At long last, Crocodile was defeated. King Cobra had watched in awe as this young pirate, Luffy, pummeled the Warlord with bloody fists and sent him up through the layers of stone that comprised the catacombs floors in a barrage of punches. Light began to filter through the falling dust and debris, and Luffy fell back to the ground with a heavy crash.

"Through all that stone…" The boy's strength was remarkable, and the king almost got caught up in marveling at it, but the sound of stone continuing to crumble around them drew him back. "Hey! Are you alright?!" He moved and knelt beside Luffy, when he spotted a small glass phial rolling across the floor towards him.

"Quickly, use that. It'll neutralize the poison from Crocodile's hook." Nico Robin sat slumped against a nearby wall, looking more than a little worse for wear from the wound she'd received from Crocodile. He picked up the phial but fixed her with a suspicious look.

"You looked me straight in the eye and told me that the only thing written here was history," he said after a moment, and she averted her eyes. "Why did you lie to me?"

"You knew? How cruel…"

"This country's history isn't written anywhere in there. Instead, it has everything about the weapon you wanted to get your hands on. The description, location…" Cobra uncorked the phial and lifted Luffy's head to pour the contents down his throat. "It doesn't make any sense. If you had given Crocodile this information, Alabasta would be his for the taking right now. Isn't that right?" He gently laid Luffy back down, as Nico Robin leaned her head back against the wall and let her eyes fall shut.

"I don't care whether the people of this country live or die. I had decided from the start not to give Crocodile the weapon." Cobra's look turned from suspicion to perplexity.

"I don't understand… Then why did you come here?"

"I don't really know anymore… Chasing a dream, I suppose." She seemed so resigned. It felt awkward to see Crocodile's former right-hand woman being so vulnerable. "The last remaining poneglyph in the world that still carries… the true history… The Rio Poneglyph…"

"What do you mean 'the true history?'" Nico Robin spoke like these words would be her last, but it only left Cobra with more questions. But now she cast her eyes to the poneglyph in the other room, visible through the shattered wall.

"… Nothing. It doesn't matter anymore. Twenty years I've searched, and I've never had a better lead than this. This was my last hope, and it didn't work out. So if I'm going to die here, it's the perfect time." The stonework seemed to agree with her, as dust began to rain down nearby from a crumbling support beam. "I'm tired of this fool's crusade…" A large chunk of stone fell only a few feet away, casting up a cloud of dust like a warning. It did well to hide the tears forming in Robin's eyes, if only for a few moments. "All I wanted was to learn our true history… and share it with the world…"

"You're saying it's possible our lost history could be uncovered, and the poneglyphs are the keys to unlocking these records?" Cobra stood and turned to her fully, a look of disbelief on his face, and a glimmer of hope in his eyes. "You mean… All this time…"

Robin had a small, mysterious smile pulling on her lips, like she'd had when the king first saw her. The smile fell away in a moment and her eyes darted to look over Cobra's shoulder as Luffy rose silently to his feet. He was covered in blood and for a moment Robin pondered that there was no way the antidote could have worked that fast. She pondered only for a moment, though, as it was only the next moment that Luffy scooped the king up under one arm—the man was grateful there was no one else around to witness that—and slung Robin over the other shoulder.

"Kay, let's go." He immediately turned to leave the crumbling structure. Robin's immediate protests fell on deaf ears. She was going to live at least long enough to get out of this tomb, whether she liked it or not, but what she did after that was her own business. He began heading for the exit but froze when he heard an odd sound that drew his eyes up to the hole he'd made, and he felt Robin and Cobra stiffen in his grip. "Did you guys hear that…?"

"It sounded like… something breathing?" Robin's eyes followed Luffy's up. The sound had been so soft, like a sigh, but was distinctly noticeable even over the groaning of the stonework.

Luffy switched his hold on his two passengers so he was holding them both with only one arm. His other hand, now free, stretched to pull them up into the next floor. This one seemed more stable, as no cracks had yet formed in the walls and ceiling, save for the area where Luffy had broken through. This room was mostly dark, with only enough light spilling in to see a vague white shape a few feet away.

