OH MY GOD! It's done! Finally! I'm so sorry for the wait, the chapter just wasn't coming to me this time.

Ok, heads up to everyone, when it's someone else's p.o.v. besides Sam, when she speaks English it's going to be like this so that it's easy to see the difference. Other than that, it's like before. Another thing, in this story I have it that there are more languages besides Japanese but very few people are fluent in them. So there is English and various other languages, but it's more like high school Spanish to people in One Piece. Everyone in One Piece speaks only one language, even though they come from all over the world, so I see it that the WG, when it was created, had all the countries that joined switch their native language to Japanese so that communication between countries could be easier. People still learn English (look at Franky's 'SUPER' for example) but it's not their main language. The only person that world probable understand Sam at this point right off the bat is Robin, because I can see her knowing enough English to hold a conversation. So, Japanese is the 'common' tongue, while everything else are only used by some educated people.

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, I only own Sam, Aquarius, and any other OC that may/will pop up.

"It looks so big up close!" Luffy said with a wide grin. Coby stood beside him, looking nervous as he gazed up at the Marine Base that towered over them.

"Well, go on in, Coby! This is your chance!" Luffy said as he clapped him on the back. The pink haired boy stumbled slightly but righted himself and turned to his companion nervously.

"B-but I haven't mentally prepared myself yet…" he stuttered and he fiddled with his hands nervously. "And the town's people got really scared when they heard the captain's name…" he added as an afterthought and looked at the Marine Base uneasily. Luffy shrugged and moved to climb up the wall to look for the infamous pirate hunter when someone spoke up from behind them.

"Oi."

"Hmm?" Luffy stopped, his hands already on some handholds and looked back. Standing a few feet behind Coby was a short haired blonde girl standing behind them. Her sunglasses flashed in the sun as she gestured for them to follow her and start off down the path that ran along the wall.

The two of them looked at each other and them back at the skipping teen. She was oddly cheerful, wasn't she? Luffy let go of the wall and started after her with Coby stumbling behind them.

She stopped and with the ease of practice, climbed up the wall and sat on top of it. She turned to look down at them and waved them up. Luffy climbed up the wall blinked when he saw a figure tied to a cross in the courtyard before grinning. Coby climbed up after them and would have fallen off if the girl hadn't caught him by the back of his shirt and hauled him back up.

"A b-black bandanna a-and a h-haramaki! I-it's really him! Z-Zoro!" he yelped as he clung to the wall with trembling hands. "He looks so scary!"

The girl scoffed and unknown to them, rolled her eyes, even though she could hardly understand what they were saying. Luffy snickered at his friend before looking back at the swordsman.

"So that's Zoro, huh?" Luffy said with a grin. "Looks like he could break out of those robes pretty easily…"

"Oi! Zoro!" the blonde called and Coby looked faint. She giggled at his expression before waving happily at the swordsman. Said swordsman looked up and grunted when he saw them.

"You're back again, brat? And this time you brought friends…" Zoro said and scowled at them. Luffy and the blonde seemed completely unaffected by it and grinned at him. Coby, on the other hand, looked like he was about to go visit his ancestors permanently. The blonde looked at him in concern and poked him to make sure he was still alive.

"Hey, you still alive, sir? You haven't died yet, ne?" she said as she poked him in the head repeatedly. His eye twitch, so satisfied that he was still among the living, the blonde stopped her poking. She looked over at Luffy, who was looking at her in confusion.

"What?"

"What?"

"What?" Luffy repeated and Coby looked between the two of them with a frown.

"What?" he said and the girl tilted her head to the side.

"What?"

"What?" Luffy said again.

"What?!" Coby snapped and the girl, who was now smirking, was about to continue the endless cycle when Zoro finally had it with them.

"ENOUGH!" he yelled at them, his teeth momentarily sharp like shark teeth. The three teens on the wall instantly quieted and looked away sheepishly, though the blonde was still grinning. The swordsman sighed heavily and wished not for the first time that week that he could move his hands to massage his forehead to get rid of the coming headache. "One of them is enough as it is…" he growled softly.

The clatter of wood on stone made everyone turn and look at the ladder that had been placed against the wall. Up the ladder climbed a kid that shushed the three on the wall. When she saw the blonde, she brightened and smiled widely.

"Sam!" she said happily.

Sam grinned and gave a halfhearted wave in greeting. "Rika!" she chirped back happily.

