Her Twisted Tale

My eyes focused on the grey concrete wall, my body lying down on the concrete floor in the most comfortable position I could get in. Blood stains were prominent against the walls and floor, and I wondered what could have happened for those stains to get there. Was someone murdered in this room? Or was it an accident? In any case, the stains were there, and there was nothing I could do about it. Soon enough it would be my blood that stains a part of this place...

A creak sounded nearby, and I believe it was my cell being opened, but I didn't have the strength the look and confirm my suspicion. A moment later, a pair of hands wrapped around my arms, and I was pulled from my position to a standing one, shackles wrapped around my ankles and wrists. A collar was placed on my neck, and then I began the walk of shame.

What had I really accomplished in life? I mean, I haven't really gotten that far into the Grand Line, and now here I was, being led down a dark hallway by Marines to my death. Would people remember me for what I had done? My bounty was pretty high compared to most other pirate's, but that didn't really mean too much. Once I was dead, people would eventually forget about me and go back to their normal lives.

My dream would never come true. I would never be able to see all island plants of the world, but at least both of their dreams would come true. At least I got the Marine's off their trails so that they could do what they needed to do with their lives. He wanted to be Pirate King, and the other wanted to kill Blackbeard. Who was I to let them die when I was able to save them?

Life came with sacrifices, and I made the ultimate one for the both of them...

My eye registered where I was, and I took note of the crowd that gathered in front of the platform. Two men stood atop that platform, swords in each of their hands and grim looks on their faces. I scanned the crowd for a familiar face, but saw none as I was dragged to the base of the steps. From there, two other men grabbed ahold of each of my arms and started to bring me up the stairs, making sure that they were rough when holding me and jerking my body every which way.

I was too tired to care anymore...

Once on top of the platform, I was forced to my knees in between the two men and the collar was unlocked and taken off my neck. The men turned to face each other and held their swords against their shoulders, awaiting the instruction to cut off my head.

"Mara the Devil, accused of piracy to an extreme with a bounty of 380,000,000 Beli. You're execution is ordered. Do you have any last words?" The man who asked was standing near the front of the crowd below me, and when I looked out over the crowd, I felt a small smile tug on my lips. The ocean was in sight, and I wondered what they were doing right now...

Shaking my head, I looked directly at the Marine in charge and gave him a wicked grin, one that most likely resembled the grin on my Wanted Poster. "All I have to say," I began, my voice weak from months of screaming in pain. "All I have to say is that all you Marines can meet me in Hell."

A sound of anger swept through the crowd and someone yelled that I should be hung and my death should be carried out longer, but I held the grin and stuck my tongue out. The Marine held up his arm straight in the air, and there was a pregnant pause. I would be a liar if I said that thoughts of regret didn't go through my mind, but I could do nothing now except for pray that my brothers would be alright. Hopefully they would fulfill their life dreams...

His hand pointed to the men standing on either side of me, and my grin nearly faltered.

Time seemed to slow down and get darker. The sun was blocked out by clouds, and my breath became slightly labored as I saw my impending doom before my eyes. The Marines down below all grinned as my death swung closer to my neck, and I knew that they were enjoying the fear in my eyes. I was ready to die... I still had dreams to pursue! I was still a virgin for God's sake!

The swords were mere centimeters from my neck, and my grin stayed in place so that I would die with a smiling face, but something happened.

Death never came...

Screams sounded from the Marines, and when I looked down, they were looking back up at the platform in horror. Now my grin was gone, and it was replaced with a look of confusion. What was wrong? Why am I still alive? My answer came when I finally looked over my shoulder and caught a glimpse of a hand coming from the Marine's chest and grabbing onto his own hands that were on the hilt of his sword. Those hands, as I found out, were in both men's chests, and I was as freaked out as everyone else was.

"MARA...!" I swung my head around to the left where I saw someone zooming over towards my place on the platform. I squinted against the harsh sun that was being uncovered from the clouds, and saw someone who I never thought I would see again. How long has it been? Almost three years...

There were sounds of fighting from down below, and when I looked; I spotted two men fighting off the Marines. One man was very tall with long legs and blonde hair. He was using those legs to kick the men and take them down like it was no big deal for him. The other man was more...normal in his fighting skills. Well, about as normal as you can look when you have two swords in your hands, and then another in your mouth...and green hair...

