Damsel in Distress:

-x-

"Waaaateeerr..." Luffy moaned. The desert sun was blaring down as the pirates continued their trek through the desert. Nami and Vivi had rushed ahead on Eyelash and now the others were left to catch up.

"Come on guys," Y/N called back to the others from the head of the group. The bag of money was still hanging from his shoulder as he led the others using his treasure sense and the sapphire necklace he'd given Nami. "It seems like they've slowed down. If we pick up the pace a little more we should be able to catch up with them."

Ollie and Sanji were walking behind him,. "Look, I'm sorry if I offended you earlier," the cook apologized to the archer. "It's my natural reaction to help any woman in need. I understand now that you never needed my help and take care of yourself. But since the three of you Whitebeard Pirates are traveling with us as our guests, it's my duty to offer hospitality in any way I can. So if you need anything, don't hesitate to ask."

"I suppose that'll do," Ollie resolved, her green eyes shined out from the darkness of her raised hood and locked on the cook, "You're forgiven. I'll accept hospitality but I'm not some weak little flower that needs to be carried. Keep that in mind and we'll get along fine."

Speaking of being carried, Zoro was a couple steps behind them and was once again pulling Chopper on the sled.

"Thanks Zoro..." Chopper gasped, "This heat is too much for me."

"Don't blame yourself," Zoro reassured him. "It's stifling."

"Hey Chopper, you wanna read my book?" Ollie offered. "If you focus on it, you can take your mind off of the heat. It's about the plants that grow in different environments and their uses. Being a doctor you probably know most of them but it couldn't hurt to have a look through the chapter on desert plants."

"That... sounds interesting," Chopper commented, "I wonder if I can find something Doctorine hasn't heard of." At the front of the group, Y/N smiled while Ollie handed the book down to Chopper. The reindeer opened the book and held it over him causing it to make a make-shift tent above him, "Aaahhh, shhhaaaade."

Meanwhile, Luffy and Usopp lagged behind all the others and stared at a bunch of round cacti growing out of the sand. They'd eaten their fill of dragon meat not long ago but now they were really thirsty. Both of them had their tongue hanging out of their mouth and were supporting themselves with a walking stick.

"I heard shomewhere that cactushes have water inshide them," Usopp informed Luffy.

-x-

"This is a lot easier thanks to you, Eyelash," Nami praised her camel which now had hearts in his eyes. Vivi sat behind Nami on the camel's saddle and stared back the way they'd come.

"But are the others going to be alright?" Vivi wondered.

"They'll be fine," Nami assured her, "There's nothing in this desert that can beat those guys. And now that I stole his book, Y/N should have the sense to follow us with his treasure sense."

SKUUUUUSSSHHHH... Everything got darker and a shadow loomed over them. Nami, Vivi, and Eyelash stared up in shock. The shadow was of a large pirate ship.

-x-

"Hmmm... I think Nami's changed direction," Y/N announced, he closed his good eye and focused on the sapphire necklace which seemed like it was getting closer.

"TSUNAAAAMIIIIII!" Luffy screamed he had swirls in his eyes.

"What is it now, Luffy?" Zoro grumbled.

"A TSUNAMI IS COMING!" Luffy hollered. "I CAAAN'T SWIIIIIIM!"

"You're in the desert," Sanji reminded him, "you don't need to swim, stupid."

"Maybe it wasn't such a good idea..." Usopp muttered.

"What wasn't a good idea?" Ollie asked.

"Well... a little while back we spotted some cactuses," Usopp explained. "I heard that they sometimes have water in them so we cracked one open. There was this smelly green juice inside but Luffy said 'he was so thirsty, he couldn't it anymore' so he drank the whole thing."

"Um... what kind of cactus was it?" Chopper questioned as he peered over the top of Ollie's plant book.

"Uh... there were a bunch of them," Usopp answered, "they were short and round and..."

"Did they look like this?" Chopper inquired as showed Usopp a picture of the cactus in question.

"Yup, that's the one," Usopp noted.

"Mezcal Cacti," Ollie whispered.

"THEY'RE USED TO MAKE HALLUCINOGENIC DRUGS!" Chopper shouted.

"WHAT?" Usopp shrieked.

"LOOK OUT!" Luffy yelled, "WE'RE GONNA DROOOOWN!" He juice was making him hallucinating and was currently seeing a huge wave of water towering over the others.

"Someone take him down before he hurts himself," Y/N requested.

"BAROQUE WORKS!" Luffy shouted as he stared at the others and pointed accusingly at them. "I WON'T LET YOU STEAL MY MEAT! I'LL KICK YOUR ASSES!"

"Or us," Y/N added.

Slik! FWUUMP! Luffy fell forward and passed out, Chopper was left standing over him holding an empty syringe. "That sedative should keep him out for a while," Chopper stated.

"Usopp, you let him drink the juice so you're dragging him," Y/N decided, "Let's go."

"Hey wait a minute... where's Ace?" Sanji wondered, "And Han for that matter." The more oblivious Straw Hats were just noticing that two of their number were missing. Ace and Han were nowhere in sight.

"Ace wandered off about five minutes ago," Y/N informed him. "Han noticed and went after him. They'll turn up eventually."

-x-

"LUUFFYY? RIICKYY?" Ace called out as he glanced around him, his brothers and the other Straw Hats were nowhere to be found. Come to think of it, he couldn't seem to find his two Nakama either. "OLLLIEE? HAN?"

"Present," came a voice from behind him.

Ace turned around and saw Han standing behind him with ammo bag over his shoulder and his arms folded across his chest. "Oh, there you are," Ace realized. "Where is everybody?"

"..." Han remained silent and gave Ace a pointed look.

"I did it again, didn't I?" Ace asked.

"Yup," Han confirmed.

-x-

"You see, Ace always wanders off without warning," Ollie explained to the others, "So we developed a buddy system where we each pair off with a crewmate and make sure they get back to the ship alright." Ollie reached down and grabbed Y/N's hand, "Adventure Buddies!"

