Towering Memories and Treasured Dreams

by RoseDragonWitch

Sequel to 'Warm Memories' story. Already, a few weeks had passed since their adventure on the 'ghost island'. Still, they continue forward, preparing themselves for any challenge that awaits them. But it seems that their memories aren't willing to let them go just yet. A distant tower... a mysterious force that haunts the seas... will their trust with each other be strong enough?

31. Floor 47: The Archeologist's Pain

Floor 47: The Archeologist's Pain

Franky walked with his head held high and his chest puffed out as they continued up the next flight of stairs; the air growing colder and colder with every step and more than a few of them were shivering at this point.

"Damn it," Usopp hissed out as he rubbed his arms in an attempt to warm himself again. "What is with this air? Why's it so cold?"

"I'm doing alright," Chopper chirped up happily.

"Well, good for you," Sanji muttered grumpily, watching how his own breath, which ticked him off since it reminded him that he hasn't had a good smoke for a while.

"Yohohoho, so am I!" Brook added with a slight skip to his step. "But it's strange. I know this cold seems familiar, but I'm having a hard time trying to remember where I last felt cold like this…? Not that I can anymore on account of being dead!"

"What's that supposed to mean, bro?" Franky asked, a little lost. Cold was cold, wasn't it? How could one remember a specific kind of cold?

"Yohohoho, I don't know," Brook answered back with a little spin and Franky rolled his eyes, half exasperated and half with fondness as they continued onwards.

They walked on until they came, at last, to the next door. Like the last time, they all froze and stared at it, wondering who the lucky 'winner' will be next. Brook and Franky were both out, but that still left the rest of them and dread seemed to hang over them like a dark cloud.

Luffy, tired of waiting, was the first to try but like the last two times—the door remained firmly shut.

"Well, that leaves only six of us," Sanji muttered through gritted teeth before he also stepped forward and, with a deep breath, tried his luck at it. He couldn't hide the sigh of relief that shot past his lips when the handle didn't even turn. He knew that he was going to have to confront his past soon… but he wasn't sure if he was quite ready for it yet. He still had time though… and hopefully enough of it to figure out a way out of this living hell. The last thing he wanted his crew to know was about his… previous family.

"Well, might as well get it over with," Zoro offered next and pulled at the handle with steely resolve but it remained stuck before he glanced back at the others and stated, "Only four left to try."

Both Nami and Chopper were staring in horror at the door, fear clearly in their faces at the possibility of what was waiting for them while Usopp seemed to be trying to work himself up to try it next.

"It's ok… you can do this… it's not so bad… I mean, my childhood wasn't that bad… was it?" he muttered, trying to think back if there was anything that he didn't want his friends to know.

Robin, however, seemed to sense that what was behind this door… was waiting for her this time. While Usopp was still trying to psyche himself up, she silently moved to the front of the group.

"R-Robin?" Nami asked nervously as the older woman, whom she saw as dearly as her big sister, placed her hand on the handle. They all stood there in silence as they watched, so quiet that you could hear a pin drop as they waited.

Robin took a deep breath… and she turned the handle. The second that they all heard the small 'clicking' sound, they all began to stare at her as she remained still as a statue.

They all knew that Robin never liked to talk about her past, though they knew the general idea of what happened, it was still the source of painful memories for her and none of them liked to poke at it out of respect.

Robin frowned, knowing what was surely waiting for her. Before she pushed open the door, she turned back to her friends and said in a firm voice, betraying no hint of fear, "It's alright. I knew that a day would come when I would have to face my own demons. Though, truth be told, I wasn't expecting it to be like this."

"Robin… we know that this is going to be hard for you," Nami offered softly, having feared forcing Robin to relive all her most traumatic moments even more than her own.

"Y-Yeah, I mean… maybe we can all just close our eyes and plug our ears…?" Usopp offered, trying to be helpful.

Robin gave him a rather nervous smile, her hand gripping the handle hard to stop it from trembling, before answering, "It's alright. Like I said, I always knew that a day would come when I have to face up to the full horrors of my past. There's no way I can run from it this time and I've accepted that. One thing though… you should all know that… I've been forced to do a lot of… questionable things during my time on the run. And well… I ask that you try not to judge me too harshly for that."

"We would never judge you for anything, Robin!" Franky boomed out.

"Yeah! It'll be alright! We'll help you through it!" Luffy declared loudly, punching the air.

"What he said!" Usopp and Chopper both cheered on.

"Robin-chan, know that no matter what we see… we would never think less of you," Sanji reassured her kindly, "We're all in this together."

"So whatever burdens you're carrying… let us help you with the load," Nami finished up with a forced smile, her heart aching for her friend. But it seems that the comforting words that everyone had for her seemed to light a fire of courage inside her, for Robin turned back to the door, bracing herself for what she knew was coming for her, and then pushed it open.

They stepped back into the darkness, everyone practically holding their breaths, until the door shut behind them—plunging them back into pitch dark—before the sun appeared above them, blazing bright and sunny with nary a cloud in the sky.

"Damn it, I'm never gonna get used to that," Franky grumbled as he moved his shades back to cover his eyes and blinked about curiously. The first thing that he realized was that they seemed to be on an island with a lot of lush vegetation. While not a jungle, there were large trees in the distance that led to a vast forest, and they seemed to have been near the edge of it. He looked around, seeing the soft-looking grass beneath them and the chirping of birds as they fluttered about, looking for seeds or worms to snack on. It certainly looked like a peaceful place to live—not what he first thought of when it came to Robin's past.

That was when his eyes spotted something that towered over them in the not-so-far-off distance and asked, "Hey? What's that tree?"

They all turned to see what he was looking at and there were more than a couple gasps of awe at the sheer size of it.

"That's a tree?" Chopper asked in amazement, having never seen a tree that big before.

"Woah! That tree's huge!" Luffy said, shading his eyes to get a look at it. Even from here, it was obvious how large the tree was.

"That's… the Tree of Knowledge…" Robin whispered, her eyes wide as she stared at it. She never once dreamt that she would ever see it again, even in a picture, but here…? It felt so real…? Like she could just run on over and pick out another book for her to read while she asked the professor a hundred question about the world. "It once could be seen from all over the island. It was where my… where my…?"

Where her mother, teacher, and colleagues all used to gather and study the secrets of the world. Such a thought caused a shiver to travel across her skin at the thought.

She wasn't ready for this… she wasn't ready for this…?

She felt the urge to turn and run, where too, she didn't know, but she was suddenly finding it hard to breathe and she had to beat it all down inside before worrying the others. She was grateful when someone else spoke.

"Hey, who's that?" Usopp asked, pointing off in the opposite direction, but even as the words left him, he realized who it was. How could it be anyone else? She looked just like how she did now… only… smaller… younger.

They all looked to find a little girl sitting upon a tree stump with a large book in her lap while a few birds, ironically robins, were keeping her company.

"Hey, Robin! That kid looks just like you," Luffy said as he looked over the child. She was very small and a bit on the thin side, with her raven-black hair having been cut short enough for the tips of the locks to brush her shoulders. She was also wearing a plain, dark-red dress and simple shoes as she sat upon the stump, seemingly absorbed in her book.

Robin stared at her, walking a few tense steps closer and bent down to look down at her younger self. Was she ever that small? It felt like an entire lifetime ago that she had sat here and having the free time to just be allowed to read without worry. Not since she joined the Straw Hats, anyway.

"Oh, Robin! You were so cute and tiny!" Brook sung out happily. Just then something came whizzing past him and he looked up in time for someone to shout, "All right, get her!"

Memory Robin heard the noise and also looked up just as a large, rotten tomato collided and exploded on her head.

"What the…?" Nami cried, looking around, and realized that the tomato came from a group of ugly looking children who were laughing and leering at her from a few yards away.

"Take that, Monster Girl!"

"Gross! You're so creepy!"

"Why you little…?!" Sanji snarled, needing to be held back by Usopp and Chopper.

"Hold on, Sanji!" Usopp grunted, straining to hold him back despite the kids not being in real danger. But he knew that he would have to prepare himself for the day when this really happened, which he had a bad feeling that it would whenever it came to the girls.

Not that Sanji was alone in his anger. Luffy and Franky were both grinding their teeth and cracking their knuckles at the sight of those brats laughing at memory Robin while Nami had the urge to go and smack those kids and give them the lecture of a lifetime.

Strangely, memory Robin didn't show any emotion as she slowly stood up, even with juice dripping from the side of her face. She didn't reply even as the bullies continued to taunt her, calling her a 'Monster' over and over, before she held up a hand. She caused a chain of arms to grow, creating a rope towards them, which caused them to scream and freak out, before the hands gave each child a hard bonk on the head. They instantly broke down crying as if memory Robin inflicted a life-threatening wound and they went running for the hills, crying for their mothers.

"What babies," Zoro said with a roll of the eye.

"They deserved a lot more than that," Brook grumbled. "While they were only children; that does not give them the right to bully another like that! I hope that they get a good telling off from their parents for that later on."

"You think that they're gonna come clean to their parents?" Sanji demanded, finally shaking off Usopp and Chopper, "Hell no! They are gonna spin this all around so that our dear Robin-chan is the one who gets in trouble!"

Even pissed off, the man was practically a prophet.

Present-day Robin closed her eyes, knowing that he was right, but she didn't answer as she looked back to her past self, who was looking more annoyed than upset, and wiped off the juice before she sat back down to finish reading her book.

"So you liked reading even back then, Robin?" Chopper asked, wanting to steer the conversation away from those mean kids.

"Yes, I spent all my free time reading so that I could join the other archeologists in their research," she answered with a faint smile.

Chopper started asking all kinds of questions about what it was like to be an archeologist, a tactic that most of the others also caught onto. Suddenly, they were asking her all manner of things that they knew she liked to talk about, even if they already knew the answer, all the while memory Robin still continued reading, with several more robins fluttering about. In fact, memory Robin was so absorbed in her book, that she was still as a statue, which caused the birds to venture even closer—one even landing on her shoulder.

The peaceful moment was interrupted though when a woman came after a while, marching right up to memory Robin, demanding if she was the one who 'attacked' her kids.

"Hey! Your brats started it! She just ended it!" Franky called out, shaking a massive fist at her.

"Yeah! That's right! We saw it!" Luffy added, wanting to jump in and help as said kids were now hiding behind a nearby tree and sticking their tongues out at memory Robin, who glared at them out of the corner of her eyes.

"Don't you have anything to say for yourself?" the woman demanded when Robin continued to stand there without saying a word. "You really are a little monster, aren't you?"

"What? How about you look to your brats?!" Sanji exploded in righteous anger.

But present-day Robin just smiled sadly and waved her hand as she answered, "I'm sure that everyone is sick to death of hearing this, but it is in the past. They can't hurt me anymore. And even if they could, I have all of you here to defend me. There is no need to worry."

"But…?" Luffy began before he pouted, causing Robin to smile a little wider at that.

Memory Robin, however, couldn't take being called a monster and went running, holding onto the book tightly as if it were her only lifeline and raced away even as the woman continued yelling after her. The Straw Hats followed her through the forest, getting a good look around at the island that Robin came from. With Nami keeping a particularly close eye on all the surroundings, wanting to commit this place to memory, knowing how important it was to their archeologist.

Eventually, they left the trees behind and arrived at the outskirts of a decent sized town, built with tall, stone buildings and tons of people all browsing about through the little shops and stalls.

"Wow, this was your home, Robin?" Usopp asked, partly trying to help their Robin forget those mean bullies. "It sure looks like a nice place to live."

"Some parts of it was," present-day Robin sighed. Despite the lonely memories, she truly did miss her old homeland and seeing it again like this brought her as much joy as it did grief. She clenched her fists a little tighter, knowing what was going to be coming… knowing that she would be forced to see the memory of the worst day of her life. She had to take a few deep breaths to keep herself from feeling like she was going to be sick before memory Robin turned to look at a little girl—about her age—holding her parents hands as they talked about what they were planning for dinner. Memory Robin stopped and watched after the three of them until they were out of sight, something that her crew noticed.

"Was that girl a friend of yours, Robin-san?" Brook asked kindly as present-day Robin shook her head.

"No," she confessed, "It was just… wistful thinking."

The others were confused as she followed after her past self all the way to a large house almost on the edge of the town. At the sight of it, both past and present versions of Robin sighed, as if this was the last place they wanted to be.

Memory Robin even seemed to brace herself before she opened the door, calling out, "Sorry I'm home so late." They followed her inside, only to realize that the entire house was dark and empty, clearly showing that there was no one else here. This drew memory Robin's attention before calling out, "Hello, is anyone there? Aunt Roji?"

"They your family?" Nami asked, moving closer to stand with their Robin out of fear when she saw the color draining from her friend's face.

"My aunt," present-day Robin sighed. "Though she and I weren't related by blood. My uncle was my mother's brother. And so when she went out to sea to study the Ponegylphs, she left me to stay with him."

"What about your dad?" Usopp asked wonderingly.

"I was told that he died," she shrugged back. "I barely remember my mother. I don't think I was any older than two or three when she left. As for my father? I must have been even younger. I have no recollection of him at all. Not even his name."

As her crew digested that, her memory self had approached the kitchen table to find what looked like a loaf of bread and a half a jar of jam sitting there waiting. Next to it was a hastily scribbled note that read out:

To Robin,

Today, as you must know, it's my little girl's birthday. So the family is going out for a special dinner tonight, just the three of us. We left some bread out on the table, so you can eat that for dinner. Don't be too greedy with the jam. When you're done eating, and before we come back, I want you to do the dishes, scrub the floors, take the laundry inside, and go straight to bed as soon as you're finished with your chores.

Memory Robin didn't look the least bit surprised, but there was clear hurt in her eyes as she slowly began to slice the bread and load it with jam.

"Wait! It's your cousin's birthday but you aren't invited with them?" Brook demanded. He knew better than anyone how special birthdays were and the idea of someone being singled out, especially by family, was hard to swallow. You never know when your last birthday was after all, and Robin was still a child! He was sure that she would have loved nothing more than to be included in a celebration like this, even if it was as simple as going out for dinner.

"You're their family too! Why they leaving you out like that?" Franky barked out angrily. He remembered how the Franky Family always went all out whenever one of their birthdays came around. There were always at least a couple each month and everyone made sure that they were each special, ready to celebrate another year together.

"It's nothing new. I'm afraid that they didn't really see me as their family," present-day Robin said as she could only watch on as her past self started to get to work on the chores.

