Chapter 59

On the broken off car of the Puffing Tom, Sanji, Sniper King, and Shriek are stuck waiting for their friends to pick them up. While they want them to get out, a part of them is dreading to tell the others that they not only failed to bring their friend back, but lost Luffy's queen as well.

That thought alone sends them shivers because they know how Luffy would react to the news. Still, with what they learned about her, they're both wondering if they should tell the others as well...

"Do you think any of them know about Rose-chan?" Sanji asks the superhero duo, with them looking at each other.

"Well, hard to say. From what I heard from Usopp; he had no idea. What about you Shriek? It seemed like your friend Zira knew more than he did."

The bird sadly stares at her partner for a moment before she steps back to look at both men, and explained how Zira and Rose met.

Throughout the story, both guys held faces of surprise about how Rose was caught and escaped, but didn't say anything until they heard about what Robin did.

"She strangled her?!" Sanji asks with disbelief that this could be her.

"Yea, she didn't stop until she was on the brink of passing out. Even after all that, Rose would just say that they're not alone, and that she won't stop trying to help her."

The bird starts growing angry when she remembered Robin's attitude, and looks to both her partner and Sanji. "I'm pretty sure she knew something like that would've happened if she said anything to the crew. There's no wonder why she kept all this to herself."

Both Sniper King and Sanji were practically hit with a block of guilt over their heads from that line, because they don't have room to argue if Robin reacted like that.

Still, Sanji couldn't believe Robin would go that far. Especially if they're both on the same boat. There has to be something that he's not understanding, but he won't be able to get that answer until they rescue the girls, so he holds off on wondering about it for now.

Sniper King feels the same way, but has another idea to get the answer, and that's from the backpack that the wind girl left behind.

He goes over to the backpack, and starts to look through the contents for his mission.

While Sanji would normally tell him not to invade her privacy, he also feels that something in there could help them understand Robin's actions, so he lets him go through it.

Unfortunately though, Sniper King couldn't find anything that can help them explain Robin's behavior. On the plus side, Sniper King was able to find her collection of combat based dials stored in her outer pocket. "She had her own stash?!"

He pulls out all the shells, then gives the bag to Sanji for him to review the contents, with the chef only finding Rose's survival gear in there.

As the superhero looks through the various seven shells, he starts to come up with different ideas that he can use to power up his giant slingshot before the fight. He grins behind his mask as he starts to pick out the ones he could use, but freezes when he sees both the impact and reject dials.

He can immediately tell the pink one is the impact dial, based on his past experiences, but he doesn't recognize the reject dial. He only knows that it must be a similar type of shell as the impact dial due to the design, and that it has a strap on it just like the impact dial does.

With an idea to keep them as a last resort, he straps the impact dial to his left shin, then does the same to his right leg with the black one, so that his arms are mainly used for sniping. Once that's done, he grabs the other five dials, and starts tinkering with them to give his weapon as much power as he can get until their friends arrive to pick them up.

Meanwhile, on the Rocketman, Luffy's first mate is both confused and worried about him from hearing Luffy's outburst about Rose's capture.

"Why do you think Rose got captured?" Zoro cautiously asks, with Nami and Chopper peeking in from the doorway.

Luffy doesn't know how to properly explain it, but tries his best while he pats on his chest. "It's like instinct! I have this bad feeling in my chest just like what happened yesterday!"

"What makes you think it's Rose though?"

"I don't know! The first thing I could think of when I felt this pain was her! What else could it be?!"

The swordsman is shocked by this, and doesn't want to believe him, because of what it could mean. However, he remembers Rose theorizing about Luffy being able to sense her once, because of how her aura stands out, and with how he's able to grab her in his sleep from across a room, he can't deny it. "You're right, but we can't do anything until we get there."

"And that might be delayed..." Kokoro points out when she points to what's ahead of them.

The pirates look out, and couldn't believe their rotten luck to find the frog, who tried to take on the Puffing Tom yesterday, is now standing in their way.

Luffy groans at the annoying frog, as he leans his head out the window. "HEY FROG, GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

Yokozuna didn't listen to him though, and instead waited until the train was about to hit him, to smack it off the rails!

All the passengers fell over themselves from the turbulence, with Luffy falling out of the train's window. He manages to stretch his hands to the roof of the train, and pulls himself up before he can hit the water. As soon as he reached the roof, he saw the troublesome frog already on top of the train's head.

His irritation towards him drives him to go up to the frog, and starts karate chopping his head. "You damn frog! We were on the right track to save our friends!"

Yokozuna groans at the hits, and starts whacking Luffy right back until Kokoro calls out to them. "Straw Hat, I have an eternal pose we can use to get there. As for you Yokozuna, come here."

They both stop fighting at the sound of her voice, with the frog hopping right above the window, and starts croaking to her.

While most wouldn't understand the frog, Kokoro acts as though she can understand him perfectly by giggling. "Don't worry Yokozuna, they didn't kidnap me. We're going to fight the World Government to get Franky back, do you want to join us?"