Rika flashed her one more smile before hopping over the wall and making her way to Zoro. Luffy looked mildly interested, Coby looked ready to faint then and there, and Sam looked she didn't care one bit and had at some point brought out her ocarina to play. Her playing was barely audible as she watched Zoro reject the onigiri and try to send Rika away before the Marines noticed.

Too bad they did.

When the man in the suit-that's-too-ugly-to-be-called-a-suit started smashing the onigiri Rika had made, Sam hissed. Coby and Luffy shot her startled looks as she hissed angrily into her scarf. It sounded like a snake or one of the more serpent like sea kings when they were angry, and a blind man could have told you she was angry. She stopped hissing when Rika was thrown into the air and moved to catch her, but Luffy reacted faster.

He was thrown off the wall by the girl's momentum and rolled to a stop. Coby jumped off the wall after them in a panic and started to fret over them before they even came to a complete stop. Sam stayed on the wall however removed her sunglasses to give the bastard son the full force of her glare. He took one look at her glare, heard her hiss, and promptly turned around and high tailed it out of there with his Marine escort behind him. Guess he forgot that he could have ordered the Marines to shoot her.

"You're still here?" Zoro said when he noticed that Luffy had jumped over the wall and was standing in front of him. "Sam may have scared off the idiot son, but you still don't want to stay around here for his dad to catch you."

The straw hat teen just shrugged at the warning like it didn't really matter to him. "Don't care." He said blandly before brightening with a grin. "Hey, I'm looking for strong people to join my pirate crew."

Zoro scoffed. "Pirate crew? Let me guess, you want me to join?" when Luffy nodded, he snorted in mock amusement and sneered. "Hell no! Like I would lower myself to that level!"

Luffy frowned at his statement and placed his hands on his hips. "Being a pirate is my dream! What's so wrong with that?"

The swordsman grinned crookedly. "Even if you untie me, I wouldn't join your pirate crew."

"Will, I haven't decided yet if I'll actually ask you or not…" Luffy said as he placed a hand on his hat. "You got a pretty bad rep around here, you know."

"Bad rep?" Zoro snorted in amusement. "Like I care about that, I've got my own plans for the future and they don't involve becoming a pirate. All I have to do here is survive a mouth like this and then I'm a free man." His face darkened as he became more serious. "The captain's idiot son promised me."

"Ah, I see." Luffy said and laughed. "I don't think I'd last a week out here without food!"

Zoro snorted and said, "The two of us are different. I've got more will power than you. Go find a crew somewhere else."

"Well…" Luffy said as he looked over his shoulder at the wall where Sam still sat playing her instrument softly. She had left her sunglasses off and seemed to be completely oblivious to the world. "I was thinking of asking her."

"Sam?" Zoro said with a frown as he looked to the blonde who looked over at them when she heard her name. She cocked her head to the side and blinked at them curiously. "I don't think that's a very good idea."

"Why not?"

"For one," Zoro said with a sigh as Sam continued to stare at them. "I doubt she can even understand half of what we're saying, let alone you asking her to join. She doesn't understand common. She'd just cause you more problems than being useful."

"Hmm," Luffy looked Sam in the eye and she blinked again. "Well… We'll see." He said absently before turning to leave.

Zoro watched him go for a second before calling him back. "Hey, wait a minute." When Luffy stopped and looked back at him, he looked down at the ruined onigiri. "Give that to me."

Sam flipped back off the wall after Luffy had feed Zoro the ruined onigiri. She hide a small smile behind her scarf as Luffy climbed over the side of the wall. The encounter had gone mostly the way she remembered it going, though they had at one point talked about her. Sam hoped that Luffy hadn't gotten the idea to recruit her, because in all the history of the Strawhats, when Luffy asks someone to join, they almost always did.

It's not like she didn't want to join, she just didn't want to mess with the plot any more than she already has. In the plot line she knows, nobody—in the crew at least—dies, and she would like to keep it that way. Who knows what could change if just one more person was added to the crew's roster. Just being in Shells Town was probably changing things. Not big things, but things none the less.

With a sigh, Sam reached into her bag with her food and pulled out an apple. Giving a careful look over, looking for bruises. Deeming it edible, she bit a large chuck out for it as she turned to walk away from Luffy and the others, absently going over what she planned on doing later.