"It was definitely in here," Luffy mused, setting down Cobra and Robin so he could look around. Robin moved to examine the corner of white stone that was visible, having to feel around for a moment before she could properly identify it.

"This is—" In the same moment she's begun to speak, Cobra found a torch sconce on the wall and lit it. The three jumped as the room became bathed in the orange light, the flame quickly spreading from one torch to the next in either direction around the room. There in the center was revealed a magnificent white stone sarcophagus, and behind it a freestanding wall of grey stone. Both stood in stark contrast against the sandstone that the rest of the mausoleum had been constructed from.

"It can't be…" King Cobra's words came out barely more than a whisper, but the others heard him clearly in the quiet of the chamber. The rumbling of the collapsing tombs sounded so distant in here.

"What can't it be?" Luffy tilted his head quizzically at the king as the man slowly approached the sarcophagus and reached out a hand to trace the emblem that rose from the surface of the lid.

"An ancient legend, from the old kingdom that came before Alabasta, and who knows how long even before that…" The king's words piqued Robin's and Luffy's interest, and for a moment they all forgot about their wounds. "I'd heard tell that this tomb was here in the mausoleum, but the way here was lost generations ago when a previous king died before passing on the secret to his heir."

"What legend?"

"The Last Dragonborn, supposedly they were a hero from prerecorded history." Cobra spoke with a sense of quiet wonderment, and Robin could see his fingers trembling ever so slightly. "The story's been largely forgotten by the people, but there are still some old tomes in the royal library with information. This symbol was on the cover…"

"This sarcophagus is in such pristine shape, especially for the age you say it is," Robin commented, kneeling to examine the inscription along the sides, running a hand over the odd symbols. Many of the 'letters' repeated and were strung together in 'words' of varying length, which told Robin that this was an actual written language and not random chicken-scratch. "It's cold as ice… And I can't make out these inscriptions. What more can you tell us about this Dragonborn?"

"Honestly, some of the feats they were said to have performed sound pretty out of this world, even by Grand Line standards," Cobra admitted. "The main bulk of the tale goes that the Dragonborn was a wandering warrior, scholar and adventurer who saved the world from a beast called the World Eater."

"Sounds awesome," Luffy chimed in with a determined grin stretched across his face, "like the kind of person I'd want on my crew!"

A flickering shadow behind the nearby wall temporarily drew Cobra and Robin's attention away from the sarcophagus, but it was enough for Luffy to brace his hands against the lid—it really was cold to the touch—and give a mighty heave. The scraping of stone on stone made Cobra and Robin whip back around, nearly shouting at Luffy as the lid collapsed to the floor with a solid thud. They expected a corpse, and the musty odor of long decayed flesh, but what greeted them was the body of a person who looked as though they had just laid down to rest, and a gust of crisp air with a scent that reminded Luffy of when he scaled the Drum Rockies.

The body—they now saw belonged to a woman—was clothed in thick, blue woolen robes lined with fur, with heavy boots on her feet and fur-lined gloves on her hands. The attire was so out of place for someone in a desert kingdom that they almost missed the rising of her chest as she drew in a breath. Almost. The king and archaeologist stared in astonishment as she slowly flexed her fingers and opened her eyes, the firelight reflecting gold in her irises.

Luffy, on the other hand, seemed more curious than awestruck. "Hey, are you actually alive?"

"Last I checked." Her voice was rough like someone who'd been far too long without water, and she began coughing to clear her throat and lungs, forcing herself upright in the process. The three spotted the travel pack and the weapons that had been laying in the sarcophagus beside her; an ornate, white-gold bow and shield, and two swords—one a straight, double edged blade with a circular handguard, the other a katana.

"Cobra," Robin addressed the king quietly, pulling him aside for a moment, "do you believe this is the Dragonborn from the legend?"

