~Third~

The fight was over, Usopp had put up a good fight but Luffy laid him down flat with a single punch "At least it's over now"Zoro said, Nicole nodded in agreement, "You idiot, you knew it would end like this, you knew you could never beat me!"Luffy said and walked away, he grabbed his hat "Do whatever you want with the Merry, i won't let anything hold us back, we're getting a new ship and sailing forward"Luffy said and continued walking away.

"Chopper leave him alone"Sanji said stopping the reindeer as he tried getting off the ship "What are you saying? He was already hurt before the fight if i don't help him who knows what'll happen!"Chopper said getting off the ship but Sanji stopped him again "He isn't a part of our crew anymore"Sanji said.

"So what i'm a doctor it's my job to treat him!"Chopper said turning to his human form but Sanji pinned him down "It's bad enough he lost the duel you pity him in a time like this you'll end up hurting him more then any of those injuries"Sanji said and Chopper started crying "I'm sure you have good intention but all we can do now is give him dignity in defeat, he knew that when he challenged Luffy to a dual this is how it might end"Sanji said.

Luffy came back over to the ship "It's too much"he said his jaw clenched "This is what it means to be captain you can't doubt yourself in times like these you lose your competence then who can we have faith in"Zoro said, Chopper ran off the ship to give Usopp medical supplies "Let's pack our things and go, you know as well as me that after tonight we can never return to the ship again"Zoro said.

~skip~

The Strawhats rather what was left of them had left their ship and packed their things leaving the Merry empty, they had found a place to stay in at least, the sun was high in the morning sky as Sanji stepped out to the roof of the hotel they had been staying in, "So this is where you've been"he said.

"We went through all the trouble of renting a room and no one's using it, guess nobody could sleep huh? And where's Luffy?"Sanji asked walking over "Over there"Chopper said, Luffy was on the next building over just sulking on the roof "So where were you?"Chopper asked "I kept look out around the rocky cape all night i wanted to be there incase Robin came back "Oh"Chopper said.

"She never said anything about leaving i wonder where she went"Sanji said "Ever since we go to this island it's been one bad thing after the other our money was stolen and then there's everything that happened to poor Usopp, he was injured he could barely even stand up and by now on top of everything else he's probably got a fever"Chopper said.

"Chopper that's enough okay, don't talk about him anymore"Zoro said, Nicole sighed leaning on his shoulder opening her eyes "No sign of her"she said "Which mean?"Zoro asked "Either she's outside my radar, something is blocking her voice or"Nicole trailed off.

"I think i'll try looking for her in town today"Sanji said "Do you think we're gonna find her?" Chopper asked "Who knows it's not like i have any place specific in mind to check out i just feel certain she's still here somewhere, if anything should happen we should use this inn as our meet up point"Sanji said.

"I wanna help i'm gonna come too"Chopper said "Alright then come on"Sanji said "Luffy!"Nami said barging on to the roof "Nami what's wrong?"Sanji asked "It's awful, the whole cities talking about it, Luffy listen to me last night something terrible happened to Iceburg"Nami said.

~skip~

"Ice pops from the shipyard?"Luffy asked "Yes i've heard he's still unconscious"Nami said "I thought everyone in this entire city loved that guy, why him?"Luffy wondered "Who are you talking about?"Sanji asked "He's the nice man that helped us out so much yesterday the president of the ship building company as well as the mayor of Water 7"Nami said.

"Sounds like an important guy"Sanji said "Yeah it's pretty much the worst thing that could happen to this town"Nami said "I'll go check on him"Luffy said jumping down "Luffy wait up i'm coming too!"Nami yelled going after him "On that note let's go look for Robin, come on Chopper, what about you?"Sanji asked.

"Well i think i'll just wait a while, see how things turn out"Zoro said putting his hands behind his head as Nicole shifted to lean on his chest "Me too"Nicole said, Sanji and Chopper walked off "You know we're probably the top suspects"Nicole said once they were gone shifting to sit in Zoro's lap "Yeah, it probably wasn't the best plan for Luffy to go, well too late to stop him now" Zoro shrugged a bit.

~skip~(A/N: Is it weird to have a lemon right now? Probably but i'm doing it anyway, you'll find it in the external link)

An alarm blared through the city "Your attention please, your attention please this is the Water 7 weather forecasting center as of now an Aqua Laguna severe weather warning has been issued for the entire island it's arrival time is estimated to be somewhere around midnight or twelve thirty"an announcement said.

"Aqua Laguna, any idea what's that about?"Zoro asked wrapping his arms around Nicole "Hmm, sounds like a storm, a big one too"Nicole said leaning further back into him absentmindedly playing with his hand which just so happened to be resting on her stomach, Zoro blushed a bit getting an image in his head "What?"Nicole asked noticing it "Forget it, i'll bring it up again later" Zoro said, Nicole blushed a bit getting an idea on what it might be that he wanted to talk about  and nodded.