The frog is quick to understand the situation, and wants nothing more than to help Franky so he quickly agrees!

Luffy grins at the new ally, and stays on top of the train. "Alright, let's kick their asses!"

The frog roars in agreement, as they stay on the lookout for their destination. With both the pose, and Nami's help in navigating through the currents, they were quick to get back on track, and find an abandoned train car coming their way.

Luffy's quick to see both Sanji, and a mysterious masked man and bird with him. When Luffy sees Sanji wearing Rose's backpack, his worries are confirmed that his queen was taken.

He can feel his blood boil from that fact, but focuses on calling out to his crew mate to get his attention. "SANJI, THERE YOU ARE!"

"LUFFY!" Both Sniper King and Sanji yell out, before Luffy stretches his arm out to grab onto the chef.

Sanji is quick to take it with Sniper King and Shriek grabbing onto him. As soon as Luffy's arm is pulled back, Shriek is screaming throughout the crazy flight, while the boys are holding on for dear life.

As soon as they crash into Luffy, Shriek shakes her head and flies off the dog pile. "Does he always do that?"

"Yea." Sanji answers as he gets off with the others following.

Luffy tilts his head at the masked duo, because he doesn't recognize them at all. "Who are you guys?"

"Mind if we talk about it inside?" Sanji asks with Luffy nodding.

As soon as they're inside the first car, with the rest of the pirates, and Franky's men inside, Sniper King begins the conversation. "Hello there everyone, my name is Sniper King. The bird beside me is my trusted partner Shriek. My friend Usopp requested us to come to aid you on your noble quest."

While most of the passengers aren't buying the disguise, Luffy and Chopper are both ecstatic with the new hero by practically bouncing with joy.

"SO COOL!" Luffy and Chopper both shout with stars in their eyes.

Chopper is quick to snap out of it when he remembers Usopp. "What happened to Usopp?"

Shriek flies down to his level and answers his question. "Don't worry, he's safe."

Chopper begins to smile at this before he widens his eyes at her actually talking to him. "A TALKING BIRD?!"

"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU FREAKING OUT?! YOU'RE A TALKING REINDEER!"

Chopper calms down when he remembers that fact. "Oh yea."

Sanji sweat drops at the exchange before he takes off Rose's backpack, and looks to the others. "Guys, there's something we need to talk about..."

Everyone in the room begins to quiet down and gives the chef their attention. Once he got it, he began explaining what happened to each of the allies that got captured. First, he started with how Franky sacrificed himself to help them escape with Robin. Then he went to how as soon as the cars were separated, more agents went after them, and Robin willingly went with them because they are using her past against her.

When he reached Rose's part, they could see him growing uneasy, but he willingly told them the details. "Rose-chan tried to fight off the agents after her, but she was already worn out from previous fights. Before she was captured though, she explained why she wasn't a part of Robin-chan's deal. She actually succeeded in her research by coming to this world. The World Government is after her because she studied this world's future in her homeland, and they want to use that knowledge for themselves..."

He stops to see how his audience is faring with this news and is a bit suspicious of what he's seeing. He was able to get the expected reaction of utter shock from Chopper, the shipwrights and the Franky Family exclaiming their shock in loud screams.

However, the rest of the pirates look as though he didn't say anything crazy to them. As soon as the others quieted down, he didn't hesitate to get to the bottom of this. "Why aren't you all shocked?"

"I figured it out after the memory incident, but I didn't know about the future piece." Nami answers.

"I've known since Navarone." Zoro answers, which in turn gets more shocked looks from the crew than Sanji's announcement.

"How the fuck was an idiot like you the first to find out?!" Sanji asks, which irritates the swordsman.

"Shut up! You could've figured it out if you didn't have your head up your ass!"

Sanji gets tempted to kick him, but Nami stops both sides of the argument by punching them both in the head. "Shut up already!"

While the boys are groaning, Nami looks to her captain to see that he's still quiet about all this. "Luffy?"

When his name is called, Luffy lifts his head, and turns to her as though they're having a normal conversation. "Yea?"

"You're being awfully quiet. Did you know too?"

Luffy shrugs at the question, and answers her. "No, but I've always known she's amazing. This just helps explain it."

Nami starts to relax by his attitude, but then grows confused. "Wait, if you weren't freaking out, then why were you so quiet?"

"I was wondering about the other girl."

"What girl?"

"The one Rose told me about in Alabasta. She told me she knows a girl that came to this world through the comet, and knows the future. They must've come here together."

As soon as that comment escaped Luffy's lips, everyone looked at him as though he suddenly grew dragon wings on his back, and black horns on his head.

They all shared the same thought, but lucky for them, Nami was more than willing to express that thought by punching her captain on the head. "YOU IDIOT! SHE WAS TALKING ABOUT HERSELF!"

"WHAT?!" Luffy shouts as though it was the true mystery while holding his aching head. "THEN WHY DIDN'T SHE JUST SAY THAT?!"