"Han has been Ace's usual adventure buddy for years now," Y/N continued for Ollie, "he's used to Ace just wandering off and goes after him as soon as he realizes he's gone."

"Yeah, sorry guys," Luffy apologized, no one noticed that he'd woken up. "My big brother Ace is a bit of a flake."

"How long was that sedative supposed to work?" Ollie asked Chopper.

"About thirty minutes," Chopper replied.

"With Luffy we're lucky we got three," Y/N remarked.

"Hey... why'd we stop?" Luffy wondered. "Did you guys lose them?"

WHOMP! WHOMP! KLOMP! Zoro, Usopp, and Sanji's response was to start stomping on their rubber captain that was always causing them grief.

"YOU JERK!" Usopp snapped, "I TOLD YOU NOT TO DRINK IT!"

"YOU DAMN FOOL!" Zoro shouted.

"YOU'RE THE FLAKE, YOU BASTARD!" Sanji complained.

Y/N and Ollie stood together still holding hands while Chopper stuffed Ollie's book in his backpack then shifted into his Walk Point form and backed away from the other so he didn't get stomped on, this left the sled abandoned.

Skuuuussshhh... Y/N and then Chopper stiffened when they heard a faint noise.

"You guys hear that?" Y/N inquired, he released Ollie's hand and turned to face the noise.

"Yeah," Chopper answered, "what is it?"

"Sounds like something big moving through the sand," Y/N stated.

"You three, quit beating him up so we can listen," Ollie ordered. Zoro, Usopp, and Sanji stopped their beat down on Luffy so they could try and pick up what the sensitive ears of Y/N and Chopper had heard.

Skuuuuuussssshhhh...

"I think I hear it too," Usopp announced.

"It's coming from the other side of this dune," Ollie noted as she stared at the hill-sized dune in front of them.

"Then let's go have a look," Y/N resolved, "it feels like Nami's in the same direction." Y/N led the others up the dune.

Luffy was left lying on the ground behind them, "What was that about?" he wondered.

The rest of the group stood at the top of the dune and stared across the sand in search of the source of the noise.

"Anyone see anything?" Y/N inquired.

Usopp pulled his goggle lenses down over his eyes while Ollie squinted.

SKUUUUUSSSHHHH... Down the dune they were on top of and around the side of another a large purple umbrella suddenly appeared. The umbrella was around a bowspirit which was attached to the front of a large wooden ship. A trio of thin sails connected the rim of the umbrella to the main mast which had two large sails and a crow's nest on top of it. A second mast was on top of the large cabin located near the stern of the ship with another two sails, and even further back was a smaller sail tied to a movable wooden rigging like the sail of a sailboat. The ship's sails billowed as the wind pushed it onward as if it was going over waves of water and not waves of sand. A top the main mast flew a black flag. The skull had a shaggy beard around the mouth and a pair of purple umbrellas with hook handles crossing behind it in place of the traditional crossbones in a Jolly Roger.

"A PIRATE SHIP?" the Straw Hats and Ollie chorused.

"Hey guys, bad news!" Usopp told the others as he adjusted his goggles, "Nami and Vivi have been captured!" A long length of rope bound Nami and Vivi's arms to their sides and a second long length of rope had them secured to the bottom of the front mast, "Oh, and the camel too." Off to the side, Eyelash was tied to a pole by his feet and was left hanging upside-down. A large crew of pirates was standing around the three hostages, all of them were wearing gray clothing and had mini-umbrellas on their head like hats just like the skull on their jolly roger.

"RRRAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Luffy roared as he ran right passed the others and raced down the dune towards the sand-surfing pirate ship.

"All that tough talk and now she's just a damsel in distress," Ollie muttered, a far-away look appeared in her eyes.

Y/N took one look at Ollie and sighed, "Hold everything, she's about to have an origin flashback," he announced.

"Say what?" Zoro, Usopp, Sanji, and Chopper asked in confusion.

-x-

"AAAH-FWWOOOSH!" Ace let out a loud sneeze causing flames to shoot out his nostrils.

Han ducked in time for the flames to fly over his head. "Watch it!" he complained.

"Sorry," Ace apologized, "I've got a feeling that Y/N just broke the fourth wall again."

-Ollie's Origin Flashback-

Sixteen years ago, Olivia Queen was five years old and was on her North Blue Island in her hometown Oak Town. Ollie's yellow hair went down to the middle of her back and she wore a light green nightie as she sat propped up in her bed.

Beside her, Ollie's father Oliver Queen the Mayor of Oak Town as on a chair next to the bed. He had short yellow hair, a yellow goatee, and the same green eyes as Ollie. He was reading his daughter a bedtime story. "And the Prince and the Princess rode off into the sunset and lived happily ever after," Oliver concluded as he closed the book and smiled at Ollie.

But Ollie wasn't satisfied, she folded her arms across her chest and pouted, "That doesn't make any sense," the little girl complained. "Why did the Princess just wait there all that time for the Prince to save her? Why didn't she rescue herself?"

"The Princess was what's called a damsel in distress," Oliver explained, "that's a female character that gets captured and waits desperately for someone to save them. They're pretty common in stories like this one."

But Ollie wasn't satisfied, "That's stupid. Just because the Princess is a girl doesn't mean she has to be a helpless damsel in distress. When I grow up, I'll be the one saving villages and I'll be the one rescuing the Princewhen he's captured."

Ollie's father smiled at his daughter, "So you're gonna save villages, huh?" he questioned. "Then how about I start teaching you archery tomorrow?"

"REALLY?" Ollie beamed.

"Sure," Oliver agreed, "Now get to sleep. If you're going to train so you can save villages and princes you'll need to be well rested."

Ollie stifled a yawn as she laid back in her bed and her father tucked her in, "Good night Princess."

-Time Skip to Eleven Years Later-

"It was a gargoyle," a man told sixteen year old Ollie. Her yellow hair still hung down to the middle of her back and she wore a green pair of pants and a black t-shirt. "Your father led it away from us so we could get away... but... he didn't make it. I'm sorry Ollie."

"Where... where did I come from?" Ollie asked meekly.

