"Ora, it seems like this is my lucky day. Two new slaves just fell from the sky in the last eighteen hours," the fat man celebrated, licking his fingers after eating something oily and greasy. A few crumbs remained in his beard, and as he moved his hand over it, oil adhered to the thick hair. He looked as disgusting as he sounded.

She watched from their place in the tower, handcuffed, as the people below worked non-stop, building, cleaning, serving, while men in uniform whipped and hurt them. She couldn't listen to any conversations from above – only watch from that dirty window – but they wouldn't be pleasant, that was a given.

"Now go and join the others! Go build that bridge, scum!" Bellowing the order, he pushed her and she moved, quietly leaving the tower and joining the exhausted and wounded people below.

For a few hours, she blended in, working as fast as she could – which was fast enough for them – and trying to help as many people as she could, so that they'd be less punished. She dare not defy the uniform men or rebel, not until she had a better understanding of the situation. They were all in a huge bridge, with the ocean surrounding them: if she made one wrong move and needed to escape, she couldn't.

She was about to grab another set of bricks when she saw a young boy fall to his knees and drop something fragile – she didn't know what that was, but it broke into pieces.

"You idiot scum! Look what you've done!"

"Now the boss is gonna get angry at us! Stupid kid!"

"I'm… I'm sorry..."

The kid shrunk as one of the men's foot moved, aimed to kick him.

"Stop it, please," a dark haired woman stepped in between the kid and the uniformed men. She was handcuffed as the rest of them, but she didn't look as wrecked. She didn't look like someone whose spirit had been defeated. "It's my fault he fell."

"Nonsense! You weren't anywhere near him! Don't meddle in on this, bitch! It's none of your business!"

He then raised his hand and hit her, but she didn't move, still protecting the boy.

Guess caution's to the wind then.

"Ex-quip!" Changing into her Flight armor, she moved, faster than they probably expected, and punched the man's side, sending him a few meters away.

That sent the rest of the people into a frenzy.

"How did she break the handcuffs?!"

"That bitch scum! She punched me!"

"Run! They'll kill whoever opposes them!"

Erza didn't stop to see what they were doing, for two uniformed men moved to get her, snapping out of the surprised estate they were in by seeing her moving free, fast and strong. As they came at her, however, she simply moved and knocked them down.

Truly down: down the bridge, into the ocean.

"Are you alright?" She asked the woman, the one who had protected the kid. She nodded, standing protectively in front of him. "I don't suppose you'd know a way to escape this place?"

"Steal a ship," her answer was simple, as if she were telling Erza to just blink or breathe. "One of theirs."

Erza nodded and, in one swift motion, used her sword to cut off the woman's handcuffs, releasing her.

"You were willing to put yourself on the line for a boy you clearly didn't know, that puts you under the people I'd like as my allies category," the redhead spoke, answering the other woman's silent question. "What do you say about getting out of here?"

"You are risking yourself for people you clearly don't know, so I guess that makes you worth allying with as well. I'm Robin," she extended one hand and the redhead took it.

"Erza," she answered, moving to cut through a group of adversaries who had gathered a few slaves in a circle.

As she took one half of the group down, she watched, taken aback, as arms grew out of a few men's bodies, and forced them to bend back, probably breaking their collarbones.

"What kind of magic is that?"

The woman giggled.

"Magic? Curious way to refer to a Devil Fruit," her answer only left Erza more confused, but she had to put it aside for, in that moment, the sound of cannons attracted her attention. She turned to one side just in time to see a shower of cannon balls falling upon the watch tower – the one where the leader stayed.

"The Revolutionary Army, they're here."

"Are we on their side?"

"We're not against them, they won't harm you, either. I need to find a friend, though, so I'm going on a ship of my own."

Erza nodded and, not saying a word, helped Robin get to the ships and steal one: she didn't care about joining an Army, she cared about getting answers, and she'd have an easier time with that woman. The Army had their hands full with freeing the bridge slaves.

"Where are we headed?" She inquired, helping with setting sail.

"Sabaody," Robin answered, "that's our meeting point."