Nami's anger melts away from his question, when she remembers what she, Usopp, and Sanji said to her about other world people in Alabasta. All that's left is guilt on her face as she sighs. "She was worried about you rejecting her, just like what happened after she got expelled from the astronomy tower..."

Luffy's face softened at that, when he remembered how scared she seemed in Alabasta when she asked him if he would be friends with the other world girl. He holds onto Rose's necklace, and looks at the gem with both sadness and anger of him not realizing it. If he had known it was her, he would've easily told her the same thing, and told her how awesome she is.

As for the others, they remained silent, with no idea on what to properly say.

The crew's doctor wound up being the first to say something with a sheepish look on his face. "I might not get this other world stuff, but I know Rose. I don't want her to be treated like a monster by the World Government. Same goes to Robin, they're both a part of this crew."

Sniper King begins to smile behind his mask before he speaks on behalf of his friend. "Usopp also felt the same way. He told me that it doesn't matter what either of them know, they both mean the world to this crew."

Luffy grins at the superhero's comment, before he releases the necklace, looks to them, and pumps his fists. "Alright, then let's go kick the World Government's asses and get them back!"

Both Sniper King, Shriek, and Chopper do a battle cry in agreement with the rest of the pirates grinning at their determination.

While Luffy's groups keeps cheering, Nami looks to Zoro. "Did Rose say anything else about her knowledge to you?"

He gives her a soft look before he answers her. "She didn't go into any details, except that her knowledge came straight from the crew's adventures. That's why she was so scared about telling everyone."

Both Nami and Sanji were surprised by this, and honestly didn't know what to say about it. It was exactly what they were worried about when Rose first mentioned other world people to them. Of course, Rose is their friend, but they have no idea what kind of past secrets she has on them. That alone is making them wary of what she can reveal...

Zoro can tell that they're getting anxious, so he clearly speaks his mind. "I get that you're still worried about what she knows, but don't forget who she is either. She's been through enough because of this."

He walks off to join the others in getting a strategy ready, and leaves the pair feeling worse than they already did. They hate to admit it, but Zoro was actually right for once.

They have no idea what kind of burden their friend had from knowing all of this. And them being quick to jump to the worst case scenario couldn't have helped.

Sanji feels the worst of it when he remembers how scared she was to tell him and Usopp the truth. And even if it was just for a moment, he remembers when she saw his reaction that she was sad, before she hid it behind her smile, but he didn't even say anything to her. He should've at least apologized for making her feel that she had to hide, or even that he's still her friend, but he kept quiet like a dumbass.

He wants nothing more than to get a cigarette right now, but when he reached his hand towards his pocket, Nami's hand stopped him. The chef looks to see her hand holding his, then looks to see her as angry as he is. "We can fix this by getting her and Robin out of there."

Sanji starts to calm down from her words because she's right. As long as they can get their friends back, there's time to fix everything. With new motivation, both pirates rejoin the others, and come up with a strategy to invade Enies Lobby.

**********************************************

On the few cars that remain of the Puffing Tom, CP 8 and 9 are resting in the remnants of their car. Well, all but Nero, who is terrified of what his fate will be with his almost murderer staring dead at the weasel. The only thing keeping him from being killed right now is the leader of CP 8 that the wind girl threw him to.

Andreos is seated right behind Kaku, while their leaders are in a standoff in the aisle, with Rufus standing in Luccis's way of the weasel.

"Move, this doesn't concern you." Lucci comments, but he doesn't back down.

Instead, Rufus gives him his signature smirk. "It actually does. This man was saved by our demon. We need to see what he knows, that could've been worth her efforts."

He looks back at the broken man, which gets him to flinch, which amuses him before he looks to the cat man. "Afterwards, we'll take him into our unit. He may be weak now, but nothing some training can fix. Any decent leader can see that, cat boy."

Lucci growls at the name, and is tempted to pounce. Before he could, Kaku gets up behind him, and puts a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

He looks to his subordinate, then to the cocky bastard in front of him. "If you want to replace the dead weight in your unit, then be my guest."

It's Rufus' turn to want to kill him, but Andreos is quick to ease the tension. "Now that that's settled, we should relax while we can. We have another headache to deal with after all."

The two leaders stop their argument from that, because they know who he's talking about. When they reach Enies Lobby, both units are forced to report to Spandam. The most incompetent official that they've ever had to endure...

Neither unit is looking forward to that encounter, so the two leaders walked in opposite directions to sit with their right hands for the rest of the trip to relax.

As for Nero, he scrambles to his own seat, with his back to Lucci to keep himself from staring at the frightening agent. Even without looking at him though, he can barely relax because of what happened, and doesn't understand it.

His own side was more than willing to kill him, but one of their own targets, an outsider no less, was willing to put herself in harm's way to save his life. He looks to the door to the next car, that's holding all their prisoners, and for the first time in his life feels sorry for a target.

It wasn't until the conductor made the announcement of their arrival to Enies Lobby that he was finally able to focus. His emotions don't matter, he's still a trained Cipher Pol agent after all.