"We think it came from the forest," the man answered, "But no one's reported seeing it before."

Ollie was numb as she headed home, the entire town was mourning the loss of the Mayor and the Mayor's daughter received sympathetic looks as she walked passed but no one spoke to her.

Ollie made it home and stared at herself in the mirror and recalled her bold claim from when she was a little girl. "When I grow up, I'll be the one saving villages and I'll be the one rescuing the Prince when he's captured."

Ollie's emerald eyes narrowed in determination, "I won't wait around for some Prince to save us. I'll do the saving."

A moment later, she was once again standing in front of the mirror with a bow in one hand and a quiver of arrows on her shoulder. Ollie slid the bow into the crook of her arm then drew one of the sharper arrows out of the quiver, with her free hand she took hold of her long yellow hair and pulled it to the side. SLISH! She sliced off her hair with the sharp head of the arrow, leaving her hair falling down to her neck like her fathers.

"I'll avenge you father," she vowed as she left the room.

-Time Skip to Two Years Later-

DOOM! A door slammed shut and Ollie was left hanging upside down in a dark dungeon. Her ankles and hands were tied and she was dangling from a length of rope that was wrapped around a support beam. Ollie's captors had placed her bow and quiver out of reach on the other side of the room just to mock her.

"That could've gone better," sixteen year old two-eyed Y/N remarked as he hung next to her. His long red hair hung downward and his face was turning red from all the blood that was now rushing to it.

"Ya think?" Ollie snapped. "They caught us stealing their golden idol, how did you expect them to react?"

"Well, I figured since they stole it from that other village they wouldn't mind if it happened to them," Y/N answered. "Now what do we do? I'm new to this whole 'getting caught' thing."

"First, we get loose," Ollie prompted, she began swinging herself back and forth then with one big lunge she folded herself in half and grabbed the rope she was hanging from with her bound hands and then used her teeth to undo the knot. The knot came loose and Ollie flipped in midair and landed gracefully in the floor. TMP! Ollie Queen was no damsel in distress.

Ollie crossed the room and drew Y/N's sword which had been placed next to her weapons, she cut the ropes on her hands then tossed the curved sword to Y/N, who caught it and cut the ropes on his wrists then pulled himself up and cut the ropes around his ankles. TMP! Y/N landed on the ground then cut his arm before sheathing his sword and securing it around his waist.

With his trusty weapon back in place, Y/N walked back into the middle of the room and picked up his black skull cap which had fallen off while he was hanging upside down.

"Leave it," Ollie instructed, having reclaimed her bow and quiver. Y/N looked at her curiously, Ollie came over and briefly ran her fingers through his bushy red hair. "I like your hair better without it. Now... how about we finish what we came here for and steal that idol?" They walked out of the dungeon like they owned the place.

-End Ollie's Origin Flashback-

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Ollie prompted the male Straw Hats minus Luffy. "Let's go rescue the damsels."

"RIGHT!" Sanji agreed whole-heartedly.

"Damsels?" Y/N and Zoro repeated in sync. They shrugged and a second later Y/N, Zoro, and Sanji were leading the charge down to the pirate ship with Ollie, Usopp, and Chopper running behind them. The eight bands the first three had been wearing were left piled on Chopper's sled.

"GUUUUUM... GUUUUUUM..." Luffy shot his rubber arm out and wrapped it around the middle mast of the pirate ship, "GIMME WATER!" SHWOOOM! Luffy rocketed towards the ship while Usopp and Chopper stopped and stared in shock.

"HE JUST WANTED WATER?" they both exclaimed.

BOOOOM! Luffy slammed into the base of the middle mast at an incredible speed and broke through it. KREK-KREK-KRASH! The large mast toppled over and fell off the side of the ship causing it to stop moving. Now it had the front mast that Nami and Vivi were tied to and the small rigging from the rear sails.

Y/N, Zoro, Sanji jumped straight up from the sand and landed on the deck at the same time, TA-TA-TMP! FWING! Ollie fired a thick metal arrow attached to a length of rope up into the air and grinned as it wrapped around one of the ropes up above the ship. Ollie tugged on the rope and then it yanked her up into the air and over ship, CHOOOM!

"Speed Step..." ZZZOOOOOM! Y/N slammed into a large cluster of desert pirates at an incredible speed and sent them all flying. Without the weights, he could move even faster.

SLA-SLA-SLISH! Zoro sliced the air with all three of his swords but while it didn't quite cut the air and create an air blade like he had intended, the speed of his sword swings had created a gust of wind that blew a bunch of the desert pirates backwards, SHHWWOOOOOM!

SWISH! Sanji swung his leg around in front of him and generated a gust of wind like Zoro had with his swords, the wind blew two of the pirates back into some of their crewmates and drove them all into the wooden cabin. WHAAM!

TMP! While Y/N, Zoro, and Sanji dealt with the pirates, Ollie dropped down in front of the hostages and grinned. "I hope this experience taught you the importance of staying with the group," Ollie teased them. "Don't wander off if you can't escape a tough situation on your own."

"Skip the lecture and get us out of here!" Nami snapped.

Ollie folded her arms across her chest, "Not 'til you say 'please'."

"Is now really the time for this?" Vivi asked while Nami scowled.

"I don't appreciate being snapped at when I came all this way to save you," Ollie answered. "So, you two can either stay there as helpless hostages or you can ask me politely to free you."

Nami glared daggers at the archer then squashed down her pride and whispered, "Please get us out of here."

"That's more like it," Ollie remarked, she pulled an arrow out of her sleeve and went to cut the ropes but stopped and looked back at Nami, "You're not gonna kiss me if I save you, are you?"

"I only do that with Y/N!" Nami insisted but then she grinned, "And he's kissed me when the roles were reversed."

"You do realize that I haven't cut you free yet, right?" Ollie pointed out with a frown. Nami clamped her mouth shut and Ollie leaned in and stared her straight in the eyes, "I've known him for two years, you haven't even known him for two months. You think I'm worried over a little kiss on the cheek? You're not in my league, little girl."

