When they left the sand pirates they ran into Ace, "There he is!" Oriana jumped down from the camel and ran over to him with Luffy by her side. Firefist had brought food and water for them which everyone was grateful for except Vivi, "Um, Ace-san I didn't see you carrying that much money. You didn't steal it, right?"
Oriana's head have never turned so fast, "So what if he stole it?" her answer took the princess back, "Pardon?" she asked, "I guess they made you so comfortable that you forgot that they are pirates. that some of us are wanted" she pointed her fingers at the people with a bounty.
Vivi clearly didn't know what to say, "No, of course, I didn't steal it. The rebel army gave it to me" Ace quickly said. "You don't have to defend yourself to her. She's clearly too good to eat anything a pirate offers her" Oriana rolled her eyes.
"I didn't mean to insult you," Vivi said carefully, "You're clearly worrying about the wrong things, don't you have a country to save?" Oriana dismissed her completely as she ate the food. Vivi looked sad and changed her attention to the rebel army as Ace explained the situation.
The princess wanted to test the hearts of the fake rebel army because again she was worrying about the wrong things and had even more time to waste. Oriana stayed on the camel while everyone else was doing something for Vivi.
Oriana had a hard time understanding; why everyone was acting like Vivi was in charge. She was just a princess the crew promised to help. So, why were they getting along with everything she was saying?
The thing with the rebel army was quickly over.
The pirates continued for a couple of more days when the princess started telling them about her past. Oriana had no interest in the life of this royalty and just jumped off the camel to walk with the guys. Luffy started poking something in the sand with a stick which ended up being a huge scorpion.
It tried to attack him, but his crew was ready to defend their captain except for Usopp who was panicking in the background. Oriana and Ace smiled at the scene.
-x-
They were closing in on Yuba and had only a few hours left till they would arrive. When dinnertime came it was just as chaotic as always. Oriana sat with Ace while eating when she heard Nami and Vivi talking about them, "You're impressing the girls" she said to Ace, "Hm? How do I do that?" he asked.
"They are impressed with the way you clean your fork after eating" she giggled, "That's not much of an achievement" Ace chuckled. "I know but compared to them you're very well-mannered" Oriana pointed at Luffy and his crew fighting over food, "Or so they think".
"You were hard on the princess back then but thank you for defending me" Ace playfully pushed her, "When it's about my family I won't hesitate. Did you see the way she tried to judge a pirate's lifestyle!" she felt her anger rise again, but her attention changed.
Oriana suddenly got serious as she felt something aimed at them, "What's wrong?" Ace asked, "Don't you feel someone was about to shoot us?" she raised an eyebrow but before he could answer they got distracted by Luffy running after a piece of meat.
They met some kids, including the bounty hunter who turned out to be a loser, Ace defeated him and he later reunited with his kids. In other words, he wasted their time.
This was the man who was supposed to have defeated Blackbeard. Not a chance!
After the scorpion incident, they realized that Blackbeard wasn't in Alabasta. The two Whitebeard pirates packed up their things, "Are you really leaving, Ace, Oriana?" the cute reindeer asked.
"Yeah," the two said at the same time, "Since Blackbeard isn't in Alabasta we have no reason to stay" Ace continued. "Wait, you said that you would join me, Oria!" Luffy protested, "I never said I would join you!" Oriana yelled back, "Yeah, you did, I remember you saying that you would come onboard my ship and stay!" her brother said.
Oriana blinked, not sure what to think of this, "I probably meant that I would sail with you for some time!" she tried to reason, "Great, so you're going to stay?" Luffy smiled, "I can't, Luffy, we are in the middle-"
"It's alright I can handle the mission alone," Ace suddenly spoke up, "What?" she turned to him, "I'm the commander. It's my responsibility to handle that traitor. There's no need for both of us to go. I'm more than enough to handle him!"
The small pirate crew was silently listening to their conversation.
"I know, but Dad had a bad feeling about this!" Oriana argued. "You worry too much Oria. Don't you trust me?" he answered with a smile, but she punched him over the head, "You didn't want me to go with you from the start and are using this as an excuse to go by yourself!" she glared at him.
Ace didn't say anything and just held her gaze, "Okay, fine, but promise me that you won't be your reckless self!" he was about to say something along the line of 'I'm not reckless!' but she cut him off, "Promise me!" she almost looked desperate, and Ace understood, "Alright, I promise" he finally said.
Oriana wrapped her arms around him, "Don't make me regret this" she whispered into his ear. Ace nodded onto her shoulder, "I won't" he answered back. The two were like that for a few minutes before Oriana turned to the rest of them, "I guess I'm staying then" she smiled at them.
Everyone smiled brightly as they cheered for their new 'Nakama'. "Oi, Luffy take care of her" Ace stated seriously, "Of course, she is our sister!" Luffy grinned, "Hey, shouldn't you tell me that?" she pouted but her two brothers ignored her.