"I don't know," Cobra muttered lowly, looking back at the woman they'd found. "If she is, I can't begin to fathom how she's still alive after so long…" He and Robin turned back to her as her coughs subsided, and Cobra had to momentarily deal with the awkwardness of how to address an ancient, living legend. "Excuse me, uh, miss, but, what is your name?"

"My—" Her voice caught in her throat, and she gave one more cough to finish clearing it. "My name is Lee."

"This tomb has sat undisturbed for… centuries, at least," Cobra remarked as he stepped close once again and offered the Dragonborn—Lee—a hand to get her out of the sarcophagus. "How have you survived down here for so long?"

"As far as I can tell? Divine intervention." Lee accepted his help, pulling herself out of her resting place. With her rescuers (finders?) now in better view, she discovered that each of them was badly injured. "You're all wounded, what happened to all of you?" This place didn't look quite like the Nord burial tombs she'd been into before, but she wondered if they'd faced traps or undead getting to her.

"A man named Crocodile just attempted a coup on this country," Robin began to explain, but she didn't get much farther, before Luffy gave an astounded shout. While they'd been preoccupied, Luffy had gone to examine the shadow that Robin and the king had spotted previously.

"Whoa! You guys gotta come see this!"

And come see, they did. When all four were gathered on the other side of the Word Wall—Lee had marveled for a moment that the same stone that had previously sat atop a mountain was now deep within a tomb—their mouths all fell agape. There, curled up just out of view of anyone that would have entered the tomb, was a massive skeleton the likes of which only Lee had seen before. The dragon's skull was easily longer than any of them were tall, and the body looked to have been nine or ten times as long were it stretched out properly.

"Is that a…"

"Paarthurnax…" Lee's voice came out a barely audible whisper as she stepped forward and knelt before the skull, reaching to gently touch one of the many short, spiny protrusions along the skull's lower jaw. It looks just like a beard, she had commented with a broad grin to the old dragon back when they had first met. I guess 'Greybeards' was an appropriate name for you guys after all!

"Tiid bo amativ, wuth fahdoni."

"Hey, are you alright?" Luffy asked, concerned. "Did you know whatever those bones belonged to?"

"Paarthurnax was… was an old friend of mine, and a mentor of sorts," Lee explained without looking away. But her voice shook just so much as she spoke. "Just before I went into that sarcophagus, he promised he'd watch over me… He really knew how to keep his word."

Even as Lee tried to maintain good humor, the others could tell she was grieving. Robin looked ready to say something, but a sundering crack drew them all sharply out of the moment. The walls to the chamber shuddered and split. A segment of floor near the corner of the room fell away into the passage below.

"Okay, time to go," Luffy announced before once more scooping Cobra and Robin back into his arms and darted back around the Wall towards the hole they'd climbed in through, with Lee hot on their heels. She slowed only long enough to scoop up her belongings before leaping through the hole after the lad, then she hit the ground running, dodging and weaving around falling debris.

"Hey," the boy called over to her, dodging left around falling stone, "the king said you're this Dragonborn thingy. That true? And what is a Dragonborn?"

"Yes," Lee replied, dodging right, "though I'm surprised people still remember that tale after so long. A Dragonborn is an otherwise normal mortal born with the soul of a dragon."

"That's so awesome!" The boy leapt over a fallen chunk of stone, propelled by his excitement. The woman slung over his shoulder was ready to protest their chatty exuberance, though.

"You seem quite nonchalant, talking like this while a building collapses around you."

"This isn't so different from what I used to do," Lee admitted, swerving around a boulder that fell just in front of her. "I'd go diving down ancient burial crypts all the time. Never had one collapse on me before, but they were all full of traps and walking corpses, so this isn't too far off."

"Shishishi!" The boy laughed and picked up speed in his run. "So cool! A dragon-lady adventurer that fights zombies! It's decided! When we get out of here, you gotta join my pirate crew!" The man under his arm opened his mouth to protest but was cut short when the boy dodged around another stone.

