"Cattleya!"

Anemone's worried voice reached her as soon as she was back at the main hall, now in shambles, her expression not betraying anything, she was exactly how she sounded.

"What were you thinking?" to leave the way she did?

But that last portion of the question died in her throat as she finally noticed who was in her arms, a wounded woman, but more importantly, the little toddler held securely in her arms, as the baby made incoherent noises.

At least he was no longer screaming.

In the confusion they had failed to notice that they had been absent, when they had been the main reason they took it upon themselves to come here in the first place.

They had forgotten, thinking they must have been between the prisoners in the cells, they weren't.

And only one of them did remember.

Only one of them knew.

As if it had been a sixth sense.

"Are you here to save us?" the woman in the Scanner's arms asked, she sounded tired, but hopeful.

Anemone nodded. "Our friends are helping the others to get them out of their cells." she then addressed the redhead. "Robin had Jackass spread the voice through the town, so the citizens can come to help us, while her and White help the others."

She should do that too, but she was too worried for Cattleya.

What if something happened?

She didn't fail to see the shiny, and most importantly, blood stained lance hovering from the Scanner's back.

But she didn't seem hurt.

Was that… someone else's blood?

Regardless…

"Let's get out of here."

When they went back outside, they could see plenty of the island residents aiding Robin and White in taking out the prisoners, and giving them first aid, water and food. Jackass had done a good job in calling and convincing people to believe and follow her.

Perhaps aided from the defiant show they had put up at the tavern earlier.

And speaking of said tavern, Cattleya could see the owner rushing towards her, and the people she held in her arms.

Gently she set them down on the ground, to let the woman sit against a wall.

As her father tightly embraced her, the Scanner once again was proven that what she did had been correct.

Even if she disliked killing, this had been a necessity.

And not for herself.

Hadn't she done that, then this man would no longer have a family.

Having a family was one of the most pressing things in her mind, her personality was built on it, she knew. She considered her friends as such, and she'd never leave them to die if she could help it, nor would she for an innocent stranger.

If she deserved one, and she was told and proven so many times despite her doubts, then others did too.

Some of the residents crowded around her and her companions, and they all only said the same things, they only had thankful words for what they did.

"Who are you?" the woman Cattleya saved asked her, as she crouched to take a proper look at her leg. "Are you pirates?"

"It's… a bit hard to explain." it was Robin that replied.

She wasn't sure of what to say, on one side, she did want to be honest, on the other, it'd be dangerous.

As she thought, the man of the tavern looked at her closely, she noticed.

What if…

"You're Nico Robin, aren't you?"

Of course someone would recognize her, but she didn't react as he said so, all she did was sigh.

"What if I am?" the human asked.

But the man, actually, none of them seemed hostile, and this behavior honestly unnerved her more than hate would. Because she wasn't used to it, at all.

"In my tavern, before the Marine established here and did what they did, there used to pass all kinds of people, travelers, pirates, I am used to seeing people like you through posters and to hearing all kinds of things and stories. Never would I have expected it'd be a pirate saving the people of my island, from Marines no less."

"Then I assume you may also know my story too." Robin said, her tone flat, but she wasn't accusing him.

He nodded at her.

"I am an old man, of course I heard about Ohara, but honestly? I never believed that Marines would pull something similar here too. I won't pretend I do, but I guess now me and the people of this island can understand many things you may have felt."

It might have not been the same, but a genocide was always a genocide, in any shape and form it remained the same thing.

"We never believed that the people who claim to protect the innocents would ever get lower than pirates…" until it happened for real.

"Those who claim to have the right to decide who lives or dies are always in the wrong." Robin simply replied.

Little mattered who did it, but the fact that the whole concept of the World Government was to bring justice made them worse in her eyes. What kind of justice would it be if they didn't treasure life in the slightest?

Even YoRHas, who could be rebuilt safely when the Bunker was still standing, knew what it meant to treat every death like no one would ever come back, so many soldiers got attached to one another.

It was why the curse of E types existed, no?

