Hi there, i have the new chapter ready :) I hope you'll like it. Even though i have to admit that i'm scared. Only two reviews for the last chapter. Did you not like it? If i did something completely wrong or anything please tell me. I want to improve my writing after all. :)

The next thing i'm scared about is this chapter. This is the resolving chapter (but the story is not over, yet) and i really hope you like it. *sweatdropping*

I actually had to cry while writing this chapter. Usually i'm not the type to cry that easily but i listened to sad songs while i wrote and than i just cried a bit. :/ I hope the chapter does have some emotions.

Well, i think i rambled enough. Please enjoy the chapter and please drop me a review :) Oh and i think this is one of the longest chapters i've ever written. :D I'm proud of myself.

When Sara woke up the next morning she noticed that the sun was already up and that she was alone in the room. Thinking about their task that they had to search for Zoro today meant that Sanji would most probably be already in the kitchen to make breakfast.

She clenched the blanket in between her fists and started to cry even though she didn't know the reason for her tears.

She just spent a wonderful night with the man she loved and it had felt good. She should be happy and content and not crying her heart out.

But she couldn't help it. She hurt inside because of her fear to lose everything. She knew that today would be the day everything ends, even though she didn't know how it would end. But she didn't want it to end. She wanted to stay with Sanji and love him and kiss him and hold him near.

She wished for something that wouldn't be granted.

She desperately tried to control her shaking and her tears, knowing that Sanji could come inside at any second.

She took a few deep breaths and wiped the tears away with the blanket.

A few minutes later Sara thought she would be alright, so she decided to get dressed, she decided on plain jeans and a plain white shirt and went to search for Sanji, but not before she looked in the mirror to check if her eyes are red. It wouldn't do any good if she worried Sanji. After all they had to search for a person that was important to him.

Tears and sadness are prohibited for today. She sent herself a determined look in the mirror and left the room to go to the galley.

When she opened the door she already noticed the sweet smell of pancakes in the air and a smile crept his way onto her face subconsciously.

"Good Morning, Sanji."

He turned around from his pans and looked at her lovingly and with a big grin.

"Good Morning my angel."

She blushed at that comment and walked towards him to wrap one arm around his waist and to give him a peck on the cheek.

Their eyes locked and pure happiness and content could be seen in them.

Sanji, albeit hesitantly, tore his gaze away and put the pancakes onto two plates.

"We should eat quickly so we can search for Zoro nearby."

Sara felt a pang of guilt in her chest but forced herself to hide it from her face.

"Yes, we should."

After eating their breakfast in peaceful silence, Sanji put the dishes into the sink and packed something for lunch for them. They didn't have the time to come back to the ship for lunch after all.

They started with the people living in the port town. They asked everyone they met if they had seen Zoro or some suspicious people but no one could help them.

There were a few who had seen Zoro walk through the town after he had left the ship and made his way towards the forest. But afterwards no one had seen him anymore.

All in all it was frustrating. They had spent five hours to ask the towns people and they knew nothing more than when they had started to search.

Sanji mentally cursed their luck and decided to go to the meadow where he found Sara and where the swords had been found, so they could eat their lunch there and search the surrounding forest afterwards.

He unfolded a blanket and the both of them took a seat and once again on this day ate in silence.

Sara looked at him with a worried look. Sanji wasn't himself today. Maybe it was because of Zoro. After all Sanji told her yesterday how important Zoro is for him. Not once did he look around or anything. His mind always seemed to be somewhere else. Somewhere she couldn't reach him.

Once again a pang of pain shot through her heart but she decided to push it aside.

She placed her hand upon his hand and showed him a reassured smile when he looked up at her.

"We'll find him Sanji. I'm sure."

She squeezed his hand to emphasize her words and felt her heart swell with happiness when he smiled back at her.

"Yeah, we'll find him. Thank you. Maybe we should get up again and continue our search?"

"Alright."

Sanji quickly put everything back into a bag and folded the blanket up again, not even sparing a glance for the butterflies or flowers around him. The only thing that was on his mind was the search for Zoro.

That's why they instantly made their way over to the forest, looking around for any clues on Zoro's whereabouts.

After two hours more Sanji was officially pissed. He hated the fact that they couldn't find anything. He has never been the most patient type of guy and this whole searching thing drained a lot of his energy. How can someone disappear without leaving something behind?

He was vehemently unwilling to acknowledge Zoro's swords as a clue. They didn't count, after all they didn't help.

Even as he thought those things he noticed that they didn't really sound logical, but he didn't care about logic right now.

"Sanji! Be careful!"

"Hmn? What?"

That's when it happened. He was too caught up into his thoughts that he didn't see the root of one of the trees. His foot was caught up in it and out of momentum the rest of his body was thrown forward which made him fall to the floor. (If you had asked him later he would say he flew gracefully through the air, mind you."