It was hard to watch. A little girl, not even ten years old yet, forced to do all that work completely on her own. Sure, she sprouted her many arms to help her out but still, it was a lot of work for just one person. As the sun went down, memory Robin managed to finish up everything except the floor. They could only watch on with sad expressions as she pulled out a bucket and washcloth before starting to scrub, alone in the approaching darkness. At one point she even started to cry but forcefully wiped the tears away as she gritted her teeth and worked even harder to clean the floor.

Nami lowered her head as the men all began to growl behind them at the cruel treatment that they were forced to see.

"Oh, Robin…?" Nami sniffled as she went and linked her arm with their Robin, who only smiled sadly back.

"Damnit, you might as well have been their maid," Sanji snarled as even Zoro glowered at the sight.

"It's alright, while I never got along with them, I wasn't completely alone," she reassured them. "Not all my memories here are sad. As I'm sure you're about to see."

By the time memory Robin was completely done with everything, night as settled in and they could see the warm-looking glow of the other houses through the window as families seemed to be gathering inside their homes for dinner or getting ready for bed. As memory Robin finally set aside her cleaning rag, looking exhausted, she gasped at the sight of the book she had brought back and quickly gathered it up before running out the door.

"What's wrong, Robin?" Luffy asked worriedly as they followed after her.

"I forgot to return it, it's a library book," she explained as her eyes looked to the distance to see the towering tree flourishing under the large full moon.

"Why are you going to that tree then?" Chopper asked curiously, but she was smiling at the sight and just put a finger to her lips, silently telling him to wait and see. They didn't say another as they followed after memory Robin, her running soon slowing to a walk as she came ever closer to the tree. As they reached the trunk, they came to see that there was a large door set into the side, with even windows scattered across the trunk, though they were all dark at the moment save for reflecting the glow from above.

"Does someone live there?" Franky asked with a whistle, gazing up at the massive tree that towered taller than some mountains he had seen.

"You'll see," was all present-day Robin said as she watched how her memory version knocked at the door before entering.

"Hello? Professor Clover? I finished the book you lent me," she called as she entered the room, which had been as dark as her house before.

For a moment, the other Straw Hats were afraid they were about to see another sad memory of Robin being left alone. But as soon as the little girl stepped inside, streamers and confetti fell from the ceiling. They let out startled cries before the lights came on and they saw they were in an enormous room, with walls filled from floor to ceiling in countless books and dozens of people all around, cheering and applauding.

Memory Robin just stared, her mouth falling open as she got a good look at everyone, noticing a large cake set up on the table behind them. Next to the cake was an elderly man with a shaved top, fading green hair adjusted jutting out the sides and the back top, combined with a large beard in the shape of leaves. He looked like a large, upside down three-leave clover, and was grinning the widest out of everyone in the room.

At the sight, present-day Robin's breath caught in her throat and a quiet tear fell from her eyes.

"Who is that guy, Robin?" Chopper asked, the first to notice and leapt up into her arms.

"That was my mentor, Professor Clover," she answered quietly. "It's just… overwhelming to see his face again after all these years."

Franky, who understood this all too well, gently clapped his hand on her shoulder and said, "If you think of him as your mentor, then I'm sure he was one hell of a SUPER guy!"

"He was the best," she chuckled as they all smiled at her, feeling happy despite how sad it was.

"Congratulations, Robin!" professor Clover called joyfully, throwing more confetti into the air.

"You're amazing, Robin!"

"A real genius!"

"We've got a cake for you and everything!"

"Oh! Was this your birthday, Robin?" Usopp asked eagerly and memory Robin shook her head.

"Not quite," she answered as her memory self just stared on in shock and Professor Clover laughed at the sight.

"Robin," he said, smiling widely, "That doctoral exam you took the other day, you passed with a perfect score! For this day forward, you are an official archaeologist! And since you're one of us now, we can all work on our research together, staring today!"

"Wow! You became an archeologist at such a young age, Robin-san?" Brook asked in awe. "Most eight-year-olds would still be struggling to learn to read!"

"Of course she's a genius! She's our archeologist!" Luffy said proudly with a laugh, though it was clear he wasn't following what was happening. He just knew that Robin did something amazing and he was just bursting with pride at the thought.

Meanwhile, memory Robin finally picked her jaw up and broke into the first smile they had seen so far as everyone crowded around her, patting her on the back and telling her again just how amazing they thought she was.

"Are these all your friends?" Zoro asked curiously as he looked around the room, seeing that Robin was easily the youngest one there.

"These were the brave men and women who worked to uncover the true history of the world. The archeologists of Ohara," present-day Robin said as she raised her head a little higher as they all congratulated her past self for how well she did on that test. It was a wholesome sight to see, not even the sight of Luffy and Chopper drooling over the smell of vanilla and strawberries on the cake could disrupt the happiness that radiated off everyone at that moment.

At one point, Professor Cover stood up and presented a small metal with an orange and white ribbon.

"Here," he said proudly, pinning the metal to the front of her dress. "This proves that you're a scholar. Wear it with pride!"

"It looks great on you, Robin," one of the archeologists said.

"We're all so proud!" another beamed and the Straw Hats all smiled at the sight of little Robin looking so blissfully happy while she looked to the medal.

They watched memory Robin enjoying herself, having a large slice of cake as she smiled and laughed with everyone. All the while, the archeologists were offering up various topics or research subjects that memory Robin could start off with, wanting to know what focus that she was going to study first.

Before she could answer though, Professor Clover cleared his throat, tapping a large map of Ohara behind him, which Nami immediately began to take note of to add to her own collection of maps later.

"Now listen up, you must understand what it means to be an Ohara archeologist," he stated, his voice carrying enough authority to get everyone's attention. "Our knowledge, in particular, comes from the past. And this library, known as the Tree of Knowledge, has stood for over 5000 years, collecting countless documents and literature from every corner of the world. This is a treasure for all humanity to share and nourish for future generations. As the world's largest library, knowledge is our pride and joy."

"Wow! This tree is over 5000 years old?!" Luffy and Usopp cried out in amazement together.

"The largest library in the entire world?!" Chopper added, just as amazed and looked around with newfound wonder.

"Under the branches of this tree, the finest archeologists from every sea have gathered!" Professor Clover went on, "With this vast wealth of information at our disposal, there is no historical mystery that cannot be solved! Are you ready to join us?"

"Yes, sir!" memory Robin chirped excitedly, her eyes glinting like stars as she looked ready to start working right away.

"In that case, I look forward to seeing your research take form," he said kindly, reaching down and patting her fondly on the head, "And watching all the contributions you will make to the world."

"Professor," memory Robin expressed happily, "What I'd really like is to find out what happened in the Void Century!"

There it was. Robin declaring her dream for the first time. While it seemed harmless enough, it was clear that she had said something very wrong, judging from the expressions of all the other archeologists. All the joy in the room suddenly evaporated, as if someone had snuffed out a candle, only to be replaced with stunned silence and… even a little fear.

Professor Clover, especially, looked like he was about to have a heart attack as he cried, "No! You can't! I strictly forbid it, just as I always have!"

"Huh? I don't get it," memory Robin said with clear confusion on her face, "If we want to solve the mysteries of the world, shouldn't we study the Poneglyphs to find out what happened back then?"

Again, her desires and logic it made sense, and one wouldn't think that there was anything wrong with such a reason. But everyone was staring at her, shocked that she would say such a thing so openly. Present-day Robin watched on sadly, knowing that while she was intelligent back then, she was still just a child and was naïve to the dangers of the world by simply wanting to study history.

Professor Clover was especially shocked and fell back as he gasped, "What? How do you know about that? Did you use your powers to peek on us in the basement?"

It seems he hit the nail on the head by that accusation, for memory Robin shrank back and tried to stutter out an excuse but Professor Clover wasn't having it.

"Any attempt to decipher or study the Poneglyphs is considered a criminal act by the World Government!" he gasped, the lines in his face so hard that it was as if he turned to stone as any trace of his happy-go-lucky attitude vanished.

"What? They're willing to kill people over something like that?" Usopp gasped. "What's so dangerous about studying the Void Century?"

"If we had the answers to that, then what happened to Robin's homeland would never have happened," Zoro sighed, glancing at their Robin, who looked like her mind was lost in different memories.

"I see," memory Robin muttered in a surprisingly timid voice, "So that's why you don't tell anybody. That's why you study them in the basement at night."

"You were spying on us!" Professor Clover declared, a hint of anger there. He approached and asked in a deadly serious tone, "So how much do you know? This is a very serious matter we're dealing with here! Explain yourself, Robin!"

Memory Robin just looked down before saying as bravely as she could, tears forming in her eyes, "I know it's bad, but even if I asked nicely, you still wouldn't let me join you! That's why I studied so hard to become an archeologist because I thought then you would finally treat me like everyone else. I just want to learn."

Everyone around her looked guilty at her confession, even Professor Clover looked more sympathetic than angry this time. But he was not giving in as he knelt down in front of her and placed his weathered hands on her shoulders even as she was fighting tears.

"I know this is hard," he said, his voice both firm and soft at the same time, "You've studied with all your heart and deserve to be called a scholar as much as anyone else here. However, you're also still a child. If word gets out, then every one of us could be put to death."

"Which is stupid," Sanji hissed under his voice with a bitter tone.

"Harsh as it sounds, it's something we're willing to accept," Professor Clover continued, "Since this became the law of the world 800 years ago, countless scholars have lost their lives, as many as there are stars in the sky! But we can't stop now, and I'll tell you why. Of all the scholars who ever tried to decipher the ancient texts, we of Ohara are the only ones who have met with any success. For us, there is no turning back. I swear on the tree of Knowledge, if you ever come close to the basement again, you will be forbidden from entering the library or conducting research with us!"

Basically threatening to cut her off from them and everything else she loves if she was caught again. They all knew Robin well enough to know that this was the worst thing that they could have threatened her with.

He looked deadly serious as he asked, "You understand?"

Rather than answer him, memory Robin broke away, tears flowing down her cheeks as she bolted for the door and ran outside, not even looking back once.

"That was so harsh!" Usopp said, feeling himself tearing up a little.

"Robin! I'm sorry that they didn't allow you to join them!" Chopper said, clinging to her front even as she gently patted the top of his head.

"No, it's alright," present-day Robin sighed as the memory faded around them. "I didn't understand back then, but I do now. They were just trying to protect me. As Professor Clover said, had the World Government discovered what they were trying to do, they would either have been imprisoned or killed. They didn't want me to be in harm's way. None of the government officials would ever believe a child would be an archeologist."

"Still, that's way over the line," Zoro stated, "Putting someone to death just because they wanted to study history? Isn't that the real reason they were after you for all these years?"

Robin nodded grimly and reminded them, "As you all know, my dream is to learn the true history of the world. For as long as I can remember, ever since I first learned of the Void Century, it was all I wanted to learn. What happened during that time? Why was there no information anywhere? And why did the government declare it forbidden to study it? The archeologists of Ohara were of the same desire to learn. Though the government said otherwise, my people only wanted to learn the truth. That's all. And through countless years of research, they learned how to read the poneglyphs, which are the only known recordings of what happened in that time."

"Strange though," Nami frowned at the thought, "That the ponegylphs are the only source of information regarding the Void Century…? And the government seems determined to keep that information from getting out. Almost desperately so. I can't help but wonder how much that they, themselves, know about the Void Century."

"They made the excuse that the information was deemed too dangerous because of the Ancient Weapons," Robin answered. "But there is so much more that happened during that time than that. And you're right. I do think that the World Government knows more than they are willing to share."

"Well, I'm sure that we'll find the truth out sooner or later. Personally, I'm really curious now myself to know more what happened," Sanji said with a shrug, really wanting to go back to the Sunny and soothe away Robin's pain by making her something special in the kitchen. He was even mentally going through some of Robin's favorite recipes now, looking forward to seeing her smiling face when he presented the food to her.

The memory came back to daytime, and they found themselves along the shore. They must have been a fair distance from the town for they could see the Tree of knowledge looking smaller than before. But memory Robin was walking along the beach with an utterly dejected expression on her young face. She kicked out at a couple of shells and it was clear that she was still thinking about what Professor Clover had said before.

"I remember this," present-day Robin muttered softly, her grip tightening slightly around Chopper. This mean that she was about to meet him any moment now. "This happened the very next day and I was trying to think of a way to get around what Professor Clover had said."

"Did you figure it out?" Nami asked curiously but she shook her head.

"I was afraid that if I was caught then I really would be banished from the library and I didn't want to risk it," she sighed. Not that it matters since it would only be a few more days before she would be forced to leave Ohara once and for all.

Her past self watched the seagulls with a miserable expression, at least until a small flock of them gathered up ahead, she lowered her head slightly to get a look at what drew their attention and even stopped dead in her tracks as what could only be described as a giant washed up on the beach.

"Is that… a giant?" Franky asked, lifting up his sunglasses to get a better look.

"Well, I find it hard to think of what else to call someone of that size," Zoro said with his eyebrows raised as they moved with memory Robin closer.

"Wow! He's as big as Masters Dorry and Broggy!" Usopp cried out, stars in his eyes before rounding over to Robin and asked, "You knew a giant, Robin?"

She smiled at that, her expression softening so much that he knew that this must have been a good guy for Robin to look so at peace.

"He's a friend of yours, Robin?" Luffy asked, also noticing her look and she nodded.

"Though we didn't know each other for long, I think it's safe to say that he had quickly become my closest friend when I was a child," she sighed, which caused Luffy to smile a bit wider. Any friend of one of his crewmates had to be a good person, after all!

Memory Robin stepped up to look closer, as if trying to determine if what she was seeing was a person or not, but soon he began to groan. Memory Robin stood still even he began to move by kicking up and forced her to step back as he coughed up the sand. He let out a loud roar, holding up his hands as if hoping to frighten her away, causing Usopp and Chopper to let out shrieks of fear and a few others looked on worriedly.

It was as if the scene froze—it was actually almost funny to look at. The giant, who had a long, orange beard that connected around his entire face so that it resembled a lion's mane, was also dressed in tattered, sea-soaked clothes and a rather battered cowboy's hat on his back. He looked down at her and she gazed back—more surprised than showing fear.

At last, his head collapsed on the beach and he groaned out in a dry voice, "W-Water…?"

"Water?" memory Robin repeated.

"Ne-Need W-water…" the giant moaned.

"I can show you were a river is," memory Robin offered and she led the giant, as he grumbled to his feet and they went a short distance away to where a freshwater river was flowing by. At the sight of it, the giant stuck his enormous face into the stream and drank his fill.