"WHO'RE YOU CALLING 'LITTLE'?"Nami demanded. "I've seen what you've got under that cloak, it's the body of a fifteen year old BOY!"

"Would you two... quit bickering!"Ollie looked over her shoulder and Nami peered around her, both of them flinched when they saw Y/N giving them a one-eyed glare. Their anger at each other was instantly forgotten when they saw his anger directed towards them.

BANG! The door to the cabin was slammed open and a large fat man stood there. He had tanned skin, bushy eyebrows and a short scruffy black beard. He was about three times as tall and three times as wide as all his men. He wore pointed black shoes, dark pants, and a large pale gray cape. Atop his bald head was a purple umbrella. His appearance matched the skull on the Jolly Roger which meant he was the Captain of these desert pirates.

"HOW DARE YOU ATTACK MY CREW!" the large man shouted. "YOUR FATE HAS BEEN SEALED! I'LL DEAL WITH YOU MYSELF! GEHAHAHAHA!"

Unfortunately, the pirate captain couldn't have picked a worse moment to come out. Y/N was already on edge, the man's appearance, laugh, and comment about fate reminded him of the pirate that had tried to kill him. Y/N saw red and attacked.

"FLYING ARROW KICK!" THWHAM! Y/N slammed feet-first into the man's large belly at such an incredible speed that the man practically folded in half over Y/N's feet. Y/N backflipped off of the man leaving him bent over and barely standing then launched up into the air and slammed his heel into the back of the man's neck, "JUMPING AX KICK!" THWAK! The man was driven down into the deck and smashed through the layer of wood into whatever the room below. BOOOOM!

"Whoa Y/N... what was that all about?" Luffy asked as he sat at the bottom of the remains of the mast he'd broken. "Do you know that guy?"

Y/N's calm demeanor returned and he stared down the man-sized hole at the man he'd just beaten down and finally realized that he wasn't Blackbeard. "Uhh... oops... I thought he was somebody else... sorry about that..."

-x-

Han was kneeling down in a large trench with Ace standing behind him. "This track wasn't made by any animal," Han observed, "if I didn't know any better, I'd say it was made by a ship sailing through the sand."

"Well we're not looking for a ship," Ace reminded him, "we're looking for the others."

CHOOOOM! A pile of sand rose up in front of them and grew until it was a hundred times the size of the two pirates. The sand fell away to reveal a pair of large powerful claws, pincers, and a large curved tail with the stinger on the end. It was a GIGANTIC scorpion, it had red eyes and a big bulky body that was covered in a hard pale pink shell.

"Colossal Desert Scorpion," Han noted, "Threat Level: Medium."

"Medium?" Ace repeated as he stared up at the huge scorpion.

"It's got the size, claws, and poison stinger going for it," Han explained, "But that thick armor only slows it down. As long as you stay out of range there's nothing to worry about."

"GRRAAAAAHHH!" the Colossal Scorpion roared as it slowly advanced on the two pirates. It swiped at them with its big claws but the two managed to stay out of its reach.

"You asked for it," Ace dead-panned as he lit up his fist.

-x-

"Uh... sorry about that," Y/N apologized, "Your crew kidnapped my friends and then I thought you were someone else, I wasn't thinking clearly and I got a little rough on you, my bad."

"Uggghhhh..." the large bearded man groaned. Chopper finished bandaging him which left the pirate captain with bandages around his forehead, shoulder, and stomach. The reindeer had now moved on to some of the other pirates that had been roughed up by Y/N, Zoro, and Sanji.

"Here, drink this," Ollie instructed as she held up a large cup, "It'll numb the pain."

"Thank you," the man said as he took the cup and drank from it, "I am Barbarossa, Captain of the Barbar Sand Pirates. Please allow me to apologize for being so rough with your friends here. It's just... we're all so hungry that we got carried away."

"Shishishishishi!" Luffy laughed, "I don't mind at all." He got carried away when he was hungry too. "Sorry about wrecking your ship. I was just so thirsty I must've miscalculated."

"You mean you didn't come to save us?" Nami snapped. She, Vivi, and Eyelash had been freed.

"I came to save you," Ollie reminded her, "but all I got for my efforts was hostility."

"Well maybe if you hadn't..."

"Enough!" Y/N growled. "If the two of you can't even pretend to be civil I'm not going to have anything to do with either of you." He sent them one last irritated glare then stalked off.

"There's a problem Captain Barbarossa!" a man with short dark brown hair called out. His name was Zaba and he wore pointed shoes, a loose gray outfit, and a pale gray cloak on his back. The cloak was tied at his chest by two straps going over his shoulders and two coming around his waist. A pale green umbrella was tied onto the top of his head with thick purple string. "I've searched the ship's storage from top to bottom, and there just isn't enough spare lumber on board to repair the main mast. And... without a main mast, this ship isn't going to be going anywhere."

"OH NO, WHAT DO WE DO?" the Barbar Pirates chorused.

"If we don't do something soon," the man continued, "we're going to wind up dying like dogs in the middle of this desert."

"WE'RE GONNA DIE LIKE DOGS!" the Barbar Pirates wailed. "THIS IS THE END!"

"We sand pirates are born right here on our ships!" Barbarossa declared, "And if the desert has decreed it, we'll die here as well! A true sand pirate would never think of abandoning ship!"

"YEEEEAAHH! WE'LL DIE RIGHT HERE ON OUR SHIP!" the Barbar Pirates cheered.

"What bunch of weird-o's," Usopp muttered.

"The mass destruction was an act of fate!" Barbarossa announced. "We sand pirates will never do anything to defy the flow of the sand." Y/N scowled and clenched his fists, this didn't go unnoticed by Nami and Ollie.

"What's got him so worked up?" Ollie wondered.

"After what happened with that Blackbeard-guy he gets annoyed when anyone talks about fate," Nami answered. "The same thing happened with this giant that we met. That guy's fate-talk and black beard probably rub him the wrong way."

"Marshall D. Teach never had that long of beard though," Ollie commented as she eyed Barbarossa's scruffy black beard. "In fact, he had more hair on his chest than his face. Han's got more facial hair than he did."