As soon as the train stops, he and the rest of the agents go into the prisoners' car to see them seated.

Robin keeps her head down, with her sea stone cuffs secured behind her back, and not giving the agents any acknowledgement. Franky on the other hand, who is not wearing hand cuffs but also heavy chains around his torso to keep his arms at his sides, is defiantly glaring at the agents to show he's going to fight them throughout the day.

As for the wind girl, she's still unconscious from her previous battles, but is cuffed like Robin nonetheless.

Nero looks at the broken looking child, before he goes to her seat, slips his arms under the small of her back and knees to gently carry her.

"You're ok to carry her with your injuries?" Andreos asks, but Nero just nods and walks off the train with her, while Robin walks beside him.

While Blueno is dragging Franky off the train, by pulling on the chain that's wrapped around his body, Robin's eyes are fixated on the wind girl, and can only feel anger.

She did everything in her power to push this kid away, to keep her from feeling this type of hell, but it was all wasted. She doesn't understand why she wouldn't just leave when she escaped the first time. If she couldn't leave this world, then she could've at least stayed in hiding, but time and again, she'd come after her. Just like they wanted...

She clicks her tongue at how Cipher Pol's plans to take them both worked. Even with the deal she had with them to allow Rose to leave this world, she had to at least try to keep her away from this by treating her cruelly. Now there's nothing she can do, but hope she could find a new life in whatever world she goes to...

The archaeologist sadly stares at the child, before she forces herself to look ahead and march on to her fate with her fellow prisoners, and captors.

****************************************

Deep in the jungles of Skypiea, Rose is flying back towards the ship, with her giant sack of gold slung over her shoulder, and gold trident in hand. Just as she's halfway to Merry, she starts to hear a voice calling out to her.

"OI, WIND GIRL, GET DOWN HERE!" Rose stops, and looks down to see Wyper calling out to her.

Curious to see what the angry man wants, she descends over to him, but says half a foot in the air, so that they're at the same eye level. "Is there something you need?"

He looks nervous for a moment, before opening his right hand to reveal the reject dial he used. "I want your crew to take this."

Rose widens her eyes at the dangerous shell, but still takes it, and looks at the dangerous shell. "Are you sure you want us to take something this powerful? If other people like Eneru come around, then this can be useful."

"I am, if my people are going to live in peace with the Skypieans, I don't want something like this around. This thing was strong enough to kill a god. If someone as crazy as Eneru gets their hands on it, it can mean disaster."

The wind girl slowly nods at the comment, because of the various scenarios that can happen with this kind of power. "I see, thank you for trusting us with this. I'm sure I can use it in the future."

He narrows his eyes at the girl, because he thought she was going to give it to her captain. He's not sure she can even use it from what he saw of her performance with their fights. "You don't fight to kill, right?"

She almost flinches at the question, but her reaction gave him all the answer he needed. "I thought so. That's what caused you to lose to Eneru in the first place."

"To be fair, I'm still working on using my powers."

"That's no excuse. If you had aimed to kill him, then you could've easily won. This dial can finish a person off with one hit. You honestly think you can use it with your weak resolve?"

The wind girl starts radiating hot air out of her body from the insult and starts to glare at him. "I'm not weak! It's that I refuse to kill a person if I can help it!"

"And when you don't have a choice?!"

She groans at the question, but to be honest, she isn't so sure herself. After seeing her family's death, she didn't want to be like those monsters. With each adventure holding a stronger enemy than the last though, she knows that one day she might not have that choice between the enemy's life, hers, or even the crew's...

With a small breath to calm her wind, she stuffs the shell in the outer pocket of her backpack, where the rest of her dials are stored, before she looks him in the eye. "If I have no choice, then I will do it for my crew mates. In the meantime, I want to feel as much of a human as possible by doing what I can to avoid killing."

He starts to smirk at what she said, because it confirms how strong her resolve actually is. "Good, then you're the right person for this dial."

She grows confused by what he means, and her face can clearly show it, so he explains himself. "Like I said before, this dial can easily take a life. When you do have to use it, and keep that feeling of wanting to be human, then you won't risk being like Eneru. If you feel guilty when you take that life, then that'll confirm that you're still human."

She is a bit surprised by the explanation, but soon grins at the assurance. "I see, thank you."

She starts to hear voices in the distance, and realizes that it's her crew mates making their way to the ship. "I should get going, my crew and I should be leaving soon."

He nods to her, and watches her fly back above the trees.

With one last wave to the warrior, she goes back on her original route back to the ship with the gold and new weapon.

*************************************************

With a searing pain all over Rose's body, she begins to stir awake from her dream of when she received the reject dial from Wyper. Where she found herself when her eyes opened though, made her wish that she could go back to sleep. And that place being on the floor of Spandam's office in Enies Lobby, with her arms cuffed behind her back, and Robin standing next to her on her left.

As for Franky, he's busy biting Spandam's head after he had insulted his mentor.

Spandam screams in agony from the bite as he tries to push him off, but Franky refuses to budge.