Because of affection, and love, that brought despair to those that would deal the punishment.

And also, neither androids nor machines, who killed each other for almost an eternity never claimed to do the right thing, they were all brought into a war because of their creators, and abandoned them to it when they died, as they still fought because of lies filled with nothing but empty promises of peace once one side fell.

But they had made peace on their own accord, well, some of them did, and there was no need to totally cancel one side or the other, even if machines weren't as many as they used to be, Pascal and his village were still a thing.

They showed that collaborating and living together was possible, and that they could bond over the lies and find that they were more similar than ever.

And that fighting each other had been stupid and unnecessary.

"Did you save us because of what happened to you in the past?" his daughter asked, she seemed completely at ease as Cattleya took care of her leg, even if she was a human her skills were still valuable.

Plus Devola and Popola taught her things about humans before she left as far as she heard.

Even the little toddler did seem to like his savior, as he tried to reach for the Scanner's red hair with his little hands, she just smiled sweetly at him. "I think he likes you." his mother told her.

"I'm glad." truly, she was.

His smile made everything worth it.

Robin once again addressed the father. "Well, I would be lying if your whole story didn't hit close to home." it did bring back uncomfortable memories she wasn't willing to share.

If Freesia was here…

Her hand felt oddly empty, she would have wrapped her own around it…

"But that's not the sole reason we did this." whether they liked it or not, they had other reasons too.

Her eyes found the old couple from this morning. "I wasn't lying when I said my friends and I went through a long trip. The reason is that we are looking for a place we can call home."

As she said so, White intervened.

"We left many other people behind, friends, relatives, and loved ones…" she was speaking a bit for everyone, and because of the bonds she saw form between her soldiers. "The place we come from no longer has means to sustain us, that is why we were chosen to travel so far."

Of course none of them would say they came from another planet entirely, for now.

"To possibly find an island where there's no one, to not create problems."

They could make of these words what they wanted, they could be read in any sense.

"A deserted island then…" they watched the injured woman put a hand to her chin. "Well, Rokubo used to speak often about an island not too far from here, and how once they finally managed to secure it it would be our time to be useful."

She briefly motioned to her fellow prisoners. "None of us ever figured out what it meant though."

"We're not too special, but we're people dedicated to crafts of any kind, the villa, it was the first thing he had us build." another man spoke. So that Marine had them build the place that would become their personal hell?

How cruel…

But typical of them.

It sounded exactly like something they would do, if Robin knew anything on how their wretched system of privileges and privileged people worked.

But the other thing they said also sounded interesting.

"The whole island thing might be worth investigating." Robin put a hand to her chin in thought.

"You can go look if you find anything, I'll explain." White replied to her, knowing how well the archeologist loved to research information, and also how useful this could be as a whole.

"It would be great if there was a ship we could use too." Jackass mused, since as they knew, it'd be best not to fly around with something these people didn't know, for safety. And also they'd need a big one to hide them too.

"You don't have one?"

"Not really…" Anemone shrugged, not really specifying if they ever did.

They didn't, which was why she didn't say it.

"Well the Marine had their own private pier, you could check there." Jackass nodded. "If you'd be so nice to take me there it'd be great."

Without more words, the man that spoke up instructed Jackass to follow him, as she did Robin took a look at Anemone and Cattleya, the Scanner was still taking care of the prisoners, patching them up the best she could.

She seemed content as she did though.

She truly did love to care for people.

"I guess I shall see if I find anything interesting." her eyes met Anemone's, silently asking her if she wanted to tag along while Jackass took care of the ship matter, and White stayed to handle the whole talking with the residents.

She was better suited for this than a criminal.

Anemone looked down to where Cattleya was, technically gathering information was something she was better suited for, but so were her medical skills.

And she didn't want to admit that she was still worried.

That spear hanging from her back didn't feel right.

It was too weird to see her with a weapon.

"I'll be fine, you help Robin, I will aid these people." as if the Scanner read her mind…

But the way she smiled, though as sweet as always, it didn't quite reach her eyes.