Food, check. Made sure Zoro was still alive and kicking, check. Didn't piss off the local axe-handed freak, check. Scared asshole son shitless? Double check. All that's left is to go find someplace to bunker down to keep an eye on things around here.

"Sam!" She stops moving and turns around to face Rika. Seeing the curious looks on all of their faces, the blonde grinned and gave them a halfhearted salute before turning on her heel and continuing on her way. She didn't want to stay and risk somehow getting dragged along with Luffy and Zoro in the end, but she would be back. What kind of One Piece fan would she be if she missed seeing the main characters in action in real life?

She grinned as she took another bite out of her apple and made for the forest with a little skip in her step. What's coming next is going to be awesome!

After Sam had walked off and disappeared, Rika said she probably went back to the forest, Rika led them away for the Marine Base and started to explain why Zoro was really tired to a cross. "Zoro didn't do anything wrong! It's all Helmeppo's fault!" Rika said after she had finished her tale.

"So he's actually a nice guy, huh…" Coby said softly. He frowned, disturbed by what he had been told. Zoro hadn't done anything wrong while the captain's son, Helmeppo, was the one that had been in the wrong more times than people wanted to count. He frowned at the thought before the image of a blonde with bright blue eyes made itself known. "Who was that girl, Sam I think you called her, anyway? Why was she saying all that weird stuff before?"

"Oh, Sam?" Rika said as she looked over at Coby. "She's only been around here for a week and mom says she doesn't speak common so we have to be nice to her. But she's really nice! She plays with us kids and plays her whistle thing for us sometimes!" Rika smiled at the memory of one of the times that Sam had played for them.

"She doesn't speak common?" Coby said, slightly concerned. Common was the language of the World Government, if she didn't speak common, than where did she come from? Rika shrugged and continued.

"Mom says she talks in one of the languages, English I think she said, but nobody on the island knows enough to ask her, so we're trying to teach her common instead."

"You think she'd like to be a pirate?" Luffy said Coby looked at him sharply.

"Luffy!"

Rika considered the question, not bothered by Luffy asking it like Coby and shrugged. "I don't know. She usually avoids the Marines at the base, but if she meets them in town she seems fine. She seems to like Zoro though, and usually hangs around the courtyard when none of the Marines are there." Rika said honestly. In truth, most of the Marines didn't care that she was there, as long as she didn't spring Zoro loose. The only one that would throw a fit was the captain, who she avoided like the plague, but none of the Marines told him.

Luffy hummed as he thought over what she had said before nodding and grinning widely. He was going to say something when a shrill voice interrupted him.

"Hey, you're not bowing your heads low enough! I'll have my fighter execute you along with Zoro and that blonde bitch in three days!" The group of three turned and looked down the road at Helmeppo, who was strutting forward with a cocky smirk that shouldn't be anywhere near his face.

"I thought you gave Zoro a month," Luffy said stiffly, eyeing the captain's son. "And Sam hasn't done anything wrong."

Helmeppo made a face, like he was trying to sneer but had forgotten how, and said, "That? It was a joke! And that blonde bitch pisses me off!" He may have been about to say more, but just then a fist slammed into his face and sent him flying back into his Marine escort. Standing in front of where he had just been standing stood Luffy, fist still raised and a look of barely concealed rage in his eyes. Coby was beside him, holding him back and stopping him from during anything worse than he had already done.

"Coby." The straw hat wearing teen's voice easily carried over the sound of Helmeppo's empty death threats as he was carried away. Said boy looked up at the taller teen, clear panic in his eyes at the captain's son's threats. The determined scowl on his face did nothing to quell his worries.

"I've decided. We're going to get Zoro out, whether he joins or not," he said in a surprisingly calm voice. "And I'm going to get Sam to join me too."

Why do I feel like I'm not going to like what happens next, Coby thought to himself as he watched his friend make his way back to the Marine Base.

Why do I have the sudden feeling that I fucked up somehow? Sam thought to herself as she lounged in a tree branch on the outside of the wall that surrounded the Marine base. It was at the perfect height that she could see most of the courtyard, which included Zoro, but she was still hidden enough by the leaves and shadows that no one in the courtyard could see her. She looked up and smirked when she saw the asshole son—she honestly couldn't remember his name to save her life—being dragged back onto base by a group of Marines.