Rays of daylight soon came into view, and with the rest of the path to the door free of rubble, it was a mad dash to get out the door before that fact changed. Once Lee felt the full exposure of the sun and open air, it was a visceral reminder that this is not Skyrim anymore. Where once the sun had been pleasantly warm against the chill northern air, now it baked down, combining with the arid air to both tighten the skin on Lee's face and make her immediately break out in a sweat—though admittedly the fur lining in her clothes didn't help any. With the College of Winterhold most likely disbanded by now, she was sure no one would object to her making a few modifications to the Archmage's robes.

"Woo!" The boy hooped and hollered, leaping into the fresh, open air before setting down his two passengers and throwing his hands into the air triumphantly. "We made it!"

His cheer was relatively short lived, as he immediately began to keel over backwards once the words left his mouth. Lee only just managed to catch him before his head hit the ground, but he was already snoring away with a content look on his face, unbothered by his wounds in the void of unconsciousness. Lee conjured up the energy for a healing spell to soothe the boy's injuries, but the soft orange glow fizzled on her fingers. Taken aback, her eyes snapped to her hand, and she flexed her fingers experimentally, trying to call up her magicka. There was a soft, short spark of light around her fingers, but it died as soon as she attempted to actually cast the spell. It reminded her of when she'd attempted to cast a spell but didn't have enough magicka in her reserves, which made little sense; she had trained herself to have magicka reserves to rival the previous Archmage, and this was a basic restorative spell. Her magicka ought to be regenerating as quick as she could cast.

"What's wrong," the woman asked when she noticed Lee's frustrated scowl?

"I'm trying to cast a damn healing spell to help him," she nodded towards the boy, "but my magic isn't wanting to cooperate."

"Magic?" Asked the older man. "You practice actual magic?"

"Well, I like to think I'm good enough I don't need much practice anymore, but apparently I was wrong," she joked, of course, but recognized that his question had been genuine. "Yes, I do, and I take from your question that the clever craft has been on the decline in recent ages." She shifted and slung her pack around to her front and pulled the boy up onto her back and stood. "Regardless, since I can't treat everyone's wounds myself, it's best we get the lot of you some proper medical attention."

"You three get back to the palace," said the woman, who held a hand to the wound on her chest and turned to leave. "I'll be on my way… Cobra, if you do end up questioning Miss Dragonborn on her adventures, do the world—and me—a favor and make sure to get it all written down."

The man, now addressed as Cobra, turned a stern gaze upon the woman. "Still so eager to meet your own end, Nico Robin? One would think you'd want to be the first to write down any newly discovered history, yourself."

"I do," Nico Robin admitted freely, glancing over her shoulder to Cobra and then to Lee. "As an archaeologist, my greatest urge is to discover every hidden truth about the past. But at the same time, my only reason for living has slipped through my hands, so I don't see much point in claiming the honors here." She looked away and began a solemn march.

"Miss Robin," Lee spoke up after a moment's hesitation, catching the other woman's attention, "I don't know what exactly is going on, so it probably isn't my place to say so, but there's always reasons to live, no matter how small." She seemed to consider Lee's words for a few moments, but soon picked her pace back up without a word in response.

A/N: Okay so I meant to get this up last night, but by the time I looked at the clock it was already midnight and I had to hit the hay. Unfortunately, chapter three is only just started, so it won't be up quite as fast as this one, and I can't make promises for timing. Fear not, though, as I have no intention of letting this story fall to the wayside. It's just gonna be kinda slow going most of the time.

A few things before I say farewell; 1, Lee's sarcophagus being warm in the first chapter and ice cold in this one isn't a discrepancy, I did that on purpose. 2, next chapter will touch a lot more on Lee's backstory, skills and the gear she brought with her.

Thanks to dukefan01 and Bigpizza for the reviews, and thank you all again for reading, I hope you enjoy, and remember; reviews, no matter how simple, feed my soul and keep me hale, hearty and inspired.