Rufus, Nero and Andreos don't bother to get involved as they, along with the eight members of CP 9, watch Spandam futilely trying to get the cyborg off of him.

Lucky for Rose, no one notices her yet, so she uses this chance to get her arms in a better spot. She weakly lifts her body up, so that she moves her cuffed arms under her butt, and below her legs. With a lot of strain, and was able to push each foot into the loop of her arms before she pulls her arms up, so that her legs are free again, and her cuffed hands are in front of her.

She decides to stay quiet when a muscular, shaman looking man from CP 9 is the first to volunteer to help. He gets into a stance, before his hair practically comes to life to push Franky off of his leader, slams him to the ground, and pins him down.

Once Spandam regains his composure, he plasters his sinister smile back onto his face. "Thank you Kumadori. I got this."

The agent complies by retracting his long, pink hair back towards his body, so Spandam can put his foot on his head. "You think you can use those cheap tactics on me and get away with it?! You have no power against me! I have the power of not only Cipher Pol, but the power of the buster call thanks to Aokiji!"

Robin grows confused by this, because it sounds weird that Aokiji would give such a dangerous power to someone like him. "Why would Aokiji give the buster call to you?"

Spandam grows angry by the insulting question, and rushes up to her. Just when he's about to approach her, Rose makes her presence known by getting up in between the two, and throwing up a knee to Spandam's balls. "Touch her, and I'll fucking destroy you, you sorry piece of shit!"

The official cups his aching testicles and falls to the floor while trembling in pain.

Franky had to smirk at the move, because he knows for a fact that Spandam deserves that, and much, much more.

Robin was just surprised that she's still protecting her, by standing in front of her. "Stop trying to-!"

"Shut the hell up, and accept some goddamn help for once!" Rose tells her, while giving her a death glare from over her shoulder to show that she's serious.

Robin grows a bit nervous from the anger in her eyes, and decides to stay quiet for now.

Rufus allows himself to chuckle at her antics, before he gets up from the couch. "Glad to see you're not dead after all, demon."

Rose just keeps her glare on him, and is ready to fight, but the sound of a den den mushi on the desk stops anything from happening. With Spandam still trying to recover from Rose's attack, Rufus goes to the desk and answers the call.

To his, and everyone else's, surprise, they can hear gunshots, and buildings collapsing in the background. "What the hell's going on?"

"Sir, Straw Hat Luffy is attacking Enies Lobby! We're trying to stop him, but he's like a raging beast! Nothing is stopping him! Oh god, he just took down another building!"

"GIVE ME BACK ROBIN AND ROSE!" They can hear Luffy screaming at the top of his lungs in the background, as he's using the falling debris from the building he just destroyed to punch them in the direction of the marines in his way, and sending them flying at them.

"Oh god!" The marine who called them, cried out from the sight of Luffy taking down what looks like fifty people at once before he returns to the call. "This guy's insane! We're even getting reports of more pirates following in at the entrance! What do we do?!"

Spandam stands back up on wobbly legs, and stumbles towards his desk. Once he takes the snail from the agent, he gives out the order. "Do everything you can to kill Straw Hat, his crew, and everyone else who helps them!"

Robin is mortified by the order, and yells out her complaints to him. "WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?! WE HAD A DEAL!"

Spandam just hangs up the snail, and gives the archeologist a smirk. "Our deal was for the true Straw Hats to be able to leave Water Seven safely, and they did. Now that they chose to come after you, we have every right to attack them now."

Robin can feel her whole world shatter because of how he's going to use a technicality to get out of the deal.

Rose grits her teeth at the fake agreement, and gets ready to say something when Spandam smirks at the wind girl. "Don't worry though Nico Robin, I won't forget about our other deal. Once Sengoku gets what he wants out of the outsider, we'll use our resources to banish her from this world."

The wind girl's anger is blown away from that news and is only replaced with fear. "What did you say?"

"She didn't tell you? She never saw you as a true Straw Hat, so of course you weren't a part of the original agreement. Instead, we had an addition to her surrender. She would be our bait in capturing you, and once we've succeeded, we will experiment world travel on you by kicking you out of this one."

Rose looks over her shoulder to her supposed friend, in hopes that she'd deny it, but only sees Robin's guilt clear on her face to tell her the opposite.

With newfound anger and betrayal welling up inside of her, she looks to Spandam with a frightening look in her eyes and starts charging at him. "SCREW YOU, IT WON'T HAPPEN!"

She was barely able to make it halfway across the room before Andreos got behind her with his arms around her waist to hold her back. She struggles in his grip, but doesn't get any luck and gets Spandam to laugh at her.

The cowardly leader steps up to her smugly while giving her his own set of taunts "Hahaha, last I checked, you don't have a choice here. You're just here until we got everything we need from you."

He looks to the girl's chest and starts looking more perverted by the second. "And last I heard; you also have a necklace with the jewel that brought you here. I'll be taking that as well."