She shook her head in amusement and made herself comfortable on her tree branch and waited for the show to begin. She didn't have to wait long, because not even five minutes later Luffy came over the wall again and marched right up to Zoro. She couldn't catch what they were saying from where she was, not like she would have understood them anyway, but she remembered enough of the plot to have a basic idea of what they were saying.

She tilted her head curiously when she saw Luffy ask Zoro something and then look around for something. Zoro retorted back with something, angry about whatever it was that Luffy had asked, and Luffy just laughed it off and put a hand on his hat, grinning widely. Sometimes not knowing what someone was saying really irritated her.

She smiled knowingly when Luffy ran off towards the main building of the base with Zoro shouting after him. A few seconds later she was muffling her laughter as the top half of Captain Morgan's statue hit the ground with a loud crash. She was way too gleeful at the sight of destruction. Maybe she should see a professional…?

She calmed herself down from her giggling fit just as Coby climbed over the wall and quickly made his way to Zoro. Sam watched him talk to Zoro and then start on the ropes as she weighed whether it was worth it going over there and helping. She didn't want to get involved any more than she already was, but she didn't want to see Coby get shot either…

Next thing she knew, she was already half way across the courtyard. She reached the swordsman and future Marine and quickly took over the side closest to the main building with a grin. The two of them seemed to be surprised she was there, but she just gave them a cheeky grin and started on the ropes. They weren't that well tied and made out of cheap rope. The only reason they had worked on Zoro in the first place was because he had let them tie him to the cross.

Just as Sam had gotten one of the knots undone, a gun shot rang through the air and a shearing pain shot through her left shoulder. The force of the hit made her stagger back and trip over her own feet. She landed on her back and stared up at the blue sky as she tried to process what had just happened, even as her shoulder felt like fire.

She gritted her teeth together and hissed in pain as she sat up and clutched her shoulder. She waved away Coby's concern, even though it was sweet of him to worry about her, and painfully got to her feet. She went back to working on the knots like nothing had happened, the only difference now was she was determined to give someone a good punch for her shoulder before the day was out.

Coby looked at the blonde, worrying that she would fall over and faint from blood loss or something. When he saw the determined look in her jewel like eyes though, he decide to leave her be and follow her example and start on the knots again. Even if he told her to stop, she wouldn't listen, language barrier or not.

Zoro watched the two of them in silence, and silently praised the blonde for her spirit. There weren't many people that would go help people they don't know on a whim, and fewer still that would stick around when things started getting dangerous. He snorted in amusement and flexed his arms, letting the two prison breakers find some slack in the ropes.

Sam smiled when she saw Zoro flexing his arms, trying to find some slack that they could use, and cheerfully—or as cheerfully as she could get with a bleeding shoulder—started pulling apart the second knot. She had just undone the last part of the knot and let the rope fall to the ground, freeing Zoro's one arm, when the Marines finally decided to show up.

"Teishi! Senchō Morugan no junjo ni yotte, anata no subete o ichido ni jikkō sa seru! (1)"

Sam turned and stood in front of Zoro and Coby, blocking them from view and she placed her hands on her hips—her shoulder really hurt now—and scowled at the Marines with a quirked eyebrow. She tried to mask her pain, but she only succeeded in making herself look more pissed off at everything.

"Did you just say you would execute us?" she said while she inwardly praised the creation of the manga and anime for giving her foresight in this event. "Because I think you just said you would execute us, and didn't you're parents ever tell you it's not nice to point guns at people?" No one could understand her, but that wasn't the point here. She just wanted to buy enough time for Luffy to find the swords and come save their asses, because she sure wasn't taking on all these Marines by herself.

And just as she predicted, after Morgan gave his little speech that she couldn't understand and the other two didn't care about, as soon as the Marines pulled the triggers of their rifles, Luffy flew out of the wood work and gave everyone a mind fuck.

"THAT WON'T WORK!" Luffy yelled as he repelled the bullets that had been fired back at the Marines. Everyone in the courtyard was in various states of shock. Well, everyone besides Sam, who was bent over holding her stomach as she cackled loudly.

"What kind of human are you?" Zoro asked in shock. Sam was on her knees now, wheezing from all her laughing with tears in her eyes, either from mirth or the pain from her shoulder, Luffy couldn't tell.

"Me? I'm the man that will be Pirate King!" He answered Zoro confidently with a wide grin. Sam had finally gotten control of herself and was waving off Coby's concern as Luffy took the three swords off of his back and held them out for Zoro to see. "I found three, so which one is—" Zoro quickly cut him off as he looked over the sword.

