, actually sounding unsure of herself, piquing everyone's interest.
"What is it?" Franky asks, and Robin takes a deep breath.
"Well, I believe we were all sent back because our connection to Monkey. Because of this it means that we are here because it is Monkey who has something he needs to forgive in the past. What I don't understand is why we all came back as fast as we did. In the legend the friends of the ones sent back came over a period of days, while we came all in the matter of a few hours. I believe this is because we, the ones who were involved in this part of our timeline, all have something we need to forgive. I can only think of one thing, though, that we all share in common in this part of our lives." Robin starts, leaving them with bated breaths. Robin turns and looks at Ace, and realization dawns on everyone.
"We all feel guilty about what happened to Ace." Robin says, and it feels like the wind was knocked out of every future crew member. She was right. Each and every one of them felt horrible when Ace died, feeling as if they let him down when they found out what Monkey had gone through alone. Cat Burglar, Tony and Sniper lowered their heads in shame, Sniper remembering when he was eating without a care while his captain was fighting a war.
Monkey sat in silence, watching each of his crew members carefully, not fully understanding what they had to be guilty about, though knowing many reasons why he would feel guilty.
"So how do we... forgive?" Sniper asks. Robin frowns.
"I think we all need to come to terms with what we are guilty about, and maybe even talk to someone about it, maybe even Ace himself." Robin says. The future members nod and it grows silent.
"Well... for now, we should try and get to Yuba, in our past we didn't take this long to get there and I don't want to mess our past up anymore then we already have." Cat Burglar says in determination, standing and heading to the front of the ship where she could already see where they would land. It was mid day, maybe 2 in the afternoon, when they got ready to land.
"NAMI-SAN, VIVI-CHAN, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR OUTFITS?!" Sanji's cries were heard across the whole deck, Vivi looking at him in slight embarrassment.
"We changed." Nami said, everyone now sporting similar clothing that covered all of their skin.
"You have to cover up, the desert sun will burn any exposed skin." Vivi informed, sweat dropping. Sanji fell to the floor, crying, Black Leg moping as he remembered this day.
"But my dancer girl outfits..." Sanji moaned, Zoro and Roronoa rolling their eyes as one grabbed the anchor for the Sunny and the other for the Merry. After the past crew was introduced to the Kung Fu Dugongs and Luffy fought them they were on their way, Luffy and Monkey waving goodbye cheerfully to the animals as they waved back with half the crews provisions. Nami and Cat Burglar gave the Luffy's an earful and the rest of the members tuned the yelling out easily, Sabo and Ace smiling at the familiarity of it all and the fact that they didn't have to do the yelling this time. It was only mere seconds after Nami stopped yelling that Vivi slowed down, along with the others.
"Are we at Yuba?" Luffy asked.
"No, this is the town of Erumalu, the city of green." Vivi said sadly. As the crews walked through Vivi explained the lack of rain and the dance powder incident in Alubarna, Robin lowering her head slightly as she remembered her involvement in all of this. As they continued walking Vivi told the story behind the dance powder and how the towns were abandoned, Crocodile using everything to his advantage. They quickly made their way through Erumalu, continuing on in the blazing heat.
"Its so hot~!" Usopp whined, tongue sticking out as he panted. Chopper and Tony were on sleds being pulled by Roronoa and Zoro, and they agreed with Usopp.
"I forgot how hot it was here." Tony moaned.
"I don't have any way to feel the heat!" Brook laughed jovially. Sabo and Ace were fine, seeing as they both had the mera-mera no mi, and Vivi was as well, having grown up there.
"Lucky..." Sniper panted out.
"How tall are these dunes?!" Usopp asks. Luffy and Monkey were panting beside him, Nami and Cat Burglar yelling at them that they were wasting energy, Sanji and Black leg backing them up.
"Well, over years-" Vivi turned to face Usopp as she spoke, though she stopped when, out of the corner of her eye, Zoro, Black Leg, Monkey, and Sniper froze and spun around, eyes narrowing.
"What is it?" Cat Burglar asked, noticing that the four had sensed something with their haki.
"We have to go." Roronoa said sternly, leaving no room for argument. The future crew understood, Sabo and Ace understanding slightly as well seeing as they sensed something too, but the past crew stood around dumbly as the others started speeding their pace.
"W-What? Why?!" Sniper asked.
"Remember those enemies that are supposed to show up? Well they just did." Black Leg announced.