He goes to reach into her shirt to search for her necklace, but Rose keeps him from touching her by biting his hand, up to halfway across his hand. The only finger free was his thumb, but it's clear he won't escape because she's digging her teeth into him with all the strength she can muster.

"AAAH! GET HER OFF! SHE'S GOING TO BITE MY HAND OFF!" Spandam screams as loud as possible while he's flailing the arm she's biting, to try to free himself, but she won't budge.

While Robin was speechless by the action, Franky has no problems with laughing his ass off from the assault.

Andreos tries to pull her off of him, but her teeth just sink deeper into his hand to keep from letting go.

Rufus comes into action by going behind Andreos, and grabs him by the waist to help his comrade pull her off. However, all they got was the prisoner growling as she bites down harder.

While the CP 8 agents were trying to help Spandam, the members of CP 9 talk amongst themselves about the necklace.

"I didn't see the necklace when we cuffed her." Blueno comments, with Kalifa nodding in agreement.

Kaku furrows his eyebrows in thought for a moment, before he looks to Lucci. "Didn't Straw Hat wear a necklace with a two colored gem?"

Lucci smirks at the question because he remembers that necklace perfectly. "You're right, we'll keep an eye on him if he actually makes it here."

Spandam and the agents heard the comments, and made a mental note of the necklace, but are too focused on getting the beastlike girl off of Spandam.

Rufus had enough of this, and lets go of his friend, so that he can go to Rose, and punch her on the side of the head.

That finally did the trick to get her to release her grip and swing to the side, in Andreos' arms, while spitting out some blood.

Even with the hard hit to the head making her feel dizzy, she keeps her fists clenched, and won't keep her hate filled eyes off of Spandam.

Spandam won't admit that the look in her eye is scaring the shit out of him, but he willingly shows his anger as he starts punching her.

Robin flinches at the rough hits on her former crew mate, and wants to go help her, but she's completely frozen in fear of how things turned out.

Spandam could care less about who's watching as he keeps hitting her like a punching bag. "You disgusting animal! How dare you?! You know who I am?!"

"I know exactly who you are!" Rose answers which gets him to stop.

She can see the shock on his face, so she curls her lips up into a small smirk, and lifts her head in pride. "The books in my world have everything there is to know about the kind of person you are Spandam. I read all about your past sins, along with why you're personally invested in getting the blueprints for Pluton. I'm sure Sengoku would LOVE to hear all about it as well."

While the CP agents are confused by this, Spandam grows anxious about that comment. He knew that she would know the future, but he never thought his plans to overthrow the World Government would be revealed in that world. Then again, his plan being a success would no doubt be shown as a turning point in this world's history.

He regains his confidence from the confirmation that he's going to win, and gives her another punch. "You think they'd believe your lies?! It doesn't matter what you actually know about me, because in the end, I'll be victorious!"

"Sure, keep telling yourself that, bastard." Rose sarcastically tells him which earns her one last punch from the man.

"Shut up trash! Andreos, chain her up to the wall with the others."

The cipher pol agent does as he's told, with Kaku helping him.

While the CP 9 agents, and Nero, play off Rose's comments as empty threats, Rufus and Andreos start to have growing suspicions about Spandam.

After all, with someone as incompetent as Spandam, it's odd for someone like Aokiji to give him a powerful device like the buster call. And even though it was for a moment, they saw the fear in Spandam's eyes when Rose mentioned the legendary weapon. There's something not right here...

Rufus plans to get a confirmation about it, but stays quiet for now as he watches the prisoners have their cuffs chained to the wall, with them seated on the floor.

Once they're secured, Blueno goes on his own. "I'm going to see about Straw Hat."

Nobody stops the agent when he leaves through an air door to become a line of defense.

As for the rest of the agents, they start to leave to prepare the transport ships when Spandam calls out to them. "Hold on. Kalifa and Kaku, come here."

The two agents grow confused when they see him pulling a treasure chest from under the desk up, and shows two devil fruits in there. "Take these as a reward for your hard work. Whatever you wish to do with them is up to you."

They quietly take their reward, and leave the room with the rest of their unit to get the ships called for. As for the members of CP 8, both of them look to their newest recruit to see that he's too worse for wear to get into any sort of fight.

"I'll be taking you to the infirmary." Andreos offers, which causes Nero to get up and go to his side.

While the two take their leave, Rufus speaks up to Spandam. "I'm going to contact Sengoku about the bird escaping. Once done, my unit will be taking the outsider on a separate ship. I'm sure he'd find it best for the girls to be separated after this."

"Fine with me." Spandam casually says as he watches the last agent leave the room.

Now that all the agents are gone, Rose tries to get a moment alone with her fellow prisoners, by looking at the bite she made on Spandam's hand. "Hey, do rabies exist in this world?"

Spandam grunts at the annoying brat's question, but curious as to what it actually is, he answers. "What are rabies?"

"It's a disease that can kill someone if they get bitten by a carrier without getting treated. You should get checked out to make sure you didn't get it from my bite."