-x-

"I've gotta admit, that was kind of disappointing," Han said while stroking his brown goatee, he and Ace were casually walking away from the smoking remains of the Colossal Scorpion.

"Can't say I didn't warn it," Ace reminded him. A shadow fell over them, "Now what?"

A large purple lizard was standing in front of them. It had purple scales, bulging eyes, and red frilly coming out of the back of its head and going down its back and tail. The lizard's orange underbelly was exposed to them as it stood on its hind legs making it about seven feet tall, just enough to successfully block their path.

"That's a Mimo Gecko," Han stated, "Threat Level: Low. They're just nuisances."

"Nuisance?" Ace repeated, he stepped to the left to go around the large lizard but the lizard mirrored him and stepped to its right and continued to block Ace's path. Ace stepped back to the right but the lizard copied him and stepped left. "Well, I can see how this could get annoying." Ace faked to the left then jumped to the right and the lizard jumped to its left, still in his path. "Okay, seriously... quit it."

"Is it too much for you to handle, Commander?" Han teased him.

Ace stepped back and the lizard stepped forward, no matter which way he moved the lizard always mirrored him so it blocked him.

-x-

Desert Pirates:

-x-

"Fate aside there is timber at the Melias Oasis," Barbarossa stated.

"And where's that?" Luffy asked, "I'll be glad to dash over and get it."

"Hmm, bad idea," Barbarossa told him, "the sands have changed lately. It's too dangerous a journey for outsiders."

"I caused this, I'll take care of it," Luffy insisted on taking responsibility for his actions.

"I'll go with him," Y/N offered, "He broke the mast, I put a hole in the deck."

"GEHAHAHAHAHA!" Barbarossa laughed, causing Y/N to flinch. "Alright, you're on. You can use a sand-sled to bring back the lumber."

-x-

A moment later, the Straw Hats, Ollie, Barbarossa, and Zaba were standing in the sand beside the ship. The sand sled that Barbarossa had mentioned was a large wooden canoe-like boat with a smaller canoe attached to the side. A rolled-up sail laid flat on the rigging that attached the two canoes together.

"Zaba and Rasa will show you to the oasis," Barbarossa explained. Zaba. The man with the four-way knot tying his cloak together saluted when his name was mentioned. "They'll be your guides. Rasa is the best sand sledder on the ship."

Y/N stared down at the sled, "It looks like it carried two," he noted, "but as much as I'd like to leave the ship... I haven't the faintest clue how to ride one."

"I'm sure we can manage," Luffy replied.

"You don't even know how to sail a regular boat," Y/N reminded him, "How do you expect to work this one without crashing it?"

While the Straw Hats tried to decide who and how they were going to drive the sand sled, Vivi stood beside it and silently ran her hand along the side.

Shuk-wuk-wuk-wuk! The Princess was brought out of her sense of nostalgia when a curved knife came flying at her head. "AAAH!" Vivi yelped and ducked out of the way causing the knife to sink into the side of the pirate ship, CHUNK!

Vivi and everyone else looked back in the direction of the knife-thrower and saw a woman standing on the broken mast.

"Something tells me she's Rasa," Y/N muttered.

SKISH! The woman leapt off of the mast and flipped the pirates before landing on the other side of Vivi with her back to her. She wore pointed sandals, dark red pants, a pale pink shirt. Over that she wore a white coat that was tied closed with a dark red sash. She had short dark blue hair with the shaft of her pink Barbar umbrella going through it at an angle.

"Oh, there you are Rasa," Barbarossa noted.

"These others, they're outlanders," the now identified Rasa said in a soft voice as she retrieved her knife from the side of the ship. "But you're from here."

"Oh, how could she tell?" Luffy wondered.

"I'll wager you've had some experience with a sand sled," Rasa commented to Vivi, "Which means you'll come along with us."

"NO WAY!" Sanji protested, "It's much too dangerous for her to go!"

"Alright, I'll be glad to go," Vivi agreed despite Sanji's protests.

"Well, there goes my chance of getting off this ship any time soon," Y/N remarked, "I guess I'll stay here and own up to the damage I caused personally by fixing the hole in the deck with whatever wood they actually have." Y/N turned to Vivi, "Luffy can handle any trouble you run into. Just don't let him drive."

Moments later, the sand sleds were ready to go. Vivi stood in the middle of the first one with the sand sled's folded white sail sticking straight up in front of her, two loops of rope were currently going around her waist, the first came from the sides of the sail and the second came from the top. The winds in the desert were normally very strong which allowed the sled to move incredibly fast across the sand and the ropes functioned as reigns and allowed the driver to shift their body to maneuver the sail and adjust their course.

Luffy sat behind Vivi in the sand sled and waved to his crew, "BYE GUYS!" he exclaimed, "WE'LL BE BACK SOON!" Zaba and Rasa were in an identical sand sled next to them.

Vivi leaned back and pulled on the ropes around her waist which caused the white sail to unfold and catch a sudden gust of wind. ZZZZZOOOOOM! "WOOOOO!" Vivi yelped as the sand sled sped away across the sand, she took a couple seconds to get reacquainted with driving a sand sled but in no time the Princess was driving it like a pro.

"Zaba, let's go," Rasa barked at her crewmate as they watched the other sand sled speed off.

"Ready, Rasa," Zaba replied. Rasa stood in the middle of the sand sled and cracked the rope reigns causing the sail to snap open and their sled to speed off after the other one, ZZOOOM!

"YAAAHOOOEEEEE!" Luffy cheered as their sand sled sped across the desert. "THIS IS AMAZING! We should borrow one of these! We'd get to Yuba real fast."

"Sand sleds are hard to control," Vivi told him, "believe me, they're not easily mastered."

"Then how come you're so good at it?" Luffy inquired.

"I used to have one," Vivi explained, "I got it way back when I was just a little girl. I'd ride it all the time."

-x-

"So what are we supposed to do while we're waiting for them?" Chopper asked back at the Barbar Pirate's marooned ship.