Not a good sign.

Something was still tormenting her, Anemone was sure, she knew her well enough.

But she wouldn't ask in front of all these people, Cattleya would never answer, chances were she would hardly answer even when alone.

Still, she turned around to follow the human back to the villa.

Once they were gone, as White watched them leave, the tavern owner took the opportunity to ask her something.

"Aren't you worried the Marine will come after you now?"

But the blonde shook her head. "I understand the concern, but we were well aware of the consequences, we didn't do anything we didn't mean to do."

It was the same thing that it was with being with Robin in the first place, but these people were kind to worry. She didn't know if it was because they saved them, or because they truly were, but it felt kind of nice.

That for once it sounded like their lives mattered to the humans.

Odd…

But like Robin, these weren't the same humans that were guilty of creating and leaving them to die for their foolish lies.

There wasn't too much to address anymore, the sounds heard were the chatter of the people and Cattleya going around to help them.

Until someone asked a question.

"Where will we go now?"

Right, most of them did not have a home anymore, right now, in a way, they were similar to each other, humans and androids.

"Our small island can't keep all of us now, the others were burned to the ground…"

Even rebuilding wouldn't be easy, because fire destroyed everything, they'd be left with no food, and being unable to grow anything, and too many people for one single island to provide.

White sighed.

What if…

"If we have to be honest, once we will find a place to stay, having more hands to help us settle and build places would be nice… of course you'd be properly rewarded." she added.

There was some general chatter between the residents.

"And if we do not want to be rewarded? Or rather, another type of deal?"

"What do you mean?" though the question didn't mean that she wasn't interested. In fact, she was very well.

"As we said, this single island can't sustain all of us, and from your words, we recall that you may have a similar issue, you and your people."

Even if they didn't know that the place they came from wasn't something small like an island but a whole planet entirely.

In comparison they may even have it worse.

"What if we could meet halfway? We're builders, you need a place to stay, we need somewhere to stay, we could aid you in making those places but… for all of us."

So they wanted to…

"You mean you want to live with our people? And aid each other?" even though they did have a criminal, and also, the possibility that they could become criminals the same way.

"The Marine could be framing us for what we did." Cattleya voiced the Commander's thoughts.

Even more obvious since she pretty much not only killed the Lieutenant, but also stole his weapon, and the others pretty much thrashed the villa and killed all the others.

Overall they made quite the mess.

"Would you believe that we could trust those Marines ever again after what they've done to us?"

"That's a fair point." White turned to them. "But, I could ask you the same thing you did, not because we want to reject the offer, it can be beneficial to us both, but would you be willing to associate with potential wanted people?"

"I want you to be entirely sure of what you want to do."

Much like they were determined to save them before.

"Maybe we could need some time to think about it, but we'd rather associate ourselves with who saved us than who wanted us to be their slaves." if they had to choose.

"I can't say we can accept or deny yet, and right now, we can't take you with us either." it wouldn't be functional, and they would find that they weren't exactly humans, but only looked as such.

Also they needed to speak with Rose and the others about this.

And about living with actual humans.

Some androids weren't very friendly towards them, they hadn't been with Robin either when she revealed the truth.

There were a few things to be settled, if possible.

"But should we find a place then we can consider it, and if we do, we'll come back to pick you up."

As she said so, the rest of their group returned, with Robin and Anemone having a big stack of paper in their arms, possibly Pod 007 in his bag was holding even more items too, and Jackass proudly announcing that they had a big and well stacked Marine ship ready to leave.

Ship that with the help of the other two raven they filled with some actual money, water and whatever else the Marines had in the villa that could be of use.

They left the food and part of the money here, so the residents could use them.

As androids they had little use for both.

"Until then please take care."

Just before they left, Cattleya left a gentle caress to the little toddler's cheek, hoping he could grow strong now.

"So what have you found?" Jackass could finally ask, once they managed to get the flight units on the ship, and then leave properly.

Robin had in her hands some glass thing with a needle in it, held in a wooden structure.