~skip~

"Where did they disappear to?"One guy asked "I'm sure they went this way"another said "They can't have gotten too far, i got a shot in the girls leg"another said "Okay you guys look over there and keep an eye on any blood trails"another said and the group scattered.

In the alley behind them Zoro and Nicole were hiding, Nicole bit her lip using Zoro's bandanna as temporary bandage tying it tightly around the shot wound she got "You okay?"Zoro whispered checking out the way from the other end of the alley "I'll live, not my first bullet wound, thankfully it just grazed me"Nicole whispered back.

They went to head out the alley when a newspaper was blown into Zoro's face, he backed back up and the two had a look at the paper "Suspects in the assassination plot well that sucks can't go back to the inn now"Zoro said "Hide"Nicole hissed quickly pressing him against the wall and covering his mouth as she hid too.

~skip~

"This is all your fault Zoro!"Nami yelled back as her, Zoro, Luffy and Nicole were being chased by a group of people "The whole town's looking for us it was gonna happen sooner or later"Zoro said "I was hoping later! If you just had stayed hidden when i told you!"Nicole yelled at him "This way!"Luffy said going into an alley.

"Right"Nami said following, Nicole grabbed Zoro's hand following them in, they hid under the bridge "Is it okay now?"Luffy asked "Not yet"Nicole said listening as the people ran off "Okay, they're gone now"she said but Luffy couldn't hold any longer and they fell into the water just as Chopper showed up.

~skip~

The Strawhats gathered on the roof of a house "Looks like the crowd cleared out"Zoro said "Yeah no thanks to you, i'll have you know Luffy and i had a perfectly good hiding place until you led that angry mob right to us"Nami said "I told you to be more discreet, i told you to take the left but no! You had to take the right and draw that mob in, honestly i should have you leashed" Nicole said shutting up Zoro.

"Oh yeah that reminds me how'd you know we were down there Chopper?"Luffy asked "Your smell"Chopper said like it was obvious "Ah should have known, but wait wasn't Sanji with you?" Luffy asked "Well he was"Chopper said and explained what happened "No way! That doesn't make any sense did Robin really say that to you?!"Luffy asked, Chopper just nodded.

"We were prepared for this weren't we? After all Robin was our enemy before we let her join the crew, this might be our only chance to find out the truth so we shouldn't run away, there's still a lot of things we don't know about Robin now it's time to decide if she's a friend or a foe"Zoro said.

"I'm not so sure something's just not sitting right with me about any of this"Nicole said "What do you mean?"Nami asked "Think about it for a second, why is Robin doing this? It's clear she's planning something more drastic with that Iceburg guy, maybe murder, and she practically asked us to be at the scene of the crime to pin it on us, now maybe she just snapped or she's actually planning to betray us or someone else is forcing her"Nicole said.

"Who would do that? Wait you don't think the government would"Nami trailed off as Nicole nodded "They absolutely would, the government isn't above dirty tricks to get what they want, remember what Aokiji said, they consider us a threat, with Robin being the biggest threat because she can read ponyglyphs"Nicole said.

"That's right!"Nami said "I wasn't done yet"Nicole said "So the government decides to come after us but lucky for them their biggest threat is one of us, so they contact her, she's given an ultimatum work with us or all your friends die or something, Robin is protecting us"she finished.

"Are you sure?"Zoro asked "Honestly not at all, i still think we need to confront Robin and ask her to be sure"Nicole said before turning to Luffy "So are we going?"she asked "Of course"Luffy said.

"Sanji said he saw Robin walking what someone in a mask remember? And Iceburg said the same thing that he was attacked by Robin and a large man in a mask he didn't recognize, if Nicole is correct that large guy must someone from the government keeping tabs on Robin, making sure she cooperates"Nami said.

 "Yeah that means it's not her fault and we just need to beat the real bad guys right?"Chopper asked "That's the ideal situation but on the other hand Nicole is wrong and Robin is betraying us"Zoro said earning a bit of a glare from Nicole "The problem is we don't have much to go on except a big man in a mask and Nicole's hunch so where do we start i mean what is our goal here?"Nami asked.

"We find Robin and capture her, that's the only way we'll ever know the truth"Luffy said getting up "You're right, we're wasting time trying to figure out"Zoro said, Nicole nodded in agreement getting up too.

"Just one thing Robin won't be easy to catch after all the government has tried for twenty years"Zoro said "Like Luffy said it's the only way we'll really know for sure"Nami said standing up "Yeah let's settle this right now"Chopper said "Right, come on Galley La is waiting"Luffy said.

~skip~

The Strawhats made their way to the main office where Iceburg lived "The whole place is surrounded, there's even more people inside"Nicole said sensing them all with her Haki "It's a little far too"Luffy said "It'll be fine if you rocket through the window after Robin shows up i mean"Nami said "That's right if we make a commotion first and they'll just sneak in while we're dealing with the guards let's be patient"Zoro said.