"All of them, I use three swords."

Luffy smiled and nodded, before looking over at the Marines that were still dumbstruck that he was still standing. "Fight against the Marines with us will make you an outlaw," he turned back to Zoro with a challenging smirk. "Or would you rather die today?"

Zoro stayed silent for a moment before returning Luffy's smirk with one of his own. "Are you the son of the devil…" he muttered softly before smirking wider and a dangerous glint flashed in his eyes. "Forget it. Instead of dying here, I'll take up your offer and become a pirate!"

"Yahoo! We got a swordsman!" Luffy cheered. Beside him, Sam got to her feet and joined in the cheering.

"Hell yeah!" She shouted, and the gathered pirates and Marines looked at her strangely. She looked back at them innocently and everyone sweatdropped. Does she even know why she's cheering? Everyone but Luffy thought as he laughed alongside her, like they were sharing an inside joke.

"How is he still alive?"

"He should be dead!"

The quartet—I haven't forgotten Coby yet—looked back at the Marines that were still in the process of wrapping their heads around the fact that Luffy was still among us living.

"He must have eaten a Devil Fruit of some kind…" Morgan growled as he glared daggers at the ones that dared go up against the great him.

"Devil Fruit?!" one of the surrounding Marines yelled in panic. Sam scoffed as she reached over and stared helping Coby and Zoro with the last knot with one arm, her left arm hanging limply as blood slowing dripped down through her fingers. That seemed to get their attention pretty quickly.

"Those two are untying Zoro! Stop!" Sam looked up from her work blow a raspberry at the Marines. Coby looked at her like she had grown another head while Zoro looked amused and Luffy laughed. She grinned cheekily at them before helping pull the last of the rope free, thus freeing Zoro, just as the Marines charged with swords drawn.

The swordsman effortlessly took his swords from Luffy and drew them in one smooth movement. Moments later, he had effectively stopped seven on the Marines' swords with his three without a glance. Both Luffy and Sam looked awe struck while Coby looked like he would faint from the level pure awesomeness that he had just witnessed.

"You better not move," Zoro said dangerously around the white katana in his mouth. "If you do, I'll kill you!" Sam snorted into her scarf at the faces on the Marines that Zoro had just stopped. If only she had a camera…

"I already said I'd become a pirate and join your crew," Zoro said evenly as he looked up at Luffy, not at all bothered be the swords over his head. "Because no matter what, after this little stunt I'll be an outlaw too. But that doesn't matter, I have my own goals! I will become the world's greatest swordsman! It doesn't matter if people call me a devil or a saint in the end, my name will be known worldwide and if you get in my way," his eyes hardened, "I'll kill you!"

"Good!" Luffy said, a grin still on his lips. "If you couldn't manage something like that, I would feel embarrassed! The crew that sails with the Pirate King can only be the best!" he said confidently before his grin turned a little more dangerous.

"Zoro! Duck!" he yelled after Morgan had ordered his men to attack again. "Gomu-Gomu no… Whip!" he yelled just as Zoro got his head out of the way in time as Luffy stretched his leg out and kicked all the Marines away.

"What are you?" Zoro asked with a mix of shock and awe in his voice as he straightened. Behind Luffy Sam face faulted before face palming and released a groan. Coby looked at her worriedly but she just waved him off as Luffy explained.

"I'm a rubber man." Luffy said with a grin, and to prove his point, he grabbed the side of his mouth and stretched it far beyond the limits of normal human's. He released it and his cheek went back into place with an audible snap.

Luffy laughed that the faces on the Marines as they panicked all over again. Zoro shook his head, not quite believing it but had no reason to deny that his new captain was a strange one. Coby had seen it all before but was still impressed by the blatant ignoring of the laws of physics at work.

That was until Morgan ordered all his men to kill themselves.

Just as the first marine raised his rifle to his temple, a firm and clear voice sounded from behind Luffy and co.

"Speed Boost."

A blue blur speed forward from behind them and ran towards the Marines. The people in the courtyard could barely keep track of the blue blur as it ran from one marine to the next, yanking the rifles out of their hands and throwing them away. When every marine had been liberated of their weapons, the blue blur speed back behind just as the last afterimage disappeared.