"We could always eat the camel," Barbarossa suggested.

"YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!" the Barbar Pirates cheered.

"SECOND!" Usopp and Sanji agreed causing Eyelash to whimper and cry.

"I'm just kidding," Barbarossa said causing his crew to let out a groan of disappointment.

"It didn't sound like you were kidding to me," Nami commented, annoyed at everyone's eagerness to eat her camel.

-x-

SKOOOOSH! A wave of sand washed over Luffy as their 'guides' Zaba and Rasa caught up with them. CHOOOM! The second sand sled took to the air and then crashed down beside Vivi's sled, THOOM! The two sleds slammed into each other and the one piloted by Vivi was knocked aside and began sliding down the side of a pit of fast-moving sand.

"KOFF! KOFF!" Luffy coughed up sand as their sled continued sinking downward into the sand pit, "YOU GUYS, WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?" He turned to Vivi and shouted in alarm, "VIVI, WE'RE BEING SUCKED FURTHER IN!"

"It's quicksand!" Vivi exclaimed as she lunged to the left and practically leaned over the side of the sand sled so they could blow back up the side of the bit, "if we get sucked under we'll never get out!"

"Rasa, that's going too far!" Zaba scolded his crewmate as their sand sled sped onward towards their destination.

"If she's lucky, that spoiled little princess will be fine!" Rasa snapped.

"It sounds as if you know that girl," Zaba noted.

"Yeah," Rasa growled, a frown marred her face, "I'll never forget her."

KRACK! Back behind them, the side canoe of Vivi and Luffy's sand sled snapped off as it continued to sink down into the pit of quicksand.

"CAN YOU BRING HER AROUND, VIVI?" Luffy hollered as he clung to the side of the sled while Vivi tried in vain to keep them from sinking.

"I CAN'T! IT LOOKS LIKE WE'RE DONE FOR!" Vivi shouted. They were nearly at the bottom of the quicksand pit, "THIS IS IT LUFFY!"

"NO!" Luffy yelled, he wasn't going to give up that easily. "WATCH OUT! GUUUUMMM... GUUUUUUUMMM..." WOOOIINNG! Luffy's rubber arm shot up towards the sun and burrowed into the sand at the edge of the pit, SHOOOOM!

-x-

"Look, I don't like you, and you don't like me," Nami admitted as she stared down with Ollie on board the Barbar Pirates' ship. "But right now he's not talking to either of us." The two of them looked over at Y/N who was working with Zoro, Sanji, and Chopper to patch up the hole in the deck using the little lumber that the Barbar Pirates did have. Usopp, the usual carpenter of the Straw Hats, had refused to fix he damage that he hadn't been the cause of and was standing beside Barbarossa as he stared off the side of the ship into the desert.

"You're right," Ollie agreed, "I'd rather make nice with you than have him angry at me."

"Fine then, big smile, he's looking this way," Nami said as a smile appeared on her face. "Fair warning though, I'm a Straw Hat Pirate... we fight with everything we have to get what we're after. I'm not going to lose to you."

Ollie looked out of the corner of her eye and saw Y/N looking over at them as he held down the end of a plank of wood while Chopper hammered it in. Rather than go for a full smile like Nami, she settled for a small grin. "I already lost him once," Ollie said while maintaining her grin, "I won't let anyone take him from me again."

"I'm not gonna kill him, I'm just gonna be with him," Nami retorted, "I was happy to let things develop as they were but you showed up and forced my hand. When he's mine, maybe I'll allow you visitation rights." The thief stuck her tongue out at the archer then walked off.

Barbarossa and Usopp stood together at the side of the ship and stared off into the desert. "He might not look it," Usopp told the desert pirate, "but Luffy's always reliable in a pinch."

"I'm more concerned about the fickleness of the desert," Barbarossa told him. "The desert can shift moods in an instant. A slight change in the weather or people's hearts will affect it greatly."

"A change in people's hearts?" Usopp repeated, "Wait... what's that?" Usopp lowered his goggles and stared off in a different direction and saw a dust cloud rising off in a distance. Rmbrmbrmb... A low rumbling broke out and got louder as the dust cloud got closer, RMBLRMBLRMBLRMBL... Usopp adjusted his goggles and saw that the dust cloud was being caused by a hoard of forty men armed with swords and rifles as they charged towards the marooned ship while riding forty camels. Usopp turned around and shouted up at the Barbar Pirate that was acting as lookout, "HEY! WHO'RE THOSE GUYS?"

The desert pirate squinted and then gasped when he saw the men on camel back, "CAPTAIN BARBAROSSA! IT'S THEM! THEY'VE FOUND US! OFF THE STARBOARD SIDE, BATTLE STATIONS EVERYONE!"

"What's going on?" Y/N asked as he, Zoro, Sanji, Chopper, and Ollie came up behind Barbarossa and Usopp. "Who're those guys?"

"The Sandora Bandits," Barbarossa answered, "Our sworn enemies."

-x-

Ace was still being blocked by the Mimo Gecko, "OKAY! NOW I'M PISSED!" Ace snapped.

"Let me handle this," Han offered as he walked passed Ace, the Mimo Gecko quickly moved to block the monster hunter's path. Han stepped left, the lizard stepped right to block him. Han took two steps to the right, the lizard mirrored him and took two steps to the left. Han pulled out his gun, and the lizard flinched in fear. "Get out of the way... or you'll end up like that guy." Han pointed over his shoulder at the remains of the Colossal Scorpion.

"MEEEEEP!" the Mimo Gecko whimpered as tears flooded out of its eyes. The lizard quickly stepped out of the monster hunter's path.

"There, problem solved," Han resolved.

"Not quite," Ace replied, "We still need to find the others. And this guy owes us for all the trouble he's caused us... he could help us."

-x-

Rasa and Zaba were still on their way to the Melias Oasis in their sand sled, Zaba was looking back behind them but Luffy and Vivi were nowhere in sight.

"Rasa, if that was a joke, it wasn't funny," Zaba scolded his crewmate. "They're not following."