Cussing under his breath he lifted himself up a bit from the dirty ground and saw a clearing right in front of them.

Sara rushed to his side and bent down to see if he was injured somewhere.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, thank you. I'm fine."

He stood up and couldn't take his eyes from the clearing. It wasn't as beautiful as the meadow where they had eaten their lunch but something drew his eyes towards it.

If he had to point it out he would most probably say it was because of the building in the middle of the clearing. It looked like a manufacture or something. It was a large brick building with a big chimney which seemed to belong to an industrial oven. The walls were covered in ivy and the grass in front was growing in every direction, so Sanji assumed that the manufacture had closed down quite some time ago.

"Let's look there next, Sara. An empty factory seems like the perfect place to hide someone."

Following his gaze she saw what he meant. Somehow a melancholy feeling washed over her but she didn't know why.

In the bushes a few meters next to them someone watched as they made their way towards the building, but the both of them were too absorbed into their own thoughts that they didn't even notice another presence.

They walked around the whole building to see if there was some kind of entrance where they could go inside without drawing any attention towards them without being seen by whoever could be inside.

But every window was closed with planks and the three doors they found where all locked.

Right now they were standing in front of the big main entry and thought about what to do.

Just as Sanji decided whether to use brute force on the door or walk around the building once more Sara moved towards the second window on the left of the door.

On the window sill sat a single flower pot with a withered plant inside. Somehow the pot seemed familiar to her and when she lifted the pot she found a silver key underneath.

Sanji also thought he somewhere had seen the pottery before but he couldn't remember when. Right now he was astonished that Sara found the key that easily or rather that the key could be found that easily in the first place. He had noticed the plant before, too, but he thought that would be a place too obvious to hide a key.

Well, Sara had proved him wrong and never before had Sanji been so happy to be wrong.

He walked up to her and gave her a kiss on the lips.

"You're the best."

She gave him a smirk and kissed him once again.

"I know."

Sanji took the key from her hands and put it into the keyhole, hoping that it really was the right key.

When he turned the key and a quiet click could be heard he released the breath he wasn't aware that he was holding. Finally something went right today. Now he hoped they would finally find a clue. He didn't dare hope to really find Zoro.

The door opened with a light creek and the both of them could see the insides. The only light source was the door and a few small holes in the planks in front of the windows. All in all it looked creepy.

The factory mostly only consisted of one big room that indeed contained a big industrial oven. Three tables were standing in the hall, covered in dusk and everywhere on the walls, spider webs could be seen.

No trace of Zoro (or anyone else, for that matter) until now. Sanji's gaze fell to the left side of the room and stairs could be seen which led to two doors. That was where most probably the office was seated.

He looked at Sara and pointed at the stairs. She nodded and the both of them made their way towards the stairs as silently as possible.

That is until Sanji suddenly stopped dead in his track. Sara also came to a halt and looked at him confused as if to say 'What's the matter?'.

"There are no footprints."

"What?"

"The whole place is covered in dusk, but the only footprints visible are ours. I don't think that someone was in here recently."

She looked at the floor and nodded.

"Yeah, maybe you're right. But we should go up either way. We're here already, aren't we? Who knows what we'll find."

"You're right. Let's go."

He took her hand and they both walked up the stairs only to find the first one of the doors locked. So they walked towards the next door and were glad to find it open.

They walked inside and closed the door behind them, not noticing the pair of eyes watching them from the door frame.

The first thing they noticed when they entered the room was another piece of pottery, seated on a table in the middle of the room. This time it was a vase. It too seemed familiar to them.

Sanji took it in his hands and looked it up and down, trying to find out where he had seen it before. Sara's sudden scream almost made him loose his grip on the vase and he slowly sat it down on the table again.

"Of course."

"What?"

He looked at her with bewilderment.

"Remember the time we've been at the market? You bought some pottery from a market stall. The man sold the same kind of pottery like this."

Sanji looked at the vase in front of him and too noticed that they were alike.

"You're right. I didn't immediately remember because of everything else that happened. But now that you've said it, the merchant DID say something about a closed factory on this island. Now this makes sense."

Sara had already left her place next to the table and went to a door on one of the sides in the room. It was a door to the room which was locked when coming from the stairs.

She tried the handle but this door too was locked.

"What do you think is behind that door?"

Sanji turned around and looked at her.

"I don't know. What do YOU think?"

"Well, …"

"Why don't you find out?"

The both of them jerked their heads back to the door and saw an old Granny standing there. Her torso was bent forward and a cane in one of her hands to support her. Sanji looked at her suspiciously. He didn't like the smirk on her face.