Whoever else she'd be meeting, Erza could only wonder. As soon as they were in safer ground – or waters – she planned on asking questions.

Hoping Robin would have answers.

••

••

"How does this compass work?"

"What? The Eternal Pose?" Nami looked between the Pose and Lucy, who eyed it with interest. "It points us towards the island it's locked onto. Since this one is an Eternal Pose to Water 7, it'll guide us there."

They had been sailing for half a day now, and had just reached a part where they had to be more careful due to huge rocks everywhere. Despite that, Zoro and Nami were quite relaxed.

"Why didn't you just take one to Sabaody?" That came from Zoro.

"Because I couldn't find one, idiot! That island doesn't receive many pirates, didn't you notice?"

"Whatever. Wake me up when we get there."

"You sleep a lot," Happy commented, flying above Zoro, who had his eyes closed and his back against a wooden mast. He seemed more relaxed now, Lucy noticed. Maybe because he had at least one companion along.

"Shut up, weird cat."

"I'm not a cat! I'm an Exceed!"

"That's not even a word."

Nami sighed, turning her attention away from the two bickering and back to the Pose. Lucy looked around her, to the vast ocean and the rocky path they were sailing into, in awe: she had never been at sea for so long. The longest was when they went to Tenrou Island, and the ocean wasn't as crazy and weird as that one.

"How is it that the crazy fish and huge monsters in the water do not freak you out?" She asked Nami after some time. Zoro clearly could fight, and he was the kind of person who didn't scare easily – Lucy knew that type well. But Nami seemed more normal, and she didn't have any weapons with her, save for a staff. Unless she could use some magic with it, Lucy couldn't see how the navigator would handle herself at sea.

"Our crew has three monsters of our own," Nami answered with a slight smile, "Zoro and two others, guess traveling with them got me used to these kind of dangers. Luffy's always going where trouble is," she seemed sadder at the mention of the name "Luffy".

"Why were you separated?" Happy asked, leaving a suddenly asleep Zoro to talk to the girls.

"We… Kuma attacked us," Nami's hands closed into tight fists, "we're too weak. We couldn't do anything against him. He… He zapped us away, each of us to a different place. I don't know where the others are, but I am sure they're all going to try and meet us and Sabaody."

"What's a Kuma?"

"You guys don't know much, do you? How did you get to the Grand Line like this?" Nami asked instead of answering Happy's question. "Why are you separated from your friends?"

"The Grand Line?" Lucy repeated, curious, then decided to answer at least one question. "We… We were attacked, and we were fighting when I found this," she showed Nami the black key. "I don't know what happened, but this scattered us all around the world, I think. Wendy fell in the middle of a war, we don't know about the others."

It was Lucy's turn to sound worried and a bit sad. She didn't like being separated from her friends again, not after the year apart.

Nami touched the black key on Lucy's key ring, visibly curious.

"It looks like a regular key," she commented, trying to figure out how a simple key could scatter people around the world. "How many friends are you looking for?"

"Natsu and Wendy," Happy spoke, "if I fell here, Natsu has to have fallen too, he was close to us.

"Erza and Gray, too," Lucy agreed, raising one finger for each name. "Four friends, five if we count Charle," she concluded.

"I hope you can find them," Nami spoke, and she meant it. She could understand the urge to reunite with one's companions for she felt it all the time since Kuma sent her to the Sky Island.

The ship suddenly shook violently, snapping both of them back from their conversation and relaxed moods. Nami looked for the source of the sudden shaking, but couldn't see a thing. The sky was clear, the water was calm and they couldn't see any monsters whatsoever.

Then it shook again, this time so violently that Zoro rolled from his place. He woke up, alert and alarmed, looking for an enemy.

"Something's attacking us from below!" Nami exclaimed, hurrying to the other side of the deck to try to see what it was. "We need to get out of here!"

"Happy? Can you see what it is?" Lucy asked, and the exceed flew around the ship while Nami and Zoro hurried to change its course away from the attacker.

"It's a person!" Happy came back shouting. "With six snakes, Lucy! It's a weird person!"

"That doesn't even make sense!" Lucy shouted back while helping the two pirates. "What the hell did you see?"