"Hey! I think that he's hurt!" Chopper called, getting a look at how the giant was limping, favoring one leg over the other.

"Was he shipwrecked?" Brook asked as he looked over his tattered clothing. "How fortunate that he managed to make it to shore."

"He was, even though we weren't in the Grand Line," present-day Robin confirmed as her past self watched how the giant began to suck in all the water that he could.

"But who is he?" Sanji asked, more curious than anything. Of all the random people to wash ashore, why was a giant here? "There aren't any other islands with giants outside the Grand Line, are there? Which means that he's most likely either he's a pirate or a marine though he doesn't really look like either."

"Former Marine," Robin confirmed, "He left them because he didn't believe in their methods any longer."

"Well, after some of the shit we've seen, I can't say I blame him," Zoro shrugged as the giant, who finally had his fill of water, collapsed on the ground, knocking over some trees in the process, while he sucked in a few lungful of air.

Once the giant caught his breath, he looked up at the clear sky above him and muttered to himself more than to the little girl next to him, "Guess I'm still alive after all. I just wonder if she's okay, too."

Most of the Straw Hats tilted their heads in confusion at the 'she' part, but no one asked, just figuring that he was thinking about a friend of his, before he rolled his head to spot memory Robin standing there. "Anyhow," he said gruffly, "Thank you for your help, but I gotta ask… is there a town or village somewhere 'round here?"

Memory Robin nodded and he looked disappointed.

"That's a shame," he sighed, but didn't seem that surprised, "I 'spose beggars cant' be choosers, but a deserted island woulda been nice, y'know?"

"Really? Why?" Chopper asked in confusion. "He could get help, or borrow a transponder snail to call for one of his friends to get him?"

"Let's just say he had his reasons," present-day Robin answered back.

After a few minutes, the giant managed to sit up and moved his hat to the top of his head as he seemed to make himself comfortable. Memory Robin climbed up a large boulder and stood there, staring at him as he sat there.

"Were you just going to stand there staring at him all day?" Zoro couldn't help but ask their Robin, who shrugged back.

"It wasn't like I had anything else to do that day, nor anyone who would miss me if I did," she confessed, which caused a few of the crew frowned at that, but didn't press the matter.

After several long minutes of neither of them saying a word, the giant finally grumbled, "You can stare all you want, but ain't nothing gonna happen. As you can see, I hurt my leg, so I'm stayin' put. Least for the time bein'. After I feel better I'll build a raft or somethin' to get me outta here."

Chopper frowned at that, wishing that he would get that wounded leg checked out, but he knew that giving it some rest was also the best option at the moment anyway. After getting a glance from it, while he would have liked to put on some bandages and made sure that he got some kind of antibiotics, he should be fine so long as he didn't push himself.

As for memory Robin, she didn't say a word as she looked on. He gave her the side eye and asked gruffly, "This your first time seeing a giant, Missy?"

"Yeah," memory Robin confirmed.

"You never forget the first time, I guess," Nami sighed as she thought back to Little Garden. She honestly thought she was going to pee her pants when she saw that towering, hulking figure that could have crushed her under foot if he took one wrong step.

"I'll tell you one thing," he said in a serious tone, as if he was afraid that she would think otherwise, "I may be big as those guys from Elbaf, but I sure ain't as mean. Just as sure as there's war-like giants, there's peaceful ones, too."

"Mean? They're not mean! The giants of Elbaf are the bravest warriors on the seas!" Usopp started out, looking ready to defend them to his dying breath.

"Just watch them, not everyone is gonna have the same views on giants as you," Sanji said with a quick bonk on the head.

"Hmmm," was all memory Robin said, though it was clear that she didn't seem too bothered by his words.

"I know this is a long shot, but I gotta ask anyway," he began slowly, his hands jerking slightly as if nervous, "When you get home, you think maybe you could… ah… uh well… not tell anyone that a giant washed up on the beach?"

"Did they ever find out that a giant walked up on the beach, Robin-san?" Brook asked curiously.

"No, and considering how much noise he made, I think it's a miracle that no one did," she confirmed in amusement. She could vaguely recall how when she went home at the end of each day, she overheard a few people talking about expecting a bad storm soon because they could swear that they heard thunder in the distance though she wasn't sure if she was remembering that part correctly.

"Okay, sure," memory Robin answered back with no problems.

"Well that was too easy," he sighed, not believing a word, "Of course you're gonna tell people."

"I said I wouldn't," she countered.

He looked at her before shaking his head. "Yeah, you're tellin' a fib. Ain't no way a kid can keep a secret this big!"

"Don't worry about it. I'm not really interested in you," memory Robin said bluntly, which caused the present-day crew to start laughing.

"Glad to see that you haven't changed that much, sis," Franky chortled as she only grinned back.

"Come on, you're telling me that you weren't interested in a giant washing up on shore?" Zoro had to ask.

"That's our Robin! She's so cool!" Sanji swooned in delight as the giant stared down at her, completely taken aback, before breaking out into so much laughter that tears were in his eyes.

"Dereshishishi. Dereshishishi," he laughed out.

"Dereshi? What does that mean?" memory Robin asked, in clear confusion.

"It don't mean a darn thing! I'm just laughing!" he laughed out as she started to smile.

"That's the way you laugh?" she asked as he roared on with laughter until she joined in with him.

Luffy started to laugh as well, really liking this guy already as he said, "What a funny guy!"

"It is a strange laugh," Nami couldn't help but point out, but she was smiling as well, it was hard not to with how energetic the guy was, "But not the worst I've ever heard."

"I gotta admit, all my life people been tellin' me my laugh is silly," the giant admitted with a good-natured grin. "But you, you're pretty cute when you laugh!"

At that, memory Robin stopped laughing and a pink blush stretched across her cheeks and nose as he finished, "you should do it more often, I say!"

"Ah, Robin…" Sanji swooned once more, hearts blazing in his eyes, "You are always beautiful to me! But when I see you smile…? It's then that the heavens open up and shine…?"

"Oh, shut up," Zoro said in annoyance as the hearts immediately were replaced with flames as he glared back at him.

"What was that, MossHead?"

"You heard me, Prince Nosebleed!"

"Why I outta…?"

"It is nice to have to have reasons to smile," present-day Robin said, blushing slightly as she privately thought about how this crew was the reason that she had so many reasons to do so. She was surrounded by insane people… and she loved each and every one of them for it.

Her memory self looked down in embarrassment as the giant finished laughing and said, "Anyhow, I go by the name of Saul. Jaguar D. Saul, if you like."

"D?" memory Robin repeated curiously, looking back up.

"Yeah, I don't know much about what it means but from what I hear, everyone in my family has it for their middle name," he answered before she thought to ask.

"Hey, you have a D in your name, don't ya, Luffy?" Chopper asked their captain.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I guess," he answered back.

"It feels like we've been over this before, but I am really curious to know what the D in your name stand for?" Nami asked, "We've come across a couple people so far with D in their names?"

"Eh? I have no idea," Luffy shrugged, "Like what the giant-guy says, everyone in my family has it. Grandpa has it so I have it too."

"Oh… I get it," Usopp, Chopper, and Brook all said together as they hit the palms of their hands in understanding.

"Isn't that how family names work?" Sanji asked while Zoro and Nami sweat dropped and Robin chuckled.

"Anyways, what about you?" Saul asked.

"My name's Robin," she answered.

"I see," he said with his smile fading a little, "Well, truth is, Robin, some guys are chasing me down right now. So, uh, if someone finds me, I'm in trouble."

"I said I wouldn't tell!" she promised.

"Why would they be after him? What'd he do?" Chopper asked in confusion, but present-day Robin didn't answer, so they didn't press her.

The memories after that were of little Robin coming to visit every day, staying with him from morning till night, only leaving when she was struggling to keep her eyes open and he would urge her to go and get some sleep. The two would just sit and talk for hours about any random thing that came to mind. Saul was vague about some parts of his past such as why he washed up on shore and who was after him, but he was eager to tell Robin about some of the places and people that he had met out there in the world.

"Really?" memory Robin asked with bright eagerness as Saul told her about how he had been forced to go through the Calm Belt before his ship sinking in a storm not long after he arrived in the West Blue. "Does that mean you've been to the Grand Line?"

"Been there? Little lady, I'm from there! Most people think that all giants come from Elbaf, but there are other islands out there with giants," he laughed out.

As for memory Robin, she loved to tell him all about the many things she read about in her books and even asked him a bunch of questions about the parts she was curious about. Even though it was clear that Saul had no idea about half of them, he could tell that it meant a lot for Robin to be able to talk about how much she knew.

By the end of the second day, he was feeling well enough to start getting the workings of a raft together.

"Where are you planning on going?" memory Robin asked as he started uprooting some trees.

"Well, that's a good question," he said as he thought it over. "Not entirely sure… but I got me some friends who may be able to help."

"Who is after you?" memory Robin asked.

"I'm afraid I still can't tell ya," he answered back with a frown. "Just that the longer I'm here, the higher the chance is they'll find me and I don't want no trouble to the people here."

"You said he was a former marine, right?" Zoro asked, looking to their Robin again. "He left them because their ideals clashed. Does this mean that it was the marines who were after him?"

The sad look on present-day Robin's face was enough of an answer for him and he bit his lower lip, hating this more and more. Everything was setting up for something really bad, it was like seeing dark clouds on the horizon and knowing that they were about to head into a storm.

He tried to just focus on these peaceful memories for now though. It was nice to see memory Robin really open up to someone, and know that she did have someone whom she trusted and saw as a good friend from back then. Soon enough, they were now watching the two interacting on the third day after he washed up on shore. Memory Robin had used the little pocket money from her 'family' to buy a couple loaves of bread—saying it was all she could afford. The one loaf, while big for Robin, was so small to Saul that he could fit it entirely on the tip of his finger before popping it into his mouth like it was a piece of candy.

"Good," he complemented as she offered the second one to him. He laughed again before saying, "Mighty kind of you, Robin, but you go ahead and take this one. My stomach's pretty full as-is." He then pointed to the skeleton of an enormous sea monster laying a few feet away and said, "As you can see, I caught a real whopper last night. Well, I better get back to work on that raft. Should be done pretty soon at this rate."

"That's huge!" Usopp gasped, eyes bugging out at the sight of it.

"Well, he's a big guy so he's bound to have a big appetite," Sanji offered reasonably. "Makes me think what they use in Elbaf for their food? Do they grow a ton of food or just really big food?"

They watched as Saul stood up and went to uproot some trees to use for logs as memory Robin sat down and began to eat the second loaf, watching him silently as he worked.

"I don't mean to pry but it seems like you have an awful lot of time on your hands," he pointed out after a couple minutes of comfortable silence, "Not that I don't like your company, but you've been sticking with me for days now. Ain't your parents and friends gonna get suspicious?"

At the question, memory Robin slowly lowered the bread to her lap and looked down, her eyes sad.

"I don't have any parents," she confessed quietly. But upon seeing his concerned face, she corrected, "Actually, I do have a mom, but she set sail for work years ago and never came back. I don't even remember her face. I'm sort-of-friends with the archaeologists around here, but they won't let me join in on their research, so I don't know anymore. The other kids say I'm creepy, so even if I wanted to play with them, I don't think that they'd let me."

She then held up her hand and caused several arms to blossom up Saul's own massive arm. They watched how memory Robin seemed to brace herself, as if waiting for him to freak out, but he looked rather impressed by what she did and said, "Ah, so you have Devil Fruit powers, huh?"

Memory Robin looked surprised by his calm attitude and asked, "You aren't scared of me?"

"I used to sail all over the Grand Line back in the day," he reminded her, "I've seen plenty of folks with powers tons scarier than yours. To be honest, I'm kinda jealous of your little arm thing." He then screwed up his face, as if fighting another laugh and choked out, "It looks pretty handy!"

Luffy laughed again, saying, "What a cool guy! He's really funny!"

"And one has to admit that your powers are quite convenient, Robin-san, Yohohoho!" Brook laughed.

"Yeah! It's not creepy at all, Robin!" Chopper reassured her, giving her a big hug, which she was only too happy to return.

"Thank you," she said with a nod. "I don't think my powers are creepy at all anymore. But it's still nice to hear."

Saul was then laughing out at the top of his lungs once again, a true belly laugh that caused memory Robin started to giggle again and informed him, "That laugh of yours is really weird!"

"It don't matter if your laugh's weird," he said reasonably, "All that really matters, is when you laugh, all of a sudden, your problems disappear!"

"Why?" she asked with a tilt of her head.

"What d'you mean 'why'?" he repeated, as if he expected a clever girl like her to already have the answer to that. "Everyone knows you laugh when you're having fun, right? So if you're not having fun, all you need to do is laugh, and everything'll work out just fine! You're just a kid but it seems like you're having a rough time. When you're feelin' down, just laugh. There ain't nothin' a good laugh can't fix."

"You think that's true?" Chopper asked brightly. He then remembered all the times that Dr. Hiriluk used to just burst out laughing at things that weren't even funny and wondered if it was the same thing.

"In a lot of cases, it can," present-day Robin replied, "But… it can't make everything better."

"It seems awfully silly to laugh when you're sad," memory Robin pointed out.

"Don't knock it tell you try it," he countered with his eyes twinkling with mirth. Without any prompting, he started laughing once more. "Do it just like that and I bet you'll feel better in a flash!"

Memory Robin screwed up her face before giving a kind of awkward laugh of 'Deresh!'

"Awww, Robin, you are too precious for this world," Sanji cooed out.

"Not bad! Now, with more gusto!" Saul said and soon the two of them were practicing the laugh until real laugher erupted from them both.

"I am glad to see that you did have someone you could be so open with, Robin-san," Brook told her happily. "There are few greater joys in life than laughing with friends."

"You should laugh more like that, Robin," Luffy added, beaming even more than usual. "I like that giant-guy! We should meet up with him if we can!"

"Yeah… I wish we could," Robin said as the memory faded around them, but some of her own cheer was fading. For it was soon after that conversation did the marines come to the island and she had to fight the urge to be sick once again.

She didn't think she was ready to see it.

She didn't think she would ever be ready to confront it.

Before she was ready, the memory changed once again, and they were back at the shoreline, with Saul admiring his homemade raft. Memory Robin was huddled over, hiding her face in her knees as Saul was laughing at the sight of it.

"Awww, he's leaving?" Chopper asked sadly. He had really liked Saul and his cheerfulness, and he knew how sad Robin was going to be.