Sara however felt as if she had seen the woman somewhere before but she couldn't remember when.

"What do you mean? And who are you?"

"Who I am? I am the last one of the family who established this factory, therefore you're standing on my property. What I mean? Well, if you're curious, just look inside the room."

She threw a key towards them that Sanji quickly caught with his right hand.

"But I'm not sure if you really want to see. It could change everything"

Her smug smirk left her face and something like sadness took its place.

Sanji didn't know what the last comment meant but he decided to let his curiosity take over and turned the key around in the key hole.

He expected many different things behind the door. An empty room or maybe even a room filled with old pottery or documents. But he didn't expect what he saw when he looked inside.

The whole room was covered with pictures of Sara.

Sanji looked at Sara and saw that she too was confused to see that. She walked inside and looked at the different pictures.

One where she played the piano, one where she tried to craft a vase and a countless number of even more pictures of her could be seen.

Sanji turned around towards the Granny. He wasn't sure if he really wanted to ask. The fear of losing Sara burned his heart. But he knew that even if HE didn't ask anything, Sara would and she definitely deserved answers.

"Lady, could you please tell us what this means? Why are there pictures of Sara? Who is she? I found her a few days ago and she has lost her memories. Can you tell us what this means?"

She looked at him sadly.

"Of course I can, but you won't like it."

Out of the corner of his eyes Sanji saw how Sara collapsed and he rushed to her.

"Sara, what's happening?"

But she couldn't talk to him. She took his hand inside hers and smiled at him while panting heavily. The Granny answered for her.

"She's going back."

"Back? What do you mean with back? Where is she going? And what does it have to do with her condition?"

The old woman sighed and walked towards Sara and stroked her head lovingly.

"What you see in front of you is not really Sara. It's your friend with the green hair."

"Zoro? That's impossible."

She looked at him and her clear grey eyes pierced his blue eyes and his mind went blank. There were no thoughts left in his brain but his heart was filled with worry and fear.

"Is it really impossible? He disappeared the same day you found Sara. I should know, after all I was the one who turned him into Sara."

"But why? Why would you do that? I don't understand."

By now Sanji was desperate. He didn't want to think about losing Sara or about the fact that in one way or another he fell in love with Zoro. But Sara was nothing like Zoro. She didn't look like him and she had a totally different personality. He couldn't believe what the Grandma told him.

"Why? I had two reasons. The first one may seem idiotic for you, but I wanted to teach him a lesson. He was disrespectful and that's something I can't tolerate.

The second reason goes much deeper."

She let out another sigh and looked at the pictures of Sara on the walls.

"Sara was my daughter, you know. I loved her, I truly did. Everyone in the family did. We all hoped that she would one day marry a nice man and continue with the manufacture. But then it happened. On a warm and sunny day in June when she was sixteen she was murdered. Just like that, by a bunch of bandits. "

The grandma began to shake and tears flowed down her cheek.

"They raped her, killed her and afterwards tossed her dead body into the river. It changed everything. The whole family fell apart and my husband died while going after those bandits. She was the sunshine of our life, but from that point onwards there was always only rain for us.

She was only sixteen. That's not an age to die. She wasn't even able to see something from the world, to travel somewhere or even to fall in love."

She took out a handkerchief and wiped the tears from her face to look at Sara again. Sara was still panting heavily, but she too had tears in her eyes. She couldn't remember everything that the woman in front of her told her. But she felt that the woman was important to her. She knew that she loved her.

"I wanted her to be able to live again, even if it was only for a short time. When I saw the both of you a little while ago I knew that she was happy and it made me happy too. "

She looked at Sanji and he could see the hurt, the sadness and something like regret in them.

"Young man, can you forgive an old lady? For using your feelings selfishly like that. For making my dream come true? For wanting to see my sunshine happy in love? Can you forgive me that I now have to take away what I gave you a few days ago?"

Sanji felt the tears flow down his face and unto Sara's clothes. He didn't want to lose Sara, but he knew that it wouldn't do to sacrifice Zoro's life for Sara's. She already died long ago, after all.

"There is nothing I have to forgive you. I can't possibly stay mad at you after everything you said, right?"

He turned his gaze towards Sara and squeezed her hand.

"Sara, I'm happy to have met you. I truly am. I just wish it wouldn't have to end like that. I wish I could have lived all those years ago to protect you from those bandits. But I fear that there is nothing I can do. "

He moved his face towards her face and stopped a mere inch from her lips.

"I love you, Sara."

He closed the gap between them and kissed her and felt happy that she too kissed him back, with just as much force.

He closed his eyes and tried to enjoy the touch as long as possible, but suddenly he noticed that the lips kissing him were dry and he moved back and opened his eyes to see that the person in front of him was Zoro.

See you