Everyone turned and gapped at where the blue blur had stopped, which turned out to be Sam with her arms crossed and a frown of disapproval on her lips. A faint blue glow surrounded her entire body and the Marines started panicking again while Luffy, Zoro, and Coby still gapped at her.

"Another Devil Fruit user?!"

"What the fuck was that?!" the Marines cried even Luffy laughed. Everyone went silent though when she raised one of her arms and pointed at Morgan. She unfolded her other arm and gave him two middle fingers.

The Marines' jaws dropped and Luffy cackled loudly as Zoro chuckled in amusement. Coby had passed out, and Sam had turned her attention to him as she nudged him with her foot, ignoring everyone around her.

"Hey, you ok? You've been fainting a lot today," she said as she continued to nudge him in his side until he twitched and sat up. Luffy snickered even as he rushed forward and aimed a punch at Morgan's head, which he blocked with his axe-hand.

"People with no status like you have no right to go against me!" Morgan shouted as he throw off his coat and faced off against Luffy. "I am the great Captain Morgan!"

"I'm Luffy." Luffy said and bowed in greeting. "Nice to meet you."

"Did he just introduce himself? Please tell me him didn't just do that." Sam said as she watched Luffy jump around dodging Morgan's axe swipes while he throw punches of his own. Coby offered a glance but turned back to watch the battle with a worried expression. Sam shrugged before grimacing and clutched her shoulder again. The bleeding hadn't stopped yet, though it had slowed down, but it still hurt.

She pulled her hand away and made a face at the blood that dripped from it before placing it over the wound again. She heard the click of a gun being armed and looked up, only to deadpan. The asshole son had apparently decided that the person with the bullet wound would make the better hostage.

Really people? Did they already forget about the Speed Boost that hasn't been dropped yet?

"Wait!" Helmeppo shouted, even as his knees shook. Coby stumbled away and looked from the gun to Sam to Helmeppo in a panic. Zoro looked over and quirked an eyebrow. Luffy continued to jump around like a monkey, dodging attacks that would have cut him in half other wise and completely ignore what was going on around him.

"Hey! I said wait!" he tried again and got the same results.

"Idiot," Sam said coolly as she shook her head.

"S-shut up!" she shook her head and looked back over at Luffy as he landed another punch.

"Oi! Luffy!" She called, and Luffy stopped and looked over his shoulder at her with a raised an eyebrow. She gave him a grin and then a thumbs up, letting him know that she was perfectly fine.

"Hey, idiot son! Sam's not afraid of you!" Luffy said as he turned to face Helmeppo and brought his fist back as a shadow passed over him. "Gomu-Gomu no…" all at once, everyone started moving. Morgan moving to take off Luffy's head while Zoro went to intercept him. Luffy brought his fist forward with a loud cry of "Pistol!" before his fist collided with Helmeppo's face. Sam spun around on her heel and slammed her fist into the other side of Helmeppo's face in the same instant as Luffy.

Both Helmeppo and his father hit the ground at the same time. Luffy's arm snapped back into place and he turned to look at Sam. She flashed him a grin which he happily returned before looking over his shoulder at Zoro. "Nice one, Zoro."

"Don't mention it, Captain." Zoro replied with a smirk as he sheathed his swords. He then turned to the remaining Marines that had just watched their captain get defeated. "If you'll still going to arrest us, come and get us."

The Marines looked at Zoro, then at the fallen form of Morgan, before turning to each other. The next moment, they were jumping up in the air, throwing their hats up as well, cheering for the defeat of their captain.

"Huh, they seem happy that their captain got defeated." Luffy said as he watched the Marines throw an improvised party. Coby looked at all the celebrating Marines with something close to relief.

"So nobody liked Morgan to begin with, huh…"

A blue blur rushed passed them just as Zoro started to collapse. Sam appeared in front of him and caught him before he hit the ground. "Zoro!" Luffy called in concern as Sam grunted as she lowered him to a sitting position on the ground. The swordsman glared up at her.

"I didn't need your help," he retorted and she just gave him a lopsided grin. Sam then closed her eyes and took a breath as if to steady herself. When she exhaled, she said one word in a firm and clear voice.

"Drop."

Everyone watched with wide eyes as a set of softly glowing rings formed at her feet and rose until they disappeared over her. As soon as they disappeared, Sam's knees buckled underneath her and she sank to the ground with a groan.

"Sam?!"

"Are you all right?"