"The raft is done, all right!" Saul laughed out before little memory Robin stood up.

"So you're leaving already?" she asked with sadness clear in her tone.

He looked over to see how dejected she looked before asking, "Now what's with that face? You put those puppy dog eyes away, little missy!"

She just continued to look sad and a rueful smile appeared as he admitted, "Actually, I s'pose my raft could use a flag, huh? Guess I'll just have to stay a little bit longer!"

"So he's staying for a bit longer?" Nami asked with a fond smile. To think that he postponed his journey for a little girl that he barely knew. She could only smile a little wider when Saul and memory Robin laughed their special laugh together once again.

With Saul's journey postponed, they sat together and started talking once again, mostly about minor things such as Robin's life on the island or Saul's favorite recipes for cooking up giant sea monsters.

"The key is to debone them first, and then grill them up something fine," he sighed, smacking his lips at the thought. "Though, it's pretty tough to find the right kind of seasonings for sea king out there. Gotta be prepared for anything though."

"That's true," Sanji agreed wholeheartedly. "Let alone finding a big enough stove to cook it."

"That sounds yummy!" Luffy drooled as his stomach started to rumble again. "Sanji, can't you cook us something now?"

"With what? Unless you're hiding some ingredients in your pockets you can forget it. I can't make something outta nothing, how many times do I have to tell you this?" Sanji grumbled.

"I want to head out to sea someday," memory Robin piped up eagerly.

"I'll be darned," Saul asked, "So you're looking to set out to sea, too, huh?"

"Yep," she said, looking more cheerful as she looked to the sea, as if she was already imagining what life would be like out there on the water. "My mom's been away from home for years thanks to all her big archeological research. But whenever she finally comes back to the island, I'm gonna ask her to take me along on her next trip. That's why I've been studying so hard. I got my archaeology doctorate just like her."

"Wow, Robin! You got a doctorate that young?!" Chopper asked impressed.

"Huh? Does that mean that Robin's a doctor too?" Luffy asked, now baffled to what a doctorate was.

"Kind of," present-day Robin chuckled. "I'm a doctor for archeology instead of for medicine. It just means that I studied a lot and worked really hard to be able to become a scholar."

"Ohhhh," Usopp and Luffy said together. Truthfully, they didn't fully understand what she meant, but it sounded impressive to them as Nami rolled her eyes.

"You got a doctorate?" Saul asked, taken aback, "A tiny little girlie like you?" Memory Robin nodded proudly before he added, "But hold on a sec, didn't you tell me you don't even remember what your mom's face looks like?"

"Yeah, but she's still my mom," she answered back sadly. "I wanna see her."

Looked like Saul didn't have a clue how to counter that before she went on, "Hey, Saul. Did you know that our world has a period of 100 years that nobody knows anything about?"

"Yep, I believe folks call that the Void Century, don't they?" he asked. "I'm curious about it myself, but the government says it's illegal for anyone to look into."

"That's right, but I heard my mom is travelling all over the world investigating it in secret," memory Robin confessed. "But don't tell anyone, I don't want her to get in trouble."

Franky whistled out slowly at that. He knew better than most how seriously the government took to researching about the Void Century. More than once he wondered just what the hell happened during those years that would cause someone to come up with the concept for the weapon Pluton. But to think that Robin's mom had the guts to go out there and do it? If Saul was Robin's friend, he didn't think that they had to worry about him blabbing about it to anyone—especially if the marines were after him—but Robin had to be more careful letting information like that out.

Saul seemed to be thinking along the same lines for his eyes widened and he gasped out, "What? Are you telling me that your mom's going around looking for them ancient stone tablet things they call Poneglyphs?"

Memory Robin looked up in surprise and asked, "You've heard about Poneglyphs?"

"Yeah, but that ain't the point here, okay?" he said urgently, "You can't go around talking about this kinda stuff in front of other folks outta the blue! And if yer mamma's out there looking for them, you especially gotta be…?"

His voice caught and his eyes widened so much that they were in danger of popping out of his head.

"What's wrong?" Sanji asked, not liking the sweat that was building up on Saul's head. He could almost see how Saul seemed to be putting pieces of some kind of puzzle together in his mind, though what it was about, he didn't know. Memory Robin noticed this too and asked if he was alright before Saul stuttered out his carefully chosen words.

"Robin, do you happen to know your mother's name?" he choked out.

"It's Olvia," memory Robin smiled. "Nico Olvia."

"Olvia is your mom's name? What a pretty sounding name," Brook asked their Robin, believing that this was the first time he ever heard of Robin's mother spoken, and she nodded to confirm it. As for Saul, he gasped and fell back, causing the ground to tremble as he stared up at the sky, a look of horror written all over his features even as memory Robin asked if he was ok.

"Yeah, what's wrong?" Zoro asked this time, not liking the look that Saul was giving—like he had just seen a ghost.

"Wait, so does that mean—I've been on Ohara all this time?" he asked in a hurried tone, as though fearing the truth, before he sat back up.

"Mh-hm," memory Robin confirmed and he freaked out.

"That's terrible! Oh no!" he yelled out so loudly that it was a marvel that the rest of the island didn't hear him. "Why did I end up in Ohara of all places?!"

"It's not that bad here?" Chopper asked, completely at a loss to what was going on. But some of the other members of the Straw Hats were putting the pieces together this time. If Saul had been a member of the Navy, chances was that he was already aware of the Buster Call that was on its way here. And if that was the case then…?

"This is no time to be sitting around, Saul!" Saul barked to himself, smacking his own cheeks before turning to Robin, "Robin!"

"Yes?" she began slowly.

"This may come as a shock, but you gotta listen to me and listen good!" he warned urgently, "Navy battleships are on their way to Ohara right now. They may even be here already!"

"The Navy? Why?" she asked with a startled tone, her hands gripping the ground in front of her hard.

"They're gonna wipe out every last scholar on the island!" he explained, close to panicking himself.

"WHAT?!" Brook, Usopp, Luffy, and Chopper all cried out in horror as Nami gasped and covered her mouth with her trembling hands. She turned to look to the adult version of Robin, who remained frozen in place, the shadow of her sunglasses hiding her eyes. She wanted to speak, but had no idea what she could say to comfort her.

Meanwhile, little Robin was staring up at Saul, looking so terrified and shocked at the same time that you could see the two emotions were raging inside all over her face. Finally, through numb lips, she croaked out, "That can't be. No."

Honestly, what could one say to a statement like that? But Saul was continuing on, pleading with her, "So listen, whatever you do…"

"You're lying…"

"You can't let those government guys know you're a scholar."

"You're lying…"

"You gotta promise me that, okay?"

"Stop lying to me!" memory Robin yelled.

"It's true! I swear! I wouldn't joke about something this serious! Get to town as quick as you can and see if anything strange is going on. I know it sounds crazy, but your mom might be there, too!" he ordered her, and upon hearing him mention her mother, all the anger in her face faded.

"W-What? My mom's…?" memory Robin began before he interrupted her.

"Look, I know that it sounds unbelievable but I know yer mom!" he explained hurriedly, causing her to gasp. "She was captured by the Navy and held prisoner there. That was when I met her! She told me about her work and the study of the Poneglyphs. We were always told that the reason that no one was allowed to study up on the Void Century was because of some ancient weapons! That's why we were always ordered to arrest those who claimed to be studying up on it!"

"Wait! So he captured Oliva?" Usopp cut in.

"On the surface, it makes sense," Brook whispered, thinking about the idea of these weapons, whatever they were. If there was a chance that some kind of weapon of mass destruction could be brought back by studying up on the Void Century…? That would be more than enough for most navy officials to hunt down any scholar even remotely curious about it without question.

"You… you captured my mom?" memory Robin croaked out, staring at him like she had never seen him clearly before now.

"There's no time to explain," he said hurriedly, "But the truth is I just couldn't agree with what they were doing anymore! We ran into several scholars trying to learn more about the Void Century, but they didn't seem interested in weapons! They just talked about studyin' history! That's why the Navy decided to come after me, because I let her escape! She's probably on her way back here as we speak, if she's not here already! So, you gotta go and see for yourself and warn your scholar friends what's coming! But whatever you do, don't let them know that you're a scholar yerself! You got that?"

Memory Robin just looked on, her face a mixture of emotions before she slid down the rock and went running off towards the direction of the tree. Saul didn't try to stop her nor did he argue for her to stop, he just walked her go as the rest of the Straw Hats followed behind her.

"My mother was with a group of other researchers, looking for Poneglyphs, and trying to piece together what happened during the Void Century," present-day Robin explained for them as they ran. She had moved her sunglasses down to cover her eyes properly by now. "Their ship was found and attacked by the Navy, my mother was the only survivor. They took her prisoner, hoping that they could learn about her collaborators. I found out about all of this much later on but… apparently some of the books and research notes that were left behind in the attack, pointed them here to Ohara."

"So Saul was the one who let your mom go and she came back here?" Franky asked as she lowered her head sadly.

"I can only assume that she did so to try and warn the others," she said, though this part was spoken so quietly, that they weren't sure she said anything at all.

They remained quiet until they reached the town properly, where there were people running about in a panic.

"What's going on here?" Nami panted as she looked around to the fear on everyone's face. "They couldn't have spotted marines here yet, could they?"

Were they already under attack?

But that was when a few panicked voices spoke up about a woman running around with a gun in her hands.

"Really? There's someone running around threatening people now?" Chopper asked in fear as they charged in. Memory Robin didn't pay them any attention as she continued running towards the tree, the opposite direction that everyone else was fleeing in. But as they followed, a woman caught their eyes. The older woman looked just like their Robin, the adult Robin. Everything from her face to her physical features, even the same shaped and colored eyes—with the only difference being that her hair was white instead of black. They stared at her, the two running straight past each other, startled again by how much the two looked alike—even present-day Robin stopped to stare as it felt like time has slowed down for just her at that moment. Her past self had been so focused upon getting to the tree that she hadn't noticed…? She could only recall how much of a blur that run to reach her friends, whom had no idea what was coming, that she didn't pay any attention to what was going on around her.

To think that her mother was right there and she didn't notice…?

But the spell was broken, and time seemed to move properly for them again as they gave chase, following after her memory self, even though present-day Robin wanted nothing more than to run after her mother.

She managed to reach the tree in just a few more tense minutes, completely out of breath, before she threw the door open, taking everyone inside completely off guard. Some were even looking pale at the sight of her as she struggled to catch her breath.

"What's the matter, Robin?" Professor Clover asked with worry etched in his elderly face.

"You have to tell me," she gasped once she had enough air in her lungs to form a sentence, "Did my mom come by here?"

The others grew even paler and looked at her in shock.

"I get the feeling that she did," Zoro muttered, thinking back to the woman they all saw before.

"Now hold on a minute. Where did that come from?" professor Clover asked in a gentle tone. "Why would you think your mother was back in Ohara? I wish she was here, too, but she's not."

"Did she not come by here yet?" Chopper asked, still shook up from seeing that woman too.

Sanji bit his lower lip, guessing the real reason why everyone was clamming up here. They didn't want to get Robin into trouble. If the government was after Olvia, who was every bit as beautiful as her daughter was, then they would surely go after Robin as well. It was something that he could see those government dogs doing.

Upon hearing their claim that her mother wasn't here, memory Robin looked disappointed before she remembered why she was here and said urgently, "Oh yeah! We're in trouble! I heard there are Navy battleships coming to the island right now! They're trying to get rid of all the scholars on Ohara!"

There was a thick silence all around them before professor Clover decided, "The people in town must be stirring up bad rumors."

"What? That's not it!" Luffy yelled out, also looking freaked out now.

"Why doesn't she tell them about Saul?" Usopp asked quickly. "They don't have time to waste! If they talk to Saul then…?"

"There was no point," present-day Robin sighed, not wishing to hear about any 'what if's' at the moment. "Even if Saul had warned them the day that he washed ashore, Ohara's fate was sealed. The government was going to make sure of that."

They stared at her, the reality of how much worse this all was quickly settling in as Professor Clover approached Robin.

"The truth is, that's no battleship and they won't be 'getting rid of anyone'. The Government is paying us a visit, though," he decided before he crouched down in front of her to finish, "And that means the library will be under an investigation, a harsh one. So listen up. No matter what those government agents say or do, you absolutely cannot let them know that you're an archaeologist like the rest of us. Since you're so young, as long as you keep quiet, no one will think you're a scholar. You understand?"

"Do you think… think that he knew that they were gonna…?" Brook whispered quietly.

"I do think that he was prepared for the worse, but he didn't expect them to go as far as they did," present-day Robin answered before looking to her past self, who was staring up at him with upset eyes.

Before she could say another word, however, the door was kicked open with such force that the scholar who had been standing next to it, was shoved to the ground violently, and a crowd of men dressed in black suits came in. Everyone looked up, startled by the sudden arrival of these men, even as they pointed rifles at them, with professor Clover shoving memory Robin behind him.

"Stop what you're doing!" one of them barked, pointing their rifle at them. "Put your hands in the air and go outside!"

"Don't you think you're being a bit violent?" Professor Clover asked coolly, remaining surprisingly calm, despite having a weapon pointing directly at him.

The agent only answered back with, "The researchers here at the Tree of Knowledge are being charged with the heinous crime of deciphering Poneglyphs. We'll be investigating the library, so everyone get out of our way and leave the building!"

"That's bullshit," Sanji snarled, glaring at them all and wishing that he could give them all a good kick up the ass for this.

Still, professor Clover walked up, ready to comply but only asked, "You'd better treat this place with care. The value of this collection is well beyond your imagination, I assure you."

"I don't have to listen to a word you say!" he backed back and then ordered each and every scholar outside to kneel in the grass as his men started to tear the place apart. The scholars were slowly beginning to file outside, at least until they saw how the men were aggressively tearing the books apart, looking for whatever kind of 'proof' that they deemed necessary. Upon seeing them tearing the books and stomping all over them, they tried to stop the destruction before they were threatened to be killed where they stood if they didn't listen.

"Just one hit! That's all I want!" Luffy whined as he tried to punch one of the government agents but his hand just went right through him like smoke.

"This is just getting worse," Franky growled, shaking as he really began to fear what was about to happen. Memory Robin trembled as she was also ushered outside, when one of the agents spotted her.

"Hey! Who're you, kid?" he barked and she cowered at the sight of him.