"WHAT?!" He completely freaks out from that when he pulls the glove off his bitten hand to see it slightly bleeding, from how hard she bit him. "OH CRAP, I GOT DEMON RABIES!"

He runs out of the room, with no regard for the prisoners, and heads to the infirmary.

As soon as he's out of the room, Rose couldn't hold in her laughs anymore and starts giggling as though her life isn't in danger. "Hahaha, oh god, he's so gullible!"

Franky is surprised by the trick and looks to his right. "You're telling me you made that up on the spot?"

Rose chuckles before she looks to her left, where Robin and Franky are seated next to her, with Robin in the middle of them. "Nah, rabies is real in my world, but he can't get it unless I actually had the disease. I just wanted to get that jackass out of the room so I can try this."

The two of them look at her in confusion when she opens her fist to reveal a key that she pick pocketed out of Spandam when she was biting him.

Robin widens her eyes at this because she never saw Rose go into anyone's pocket. "How did you get that?!"

She chuckles at the surprise as she looks down at her prize. "You think Nami just stopped with teaching me how to pick a lock? Once I asked her, she was more than willing to help me learn how to pick a pocket."

She loses her smile when she remembered her original pickpocket mission, before she gives Robin an apologetic look. "I was trying to get the buster call snail from him as well as all the keys though. I could've had them, if that bastard didn't punch me. Sorry about that. Bring your arm to me, so I can test it on your cuffs."

When Robin sees Rose reach towards her with the key, she can feel her heart sink from all that she did to her, and pulls away from her. "You idiot, didn't you hear what Spandam said?! I made a deal with them to get rid of you! You should be hating me!"

Rose softly frowns at the reminder, and shares her honest feelings about herself. "I can't hate you for being right. I'm not a real Straw Hat. Just some bitch that got lucky with her family's research. I was just happy to be allowed in the crew, no matter how short the time was gonna be. Even if I die, the crew can make it through the Grand Line, just like they did when I didn't exist here..."

She slowly shakes her head to stop her morbid thoughts from coming out, and sees both Franky and Robin give her an annoying look of pity. Seeing Robin still being stubborn as to not move her arm starts to frustrate her, so she pulls Robin's arms from behind her.

Robin's body turns in response, but Rose doesn't care when she forces the cuffs to be close enough for her to test the key. "As for you, everyone needs you! You're a precious member of the crew! Even if I wasn't here, they would still come here to rescue you! If you still hate me after we escape, then I'll leave like you want, but just cooperate with me until then!"

Robin hesitates to say something, but when she goes to speak, she hears a groan from Rose because the key didn't work.

"Dammit, Franky, is this for your cuffs?" She slides the key over to the cyborg's hands for him to test it out. However, no matter how he tried to insert the key, it wouldn't fit.

"It's up to you Freckles." He slides the key back to her, for her to catch with her hand. Once she tries to get the key in, she hears footsteps outside the door, so she hides the key in her fist just in time for the door to open to Rufus.

He looks around to find the prisoners alone, then looks down at his demon. "What happened to the idiot?"

"Went to the infirmary in fear of going rabid." Rose casually answers which gets him to sweat drop.

He recovers and chuckles at the kid's cheekiness. "You really are something else, but the fun's over."

Rose grows confused by what he meant when he crouches down to release Rose's cuffs from the chain that's linked to the wall, and roughly grabs her by the arm to pull her up. "You're coming with me."

"What? No!" Rose tries to pull herself free from his grasp, but her weakened state barely stops him from dragging her to the door.

"Leave her alone!" Franky calls out as he tries to pry himself off the wall, but his chain is too strong.

While Rose was touched by Franky being willing to help her, she keeps her priorities on Robin by calling out to her. "Robin, whatever happens, don't give up! Fight tooth and nail to get back to the crew, because they're doing the same for you!"

Rufus manages to pull her out of the room after that outburst, and leaves the two remaining prisoners alone in the room.

Franky takes a moment, but settles back down on the floor before he looks to Robin with anger at how she's been treating Rose. "What the hell's going through your head?! That kid was trying to help you, and from what I heard, you've been nothing but mean to her! What reason could you possibly have to make her feel like she doesn't belong here?!"

"Because she doesn't!" Robin calls out as she lifts her head to reveal tears streaming down her face.

"In the eyes of this world, she doesn't belong here! They're ready to use her and destroy her, like they plan to do to me! I didn't want her to be treated cruelly by them, so I tried to push her away! I figured if she could give up on me, she'd at least live long enough to get to another world! Even take the crew with her if they accepted her! But now..."

She starts to suppress a sob when she thinks of all the horrible things that can happen to her. "Now we're both trapped, and she still won't give up on me. If that key does work, she's just going to keep fighting for me until she dies, and I can't do anything about it..."

"Yea there is." Franky answers which gets her to stop crying while he gives her a hardened look. "Whenever you have the chance, fight back. Just like how Freckles fought with Spandam. Fight back until your last breath. That can buy your friends enough time to get to you and her."