"Fine by me," Rasa replied coldly. "I'm not gonna wait around for her. If she can't keep up, it's not our job to look for her."

SSSSSSKISSSSSHH! Something long and thin burrowed through the sand behind the sand sled and quickly caught up. CHOOM! Zaba was startled when a rubber hand burst out of the sand and grabbed onto the back of the sled, WHAP!

SHOOOOOOM! A sand sled followed the rubber arm out of the sand and then flew up into the air and over the other sled. Zaba and Rasa looked up in surprise and saw Vivi and Luffy smiling at them.

"SHISHISHISHI!" Luffy laughed, "HOPE YOU WEREN'T WAITING LONG!"

THOOOM! Vivi and Luffy's sled landed in front of the other one and raced onward towards the oasis they were heading for. Vivi simply smiled and waved at the two shocked Barbar Pirates.

-x-

"Conflict is in the air today," Barbarossa growled as the Sandora Bandits gathered on top of the dune alongside the marooned pirate ship. "Everyone seems to be on edge."

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" the lead bandit laughed, he wore a fancy hat that was lined in gold, "NOW THAT YOU CAN'T RUN AWAY, WE'VE FINALLY GOT YOU WHERE WE WANT YOU!"

"HEAR ME, MEN!" Barbarossa addressed his crew, "THE DESERT HAS PITTED US AGAINST EACH OTHER! LET THE DESERT DECIDE WHO WILL FINALLY WIN THIS! AND IF THIS IS TRULY OUR END, LET US GO OUT FIGHTING LIKE PIRATES!"

"YEEAAAHHH!" the Barbar Pirates cheered, "GO PIRATES!"

"FOOLS!" the lead bandit laughed, "THE DESERT WILL NEVER CHOOSE ONES LIKE YOU! UNLEASH THE SECRET WEAPON!"

A pair of giant blue dung beetles pushed in between the group of camels, they were both pushing two lumpy brown balls that were each half the size of the pirate ship.

"What is that?" Nami asked as she joined the others in staring off the ship.

"They're Grand Dung Beetles," Barbarossa answered, "Insects that haul enormous balls of dung. Over a hundred people a year are squished by their rolling balls of manure."

"Riiight," Y/N replied, "Usopp, Ollie, get rid of those balls before the series turns to crap."

"Before what turns to crap?" Ollie repeated as she drew her bow and loaded it with an arrow while Usopp pulled out his slingshot and armed it. "If I didn't know you any better, I'd think you were trying to make a joke." She looked over at Usopp, "I've got the one on the right." FWING! "EXPLODING ARROW!"

"EXPLODING STAR!" SHOO! Ollie's arrow and a red ball that Usopp fired impacted with the two balls of dung and exploded, KA-BOOM-BOOM! All that was left were the two dung covered beetles and the horrible smell that had the Sandora Bandits shrinking back in revulsion.

Y/N looked over at Barbarossa, "And you were wrong," he told him, "Fate and the desert aren't going to decide who is going to win this... we are. Zoro, Sanji, there are forty of them and three of us. Whoever gets most gets the remaining water in Ollie's canteen."

"YOU'RE ON!" Zoro and Sanji shouted at the same time. Y/N and Zoro drew their respective swords and Sanji stomped out his cigarette then the three of them leapt off of the ship and charged the bandits.

Zoro ran at the bandits on the right and then surged passed them at an incredible weight-free speed and slashed all three of his swords as he went passed. "TIGER... HUNT!" SLA-SLA-SLOSH! Four of the bandits fell off of the camels and dropped to the ground unconscious while the five behind them were blown away by the gusts of wind generated by Zoro's swings, CHOOOM!

Sanji ran for the bandits on the left, did a series of midair flips and landed on his hands in the middle of a group of bandits. FWIP-FWIP-FWIP! The cook spun around at a high speed and lashed out his legs, the high speed of Sanji's spin created a whirlwind around him and the bandits and their camel steeds were sent flying away. THWOOOOM!

SKISH! Y/N launched up into the air and flew over the bandits with his red sword poised over his head, "RED BLADE... FISSURE!" SHOOOM! Rather than attack the bandits directly, Y/N came down and slashed the ground with his sword. The speed and power behind the swing caused the ground to split open and ten of the bandits and their camels were sucking in by the rushing sand.

"Wow, he's gotten a lot stronger," Ollie remarked as she leaned against the railing with Nami, Usopp, and Chopper. "Y/N always been able to hold his own in a fight... but usually he'd just talk his way out of it."

SLASH! "Eleven..." SLISH! "Twelve..." Zoro counted as he lashed his swords out at any of the bandits that came near him. SLOSH! "Thirteen! TOP THAT, PERVY COOK!"

THWAK! Sanji kicked one bandit off of his camel then lunged off and kicked another one. THWAK! "BAD MANNERS KICK COURSE!" THWHAM! Sanji swung his leg up into the underbelly of a nearby camel and sent it and the bandit on top of it flying off into the sky. "NICE TRY MOSS HEAD! BUT I GOT THIRTEEN TOO!"

"MEN! RETREEEAAAT" the bandit leader hollered at all three of his remaining bandits who were all covering behind him. Tmp! Y/N landed in front of the leader causing him to shriek in terror, "MOMMY!"

"JAVELIN KICK!" CRUNH! The sand-covered steel bottom of Y/N's boot slammed into the man's jaw and knocked him off his feet and into his three remaining men behind him, WHAM! The leader took down his three men and their camels like bowling pins. Y/N casually stood there and slipped his hands in his pockets, "Fourteen."

"WHAT? NO WAY!" Sanji shouted, "I FINALLY GET MY REMATCH AND ONE EYE GOES AND WINS?"

"We can still keep going," Zoro decided, "most of them were just blown away, we can up our scores by making sure they're all unconscious."

"AAAAAHHHH! MOOONSTEEEERRSS!" the bandits screamed as they got up and ran away like the devil was after them.

"See?" Y/N asked his two Nakama, "Fate and the desert had nothing to do with who won that battle. We did."