Ace nodded satisfied with the answer took something out of his pocket and threw it at Luffy, "Here, hold on to that, always" the young captain looked at it, "Oh, it's just a piece of paper," he sounded a little confused.
"That piece of paper will reunite us one day. Don't you want it?" Ace teased, "No I do" he answered, "Don't tell him what it is, Oria, he'll find out one day on his own," Oriana slid two fingers across her lips and made a locking motion.
He sighed as he continued, "Having a little brother who's a bit slow makes a big brother worried. I know he's a bit much to handle, but please take care of him." he bowed in front of them.
The bounty hunter was waving goodbye and the crew turned to them, but not Oriana because she kept her eyes on Ace as he left, "Be careful. Don't break your word or you'll regret it," she muttered and continued with the straw-hat crew.
-x-
They reached Yuba that night, only to find it almost deserted and only one man was left. The old man apparently knew Vivi and got along with Luffy. They were tired after a long day, so they decided to rest in one of the houses. Oriana went into the bathroom and saw a certain blond lying in her bed, "Get out of my bed, Sanji" she said tiredly.
"I don't want you to get lonely so I-" but before he said anything else, Oriana stepped out of the way and she used the stonewalls to throw him off. "I don't have time for that," She laid down in the comfortable bed and was ready to sleep.
It has been an insanely long hot trip, only to find out the rebel army wasn't there. Like couldn't the princess gather information to confirm their location like normal people? She felt a pillow hit her head and saw the guys fighting.
She needed to vent a little, so Oriana went over and jumped them all at the same time while laughing, "Finally something fun".
Soon after they all fell asleep gathering their energy for the battle to come.
-x-
Oriana listened quietly to the pirates talking about going back to the place they met, "Okay, let me see if I got this right, the plan was to get to Yuba in order to speak with the rebel army leader so he could stop the war, and it could end peacefully?" she summarized.
They nodded, "So, now that we know they aren't here we are just going all the way back again?" she questioned as Luffy sat down in the sand, "I'm going to kick Crocodile's ass!" he said, "See that's a plan I can get along with!" Oriana agreed, "You two are more alike than we thought" Usopp sighed.
"But seriously are you going all the way back again?" she had a hard time figuring out how talking was going to solve anything at this point. "What if they already left? Are we going to search the entire kingdom for them?" that hopefully made them think of things.
They looked at her with interest, "The reason the rebel army is fighting is that they think the king let them down, and who made them think that? Crocodile. So, if we take him out you stop the war!" Oriana explained.
Luffy agreed with her "If we stop the rebels, will Crocodile stop? Even if we reach Katorea, there is nothing we can do. We're pirates. You'd be better off going on your own." Vivi was speechless and he continued, "You don't want anyone to die, even though we are fighting a warlord and over a million people are involved. All you want is for no one to get hurt. Aren't you fooling yourself," he said facing her.
"What's wrong with that?" Vivi was mad, "People die" he casually said and was slapped. The two argued for some time, and in the end, they agreed on going to Crocodile who was in Rainbase a city close by.
Before arriving, Oriana jumped down from the camel and took Luffy by the arm, walking a little ahead of the others, "Huh, where are you guys going" Nami asked, "Let them be, they haven't had much time to talk since they met" Zoro reasoned.
Oriana smiled gratefully at him before turning to Luffy, "Who would have thought that my little crybaby would grow up so much" she leaned onto his arm with a proud smile. "That's rude. I stopped being a crybaby a long time ago!" he replied.
She just giggled, "You were completely right about the situation right from the beginning when you wanted to beat up the shichibukai. Not many people see the bigger problem from the start and still stick to it. I'm proud to see those moments even if you sometimes can be an air-head."
"Oi!" he said annoyed, "Just kidding. I'm proud to know you're so much stronger than you were six years ago," Luffy's eyes were shining at the praise she gave him. His sister's opinion meant a lot to him.
"Now that you are here, is there going to be a problem between you and Vivi?" Luffy suddenly asked, "Not from my side. I can ignore her while we are in Alabasta," she said and looked back at the princess. "What about after?" he wondered.
Oriana stopped for a moment to look at her brother, "Are you telling me she's going to become a pirate? That's crazy, she's not fit to be one. As a pirate she can't get worried over every little thing" she said. "She's our nakama, we can't just leave her." Luffy protested.
"Are you sure she even wants to become a pirate?" the two started walking again, "Why wouldn't she being a pirate is so much fun!" Luffy smiled, "And dangerous, are you sure she's up for a task like that?" Oriana hoped that made him think a little.
The two kept going in silence while talking from time to time mostly about the past. They had been apart for six years but the way they spoke made it seem like it was just last week they separated. Luffy was a gift that made all those years away from her crew seem almost worth it.