Robin can feel her heart break from the request, because she's tired of fighting, just to be the only survivor. If she can help it, she'll try to get the crew to turn away once Rose escapes. But if they still fight for her, then fighting will be the only chance she has to make it up to her friends.

She pulls her knees to her face, and wipes her tears off to try to gain back the cold facade she had before this mess.

Lucky for her, she had enough time to get the tears off before Spandam angrily storms into the room. "I didn't get rabies, you..."

He trails off when he doesn't see the pain in the ass that scared him, but sees the other two prisoners. "Ah, Rufus must've taken her."

He lets go of his anger to the wind girl, because he knows that she'll have her own suffering coming under CP 8.

As for Nico Robin, he has a nice way to make sure that her spirit is broken. "You know, I bet you that Straw Hat was killed after taking down five men. What do you say we find out?"

He doesn't bother to wait for an answer from the angry looking prisoners when he grabs a baby den den mushi, and starts using it to call the guard that called him before. As soon as the snail becomes active, he starts speaking up. "Are all the Straw Hats dead yet?"

Instead of seeing the snail being prideful, as he expected, the snail shows the guard's frightened face, with gunshots still being made in the background. "We haven't been able to even touch Straw Hat! This monster has taken down at least four thousand men all on his own! His men aren't far behind in strength and are taking down the reinforcements we have with ease as they follow their captain to the court house! We've never seen anything like this before! What do we-?!"

The marine on the other side of the line was knocked out from a marine flying towards him, courtesy of Luffy's punches.

The pirate captain has been fighting nonstop ever since he jumped off the train on his own, and refuses to stop even for a second. Whether it be swords, guns, or cannons, he would take down anything and anyone that stood in his way to his crew mate and queen.

For a reason he can't explain, his instincts are telling him that he's getting closer towards the court house. With the dozens of men still after them, he knows that he needs to get these guys off his back.

After throwing a powerful kick at a random building, the remaining soldiers run back to avoid getting crushed. While they were distracted, Luffy jumps onto another building, and starts roof jumping towards the court house.

He sees the lone courthouse at the end of the island, and with full readiness to rescue Robin and Rose, he moves faster with every step he takes. "HANG ON GUYS, I'M COMING!"

Meanwhile, Rufus continues to drag his prisoner throughout the halls of the courthouse, with her dragging her feet.

Rufus could care less as he keeps pulling her by the arm, but now that they're alone, he wants to get his curiosity about Spandam out of the way. "What you said about Spandam back there, what did you mean?"

Rose grows confused by the question because if anything, she'd expect the question from Andreos, not the Kimblee lookalike. "What would you do with the information?"

When he thinks of actually being able to kill the incompetent pain in the ass, he starts to smirk in excitement. "Depending on what the truth is, I'll show him what hell actually is."

She can see the maliciousness in his eyes, but isn't nervous at all. If anything, she gives a slight look of disappointment. "And here I thought you were more human than Kimblee."

He raises an eyebrow and looks down at her. "Kimblee?"

"He's this other world guy you look like. Funny enough, he's also a government agent with explosion powers."

He blinks at the explanation, and grows more curious about the similarities of him and this man. "Oh really? And why did you think I was more human?"

"Because at the very least you care about your comrades. For Kimblee, he would kill anyone if it meant he'd survive the fight. It's a funny thing about doppelgangers. There are those who look just like you, and are almost completely similar, and there are those who only have their face as the one thing in common. Seems as though you two are the former."

"Seems so..." He starts to grin at the new information of doppelgangers, just when they stop in front of a door.

Rose knits her eyebrows at the stop, because she knows that there's no way this green door is leading them to the port. And she was right, for once the door's opened, she sees a room with the only piece of furniture being a large chair in the middle of it, and a small table next to it.

Andreos was already inside with a black snail in hand while Rufus is dragging the prisoner inside. "Nero's resting in the infirmary, but we're just about ready."

"Good." Rufus answers as he sits Rose down on the chair. With no plans to risk her running off, he uses the two sets of sea stone chains that are attached to the back of the chair, and straps them around her chest and stomach.

Rose can feel her body weakening even more than before, as he tightens them around her to keep her body firmly attached to the furniture, but keeps her fist around the key clenched as tight as possible to keep from dropping it. "What is this about?"

"Just making sure you're staying comfortable for what happens next." Rufus answers as he finishes his work, and steps back.

She narrows her eyes at the man, but he could care less about not giving her an answer.

As for Andreos, he keeps his attention to the snail, as he starts to activate it. Instead of the snail starting a phone call though, it projects a screen onto the whit wall facing Rose and the agents.

Much to Rose's surprise, the image clears to show an office in Marineford, with the center of the image being a large, scowling, man in the middle of the image.

Not just any man, the only one who could wear a black, braided goatee like that, and a bird on top of his hat with pride can only be recognized to her as this world's Fleet Admiral. "So, you're Alun D Rose. My name is Fleet Admiral Sengoku. Let's talk."

TO BE CONTINUED