"She's just a little girl from town who loves to read," professor Clover answered back for her. "She was just returning a book that we lent her and was on her way home before you arrived. This is the largest library you're ever likely to find in the world. We like to encourage children to learn, after all."

The government official sneered, giving Robin a little shove in the back before snapping, "Run along home, girl. This is government business."

But memory Robin didn't want to leave, clinging to professor Clover even as they were forced outside and kneel in the grass a short distance away from the Tree of Knowledge. In the distance they could see the rest of the people from town with bags and suitcases, looking on with confusion and fear as the agents stood guard, ready to shoot anyone who dared try to escape.

"Where is the evacuation ship?" someone shouted.

"It's on the west seashore! Hurry!"

"Everyone run! Who knows what might happen?!"

"Everyone's leaving?" Nami whispered, watching as the people were leaving in droves from their houses, only grabbing a few essential items as they flocked towards the coast.

"Originally, they only wanted to destroy the tree and the archeologists," present-day Robin whispered. "Regular citizens were free to go."

"Wait… what do you mean, 'originally'?" Franky asked, not liking how she said that as she lowered her head, not answering as the horrible truth sunk in.

"Robin," Professor Clover said quietly. "They said there's an evacuation ship waiting. We don't know what the government is going to do anymore, you should get out while you can."

"No way!" memory Robin answered back stubbornly, "There's nothing but mean people on that stupid boat! I'm staying here with my friends!"

"Robin," professor Clover warned, showing that he was deadly serious about her leaving.

"I'm the same as you…?" she began but he cut her off.

"That's enough, just go!" he barked loudly, growing frustrated.

"Wow, so even back then, you were a loyal to a fault, Robin-san?" Brook asked kindly.

"One would call me stubborn," she answered back with a shrug.

"And many would argue that the two are one and the same," Usopp pointed out, trying to lighten the mood however much he could.

That was when a loud, obnoxious, and slightly familiar, voice called out, "Looks like you have the situation under control!"

They looked up to see someone who looked strangely like someone they had seen before, but for some they struggled to put the face to mind. But upon hearing his laughter, Franky's jaw dropped open in horror.

"No way! Spanda?!" he yelled, freaking out. "I mean… I know his face was pretty messed up after I took care of it, but I don't think that he looked like this?"

"No, that's his father," present-day Robin answered back.

"Spanda? Wait! You mean that jerk who blew up Enies Lobby after pushing the button for the Buster Call?" Nami gasped.

Sanji shook his head and grumbled, "What bad luck."

"Well, what are we supposed to call this guy since Spanda is taken?" Zoro asked as everyone chimed in with suggestions.

"Asshole?" Sanji stated.

"Bastard?" Franky growled.

"Jerk?" Luffy grumbled.

"I'll take any of those answers," Zoro shrugged, everyone simultaneously agreeing to hate this guy.

Anyway, the asshole was flanked on either side by men in suits, while one of them carried a woman over their shoulder. Both present-day and memory Robin stared on in horror as she was brought before them like she was just a life-size ragdoll. Sanji was grinding his teeth together at the sight of someone treating a woman like that, seeing the bruises and cuts even from here. He then let out a roar of fury when the suit went and threw her pugnaciously to the ground—causing her to hit it head-first and laid there motionless.

"Oh, Robin… she's…?" Nami gasped, covering her mouth in shock.

"Yes," was all present-day Robin could whisper back as she stared at her mother's form, longing to run over to her.

"Alright, listens carefully," Spanda's bastard dad spoke up, "This woman is an escaped prisoner. We executed her comrades after we found out that they'd been deciphering ancient texts. But we still have a couple of matters left to clear up. So let me be frank here. If she's your partner, just come out with it already, so I can get this over with and go home."

But if he was expecting them to confess at his command, he was mistaken. No one said a word, but there was clear guilt in their faces until professor Clover whispered again, "Robin, for the last time, go! Hurry!"

Looking on, it was clear to the Straw Hats that Clover wanted Robin away from here before she realized this woman was her mother. Still, memory Robin looked ready to argue before noticing she was being closely watched. For at the sound of Robin's name, the woman slowly looked up and her eyes locked on Robin instantly. Seeing her face, made it all the more convincing that this was her mother, Olvia. Her face… her eyes—filled with tears—were all identical to their Robin. Even the faint smile she had when she saw Robin for the first time in six years was all the proof they needed.

"It's like you both are twins," Brook whispered in awe.

"I take that as a compliment," present-day Robin chuckled sadly, making sure her sunglasses were truly down to try and hide the tears that were quickly forming as an empty gaping hole of grief opened in her heart.

The tension in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife before they heard an explosion and they all looked to the tree to see that it looked like someone had let off a bomb, smoke and fire was billowing out from the side of the wood and the scholars were freaking out at the sight of it. Spanda's bastard dad only laughed at that even as cries of outrage echoed among them. That was when one of the agents informed him that they were receiving a message and held up one of those Government issued transponder snails.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Is this the Chief?" someone asked, after he confirmed it the voice answered, "We found a hidden room in the basement! They have a huge tablet there, probably a Poneglyph, and a massive collection of research documents discussing the ancient texts!"

"Nice work," he said before hanging up and burst out laughing.

"This isn't good," Franky said, gulping down. Tom was taken away just to get some blueprints for Pluton, but knowing that the archeologists here were caught red-handed…?

"Well, scholars of Ohara, I'm afraid your death sentence has already been decided! It's a pity. I hate to lose so many fine scholars, but you're really forcing my hand, here!" Spanda's jerk father laughed before he sulked. "Wow, what a letdown. I came all this way just to say that? Guess we'd better report to the Gorosei."

"The… Gorosei…?" Chopper repeated in confusion as Robin ran her hand through his thick fur to comfort herself as much as him.

"They are the leaders of the World Government, more or less. The five of them are the highest of all Celestial Dragons," she explained, biting her lower lip.

"Celestial Dragons? Now we know that they are monsters," Sanji growled, wanting to run in and break this jerk's face like how Franky broke his son's face.

As they prepared to contact the elders, memory Robin looked to Professor Clover and asked, "Professor, they aren't really going to kill you? They wouldn't do that to someone just for learning about history, would they?"

"How naïve I was back then," present-day Robin sighed once again.

"Stupid brat! What would you know? They may say they're 'learning about history', but the truth is they're learning how to revive an ancient weapon so they can commit mass murder!" Spanda's bastard dad barked.

"You're wrong!" she shouted back in that childish voice, refusing to believe a word that came from his mouth, "They would never do anything like that!"

"Don't bother Robin," Professor Clover interrupted, "It's pointless to discuss the matter with an errand boy like him."

"What's that?" he snapped back as if he had just been mortally offended before professor Clover got to his feet.

"Is it really the ancient weapon itself that the World Government is afraid of?" he asked with his face hard. The other archeologists tried to calm him down, warning him to be careful with what he said, as one of the agents informed them that the Gorosei were on the line.

"Before you put all of us to death allow me to speak with the Gorosei," Professor Clover said, taking his chance. It seemed that he knew he was going to die, but if he was going to go out he wanted to go out his way as he finished, "Although we still have much to learn, we have proudly continued our research for many years. So at the very least, I would like to share our hypothesis on the Void Century with the world's leaders."

"Wow, he's got some balls to say something like that," Franky whistled out, impressed.

"Surely there has to be something that he can say to get them out of this?" Nami asked, biting her nails with an anxious expression. "Something…?"

"Nami-swan, it's clear that the government already made up their minds," Sanji said, placing his hand on her shoulder, causing her to look up at him. "This isn't a trial. They were just looking for an excuse to wipe everyone out here."

She sniffled, taking Robin's hand in her own, who didn't look at her as she stayed focused upon the scene.

As the chief ordered the snail brought over, Clover took this chance to whisper to memory Robin, "I'm begging you, please get out of here. If you hear what I have to say, you'll become a criminal."

Memory Robin looked back, like she wanted to argue, but seeing his serious expression seemed to have moved her like nothing else had. She didn't want to leave, but unable to do anything else, she finally did as she bided and ran away—not that she went far. The Straw Hats stayed closer to the archeologists—though kept memory Robin in close view until she reached the nearest house in the distance and hid behind it, spying on them all.

"Why are they so interested in hiding things? Did they have to go this far?" Chopper whimpered, terrified at what was going to happen next as Spanda's bastard dad explained what they found.

"Is that so?" a cold voice answered back slowly.

"Yes, the evidence is clear," Spanda's dad said in an oily voice, all his men keeping their rifles pointed at the archeologists, who just glared back from their position on the ground. "This calls for nothing short of the death penalty. We're waiting for your order."

"It's unfortunate," the voice sighed. "But seeing as they've broken the law so blatantly, there's really no other option. We must enforce our own rules."

"We don't need your mock sympathy," professor Clover spat out, his eyes glaring as his teeth were clenched tightly, still on his feet, "Save your breath."

"You're talking to the leaders of the world, you damned criminal! Show some respect!" Spanda's jerk father spat back.

"Criminal this, criminal that… he's just like his son, doesn't he know any other vocabulary than 'criminal'? I can think of a few more creative ones off the top of my head," Franky growled.

"One good thing about being pirates, we can come up with some pretty creative insults," Zoro shrugged, slowly bracing himself for the worse.

"That must be professor Clover. Ohara's foremost authority on archaeology," the voice went on, which caused professor Clover's eyes to narrow even more as he informed him, "I'm familiar with your work. You've contributed much to the world's cultural heritage. It's sad to see a man of your intellect go astray."

"The history of this planet belongs to all of mankind," he shot back. "No matter what that history may be, you don't have the right to forbid us from learning it. No one does."

"Yeah! You tell 'em!" Luffy cheered.

"If one can read the Poneglyphs, then it's also possible they can revive the ancient weapons and place the world in serious peril," the voice shot back. "Even if you have the best of intentions, someone else could come along and use your research for evil."

"Then why not just hunt down and destroy the weapons?" Usopp countered.

"I'm afraid that's not possible," Robin answered. She rarely spoke to her crew on the information she already learned about the Poneglyphs, mostly because a part of her feared that the government would set their sights on them like what happened to her—despite them all being wanted criminals anyway. But she only knew a little bit of information on two of them, while the third—Poseidon—she knew that they would never want to imagine the Mermaid Princess in such danger.

"I think that if they were really so worried about the weapons being discovered, then they would be offering to help so that they could keep a close watch on those attempting to learn about the Void Century," Brook offered.

"Yeah, one would think," Sanji said as he thought back to Enies Lobby. "That doesn't explain why they were suddenly so eager to find the weapons. I mean, that's why they took Robin two years ago…?"

"I think that was really more Spanda's ambition than theirs," Franky countered with a frown, also becoming suspicious.

"Be it good or bad, mankind as the responsibility to accept whatever their history may hold," professor Clover answered back coolly, "As long as we don't succumb to fear and ignorance, we will be prepared for anything that may come."

"That's idealistic," the voice answered in a dismissive way.

"Is it?" Clover dared to question, "Or are you just making convenient excuses to suit your needs?"

"Oh, so they are hiding something," Sanji spat when the voice fell silent.

"Eh? What does that mean?" Luffy asked, one could almost see the question marks floating about his head.

"It means that the whole thing about the weapons is an excuse," Zoro offered. "It seems that there's something a lot bigger that they want to keep hidden."

"What could be bigger than weapons that could blow away an entire island?" Franky demanded.

"That is the question…" present-day Robin whispered as professor Clover drew himself up to his full height.

"In truth, there are two mysteries left unsolved. Of course we want to read the Poneglyphs, but the reason why they were made in the first place is interesting as well," professor Clover explained. "Why was their message so important that they had to inscribe it on unbreakable stone to pass on to future generations? Why were they hidden and scattered across the world? Why were they not stored in a library?"

Nami blinked at that, only realizing now how strange that all was. Normally, just hearing the excuse that there were such dangerous weapons would be enough to satisfy most on why studying up on the Void Century was considered forbidden. But now that professor Clover was bringing up all these facts, she couldn't help but be curious and want to know more.

"The only logical conclusion is that they feared their message would be too easily destroyed if they had written it on paper," professor Clover declared. "In other words, they had an enemy. Someone who was afraid of the information they wanted to pass on."

There was stunned silence all around them—even the agents were silent as they listened with rapid attention.

"What are you trying to imply, Professor Clover?" the voice asked in a slow and deliberate tone.

"Since the Ancients have disappeared, we must assume that they were defeated by this enemy, and that whoever they were, they survived through history," professor Clover said before glancing up at the Tree of Knowledge. "It may be no coincidence, that roughly 800 years in the past, wend the Void Century came to an end, the organization we now call 'The World Government' was founded."

"He's gonna get himself killed going on like that," Franky gulped softly to himself.

"If you're gonna go down, you might as well say your piece," Zoro said, unable to tear his eye away from the scene as he kept straining his ears for the first blasts. It was coming any second…?

"Therefore, if this unknown enemy was indeed the World Government, it might be in their best interest to 'erase' this inconvenient piece of information and let the ancients disappear into the fabricated 'Void Century'," professor Clover went on. "By analyzing ancient manuscripts and piecing together that we could from the few Poneglyphs we were able to find, we discovered the existence of a previously unknown country."

"A country?" Chopper whispered.

"It is mentioned that there was a country, a powerfully strong one, in the Poneglyphs I've read," present-day Robin answered. "But I'm afraid that it disappeared. Which leads me to believe…?"

"That the World Government wiped out this country?" Franky asked, immediately thinking of Pluton and wondered if it had any role to play in it.

Robin didn't answer but professor Clover did for her as he continued, "Although the details we found were a bit scare, we believe it was a grand and powerful kingdom. And yet, despite their strength, not a trace remains. Or rather, those traces were deliberately erased. But they were prepared for this possibility, even as they faced the threat of extinction. And so they etched their history in stone, before their kingdom was crushed under the might of the allied nations now known as the World Government. Thus, the reason why the Poneglyphs were made are quite clear."

"I see," the voice said, "That's a bold hypothesis."

"It's true that the ancient weapons would be a threat to the world," professor Clover acknowledged. "But more so than weapons, what I believe the World Government is afraid of is the history surrounding this lost kingdom. Its existence and its ideologies are so dangerous to you, that you would kill to keep them secret."

"Talk about petty," Franky said as he shook his head. "They not only wiped out a kingdom, which we don't know why, but they went through all the trouble to destroy every trace of it? They want to make it so that it never existed. It's more final than just mass murder."

"Just what's so bad about this kingdom?" Luffy wondered with a frown. "Is it like what happened with that Earlobe guy back on Sky Island?"