Rainbase was starting to appear in the distance. Luffy and Usopp used the last of their energy to run to the city in order to get water. The rest of them entered the city and rested by a water spring, "What are we going to do now" Sanji questioned, "Simple, we'll beat Crocodile," Oriana said casually.
After a little while, Luffy and Usopp came running with a small army of marines behind them. Everyone started running in the direction of the pyramid because that was the place Crocodile was.
Soon they split up to shake the Marines off.
Oriana was with Usopp and the two ended up being surrounded, "Oria, I know you can do it!" he said with full confidence. "Alright, you are a sniper, right? So, cover me if anything happens" she started tramping on the ground to make the enemy lose balance then she blew them away with her wind.
"Great job! Just as I instructed" Usopp praised himself as she slapped him over the head, "Let's go over there," she pointed at the pyramid.
At the entrance, they met up with Zoro and Nami as Luffy yelled at them to go inside. Crocodile was basically inviting them in and with every step, Oriana felt an underground layer. She was guessing that was the place the boss was and that the only way to really meet him was to play along.
That's why she didn't do anything when the floor just opened up and everyone went down, and they were now in a cage.
"What a clever trap" Luffy started, "Indeed, there was no way we could have avoided it" Usopp agreed while touching the bars. Nami disagreed wholeheartedly and started screaming at them.
Oriana looked over the cage and she already knew a way out of there. No cage could really hold her. The only thing preventing her from doing it right now was her curiosity about what Crocodile's goal was.
Luffy and Usopp used their time to make Sanji and Zoro impression which she laughed at 'That's quite good' Oriana thought before Nami punched the two of them for not taking it seriously and Zoro for sleeping carefree.
'Yep, a funny crew' she thought smiling before leaning back and closing her eyes.
Luffy lost his energy when he suddenly touched the cage, and Smoker hit him with his jitter and started to explain the sea stone. Oriana kicked him hard into the cage, "Don't do that to him, bastard!" anger was clear in her voice. The marine captain was struggling to get up.
"How did you kick him, Oria?" Luffy questioned, "Willpower" she smiled, "That's amazing, Oria!" Nami added. "I can't believe I didn't figure out who you really are before," the marine managed to sit on one of the benches, "I don't know how you do it, but I know it's you, Winter Blaze!"
Before Oriana could say anything, a laugh came from behind them, "This conversation is getting interesting!" a tall man sat on a chair with a scar across his face. "So, you're Crocodile?!" Luffy yelled, already challenging him.
The shichibukai came closer to them with a big confident smile, "So, how are you the famous Winter Blaze I keep hearing about?" the man looked unimpressed. "Who told you I was?" Oriana asked, "Are you telling me you're not?" he looked confused before turning his gaze to the marine.
The smoke man just sighed, "I have sources confirming they saw Winter Blaze with Fire fist on both sides of the Grand Line. You keep showing up with him even here and that mark on your arm is definitely Whitebeard's" he explained.
"Your intel must be wrong, there's no way that this girl is the daughter of Whitebeard!" Crocodile lost his temper, "Do you have a grudge against my captain or something?" Oriana started to giggle. "I'm going to take his head" The man turned around but as he did that there was a loud crash.
Crocodile turned around to see a big bump at the side of the cage with Oriana holding up her leg, "Since you are so confident, you're going to beat Whitebeard, how about challenging me first?" her eyes changed to her red ones.
"Oi, Oria I said I was going to send him flying!" Luffy protested, "You hear that? My younger brother is more suited to take you down" she smirked at the man.
Crocodile's attention changed to Vivi and a tall black-haired woman entering the room. The small crew was happy to see her and they told her to let them out but the princess was blinded by rage and attacked Crocodile instead.
Oriana rolled her eyes as Zoro 'tched' at her stupid act.
The shichibukai entire body turned to sand before appearing behind her. He trapped Vivi in a chair before he started telling them his plan.
It was to make the country fight itself and that their love was what would destroy it. 'Alabasta could have avoided a lot of things if they just would had trusted their king and not a pirate' Oriana thought.
Crocodile showed them the key to the cage and threw it into a shaft to be eaten by crocodiles and let water get in. He told the princess that she had to choose between saving her people or saving them but was a slim chance of either.
Oriana walked up to the cage with a bored expression. Everyone's eyes were on her, "Oria?" they were wondering what she was about to do. She stamped hard on the floor making the key fly up when blew it over to them with a strong wind, "I don't need saving! She smirked before throwing it to Nami.
"Good job, Oria. I knew you were different from these carefree idiots!" the navigator smiled, but soon found out it wasn't the right key, "You like giving people false hope, right, bastard." Oriana glared at him.
Crocodile left laughing with his partner as water started coming into the room. Suddenly something was ringing, and Mr. Prince was calling the shichibukai in order to get him out of the building. Which surprisingly worked on someone so smart.