She wanted to tell, but Cattleya, who was sitting in a corner looking at the documents she and Anemone brought along, beat her to it.

"The papers say that these Marines found an odd island full of caves undersea with minerals, including iron, and it seems they wanted to take control of it, but somehow they could never get to the island."

That would mean…

"If we get there we'd have the possibility to mine them, and to use those resources for our repairs, and for trading." White mused.

"Seems the reason they didn't manage to get to the island is that there seems to be a very thick fog around it, apparently the navigators they hired weren't expert enough for it." but if they could…

Robin hoped they could, it'd be just the perfect place for them.

Hidden, and full of resources.

"And you believe we can?" Robin's eyes met the redhead's. "We have this little thing that will take us to it." she replied as she held the Eternal Pose for them to see.

This ship and the villa had more of them too, they kept them in case they needed to visit other places in the future.

Anything could be.

"Also, we can fly, and we have something they don't have, a really good Scanner."

The woman in question looked away from her, a slight blush from the comment.

"I am not that good."

Anemone put a hand around her shoulders, clearly not agreeing. "No, you are great."

Despite her will, Cattleya found herself melting in her embrace, the tension of the day leaving her.

"Do you want to explain to me what has gotten into you earlier?" the raven asked her girlfriend, holding her just a little tighter.

"I… I'm not even sure myself…" because such intense emotions weren't something she was used to feeling, besides what Anemone made her feel. But never had she felt anything so raw and negative.

"I was just… I've been so furious and I didn't think I'd ever be able to feel like that…"

And she also killed…

She'd taken reckless decisions before, she even died because of them, but this was something else.

"Have you forgotten?" White frowned. "Your false memories."

She was sure that they might have been acting up, at the mention of the child.

After all…

"You have the memories of a caretaker of orphan kids. Those are what were initially used to draw out in you the will to protect others." and subsequently it might have caused her own will to wish for a family too, White assumed.

Cattleya's eyes widened, she had thought about the possibility but…

"I never thought they would affect me so hard." she honestly forgot she even had those memories, in favor of her own real ones.

With Anemone, and everyone else…

But when she held that little toddler in her arms it felt like she had done it so many times before, as if it was as natural as breathing. And he seemed to have sensed something too, when he stopped crying as soon as she touched him.

Still…

"Do you think what I did was right?" to kill that man?

She still had doubts.

"Absolutely." Robin replied, met with a nod from Jackass. "But I may understand how it feels, it can be overwhelming for such a pacific person like you." the human continued.

"My first kill was an accident, but… sometimes you can't help it, especially if you're trying to protect someone." she used to protect herself, but now she had others to protect too.

And she'd go any lengths to do that.

For as a non fighter Cattleya was, she knew she would too, as she showed just today.

"That man deserved what was coming, if it hadn't been you it would have been one of us." Jackass shrugged, she did want to put a bullet in his brain. "Don't think too much of it, you saved that woman and her child, you should be proud."

"I am… it's just a lot…" that was all.

The redhead took the spear from her inventory, the blade was still stained with blood, as were her pants.

"Do you intend to keep that?" Anemone asked. "It's a very pretty weapon."

"I'm… considering it." but she never held a weapon before.

And yet she used it like it was meant to be used.

"That would be a good idea if you were to use it, compared to a sword or something else, a spear has more range of motion, people would have a harder time getting close to you." Jackass mused.

And if she chose to keep it they could always teach her.

"Besides, it does suit someone as sophisticated as you are." she grinned at her. "A bit like White and her fancy looking rapier."

Taunt that the blonde didn't respond to.

"We should just rest up." Robin looked up to the sky. "Didn't you want to finally see the night?"

With all this mess they had almost forgotten about it, but it was dark now, and high in the sky they could finally see the stars shining down on them.

Feeling poetic, they tried to picture their friends looking down from Earth, hoping they were doing the same even if the night didn't exist on Earth.

Watching them.

Protecting them.

Guiding them to their next island.

Forward into the future.

Their future.

A future they hoped wouldn't be too far away.