"Earlobe guy? Oh, you mean that wannabe god?" Usopp asked, thinking to when Enel ended up blasting away all of Skypiea. Was it possible that it was something similar to that? Some maniac with a god complex?

"Although we still don't know what makes you fear this kingdom, we do at least know its name," professor Clover stated, "Since we've gone so far already, perhaps you'd like me to share it with you now?"

They all leaned in, eager to hear more but then…?

Usopp sneezed so loudly that they ended up missing the words that were spoken but before the crew could snap at him to shup up, the Gorosei on the line screamed out, "KILL HIM!"

Spanda's asshole dad then held up his gun and shot Professor Clover point-blank, not even giving him a warning or time to brace himself. They watched on, dumbstruck, as a hole was blasted right through his chest and he fell backwards as the smell of gunpowder and blood filled the air. The other archeologists all screamed his name, rushing to his side.

The Straw Hats let out screams of shock, having not saw this coming so suddenly, and leapt back.

"What happened?" Chopper screamed, "What'd he say?!"

"I don't know! I was busy hitting Usopp!" Sanji yelled back.

""I'm sorry!" Usopp cried out, "But when you gotta sneeze, you gotta sneeze!"

"PROFESSOR!" memory Robin screamed, as over the noise, the voice spoke up.

"You left us no choice. Ohara knows too much. You may give the order to attack. Don't let any of the scholars escape."

The voice was enough to send shivers down their spines as memory Robin came running over as fast as she could, sobbing the whole way as she ignored the agents and flung herself to her teacher's side.

"WHY YOU…!" Luffy yelled, stretching out his arm, only to remember that it was pointless but he couldn't help but feel frustrated that this jerk was getting away with no punishment for this. He had liked that funny, old plant-guy and this guy needed to pay for what he did.

Meanwhile, Spanda's dad held up a particular transponder snail, one that Nami recognized instantly from Robin's memory back at Enies Lobby.

"Hey, isn't that…?" she gasped before Spanda's jerk father went on, "Now then, with the golden transponder snail entrusted to me by Admiral Sengoku…"

But no one was paying any remote attention to him as memory Robin, with tear-filled eyes, was begging for professor Clover to be alright.

"How bad, Chopper?" Franky asked as their doctor leapt down from present-day Robin's arms and went to examine him. He bit his tongue as his eyes strayed over the professor's injuries. This was a bad wound, and he would surely bleed to death if not treated, and with his age…? But if they hurried, they may be able to staunch the bleeding long enough for a professional to repair the worse of the damage…? Still, it was hard to tell since he couldn't get a clear look with his clothes and beard in the way.

But still, he was alive, and he looked up with bleary eyes the moment that he heard little Robin's voice. So with blood running down his mouth and nose, he wheezed, "Robin, you fool… I told you to run. Hurry!"

With everyone focused on him, hardly anyone paid any attention to Spanda's asshole dad, who even did a spin around with the golden transponder snail in his hand.

"I invoke the Buster Call," Spanda's bastard dad said dramatically, pushing the button. "And, that's a wrap."

"So he pretty much signed everyone's death sentence," Zoro hissed. "Please tell me this loser dies at least."

"I wish," present-day Robin said darkly, anger boiling inside her. While she was able to get her revenge on this man's son, she always wished that she could make him pay for what he did here. Even if Ohara's death warrant was already signed, she couldn't forgive him for his role in her home's destruction. At that, the archeologists finally remembered that he was there, and one of them pointed out that he pressed something, asking what it was that he did.

Professor Clover, while he clearly didn't know what it was for, knew that something bad was on its way as he forced himself to sit up.

"Robin…" he groaned out, once again—as if hoping that she would listen this time, "Get out of here! Go!"

"No! I don't want to be alone!" she cried back.

"You have to stop being so selfish," he wheezed back, "This isn't the time."

They then heard a echoing booming sound and everyone looked up to realize that it had come from the tree. Near the base they could see crimson flames shooting out from the windows.

"They set the library on fire!?" Chopper screamed out, tearing at his hat in fear.

"They wanna make sure that they destroy whatever they can, don't they?" Sanji demanded, gripping at his hair, hating himself for not being able to do a single damn thing. This was the beginning of his dear Robin's worse nightmare and there was nothing he could do to make it better, damn it!

At the sight of the burning tree, the archeologists were panicking worse than ever and even rounded on the agents, demanding to know if it wasn't enough to just take their lives, which caused Spanda's asshole dad to retort that it wasn't his fault and that it must've caught fire when they bombed the basement.

"In other words, it is your fault!" Luffy yelled.

"You stop this!" Usopp added.

"You can't replace the documents in there! Don't you realize that?!" the archeologist demanded but as the agents pointed their weapons at them again, to their surprise, Spanda's jerk dad just waved his hand to have them stand down.

"We don't need guns anymore," he informed them. "Time for the government agents to pull out."

As the scholars helped professor Clover to sit up, he ordered them weakly, "Protect the books."

At that, more than half of them broke away from the group, sprinting towards the tree, ready to try and put the fire out before too much damage could be done. The whole time, memory Robin just stood there, watching in a kind of trance as smoke billowed out of the tree, the flames quickly spreading up the trunk.

Present-day Robin watched herself, remembering every bitter detail about that day… remembering how it didn't feel real; and that she thought to herself that there was no way this could be happening. No way that the beloved library of Ohara was going up in flames. Her people had dedicated entire generations to collection books from all over the world… countless centuries full of knowledge and history… gone in less than an hour.

She had been so focused upon seeing the fire that she almost didn't hear them talking about bringing their prisoner with them.

"Bring that woman with you," said Spanda's asshole dad, "There's still some info we have to wring out of her. She can't die yet. Just make sure she doesn't escape again."

At that, memory Robin looked over as one of them harshly grabbed Olvia and forced her to her feet and all but dragged her behind them. The Straw Hats were all silently fuming at the sight, all of them easily able to picture that it was actually Robin they were taking away, but none of them tried anything to stop it this time.

Olvia, meanwhile, all but defeated, followed without even looking back at them. But memory Robin remained where she was, staring after her, even as professor Clover told her once again to run. But she didn't even act like she heard him as she took a few shaky steps after them.

"He should just give up on that, I don't think that it's gonna work," Usopp sighed, feeling bad for the old guy.

"He's persistent, you gotta give him that," Zoro whispered back.

"What… what's going on, Robin-san?" Brook asked their Robin softly as she could only watch, her thoughts so far away that she wasn't even listening to what anyone was saying. The memories were there… but so faint it was like trying to see into a room with a window fogged up from cold outside. But she could just barely recall the woman's face—someone who held her and laughed as she reached up with tiny hands to touch her, gently pulling her nose and hair as she giggled and hugged her back.

Though the memory wasn't much, it was enough for her to realize that the lady in the memory and this woman were one and the same. And so…?

"You're my mother, aren't you?" her memory self asked with a tremor in her voice.

"Oh, Robin…" Nami whispered as she silently wept, tears trickling down from her eyes as she felt like her heart was being ripped out.

Olvia stopped dead in her tracks but still didn't look back, nor answered her even as memory Robin cried, "Please, answer me. Are you my mom?"

"Eh? Hold on," Spanda's jerk dad said, rounding on Olvia, "That girl your daughter or what?"

Still, Olvia did not turn around, but when she spoke, it was thick with emotion as she gave a firm, "No."

"What? Why'd she lie?" Luffy demanded angrily.

"She was trying to protect me," present-day Robin answered back. "In their eyes, she was a criminal… and if they knew she had family, especially a daughter, then they would make me a criminal by association."

"That's still the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Sanji said as a single tear fell from his eye as Franky was openly sobbing.

"I can't take it!" the cyborg cried, "The two of you… the two of you… the two of you are finally back together and yet you can't be…? That's not right!"

Present-day Robin shook her head as she thought to herself, 'No… it's not.'

"I'm sorry, little girl," Olvia went on, in a weak voice, "You must be confusing me with someone else."

It was a poor excuse, and anyone with enough sense would be able to see that she was lying. But thankfully the majority of those in the marines weren't the brightest around for Spanda's asshole dad seemed convinced enough to buy it. He just muttered under his breath about what a weird little brat she was being before ushering them to leave.

But memory Robin wasn't giving up. She figured it all out on who that woman was and was determined to make herself heard.

"It's me!" she cried, "Its Robin! I've grown since the last time so maybe you don't recognize me? I've been waiting for you all these years! Are you sure… are you really… not my mom?"

Her heartfelt pleas were suddenly too much for Olvia for she broke down, falling to her knees and cried openly even as she continued to refuse to look at her.

"Just once, someday, I wanted to hold your hand, and walk together like a family," memory Robin went on. "I studied hard to become an archaeologist, so I could go out to sea with you! I can read the Poneglyphs, too!"

Now it wasn't just Olvia who was crying, for Brook, Nami, Usopp, Chopper, and Luffy were all crying along with Franky at watching this, wanting nothing more than for Olvia to turn back and run to memory Robin—to hug and hold her like she wanted.

Yet that last line was enough for Spanda's jerk dad to turn around, staring at her and demanding to know what it was she said even as the first rounds of cannons could be heard in the distance.

"ROBIN! NO!" professor Clover yelled but she went on.

"SO PLEASE, LOOK AT ME!" memory Robin begged. "LET ME STAY WITH YOU! MOM! I WAITED SO LONG! WE'RE FINALLY TOGETHER! DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE AGAIN!"

"I can't take it!" Usopp sobbed out, a pool of tears at his feet.

"It's just so awful!" Franky cried. To think that their dark humorous friend, the one who didn't open up about her emotions that often, had such a pure wish just to be with her mom? Was begging her mom to just look at her and hold her hand? He wanted to rip his own heart out at the thought—if only his body wasn't mostly metal at this point.

As she cried, the sounds of cannons were louder than ever as the Buster Call began in earnest—with the air full of the sounds of blasts and crackling flames. The sky was filling up with smoke as the ground trembled beneath them. In fact, one came so close to Olvia and her guard that all four were knocked over from the shockwave.

"DAMN IT! WHAT THE HELL?! CAN'T YOU WAIT 'TILL WE LEAVE THE ISLAND?!" Spanda's cowardly dad shouted out, covered in soot, "YOU'RE GONNA KILL US! STOP IT!"

It was too late to stop now, however, for the fire had spread as the Tree of Knowledge was bombarded with more cannons, fires breaking out all over its trunk and branches as the archeologists were screaming at the sight, causing the few remaining to sprint to the tree to help the others with trying to protect the books.

As more cannonballs fell about them, Spanda's jerk dad yelled for them to forget about Olvia as he ran from the scene, all the while ordering out, "Our number one priority is keeping me alive!"

"Like father, like son," Zoro spat with disgust.

Soon, all the government agents were abandoning the tree and their captives, racing back to the ships as the fire spread. The only ones who remained were memory Robin, professor Clover, and Olvia, who still hadn't moved an inch from where she knelt on the ground. With them alone, memory Robin mustered up her courage as she slowly approached, her mother keeping her head down—as if afraid what she would see if she looked up. But then, memory Robin reached down and took one of her mother's hands, causing Olvia to smile and stare at her as she cried while memory Robin sat down next to her.

"I've been waiting a long time to do this," she whimpered quietly, "I'm glad."

This was a new side that none of them had ever seen from their Robin. To see something so small and simple mean the world to her as a child…? It was soul-crushing… it hurt like a punch to the gut. What she was asking for wasn't much… and yet…? After she had been alone for so long…? Shunned by her so-called family…? Bullied by the other children…? Not even able to join in on those who were kind to her with their work…?

It all came to this moment and it crushed them even more to know that it wasn't going to last? Before anyone knew it, people were reaching out, wanting to hold their Robin's hand, and she was startled, looking up at them all as most of the crew was fighting for her hands to hold onto. She let out a shaky laugh, even sprouting a few extra arms so that no one had to fight anymore.

The pain was still there for her, but it was numbed in a sense… she felt happy despite the tears. Despite the memories fueling her nightmares being shown to them all. Knowing that she had them all in her corner… she was always going to be grateful for this.

Perhaps Olvia felt the same way, for she burst out sobbing, grabbing memory Robin and pulling her into a tight hug as they held on to each other as if the other was the most important thing in the world. Professor Clover could only watch, barely able to move but he also was crying at the reunion.

"Robin, forgive me. Please," he croaked out, lowering his head in despair. "This is my fault for not watching over you with more care. Is it really true that you can read the Poneglyphs?"

"I had to learn," memory Robin answered tearfully, "Since, I wanted to be as scholar."

"You always were good at spying on things," Nami bawled, now also smiling despite everything, at seeing the two of them together. "You used your powers, didn't you?"

"It wasn't that hard," present-day Robin replied, also smiling slightly, still able to remember the feeling of her mother's arms embracing her. She was glad that she at least knew the feeling of a mother's love, even if it was just for a moment.

"I never knew my little girl was an archaeologist!" Olvia said, pulling back to stare at Robin's face, tracing it with her hand as if she was committing it to memory. "That's amazing! You must've studied hard while I was gone, huh? These aren't things that just anyone can do! I'm so proud!'

She said all this, running her hand through Robin's hair before pressing her head against hers as Robin could only break down completely, sobbing openly at the confirmation that her mother was proud of her.

"Do you have to break our hearts, man?" Franky bawled, having fallen over so his head was on the grown while crying a river. "Please… I don't know how much more I can take… I thought my past was sad, but Robin… I wish there was something I could say to help. But I don't know what."

"Fortunately, the only ones who know about this are the officials who were here earlier," professor Clover said, "We can't afford to waste any more time! Oliva! Take Robin and run! If you can sneak her onto the evacuation ship, she might still be able to leave the island!"

No sooner did he say that did a different deafen booming noise fill the air and they all looked around, immediately thinking that it was some kind of invading army or something. But no, through the smoke of the attack, the giant, hulking figure of Saul appeared, his eyes scanning the ground before coming to rest on the three of them.

"Robin!" he boomed out, "I've been looking all over for you!"

"Saul!" she cried out as Olvia just stared and Professor Clover was frozen with his mouth open in shock.

"He came!" Chopper cried out happily.

"He must've seen the ships arrive so he came here to make sure that Robin was alright!" Usopp sobbed out bravely. "NOW THAT'S A GIANT FOR YOU!"

"So you met with your mother after all," Saul said, looking over them both as Olvia seemed to remember how to speak.

"Saul?!" Olvia screamed in utter astonishment, "Why in the world are you here?"