-x-

The Melias Oasis looked just like Erumalu, the buildings were all ruins and the city was dried out and covered in sand. Zaba went off to retrieve the timber they'd come for while Luffy and Vivi surveyed oasis with Rasa watching from a distance.

"This whole oasis is covered in sand," Luffy observed.

"Once it was a flourishing city," Vivi informed him. "But now..."

"Have you ever been here before?" Luffy inquired.

"Yes," Vivi answered, "the people of this city were the ones that gave me my sand sled when I was a child. It was a very long time ago though. I stopped here once with my father when I was little when he was traveling around the country." Vivi thought back to almost eight years ago when she and her father had visited the city. A girl with dark blue hair had given her a wreath.

"And I've been waiting all this time," Rasa spoke in a soft voice. "Back then, the King made this city a promise. 'If anything should happen to this oasis, I will come rushing to help. The Kingdom won't ignore any voice, no matter how small'."

"Then... you were that girl!" Vivi realized.

"Eventually... this oasis buried in sand and abandoned," Rasa continued. "Every last person left, but not me. I stayed behind and waited for you. I believed in you. But... the King never came. And neither did you."

"But that's... the same thing was happening to cities all over the country," Vivi attempted to explain, "The King was busy every day trying to deal with a nation-wide crisis."

"I DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOUR EXCUSES!" Rasa snapped. "For years I waited for you in an abandoned city in the middle of a trackless desert!" Rasa's voice went soft again. "Finally... I couldn't even tell the difference between dawn and dusk. By the time Barbarossa took me in, I couldn't feel anything. Not the scorching heat of the midday sun, or the freezing cold of night. The fact that I was still alive baffled me. But... the King's promise continued to ring inside my head. To this day I still don't understand it. Life was so difficult and I was all by myself so what exactly was I waiting for? Just what kept me going for all those years?" Rasa's body shook as she started sobbing, "Was it hatred? Anger? Was I too stubborn or stupid to give up hope? Why did I stay here? SOMEBODY TELL ME!"

"I'm sorry," Vivi apologized, "I'm so sorry I made you wait." The Princess broke down and cried with the girl who had spent years wasting away in an abandoned city because she refused to give up on the King and his promise to come and save the city and the country.

Luffy stood nearby and stared silently up at the sun what was beginning to set.

-x-

"It was the desert that brought you to us," Barbarossa stated, "Fate takes us through many twists and turns but in the end, we survived a difficult situation and can live another day."

"Bull crap!" Y/N argued, "We came across you because we're on our way to Yuba. We broke your mast because you captured our Nakama. Those bandits attacked while you were stranded because they're your enemies and keep track of you. And we drove them off because we were on this ship too and didn't want our stuff stolen by a two-bit gang of bandits. It's very simple, cause and effect, fate and the desert had nothing to do with any of that."

"Nonsense, the desert is alive!" Barbarossa insisted. "You're an outsider, you wouldn't know of such things. I used to feel that the desert belonged to everybody. But when I look at the desert now, I realize that it doesn't belong to anybody at all. That's why we live here freely. It belongs to no one and so is free itself."

"The desert can be claimed just as easily as the ocean," Y/N countered, "It's just a large body of water filled with islands. With a big enough reputation a pirate can claim an island as their territory and the pirates of lesser power will stay away from it to avoid the strong pirate's wrath. That part of the ocean essentially becomes theirs. The same thing can happen to a city in the desert. You've got one of the Seven Warlords living on this island and so Alabasta is considered his territory. Other pirates don't come here unless they're oblivious to that fact or want to confront him."

"And which one are you?" Barbarossa asked.

"You're changing the subject," Y/N objected, "Fate doesn't control..."

"Y/N, give it a rest!" Nami interrupted.

"You've been debating with him for the last hour," Ollie complained, "This is going nowhere. You're both too stubborn to change your beliefs."

"Just agree to disagree so we can be done with it," Nami instructed.

Y/N looked over at them, Ollie and Nami were sitting on the repaired deck with Chopper and Eyelash while Usopp was sitting on a rope ladder above them. Zoro was sleeping somewhere and Sanji was inside cooking something with the limited food that the sand pirates had.

"Did you two just agree on something?" Y/N questioned.

"Yeah, that you're being stupid and hard-headed," Nami replied. Ollie nodded in agreement.

"Fine," Y/N conceded, "I can see now that my logic is wasted on a fate fanatic."

"HEY!" Usopp suddenly called out, "I THINK I SEE SOMEBODY!"

Everyone looked off in the dark horizon and saw two sand sleds making their way towards the ship. A large pile of logs was being pulled behind the two sleds.

"WOOHOO!" Luffy cheered. "WE'RE HERE!" With that part of their adventure completed, the Barbar Pirates could repair the damage done to their ship and the Straw Hats could continue their journey to Yuba.

-x-

The sky was dark and the cold was settling in as Ace and Han traveled on the back of the Mimo Gecko. They'd forced it down onto four legs and were riding it in search of the others.

"LUUUFFFFYYYY! RIIICKYYY! WHERE ARE YOU GUYS?" Ace shouted.

"Why don't you just use the Vivre Cards?" Han suggested.

"Because they're sewn into my hat," Ace answered, "they're both whole so that means they're perfectly safe. I don't want to tear one of them free and risk losing it over something as simple as finding them in the desert. I want to save using their Vivre Cards for when it's important and I'm islands away. You're the master tracker, where are they?"

"We've been over this, I can't track anything if I don't have a trail to follow," Han pointed out. "Unless you want to follow that trail made by that herd of camels, we're gonna have to keep going and hope we just run into them. And if all else fails, we know they're heading to Yuba so we can go there and head them off."

"See, I knew I kept you around for a reason," Ace commented. "For now, let's see if we can find an inhabited village or somewhere that we can get some food. I really don't want to eat Fido."

"Fido?" Han repeated, then shook his head, "Whatever." The duo continued onward on the back of Fido the Mimo Gecko, oblivious to the fact that if they had followed the camel tracks back they way they'd come they would've found the people they were looking for.

-x-

Hope you enjoyed the chapter!!!