Sam looked up at the crowd that had surrounded her and Zoro when she had collapsed and grinned tiredly.

"Ouch," she said with a slight chuckle even as she grimaced when she moved her legs. The Marines around them let out a sigh of relief and one of them ordered another to find the doctor. Sam glanced up at Luffy and flashed him a tired smile. She was just glad that that was over… and that she would be getting pain medicine soon.

Sam stared down at her reflection in the water as she sat at the edge of the docks. Her shoulder had been stitched up and bandaged and the pain had lessened from a white hot fire to a dull throb. Her legs were a different story though. They felt like they were going to fall off when she first dropped the boost but now they just ached painfully. Painful, but bearable.

She had left Luffy and his little group as soon as her shoulder had been taken care of and she had taken some pain medicine. She still stood be her decision to not get involved any more than she already had, so she high tailed it down to the docks as soon as she could. But now that she had helped them get Zoro out of prison—though he wasn't really in prison in the first place—it probably wasn't a good idea to stick around.

So that meant she had to find a boat that would get her off the island and from there one that could get her to the Grand Line. Aquarius had said that his Champion's main base was in the Grand Line and that she should go there, which she would have to leave at some point anyway. Hopefully she could find a merchant ship that would be willing to take her. As much as she liked some of the Marines, she wasn't going to risk joining them. Too many were assholes.

She hummed as she continued to study she reflection. A shadow passed over her and she blinked when she saw a head of green hair in the water over her own head. They're done eating already?

The next thing she knew, she was being lifted from her seat and thrown into one of the small boats that was tied to the docks. She landed hard and hissed when pain shot through her shoulder. She looked up and could only watch with wide eyes and her mouth hanging open as Luffy and Zoro jump into the boat and set sail. She watched numbly at first as Coby come and sent them off followed shortly by the rest of the Marines.

She only snapped out of her trance when the island finally disappear form the horizon. She looked over at the two others in the boat and a moment of silence passed between.

"I really did fuck up, didn't I?" she asked the air and held her head in her hands deciding to ignore the other two that when giving her weird looks. So much for that plan.

A few hours later, Sam was wrestling with Luffy while Zoro was watching from the sideline amused.

"For the last time, Luffy, there is something called personal space!" Sam said as she tried to push him away from her, but him being made of rubber made it very difficult. "I don't know what you're saying—and hands off the bag!" she tore her bag out of his hands and held it out of his reach.

Luffy pouted and repeated what he had been saying for the past hour. Sam scowled at him, not at all effected by his pout (ok, maybe a little, but it didn't help them any) and hissed at him while she held her bag close to her chest. She opened her mouth to tell him to back off when something very solid and hard hit her in the back of her head.

Something clattered to the deck of the boat as Sam dropped her bag and cradled her head in her lap. Cursing in a way that would have left possible both boys blushing, Sam looked with tears in her eyes to glare at the offending object that had hit her. She blinked when she saw a glass bottle—the same one that she had thrown in the ocean a week ago to be exact—with piece of paper rolling back and forth innocently on the deck.

As one, the newly formed Straw Hat Pirates looked from the innocent bottle to behind Sam and their jaws dropped. There, out in the middle of the ocean, was a hand made completely out of water waving cheerfully at them before dissolving. They stared at the spot for a second longer before returning their attention to the bottle.

Minutes passed as they continued to stare at the bottle as it rolled across the deck as the boat moved with the wave. Sam reached forward and picked up the bottle as Luffy Zoro watched silently. She held it like it would suddenly attack her and she uncorked it and fished out the message. She took one look at the neat computer print and face faulted.

"You mean there's return messages!?"

Translations:

(1)Teishi! Senchō Morugan no junjo ni yotte, anata no subete o ichido ni jikkō sa seru! = Stop! By order of Captain Morgan, all of you are to be executed at once!

Yes, message-in-a-bottle is a thing and Sam can send them to almost anyone in the One Piece World, they just have to be near a body of water that is the sea or connected to it. So, because it's a thing, I'm going to let you guys pick who she sends some messages to and I'll write a little thing at the bottom of the chapter where she sends it and the person receives it if you like.

So yeah, good? Bad? Mah? Please drop me a review and tell me what you thought of the chapter!

Edit: Oh my god, I can't believe I forgot to put in the lines... Well, now this chapter has lines, so hopefully it makes more sense.