"Guess it must be fate," he offered, "I just happened to wash up here and your little girl was the one who found me."

"I mean, what else would you call it but fate?" Sanji couldn't help but ask as he shook his head. You don't make up stuff like this… like, of all the places to wash up after helping Olvia escape? But Olvia's home? And not only that, but was rescued by her daughter? It was like this was divine intervention—but for what end, he couldn't say. Whichever deity it was that did it though, he was grateful for it allowed Robin to enter their lives. Hell, he'd probably be in church every week giving thanks if he wasn't a pirate.

"Anyhow, we ain't got time to chat right now. You gotta get off this island," Saul warned as Olvia looked around, as if remembering that they were still in danger.

"I'll be fine," Olvia said, pushing Robin out front, "But I need you to take care of Robin for me, please."

Both looked shocked at this and memory Robin immediately gasped out, "But why? What about you? Aren't you going to come with me?"

There were a few shocked faces as they got a good look at Olvia's face, seeing the firm set of her smile… the empty, almost eerily calm look in her eyes…? They had seen that look before… and it only meant one thing… that Olvia had braced herself and had accepted her fate. She had chosen to remain here, all but resigning herself to death.

Sadly, it seemed that memory Robin didn't realize this yet as Saul whispered out, "Olvia… are you…?"

"I can't leave yet," she said firmly, a face full of resolve, "There's something left to do."

"No, Mom! You can't leave me now! I'll stay here with you!" memory Robin cried as she flung herself back into her arms, "I don't want to lose you again!"

"Robin, if you're a scholar of Ohara, you should know that history is mankind's greatest treasure," Olvia said kindly but firmly as she stroked her daughter's face. "Now that it's been passed on, it will illuminate the path to your future. However, you must pass it on as well. Or its light will disappear with the next generation. We weren't trying to uncover some dark secret. We simply wanted to hear the voices of the past and protect them. Unfortunately, our research ends here. But time marches on, even if Ohara is destroyed. And as surely as we believe in the past, we believe in the future that you will inherit!"

"What does that mean?" memory Robin sobbed out in confusion.

"I don't get it either!" Chopper sobbed as Olvia only continued to cry even with a sad smile on her face.

"Someday, you'll know," she promised before standing up and looking to Saul, "Now, hurry. Take her and go, Saul!"

"Are you sure?" he asked with an uncertain expression as he reached down and scooped her up into the palm of his hand and Olvia only nodded.

"STOP IT! I WANNA STAY WITH YOU! MOMMY! NO!" memory Robin screamed out desperately, looking ready to leap down from Saul's hands if his fingers didn't curl around her protectively before he turned and began to make his way away from the burning tree, leaving both Olvia and professor Clover, who were both openly weeping, and Olvia screaming out, "YOU MUST LIVE, ROBIN!"

Just about all the Straw Hats were openly crying now as they followed after Robin, moving as fast as they could to keep up with Saul's stride. Memory Robin clung to Saul's beard, pleading and begging for him to turn back. Her little voice screaming out over the sounds of the bombardment, "PLEASE, SAUL, YOU HAVE TO TAKE ME BACK!"

"I can't! There's no way!" he huffed as she sobbed once more and he added loudly, "Don't cry, Robin! Be proud! Your momma's a wonderful woman! Ohara is a wonderful place! You gotta remember that! It's up to you to pass it on, okay? Ohara was so brave they fought against the whole world!"

"That's true, Robin-san! You can't give up! This is something only you can do!" Brook sobbed out as tears fell from his empty eyes.

"Ohara really was amazing! Don't you think otherwise!" Usopp broke down as well. As they ran on, they came face-to-face with another battleship as it appeared from the smoke and then began to fire towards them, causing out Saul to gasp out, "THEY'RE NOT TARGETING THE ISLAND, THEY'RE TARGETING ME!"

It wasn't like they had a small target either, for no sooner did he say that, did one finally struck true.

"ROBIN!" most of the crew shouted out in panic. Thankfully, in mere seconds before the cannonball struck, Saul held out his hands and covered memory Robin, taking the full blunt of the cannonball to the face.

"SAUL!" she screamed as the smoke cleared to show a few burns and soot on his face as he coughed up smoke.

"Is he alright?" Luffy asked with wide eyes.

He seemed to be as he coughed out the smoke, and carefully put memory Robin down on the ground, telling her, "My apologies, Robin. That musta scared you. Now, wait here a sec."

"What's he gonna do?" Usopp yelped out, his entire body trembling when he saw the furious rage in the giant's normally kind eyes. He then ran towards the battleship directly in front of them as he hollered out, "ARE YOU THE ONE FIRING AT US? WHAT IF YOU'D HURT THAT POOR LITTLE GILR, YOU DAMN FOOLS?"

The marines screamed as Saul reached them, begging for him to stop, but he was so angry right now that he was beyond words.

"I don't know about justice anymore," he shouted out as he tightened his grip on the massive ship, "BUT I DO KNOW I CAN PROTECT MY FRIEND!"

"STOP IT SAUL! YOU'RE SCARING ME!" memory Robin screamed, a tremor in her tone.

At that, Nami dropped next to her, instinctually trying to hug and hold the little girl; to try to soothe and protect her until this nightmare was over. But her hands passed through little Robin and she felt her eyes welling up with tears. She thought that seeing her own mother die before her eyes was terrible, but here, so much was happening all at once. While her own childhood was a living hell after Arlong arrived, she didn't know how their Robin didn't go through all that and emerge as kindhearted as their friend today. She honestly wasn't sure if she had the strength of will to be able to go through something like that all on her own.

But Saul wasn't stopping. Either he didn't hear Robin or was simply ignoring her words as he grabbed hold of the massive battleship with his hands.

"Hope you're ready!" Saul warned, "Cause if you make an enemy outta me… THERE'S GONNA BE HELL TO PAY!"

With his massive strength, he lifted the ship up and out of the water, balancing it all in his hands as the marines screamed out in terror—sliding and down the deck and crashing into the water. With a great big heave, Saul tossed the battleship out until it crashed into another nearby ship.

"He picked it up like it was nothing!" Sanji yelled out, his eyes bugging out as others watched with open mouths at his rampaging fury.

"Damn, he's seriously pissed off!" Franky yelled as Usopp all but wept in amazement. The marines were thrown into a panic as even more cannon fire was rained down on them until Saul was struck in the face.

"COME BACK!" memory Robin screamed. "DON'T DO THIS! IT'S NOT LIKE YOU!"

"ROBIN!" Saul hollered back, "GET THE HECK OUTTA HERE! THE EVACUATION SHIP'S GONNA LEAVE WITHOUT YOU! DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME, JUST RUN!"

"He's right!" Nami gasped, hoping to somehow reach little Robin with her emotions alone, to help her stay calm—though that was clearly not going to happen. Still, memory Robin managed to get back to her feet and was forced to run; but one cannonball came so close to hitting her—the blast deafening, the wind hot and sharp—blew Robin down to do a face-plant in the ground. Slowly, she raised her head and was shaking as she stared around, the fire spreading from the Tree of Knowledge to other nearby trees as more cannonfire set the town in the distance ablaze.

She was trembling hard, tears falling thick down her cheeks before she screamed out, "MOMMY!"

"Oh, Robin!" Nami cried as she ran to their Robin and embraced her, hiding her face in present-day's Robin's front, as Chopper also clung tightly to her shoulder. Present-day Robin didn't say a word as she hugged her back as the other Straw Hats were staring around with stupefied expressions at what they were seeing.

"SHOOT HIM DOWN!" one of the marines yelled as they opened fired on Saul, who just brushed off their bullets like it was nothing as he yelled for Robin to move.

"C'MON! GO! GET MOVING!" he screamed, "DON'T YOU REMEMBER WHAT YOUR MOM TOLD YOU?!"

They all remembered very clearly her desire for Robin to live and that was enough to snap memory Robin back to reality. She staggered to her feet and began to run towards the shore where the evacuation ship was waiting. They followed after, acting the part of some kind of guard, even if no one could see them—it felt a little bit like they were able to protect her even from the future. They came upon the ship just as it was beginning to pull away from the island, signaling that she still had time to get on board if they waited just a minute longer.

"Wait! Someone's coming!" someone screamed when they saw Robin and a crowd was looking over the edge of the back of the battleship—including some of the bratty kids from before.

"Isn't that the monster girl?" one of the kids yelled.

"Really? Now you want to be jerks?!" Sanji roared out, wanting to drop kick those brats into the ocean.

One of the adults scolded them for that before someone added that Robin's mother was Olvia and that she was the daughter of a criminal. Upon hearing that, the ship seemed to be divided into two groups, those who claimed that Robin was still just a child and they should pull her onboard, but the other half argued that they shouldn't get involved with the child of a criminal and that letting onboard would bring them trouble.

Before a decision was made however, an obnoxiously familiar voice spoke up, "Everyone stop! Don't let that brat on board!"

Everyone, past and present, turned to see that Spanda's jerk dad was there, standing on deck of another battleship.

"Damn, the guy's like a roach, you just can't get rid of him or his stupid family," Franky growled out. Didn't this guy do enough harm? He all but ordered the attack on the island and so many people were about to die because of him! What was the harm in letting a little girl go?

But then he realized the answer when he called out in his oily voice, "She may be a child, but she's still an archaeologist. That means she's a criminal like the rest of them!"

Zoro gritted his teeth in anger, inwardly seething at the thought that it had been Robin, herself, who all but incriminated herself in a moment of heartbreak longing. He wanted to say something to her, but had no idea what he could to help take that pain away.

But memory Robin couldn't take it anymore. She had realized that there was no point in staying a second longer and ran from the ship, though where she was going to next none of them knew. Even Saul—who was taking out another few ships with his bare hands, heard this and called out to her before turning his attention back towards Spanda's asshole dad's ship. He was getting ready to tear it apart next when another familiar-sounding voice called out over the noise.

"ICE BLOCK! PARTISAN!"

"No!" Usopp screamed as dread clung to him like a dark cloak. Of all the people who had to show up next…? Why did it have to be him?

And then he appeared.

They turned in time to see another man had emerged from one of the other warships—almost flying through the air like some kind of dark specter despite wearing a dark blue bandanna with a white marine symbol and a pair of black sunglasses.

"IT'S AOKIJI!" Luffy yelled with anger, clenching his fists as he ached to punch this guy out—vivid memories of Marineford returning to him at the same time that he wanted to step in and help out Robin.

He was right. There was no mistaking that form. Though he was about twenty years younger here than when they first met him, nor was he quite as tall as he would later become, it was, without a doubt, Aokiji Kuzan.

And he was ready for a fight.

Aokiji fired a blast of ice, which hit Saul in the shoulder just before he reached the ship, causing him to fall with a scream of pain. Aokiji landed gracefully, steam billowing off his cold body from the heat blazing next to them. Memory Robin screamed out Saul's name as the giant slowly turned to look at who was the one who hit him.

"You…" he growled, his giant eyes widening slightly.

"They know each other?" Chopper asked, almost passing out from not breathing. The Admirals scared him more than anyone because of how powerful they were. While he didn't think that Aokiji was at such a rank during this time, he had to be just as strong if not stronger than he was now with him being in his prime.

"Saul was a marine, I think that it's a very likely possibility," Brook reminded them, fear spreading cross his body as he remembered the kind of damage that this man was capable of. But would he be strong enough to be able to fight off a giant?

"My, my, my. This just won't do," Akoiji said coolly, looking at Saul with disappointment, as if he had expected better, "If we let a former marine stop the Buster Call, we'd look like damn fools."

"Kuzan, wake up," Saul grumbled as he pushed himself up, positioning himself between him and memory Robin. "You can't tell me this nonsense is justice! Pull back! Now! You know this ain't right! They're just making an example out of Ohara! Come on, please, you're better than this."

"I'm liking this guy more and more with every second," Sanji said as Zoro and Luffy nodded in full agreement. Anyone who can stand up to an Admiral, or a future Admiral in this case, has a lot of guts.

"If it's for the good of the world, it has to be done," Aokiji countered. "You can't deny that those scholars are breaking the law, can you? I won't criticize your sense of justice. There are as many rights and wrongs as there are viewpoints in the world. However, if you insist on getting in our way, I can't sit back and do nothing."

"Well, give us some proof then that these guys are bad!" Usopp yelled out in frustration. From his point of view, the marines were the bad guys here! He suspected that if you were to ask anyone else of what they thought if they were watching this then they'd say the same thing! He was completely on Saul's side in his declaration that they were only doing this to make Ohara an example to the rest of the world! To make things worse, they spread the story that the scholars of this island were devils who tried to destroy the world and the marines had no choice but to stop them? What a load of bull!

"Yeah! That's right! They're just trying to learn about history! They aren't interested in any weapons! Just leave them all alone" Chopper added.

"You're the ones who're throwing around weapons and violence here!" Nami yelled as Luffy cheered with them.

But that was when the evacuation ship was blown to pieces.

It happened so fast, that they weren't entirely sure what they saw, truth be told. As they cheered on for Saul, the ship carrying the evacuees, the innocent civilians, was literally blasted apart with a flaming cannonball. It wasn't even out of sight yet, still close enough for them to all feel the heat and the blast of the explosion as they all slowly turned, staring at it in shock as everyone onboard was instantly killed. The sight was enough for the yells from the Straw Hats to die in their throats as they could only watch on, not sure what had just happened.

Even the marines on board then nearby battleships were shocked at this and no one knew where the blast had come from.

"THE EVACUATION SHIP WAS BLOWN UP!"

"LOOKED LIKE CANNON FIRE! FROM ONE OF OUR SHIPS!"

"IT WAS VICE ADMIRAL SAKAZUKI!"

"S-Sakazuki?" Sanji whispered out, his mouth open as he could only stare on. "You mean… Akainu? He's here too?"

"That guy was a monster even back then," Zoro whispered, unable to say anything else, his one eye staring on as the wreckage of the ship crumbled and sank even as it continued to burn while the bodies of the evacuees were burned to nothing.

"I… I don't understand…?" Nami croaked out, still clinging to present-day Robin, shaking as if she were outside in the middle of winter without a coat on, only able to watch the nightmare unfold. "W-Why?"

"I can only assume that Akainu wanted to insure that no archeologists got away," present-day Robin whispered back, having turned her head away in time to avoid seeing it. She had seen it once already and had no desire to do so again. While she couldn't say that she was fond of the people on board, especially those kids, they didn't deserve this. Few people do.