Two other men joined them...wait...were those even humans? One was...really tall, with blue hair and what looked like robotic features on his body. The other was taller than he was, probably over eight feet tall, and he looked kind of slim. Almost like a skeleton... No! He was a skeleton!

They were fighting together against the Marines, and when I looked back to where I saw him, he was nowhere in sight. Where did he go? When I strained my neck to look on the ground, he was fighting with the Marine Captain who captured me, dodging bullets and punches like a champ.

"Where the hell did these hands come from?" I turned back to the men who were my executioners and saw them trying to free themselves from the hands that mysteriously sprouted from their chests. I grinned again, knowing that those hands were on my side, and when they heard me, the men looked angrier than before. "What's so funny, pirate?"

I chuckled some more before coughing up some blood, wiping my mouth on my shoulder before speaking. "It's funny that you guys can't even kill one pirate."

Sounds of fighting were dying down, and my executioners were thrown from the platform onto the ground below. I was still on my knees in my spot when everyone looked up to my spot. More people joined from probably out of nowhere, but they all seemed to be here to save me along with...

"Long time no see, eh Luffy?" My voice was still a hoarse sounding whisper, but from his spot beside the blue haired man and the blonde man. An orange haired woman stepped out with a raven haired woman, and they were followed by a man with a long nose and a small creature, that seemed to be in a very heated discussion.

He grinned up at me and put a hand on the top of his straw hat. "Yeah, I haven't seen you in forever, Mara! How have you been? Are you—" He stopped when the orange haired woman slapped his on the back of his head, an angry vein on her forehead.

"We don't have time to chit-chat!" She growled, causing the skeleton, blue-haired man, long nosed man, small creature, and green haired swordsman to back away from her in fear. The blonde had hearts in his eyes, and the raven haired woman was nowhere to be seen. Where did she go? "We have to save this girl and get going before they wake up!"

She gestured to the Marines, and then seemed to have to explain that since they weren't dead, they would wake up and kill all of them.

"Don't worry, navigator." I jumped at the feminine voice behind me, and when I tried to look, the person moved in front of me. It was the raven haired woman, a grim look on her face as she looked me over. "Doctor...?" She called over her shoulder, kneeling in front of me to unlock the shackles with some keys that she no doubt took of the Marines at some point during the fight.

The small creature was now right beside me, and he looked worried. Up close, I could tell now that he was a cute little reindeer with a blue nose and pink hat. When he studied me for a moment, his eyes went wide and started screaming, running around in circles yelling: "We need a doctor! Is there a doctor nearby?"

The shackles were off, and once they were, I started to fall forward. Had the woman not been there, I would have fallen off the platform. She easily picked me up in her arms and started off down the stairs, calling after the small reindeer, "You are the doctor." I looked up at her face, admiring her defined nose and dark blue eyes. She looked so familiar... "My name is Nico Robin. You must be the Mara that the captain was so adamant about saving, correct?"

I grinned and nodded. "Yeah, I guess that is me..." A cough wracked my body and I curled in on myself, bringing a battered hand up to cover my mouth. Robin's hold on me tightened and she began to walk faster when I pulled my hand away and saw the fresh blood that covered the palm. Things were blurry after that, and I was vaguely aware of being transferred into a stronger and larger set of arms. There was yelling, there was slapping noises, and there was darkness.

"...Mara, can you hear me?" My eyes fluttered open, and I saw the dark eyes of Monkey D. Luffy, something I hadn't seen in forever and didn't realize how much I missed them until they were right there. I was lying on a bed, I think, and everyone was hovering nearby while a large person worked on something at a table. Curious eyes were on me as I reached up and grabbed Luffy's upper arm.

I grinned, causing him to grin as well. "Don't worry, Luff!" I squeezed, trying to reassure myself more than him. "I can't die from just these...flesh wounds." My smiled faltered and another cough wracked through my body, splattering blood down my chin and neck.

"Everyone needs to leave." The large person at the table spoke with a voice that seemed too squeaky for someone his size. "She had so many internal and external injuries; I don't even know how she's alive right now."

Everyone filed out slowly except for Luffy, whose arm was still in my grip. He grinned back and ruffled my hair before following everyone out, giving me thumbs up before exiting. I looked back to the large person and saw the blue nose and pink hat. Was he the cute little reindeer from before? How did he grow so big?

"Alright miss, I'm going to need to...blood type...you okay? Miss...With me..."

I passed out.