"f e e d" the word echoed all around them, as if the air itself had spoken. "m e."

"What the heck is with this voice?" Zoro demanded, while holding his swords in a fighting stance. One of the swords was in his mouth.

"It takes a long time to say even one word!" Happy added, and Lucy and Nami exchanged a fearful look. Lucy grabbed her whip out of habit and Nami's hand closed tightly around her staff. The ship had changed course, but it kept shaking violently.

"Is this thing following us?!" Nami demanded, trying to change course again. "I can't see it! How can we flee from something we can't see?!"

"Let's fight it!" Zoro went to the edge of the ship, looking for it in the water.

"How the hell are you going to fight underwater?!" Nami demanded, annoyed.

"Get that goat girl here!" He turned to Lucy, "she can force it out with that fluff stuff!"

"She can't bring out something she can't see!" Lucy protested, thinking. "NAMI, WE'RE GOING TO CRASH INTO THE ROCKS!"

Nami and Zoro quickly moved the ship again, avoiding the rocks. They finally left the rocky area, making it easier to flee.

Then, six huge heads came out of the water behind them, its eyes bloody red and the mouth full of sharp, huge teeth.

Lucy and Nami screamed, whereas Zoro prepared to attack.

But the thing simply sunk back into the water, leaving them alone.

"What was that?!" Lucy demanded, breathing fast. "Did you see the heads?!"

"I've never heard of a monster like that," Nami spoke back, now seemingly concerned. "We've never crossed anything remotely like it."

"So what? It's the Grand Line," Zoro spoke back to them. "Man, how annoying, I wanted to fight it."

Nami punched him hard.

"Idiot! That thing has six heads! Don't go picking these fights when Sanji and Luffy aren't here!"

"I can fight without the shitty cook!"

"I don't want to have to fight! If that thing had friends, we'd have to fight them!"

"SHUT UP!" Lucy shouted, stopping their quarrel. "Look!" She pointed ahead, and they both turned to look. "There's a sort of ship coming our way!"

They all turned to look, and indeed, there was something coming their way,

"That's not just any ship," Nami recognized the jolly roger, "it's Trafalgar Law's submarine. Why are they above water?"

"This isn't good," Zoro added, suddenly tense and again ready for battle. "That guy's troublesome to deal on our own."

"Don't go picking a fight!" Nami warned him just as the submarine stopped and a polar bear came to the top, surprising Lucy.

The bear looked at the group on deck and disappeared within the submarine again. A while later, a familiar face – to both Nami and Zoro, at least – appeared.

Law had the same cold and composed expression from whey they met him in Sabaody. He wore his signature hat and his eyes sent shivers down Lucy's spine. She'd never seen him before, so she found herself tensing under his expression and demeanor.

"You're Strawhat-ya's crew mates, right?" He spoke, looking at Nami, who quickly acknowledged it.

"You've seen Luffy?" Zoro inquired.

"He's recovering in the island of women," Nami and Zoro's jaws dropped at that, "he sustained grave injuries but should recover. Physically."

"You were at that war? I didn't read your name on the papers," Nami commented.

Law looked around the ocean and at his back.

"There's a small island close by," he spoke, "meet us there."

With that, he disappeared within his submarine, and they sailed – still with a part of it above water so Nami could follow.

Lucy wondered why he was being so mysterious, why Nami and Zoro seemed to tense under his presence – he looked a bit scary, sure, but nothing about his actions made Lucy think he'd hurt them – and why he seemed to know more about Nami and Zoro's friend than the duo. She started making a mental list of everything she wanted to ask them, all of them...

"Why do they have a polar bear in a submarine?"

That question came from Happy.

••

••

Author's note: Thanks everyone for the feedbacks again :)

So, this is a smaller chapter. From now on, I'll be updating every SUNDAY, so don't worry, I'm not abandoning this story.

Any feedback is welcome - and if you don't want to make it public for some reason, my inbox is always open :)

Hope you guys like it, despite the shortness.

One last thing: I swear I try to increase narrative and decrease dialogues throughout the story, but it's something I find particularly hard. I'll do my best to improve on that, I promise.