"That idiot…" Aokiji gasped, even he seemed shook up as memory Robin just didn't have the strength to stand up anymore and collapsed to her knees as she stared, unable to fully process what was going on.

"IS THIS WHAT YOU CALL JUSTICE?!" Saul screamed, getting their attention as he aimed a punch at Aokiji, his face full of anguish, "CAN YOU TAKE PRIDE IN SOMETHING LIKE THIS?!"

Aokiji jumped to avoid the punch as he yelled back furiously, "WE WENT TOO FAR! I WOULD NEVER DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT!"

But Saul wasn't listening anymore as he got up and scooped memory Robin up into his hands once more.

"We gotta run, Robin! This fella's way too strong for me to fight!" he confessed and broke into a run with them ready to follow behind.

"But where're they gonna go?!" Chopper cried out.

"If they can make it to shore, then they have a chance at getting away with the raft that Saul built!" Franky pointed out as they began running again, trying to keep up with his large stride. "It's a long shot, but right now, the only one they have!"

Yet that was a short-lived hope, for no sooner did they make more than a few yards, when…?

"ICE TIME CAPSULE!" Aokiji's voice echoed out and caused a band of ice to shoot across the ground to reach Saul, freezing his foot and sprouting a thick layer of ice to run up his leg. This caused him to trip and fall, though he made sure to land forward so that Robin didn't get hurt, but as the dust cleared, she looked up and cried out to see him wincing in pain.

"Oh no! Saul, are you okay?" she cried.

"Robin," he wheezed as he forced his head up, unable to push himself up any further with most of his lower body frozen and Aokiji slowly making his way towards them, "You gotta get out of here. Don't look back, just go! If you stay on this island, you'll die! Take my raft and go out to sea!"

He put her down as she cried back, "But what about you?"

"He's got me, little lady," he confessed with a rueful smile, "I'm afraid this is the end. Hurry!"

"No! Everybody I care about is here!" she wept.

"Come on, Saul!" Usopp cried out, his eyes red from all his sobbing. "You can made it! You can break yourself free, can't you? He's too brave! He's sacrificing himself? We… we have to do something!"

There was no way that a proud giant like him was going to go down without a fight. Though he may not be from Elbaf, he was still every inch the proud warrior and he couldn't stand the thought of him ending here.

"Even if we could, what?" Zoro asked, placing a hand on his shoulder. "This was twenty years ago, remember? We're far too late to right this wrong. The best we can do is to be there for Robin."

Usopp gazed tearfully at him before glancing over to their Robin, who was surrounded on all sides by Straw Hats again, with Nami and Chopper clinging to her like they were afraid that she would disappear if they let go, while Brook was resting a boney hand upon her shoulder, silently encouraging her though words failed him this time. Meanwhile Franky and Luffy were yelling out words of encouragement to memory Robin as they stood on either side of her, acting the role as bodyguards. The sight did offer some comfort before he could only nod and turned back, refusing to look away again. A real man was putting his all on the line and the least he could do was to honor that.

"Now you listen to me," Saul said to her, "You may be alone at first. But one day, you'll find true friends."

"Friends?" she repeated softly, as if she never heard of such a thing before.

"Yeah, the seas a vast place, so I guarantee—" he reassured her even as he wheezed for air, but his voice grew stronger as he mustered out, "Someday you'll find friends who won't ever leave you! NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE, NO ONE'S BORN INTO THIS WORLD TO BE ALONE!"

Upon hearing that, the present-day Robin couldn't hold back her tears as they fell. All these years… those words were the only thing that kept her going. Looking back, she knew that Saul realized what was going to happen to her—what her life would be like after that moment… and he wanted to give her that hope that things would get better. If she could just bear with the pain for a while… then it would get better.

They did get better.

Many other Straw Hats also felt something ringing inside them at his declaration, shivers running along their bodies while his words echoed in their heads. Such words resonated with a few in particular—those who once believed that they were meant to be alone. If was as if someone had ignited a powerful ray of hope from within and they knew that he was right. It might take a while, and it might come from a place where you least expect it—but Saul was completely right.

If one can make it through the hard times then there will be something good waiting for you if you could hang on long enough.

Memory Robin started to cry openly again as Saul looked back to see Aokiji walking ever closer towards them.

"This is it, Robin, this is goodbye! When things are bad, do like I taught cha!" he said, forcing a wide smile, even as tears filled his eyes, "You remember the laugh, don'tcha?"

"LOOK OUT! HE'S RIGHT BEHIND YOU!" memory Robin screamed even as Aokiji grabbed hold of Saul's frozen leg and ice began to spread across his body again.

But Saul just continued to laugh his silly laugh, even as he was frozen solid—incased in ice just like how Robin and Luffy once were more than two years ago. Upon the sight, memory Robin was forced to turn and run, running as fast as she could, tears falling as she sobbed her heart out, now truly without any other allies as the sky grew as dark as nightfall.

"ROBIN!" Chopper cried, tears overflowing. "Robin! Robin! I'm so sorry!"

There was a massive lump in her throat, so present-day Robin wasn't able to answer as she hugged him tightly and Nami bawled in her arms. As for Sanji, he had looked away, tears falling from his own eyes as he bit down on the sobs that were threatening to break out.

He had been in a place like this before… someone had encouraged him to live and run as far away as possible from his own personal hell. He could still hear his sister's words in his ears, telling him that one day that he would meet kind people who deserved him. Seeing all this, especially knowing how much suffering that his dear Robin was destined to go through during these years…? It was almost too much.

And the worst part was that he knew that his own painful memories were coming and he wasn't sure how much more he could take as he turned to look back, still fighting the sobs.

There was nowhere else for memory Robin to go as the fires rose up around them, having spread to the rest of the forest. At this rate, everything would be burnt to ash in just a few more minutes. But still, there was one tiny ray of hope as memory Robin was making her way back to where Saul's raft was. How a child could hope to set sail on such a large raft on her own, they didn't know, but right now she was truly alone.

Or so they thought.

Just as memory Robin came upon the coast, she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw how there was already someone waiting for her.

Aokiji was sitting there on a stump, as if he had been there this entire time, looking to the ground with an unreadable expression. The Straw Hats all tensed up as they watched the scene, terrified that he was going to go after her now that Saul wasn't here to protect her anymore.

Seconds ticked by… making them all wonder just what was going through his mind… when…?

"The concept of absolute justice can sometimes drive a man to madness," he sighed, not looking at her. "I've decided to let you escape. I'm curious to see what kind of flower will sprout from the seed that Saul protected. You can bear a grudge against whoever you like for this but at least you're still alive. However, I do suggest you keep a low profile."

Jaws dropped, unable to believe what they were hearing. Aokiji… was helping Robin to escape the Buster Call? Even after he went through the trouble to get rid of Saul?

"Does… do you think that he feels sorry for what they did?" Chopper asked slowly.

"I think that anyone with a hint of a conscience would," Zoro answered him, oddly gentle. "Not everyone's like Akainu. He did seem to be the most reasonable of the three original Admirals. Not that it makes it right."

"You… you think then that he might have been able to save Saul? Or something? Any of the other archeologists…?" Usopp asked urgently but as he looked around, no one able to answer that.

Aokiji turned his head slightly too where they realized that there was a rowboat in the water and ice lining either side of it as it stretched out into the distance over the water. He continued, "I've drawn a path for you on the sea with my ice. If you take the boat and go straight ahead, you'll reach land eventually. Oh, one last thing."

He stood up to finish, "I'm not your ally. You do cause any trouble, I'll be the first person to come after you."

The tone that he said that… with such dull emptiness; showed just how much he meant it. It wasn't a threat, it was a promise, letting memory Robin know that if she wanted to keep living then she was going to go about it all on her own. He didn't give her another glance as he walked past, even as the child's eyes were full of tears.

"My mom's here, can you help her?" she pleaded desperately before he was out of her sights.

"No one will be saved," he said without even looking back, "If that pain is too great for you to bear, then you may join them."

It was a harsh, bitter reminder of just how cruel reality was. But this was now her only option. If she didn't take it, she would die. After a minute of coming to grips with this, which didn't seem to fully sink in yet anyway, memory Robin silently got into the boat and began to slowly row away from the burning island. They followed her out, never letting her leave their sights even as she moved away further and further, until the island in full view.

It was awful.

The once green, lush island, with the towering tree—the greatest library in the world—had fallen over and laid there—defeated as everything burned around it. The Straw Hats felt cold as they watched as Robin's homeland burned away, leaving nothing behind, no trace of the people that once lived here.

Memory Robin stopped rowing to stare at it, as if she were trapped in some kind of daze as smoke filled the air. She was trembling all over, as if the cold they all felt was affecting her as well, before she hugged her legs close to her chest and began trying Saul's laugh. She made a valiant attempt to copy it, but as she watched the fires rage on, the laughter soon turned into cries before she was sobbing her heart out at the sight of her home disappearing right before her eyes.

The memories only grew more heart-breaking after that. They were forced to watch how Robin was able to make it to another island in one piece, able to sneak onto a passenger ship, where a reporter was able to get a quick picture of her before she managed to slip away. After that was a series of painful memories of memory Robin forced to run and hide for the next twenty years. In the beginning, she tried her best to stay out of trouble to avoid Aokiji from coming after her. But soon enough her wanted poster was sent out and Robin couldn't trust anyone.

She was occasionally able to stick with a few families for food and shelter, but every single time she started to feel comfortable or safe, they found out about her bounty and tried to sell her out. She was forced to run, never able to stay in one place for long. Entire islands would be on the lookout for her, mobs would even form to try and capture her. She was forced to train her powers to be on the constant lookout for anyone who would be after her.

In the end, she was forced to seek protection from pirates once she ran out of places to hide. Many were happy about the idea of having someone with such a high bounty working under them, as well as having her powers as a Devil Fruit user. But every single time, she was sold out whenever the marines came calling.

"Robin?! Hand her over!"

"Robin! That brat has the Devil's Luck!"

"Just admit it! Your existence is your crime!"

"The whole world's against you, Robin! You can't be allowed to live!"

Over and over, she was forced to be used as a tool, spy, or a weapon against their foes before either being backstabbed or backstabbing them in return before fleeing into the night. It wasn't just pirates she had been forced to join, but various other criminal organizations, just to be able to make it to the next day; but no matter who it was whom she was serving, she could never bring herself to become close to anyone, out of anticipation that she would be betrayed yet again. All the while, she would work in secret, travelling the world entirely on her own as she would carry on her mother's and Ohara's work in tracking down Poneglyphs. As the years went by, she was able to find several of them in remote and isolated locations, studying each one as she worked to put the pieces together.

Eventually, that sweet, curious Robin that they saw on Ohara faded, her kind eyes growing dark and hard as she was forced to do many 'questionable' things to stay in the good graces with her 'employers'. Finally, the memories took memory Robin, who was an adult, to Crocodile where he welcomed her into his own organization. Which completed her transformation into the Robin they first met—Miss All Sunday.

The memories continued on for a while even after that. Including through their adventurers in Alabasta, up to how memory Robin led Cobra through the streets while the rebellion happened. Before taking them underground to where the royal family kept the Poneglyph, with details about Pluton, hidden from the World Government. How she would be betrayed one final time by Crocodile, who left her bleeding on the ground with the hole in her chest—to witnessing his defeat by Luffy once again.

This memory Robin had truly reached the end of her rope though, having made up her mind even before she handed over the antidote to Crocodile's poison to Cobra, who gave it to Luffy. Her long, exhausting journey had come to an end and she was ready to embrace death at last—sick and tired of running.

At least, until memory Luffy found himself able to get back on his feet, picked up both Robin and Cobra, and got them to safety.

Memory Robin, maybe more out of instinct than necessity, left the capital behind as she stumbled, half dead, across the desert before she finally collapsed, leaning up against a boulder as she tried to catch her breath. Ironically, her steps had taken her to the river where the Merry was anchored. Upon looking at it, the Straw Hats could have sworn that Saul's funny laugh was echoing about in their ears as memory Robin stared at it for a long while. Knowing that she had nothing else left to loose, she made one final effort to drag her wounded body onto the ship.

The memories faded for good after that, leaving them all in the dark tower room once more, finding themselves staring at Robin, who remained still, not looking at any of them. She was grateful for the darkness here, for it was harder for them to be able to see her as she silently wept.

It was a lot to digest. No one really knew where to begin. But their captain, whose heart was nearly as big as his stomach, was the first to say something. He took off his treasured straw hat and placed it right over Robin's head, taking her completely by surprise as she turned to look at him—even forgetting about her own tears for a moment.

"Robin… we're here now," Luffy told her in a serious tone. "You're part of our crew. We won't ever betray you like they did."

"Luffy," she whispered back, suddenly feeling overwhelmed.

"It took a while, but Saul was right, you know? You found those friends! You found us!" Nami reassured her tearfully.

Robin looked from Luffy, to Nami… and then to each and every single one of her crewmates. Looking around, seeing the tearful smiles that her crew, her family, was giving her, she felt her own smile tremble as she cried openly. Tears of sorrow and of joy in equal measures.

That was true… it took her twenty years… but Saul had been right in the end. She let her sunglasses fall off her face when she felt their arms embrace her—shielding her with love and compassion—accepting her dark past with open minds. She only wished that Saul was here so that she could tell him that. But she gave another smile and said, "I know… I trust you all completely."

(I swear… this story is cursed because every time I write out a chapter, it feels that something bad happens to me. See, just after I posted Franky's chapter, Fanfiction shut down for me. I honestly don't know what happened but I couldn't post anything on this site for a long while, and it was driving me crazy. So I decided that I had no choice but to wait until it was fixed. By then, I had decided to start working on my own book. Not a fanfiction story, but one that is completely my own. But I was struggling with it, it's a lot harder than fanfiction because the characters are already set up for you, so I realized that I needed a lot more guidance so I went ahead and signed up for a 10 week writing bootcamp of such to learn more about writing in general. It is finally over and I'm back to writing stories, but please understand, while I apologize for the long wait, these chapters aren't easy to write nor can they be done in just a few days. I do intend to finish it and I'm eager to test out some of the new tricks I learned. But on top of that, my favorite cousin ended up dying a couple weeks ago in a bad car accident, so I'm still going through waves of sadness. I know, a lot of stuff is happening. But I do hope that you enjoy this long-awaited chapter with Robin. Her story was the one that I was looking forward to the most and yes, Chopper is going to be coming up next so please be ready for him. Happy Halloween to you all.)