The banana gator stood tall over the princess and as she prepared herself to fight it she ended up dodging instead. The thing bites off a piece of the stairs shocking them. It was about to attack her again but Oriana hit its head with the stair it bite off earlier.
Vivi used this chance to escape while promising them to get help, The gators were coming and attacking, but the cage protected them. Which was bad considering Nami wanted it to bite it open, but its teeth broke instead.
Smoker told them that the woman with Crocodile was wanted from twenty years ago and that it was involving the entire world if those two worked together. Luffy didn't care because he was going to beat Crocodile so matter the reason.
"Then how do we get out of here," the marine captain asked. "No need to wait for the princess," Oriana grabbed the cage and she slowly pulled them apart while feeling the water in the metal. "That's impossible for a devil fruit user to do that!" the marine expressed clearly shocked.
She stopped when she felt a certain someone coming towards them and a second later kicked the reptile's stomach hard, "That's so cool, Sanji!" Oriana smiled at him, "It means so much coming from you, Oria-sama!" he danced like a fool.
Oriana thought of a faster way to get out of there, then took a step back and kicked as hard as she could. There was a shoe size hole in the cage, but not something they could squeeze their way through. She decided to try a few more times and soon they were free.
Luffy and Zoro defeated the banana gator while Vivi cried in the corner about how she couldn't defeat even one. Oriana kept the water from coming in but suddenly the glass window broke, and she jumped in front of the water and stopped it from hitting the pirates, "That's amazing!" someone said with admiration.
Winter Blaze made a sphere for them to breathe and formed a circle with her foot before slamming it to the ground to make the piece separate from the rest, "Alright, everyone holds on to me. I'm about to shoot us out of here" she turned back to the other as they nodded, "Wait, we have to save him too!" her brother begged.
She just waved her hand, and he was inside coughing as he looked at her angrily, "Better grab into something or you'll fall back out!" she smirked at the marine and shot them out of one of the windows.
A moment later they were on the surface and Oriana got them to the mainland. Everyone smiled warmly at her but Smoker was about to hit her with his jitter, "Why did you help me?" Zoro used his sword to block him, "That sound very ungrateful. I can always get you back down there!" she turned away from him.
They didn't have time to stand around there and soon ran away, "Let's head for Alubarna!" Luffy said, "Are we supposed to run all the way there?" Usopp asked and Nami wanted to ride on the camel, but Sanji had another plan.
Chopper soon came riding on a giant crab which apparently was friends with the camel. They all went on it with everything going smoothly until a hook took the princess away. Oriana was about to do something but Luffy grabbed the hook and threw Vivi back.
He told them to get her home while he dealt with things here. Oriana wanted to get off and help him, but this was Luffy's fight and she had to respect that he was his own captain. She knew too well not to interfere with a captain's battles after all, or at least she knew now.
They were leaving Luffy behind.
The rest of them rode in silence after doing something that hard. Zoro told Vivi to focus. That no matter what happened to them, she had to survive.
"Zoro, you shouldn't waste your strength" Nami started, "Shut up" he responded annoyed as he lifted the camel with one arm and a sword. Sanji explained that Zoro was worried that Luffy might actually lose but he wasn't the only one.
It had them all on edge, "He's persistently annoying and he won't die until he's beaten Crocodile" Oriana said as comfort to the crew. It was getting darker with every minute, and she slowly drifted into sleep.
-x-
Oriana sank into the water, "That's certainly one way to wake up" she realized that Sanji was holding her up, "Oh, Oria-sama, good morning. The crab couldn't swim so we have to find a way ourselves" he responded. "But it's a crab!" she was very confused.
"That's what I said!" Usopp yelled.
A weird sea creature appeared out of the water, but the previous cute creatures beat it. The pirates went on to it while the things pulled it through the river. Soon they arrived at the other side of the river and the small crew didn't know how to get through the desert.
There was something coming towards them, and it was the princess' weird duck along with his duck friends ready to get them to the capital. Oriana was the only one hesitating, "What's wrong?" Nami asked her, "Am I the only one that thinks they look a bit evil?"
They looked at her confused, "Please, Oriana-san, we have to hurry before the rebel-" Vivi said, "I know!" she replied before forcing herself to get on, "Alright, let's go!" the ducks were very fast and it was like flying through the desert.
When they got closer to the city, they stopped to actually make a plan. Vivi would speak with the rebel army while the rest of them got baroque works away from her. The pirates would split up and ride to the city from different entrances while wearing a disguise so they couldn't see their faces.
Once everything was done, they would meet up again.
Oriana followed the plan and saw five people waiting for them close to the city preventing them from coming in. When they split up so did the baroque works as they followed them. Winter Blaze stopped inside the city's walls but was disappointed that no one was following her.
What was she going to spend her time doing now?